Coldplay's EP is coming and Jay-Z makes a surprise visit!

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Coldplay will in November release an eight-song EP, "Prospekt's March," which will include a new version of the song "Lost" featuring rapper Jay-Z. Six of the eight tracks on the EP are new studio recordings, including "Glass of Water," which the band has been performing live of late.

The track list is rounded out by the Jay-Z version of "Lost" and the Osaka Sun remix of "Lovers in Japan."

Coldplay will begin a North American tour Oct. 20 in Ottawa, Ontario, in support of its latest Capitol album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends." The set is the second-highest selling U.S. release of 2008, according to Nielsen SoundScan, at 1.77 million copies.

Here is the track list for "Prospekt's March":

"Life In Technicolour II"
"Postcards From Far Away"
"Glass Of Water"
"Rainy Day"
"Prospekt's March / Poppyfields"
"Lost +"
"Lovers in Japan" (Osaka Sun remix)
"Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground"

Courtesy of Billboard.com

Only God knows why Katy Perry is still number 1 (Seriously...)

I don't get it but she's getting it so buck it.



Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" is further cementing itself as one of the biggest songs of the summer, entering a fourth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The next closest challengers remain Rihanna's "Take a Bow" and Lil Wayne's "Lollipop," which hold at No. 2 and 3, respectively.

Chris Brown's "Forever" jumps 6-4 and is the top digital gainer after selling 87,000 downloads. Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" is down 4-5, while Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine" climbs 7-6 and Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" slides 5-7.

Lil Wayne's "A Milli" rises 11-8, while Miley Cyrus' "7 Things" jumps 10-9, switching places with Plies' "Bust It Baby Pt. 2" featuring Ne-Yo. Jesse McCartney's "Leavin'" is the top airplay gainer and enjoys a 13-11 shift; the track also moves 2-1 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, the artist's first chart-topper there.

The Hot 100's top debut is Toby Keith's "She Never Cried in Front of Me" at No. 72, thanks to early airplay and digital sales of 24,000 copies. The song also jumps 34-26 on Hot Country Songs, where Blake Shelton's "Home" is No. 1 for a second week.

Keyshia Cole's "Heaven Sent" is No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for a fifth week. The chart's top new entry comes from T-Pain's "Can't Believe It" featuring Lil Wayne at No. 71.

Billboard's rock charts remain unchanged at the top for an eleventh week, with Weezer's "Pork and Beans" at No. 1 on Modern Rock and Disturbed's "Inside the Fire" leading Mainstream Rock. On the latter tally, Hinder has the top debut at No. 36 with "Use Me."

Courtesy of Billboard.com

Coldplay is set to kick on the Summer Tour

July 15, 2008 , 10:45 AM ET

Brian Cohen, L.A.

Coldplay opened its North American tour last night (July 14) at the Forum in Los Angeles, treating the sold-out crowd to a career-spanning, 20-song set list. The 90-minute show, complete with floating video globes, confetti and flashing laser beams, went heavy on new material in various different incarnations on multiple stages throughout the venue, including a two-song jaunt up in the top most colonnade of arena seats.

"I can tell it's gonna be a good one," singer Chris Martin told the audience while catching his breath after "Violet Hill" -- the first single from the band's new, chart-topping, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends."

Content to let layers of pre-recorded backing tracks fill out most of the new songs, Martin was free to spend much of the evening hopping, skipping and jumping around the stage like an over-caffeinated gymnast, while his bandmates -- guitarist Johnny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer Will Champion -- tucked into their instruments behind him with satisfactory aplomb.

Barring a few to-be-expected missteps along the way, (missed instrumental cues in "Death and All His Friends," botched parts in "Speed of Sound") the show moved like clockwork, as teams of stagehands hustled to move pianos and makeshift drum kits back and forth onstage between songs.

Clever enough to try and keep the audience from getting too bored at any given time, the group successfully interjected a variety of audio and visual amusements throughout the evening. Peppering new material with at least two songs from each of its previous three albums, Coldplay offered older hits like "Clocks" and "In My Place" early in the set.

Eight songs in, the group decamped to a smaller platform that extended outward from the right side of the main stage into the crowd for "Chinese Sleep Chant" and "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face", both of which featured a leaner guitar-and-bass arrangement, as well as sampled 808 electronic drums.

Back on the main stage, the group wisely ditched the orchestral backing tracks, albeit temporarily, for stripped-down versions of "Trouble" and "Speed of Sound," the latter of which sounded refreshingly under-rehearsed.

Later, the group was led by security onto the floor and up the stairs of the venue to a third platform all the way up in the highest group of the Forum's seats, where, huddled together like sardines, it performed acoustic versions of "Yellow" and "Death Will Never Conquer," which featured Champion on lead vocals.

Los Angeles in certainly no stranger to big-budget, high-production-value extravaganzas, and as Martin befittingly joked, "Where better than to kick off the paid professional entertainment portion of our tour!" Coldplay returns to the Forum again tonight.

Here is Coldplay's set list:

"Life in Technicolor"
"Violet Hill"
"Clocks"
"In My Place"
"Viva La Vida"
"42"
"Yes"
"The Scientist"
"Chinese Sleep Chant"
"God Put a Smile Upon Your Face"
"Square One"
"Speed of Sound"
"Trouble"
"Lost!"
"Strawberry Swing"
"Yellow"
"Death Will Never Conquer"
"Fix You"
"Lovers In Japan"
"Death and All His Friends" / "The Escapist"

Courtesy of Billboard.com