• Nine Inch Nails Tour Preview
• Random Notes: Billy Joel, Feist
• Rolling Stones Sign Deal With Universal
• China Puts Up Roadblocks for Rock Tours
• Weekend Rock List: Sibling Bands
• XM/Sirius Merger Nears Completion
• Miley Cyrus’ Today Concert Biggest Ever
• Video Flashback: Joan Rivers Meets GWAR
• Rolling Stones Publisher Sues Lil Wayne
• Publisher Sues Foxy Brown & Lil Kim
• Bootsy Collins Teams Up With Buckethead
• MTV Taps Russell Brand to Host VMAs
• News Ticker: DMX, Smashing Pumpkins

Top stories from the last three days:

• 50 Cent Sues Taco Bell
• Rock Video Games Battle for Bands
• Randy Newman Debuts New Songs in L.A.
• She & Him Kick Off Tour in Toronto
• The Nick Jonas & Selena Gomez Controversy
• My Chemical Romance to Cover Bob Dylan
• Katy Perry on the Warped Tour
• Nas Delivers Petitions to “Racist” Fox
• Townshend E-Mails RS to Talk Rock Honors
• George Clinton Celebrates 67th Birthday
• Ozzfest Plans Dimebag Darrell Tribute
• Behind the Scenes With The Jonas Brothers
• Metallica Reveal “Death Magnetic” Track List
• Dr. Dre Says “Detox” Almost Done

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

• The Jonas Brothers made the leap from puberty to Rolling Stone cover boys this week. We went behind-the-scenes of the band’s cover shoot, put the group’s short history in photo gallery form, excerpted the cover story and even delved into their secret love life.
• Nas celebrated Untitled’s chart victory in typical Nas fashion: By protesting and petitioning against the Fox’s “racist” news coverage.
• Metallica revealed “The Unforgiven” still have not been forgiven, as “The Unforgiven III” was listed among the dark song titles on the band’s upcoming Death Magnetic track list. The band’s epic search for forgiveness continues when the album drops in September.
• This week, we saw Linkin Park on the Projekt Revolution tour, the Rock the Bells tour, Malkmus at the Siren Festival, George Clinton’s 67th birthday party with Sly Stone, Karen O’s Native Korean Rock, She & Him, Randy Newman, Miley Cyrus next door to our office and prepared to see Nine Inch Nails. Phew!

[Photo: Getty]

While everybody agreed that the Smoking Gun’s revelation that Rick Ross spent some time as a Florida corrections officer was a tempest in a tea cup, that didn’t stop reader Spunky from wishing the investigation had gone further:

• “The Smoking Gun failed to come up with some other past history of Rick Ross. He grew up in the streets of Philadelphia, hung out with a group of kids called The Junkyard Gang, was quick to give out wise advice on moral dilemmas and occasionally was heard saying, ‘Hey, Hey, Hey..!’”

[Photo: Getty]

In a nod to the Beatles’ concert at the venue over forty years ago, Paul McCartney helped Billy Joel bid goodbye to Shea Stadium in New York during one of Joel’s historic concerts. It was a big week for history, as Amy Winehouse became immortalized in wax and Nas stood up to Fox News. Click below for these and the rest of the week’s top stories in convenient picture form.

• Random Notes: Paul McCartney, John Mayer, Feist and the Week in Rock

[Photo: Mazur/WireImage]

We’re going to see Ween tonight at Brooklyn’s McCarrren Pool, and while Dean Ween and Gene Ween aren’t actually brothers, but with the Jonas Brothers on the cover, it got us thinking about the best bands that do have siblings in them. Whether they’re leading the charge like the Gallagher boys in Oasis or setting the rhythm like the Greenwood brothers in Radiohead, let us know your picks for the best sibling bands, and on Monday we’ll tally the picks and reveal the list. And remember, the Ramones weren’t related. Here’s our picks:

• Oasis
• The Beach Boys
• Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Radiohead
• The Breeders

[Photo: Getty]

They’ve had a rivalry that dates back to the 90s, but Foxy Brown and Lil’ Kim finally have something in common: Both female rappers are being sued by book publisher Simon & Shuster after failing to make good on their respective book deals. Both women received tens of thousands in advance money for books that haven’t been written. In the case of Lil’ Kim, the Queen Bee signed a deal in 2004 to pen a novel and took in $40,000 up front. Unless Lil’ Kim writes at a Salinger-like pace, it’s safe to assume there’s no Lil’ Kim novel on the horizon. Brown, meanwhile, signed a deal with S&S in 2006 to write an autobiography entitled Broken Silence. She received $75,000 in advances, and that was before Brooklyn’s Don Diva served jail time. Brown likely had adequate time behind bars to at least write a first draft, but S&S once again never got a manuscript.

Today begins the launch of a new feature here on Rock Daily: the weekly Talk Show Flashback, where we’ll find a fantastically strange moment from the crossroads of chat-based television and rock and roll. Today’s opening installment is a doozy: a clip from one of the many iterations of The Joan Rivers Show in which the host welcomes Oderus Urungus and Beefcake the Mighty from GWAR. It’s a fantastically fascinating eight minutes of madness, featuring Rivers asking semi-serious questions about violence and sex on stage and the two band members never breaking character. Rock Daily’s favorite moment comes right in the beginning where Urungus hands Rivers a fake severed hand, delivers the groan-worthy line “Let’s give our host a hand” and then Rivers says offhandedly “I’ll turn it into a lamp.” Click above for the strangest part of your day.

