• U2, Jay-Z Team Up at MTV Europe Awards
• Rihanna Details Chris Brown Assault on GMA
• Zemeckis Wants Beatles for Yellow Submarine
• Weekend Rock List: New York City Songs
• Jackson Doctor Speaks About Star’s Drug Use
• Hear the Lady Gaga Swine Flu Remix
• News Ticker: The Beatles, Bunnymen, YYYs
• Rihanna Breaks Her Silence on GMA
• Pixies Rock Doolittle at L.A. Tour Launch
• Jack White: Not on Slash’s Solo LP
• Evanescence Return to the Stage in NYC
• Jay-Z Announces 2010 Blueprint 3 Tour Dates
• Tegan and Sara Talk Sainthood, Sanity
• Neko Case Tops Amazon’s Best of ‘09 List
• No Doubt Sue Over Band Hero Avatars
• Exclusive: Lady Gaga on Set of Gossip Girl
• Jackson’s This Is It LP Rockets to Number One
• “Sublime” Told to Stop Using Band Name
• Grohl Says Hits LP Feels Like An “Obituary”
• Beatles Remasters Come to USB Drive
• Swift Tells SNL She’s Up For Anything
• Breaking: La Roux
• Clips From Lambert’s LP Hit Amazon
• Them Crooked Vultures Drop Free Tune
• Wentz on Rocking in Underwear, FOB’s Plans
• Stooges Rehearsing for 2010 Tour
• Weezer-Branded Snuggies Finally Arrive
• Win a Copy of DJ Hero

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

Photo: Astute/ABC

• Rihanna opened up for the first time about her altercation with Chris Brown, saying she was “ashamed” and Brown had “no soul in his eyes” during the assault. Rihanna also premiered her video for “Wait Your Turn,” unveiled new song “Hard” and revealed Slash guests on Rated R.

• Phish rocked the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street then went acoustic at Festival 8, Pixies opened the U.S. leg of their Doolittle tour in L.A., Eminem and the Flaming Lips led the charge at Voodoo and Evanescence played a secret gig in NYC.
• No Doubt filed a lawsuit over Band Hero’s use of their avatars, Sublime were ordered to stop calling themselves Sublime and EMI took offense to someone finally making the Beatles’ catalog available digitally.
• Weezer was everywhere this week as Raditude hit stores. Rivers Cuomo found himself both as a songwriter on Adam Lambert’s LP and an underwear model in a Band Hero commercial, then Weezer made good on a promise to keep fans warm this winter in Weezer Snuggies.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, director Robert Zemeckis and Disney brokered a deal that would allow them to re-submerge the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, turning the 1968 animated film into a performance-capture 3-D digital production. What was at first a Hollywood rumor is now a fact as Zemeckis confirmed to MTV Movies Blog that he’s already working on the script, which he’ll also direct. However, one thing the Back to the Future director doesn’t know is whether Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr will participate in the film.

“We haven’t gotten the word yet on the two surviving Beatles, whether they’re interested in doing it or not,” Zemeckis said after admitting his wish is that Macca and Starr provide the voices for their characters. In the original Yellow Submarine, voice actors played the role of the Beatles, with the Fab Four only appearing in a live-action sequence at film’s end.

Look back at iconic Beatles moments. (more…)

A second excerpt of Rihanna’s 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer aired this morning on Good Morning America, in which Rihanna finally reveals for the first time what happened inside of Chris Brown’s rented Lamborghini the night of February 8th. Prior to this interview, both stars have let their lawyers and police evidence do the talking; Brown has previously sidestepped the question, saying he wanted to respect Rihanna’s privacy.

Click to see GMA’s first interview with Rihanna.

Rihanna confirmed that the couple’s argument was sparked by a text message another woman sent to Brown. “I caught him in a lie and he wouldn’t tell the truth. I wouldn’t drop it. I couldn’t take that he kept lying to me and he couldn’t take that I wouldn’t drop it,” Rihanna said. “So it escalated into him being violent towards me and… it was ugly.” (more…)

Photo: Getty

Dr. Arnold Klein, Michael Jackson’s personal dermatologist and a subject of scrutiny in the months following the singer’s death, sat down with TMZ’s Harvey Levin for a 90-plus minute interview that revisits Jackson’s alleged prescription drug use and his insecurity over his acne.

Look back at Michael Jackson’s life in photos.

