Week in Music: Wilco, Robert Plant and Arcade Fire Rock New Orleans Jazz Fest
Rolling Stone has been covering the 42nd annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival all week long. In addition to reviews of live performances by artists such as Wilco, Bon Jovi, the Decemberists and Robert Plant, and a continuously updated gallery of photos from the event, we will be streaming highlights from the festival in a webcast this weekend. The high-definition webcast will start at 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET; 4 p.m. PT) and will include performances by Jimmy Buffett, Arcade Fire, Robert Plant, Wilco, the Neville Brothers, Allen Toussaint, Lucinda Williams and many more.
Photos: New Orleans Jazz Fest with Mumford & Sons, John Legend, Robert Plant and More
We also caught up with Billy Corgan about the Smashing Pumpkins’ new music and expanded reissues, chatted with AC/DC about their new concert DVD, went behind the scenes at Bonnaroo 2011, talked to the Beastie Boys about their long-awaited new album, profiled the hot and controversial hip-hop collective Odd Future and met the star of Lady Gaga‘s sexy music video for “Judas.”
The Hottest Live Photos of the Week
Also, Rob Sheffield put together a playlist of the best songs about moms for Mother’s Day, compiled the 12 most unlikely covers of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and we posted video of David Fricke’s conversation with John Mellencamp at New York’s 92nd Street Y. Plus, singer-songwriter Keren Ann performed a brief acoustic set at our office, British dance-pop star Katy B was named our latest Artist to Watch, we analyzed this week’s pop charts, looked back on this week in rock history and, as always, we reviewed all the week’s biggest new releases.
On the pop culture front, Peter Travers chatted with Nina Dobrev, the very charming star of the hit CW series The Vampire Diaries, and reviewed Thor, the first big movie of the summer. Also, Mallika Rao determined which of the contestents are “in it to win it” and said goodbye to Jacob Lusk in her recaps of American Idol. Rao also checked in on the progress of NBC’s new singing competition The Voice, and Erica Futterman reviewed this week’s Fleetwood Mac-centric episode of Glee.
Photos: Know Your ‘Rumours’: ‘Glee’ vs. Fleetwood Mac
The third round of the Choose the Cover of Rolling Stone contest is under way! After hundreds of thousands of votes were cast online, the 16 acts vying for the cover of Rolling Stone – as well as an Atlantic Records contract – have been narrowed down to a group of four. You can watch videos for the bands performing in New York City and discussing their creative inspirations, then vote for your favorites now.
We also posted a gallery of your Top 10 favorite one-hit wonders of all time, as determined by your votes on Facebook and Twitter. Our question for you this weekend is: What is the best ballad/slow jam of all time? You can answer on our website, on facebook.com/rollingstone or on Twitter with the #weekendrock hashtag.