Bono, Coldplay, Eddie Vedder Contribute Unreleased Songs to New Compilation

Christy Turlington Burns attends CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles

Model Christy Turlington Burns is teaming with Starbucks to release Every Mother Counts 2012, the second album to benefit the organization she founded of the same name. Every Mother Counts is an awareness and mobilization campaign to reduce the maternal mortality rate on a global scale.

The new collection, available at Starbucks exclusively from May 1st to May 29th to celebrate Mother's Day, features a slew of A-list acts, including David Bowie, Sting, Faith Hill and Lauryn Hill. In addition, there are several previously unreleased tracks, highlighted by Coldplay's acoustic "Yellow," Bono and the Edge's acoustic "Original of the Species," Eddie Vedder's "Skipping" and husband-and-wife team Paul Simon and Edie Brickell teaming on "Pretty Day."

In all, 13 of the 19 songs are previously unheard. In addition to the aforementioned tracks, Alanis Morissette, Patti Smith, Beck, the Dave Matthews Band and more contribute to the collection.

"I went to friends first, as I did with the first CD," Turlington Burns tells Rolling Stone. "Bono and Chris Martin were great supporters of the project the first time around, and when I knew I wanted to include men on this album they were obvious choices. They are also both fathers to daughters. Others, such as Patti Smith and Rita Wilson, I've known for a long time, and some, like Edie Brickell and Paul Simon, I only met briefly but was a huge admirer. I generally wanted a diverse group of artists who were parents, or in the case of Edward Sharpe, who will be soon. We wanted to reach a broad audience on this issue with this particular project and with a range of perspectives."

The full track listing for the CD is as follows. Songs with an asterisk indicate previously unheard tracks.

Bono and the Edge "Original of the Species" (acoustic) *
Eddie Vedder " Skipping" *
Paul Simon and Edie Brickell "Pretty Day" *
Faith Hill "Wish for You"
Sade "The Sweetest Gift"
Lauryn Hill "I Remember"
Rita Wilson "Baby I'm Yours" *
Diana Krall "Don't Fence Me In" *
Seal "Secret"
Dave Matthews Band "Sister" (live) *
Sting "Fragilidad"
Alanis Morissette "Magical Child" *
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros "Mother" *
David Bowie "Everyone Says 'Hi'"
Cedella Marley "Get Up Stand Up" *
Beck "Corrina, Corrina" *
Rufus Wainwright "Instead of the Dead" *
Patti Smith "Somalia" *
Coldplay "Yellow" (acoustic) *

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Bono, Coldplay, Eddie Vedder Contribute Unreleased Songs to New Compilation

Christy Turlington Burns attends CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles

Model Christy Turlington Burns is teaming with Starbucks to release Every Mother Counts 2012, the second album to benefit the organization she founded of the same name. Every Mother Counts is an awareness and mobilization campaign to reduce the maternal mortality rate on a global scale.

The new collection, available at Starbucks exclusively from May 1st to May 29th to celebrate Mother's Day, features a slew of A-list acts, including David Bowie, Sting, Faith Hill and Lauryn Hill. In addition, there are several previously unreleased tracks, highlighted by Coldplay's acoustic "Yellow," Bono and the Edge's acoustic "Original of the Species," Eddie Vedder's "Skipping" and husband-and-wife team Paul Simon and Edie Brickell teaming on "Pretty Day."

In all, 13 of the 19 songs are previously unheard. In addition to the aforementioned tracks, Alanis Morissette, Patti Smith, Beck, the Dave Matthews Band and more contribute to the collection.

"I went to friends first, as I did with the first CD," Turlington Burns tells Rolling Stone. "Bono and Chris Martin were great supporters of the project the first time around, and when I knew I wanted to include men on this album they were obvious choices. They are also both fathers to daughters. Others, such as Patti Smith and Rita Wilson, I've known for a long time, and some, like Edie Brickell and Paul Simon, I only met briefly but was a huge admirer. I generally wanted a diverse group of artists who were parents, or in the case of Edward Sharpe, who will be soon. We wanted to reach a broad audience on this issue with this particular project and with a range of perspectives."

The full track listing for the CD is as follows. Songs with an asterisk indicate previously unheard tracks.

