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The line-up for this year's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has been announced and looks to be more impressive than ever with Elton John, Kanye West, Lionel Richie, Jack White and Vampire Weekend all gracing the Manchester, Tenn. stages across the four-day celebration. The festival, which will be held from the 12th to the 15th June this year, will serve up an enviable mix of genres.

Elton John Will Lead This Year's Incredible Bonnaroo Festival Line-Up.

Bonnaroo Festival is famous for having provided a stage to one of Kanye West's famous rants last time he played in 2008. The rapper and his fans reacted with outrage when Kanye's originally late night set was shifted to a performance during broad daylight, provoking a classic caps-lock tirade from the short-fused star.

Continue reading: Kanye, Elton, Jack And Lionel: Say Hello To Bonnaroo Festival's Line-Up 2014

Lady GaGa made an emoTIonal and surprise-filled return to the stage as she opened the month-long iTunes Festival at London's Roundhouse Theatre. Having been away from a live audience since she was forced to end her Monster's Ball tour early this year due to health concerns (bar her VMAs performance last month), the singer made sure she gave a performance to remember at the Camden venue.

Gaga has been spotted around London for the past week, ahead of her performance

The theatrical performance, complete with costume changes, dance routines and a host of new songs from her upcoming album ArtPop, seven to be precise. Dressed head to toe in black, Gaga emerged from the centre of the venue to perform her first new song, 'Aura,' before stripping down to her underwear for new song number two, the rockier 'Manicure,' which was accompanied by a storm of ticker tape falling on to the audience.

Continue reading: Lady Gaga Debuts Seven New Songs During ITunes Festival Headlining Slot

A week in music videos... We caught up with Brooklyn band DIIV last week as they are currently enjoying the 2013 festival season. Talking to lead member Cole, he explained just how different it was playing festivals compared to club gigs, that it was more about coming into the world of the fans rather than bringing them into your own. He was also not shy about admitting that the pressure of working on a second album has lifted. 'People are gonna be way more patient and wanna hear what you come up with', he says. 'The first record you have to have a clear statement of purpose like a sound and catchy pop songs.' As well as taking the time to chat to us, we were treated with an uplifting live rendition of their song 'Human'. Watch the full interview here and watch the live video for Human.

With the release of their highly-anticipated sixth album 'Mechanical Bull' imminent, Kings Of Leon follow up the audio release of its first single 'Supersoaker' with a grainy, retro-style, artistically produced video. Just as we expected, 'Supersoaker' is made of the anthemic, driving and infectious stuff that previous international hits 'Use Somebody' and 'Sex On Fire' are made of and we certainly can't wait for what looks to be another well-loved record that will see us through the autumn. Watch the video for Supersoaker here.

Continue reading: A Week In Music, We Catch Up With Diiv's Cole, Icky Blossoms Unveil Their Self-Titled Album And Cookie Monster Shows Restraint In Icona Pop Cover

Just when we were all starting to get sick of 'Blurred Lines,' Robin Thicke's mega-hit featuring Pharrell Williams and T.I., New York rockers Vampire Weekend were on hand earlier this week to give us all another reason to care about the track once again as they gave their own take on the track. The performance was part of BBC Radio One's Live Lounge sessions and yes, it does feature an (attempted) rendition of T.I.'s rapped part as well.

The group made the track their own

The laughter-inducing version, that is filled with ad-libs and the occasional cry of "dat falsetto!" whenever someone forgets a line, was recorded with glee by the 'Diane Young' rockers at the London radio studio. Hearing Ezra sing “You the hottest bitch in this place!!!” and mumble “pimpin” and “shake your rump!” in his best T.I. impression is as funny as it founds too, as the white boy indie kids break down into hysterics by the end of the track.

Continue reading: Vampire Weekend Record Their Own Take On Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines' [Listen]

With a festival line up already that is sure to bring tears of unbridled joy to any self-respecting music fan, iTunes have gone and added another jaw-dropping act to their celebratory month of music this September. "Who could it be?!", you scream impatiently; well friends, be prepared to let out an involuntary cry of "hallelujah" because none other than Lady GaGa will be gracing Camden's Roundhouse stage come September.

Catch Lady Gaga In Her September iTunes Festival Performance.

