“Suit and Tie” couldn’t make it to the top of pop radio playlists, but Justin Timberlake easily reaches the peak this week with his epic pop hit “Mirrors.” Meanwhile, Daft Punk have their first Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit. Read more on these stories and others in this week’s coverage of the US pop music charts.

_{Single cover courtesy RCA}

About.com Top 40 / Pop

Look for another wave of One Direction mania to kick off at the end of this summer just in time for back to school. The 3D film This Is Us is scheduled for release August 30, 2013. Now the group has announced that an official book titled Where We Are: Our Band, Our Story will hit bookstores three days before on August 27, 2013. There has been a wave of unofficial books telling the boy band’s story, but this is the only official biographical book. It is being published by HarperCollins. The group has also stated they are at work on a third album that could be out before the year end holidays. Following that, One Direction aims for world domination in 2014 with a massive stadium world tour.

Following formation of the group during the 2010 X Factor UK competition, One Direction have become a worldwide phenomenon. Their two studio albums have been platinum certified #1 hits around the world. Seven singles have hit the top 10 in the UK and two of them have repeated that success in the US.

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_{Book cover courtesy HarperCollins}

About.com Top 40 / Pop

It’s Thursday and that means another throwback from Shanell. The Young Money diva, who will tour with Lil Wayne on the “America’s Most Wanted Music Festival” this summer, takes it back to 2003 with her cover of 702’s “I Still Love You.” She navigates the drum-heavy Neptunes production with ease, making it one of our favorites so far.

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While everyone’s turning up, Earl Sweatshirt and Mac Miller turn down on “Guild,” a slowed and slurred cut off Earl’s upcoming debut Doris. Mac calls himself “Ron Burgundy mixed with Hercules,” while the Odd Future rapper demands that his label give him a white driver.

“YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO GUILD ANYTIME TONIGHT AFTER MIDNIGHT,” advised Earl.

[The FADER]

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The Boy Least Likely To reached a certain level of fame in the ’00s on the strength of their debut album The Best Party Ever and the singles “Paper Cuts” and “Be Gentle With Me” (the video for which featured a young Rashida Jones). They soon became the best known example of a genre of twee indie-pop called “cuddlecore” by some, a title that came as a surprise to the band’s singer Jof Owens, but more on that later. After a few years off, The Boy Least Likely To — Owens and Pete Hobbs — are back with a new album, The Great Perhaps, a project they funded with the help of fans via Pledge Music. The album showcases the band’s simple songwriting and emotional lyrics all set to a shyly pop beat fueled by whimsical drum machine rhythms and sly guitar hooks. Owens stopped by Turntable.fm for a chat about the new album, making music on their own schedule and, of course, Kylie Minogue. Yes, that’s the second interview in a row in which Kylie Minogue came up.

Melissa Locker started playing “Joan of Arc” by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

STEREOGUM: Hello! So what have The Boy Least Likely To been up to lately?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Well, we finished recording the album in January and then ever since then we’ve just been getting everything ready for that coming out.
STEREOGUM: Does it feel like you’ve been away for awhile?

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO started playing “Appalachian Mountain Station” by The Bicycles

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: It does. It always feels like we’ve been away for ages when we bring out an album because it takes so long for us to record them. Every time we put an album out it’s like we’re making “a comeback”
STEREOGUM: Do you think it takes your band longer than the average band to record an album?

Melissa Locker started playing “Everybody’s Talkin’” by Harry Nilsson

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: I think so. Other bands seem to have much less time between albums. I don’t know why it takes so long for us to record them either. It’s not like we have a massive sound or anything. With this album we just tried so many different things it ended up taking four times as long as it should have done, because we recorded three different versions of each song. Oh, nice song too.
STEREOGUM: Yeah Harry Nilsson is so fantastic. You recorded three different versions of each song? Like, a reggae version and a jazz version?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO:
‘Everybody’s Talking’ and ‘Gentle on My Mind’ are my two favourite road songs, along with the theme from the littlest hobo.
STEREOGUM: The Shirley Temple movie?