Bono and the Edge "Original of the Species" (acoustic) *
Eddie Vedder " Skipping" *
Paul Simon and Edie Brickell "Pretty Day" *
Faith Hill "Wish for You"
Sade "The Sweetest Gift"
Lauryn Hill "I Remember"
Rita Wilson "Baby I'm Yours" *
Diana Krall "Don't Fence Me In" *
Seal "Secret"
Dave Matthews Band "Sister" (live) *
Sting "Fragilidad"
Alanis Morissette "Magical Child" *
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros "Mother" *
David Bowie "Everyone Says 'Hi'"
Cedella Marley "Get Up Stand Up" *
Beck "Corrina, Corrina" *
Rufus Wainwright "Instead of the Dead" *
Patti Smith "Somalia" *
Coldplay "Yellow" (acoustic) *

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Coldplay, Jon Stewart, Mumford and Sons to Headline First Secret Policeman’s Ball in New York

The lineup is announced for the 1st U.S. Secret Policemen's Ball.Stephen Lovekin/Kevin Mazur/Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage/Getty

A much-loved British television tradition will travel across the pond this spring when Coldplay, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Mumford & Sons stage the first Secret Policeman's Ball in New York.

The Stateside adaptation of the longstanding British benefit shows will be held March 4th at Radio City Music Hall. Like its English predecessors, it will raise money for Amnesty International and feature a varied roster of musicians and comedians. Standup comics Russell Brand and Reggie Watts are also scheduled to perform in the show, with more acts to be announced soon.

The British Secret Policeman's Balls, which launched in the 1970s, have featured such stars as U2, Sting, Duran Duran, the Monty Python troupe and Hugh Laurie. New York Secret Policeman's Ball organizer David Javerbaum, a former Daily Show producer, tells The New York Times that his event will be "in the same spirit, for the same cause" as its British counterpart, "and we're trying to do it with the same energy and élan." Tickets go on sale Monday.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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On the Charts: The Black Keys and Coldplay Prove Rock's Staying Power

The Black Keys perform at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas in Universal City, California.

WINNER OF THE WEEK: Rock music. For more than a year, we've been reporting on the moribund sales and radio impotence of what was, for decades, the most dominant genre in pop music. Last year, we remarked numerous times on the Cakes, Strokes and Hollywood Undeads that surged up the charts in their first weeks only to plunge into sales obscurity immediately afterwards. And while it's the slow time of year and CDs have to sell very little to cling to the Top 10, suddenly we're noticing rock albums with staying power. The Black Keys' El Camino is at Number Three (with 29,000 in sales) in its seventh week; Coldplay's Mylo Zyloto is at Number Nine (17,000) in its 13th week; and Nickelback's Here and Now is at Number 10 (almost 17,000) in its ninth week. These are tiny sales, but they're something to build on. What the genre really needs is a gigantic, "Rolling in the Deep"-style single to dominate radio and cross over to lift everybody else up.

LOSER OF THE WEEK: Megaupload. The crazy story of Kim Dotcom and his (alleged) $175 million copyright-infringement empire is playing out in a New Zealand courtroom. (To sum up: the 38-year-old German founder of Megaupload.com was indicted last week for building a massive worldwide business off illegal file-sharing, from music to movies to porn; he was denied bail yesterday.) By Megaupload's own pre-indictment accounting, the site had more than 180 million users and 50 million daily visits and comprised 4 percent of the Internet's traffic. So now that Megaupload is busted out of existence, will sales of legitimate music surge again, in such a way that the 10th-best-selling album on the charts will no longer sell a minuscule 17,000 copies? The Recording Industry Association of America thinks so, claiming digital-music sales increased last year due to the shut-down of the venerable file-sharing service LimeWire. There may be a bit of truth in that, but we believe Adele's 21 – which became the biggest Number One album since Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard soundtrack in this week – and its various massive singles had far more to do with this than any tech company.

SURGING SINGLES FOR EVERYONE: It's that superstar-single time of year again, when artists prep for pre-summer album releases and try to build buzz as much as possible via YouTube, iTunes, Spotify and, of course, radio. We remarked recently on Jason Mraz's out-of-nowhere "I Won't Give Up" (now holding at Number Two on BigChampagne's Ultimate Chart, which measures Internet buzz). Joining that single in the Surge Department is Tyga's lowest-common-denominator "Rack City" (now at 17.4 million YouTube views and one viewer's classic comment, "This porn has terrible music"), which jumped 18 spots on the Ultimate Chart to Number Five; dance-music master David Guetta's "Turn Me On" (with Nicki Minaj), which jumped 23 spots on last week's Ultimate Chart and just became the Number One digital single, selling 198,000; and Kelly Clarkson's "What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)," which jumped 53 spots on the Ultimate Chart, to Number 17, selling 175,000 copies this week. These are all over the iTunes songs charts, as well, and could wind up foreshadowing early 2012's biggest hits.

LAST WEEK: Jessie J Starts the Invasion

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »

On the Charts: The Black Keys and Coldplay Prove Rock's Staying Power

The Black Keys perform at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas in Universal City, California.

