• Beastie Boys Announce Swing State Tour
• Britney Spears’ “Womanizer” Video Premieres
• ?uestlove: “Even Small Activism Is Effective”
• Campaign ‘08: Disgruntled Rockers
• Random Notes: Kanye West, Chris Martin
• Tommy Lee, Slash Jam For The Earth
• Britney To Set Record Straight in MTV Doc
• Grateful Dead Egypt Shows Emerge
• Of Montreal Glam It Up In D.C.
• In the Studio: Big Boi
• Weekend Rock List: Friend Songs
• Fricke’s Picks: Dead Confederate
• Everclear Claim “Jesus Was a Democrat”
• Wal-Mart Keeps DRM In Place
• 50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct Trailer
• News Ticker: Janet Jackston, Yes, Archuleta

Top stories from the last three days:

• Weiland: Solo Album “May Turn Off STP Fans”
• Neil Diamond Talks Rick Rubin, Next LP
• Paul Stanley: Kiss Anniversary, Painting Show
• Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison” & “America”
• MTV Fetes “Headbanger’s Ball”
• AC/DC Draft The Answer As Tour Openers
• Peter Travers Video Review: Body of Lies
• Tom Gabel, Mavis Staples Prep Protest Albums
• Manson Says Vig Producing Green Day
• YouTube To Offer Music Downloads in Videos
• Foo Fighters Slam McCain For Using “My Hero”
• Download Song From Lou Reed’s Berlin: Live
• On the Charts: T.I. Ousts Metallica
• Unknown Comic Attacks RS Comedy Issue

Scroll down for full news stories, commentary and much more in Rock Daily.

She’s dancing like the old Britney … she’s looking like the old Britney … is our Britney back for real? Spears’ new video for “Womanizer” premiered on 20/20 Friday night, and it’s a cross between “Toxic” and The Office.

Photo:QUICLER/AFP/Getty

• Madonna brought her candy shop to the U.S., and we were live at her first night at Madison Square Garden. Couldn’t make it? Check out the photo gallery to see all the visual highlights from the Sticky & Sweet Tour, plus check out all the times the Material Girl appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.
• Foo Fighters made a villain out of John McCain after the GOP candidate used “My Hero” without asking permission. Not like they would have given him permission anyway — it’s just common courtesy to ask first. The Foos complained and are now no longer McCain’s friends, though they do join a growing list of disgruntled rockers.
• Janet Jackson was forced to cancel more concerts thanks to a mysterious illness that felled her for two weeks. Thankfully, she’s all recovered and ready to get back to rocking witchu. Meanwhile, a slip from the stage sent My Morning Jacket’s Jim James to the hospital and prevented MMJ from performing at an Obama benefit show.
• We sat down with Slash to talk his upcoming solo album, his Les Paul guitar and the status of Velvet Revolver. “Everything is cool. We’ve been writing this whole time, but we’re on this quest for a singer,” Slash says. Read the rest of the top-hatted one’s thoughts here.

Battleground Earth — the eco-challenge reality show that pits Tommy Lee against Ludacris as they fight to see who can live more environmentally responsible — sadly comes to its end this Sunday. The good news? The episode features a ridiculous jam session with Slash, Tommy Lee and Billy Gibbons, and you can get an early look at it right here.

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Photo:Hogan/Getty

Coldplay’s Chris Martin spent some quality time hanging out with the Who’s Roger Daltrey at an awards show in London this week. In fact, it was a week of friends old and new spending time together, as everybody’s best pal Mickey Mouse wished Miley Cyrus a happy birthday and Kanye West chilled with his new homegirl Ellen DeGeneres. Click below for these and the rest of the week’s most notable photos.