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO started playing “Delta Dawn (Single Version)” by Tanya Tucker

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Haha, no the show about a hobo dog. Well, maybe not 3 versions of every song, but most songs have been tried in different genres. There was a reggae moment. I went away for a few days and came back and Pete had transformed the song ‘lucky to be alive’ into something that sounded like chaka demus.
STEREOGUM: That would have really blown some minds if you came out with a reggae album.
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: It was terrible. He wouldn’t even play it to me properly. He knew he’d messed up.
STEREOGUM: Does that happen often? That you leave the studio and Pete takes the reins and leads things in a different direction?

Melissa Locker started playing “Lost Cause” by Beck

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Yeah, and usually it’s a great thing that I come back to because he’s had time to sit and live with the song and take it somewhere unexpected, but sometimes. Sometimes it can go wrong. I do go into the studio but if I go in too often I annoy him, and it gets pretty boring after a while staring at the back of his head while he works out drum loops. I pop in once a week. Like Kylie.
STEREOGUM: Is that what Kylie does?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: I imagine she does. haha. I don’t know. Oh, I love this Beck song so much. It’s off my favourite Beck album. Kylie might actually be quite hands on.
STEREOGUM: I like how you are making up rumors about Kylie Minogue. You’d better say something nice about her now: What is your favorite Kylie song?

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO started playing “Reunion” by Bobbie Gentry

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: I was just about to say how much I love kylie. I’ve been a huge big fan since “I Should Be So Lucky.” I should probably play some Kylie now, although I do prefer her early stuff obvs.
STEREOGUM: Obviously. Like the “Locomotion,” do you have kylie on your ipod? Or do you prefer her music on vinyl?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: No, that was the only song that came out before “I should be so lucky” in the UK. I don’t like that one. I have all her first four albums on vinyl. and cd. and tape.
STEREOGUM: Next step: Kylie tattoo

Melissa Locker started playing “Wet And Rusting” by Menomena

STEREOGUM: So should we all listen for the Kylie influence on your new album?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: I think that’s the least I can do after making up rumours about her. Was bobbie gentry even playing then?
STEREOGUM: I heard it!
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: There isn’t much Kylie in there sadly, but there’s definitely a more electronic pop influence. Early Depeche Mode, Giorgio Moroder, the Human League, that sort of thing. The next album will probably be influenced by Kylie. Early Kylie.
STEREOGUM: So we should look for it in about four years? ; )
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Haha. maybe we might be really quick with the next one. now that we’ve got a direction.
STEREOGUM: True. How do you feel about the “cuddlecore” title that you were given back in the early ’00s?

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO started playing “Better the Devil You Know” by Kylie Minogue

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: I only found out about ‘cuddlecore’ a few weeks ago. I don’t think I really understand it. I thought we were just a tongue-in-cheek english indiepop group. Like the pooh sticks and talulah gosh and bmx bandits.
STEREOGUM: Do you consider yourself tongue-in-cheek?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: I do think we are. We don’t take ourselves completely seriously. A lot of what we do we do because the idea of us doing it is quite funny.
STEREOGUM: I appreciate an artist who doesn’t take his product completely seriously
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: All the best pop music doesn’t take itself seriously. Oh god, I didn’t even say anything about you playing OMD. I blame OMD for a lot of pop music at the moment, people taking themselves too seriously.
STEREOGUM: But they don’t take themselves seriously at all! I just interviewed them. And they never thought they would play more than one gig.

Melissa Locker started playing “The Boy With the Arab Strap” by Belle and Sebastian

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Really, what about all those historical pop songs? Maybe, they’ve got older and seen the funny side. I still blame them.
STEREOGUM: Ha! Well he said he never meant to be a musician and was a frustrated historian. Hence, historical pop. Their new album has a song for Helen of Troy
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Haha!
STEREOGUM: Exactly.
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: I suppose so, but none of the bands who seem to be influenced by them seem to get the joke.
STEREOGUM: So what do you think is wrong with pop these days?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: It takes itself too seriously.
STEREOGUM: How so?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Everyone wants to be seen as an “artist” making some great statement, but really it’s just pop music and it feels a bit like the pop bands these days are more like prog rock bands.
STEREOGUM: Really? Examples please. Like Katy Perry = Rush?

