Arch MUSIC NEWS for 10/31/12

Arch MUSIC NEWS is compiled by Jay Philpott -

It’s official: Taylor Swift‘s “Red” sold a whopping 1.208 million copies last week in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s more than any album has sold in a single week since 2002, when Eminem‘s “The Eminem Show” sold 1.322 million in its first full week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

In the midst of the Rolling Stones‘ 50th anniversary celebration preparations, Stones guitarist Ron Wood, 65, is also reportedly celebrating an engagement. He popped the question to his 34-year-old girlfriend Sally Humphreys, who he has been dating for six months.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is among the buildings damaged by superstorm Sandy. The Cleveland museum, which is 500 miles away from the New Jersey coast where Sandy came ashore Monday, was battered by the massive storm’s strong winds and heavy rains that came roaring southward off Lake Erie late Monday night.  The damage is superficial, not structural, and the building didn’t experience any flooding, and no exhibits have been damaged.

Wolfgang Van Halen just might be a member of two bands. The Van Halen bassist joined Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti‘s solo group last month as a last-minute fill in for Tremonti’s bassist Brian Marshall. Tremonti has been so impressed with Wolfgang, he now wants to make the replacement permanent.

INXS‘ best-selling album “Kick” turns 25 this year, and the band is celebrating in a big way. They’ll be giving fans a deluxe box set version of the 1987 record, which comes complete with outtakes, additional songs from the sessions, and a DVD that includes a making-of documentary, live footage and more.  ”The Kick 25th Anniversary Edition” is available now exclusively at INXS.com.

There’s good news for Lady Gaga‘s “little monsters.” Her upcoming album “ARTPOP,” will be released in two volumes. She may have plans to fill the first volume with commercial songs and the second volume with some of the more experimental work. She speculates that she would put out the second volume about six months after the first, adding that “even the experimental stuff is catchy.”

More performers are joining the lineup for the 40th American Music Awards. Pink, Pitbull and Carrie Underwood have just been added to the roster, which includes previously announced performers Christina Aguilera, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift and Linkin Park. More performers are expected to be announced in the days leading up to the November 18th ceremony. Minaj and Rihanna lead the fan-voted music awards event with four nominations each. Drake, Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, One Direction and Usher each have three. ABC will televise the 40th American Music Awards live from the Nokia Theatre on Sunday, November 18th, starting at 8:00 pm Eastern.

Rihanna fans better start saving up if they want to get their hands on the special deluxe edition of her upcoming album “Unapologetic.” It’ll be available for sale on December 11th — about a month after the release of the standard edition — for 250-dollars. “Unapologetic’s” deluxe deal includes a number of extras for hardcore Rihanna fans. Some of those include art prints, a vinyl of remixes and a custom notebook with handwritten notes from the singer.