Music News

Kirk Hammett finds making an album "like scaling a mountain".
The Metallica guitarist is ready for the group - whose last LP, 'Death Magnetic', was released in 2008 - to return to the recording studio but admits the more time they leave between records, the bigger the task it seems to make another one.
He said: "The band needs to make an album. That's the big adventure that's looming up on the horizon. Making an album is always a bit like scaling a mountain, but this time it seems like the more we wait, the bigger the mountain gets. And now that we've been playing so long, it seems like that mountain is as big as the Himalayas right now."
Earlier this year, the 'Enter Sandman' hitmakers debuted a new song, 'Lords of Summer', during their 'Metallica by Request' tour and Kirk thinks the track is a good starting point for their next album, though he is unsure as yet how the rest of the record will sound.
He added to Rolling Stone's website: "Whether the songs will actually sound like 'Lords of Summer' or not remains to be seen, because we still have to write them, but that's the general direction we're headed in.
"I want to make a quick album, but I just know that's not realistic."

Eliza Doolittle is a "free, naked wild-child".
The 26-year-old pop star is so comfortable in her own skin that she rarely wears a bra and admits she would happily pose naked for an artistic photoshoot.
She exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I don't really wear my bra too much. Sometimes I do. If I feel like my back hurts, I'll wear a bra, otherwise I'm about being a free, naked wild-child.
"I'm quite a free spirit. I've not posed naked for a magazine before, but that's not because I'm against it or anything. I just haven't yet.
"I think you have to just do what you feel comfortable with doing. I would always just do whatever I felt comfortable doing as long as it wasn't trashy."
Proving to be quite a feminist, the 'Pack Up' singer doesn't like how the female body is oversexualised.
She ranted: "I don't like how women's bodies are Page 3 news. I just don't think that's big news. Women's bodies are women's bodies and that's that. And I love to see beautiful, the female form in great art and great photography."
Eliza even noted that she approves of the Free the Nipple campaign that is championed by the likes of Cara Delevingne and Scout Willis, despite not really knowing much about it.
When asked if she supported the cause, she laughed: "I haven't read much about that but I mean, just the title of it. Definitely!"
Eliza performed an exclusive set at Argos' new digital store at 216-217 Tottenham Court Road in London on Sunday (27.07.14).
The singer serenaded a select crowd with songs such as 'Big When I Was Little' and 'Let It Rain' to mark the launch of the store.

Nicki Minaj has delayed the release of her new single 'Anaconda' until next month.
The 31-year-old rapper was due to drop her latest release today (28.07.14) but announced in an Instagram post that it will not be available until Monday August 4
She wrote: "My darlingz, I've pushed the release of Anaconda to next week, Monday 8/4. I promise you will understand why before the week is out. Loveeeeeeee uuuuuu (sic)."
Nicki previously revealed she going back to her hip hop roots for her new album 'The Pink Print'.
The 'Starships' rapper claimed her latest material will be nothing like previous offerings and she wants to surprise fans with a different sound on her latest album, the follow up to 'Roman Reloaded'.
She said: "The tracks on 'Pink Print' are back to my hip-hop roots. I don't think it's something that I'm necessarily trying to do [go in a new direction]. It's like as soon as I started working on my new album, that's just the songs that I've been writing."
Discussing the new material, Nicki insisted: "I'm just gonna do what my heart tells me to do."

Jack White made a surprise appearance at a Beck concert in Providence, Rhode Island on Saturday (26.07.14).
After headlining the Newport Folk Festival the same night, Jack rushed over to Providence to play acoustic guitar and sing backing vocals for tracks 'Pay No Mind' and 'Loser' during the encore.
The former White Stripes star was introduced simply as the "best bartender in the world," according to Billboard.
Beck and Jack were later joined by Sean Lennon - who opened for Beck earlier in the night - as they performed a medley of 'Where It's At' and 'One Foot in the Grave.'
Fans were also thrilled as Jack performed a guitar solo and took part in a choreographed dance sequence.
Jack previously revealed he is a "workaholic" who can't deal with being "idle" and gets up at 6am every morning.
Jack - who has children Scarlet, eight, and Henry, six, with ex-wife Karen Elson - said: "Some days I'll take the kids to school, and when I'm not on tour I'll be here. There's always a lot to do. A friend said recently, 'You're like me, a workaholic'. It's hard for me to talk about it because I might accidentally sound like I'm trying to fulfil some childhood guilt trip my father gave me, but it's not so much about work as a constant need to create something. If I'm idle, I don't think I deserve the right to be called an artist or a musician."

