Fallen Empires is an album of subtle movements. Even if you are not consciously aware of the direction of travel, you are most certainly being taken somewhere. The question is how far Snow Patrol is willing to go.

The opener, ‘I’ll Never Let Go’, builds suspense and introduces the band’s desire to include some new elements this time around, which is a great sign from an outfit which has been largely stuck in place for some time now. The song delivers a sort of restrained climax of rolling, almost gospel wails, then moves quickly on to the next track. ‘Called Out in the Dark’ holds on to that tension and attempts to take it in another direction.

I say ‘attempts’ because it’s really not much of a turn. Were this an album by almost any other band I might be saying that these songs are fairly indistinguishable from one another, but Snow Patrol is clearly trying to experiment with very gentle swerves away from their own well-trodden path.

Fallen Empires shifts into a new phase every few songs, without ever really leaving behind the tone it set with the opening track. These shifts are not at all dramatic, or even sometimes noticeable, but are more akin to movements within a single composition. It’s a very cohesive experience, and just barely dynamic enough not to feel overly monotonous. The album works extremely well as a whole.

Everything about this record, and really the band as well, is best described with the word subtle.

The band plays with some new toys on Fallen Empires, allowing electronic elements into the music, but barely. As I write this I feel like I’m awarding the band a gold star purely for the effort, even if it hasn’t quite had the impact that it could have if they went at it with a little more gusto. It’s probably not right to grade on a curve, in which case I would have to call the whole thing a little uninspired.

The titular ‘Fallen Empires’ picks up the sense of urgency presented by the first few songs, and ups the tempo slightly. It feels like this is what the album has been building towards, but it’s a bit of a let down on that front, and there are 7 tracks left.

‘Berlin’ acts as a separator as Fallen Empires makes its most pronounced transition. Though, that transition is back to the somewhat bland guitar music they have been playing for the last decade or so.

This isn’t such a bad thing, because this is really where the band’s strengths lie. Snow Patrol have a great ability to craft catchy tunes and hooks, within their own indie framework. It’s never overly poppy or panderous, but has the positives and the impact of lesser music without having to sacrifice a whole lot.

It really is a shame that Snow Patrol is so content to stay put and write songs that are very safe, and sometimes uninteresting, because Fallen Empires would have been a better album if it had the confidence to take things a little further. The band is evolving, but very, very gradually, as if they are afraid that if they go too far they won’t be able to come back from it.

I very much look forward to hearing the results when they get to wherever they are going, but I’m not holding my breath. Wake me when we get there.

It was not long ago that Sigur Ros announced their first live show in more than four years when the revealed they would play a set at the U.K.’s Bestival Festival in September of the year. Now they’ve announced that that performance won’t in fact be their first show this year, but that North American fans will be the first to enjoy the live sounds of the Icelandic band.

The hand full of dates will kick off July 30 in Philadelphia, and will run through August 12 when the band plays the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. In between, the band will also hit Brooklyn, Toronto, Chicago, Seattle and Portland, Ore. The Chicago date will be a performance at the Lollapalooza festival.

After these dates, the band will head to Toyko for an appearance at the Summer Sonic Festival before heading back to Europe for a few more shows before the Bestival Festival is held on the Isle of Wight.

Sigur Ros will be touring in support of their upcoming album, Valtari. The album, which means Steamroller in Icelandic, will be the band’s sixth studio album and will be released on May 28. It will be the group’s first release since 2008.

Most of the band’s U.S. dates will be held in outdoor venues, and one of the most interesting is the performance at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. One of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, many stars of the entertainment industry are buried on the grounds.

In the late 1990s, the cemetery, then known as Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, was on the verge of bankruptcy, and devised new ways to bring money to the cemetery, which in recent years has included concerts. Other artists that have played the grounds include Flaming Lips, Belle and Sebastian and Bon Iver.

After quickly selling out the initially released dates of its first ever North American headlining tour, including selling out New York City’s Madison Square Garden in a matter of minutes, it’s no surprise that One Direction has added another slew of U.S. dates to its tour schedule.

