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He had one of the biggest opening sales weeks of 2008, and now, Lil Wayne is the year’s most-nominated Grammy contender. Wayne and his latest LP, “Tha Carter III,” lead the pack with a total of eight nominations, while one of the year’s other biggest sellers, Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” garnered seven nods. Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West each earned six nods, while Alison Krauss, John Mayer, Robert Plant, Radiohead and Jazmine Sullivan received five each. Adele is up for four – including Best New Artist – as are Lupe Fiasco and T.I. The… Read more »

In an interesting clash of inspiration that combines ” The Divine Comedy ” and a highway accident, Red’s sophomore album, “Innocence & Instinct,” echoes the emotional ups and downs the Grammy Award -nominated rock act has experienced over the last two years. “Dante’s Inferno became a cool metaphor for some of the roads we’re taking and exploring the darker stuff that we all deal with,” guitarist/songwriter Jasen Rauch says. A van accident in late 2007 added real-life drama to the process. “We hit a guardrail head-on at about 75 miles per hour on the highway,” Rauch recalls. “There were seven… Read more »

SAN FRANCISCO —-  Blockbuster Inc . will begin selling concert tickets at about 500 of its video rental stores, bolstering its effort to create a one-stop shop for entertainment. Under a three-year agreement announced Tuesday, Blockbuster ‘s stores next month will become the primary brick-and-mortar sales outlet for music concerts staged by promoter Live Nation Inc. in the United States. Dallas-based Blockbuster will supplant a hodgepodge of department stores, supermarkets and other retailers that Live Nation had been relying upon as part of an unraveling partnership with Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. Beverly Hills-based Live Nation is breaking away from Ticketmaster to… Read more »

LOS ANGELES — Bono’s adding to his résumé for sainthood. For today’s 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, the U2 frontman and all-around good guy is helping launch (RED)WIRE, a music-themed site to benefit the cause.   “Through music [people] are not just celebrating their life, they are celebrating lives and the saving of them,” Bono says in a video message. And he’s getting some help from a few all-star pals. Among the featured tunes: the Dixie Chicks’ “Lucky Ones,” the Texas trio’s first new music since 2006’s Taking the Long Way; Jay-Z ‘s “Brooklyn Go Hard,” featuring Santogold ;… Read more »

NEW YORK —-  On the heels of the release of the second volume of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo’s home recordings, the alternative rock group is now taking a look back into its own vaults. Cuomo told Billboard he has “no idea” when the tentatively titled “Odds and Ends” will be released, but describes it as “just another fun project to do. They’re great songs, but for some reason they didn’t make the final cut for (a) record. They span a vast period of time from the very beginning of our career in the early ’90s right up to the present… Read more »

NEW YORK —-  Beyonce has scored her third straight No. 1 debut on the pop album chart with the double-disc “I Am … Sasha Fierce.” The Music World/Columbia album shifted a whopping 482,000 copies in the United States during the week ended November 23, according to Nielsen SoundScan . The set, split between material credited to R&B star Beyonce and her new alter-ego, Sasha Fierce, has already spawned the hits “If I Were a Boy” and “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” Beyonce’s 2003 solo debut, ” Dangerously in Love ,” started with 317,000, while 2006’s “B-Day” moved 541,000.… Read more »

NEW YORK —- The Killers are back, and this time they’ve brought the weird. The Las Vegas quartet’s third studio album “Day & Age” sees them tapping into a little of their hometown’s oddness in both new image and sound. They break out steel drums, harpsichords and horns. They sing about alien abduction. Their new stage outfits feature animal prints and plumage. “The word ‘playful’ keeps coming up,” says Brandon Flowers , the singer and keyboardist. “We just really had fun. And I think it shows in the album.” It’s a gaudy new direction for the synth-rock group that emerged… Read more »

Since MP3s first became popular a decade ago, music industry executives have obsessed over this question: when would digital music revenue finally surpass compact disc sales? For Atlantic Records, the label that in years past has delivered artists like Ray Charles, John Coltrane and Led Zeppelin, that time, apparently, is now. Atlantic, a unit of Warner Music Group, says it has reached a milestone that no other major record label has hit: more than half of its music sales in the United States are now from digital products, like downloads on iTunes and ring tones for cellphones. “We’re like a… Read more »

Some of the biggest names in music are contributing exclusive songs to RED(WIRE), a digital music magazine that launches on World AIDS Day ( December 1). U2, Coldplay, the Killers, the Dixie Chicks, John Legend, R.E.M. and Bob Dylan are on board for the initiative, which is an outgrowth of the Bono-reared activist organization called (RED). All proceeds from subscriptions will benefit HIV-infected people in Africa; MSN.com will host a kickoff party December 1. For $5, users will receive a new issue of RED(WIRE) every Wednesday, featuring an exclusive song from a major musician, a song from a performer who… Read more »

My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way ‘s newest creation isn’t a CD – it’s an upcoming baby. A representative for the singer says Way, 31, and wife Lindsey, bass player of the band Mindless Self Indulgence, are expecting their first child. The baby is due early in the summer 2009. The pair have been married since Sept. 4, 2007. My Chemical Romance is known for hits like “Famous Last Words” and “Welcome to the Black Parade.”