‘American Idol’ notes: James Durbin, Adam Lambert, Nicki Minaj

With our Monday edition of “American Idol” notes, we are going a little bit across the board to talk about everything from new music to a new Twitter app; plus, there is some great video footage of Nicki Minaj talking about her feuds with Mariah Carey on the season 12 set.

Let’s kick things off though with Durbin, who has finally released the full audio for his punk-rock cover of the Elvis Presley tune “Santa Claus is Back in Town.” Will James do more music like this? We know this is just a holiday single, but it actually may be one of the strongest tracks the season 10 star has put out there. Not only is the song still very much punk / metal, but there is a serious rockabilly feel that works well with his voice. This is the type of music that is in serious need comeback, and it’s possible that we could see it considering how much 1980s pop and doo wop music has come back into the spotlight as of late.

Adam joins Keek – It may seem inconsequential as news, but we like to think of it as a pretty big deal whenever Adam Lambert gives fans a new way to communicate with him, and vice versa. With that, we’re pleased to announce that the season 8 star is now on board the video-sharing site Keek. What will this mean in the long-term? It’s  simple really: more videos straight from the man himself about his travels around the world.

Nicki Minaj speaks on “gun” incident – The second part of Nicki Minaj’s “My Truth” special aired on E! Sunday night, and there were some interesting moments throughout here all about the incident between her and Mariah Carey that were uploaded onto TMZ only hours after they happened.

While Nicki is clearly still upset in the video below, she actually has an interesting perspective on things, saying that she was actually excited to have Mariah on the panel at first, but that this changed dramatically when she felt like the feelings were not returned. She also took issue with the singer telling Barbara Walters (as revealed on “The View” later) that Minaj made some threats about her involving a gun:

“It’s just a ploy to get me off the show … But we’re going to keep it moving…ain’t nobody going to run me off that m-therf—ing show.”

Minaj also said that Barbara would not have treated Jennifer Lopez the same way that she was treated in not even getting a call from the journalist’s camp before the comments were made on TV.