Amy Winehouse

One of the more tragic aspects of the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster was watching guitarist Kirk Hammett quietly panic while he watches the band he had given over two decades to fall apart. “I was ready to start working on a solo album,” Hammett admits to Rolling Stone’s David Fricke. “But it’s extremely important for me to be in this band. If it all fell apart tomorrow, I’d be extremely proud of our accomplishments. Having said that, we’re always going to be in Metallica, even if the band breaks up. We’re always going to be linked to the concept of what Metallica is.” Click below for more from Hammett, including the moment when he realized he was a rock star and who made him star struck back on one of Metallica’s early tours.

• Interview: Metallica’s Kirk Hammett

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Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor launched a YouTube channel yesterday that will host a film festival of fan-made movies that feature tracks from Ghosts I-IV, insuring the fans’ films will be reduced to compressed, blotchy, out-of-sync YouTube clips. Reznor himself will judge the competition, along with “special guests.” Fans can upload their videos onto the YouTube page now, but Reznor insists you take your time, since the whole process is going to take a few months. And as the rules state, “Please don’t just submit simple image slideshows.”

In other Reznor news, he criticized Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want release of In Rainbows, calling it “insincere” and “a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale.” “What they did right: they surprised the world with a new record, and it was available digitally first,” Reznor said of his possible Lollapalooza co-headliners. “What they did wrong: by making it such a low quality thing, not even including artwork … to me that feels insincere.” Reznor’s comments come one day after he revealed his self-released instrumental album Ghosts I-IV raked in $1.6 million in first week label-free sales.

Every Tuesday Single Minded highlights new tracks hitting stores (or the Web) this week. On Fridays, come back for rarities, remixes, mash-ups and more.

50 Cent featuring Prodigy & Tony Yayo, “Fully Loaded” [Official Mixtape]
The album-long takedown of Fat Joe is a little juvenile even by G-Unit standards, but this slow-burning death march about (what else?) drug slinging reminds everybody why we liked 50 in the first place (for reasons that had nothing to do with his abs).

Midnight Movies, “Nights in White Satin” [MySpace]
Southern California dream poppers take the Moody Blues’ overblown classic and turn it into a sexy, dramatic statement of purpose.

Freeky Zekey, “Big Brother” [Bootleg]
Isn’t it amazing how a good (jacked) Kanye West beat can turn a sixth-string Dipset mumbler into a guy who sounds like he knows what he’s doing?

Rev Theory, “Light It Up” [MySpace]
This hard-hitting track about “whiskey running through my veins” (ouch!) sounds like the entrance music to the meanest pro wrestler in history. Not coincidentally, it’s also the official theme song of this year’s Wrestlemania. Synergy!

Lupe Fiasco featuring T.I. and Young Jeezy, “Superstar” [Remix]
Lupe has never been a rapper who has played well with others, but his team up with these two titans of the South is an impressive twist on his tepid single from The Cool. Jeezy sounds especially sharp — at times, it sounds like he’s gargling with the beat, which should give him minty fresh breath.

The little movie (and soundtrack) that could just kept on doing at last night’s Academy Awards ceremony, as Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s “Falling Slowly” from the film Once took home the prize for Best Original Song. “Falling Slowly” beat out three tunes from Enchanted and one from August Rush – plus non-nominated songs from Eddie Vedder’s Into The Wild soundtrack – to win the Oscar, adding another trophy to sit beside the Grammy Hansard and Irglova won earlier this month in the same category. Also on Rock Daily’s radar was Cate Blanchett’s Best Supporting Actress bid for portraying a faux Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. Despite being an assumed favorite, Blanchett lost out to dark horse Tilda Swinton for her role in Michael Clayton. In case you missed the Academy Awards because you were too busy watching The Wire or Rock of Love 2, or if you just want to relive the action, Peter Travers has you covered with his Oscars Live Blog.

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• Oscars: Depp and Blanchett Nominated, Vedder and Greenwood Shut Out
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• Bizarro Grammys: The White Stripes’ USBs, Gerard Way’s MCR Packaging, Flaming Lips’ Surround Sound

• Scarlett Johansson On Waits Album, Bowie
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• 1988: The Year Hip-Hop Exploded
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• News Ticker: Radiohead, RIAA, Eagles
• Moby Offers Free Remixes of New LP
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Top stories from the last three days:

• On Tour: Radiohead, Kanye West, Mars Volta
• Beck Reflects on “Odelay”
• STP Reunion Confirmed for Ohio Fest
• Jackson Celebrates “Thriller” Anniversary
• Winehouse, Hancock Win at Grammys
• Behind the Scenes at Grammys
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Scroll down for full news stories, commentary and much more in Rock Daily.

1988 was arguably hip-hop’s biggest year, featuring a stack of seminal releases from some of the game’s most important MCs that helped mutate rap (and all of pop music) into something entirely new. For the complete guide to all the best ‘88 albums from the likes of Public Enemy, Run-DMC, N.W.A and others, click here.

Class Act
Opening for Blonde Redhead and the Raveonettes at a recent New York show, School of Seven Bells, founded by ex-Secret Machines guitarist Ben Curtis and featuring twin-sister singers Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, slipped easily between epochs — medieval polyphony, laptop sorcery, the rhythmic turmoil of Public Image Ltd.’s 1981 album, Flowers of Romance — with smart hooks and the Dehezas’ alluring vocals, liberally greased with reverb. The group’s 2007 EP, Face to Face on High Places (Radium/Table of the Elements), is as addictive to look at — twelve-inch clear vinyl with a laser-etched image on one side — as it is to play.
[Photo: Amanda Merten]

• Amplive’s remixed version of Radiohead’s In Rainbows has finally gotten the green light from the Oxford quintet after the band initially denied its release. Rainy Dayz is available for free download here.

• Oklahoma State University has surrendered the names of eleven students who illegally downloaded music to the RIAA in compliance with a court order issued after the RIAA sued several universities.

• Fat Boy Slim and Underworld have been tapped to headline this year’s O2 Wireless Festival, taking place in London on July 5th.

• The Eagles will headline the third day (May 2nd) of the country music-filled Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California. The fest also features Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood and Big & Rich.

Be Kind Rewind, The Whitest Kids U Know and a guide to cursing in sixty-nine languages are among the highlights of the new version of the Rolling Stone Top 10. For the complete list of everything Rolling Stone’s editors are currently obsessed with, click here.

[Photo: Courtesy New Line Cinema]

Moby’s new album Last Night doesn’t come out until April 1st (no fooling!), but he’s providing a taste of the new project via a free DJ mix. The diminutive dance maven has teamed up with online music site RCRD LBL to serve up a gratis download of an eight minute dance mash-up of highlights from the upcoming record. Last Night, a dance-focused four-on-the-floor album, represents something of a return to form for Moby, whose last two albums have been relatively laid back affairs. To get a taste of what’s to come from the mind of Moby, click here.