Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach is available on iTunes for pre-order. Fans that pre-order the album will get the single “Stylo” download immediately. The super-smashing album will feature two extra-special bonus tracks and much, much more.

The video selections from the Gorillaz Web site featuring various segments of Plastic Beach are now available. Check out the links below.

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[Editor's Note: My Top 21 of the 21st (So Far...) is a retrospective feature where our writers were invited to write a list of top 21 favorite songs, albums or anything else music-related, of the new millennium, explaining why it was picked, or what particular significance it has had over the past ten years. (There is an ongoing debate on whether or not 2000 A.D. counts as part this millennium. For sake of argument, we're going to go ahead and count it. Hey, a lot of good music came out that year, anyway, so suck it up, and enjoy the feature.)]

While my comrades have given their accounts of favorite songs and albums, I decided to put a spin on my entry for this feature and look at my top 21 favorite dance tracks of the past ten years. You’ll probably notice that it’s heavily weighed towards certain genres, as this pretty much reflects the types of clubs I’ve frequented over the years or the type of music that I’ve enjoyed most. So, in no particular order, here they are…

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Nominees for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards were announced Wednesday night. The broadcast will take place Jan. 31, 2010, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Here is a shortened list of nominees from the major categories:

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Co-headliners to tour the U.S. together for the first time in nearly two decades

Recession-proof $10 tickets available in all U.S. markets

LOS ANGELES — Slayer. Megadeth. Two names synonymous with fierce, crunching power. Two bands whose histories are inevitably intertwined in defining the thrash/metal genre. Individually, their respective prowess and accomplishments are impressive; but together, they’re brutal and unstoppable. Megadeth and Slayer will join forces to co-headline “American Carnage”, the most blistering, the most explosive and the most eagerly-anticipated mega-tour of the winter—and you do not want to miss it.

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While you might have heard Leona Lewis‘ BLOCKBUSTER hit “Bleeding Love” so many times last year that you wanted to punch yourself in the face until it stopped playing over and over again your brain, some guy in London just did you one better—he punched Leona Lewis herself in the face. The 24-year-old singer was at the book signing for her recently released autobiography, Dreams, at a bookstore in London’s Piccadilly area on Tuesday when the incident occurred.

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While ex-flame Chris Brown is busy pretending to break a sweat while serving his community service sentence, Rihanna is wasting no time getting out on the town to show off that pierced nipple that was such a hit last year. The singer was shopping in New York this week when pictures were snapped by local paparazzi, once again revealing the piercing in all of its glory.

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This volume of Blaps, Rhymes & Life is dedicated to Eli Matthew Ibanga R.I.P.: Sunrise – 05.27.08 | Sunset – 06.23.09

The Blaps, Rhymes & Life compilation series continues, as the blapmaster Illmind, and Dub MD bring you volume 3, as yet another EXCLUSIVE free download. Blaps, Rhymes & Life Vol. 3 is jam-packed, full of more classic Illmind production, as he showcases his music with a mix of mainstream and underground artists. In this volume, he collaborates with mainstream artists like 50 Cent, Scarface, Masta Ace, Young Buck, and Marsha from Floetry, and keeps the balance with underground artists and rising stars Termanology, Wale, D-Black, Skyzoo and Torae, to name a few. Also included is an official remake of 88 Keys‘ single “Stay Up!”, featuring Alchemist, Evidence and 88 Keys himself on the rhymes. Master Shake from Adult Swim’s hit TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force also makes an appearance!

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You just can’t make this stuff up, folks. Just weeks after Madonna was dumped from a horse (not surprisingly, even a horse can’t stand to be around her), the equines continue to revolt, this time leaving singer Leona Lewis in their path of destruction.

A seasoned horseback rider since childhood, Lewis had been given a stallion for her 24th birthday last month. She was riding the horse near her home in Los Angeles last month when he suddenly turned on her, rearing up and whipping his head back, striking her in the face and tossing her to the ground.

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me·dic·i·nal: A preparation or product having the properties of a medicine.
li·ba·tion: The pouring of a liquid offering as a religious ritual.

When super-producer J Dilla passed away in 2006, few could claim they felt the loss more than Madlib. He and Dilla had come together to present one of the most critically claimed albums of 2003, Champion Sound, and were planning on coming together again to continue to bring jaw-dropping soundscapes to the masses for years to come.

But it just wasn’t meant to be. Since the loss of J-Dilla, Jaylib’s other half has continued pushing his beat factory to its limits, interweaving solo projects dedicated to or predicated by Dilla’s spirit with EPs and albums highlighting some of today’s most underrated lyricists and singers. Madlib is the textbook definition of an “über-producer”—one who raises the bar consistently in quality and quantity, leaving a legacy few (besides his partner J-Dilla) could even come close to touching.

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A group of students staging a protest in response to a scheduled Soulja Boy concert at the University of Minnesota Duluth on Friday apparently threw the guy who pretends to be a rapper for a loop, as a horribly written Twitter entry would suggest:

“WTF I’m in minesota its a group of maf*ckaz prtoesting my show. This shit on all the news.”

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