Scorsese To Direct George Harrison Documentary

Having already helmed films on Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, Martin Scorsese is now turning his attention to the so-called “quiet Beatle.” Scorsese will direct a documentary on George Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001 at age 58.

“Harrison’s music and his search for spiritual meaning is a story that still resonates today and I’m looking forward to delving deeper,” Scorsese said in a statement. “It would have given George great joy to know that Martin Scorsese has agreed to tell his story,” added Harrison’s widow, Olivia.

Work is already underway assembling archival material for the film, which will also feature extensive interviews.

Scorsese will also produce the movie through Sikelia Productions in tandem with Olivia Harrison’s Grove Street Productions and Nigel Sinclair’s Spitfire Pictures.

Athlete – “Hurricane”

Bruce Springsteen: “Long Walk Home” (Music Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwcgoUYpBF8]

Spoon to play SNL

Continuing indie rock’s ascension into the big leagues (with “big leagues” here defined as “deemed worthy enough to play Saturday Night Live“), Spoon will serve as musical guest for the aforementioned landmark sketch comedy show on October 6. This comes on the heels of Spoon’s Merge Records labelmates in Arcade Fire gigging the show last season, as did the Shins, and an earlier appearance by Modest Mouse around the time “Float On” was huge. (And yes, with being on Epic, Modest Mouse aren’t technically “indie” anymore, but I believe that hair has been split so many times as to be rendered moot.) Canuck comedic force Seth Rogen will be the host for the show Spoon is playing. It comes a week after this Saturday’s season premiere, hosted by LeBron James with music from Kanye West. I wonder if ‘Ye has any ball skills?

Radiohead set to release new album in March?

Radiohead have added a new instalment of their daily website coding communication with fans (September 26).

This time, fans seemed to have cracked the message and now believe that the band have hinted at a possible release date.

The latest code posted on www.radiohead.com/deadairspace, has been translated to read ‘march wa x’.

Fans have already begun to speculate on its meaning, believing that it could be a hint at a March release date for their seventh album, possibly on Wax or Earwax records.

Some have even interpreted the code to signify specifically March 10 (X is the Roman numeral for ten) as the record’s release date.

The band are still said to be hunting for a record company to release the album, after their deal with Parlophone expired earlier this year.

According to fan site Ateaseweb.com the complete decoded messages so far are:

September 20: YES WE ARE STILL ALIVE
September 21: BLINK YOUR EYES ONE FOR YES TWO FOR NO CODE CODE CODE
September 22: PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY
September 22: XENDLESS
September 23: MIGHT NOT OPERATE PROPERLY
September 24: A FLATLINE WE ARE IN A MEETING
September 25: CONSIDERING DISSEMINATION
September 25: SEMAPHORE ELEMENTS
September 26: MARCH WAX

Mistrial declared as Phil Spector jury hangs 10-2

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — A judge declared a mistrial in the murder case against music legend Phil Spector after a jury announced for the second time in eight days that it was hopelessly deadlocked.

Phil Spector did not testify at his five-month murder trial. The jury said it was split 10-2.

The jury deliberated for 12 days, taking six ballots, but was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Jurors told Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler they were split 10-2, without indicating which way they were leaning. They added there was nothing Fidler could do to help them arrive at a unanimous verdict.

Fidler discharged the nine men and three women, thanking them for their service. Video Watch what happened in the courtroom »

Spector went on trial in April, charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of B-movie queen Lana Clarkson after a night out in the clubs of Hollywood.

The judge told attorneys to return to his Los Angeles, California, courtroom on October 3 to discuss the next legal move.

Spector, 67, did not take the witness stand at the trial.

Deliberations were arduous, entering the third week on Monday. Last week, jurors received new instructions on the law and were told to start over after the foreman declared the panel was deadlocked 7-5.

The jury’s inability to reach a verdict capped a five-month trial that played like a Hollywood film noir classic — with a twist of the bizarre.

A 6-foot-tall, blue-eyed blonde with a toothpaste commercial smile, Clarkson was known for her roles in “Barbarian Queen” and “Amazon Women on the Moon.” But at 40 the parts were few and far between and she had taken a $9-an-hour job as a VIP hostess at the House of Blues in Hollywood.

Spector invented the “wall of sound” in the 1960s and worked with the Beatles, Ike and Tina Turner and other acts. Normally reclusive, Spector had spent a rare night out on the town, found Clarkson at the House of Blues at closing time and invited her home for a drink in the wee hours of February 3, 2003.

After initially turning him down, she agreed to accompany him, according to testimony.

Hours later, police were summoned to Spector’s mansion in Alhambra, a suburb of Los Angeles. The diminutive music producer had wandered into the driveway in the predawn and told his Brazilian-born chauffeur, “I think I killed somebody,” according to the driver’s testimony.

Clarkson was found inside, slumped in a chair in the foyer. She had been shot in the mouth. A .38-caliber Colt Special revolver lay at her feet. It appeared someone had attempted to clean up the blood with a diaper found in the guest bathroom.

Spector’s attorneys argued that Clarkson was depressed over a recent breakup, grabbed the gun and took her own life.

But prosecution witnesses painted Spector as a gun-toting menace, with five women telling harrowing tales on the witness stand of the music producer threatening them with firearms. Spector’s driver testified he heard a loud noise and saw the producer leave the home, pistol in hand, saying, “I think I killed somebody.”

At issue was whether Spector pulled the trigger — or whether Clarkson did. In photos projected on a large screen, the gruesome crime scene resembled a set decorated for a horror film.

In all, 77 witnesses testified and more than 600 pieces of evidence were submitted. The evidence cart wheeled into the jury room was piled high with exhibits.

The jury even toured the scene of the alleged crime.

The experts’ testimony differed widely on what the physical evidence showed.

Prosecutors pointed to the leopard print purse slung over Clarkson’s shoulder as evidence she was trying to leave when she was shot.

The defense argued that blood-spatter evidence on the white women’s jacket Spector wore showed he was standing too far away to place the gun in Clarkson’s mouth.

Spector hired and fired a who’s who of legal talent for his defense. High profile defense attorneys who have left the case include Leslie Abramson and Bruce Cutler.

He also changed hairstyles several times during the trial, and wore flamboyant clothing, including frock coats and pastel-colored ties and pocket handkerchiefs.

Bright Eyes Studies Up For Orchestral Concert

There’s no doubt that pairing a band with a full orchestra offers fans a unique way of seeing their favorite act in concert. But the experience doesn’t come without challenges, as Bright Eyes band member Nate Walcott has recently learned.

When the Omaha, Neb.-based indie rock band steps onstage Saturday (Sept. 29) to perform alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, countless hours of grueling work for Walcott will have finally paid off. Not only has the multi-instrumentalist been touring nonstop behind Bright Eyes’ April release, “Cassadaga,” but he’s also spent the past eight months writing the approximately 60-piece orchestral score for the show at the 17,300-seat venue.

“It was the biggest project I’ve ever worked on as far as arranging is concerned,” Walcott said. “It’s almost music math.”

Without giving away too many details, Walcott says the set list for the show will comprise songs from the past eight years, many of which contain orchestral elements. “In some cases I would take existing melodies or parts, and score them for a full orchestra,” he explains. “In other cases, I composed whole new elements — melodies, harmonies, whatever.”

But arranging rock songs for “40 strings, 11 brass and 12 woodwinds” didn’t happen overnight. The biggest obstacle, Walcott observes, was working on the project while touring with Bright Eyes. “It’s hard to do anything on tour, let alone put together 15 arrangements for the Los Angeles Philharmonic,” he says.

There are no orchestral concerts scheduled for Bright Eyes beyond the Hollywood Bowl date, but Walcott says he wouldn’t be surprised if other shows sprouted up at a later date. With the score edited and printed, Bright Eyes “could conceivably, with very little preparation, do a show with any orchestra around the world,” he says. “These orchestras don’t rehearse. They just show up and read it.”

The upcoming concert will feature support from Yo La Tengo and M. Ward, both of whom will perform in their usual incarnations.

PJ Harvey- White Chalk (Album Review)

Since 1992, Polly Harvey has been jangling the listener‘s nerves like a handful of keys. Even by her own unsettling standards, however, her seventh album is disturbing, a collection of smudged and spectral laments that appear to have been written before the invention of penicillin. With Harvey shunning guitar for piano and constraining her voice into an ethereally high pitch, the likes of Dear Darkness and To Talk To You sound as if they have come via a ouija board. Proof Harvey is the mistress of the medium and the message.
(Victoria Segal)

Springsteen Unveils New Songs At New Jersey Warm-Up

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played their first show in three years last night (Sept. 24) at Asbury Park, N.J.’s intimate Convention Hall, which served as a warm-up for a fall tour that begins Oct. 2 in Hartford, Conn. Seven songs were premiered from the album “Magic,” which also lands Oct. 2 via Columbia.

At the outset, Springsteen told the crowd the band would be offering up “a few new ones, a few old ones, maybe a few mistakes, but I doubt it.” Among the new album cuts performed were first single “Radio Nowhere,” “Gypsy Biker,” “Girls in Their Summer Clothes,” “Devil’s Arcade” and “Last To Die.”

Set list oddities included the vintage outtake “Thundercrack,” which started the encore, “Something in the Night” and “American Land,” a song from Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions band that the E Streeters were playing live for the first time.

Springsteen and company will play Asbury Park again tonight and have just announced a third rehearsal show for Friday at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J. Tickets go on sale this morning.