WINNER OF THE WEEK: Rock music. For more than a year, we've been reporting on the moribund sales and radio impotence of what was, for decades, the most dominant genre in pop music. Last year, we remarked numerous times on the Cakes, Strokes and Hollywood Undeads that surged up the charts in their first weeks only to plunge into sales obscurity immediately afterwards. And while it's the slow time of year and CDs have to sell very little to cling to the Top 10, suddenly we're noticing rock albums with staying power. The Black Keys' El Camino is at Number Three (with 29,000 in sales) in its seventh week; Coldplay's Mylo Zyloto is at Number Nine (17,000) in its 13th week; and Nickelback's Here and Now is at Number 10 (almost 17,000) in its ninth week. These are tiny sales, but they're something to build on. What the genre really needs is a gigantic, "Rolling in the Deep"-style single to dominate radio and cross over to lift everybody else up.

LOSER OF THE WEEK: Megaupload. The crazy story of Kim Dotcom and his (alleged) $175 million copyright-infringement empire is playing out in a New Zealand courtroom. (To sum up: the 38-year-old German founder of Megaupload.com was indicted last week for building a massive worldwide business off illegal file-sharing, from music to movies to porn; he was denied bail yesterday.) By Megaupload's own pre-indictment accounting, the site had more than 180 million users and 50 million daily visits and comprised 4 percent of the Internet's traffic. So now that Megaupload is busted out of existence, will sales of legitimate music surge again, in such a way that the 10th-best-selling album on the charts will no longer sell a minuscule 17,000 copies? The Recording Industry Association of America thinks so, claiming digital-music sales increased last year due to the shut-down of the venerable file-sharing service LimeWire. There may be a bit of truth in that, but we believe Adele's 21 – which became the biggest Number One album since Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard soundtrack in this week – and its various massive singles had far more to do with this than any tech company.

SURGING SINGLES FOR EVERYONE: It's that superstar-single time of year again, when artists prep for pre-summer album releases and try to build buzz as much as possible via YouTube, iTunes, Spotify and, of course, radio. We remarked recently on Jason Mraz's out-of-nowhere "I Won't Give Up" (now holding at Number Two on BigChampagne's Ultimate Chart, which measures Internet buzz). Joining that single in the Surge Department is Tyga's lowest-common-denominator "Rack City" (now at 17.4 million YouTube views and one viewer's classic comment, "This porn has terrible music"), which jumped 18 spots on the Ultimate Chart to Number Five; dance-music master David Guetta's "Turn Me On" (with Nicki Minaj), which jumped 23 spots on last week's Ultimate Chart and just became the Number One digital single, selling 198,000; and Kelly Clarkson's "What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)," which jumped 53 spots on the Ultimate Chart, to Number 17, selling 175,000 copies this week. These are all over the iTunes songs charts, as well, and could wind up foreshadowing early 2012's biggest hits.

LAST WEEK: Jessie J Starts the Invasion

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Coldplay, Jon Stewart, Mumford and Sons to Headline First Secret Policeman’s Ball in New York

The lineup is announced for the 1st U.S. Secret Policemen's Ball.Stephen Lovekin/Kevin Mazur/Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage/Getty

A much-loved British television tradition will travel across the pond this spring when Coldplay, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Mumford & Sons stage the first Secret Policeman's Ball in New York.

The Stateside adaptation of the longstanding British benefit shows will be held March 4th at Radio City Music Hall. Like its English predecessors, it will raise money for Amnesty International and feature a varied roster of musicians and comedians. Standup comics Russell Brand and Reggie Watts are also scheduled to perform in the show, with more acts to be announced soon.

The British Secret Policeman's Balls, which launched in the 1970s, have featured such stars as U2, Sting, Duran Duran, the Monty Python troupe and Hugh Laurie. New York Secret Policeman's Ball organizer David Javerbaum, a former Daily Show producer, tells The New York Times that his event will be "in the same spirit, for the same cause" as its British counterpart, "and we're trying to do it with the same energy and élan." Tickets go on sale Monday.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Adele, Coldplay Lead BRIT Award Nominations

Adele performs at the BRIT awards in London.

Adele, Coldplay and Florence and the Machine are among the top nominated artists for the 2012 BRIT Awards, the British record industry's equivalent to the Grammys. The 32nd annual awards show will be held in London on February 21st.

Adele, who scored the top-selling album in her native U.K. in 2011, is up for Best British Album of the Year for 21, as well as Best British Female Solo Artist and Best British Single of the Year for "Someone Like You." Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto is also nominated in the best album category, and the band is in the running for Best British Group. Noel Gallagher, James Blake, Jessie J, Anna Calvi, Elbow, Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian are also nominated in various categories, and Britpop heroes Blur will be honored with a lifetime achievement award.

