For the sophomore album, titled Surfers Paradise (out July 16), Simpson said he knew exactly how he wanted it to sound and the type of music he wanted to represent him as an artist. He describes it as a “classic summer album” and said to expect a few pop songs like his latest single, “Pretty Brown Eyes,” a light-hearted club track which introduces his rap skills, along with a few quieter acoustic tracks.

“I grew up playing the acoustic guitar and I decided I really wanted to go back to my roots on this album,” he told Radio.com. “I grew up listening to Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, and John Mayer so they definitely inspired a lot of the album too. There’s a really mellow, acoustic sound to it.”

Along with writing his own songs, Simpson also produced a number of tracks on Surfers Paradise, including “Awake All Night,” which he recently released online.

Read more at Radio.com

J.Lo and Pitbull, two of the biggest Latin stars working in the mainstream pop world, are far from strangers. Their first collaboration came about during Lopez’s 2009 promotional single “Fresh Out the Oven.” Drawing attention to her upcoming seventh album, which would come to be 2011′s Love?, the track was written by Amanda Ghost, Lopez, Pitbull and Pharell Williams. The track charted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Songs chart and thus began the duo’s working relationship.

Next up was 2011′s catchy “On the Floor,” which topped more than 18 singles charts and became the most successful single of Lopez’s career. The next year followed with the sexy “Dance Again.” Then-judge Lopez performed the track on American Idol, at which point her racy grinding had some questioning its presence on the family-friendly show. Perhaps taking this criticism to heart, J.Lo toned down her set when performed “Live It Up” last week on the season finale of American Idol.

Read more at Radio.com

At the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night (May 19) Cyrus announced that her new single, “We Can’t Stop,” drops on June 3. She isn’t giving much away about the sound of her latest song–produced by Mike Will, who has worked with Rihanna, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Kelly Rowland–but she did tell E! News that she’s been done with the song for “about a year.”

“I’ve had to keep my lips sealed and just not saying anything,” she explained. “So you’ll see.”

Cyrus did however reveal that the song is dedicated to her fans, the people who have never stopped believing in her.

“I feel like this song really is for them and how I feel—that I can’t stop and I’m going to be who I am and they should be who they are and that they can’t stop and no one can stop us,” she said.

Adding, “It really is an inspiring song for my fans. We don’t care, we can do what we want.”

Cyrus later tweeted the single’s album art: a black and white photo of her in a a risqué deep-V bathing suit that shows off her wild side and a whole lot of cleavage.

Thank you guys so much for tonight! CAN’T WAIT TILL JUNE 3rd ❤💋💣 twitter.com/MileyCyrus/sta…

— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) May 20, 2013

Rumors are also swirling that Cyrus is recording with Justin Bieber after she was spotted leaving the singer’s studio last week. But she’s staying mum about that too.

“I know pictures are flying around,” she told E!. “You guys will have to wait and see. I’m the biggest at top secrets.”

No official release date has been announced for her upcoming record–her first since 2010’s Can’t Be Tamed.

The telecast featured a number of performance mixed in with various awards for the past year. Taylor Swift was a big winner, scoring eight awards including the night’s highest honor, Artist of the Year, as well as accolades for Top Female Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist and Top Country Artist.

Gotye, for major hit “Somebody I Used to Know,” and Rihanna were other major winners, the latter winning in the major R&B categories.

But the talk of the night ended up being Miguel’s performance of “Adorn.” Throughout much of the song, the R&B singer performed behind a screen that allowed images and words to be projected upon it, giving the performance an astral, otherworldly feel. Once the screen was lifted, Miguel trounced to the front of the stage, twirling and whirling before deciding to leap from one part of the stage to another outcrop, which involved traversing over a group of attendees.