Freaky pop queen Gaga will indeed be performing at iTunes Festival 2013 and The Sun have caught wind that a huge budget has been set aside to entertain the 3,300 fans packed into the London venue. September's show will be Gaga's first UK concert in seven months and will be likely to be the first live performance of tracks from her upcoming album Artpop. Sources say that her Haus Of Gaga team are spending £500,000 on the production to make iTunes' show as exciting as possible. The 27 year-old New Yorker has recently been resting in a wheelchair due to a labral tear in her right hip but one of her insiders spoke of Haus of Gaga's anticipation for the one-off September show: "The gig in Camden has a huge budget and is likely to be the first anyone sees or hears of her album. The Haus Of Gaga team have been working in secret on costumes and stage sets for the show from their base in Paris. Gaga's dancers have also been rehearsing but she's only told her closest friends about the new direction she's taking. The music is going to be a big departure and Gaga's dreamed up a whole new image for the album."

Continue reading: Monster Line-Up Addition To ITunes Festival 2013, But Who Is It?

The Rolling Stones headlined at Glastonbury on Saturday (29th June) but the viewing public were more interested in watching Bruce Willis' 1988 classic action film, Die Hard, according to The Daily Mail. 2.54 million tuned into the BBC to watch The Rolling Stones' performance whilst 2.78 million watched Bruce Willis punch, kick and shoot in Die Hard. 

Mick Jagger with Ronnie Wood in the background performing at Glastonbury.

The BBC sent over 300 staff members to the Glastonbury Festival, at the cost of £2 million, but more people tuned into watch Bruce Willis' Die Hard than Saturday's (29th June 2013) coverage. 

Continue reading: The Rolling Stones At Glastonbury VS. Die Hard- And The Winner Is...?

Since yesterday's (19 June) mega announcement that superstar 'Sex on Fire' rockers Kings Of Leon,had been added to the bill, along with 'A-Punk' New Yorkers Vampire Weekend, there's a palpable excitement in the air as fans apply for tickets and sit tight.

Gone are the old ways of leaping to your laptop at 9 am as tickets go onsale and hitting the refresh button with shaking hands whilst thousands of others do the same in a bizarre battle of the F5 keys. iTunes have revolutionised the festival - instead of making fans shell out hundreds to be treated like medieval peasants, wading through excrement whilst clutching a £5 pint of warm beer - they're holding their month long celebration of sound at the recently refurbished and highly trendy Roundhouse venue in Camden.

There's enough pop acts to make any fan of the mainstream wet themselves, including Jessie J, Justin Timberlake, Jake Bugg and Rizzle Kicks, with an added healthy dosage of big-hitting names in the rock world, such as Paramore, Queens Of The Stone Age, Primal Scream and Kings of Leon.

Continue reading: A Mighty ITunes Festival Line-Up

Kings Of Leon and Vampire Weekend have rounded out the lineup for this year’s iTunes Festival. The two bands will rock Camden’s Roundhouse during the September festival. Kings of Leon are set to perform on the 11th, while Vampire Weekend will take the stage on the 15th, according to NME.

Check out photos of Vampire Weekend here.

Some other acts, who confirmed their appearances today were Paramore, Rizzle Kicks, Sigur Ros, and composer Ludovico Einaudi – a varied lineup, if ever there was one. The iTunes Festival is typically known for showcasing artists and bands across a variety of genres and this year’s mix is no different. Justin Timberlake, Jake Bugg, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Queens Of The Stone Age, Jack Johnson, Primal Scream, Phoenix and Jessie J have already been announced as the first batch of headliners for this year's iTunes Festival.

Continue reading: Kings Of Leon, Vampire Weekend And More Confirm ITunes Festival Gigs

A Week In Albums... Vampire Weekend have been getting some much deserved props for their comeback LP, Modern Vampires Of The City and our man Jim Pusey was more than happy to join in the chorus of praise. Marking the group's second US Billboard number one charting album to-date - not to mention their best selling first week effort - Modern Vampires... looks like it's only going to set the indie rockers onto greater things. Pusey commented: "While it's an album that may struggle to repeat the phenomenal commercial success of Vampire Weekend's debut, I'd argue in the long run there's more to love on Modern Vampires. It's not just because the band's affection for New York seeps through every pore of the record, but also because sonically it's a far more interesting album. If this is indeed the end to a trilogy of records, Vampire Weekend have set themselves an extremely high bar to reach for the next chapter of their career."

