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A volcanic eruption that occurred under an Icelandic glacier on Wednesday, April 14th, has set off a series of unforeseen events that might force a few Britain-based artists scheduled to perform at this weekend’s Coachella festival to cancel their slots. The Cribs with Johnny Marr, Bernard Sumner’s Bad Lieutenant and Gary Numan are just a few of the bands affected by the volcanic ash that lingers in the skies above Europe, all but shutting down all air travel out of the continent, Billboard.biz reports.

The Cribs have already canceled their Coachella performance that was scheduled for tonight, saying in a statement, “Unfortunately, despite a Herculean effort we won’t be able to play at Coachella this year. We are pretty gutted to be frank, currently languishing in the grimmest ferry port after waiting for good news about free airspace that never came.” Numan, who is slotted to perform Sunday, was pessimistic about his chances of making it to Indio on time. “At the moment the very best British Airways are offering us, and this without any guarantee, is to put us on a Sunday flight that gets in to Los Angeles in the afternoon on Sunday,” Numan wrote on his official site. “That is one step away from useless and means that, if we are very lucky, we might just make it to the festival site (a three hour plus drive from Los Angeles) in time for our slot but without a single second of rehearsal.”

So far, nearly 17,000 flights out of Europe have been canceled as a result of the volcanic ash. According to CNN, the ash doesn’t affect the pilots’ visibility as much as it presents an actual danger to the aircraft itself, because the ash can cause jet engines to shut down. London’s Heathrow Airport was keeping planes docked until at least 1 a.m. (8 p.m. EST) Saturday morning, though flights out of Northern Ireland and Scotland were being allowed. Luckily, many of the big name British acts — Thom Yorke, Hot Chip and headliners Muse and Gorillaz — already ventured to the States prior to the volcano’s eruption and will make their Coachella sets.

For more on Coachella, including reports on all the biggest sets, stick with Rollingstone.com this weekend for our full coverage.

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Photo: Rogash/Getty(Ortiz), Trotman/Getty(Jay-Z)

The heated Yankees-Red Sox rivalry has branched into the rap game. Jay-Z, a diehard Yankees fan who even wore the team’s cap on the cover of Kingdom Come, is suing Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz for allegedly using the name of Jigga’s 40/40 Club chain for his own nightclub in the Dominican Republic without permission. In a lawsuit filed yesterday, Jay accuses Big Papi of naming his Santa Domingo nightclub “Forty-Forty,” a variation of Jay-Z and Juan Perez’s line of 40/40 Clubs in New York, Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

“[Jay-Z and Perez] have accused Ortiz of trading on the fame, value and goodwill of their name through his club Forty/Forty and its website, www.fortyforty.net, which they say has caused their business ‘marketplace confusion and damage,” reads the lawsuit. Jay-Z’s suit goes on to argue that the shared name isn’t accidental, as Ortiz “has been a patron [at the 40/40 Club] on several occasions long before he opened his infringing Forty/Forty Club.”

As Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” all but soundtracked the Yankees’ World Series-winning run last season, it’s no surprise that he might take offense to someone not named Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez opening a club with the “40/40″ name. The baseball blog Big League Stew points out the “40/40″ moniker comes from when a player achieves both 40 home runs and 40 steals in one season. Only four players in history have done it — including current Yank A-Rod — but Big Papi hasn’t come close, managing only 10 steals total over the course of his entire 14-year baseball career. (To Ortiz’s credit, he has hit a Red Sox record 54 home runs in a season, but then why not the “Fifty-Ten Club”?)

No word whether Jay-Z is seeking compensation, a club name change or maybe just an apology from Ortiz for his Game Four, 12th inning, course-of-history-changing walk-off home run against the Yankees in the 2004 playoffs.

On a Jigga side note, the Blueprint 3 rapper will headline tonight’s festivities at the Coachella Festival in Indio, California. Tune into the brand new Rollingstone.com this weekend for our full report.

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Peter Steele, the deep-voiced singer, songwriter and bassist for Brooklyn’s goth-metal outfit Type O Negative, has passed away at the age of 48. In an e-mail to CBS News, the band’s manager Mike Renault confirmed Steele’s death, writing “Peter passed away last night. As of now it appears to have been heart failure. That’s all the details we have right now.” Steele was rumored to have been ill in the days leading up to his death, Blabbermouth reports.
Photo: DeSoto/Redferns

News of Steele’s death was initially received with disbelief as Steele pulled a hoax in 2005, posting his picture and the years “1962-2005″ on the group’s official website. Soon after, Steele all but disappeared as he battled drug problems and a prison stint. But today as members of Steele’s circle began to confirm his passing, the Type O Negative message boards opened this morning with the message, “Please play nice and expect statements from the band and family later today. Thank you for your understanding and support.”

