The poptastic Apples in Stereo are set to release a greatest hits album on September 1st, entitled #1 Hits Explosion, a collection that will span all six of their studio albums. KABLAAM! Apparently this project signifies a new chapter for the Apples, and the Athens band are crafting something outside their comfort zone for a 2010 release. According to frontman Robert Schneider, they’re “currently working on an album of soul music, filtered through a UFO.” We’re thinking Aretha Franklin meets Brian Wilson. We’re also thinking that should sound pretty awesome.

Beck has begun to morph his wares even further, turning his site into a pool of covers he or guests have done as part of his recently founded Record Club. The Club is about to release it’s first collaboration, a re-imagining of The Velvet Underground & Nico. Weekly, Beck has been filling the DJ slot on his site himself so that fans can cop said covers, one being the hallowed “Waiting for the Man.” Check his site, get your cover jam on.

—Meryl Natow

The Sony Walkman turned 30 today and yet no one has wheeled out a cake or piñata to celebrate. In fact Sony seems to be a bit bashful about this milestone birthday. Whether it is because of other issues going on in the company that take precedent or because the Walkman’s major opponent, Apple’s iPod, has been stealing the Walkman’s fans left and right, the Walkman isn’t getting the appreciation and celebration it deserves on this momentous occasion. Sony has been too busy with the Walkman’s younger siblings such as Vaio personal computers and Cyber-shot cameras to devote any real time to this virtually-defunct machine which, over the course of its 30-year lifespan, has been sold
385 million times. Instead, Sony devoted a small section in its archival exhibit alongside other discontinued products. It’s hard to keep up when in just 8 years Apple has already sold 210 million iPods (a number it probably took Sony approximately 16 years to reach, if you do the math). Nonetheless, the Sony Walkman was a major step forward in “Listening to Stereophonic Sound While Walking” technology (as Sony’s online archive puts it), and for that we are forever grateful.

—Meryl Natow

Famous Friends, Noise Problem, and Street Attack have teamed up in order to bring you the fattest beats in all of New York City at the second annual Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival. Headliners will include RJD2 and Juan MacLean (live) amongst dozens of other performers and DJs, and the party will be going down at the Old American Can Factory. Festivities last from 4 pm to 4 am on August 8th, and tickets are $25 in advance. Down some energy drinks, put on your dancing shoes, and party it up electro-style.

It’s been nearly a week since the King of Pop passed away from cardiac arrest, and perhaps the most intriguingly warped thing we’ve read about Michael Jackson so far is that Diana Ross could take guardianship of his three children.

As specifics are coming forth about Jackson’s drug use (who gave it to him?), how much he was in debt ($400 million), and what his schedule London shows would have looked like, a spotlight has been put forth on the future of Jackon’s kids: Prince, Paris, and Blanket. In Jackson’s will, which was revealed this morning and written in 2002, details on who will acquire the children as well as divisions of his assets and wealth were made public. Jackon’s mother, Katherine, has been granted custody of the kid trio, but what also is fun to digest is that in the event she is no longer to care for them, diva and Jackson friend Diana Ross will overtake custody rights. This, on top of news that Jackson and former personal dermatologist Debbie Rowe are not biological parents of the older two kids.

—Jenn Hernandez