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO started playing “Here I Am” by Adam Green (feat. Binki Shapiro)

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Bastille, everything everything, those sorts of bands. Even bobby gillespie seems to take himself seriously and he invented wearing anoraks in rock music!
STEREOGUM: Ha! I didn’t realize that was something that needed inventing.
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: I think bobby was the first. He would stand there trying to look like a macho rock star wearing an anorak. it was obviously a joke.
STEREOGUM: So if we laugh when listening to your album, is that okay?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Haha, yes, you can laugh at our record I suppose. Well, maybe not laugh, but smile knowingly.
STEREOGUM: Noted! So you worked with Pledge Music for this album. What drew you to that platform?

Melissa Locker started playing “Young Adult Friction” by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: We’d been away for a few years and we thought people might have forgotten about us, so it seemed like a nice way to reintroduce ourselves to people over a few months. Instead of coming back and no one noticing. It’s been really fun doing the pledge music thing, but i do worry about going on about it all the time. It’ll be nice to talk about shops again.
STEREOGUM: So you were pleased with the process and the outcome?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: It was a lot of fun and we got to hear from some really sweet fans who had some lovely stories about how they found each other and how they found us and we sold things to them.
STEREOGUM: Sounds pretty idyllic Is there a story behind your new album?

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO started playing “Check My Heart” by The Pastels

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: I knew I wanted to write about romantic love because I’d never really written about it before, but then as the songs came together it seemed to be as much about loneliness as it was about love. I think it’s about love and loneliness in the end. When I’m writing about love it often ends up being about loneliness. I’m interested in writing about things and people that don’t fit in. I’ve always written about those things. I was reading a lot of Carson Mccullers when I was writing it. I guess that was a big influence.

Melissa Locker started playing “Once In A Lifetime (LP Version)” by Talking Heads

STEREOGUM: Her books are so sad!
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: But kind of uplifting too, because she wants to believe in love so much.
STEREOGUM: True, that said, that sounds like a very serious topic for a guy who just told us to not take pop so seriously
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Well, I write about serious things. They’re not joke songs. I just don’t take myself seriously. We’re not going to perform the songs in a museum, but the words are about serious things. Sadness, loneliness, happiness, love.

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO started playing “OMYGOD!” by Kate Nash

STEREOGUM: And how was it back being in the studio?
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: It was really nice. We’re great friends and have been for twenty years, so when we get together it’s always nice. Sometimes we need to be apart from each other or we drive each other crazy, and there’s only so long I can stare at the back of Pete’s head when he’s looking for a synth sound, but overall it was a lot of fun to make this record.
STEREOGUM: And it’s a lot of fun to listen to, as well. That’s all my questions! Thank you so much.
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: Oh, that’s sad. I was really enjoying it and I had Cults Percussion Ensemble and George Jones lined up to play too. Thank you so much for all the questions.
STEREOGUM: Oh sorry! And I promise to listen to George Jones on my own.

The Great Perhaps is out on iTunes now.

Stereogum

True Romance, the excellent debut album from the British pop singer Charli XCX, is pretty much nothing but potential hits, and now another one of them has a video. In the clip for the twinkling and sighing “Take My Hand,” from director Ryan Andrews, Charli swans around a frenetic dance party, throwing come-hither looks in every possible direction. It’s quite a performance. Watch it below.

True Romance is out now on IAMSOUND.

Stereogum

The YouTube singer died aged 18 earlier this week, having battling osteosarcoma – a rare bone cancer – since he was 14.

Sobiech created the song ‘Clouds’, which became a viral hit over the past few months.

Since his death on Sunday (May 19), fans of the song have rushed to purchase it in tribute to the late musician.

“#clouds is #1 on ITUNES,” tweeted Justin Baldoni, who directed the documentary My Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech.

“Every download goes to @ZachSobiech fund. I am overwhelmed…I don’t even know what to say.”

‘Clouds’ was originally released in December, and has gone on to reach over 4 million views on YouTube.

Watch a documentary about Zach Sobiech’s life below:

Music – Digital Spy – News

It’s a hit! VH1 Classic’s ‘That Metal Show’ returns this year for its 12th season and now the full schedule of air dates has been revealed. Eddie Trunk and his comedic cohorts Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine will kick things off with the season premiere on June 1.