Collaborator-happy party bringers Major Lazer have returned with a new album in the form of Free The Universe. A record that does little to change the act's sound, it doesn't necessarily need to, says Andy Peterson, with the array of people brought on board, including - there he is again - Ezra from Vampire Weekend, Peaches and Wyclef Jean, meant to enhance the party not the sound evolution. Peterson writes, "At times it's fair criticism that the formula isn't saying anything new, but the main objective here is far less about innovation but instead about being what it is; a no-nonsense party record made to be turned up to eleven and put on after twelve. Righteous."

Continue reading: A Week In Music - Vampire Weekend Album Is Tops, Daft Punk Break Records, Kelly Rowland Breaks Down

Vampire Weekend have stormed the top of the Billboard album charts for the second time in their career, with Modern Vampires Of The City soaring in at number one in the Top 200.

The group have followed up the success of their second album, Contra, which also took the top spot, and they’ve surpassed that record’s debut sales week figures too. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Vampire Weekend sold 134,000 copies of Modern Vampires Of The City, beating out Contra by 10,000 sales. If you’re up for some more stats on that, it’s the 19th independently-distributed album to reach No. 1 since the Billboard 200 chart began using SoundScan sales data in 1991. It’s been released on XL Recordings and distributed by Warner Music's indie-distribution arm Alternative Distribution Alliance. It’s also the first indie album to top the Billboard charts this year.

The last independently released album to top the charts was Jason Aldean’s Night Train, in November last year, so clearly they’re, um, in good company. Elsewhere in the charts, George Strait is at number two with Love Is Everything shifting 120,000 copies, while Demi Lovato’s Demi is the singer’s best first week album sales-wise yet, shifting 110,000 copies. It’s her fourth straight album to debut inside the top four. Well done, Demi.

Continue reading: Vampire Weekend Top The US Billboard Album Charts

A Week in Videos… Gary Oldman AND David Bowie in one video? It’s happened, with the Thin White Duke revealing his controversial new video for his comeback album’s title-track, The Next Day. There’s plenty of blasphemous imagery going about, with Marion Cotillard's character receiving the stigmata on her hands and Bowie himself looking like Jesus Christ, as various decrepit clergy men enjoy a sleazy bar with all the ill-reputed sorts that usually occupy such a place. See what you think.

Vampire Weekend’s new album’s pretty great and this single off it is pretty great too. This is just the lyric video so not too much happens visually however, it gives you a chance to hear one of the lead tracks from their album Modern Vampires In The City. With the anticipation surrounding that album's release, and the generally decent feedback given to the album so far, it is expected that the band will perform particularly well on the album charts.

Continue reading: A Week In Music - David Bowie Blasphemes, Daft Punk New Album Comes Early, Low Still Set The Bar High

New York rockers Vampire Weekend are at that defining stage in their career – the third album. The eagerness to take their place in the musical landscape is gone and so is that excitement of making it big that came with the second record. Now it seems to be all about staying power, whether frontman Ezra Koenig and co. can prove that their success wasn’t a fluke. But from all of the recent interviews that the musicians have done – with the Guardian, with NME, the four members are touring the media circuit ahead of the release of Modern Vampires of the City – it seems like they aren’t too bothered about impressing the reviewers. Which is good, because the band certainly got a lot of flack for the preppy image they peddled at the beginning of their rise (and still continue to push to some extent).

"Some people understood our desire to play with certain signifiers ... but I didn't consider quite how much we would bother some people," Koenig admits in his Guardian interview. "You can't read it all, or dwell on it. It's part of nature. It would be like getting mad at the weather. A lot of people wanted to talk about us; they just didn't figure out what they wanted to say. If you read a lot of that press, it was meaningless and hollow."

Ezra Koenig, seen here performing in Miami in 2010.

Continue reading: The Evolution Of 'Vampire Weekend' Brings A Whole New Outlook, But What About The Music?

The second episode in the Steve Buscemi/Vampire Weekend series of comedy clips - in support of their American Express-sponsored collaboration at New York's Roseland Ballroom on April 28 - is now online. It sees Buscemi once again playing a sort of hapless out-of-touch version of himself, trying to promote the show with some, err, guerrilla marketing techniques. Mainly hastily printed posters.

The new video begins with the Boardwalk Empire actor handing out flyers on a subway train, before he and band head to Brooklyn's Melody Lanes bowling alley where they approach patrons about the show. "If you love rap, you'll those these," Buscemi tells one frizzy haired youth. Things get uncomfortable when drummer Chris Tomson makes badly timed Big Lebowski reference, leading Buscemi to ask, "Is he speaking in Polish or something?"