The U.K. boyband will begin their trek on June 13 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. as they plan to hit arenas around the country. The new dates will keep the band on the road at least through August 7, when they perform at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. In between these dates, they are booked in cities including Nashville, Atlanta, Boston, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Denver and Las Vegas. There is no word yet whether even more dates will be announced.

The group formed in 2010 on the U.K. version of the “X Factor.” The five members began as solo contestants on the singing competition show, but formed a group after they were all eliminated so they could compete in the group category. They finished third overall in that season of the show.

Up All Night, the group’s debut album, was released in the U.K. and Ireland in November 2011, but wasn’t released in the U.S. until March 13. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart, making the band the first U.K. group to have a debut album top the Billboard 200 in its first week of sale. The group accomplished the same feat on the Canadian charts.

The band has quickly caught on in the U.S., and first toured the country in support of Big Time Rush earlier this year. Last weekend, the band appeared as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live.”

The group has already earned a Best British Single Brit Award for their debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful.”

Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose caused a stir on Wednesday when he issued a letter through his publicist saying that he would be declining induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is scheduled to take place tomorrow.

But it looks like the Hall of Fame is going to induct the singer whether he likes it or not.

“We are sorry Axl will not be able to accept his Induction in person,” said the Hall of Fame in a statement.

The statement also notes that the “other members” of the band will still be attending the ceremony. While it looks like former Guns ‘N Roses guitarist Slash will be attending the event, it remains unclear if those “other members” also include current members of the band other than Rose, who is the only original member remaining in the group.

Rose’s letter, with the greeting “To The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Guns N’ Roses Fans and Whom It May Concern” originally appeared on Pop & Hiss.

“I strongly request that I not be inducted in absentia and please know that no one is authorized nor may anyone be permitted to accept any induction for me or speak on my behalf,” Rose wrote in his letter.

“I certainly don’t intend to disappoint anyone, especially the fans, with this decision,” he continued. “Since the announcement of the nomination we’ve actively sought out a solution to what, with all things considered, appears to be a no win, ate least for me, ‘damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ scenario all the way around.

The majority was written in the same disjointed manner as the last quote.

The rift between Rose and former Guns N’ Roses members has been widely publicized for many years, and Slash spoke about his relationship with Rose with Rolling Stone earlier this month.

“He hates my guts,” the guitarist said. “It’s over a lot of different stuff; I don’t even know. There’s just no communication between us.”

Though considered by many to be one of the front-runners on the current season of “American Idol,” the voting public of America voted to send contestant Jessica Sanchez home last night. Fortunately for Sanchez, some of the “many” that consider her a front-runner in the race include the “American Idol” judges.

For only the fifth time in the history of the show, the judges used their “save” to prevent Sanchez from being sent home, keeping her safe for at least another week.

Judge and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler announced the save during the show.

“We’re gonna use our card tonight,” he said, “especially with an outcome like this.”

Each season, the judges get one “save” to prevent a contestant at the bottom of the voting count from being sent home. Had Sanchez been voted off, she would have finished in seventh place for the season. The other two contestants in the “bottom three” last night were Joshua Ledet and Elise Testone.

After host Ryan Seacrest announced which contestants were in the bottom three, judge Randy Jackson condemned the choice of voters. Saying that he had never seen anything like it in his 11 seasons on the show, he said that America “got it wrong tonight. They got it so wrong.”

After this, it was revealed that Ledet and Testone would be safe, meaning that Sanchez would be sent home, and that she would sing a final song as a farewell. But the judges jumped up on stage before this could happen.

“We’re not letting you sing,” they said. “This is crazy.” “Yes, we’re using the save.” “We are saving Jessica without any doubt.”

Jackson later reiterated his previous point about voters choosing the wrong contestant.

“This girl is one of the best singers in America, ever,” he said. “Please vote for the best… It’s about find the best. I mean, come on.”

