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• The RNC could easily have stood for Rage’s National Convention, as Rage Against the Machine brought their trademark chaos to the Republican gathering with a convention-opening near-riot, an impromptu march, a facist-fighting concert and wrapped it up all with a pepper spray-inducing post-show protest. In other words, it was like Lollapalooza all over again. Heart was also raging against the Palin after the VP candidate used their “Barracuda” as a theme song.
• MTV’s VMAs are this weekend. To bring you up to date: Kanye West and Christina Aguilera were added as performers, Lil Wayne and Kid Rock will play together and Britney Spears will open the show, but won’t sing at it. We also chatted with the show’s host, British comedian Russell Brand. We’ll have reports from the event, a live blog and photos so check back here this Sunday night.
• New albums were in the news, as the prolific U2 pushed their record to early 2009 and Coldplay scheduled their new disc for late next year (with an EP of Viva leftovers out in December.) Kanye West and Jay-Z might have some surprises in store for year’s end, while All-American Rejects gave their new album a title.
• The new issue of Rolling Stone made us LOL with an interview with late night king David Letterman, our list of the 25 funniest web videos, behind-the-cover-shoot footage with Sarah Silverman, Billy Crystal and Tracy Morgan, a list of the five comics to watch and resident movie critic Peter Travers picked the comedies he thought deserved to win Oscars.