The Strokes

South By Southwest has added a few new names to its expansive lineup, including Alberta Cros, City and Colour, J. Mascis, Morning Teleportation, Noah and the Whale, Devotchka, Jeff and the Brotherhood and Prince Rama. Things kickoff on March 16, unless you have a true lust for life: then count on pre-parties the days before in Austin.

The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys and Primal Scream are heading to Benicassim International Festival in Spain, which runs July 14-17. An early bird sale is running now through Nov. 25.

The Foo Fighters are set to headline one of the dates at now-four-day Sasquatch! in George, Washington.

The Chemical Brothers will be one of the big names confirmed at the Ultra Music Festival, good news after the bickering from last week.

Red Hot Chili Pepers aren't just playing Rock in Rio: They're heading to Japan too, for Summer Sonic Festival.

Tulluride Bluegrass Festival (Colorado) announced its dates: June 16-19.

 

The Beatles

Credit: Apple Corp.

** i.e. you.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Credit: Roc-a-Fella/Def Jam

Kanye West as a celebrity and constant media character has alienated a group of people who would and should otherwise take interest in Kanye West, Musician. From what we know of his public antics, he can be repellant, impetuous, too-big-for-britches and takes himself very seriously. From his “Runaway” mini-film, we discovered he wouldn’t shy away from self-indulgence and artistic abruptness, pleasing himself with the whole hot mess as aesthetics took precedence over sound content.

[More after the jump...]

Ryan Adams

Credit: Autumn de Wilde

Aside from that "Sci-Fi metal" concept record "Orion," things have been fairly quiet on the solo Ryan Adams front. He helped out Norah Jones on a track, and the same with Weezer.

Ring the bell, now, though. The rocker and folker (and not-so-secret metal and rap lover) has assigned a Dec. 14 release date to "III/IV," an double-album of material recorded with his previous band the Cardinals during their 2007 "Easy Tiger" sessions, to be out via Adams' own PAX AM label. And, according to a release, it's a "concept rock opera about the '80s, ninjas, cigarettes, sex and pizza." Well, whatever.

As an enduring Adams fan -- through the jams and the firings and the podcasts and poetry and hiatuses and boring-as-hell last studio effort (sorry) -- I'm ready to try out whatever Adams wants to throw at the wall, to see what sticks.

One of these is "Destroyers," which is not on the "III/IV" tracklist (below) but is at least a taste of things to come, perhaps. A little trippy, a little soft-rock and totally imperfect, it's a decent tune that sounds somewhat unfinished... but I dig. Some of the songwriter's best material is when he sounds vulnerable and feral, and that's the MO here. And forget click-track: this is what comes out of d*cking around in the studio comfortably for a while.

There will be limited releases of red and blue vinyl and CDs of "III/IV," and the tracks will also be up for sale digitally.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Destroyers by thesteamengine

Here is the tracklist for "III/IV":

III:
Breakdown Into The Resolve
Dear Candy
Wasteland
Ultraviolet Light
Stop Playing With My Heart
Lovely And Blue
Happy Birthday
Kisses Start Wars
The Crystal Skull
Users
 
IV:
No
Numbers
Gracie
Icebreaker
Sewers at the Bottom of the Wishing Well
Typecast
Star Wars
My Favorite Song
P.S.
Death And Rats
Kill The Lights

Red Hot Chili Peppers are headlining Rock in Rio

The 2011 Winter Music Conference will be held March 8 through March 12 this year. The Ultra Music Festival runs over the last weekend in March, the 25th through the 27th. Both are in Miami.

Why is this big news?

Because the two, up until now, were held in tandem, Ultra being the weekend party to WMC's b2b and industry week. It seems the organizers at WMC have grown frustrated by Ultra's business and booking practices with the always-strong headlining talent. Ultra is currently drawing up its response to WMC. MTV has a good rundown of the major complaints.

What this means for electronic dance music fans is that they won't be getting a complimentary pass to the UMF, which may curb their enthusiasm for the conference. And industry may not be interested in making two trips to Miami for the dates.

Rock in Rio has nabbed one of the first few announced dates from returning Red Hot Chili Peppers. The double-weekend event in Brazil goes Sept. 23-25 and Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in 2011. RHCP are on Sept. 24, preceded by Snow Patrol. Metallica is firm for Sept. 25. Tickets went on sale today

Pulp reuniting after more than a decade to play festivals next summer was some big news.Now Isle of Wight has confirmed it'll get a taste. Kings of Leon are jumped on board for June 10. Foo Fighters are on board for June 11, same night as Pulp. Kasabian will close. Whole shebang runs June 10-12 in Newport, U.K. (Seaclose Park).

Milwaukee's Summerfest, which typically runs for 11 days, will be taking July 4 off in 2011. It's scheduled to start June 29-July 3, then July 5-10.

San Francisco Noise Pop will run Feb. 22-27 in 2011.

The Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Ala., will go May 14-16.

The Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival claims the weekend of June 2-5 in Ozark, Arkansas (Mulberry Mountain). Onsale  is December 3rd.

Mountain Jam VII happens at the same time in Hunter Mountain, New York. Pre-sale begins Nov. 26.

Gathering of the Vibes in Bridgeport, Conn. gathers July 21-24. Pre-sale is also Nov. 26.

Arcade Fire

Ah, the suburbs. They never were what you remember them to be.

