Music Notes: Mindy McCready Dead; Alabama Shakes on "SNL;" New Music from Civil Wars, The Strokes, & More

Among the notes on new albums this post was going to report, there's a sad new bit of news: country singing star Mindy McCready was found dead of a gunshot wound Sunday, apparently self inflicted, at a home in Heber Springs, Arkansas.



The 37-year-old performer, best known for her mid-1990s hits such as "Guys Do It All the Time" and "Ten Thousand Angels," had a turbulent personal life following her initial professional success. There were problems with doing drugs and with trying to fraudulently buy OxyContin, as well as a custody battle (with her mother) over her oldest son, a drunk driving arrest, an overdose, and at least two suicide attempts.

It's sad to see such a talented and popular singer derailed by personal demons. R.I.P., Mindy McCready.

Here's some other recent music news, which all of a sudden doesn't seem so important...

* Alabama Shakes got a big publicity boost last night when they were the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live." The band, which played "Hold On" and "," was the number-one item on Google Trends, a listing of the most-searched-for topics on the world's leading search engine.



* Radiohead fans will be glad to know that Thom Yorke and the boys are planning to start work on a new album in September. (via Rolling Stone)

* British Sea Power is also coming out with a new album, "Machineries of Joy," and you can stream the title track at Consequence of Sound. (via Consequence of Sound)

* And there's more new music: The Strokes have released a new single, "All The Time," and the Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett (who just won a Grammy with Taylor Swift for "Safe and Sound") also have a new song out. (via Rolling Stone)

* The word "out" is also associated with Lady Gaga, but not in a good way: the singer is out of action for the time being. She's been forced to cancel her entire current tour due to a tear in a hip muscle, which will require surgery. (via Consequence of Sound)

* Mudhoney is going on tour to support their latest album, "Vanishing Point." The Seattle band, one of the original grunge-rock bands from the 1990s, will play Bowery Ballroom on May 11th and Music Hall of Williamsburg the next night. (via Consequence of Sound)

Lady Gaga Launches "Born This Way" Album with 99-Cent Deal on Amazon.com Today; Will Appear at Union Square Tonight (Watch Live Stream)

Lady Gaga is staging an all-out blitz for her new album "Born This Way," which drops today, and her hometown of New York is figuring in the launch. She performed on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, and is doing an in-store appearance at the Best Buy store at Union Square tonight. The audience is limited to 450 and wristbands were handed out at the store this morning, but you can watch a live stream of Gaga's Best Buy appearance here at 9 p.m. (You had to line up early to get the wristbands; around 1 a.m. Lady Gaga tweeted a photo of fans on line outside Best Buy.

What's more, Amazon.com is selling "Born This Way" with a digital bookletfor only 99 cents on May 23rd only. (It announced the deal at midnight Eastern time today, but had hinted at it for several days, saying that Gaga fans might want to check back at midnight Monday). As you'd expect, lots of people are jumping on this deal, and Amazon sent out a tweet earlier this morning saying, "We're currently experiencing very high volume. If you order today, you will get the full @ladygaga album for $.99. Thanks for your patience."

Lady Gaga fans will want to pounce on this chance to get "Born This Way" for 99 cents,and people who are interested in checking her out won't be out much cash with the deal.

Update: the Los Angeles Times had an article today about the Gaga-for-99-cents deal and how the value of the album has steadily been going down with deals like this. Seems like we may see more such deals in the future, since Amazon is looking to promote its Cloud Player and Apple is expected to launch its own similar player soon.

Lady Gaga Brings the Monster Ball to Newark

Lady Gaga descending from scaffolding at the beginning of her Prudential Center show.

Native New Yorker Lady Gaga crossed the river Friday night to bring her Monster Ball tour to the Prudential Center, and brought all the glitz, spectacle, and energy for which is has become famous. There was no popping out of an egg this time (as at the Grammys), but the show included plenty of other Gaga staples: a nonstop set of hits, a variety of creative set designs, ridiculously fit dancers, and numerous costume changes, including outfits with ultra-padded shoulders, exotic capes, and bikini bottoms (Gaga seems allergic to wearing pants).

The crowd featured a lot of girls and young women who knew the words to every song, but also some middle-aged folks (not all of whom were chaperones for their teen or tween daughters, though there were plenty of those).

Transclucent dress... fortunately I didn't see any fans wearing this.

Although I like many of Gaga's catchy pop tunes well enough, I was most interested in seeing the whole spectacle of one of her shows, and the Prudential show didn't disappoint. The sets and dancing were interesting and well done (if not always completely original), and the energy of the show really didn't flag at all during the one hour and 45-minute concert (just about the only subdued part of the show was when Gaga sang a slowed-down version of "Born This Way," with only her piano playing as accompaniment).

The old fireworks-shooting-from-boobs-and-crotch trick... don't try this at home.

And yes, the Monster Ball did feature a large, tentacled monster (below), as well as Gaga's outfit that shoots fireworks from the boobs (above).

Any tour that calls itself "The Monster Ball" has to have a monster...

Lady Gaga Releases "Alejandro" Video (VIDEO)

And now for something completely different from my post last night on Folk City at 50... Lady Gaga has released her long-awaited video for her song "Alejandro" and you can see it at the link below.