Over the past year-and-a-half, Courtney Love has been sued twice for defamation because of comments she has posted on Twitter. But it doesn’t seem that the lawsuits have led her to control herself on the social network, and her latest outburst has drawn criticism from her own daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.

On Tuesday night, Love took to her private Twitter account, @Cbabymichelle, to write a series of Tweets that alleged, among other things, that former Nirvana drummer and current Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl tried to seduce Frances Bean Cobain.

An example tweet claimed, “i hear from frannies roommate that @davegrohl hit on frances, and that she was curious, I’m not mad at her, him i am about to shoot, dead.”

She also posted that Grohl is “like a gross old man macking on kurt cobains only child.”

And now the 19-year-old Frances Bean Cobain has issued the following statement regarding the tirade through her publicist:

While I’m generally silent on the affairs of my biological mother, her recent tirade has taken a gross turn. I have never been approached by Dave Grohl in more than a platonic way. I’m in a monogamous relationship and very happy.

Twitter should ban my mother.

It should be noted that the private Twitter account Love used is her personal account, not her official account, which is @Courtney. Additionally, @davegrohl is not the musician, but reportedly a German male in his 20s. The latter account has only tweeted two times, both of which were made in 2008.

Love has had a number of public spats with Grohl since the suicide of her late husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, in 1994. The two have often disagreed on financial decisions regarding the grunge band’s catalog.

The first of the two Twitter related defamation lawsuits against love came in January 2011 from designer Dawn Simorangkir, and the second was filed in May 2011 by Love’s former lawyer Rhonda Holmes.

Comedian George Lopez has just officially started his partnership with Carnival Cruise Lines with the opening of the Punchliner Comedy Club on the Carnival Miracle today. This comes after Lopez decided to join forces with the leisure shipping magnate in October and utilize his comedic chops in the high seas.

The Punchliner will be one of the many “makeovers” the cruise line will undertake as part of its extensive “Fun Ship 2.0” project, aimed at revamping the line’s image. The comedy club, which is expected nightly to present five routines running for 35 minutes each, will also open in Carnival’s other fleets by 2013. Lopez’s role as the line’s so-called “curator of comedy” will involve scouting and mentoring new talent to be featured in the various Punchliner clubs aboard the various Carnival cruises, as well as being the voice and face of the club. He has recorded several ad-like clips set to go on-air via the in-cabin broadcasting system and also to be played at the club during introductions.

The opening of Punchliner on the Carnival Miracle will be accompanied by the launch of the Punchliner Comedy Brunch, conceptualized and presented by George Lopez as well. The free-for-all brunch’s menu will offer mostly Mexican dishes plus two recipes concocted by Lopez himself, plus hourly 5 to 6-minute comedy routines prepared to entertain guests while enjoying the feisty Latin dishes. And whereas the Punchliner Comedy Brunch will open obviously midway between breakfast and lunch, come late afternoon, guests will be treated to another sumptuous round of delectable treats in The Taste Bar, open to all Carnival Miracle guests from 5 PM to 8 PM and will feature a fusion of Mexican and Italian appetizers. The Taste Bar will also open in other Carnival ships in 2013.

These three new functions on the Carnival Miracle come in conjunction with the cruise’s new leg of sails departing from New York. All throughout the year, the cruise’s eight-day itinerary will treat guests to a non-stop hilarious and entertaining dining experience as they all make their way to Eastern Caribbean, the Bahamas and Florida.

In February, Lady Gaga announced a handful of dates for her upcoming world tour, dubbed the Born This Way Ball. At the time, it was announced that the trek would eventually involve around 110 shows around the world, and news has finally come of some European dates for the jaunt.

The European leg of the tour will begin in Eastern Europe when the pop stars plays a show in Sofia, Bulgaria on August 14. She will then hit most parts of Europe before winding up in Barcelona on October 6. In between, she will make stops in Romania, Austria, Latvia, Finland, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Italy, among others.