Here is Bruce Springsteen’s set list:

“Radio Nowhere”
“No Surrender”
“Gypsy Biker”
“Empty Sky”
“Something in the Night”
“Girls in Their Summer Clothes”
“Night”
“The Promised Land”
“Livin’ in the Future”
“Devil’s Arcade”
“Candy’s Room”
“She’s the One”
“Lonesome Day”
“My Hometown”
“The Rising”
“Last To Die”
“Long Walk Home”

Encore:
“Thundercrack”
“Born To Run”
“Darlington County”
“American Land”

THE DONNAS:: Bitchin’ (Album Review)

To say that the Donnas have been lucky to ride the same booze-fuelled, boy-crazy party animal shtick for close to 10 years is an understatement when you consider that their music hasn’t exactly evolved. Starting out as garage-rock brats, they’ve now fully succumbed to the temptations of being a Runaways tribute band with a dash of Mötley Crüe, which is fine in theory.

Only real problem is that the foursome tend to write the same songs over and over again, this time thinly veiled in arena- and hair-metal swagger, but still too similar structurally to sound like they’ve challenged themselves.
(Evan Davies)

Westerberg Returns To Action In Minneapolis

The good news is that Paul Westerberg is writing songs again, but the bad news is there is neither an album nor a tour in the immediate future. The reclusive Minneapolis icon took to the stage last night (Sept. 23) at the city’s First Avenue for an installment of “The Craft,” a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chat-and-sing series a la VH1′s “Songwriters.”

Warren Zanes, currently of the Hall of Fame and formerly of the Del Fuegos, interviewed Westerberg for 90 minutes and the Replacements leader played 10 tunes from his ‘Mats (“Skyway,” “Can’t Hardly Wait”) and solo catalogs (“Dyslexic Heart,” “World Class Fad”).

Zanes asked insider questions about song sequencing on albums and writing bridges for tunes. But he also pulled a few nuggets that Replacements’ fans would dig:

– Producer Jim Dickinson added overdubs, including strings, on “Pleased To Meet Me” that Westerberg didn’t discover until he heard the album.

– Each of the three Replacements was in separate rooms for the recording; Westerberg was in the studio hallway. “I had ZZ Top in the next room,” he said. “It never leaked on to the tape but I could hear ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ in the next room.”

– On those sessions, “They sampled Chris’ [Mars] kick drum. That’s why it rocks,” he said. “Chris could play the hell out of snare and high hat.”

– After John Cale came by to record violin on “Sadly Beautiful” on “All Shook Down,” the Replacements had to hide his instruments because Lou Reed, Cale’s ex-colleague in Velvet Underground, was coming down to the studio that night.

– Westerberg took a three-and-a-half year hiatus after his son Johnny was born. “I liked it more than I contemplated,” he said. “I found it so fulfilling that I found it hard to strap on an electric guitar.”

– Zanes asked about Westerberg mythology, calling him the J.D. Salinger of rock for going underground. Quipped the artist, “I’m the Catcher in the Slump.”

Appearing in front of 500 people on a legendary nightclub stage converted into a talk-show set, Westerberg performed one new song, “Everyone’s Stupid,” which he explained was about a friend of his now 9-year-old son who was the last to know about his parents’ impending divorce. The song was from the kid’s point of view.

The singer also offered a ‘Mats outtake, “Make the Best of Me, ” which he said the band rejected as being too “spiritual” during the “All Shook Down” era.

Zanes had Westerberg pick four favorite songs — the Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye,” the Rolling Stones’ “Tumblin’ Dice,” the Jackson 5′s “I Want You Back” and Jimmy Reed’s “You Got Me Running” — and talk about them. One of the night’s highlights was when Westerberg, after saying “I wish I could play it,” spontaneously played the J5 smash as an instrumental on acoustic guitar.

Zanes didn’t ask about Westerberg’s fretting hand, which he injured in December while trying trying to clean some candle wax with a screwdriver. In an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune in June, the guitarist said, “I’m one-third of the way to being possibly 80 percent all better.” In other words, the doctor told him it would take 18 months to recover from the injury — damaged nerves in the webbed area between the ring and pinkie finger — and he would regain only 80 percent use of his hand.

Westerberg had to re-teach himself how to play guitar. It didn’t seem to be a problem last night though, as he accompanied himself on acoustic and electric guitars, six- and 12-strings in both styles.

After hitting “a dry spell,” the less-than-prolific star has been writing again but doesn’t know if he’s close to completing an album. He has turned down offers from Universal and Sony to start his own label.

After the taping, Zanes said that Westerberg was his “favorite” interview in the series thus far. “I was reared on his stuff,” Zanes said. “I was nervous about what Paul I would get. I’m really pleased with how generous he was. Paul sounded like he was at home up there; I wasn’t expecting that. Clearly, his maturation process has been a dignified one.”

Interviews in “The Craft” series can be heard in their entirety at the Hall of Fame archives or in part via Rockhall.com/thecraft. Already taped are Elvis Costello, Patty Griffin, Jim James (of My Morning Jacket) and Ben Gibbard. Scheduled for interviews are Frank Black Oct. 17 in San Diego and Aimee Mann Oct. 23 in Chicago.

Starbucks to give away 50 million songs

SEATTLE – Starbucks Corp. plans to give away 50 million free digital songs to customers in all of its domestic coffee houses to promote a new wireless iTunes music service that’s about to debut in select markets.

From Oct. 2 to Nov. 7, baristas in the company’s more than 10,000 U.S. stores will hand out about 1.5 million “Song of the Day” cards each day. The cards can be redeemed at Apple Inc.’s online iTunes Store.

Thirty-seven artists with featured songs include Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell — the first two to sign on with Starbucks’ Hear Music label — along with Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Annie Lennox and Band of Horses.

The first song will be Bob Dylan’s “Joker Man.”

Also on Oct. 2, Starbucks will start selling iTunes digital release cards that allow a full album of music and bonus material to be downloaded online. KT Tunstall’s “Drastic Fantastic” and the soundtrack to the film “Into the Wild” with new music from Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder will be the first two featured albums, retailing for $14.99 and $11.99, respectively.

Starbucks also will offer a limited-edition reloadable purchasing card that includes two free iTunes downloads when customers register their cards online.

Earlier this month, Starbucks and Apple announced a partnership that will allow users of Apple’s iPhone and new iPod Touch to download songs playing in a Starbucks shop directly to their portable devices.

The coffee chain’s icon will light up on the iPhone or Touch whenever a user is within range of a Starbucks shop’s Wi-Fi signal. People with the devices — or a laptop with iTunes software — will also be able to use the signal for free to browse and buy other iTunes music.

The service will launch at 600 Starbucks shops in Seattle and New York on Oct. 2, then roll out in San Francisco in early November.

Starbucks plans to have the service up and running in a quarter of its stores by the end of next year and in all U.S. stores with wireless networks by the end of 2009. There are no immediate plans to expand the service to international markets.

Starbucks has been selling CDs in its stores for years and added its music catalog to iTunes last fall.

Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks’ entertainment division, declined to release any specifics on the company’s digital music sales so far or compare how they’ve been stacking up to CD sales. He would only say that music in both formats has been selling well.

Expectations remain high for the upcoming wireless service. “We’re going to see huge improvement in terms of the amount of tracks” that are downloaded, Lombard said.

Jose Gonzalez new album and US tour details

Following an intimate appearance at Spiegeltent in late August, Jose Gonzalez celebrates the release the September 25th release of his latest effort, “In Our Nature”, by kicking off the first string of dates in his US Tour with three nights in New York. Newly updated dates through December may be found below. Gonzalez is also slated to make national television appearances on Late Night With Conan O’Brien (September, 28th), and Jimmy Kimmel Live (October, 11th).

“In Our Nature” sees González coming into his own as a songwriter – with songs that are as instantly accessible as they are brimming with darkness and brooding intensity. Gonzalez, like his music, is deceptively unassuming, studied and powerful. He attacks his craft patiently, methodically and with great interest in finding unexpected angles. While it is sonically similar to Veneer, “In Our Nature” shows Gonzalez’ growth. Displaying a heightened emphasis on melody and strong, focused lyrics – the album is a dark combination of softness and anger.

US TOUR DATES

September-
27 – New York, NY @ The Gramercy Theater
28 – New York, NY @ The Gramercy Theater
29 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg
30 – Boston, MA @ Paradise

October-
01 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Café
02 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
04 – Chicago, IL @ Park West
05 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
07 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox
08 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
09 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
10 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
12 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre
13 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Café

November-
24 – Vancouver, BC @ Richards On Richards
26 – Solana Beach, CA (San Deigo, CA) @ Belly Up Tavern *
29 – Austin, TX @ The Parish *
30 – Columbus, OH @ The Wexner Center+

December-
01 – Louisville, KY @ 930 Listening Room *
02 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge *
03 – Bloomington, IN @ Buskirk-Chumley Theater *
04 – Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop *
06 – Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod Beeblebrox *
07 – Toronto, ON @ The Mod Club *
08 – Montreal, QC @ Le National announce now*

* Cass McCombs supports
+ Neva Geoffrey supports

Thurston Moore – Trees Outside The Academy (Album Review)

To a music fan, Thurston Moore can be an ubiquitous presence. Of course, his work with Sonic Youth makes the guitarist a constant point of reference in discussion of contemporary rock music or guitar experimentalism, but it seems, especially as of late, that Moore’s influence is felt as much through his identity as a critic, talent scout, label head, and, simply, as a music fan. Moore’s label, Ecstatic Peace!, recently entered one of its most active eras, and he often appears as a talking head in music documentaries, big and small. Nearing 50, Moore’s not lost any of his exuberance for the sounds that he loves, and though the steady flow of improvisational collaborations that once marked his discography has slowed just a bit, Thurston’s enthusiastic participation with a new generation of noisemakers has been the source of a number of fruitful new partnerships.

