Miley Cyrus says goodbye to Twitter with a rap; Courtney Love's account is removed

Twitter continues to lose some of its most-followed music celebs. Days after teen star Miley Cyrus removed her account, perpetual ranter Courtney Love has disappeared from the social-networking service. Love's Twitter disappeared without warning, but its removal came soon after Love's teenage daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, laid into young Ali Lohan.

Cyrus, however, isn't disappearing so quietly.

With rumors that she left Twitter at the behest of her supposed love interest Liam Hemsworth, the tween star and their friends channeled all their non-tweeting free time into a short, cheesy rap. "I stopped living for moments, and started living for people," Cyrus sings, adding, "Everything that I type and everything I do / All those lame gossip sites take it and they make it news."

Cyrus admits to some withdrawals, as well as missing Dane Cook's latest updates, but promises no more "fake feuds" with Demi Lovato. If the result of Cyrus leaving Twitter is more charmingly bad videos like the one above, Pop & Hiss applauds the move.

Cyrus was leaving Twitter while she was on top. According to data from BigChampagne, Cyrus had the third-most Twitter followers among musicians as of Oct. 6, with more than 2.2 million users tracking her pimple updates. Only Britney Spears and John Mayer had more.

But Cyrus and Love aren't the only high-profile musicians to disappear from the site. British singer Lily Allen, who ranks No. 9 among active Twitter musicians, hasn't updated since Sept. 28, going quiet after taking heat for her views on Internt file-sharing. Earlier this year, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor stopped updating his account, declaring on July 17 that "flesh and reality are calling." 

In May, rapper Kanye West ranted against the service, writing in his "Caps Lock" glory, "I'M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME AND IF I'M NOT AND I'M JUST LAYING ON A BEACH I WOULDN'T TELL THE WORLD. EVERYTHING THAT TWITTER OFFERS I NEED LESS OF."

Although she wasn't nearly as blunt, it appears Cyrus would agree.

-- Todd Martens

Related: Demi versus Perez? See Twitter, where celebs rant

Nine Inch Nails fans celebrate 10th anniversary of 'The Fragile'

Today is a holiday of sorts in the Twitter universe. Happy "The Fragile" Day!

Nine Inch Nails fans are reminiscing about the 10-year anniversary of the band's two-disc record  "The Fragile."

Using a Twitter convention called a hashtag -- that is, a search term preceded by a pound sign -- "#TheFragile" became a top-trending topic of chatter on the social network.

Due to a mix of devotion and Web savvy among fans, Nine Inch Nails is one of the few acts that can peak on Twitter's most-talked-about list with any regularity.

Others in their company are Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers -- dubious company, to say the least. (Though, it would make a pretty easy game of "which of these doesn't belong.")

On the band's own Twitter-like iPhone app for posting short, location-tagged updates, fans are buzzing about the anniversary. User TenMileSky writes, "I hope everyone is reppin a NIN shirt today."

Shortly after "The Fragile's" release on Sept. 21, 1999, the album received a bundle of overwhelmingly positive reviews. Many critics loved the grandiose hit  "The Day the World Went Away," which the band revived recently on its farewell tour.

But not every writer was enamored with frontman Trent Reznor's third studio album. Indie pulse-keepers Pitchfork gave the record a biting two-out-of-10 rating and an equally brutal review. That particular wound is apparently still stinging some fans.

Trent Reznor shines some light on what's next for Nine Inch Nails

As Trent Reznor stepped up to the mike during the fourth encore Thursday night at the Wiltern, he reinforced the plans that crushed fans and fueled skeptics -- that Nine Inch Nails is done taking their act on the road.

"To be clear, we're just not going to tour anymore as Nine Inch Nails," Reznor said to an emotionally drained crowd.

"I'm going to miss them," he said, turning to his band members. "It's been great to play with you and know you as friends and hang out with you and be cramped in a bus and smell each other's farts all day."