But as Oregon Trail has shown us time and time again, you’re not to the end until you’ve hit the shoreline, and the singer just missed getting his whole body onto the stage, landing partly on two females in the audience, injuring one who reportedly walked away with minimal injuries.

i cant stop watching this vine.co/v/b9q1DJrUFMa

— dıpןo (@diplo) May 20, 2013

Miguel wasn’t the only one who had a rough evening. Justin Bieber, who went the edgy route with his performance and leather attire, was honored as the Top Male Artist and scored the Milestone Artist award, a fan-voted accolade. But during his acceptance speech, Bieber took to some of his detractors.

Read more about Justin Bieber’s night on Radio.com

Following Kanye’s since-deleted “June 18″ tweet (and a slew of non-confirmation confirmations), Kim Kardashian appeared to confirm the release date and title with an Instagram photo showing the album’s packaging yesterday.

Leading up to his SNL performances, West appeared apathetic. In episode promos, he seemed dead-eyed and uninterested alongside host Ben Affleck, having already made his thoughts about SNL fairly clear at a surprise show earlier this week, announcing that he wouldn’t be doing any skits on the show (“Hell nah, I ain’t doin no motherf***ing SNL skits. This is my godd*** life. This ain’t no motherf***ing joke).

Read more at Radio.com

A pregnancy might explain the singer’s recent cancellation of a show in Antwerp, Belgium on Tuesday due to “dehydration and exhaustion.” This came after fans and pundits spotted what they believed was a baby bump in photos of her appearance earlier this month at the Met Gala.

If this news proves to be true, the future of Beyonce’s North American leg of her current Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, which comes stateside on June 28 in Los Angeles and wraps August 5 in Brooklyn, might be in question.

Read more about Beyonce on Radio.com

“Persistence, determination and a lot of talent. You deserve it,” Ryan Seacrest told Glover, who auditioned for AI twice before her win this season.

RELATED: Judging The Judges: Star Power Alone Can’t Revive ‘American Idol’ Ratings

Meanwhile, the judges showed off their powerhouse singing with former contestants. Keith Urban‘s new single “Little Bit of Everything” made its television premiere, while Mariah Carey brought us back to the ’90s with a montage of her hits, complete with a wind-blown look. Even former AI judge Jennifer Lopez took the stage with Pitbull for their clubtastic summer jam “Live It Up.” Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson, PSY, Jessie J, Travis Barker, The Band Perry, Aretha Franklin, and Frankie Valli also took the Idol stage.

Despite the A-list performers, the Season 12 finale didn’t rack up the numbers. According to Deadline, the two-hour finale last night was down 47 percent from last season’s finale. Idol pulled in 13.61 million viewers last night — 8 million less than the 21.5 million who watched last season’s finale. Season 12 is the first Idol finale to have less than 20 million viewers.

Additionally, the New York Daily News reports that Idol season 12 ratings suffered a 20 percent drop overall compared to season 11 ratings. “While Idol drew a staggering 30 million viewers during its peak in 2006 and ’07, that number withered this year to roughly 12 million,” the paper notes.

With Randy Jackson jumping ship after 12 seasons and the continuous judge changes, nothing seems to be able to revive the ratings.

Read more about American Idol’s finale ratings on Radio.com

Four Year Strong was officially created in 2001 in Worcester, MA. Three of five members went to the same high school together and were acquainted by mutual friends. Vocalist Dan O’Connor helped create Four Year Strong after leaving Bury Your Dead, a recognizable name if you’re familiar with New England hardcore. By 2007 They released their first full album, Rise or Die Trying, with I Surrender Records. They are currently signed with Universal Motown Records, and their last album release was in 2011 titled In Some Way, Shape Or Form.

It can be difficult to compare Four Year Strong to other bands because they shouldn’t be put in a box. Four Year Strong has a sound similar to bands such as Set Your Goals and A Day to Remember, but if you know them, you’ve probably already heard of Four Year Strong. I encourage fans of more mainstream punk bands such Blink-182 or Fall Out Boy to go listen! Rise Against fans would also find their music very palatable.