Sonic Youth, of course, aren’t idly sitting by; their last disc, Rather Ripped is perhaps their best in a decade, and an ongoing series of concert performances of the whole of their classic Daydream Nation have been unequivocal successes. Amidst it all, Moore’s been crafting a selection of songs that have coalesced into what, surprisingly, is only his second solo disc of song-based material. Psychic Hearts, which dropped in 1995 and recently got the reissue treatment from DGC, was the first most got to hear of Thurston’s songs outside of the Sonic Youth canon, composed with some discernible deviations from the contemporary Sonic Youth sound, and performed in a stripped-down trio format with Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Two-Dollar Guitar’s Tim Foljahn. The material was sometimes more accessible at its core than Moore’s writing for Sonic Youth, and its more personal tone was offset by the distancing of Moore’s vocals via reverb and other effects.

Trees Outside the Academy, more than a decade later, is a further departure from Sonic Youth’s sound, both in terms of composition and instrumentation, a more straightforward musical statement than those we’ve come to expect from Thurston, though not so much so that it’s detached from his usual musical sensibilities.

That Trees Outside the Academy is more accessible than Moore’s usual output is a fair assertion to make, though there are facets innate to his music that seem sure to prevent the gangly guitarist from ever crafting an album of pure pop. The most pronounced change is Moore’s trading in of his usual Fenders for an acoustic guitar, and with the frequent accompaniment of Samara Lubelski’s violin, the album takes on a decidedly acoustic feel. An assortment of collaborators augment the album’s core trio of Moore, Lubelski and Steve Shelley, including Charlamabides’ Christina Carter, J Mascis (who played host to the disc’s recording), and Leslie Keffer, who lays down a bit of the album’s noise. Along with Moore’s signature melodic progressions, Mascis’ hot licks, and the jaunts into brief caustic flare, however, Trees Outside the Academy bears some of Moore’s most plainly pretty work.

Sonic Youth’s music is full of beauty, but it’s rare that there’s not a jagged edge to serve as its foil; on songs like “Never Light,” though, there’s no such interruption, and many of the album’s most unabashedly comely tracks are its most enjoyable. “Silver Blue,” with its elegant melody, and “Honest James,” on which Moore duets with Christina Carter, are highlights, and some of the disc’s more rock-imbued compositions, epitomized by the frenetic “Wonderful Witches,” can feel like intrusions on the ambiance of the disc. The surprising beauty of Trees Outside the Academy is its most endearing quality, especially when left unfettered by up-tempo flourishes or disjointed changes in direction. It’s not often that one hopes Thurston Moore plays it straight, but on this disc, that’s the case.

In interviews, Moore has called Trees Outside the Academy a more personal album, though there’s nothing clearly confessional or diaristic about the disc’s songs. The album’s lyrical content is composed in Moore’s trademark poetic absurdity, ranging from the subtly stunning to unrepentantly goofy. Many seem to have a love/hate relationship with Moore’s lyrics in Sonic Youth, and the reaction here will likely be the same. Ever in touch with a youthful spirit than can contain an endearing twinge of awkwardness, Moore’s singing clashes with the music more often here than it does in his work with Sonic Youth (though were his voice as smooth as velvet, this disc wouldn’t be a Thurston Moore album). The meeting of Thurston’s scratchy voice with the smooth violin of Lubelski is indicative of Trees Outside the Academy’s showcase of a different side of Moore, something that, despite the guitarist’s massive discography, hadn’t yet come to light.

The album isn’t a pivotal one in Moore’s career, and it’s obvious that by self-releasing the album on his own imprint, he’s not aiming to make any sort of grandiose statement, but given the span of time before and between his solo albums (at least of this sort), Trees Outside the Academy can’t help but arrive with a sense of anticipation beyond its modest manner. And while it’s certain that some of the ever-burgeoning Sonic Youth fanbase will be disappointed by the disc, the album has already served its purpose. When Moore describes his motivations for recording the songs, he seems to intimate that even if the disc fails to move a single unit, Trees Outside the Academy will be, for him, a success.
(Adam Strohm)

Foo Fighters Celebrate ‘Echoes’ At NYC Club Show

“Do you guys have the new record?,” Dave Grohl teased four songs into the Foo Fighters’ surprise show at New York’s intimate Fillmore at Irving Plaza last night. In on the joke, the capacity crowd of 1,100 cheered. “It’s not even out yet!,” Grohl minced, adding, “It’s cool as long as you sing along if you know the words.” They complied repeatedly during the two-hour, 20 song set.

Tickets to the special gig promoting “Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace,” due Sept. 25 from Roswell/RCA, had appeared and disappeared just as quickly on Ticketmaster earlier in the day. The last-minute logistics contributed to the giddy but somewhat dazed feel in the room, but the quartet, augmented by Pat Smear, Jessy Greene and Rami Jaffe, expertly deployed new songs like “Cheer Up, Boys, Your Make-Up Is Running” and lead single “The Pretender” into a mix liberally seeded with old standbys like “Times Like These,” “Everlong,” “My Hero” and “Monkeywrench.”

As the gum-chewing Grohl explained following the rapturous response to 1995′s “I’ll Stick Around,” the purpose of the show may have been hyping “Echoes,” but “it’s also a good excuse to play some old school sh*t.”

With Smear comfortably barefoot and Sony BMG mogul Clive Davis nestled in the balcony looking pleased, the band honored the club’s particularly pristine sound-system with their standard near-flawless musicianship. The show reached a crescendo during the main-set ender “Stacked Actors,” during which Grohl climbed a large ledge off stage right and headbanged into an extended guitar solo. It left him collapsed in a writhing heap while rock photographer Danny Clinch hopped out of the pit and onto the stage for an impromptu harmonica solo.

The Foos will play a few more U.S. dates in the coming weeks, including a Monday gig in Los Angeles, before heading out on a U.K. tour in early November.

Here is the Foo Fighters’ set list:

“The Pretender”
“Cheer Up Boys, Your Make-Up Is Running”
“Times Like These”
“I’ll Stick Around”
“Long Road To Ruin”
“Learn To Fly”
“Breakout”
“Skin and Bones”
“Marigold”
“My Hero”
“Come Alive”
“Cold Day in the Sun”
“But, Honestly”
“Everlong”
“Monkeywrench”
“Stacked Actors”
“All My life”
“Aurora”
“Let It Die”
“Best of You”
“Home”

Ex-Ramones Drummer Sues Over Royalties

A drummer who spent four years in one of the greatest punk bands of all time, The Ramones, filed a federal lawsuit today (Sept. 21) claiming he is owed nearly $1 million in royalties on songs sold over the Internet.

Richard “Richie Ramone” Reinhardt, who performed with the Ramones between 1983 and 1987, sued Wal-Mart, Apple, RealNetworks, the band’s management and the estate of late guitarist Johnny Ramone, claiming he had never fully signed over the rights to the six songs he wrote for the group.

The tunes are “Smash You,” “Somebody Put Something in My Drink,” “Human Kind,” “I’m Not Jesus,” “I Know Better Now” and “(You) Can’t Say Something Nice.”

Specifically, Reinhardt said there was never any written deal authorizing the sale of those songs digitally. He said he is owed at least $900,000 in royalties, and asked the court to issue an injunction preventing further use of his compositions without permission.

A spokesman for Wal-Mart declined to comment. Officials at Apple and RealNetworks did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the lawsuit. Ira Herzog, a longtime business affairs representative for the Ramones, did not immediately return a phone message.

John Lydon labels Sting a ‘soggy old dead carcass’

Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon has ripped into a whole host of artists and celebrities this morning, during a phone interview with Christian O’Connell on Virgin Radio (UK).

The punk legend was only too keen to lay into the likes of Sting, spitting at comparisons made between the recently confirmed Sex Pistols gig at Brixton Academy on November 8 and the recent reformation of The Police.

“That’s really a reformation, isn’t it,” he deadpanned before continuing, “but, honestly, that’s like soggy old dead carcasses. You know listening to Stink try to squeak through ‘Roxanne’ one more time, that’s not fun. It’s like letting air out of a balloon.”

Asked to relay his thoughts over the drug addictions of contemporary musicians such as Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse, Lydon was quick to compare their tabloid antics with ex-bandmate Sid Vicious.

“There’s not much going on in their head with them. They’re not thinking. They’re not doing this for the right reasons. They obviously don’t enjoy what they’re doing. And that’s why you turn to drugs. And that’s what happened with Sid, he wasn’t happy about what he couldn’t do.

“It’s a slow suicide,” Lydon added, “and it’s a cry for help because they’re in pain, they’re in mental pain. And this is a disgusting industry because people just cut you dead.”

Meanwhile, The UK paper The NME is organizing a campaign to get the band’s classic single ‘God Save The Queen’ to Number One.

The song was reportedly denied the top spot when it was originally released way back in 1977 because authorities didn’t want the band’s punk sentiment to jar with the Queen’s Jubilee that year.

