Black Kids played an afternoon slot at Glastonbury today (June 28) on the Other Stage to a busy crowd. The band played an energetic set including recent hit single ‘I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You’ and ‘Hit The Heartbreaks’. The latter song prompted a sudden surge in crowd interest as festival-goers began grooving to the catchy melody. Frontman Reggie Youngblood seemed delighted to be at the festival, saying, “Glastonbury, finally, finally!” after playing the aforementioned song, before keyboardist Dawn Watley bizarrely asked the crowd: “Are you naked?” The show geared up a notch during ‘Hurricane Jane’, during which Youngblood shouted: “Come on Glastonbury, I want to see all your hands in the air. “This song is the closest thing we’ve got to a ballad,”Youngblood said shortly before playing ‘I’m Making Eyes At You’. “I’d say get the lighters out, but at this time of day they’d be kind of ineffective.” Black Kids ended their set with previous single ‘Look At Me (When I Roll Wichu)’, which went down a treat with the Other Stage crowd. Black Kids played: ‘Partie Traumatic’ ‘Hit The Heartbreaks’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Limousine’ ‘I’ve Underestimated My Charm (Again)’ ‘Hurricane Jane’ ‘Listen To Your Body Tonight’ ‘I’m Making Eyes At You’ ‘I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You’ ‘Look At Me (When I Roll Wichu)’ Keep up with all the action from Glastonbury this weekend (June 27-29) as it happens on NME.COM. For news, pictures and blogs keep checking NME.COM’s Glastonbury Festival page. Plus make sure you get next week’s issue of NME on UK newsstands from July 2 for the ultimate Glastonbury review. Black Kids tickets: Jul 2, 2008 at Rescue Rooms, Nottingham - Check availability Jul 3, 2008 at Cockpit, Leeds - Check availability Jul 10, 2008 at Concorde 2, Brighton - Check availability More Black Kids tickets

The Beatles’ Ringo Starr will sell his own artwork starting tomorrow at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. Each item is hand-signed by the drummer, with all of Ringo’s proceeds benefiting the Lotus Foundation. Additionally, Ringo and his All-Starr will perform at the Hard Rock on July 3rd. Buyers who purchase $2,950 worth of artwork will receive a free ticket to the show as well as the opportunity to meet Starr at a VIP reception earlier in the day. Starr began creating art while on tour in the late 90’s. The collection that will be appearing at the Hard Rock is titled “Abstract Face.”

Hollywood actor Will Smith hosted a birthday celebration concert in front of Mandela, who turns 90 next month, and nearly 50,000 cheering fans in London's Hyde Park. Smith was joined on stage by Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton and pop acts including Queen, Simple Minds, Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis, Annie Lennox and Razorlight. The event was organized to support Mandela's HIV/AIDS charity "46664," named after his prison number, and comes 20 years after the London hosted another concert for the statesman when he was still behind bars for his stand against apartheid. "Twenty years ago, London hosted a historic concert which called for our freedom," a frail-looking Mandela told the waving crowd after they had sung him "Happy Birthday." "Your voices carried across the water and inspired us in our prison cells far away. "As we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete. Where there is poverty and sickness, including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. "Our work is for freedom for all … We say tonight, after nearly 90 years of life, it is time for new hands to lift the burdens. It is in your hands now, I thank you." MANDELA SPEAKS OUT The tribute to Mandela coincided with disputed elections in Zimbabwe, and during his trip to Britain Mandela was urged to speak out against President Robert Mugabe who pushed ahead with the vote despite international outcry. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the poll because of a wave of deadly attacks on his supporters. During his visit, Mandela uttered just four words of criticism of Zimbabwe in a speech at a dinner — "tragic failure of leadership" — and they were enough to make headline news. Mandela, South Africa's first black president, officially retired from politics nine years ago, but he is still a moral authority admired the world over. People in the crowd appeared to be at the gig more to honor Mandela than to hear the music. "I'm here because of the man," said Clive Jones, a 31-year-old theatre technician. "I feel he's done so much for the world, especially with what was happening in South Africa. He is also humble and kind." Emmanuel Jal, a Sudanese hip-hop artist based in London who sang on Friday, said Mandela was "unique" among African leaders. "He did not love power so much, and left it and gave it to someone else," he told Reuters. Grammy-winning soul singer Winehouse performed her hit single "Rehab" as well as "Valerie," despite being diagnosed with a "touch of" lung condition emphysema earlier this month. Sporting her trademark black beehive hair, a black and white dress and high-heeled shoes, the 24-year-old appeared nervous at first but received one of the biggest cheers of the night. At the close of the concert she was joined on stage by Jerry Dammers, who helped organize the 1988 concert, and many of the other performers. Accompanied by a raucous audience, they sang Dammers' "Free Nelson Mandela," which became an anthem for the anti-apartheid movement in Britain in the 1980s. (For a timeline on Nelson Mandela, visit: http://www.reuters.com//news/globalcoverage/timelines/timeline?t x=20080616094404.xml&tn=Mandela%20at%2090)