• Random Notes: Kanye West, Chris Martin, Lil Wayne and the Week in Rock

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After watching the second presidential debate this week and witnessing John McCain constantly referring to us as “my friends” over and over and over again, it seemed only natural that this week’s Rock List was dedicated to friendship. Tell us your favorite tales of companionship, and on Tuesday we’ll use teamwork to tally the votes and reveal the best friend songs. Until then, here are our picks:

LCD Soundsystem — “All My Friends”
The Lemonheads — “My Drug Buddy”
Paul Simon — “You Can Call Me Al”
Led Zeppelin — “Friends”
Beck — “This Is My Crew”

Photo: Getty

Since 1984, when Bruce Springsteen took umbrage to Ronald Reagan’s use of “Born in the U.S.A.,” there’s been a long history of presidential candidates taking a brow-beating from musicians who don’t want their work used as an endorsement. This election season has been full of rockers getting hot under the collar at the thought of their work being co-opted, so here’s a handy guide to the most disgruntled rockers of ‘08.

Artist: John Mellencamp
Songs: “Our Country,” “Pink Houses”
Controversy: John McCain used the tunes at rallies to underscore his “Country First” message. Mellencamp — who has been an ardent Democrat for years and supported John Edwards during the Democratic primaries by sanctioning his songs for his rallies — asked that McCain cease and desist.
Result: Several days after the request was made, McCain purged Mellencamp from his playlist.

Artist: Boston
Song: “More Than a Feeling”
Controversy: During primary season, one time Republican frontrunner Mike Huckabee capped off many of his events with “More Than a Feeling” — sometimes with former Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau in tow. “More Than a Feeling” writer Tom Scholz took exception to this, penning an open letter to Huckabee that explained his use of the song without his consent implied that Scholz supported his candidacy — not true, considering Scholz had already thrown his endorsement to Barack Obama.
Result: Huckabee’s campaign — and therefore his use of the song — ended shortly thereafter when he conceded the Republican nomination to John McCain. (more…)

Photo courtesy of Nestor Diaz/DCist.com

Live shows are a much better fit for Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes’ ambitions. On record, it can seem like he’s determined to re-create the high points of glam rock using just a drum machine, some zithers, and a selection of powered yard-care tools. And while Of Montreal’s stage set is unmistakably homemade, it’s a platform for Pink Floyd-sized (or at least GWAR-sized) aspirations. At the 9:30 Club, Barnes, dressed like a cross-dressing mariachi, emerged on a sedan chair, carried by four dancers dressed in gold lame Buddha outfits. It was one of the easier-to-explain spectacles in a night that saw him hanged from a gallows, painted red, and emerging from a flower-encrusted coffin covered in shaving cream. Also, there was music, but Of Montreal’s ironic disco couldn’t carry a show on its own. (more…)

Photo: Getty

Earlier this week, Rock Daily caught up with Neil Diamond in the middle of his super-successful tour. We learned the Diamond is almost painfully humble, doesn’t carry money on stage and has a particular passion for Los Angeles staple In-And-Out Burger. Reader brother love (who we hope is not this guy) recognized the entertainment value of the trip to the fast food joint. He summed it up thusly: “Eating a hamburger hasn’t been this exciting since David Hasselhoff.” Considering the Hoff’s musical career, we can only hope that a collaboration over beef patties is coming soon.

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Not only is this a great moment in talk show history, but it’s also one of the finest viral videos of all time. Crispin Glover (who is indeed a musician) shows up on the old Late Show With David Letterman to try to clear up some rumors about him in the press and show Dave what looks to be a butterfly collection. But in the end, he challenges the host to an arm wrestle before nearly kicking him in the face. That’s when it ends. Click above if you’re into bad wigs and profound discomfort, ’80s style.

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Photo: Blakesberg/Retna

Thirty years ago, the Grateful Dead played a series of concerts at the foot of the Sphinx in Giza, Egypt that went down in history both for their ambition and their myriad near-disasters. Hihglights from those concerts are finally getting an official release on the two-disc set Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978. “I went into eternity,” says Bob Weir of the experience. Click below for more on these infamous shows, including how the band employed a pair of camels after their equipment truck broke down.

