As the August anniversary of Woodstock approaches, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland is taking a look back at rock’s historic fest in a new exhibit that opens tomorrow called “Woodstock: The 40th Anniversary.” Go behind the scenes with curator Howard Kramer as he outlines some of its highlights — like the vest fest co-producer Michael Lang wore all three days of peace, love and rock & roll as well as the documents listing who was playing and how much they were paid. The exhibit, which runs through late November, also includes a press release from when the fest was scheduled to go down at Wallkill, New York (”Woodstock does not figure on gate crashers”) and Lang’s original handwritten plans for the event.

Plus, go inside the new book The Road to Woodstock in exclusive excerpts here:

• “The Road to Woodstock”: The Stories Behind Rock History

The New Music Report’s Christian Rock! kicks off this week with Regina Spektor, who scored her highest chart debut with her new third album, Far. The New Yorker via Moscow is a classically trained pianist as well as an appealing weirdo, like Fiona Apple and Bjürk combined, says Christian Hoard. Her vocal hiccups (there’s even a dolphin impression on the record) can be indulgent, but she has pop songwriting gifts. Spektor’s confessionals grab you by the lapels without getting maudlin or overly emotional. Hoard says Far is a brightly produced album, but it’s also pretty straightforward, featuring piano, strings, percussion and keyboards. This time around Spektor’s lyris are deep and open — she’s sad on “Laughing With” but also whimsical on “Dance Anthem of the 80’s” where she wanders around the city with her slip showing. Hoard says he’s a fan because Spektor doesn’t try like she’s trying hard. (more…)

David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash are certainly aware they’ve been working together for a long time, but when Rolling Stone spelled out a number — 40 years — the figure still stunned the trio. “It certainly seems to have gone very quickly,” Nash told RS during a recent trip to our offices. “In my memory it’s like yesterday,” he said. “We love each other,” Stills added. Which is clearly what’s helped keep Crosby, Stills and Nash on the road and in the studio together for so long despite some major hiccups along the way.

The other major factor: creative synergy. “For me, it has to do with the music,” Crosby said. “I love both of them as human beings, but they keep coming to me with music that is absolute magic to me. It’s a completely different chemistry. Each human being has a completely different vibe, and the four of us [including Neil Young] is a completely different chemistry than the three of us or two of us or solo, and that’s fascinating and it keeps it fresh.” (more…)

Who: Bred in one of the country’s strongest DIY punk communities, the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based trio Screaming Females have actually got only one shrieking lady. Her name is Marissa Paternoster, and she is 2009’s answer to Sleater-Kinney’s 2006 breakup, using her throaty pipes and serious chops to channel that trio’s femme-shredder legacy to a new generation. The band’s pint-size leader — whose signature stage attire includes a mandarin Sergeant Pepper-style dress and a bowl haircut covering her eyes — is known for ripping until her fingers bleed.

Sounds Like: Screaming Females’ third full-length and first-ever label release Power Move is packed with fuzzy riffs and gritty, epic solos layered over Mike Rickenbacker’s disciplined bass lines, with drummer Jarrett Dougherty’s fierce beats pushing it all forward. The LP gets poppy on “Bell” and psychedelic on “Skull,” but Paternoster’s core influences (”I listen to Sleater-Kinney and the Pixies”) shine through.

Vital Stats:

• Over the past four years, Screaming Females have played over 300 self-booked shows. Opening slots with Throwing Muses and Dinosaur Jr. in recent months have primed the band for their summertime gig: a 13-date run opening up for the Dead Weather in July. (more…)

“If I’m behind this, this will be the most popular thing to do in gaming on the planet,” says legendary DJ Grandmaster Flash about October’s upcoming DJ Hero, Activision’s long-awaited turntablist twist on their multi-billion-dollar Guitar Hero franchise. Flash tells Rolling Stone that he has been involved with the game for a little over a year, contributing exclusive mixes, doing voice-overs and even advising the suits on what type of language to use.

Flash says Activision pulled him into a screening room at New York’s Bowery Hotel about a year and a half ago, asking him for assistance. He got on board because he believed the DJs that Activision were seeking out at the time were authentic; names like DJ Shadow, DJ AM, DJ Z-Trip and the still-unconfirmed DJ Jazzy Jeff. “I have major respect for those people,” says Flash. “It’s not gonna be DJ Suitcase, DJ Receiver and DJ Coffee Cup. It ain’t gonna be that.” More than 12 DJs have produced more than 80 exclusive mixes to be used as part of the gameplay.