This new season will also mark an important milestone for the go-to hard rock and heavy metal talk show as they celebrate their 100th episode on June 15. The special anniversary show includes guests Sebastian Bach and Pantera / Kill Devil Hill bassist Rex Brown.

With a star-studded list of musical guests that includes everyone from Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead to Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, season 12 is already shaping up to be one of the program’s best. Episode one will welcome former Metallica bassist and current Newsted main man Jason Newsted, marking his first appearance on the show.

In addition to a stellar lineup of guests, ‘That Metal Show’ season 12 promises to have a new look in addition to a few new segments including ‘Take It or Leave It’ and ‘Metal Modem.’ Tune in every Saturday for more details; the full schedule and list of guests can be seen below. And for even more info, check out the show’s official site here.

‘That Metal Show’ Season 12 Guests and Airdates (all times at 11 PM ET/PT):

6/1 – Jason Newsted (former Metallica bassist/Newsted)
6/8 – Corey Taylor & Josh Rand (Stone Sour)
6/15* – Rex Brown (Pantera, Kill Devil Hill) and Sebastian Bach (*100th Episode)
6/22 – Jake E. Lee (former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist / Badlands) and Rick Allen (Def Leppard)
6/29 – Queensrÿche (Scott Rockenfield & Todd La Torre) and Dave Mustaine (Megadeth)
7/06 – Rob Zombie & John 5 and Tom Keifer (Cinderella)
7/13 – Scott Gorham & Ricky Warwick (Thin Lizzy/Black Star Riders) and Neil Fallon (Clutch)
7/20 – Buck Dharma (Blue Öyster Cult) & Kix (Steve Whiteman & Brian Forsythe)

Newsted Discusses ‘Metal’ EP + Mike Mushok’s Addition to the Band

Loudwire

- Metallica have unveiled a new trailer and the movie poster for their upcoming ‘Metallica Through the Never’ 3D film. [Loudwire]

- David Draiman reiterates his intent to return to Disturbed and asks fans for support of the band’s side projects. [Loudwire]

- We’ve got the exclusive video preview of Shinedown‘s ‘Bully’ from their upcoming ‘The Warner Sound Live Room’ EP. Watch it here: [Loudwire]

- VH1 Classic’s ‘That Metal Show’ has revealed the guest lineup for Season 12. [Loudwire]

- Former My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way discusses his current musical pursuits. [Loudwire]

- Estranged Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora has grown tired of the trash talk with the band. [Ultimate Classic Rock]

- Don Felder has joined Peter Frampton‘s ‘Guitar Circus’ tour. [Ultimate Classic Rock]

- The Misfits are responsible for a lot of great music and Diffuser.fm counts down the 10 Best Misfits Songs. [Diffuser.fm]

- Not everyone can make it to Barcelona this weekend, but the Primavera Festival will webcast some of the performances. Check out the schedule here: [Diffuser.fm]

Loudwire

As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis was on steroids when he tried to hire a hitman to kill his wife, the singer’s lawyer said yesterday in court. 

Thomas Warwick, the singer’s lawyer, said heavy metal vocalist began taking steroids after getting into body building, according to the U-T San Diego. “His thought processes were devastatingly affected by his steroid use,” Warwick said in a statement. Lambesis was arrested earlier this month and charged with soliciting an undercover police office to kill his estranged wife for $ 1,000. He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment. 

Tim Lambesis Arrested in Murder-for-Hire Plot

Lambesis’ eight-year marriage with wife Meggan reached a pivotal point last summer when the singer revealed to his wife in an e-mail that he no longer loved her and admitted that he no longer believed in God. Meggan later learned that her husband had also had multiple affairs throughout their marriage and also had a girlfriend at the time. 

Meggan filed for divorce in September 2012, citing irreconcilable differences, and noting her husband’s recent preoccupation with bodybuilding; she also expressed concern regarding his ability to care for their three adopted children from Ethiopia, providing examples of the rocker spending hours at the gym, or falling asleep by a pool, when he was supposed to be caring for the children. 

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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