Lorde turned 20 on Monday, and she celebrated with a long Facebook post in which she discusses the "intimate, empire-sized" emotions that she's putting into her next album. "I just need to keep working a while longer to make it as good as it can be," she notes. "You'll have to hold on. The big day is not tomorrow, or even next month realistically, but soon."

Blind Melon get countersued

There's a new twist in the already-strange Blind Melon lawsuit over an adaptation of their hit "No Rain." In August, the surviving band members sued singer-songwriter Mandy Jiroux over her song "Insane," which incorporates portions of "No Rain."

The band say they granted permission for Jiroux to cover the song, not realizing she and her collaborators would essentially be rewriting major portions. Jiroux has now filed a countersuit, claiming the band did in fact give her permission to license a portion of "No Rain" and that they're now in violation of the agreement.

Both sides agree on the relevant evidence — a series of e-mails — but they disagree as to how those e-mails should be interpreted. (Billboard)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_kEy5OdTm0

Brit Awards voting shakeup

The U.K. music industry association BPI, which runs the Brit Awards, has invited 700 new voters to join the pool for deciding next year's awards. The move comes in the wake of a controversy over the predominantly white nominees for this year's Brits, which spawned the critical hashtag #BritsSoWhite. The Brits will now "be better equipped to reflect the diverse nature of Britain and British music," says BPI chairman Ged Doherty. (Billboard)

New Pennsylvania festival blames cops over early shutdown

Organizers of the Ray-Ban x Boiler Room Weekender music festival are blaming local law enforcement over the fact that the festival was shut down prematurely early Sunday morning. "Held at Split Rock Resord in Lake Harmony, Pa.," Billboard reports, "the stay-away festival was shut down at around 2 a.m. on Sunday after a security search with one attendee escalated, resulting in an arrest and several physical confrontations." The festival organizers subsequently decided to shut the event down, and are now saying authorities used an "unnecessary display of force" against attendees.

New Nick Cave vid

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have released a new black-and-white performance video for the song "Magneto" from their current album Skeleton Tree. (Pitchfork)

Biebs does Beethoven

People hanging out at a Toronto pub on Friday night were surprised to see notable Canadian Justin Bieber plop down at the bar's piano and play a short set that included a couple of his own tunes as well as a cover of the Beatles’ "Let it Be" and a version of Beethoven’s "Für Elise." (Rolling Stone)

Alex James washes hair

Blur bassist Alex James has recently washed his hair — for the first time in a decade. "My hair isn't really something I've ever particularly thought about or fussed over," James told Living Magazine. "Other than this week when both my daughters were keen to give me a Halloween makeover and emptied a whole can of grey-coloured hairspray into it and it set solid, I haven't washed it for 10 years." (NME)