It certainly felt like the end. But Reznor etched a bit of a silver lining before launching into a powerful performance of "Hurt."

Live music review: Nine Inch Nails at Hollywood Palladium

In the first L.A. concert of its farewell tour, the band played 'Downward Spiral' in its entirety, then performed other, mostly older, material with the same relentless power and fury.

"Nothing can stop me now," Trent Reznor snarled as he lunged toward his audience during the song "Piggy" at the outset of Nine Inch Nails' sold-out show at the Hollywood Palladium on Wednesday. The statement held some irony, given that Reznor has announced he's retiring his band, as a live act at least.

It's been 15 years since "The Downward Spiral," the concept album about loneliness and despair that contained that song, became the most successful industrial music album in history and catapulted Reznor squarely into the mainstream spotlight. Now that the front man has decided to say goodbye to the stage, he's reaching back to the seminal collection.

At the first of the series of L.A. shows being billed as NIN's last, he led his band through "Downward Spiral" in its entirety, then continued to run through a selection of almost exclusively older material.

Reznor might be in a very different place in his life from when he originally wrote and performed those songs -- he's since recovered from the substance abuse that gripped him in those dark days -- but they retained the same relentless power and rage.

Breaking: Nine Inch Nails cancel tonight’s show at the Fonda

A posting on the official Nine Inch Nails website this morning announced that tonight’s show at the Music Box @ Fonda has been canceled. It was to have been one of a string of shows scheduled as the last ever Nine Inch Nails performances before an extended hiatus. (Read a full review of last night's show here.)

The first signs of trouble came to light toward the middle of last night’s performance at the Hollywood Palladium when Trent Reznor announced from the stage that he was “really sick, and I can’t hear at all. Everything sounds like the inside of an AM radio. But we’re trying.” He finished the rest of the two-hour performance (including a surprise two-song cameo from electronic music pioneer Gary Numan) without incident.

“We're very sorry to announce that Trent is ill, and on his doctor's orders we will not be able to perform tonight's show at the Henry Fonda Theater,” reads the website posting. “This is the only information we have at this time, we're posting this early announcement as a convenience for those of you who had plans to attend. Reimbursement details will be posted as soon as we figure them out; likely within the next 24 hours.” The fate of the remaining shows scheduled for the Wiltern and the Echoplex have yet to be determined.

-- Scott T. Sterling

UPDATE: According to nin.com, the final dates of the "Wave Goodbye" tour have been rescheduled. The show at the Echoplex will happen on Sept. 6 as planned. The Fonda show has been moved to Sept. 8, while the Wiltern show (which will now be the last show) is set for Sept. 10. 

Photo: Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails performs at the Hollywood Palladium on Wednesday night. Credit: Ann Johansson

Erika Simmons: Transforming cassette tape into art

Remember cassette tapes? Now, remember when your Walkman ate your favorite LL Cool J album, disembodying the string of tape from the plastic case, leaving you with one less thing to listen to and a pile of black waste? Fond memories.

Erika Simmons, an artist from St. Louis, has turned those nostalgic frustrations into beautiful homages to music legends. Intently ripping into her cassettes, Simmons, 25, molds the lump of tape into sculptures of rock stars.

In the year or so since she started the "Ghost in the Machine" project, she has made works in the shapes of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Trent Reznor, the Beatles and countless others. Her Michael Jackson artwork will be on display in a gallery at UCLA on Oct.  4 -- her first such show in the United States.

"The idea came from the idea of mind-body dualism and how your spirit lives in your body," Simmons said.

The photos of the sculptures on Flickr have drawn tens of thousands of hits each and international attention. Simmons charges between $800 and $4,000 for original cassette-tape artwork.

And she supplies her own cassettes. You can hang onto your bootleg REO Speedwagon tapes.

