In case you thought these Canadian twin sisters were simply good singers/songwriters/guitarists/etc., here is proof that they are, in actual fact, rather hilarious onstage and off.

Me neither, but all the more reason it's a good idea for them to offer their new single, "Violet Hill," available for free download on their website for one week starting today!

As if his mere presence alone weren't enough, the greatest living live performer (that's Prince, to you) reached out to the indie masses at the Coachella Festival near Palm Springs, CA this weekend by covering Radiohead (and some band called the Beatles), and inviting good old Morris Day AND Sheila E. to his party.

For the first time ever, I can truly say I'm sorry I wasn't there.

Miley Cyrus, the 15-year-old star of Disney's Hannah Montana franchise, has embarked on a promising new career: Apologizing for the naughty things she does to try and seem like a grown-up off the set—in this case, posing for a Vanity Fair magazine portrait by Annie Leibovitz that shows her slightly naked back.

"I have let myself down," unsmiley Miley said in a statement. "I will learn from my mistakes and trust my support team. My family and my faith will guide me through my life's journey."

And by support team, she obviously means bra.

Here's the text of the eulogy delivered by Bruce Springsteen for his late keyboard player, Danny Federici, from brucespringsteen.net:

FAREWELL TO DANNY

Let me start with the stories.

Back in the days of miracles, the frontier days when “Mad Dog” Lopez and his temper struck fear into the band, small club owners, innocent civilians and all women, children and small animals. Back in the days when you could still sign your life away on the hood of a parked car in New York City.

Back shortly after a young red-headed accordionist struck gold on the “Ted Mack Amateur Hour” and he and his mama were sent to Switzerland to show them how it’s really done.

Back before beach bums were featured on the cover of Time magazine.

I’m talking about back when the E Street Band was a communist organization! My pal, quiet, shy Dan Federici, was a one-man creator of some of the hairiest circumstances of our 40 year career… And that wasn’t easy to do. He had “Mad Dog” Lopez to compete with…. Danny just outlasted him.

Maybe it was the “police riot” in Middletown, New Jersey. A show we were doing to raise bail money for “Mad Log” Lopez who was in jail in Richmond, Virginia, for having an altercation with police officers who we’d aggravated by playing too long. Danny allegedly knocked over our huge Marshall stacks on some of Middletown’s finest who had rushed the stage because we broke the law by…playing too long.

As I stood there watching, several police oficers crawled out from underneath the speaker cabinets and rushed away to seek medical attention. Another nice young officer stood in front of me onstage waving his nightstick, poking and calling me nasty names. I looked over to see Danny with a beefy police officer pulling on one arm while Flo Federici, his first wife, pulled on the other, assisting her man in resisting arrest.

A kid leapt from the audience onto the stage, momentarily distracting the beefy officer with the insults of the day. Forever thereafter, “Phantom” Dan Federici slipped into the crowd and disappeared.

A warrant out for his arrest and one month on the lam later, he still hadn’t been brought to justice. We hid him in various places but now we had a problem. We had a show coming at Monmouth College. We needed the money and we had to do the gig. We tried a replacement but it didn’t work out. So Danny, to all of our admiration, stepped up and said he’d risk his freedom, take the chance and play.

Show night. 2,000 screaming fans in the Monmouth College gym. We had it worked out so Danny would not appear onstage until the moment we started playing. We figured the police who were there to arrest him wouldn’t do so onstage during the show and risk starting another riot.

Let me set the scene for you. Danny is hiding, hunkered down in the backseat of a car in the parking lot. At five minutes to eight, our scheduled start time, I go out to whisk him in. I tap on the window.

“Danny, come on, it’s time.”

I hear back, “I’m not going.”

Me: “What do you mean you’re not going?”

Danny: “The cops are on the roof of the gym. I’ve seen them and they’re going to nail me the minute I step out of this car.”

As I open the door, I realize that Danny has been smoking a little something and had grown rather paranoid. I said, “Dan, there are no cops on the roof.”

