• Radiohead are asking Prince to unblock his cover of the Brits' 'Creep,' which the Purple One performed at this year's Coachella, from YouTube. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke points out that it's their song and the fans' videos, not Prince's, and therefore not within his rights to block the clips.

• Ted Nugent has recorded a new song titled 'I Am the NRA,' which, unsurprisingly, celebrates the right to bear arms.

• 'Patti Smith: Dream of Life,' photographer/director Steven Sebring's film that chronicles 11 years in the life of punk's poet laureate, will be screened at New York City's Film Forum from August 6-19, followed by a wider release in September.

• Morrissey has titled his forthcoming album 'Years of Refusal.' The effort will hit shelves in September.

• U2 frontman Bono celebrated his 48th birthday in Monaco this past weekend with Brad Pitt, among others.

• A documentary on the making of Death Cab for Cutie's new album, 'Narrow Stairs,' has been posted on Current TV.

• Jay-Z, Morrissey, Beck, Robyn and Hot Chip are among the performers slated for the O2 Wireless Festival, which will be held at London's Hyde Park on July 3-6.
  

Artist: Morrissey
Video: 'That's How People Grow Up'
Highlight: Moz working his magic live for his maniacal fans.

The Ayatollah Khomeini once defended his regime's attitude toward the fairer sex by insisting it put women "in their lofty human station." Maybe that explains the baffling but enduring popularity in Iran of the mawkish British pop singer Chris de Burgh, who bequeathed the world the Khomeini-era smash 'The Lady in Red.'

Under the Ayatollah's rule, red was never a big seller in the burqa shops. Pop music was criminalized, and women were forbidden to sing in public. But one mixed-gender Iranian group, Arian, has slowly but steadily helped their country temper its hostility toward pop. Now the group is planning to host Iran's first visit by a Western pop star since Khomeini's Islamic Revolution in 1979. That man is Chris de Burgh.

Although Arian has earned a rare official concert permit in Iran, it didn't come without a struggle. They've been beaten up, and their female members have been forced to perform behind curtains. De Burgh, too, knows something about rough treatment: One British comic has called the singer "the ultimate evil," implying that he was Osama Bin Laden in disguise.

We'll try not to read too much into that mildly alarming implication, but we will point out that Morrissey has also expressed interest in performing in Iran this year. Makes perfect sense, actually: If the West is "the great Satan" to Iranians, well, according to the Mozzer, 'Satan Rejected My Soul.'

Next: Rapper Gets Domestic With Tupperware

Last week ...

• Both the Republican and Democratic parties' ballots got lighter with the exits of former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, respectively. While we were hard pressed to find rockers supporting Giuliani, Edwards did have an impressive roster of celebrities in his corner, including Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne.
• Morrissey has taken to wearing his support for Barack Obama. The singer donned a black t-shirt, which features both Obama and the Moz, onstage at one of his London gigs last week.
  
• Tonight, bands OK Go, Shudder to Think, comedian Michael Showalter and more will take the stage in New York to play 'Barack Rock' -- an event put on by GetUpandVote.com.

On Tuesday, New York pop combo the Scissor Sisters will drop a new documentary DVD, 'Hurrah! A Year of Ta-Dah.' The film was shot by the band and their friends as they toured their second album, 2006s 'Ta-Dah.' In addition to mounds of concert footage, the DVD offers a real look backstage and plenty of flesh thanks to the cameras often catching frontman Jake Shears stripping himself of most of his clothing.

"I'm gonna be like Morrissey when I'm 50. He just keeps slipping his shirt off on stage," Shears tells Spinner during a break from working on the Sisters' third record. "Here's the thing -- when you're backstage, you're in the dressing room, I just don't have time to worry about if there's cameras on. Are there people watching? I just don't care. You take your clothes off. It's no big deal -- it's like being backstage at a fashion show."

Kristeenyoung, the lucky musical act who has been supporting Morrissey on his current U.S. tour, have been dismissed -- much to the chagrin of the band's namesake, who claims to "love Morrissey with all of my heart, soul, body, spirit, to the core of my existence" on her MySpace page.

The decision stems from a comment made by Young at the first of five nights of Morrissey's residency at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York last week. According to a Morrissey fan site, when fans started calling for Morrissey during her set, she replied, "Morrissey gives good head, I mean, er, cunnilingus ..."

While the former Smiths frontman is known for his politics -- he was investigated last year after saying that his "view is that neither England or America are democratic societies" -- and advocacy of freedom of expression, he has also been very protective of his sexuality, which Young's unfortunate statement directly targeted.

When we think of college professors, we think of skinny little guys in cardigan sweaters with dodgy haircuts and a pallor suggesting they haven't seen the light of day in something like a decade -- which, come to think of it, makes Johnny Marr a perfect candidate for such a position. Well, the administration of Britain's University of Salford -- located, co-incidentally, in the town where the Smiths posed for the cover of their classic 'The Queen Is Dead' album -- apparently took note of Marr's qualifications and signed him on as a visiting professor, turning his talents towards music, rather than sartorial matters.