Now that you’re dying to check out this awesome band I’ll leave you the proper tools necessary to find them. Unfortunately they are currently touring in Europe, but keep checking their tour dates! They’ll be home soon enough and a show near you would be the perfect chance to try these guys on!

Go ahead and follow Four Year Strong on Facebook, Twitter and check out their music on iTunes if you’re interested in some new tunes.

-Intern Bill, Kiss 95.1

Got a band you want featured for Bands On The Rise?  Hit us up on Facebook!

Last month, Bieber was forced to leave his pet capuchin monkey, OG Mally, at the Munich airport because he didn’t have the correct documentation to allow the pet in the country. Bieber was given 30 days to come up with the papers, and he ultimately decided to give up the monkey.

However, it seems he didn’t tell that to the Munich animal shelter where Mally has been held since being taken away from Bieber. The shelter is now billing Bieber for the cost of care for his monkey. Between general care, food and vet visits for OG Mally, Bieber’s bill is several thousand dollars, according to the Munich customs office.

Furthermore, the shelter is still waiting for a response regarding next actions for Mally. He has a deadline of today to come up with papers with legally reclaim OG Mally, otherwise the monkey will be moved permanently to a German zoo or animal park.

Read more at Radio.com

A DJ is much different than a turntablist. Just ask C2C.

The French turntable squad of 20Syl, Greem, Atom and Pfeil told Radio.com that basically a DJ does a DJ set, which means the person has two turntables and plays a mix of songs. “He’s playing songs from lots of different artists for people to dance,” Atom said.

What C2C do as turntablists, though, is use their individual turntables to make their own music. They don’t play records. They become the instruments with each member using samples of guitars or drum beats (which they record themselves) to construct original songs. “We interpret our own tracks,” Atom explained.

The guys met in high school and bonded over their love of American hip-hop, which helped them define their sound now. C2C discovered jazz and soul music through the samples that were used on songs from some of their favorite artists like Wu-Tang Clan and Gang Starr.

For their 2012 debut, Tetra, the guys — who won the DMC World DJ Championship four years in a row from 2003-2006 — combined a little bit of everything they listened to as teens. “We have all this musical background and we are trying to mix it with something actual like digital music, electronic music and bring also this ’90s hip-hop stuff like the big beats and bass lines,” 20Syl said.

The guys have been playing together for 15 years, but didn’t start working on their first album until 2010 after taking a break from their side projects. Greem and 20Syl are in a DJ squad called Hocus Pocus, while Atom and Pfeil comprise the DJ duo Beat Torrent. The whole recording process for Tetra took a year and a half, mostly because the band does not use samples and had to personally craft all of the sounds heard on the album.

Atom joked that they don’t use samples for legal reasons, but in actuality, recording all their own sounds gives them the freedom to create the exact vision they want. The hard work definitely paid off. Their bluesy song “Down The Road” was featured in a Dr. Pepper commercial. While their soulful track “Happy,” featuring 75-year-old singer Derek Martin, is getting noticed for its dance-filled video, which was directed by Wendy Morgan.

Those checking out this weekend’s Weenie Roast, where the guys will finish out the night with a dance party, should know that C2C’s live shows are quite different than your average DJ set. “We wanted to break the codes of DJs standing behind turntables,” Pfeil explained.

The guys start out standing in a row on stage, but swap positions throughout the night. They also use visuals on screens set up in front of their turntable stations to help fans understand what’s happening on stage. “The visuals correspond to the sound,” Pfeil said. “When you don’t know about scratching and turntablism this helps a lot…to understand what we do.”

Courtesy of On and On Records

C2C’s ultimate goal is improve the live experience for their fans. And hopefully set themselves apart from the rest of the EDM crowd.

“People are just expecting [us] to play dance music,” 20Syl said. “We play a show like a rock band. People just watching us say, ‘They are not DJs!’ We are trying to do something new.”

Catch them headlining KROQ’s Weenie Roast Saturday May 18 at noon PT. If you can’t make it to L.A. you can watch the webcast from your couch.

Read more at Radio.com