"Judas" can't push Lady Gaga to the top of this week's music power rankings.

Credit: AP Photo

It’s time for that annual rite of Spring and the official kick off of the festival season, otherwise known as Coachella. More than 200,000 people are expected to make a pilgrimage to the desert in Palm Springs to see such acts as Kings of Leon, Black Keys, Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Kanye West, Duran Duran and the Strokes.

While concert tours may be struggling, festivals are strong and Coachella is no exception: tickets sold out within days of going on sale.

1. Coachella (not ranked last week): Desert rats prepare for three days of hot, hot fun in the sun as security tries to keep gatecrashers at bay after around 20,000 interlopers snuck in for free each day in 2010. This year’s fest sold out in days. No recession here.

2. Record Store Day (not ranked): It’s that one day of the year where we pay tribute to those treasured-yet-vanishing relics known as independent record stores. And yet we leave them to languish the other 364 days of the year.

3. Lady Gaga (not ranked): “Judas,” her second single from “Born This Way” “leaks” out and is an immediate contender to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, blocking Rihanna’s “S&M” out of the top spot. Maybe if Rihanna had done the Gaga remix instead of the Britney remix...

4. Foo Fighters (not ranked, but should be ranked every week for how cool they are):  After 16 years and several albums, the Foos are about to score their first No. 1 album. And to their credit, they have been working like show ponies, playing every nick and cranny, including people’s garages, to get the word out. Furthermore, they look like they’ve had a blast doing it.

5. Prince (No. 7): The Purple One kicks off his three-week stint in Los Angeles with a three-hour show at the Forum. Simply one of the greatest there ever was, is and will be.

6. David Byrne (not ranked): He does what virtually no one else is able to do in America: he gets a politician to apologize. Florida’s ex-governor has to pay up and issue a public apology, via YouTube, for unauthorized use of Talking Heads’ tune “Road to Nowhere.”  We hope his apology is meant to be “a factual statement.”

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George Michael

Credit: AP

Be part of the Royal Wedding! At 9  p.m. EDT, George Michael made available for free his present to Prince William and his bride-to-be, Kate (uh, we mean Catherine) Middleton. It’s a lush remake of Stevie Wonder’s “You & I” (You were perhaps expecting “I Want Your Sex?”). And it sure is more appropriate than Snoop Dogg's song he supposedly wrote for William's bachelor party, "Wet."  Nice....

The song, which has been given the Royal Family’s blessing, is available for free download on Michael’s special website  set up for the song, but he asks that you make a contribution to The Prince William & Miss Catherine Middleton Charitable Gift Fund.  The pair will marry on April 29.

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David Cook's "This Loud Morning"

Credit: RCA

Season 7 “American Idol” winner David Cook’s sophomore major label album, “This Loud Morning,” will come out June 28 on 19/RCA.

He’ll perform first single, “The Last Goodbye,” on “AI” on April 21. He teased us by posting the lyrics on his website last week. Of course, we hear him every week on on “AI” since his remake of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me” is this season’s farewell song to contestants voted off.

Actually, he’s been teasing us for awhile. In January, he posted a video of him working in the studio on songs “Goodbye to the Girl” and “Paper Heart.”

Matt Serletic, best known for his work with matchbox twenty and Collective Soul, produced the set, written by Cook solo and with such noted tunesmiths as David Hodges (who’s penned hits for fellow “AI” Kelly Clarkson, Ryan Tedder, Kevin Griffin and Marti Frederiksen.

Cook’s 2008 self-titled album sold more than 1 million copies and included the hit “Light On.”

Prince

Prince gets his funk on with new song “Laydown,” which he premieres on “Lopez Tonight” tonight, but we have a sneak preview of the full song below.

We really like it where Prince refers to himself as “the purple Yoda.” He also takes a swipe at plastic surgery. Need we add he does all this while sheathed in a sparkly gold pants suit and lays down some guitar shredding that would make Metallica proud.

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Busta Rhymes

Predictions are that “Fast Five,” starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson, is going to come roaring out of the gate when the Universal Pictures film opens April 29 in regular and IMAX theaters. The same should happen with the movie’s soundtrack which features new music from Ludacris, Busta Rhymes and Don Omar.

Check out our "Fast Five" stars and cars photo gallery here and our "Fast Five" acting tutorial here.

Ludacris, who also appears in the franchise under his birth name Chris Bridges, contributes new tune, “Furiously Dangerous,” featuring Slaughterhouse and Claret Jai. Latin superstar Don Omar penned the “How We Roll (Fast Five Remix)," which features Busta Rhymes, Reek de Villian and J-doe, as well as “Danza Kuduro” featuring Lucenzo. “Danza Kuduro” spent 17 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs Chart.

