Well, modern rock, actually. Internet radio phenomenon WOXY.com has released its annual list of the top 500 modern rock radio songs of all-time. Pretty impeccable, even if you take issue with certain placements (419!?!?!). The full list is here. The top 50 is right down here:

50. Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill

49. R.E.M. - Losing My Religion

48. Nirvana - All Apologies

47. Bjork - Human Behaviour

46. The Police - Message In A Bottle

45. Elvis Costello - (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding

44. The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

43. Beastie Boys - Sabotage

42. Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye

41. James - Laid

40. Jane’s Addiction - Been Caught Stealing

39. R.E.M. - It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

38. David Bowie - Changes

37. The Breeders - Cannonball

36. U2 - New Year’s Day

35. Patti Smith - Gloria

34. Nirvana - Come As You Are

33. The Cure - Just Like Heaven

32. Radiohead - Karma Police

31. Lou Reed - Walk On The Wild Side

30. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Just Like Honey

29. Talking Heads - Burning Down The House

28. Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK

27. The Clash - Rock The Casbah

26. Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot

25. Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven

24. Jane’s Addiction - Jane Says

23. New Order - Blue Monday

22. Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus

21. My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow

20. David Bowie - Space Oddity

19. Television - Marquee Moon

18. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer

17. The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated

16. Fugazi - Waiting Room

15. Beck - Loser

14. The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry

13. The Replacements - Alex Chilton

12. Elvis Costello - Radio Radio

11. Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen

10. U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday

9. Radiohead - Paranoid Android

8. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

7. The Clash - London Calling

6. Pixies - Where Is My Mind?

5. R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe

4. The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?

3. Violent Femmes - Blister In The Sun

2. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

1. Radiohead - Creep

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, co-stars and Oscar-winning songwriters for the folksy, love-it-or-storm-out-after-20-minutes-because-you-utterly-can't-stand-it romantic musical Once, have taken their show on the road, and Radio City Music Hall approves.

"A couple years ago, we decided to kick our ball as hard as we could, and see how far it would go," Hansard said

Pretty far, looks like.

Every few years, the former keyboardist from The Doors comes out of hiding to announce that A) Jim Morrison was a poet and a shaman, B) Oliver Stone (director of the camp classic movie The Doors) is a charlatan, and C) Oh, by the way, I have a new book/fake Doors reunion tour with a washed up '80s-'90s ringer lead singer/solo album/documentary/line of hippie scarves I'd like you to buy. Let 2008 be no exception to this trend! This time around:

We have plans for a big Doors documentary film in the works," Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek tells Billboard.com. "I saw the first cut of it yesterday, and it's looking real good. But that won't be out 'til another six months."

Oh, and:

Manzarek is getting ready to hit the road for a European tour in July as part of Riders On The Storm, a group that also features ex-Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger (and former Fuel singer Brett Scallions).

Break on through, Ray.

In the unlikely event that the great Paul McCartney hadn't yet received enough accolades in his 45 years of accolade-laden glory, the brainiacs at Yale University made him a doctor yesterday, if only an honorary one. Me, my friend, I said you call Doctor Robert, but Yale says different!

From Digital Spy (I love the part about how she supposedly has a heart!):

Madonna burst into tears following an argument with Pharrell Williams in the studio.

The pair teamed up for Madonna's latest album Hard Candy, but their professional relationship got off to a rocky start when the rapper and music producer lost his temper with the Queen of Pop.

"Pharrell made me cry," Madonna revealed. "You know when you get angry with someone and you're spitting snot. I was in a sensitive mood in the studio and I didn't understand the rhythm he wanted me to sing in, and he was giving me a hard time. I was taken back by how he was talking to me."

She added: "We went upstairs and I said, 'You can't talk to me like that,' and burst into tears. And he said, 'Oh my God, Madonna has a heart.' We had it out and now I love him and we make great music together."

Madonna also worked on the album with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. She had previously revealed that there was tension within the team, but stayed quiet on the details.

All remaining mods may now relax, since British power-popstar Paul Weller, founder of The Jam and The Style Council, has decided that, contrary to his public pronouncements in the past, David Bowie has some pretty good tunes after all. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be sleeping a lot easier this weekend.

Paul Weller has ended his long-running feud with David Bowie.

The veteran rocker had previously voiced his dislike for some of Bowie's work, saying his lifetime achievement Brit Award was "wrong".

Weller said: "I like about three records of his. The rest of it's pish."

However, Weller confessed in this month's Mojo magazine that he was a "born-again" Bowie fan.

After hearing about the admission, Bowie sent Weller an old picture of him sporting a hairstyle similar to the ex-Jam frontman's, saying: "Nice one, Paul. Can I have my haircut back now?"

A source told The Sun: "Weller has had some public digs at Bowie in the past. But it takes a big man to say you called it wrong so it was good of him to say he was a reformed Bowie fan.

"Bowie appreciated it so sent him the email. But he couldn't resist a gentle poke about his hair.

"He sent a pic of himself from the 1960s on a record sleeve. Paul might be better known for the cut but Bowie wanted to point out he was there first."