He says, “Yes, I saw them, I tell you. I’m not coming in.”

So I used a procedure I’d call on often over the next forty years in dealing with my old pal’s concerns. I threatened him…and cajoled. Finally, out he came. Across the parking lot and into the gym we swept for a rapturous concert during which we laughted like thieves at our excellent dodge of the local cops.

At the end of the evening, during the last song, I pulled the entire crowd up onto the stage and Danny slipped into the audience and out the front door. Once again, “Phantom” Dan had made his exit. (I still get the occasional card from the old Chief of Police of Middletown wishing us well. Our histories are forever intertwined.) And that, my friends, was only the beginning.

There was the time Danny quit the band during a rough period at Max’s Kansas City, explaining to me that he was leaving to fix televisions. I asked him to think about that and come back later.

Or Danny, in the band rental car, bouncing off several parked cars after a night of entertainment, smashing out the windshield with his head but saved from severe injury by the huge hard cowboy hat he bought in Texas on our last Western swing.

Or Danny, leaving a large marijuana plant on the front seat of his car in a tow away zone. The car was promptly towed. He said, “Bruce, I’m going to go down and report that it was stolen.” I said, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Down he went and straight into the slammer without passing go.

Or Danny, the only member of the E Street Band to be physically thrown out of the Stone Pony. Considering all the money we made them, that wasn’t easy to do.

Or Danny receiving and surviving a “cautionary assault” from an enraged but restrained “Big Man” Clarence Clemons while they were living together and Danny finally drove the “Big Man” over the big top.

Or Danny assisting me in removing my foot from his stereo speaker after being the only band member ever to drive me into a violent rage.

And through it all, Danny played his beautiful, soulful B3 organ for me and our love grew. And continued to grow. Life is funny like that. He was my homeboy, and great, and for that you make considerations… And he was much more tolerant of my failures than I was of his.

When Danny wasn’t causing chaos, he was a sweet, talented, unassuming, unpretentious good-hearted guy who simply had an unchecked ability to make good fortune and things in general go fabulously wrong.

But beyond all of that, he also had a mountain of the right stuff. He had the heart and soul of an engineer. He learned to fly. He was always up on the latest technology and would explain it to you patiently and in enormous detail. He was always “souping” something up, his car, his stereo, his B3. When Patti joined the band, he was the most welcoming, thoughtful, kindest friend to the first woman entering our “boys club.”

He loved his kids, always bragging about Jason, Harley, and Madison, and he loved his wife Maya for the new things she brought into his life.

And then there was his artistry. He was the most intuitive player I’ve ever seen. His style was slippery and fluid, drawn to the spaces the other musicians in the E Street Band left. He wasn’t an assertive player, he was a complementary player. A true accompanist. He naturally supplied the glue that bound the band’s sound together. In doing so, he created for himself a very specific style. When you hear Dan Federici, you don’t hear a blanket of sound, you hear a riff, packed with energy, flying above everything else for a few moments and then gone back in the track. “Phantom” Dan Federici. Now you hear him, now you don’t.

Offstage, Danny couldn’t recite a lyric or a chord progression for one of my songs. Onstage, his ears opened up. He listened, he felt, he played, finding the perfect hole and placement for a chord or a flurry of notes. This style created a tremendous feeling of spontaneity in our ensemble playing.

In the studio, if I wanted to loosen up the track we were recording, I’d put Danny on it and not tell him what to play. I’d just set him loose. He brought with him the sound of the carnival, the amusements, the boardwalk, the beach, the geography of our youth and the heart and soul of the birthplace of the E Street Band.

Then we grew up. Very slowly. We stood together through a lot of trials and tribulations. Danny’s response to a mistake onstage, hard times, catastrophic events was usually a shrug and a smile. Sort of an “I am but one man in a raging sea, but I’m still afloat. And we’re all still here.”

I watched Danny fight and conquer some tough addictions. I watched him struggle to put his life together and in the last decade when the band reunited, thrive on sitting in his seat behind that big B3, filled with life and, yes, a new maturity, passion for his job, his family and his home in the brother and sisterhood of our band.

