Kingblind Download Edition: Happy Halloween!

Misfits- Halloween II

Blue Oyster Cult- Don’t Fear the Reaper

Siouxsie & The Banshees- Halloween

Ministry- Everyday is Halloween

Nina Simone – I Put A Spell On You

Dead Kennedys – Halloween

Joy Division- Dead Souls

Otis Redding – Trick Or Treat

Ray Parker Jr – Ghostbusters

The Ramones – Pet Semetary

Michael Jackson – Thriller

Editors – Blood

Robert Johnson – Hell Hound On My Trail

Metric – Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)

Thriller: Philippine Prison Version= AWESOME!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o&rel=1]
1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice! This is not the final routine, and definitely not a punishment! just a teaser. Happy Halloween!

Slayer concert DVD + Halloween = awesome

Those cute munchkins in Slayer have a little Halloween treat for us. Beginning at midnight this morning (naturally), they posted on myspace a concert video of “Eyes of the Insance” from the Unhole Alliance Tour DVD. Check it out here.

The 90-minute DVD was released in stores yesterday and also features performances from Lamb of God, Mastodon, Children of Bodom and Thine Eyes Bleed. Bonus footage includes backstage, behind-the-scenes and one-on-one interviews, many of which were conducted by the Unholy Alliance artists themselves. Pretty much gets none more evil than that.

Mudhoney schedules tour dates

Legendary Seattle rock act Mudhoney has scheduled a short run of November and December live appearances. These shows will apparently find the band dipping into the entirety of its back catalog, which includes last year’s Under a Billion Suns, after the band ran through Superfuzz Bigmuff for a Don’t Look Back show back September. Follow on after the jump for Mudhoney’s tour dates…

11/2 Chicago, IL – Double Door
11/3 Athens, GA – 40 Watt
11/16 Seattle, WA – El Corazon
11/30 Hoboken, NJ – Maxwell’s
12/1 New York, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
12/2 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom

Oasis to begin recording new album

Oasis will enter London’s Abbey Road studios on November 5 to record their seventh album. They have already completed work on two songs set for the album, and have demoed the rest.

Speaking to BBC 6Music, Noel Gallagher revealed that the band already began initial recording at the studio six weeks ago, and plan to mix the album after a Christmas break.

“We start in Abbey Road a week on Monday [November 5],” he said. “Then we’ll probably work through a couple of months there, have Christmas off, then go and mix it and see where we’re at.

“We all write separately, but for some reason all the songs sound like they’ve got a common thread. We’ve been focusing round the grooves more this time.”

He added: “The last album ['Don't Believe The Truth'] was quite ‘songy’, if that makes any sense – it was quite a British, retro, ’60s sounding album. This [new album] is focusing round the grooves more.”

Gallagher went on to explain that he’d been having difficulty coming up with lyrical inspiration.

“I’ve literally got nothing left to write about,” he said. “I’ve written about being a youth, and I’ve written about being a rock star, and I’ve written about living life in the big city.”

Elvis tops dead celebrity list; Cobain doesn’t make the cut

Kurt Cobain doesn’t even show up on this year’s Forbes list of top-earning dead celebrities despite being number one last year thanks to Courtney Love selling part of his catalog for a reported $50 million. Instead, he’s been dethroned by the King, who returns to the top spot.

Forbes reports that Presley’s estate last year generated a total income of $49 million as a result of a massive overhaul of Graceland. Meanwhile, Cobain’s estate didn’t earn enough for him to stay listed despite the fact that the catalog sale opened the door for future ad dollars. As for other legendary musicians on the list, John Lennon jumped from number four to number two. Here’s a prediction: Expect Lennon’s position (as well as that of George Harrison, who’s now number four) to jump next year if/when iTunes releases the Beatles catalog.

Here’s the top ten:
1. Elvis Presley
2. John Lennon
3. Charles M. Schulz
4. George Harrison
5. Albert Einstein
6. Andy Warhol
7. Dr. Seuss
8. Tupac Shakur
9. Marilyn Monroe
10. Steve McQueen

Athlete:: Beyond the Neighbourhood (Album Review)

One of those bands who quietly sell respectable amounts (this is their third album), Athlete purvey gently angsty, pretty, middle-of-the-road rock, in which pianos and mildly glitchy synths twinkle politely, guitars sound about as boring as they can, and bits of melody wisp about in search of something anthemic.