For the music itself, Activision has licensed more than 100 songs for blending and mixing, including Beastie Boys “Sabotage” sliced into Foo Fighters’s “Monkey Wrench” and Black Eyed Peas’ current Billboard-topping smash “Boom Boom Pow” getting a house makeover when worked into a Benny Benassi banger. (more…)

“For me, the gift of music has been a blessing from God from the time I was a child,” Michael Jackson proclaimed from the podium at the 2001 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction. ‘NSync helped welcome the King of Pop for the second time. (Jackson was first inducted into the Rock Hall in 1997 as part of the Jackson 5.) “There ain’t no stoppin’, there ain’t no enough, he’s the King of Pop, the one, the only, Michael Jackson,” Justin Timberlake said before welcoming Jackson to the stage.

Following news of Michael Jackson’s death yesterday, Justin Timberlake said in a statement, “We have lost a genius and a true ambassador of not only Pop music but of all music. He has been an inspiration to multiple generations and I will always cherish the moments I shared with him on stage and all of the things I learned about music from him and the time we spent together. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones.” (more…)

We here at Rock Daily are big fans of the do-it-yourself garage punk snarl of Wavves’ new album Wavvves (note the triple ‘v’s), so it’s our pleasure to exclusively present the band’s fuzzy surfer-punk anthem “No Hope Kids.” Keeping with the album’s lo-fi sound, the video finds Wavves mastermind Nathan Williams out in Europe enjoying his first “totally awesome” tour abroad. A single camcorder documents Wavves’ journey, from playing underground club shows to swilling vodka to other debauched acts you can probably only get away with overseas. (So much fun in fact that Wavves ultimately had to cancel their current European tour.) But have some hope, kids: Wavves will return to the stage July 15th with a show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. Until then, enjoy the video up top.

Adam Goldberg is painfully aware of the disadvantage facing actors who try their hand at music. For every success like Jared Leto’s 30 Seconds to Mars or Zooey Deschanel’s She & Him, there’s Russell Crowe’s 30 Odd Foot of Grunts and Joaquin Phoenix’s rap career. But Goldberg is dead serious about LANDy, whose debut disc Eros and Omissions is a collection of tracks amassed over the past six years that features guests like the Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd and Earlimart’s Aaron Espinoza. (Watch our video with Goldberg above.)

“It’s a funny thing, ’cause there’s definitely this built-in backlash or suspicion of those who do things other than what they’re paid to do. It’s funny, I think it should be the other way around — people should be suspicious of those things that people get paid inordinate amounts of money to do,” the Saving Private Ryan actor tells Rolling Stone. “But, on some level, I’m part of the problem, and I can kind of relate. I’m always wary when I hear ‘Oh, Ryan Gosling’s got a band… and it’s actually pretty good.’ I mean, there are certainly people whose music you don’t really like who maybe coincidentally happened to be in, I dunno, Footloose.” That’s what we call six degrees to celebrity bashing. (more…)

Christian Rock! kicks off this week’s New Music Report with the latest from Todd Snider. Rolling Stone’s Christian Hoard says Snider’s “America’s Favorite Pastime” is definitely the best song written about the no-hitter pitched by Doc Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1970 while he was on acid. It’s a track on Snider’s new album The Excitement Plan, a record stocked with detailed story songs and the bluesy countrified folk of his earlier records. Most characters on the album are down on their luck, and one admits to murder on “Unorganized Crime.” And while Hoard admits Snider’s everyguy vibe may be a bit of a shtick, he says the rocker gets a lot out of the persona, including some awesome lines: “I’m broke as the 10 Commandments, and sometimes I’m harder to follow.”

Who: A Providence, Rhode Island quartet of scruffy, hard-partying pals whose wild roots rock is far more world-weary than their ages suggest (nobody in the band is over 23).

Sounds Like: New album Born on Flag Day is stocked with dark songs for tough times — ragged Chuck Berry grooves and punk-country riffs are topped by frontman John Joseph McCauley III’s Winston-stained howls about alcoholics, gold-digging women and poverty-stricken couples who can’t foot their bills.

Vital Stats

• The group’s 2007 and raucous live shows have earned them fans like Jenny Lewis and NBC’s Brian Williams, who interviewed them for the debut of his online music-chat show BriTunes. “That was weird,” McCauley admits. “But he was a cool guy.” (more…)

Björk released Volta in 2007 and hit the road with a killer band that included an all-female 10-piece brass section. Now an elaborate document of the Volta tour is coming out in five different configurations (of CD, vinyl, DVD discs) on June 30th — including a live DVD filmed in Paris and Reykjavik that will be screened in select cities (see below), a DVD of all the album’s music videos, a CD of Volta songs recorded live in one take at London’s Olympic Studios, and a CD of remixes.

