In what can only be seen as American retaliation against the United Kingdom for denying all-around wholesome nice guy Chris Brown entry into the U.K., Spinner reports that Libertines lead singer/ pharmacological expert Pete Doherty arrived at the  John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City yesterday, only to be – gasp! – denied entry into the United States.  The denial forced Doherty to miss a performance with Sean Lennon.

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Pete Doherty is going back to the jailhouse, except this time it won’t be for bringing heroin into a U.K. courtroom. This time the former Libertines band member will be questioned by the police about the death of his ex-girlfriend and Goldsmith heiress, Robin Whitehead.

The Sun reports that 27-year-old Whitehead was found dead in a flat in East London. A friend of Doherty told the newspaper:

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Pete Doherty never seems to lead a normal life. There is always some type of drama inflicting his daily habitual habits whether it be drugs, alcohol, or a crazy ex-girlfriend who is a supermodel (Kate Moss). Doherty is currently the lead singer of the British group, Babyshambles, but he first gained fame with his band, The Libertines.

We recently announced that there may be a possible Libertines reunion in 2011, but by the looks of how events in his life are just going in a downward spiral, we’re not too sure if that is a legitimate possibility anymore.

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There have been plenty of reunion rumors floating around about The Libertines, perhaps at this year’s Reading and Leeds Festivals, but Carl Barat told the Evening Standard that 2011 is when he and Pete Doherty might be ready to get the band back together for a reunion.

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Pete Doherty really knows how to piss people off. The British rocker has found himself in the news again thanks to one of his many off the wall performances. According to ConsequenceofSound, Doherty was kicked out of a recent concert due to his song of choice, and by song I mean the Nazi anthem.

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Here are some of the top news that took place in the music world this weekend:

• I hate to start on such a sad note, but Grammy winning keyboardist Larry Knetchel died on Thursday at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. According to Yahoo news, it was of an apparent heart attack. He was 69 years old. (YahooNews)
• Pete Doherty had his sound cut off during his performance as headliner at the V Festival Stafford. According to NME, Doherty and his band had the sound pulled on them during their final song, a cover of The Beatles‘ version of ‘Twist And Shout. More details available. (NME)
• More V Festival News: Rockers The Killers closed opening night; Lily Allen got the crowd going, and fresh off of having the number one album in the UK, Calvin Harris thanked his fans. (NME)
• MySpace, the social networking site, bought Web music iLike.  iLike is best known as a popular social music discovery service on Facebook, MySpace’s competition when it comes to social networking. Read more details about the deal. (Budapest Business Journal) (Financial Times)
• Big Boi of the Grammy winning rap duo Outkast, says his solo album is done and ready to be released. He has been having some records label issues of late. He left Jive in June for an apparent deal with Def Jam but is hush-hush about the details. (PasteMagazine)

Here is what’s been going on in the music world this weekend:

• Not surprisingly, Pete Doherty was arrested after an alleged drugs bust on a flight on June 5th. According to sources, he was fined and let go. He went on the perform the next day at the Camden Rocks festival. Get all the details from the incident. (NME)
• Rolling Stone’s member Mick Jaggeris on a quest to help re-open the Walthamstow EMD cinema in London, where he played in 1964 (when it was still known as the Granada. Mick stated: “I fully support the campaign to keep it open and provide film, music and the arts for generations to come.” (NME)
• Line-up for Afro-Punk Festivalhas been released. The three day festival starting on July 4th with featured super talented Janelle Monae, Saul Williams and many others. The film, music, art and skateboarding festival is free.  Full list of performers is now available. (pastemagazine)

Some music news you may have missed over the weekend…

• While performing at the Love Music, Hate Racism festival which took place at the Britania Stadium, Pete Doherty slammed the British National Party (BNP). The festival featured a diverse range of artists urging the people to vote against the BNP. Doherty ended his 4 song set with “Time For Heroes” which he closed by telling the crowd, “in times of crisis, its time for heroes”. (NME)
• Guitar Hero 5 is expected to be released worldwide this autumn.  The latest edition of the popular video game provides music lovers with bands galore.  Some of the bands that will be featured include Arctic Monkeys, Nirvana, Blur, Muse, Duran Duran and many, many more. (NME)
• Print Journalism is not what it used to be. In honor of the once dynamic newspaper industry, pastemagazine’s writer, Mark Kemp, came up with a list of 10 songs about newspapers and journalism. Some of which include Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man” and Public Enemy’s “A Letter to The New York Post”. (Pastemagazine)
• Eccentric and always fashionable singer, Lady GaGa premiered her new music video, “Paparazzi.”  It is said to be her strongest music video to date. The video is  almost 8 minutes in length and is similar to Michael Jackson’s mini-film style music videos. (PrettyMuchAmazing)
• Over 18 million viewers tuned in to see one of Britain’s biggest entertainment shocks as of late; Street dance team, Diversity, won Britain’s Got Talent over fan favorite Susan Boyle. She has big fans in the United States such as Oprah Winfrey and Demi Moore. Boyle’s audition for the show became one of the most watched video’s on youtube. She still plans on releasing an album one day. (NME)

Listening to Pete Doherty‘s Grace/Wastelands is like being let in on exclusive material that has been pent-up for ages and finally released out of necessity. It’s as if the would-be film score composer and already-realized poet within Doherty had a drink over the idea and came to an amicable agreement: not to wow listeners with a now-or-never bravado, but to make music. Just music.

Granted, it is thick in poetic description and beautifully done, but on the whole it is presented with a no muss/no fuss approach. The energy and mood is not far off from what would be considered a Babyshambles record, but the benefit of isolated work can be a variation of style.

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