Finally, I watched him fight his cancer without complaint and with great courage and spirit. When I asked him how things looked, he just said, “what are you going to do? I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” Danny, the sunny side up fatalist. He never gave up right to the end.

A few weeks back we ended up onstage in Indianapolis for what would be the last time. Before we went on I asked him what he wanted to play and he said, “Sandy.” He wanted to strap on the accordion and revisit the boardwalk of our youth during the summer nights when we’d walk along the boards with all the time in the world.

So what if we just smashed into three parked cars, it’s a beautiful night! So what if we’re on the lam from the entire Middletown police department, let’s go take a swim! He wanted to play once more the song that is of course about the end of something wonderful and the beginning of something unknown and new.

Let’s go back to the days of miracles. Pete Townshend said, “a rock and roll band is a crazy thing. You meet some people when you’re a kid and unlike any other occupation in the whole world, you’re stuck with them your whole life no matter who they are or what crazy things they do.”

If we didn’t play together, the E Street Band at this point would probably not know one another. We wouldn’t be in this room together. But we do… We do play together. And every night at 8 p.m., we walk out on stage together and that, my friends, is a place where miracles occur…old and new miracles. And those you are with, in the presence of miracles, you never forget. Life does not separate you. Death does not separate you. Those you are with who create miracles for you, like Danny did for me every night, you are honored to be amongst.

Of course we all grow up and we know “it’s only rock and roll”…but it’s not. After a lifetime of watching a man perform his miracle for you, night after night, it feels an awful lot like love.

So today, making another one of his mysterious exits, we say farewell to Danny, “Phantom” Dan, Federici. Father, husband, my brother, my friend, my mystery, my thorn, my rose, my keyboard player, my miracle man and lifelong member in good standing of the house rockin’, pants droppin’, earth shockin’, hard rockin’, booty shakin’, love makin’, heart breakin’, soul cryin’… and, yes, death defyin’ legendary E Street Band.

Typically a Heartbreaker, occasionally a Wibury, and frequently a solo artist, Tom Petty has nonetheless felt the need to reunite the band he was in in the early-'70s, before he was successful, the band he moved from L.A. to Florida to make it big with, the band with the worst name, quite possibly, EVER. Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Petty brings you: Mudcrutch.

I've seen some boring stuff on the web, but this video of Trent Reznor autographing the deluxe limited edition of Nine Inch Nails's Ghosts, has got to be the boringest. At least we know he can write his name.

From CMT News:

Toby Keith Returning to Persian Gulf for USO Tour

Toby Keith will make his sixth USO tour soon with a visit to the Persian Gulf. He plans to visit small, remote operating bases, greet newly-deployed service members and perform 18 shows in six days. "There's no denying I am definitely busy these days, but no matter how busy I am, I always make the time to visit our nation's troops," says Keith. "They all mean a lot to me, and my trips overseas to visit them is what I look forward to every year. I only wish everyone had the opportunity to travel with the USO as it's been the experience of a lifetime for me."

The drug rock pioneer and the '80s art rock experimentalist got married after years of coupledom. Here's hoping it was a perfect day.

Those incorrigible lads from The Replacements (whose lively first four albums are reissued today!) tease the world a bit with the tantalizing prospect of a reunion. It's hard to tell what they're waiting for (ahem, except a bigger cash offer, duh), but it's nice to see they didn't just jump right on it.

In case you thought the noxious misery known as American Idol had anything to do with reality, think again. And, if you thought it would be around forever, think again again!