The guitarist, who currently plies his trade with Modest Mouse on this side of the Atlantic, will offer workshops and teach master classes to students pursuing their degrees in Popular Music and Recording -- which falls roughly halfway between quantum physics and Theory of Softball on our sliding scale of difficulty. With any luck, the folks who hired Marr will be able to convince him to stick around for another semester in order to helm History of Morrissey 101 -- a topic we're sure he'd be thrilled to weigh in on.

Although we've never imagined that -- to paraphrase Oscar Hammerstein -- fart jokes and surreptitious glances inside girls' locker rooms would be among Morrissey's favorite things, we may be proven wrong by a new Moz-focused musical from the creative team behind the class-act comedy 'Balls of Fury.'

Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, who've also worked together on 'Reno 911!,' are planning a revue entitled 'I've Changed My Plea to Guilty,' which Lennon has likened to 'Mamma Mia' -- a comparison that will no doubt warm the hearts of folks fond of tripping the light fantastic to 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now.' There's no word as to precisely when the musical will get off the ground, but given the subtle humor favored by Lennon and Garant, we fully expect them to make sure the host theater's concession stand is well-stocked with 'Meat Is Murder' brand beef jerky.

Much like one of his melancholy pop tunes, Morrissey's summer tour was wrought with misfortune after a viral infection forced him to cancel several U.S. dates. But Moz's recently announced fall tour dates are designed to ironically turn the frowns of his disappointed fans upside down.

Starting September 20, Morrissey will embark on a 30-date U.S. tour that -- unlike his arena-heavy summer schedule -- will feature dates at smaller club venues, giving many more fans the ability to tackle him onstage when he does Smiths covers. The tour also boasts a 10-day stretch at the Hollywood Palladium (which will serve as the legendary venue's final shows ever) and a five-night stint at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. Superfans will have the opportunity to buy blocks of tickets for all Palladium and Hammerstein shows at a discount price.

But that's where the good fortune ends for still those still holding out for a Smiths reunion. Despite the success of recently reformed '80s bands like the Police, Morrissey reportedly turned down $75 million to reunite with long-lost partner Johnny Marr for a 50-city tour. Like he's been saying for two decades, some dreams just aren't meant to come true.

Full tour schedule, plus a concert teaser, after the jump

Kanye West gets 'Stronger,' while his ego gets bigger. [Stereogum]

Beyonce rips off pays tribute to Kylie Minogue at Tuesday's BET Awards. [Pop Eater]

Morrissey cracks in Boston. [NME]

Justin Timberlake considers Coldplay to be "the modern Beatles," and really, really wants Chris Martin. You know, for a manly duet. [RS Daily]

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus still have either the best or worst band name in music. [Billboard]

'How Soon Is Now?'
--Smiths (1984)

One of two B-sides on the 12-inch release of 'William, It Was Really Nothing,' the song that Sire Records honcho Seymour Stein would call "the 'Stairway to Heaven' of the '80s" was belatedly released on a single of its own when fans declared it an epic. U.S. audiences were introduced to it on the 'Meat Is Murder' album.



Listen to 'How Soon Is Now?'

Buy it on iTunes

Punks Get Doll-ed Up

The short-lived but widely influential New York Dolls anticipated punk rock with their fearlessly campy cross-dressing. A test case for manager Malcolm McLaren, who went on to assemble the Sex Pistols, the Dolls were a major inspiration for the likes of Morrissey and every hair-metal band.

James Osterberg, better know to the music world as one Iggy Pop, is having a banner year. The legendary frontman, who celebrated his 60th birthday April 21 by stage diving into the crowd in San Francisco, did the same two nights later in L.A. before a frenzied sold-out audience that included Morrissey and Jack Black, among others. Currently, he is basking in 'The Weirdness,' the first new album from his legendary group the Stooges in more than three decades. Having laid the foundation for punk and influenced generations of artists to come, Iggy and brothers Ron and Scott Asheton have reunited, supplemented by former Minutemen and fIREHOSE bassist Mike Watt, to show fans of all generations why the Stooges' legacy is among the most storied in rock history.

How does it feel to be doing the new stuff on the road?

As soon as we had a chance after we got out of the studio, we started sneaking it in. To break the ice, I had a conceptual idea that we used to just do every song that way -- as soon as we'd write a song in the '60s we'd go out and play it. And so I thought, "We gotta play one right now, right away." So we did it just to see if we can do it.

If asked to make a list of rock's all-time greatest jocks, we find it difficult to go too far without mentioning the name of noted guitar muscle-man Johnny Marr -- which makes him an ideal endorser for a new line of athletic shoes.

The Morrissey maestro turned Modest Mouse majordomo has linked with the makers of PF Flyers to create a limited-edition line of kicks emblazoned with his signature, but not, unfortunately, a copy of Isaac Brock's secret martini recipe.