There's good news and bad news, friends, and I'm not saying which is which. Red Hot Chili Peppers are breaking up. But only for a year. Draw your own conclusions.

Via NME:

Red Hot Chili Peppers have disbanded for at least a year.

Singer Anthony Kiedis has revealed that the band members will step away from music to concentrate on their individual lives.

The singer told Rolling Stone that the band have decided to pause for 12 months after becoming exhausted with their hectic schedule.

The star went on to explain that he will spend more time with his family, while bassist Flea and guitarist John Frusciante are set to work on individual musical projects.

"We're disbanded for the moment," he said. "We took a very long time to make the 'Stadium Arcadium' record (released in 2006). It was a grueling, long haul and it followed two other very long hauls, 'Californication' (1999) and 'By the Way' (2002).

"So we didn't really stop until the tour ended last year. We were all emotionally and mentally zapped at the end of that run. The discussion was, 'Let's not do anything Red Hot Chili Peppers-related for a minimum of one year, and just live and breathe and eat and learn new things.'"

He added: "I'm just home, hanging out with this really cool little kid, learning how to surf. But I'm starting to get just a little bit of a tingle that it would be nice to start thinking about songs and pieces of music. But just pieces."

There's no real story here, just a teaser for what's in the newsstand version of the 3rd stupidest glossy celeb magazine in the world, a/k/a Us Weekly. HOWEVER, pause for a moment to recognize the genius of this headline:

CHRISTINA AGUILERA REVEALS HER BRA SIZE

Internet, we have a winner.

The entire text of Kenny Chesney's letter about fan-voted awards, like the one he won the other night, from the nice folks at CMT.com:

(After commenting that the Academy of Country Music's entertainer of the year award should remain an industry-voted honor, Kenny Chesney elaborated on his feelings in a letter to fans. The following is a complete transcript of the letter originally posted on his official Web site.)

Friends ...

I want to thank each of you personally for your part in this 4th Entertainer of the Year Award. ... You are not just the reason we do this, you are a lot of what makes us Entertainer of the Year. Beyond even your votes -- which were critical -- but the way you inspire me and the guys. We are more because you give so much ... and I want to make sure you know how much I appreciate you, and how much a part of this you guys are.

Just hearing the sounds from the parking lot when everyone's out grilling and hanging with their friends makes me wanna get out there and rock. To be part of that kind of a good time is the reason I started going to shows, and it's absolutely why I live to do this.

Which is part of the confusion over my response to the change in the awards criteria. There's a lot more to being Entertainer of the Year than what we show you ... and that's because I want the music to just be your music, your songs, your life -- the way it was for me. I've always been a bit uncomfortable with the amount of information that gets out there about how many trucks, how we do the effects, those sorts of things ... because I don't want it to be about semis, I want what we do to be about that moment when you hear the music and we hear you.

To me, Entertainer of the Year is about the work that goes into it. I don't ever want you worrying about the work; I want you living the songs ... being in the moment of the music ... finding your life on the radio, whether it's something easy like "Summertime" or a song that helps you through a rough time like "I Go Back" or "There Goes My Life."

That was my point. Let the people who do the work, judge the work part of it ... let the fans love what we do for that. And that was what I was being asked about ... what a lot of people in the business were talking about ... and frankly something an awful lot of artists and business people have told me they not only agree with, but something the entire media room applauded pretty resoundingly after I addressed it Sunday night.

Sure, to make me sound ungrateful is a sexy way to spin this to drive viewers. It's controversy, and that sells. But realistically -- and based on the response in our fan forum -- you know how important you are to me, how much I believe in the way we've all built this together. You, the fans, are the reason I keep pushing, keep striving, keep wanting to be more and better.

When I stood on the stage and said "this means the world to me," I meant it ... because it means not only am I blessed with the best fans in the world, but you guys were willing to stand up for us and be counted. It's not the same award ... given for the same things ... but knowing how much you care, how much you believe in this dream, well, that is everything.

So please know ... I love you. I believe in you -- and the way you believe in this music, these nights we get to share, the way it all comes together when we're together. There is nothing like the feeling of being out there with you guys ... and I live my whole life just for those moments. Thank you for that, because in the end, that is what matters the most to me.

-- Kenny

From Rolling Stone.com:

As Death Cab For Cutie celebrate the release of their second major-label LP, Narrow Stairs, this week, frontman Ben Gibbard cautions fans of his other project, Postal Service, not to hold their breath for a new album from the glitchy electro-pop duo anytime soon. Though beatmaker Jimmy Tamborello recently sent him five new demos to work on, Gibbard says that between Narrow Stairs and Tamborello’s various projects — DNTEL, Figurine — the pair hasn’t had time to focus on making the follow-up to 2003’s Give Up. “The second Postal Service album is threatening to become the Chinese Democracy of indie rock,” Gibbard tells Rolling Stone. “It will come out eventually, or maybe it won’t.”

Oh man, the R. Kelly jury got their peepers on the (alleged) R. Kelly (alleged) child rape (alleged) sex (alleged) tape and, obviously, obviously, obviously, it was not a pretty picture:

Before putting the tape into a videocassette player, a prosecutor walked across the stately courtroom, held it out for the defense team to see and entered it into the record as "People's Exhibit No. 1."