Though the BRIT Awards are designed to honor talent from the U.K., a handful of North American acts – including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Foo Fighters and Maroon 5 – were nominated in the show's international categories.

The nominations for the 2012 BRIT Awards are as follows:

British Male Solo Artist
Ed Sheeran
James Blake
James Morrison
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Professor Green

British Female Solo Artist
Adele
Florence and the Machine
Jessie J
Kate Bush
Laura Marling

British Breakthrough Act
Anna Calvi
Ed Sheeran
Emeli Sandé
Jessie J
The Vaccines

British Group
Arctic Monkeys
Chase and Status
Coldplay
Elbow
Kasabian

British Single
Adele, "Someone Like You"
Ed Sheeran, "The A Team"
Example, "Changed The Way You Kissed Me"
Jessie J feat. B.o.B, "Price Tag"
JLS feat. Dev, "She Makes Me Wanna"
Military Wives/Gareth Malone, "Wherever You Are"
Olly Murs feat. Rizzle Kicks, "Heart Skips A Beat"
One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful"
Pixie Lott, "All About Tonight"
The Wanted, "Glad You Came"

British Album of the Year
Adele - 21
Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
Ed Sheeran -  +
Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

International Male Solo Artist
Aloe Blacc
Bon Iver
Bruno Mars
David Guetta
Ryan Adams

International Female Solo Artist
Beyoncé
Bjork
Feist
Lady Gaga
Rihanna

International Group
Fleet Foxes
Foo Fighters
Jay Z and Kanye West
Lady Antebellum
Maroon 5

International Breakthrough Act
Aloe Blacc
Bon Iver
Foster The People
Lana Del Rey
Nicki Minaj

Outstanding Contribution to Music
Blur

Critics' Choice
1st - Emeli Sandé
2nd - Maverick Sabre
3rd - Michael Kiwanuka

British Producer
Paul Epworth
Flood
Ethan Jones

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Find music selection in Amazon here

Read more »

Adele, Coldplay Lead BRIT Award Nominations

Adele performs at the BRIT awards in London.

Adele, Coldplay and Florence and the Machine are among the top nominated artists for the 2012 BRIT Awards, the British record industry's equivalent to the Grammys. The 32nd annual awards show will be held in London on February 21st.

Adele, who scored the top-selling album in her native U.K. in 2011, is up for Best British Album of the Year for 21, as well as Best British Female Solo Artist and Best British Single of the Year for "Someone Like You." Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto is also nominated in the best album category, and the band is in the running for Best British Group. Noel Gallagher, James Blake, Jessie J, Anna Calvi, Elbow, Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian are also nominated in various categories, and Britpop heroes Blur will be honored with a lifetime achievement award.

Though the BRIT Awards are designed to honor talent from the U.K., a handful of North American acts – including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Foo Fighters and Maroon 5 – were nominated in the show's international categories.

The nominations for the 2012 BRIT Awards are as follows:

British Male Solo Artist
Ed Sheeran
James Blake
James Morrison
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Professor Green

British Female Solo Artist
Adele
Florence and the Machine
Jessie J
Kate Bush
Laura Marling

British Breakthrough Act
Anna Calvi
Ed Sheeran
Emeli Sandé
Jessie J
The Vaccines

British Group
Arctic Monkeys
Chase and Status
Coldplay
Elbow
Kasabian

British Single
Adele, "Someone Like You"
Ed Sheeran, "The A Team"
Example, "Changed The Way You Kissed Me"
Jessie J feat. B.o.B, "Price Tag"
JLS feat. Dev, "She Makes Me Wanna"
Military Wives/Gareth Malone, "Wherever You Are"
Olly Murs feat. Rizzle Kicks, "Heart Skips A Beat"
One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful"
Pixie Lott, "All About Tonight"
The Wanted, "Glad You Came"

British Album of the Year
Adele - 21
Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
Ed Sheeran -  +
Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

International Male Solo Artist
Aloe Blacc
Bon Iver
Bruno Mars
David Guetta
Ryan Adams

International Female Solo Artist
Beyoncé
Bjork
Feist
Lady Gaga
Rihanna

International Group
Fleet Foxes
Foo Fighters
Jay Z and Kanye West
Lady Antebellum
Maroon 5

International Breakthrough Act
Aloe Blacc
Bon Iver
Foster The People
Lana Del Rey
Nicki Minaj

Outstanding Contribution to Music
Blur

Critics' Choice
1st - Emeli Sandé
2nd - Maverick Sabre
3rd - Michael Kiwanuka

British Producer
Paul Epworth
Flood
Ethan Jones

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

View from Amazon here

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