Yesterday’s bit of jacket and studded belt brought out a wide range of guesses: Adam Lambert, Tokio Hotel, Kiss, Rihanna and Carrie Underwood, to name a few. So today we’ll reveal a little more of our next cover subject (or subjects) — an arm. Remember, tomorrow morning Madonna’s time on our cover comes to an end — though it’s never too late to relive her 50 most iconic moments — and a new issue hits newsstands. Check back in the morning to get the scoop on the new issue of Rolling Stone.

In just two days Madonna’s time as Rolling Stone cover star will come to an end as our new issue hits newsstands. Here’s your first glimpse of our new cover: a jacket and a studded belt. Think you know who the star (or stars) will be? Hit us with your best guesses in the comments. We’ll be back with another clue tomorrow, and we’ll reveal our cover Wednesday morning.

Photo: George Burns courtesy of Harpo Productions
When Whitney Houston gave her infamous “crack is wack” interview to Diane Sawyer in 2002, she owned up to a mild drug problem. Over the past two days on Oprah, the singer revealed the true extent of her troubles: that she was addicted to marijuana laced with rock cocaine and emotionally battered by husband Bobby Brown until she gathered the strength to leave him in 2006 following rehab stints and an intervention by her mother, Cissy. Clips from the two-part interview are available on Oprah’s Website.

The second part of Houston’s Oprah appearance featured an emotional performance of I Look to You’s “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” that left Winfrey in tears. (The song came off stronger than Houston’s lackluster tunes on Good Morning America, which were filmed the day after she taped the Oprah interview.) Houston told Winfrey she originally dropped out of the spotlight because she “wanted to be normal — I had no normal 20s, I had no normal 30s.” But her 14-year marriage to Brown spiraled out of control and nearly claimed her career. Here’s a rundown of Houston’s five most shocking admissions: (more…)

Mason Jennings, a veteran RS Breaking artist around these parts and “one of the best acoustic-based singer-songwriters you’ve never heard,” recently stopped by the Rolling Stone offices to showcase three tracks off his new album Blood of Man, which RS called the Minnesota native’s “best album yet” in a four-star review. In addition to his Blood work, Jennings also performed a somber take on the Shins’ Chutes Too Narrow track “Gone For Good,” which Jennings was inspired to perform after a trip to Patagonia with Shins frontman James Mercer. Check out Mason’s rendition of that song above.

From Blood of Man, Jennings also strums his way through his harrowing “The Field,” which RS wrote “may be the most moving anti-war song ever written from a parent’s perspective.” Even without the feedback, fuzz and electric guitars that add a foreboding ambiance to Blood of Man, Jennings’ ragged voice and acoustic guitar perfectly capture the dark tales of addiction, loss and madness on his new LP. Below, watch Jennings’ perform “Lonely Road,” “The Field” and “Tourist.” (more…)

The Beastie Boys’ new album The Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1 was originally scheduled to be released today, September 15th, before Adam “MCA” Yauch’s bout with salivary gland cancer delayed the new LP and canceled their summer tour plans. While a new release date hasn’t yet been announced, apparently the Beasties didn’t want to deprive their fans of music: The NYC trio announced that their year-long reissue project will conclude today, September 15th with the digital re-release of their 1998 album Hello Nasty, featuring the pre-millennial stereo-bumping cuts like “Intergalactic,” “Body Movin’” and “Remote Control.” As with the other reissues, the physical release of the new Hello Nasty on September 22nd will come in a variety of formats, all of which boasts the remastered album itself plus 21 bonus tracks featuring rarities, skits and more. (more…)

Fresh off their performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards, British prog-rockers Muse return with their fifth studio album, The Resistance, an LP packed with symphonic grandiose and humongous songs. American Idol’s Adam Lambert and Twilight fans the world over might very well love this album, but Rolling Stone gave the album three stars due to frontman Matthew Bellamy’s continued fixation with his idols. “Songs like the industrial-flavored ‘Uprising’ prove again that Muse know how to whip up an almighty roar,” Jody Rosen writes in his review, “But the lyrics are pompous doggerel (’Coercive notions re-evolve/A universe is trapped inside a tear’), and they borrow shamelessly from Radiohead and Queen without the former’s musical invention or the latter’s cheeky swagger.”