The merger between satellite radio companies Sirius and XM is reportedly on the verge of approval. FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate is expected to vote in favor of the merger today, giving the deal a majority approval vote. The voting body is currently split 2-2 as it awaits Tate’s opinion. FCC chairman Kevin Martin and commissioner Robert McDowell both approve of the deal, while fellow commissioner Michael Copps recently rejected the merger.

The Forum used to be the home arena of the Los Angeles Lakers, but last Saturday, it hosted a very different type of drama: 500 invited guests in a largely empty building got to see the dress rehearsal for Nine Inch Nails’ “Lights in the Sky” tour debuting tonight at the Pemberton Festival in British Columbia, and having its full opening show tomorrow in Seattle at the Key Arena. (Rock Daily will be live at both shows, so stay tuned for coverage).

Before the show, Trent Reznor came out in a gray hooded sweatshirt and addressed the crowd, explaining that they were trying out various material, so some parts of the show might not ultimately make it on tour, and that there might be some technical glitches: “Lots of things are going to happen that aren’t, let’s say, intentional.” He concluded, “I’m going to go backstage and throw up, and then I’ll see you guys.”

The two-hour show was astonishing, covering a wide range of Nine Inch Nails’ material, from “Head Like a Hole” through new songs from The Slip and instrumental pieces from Ghosts, which Reznor had never planned to play live. About a third of the way through the concert, Reznor deployed some video screens, but not to enlarge his face for the cheap seats: sometimes the band played in front of a desert backdrop, sometimes the screens responded to the music with colored bubbles (like Guitar Hero in reverse), sometimes the musicians vanished behind a wall of static.

“On stage, it’s very easy to tell when you lose people’s attention,” Reznor told RS later. (more…)

“I heard some of you have been here since Tuesday!” Miley Cyrus announced candidly to the Today crowd this morning. “I didn’t even start practicing yet then!”

The 15-year old was referring to the hundreds — if not thousands — who spent the last three days camping out in New York City’s Rockefeller Center to ensure a good spot for themselves during Cyrus’ four-song set.

Over 13,000 people filled the pavilion by 8:30 this morning, making it not only the biggest concert in the morning show’s history, but the first time 48th street had to be closed to accommodate a concert. (more…)

Bootsy Collins’ latest project, Science Faxtion, sees the funk great merging his unmistakable bass once again with guitarist Buckethead and drummer Brain — all of whom previously played in Praxis. But for their forthcoming debut on Mascot Records, Living on Another Frequency (which should be dropping sometime in September), their goal is new.

“We wanted to challenge artists and people in the music business,” Collins says. “We want to go somewhere where people haven’t been yet. It’s like taking that first shuttle to Venus — you don’t know what that trip is going to be like, you just know you’re going. People have taken the experience out of the experience, and we’re trying to put that back into music and make it fun.” (more…)

The Rolling Stones made the move from their longtime label EMI to Universal official today, signing a long-term deal that not only encompasses future albums but also includes the band’s post-Sticky Fingers catalog. The Stones released their concert film soundtrack Shine A Light through UMG earlier this year. EMI lobbied hard to bring the band back after their contract expired, but the tumultuous year the label has had since being acquired by equity firm Terra Firma perhaps ushered the Stones’ exile from EMI. Live Nation were also rumored to be in the bidding for the band’s services. The Stones will release their UMG albums through the company’s Polydor label, marking the first time the entire Stones catalog shared the same label. The UMG deal also includes the digital rights to the Stones discography. The Rolling Stones mark the third major artist to leave EMI in the past year, joining Paul McCartney and Radiohead.

China is considered one of the last great untapped frontiers for rock tours. As the country becomes more and more Westernized, bands like Nine Inch Nails, Linkin Park and the Rolling Stones have found new inroads into the market. But following Bjork’s shouts of “Free Tibet!” during a show in Shanghai earlier this year, the government has tightened its grip on who it will allow to play in the country. Click below for how China’s new rules are going to effect worldwide touring and what the implications are moving forward.

• Rock Tours Facing Government Roadblocks in China

The Killers, “When You Were Young” [Linbdbergh Palace Dub]
Marauding Killers anthem stripped to the bare minimum: a steady bass thrum, a few supernovas of synth and scatterd snatches of Brandon Flowers’ voice.

Justice vs. Wu-Tang Clan, “Cream Your Friends” [Starters Remix]
Finally, someone has made Wu-Tang safe for hipsters!

Santogold & Amanda Blank, “I’m a Lady” [Diplo Mix]
Snipped from the Diplo/Santogold mixtape, Blank bites LL’s verse from “I Need Love” while Santi supplies some Siouxsie Sioux pouting in the background. (more…)

First, the MTV Video Music Awards revealed their first performer, current RS cover boys the Jonas Brothers. Now, we know who will be hosting the festivities: British comedian/actor Russell Brand. A huge figure in his native England, Brand is best known (perhaps only known) to audiences in the States as the British rocker from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Besides being a comedian, Brand is also a renowned actor, columnist and radio host. Brand was also once the host of an MTV UK show called Dance Floor Chart, but was fired after showing up to work dressed as Osama bin Laden on September 12th, 2001. Almost seven years after getting the boot, MTV rehires him to host only their most important telecast of the entire year. This year’s VMAs will take place September 7th live from Los Angeles’ Paramount Studios.

More VMAs:
• 2007 VMAs Live Blog: From Britney’s Blow-Out to Kid Rock’s Punch
• All MTV Video Music Awards Coverage