And so it comes to pass that the former Marilyn Manson, Rob Halford, Paul Stanley, David Lee Roth, and Rob Zombie sideman releases his fourth solo album, following on from the not that long ago The Devil Knows My Name. And it's alright. I'm working on the principle that Mr. 5 must use up all his melodic instincts as a writer / muso for hire, having participated in recent work by The Scorpions, Meat Loaf on Bat Out Of Hell III, and even Lynyrd Skynyrd last year. Because when he goes it alone, there is a serious amount of seriously widdly guitar getting widdled. Well, he was the 2007 winner of Best Shred Album of the Year for The Devil Knows My Name in the Guitar World Reader's Poll. And they know widdle when they hear it! Which may be why Requiem seems an appropriate title, in its traditional meaning of a prayer for the salvation of the soul of the departed, given that some will be praying for release. However, instead of being a religious or spiritual experience, this set of instrumentals take their inspiration from an assortment of torture devices. Which is nice. Almost a true solo album, with only Rob Zombie colleague Tommy Clufetos on drums helping out, most of the songs apparently clock in around the 12–13 minute mark, so Mr. 5 has put in markers to divide them up. Or something. I think that means that the nominal song titles see one song ending with the same riff as the next one starts with. Or something. Either way, it hurts my head to think about it. There is absolutely no doubt that he is a very, very good guitarist, and when he finds a good groove, as he does on "Sounds of Impalement" and "Scavenger's Daughter," it's as good as anything the likes of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani have done. Others like "The Judas Cradle" sound like Marilyn Manson tunes in need of some lyrics. Something I suspect he will take umbrage at. Although, to be fair, his banjo (!) outing "Pity Belt" is unlike anything that the vast number of competing shredders out there get up to. Maybe some Skynyrd rubbed off along the way. It is an enjoyable, well produced album. But I haven't found myself rushing back for repeated plays, as I did with The Devil Knows My Name.

Artist: Vanessa HudgensSong: ‘Sneakernight’Why You Should Watch: The ‘High School Musical’ star shows her love for dancing in the night, replete with glow-in-the-dark shoelaces.

McFly will give away their next studio album, ‘Radio:ACTIVE’, free with the Mail on Sunday newspaper on July 20. The band, who follow in the footsteps of the likes of Ray Davies and Prince, who have also given away new albums with newspapers, hope to shift around three million copies of the album. The newspaper has an official circulation of 2,237,509, but the band are hoping that the free album will boost sales. Singer Tom Fletcher told BBC News: “We get to put it into almost three million homes, which is an incredible opportunity for us. Hopefully the three million people will all enjoy the music and they’ll decide to see us when we go on tour.” The band will release the album conventionally in September on their own record label, Super Records. McFly tickets: Nov 9, 2008 at ABC, Glasgow - Check availability More McFly tickets

Literally: There's a rally for the Democratic White House hopeful going on at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and it's packed with Hollywood bigwigs. Don Cheadle and Dennis Quaid have already spoken, and Seal performed while accompanied on piano by megaproducer David Foster. Also in attendance are Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, Leonard Nimoy, will.i.am, Lisa Ling, Zooey Deschanel, indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie, producer Lawrence Bender, studio honcho Sherry Lansing and what one rally-goer describes as "the entire Kennedy clan." A source says Obama is about to hit the stage himself and is surrounded by a "s–tload of Secret Service. Wow!" Wow, indeed.