Also earning three stars from Rolling Stone is the debut album from Cleveland rapper Kid Cudi, Man on the Moon: The End of Day. With a title like that, you’d think MGMT were the authors, and lo and behold, MGMT and Ratatat appear on the single “Pursuit of Happiness.” Needless to say, this isn’t the typical album you’d expect from a protégé of Kanye West, who features along with Common on the Gaga-sampling “Make Her Say.” The album shows potential, but the weight of lyrically carrying this concept album proves too heavy for Cudi as he falls into a trap of pedestrian raps. Still, it’s worth hearing if not for “Day N Night” alone. (more…)

A swatch of skin … but whose body is it? The answer is the star featured on the next cover of Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands tomorrow. We’ll reveal the answer with a host of photos and exclusive info tomorrow morning, but for now, leave your best guesses in the comments.

Vampire Weekend revealed on their official Website today that their second album Contra will be released on January 12th, 2010. The “Oxford Comma” band also revealed the album’s track list, and judging by the 10 songs listed, the LP is not a concept album based on a certain militarized Nintendo game (though “Diplomat’s Son” sounds like it could be the subplot for a Delta Force sequel). The album’s track list also features the polyrhythmic “White Sky,” which Vampire Weekend debuted on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and during the All Points West Festival.

“These songs would be perfect for driving up the Pacific coast,” guitarist-keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij, who is once again serving as producer, told Rolling Stone when we visited the band at work in Brooklyn’s Treefort Studio back in June. Added singer Ezra Koenig, “We’re taking what we did on the first album to the next level.” Also featuring on the album is the frenzied punk scramble of “California English” and the power balled “Taxi Cab.” (more…)

Photo: Polk/Getty

A shade under nine million viewers tuned into this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, meaning that the VMAs’ largest television audience since 2004 tuned in to see Kanye West steal the spotlight from Taylor Swift. Of course, also helping MTV to their best ratings in years was news that Janet Jackson would star in a tribute to her brother Michael at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, while the trailer for the upcoming documentary for Jackson’s This Is It was also premiered. In addition to the 8.97 million viewers, the VMAs’ also became the Number One cable program this year for the much-desired 12-34 demographic, Variety reports.

Photos: The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards’s Memorable Moments

Viewers were up six percent compared to the VMAs, something that seems even more impressive when you factor in what the 2009 broadcast was up against: The opening Sunday of the NFL season, tennis’ U.S. Open and the season finale of True Blood, which probably sapped some of the audience eagerly awaiting the VMA’s debut of the New Moon trailer. By comparison, the 2006 Video Music Awards, the last time the show was staged at Radio City Music Hall, claimed only 5.76 million viewers. (more…)

Two days after becoming the victim of Kanye West’s stage intrusion at the MTV Video Music Awards, Taylor Swift appeared on today’s episode of The View to talk about what was going through her mind as Kanye hijacked her acceptance speech for Best Female Video. “I think my overall thought process went something like: ‘Wow, I can’t believe I won… This is awesome… Don’t trip and fall… I’m gonna get to thank the fans, this is so cool… Oh, Kanye West is here!’,” Swift told the ladies on The View, “‘Cool haircut… What are you doing there? And then, Ouch. And then, I guess I’m not gonna be able to thank the fans.’ ” (Watch Swift recount the moment in the clip above).

VMAs 2009: look back at the big show’s memorable moments.

Swift was reportedly in tears backstage after the infamous moment, but the VMAs schedule forced her to make a quick recovery. “I’m not gonna say that I wasn’t riled by it. I had to perform live five minutes later, so I had to get myself back to the place where I could perform,” Swift said, adding that she was overwhelmed by the amount of support she received in the moments after the incident. (the subway part of her performance was pre-taped, but Swift sang live outside the venue atop a taxi the night of the Awards.) “There were a lot of people around me backstage that were saying really incredible things and just having my back. And all the other artists that came and showed me love in the hours following it, and all the people tweeting about it and all the fans… I just never imagined that there were that many people out there looking out for me, so it was really wonderful to see that people were out there defending me so I didn’t have to.” (more…)

Photo: Waisman/FilmMagic(Bono), Jackson/Getty (Johansson),

All four members of U2, Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love, Antony, Martha and Rufus Wainwright and many more will take the stage at a (RED)NIGHTS concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall on October 4th. “Hal Willner Presents: An Evening with Gavin Friday and Friends” will also feature performances from the Turtles’ Flo & Eddie, the Pogues’ Shane McGowan, Laurie Anderson. punk icon Lydia Lunch and, as the name of the event denotes, Gavin Friday and members of his goth band, the Virgin Prunes.

