Foster The People

Foster the People's Mark Foster and Isom Innis are playing some shows under the name Smims and Belle – their new electronic music side project – but they also think that side project will inform their new music as Foster The People. "[Smims] is something that I love, but we're kind of ramping into the next Foster record," said the singer/songwriter told Rolling Stone of the band that bares his name. "The FTP record is my priority... [Innis] makes stuff a lot more in the electronic realm. He'll build foundational stuff for Smims and Belle and we'll come together while I'm doing foundational stuff for Foster the People." Foster also cited West African music, David Bowie and The Clash as having influence over his new music. "One thing about Foster the People is that it's taking pieces of a lot of different genres of music and kind of melding them together," he explained. "In the first record, I was looking at my vision for the project through a piece of opaque glass. This next record's going to be more evolved; it's going to be a clearer picture of what I've had in my head when it comes to that vision. Working on this project and getting deeper into electronic music is gonna help bring a deeper color in the next Foster record."

The Global Poverty Project (GPP) has announced the Global Festival 2012, a multifaceted event that will culminate with a free concert in New York's Central Park starring Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Band of Horses and K'Naan. The concert will take place on September 29, and free tickets can be earned at http://globalfestival.com. The Global Poverty Project aims to motivate a generation to take 100,000 actions by September and take a stand against poverty. "The Global Festival, and our platform, Global Citizen, will bring together thousands of people to see an end to extreme poverty in our lifetime," said Hugh Evans, CEO of The Global Poverty Project. "We are grateful to the artists and producers who are taking part for enabling us to bring together such an iconic concert to draw attention to our powerful messages." Foo Fighters stated, "We are very proud to be lending a hand to such a creative, important event and are looking forward to adding to the noise in the big park and helping the effort toward reducing the global shame of deep poverty." Neil Young added, "With at least 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty on Earth today, there has never been a better time to become a Global Citizen and do whatever you can to make a difference for your fellow man."

Next Monday, August 13, Taylor Swift will host a live webcast via YouTube. The Country-Pop superstar will talk directly to her fans and answer their questions. The webcast will take place at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The webcast will also include a Google+ Hangout. Fans can watch live at www.youtube.com/TaylorSwift or Swift's own website, TaylorSwift.com.

Christina Aguilera, Michael Buble, Dave Matthews, Train, Jason Mraz, Rascal Flatts and Cheap Trick are among the acts who will be featured on the 25th anniversary of the A Very Special Christmas album series, which helps benefit the Special Olympics. Two albums will be on released October 16, called A Very Special Christmas 25th Anniversary and A Very Special Christmas: Bringing Peace on Earth. Train singer Pat Monahan attended a press conference at Blackbird Studios in Nashville on Monday to announce the albums, during which he said, "Trying to do 'Joy to the World' in a way that hasn't been heard before is probably the most difficult task that we've got this year. But we're going to do our best, and maybe mash it together with a Train song and make it a little fun for everybody."

On September 25, R.E.M. will release an expanded 25th anniversary edition of their 1987 album, Document. The new version will offer the digitally remastered original album, plus a previously unreleased 1987 concert from R.E.M.'s Work tour that was recorded in Holland. The two-CD set also boasts new liner notes and will be presented in a lift-top box with four postcards.

Grouplove has added a new leg of fall touring, extending their dates until November 17 in Los Angeles. The trek begins on September 25 in Portland, OR.  Grouplove will also perform their latest single, "Itchin On A Photograph," on Conan tonight.