March 5, 2012 – While Warner Music Group was busy threatening Frank Ocean for performing his reinvented rendition of the Eagles' "Hotel California" last week, another artist the up-and-coming R&B singer "re-imagined" on his 2011 free debut nostalgia, Ultra was doing the opposite: Coldplay, whose song "Strawberry Swing" (from 2008's Viva La Vida, on EMI Records) appears "Oceanified" as nostalgia's nostalgia-heavy opening track, announced today that Frank would be meeting the band onstage rather than in court, opening 10 dates on the band's European tour. Coldplay have been on the other side of copyright lawsuits in the past — Joe Satriani sued the band for allegedly borrowing "If I Could Fly" on "Vida la Vida," then an unknown band called Creaky Boards made a similar claim and a songwriter named Sammie Lee Smith got in the action. Martin and Co.

March 5, 2012 – A piece of '90s rock history has once again found its way to the communal auction block. Montesano, Washington's Ben Berg is selling the Melvins' first tour van, affectionately known as the "Melvan," which was gifted to him by bassist Matt Lukin's mom after the seminal punk band relocated from Montesano to California, according to a profile in

March 5, 2012 – The music world came under literal fire this weekend, starting with a sizable shooting at a Nipsey Hussle concert in Tempe, Arizona. At around 11:30 p.m. Friday, Tempe police Sgt. Steve Carbajal told MSNBC, more than 250 people were waiting in line at a venue where Hussle was set to perform when three men who had been arguing opened fire at each other, injuring at least 14. The gunmen were suspected Phoenix gang members; police say one shooter was arrested on the scene, while the other two fled.

March 5, 2012 – After almost a year, it's finally come to light that a major PlayStation hack last spring also involved the theft of more than 50,000 tracks from Sony Music's catalog, which included Michael Jackson's entire back catalog and a bunch of unreleased tracks. This shocking bit of information came with the first court appearance of two British men arrested last May who are suspected of having a part in the fiasco. In April 2011, hackers breached security surrounding Sony's PlayStation Network database, gaining access to the personal details of more than 77 million customers. According to reports by the U.K.'s Sunday Times via Billboard.biz, Sony Music discovered that the digital tracks had been stolen weeks after the incident. Other material illegally downloaded included unreleased music, like a duet between Will.i.am and Freddie Mercury.

March 5, 2012 – If William Roberts II isn't exhausted right now, he is part machine, because Rick Ross is coming off an extremely hectic week that started with an NBA All-Star game performance and ended with a European tour announcement — with just one murdered corpse in between.

March 5, 2012 – Guitarist Ronnie Montrose, who played alongside Sammy Hagar, Van Morrison, and Herbie Hancock, died Saturday following a battle with prostate cancer. He was 64. A statement on Montrose's website (via Rolling Stone) confirmed the sad news. "A few months ago, we held a surprise party for Ronnie Montrose's 64th birthday," the posting reads. "He gave an impromptu speech, and told us that after a long life, filled with joy and hardship, he didn't take any of our love for granted. He passed today. He'd battled cancer, and staved off old age for long enough. And true to form, he chose his own exit the way he chose his own life.

March 2, 2012 – Claire Boucher, better known as electro-dance-pop princess Grimes, debuted her video for "Oblivion" on VEVO this morning. It's the first clip from her new record, Visions, which dropped February 21 on 4AD/Arbutus Records, and it is as Grimesy as it gets. Co-directed by Boucher and Emily Kai Bock (whose work includes clips for other artists in the Montreal-based Arbutus collective), the video's plot embodies exactly what makes Grimes so great — her ability to wedge unique perspective into a pop framework. The tiny, adorably pink-haired Boucher dances her way through various hyper-masculine sporting events, from a college football game to a motocross race to a locker room full of shockingly waxed man-chests to a similarly shirtless living room fight club, rallying everyone with her overlarge headphones and boombox.

March 2, 2012 – British Prime Minister David Cameron may be a long-time fan of the Smiths and Pink Floyd, but members of both bands seriously hate his guts. Morrissey's dislike of the conservative leader is well documented (he did lambast Cameron from the Glastonbury stage) and may be fans' only hope for a Smiths reunion. In late 2010, Johnny Marr politely asked Cameron to stop liking the Smiths via Twitter and Morrissey chimed in with support. And at this week's NME Awards, Marr bargained on camera that the only way the seminal band would reunite would be if Cameron and crew would resign, musing, "That's a fair trade, innit?" Could this plan actually work?

March 2, 2012 – Arcade Fire fans (that includes you, Rosie O'Donnell!) might want stick around in Austin after SXSW this year. The Grammy-winning band — well, four of them at least, including Win Butler, Régin Chassagne, Will Butler, and Marika Anthony-Shaw — will be lecturing at the University of Texas at Austin March 19. As one of Arcade Fire's community fan pages on Facebook pointed out yesterday (via Pitchfork), the foursome will discuss with students (and, likely, all the music journalists already in Austin, disguised as students) the socioeconomic crisis still faced by Haitian citizens in the years following that 7.0 magnitude earthquake that left the country in shambles in 2010. At the time of the disaster, Arcade Fire teamed with charity Partners in Health and actually traveled down to volunteer.

March 1, 2012 – The Newport Folk, Forecastle, and Sled Island fests have announced (or added to) their lineups this week.