Type O Negative became one of the most unlikely bands to break into the mainstream in the 1990s with their third album Bloody Kisses, which became the first album released by Roadrunner Records to go platinum. The album boasted rock radio hits “Christian Woman,” a cover of Seals & Crofts’ “Summer Breeze” and the Beavis & Butthead-approved “Black No. 1.” (”These guys are like a cross between Danzig and Megadeth,” Beavis said at the time.) The 6′ 7″ singer recorded seven albums with Type O Negative, the most recent being 2007’s Dead Again, which entered the Billboard 200 at Number 27, the band’s best debut.

“RIP Pete Steele – a nice (and very funny) man,” Trent Reznor wrote on his Twitter page. “I’m smiling recalling a funny story involving Pete, a microphone, an all-girl lipstick-lesbian band and a can of tuna. Ahh, the good old days…”

In addition to fronting Type O Negative, Steele also performed in the group Carnivore, posed for Playgirl magazine and even appeared on the Jerry Springer Show on an episode dedicated to groupies. Video evidence, and more of Steele’s music, below.

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Photo: Hill/Getty

Wilco, Hole, MGMT and Monsters of Folk are the latest artists to contribute exclusive releases for this year’s Record Store Day, which will arrive at independent music shops this Saturday, April 17th. Wilco will offer up their live album Kicking Television as a deluxe vinyl box set complete with four LPs, eight extra tracks not on the original release and a bonus CD. Only 1,000 of the reissued Kicking Television will be made, so make sure to be first in line this Saturday if you want one of those.

MGMT will release their 12-minute Congratulations track “Siberian Breaks” as a 12” single with an etched second side and Hole will make available “Skinny Little Bitch” and another new track off of Nobody’s Daughter on 10″ white vinyl. As Rolling Stone previously reported, the Rolling Stones, Soundgarden, the Doors, Sonic Youth, Bruce Springsteen, Flaming Lips and countless more will provide exclusive releases for Record Store Day while U.K. shops will get limited-edition singles from the likes of the Beatles and Blur, who recorded their first song together since Think Tank for the occasion.

Check out the entire list of Record Store Day exclusives for U.S. shops at the event’s official site. One of the more intriguing releases is a “super surprise” white label 12″ single from the Beastie Boys. With a limited run of 1,000 copies, the white label may feature some tracks off the Beasties’ upcoming album Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1.

Smashing Pumpkins will also unveil their newest song “Astral Planes” as a free download through the Amoeba Records website starting tomorrow in anticipation to Billy Corgan and Co.’s Record Store Day performance this weekend at Amoeba. Rolling Stone will be on the scene at the extremely tiny show (only 250 fans will score a wristband), so check back for our full report.

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Glee left the airwaves four months ago as our favorite new cult TV show and came back as a genuine ratings monster. The hour-long musical series nearly doubled its audience upon returning to Fox this week. According to Reuters, 13.7 million people tuned in to Glee Tuesday night, compared to the 7.3 million average viewers the program pulled in prior to its break. Glee benefits from a strong lead-in in American Idol — though the latter’s ratings have been slipping this season, it still attracts roughly 24.9 million viewers per episode.

Glee’s ratings will likely get another boost next Tuesday, April 20th, as the cast takes on the music of the Material Girl in an episode dubbed “The Power of Madonna.” That’s Glee’s resident cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, played by comedienne Jane Lynch, dolled up as Madonna in the promo clip up top, a shot-for-shot recreation of director David Fincher’s original “Vogue” music video. The “Power of Madonna” episode will feature glee club coach Mr. Schuester (played by Matthew Morrison) using the music of Madonna to help the female members of the glee crew to overcome being picked on by the boys. “I think Mr. Schuester is very cute, and I’m glad he’s doing such a good job empowering all the girls,” Madonna herself said of the episode in a statement.

TV on the cover of Rolling Stone: look back at our greatest hits.

The Glee cast were recently featured on the cover of Rolling Stone as the magazine went behind the scenes of television’s hottest new show. For much more on the Glee phenomenon, including a preview of the cover story, the Glee case dissecting their favorite moments and Jane Lynch’s interview with Peter Travers, click here.

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