The roughly 27-minute homemade video shows a man having sex with a young female, who is naked for most of the recording _ except for a necklace with a cross dangling from it.

At the start of the videotape, the man hands the female money and she mouths the words, "Thank you." She is often blank-faced, impassive. The man speaks to the female in a hushed, monotone voice, and she calls him "Daddy."

Songs from the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys blare from a radio. The female dances _ the man out of view. Back in view, he has sex with her. The man walks up to the camera to adjust it a few times, but his face is often obscured.

As she dances, the female urinates on the floor. Near the end of the video, the man urinates on the female.

Prosecutors say the man in the video is Kelly, and that the female is a girl who was as young as 13 years old when the tape was made between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1, 2000.

The singer, who has pleaded not guilty, faces up to 15 years if convicted.

During opening statements in the long-delayed trial, Cook County prosecutor Shauna Boliker warned jurors they would have to watch shocking video and that "the case will unfold before you frame by disgusting frame."

"You will see the sex acts he commands her to do," said Boliker, who referred to Kelly by his birth name of Robert Kelly. "Acts you have never seen before. Vile, disturbing and disgusting sex acts, actions that were choreographed, produced and starred in by Robert Kelly."

Uh... no comment. At all. Ever.

This long and winding interview with Ali Hewson, wife of U2 frontman and occasionally insufferable would-be statesman Bono, is full of humanizing details, encouraging factoids, and humorous asides about the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Most Famous and Idealistic Living Irishpeople. Then the thing about running for president comes up and you're like, HEY! Pretty sneaky, sis...

I can't tell whether this People Magazine photo gallery of models and movie stars (Natalie Portman, Mandy Moore, Helena Christensen, Jeff Goldblum, Winona Ryder) strolling hand in hand with their indie rock boy- and girlfriends (Devendra Banhart, Ryan Adams, Imogen Heap, members of Interpol, Rilo Kiley, and others) is funny or sad or for what specific reason in either case. I do know that I don't want to look at it anymore. You can, though.

NY Times profiler meets faded '80s hair metallist/reality TV star Bret Michaels out on the road in New Jersey, which, if you aren't careful, you could easily mistake for total hell, replete with a Hannah Montana sticker on the bass guitar.

“It’s not like every other day there is some stylist saying, ‘You have to become this,’ ” he said, a rhinestone-encrusted skull-and-bones belt buckle dangling over his crotch. He added, “I think the reason you see all these young fans is, they see the realness.”

So it's the realness...

Don't believe it? Just(in) check out this video right cheer of Timbalake explaining to good old Ellen Degeneres how hard it was to squeeze good lyrics out of Madonna while working as her "producer," and squeezing in as many age references as possible, and assuring the audience that songs shouldn't be "that deep." The moral of the story: All the good ideas were his.

Best comment: "Just when you thought he couldn't be EVEN MORE of a jerk than you already thought... he's now managed to provoke sympathy for Madonna. Quite a feat."

Q: What happens when almost 2,000 guitar-wielding Poles simultaneously take to the streets of Wroclaw to play an anarchic rendition of Jimi Hendrix's immortal classic "Hey Joe"?

A: A certain kind of solidarity. Watch video here.

From Rolling Stone.com:

Michael Jackson’s 1982 classic Thriller was among this year’s class of twenty-five recordings added by the Library of Congress to the National Recording Registry. Not that we needed Congress to tell us how important Thriller is, but the distinction means that Thriller is “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to the history of American music. Other recordings making the Congressional cut was Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” Joni Mitchell’s For the Roses, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ “Tracks of My Tears” and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters. Audio recordings of speeches by Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan were also included in the eclectic mix. Every year, the Library of Congress adds twenty-five recordings to the Registry, compiled by the preservation board and suggestions from the public.

For The Roses!!!!

According to an English person, Edie Brickell, former New Bohemian, and wife of Paul Simon, and Harper Simon, son of Paul Simon, like to play music together!

Fine interview with Carly Simon, in which she reveals that yes, she has read Girls Like Us, the new book about herself, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell ("extremely interesting, but it brought back things that I didn't want to remember and from other people's voices"), and that famous ex-husband James Taylor does not stay in touch ("I'm so erased, so erased," said Simon. "I don't think James has forgotten in any way. If he had forgotten, he wouldn't be behaving in the way he is.").

More juice here.

Something to add to Neil Young's long list of accomplishments: He now has a species of spider named after him!

From NME:

A species of spider has been named after Neil Young, after a university biologist discovered the insect in Jefferson County, AL.

Jason Bond of East Carolina University made the discovery in Alabama last year and established through DNA tests that the bug is a newly-discovered species. The spider is distinguishable from others in its genus through its genitalia.

This particular group of spiders is called 'trapdoor' as they live in burrows and build trapdoors at the burrow’s entrance.

Bond named the bug Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi, after his favourite musician, and says naming a new species has strict rules that must be adhered to.

"As long as these rules are followed you can give a new species just about any name you please. With regards to Neil Young, I really enjoy his music and have had a great appreciation of him as an activist for peace and justice," reports the Associated Press

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