Arch MUSIC NEWS for 1/4/13

Arch MUSIC NEWS  is compiled by Jay Philpott -

Adam Levine has been booked to host the January 26th episode of “Saturday Night Live” — not long after Levine and the rest of the band took the “SNL” stage as musical guests back in November. Up-and-coming rapper Kendrick Lamar will fill the musical guest role when Levine makes his hosting debut. Meanwhile, the NBC sketch comedy show is scheduled to return from its winter hiatus on January 19th with “Silver Linings Playbook” star Jennifer Lawrence as host and Grammy-nominated folk rockers The Lumineers as the musical guest.

Dave Grohl has formed another supergroup, this one named Sound City Players. The band, whose other members are not yet known, will perform Jan. 18 in Park City, Utah, in accordance with the premiere of Grohl’s debut as a documentary director on the film Sound City.  Grohl’s future bandmates might include musicians featured in the documentary:  Trent Reznor; Stevie Nicks; Lindsey Buckingham, Neil Young, John Fogerty and Tom Petty, among others. Sound City, due out in February, tells the story of a somewhat nondescript and dilapidated recording studio in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley where many of rock’s most important records were made (including Nirvana’s Nevermind in 1991).

A former firefighter with a crush on Madonna has been sentenced to three years’ probation for resisting arrest outside the singer’s New York City apartment building. Robert Linhart was convicted in November after being twice arrested in September 2010. Police say the then-59-year-old Linhart was nabbed after he parked his SUV outside the Material Girl’s former Manhattan apartment and spray-painted love notes on poster boards. He returned a few days later and was arrested again. His attorney had argued that it was no crime to adore Madonna.

Adele‘s “21″ was the best-selling album of 2012, according to new “Billboard” and Nielsen SoundScan numbers. “Twenty One” was also the best-selling album of 2011. It’s the first time since 1991, when Nielsen Soundscan began tracking year-long sales records, that any album has ruled for two years in a row. The album sold four-point-four-million copies in 2012. Since debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 in January 2011, “21″ has never left the chart’s top 40.

Will.i.am is hoping 2013 will be a big year for his solo career. The Black Eyed Peas rapper tweeted this week that he hopes to do a world tour on his own, as a part of his new year resolutions. He continues to create buzz around his upcoming solo album “Willpower,” which was supposed to be out in 2012. The album was delayed when will.i.am’s laptop was stolen and many of his songs leaked.

Kelly Clarkson says she has her new fiancé to thank for her memorable 30-pound weight loss last year. In an interview with “Cosmopolitan,” she says meeting Brandon Blackstock inspired her to trim down and that falling in love helps with motivation. The singer reveals that she “literally dropped 18 pounds in a month.” Clarkson and Blackstock got engaged last month. The “American Idol” winner had a successful year both personally and professionally. Her song “Stronger” earned her four Grammy nods for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album.

Electric Light Orchestra frontman Jeff Lynne says an insulting comment from his father actually helped him as a songwriter. The rocker tells “Clash” magazine he got mad when his dad told him that the “trouble” with his “tunes is they have no tune.” He says the remark left him determined to prove his father wrong, so he began writing material for an album that was “a very orchestral piece, like a big thirty-piece string section and a choir and everything,” that included “all these pseudo-classical type of things in between the tracks.” That album was ELO’s 1974 release “Eldorado.” The disc, which includes the hit single “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head,” became the group’s first Gold album. Lynne says that in retrospect his dad gave him “a really good incentive,” and he came to realize that his father “was probably right.”

It seems the upcoming season of “Californication” will include plenty of Marilyn Manson. In addition to playing himself in two episodes of the Showtime series, he’s also making an appearance on the sixth season’s soundtrack, due out January 15th. Manson’s cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” is featured on the album, along with songs from Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols — who also appears on the show — Ryan Adams, Joe Walsh, Tim Minchin and others. “Californication” star David Duchovny tells “Rolling Stone” this will be a “rock and roll year” on the show, and says he even plans to play a little on-screen guitar himself.