Drummers have been invited along to Mapex events around the UK this spring.

Rock legend Jimi Hendrix has been named as the greatest guitar player of all time by a music writer.

The Notorious B.I.G's mother has launched a plea to find the murderer still at large over her son's killing, on the 13th anniversary of him being gunned down in cold blood.

Pink Floyd have started legal action against their record label, EMI over disputes about royalty payments for their songs.

Musicians in London could be able to enjoy a live showcase and time in the studio thanks to a new initiative.

Numark have begun shipping the NPM5 - a new complete speaker system that's ideal for practice studios and smaller setups.

Lil Wayne starts his one year jail term for possession of a loaded firearm in 2007 today (09.03.10).

Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos wants to write a musical based on an unnamed modern day celebrity.

The Drums are to play a headline show in London in June.

Evanescence singer Amy Lee has revealed the band are heading in a synth-pop direction for their third album.

Video: Exclusive Premiere: Yeasayer's "O.N.E."

Photo: Winter/GettyAre we not entertained? The Academy huffed and puffed to get us interested in watching the Oscars on ABC last night. And more than 40 million of us did, the best number in half a decade. The Academy doubled the Best Picture nominees from five to 10 so the artsy stuff would have to make way for popcorn movie escapism. Heading that list would be *Avatar 3-D*, with nine nominations including Best Picture, and which has now made more money than any movie ever anywhere! And what did Oscar go and do? The golden boy with no balls treated *Avatar* like a wallflower at the prom and lavished all his attention on *The Hurt Locker*, the Iraq war movie that sold fewer tickets than any Best Picture winner in Academy history. Me? I couldn't be more pleased. By awarding *The Hurt Locker* six Oscars — including one for Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman director to ever win a competitive Oscar in 82 years — the Academy said they cared more about art than commerce. I'm sure they're kicking themselves today. Money talks in Hollywood. But *Avatar* director James Cameron, whose 1997 *Titanic* was the biggest movie moneymaker ever anywhere until *Avatar*, walked out of the Kodak Theater without the big prize and without the glory of defeating Bigelow who happens to be his ex wife.

For the first time since 1943, the Academy Awards have expanded the Best Picture category to include 10 nominees, meaning that this Sunday, March 7th, there will be one winner and nine losers in Oscar's biggest category. Not all roads lead to Oscar gold, and in Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers' final Academy preview, he weighs in on each one of this year's Best Picture nominees, from front runners like Avatar and The Hurt Locker to darker-than-dark horses like A Serious Man and An Education. It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book — click on your favorite to win and Travers will let you know if you're on the right track or you've hit a cinematic dead end. Think wisely before making your decision, then get clicking below and after the jump. Best Picture Oscar Nominee: "The Blind Side" Best Picture Oscar Nominee: "An Education"

And so the Big One. Best Picture. The major Oscar category that still has people guessing right down to the wire. Why? Because this is the year the Academy decided to nominate 10 movies for Best Picture instead of the usual 5. Is it the desire to spread the wealth because the year was filled with so many tumultuous classics? Yeah, right! The real reason is that the ratings for the Oscar show always tank when no one's heard of the Best Picture nominees. But when a blockbuster is nominated — *Titantic, Gladiator, Lord of the Rings*, take your pick — the folks at home tune in to see who wins. And here I thought audiences watched the Oscars for a truly profound reason — the Red Carpet fashions! Enough cynicism. Let's pretend that quality is what determines who wins Best Picture. Here are the 10 nominees in alphabetical order:

Lewis Carroll's classic story enters the 21st century in this week's At the Movies as Rolling Stone's Peter Travers tackles Disney and director Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. In Burton's vision of the story, Alice is not a seven-year-girl but a young woman, played by Mia Wasikowska, running away from her engagement party and the man she doesn't want to marry. She descends down the Rabbit Hole to escape her life, and once there encounters all the famous characters, from Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter to Anne Hathaway's White Queen to Helena Bonham Carter's evil Red Queen. You know the story by heart by now, the off-with-their-heads and whatnot, but what makes this Alice a must-see are the performances. Depp, Wasikowska and Crispin Glover's Knave of Hearts all shine in this film, adding a layer of heart and absurdity to Burton's version. (Check out Travers' interview with Glover here.) If there's a flaw in the film, it's that Alice encounters too many characters, so many that the viewer loses focus of Alice's mission. Also, to cash in on the Avatar bucks, Alice is presented in 3-D, even though it was filmed in 2-D. The film isn't as trippy as some older fans might like — it is PG and Disney, after all — but like with his version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Burton's unique vision adds a refreshing burst of life to an old classic.