Kurt Cobain: About A Son (Trailer)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL0iAXUatdY]
Here’s a new, longer trailer for Kurt Cobain About A Son. The film was constructed from over 25 hours of audio interviews by Michael Azerrad and is told entirely in the voice of Kurt Cobain.

Kings Of Leon Hope To Be In Studio By February

Kings Of Leon are on the road promoting their third RCA album, “Because of the Times,” which came out April. But the quartet is already looking down the creative road.

“We’re ready to start the next record, to be honest with you,” drummer Nathan Followill said. “We’re touring all the way ’til the middle of January, then hopefully we’ll by in the studio by Valentine’s Day.”

Followill says the group has about eight songs already up and running, and he suspects to pile more on sooner rather than later. “We do a lot of our writing on the road,” he explains. “Ninety-five percent of our writing is done during soundchecks. We’ll play on an idea for a couple of weeks, and after 10 shows or so we’ve got a song formed out of it.

As far as a sonic direction, the oldest Followill notes that “man, the world is our oyster,” particularly after the experiments the band attempted on “Because of the Times.” “We can go in any direction we want to,” he says. “We’ve changed in-between all three records, so (the fans) will expect everything and be surprised by nothing. We like a challenge, so we’re gonna try and go in there and make a record that blows people’s minds.”

Kings Of Leon hasn’t discussed who they’ll make the album with, however. The team of Ethan Johns and Angelo Patraglia worked on its last two releases, and Followill says that “I definitely see Angelo being involved, for sure. We’ve done all three (albums) with Ethan and only done two with Angelo, so we might have to get him another record to even things out. But mostly we’re just gonna try and wait and see what direction this record takes before we decide.”

Followill says the band is also thinking about making a new live DVD from this tour, but no firm plans have been made yet.

Rarities-Packed Film Traces The Who’s ‘Journey’

Never-before-seen concert and archival footage is at the center of “Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who” and its companion film “Six Quick Ones,” due Nov. 6 on DVD via Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The movies were made with the cooperation of surviving members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, who also contributed material from their personal archives.

“We decided the film was really about the journey to the top,” executive producer Nigel Sinclair tells Billboard.com. “You really see these four young people putting it together. Then, the band becomes successful and many things happen: some good and some bad. We discerned from it that the most interesting thing was the evolution of Pete and Roger’s relationship. The fact that these two are able to continue as the Who, it is almost like it was meant to be that way. Discovering, as we did from interviewing them, what the magic or their working partnership was, that was very exciting.”

When the project first got off the ground, original director Murray Lerner put out a request online for fan-shoot footage or rare clips. This yielded “quite a considerable amount of stuff that nobody had ever seen before,” Sinclair says. “I’d say almost half of the [clips] have never been seen before in any context.”

Sinclair is particularly excited about film shot by managers Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert in 1964, when the Who were still known as the High Numbers. “They shot a number of songs of the band playing in a hotel in London,” he says. “The film was lost for the ages, but three years ago, an old gentleman in Amsterdam was cleaning out his loft. His grandson knew this was what the Who used to call themselves, and they put it on and realized what it was.”

But taking possession of such disparate footage proved a bit of a logistical nightmare for the production team. “We had 834 separate items we had to clear in the past few months,” Sinclair says. “Our post-production specialist is now writing a PhD paper for NYU based on this project. It was unprecedented. It is really difficult to take these different formats and make them work.”

The film culminates with a clip of the Who performing “Tea & Theatre” earlier this year in California, a moment Sinclair says was “key to the storytelling. You take for granted how many partnerships have really survived in the art business. Simon ain’t with Garfunkel anymore. We find ourselves in the film reflecting on that and that song becomes very poetic and powerful.”

Elsewhere, the narrative is helped along by interviews with fans such as Sting, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, U2′s the Edge and Oasis’ Noel Gallagher. “For me, Edge’s comments about Pete’s guitar playing really revealed what is his sound and why does he sound so different,” Sinclair says.

Look for “Amazing Journey” to have a limited theatrical run in the United Kingdom later this year, as well as a handful of screenings in major U.S. markets.

LCD Soundsystem- “Someone Great” (Music Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=234EazIAgbY]

Beasties look to further mix up The Mix-Up

Even though the all-instrumental album from the Beastie Boys released earlier this year, The Mix-Up, wasn’t exactly a supernova critically or commercially, the Boys aren’t ready to leave the work behind just yet. The band is planning to cull together contributors to add vocals to The Mix-Up’s songs. Who might be lending their pipes? MCA name drops M.I.A., Jarvis Cocker, and Lily Allen to Billboard. In addition, the Beastie Boys are eyeing a visual documentation of the album as well. Rather than a straight-ahead concert film, it would feature random footage band members have shot all around the world set to the length of the album.

Kingblind Downloads

Akron/Family – Love Is Simple

The A-Sides – Diamonds

Biffy Clyro – Living’s A Problem Because Everything Dies

Carolyn Mark – The 1 That Got Away [With It]

Green Pajamas – Wild Pony

Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers – Old Spur Line

Les Savy Fav – What Would Wolves Do?

Rogue Wave – Lake Michigan

Ministry – Let’s Go

The Go! Team- Proof of Youth (Album Review)

Maturity” isn’t necessarily the first word that comes to mind when talking about the music of The Go! Team, and that their sophomore album is titled Proof of Youth doesn’t really help matters. Still, what impresses most about the record (aside from its cover art, anyway) is the sextet’s growth into a legitimate band with a definite game plan for crafting their own captivating style of pop. Less dependent on memorable samples than its predecessor, 2005′s Thunder, Lightning, Strike, Proof of Youth nonetheless piles hooks on top of hooks on top of hooks, with standout tracks such as “Titanic Vandalism” and even the instrumentals “My World” and “Patricia’s Moving Picture” showing the kind of robust tunefulness that outstrips recent good-to-great efforts from avant-pop acts like !!!, Ratatat, and Art Brut. It’s no small feat that The Go! Team have learned how to build most of their songs around cheerleader chants (courtesy of Washington DC’s Frederick Douglass All-Star Cheer Team) without detracting from their exceptional pop melodies or, even more miraculously, conjuring any post-B-A-N-A-N-A-S novelty connotations. Opener “Grip Like a Vice” has already staked its claim as one of the year’s best singles, and it’s not even the strongest cut from the album. “Fake ID” incorporates a xylophone line into a track driven by heavily distorted punk guitar riff, and the horn-, siren-, and megaphone-drenched “Flashlight Fight” boasts a predictably furious delivery from Chuck D. As purely exuberant as most any album in recent memory—Junior Senior’s Hey Hey My My Yo Yo and The Boy Least Likely To’s The Best Party Ever are a similar kind of straight-up escapist fun—Proof of Youth is also an exceptionally well-sequenced album. The Go! Team have been mixtape favorites for a couple of years now, and every fade-in and chord change on Proof of Youth is perfectly calibrated to make for seamless song-to-song transitions and for an album that seems to end entirely too quickly. Beyond their development as a band, it’s that kind of attention to detail that makes this a more mature record from an act with a recombinant-pop style that’s as forward thinking as it is exciting.

Phil Spector trial: Jury unable to make decision

Jurors in the Phil Spector trial have been unable to reach a verdict, the jury foreman said today in court.

The 12-member panel is deadlocked at 7 to 5, but it is not known which side has the majority vote.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler asked the foreman if there was anything he could do to help, but foreman said “At this time I don’t believe that anything else will change the positions of the jurors,”

When the jurors were asked individually the same question, some said that nothing else would change their position, some said further instructions might help, and one said further information about reasonable doubt might help.

The panel were then sent back to the jury room to talk to lawyers.

After the deadlock was discussed, Spector’s defense team asked for a mistrial but it was denied because three of the jury said further instructions might help the impasse.

Spector, a famed music producer, is accused of shooting actress Lana Clarkson in the mouth in February 2003 at his Alhambra, CA mansion. His lawyers are saying she shot herself in an accidental suicide.

Ryan Adams Blinks; Produces Another EP

The most prolific force in alt-country, the incomparable Ryan Adams, has announced that he will reunite with the Cardinals for an EP of songs to be featured on ABC’s October Road. “Follow the Lights” will be a collection of previously unrecorded material and songs that appeared on Jacksonville City Nights, Adams’ first album with the Cardinals.

“Follow the Lights”
“My Love for You Is Real”
“Blue Hotel”
“Dear John”
“This Is It”
“Down in a Hole”
“If I Am a Stranger”

Radiohead catalogue finally available for download

Radiohead’s catalogue is finally being made available for digital download for the first time.

The move comes as the band’s record label EMI struck an exclusive UK deal with digital retailer 7digital, which covers classic albums including ‘The Bends’ and ‘OK Computer’.

The group are to make their albums only available as ‘complete bundles’, preventing tracks from being bought individually, preferring their albums to be heard and sold as complete entities.

7digital is now offering all of Radiohead’s albums and a number of earlier singles for sale as bundled DRM (Digital Rights Management)-free MP3s.