One is that of a quirky, iconic pop band whose skill at composing endearingly offbeat radio hits made them the crossover darlings of the pre-grunge alt-rock scene. The other is that of a brooding post-punk archetype, whose downbeat songs of angst, sorrow and all-around misery have allowed frontman Robert Smith to reign as the unchallenged King of Goth for almost 30 years. But one thing the Cure doesn't have is an identity crisis. Smith and Co. know that their bread is sufficiently buttered on both sides, so it's no surprise that equal helpings of darkness and light were brought to New York City on June 20 and 21 for the final two dates of the band's Cure 4 tour. At the first show — a sold-out appearance at Madison Square Garden — the group proved its continued prowess as the arena-rocking monster it became during the mid-80s. The band treated the 17,000 fans to a marathon, 35-song set of classic hits and new tunes from its forthcoming 13th studio album (due in September). Most great frontmen — Bono, for example — are effective due to rock-god bravado and good old-fashioned showmanship. Comparatively, the mop-topped Smith seems like alt-rock's court jester than one of its kings. During the show, he flopped around the stage (when not standing motionless behind the mic), often forgot the lyrics to his biggest hits and mumbled incoherently between songs. But these factors only seemed to increase Smith's anti-hero cachet. The more awkward he appeared onstage, the more favorably the crowd responded. After a typically moody opening, the band quickly leapt into its lighter fare, nestling the upbeat melodies of crowd favorites like "Friday I'm in Love," and "Just Like Heaven" with new material like "The Only One." While the group occasionally dipped into darker material — the ominous "Prayers for Rain" was an early highlight — the band mostly played to a crowd that was clearly in the mood for a party. But the Cure had a different game plan for their final show, at the more-intimate Radio City Music Hall. While the MSG set was designed to woo even the most casual of Cure listeners, much of the Radio City show seemed geared to thrill superfans alone. After lulling the audience with the strains of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings," the band wandered through a somber, deliberately paced set that relied largely on obscure album cuts and B-sides. Though the band intended to add an air of tension to the performance, some stress was derived from elements other than the music. Guitarist Porl Thompson — who drives much of the band's melodies now that the Cure performs without a keyboardist — was plagued with sound problems, a fact that clearly aggravated Smith at times. But where there had been a brooding king of pain during the opening 24-song set, Smith emerged as his more jovial self for the band's first encore. After launching into the new single "Freakshow," Smith danced clumsily with bassist Simon Gallup before — in an uncharacteristically rock-star move — climbing the famous Radio City steps up to the balcony where he serenaded fans in the "cheap" seats. The festive mood continued with upbeat gems like "Close to Me" and "Why Can't I Be You," and a second encore that consisted of early, punky classics like "10:15 Saturday Night" and "Killing An Arab," which displayed the band's newfound power as a four-piece. The band came full circle and concluded the three-hour concert with a sinister version of 'A Forest' and the unreleased rarity "Forever," leaving the crowd on a delightfully down note. Though each of the band's New York performances had its merits, it was simply a case of once not being enough. At the end of the day, the complete Cure experience could only attained by attending both shows — which ultimately seems what the band intended all along. Reuters/Billboard

The fusion of genres is an art form. Reliant entirely on the inventiveness of music journalists and fans with too much time on their hands, genre fusion is a wordsmith’s orgiastic feast. With no moderation and very few rules, words are created that help sum up the various changes in the nuances of music. The official name for this fusion of two words is portmanteau. For our purposes, we’ll use one such portmanteau to describe ferocious Alaskan group 36 Crazyfists: metalcore. The band’s first release on Ferret Music and fifth album overall, The Tide and Its Takers is a courageous record to follow up the critically-acclaimed Rest Inside the Flames from 2006. With metalcore as the halfway house between metal and hardcore punk music, it’s easy to see how 36 Crazyfists live up to their billing. Screaming and yelling is bolstered by unusually saccharine melodies throughout The Tide and Its Takers, making the album a near-schizophrenic stew of styles. Vocalist Brock Lindow leads the way and cuts a lethal swath of devastation through songs like “Clear the Coast.” “When we fall from grace, we must rise from the dead,” he shouts in defiance over frantic guitars and vocal accompaniment from Adam Jackson of Ohio rockers Twelve Tribes. Mick Whitney’s bass and Thomas Noonan’s drums provide an efficacious underpinning, but it’s Steve Holt – Arrested Development fans? – who serves as the cement for the band. His guitar rips through outstanding riffs and solid support segments with meticulousness, serving as the ideal companion to Lindow. Holt also provides some backing vocals. The Tide and Its Takers really displays the band’s range. Explosive riffs give way to Lindow’s multiple personalities and Noonan’s stellar drums beat a pattern across the Alaskan wilderness, making this a record that will surely shatter some windows and break some ground. The utter viciousness of tracks like “The All Night Lights” and “Vast and Vague” paint the guys as a cruel and unruly assembly of metalcore seekers of reality, unpacking absolute brutal exactness with scrupulous attention to detail. Whether it’s Noonan’s relentless drums, Whitney’s solid bass, or Holt’s sick guitar, 36 Crazyfists will beat your stereo into submission. Taken as a whole, this is a well-played and well-produced album. The Tide and Its Takers is a solid look at a talented and seasoned metalcore band whose fearless approach has made them trustworthy players on the scene.

It’s getting easier out there for a pimp. On their first album since they added an Oscar statuette to the gold-plated goblets in their trophy case, these Memphis rappers are in a triumphant mood. “I showed ‘em, I showed ‘em,” bellow DJ Paul and Juicy J in “I Told ‘Em.” On Last 2 Walk, every track is compelling, with synthesized strings and the usual depth-sounder bass lines inflated with reverb into miniature symphonies. Recently, MCs Crunchy Black and Lord Infamous quit Three 6, leaving the group in the hands of its longtime producers, Paul and Juicy. And that’s how it should be: As rappers, Three 6 have always been pro forma, bragging blandly about drugs, sex and cars, but their beats can be revelatory. The stunner is the well-nigh-avant-garde “First 48,” powered by rising and descending piano ostinatos — it’s Rachmaninoff chopped and screwed. And Three 6 can do pop, too: The club-bumper single “Lolli Lolli” features an infectious T-Pain-style vocal refrain and Juicy J bragging about picking up women by name-dropping — what else? — his Oscar-winning song. Share Email AIM Del.icio.us DiggThis Fark It! rolling_stone126:http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/21260483/review/21416847/last_2_walk