Artist: Various Artists Review: This two-CD set documents a 1970 Vancouver fundraiser that sent a boatload of protesters off to halt nuclear-bomb tests on Alaska's Amchitka Island — the first example of Greenpeace-style activism. The concert was sweet and stirring: Phil Ochs is in fine voice despite tape noise; ditto a 22-year-old James Taylor, showcasing his brand-new Sweet Baby James. But the night belonged to a giggly, incandescent Joni Mitchell, previewing songs from her future classic Blue. Choice moment: "Big... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Various Artists Review: This two-CD set documents a 1970 Vancouver fundraiser that sent a boatload of protesters off to halt nuclear-bomb tests on Alaska's Amchitka Island — the first example of Greenpeace-style activism. The concert was sweet and stirring: Phil Ochs is in fine voice despite tape noise; ditto a 22-year-old James Taylor, showcasing his brand-new Sweet Baby James. But the night belonged to a giggly, incandescent Joni Mitchell, previewing songs from her future classic Blue. Choice moment: "Big... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Everyone expects Oscar to officially make Sandra Bullock America's Sweetheart for her breakout dramatic performance as a strong, Republican wife, mother and inspiration to African-American football giant Michael Oher in *The Blind Side*. OK, Bullock was good, I'll give you that. And she'll probably win unless Meryl Streep sneaks by and wins for playing chef Julia Child in *Julie and Julia*. I'm better than OK about that since Streep (this is Oscar nomination No. 16 — a record) gave the better performance. But please people, is that all there is? I mean look at the other nominees: Dame Helen Mirren is going for a bookend Oscar to match the one she won for *The Queen* in The Last Station. And then we have two newcomers. Travers Vs. Travers: Should Indies or Blockbusters Win at the 2010 Oscars?

Video: Jack Johnson Performs "From the Clouds"

Oscar is famous for rewarding actors they've idiotically ignored for decades. That's why Al Pacino wins, finally, for a swill like *Scent of a Woman* instead of *The Godfather II, Serpico*, and *Dog Day Afternoon*. People are putting Jeff Bridges in that same unappreciated category this year. But they're wrong. His performance as broken-down country star Bad Blake in *Crazy Heart* ranks with his best work. Bridges himself told me he puts it in the Top 5. Still, the Academy should hide its stupid head in shame for not nominating Bridges' career-best performance as the Dude in *The Big Lebowski*. They did nominate him four times: *The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Starman* and *The Contender*. But no Dude, and nothing to memorialize his stellar work in *Fearless, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Tucker, American Heart, The Door in the Floor* and *The Amateurs* (an unseen comedy Bridges told me he'd like to rescue from DVD obscurity). Hell, maybe Bridges really is that unappreciated. Here's the man himself talking to me on my ABC News NOW show, *Popcorn*. OK then, so who could beat Bridges? George Clooney has a lot of Academy support for his role as the gladiator of job termination in *Up in the Air*. And don't tell me he's just playing his usually charming self. See the movie again and this time pay attention. Travers Vs. Travers: Should Indies or Blockbusters Win at the 2010 Oscars?

Peter Travers recently hosted a chat session with the elusive Crispin Glover and got the star of Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland to reveal the real reason he didn't star in Back to the Future Part II, why River's Edge is one of the few films he's seen featuring his own work, and the truth behind his infamous 1987 David Letterman interview. "I've always tended toward having an interest in more extreme facets of human existence," Glover says (he also explains the birth of his "Clowny Clown Clown" video). Don't miss his a cappella performance of "Ben" and rare honest look back at his best roles in Off the Cuff.

Video: Spring Music Preview: Coheed and Cambria

Wnen I reviewed *Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire* in November, I said this about Mo'Nique's performance as the mother from hell who hurls abuse and blunt instruments at her obese teen daughter Precious (the gifted Gabourey Sidibe) and then flops in front of the tube to gorge on pigs' feet and her own bile. "The role could have been a caricature of cruelty, but Mo'Nique — a stand-up comic with real acting chops — refuses to play her the easy way. This monster has her reasons, shocking though they are. There is one word for Mo'Nique: dynamite. She tears up the screen and then, in a climactic scene with Precious and her social worker (a revelatory Mariah Carey), tears at your heart. If Oscar has a sure thing this year, Mo'Nique is it." In the time since nothing has persuaded me to change my mind, especially those who discredit Mo'Nique by claiming she hasn't done enough press to promote her movie, preferring to stay in Atlanta doing her BET talk show and caring for her kids instead of kissing Academy ass. Mo'Nique actually thinks her performance should do the campaigning for her. Only in Hollywood would this behavior be considered aberrant. Mo'Nique wins it or they'll hear from me. Travers Vs. Travers: Should Indies or Blockbusters Win at the 2010 Oscars?

With the Oscars set to air live this Sunday, Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers remains a man divided, with each Academy Award category making him choose between his love of indie cinema and Hollywood films. These two facets of Travers' psyche literally duke it out in our inaugural Travers Vs. Travers, as Sundance Pete and Box Office Travers get into a yelling match about who will win in the Academy Awards' biggest categories. Will it be the indie gem The Hurt Locker bringing home Best Picture, or will it be Avatar, the movie that rescued Hollywood as it became the highest-grossest film ever? Sometimes the Travers agree — Monique winning Best Supporting Actress for Precious brings a rare moment of unity — but more often than not they're at odds, throwing Sun Chips at one another and very nearly coming to blows. It's Travers versus Travers in an Oscar fight spectacular, all in the video above. Plus, download Peter's Oscar ballot (complete with his picks) and enter to win the Best DVDs of 2009: Download Peter Travers' 2010 Oscar Ballot (Right click and choose "save as")

From MGMT to Erykah Badu, a first listen to 2010's hottest albums From Katy Perry and Stone Temple Pilots to MGMT and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, some of 2010's most anticipated albums are hitting stores this season. Big debuts from Court Yard Hounds and Drake are due, along with eagerly awaited releases by Christina Aguilera, Hole, the Hold Steady and Gaslight Anthem. Read up on 38 of the spring's discs, plus get your first listen to new tunes from Jakob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Peter Wolf, and watch exclusive performances and sneak peeks featuring fre...

