Music News

Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard stormed off the stage during a performance at Charleston, South Carolina's Volvo Car Stadium. While the band was performing their song "Soul Meets Body," Gibbard appeared to pull out his earpiece and toss them aside, along with his guitar. He continued the song until the band appeared to lose rhythm. He then knocked down his mic stand and quickly walked off stage.

According to a live report, some drunken fans in the first row were scream-singing along and trying to start a mosh pit.

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Common has shared his words of support for Chance the Rapper, who recently opened up about his position on social issues. Chance is renowned for taking on social topics in his music and Common now says that more rappers should take Chance's lead. Speaking with CNN, Com said that he'd love to see a shift in the hip hop world towards greater social activism.

"I like to focus on the [artists] who do speak up," Common said. "You do have the people like the Kendrick Lamar's and the Chance [the rapper]'s who say things in their music. You have to find the people who have it engrained in them to speak up for different social issues."

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Neil Young's upcoming new album Earth will features 13 live tracks mixed with the sounds of animals Young recorded in the backyard of his Kings Mountain home in California. The new album features crickets, frogs, crows, bees and other animals, which Young says he added as an experiment because they give off a good vibe. "The animals give off a great vibe."

Those songs rose to the top," he said. "They said who they were and we made the record."

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Blake Shelton was joined by his girlfriend Gwen Stefani during his birthday performance at County Jam on Saturday, June 18, according to The Boot. The country singer, who turned 40 this past weekend, sang his duet "Go Ahead and Break My Heart" with Stefani, who he has been dating for the past seven months.

"This is fun!" he said. "Y'all have been so freakin' nice to me on my 40th birthday and I guess if I had one birthday wish for me personally . . . I wish I could rock. I wish I was one of those type of artists that could rock but I can't."

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Missy Elliott has been featured in the new 2016 campaign for designer Marc Jacobs. The hip-hop icon joins actress Sissy Spacek as one of the faces of the brand for this year, and Jacobs himself said he's thrilled to have them. "In a continuing series of portraits for our Fall 2016 ad campaign, the individuals in these photographs represent a collective embodiment of love."

"Missy's music has kept me and my design team happily energized through countless weekdays, weeknights and weekends during those long hours of sketching, fitting, styling and doing looks . . . I am in continued awe of Missy's ability to push the boundaries of the style of music both to the eye and to the ear."

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Led Zeppelin has been found not guilty in their plagiarism trial regarding their classic track "Stairway to Heaven." The jury came back unanimous in its decision. Spirit member Mark Andes filed a lawsuit on behalf of late bandmate Randy California through California's estate in 2014, claiming that Spirit's 1968 instrumental composition "Taurus" includes a similar chord progression as Zeppelin's 1971 song.

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Hozier is at work on the follow-up to his breakout debut release and has opened up about the songwriting process for the release. Speaking with the BBC's Beats 1 radio show, the Irish hitmaker said he's thrilled to bring his new creations to life. "I've never been so eager to make music. I'm itching for it. In a big way."

"There's many times recording on a phone and trying to transfer it into my laptop and into software. It doesn't feel the same."

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Steven Tyler has released "We're All Somebody From Somewhere," the title track from his upcoming debut solo album. "We're All Somebody From Somewhere" follows previously released tracks "Love Is Your Name" and "Red, White & You," which are taken off of Tyler's country music debut, We're All Somebody From Somewhere. Tyler recorded the album in Nashville.

"I believe y'all are gonna listen to this stuff and you're gonna agree with me that it fell from a star," Tyler told Rolling Stone.

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Coldplay's Chris Martin has compared the voice of Rihanna to a "tube of toothpaste." He also called her the "Frank Sinatra of our generation." "Rihanna has this thick tone, so it's very hard to annoy anybody," he told the Guardian. "It's like a beautifully squeezed tube of toothpaste."

Coldplay will headline Glastonbury this year, which has sparked rumors that she could be planning to appear with the band during their set.

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Darius Rucker has released his new track "If I Told You," which is set to be the first single on his upcoming fifth solo country album, according to The Boot. The country singer is asking someone to love him, despite all his various faults. "If I told you all the stupid things I've done / I blamed on being young / But I was old enough to know, I know," Rucker sings on the song's chorus.

The track was written by Ross Copperman, Jon Nite and Shane McAnally.

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