Speaking to The New Zealand Herold, Damon Albarn revealed that the recent Big Day Out festival in Australia would have been Blur's last. The band famously bailed on the festival citing organizational reasons. Albarn said, "This is as frank as I'm prepared to be about what happened. That was going to be the last Blur show – the end of playing together – and I didn't want it to finish on anything other than a very positive note, because Blur is incredibly precious to all of us." He added then added, "They [the organizers] weren't being straight with me about things, which they needed to be, and at that point I became disillusioned because I didn't want what we'd done throughout the year, with Blur, to be undermined or tarnished in any way, by a show that wasn't going to be what we wanted to do. We'd been playing for six months solidly, around the world, so I knew that we would deliver a fantastic show, a great performance and a communal event, which everyone would have enjoyed. All I asked was that the organization recognized that and I didn't feel they did. So, that's why, unfortunately, we couldn't come."
Frank Ocean has confirmed via Instagram photos that he is working on his sophomore album.
Pretenders frontman Chrissie Hynde will release her debut solo album, Stockholm, in June. The record was produced by Bjorn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John.
A Sunny Day in Glasgow will release their new album, Sea When Absent, in June.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have pushed back the release of their forthcoming album, Days of Abandon, to May 13.
Did Chris Rock come up with the hook for Jay Z's infamous "99 Problems?" According to producer Rick Rubin, Rock came up with the idea for the chorus. Speaking to New York magazine, Rubin said, "Actually, Chris Rock had the idea for the chorus. It’s based on an Ice-T song called “99 Problems,” and he said, “Ice-T has this song, and maybe there’s a way to flip it around and do a new version of that.” And I told Jay Z the idea and he liked it. The Ice-T song is about “got 99 problems and a b***h ain’t one,” and then it’s a list of him talking about his girls and what a great pimp he is. And our idea was to use that same hook concept, and instead of it being about the girls that are not his problem, instead of being a bragging song, it’s more about the problems. Like this is about the other side of that story."