-- Mark Milian

Jimi Hendrix cassette tape art. Credit: Erika Simmons

Nine things to expect from Nine Inch Nails' farewell tour

In a week, Nine Inch Nails will roll into Los Angeles to play four nights at the Palladium, the Music Box @ Fonda, the Wiltern and the Echoplex. Barring some kind of Brett Favre-like fake-out, these shows are expected to be the band's last ever -- or at least for a while, according to frontman Trent Reznor.

We caught up with the rock group on Sunday, their second of four dates in New York. NIN played to a Webster Hall crowd packed wall-to-wall.

Fans reeled as the band played its sophomore record, "The Downward Spiral," in its entirety for what was believed to be the first -- and possibly last -- time. Reznor and Co. didn't stop there, following up with a slew of favorites spanning its 20-year catalog.

The show gives us a hint of what to expect when NIN arrives in their home base of L.A. Here are nine things to look out for:

If you didn't get tickets, there is (some) hope: Reznor seems to love treasure hunts. Last summer, the band started hiding envelopes around L.A., ensuring the finders free concert tickets.

Spinning off that game, fans in New York were being told via Twitter to search areas of the city for a band representative to score a free pair of tickets. It's probably a safe bet that they'll do the same in L.A.

They also sold a few tickets at the Webster Hall doors a couple of hours before the show.

Unusual set lists: Playing "The Downward Spiral" at Webster Hall was a testament to the likelihood of hearing song combinations that NIN has never attempted live before. At the same show, the band cautiously ...

Bringing iPhone apps to the masses: iLike launches custom tools for artists

Bands on the prowl for a quick and reasonable way to commission a custom iPhone app finally have a place to go. Music discovery service iLike, which gained a large following with its Facebook app, is providing musicians with an automated system for creating and managing their own downloadable iPhone applications.

Mobile apps have been all the rage recently. Some larger artists were quick to buy into "app fever." Death Cab for Cutie, along with dozens of other high-profile bands, have basic programs that closely mirror their websites, offering videos, tour dates and music samples.

Other bands have gone above and beyond. Nine Inch Nails, for example, released an iPhone app that, in addition to the normal media, has a sort of locational Twitter. The additional features make the software more "sticky," providing users with more incentive to return.

Although iLike offers more complicated, custom apps at a premium, the majority of the ones it will churn out are more like the former. They contain song samples, concert info, photos, videos, tweets and Facebook wall posts.

Already, more than 300,000 musical acts use iLike to manage their website profiles or Facebook app pages. The iPhone piece ties in with that system, meaning once a band uploads a tour date, it's blasted out to all three platforms.

Musicians pay $99 up front and, if they decide to charge for it, split the revenue 50-50 with iLike. Want to go the more altruistic route? The company says it reserves the right to place ads in apps for ...

West Indian Girl parts ways with the future Miss Trent Reznor

Dreamy Los Angeles pop band West Indian Girl has parted ways with singer Mariqueen Maandig, the band announced this weekend on its official website -- and blasted out via Twitter today. Maandig, Pop & Hiss readers may remember, scored national headlines this year when it was announced that she was engaged to Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor.

West Indian Girl has a pair of shows this week -- one at the House of Blues in Anaheim on Wednesday and one at the club's West Hollywood location on Friday. The gigs will go on without Maandig. As to the cause for the departure, Pop & Hiss doesn't have any hard facts at the moment, but the official announcement will leave plenty of room for interpretation for the gossip hounds.

Read the statement: 

Details released on NIN's final gigs at the Echoplex, Henry Fonda

The final four shows from Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails are set for the first week in September in Los Angeles, wrapping with a Sept. 6 date at the Echoplex in Echo Park. Tickets for the Echoplex date will be available exclusively via Nine Inch Nails' website, where fans can register for a free membership to purchase tickets.

Nine Inch Nails will also perform at the Hollywood Palladium on Sept. 2, the Henry Fonda Theater on Sept. 3 and the Wiltern on Sept. 5. Tickets will go on sale on July 17 via NIN.com, and will be available to the general public July 31.

However, tickets for the Echoplex and the Henry Fonda will only be available via the Nine Inch Nails website.