A couple days late, but not even close to a dollar short:

VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"Our Song" Taylor Swift

Directed by: Trey Fanjoy

MALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"I Got My Game On" Trace Adkins

FEMALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"Our Song" Taylor Swift

GROUP VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"Take Me There" Rascal Flatts

DUO VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"Stay" Sugarland

USA WEEKEND BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"I Wonder" Kellie Pickler

COLLABORATIVE VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" Bon Jovi and LeAnn Rimes

PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

"I Wonder" Kellie Pickler

41st Annual CMA Awards (ABC)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER OF THE YEAR

Rodney Carrington "I Got My Game On"

WIDE OPEN COUNTRY VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)" Alison Krauss and Robert Plant

TEARJERKER VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"I Wonder" Kellie Pickler

COMEDY VIDEO OF THE YEAR

"Online" Brad Paisley (Winner)

VIDEO DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

Michael Salomon

"High Maintenance Woman" - Toby Keith

"I Got My Game On" - Trace Adkins

"Love Me If You Can" - Toby Keith

Has Akon been exaggerating his criminal past to seem more authentic and hard and gangsta to try and sell more records? Say it ain't so!

Bruce Springsteen has endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination and from there, the presidency. It's bound to help. Just ask President Kerry.

From The Boss's website:

"Like most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

"

This story—in which an anonymous singing waiter from Reno claims to have met Sting all those years ago and told him about this prostitute friend of his named Roxanne, and now wants some royalties from The Police megahit —would have been good anyway, but add the fact that it's only coming out 30+ years later, and involves the additional claim from this man that Sting had tried to reach him, but his mother thought it was actually the cops calling, so she didn't pass along the message(s). It's too good.

When asked if there was anything he'd like to say to Sting, Smith replied, "De do do do, de da da da. There. I'd like to see him turn that into a song."

David Bowie tells NME all about the official release of a well-traveled 1972 live bootleg of a show from the Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars tour. You could make the case that Bowie hasn't been as good (or relevant) since. It'll come out in the U.S. on July 1.

David Bowie will release a live album, 'David Bowie, Live Santa Monica '72' on June 30 on CD and double vinyl.

The album is a recording from Bowie's gig at the Los Angeles Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 20, 1972. The gig was part of Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' US tour.

In a statement to NME.COM, Bowie said of the recording: "I can tell that I'm totally into being Ziggy by this stage of our touring. It's no longer an act; I am him.

"This would be around the tenth American show for us and you can hear that we are all pretty high on ourselves. We train wreck a couple of things, I miss some words and sometimes you wouldn’t know that pianist Mike Garson was onstage with us but overall I really treasure this bootleg. Mick Ronson is at his blistering best."

The track-listing for 'David Bowie, Live Santa Monica '72':

'Introduction'

'Hang On To Yourself'

'Ziggy Stardust'

'Changes'

'The Supermen'

'Life On Mars?'

'Five Years'

'Space Oddity'

'Andy Warhol'

'My Death'

'The Width Of A Circle'

'Queen Bitch'

'Moonage Daydream'

'John, I'm Only Dancing'

'I'm Waiting For The Man'

'The Jean Genie'

'Suffragette City'

'Rock 'N' Roll Suicide'

Q: What's worse than listening to Mariah Carey sing her songs?

A: Hearing American Idol contestants sing them.

Having recently butchered the music of the Beatles, this season's Idol hopefuls have turned their tuneless sights on the canon of Mariah Carey. Since I refuse to watch or listen to this abominable program, I humbly direct you to Entertainment Weekly's recap.

I'm not entirely sure I follow this Huffington Post story, but it has something to do with Alicia Keys, and Blender Magazine (from the a-holes who brought you Maxim), and a conspiracy theory involving the U.S. government's long-speculated on war against its black citizens the murderous violence endemic to and inherent in gangsta rap. Hmmm... You tell me?

NEW YORK — Alicia Keys says she's not a conspiracy theorist. In a statement issued Tuesday, Keys said she was clarifying "comments that were made during my recent Blender magazine interview since they have been misrepresented."

According to an interview in the magazine's May issue, the 27-year-old singer says: "`Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. `Gangsta rap' didn't exist." She also is quoted as saying that she wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead."

"We stand by our story," Blender spokeswoman Kate Cafaro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"My comments about `gangsta rap' were in no way trying to suggest that the government is responsible for creating this genre of rap music," Keys said in a statement issued by J Records. "The point that I was trying to make was that the term was oversloganized by some of the media causing reactions that were not always positive. Many of the `gangsta rap' lyrics articulate the problems of the artists' experiences and I think all of us, including our leaders, could be doing more to address these problems including drugs, gang violence, crime, and other related social issues."

