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By Keir Bristol

Do you know what happened this week in music? You’re about to find out!

TUESDAY, JUNE 22:

As you may know from last week’s Music Insider blog, the Roots released their ninth album, “How I Got Over” on Tuesday, June 22. But there were some other notable album releases that day, including Eminem’s “Recovery,” Uffie’s “Sex, Dreams, and Denim Jeans,” and Miley Cyrus‘ “Can’t Be Tamed.”

Here are a list of albums that were released on June 22, as well as a list of album releases to look forward to.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23:

Thao Nguyen (of Thao with the Get Down, Stay Down) and Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn (a.k.a. Mirah) performed at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, Mass. under the name “Thao and Mirah with The Most of All.”
Read a review of the Cambridge show here.

THURSDAY, JUNE 26:

[mp3] \”Vuvuzela Beat by Ghostdad\”. Enough said. (Via IGuessI’mFloating)

FRIDAY, JUNE 25:

The one year anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death.

SATURDAY, JUNE 26:

The Creator’s Project launched Saturday, June 26th at Milk Studios in New York. Performers included M.I.A., Interpol, Sleigh Bells, Neon Indian, Gang Gang Dance, Mark Ronson, and more. The party also featured art by Nick Zinner (of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s), Animal Collective, The xx, and Spike Jones.

To see more about the launch, click here.

SUNDAY, JUNE 27:

On Sunday, June 27, the 2010 BET Awards were held. Among the highlights:

• Chris Brown does a Michael Jackson tribute and breaks down crying.
• Janelle Monae does a Prince tribute and covers “Let’s Go Crazy.”
• Kanye West performs his new jam, “Power” on top of a volcano.

Videos of all of the above can be found here.
The list of winners can be found here.

MONDAY, JUNE 28:

Ra Ra Riot is releasing new album “The Orchard” on August 24th and have planned an extensive U.S. and Canada tour in support of it. The first four shows will be in New York. For more information, go here.

Ra Ra Riot – "The Orchard"

Picture courtesy of BrooklynVegan.

TUESDAY, JUNE 29:

According to Pitchfork, today Big Boi’s new album, “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty” can be streamed for free via Myspace.

Big Boi – "Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty"

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia.com.

Visit http://www.youtube.com/CollegeMag to watch/listen to this week’s Michael Jackson tribute mixtape.

• Don’t you just love when celebrities think they’re politicians?  Apparently, Madonna thought it was necessary to voice her opinion regarding Romanian class conflict at one of her most recent concerts.  The crowd at the show in Bucharest actually booed everyone’s favorite material girl when she said, “It has been brought to my attention…that there is a lot of discrimination against Romanies and Gypsies in general in Eastern Europe.  It made me feel very sad.”  Sure, I guess she meant well, but really?  As an international pop star, it’s pretty important to voice your uninformed opinion about a foreign culture.  Maybe she should head on over to Somalia so she can tell those pirates something like “I heard you’re stealing things from boats.  And I think that’s mean.”  Cripes.

Oh, she must think she's the next Bono.

• One might think that after being sentenced to five years probation, a restraining order, and a year of domestic violence counseling, Chris Brown would at least try to appear remorseful.  Instead, the sorry excuse for a human being young rapper decided to go clubbing the night after his sentencing hearing.  Oh yeah, he’s really sorry.  Turns out, the post-court partying may be a violation of his probation, which clearly states that he cannot be in any establishment where alcohol is the primary item of sale.  Since he attended a nightclub (which is, after all, just a bar with room for dancing) Brown could be in pretty big trouble again.  Wait, does anybody else hear that?  It’s the world’s smallest violin!

World's Biggest Douchebag.

• Turns out that Jeremy Piven’s excuse for his abrupt departure from the Broadway play Speed-the-Plow is no longer considered fishy. Okay, I know that was lame, but I couldn’t help myself.  The actor was supposedly suffering from mercury poisoning during his brief stint on Broadway, caused by eating too much fish.  His doctor vouched for him, but the producers of the play weren’t satisfied, and basically sued Piven for the trouble he caused and the money he lost the production.  A professional arbiter ruled that Piven didn’t owe the producers anything, and that the alleged mercury poisoning seemed legit.  Personally, I still think he’s a pansy.  But the show was better off without him (William H. Macy was freaking awesome in that role!).

I'm gonna call him Big Tuna. Get it? Anybody?

• One more thing: whose idea was it to have Lindsay Lohan be a guest judge on the season premiere of Project Runway?  The challenge was clearly not “designing a functional-yet-chic wardrobe for rehab;” what kind of expertise could she possibly have in any other category?!  Her comments about the designs were especially insightful:  “I like that dress” and “I don’t know about the color” were particularly helpful bits of constructive criticism.  What a train wreck…I almost feel bad making fun of her.  Almost.

Image sources: www.yahoo.com, www.eonline.com

• Take a deep breath, everybody: Adam Lambert has come out. Phew. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past month or so, Lambert is the runner-up on the latest season of American Idol. The seemingly endless speculation about whether he’s gay has finally ended, and he’s posing on the cover of the most recent issue of Rolling Stone with the headline “The Liberation of Adam Lambert”. Why anybody is so gravely concerned about the sexuality of reality show contestants is something I just don’t get. Maybe it’s a futile attempt to make the show interesting. If that’s the goal, I might be more inclined to watch if Ryan Seacrest didn’t wear a shirt. Just a suggestion.

This is probably the most press he will ever get.

• Bret Michaels must have known what would happen if he ever walked into a Broadway theater: he would be physically attacked. And after his performance at the Tony Awards on Sunday night, that’s exactly what happened. As a trashy reality star and former frontman of the 80’s rock band Poison, Michaels played a song from one of the nominated musicals, Rock of Ages, at the beginning of the awards show. But when he turned around to walk off the stage, a piece of the set came down and hit him square in the face.
  And it. Was. Hilarious.
  As it turned out, the accident left the Rock of Love star with a split lip and a fractured nose, and he might have to postpone some upcoming tour dates. Is it terrible that I’m still cracking up? If you haven’t seen it, you have to watch the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JocPcYBCN18

• I’ve just decided to take a road trip to Dawson’s Creek.   James Van Der Beek, a.k.a. Dawson Leery, has just split from his wife of six years, actress Heather McComb. I want him to be the Dawson to my Joey.

I tried to photoshop myself into the picture. I failed.

• Chris Brown’s lawyer recently requested that the rapper’s preliminary hearing be pushed back because certain leaks to the press (specifically the police photo of Rihanna after the alleged beating) would “compromise” Brown’s defense. The judge denied the movement, basically because it’s bullsh!t. So, the hearing is still set for June 22.
  And Chris Brown is still a turd.