“He was in the hands of doctors who didn’t know what they were doing,” Klein told TMZ, adding that Dr. Conrad Murray, the focus of the investigation into Jackson’s death, was both unqualified to administer Propofol and shouldn’t have been offering the drug to Jackson in the first place. TMZ asked Klein about medical records showing that Klein himself administered Demerol to Jackson at a frequent rate — at one point, there were 179 procedures in three months — but Klein responded by saying the treatments were necessary as he attempted to “rebuild” Jackson’s face. (more…)

Photo: Diamond/Getty (Swift), Merritt/Getty (Mayer)
Another track off John Mayer’s Battle Studies has leaked before its November 17th release date: “Half of My Heart,” a duet with Taylor Swift. The pair team up for a nice piece of Fleetwood Mac-inspired pop in which Mayer sings, “Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring, but half of the heart is the part of a man who hasn’t truly loved anything.” Hit up Perez Hilton to listen to a stream.

Check out more coverage of John Mayer and other guitar gods.

If the track has a flaw, it’s that Swift’s appearance is, well, too swift. This weekend’s Saturday Night Live host and musical guest doesn’t pop up until the 2:45 mark, where she delivers the line, “I can’t stop loving you” twice before again receding to the background, only to appear again for some last-second harmonizing before the fadeout. Even with the lack of Swift, the track will no doubt be in constant rotation for fans of Mayer, Taylor and Rumours. Also, there’s no opening references to getting stoned, so radio should like it, too. (more…)

The award for Best Live Act was the first trophy handed out at yesterday’s MTV Europe Music Awards, and it went to U2 for their massive 360° Tour. Stripped of their spaceship and playing a free concert outside the EMAs to a small crowd of 10,000 at Berlin’s Brandenburg Park, U2 showed why they deserve the honor by breaking out a 20-minute concert featuring hits, No Line on the Horizon tracks and a surprise collaboration with Jay-Z just days after teaming up with the Black Eyed Peas at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary concerts.

Check out photos from MTV’s Europe Music Awards: U2, Green Day, Beyoncé and more.

Performing in honor of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, U2 started with “One” and “Magnificent,” and the show returned to to their mini-gig to close out the ceremony. Midway through “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” Bono asked the fans to greet the “Mayor of New York,” alluding to Jay-Z and not the reelected Mike Bloomberg. Jigga emerged from the sidelines to freestyle a verse over the “Sunday” riffs before joining hands with Bono and leading the 10,000-strong audience in a chant of Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” in honor of the Berlin Wall’s demolition.

Check out live shots from U2’s award-winning 360° Tour. (more…)

Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty

• EMI has won a temporary injunction against BlueBeat, the digital-music vendor selling Beatles tracks without permission. According to Billboard, a temporary restraining order demands the company cease selling all EMI tracks, including Beatles songs. A legal Beatles release — a special edition vinyl of Abbey Road — will be available this weekend as part of Record Store Day.

• Echo and the Bunnymen have posted a Website update that explains they’ve cut their U.S. tour short due to “unreasonable” IRS demands, but not a visa problem.
• The Yeah Yeah Yeahs will perform their 2003 debut Fever to Tell in its entirety at the U.K.’s 10th anniversary ATP Festival, which goes down December 11th through 13th.
• George Michael’s first-ever live DVD hits stores Sunday. Live in London features 23 songs from a pair of shows on the singer’s final 25 Live Tour including his cover of the Police’s “Roxanne.”

Photo: Benett/Getty
Just hours after Jay-Z joined U2 onstage in Berlin at the MTV European Music Awards, Jigga announced dates for the second leg of his Blueprint 3 tour. Jay-Z still has four more shows left on his run on college campuses in November, but he’ll return to the road in 2010 starting February 22nd in Houston, Texas.

If you’re looking at the tour dates and wondering where’s all the New York love from the “Empire State of Mind” rapper — even though Jay has performed at Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, a tiny DJ Hero concert and Yankee Stadium in the past few months — don’t fret: Information about shows in Uniondale, New York and neighboring East Rutherford, New Jersey will be announced soon, as will dates for concerts in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan.

Speaking of “Empire State of Mind,” MTV reports that Jay-Z will contribute a new verse for “Part 2″ of his and Alicia Keys’ BP3 smash, with the new version featuring own Keys’ upcoming album The Element of Freedom, out in December. (more…)

We’re more than a month away from Christmas, but Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas is feeling charitable this week. First, he released his solo album Phrazes for the Young, then he posted his upcoming Xmas single a month and 20 days early on his MySpace Music page. “Everyone seems to do a Christmas song at some point, so I always said to myself I’d do that song,” Casablancas told the NME. “I now checked that off the list of things to do.” (more…)

Six albums and 10 years into their career as indie-pop double threats Tegan and Sara, the 29-year-old Canadian duo have put enough distance between themselves and their first releases to analyze them critically. Quite critically, it turns out. “I like to think that our career is divided into two really important times. Those first couple of records, I’ve come to terms with how embarrassed I am of them and see them as … development,” Sara Quin tells Rolling Stone. “Now we understand our voices and the songwriting process and how we want to present ourselves to the audience. We also have an audience now.”

