Rock News

--Beat poet and musician, Gil Scott-Heron, passed away this past Friday. Scott-Heron was best known for his 1970 composition "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" a satirical piece on consumerism that branded him as a revolutionary. Often called "The Godfather of Rap" and "The black Bob Dylan"  Scott-Heron was a prolific writer who put out an album a year every year between 1970 and 1982, when his drug and alcohol abuse finally caught up with him. Between 1982 and his death last week Scott-Heron put out only 2 more albums (1994's Spirit and 2010's I'm New Here) as well as managing a handful of sporadic live performances. The cause of his death has not been released, though Scott-Heron had been hospitalized in recent years due to AIDS related health problems. He was 62.

--George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic have donated their iconic Mothership to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History. The prop, a 1,2000 aluminum "spaceship," is not the original Mothership, but a replica built in the 1990s. The original was dumped at a Maryland junkyard in 1982 when the band's management company could no longer afford to store it due to finical troubles. The museum, scheduled to open in 2015, made efforts to locate the original Mothership, but no trace could be found.

--A group of hackers calling themselves "Lulzboat" hacked into the PBS news website on Monday and posted a number of fake news articles, including one claiming Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls were alive and well and living in New Zealand. The group were upset by what they considered a biased report about WikiLeaks on the TV program Nightline, and quickly flooded the PBS site with fake article and screen captures, as well as posting sensitive information including email passwords. The report and other hacked information were quickly taken down and PBS issued an apology. 

--Jamaican-American hip-hop singer Sean Kingston, and a female companion, were seriously injured after running into a bridge while Jet Skiing over the weekend. Kingston, 21, is in stable condition and has been moved out of critical condition and placed in ICU.  The accident took place around 6pm on Saturday when Kingston lost control of his Jet Ski and struck the bridge connecting Palm Island with the MacArthur Causeway in Miami.

--Amy Winehouse has entered rehab again on the eve of her summer tour. According to her representative Winehouse voluntarily checked into the Priory Clinic in London for an "assesment" before heading out on tour claiming "[Amy] wanted to be ready for performances in Europe this summer." Winehouse is reportedly working on a follow album to her 2006 breakthrough Back to Black, including a duet with soul singer Cee-lo Green. No word on whether this stint in rehab will effect the album's recording or release.

--Promoters for the popular Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival have announced that the 2012 festival will take place over 2 weekends, April 13-15 and April 20-23, with the same line-up both weekends. The festival, which started in 1999 as a 1-day festival, has grown into a 3-day event with tickets to this years show selling out in only six days. The decision to add a second weekend is a risky one for the promoters, with no way to tell if the festivals popularity will hold over to a second weekend, or bring in the additional 750,000 people needed to sell out both shows. In addition, logistical and scheduling difficulties with having the same line-up both

weekend may prove a problem, making the booking of bands with fuller touring schedules less likely.  Passes for both weekends go on-sale this Friday at 10am, however no acts have been confirmed for the 2012 show.