My Morning Jacket is set to give a thrill to some young musicians as the band revealed plans to bring the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra onstage at this year's Lollapalooza performance. MMJ previously jammed with the orchestra, which contains musicians as young as seven years old, last fall. Frontman Jim James is quoted as saying, "It is hard to even think of them as youth. Their playing is so grown-up and professional. They hit with diamond-like precision." Should be interesting to see!

Prince has been holed up in Vegas performing on the strip, but his Purpleness will leave Sin City behind later this year for a string of 21 dates in London. Prince is set to begin his London "residency" on August 1st with a seven night stint at the O2 Arena, but is reportedly going to hold many of the other 14 shows at smaller venues around London.

Jack White says the White Stripes are sticking together and that Icky Thump is not their last record. White apparently is growing tired of being asked if he's leaving Meg behind. He's quoted as saying " "We get asked all the time, 'How long do you think it's gonna last?' I'd venture to say that in 90 per cent of interviews, someone has asked us, 'Is this the last record?' It's almost as if people want us to stop! "Then The Raconteurs came along and people thought, obviously, we're done. But then with this new album people are saying The Raconteurs are done. That was a side project!"

Since I'm obviously biased, I'll be looking for others to tell you about the
Pawnshop Roses in the coming weeks and months. DigPhilly has the first preview of Let It Roll: "Philly's Pawnshop Roses offer up a fine testament to downhome Americana on their debut album." You can read the rest of the review at DigPhilly.com. Important Pawnshop Roses dates: regional cd release party tomorrow night at the Trocadero Theater, national digital release party June 8th at Milkboy Coffee and the international digital relase is set for July 30th.

Mp3 Offerings:
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Love Song No. 7
Licorice w/ DJ Logic: In a Silent Way / What's Your Status in London
The Clientele: Bookshop Casanova
Astrid Swan (covering The Killers): When You Were Young
The Basement: I Just Caught A Face

Tori Amos is set to give musical theater a try. BuzzSugar has the scoop and has a Tori Amos giveaway contest going. The red headed songstress also recently shared a nice moment with the PS22 Chorus in New York City by leading them in a performance of "Father Son."

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation says the "March 2007 decision by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to more than double the rates that webcasters pay to stream music over the next three years will have a disastrous effect on Internet Radio" and that a "careful review of the CRB decision reveals that not only is this rate increase unfair and undeserved, but it reflects a fundamentally broken system for determining copyright royalty rates." The ITIF will present a forum tomorrow in Washington DC to offer an "alternative to the current system which would allow copyright owners to establish fair and competitive rates for their music." Information on the event can be found here.

Labels: Mp3s, My Morning Jacket, Pawnshop Roses, Prince, White Stripes