Particularly that part about martial law.

Spike Jonze has imagined a growing North American suburban sprawl under siege from the country's own military, explored through the eyes of early teens naive to what it exactly that means -- put to the tune of Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs."

A group of friends take to the street on their bikes and smile as they sip on waters and shoot bee-bee guns at the locals. At first, they only barely notice the Humvees and real-life guns, staring at a burning fire from a hill and then going back to puppy love and Good Times. As the day gets dark, officers start infringing on their own neighborhoods, two boys getting arrested for who-knows-what, the long-haired boy clearly blaming his short-haired friend for their fate.

Fast forward to a lame house party, folks are wasted and the once-long-haired boy walks away from his girlfriend and his former friend, glaring. The former shows up at the latter's late-night after-school gig at the fast food shop and things turn ugly.

Basically, as frontman Win Butler deconstructs his own memories and fantasies about his formative years outside of the city, Jonze takes the bucolic teenage dreams and warps and dashes them against chain link fences and fists.

It's just as cheerful as the rest of the Arcade Fire album.

So this is what Jonze and the Canadian band got up to all the way back in April, when there was a local call in Austin for late-teens actors set to be cast for a plot that's about "friends growing apart."

What do you think of the video/mini-film?

"30 Rock" soundtrack collector's edition

The soundtrack to "30 Rock" dropped this week via Relativity, and HitFix is here to make sure you get your, well, fix of the Emmy Award-winning show's tunes.

Four seasons have passed for Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and rest, which means there are some pretty amazing, absurd tunes to betray your better judgements.

Remember the time Fey's Liz Lemon complained of hating people but missing her ex-boyfriend, a strife she felt could be put into a Christopher Cross track? Oh, the double-disc set's got that. Listen to "Lemon's Theme" here.

And Tracy Morgan's "sweaty" werewolf-cum-Judaism rhyme "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah?" Remix Artist Collective gives it a do-over here.

How about the "Muffin Top" song? Or Michael Buble's cameo? Or the cast take on "I Will Always Love You?"

And do you call yourself an obsessive "30 Rock" fan and want an autographed copy of the collector's edition oundtrack? Which features a 40-page-booklet on the show and notes from Tina Fey and stuff?

Here's how you enter to win:

Follow HitFix and Immaculate Noise on Twitter. Then, Tweet a message that contains @HitFix @katieaprincess and #30rockin. Wit is appreciated, but not required.

You must be 18 and old to enter, and be a resident of the United States. Entries will be accepted up through 11:59 p.m. EST. There will be one winner.

If you don't care to enter -- to play our little game -- you can purchase the limited edition version here and the standard digital release here. Listen to the "30 Rock" soundtrack in its entirety here.

Guster

Every percussionist dreams of the day they can bust out those jingle bells in song, and for most of the artists on Target exclusive Christmas compilation "The Christmas Gig," they'll get what's on their wish list.

Best Coast with Wavves, Guster, Little Jackie, Bishop Allen, Crystal Antlers and Blackalicious rapper Xcel are among the acts to be included on the set, which is streaming for free now on the Target website. The whole she-bang will be available for free download on Nov. 28. Happy Recession Christmas!

Most of the tracks are beyond harmless, like happy exercises for darker acts like, erm, Darker My Love and fuzzed-out, blurry-eyed Wavves. The Ceci Bastida and Jennie O. tracks are particularly twee, like corporate theme songs that aren't (necessarily) trying to sell you anything.

These songs are all originals, though, so don't look for the 10,000th take on "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)."

This is a sweet move from Target, who is trying to further establish itself as the "hip and cool" uncle big box retailer, the one that is already aware that you're going to go postal if you hear the Chipmunk Christmas song in one more shop. They've already used a Bishop Allen track in a commercial campaign, and the Best Coast track is undoubtedly heading to TV soon.

Click here to listen to the whole thing. Any songs stick out more than others?

Dr. Dre

I think I have some idea now of what the loud cars will be loudly blasting all loud winter.

Dr. Dre has finally, officially released a song from his long-awaited "Detox": "Kush" features longtime collaborator and pal Snoop Dogg with drips and drabs from Akon and it is haaard. This growling yet catchy West Coast street track extols finer points of smoking weed. It's like the universe has been recalibrated to sit perfectly on its axis.

Click here to listen to "Kush," on Dre's Facebook site via his official.

There is still no official release on "Detox," the album Dre fans have awaited for 10+ years. Still, he swears it's coming and is even the booked cover-dude for XXL's next issue. We weren't really feeling "Under Pressure," his leaked track with Jay-Z from earlier this year, but Dre swears it wasn't finished and wasn't ready for primetime.

Same thing happened with "Kush" -- and early version leaked, only this time Dre countered with offering up the real thing. He wasn't happy about it, but at least had the Real Deal to show for his work.

"It's a little bit unfortunate with the technology today. (Kush) got leaked and it was a version of it that I really wasn't happy about, (but) we're going to go ahead and push it and put it out because everybody seems to like it," he told radio host Big Boy on Nov. 16. "I just thought the content, it's about weed smoking, and I don't want people to think that that's what my album is about. This is actually the only song with that type of content."

Well, things just got a little more unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on which side of the fence you fall) today: Dr. Dre's track with Eminem, "I Need a Doctor," leaked wide. Click here to check it out [via AllHipHop]. Finished or unfinished, you think?