Though a North American leg of the tour is planned, there have been no dates announced as of yet.

The tour itself will kick off on April 27 with a show at Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. That show recently made headlines across the world when the South Korean government’s Media Rating Board declared that no one under 18 years old would be admitted to the show. Around 300 tickets had to be refunded to buyers under the age of 12. Lady Gaga spoke of the incident herself on her Twitter account.

“Thanku to all the adults in Korea who are speaking out for underaged who want to come to the BTW Ball. Maybe the gov. will change their mind,” she tweeted.”

Local Seoul media that a big part of the decision was influenced because the set list includes the song “Just Dance,” which was earned an over-18 rating from the censoring agency Ministry of Gender Equality and Family’s Commission on Youth Protection.

After the Seoul date, Gaga will spend more time in Asia as she travels to Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. After that, she will perform a series of shows in Australia and New Zealand before heading to Europe.

Last week, Eddie Vedder announced that he would be forced to postpone his upcoming solo tour because of nerve damage in his right arm. While most of the dates were rescheduled, he had to cancel his appearance at this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

But organizers of the event wasted no time finding a replacement for Vedder, and recently announced Jimmy Buffett will perform an acoustic show in place of the ailing Pearl Jam front man. Buffet will appear at the festival on May 3.

Instead of bringing his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett will only be accompanied by Mac McAnally, who has been named the Country Music Association’s Musician of the Year for the past four years. McAnally is also a member of the Coral Reefer Band.

According to Buffett’s official website, the acoustic Jazz Fest performance came about because of another recent New Orleans’ concert. Buffett was appearing with his full band for a free downtown concert series during the recent NCAA Final Four basketball event that was being held in the city. After the band’s set was over, organizers told Buffet he needed to make the show longer.

Instead of bringing the band back onstage, Buffett performed an impromptu acoustic set, and his longtime friend and Jazz fest producer Quint Davis was impressed as he watched the set from the side of the stage.

“Instantly he transformed from a stadium level rock star to a troubadour,” Davis said. “His playing on an acoustic guitar was beautiful. It really struck me. It was special.”

Davis said that he considered other options to replace Vedder, but that he kept coming back to the short acoustic set, and wondered if Buffett would be up for making that an entire show.

“I didn’t have to use much persuasion,” Davis continued. “The case makes itself. And it’s something he wanted to do.”

Buffet first appeared at the New Orleans Jazz Fest in 1989, and has become a staple over the years at the event.

Green Day’s most recent two records, American Idiot and 21^st Century Breakdown, were both rock operas that went on to inspire a Broadway musical. So it’s only fitting that the band continue there recent ambitious trend. Which is exactly what is happening.

Yesterday it was announced that the group currently is recording three different albums that will be released as a trilogy late this year and in early 2013. The three albums, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!, are currently being recorded in Oakland, Calif., and the first will be released September 25.

The other two albums in the trilogy will follow shortly thereafter, with ¡Dos! Scheduled for release on November 13 and ¡Tré! coming on January 15, 2013. The band released a statement saying that the trilogy is the product of creative streak for the group.

“We are at the most prolific and creative time in our lives. This is the best music we’ve ever written, and the songs just keep coming,” said the band in a press release. “Instead of making one album, we are making a three album trilogy. Every song has the power and energy that represents Green Day on all emotional levels. We just can’t help ourselves… We are going epic!”

The announcement comes a couple months after Green Day started on the album, but apparently the plans have expanded during that time.

“Happy Valentine’s day! Officially started recording the new record today,” tweeted singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong. Apparently the writing process has been a long time in the making, according to a post on the band’s website last year referring to some then-new songs the band had been performing live.

“We have been in jamming and writing new songs for the last few months,” said the statement. “It felt great to play these new Green Day songs live and share our “work in progress”.. Stay tune for more!”

The band currently does not have an extensive tour schedule, likely keeping time available for recording, though they will play a handful of summer festival dates in Japan and Europe. The group’s website says more dates will be added soon.