Feist add’s tour dates

Seems that Leslie Feist has literally been out on the road nonstop since she dropped The Reminder back in May. Girl’s got some stamina! And she’s not even about to close up shop for the year. Feist has a few more North American gigs this month (including playing a Borders in Ann Arbor, which quite possibly makes that the coolest Borders branch ever) before heading over to Europe. But don’t fret, Feist fans on these shores. She’ll be back for more shows over here in November.
9/14 Grantham, PA – Messiah College
9/15 Ann Arbor, MI – Borders Books and Music
9/15 Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theatre
11/6 Portland, OR – Schnitzer Auditorium
11/7 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
11/9 San Francisco, CA – Nob Hill Masonic Center
11/12 Los Angeles, CA – Gibson Amphitheatre
11/14 Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
11/17 Chicago, IL – The Riviera
11/18 Columbus, OH – Wexner Center
12/3 Hamilton, ON – Hamilton Place
12/4 Kitchener, ON – Centre in the Square
12/5 London, ON – Centennial Hall
12/18 Toronto, ON – Sony Centre
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M.I.A.- Paper Planes (Live on Letterman)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHrYq-4S9lk]

Kingblind Downloads

Kanye West – Stronger (feat. Daft Punk)

LCD Soundsystem – “Get Innocuous” Soul Wax Remix

Simian Mobile Disco – Love (Duke Dumont Ode To Todd Mix)

dj shadow – six days (soulwax remix).

Sia:: Buttons

Animal Collective – My Favorite Colors

Bruce Springsteen- Born to Run (Alternative Version)

M.I.A. – Paper Planes

The Clash – Straight to Hell (Unedited version)

PJ Harvey- Grow, Grow, Grow

John Reis starts Speedo with members of Hot Snakes, CPC Gangbangs

John Reis has started a new band dubbed Speedo. The group features the Hot Snakes’ Jason Kourkounis on drums and Gar Wood on guitar as well as Tommy Kitsos of Montreal’s CPC Gangbangs. On the Swami message board Reis commented:

“The sound is a combination of everything I’ve been a part of dating back to my prepubescent days in Pitchfork. Similar to Hot Snakes but not as sinister yet still maintaining some of the drama and subsonic boom. Akin to the rockin’ fun of RFTC but without the same kind of riffery. Like the Sultans but not as straightforward yet still maintaining the sense of melody and pop of the 2nd record. Occassional nods to the Flamin’ Groovies, Real Kids, Byrds, boogie rock era Status Quo, Bo Diddley, Chess Records in general, Wipers, Michael Yonkers and Shuggie Otis are evident to me.”

Reis also spoke about a few upcoming Swami releases. In regards to posthumous Rocket From The Crypt material, he made mention of the upcoming DVD in the works, as well as a collection of songs from the Drag Racist Recordings studio. He’s uncovered 13 unreleased songs from old tapes as well as raw versions of RFTC and Group Sounds songs. Any resulting release is still a ways away however.

On top of all this, Reis has opened a bar in San Diego’s North Park district called Pink Elephant. Speedo has plans to perform there in September after their record is finished.

Foo Fighters- The Pretender (Music Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKhnmUdmz74]

Black Francis:: Bluefinger (Album Review)

The unlikely, ghoulish inspiration of a dead Dutch pop star has forced Pixies’ frontman Frank Black into making his finest album since the demise of his influential ’90s alt.rockers. Because that’s what ‘Bluefinger’ is. Pixies fanatics will probably attribute this to the revival of the Black Francis name he used as a nomme de guerre in the Pixies. Black himself is fully aware of the significance. In an open letter accompanying the new album, he writes “I couldn’t get the Pixies back into a studio, but I would transform into my alter ego of yesteryear.” In fact, the true reason for this artistic Indian summer is that the Pixies’ dark lyrical conceits have been awakened by the subject of much of the album’s content, Herman Brood (pronounced ‘Broat’). In 2001, Dutch rocker, artist and renowned hedonist Brood threw himself from the roof of the Amsterdam Hilton. After a stint in rehab, Brood had just been told he had only months to live. As Black points out on ‘Angels Come To Comfort You’, the hotel was “…good enough for John and Yoko, man” (it was the scene of The Beatle’s famous ‘bed-in’). Black sees Brood, like Lennon, as something of a musical auteur, a man of style. The album kicks off in rollicking fashion. ‘Captain Pasty’ finds Black in yelping, screeching mode, atop two minutes of punk guitars and machine-gun drums. ‘Your Mouth In Mine’, with its jangly, chiming guitars doing battle with passages of rumbling bass, transports the listener back to the day when Pixies, Buffalo Tom, Dinosaur Jr and co ruled the alt.rock earth. Elsewhere, ‘Tight Black Rubber’, with its languid, nagging bassline and ‘Threshold Apprehension”s screaming garage rock, shine. Only the lumpen pace of ‘Test Pilot Blues’ fails to fully fire. But that’s a minor, unwarranted moan. After years in the dark, this is a slice of Black gold.

Mastodon’s Brent Hinds in Hospital After VMAs Injury

MASTODON guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds suffered what the band’s manager described as a “severe” head injury in an incident that took place sometime after the MTV Video Music Awards early Monday morning (September 10). He remains under physicians’ care in a Las Vegas hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.

MTV News reports that Hinds’ nose was also broken, and he sustained two black eyes, according to the band’s manager, Nick John. Although John did not provide details about what led to Hinds’ injuries, he said they occurred at around 3 a.m. Monday morning, after the band had finished one of the highest-profile performances of its career — a guest spot in the FOO FIGHTERS’ suite during Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. MASTODON performed its single “Colony of Birchmen” with QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE frontman Josh Homme; the song appears on the band’s 2006 LP, “Blood Mountain”.

“Thankfully, it seems he’s going to [make a full recovery],” said John. “All I know is he had a bad head injury, broken nose and blacked-out eyes. He doesn’t recall much.”

Several unsubstantiated rumors circulating around the web claim that Hinds was attacked shortly after the band’s MTV Video Music Awards performance.

Watch MASTODON’s performance at the MTV Video Music Awards (with a special guest appearance by QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE’s Josh Homme):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Hoy26f8CI]
(via Blabbermouth, Pfork, etc.)

Led Zeppelin Takes Flight, For One Night Only

Legendary rock combo Led Zeppelin is reforming, but for one night only. The British band will play a one-off show at London’s 22,000-capacity O2 arena on Nov. 26 as part of a tribute to Atlantic Records co-founder and chairman emeritus Ahmet Ertegun, who died last December. The band recorded for Atlantic its entire career.

The Who’s Pete Townshend, former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, Foreigner’s Mick Jones and Paolo Nutini will also perform at the event. Profits will benefit the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which provides scholarships to universities in the United States, United Kingdom and Ertegun’s homeland, Turkey.

Tickets costing £125 ($254) will be allocated on a lottery basis through the Ahmettribute.com web site. Curretnly there are no plans to broadcast or commercially release music from the show.

Putting an end to several months of speculation, it was confirmed today (Sept. 13) during a press conference at the O2 that the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin — Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones — would reunite onstage for just the third time in 27 years. The drummer for the evening will be Jason Bonham, son of the band’s original drummer John Bonham, who died from a heart attack in 1980.

“This is going to be the largest demand for one show in history,” promoter Harvey Goldsmith said today, adding that Zeppelin will play a full two-hour set. “I can only tell from the buzz going around now, but it is really just filtering around the world. I feel there’s going to be a huge amount of pressure (on tickets).”

None of the band members, however, were on hand at the media gathering. “I didn’t want them to come down today,” Goldsmith said. “It’s enough that they’re committed to doing this show.”

Goldsmith also downplayed prospects of a larger Zeppelin reunion. “The band members are getting along really well at the moment, but there’s no talk of them making a new record off the back of this,” he noted.

Page, Plant and Jones initially reformed with Genesis’ Phil Collins and Chic/Power Station sticksman Tony Thompson sharing drum duties for a performance at Live Aid in Philadelphia in 1985. In May 1988, Jason Bonham joined the three originals for another ‘one-off” reunion at an Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in New York.

Plant and Page teamed in 1994 for an MTV special and subsequently toured globally and released two albums. Jones has also released two solo albums, although his post-Zeppelin work has largely concentrated on production and arranging.

The concert will follow the release of a new Atlantic/Rhino two-disc, 24-track best-of Zeppelin set, “Mothership,” due Nov. 13 in the United States.

White Stripes Cancel Fall U.S. Tour

The White Stripes have abruptly canceled their fall U.S. tour, after it was revealed that drummer Meg White “is suffering from acute anxiety and is unable to travel at this time.” The trek was to have begun tonight (Sept. 13) in Albuquerque, N.M., and wrap Oct. 10 in Honolulu.

Refunds are available at points of purchase. For now, a nine-date tour of the United Kingdom, beginning Oct. 24 in Glasgow, is still on the books.

On Sept. 18, the Stripes will release a new single, “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told),” on CD and digitally. Both versions include a “frat rock” version of the track as well as an acoustic version of “A Martyr for My Love for You,” while the 7-inch vinyl, due Sept. 25, has just the latter cut as its B-side.