Part of the proceeds from the tickets, which go on sale tomorrow, September 16th, will go toward the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The evening’s presenter Hal Willner, a frequent Friday collaborator, has also produced albums by Lou Reed, Marianne Faithful and the soundtrack for the film Million Dollar Hotel, based on a story by Bono. (more…)

Photo: Ruscio/FilmMagic

“Are you ready for this?” Metallica frontman James Hetfield growled from the stage of Nashville’s Sommet Center Monday night, at the official kickoff of the band’s latest U.S. run. “Metallica is mighty grateful to be alive, and here celebrating life with loud, heavy music.”

Loud and heavy it was — heavy enough to comically shake from the rafters all the heart-shaped confetti remaining from Taylor Swift’s show there two nights before — as Metallica burned through a big cache of songs from their latest, speed-metal tradition-bearing Death Magnetic album and a healthy share of similarly muscular, propulsive early work.

The band’s two-hour-plus Stateside opener, coming after months of overseas dates, kicked off with an aggressive, laser light-flanked “That Was Just Your Life” and “The End Of The Line” from Magnetic, Hetfield following up by telling the crowd, “We appreciate you. Here’s some old stuff.” (more…)

Photo: Strauss/WireImage

So much for Kanye West’s admittedly much-needed break from work: after stunning the Video Music Awards by storming the stage during Taylor Swift’s Best Female Video acceptance speech, he revealed on last night’s Jay Leno Show premiere that he hadn’t really taken time to mourn the loss of his mother, Donda, who died in November 2007. “I’ve never taken the time off to really — you know, just music after music and tour after tour,” he said.

Yet West has announced another tour: the full slate of dates for his “Fame Kills Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga” trek have been confirmed (full list is after the jump). West’s road companion — recent RS cover star Gaga — also had a big night at the VMAs: she stunned the crowd with her trademark out-of-this-world outfits and a bloody performance of “Paparazzi,” and took home a Best New Artist award.

Lady Gaga’s wild style: photos of her most outrageous outfits.

Their joint trek launches November 10th in Phoenix, Arizona and stretches into 2010. Presale for the “Fame Kills” tour, which doesn’t leave a major media market unvisited, begins tomorrow, September 16th, while the general onsale kicks off September 19th. (more…)

Photo: Jennings/WireImage

Neil Young, No Doubt, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Fleet Foxes, Wolfmother, Sheryl Crow, Gavin Rossdale and the Monsters of Folk will perform at both nights of the annual Bridge School Benefit at Mountain View, California’s Shoreline Amphitheatre on October 24th and 25th, the Bridge School Website announced yesterday. Jimmy Buffett will also perform at the Saturday night show, and actor Adam Sandler — who got to rock out in Funny People — will take the stage Sunday.

Young and his wife Pegi established the Bridge School concerts in 1986, and the 2009 dates mark the 23rd annual benefit. The Bridge School assists children with severe physical and speech impairments. Tickets for the concerts go on sale Sunday, September 20th at Live Nation. The Bridge School site also reminds fans to check back as more special guests will be announced. (more…)

Photo: Vespa/WireImage

• Sting, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt have been added to the already-impressive lineups taking the stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary shows next month, the New York Times reports. The October 29th and 30th gigs also feature U2, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica.

• Radiohead’s Website confirms Thom Yorke will play “Reckoner” solo live from an undisclosed location on September 21st as screenings of climate change documentary Age of Stupid are Webcast.
• Police have reopened the investigation into the death of Rolling Stones’ guitarist Brian Jones, and now the band’s former road manager is naming the band’s onetime chauffeur, Tom Keylock (who died in July), as a possible suspect, Reuters reports.
• Medeski Martin & Wood will unleash Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set on November 24th. The set includes a previously unreleased live disc, a DVD and more material from their Radiolarian Series.