That kind of brutal honesty has helped endear the pair to their loyal fans, who sometimes like to express their admiration in aggressive ways. Tegan kicked off a Halloween night show in New York by indicating the burly security guards positioned onstage and giving a brief speech about the good and bad ways to show the band love: “Sometimes you guys get so excited you run up here and that scares Tegan and Sara.”

But the duo never forget that their onstage storytelling gives fans a real connection, and recently issued a series of three revealing books called On It At that document tours and a trip to New Orleans that marked the first time they’d ever attempted to write together. (Watch the video above to hear more on that experience.) (more…)

There’s still two months left in 2009, during which some of the most highly anticipated releases of the year by Rihanna, 50 Cent, Adam Lambert and Clipse are due. But that’s not stopping Amazon.com from announcing their Top 100 albums of 2009 today, along with their customers’ list of the year’s best. Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone takes first place on the store’s countdown while U2’s No Line on the Horizon tops “Customer Favorites.” The customer list, based solely on sales and not ratings, also ranks Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream and Adam Lambert’s For Your Entertainment — even though neither has been released yet.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ It’s Blitz!, Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s self-titled LP and the Avett Brothers’ I And Love And You also made the Amazon Top Five. K’Naan’s Troubadour and Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 were Amazon’s highest-ranking hip-hop albums, coming in at Eight and Nine. Phoenix also topped Amazon’s Top Songs of 2009 with “Lisztomania,” and the Black Eyed Peas scored both Number One and Two on the best-selling list with “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling.” Further down the album list, Wilco’s Wilco (The Album scored Number 12, U2’s No Line placed 31 and Muse’s The Resistance squeezed on at 89. (more…)

Photo: Merritt/Getty
The Pixies might have just kicked off the American leg of their Doolittle tour last night in Los Angeles, but Black Francis has already made plans to return to L.A. on December 8th and 9th when he headlines Winston Calling: A Rock and Comedy benefit concert for baby Winston Bertran. The first concert of the two-night benefit at the Echoplex and its upstairs venue the Echo will also feature appearances by “Weird Al” Yankovic (who will sing the Pixies’ “I Bleed”), Flea, Michael Penn plus members of Pixies, Love & Rockets and She Wants Revenge. Francis’ Grand Duchy side project with his wife Violet Clark will also perform. The second night will feature comedy from Tim & Eric, Bob Odenkirk, Pixies’ David Lovering and another solo performance by Francis. (more…)

Photo: Carr/Getty(White), Dowling/Getty(Slash)

Slash has recruited an impressive roster of guest musicians to appear on Slash & Friends, the Velvet Revolver guitarist’s 2010 solo album. Pals like Dave Grohl, Flea, Chris Cornell, the Pussycat Dolls’ Nicole Scherzinger and pretty much every Guns n’ Roses member not named Axl Rose will make appearances on the LP. However, Slash revealed that one guy he really wanted to work with rebuffed him: The White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather’s Jack White.

“I wanted to get Jack White to sing on something, but he didn’t want to sing,” Slash told Musicradar.com. “He said ‘I’ll play drums, I’ll play guitar, but I don’t wanna sing.’ He was one guy that I wanted to work with. Pretty much everyone else that I went after I managed to get.”

Check out supergroups from Velvet Revolver to Cream.

While White opted out, Slash was reportedly able to recruit another of Michigan’s most musical native sons, Iggy Pop, plus artists like Fergie, Cypress Hill, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Meat Loaf and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. As Rolling Stone previously reported, Slash also found time in his busy schedule to appear on someone else’s album, contributing guitar to Rihanna’s “Rockstar 101″ on Rated R. (more…)

Photo: Noam Galai
It was a chant that hadn’t been heard in Manhattan in more than two years, and it started a little after 9 p.m., as the anxious crowd who packed out the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom started growing more and more impatient: “EVAN-ES-SCENTS, EVAN-ES-SCENTS.” And though the last time Amy Lee floated across a stage George W. Bush was in office, you wouldn’t have been able to tell from the band’s adept, hard-charging performance.

But as the Evanescence frontwoman explained to the audience at last night’s extremely intimate secret concert, the one-off performance was quite necessary. After all, on November 8th, Evanescence will be performing before 40,000 screaming fans at the Maquinaria Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the band needed a little limbering up before heading south. “Thanks for being our guinea pigs,” Lee joked to the mostly female crowd.

Check out our collection of Evanescence photos.

With Evanescence hard at work on the follow-up to 2006’s The Open Door, it’ll be another year before they’re back in New York, making last night’s concert a one-of-a-kind experience for the band’s rabid fans, who sold out the show in five minutes. (more…)