Here are the White Stripes’ canceled tour dates:

Sept. 13: Albuquerque, N.M. (Kiva Auditorium)
Sept. 15: Austin, Texas (Austin City Limits)
Sept. 16: Austin, Texas (Stubb’s BBQ)
Sept. 18: Chula Vista, Calif. (Coors Amphitheatre)
Sept. 19: Inglewood, Calif. (the Forum)
Sept. 21: Berkeley, Calif. (Greek Theatre)
Sept. 24: Anchorage, Ala. (William A. Egan Civic Center)
Sept. 26-27: Seattle (Paramount Ballroom)
Sept. 28: Boise, Idaho (Idaho Center Theatre)
Sept. 29: Salt Lake City (E CenteR)
Sept. 30: Jackson Hole, Wy. (Snow King Center)
Oct. 2: Rapid City, S.D. (Rushmore Plaza)
Oct. 3: Fargo, N.D. (Civic Auditorium)
Oct. 4: Lincoln, Neb. (Pershing Auditorium)
Oct. 6-7: Chicago (Aragon Ballroom)
Oct. 10: Honolulu (Blaisdell Center)

Kingblind Downloads

Le Loup- Le Loup (Fear Not)

The Dodo’s- The Ball

Minus The Bear – Throwin’ Shapes

Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings – 100 Days, 100 Nights

Okkervil River – Out Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe

M.I.A. – Boyz (Hatchmatick Remix)

Division Day – Tigers

LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!! (Totally Awesome!!!)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc]
More about the Cry Baby Er, I mean Chris Crocker

Britney at the 2007 MTV VMA Awards OUCH!!!!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX2iWjo54aI]

Kingblind Downloads

Caribou – Tour CD 2007

Animal Collective- Peacebone

The Lonely H- The Meal

Manu Chao – Rainin in Paradize

Heavy Trash- Porkchop

Ani DiFranco – Both Hands (brand new studio version)

Le Loup – We Are Gods! We Are Wolves!

Blur to reunite

Blur are to set to record together as a four-piece for the first time since 2002, when guitarist Graham Coxon left the band.

Blur bassist Alex James explained that the band are all in touch again and plan to record together – with the aim of making an album – in the near future.

“It’s going to happen soon,” James explained, speaking of imminent recording sessions. “It’s looking promising.

“It’s important for us emotionally not to leave Blur as an unfinished thing. It could be good musically as well.”

Blur drummer Dave Rowntree had previously said that the band were set to get together this month, but James explained that it was more likely that they would record in October.

“I texted Graham this morning and got one back,” he revealed. “I saw Damon (Albarn) about a month ago and I spoke to Dave yesterday. We’re all talking.”

Hinting at what a new album might sound like, James said: “Good guitars would be good. But I mainly talk to Graham about mandolins and prog music.”

Coxon departed during the early sessions for the group’s last album, ‘Think Tank’, which came out in 2003.
(Via NME)

Animal Collective:: Strawberry Jam (Album Review)

Avant-Garde music has always had its place. Whether it’s for the music fan who likes to push their listening to the extreme, or those who have had one too many sips of the mushroom tea and absinthe chaser, its audience is still a relatively minor one compared to the McFlys of our day. But here comes Animal Collective’s seventh album (sixth in the studio) and it promises to open the doors to many new fans.

Unlike what has come before, Strawberry Jam is easy – well, easier – to handle. It may be due to the band getting a little older, wanting to appeal more to the masses, or maybe because it has a new, big, shiny record deal with Domino Records. Whatever it is, it’s welcome. Not because it’s more like ‘normal’ music, but because it really emphasises the great musicianship, melodies and imagination of the band – namely Panda Bear, Avey Tare, Geologist and Deacon – while keeping their oddness right at the forefront.

There’s no better way to introduce an album than with complete confusion and Animal Collective does this brilliantly.Opening track and first single, Peacebone, begins with a nightmare of electric mess, transcending into a conformed thumping of bass and drums. Just the juxtaposition of the two opposites is enough to unnerve you. Its marching beat continues beneath a track full of swirls, industrial crashes and a simple and sweet melody, which breaks only for screams and childlike chorus, straight from the darkest depths of the nastiest horror flick. Its psychedelic lyrics joined with a bit of soprano vocal sets the scene of the creepy tale, which will make every kid sleep with their door wide open. It’s illustrated brilliantly in the video of the first date between monster and weirdo, rotten-toothed beauty.

The hellish fairground surrealness continues into Unsolved Mysteries, with its Willy Wonka-esq bubbles and sweetshop adolescence. It’s cute, but in a very dark way, as is the theme tune to an evil set of Snow White dwarves, Chores, which changes from manic and demanding to quite serene and beautiful.

The pulsating guitars of For Reverend Green (Al maybe’) keeps Jam nodding on, its Arcade Fire-esque backing vocals the complete antithesis to Bear’s screeches and screams among the lovely tune. It gets even lovelier in the superb Fireworks, one of the gems of the album, the Beach Boys influence shines through and the percussion is superb.

More weird and wonderful beauties wrapped up in fantasy bring the album to a close – Cukoo Cukoo, with its warm, magical piano and thrashing guitar and the tropical Derek, the military percussion again bringing something new and exciting to an already experimental band.

Strawberry Jam doesn’t promise to be something for everyone, but it will certainly please those with an ear for the strange and surreal – even if you will have to sleep with your light on.
(Gemma Hampson)

Death Cab For Cutie Ready To Hit The Studio

Having just completed two weeks of preproduction, Death Cab for Cutie will hit the studio in the middle of September to begin work on its second Atlantic album. The group plans to record in Seattle, Portland, Ore., and San Francisco, with an eye on a spring 2008 release.

The new album is the follow-up to 2005′s “Plans,” a runaway hit that has sold 902,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and spawned the top 10 Modern Rock hits “Soul Meets Body” and “Crooked Teeth.”

No Death Cab shows are planned through the end of the year, although frontman Ben Gibbard will on Sept. 11 perform and converse with “Lemony Snicket” author Daniel Handler as part of San Francisco’s City Arts & Lectures series.

Also not on the horizon anytime soon: a new album from Gibbard’s electronica side project the Postal Service with Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello. A recent Spin article claimed the follow-up to 2003′s “Let Go” was due Dec. 25 via Sub Pop, but sources say there is no timetable at all for another album

Led Zeppelin Announcement Expected Next Week

Talk of a Led Zeppelin reunion just refuses to go away.

Reported in July that the band may get together for a proposed tribute to the late producer/record mogul Ahmet Ertegun at the O2 in London in November,

Now on Ledzeppelin.com the date 11.13.07 mysteriously appears with the familiar Zep symbols. And several people saw the band touring the O2 during Prince’s recent stand at the new 20,000-seat London venue. A press conference next Wednesday (Sept. 12) in London may clear everything up.

There has been talk that tour producers AEG Live and Michael Cohl’s CPI (Rolling Stones, Genesis, Barbra Streisand) have put in offers on a Zep tour featuring founding members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones with late drummer John Bonham’s son Jason on drums. But it is also well known in the industry that standing offers have been on the table for a Led Zeppelin tour for more than a decade.

Nov. 13 also has another significance: it’s the release date of a new Atlantic/Rhino two-disc, 24-track best-of set, “Mothership.” Additionally, a deluxe reissue of the soundtrack to the 1976 concert film “The Song Remains the Same” with previously unreleased material and a new DVD edition of that movie will arrive Nov. 20 via Atlantic/Rhino and Warner Home Video, respectively.

Arctic Monkeys: Fluorescent Adolescent (Live on Letterman)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1r2U_SGKW8]

Prince – Live in London (Gig Review):

In the 1980’s, there was a playful rivalry between Michael Jackson and Prince Rogers Nelson. In fact, like the Beatles’ own one-upmanship contest with the Beach Boys (it’s famously documented that Paul McCartney’s contributions to ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ were a reaction to hearing ‘Pet Sounds’), the story goes that, whilst recording the 1987 album ‘Bad’, Jacko initially wanted the title track to be a duet with Prince. After a meeting, Prince declined the opportunity to appear on the song, stating that it’d be a hit without him. It was. Now, decades later, MJ has moved from music icon to a figure of fun who sporadically releases mediocre albums. It’s such a shame, considering both his past legacy and the impact he has made on the modern music scene. In fact, Michael Jackson hasn’t released a decent album since 1991’s ‘Dangerous’; I’m afraid the patchy ‘HIStory’ from 1995 and 2001’s lukewarm ‘Invincible’ (regardless of how ‘You Rock My World’ great is as a comeback single) don’t really count in all honesty, because they pale so heavily in comparison with his 80’s output. One could argue that MJ’s star has pretty much all but descended now.

Prince, on the other hand, has steadily released album after album, regardless of sales figures or popularity. Be it under the moniker of “Prince” or that strange squiggly sign thing, under pseudonyms such as “Camille”, or with other bands like The Time, The New Power Generation, The Rebels, The Revolution, etc. He’s released internet-only albums, instrumental albums and his new ‘Planet Earth’ album was even given away for free (!!) in the UK as a cover-mounted disc with a Sunday newspaper. I can’t ever see MJ doing that. This new album is also given away tonight, included with the price of the £31.21 ticket price: a knowing nod to the title of the Prince album that was released last year.

Prince is infamous in the music biz for recording numerous albums and shooting music videos that never see the light of day; hidden away from the public in Prince’s archive vaults. His work-rate is genuinely astounding. Not only because he produces, composes, arranges AND performs his songs, but also due to the amazing proficiency of the instruments he plays. It’s pretty cool that his 21-night London residency is so full of genuine Prince fans, and it’s an exciting prospect to see a musical genius performing live. And, yes, he is a genius. Fair enough he’s a slightly odd genius, but a genius all the same. The pre-gig warm-up video even says so, before he arrives on a hydraulic lift from the middle of the stage.

The stage itself is shaped like his squiggle-shaped sign – complete with rainbow lights – and, at 49, he looks great for his age as he bounds around, dancing like Michael Jackson and playing guitar like Hendrix. Plus the man sings. It’s not fair really is it? After the 3-song explosion of ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, ‘1999’ and ‘Cream’, complete with choreographed dancing twins and full band, Prince is clearly enjoying himself. Think of any of the covers of Prince’s albums and you’ll find it difficult to find an image of him smiling. Not so here. He’s grinning madly, and so are we; it’s hard not to enjoy yourself when he has the audience in the palm of his hand: “Hey London, are you ready for me yet? Y’all ain’t ready for me!” he says in mock-annoyance.