Pink Floyd's new album will be "very spacey."
The iconic rock group - consisting of Nick Mason and David Gilmour - are set to release 'The Endless River,' their first record since 1994, in October but fans are likely to be shocked by the hotly anticipated LP.
An insider told The Sun newspaper: "It's not what fans will necessarily expect. The other songs, which David has worked on with (drummer) Nick Mason, are lengthy instrumentals rather than straight-up rock.
"It's beautiful but not exactly 'Another Brick in the Wall' or 'Wish You Were Here.' It's very spacey."
The album will feature unreleased material from 1994 recording sessions with late keyboardist Richard Wright, who died of cancer in 2008.
The insider explained: "It's got lots of keyboards from Rick so you can see why the band are calling it his swansong. The track that Gilmour recorded vocals on will be the band's last-ever real song. It's a proper epic and a fitting farewell."
Hopes that the band might tour again were shot down when Rick died six years ago, and it appears the 'Comfortably Numb' hitmakers aren't keen on doing a farewell tour either.
The source added: "It would probably be the highest-grossing tour in history if they reunited with Roger Waters. But Gilmour just won't have it. This album really is the end of Pink Floyd -- for ever."

Pixie Lott hates her debut single.
The 23-year-old singer "can't bear" having to perform 'Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)' - her 2009 breakthrough track - though she insists she is grateful the song put her on the path to success.
She said: "I can't bear singing 'Mama Do'. It was my first song and I'm so grateful for the success it brought me, but I must have sung it a million times now."
The blonde star admits she pursued many routes to find fame, including auditioning for TV talent shows, and is "glad" she suffered so much rejection.
She said: "I'm glad I got rejected. When I was younger, I auditioned for adverts, TV shows, even dance shows at my school that I didn't get, but it's never smooth all the way through. Rejection toughens you up."
Pixie is happy in her relationship with Oliver Cheshire, but tried to imagine they had split to inspire songs on her new self-titled album.
She told LOOK magazine: "Oliver has brought out so many feelings in me. He makes me so happy, but I've imagined what it would be like if we broke up - awful - and it inspired some of the ballads on the album, like 'Break Up Song'."

Manic Street Preachers want to make "the biggest f***ing rock record ever".
The Welsh trio have just released their 12th album, 'Futurology', which has been one of the most well-received of their career, but they are already looking ahead to the future and have set the bar high for themselves.
Bassist Nicky Wire said: "I think we all know deep in ourselves that there is only one record left to make and that's the biggest f***ing rock record ever.
"It's Zeppelin, it's the Pistols, it's [debut album] 'Generation Terrorists', but bigger.
"That's a long way off. But I think we know that's what's left; to raise the scales to an enormous level."
The 'Walk Me to the Bridge' hitmakers are very happy with their new album even though they think their intentions with the record were "ludicrous".
Nicky added to NME magazine: "It's ludicrous in its ambition. We're trying to talk about abstract art movements in a f***ing three-minute pop song, and there's so much eastern Russian stuff in there on songs like, 'Black Square' and 'Mayakovsky'.
"It's got the same ridiculous ambition as 'Generation Terrorists' but it's more cultured. It has that intent though, it's got the post-punk jaggedness of 'The Holy Bible', but it merges that with the retro-futurism we've always been obsessed with."

Dolly Parton will never retire.
The 68-year-old singer insists only if she or her husband Carl Dean got ill would she turn her back on her career and she hopes to keep performing well into old age.
She said: "I hope to continue to go, unless my health should fail me or my husband should fall sick. I intend to work till I fall over. I would love to be able to be like Bob Hope and Betty White and a lot of those folks that work till they're 90, 100 years old. I have no intentions of retiring!"
Dolly also admitted she loves seeing her friends "slaughter" her songs at karaoke.
She laughed: " I have seen my songs slaughtered pretty good, by some of my drunk friends. But it's always fun. It's always good."
Several of Dolly's songs have been covered by other artists, and she insists there are no interpretations she doesn't like.
She told The Guardian newspaper: "It's always a great honour for anybody to record your songs. It's always curious to see how people interpret your songs. Some people say, 'Ooh, I didn't like that version', but I say: 'Well, I like every version, because it's amazing how people feel and hear the songs so differently.' "

Weird Al Yankovic thinks he needs a "vacation" from social media.
The 54-year-old singer is "obsessed" with websites like Twitter and loves having millions of people hanging on his every word.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I'm a bit obsessed with Twitter and Facebook and Instagram right now. I think I need to take a vacation from it for a while. But I do love it.
"It's an amazing feeling to think of something stupid to say and hit a button and then three million people are reading it."
The 'White and Nerdy' hitmaker also thinks Twitter has had a positive impact on his career.
He said: "[Twitter] allows me to interact with my fans and get feedback on anything I happen to be doing at the time. And it's brought me a lot closer to my peers in the comedy industry.
"I've been enjoying social media for the last few years and it certainly helped me in a major way with the release of this album."
The singer loves interacting with his fans on the social media website and is overwhelmed by their support, particularly by one group of fans who are campaigning to get him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He said: "Normally I read every single mention, every single response I get on Twitter but this week it's been impossible. The outpouring from the fans have been truly overwhelming.
"Whether or not I ever get a star on the 'Walk of Fame' is sort of immaterial to me. The fact that I have fans that care enough to spend all that time and effort to make that happen - that to me is the prize, to know I have such wonderful, dedicated fans."
Weird Al's new album 'Mandatory Fun' is out now.