The unthinkable has happened - by losing Paula's craziness, and with Simon heading for the door, "American Idol" feels like it has finally reached the end of its run How do you replace Paula Abdul? You don't. That's no knock on Ellen DeGeneres — it's just that absurd Hollywood creatures like Paula are rare and precious flukes of the universe, like the Loch Ness monster in sequined capri pants. Without Paula, American Idol loses its crazy factor, the suspenseful thrill that you're never more than a few minutes away from seeing a grade-A display of batshit antics on live TV. And what is American Idol without a dose of crazy? Sending Ellen in to...

Up all night with hip-hop's unstoppable machine as he prepares to spend the next year behind bars This story was originally published in February 2010. Since then, Lil Wayne's sentencing has been postponed two times. For the latest on his developing case, click here. "I don't like to stop," says Lil Wayne. "I believe you stop when you die." The biggest rapper in the world stands 23 floors above Atlanta and five feet six in black Chuck Taylors, his wifebeater tee baring a torso as ink-covered as the pages of a doodler's notebook. It's 8:30 p.m., two days after Christmas, and he will be up...

Sometimes a performance is so damn good you start thinking Oscar as you're watching it. That's what went through my mind seeing Christoph Waltz as Nazi colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's *Inglourious Basterds*. "Listen up, Oscar," I wrote when I reviewed Waltz and the film for *Rolling Stone* last August. It's no surprise that Waltz is nominated as Best Supporting Actor and is the odds-on favorite to pick up the gold-plated prize on the Oscar telecast this Sunday. When I interviewed Waltz for my *Popcorn* show on ABC News NOW, he showed a becoming modesty about playing such a well-written role as the monstrous, cunning and disturbingly charmingly Landa (in four languages yet). Listen to how he and Tarantino managed to create this iconic character.

Oscar-mania has officially begun! Peter Travers has made his expert predictions for which Oscar nominees should — and will — win in each of the 24 categories. Download his ballot and follow along as you watch this Sunday's ceremony (or get some extra help in your Oscar pool). Download Peter Travers' 2010 Oscar Ballot (Right click and choose "save as") With the 82nd Academy Awards less than a week away, Rolling Stone is looking back at the best films of last year and giving away selections from Peter Travers' Best DVDs of 2009. One lucky winner will score copies of Oscar-nominated films Inglourious Basterds, Up and Star Trek along with DVDs of Public Enemies, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Fight Club, North by Northwest and It Might Get Loud. The sweepstakes is open to residents of the 50 United States and Washington, DC, who are 18 years of age or older as of March 1, 2010. To enter, fill out your name, e-mail address and age in the form below. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Sweepstakes begins at 2:00 pm EST on March 1, 2010 and ends at 11:59 pm EST on March 8, 2010. Number of Winners: 1. ARV: $262.91. Certain restrictions may apply. Complete Official Rules are available after the jump.

Artist: The Besnard Lakes Review: At its website, Montreal's Breakglass Studios — run by Besnard Lakes bandleader Jace Lasek — trumpets its custom 1969 Neve mixing board, used by Led Zeppelin on Physical Graffiti. The same piece of equipment was used on "Albatross," a standout on the Lakes' immersive second LP, a magnificently oceanic meld of Beach Boys harmonies, My Bloody Valentine tidal waves and Phil Spector girl-group siren songs shot through with soaring guitar. It's a producer's wet dream, like most of the... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: The Besnard Lakes Review: At its website, Montreal's Breakglass Studios — run by Besnard Lakes bandleader Jace Lasek — trumpets its custom 1969 Neve mixing board, used by Led Zeppelin on Physical Graffiti. The same piece of equipment was used on "Albatross," a standout on the Lakes' immersive second LP, a magnificently oceanic meld of Beach Boys harmonies, My Bloody Valentine tidal waves and Phil Spector girl-group siren songs shot through with soaring guitar. It's a producer's wet dream, like most of the... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Review: Five studio albums in, California psych-garage trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are still religious zealots — worshippers in rock's Gothic cathedral. The song titles tell the tale: "Bad Blood," "War Machine," "River Styx." In "Aya," singer-guitarist Peter Hayes moans, "She's a reckless lover/With blood-stained hands/Around the neck of her helpless man." There was a time, circa 2001, when Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were supposed to inherit the Earth, or at least the mantle of Rock's Great... Rating: 3 Stars

Yes Indeed, The Reorganization Continues…. & is Still On Track…. Woot!!