• The Dead Rock the Pyramids

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Art Alexakis and Everclear will likely face a controversy of Fox News-ian proportions with their brand new song, “Jesus Was A Democrat.” “I bet you think of him, as a nice clean long haired republican,” Alexakis sings. “Nah, he would be all locked up in Guantanamo Bay, if he were alive today.” Alexakis was inspired to pen the song as far back as the 1988 elections, as “the Right Wing made people believe that ‘Liberals’ were anti-American, anti-God and anti-family values. However, if you read Jesus’ words, he sounded like a liberal.” The band premiered the song during their performance at the Grammy’s Rock the Conventions show in Denver during the Democratic rallies. The song is now available as a free download at the band’s site. (more…)

Wal-Mart has had a change of heart about dismantling their DRM services, meaning users who bought songs from Wal-Mart’s digital music store before February 2008 will still be able to listen to their music. In an e-mail sent out to customers yesterday, Wal-Mart said “Based on feedback from our customers, we have decided to maintain our digital rights management (DRM) servers for the present time. What this means to you is that our existing service continues and there is no action required on your part.” The retail giant had initially planned to do away with their out-of-use DRM technology and its help desk to make way for their “100% MP3 store,” which essentially would have prevented listening to DRM-filled WMA (Windows Media Audio) songs in the future. (more…)

Photo: Sacha Lecha

Album Sir Lucious Leftfoot: Son of Chico Dusty
Due Out November

Outkast’s Big Boi has been working on his solo debut since 2007, recording mostly in Atlanta and pulling in guests like Raekwon and George Clinton. The result is a freewheeling record with funky electro beats by Big Boi and Organized Noize. On some of the densest rhymes of his career, Big Boi addresses everything from passionate sex (”Backup Plan”) to fears he felt during the primaries (”Daddy Fat Sacks”). The political theme continues on the first single, “Something’s Gotta Give,” where he and Mary J. Blige plug for Obama. The song has piqued the interest of Obama’s camp. “There have been calls from them,” Big Boi says. “I don’t know what I’ll do, but they want me to be a part of what they’re doing.”

[From Issue 1063 — October 16, 2008]

Related Stories:

• Outkast’s Andre Benjamin Says New Solo Album Coming Soon

• Big Boi’s Ballet Debuts

• Outkast: Funk Soul Brothers

Photo: Bedder/Getty

Roots drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson isn’t new to presidential politics. In 2004, he joined MTV and Rock the Vote in promoting voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, but this year he’s transformed himself into an active “surrogate” for the Obama campaign, making speeches and spinning records at block parties, posting flyers on both coasts and driving vanloads of volunteers.

His activism fits with the mood of the Roots’ new album, the anguished Rising Down, with grooves fueled by global conflict and American cities in crisis. On the Roots’ current tour with Gym Class Heroes, he and rapper Travis McCoy are turning their joint after-parties into Obama “pow wows,” pushing registration in states where the deadline hasn’t yet passed. ?uestlove won’t rest until the morning after Election Day, November 4.

What is this tour like with Gym Class Heroes?
We know they’re going to bring a whole new audience to the table, mainly young females we’re not able to reach. [Laughs] Our show is spontaneous, so we’re going to do what we’ve been doing for the last 17 years.

The new record has a lot of timely content. How does that affect the live show?
It’s not as heavy and political as our album, but you will know the seriousness of the times that we live in.

Are you doing more this election than in the past?
Initially, I was shy about it. My involvement with campaigning for Obama was really reduced to layman work. I’d get up at 3:30 in the morning, get a big-ass van and a whole bunch of flyers. All those signs you seen on your front door with Obama’s face on it? All of California? I’ve done that. I’ve called Democrats — you know, real volunteer work, not that whole “Hey, I’m a celebrity! Do exactly what I do, kid.”

You’ve been doing that for how long?
I started with the California primary [on February 5]. (more…)