Arch MUSIC NEWS for 9/10/12

Arch Music News is compiled by Jay Philpott and Metro Neworks Copyright © 2012

Eddie Vedder helped Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band rock Chicago Friday night. The Pearl Jam frontman and Windy City native joined The Boss onstage at Wrigley Field.

Members of R.E.M. have fired off a cease-and-desist letter to Fox News Channel, demanding that it not play their 1991 hit “Losing My Religion.” The song was used during Fox News’ coverage of the Democratic National Convention last week. Through their music publisher, Warner-Tamerlane Music, R.E.M. laid down the gauntlet saying Fox’s use of the song was “unlicensed and unauthorized.” Former singer Michael Stipe further drove the point home referring to Fox News unflatteringly as snakelike in saying, “We have little or no respect for their puff adder brand of reportage. Our music does not belong there.”

The guys in Matchbox Twenty are expected to nab their first number-one album on the Billboard 200 this week. Industry sources predict the group’s latest effort, “North,” sold about 110-thousand copies between its release date on Tuesday and the end of the tracking week on Sunday. The new chart will be unveiled on Wednesday.

The Rolling Stones are receiving a special 50th anniversary salute from “Monday Night Football.” ESPN plans to incorporate the band’s music into the coverage of the weekly games throughout the fall and winter, with four sets of four songs to be used throughout the 16-week season.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is no longer using the Confederate flag as one of their symbols. Guitarist Gary Rossington says the band originally incorporated the flag into their look to represent their Southern roots. But he tells CNN that over time, the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads, and other hate groups co-opted the Confederate flag, which led Skynyrd to drop it from the band’s image.

The Police drummer Stewart Copeland says there could easily be another reunion between him Sting, and Andy Summers. The rocker admits to “Rolling Stone” that there hasn’t been “even a scintilla of discussion on that subject,” but says it’s certainly not out of the question because “the joys definitely outweigh the miseries.” However, these days Copeland is keeping busy with other collaborators. He’s set up his own YouTube channel, StewartCopeland.Net, where he records jam sessions with friends at his studio. He explains that the room is “all tweaked out,” and wired to record everything that happens. Copeland says that when someone drops by, they “jam” and have “a wonderful time,” and the next day he’ll review the material, polish it up, and “turn these jams into tracks.” Copeland says that while it started as an audio project, he’s now put in cameras as well. He adds that since he’s “not in the record business” anymore, he puts the material on YouTube “for all the children to enjoy.”

A man carrying a pair of scissors near Miley Cyrus’ Los Angeles-area home is facing a possible trespassing charge. Local media reports of the incident emerged on Saturday, saying that police responded to an emergency call from Cyrus’ home early that morning. The 19-year-old singer was out of town at the time. Reports say the intruder got onto the grounds at 4:00 Saturday morning and starting banging on the door and walls of the home. Police found the man hiding in the bushes near the home carrying scissors in his back pocket.

John Mayer has got himself into a bit of a legal mess. Mayer has been accused of being in possession of as much as 465 thousand-dollars in dirty money. The money in question is from a Ponzi scheme that was settled earlier this year, sending a man named Darren Berg to jail for swindling more than 100 million-dollars through his investment company. The trustees of the company are now trying to track down where that money went. According to TMZ.com, Mayer’s lawyer says the singer got that money from performing at a corporate event in 2008, and was paid for his services through his talent agency. The documents show that the booking agency, and therefore Mayer by extension, is in possession of a sum of this dirty money from Berg’s Ponzi scheme. A judge has yet to rule on the case.

Rihanna and Jay-Z helped close out the Paralympic Closing Ceremony in London on Sunday night. According to BBC News, the ceremony started with a performance from Coldplay and also included sets from pop star Rihanna and Jay-Z, who performed on three circular stages. The event was the official handover to the 2016 host, Rio de Janeiro, bringing eleven days of paralympic sportsmanship to a close with four-thousand-200 athletes seated in the main arena.