Joel Pott sings like a scuffed-up Chris Martin – still adenoidal, but gruffer – and manages to be a slightly more focused lyricist, though only The Outsiders has a line that makes you sit up. (As a chorus, “I’m away with the fairies now” is so ludicrous, it’s almost affecting.) As you listen to Beyond the Neighbourhood, you find yourself spending an awful lot of time asking yourself whether you’re feeling anything yet.
(David Peschek)

Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD’s Coffin

As counterintuitive as it may seem in this age of iPods and digital downloads, vinyl — the favorite physical format of indie music collectors and audiophiles — is poised to re-enter the mainstream, or at least become a major tributary.

Talk to almost anyone in the music business’ vital indie and DJ scenes and you’ll encounter a uniformly optimistic picture of the vinyl market.

“I’m hearing from labels and distributors that vinyl is way up,” said Ian Connelly, client relations manager of independent distributor alliance IODA, in an e-mail interview. “And not just the boutique, limited-edition colored vinyl that Jesu/Isis-style fans are hot for right now.”

Pressing plants are ramping up production, but where is the demand coming from? Why do so many people still love vinyl, even though its bulky, analog nature is anathema to everything music is supposed to be these days? Records, the vinyl evangelists will tell you, provide more of a connection between fans and artists. And many of today’s music fans buy 180-gram vinyl LPs for home listening and MP3s for their portable devices.

“For many of us, and certainly for many of our artists, the vinyl is the true version of the release,” said Matador’s Patrick Amory. “The size and presence of the artwork, the division into sides, the better sound quality, above all the involvement and work the listener has to put in, all make it the format of choice for people who really care about music.”

Because these music fans also listen using portable players and computers, Matador and other labels include coupons in record packaging that can be used to download MP3 versions of the songs. Amory called the coupon program “hugely popular.”

Portability is no longer any reason to stick with CDs, and neither is audio quality. Although vinyl purists are ripe for parody, they’re right about one thing: Records can sound better than CDs.

Although CDs have a wider dynamic range, mastering houses are often encouraged to compress the audio on CDs to make it as loud as possible: It’s the so-called loudness war. Since the audio on vinyl can’t be compressed to such extremes, records generally offer a more nuanced sound.

Another reason for vinyl’s sonic superiority is that no matter how high a sampling rate is, it can never contain all of the data present in an analog groove, Nyquist’s theorem to the contrary.

“The digital world will never get there,” said Chris Ashworth, owner of United Record Pressing, the country’s largest record pressing plant.

Golden-eared audiophiles have long testified to vinyl’s warmer, richer sound. And now demand for vinyl is on the rise. Pressing plants that were already at capacity are staying there, while others are cranking out more records than they did last year in order to keep pace with demand.

Don MacInnis, owner of Record Technology in Camarillo, California, predicts production will be up 25 percent over last year by the end of 2007. And he’s not talking about small runs of dance music for DJs, but the whole gamut of music: “new albums, reissues, majors and indies … jazz, blues, classical, pop and a lot of (classic) rock.”

Turntables are hot again as well. Insound, an online music retailer that recently began selling USB turntables alongside vinyl, can’t keep them in stock, according to the company’s director, Patrick McNamara.

And on Oct. 17, Amazon.com launched a vinyl-only section stocked with a growing collection of titles and several models of record players.

Big labels still aren’t buying the vinyl comeback, but it wouldn’t be the first time the industry failed to identify a new trend in the music biz.

“Our numbers, at least, don’t really point to a resurgence,” said Jonathan Lamy, the Recording Industry Association of America’s director of communications. Likewise, Nielsen SoundScan, which registered a slight increase in vinyl sales last year, nonetheless showed a 43 percent decrease between 2000 and 2006.

But when it comes to vinyl, these organizations don’t really know what they’re talking about. The RIAA’s numbers are misleading because its member labels are only now beginning to react to the growing demand for vinyl. As for SoundScan, its numbers don’t include many of the small indie and dance shops where records are sold. More importantly, neither organization tracks used records sold at stores or on eBay — arguably the central clearinghouse for vinyl worldwide.

Vinyl’s popularity has been underreported before.

“The Consumer Electronics Association said that only 100,000 turntables were sold in 2004. Numark alone sold more than that to pro DJs that year,” said Chris Roman, product manager for Numark.

And the vinyl-MP3 tag team might just hasten the long-predicted death of the CD.

San Francisco indie band The Society of Rockets, for example, plans to release its next album strictly on vinyl and as MP3 files.

