• Sting, Brian Wilson Play Rainforest Benefit
• Coldplay Announce Tour Dates
• Random Notes: Britney, Jack White, More
• Cee-Lo Helps Perform 500 Sing-Along Songs
• News Ticker: Notorious B.I.G., Radiohead
• News Ticker: R. Kelly, Dave Grohl, Foxy
• Weekend Rock List: City Songs
• The Academy Is … in the Studio
• Widespread Panic: On the Tour Bus
• On Tour: Spiritualized, Stereolab
• Top Ten: Best in Pop Culture

Top stories from the last three days:

• Springsteen Plays Rare Theater Show
• Jason Castro Overthrown on “American Idol”
• Trey Anastasio Shreds at Jammys
• Madonna Preps World Tour
• Ask a Rock Star: Paramore
• On the Charts: Madonna
• Win I’m Not There on DVD; Exclusive Clip
• Breaking Artist: These New Puritans
• Panic at the Disco: No New Album in ‘08
• Radiohead Kick Off Tour in Florida
• Walter Becker Q&A, Plus New Song
• Gym Class Heroes Talk LP, Busta
• The Police Announce Final Concert in NYC
• Smoking Section: Beastie Boys, James Hunter
• Nine Inch Nails Release Free Album
• Photo Gallery: Bamboozle 2008
• Summer Movie Preview ‘08

Scroll down for full news stories, commentary and much more in Rock Daily.

• This week, Trent Reznor did some spring cleaning and decided to give his fans Nine Inch Nails’ new album The Slip for free. The announcement was a surprise, as was Beck’s revelation that he had a new disc coming this summer.

• Madonna and Coldplay both revealed massive world tours, while we were front row at Radiohead’s first U.S. show in Florida and the small club show Bruce Springsteen played in Jersey.
• We inched closer to naming this year’s American Idol as the two Davids and Syesha became this season’s final three. Dread-head Jason Castro grasped for lyrics and packed his suitcase, but maybe that was his intention all along.
• Over in the Capri Lounge, we co-wrote Jessica Simpson’s ode to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tomy Romo and ate wayyy too many Tim McGraw Fritos.

  [Photo: Getty]

Widespread Panic released their tenth studio album this year, Free Somehow, a record of riff-heavy jams and howling psychedelic ballads. But the band has never been defined by albums, but their endless touring and cult of loyal fans. For more than 20 years they have lived on the road, performing up to 250 shows a year — and never playing the same set list twice. They hold sell-out records at several venues around the country including the Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver (23 shows), and have been on the list of the top 50 grossing tour bands for eight consecutive years.

On a recent stop in New York, guitarist-singer John Bell, new guitarist Jimmy Herring and percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz discussed memories from the road, critical road-trip food, and of course, the art of the jam. Click here to watch a series of videos as Rock Daily boards their tour bus for some intimate chats with Widespread Panic.

Britney Spears discovered Radiohead’s In Rainbows, Jack White got gussied up for the Met’s fancy costume gala and Pete Doherty got sprung from jail. Click here to check out those photos and others, including John Mayer, the Edge, Devendra Banhart and more.

[Photo: WENN]

Three bands, three new albums to promote: Spiritualized take Songs in A&E on the road, Stereolab return with Chemical Chords and My Brightest Diamond ready their second set A Thousand Shark’s Teeth. Full tour dates for the trio of treks, after the jump.

Spiritualized
July 20 - Chicago, IL @ Union Park
July 21 - Nashville, TN @ City Hall
July 22 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
July 25 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
August 1 - Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
August 2 - Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
August 3 - Montreal, QC @ Parc Jean Drapeau
September 6 - Toronto, ON @ Toronto Islands Park
September 17 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
September 27 - Austin, TX @ Zilker Park (Austin City Limits)

Stereolab
September 20 - Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar
September 21 - Pomona, CA @ Glass House
September 24 - Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa
September 26 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
September 27 - Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
September 29 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
September 30 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
October 1 - Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
October 2 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
October 3 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
October 4 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
October 6 - Boston, MA @ Paradise
October 7 - Montreal, QU @ Club Soda
October 8 - Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
October 9 - Detroit, MI @ The Crofoot
October 10 - Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
October 12 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
October 14 - Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
October 17 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox
October 18 - Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
October 19 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
October 21 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
October 22 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
October 23 - Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre
October 24 - Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern

My Brightest Diamond
May 20 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hotel Café
May 21 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hotel Café
May 23 - Saratoga, CA @ Monalva Arts Center
May 24 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
June 9 - New York, NY @ Other Music Instore
June 17 - New York, NY @ Blender Theatre at Gramercy
June 20 - Boston, MA @ Berklee Performance Center

“I would compare it to starting over,” the Academy Is… singer William Beckett says of working on the band’s third full-length album. “The way we felt on [2005’s debut] Almost Here.” Beckett, along with drummer Andy Mrotek, bassist Adam Siska and guitarists Mike Carden and Michael Guy Chislett entered a New York recording studio this week to begin production on the follow-up to last year’s Santi. Armed with an estimated 20 tracks in “final form,” the Chicago band will now determine what Siska calls “the best of” for the album’s tracklisting.

While Almost Here leaned towards a poppier rock sound, Santi incorporated heavier guitars and a grittier edge thanks to the contributions of producer Butch Walker (Pink, Avril Lavigne). For their still-untitled next LP the Academy has paired with S*A*M and Dave, a.k.a. Sam Hollander and Dave Katz, who have worked with labelmates Gym Class Heroes on “Cupid’s Chokehold” and Cobra Starship on “Snakes on a Plane” along with American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis. While the band is hesitant to assign a sound to the record, which is due at the end of the summer, Beckett maintains, “What we do is write songs, and we’re going to stick to it.”