Rolling Stone has an exclusive clip from Voltaic: The Volta Tour right here. Click above to watch Björk perform “Sonnets/Unrealities XI” from her 2004 album Medúlla live in Reykjavik. And keep reading for track lists for each of Voltaic’s discs and screening dates and locations. (more…)

The New Music Report is pleased to welcome a special guest host for this week’s guide to the best fresh releases: American Idol winner and “Tattoo” singer Jordin Sparks.

Up first, Sparks praises Will.i.am’s production on the Black Eyed Peas’ brand-new Number One album The E.N.D. “It’s been way too long without the Black Eyed Peas,” she says, admitting her latest obsession is the group’s throbbing banger “Boom Boom Pow.”

Sparks also shouts out the Jonas Brothers’ Lines, Vines and Trying Times, and draws attention to the track “Don’t Charge Me With the Crime,” which includes a cameo by Common. “The Jonas Brothers … Common — would anybody ever think that? I don’t know,” she says. Full disclosure: Sparks is going on tour with Jonas Brothers and says she’s looking forward to hearing their latest and songs from their first and second albums all summer long.

>>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.]

Rolling Stone Breaking band the Airborne Toxic Event have a new single in heavy rotation and a world tour on the horizon — but before they took off, the post-punk five-piece popped by the RS offices to perform an acoustic set in our studios. Singer-guitarist Mikel Jollett, guitarist Steven Chen, bassist Noah Harmon, violinist Anna Bulbrook and drummer Daren Taylor played a beautiful, stripped-down version of their self-titled debut’s breakthrough tune “Sometime Around Midnight” (click above to watch), their latest single “Wishing Well,” and even debuted a song “that has not been recorded, anywhere” called “A Letter to Georgia.” Check out the second two songs and the band’s upcoming tour itinerary after the jump. (more…)

As the late afternoon sun beat down over the grounds of Bonnaroo 2009, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was prowling across Which Stage, sporting wild yellow-and-black leopard-print tights and a billowing tank top, when she suddenly stopped for a second, panted into her microphone and shouted: “It’s hot out there, Bonnaroo!” Over at That Tent, futuristic pop singer Santigold echoed a similar sentiment: “Whooooooo!” she hollered. “I’m dripping with sweat but I’m having a really great time!” (Click above to see footage from the Yeahs’ set and watch their pre-show limber up, plus check out our interview with French rockers Phoenix with a dash of their performance of “Lisztomania.”)

(Dive into Bonnaroo ‘09 in our gallery of shots from the stage and beyond.)

It was brutally hot and humid for the second day of Bonnaroo — the temp soared to almost 90 degrees — and there was little shade for fest-goers to escape the swelter. But the afternoon’s performers still managed to bring high-energy performances and attendees were willing to sweat it out (or, in some cases, pass out from exhaustion on the lawn) to catch some great sets, which were heavy on indie-rock bands for the first part of the day. Animal Collective dug deep for some trippy, electronic grooves; Dirty Projectors were joined by David Byrne for a set of knotty, Afro-pop-inspired art-rock and Yeah Yeah Yeahs got the crowd pogoing to raging versions of “Date With the Night” and their fantastic new single “Zero,” as TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe rooted them on.

Later that night, the Beastie Boys delivered a set of classic jams (”Intergalactic”; a raging, set-closing “Sabotage”) and a couple of deep cuts (”Heart Attack Man”). They also unveiled a few surprises: (more…)

For the past few years, Bonnaroo’s kick-off night has typically been devoted to small indie-rock bands but last night’s lineup was one of the best and most diverse openers in years, featuring synth-pop (Passion Pit) country (Zac Brown Band), rave-y acts (Tobacco) hip-hop (the Knux) and comedy from the one and only Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

(Check out photos from Bonnaroo’s opening day.)

Like Vampire Weekend last year, Passion Pit had the biggest buzz going into Bonnaroo and their 11 p.m. set was packed with fest-goers looking get down to the group’s highly danceable synth-pop anthems (check out footage from their set, above). All throughout their set, singer Michael Angelakos (who rocks a giant ‘fro and eerily resembles the Eagles’ Don Henley in the ’70s) led the crowd through sweaty sing-alongs and deafening clapping fits, particularly at the start of their best song “Sleepyhead.” Angelakos has one of the coolest new voices in pop — a shrill, high shriek that could bust glass — and he let it ring out in full over the festival grounds on tight, propulsive jams like “Make Light,” which sent the crowd into a pogo frenzy.

Best-set-of-the-night award goes to Tobacco, who performed a 1 a.m. slot at the tiny Troo Music Lounge. (more…)