Filed under: News, I Fought the Law

Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

We thought Courtney Love could never shock us again, but then we read this: According to newly revealed court documents, (via the Daily Mail) Frances Bean Cobain accused her rock-star mother of killing two of the family pets.

Cobain claimed her mother's hoarding caused the death of two family pets. Her beloved cat died after becoming entangled in piles of Etsy fabrics, paperwork and mounds of trash, while her dog passed away after eating some of Love's prescription pills.

The testimony was supplied in 2009, when the then-19-year-old Cobain filed a restraining order against Love in an L.A. superior court. The mother and daughter had gotten into a physical fight, which caused Cobain to leave the family home.

Filed under: Video of the Day

Artist: The Two
Video: 'I Wanna Be With You Again'
Highlight: "First song we ever wrote and sang together," singer Ara Starck tells Spinner. "We recorded it during the night. It was the starting point of 'The Two.'"

Watch The Two's 'I Wanna Be With You Again' Video

Filed under: News, Monthly Mixtape

Dusdin Condren, Elise Rasmussen, Collier Schorr

January 2012 was weird. Newt Gingrich reinflated his balloon-man arms with super PAC cash, Beyonce and Jay-Z birthed the world's smallest overlord and Kim Dotcom became a Internet legend. With ever-growing evidence that the end of the world is nigh, we at Spinner have realized that life is too short to sweat the small stuff. So forget the daily hullabaloo and check out the past month's best sounds and singles in the first installment of our Monthly Mixtape: Each song featured on January's Mp3 of the Day is included in a fresh zipfile below. From Brooklyn darling Sharon Van Etten's rocking 'Serpents,' to the 'Know-It-All' attitude of Radical Dads, we've got you covered.

Filed under: Video, Exclusive

Photo Finish Records

Circa Survive vocalist Anthony Green recently released 'Beautiful Things,' his second solo album.

Although Green recorded the new collection at his wife's parent's beach house in Avalon, N.J., you wouldn't know it from hearing it. Tracks like 'Big Mistake' and 'Get Yours While You Can' ooze with layer upon layer of guitars, vocal harmonies and the wide-screened production values usually found on albums recorded at swanky studios in Los Angeles.

The new record also showcases Green's experimental side, with the singer-songwriter working with a wider palette of instruments than he has on his previous solo work. "I've noticed a trend in my own personal patterns where I feel like I'll deliberately do something unexpected and I love the fact that there are going to be a lot of surprises on this album," Green said before 'Beautiful Things' hit stores. "This is exactly the record I wanted to make and we couldn't have done it any other way."

Check out an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip filmed on the set of Green's 'Get Yours While You Can' video.

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

Taylor Hill, FilmMagic

On his 2007 single 'Radio Nowhere,' Bruce Springsteen sang about "spinnin' round a dead dial" and searching in vain for life on the airwaves. The answer, it seems, was switching from terrestrial to satellite. Next month, the Boss will help SiriusXM celebrate its 10th anniversary with a special show at New York City's legendary Apollo Theater.

Springsteen's first-ever Apollo show will broadcast live at 8PM EST on Friday, March 9, three days after he drops his new album, 'Wrecking Ball.' Appropriately enough, the concert will air on the rocker's own SiriusXM channel, E Street Radio.

Starting today (Feb. 1), SiriusXM subscribers can win tickets in a numerous ways, including e-mail and call-in promotions, and one lucky listener will snag a grand-prize package that includes four tickets, a paid trip to New York City and the chance to DJ on E Street Radio.

Filed under: News

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Mitt Romney, the current frontrunner in the Republican's endless -- and endlessly nasty -- presidential primary, has spent the past few months throwing red meat at the party base. One of America's richest men, he's been arguing for lower corporate taxes and more military spending while stoking anti-immigrant jingoism.

So it makes sense, then, that in his Florida primary victory, Romney's people would blast the patriotic song 'Wavin' Flag.' Except, of course, the patriot in question is Somali-Canadian rapper K'Naan.

After a Huffington Post reporter tweeted the song selection, the Toronto-based MC responded on Twitter: "Yo @mittromney I am K'naan Warsame and I do not endorse this message."

But this musical gaffe goes much deeper than that.

Filed under: News, Exclusive, Q + A

Knomia

Usually, it takes something pretty severe to force a performer to stop their set cold and disappear from the stage for a few minutes. But in the case of Larkin Grimm, who had to press the pause button on a recent performance in Portland, Ore., it was something a little more personal: Her five-month-old son needed to be nursed.

"That was unusual," Grimm says later, sitting backstage. "By this time of the night, he's usually asleep."

