Billboard Bits serves up the best bite-sized nuggets of music news and gossip every afternoon.
Taylor Swift may not have broken any Grammy Awards records with her trophy haul on Sunday night, but she did manage to break an actual Grammy. Price for replacement prize: $500. Look on Taylor’s face as it tumbles: Priceless. (Update: That’s not a real Grammy that she dropped.)
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John Mayer fans at the University of South Carolina got a special treat last night, as thesinger and his band treated several hundred to an impromptu free concert. According to Rolling Stone, Mayer and crew were rehearsing ona full stage setup there for the upcoming “Battle Studies” tour, and about 400 people got a full show preview, including, lights video and the complete set list.
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Indie hip hop label Def Jux is going “on hiatus” according to rapper and artistic director El-P. In a posting on the label’s website, El-P announced that he was stepping away from the business side of things to focus on “being a producer and an artist full time.” The label’s website and catalogue sales will continue, and the raper isn’t writing the Def Jux obituary just yet. “Maybe we can turn this hoopty in to a hovercraft,” he wrote.
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The Pet Shop Boys, known for their concerts with elaborate stage shows and multiple costume changes, played an unusual gig in the front room a fan’s house. According to Spinner, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe recreate a mini version of their ‘Pandemonium’ stage set in the house, as part of a stunt celebrating 30 years of the Brit Awards. “”Reproducing part of our tour in someone’s living room was surreal but very good fun,” Tennant wrote on the group’s website.
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Perez Hilton is reporting that Detroit rapper Eminem has reunited with his long-estranged wife, Kim, and the pair that she is pregnant. According to the unconfirmed report, the two got back together in June and are expecting a boy.
(Compiled by David J. Prince and Monica Herrera)