“Having just gone through the process of mastering our new album for digital and for vinyl, I can say it is completely amazing how different they really sound,” said lead singer and guitarist Joshua Babcock in an e-mail interview. “The way the vinyl is so much better and warmer and more interesting to listen to is a wonder.”
(by Eliot Van Buskirk- Wired)

New version of Zeitgeist available from Best-Buy, Billy Corgan’s integrity R.I.P, 2007

You’ve got to hand it to the man. Billy Corgan is prolific. Really. 5 albums in one year? Are you kidding me? Wait. It’s the same album.

Zeitgeist is coming out. Again. For those of you who must (I must stress “must” because one is probably better off writing a check for the same amount and sending it to P.O. Box Your Toilet) the newest version of features bonus tracks Death From Above, Stellar and Ma Bell and is part of a Best-Buy exclusive. To make sure there is no confusion – since the aforementioned tracks already appeared on other versions already released – this Best-Buy exclusive will also be accompanied a (yawn) dvd documentary on the making of the album.

This is the fifth “exclusive” release for the album. Let’s count: the regular edition, the iTunes version, the Target, the first Best-Buy and now the second Best Buy. I’m going to buy a new dictionary because apparently it’s definition of exclusive is not up to date.

ENON:: Grass Geysers … Carbon Clouds (Album Review)

In the four years since Enon’s last studio album, the band has issued a thrilling b-sides and rarities album, logged hours helping out friends Les Savy Fav and Love As Laughter, done commercial work for the Sundance channel and built its own studio. So it’s not surprising that Grass Geysers was born out of an impulsive, needy and brief energy. While Enon has previously been guilty of betraying its most energetic moments with a tendency to fall into loping, aimless slow-burners, Grass Geysers never stops freaking out. Whether blistering through the Ramones-like “Those Who Don’t Blink,” slinking out the grimy back-and-forth of “Mr. Ratatatatat” or crafting loungey psychedelia fit to soundtrack that eerie Leonard Nimoy-hosted show In Search Of…, the band manages to harness the immediacy of being a three-piece without sacrificing sonic depth or complexity. Each track offers thick layers of simply sweet hooks, space-race organ or skronky rave-up guitar, buttressed by deep, slinking bass lines and urged onward by frenetic drumming. John Schmersal and Toko Yasuda trade and share lead vocals, his desperate near-falsetto feeling unhinged while her sexy cooing stabilizes things. Lyrically, Schmersal is as loopy as ever, melding sci-fi nightmares with ambivalent lamentations of love lost or innocence swiped.

Country Legend Porter Wagoner Dies At 80

Country legend Porter Wagoner died yesterday (Oct. 28) in Nashville, just a few weeks after being hospitalized with lung cancer. Wagoner was known for a string of country hits in the ’60s, perennial appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in his trademark rhinestone suits and for launching the career of Dolly Parton.

The Missouri-born Wagoner signed with RCA Records in 1955 and joined the Opry in 1957, “the greatest place in the world to have a career in country music,” he said in 1997. His showmanship, suits and pompadoured hair made him famous.

He had his own syndicated TV show, “The Porter Wagoner Show,” for 21 years, beginning in 1960. It was one of the first syndicated shows to come out of Nashville and set a pattern for many others.

Among his hits, many of which he wrote or co-wrote, were “Carroll County Accident,” “A Satisfied Mind,” “Company’s Comin’,” “Skid Row Joe,” “Misery Loves Company” and “Green Green Grass of Home.”

In May, after years without a recording contract, he signed with Anti- records, an eclectic Los Angeles label best known for alt-rock acts like Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Neko Case.

Wagoner’s final album, “Wagonmaster,” was released in June and earned him some of the best reviews of his career. Over the summer, he was the opening act for the White Stripes at a sold-out show at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“The young people I met backstage, some of them were 20 years old. They wanted to get my autograph and tell me they really liked me,” Porter said with tears in his eyes the day after the New York show. “If only they knew how that made me feel — like a new breath of fresh air.”

To many music fans, Wagoner was best known as the man who boosted Parton’s career. He had hired the 21-year-old singer as his duet partner in 1967, when she was just beginning to gain notice through songs such as “Dumb Blonde.” They were the Country Music Association’s duo of the year in 1970 and 1971, recording hit duets including “The Last Thing on My Mind.”

Wagoner was born in West Plains, Mo., and became known as “The Thin Man From West Plains” because of his lanky frame. He recalled that he spent hours as a child pretending to be an Opry performer, using a tree stump as a stage.

