LILITH FAIR ADDS THE BANGLES, THE GO-GOS, LORETTA, NORAH, HEART, KELLY CLARKSON

I have always been a fan of Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair. I went all three years, and saw some great artists, including Sarah herself, Tracy Chapman, The Indigo Girls, Missy Elliot, Morcheeba, Sheryl Crow and The Pretenders, among others. As I've mentioned, this year's lineup includes Sarah, Sheryl and The Indigo Girls, as well as Emmylou Harris, Mary J. Blige and Miranda Lambert.  Now they've also announced The Bangles, The Go-Gos, Loretta Lynn, Norah Jones, Heart, Kelly Clarkson, The Courtyard Hounds (aka Emily Robison and Martie Maguire of the The Dixie Chicks), Cat Power, Sia, The Gossip and Beth Orton, among others. Of course not every artist plays every city, but odds are that every show will have a great lineup.

A COOL MUSIC + FILMS PODCAST (and blog)

Hey, check out See It Loud, a podcast about documentaries about music. It's done by Warren Cohen (a friend, and my former boss from my VH1 days) who also does the Docs That Rock blog. If you are interested in documentaries about music (and if you read No Expiration, you probably are) you should check this out.

IRON MAIDEN'S "FINAL" TOUR?

Iron Maiden announced that they have a new album coming out this year, The Final Frontier, and they are going on "Final Frontier" world tour as well. Dream Theater will be opening. I wonder if this will be their last album and tour. If so: what a great run. They are one of the best metal bands of all time.

ELTON JOHN/LEON RUSSELL ALBUM IN THE WORKS

This is pretty cool. Elton John and Leon Russell are recording an album together, produced by T-Bone Burnett. Some people seem to find this a surprising combo, but when Elton was Elvis Costello's guest on Spectacle, he talked about Leon Russell's influence on him. All the songs for this album have been written by Elton and Bernie Taupin. Taupin wrote about it a bit on his website, saying that it is different from the classic Elton/Bernie songs, and that there are "Stones like rockers, country tinged ballads, gospel and even a Sinatra-like weepy similar to 'In The Wee Small Hours.'" That sounds pretty awesome.

GURU: RECOVERING

Allhiphop.com reports that Guru released a statement saying that he has recovered from surgery following his heart attack this weekend. There's some controversy about this, because he mentions that "Solar is the only person who has the accurate info on my situation. Any info from anybody else is false!" "Solar," I think, is MC Solaar, who he has collaborated with for years. "Anybody else" probably refers to his family, who have reportedly said that Solaar is blocking thier access to Guru, and Guru's former bandmate in Gang Starr, DJ Premier, who has been tweeting about Guru (mainly just saying that everyone should pray for him). Weird situation, but I'm glad he's ok.

THE STOOGES AND JIMMY CLIFF WILL PERFORM AT ROCK HALL INDUCTION

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation President and CEO Joel Peresman tells The Cleveland Plain Dealer that The Stooges and Jimmy Cliff will perform at thier inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the 15th. This is a cool opportunity for The Stooges to show off their new lineup, including reinstated guitarist James Williamson (I hope he is being inducted with the rest of the group, since he played on their classic album Raw Power).

It seemed pretty obvious that Genesis wouldn't be performing, since Peter Gabriel said he wouldn't (and he is in fact not even attending the ceremony, a bit of a dick move). Phil Collins, who will be there and who can sing, can't play the drums due to an injury.  So, I think that Phil, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, Steve Hackett (and maybe Anthony Phillips, he is the band's original guitarist/leader, I think he's being inducted as well) will attend and not perform. I'm not an ABBA expert, but I don't think there's a chance in hell that they will perform.

The Hollies can't perform, because original singer/leader Allan Clarke can't sing anymore, and two of the other former members can't be there. But Graham Nash is apparently planning on performing Hollies songs backed by some of the members of Maroon 5.

The Plain Dealer article also says that Faith Hill, Chris Isaak, Ronnie Spector, Peter Wolf and Eric Burdon will be among the other artists who will appear, but it wasn't clear if all or any of them were performing. The show will air live on Fuse Monday night.

WATCH: SLY STONE MOVIE PREVIEW

This year will see the release of a documentary on Sly Stone. That should be interesting. Sly & The Family Stone have a new record supposedly coming out this year as well. Interesting stuff.