• Lady Gaga Brings Her Monster Ball to Boston
• Eminem Talks Relapse 2, Michael Jackson
• 50 Cent Mouths Off About Jay-Z
• Aerosmith in Turmoil: Behind the Story
• Adam Lambert Vows to “Focus on the Music”
• Killers Go Mariachi For New Christmas Single
• Breaking: The xx
• Guns n’ Roses Announce South American Tour
• Charges in Jackson’s Death Months Away
• Flaming Lips Tackle Pink Floyd for New Year’s
• This Is It DVD Due January 26th
• Exclusive: Watch Snoop Dogg’s Malice Trailer
• Paramore, Weezer to Headline Bamboozle
• Phish Cover TV on the Radio in Albany
• Strokes to Headline Isle of Wight Festival
• Pete Doherty Sorry for Singing Nazi Anthem
• Beck and Clapton Announce U.S. Shows
• Cribs & Johnny Marr on New LP, Bad ’90s Rock
• Tom Petty Looks Back: Q&A
• Meet the Teen-Angst Guru Behind TWLOHA
• Fall Out Boy, Anthrax Unite in New Band
• Beach Boys, Doors Songs Join Grammy Hall
• Vote for the Best Music of 2009
• Bob Dylan on Christmas, Hip-Hop

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

Photo:
Loccisano/FilmMagic
Last year Dr. Drew said that Britney Spears was “dying in front of our eyes.” Thank goodness Brit listened up and got her life back on track. Today the world’s most famous pop tart turns the ripe old age of 28. It’s been a good year for Britney: Her Circus tour wowed fans across the world (minus those nit-picky Australians), she scored her two Number One singles, she landed a new beau (or so we think), and she didn’t attack any paparazzi with a baseball bat. Now that’s something to celebrate. So in honor of Brit’s big day, take a look back at our favorite Britney videos, photos and moments:

• Britney Spears’ Wild Ride: Track Her Ups and Downs in Photos
• Britney Spears’ Sexy Circus: Pop Star Returns to the Stage
• All Hail Britney, Queen of the VMAs! Rob Sheffield on Seven Super Spears Moments
• Britney Spears: The Complete Video Guide

Photo: Kaiser/DDP/Getty

When Rolling Stone caught up with 50 Cent for a Close-Up in our current issue (dated December 10, 2009), the Queens MC was having some of his signature tattoos lasered off his arms to benefit his budding acting career while musing on the leak of his latest disc, Before I Self Destruct. Fiddy also chatted about his new collaboration with Philly rapper Beanie Sigel and mouthed off about another New York legend with a major 2009 LP: Jay-Z. Check out this online exclusive interview here.

Photograph by Jordan Corey courtesy of Kiss108.com
Last night in Boston, at a venue traditionally reserved for Broadway shows like The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, Lady Gaga opened the American leg of her highly anticipated The Monster Ball tour. The choice of locale couldn’t have been arbitrary. Throughout the evening, Gaga — a.k.a. Stefani Germanotta, a.k.a. Tinker Bell (more on this later) — aimed for a kind of pop theatricality that might potentially cement her burgeoning status as “performance artist.”

The pre-show scene outside Citi Performing Arts Center was all blonde-wig-wearing Lady Gaga imitators, face glitter, oversized shades, and the occasional light-up replica of that “disco stick” scepter featured in Gaga’s “LoveGame” video. Inside, the same crowd looked out of place amongst the venue’s marble columns, wide staircases and elegant opera house chandeliers.

At 9:15, following sets by Semi Precious Weapons and Kid Cudi, Gaga took the stage behind a giant, black-and-green scrim and proclaimed, “I’m a free bitch, baby” — the first of several moments during her performance that gave parents in the audience consternation. (more…)

That rockin’ pair of AC/DC-branded Converse kicks up top are just one of the many awesome gifts Rolling Stone is offering up in the first of three rock & roll giveaways during December. As we wrote yesterday, this prize pack also features a Gibson SG Zoot Suit Guitar (retails for $1,999), two photo books (Trust: Photographs by Jim Marshall and Sound Kapital) and a Karmaloop x MTV Staying Alive Foundation Tee designed by Shepard Fairey.

Check out Rolling Stone’s Great Rock & Roll Gift Guide featuring over 100 of the season’s must-haves

To enter the giveaway, click here. The Gift Guide Giveaway is open to residents of the 50 United States and Washington, D.C., who are 18 years of age or older as of December 1st, 2009. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Sweepstakes begins at 5 p.m. EST on December 1st, 2009, and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on December 6th, 2009. Certain restrictions may apply. Complete official rules are available here.

Alicia Keys took to the stage last night at New York’s Nokia Theatre for a benefit concert in support of World AIDS Day and Keep A Child Alive. In addition to debuting two new songs off her upcoming The Element of Freedom, “Love is Blind” and “Distance and Time,” the performance also featured a cameo by Jay-Z, who joined her to close out the show with their hit “Empire State of Mind.” In this exclusive video, we showcase one of Keys’ biggest hits live from the Nokia Theatre, “You Don’t Know My Name.”

This week in the New Music Report, Rolling Stone assistant editor Kevin O’ Donnell takes a in-depth look at Animal Collective’s new EP Fall Be Kind, which features pan flute, the first-ever officially licensed Grateful Dead sample and a touch of the group’s trademark experimentation that has won them a massive cult following. Animal Collective’s eclectic style is evident in the EP’s opening track “Graze,” which segues into the most conventional — and possibly best — verse-chorus-verse song the quartet has ever recorded: “What Would I Want? Sky,” a song that boasts a Dead-approved sample of “Unbroken Chain.” For more on Fall Be Kind, check out this week’s New Music Report above.