Continue reading: Steve Buscemi Goes Bowling With Vampire Weekend [Video]

A Week in Videos... Undoubtedly the most eagerly-anticipated video of the week comes from Daft Punk, who return to the scene with ‘Get Lucky.’ Featuring Pharrell on vocals and the legend that is Nile Rogers on guitar, the track has already broken daily play records on Spotify and quickly became one of the most talked-about tracks online. A classic in the making, Roger’s distinctive guitar sound lends the track an authentic disco edge.

Heavy on the expletives, low on production costs, this Frank Turner video for ‘Plain Sailing Weather’ sees the angry troubadour continuing the confessional vibes of his last single ‘Recovery.’ Playing with his band in a church, the track begins with Frank playing alone, with his guitar, before the band kick in with him for the chorus.

Continue reading: A Week In Music, Daft Punk Make Triumphant Return With Get Lucky, Chvrches EP Precedes Anticipated Album, Vampire Weekend Interviewed At Coachella

Boardwalk Empire actor Steve Buscemi met New York band Vampire Weekend for the first time, to discuss their upcoming collaboration for American Express' Upstaged concerts. Buscemi will direct a live stream of the quartet's upcoming show in NYC, taking place at the Roseland Ballroom on Sunday April 28, 2013.

Clearly, it made sense for Buscemi and the band to meet ahead of the show, to discuss their plans, however, things went a little weird when the actor told the bewildered rockers that he didn't understand the songs. "I think what you guys do is really smart and it's very catchy, which I like, but I don't always understand the songs, to be honest," Buscemi tells the band in just one of several awkward exchanges. "And I'm wondering, is this something that you talk about, like, 'Let's try and write a song that people can understand'?"

Continue reading: Steve Buscemi Meets Vampire Weekend, Says He Doesn't Understand Their Songs [Video]

Albums of Note... Tasked with the tricky mission of releasing an album that stood up to their back catalogue, after several years in the wilderness and a brief spell of time on the reunion circuit, Suede have finally released Bloodsports. Rather than opting for replicating one of their previous albums, they have amalgamated elements of all five of them.
They’ve not lost their distinctive, Bowie-obsessed sound and Suede will forever have one foot in the Britpop era but with Bloodsports they have achieved what few can manage: to come back after a lengthy hiatus, ties unsevered, water under the bridge and still get back to making a quality album and reclaiming their mark on the British landscape.“Bloodsports then, is exactly the album that Suede needed to make. It is loud, aggressive, uncompromising and absolutely, defiantly Suede. Nobody else could have written these songs. Suede have done the almost impossible task of simultaneously looking back at the past while planting a foot firmly into the future.”

Pitched somewhere between The Killers and the Kings of Leon, Cold War Kids have returned with much of the same kind of material that they showcased on their first album. Dear Miss Lonely Hearts is a little bit “Cold War Kids by numbers” and although they’re pretty adept at what they do, if they just stepped out of their comfort zone for a moment, they could surely achieve much greater heights.
“The album's sure fire highlight is Jailbirds, a jaunty rocker, with a fat bass line and a noisy breakdown reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age. This song offers something a little different and breaks the slight monotony of the rest of the album.”

Continue reading: A Week In Music, Suede Return With A New Album To Match Their Best, Vampire Weekend Release Unusual Double A Side, Beyonce Causes A Stir With 'Bow Down'

Rick Ross Survives An Attack, Jennifer Lawrence Wins But Slips Up, Lindsay Lohan To Learn Her Fate In LA

You Da Boss: Rapper Rick Ross had a lucky escape this week, somehow avoiding a hail of gunfire aimed at his Rolls Royce in Miami. The Diced Pineapples hit-maker ploughed into a nearby apartment block but emerged relatively unscathed. Now who would want to kill Rick Ross?

Silver Lining? Jennifer Lawrence's Christian Dior dress let her down badly at the SAG Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday evening. The Silver Linings Playbook star made her way to the stage to collect the award for Best Actress, only to see her gown literally split in the middle! What caused the wardrobe malfunction? 

Continue reading: A Week In News: Rick Ross Survives, Jennifer Lawrence Slips Up, Lindsay Lohan To Learn Fate