Archive for August, 2011

Last Updated on Wednesday, 31 August 2011 11:40
Written by MTV News
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne drops to #2 on Billboard chart.By Gil Kaufman

The Game Photo: Jason Merritt/ Getty Images

After more delays than a space shuttle launch, Compton rapper the Game will finally have his reward next week when his endlessly pushed-back fourth effort, The R.E.D. Album, debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. According to figures provided by SoundScan, the disc moved just under 98,000 copies, enough to grab the top spot but well below the first-week figures for his 2008 album LAX, which opened with 239,000 in sales.

Either way, it's just enough to beat out Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne, which drops to #2 in its third week, as sales dove 47 percent to 94,000 for a three-week total just north of 707,000. Among the new entries in the top 10 is a Barbra Streisand collection, What Matters Most — Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman (#4, 66,000), the debut from country supergroup Pistol Annies, Hell on Heels (#5, 44,000), which consists of Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley, and Muppets: The Green Album (#8, 30,000), with modern interpretations of the lovable puppets' songs by OK Go, Weezer, My Morning Jacket, Amy Lee of Evanescence and the Fray.

The rest of the top 10: Adele's 21 (#3, 82,000), NOW 39 (#6, 44,000), Luke Bryan's Tailgates & Tanlines (#7, 35,000), Jason Aldean's My Kinda Party (#9, 29,000) and Eric Church's Chief (#10, 24,000).

Further down the line, Pavement singer Stephen Malkmus and his band the Jicks come in at #43 with Mirror Traffic (8,000), and 30 Seconds to Mars land at #76 with their new Unplugged set (6,000). Lil Wayne immediately jumped to the top of the iTunes album charts after Tha Carter IV dropped digitally following the VMAs on Sunday. He was followed by the Pistol Annies, Game, Adele, Jay and Kanye, Mumford & Sons' Sigh No More, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' I'm With You, the Muppets album, Foster the People's Torches and Rihanna's resurgent Loud.

Maroon 5 continue to dominate the singles chart with "Moves Like Jagger," while Foster the People are right behind with "Pumped Up Kicks," Gym Class Heroes make a strong showing with "Stereo Hearts" (featuring Maroon's Adam Levine) and Rihanna has plenty to toast as "Cheers (Drink to That)" comes in at #4. Rounding out the tally: Bad Meets Evil's "Lighters," LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem," Wayne's "She Will," Lady Gaga's "You and I," Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" and OneRepublic's Good Life."

Things will surely be shaken up next week when Wayne's Tha Carter IV crashes the charts with estimates that it could sell nearly 1 million copies. Also debuting are the Chili Peppers, as well as David Guetta, VMA pre-show performers Cobra Starship and Lenny Kravitz.

Related Artists The Game Jay-Z Kanye West

Last Updated on Wednesday, 31 August 2011 11:09
Written by MTV News
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

After departure of John Frusciante, RHCP's new guitarist contributed in spades to brand-new, boundary-pushing I'm With You.By James Montgomery

Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers Photo: MTV News

Over the course of their 28 years, change has been a near constant for the Red Hot Chili Peppers ... particularly when it comes to the man charged with playing guitar. Beginning with Jack Sherman, the Peppers have run through a string of ax men, including Hillel Slovak (who tragically died of a heroin overdose in 1988), Arik Marshall, Dave Navarro and, of course, John Frusciante, who not only played with the band the longest, but was famously responsible — in some form or another — for their biggest hits and best albums.

As you probably know by now, Frusciante continued the transitional trend when he left the Peppers during the hiatus that preceded their brand-new I'm With You album ... leaving a rather sizable hole in the band's lineup, and an even larger pair of shoes to fill.

Luckily, the band didn't have to look far to find his replacement: 31-year-old Josh Klinghoffer, who was not only a friend of Frusciante but had toured with the Chili Peppers towards the end of their Stadium Arcadium trek. And no, they didn't even think about going with anyone else.

"He was the only choice, and a lot of it had to do with the fact that he was our friend, and it's just rare that you have someone who's right there and completely overqualified for the job. I mean, that combination doesn't happen every day, so to ignore it would have been stupid," RHCP frontman Anthony Kiedis told MTV News. "And it felt really good to call your friend and ask if they wanted to play music, as opposed to going to a stranger and asking them that."

So Klinghoffer stepped in and almost immediately found himself in the studio, as the Peppers began work on I'm With You. And if he was intimidated, well, the soft-spoken guitarist certainly wasn't about to let his new bandmates know about it.

"I just tried to stay in the moment, remain present," he said, smiling slightly. "I mean, I've known them for a long time, and knowing how they work and just how much they care about what they do ... The band, from its inception, has always been about four people getting into a room and making music together. And that's whether I brought in a chord progression or Flea did, or John in the past, or anyone before that, it was the same. We were doing it together."

Of course, Kiedis was more effusive with his praise, saying that Klinghoffer not only fit in with the band but breathed new life into it. And it was because of him that I'm With You pushes the Peppers' sound further than it's ever gone before.

"We had a load of faith in Josh coming into this band, and it was kind of understood that we are a band of equals when it comes to writing and contributing. The more the merrier," Kiedis said. "There's something that happens during that process of just playing for the sake of playing, for communicating, for letting your abilities mingle with those of the guy next to you.

"Both Josh and Flea would come in with ideas, homework, that they had done, and since Flea had been to school to learn piano and theory, he was coming in more frequently with piano chords instead of bass lines," he continued. "Josh kind of understands it without school, and Flea understands it, so their conversations were quite beautiful, and it sounded like Thelonious Monk talking to Coltrane or something. I mean that, honestly."

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