There’s a slow jazzy interval, which gives centre-stage to Prince’s band, as he exits the stage for the pre-requisite costume change. Saxophone player Maceo Parker earns himself a standing ovation for a solo rendition of ‘What A Wonderful World’, whilst the pianist performs a brief bit of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ and the back-up singers sing a heartfelt version of Alicia Keys’ ‘Fallin’’. When they exit, a single piano-keyboard is set up with just a spotlight on Prince as he launches into stripped down versions of ‘Little Red Corvette’ and ‘Diamonds And Pearls’ amongst others. Moments of intimacy (in venues as huge as this) are actually quite striking. All the hits are out tonight: ‘Kiss’, ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’, ‘U Got The Look’ and a teasing minute-long ‘Sign O’ The Times’. The funny thing is, in an hour and a half concert, you feel dizzy with the amount of well-known songs that this guy has released, and how familiar they feel to you. Prince jokes with the audience (after a looooong standing ovation) that he’s overwhelmed, so much so that he can’t remember what to play next because, naturally, “I’ve got too many hits to play them all. There’s just too many”. For someone who seems so serious, he’s pretty funny in his tongue-in-cheek immodesty.

A purple-lit stage sees a show-stopping ‘Purple Rain’ (seriously, that solo is just amazing) end the first hour, and the entire band leave the stage. But it can’t be the end of the gig, because even though he’s played a load of his greatest hits, there’s still an awful lot left to get through. A second costume change sees Prince wearing a black and white shirt with the 3121 logo emblazoned on the back and singing a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’, ‘I Feel For You’ (made famous by Chaka Khan) and then a soulful audience-led ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, followed by a raucous ‘Black Sweat’. An encore calls for Prince and his piano-keyboard again, loudly declaring that, even though many more acts will play in the venue after him, “this is my house!” The man’s case is hard to argue with, as he hits the audience with a medley of hits: in about 10 minutes you hear ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’, ‘Pop Life’, ‘Alphabet St.’, ‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Raspberry Beret’. Prince’s star is still ascending.
By J. M. Ross

Ween readies new album, tour

The faux bros in the band Ween will have a busy rest of the year. The long-rocking duo is slated to release its next opus, La Cucaracha, October 23. It’s the band’s first set for Rounder Records. A week before that, Dean and Gene set off on an extensive North American tour.

10/16 Bloomington, IN – Bluebird
10/17 Urbana, IL – Canopy Club
10/19 Madison, WI – Orpheum
10/20 Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom
10/22 St. Louis, MO – Pageant
10/23 Columbus, OH – Lifestyle Communities Pavilion
10/25 Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
10/26 Toronto, ON – Docks
10/27 Detroit, MI – State Theater
11/4 Tucson, AZ – Rialto
11/5 San Diego, CA – House of Blues
11/6 Ventura, CA – Ventura Theater
11/8 Los Angeles, CA – Wiltern
11/9 Santa Cruz, CA – Santa Cruz Civic Center
11/10 San Francisco, CA – Warfield
11/12 Portland, OR – Roseland Theatre
11/13 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
11/14 Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
11/16 Calgary, AB – Flames Central
11/17 Edmonton, AB – Edmonton Events Center
11/23 Baltimore, MD – Sonar
11/24 Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theater
11/26 South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
11/28 Boston, MA – Orpheum
11/30-12/1 New York, NY – Terminal 5

Liars:: Liars (Album Review)

Soft-skulled and cut from caring with little more than a smeared porn pullout and half a bottle of brandy from their father’s secret drawer, Liars have packed their bags and left home in pursuit of something better. Whether Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield or Henry Chinaski, Liars taps into the same sense of youthful isolation, escapism, liberation and sweaty palmed lustfulness that made these literary characters so poignant.

Drum’s Not Dead seamlessly melded its myriad tracks together; it’s a superbly engineered industrial punk behemoth, a tribute to the concept of an album as a whole entity, songs ill-fitting when removed from their comfortably vacuous hole. The drum isn’t dead, but Liars changes tact, splintering awkwardly but opening arms. Gone is the conceptual focus and instead the three-piece provide bona-fide pop bastards, convention met midway by Liars’ standard noise credentials with tracks now able to standout, alone in the rain, on their own accord.

‘Plastercasts of Everything’ judders in. Recently released, the back sleeve to the single read: “I JUST WANT TO GET AWAY FROM EVERYONE’S DRAMA BUT I’M AFRAID IF I DO RUN AWAY IT WILL CREATE MORE DRAMA SO SHOULD I?????”. Wrought with unabashed parent-baiting teenage angst, with Angus Andrew wailing manically over a turgid hook, the song loops compulsively before rupturing at the knee midway through as the floodgates open and give way to a weaving riff with TV On The Radio bombast creeping in. Changing direction, everything shifts as ‘Houseclouds’ – Liars’ most blatant nod back at forgotten child They Threw Us All In A Trench… – enters with a slow-burning funk not too far detached from Beck’s East Coast shenanigans and the dance-punk territory that Liars had seemed to turn their backs upon. It provides a potent indication that the act’s initial claims that this record is more concerned with a traditional songwriting method is not quite as off-key as first perceived. Moments later that notion is firmly distanced as the detailed drones and skewed industrial chiming of ‘Leather Prowler’ set in.

The ground this record covers is all on show when Liars sandwich their ‘Cycle Time’ – making like a stolen moment with the LA/NY/Berlin outfit playing out their Black Sabbath mimicking desires – between ‘What Would They Know’ and ‘Freak Out’, a majestic double dose sounding like off-cuts from Psychocandy regurgitated by these art-punk noiseniks two decades later and washed in an appropriate dirge. Just like honey, just like a fist to the head. Elsewhere the trio further delve into glam-rock desires with ‘Clear Island’ as Andrew leers and pleads “Come save me” with warped menace. It’s one of many tracks that are testament to Liars’ attention to detail. Aaron Hemphill’s contribution is particularly influential to the record’s remarkable impact. Stuck at sea with salty water washing round gums, ‘Sailing To Byzantium’ turns the focus to Andrew’s barren call – he’s a boy lost, his vocals unsettlingly adrift from reality, rolled in his own cocoon.

The record closes in a retiring fashion with the understated innovation of ‘Dumb In The Rain’ and ‘Protection’. Far more accessible than anything the act have produced in recent years, Liars shifts perceptions in the way most have come to expect, but with the dense conceptual themes and boundaries limited it is as if they have met most listeners halfway only to lure them back into their own sordid comfort zone, littered with the contents of a fifteen-year-old’s bedroom.
(Samuel Strag)

Broken Social Scene reunites for tour!

Or do they? If one member of a sprawling musical collective tours with a few other members backing him, is it a band tour? What’s in a name, my little Shakespeares? I guess we’ll soon find out as Kevin Drew tours behind his solo/is it really a solo album, Spirit If… That record, reportedly the first in a series that will be fronted by BSS members, is slated for a September 18 release via Arts and Crafts. Meanwhile, the complete entity known as “Broken Social Scene” remains on that vaguest of band-related terms: “hiatus.”

North American dates for the tour are being called “Broken Social Scene Plays Kevin Drew’s Spirit If…”

10/25 Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
10/26 Seattle, WA – Moore Theater
10/27 Portland, OR – Aladdin Theatre
10/29 San Francisco, CA – Fillmore
10/30 Los Angeles, CA – Orpheum Theatre
11/1 Boulder, CO – Fox Theatre
11/3 Chicago, IL – Metro
11/4 Indianapolis, IN – Vogue
11/6 Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theatre
11/12 Burlington, VT – Ira Allen Chapel
11/14 New York, NY – Webster Hall
11/17 Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of the Living Arts
11/18 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club

The Gossip plot US tour

The Gossip have announced that they’ll play a series of dates throughout the US this fall.

Following on the heels of an extensive UK and European and jaunt this summer, the Arkansas trio plan to hit the road again in the States, starting off in their current home town of Portland, Oregon on November 2.

They’ll then head down the west coast and play two dates in Los Angeles before heading east for shows in several major cities across the country.

The tour dates are:

Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom (November 2)
Seattle, WA Showbox (3)
San Francisco, CA Bimbo’s (5)
Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theatre (6,7)
Washington DC Black Cat (14)
Philadelphia, PA Starlite Ballroom (15)
New York, NY Webster Hall (16)
Brooklyn, NY Music Hall (17)
Boston, MA Middle East (18)
Chicago, IL Metro (20)

Led Zeppelin are definitely reforming says Robert Plant

Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has confirmed that the legendary rock band will be reuniting later this year.

A reunion has been strongly rumoured for the last week or so and today (September 5) the singer confirmed it’s definitely on.

A fan who met Plant in London today explaining that the singer said he was on his way to meet bandmates Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

“How did you find out about this?” asked Plant when asked about the prospects of a reunion show by the autograph hunter. “Well we’ve got a band meeting about it this afternoon about it. There’s not a lot to work out as it’s only going to be one-off gig.”

We has also learned from a music industry source that the show, possibly to take place in November at the 02 in London, will be a charity gig organised by promoter.
(via NME)

Klaxons Win U.K.’s 2007 Mercury Prize

The Klaxons’ “Myths of the Near Future” was awarded the U.K.’s Nationwide Mercury Prize today (Sept. 4) in London, beating out records by 11 others, including Amy Winehouse and Arctic Monkeys, to be celebrated as the best British or Irish album of the year.

