Oh, yes, the weekend is here and so to is Exclaim!'s News Round-Up, our guide to the week's top stories. Here's a sampling of what grabbed our headlines this time 'round.
First off, leave it up to Courtney Love to once again steal the spotlight. This week, a whole lot of drama went down over Kurt Cobain's image being used and abused in the new Guitar Hero 5. Courtney kicked thing off by going on a Twitter tirade against the videogame's creators, Activision, going so far as threatening to sue the company. Then Activision issued a statement denying Love denied the company to use to Cobain's likeness and, to top it all off, Nirvana's surviving members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl issued a statement of their own, saying they were "dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game." They want Cobain's character to be "re-locked," but so far Activision hasn't agreed to any such action.
This week, we also found out Neil Young has cancelled his TIFF appearance, and because he "didn't know I was a scheduled event." Plus, we had Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan launching some weird spiritual website, London rapper Speech Debelle winning the Mercury Prize and David Bowie getting a spider named after him.
On the more technological side of things, Apple revealed iTunes 9, the iTunes LP and some new iPods but no Beatles news, and in what's guaranteed to ruffle a lot of tail feathers, the Canadian government may tack on a new fee to all iPods to compensate the country's artists.
And while these final two stories aren't perhaps big headline grabbers, we were pleased to find out German techo minimalist Pantha Du Prince has moved up the label food chain and signed to Rough Trade and that Exclaim! fave CFCF is finally going to release a proper full-length album. C'mon, exciting, right?
First off, leave it up to Courtney Love to once again steal the spotlight. This week, a whole lot of drama went down over Kurt Cobain's image being used and abused in the new Guitar Hero 5. Courtney kicked thing off by going on a Twitter tirade against the videogame's creators, Activision, going so far as threatening to sue the company. Then Activision issued a statement denying Love denied the company to use to Cobain's likeness and, to top it all off, Nirvana's surviving members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl issued a statement of their own, saying they were "dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game." They want Cobain's character to be "re-locked," but so far Activision hasn't agreed to any such action.
This week, we also found out Neil Young has cancelled his TIFF appearance, and because he "didn't know I was a scheduled event." Plus, we had Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan launching some weird spiritual website, London rapper Speech Debelle winning the Mercury Prize and David Bowie getting a spider named after him.
On the more technological side of things, Apple revealed iTunes 9, the iTunes LP and some new iPods but no Beatles news, and in what's guaranteed to ruffle a lot of tail feathers, the Canadian government may tack on a new fee to all iPods to compensate the country's artists.
And while these final two stories aren't perhaps big headline grabbers, we were pleased to find out German techo minimalist Pantha Du Prince has moved up the label food chain and signed to Rough Trade and that Exclaim! fave CFCF is finally going to release a proper full-length album. C'mon, exciting, right?
