–After proving they-still-got-it at Bonnaroo less than two weeks ago, the Beastie Boys announced details about their new disc, Hot Sauce Committee Part 1. The album is due September 15, and its seventeen tracks include the Nas collaboration “Too Many Rappers” (which they performed together at the festival). The band plays fests the rest of the summer, including a stop at Lollapalooza August 8. The band is currently churning out a string of reissues, including a deluxe edition of 1994’s Ill Communication, to be released July 14, and 1998’s multi-platinum Hello Nasty, which hits stores August 25.
–Being a talk show house band has its bonuses, like promoting new material whenever whenever you want. The Roots will debut the title track from their upcoming album, How I Got Over, tonight on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. The disc’s summer release date has been pushed back to October 20th, but a video for the title track will be released in early July. The band continues its Tuesday night jams at the Highline Ballroom all summer.
–Authorities have determined that former Wilco guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/driving force behind the experimental sound of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Jay Bennett died of a painkiller overdose. According to Billboard, tests show 45-year-old Bennett died May 24 at his home in Urbana, Illinois from fentanyl, a drug found in patches commonly prescribed to treat chronic pain. Bennett was recovering from hip replacement surgery before his untimely death.
–Lil Wayne appeared in court yesterday for a pretrial update relating to a January 2008 arrest in which the rapper was charged charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of dangerous drugs, and weapons misconduct. The charges were filed after police searched Wayne’s tour bus, where they said they found cocaine, ecstasy, and a handgun. The rapper’s lawyer questions the role of the drug sniffing dog in the bust and has requested border patrol training records for the dogs, saying “If the dog is not reliable, then that puts the entire probable cause for the stop into question.”