“Myths” (Rinse/Polydor), the “nu rave” band’s debut set, was named the winner at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London. The event featured live performances from Klaxons, Winehouse, rapper Dizzee Rascal, Fionn Regan, New Young Pony Club, and all of the rest of 12 shortlisted acts except Arctic Monkeys, who are currently on tour in the United States.

The members of the Klaxons were clearly exhausted after their victory, with James Righton admitting later that he shed some tears on the podium. When asked how it felt beating out Winehouse, group members Jamie Reynolds later told the press, “Her record is a retro record, ours is the most forward thinking record of the year. We are moving forward.”

With 4/1 odds, Winehouse and last year’s winners Arctic Monkeys had been favored to win by William Hill bookmakers when the shortlist was announced July 17. But in the days leading up to the ceremony, Bat For Lashes’ “Fur and Gold” (Echo/EMI) jostled into position as bookies’ favorite’ while Winehouse — whose recent tour cancellations and “health issues” — saw her odds slip.

To arrive at a winner, Mercury’s panel of judges whittled down the nominees from a long-list of more than 230 contenders, entered by their respective record companies. The award was established as the Mercury Music Prize in 1992 by labels body the BPI and its counterpart retail association ERA (then known as BARD). The Nationwide Building Society took over as sponsor from Japanese-owned consumer electronics firm Panasonic in 2004. Previous winners include Franz Ferdinand, Gomez and P.J. Harvey.

CBGB founder dies at 75

NEW YORK (AP) — Hilly Kristal, whose dank Bowery rock club CBGB served as the birthplace of the punk rock movement and a launching pad for bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads, has died. He was 75.

Kristal, who lost a bitter fight last year to stop the club’s eviction from its home of 33 years, died Tuesday at Cabrini Hospital after a battle with lung cancer, his son Mark Dana Kristal said Wednesday.

Last October, as the club headed toward its final show with Patti Smith, Kristal was using a cane to get around and showing the effects of his cancer treatment. He was hoping to open a Las Vegas incarnation of the infamous venue that opened in 1973.

“He created a club that started on a small, out-of-the-way skid row, and saw it go around the world,” said Lenny Kaye, a longtime member of the Patti Smith Group. “Everywhere you travel around the world, you saw somebody wearing a CBGB T-shirt.”

While the club’s glory days were long past when it shut down, its name transcended the venue and become synonymous with the three-chord trash of punk and its influence on generations of musicians worldwide.

The club also became a brand name for a line of clothing and accessories, even guitar straps; its store, CBGB Fashions, was moved a few blocks away from the original club, but remained open.

“I’m thinking about tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and going on to do more with CBGB’s,” Kristal told The Associated Press last October.

Kristal started the club in 1973 with the hope of making it a mecca of country, bluegrass and blues — called CBGB & OMFUG, for “Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandisers” — but found few bands to book. It instead became the epicenter of the mid-1970s punk movement.

“There was never gourmet food, and there was never country bluegrass,” his son said Wednesday.

Besides the Ramones and the Talking Heads, many of the other sonically defiant bands that found frenzied crowds at CBGB during those years became legendary — including Smith, The Dead Boys, Blondie and Television.

Smith said at the venue’s last show that Kristal “was our champion and in those days, there were very few.”

Throughout the years, CBGB had rented its space from the building’s owner, the Bowery Residents’ Committee, an agency that houses homeless people.

In the early 2000s, a feud broke out when the committee went to court to collect more than $300,000 in back rent from the club, then later successfully sought to evict it. By the time it closed, CBGB had become part museum and part barroom.

At the club’s boarded-up storefront Wednesday morning, fans left a dozen candles, two bunches of flowers and a foam rubber baseball bat — an apparent tribute to the Ramones’ classic “Beat on the Brat.” A spray-painted message read: “RIP Hilly, we’ll miss you, thank you.”

Other survivors include his wife, Karen, and daughter, Lisa

Super Furry Animals:: ‘Hey Venus’ (Album Review)

Despite its many languid pleasures, 2005′s “Love Kraft” appeared to have checked the Super Furry Animals’ ever upward trajectory. After reaching crossover heights with “Rings Around The World” and “Phantom Power”, but failing to actually crossover, it’s like they puked all their indulgences out at once. Recorded in Columbia and kicking off with the sound of a band member diving into a swimming pool, the resulting album often felt unfocussed, lazy, flabby, and above all, like a major label obligation.

The good news then, is that having cleared out their closet (signing to independent Rough Trade, waving goodbye to long-term designer Pete Fowler and hiring producer Dave Newfield) the Super Furries sound revitalised and rejuvenated. “Hey Venus!” is conspicuously short and sweet, and as a result among the greatest things they’ve ever done.

The opening tracks are certainly their best shot at the Top 40 for years. “Show Your Hand” was a subtly melodic first single (unveiled on T4′s “Party On The Beach”, with Gruff bewildering the kids in his Power Ranger’s helmet, and then, more perversely, on Richard Arnold’s GMTV “Breakfast Show”) but it’s “Run-Away” that most will consider the album’s true classic. Built on that familiar “dum-de-dum-dum” Phil Spector drum beat, it welds a killer falsetto chorus to a latterday incarnation of the “Wall Of Sound”.

That such hackneyed symbols of ‘classic pop’ can be turned into what is undeniably ‘classic pop’ is the true mark of their genius. The Beach Boys influences are strong as always, particularly on the effortlessly swinging “Carbon Dating”. Other obvious highlights? “The Gift That Keeps Giving”, a pure blue-eyed soul tune, of the sort that Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham used to churn out four decades ago, while “Neo Consumer” is a dead ringer for Eno-era Roxy Music.

However, it would be a mistake to consider “Hey Venus” an exercise in archaeology. Sure, the Super Furries may cock an eye and ear to the past, but their minds are always forward-thinking. Certainly, “Neo Consumer”‘s rally at eco-nomics and human self-importance – “I believe in death after life, switch off the light, bye bye bye” – are dispatched with more purpose than the whole Live Earth bill. They’ve not forgotten how to nail matters of the heart either.

This is evident throughout, and none more so than on closer “Let The Wolves Howl At The Moon”. A waltz-like, country-tinged piece of magic, it appears to suggest that the man still don’t give a f*ck – with Gruff effectively crooning “Que sera, sera” – “the end it comes so soon” – while wide-eyed with wonder. Their contemporaries might have burnt out or sold out, but the Furry vision remains undimmed. As a beacon of light and cheer in a world of darkness, it closes a beautiful album perfectly well.
(by Adam Webb)

R.E.M. Reluctant To Pin Down New Album Direction

R.E.M. is “two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through” its next album, according to the group’s Mike Mills, which means it’s on target for a 2008 release, most likely some time in the spring.

“We’ve got another three weeks of recording and singing and what little overdubbing we’re gonna do,” Mills said. “Michael’s got a bunch of singing and I’ve got some backgrounds to do, and we’ve got a couple songs we hope Michael will finish. And then after the next three weeks or so is the mixing phase.”

Mills’ comment that “there isn’t a whole lot of overdubbing on this record” supports reports — as well as aural evidence from recent “working rehearsal” shows at Dublin’s Olympia theater — that it will be a guitar-dominated, hard-rocking record. For now, however, Mills says that he, Stipe and Peter Buck “made an agreement we weren’t going to say what it is or not because we don’t want to have expectations out there in any direction. But, of course, you can go on YouTube and listen to some of the Dublin shows and get a pretty good idea of where we’re going.”

Those concerts, he adds, did have a positive impact on the new material. “They did all the things we wanted in terms of not only generating excitement for the record but also helped us, I think, to make a better record,” Mills says. “It just really kicked us into a higher gear.”

Mills says working with producer Garret “Jacknife” Lee has been “fantastic. He’s just what we needed at this stage of our career. He’s very willing to experiment. He keeps things loose. It’s a fun process; he just realizes this is something we’re all lucky to be able to do, and we’re all enjoying it as much as possible.” R.E.M. has been recording with touring members Bill Rieflin and Scott McCaughey, but Ken Stringfellow hasn’t been involved, Mills says, because “we’re not using very many keyboards, and what we’re using I do.”

R.E.M. is hoping that its next release, the CD/DVD concert package “R.E.M. Live” from a 2005 show at Dublin’s Point Theatre, will also provide “a springboard” for the new album. Mills says of the Oct. 16 Warner Bros. release, “it’s actually so good that it’s gonna whet people’s appetite. It’s nice to show people that we’re still out here doing great work.

Supergrass Bassist Quinn Breaks Back In Fall

British alternative rock act Supergrass has canceled a homecoming gig in Oxford, England, after bass player Mick Quinn broke his back. Quinn fell from a first floor window while sleepwalking at a villa in the south of France, a representative for the band said today.

Surgeons at a specialist spinal unit in Toulouse have repaired two broken vertebrae, and are caring for Quinn’s damaged heel. “We hope the crazy fool gets back on his feet as soon as possible,” frontman Gaz Coombes said in a statement. “I’m sure he’ll make a full recovery; he’s a tough cookie”.

Quinn is expected to make fully heal from his injuries, although it could take several months. As a result of the accident, the group’s Sept. 23 gig at the Oxford Carling Academy has been pulled.

Supergrass recently cut its sixth studio album, due for release through Parlophone in 2008.