andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Move aside, guitar, there’s a new Hero taking over the video game world: the turntable.

Video game creator Activision has released the much-anticipated massive set list for the DJ Hero video game, which comes out on Oct. 27, according to CHARTattack.

The game features 93 exclusive mixes by some of the industry’s top DJs, including Cut Chemist, DJ Shadow, and the late DJ AM. On the game these DJs slice up songs by artists such as Daft Punk, The Killers, Jay-Z, Public Enemies, and the Beastie Boys.

DJ Hero aims to expand on the technology used in video games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The game will use a turntable controller to help immerse players into DJ culture. It will give aspiring DJs the chance to learn DJ techniques including sampling, crossfading, and scratching.

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To celebrate their 50th Anniversary, Island Records is teaming up with andPOP.com to give you a chance to win a pair of tickets to the annual Lollapalooza festival in Grant Park, Chicago and a $100 gas card to help get you there!

If a weekend full of live music with mega-stars The Killers, Beasties Boys and Tool (to name a few) wasn’t quite enough then you’re in luck because Island Records is also hooking up the Grand Prize winner with the entire Killers’ catalog, as well as albums from Noisettes, Airborne Toxic Event, and Ida Maria.

The prizing isn’t over yet… Island Records is also giving away custom Zippo lighters and music download cards with the top 50 Island songs from the past 50 years to 25 runners up!

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Some of the world’s biggest artists have teamed up with Cuban band Rhythms Del Mundo for a benefit album that puts a Latin twist on well-known songs.

The Killers, Amy Winehouse, Fall Out Boy, Jack Johnson, KT Tunstall, Keane, Cat Power, Kaiser Chiefs, OneRepublic and the Rolling Stones are among the acts featured on “Rhythms Del Mundo Classics,” which is set for release July 13.

The album aims to raise awareness and funds for climate crisis projects and natural disaster relief through the U.K.-based charity Artists Project Earth.

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The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, The Yeah Yeahs Yeahs and Amy Winehouse are among the acts slated to perform at this year’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, organizers announced Friday.

The event’s tenth installment will run from April 17 to 19 in Indio, Calif.

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who will headline opening night, released this statement: “I have heard that Coachella is one of the greatest festivals in the world. I’m really excited to get out there and rock!”

Others on the bill include Morrissey, The Cure, Silversun Pickups, The Ting Tings, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, The Crystal Method, We Are Scientists and Lupe Fiasco.

Canadians are also well-represented, with K’naan, Crystal Castles, Billy Talent, MSTRKRFT, Fucked Up, Junior Boys and revered songwriter Leonard Cohen in the lineup.

Tickets for the festival are now available through Ticketmaster.

For more details, check out the official Coachella website here.

The Killers plan to put out an entire album of covers as their next release.

The band told Q magazine that each member of the four-piece will choose three tracks to cover for the album, which would be the followup to last year’s “Day & Age.”

Drummer Ronnie Vannucci already has his eye on reinventing songs by Tom Waits, Genesis and Rod Stewart.

The Killers have previously done renditions of such tunes as Joy Division’s “Shadowplay” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

Vannucci also revealed the band will work on the tracks while touring by using a new set of on-the-road recording equipment.

The band played Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Friday and will return to Canada for a handful of dates in April:

April 23 Victoria, BC @ Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre
April 24 Vancouver, BC @ Thunderbird Arena (University Of British Columbia)
April 26 Calgary, AB @ Pengrowth Saddledome
April 27 Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place

Several of the world’s top music acts are helping to launch the digital music magazine RED(WIRE), an extension of the activist organization (RED) that was co-founded by Bono.

U2, Coldplay, the Killers, the Dixie Chicks and John Legend are among those contributing exclusive songs to the initiative

Proceeds from subscriptions will benefit HIV-infected people in Africa. Appropriately enough, the magazine will kick off on Dec. 1, the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day.

Subscribers will pay $5 a month for a new issue of RED(WIRE) every Wednesday. Besides an exclusive song from a major artist, each issue will include a spotlight track from a lesser-known musician, a non-music feature that may include video or photography, and an update on how their donations are being used.