The challenges of touring with an infant are lessened thanks to Grimm's mother joining them on the road. But, impressively, Grimm seems to have adapted quickly to caring for a child and her still-young musical career at the same time.

Filed under: Exclusive, RPM, New Music

Olivia Hemaratanatorn

Artist: Princeton
Hails From: L.A.
Song: 'Florida,' 'Florida (Cosmic Kids Remix)'
Sounds Like: Whitest Boy Alive, Phoenix
In Their Words: "'Florida' is a funny, dark story about a delusional guy living in Florida. He lives in this s---ty sort of 'Stranger Than Paradise' motel with his wife and commutes to this generic job in Miami once or twice a week to do some mindless pushing-paper job. He was an actor in L.A. for a spell, but he's moved back to Florida, so in the song there's this line about him waiting out in the pool for a phone call from his agent that creates an absurd visual of this guy in his swim trunks, in this dingy motel with the phone near the pool, like he doesn't want to go swim because he thinks the call is going to be coming. But there's not going to be a call. That ship has sailed." -- Jesse Kivel, singer.
Listen to Princeton's 'Florida'


Download 'Florida'

Listen to Princeton's 'Florida (Cosmic Kids Remix'

Download 'Florida (Cosmic Kids Remix)'

Filed under: News

AP Photo | Getty Images

Likeability is a mysterious formula to nail down. When you have it, it's like lightning in a bottle, and when you don't, well people just don't really like you.

Mitt Romney learned this the hard way when he attempted to follow in the musical footsteps of President Barack Obama, who recently wowed an audience with his rendition of Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together.'

The former Massachusetts governor made one last push during a campaign event in Florida on the eve of the state's primary election. Instead of reciting the lyrics as he usually does, Mittens attempted to lead the crowd in a round of 'America the Beautiful.' Unfortunately, it just wasn't very good.

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive, Q + A

Rob Shanahan

Even when Ringo Starr is in a rush, he's still as happy as anyone can be. On Tuesday afternoon, Spinner caught up with the Beatles legend during a break in rehearsals for 'The Late Late Show' to chat about his new album, 'Ringo 2012,' which is out now via Universal.

Full of laughter and warmth, the 71-year-old Starr told us how he's able to maintain his "peace and love" message, why the Rolling Stones should be out touring in support of their 50th anniversary and how, at the age of 19, he tried to move to Houston, a decision that might have completely altered rock 'n' roll history.

'Ringo 2012' sounds a bit nostalgic at times. Is there a period of your life, whether it's pre-Beatles, during or after the Beatles that you're most nostalgic for?

Well, no, I don't think it feels nostalgic. I can see it coming off as nostalgic because I re-cover two of my songs and maybe that's why, but it really doesn't feel nostalgic to me.

It seemed the song 'In Liverpool' had that kind of vibe.

Oh, yeah. That I understand because that's what I'm doing on the last three CDs, from 'Liverpool 8' to 'Why Not' to this one. Instead of writing an autobiography, I want to do it in little song vignettes and that's what I'm doing. [Starting with] 'Liverpool 8,' I promised to do a Liverpool song on every album I make from now on and so far, it's working out.

Filed under: Video, Exclusive, RPM

Ruvan Wijesooriya

At the top of Bird Peterson and Ocelot's banging single 'Soul Survivor,' a voice-over tells us there has been "a real mean killing, and the wrong guy died." The luckless chap was buried, "but his soul survived." Right there, you've got the makings of a great horror flick, and when Ocelot went to shoot the video, that's precisely the direction they took.

The clip starts innocently enough, as Cory Kilduff and Jimmy Welsh -- the young noiseniks behind this transatlantic dance duo -- walk into a house and proceed to lounge about. They play video games and mess around with their computers, but before long, weird things start happening.

Filed under: News, Exclusive

Joshua Ostroff, AOL

When Rob Base bounded onto the stage of Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum for TOGETHER 2012, the United Jewish Appeal fundraiser may have been an unlikely event but the venue was rather apropos, what with all the dinosaurs in the building.

The '80s hip-hop legend no longer performs with his one-time partner DJ E-Z Rock, but Rob Base was part of a stellar old-school hip-hop bill that included a surprisingly fantastic Sugarhill Gang, expectedly fierce Naughty by Nature and a well-fed Young MC. It was also on the eve of a new anthology compilation by Profile Records, the legendary rap label whose very first release was Rob Base's stone-cold classic 'It Takes Two.'

So in the labyrinthine backrooms-turned-greenrooms of the R.O.M., Rob Base and his dynamite singer-slash-hypeman Kyle Rifkin reminisced about parties in the park, their undying hits and how Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock changed hip-hop forever.

Your music was considered poppy at the time, but R&B choruses are all over rap now. How do you view your place in hip-hop history?