As for the AK-47 remark, Keys said Tuesday that AK-47 is a nickname given to her by friends "as an acronym for Alicia Keys and a metaphor for wowing people with my music and performances, `killing 'em dead' on stage. The reference was in no way meant to have a literal, political or negative connotation."

When AP attempted to reach Keys last week about the Blender interview, her publicist, Theola Borden, said the singer was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

The multiplatinum star behind the hits "Fallin'" and "No One" most recently had success with her latest CD, "As I Am," which has sold 3.4 million copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

Big-eyed actress Zooey Deschanel (Elf, All the Real Girls) is also a musician. The evidence: She and Him, her new, highly praised collaboration with the multi-talented indie singer-songwriter M. Ward. Read all about it in the paper of record.

Nice Q&A with good ol' Liz Phair in Billboard about the 15th anniversary reissue of her (only) essential LP, Exile in Guyville, her new record deal, and the requisite apologia for having gone so desperately, mediocrely MILF-pop.

Why did you decide to sign with ATO for the re-release of "Guyville" and your new record?

Liz Phair: I missed being on an indie. I never wanted to go to a major in the first place, but Matador basically sold me to Capitol, and when they divested, I was left there. It has been a long time since I could do what I wanted. When I was on Capitol, I tried to adapt and make the best of it, but I can honestly say, for the first time in 15 years, I feel creative. I don't have to start with a mindset that thinks about how to sell the record and works backward.

Why did you decide to kick off the deal by re-releasing "Exile in Guyville" as opposed to releasing a new album?

The re-release was actually ATO's idea initially, but I did realize that we'd never done the 10th anniversary edition, and it seemed like a good thing to do. I jumped on the idea because I wanted to work on the DVD and revisit the scene that happened around "Guyville" in 1993. I wanted to bring that moment back to life, and it was also a good way for me to establish my independence.

I'm also excited about the way the re-release turned out. Alan Light did the liner notes, and I've been meeting with artists about the packaging for the 2.0 version. There are three bonus tracks, but there is a good minute separating them from the rest of the record. It was cool to go through my closet and find the songs -- some are from [demo] "Girly Sound" but they are very much of the "Guyville" era.

Does it ever drive you nuts that even after four more records and 15 years, people keep coming back to "Guyville?"

There was a period where I was frustrated, but much of that came from the fact that I was stuck in the major system and felt like my fans hated me and I was cranky. And now I'm not cranky anymore [laughs]. When I did the first pop record, I have to say it was fun for me. [Then-Capitol president] Andy Slater came in and we just decided to give it a shot. I felt like I had fun and learned a lot, although I certainly would not have made that record had I not been on a major.

Who do you think will be picking up the re-release of "Exile" and the new record?

I think I still have a core fan base, and there are people out there who like the sloppy Liz style. I have a feeling that my fans are older and have lives now -- they are in a different place than they were 15 years ago.

What can we expect of the new record?

I was recording demos all winter, after taking a few years off, which I needed. The demos were all super cheap, and my friends all lent me their time and got involved. I'm going to start recording in mid-April and hopefully bang this puppy out. I have a strong vision that I can't quite articulate yet, but I'm hoping it'll be clear on the album.

"Guyville" was released at an interesting moment for women in 1993 -- Clinton had just been elected, riot grrrl was happening and gender politics were very different. If it were released today, how do you think it would do?

I'm of two minds about the whole thing. Fifteen years ago, things seemed a lot more male-dominated, and now you get women busting out everywhere, so that's good. But the way they are busting out is still very much within the constraints of what men want them to do. Maybe we don't need to have as much anger as we did back then, but we still need strong women. I see all these young women on porn sites, all these sorority girls posting pictures of themselves giving blowjobs and thinking that it's empowering, and I feel like they really missed the point.