She gave a very brief preview of the video last week on her bizarre interview with Larry "Mr. Suspenders" King (anybody see that? Not that Gaga was bizarre; she was her usual self. But the combo of her and Larry King was pretty odd.)

This "Alejandro" video is direct from Lady Gaga, at her VEVO page, not a copied or bootlegged version, so it's the quality that Gaga herself intended.

Lady Gaga American Extends North American Tour Through Early 2011

Lady Gaga is keeping the North American leg of her "Fame Monster" tour going through the first months of next year, the performer posted this morning on her MySpace blog. The announcement says in part:

"The 2011 North American Monster Ball Tour, produced globally by Live Nation, will begin on February 19th, 2011 at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, taking her spectacular show to top arenas and a host of new cities. Semi Precious Weapons have opened all dates for Lady Gaga’s 2010 tour and will join her again in 2011. Tickets go on sale beginning May 14, 2010 at LiveNation.com."

There's a presale starting tomorrow; the blog post says: "Citi® cardmembers will also have access to presale tickets beginning Tuesday, May 11th, at 10am local time through Citi's Private Pass® Program. For complete presale details visit www.citiprivatepass.com." For regular public on-sale dates, check livenation.com/gaga for details. Here's a list of the dates so far (more may be added):

February 19 - Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall / On sale May 14
February 26 - Pittsburgh, PA Consol Energy Center / On sale May 14

March 3 - Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre / On sale May 17

March 8 - Boston, MA TD Garden / On sale May 14

March 25 - Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand / On sale May 15

April 8 - Houston, TX Toyota Center / On sale May 14

April 9 - New Orleans, LA New Orleans Arena / On sale May 15

April 12 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL Bank Atlantic Center / On sale May 17

April 13 - Miami, FL American Airlines Arena / On sale May 17

April 18 - Atlanta, GA Gwinnett Center / On sale May 14

Lady Gaga Tickets On Sale Soon for Summer 2010 Concerts

Lady Gaga's Monster Ball tour continues with sold-out concerts all across the U.S., and more dates have been added. Tickets for the shows below go on sale late in March, so mark the dates so you'll be able to get first crack at these in-demand tickets.

To see all Lady Gaga concerts now scheduled, and on-sale dates, visit www.ladygaga.com/events.

On sale Friday March 26:

July 2 - Boston, MA - TD Garden

July 14 - Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena

August 19 - Portland, OR - Rose Garden

August 21 - Tacoma, WA - Tacoma Dome

August 24 - Vancouver, BC - General Motors Place

On sale Saturday March 27:

July 4 - Atlantic City, NJ - Boardwalk Hall

July 20 - Oklahoma City, OK - Ford Center

September 14 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center

On sale Monday March 29:

July 28 - Denver, CO - Pepsi Center

August 3 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center

Amazon.com $5 MP3 Albums - New Lady Gaga, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rihanna, and More

I usually point out (um, rather late) Amazon.com's selection of $5 MP3 albums for each month, but right now they're offering more than 800 albums for that price. I'm not sure how many of these deals expire at the the end of the month (that's today), and how many will continue beyond that date. (UPDATE, 1/4/10: Amazon's site still says that "over 800" MP3 albums are available for $5 each, so you can probably assume that all the ones mentioned in the paragraphs below are still at that price.)

One Web page lists 100 $5 MP3 album downloadsfeatures selections including Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster, It's Blitz by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the self-titled album by Chickenfoot, and more, with genres such as rock, blues, R&B, country, etc. all grouped together. (This may be the December selection.)

Another list of more than 800 $5 MP3 albumsis broken down by genre so you can view, say, all pop or country albums. The 50 $5 pop albums include Lady Gaga's The Fame (not to be confused with The Fame Monster), Rihanna's Rated R, Classic Sinatra: His Greatest Hits, Mandy Moore's Amanda Leigh, Fergie's The Dutchess, and Australian guitarist Orianthi's Believe. Younger listeners may squeal with delight at the chance to get teen heartthrob Justin Beiber's My World for $5.

Among the classic rock titles are some real classics, including Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

With more than 800 MP3 albums on sale for $5, I'll be buying more than a couple (am especially interested in that Orianthi album).

Get Tickets for New Lady Gaga NYC Shows; Video of Her at AMAs and in Pre-Gaga Days

Two more shows have been added to Lady Gaga's existing two nights at New York's Radio City Music Hall. She will now be performing at the famed Rockefeller Center venue on Jan. 20-21 and 23-24, 2010. Kid Cudi and Jason Derulo will be supporting Lady Gaga at all four gigs. You can buy Lady Gaga Radio City tickets here for all four shows; this is the official Radio City online box office. Tickets for all of the Radio City shows are on sale now.

And if you're wondering who Lady Gaga was before she was running around without pants and with flashing lights in public, well, check out the video below. It's from a 2005 show at at New York University talent show and features a young singer and pianist named Stefani Germanotta. I guess that name and the female singer-songwriter motif was just too common in the NYC area, so somehow she came up with the Lady Gaga persona. Obviously a smart marketing move.