>>Watch every episode of our weekly New Music Report video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Tuesday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

Who: Britain’s coolest new band the xx, fronted by singer-bassist Oliver Sim and singer-guitarist Romy Madley Croft, who uniquely blend sultry boy-girl indie pop with austere, icy post-punk and dub grooves. After hitting it big back in the UK with their debut xx, the trio — producer/beatmaster Jamie Smith rounds out the line-up — was named the MVP of this year’s CMJ Festival in October.

Sounds Like: On their debut, Sim and Croft’s hushed voices come together with a me-and-you-against-the-world closeness — it’s booty-call music for the indie-rock set. Smith’s minimalist production matches pitter-patter beats with echoing “Wicked Game”-style guitars, and it renders the longing in their voices even more stark. (more…)

Keeping with their nascent holiday tradition, the Killers released their fourth Christmas single yesterday, this one titled “Happy Birthday Guadalupe.” The mariachi-flavored track, recorded miles away from whatever hemisphere produced Day & Age, features guest spots from two bands that opened for the Killers during their recent tour, Wild Light and Mariachi El Bronx. The single was released digitally via (RED) on World AIDS Day and all proceeds from the track will go toward the Global Fund to help fight AIDS in Africa.

The video for “Happy Birthday Guadalupe,” which is also available for digital download, follows a lonesome, grizzled cowboy, played by none other than Beverly Hills 90210 thespian Luke Perry, as he searches the desert for his long-lost love. (more…)

Photo: Villagran/Getty
The Big News: In a week that featured new releases by Rihanna, Adam Lambert, Lady Gaga and Shakira, it was a 48-year-old British woman plucked out of absolute obscurity a year ago who topped the Billboard Top 200 on its most competitive week of the year. Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream far exceeded any expectations in the U.S., selling 701,000 to give The Britain’s Got Talent runner-up the best-selling debut week of 2009, and the best-selling week for a debut album by a female artist in the history of the Nielsen Soundscan era. (more…)

Photo: Mazur/WireImage
With Relapse: Refill due out later this month, Eminem has opened up to Complex about a variety of topics, including the addiction that threatened his life, Michael Jackson, Lil Wayne and internet porn. The big news, however, is that Em’s planned Relapse 2 is still in the works despite the release of Refill, and that the reason the sequel to Eminem’s comeback LP was delayed was because the music just kept getting better as Em moved further away from his addiction.

“When I finished Relapse, I had a whole album of material that didn’t make it that I wasn’t ready to throw away, so that was going to be Relapse 2. But then I got with Dre in Hawaii and started recording more, and now the new material has knocked out all the old songs,” Eminem tells Complex. (more…)

Photo: WireImage

• In what could be an audition to fill Aerosmith’s recently vacated lead singer spot, rapper T-Pain and guitarist Joe Perry will perform “Walk this Way” at Miami’s Land Shark Tailgate Stage prior to this weekend’s Dolphins vs. Patriots football game. According to Blabbermouth, the set will also feature the Joe Perry Project playing songs from their new album Have Guitar, Will Travel. And we’re joking about the audition thing. We hope.

• Lil Wayne welcomed his second son of 2009 into the world yesterday after singer Nivea gave birth to Neal Carter, Tha Carter III rapper’s fourth child overall, MTV reports. Back in September, Lil Wayne and actress Lauren London also had a son. Nivea has three children with singer/producer The Dream.
• Pavement’s reunion tour continues to take shape as the Terror Twilight bunch have mapped out new dates all across Europe and Japan beginning in April. The band’s first show together remains a March 1st concert in Auckland, New Zealand and Malkmus and co. won’t hit the U.S. until the Sasquatch! Festival in late-May. Get all the current Pavement dates over at P4K.
• Goldfrapp will release their fifth album Head First on March 23rd, 2010. The new LP from the British duo will be preceded by first single “Rocket” on March 9th. Goldfrapp last released Seventh Tree in 2008.

Photo: Parra/WireImage
The Black Eyed Peas announce the North American leg of what promises to be their The E.N.D. world tour, Nick Jonas leaves his Brothers back home as he and the Administration embark on their first tour this January and Henry Rollins sets out on his Frequent Flyer trek. Full dates for all three artists after the jump.
(more…)

Photo: Squires/WireImage
John Mellencamp’s son Speck has taken to Facebook in an effort to convince his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame father to quit smoking. “I made a deal with my dad that if I get a 1,000,000 to join this group he will quit smoking,” Speck writes on the Facebook group page. That means it’ll only take a platinum plaque’s worth of fellow Facebookers to get Mellencamp to ditch the nicotine and live a healthier lifestyle. It’s been written that Mellencamp used to smoke four packs a day, and while he’s since cut down that number significantly, he remains a smoker to this day.

Thus far, Speck has only recruited around 13,000 friends and Mellencamp fans to convince Johnny Cougar to stop smoking, but the number continues to leap as this grassroots movement spreads. (more…)

To ring in the holiday spirit, Rolling Stone is offering three rock & roll giveaways over the next month. First up: a Gibson SG Zoot Suit Guitar (retails for $1,999), two photo books (Trust: Photographs by Jim Marshall and Sound Kapital), a pair of Converse AC/DC Sneakers and a Karmaloop x MTV Staying Alive Foundation Tee designed by Shepard Fairey.

Check out Rolling Stone’s Great Rock & Roll Gift Guide featuring over 100 of the season’s must-haves

To enter the giveaway, click here. The Gift Guide Giveaway is open to residents of the 50 United States and Washington, D.C., who are 18 years of age or older as of December 1st, 2009. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Sweepstakes begins at 5 p.m. EST on December 1st, 2009, and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on December 6th, 2009. Certain restrictions may apply. Complete official rules are available here.