Tokio Hotel came to our office today, and even though they spell Tokyo incorrectly (well, the German way), it got us thinking about songs with cities in their titles. Therefore this week’s Rock List is an ode to tracks that serve as homages to big metropolises, small towns and other places you can find on a map. Let us know your favorites, and on Monday we’ll count up the picks. Before you break out your atlases, here’s a few to get you started:

Nirvana – “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle”
Tom Waits – “I Wish I Was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)”
Madonna – “I Love New York”
KISS – “Detroit Rock City”
The Clash – “The Guns of Brixton”

[Photo: Getty]

Last year Atlanta music manager Josh Rifkind brought Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Songs Of All Time to life over the course of an epic 10-night concert. This year he’s staging the 500 Greatest Sing-Along Songs, with all the proceeds again benefiting the 500 Songs For Kids Foundation. The event — which wraps tomorrow at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta — will conclude with Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo singing “Hey Jude,” the Number 1 song on the bill. Other performers include Butch Walker on “Sister Christian,” Arrested Development on “Livin’ On A Prayer,” Artist to Watch Brett Dennen on Feist’s “1234” (see video, above) and Cracker, who performed their 1993 hit “Low.” The 500 Kids Foundation brings live music to children in hospitals and special needs camps. “I started Songs For Kids Foundation because I thought I could have a profound impact on someone and something far bigger than myself,” Rifkind says. “It’s been unbelievable so far this year, and it’s amazing to watch 1,500 musicians getting together for such an important cause. We’re through 400 bands so far, 100 more to go!”

Each week on MTV’s Rock the Cradle, the sons and daughters of musical icons compete for the sort of exposure they would have received anyway on the basis of their DNA. Rock Daily sorts through the nepotistic wreckage.

Children’s Story: We finally arrive at our last live episode, which opens in rapid fire fashion with Crosby Loggins shrugging his way through the Raconteurs’ “Steady As She Goes,” Chloe Lattanzi getting all twitchy on “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and Jesse Blaze Snider shouting along with Good Charlotte’s “The Anthem.” It only went downhill from there, as there were conversations with the rejects, collaborations with parents and an endless barrage of flashback montages for things that happened a mere five weeks ago.

Baby Geniuses: While Jesse Snider was performing “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” the only thing the audience could be thinking was, “This is fine, but I would prefer if Dee was here.” And then he showed up! Jesse Snider also inexplicably performed Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time.” All the while he seemed to be having fun and really seemed to actually want to win this thing.

Red-Headed Stepchildren: Crosby sang a boring reprise of “I’m Alright” with his dad. (As a side note: that can’t be Kenny’s biggest song, right? Surely “Footloose” or “Danger Zone” would take that title). The less said about Chloe Lattanzi the better. But seriously, the worst performance of the night (and the series, for that matter) goes to host Ryan Devlin: his line readings are incredibly wooden (and if he’s riffing, shame on him), he uses the word “journey” far too much and at one point he completely screwed up the timing before one of the songs, leaving Crosby Loggins flapping in the wind and creating a fantastic ninety seconds of dead air. Way to go, pal!

Who Finally Got Disowned: Lattanzi was the first to go, followed by Snider in a minor upset. Crosby seemed genuinely amped to win this thing (and Dee Snider seemed pretty pissed), then self-righteously talked about how great it was to have music on MTV before thanking his manager. Loggins closed with a rendition of “Good Enough” that nobody heard, because the world was already deleting “Rock the Cradle” from their DVRs and forgetting this mess ever happened.

Over the last 15 years, Sting and his wife Trudie Styler have hosted a bi-annual charity concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall to celebrate the Rainforest Foundation Fund, which the two founded in 1989 to preserve rainforests and its inhabitants around the world. Last night’s show featured many familiar faces, including James Taylor and Billy Joel, who’ve performed at the concert many times. But this year’s spectacular gala also featured some welcome surprise guests, including Joel’s daughter (Alexa Ray), Taylor’s kids (Ben and Sally), Sting’s daughter (Coco Sumner), Clarence Clemons, singer-songwriter Feist and Brian Wilson.

• Photos from the Rainforest Foundation Fund benefit

The first portion of the evening was surprisingly relaxed given the elegant environment of Carnegie Hall. Sting, Taylor, Joel and all their children — including a barefoot Ben Taylor — joined together for a faithful cover of the Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn!” The evening featured many casual family duets: Joel and Alexa turned out a cabaret-influenced version of “Baby Grand” while the Taylors teamed up for the meditative ballad “You Can Close Your Eyes.” Coco Sumner, however, showed off her immense, smoky voice with a sultry performance of her own tune called “Bohemian Love.” Other highlights of the first set included Feist — backed by a 34-piece orchestra — nailing a perfect version of her hit song “1234” as well as a set-closing Mardi Gras-style performance of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In,” which concluded with all the participants parading through the aisles.

Things heated up for the second portion of the concert. While the crew set up the stage for Brian Wilson, Sting and Dustin Hoffman filled in by performing a Hoffman-penned ballad called “Shoot the Breeze.” The show really took off for the Beach Boys mastermind’s excellent performance: Wilson — dressed casually in a cool blue-and-white-striped rugby shirt and jeans — performed serotonin-inducing classics like “God Only Knows,” “Help Me Rhonda” and “Do You Wanna Dance,” which featured some crazy psychedelic light shows. “Good Vibrations,” which featured the entire night’s all-star lineup, capped the set.

So what did the performers think of the event? “It was very emotional,” Sting told Rolling Stone after the show. “Coco was amazing. Alexa and the Taylors were fantastic. It’s evolution at work. And they’re better than we are.”

[Photo: Jason Bergman/RollingStone.com]