Rob Base: Well, I know definitely I was one of the first artists to do the hip-hop and R&B thing. When we did it, I just wanted to do something different. I didn't want to do the same thing that the other groups were doing at the time. So we just did it that way and I really didn't care what people said. There were a few groups that were saying, "Oh, you're selling out. You're this, you're that." And I look at them now and they can't even get one show -- so hey, what the heck, I'm happy.

Filed under: Exclusive, New Music

Robert Yeager

Van Halen celebrates the release of 'A Different Kind of Truth,' their 12th studio album, with a 90-second teaser of 'Beats Workin',' a new track from the long-awaited collection.

It's the legendary act's first album with original frontman David Lee Roth in over 26 years and based on the clip, fans are sure to be pleased. Eddie Van Halen turns in another incendiary guitar performance and Roth's vocals soar, bringing fans back to '1984,' the last record to feature the brothers and Roth together.

Check out the exclusive teaser of 'Beats Workin'' below.

Filed under: News, New Music

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Neil Young is determined to "get the sound back to the people." After endorsing Occupy Audio last month, the iconic singer-songwriter now says he and Steve Jobs were working on a next generation iPod prior to the Apple founder's death.

Speaking at the D: Dive Into Media technology conference -- and reported by The Guardian -- Young said: "Steve Jobs [was] a pioneer of digital music, and his legacy is tremendous. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you've got to believe that if he'd lived long enough, he would have done what I'm trying to do."

The Canadian rock veteran said the pair were looking to create a new device that would be able to download material "while you're sleeping" which would be designed for "high-resolution audio."

Filed under: News, New Music

Andreas Meichsner

The supergroup collective known as Apparatjik has always done things its own way. They released their second album, 'Square Peg in a Round Hole,' to the public after spearheading an initiative to plant 1,000 trees around the world. The members -- Magne Furuholmen (A-Ha), Guy Berryman (Coldplay), Jonas Bjerre (MEW) and producer Martin Terefe -- apply this ethos of a worldwide community to their songwriting as well.

"Apparatjik works in cells around the world as an open platform for collaborations," bassist Berryman tells Spinner.

Filed under: News, R.I.P.

Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images

Don Cornelius, who helped popularize black music and culture through 'Soul Train,' a show he created and hosted for more than two decades, was found dead earlier today (Feb. 1) in Sherman Oaks, Calif., the Los Angeles Times reports. He was 75. According to sources, the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police arrived at Cornelius' apartment at around 4AM, and while they apparently found no signs of foul play, they are investigating the case, the Times reports.

Filed under: News, Holy Hell

Getty Images

As Spinner previously reported, an inquest into the death of Amy Winehouse had ruled the singer's demise the result of "misadventure." Now NME reports that the person who performed Winehouse's autopsy was not qualified by law and that the investigation itself may be declared illegal.

Inner North London Corner Dr. Andrew Scott Reid appointed his wife, Suzanne Greenaway, to the role of Assistant Deputy Coroner. However, Greenaway resigned in November of last year after it was discovered that she did not match government requirements.

U.K. law states that the coroner's office may only appoint persons that have been a solicitor in the Law Society for five years, and have been a "qualified medical practitioner" for the same amount of time. Greenaway had only been a solicitor for two-and-a-half years and was only qualified as a nurse in her native Australia.

Filed under: News, Politics as Usual

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Newt Gingrich was sued by the '80s band Survivor after Gingrich used the seminal pump-up anthem 'Eye of the Tiger' without permission at his campaign stops.

So now, Gingrich has to figure out what music to play at his campaign events. Since Gingrich has been in the public eye for a long time, we have quite enough fodder to offer suggestions for some new campaign songs. What do you think he should play? Tweet your suggestions at @HuffPostComedy with the hashtag #newtcampaignsongs.

Filed under: News, R.I.P.

YouTube.com

King Stitt, Jamaica's oldest living DJ, has died after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 72. According to The Washington Post, Stitt's good friend and musicologist Bunny Goodison has confirmed the death of pioneering DJ, who was also being treated for diabetes at a Kingston hospital at the time of his death.

Born Winston Spark, the DJ began his career in the late 1950s on the Jamaican sound-system scene. Stitt later helped to develop the vocal style known as "toasting," which inspired American hip-hop.

Filed under: News, Holy Hell

Buzz60.com

The Rolling Stones were masters of controversy in their heyday, but now its their legacy which is causing a stir.

A soon-to-be-opened museum in the German town of Luechow has had female fans in an a tiff over the urinals in the men's room, the L.A. Times reports. The urinals are based on the band's infamous red lips-and-tongue logo, which designer John Pasche created in 1971 and modeled after Mick Jagger's impressive mouth.