Billboard Bits serves up the best bite-sized nuggets of music news and gossip.
Lady Gaga To Judge “So You Think You Can Dance” This Week
“Gaga is coming to dance,” shouts the intro of a new “So You Think You Can Dance” promo, announcing that the superstar will be appearing on the upcoming episodes of the hit Fox series. Gaga will be judging the final eight contestants on Wednesday (July 27) and will perform on Thursday (July 28), both at 8 p.m. EST. On Thursday, Gaga will also perform on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and the entire block behind Kimmel’s Hollywood studio will be shut down for the show, which will include her latest song, “You And I.” Watch the promo for Gaga’s “So You Think You Can Dance” spot below. (THR)
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Court Date Set In Lawsuit Against Rihanna
Rihanna will be heading to court in New York City on Aug. 10 for the first hearing in the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against her by photographer David LaChapelle. His claims that Rihanna’s “S&M” video plagiarizes the “composition, total concept, feel, tone, mood, theme, colours, props, settings, decors, wardrobe and lighting” of his photographs. LaChapelle said that he is a fan of the pop star’s and that the suit is “not personal, it’s strictly busienss.” (Jezebel)
Hot Snakes To Reunite at ATP in December
Beloved underground rock act Hot Snakes will reunite later this year for a performance at All Tomorrow Parties’ Nightmare Before Christmas event, set to take place Dec. 9-11 in Minehead, England. The event is being jointly curated by Battles, Les Savy Fav and Caribou and will also feature performances by Archers Of Loaf, Gary Numan, No Age, Wild Flag, the reunited Bitch Magnet, the Dodos, Pharoah Sanders and the Sun Ra Arkestra, among many others.
Hot Snakes, which were led by former Drive Like Jehu principals Rick Froberg and John Reis, split in 1995 after three acclaimed studio albums. Froberg moved on to the band Obits, while Reis has since fronted the Night Marchers. Reis confirmed the reunion in a post on the message board for his Swami Records label, saying, “So far just ATP is confirmed,” but that the band is “talking about maybe doing a couple more shows beforehand” on the East Coast.
Anthony Kiedis Cried Over Justin Bieber
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ frontman Anthony Kiedis admitted to crying while watching Justin Bieber’s documentary “Never Say Never.” “I sat on an airplane recently, coming from Hawaii to Los Angeles, with Rick Rubin just across the aisle, watching the Justin Bieber movie, ‘Never Say Never.’ I cried twice during that film and I want the world to know that!” the rocker told UK magazine Q. (Spinner)
Justin Timberlake Spends Comic-Con as Sesame Street Character
While he played the new art director of GQ in his latest flick “Friends with Benefits,” Justin Timberlake collaborated last week with an actual magazine writer, Chris Jones of Esquire. The writer and singer played a practical joke on Comic-Con this past weekend by spending July 21 in Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie costumes, respectively — a secret that was safe until Jones revealed it on Twitter. (Huffington Post)
Robyn Covers Coldplay’s ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’
Swedish dance-pop queen Robyn made a stop at BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge earlier today to record two songs: The first, “Call Your Girlfriend,” the stellar single from 2010’s “Body Talk,” and second, a cover of Coldplay’s latest release “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall.” Adding a twinkling synth riff and driving drum beat to the latter, Robyn makes the song her own. Listen below. (BBC)
The Who to Perform ‘Quadrophenia’ On Tour
Pete Townsend has revealed in a blog post that The Who will, yet again, perform its classic sixth album, “Quadrophenia,” in its entirety on tour next year. The Who guitarist is not on the group’s current “Tommy” tour, writing in the same blog post that the current tour “is entirely Roger’s adventure… I look forward to playing with Roger again doing ‘Quadrophenia’ next year.” The Who played “Quadrophenia” in its entirely last year for charity at the Royal Albert Hall, and Townsend confirmed that he is working on a re-mastered edition of the album. (Rolling Stone)
(Reporting by Sarah Maloy, Jeff Benjamin, Jon Blistein and Alec Bojalad)