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Lady Gaga in Harpers Bazaar.  Are those bumps on her head really horns?

Credit: Harper's Bazaar

Look out! There goes Lady Gaga again, making us all think she’s not quite of this earth.

In a new interview in the May issue of Harper’s Bazaar  (perhaps it should be Bizarre, in the case of Lady G), she insists that the horns or bones we’ve seen protruding from her face and shoulders are real. “They’re not prosthetics. They’re my bones,” she tells the clearly perplexed Harper’s  Bazaar interviewer Derek Blasberg. “They’ve always been inside of me, but I have been waiting for the right time to reveal to the universe who I truly am...They come out when I’m inspired.” Wow. All that happens when I get inspired is I get slightly flushed, I don't sprout body parts.

She never really makes herself any clearer, but in some ways, she uses her explanation of Rico, who’s featured in the video for “Born This Way” to explain what she means, after she further says that the protruding bones are “artistic expression...it’s a performance-art piece.”  She then brings up Rico, “who is tattooed head to toe...He was born that way. Although he wasn’t born with tattoos, it was his ultimate destiny to become the man he is today.”

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Rihanna's "E.T." is no. 1 on the Billboard 100 once again.

Katy Perry spends her third week at No. 1 with “E.T.” featuring Kanye West atop the Billboard Hot 100. The song, from her sophomore album “Teenage Dream,” continues to pick up steam at radio rising 6-2 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart. The song also remains a strong digital seller, logging its fifth week at No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart.

Perry’s stint at No. 1 keeps Rihanna’s “S&M” at No. 2 for the third week on the Billboard Hot 100. Although on the Radio Songs chart, Rihanna trumps Perry as “S&M” remains No. 1 for the third week.  However, the tune may surge next week to the top of the Hot 100 as the digital sales from Rihanna/Britney Spears’ remix of “S&M” factor in. Billboard estimates that both versions of the song could sell around 200,000 copies.

The rest of the top 5 of the Billboard 100 remains static: Black Eyed Peas’ “Just Can’t Get Enough” stays at No. 3, Cee Lo Green’s “F**k You” is No. 4 and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” is No. 5.

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Diehard Gleeks know that  Mr. Shuester, oops, we mean Matthew Morrison, has a solo album coming out. The "Glee" star's solo album features Morrison duetting on “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with Gwyneth Paltrow, aka Holly Holiday, as well as a collaborating with Elton John on a medley of “Mona Lisas and Madhatters” and “Rocket Man.”

To whet your appetite, Morrison’s label, Mercury, has released this very low key Paltrow-less video of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”  Watch it here. You can buy it on iTunes starting today.  Although to use the word video is really a bit of a misnomer, since it’s a collection of stills of Morrison playing the song up against a gross, dingy white background. This has the production values of one of those little flip books that you used to have as a kid: you know, the kind that would kind you would flip the pages as quickly as possible to make the ballerina dance. 

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Paul McCartney

Credit: AP Photo

Well, he certainly knows the material. Paul McCartney is recording a new album composed of covers of his Wings and solo material.

McCartney will be joined by a number of famous friends for the project, including Kiss, Billy Joel, and the Cure, who recorded with McCartney's son James, according to Britain’s The Sun newspaper.

Other outlets are reporting that Garth Brooks and Paul Rodgers are also on the album. No word on if the Foo Fighters will contribute their excellent version of "Band on the Run." 

We’re reached out to McCartney’s U.S. label, Concord, to see what more we can find out.

 

Foo Fighters

Expect at least six new debuts in the top 10 next week from this slew of April 12 releases that holds something for everyone. Rockers have Foo Fighters’ “Wasting Light,” as well as softer efforts from  BellX1. Fans of heavenly voices can fight over new sets from Alison Krauss and k.d. lang. Anglophiles get pop’s next big thing, Jessie J, while the indie set can salivate over new collections from Low and TV on the Radio. Plus, famed singer/songwriter Paul Simon returns with his first new album in years.

Bell X1, “Bloodless Coup” (Yep Roc): New album from melodic Irish rock group. The one without Bono.

Foo Fighters, “Wasting Light” (Roswell/RCA): Dave Grohl and the boys are back for their seventh studio album produced by Butch Vig and featuring Grohl’s Nivana bandmate, bassist Krist Novoselic. Read review here.

Jessie J, “Who You Are” (Lava/Universe): British pop diva with the big vocals has already stolen the show on “Saturday Night Live.” What are you waiting for? Check out first single, “Price Tag,” featuring B.o.B.

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