Among the featured tracks are Legend’s take on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” and the Killers’ collaboration with Elton John and the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant on the Christmas song “Joseph, Better You Than Me.”

Subscribers can also send two free issues to friends, with the promise of a reward if they join RED(WIRE).

“Artists are already saying, ‘I want to give you a track for those people who brought friends in,’” (RED)WIRE founder Don MacKinnon told Billboard. “That’s the biggest idea: using social networking to actually change the world in a unique way.”

Just three of the 54 albums nominated for this year’s Shortlist Music Prize are by Canadian artists, reports ChartAttack.com.

The award is handed out for the best album released in the U.S. between January and November of last year that sold less than 500,000 copies domestically. Albums from 48 different labels and nine countries were nominated by Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, Ronnie Vannucci of The Killers and four radio personalities.

Lucky Canucks Feist, Arcade Fire and Stars will duke it out against the likes of Bjork, Justice, M.I.A., The Hives and Wilco. Previous winners include Sufjan Stevens, Damien Rice and N*E*R*D.

Brandon Flowers just can’t seem to shut up. This time, the Killers’ frontman has lashed out at Green Day in yet another complaint about another band.

Flowers told UK magazine The Word that he was offended by Green Day’s apparent anti-Americanism, having filmed their DVD “Bullet In A Bible” in the UK.

“You have Green Day and ‘American Idiot’. Where do they film their DVD? In England,” Flowers was quoted as saying. “A bunch of kids screaming ‘I don’t want to be an American idiot’ I saw it as a very negative thing towards Americans. It really lit a fire in me.”

Flowers continued: “You have the right to say what you want to say and what you want to write about, and I’m sure they meant it in the same way that Bruce Springsteen meant ‘Born In The USA’ and it was taken wrongly, but I was really offended when I saw them do that.”

To take it abroad, Flowers said, allowed the meaning of the song to be misconstrued.

“I just thought it was really cheap,” he said. “To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song – those kids aren’t taking it the same way that he meant it. And he [Billie Joe Armstrong] knew it.”

In Flowers’ opinion, the Killers’ latest effort, “Sam’s Town” paints America in a better light.

“People need to see that, really, there are the nicest people in the world here!” he said. “I don’t know if our album makes you realise that. But I hope it’s from a more positive place.”

The Killers are on the cover of The Word’s latest issue, on newsstands now.

The sophomore effort from Las Vegas band The Killers has finally been given a street date.

The as-yet-untitled record is set for North American release through Island Def Jam on October 3, according to Billboard. It will come out a day earlier in the UK.

The album’s first single, “When You Were Young,” will officially hit airwaves on September 18, but will likely make the rounds (along with the rest of the album) much earlier than that.

A track list for the record hasn’t been announced yet, but songs that will likely find their way on to the finished product include “Read My Mind,” “Bones,” and “Uncle Johnny Did Cocaine.” The disc, produced by Flood and Alan Moulder, was recorded in Vegas

The record follows the band’s debut album, “Hot Fuss,” which has sold more than 3 million copies in the US to date.

Braden Merrick, former manager of rock act The Killers, has filed a federal lawsuit against the band and their lawyer for an alleged breach of contract.

Merrick is seeking $16 million in the suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. He says he was fired last May, once the Killers had found success.

“As soon as he made them superstars they decided to stop paying him,” said Merrick’s lawyer, Howard King. King told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Merrick is “entitled to a percentage of their income for his services as a manager and a producer.”

He added that Merrick’s contract with the band was to have run through 2007. The two sides were in talks for a settlement before the lawsuit was filed, which Killers’ lawyer Robert Reynolds said surprised both him and the band members.

“The only statement the band would like to make at this time is that the claims alleged by Mr. Merrick are absolutely meritless and we intend to defend this action vigorously,” Reynolds said.

The Grammy-nominated Killers formed in 2002 and their debut album “Hot Fuss” has sold more than 6 million copies.