Snow Patrol to release a special “iPhone album” — NME

WMG demands larger fees for Guitar Hero tracks — Rollingstone.com

Usher plans intimate, ladies-only club tour (is that legal?) — MTV.com

Like the stock market, or a pyramid scheme? Popcuts launces new digital music service — Rollingstone.com

Beck adds North American tour dates — NME

Original Rolling Stones logo sells for a pretty penny — Rollingstone.com

-Melanie Donnelly

Xiu Xiu’s percussion master Ches Smith is about to go all new music on our asses. While manning the merch booth at each of Xiu Xiu’s upcoming tour stops, Smith will be recording sounds made by fans–bleeps, bloops, what have you–for a new project, entitled Y/OUR TOWN. Smith will incorporate each city’s audio snippets into percussion pieces written for each town, and at the end of the tour, free mp3s of those compositions will be posted on Xiu Xiu’s website for your downloading pleasure.

Want to get in on the project? Take a gander at Xiu Xiu’s remaining tour dates after the cut for your chance to contribute.

-Melanie Donnelly

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As reported on Pitchfork, The Roots just announced that Estelle and Gym Class Heroes will be joining them on the majority of their upcoming U.S. tour dates. The band will be finishing up a string of festival dates in Europe before heading over to the States in early September.

For a full list of upcoming dates, read more

The Roots

-Melanie Donnelly
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