He started in radio, then became a regular on the “Ozark Jubilee,” one of the first televised national country music shows. On the Opry since 1957, he joined Roy Acuff and other onetime idols.

At one point his wardrobe included more than 60 handmade rhinestone suits. “Rhinestone suits are just beautiful under the lights,” he said. “They’ve become a big part of my career. I get more compliments on my outfits than any other entertainer — except for Liberace.”

While he continued with the Opry, and even had a small part in the 1982 movie “Honky Tonk Man” starring Clint Eastwood, his recording career dried up in the 1980s — until his return this year.

“I stopped making records because I didn’t like the way they were wanting me to record,” he said. “When RCA dropped me from the label, I didn’t really care about making records for another label because I didn’t have any say in what they would release and how they would make the records and so forth.”

The Hold Steady – “Stuck Between Stations” (Live on Letterman)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isvn_Dsj2bA&rel=1]

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor Pushes the Envelope Further on the Latest Saul Williams Album Release

Following in the footsteps of Radiohead’s overwhelming successful release of In Rainbows through direct web distribution, Trent Reznor and Saul Williams are taking a similar approach with the release of The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! Estimates range from $5-12 million in download revenue that Radiohead has earned so far from their on site distribution efforts. Despite those numbers there is still some skepticism as to how successful lesser known artists will be using similar self distribution methods. The success or failure of The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! will be a major indicator of how the future of music distribution will play out.

The chances of success appear promising given the fact that this is the most involved in a non-NIN recording that Trent Reznor has been in since Marilyn Manson’s breakthrough album Antichrist Superstar. For those unfamiliar with Saul Williams music he is a former street poet who has opened up for Nine Inch Nails on several tours across North America and Europe. His music is loosely categorized as rap but is truly a cross genre blend of styles that is not easily pigeonholed into traditional music formats. Mixed by Alan Moulder the album is being promoted as a joint effort between Saul Williams and Trent Reznor. Williams describes the new album as “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is the lovechild of Trent and me.”

The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! will be available for download with a choice of choice of DRM-free 192kbps or 320kbps mp3 file sizes November 1 at http://niggytardust.com/saulwilliams/menu. Pre-orders are being taken on the site now with a suggested artist donation of $5 but will also be available for free as well. Saul Williams will kick off world wide tour in support of the release starting with a show at Washington State University November 2.

Happy Friday!! WTF??
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3JCESdFNyw&rel=1]

THE SADIES:: New Seasons (Album Review)

Neko Case’s favorite Canadian band may wear the alt-country tag, but the Toronto twangers have never been standard-issue honky-tonkers, having also collaborated with Jon Langford, Andre Williams and others. The Sadies’ sound owes as much to surf and psychedelia as to country and bluegrass, and you can trace a direct line from them back through the sunbaked choogle of the Meat Puppets to the cosmic cowboy twang of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Clarence White-era Byrds. All those influences crop up on New Seasons. The eerie psych-garage of “A Simple Apparition” would fool Lenny Kaye in a Nuggets blindfold test, while classic country instrumentals get their due in “Wolf Tones,” which channels the theme music for an imaginary pioneers-and-wagon-trains Western. The Meat Puppets vibe is prominent in “What’s Left Behind,” featuring virtuoso picking and woozy, overlapping vocals from brothers Dallas and Travis Good. And in the rippling, echoey guitars and insistent rhythmic chug of “Ann Leigh,” a tragic tale of a young man being chased by his woman’s premonition, the Sadies craft a sonic and narrative masterpiece destined to be covered by many artists (my bet’s on Case). As produced by Gary Louris (Jayhawks/Golden Smog), New Seasons is a reverb-drenched, genre-hopping gem, the culmination of a 10-year, eight-album journey that promises to bear even more riches farther down the road.
—Fred Mills

Sex Pistols Reunite For Sweaty L.A. Club Show

Anarchy and punk rock nostalgia reigned on the Sunset Strip last night (Oct. 25) as the Sex Pistols played a rare club show in Los Angeles to warm up for a brief reunion tour in Britain next month.

About 500 sweaty fans packed the Roxy Theatre for the private show, the group’s first public performance in four years. The English foursome played almost all of their songs during the hour-long set, including their best-known tunes “Anarchy in the U.K.” and “God Save the Queen.”

The show was predictably a little rusty, with singer John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) forgetting the words to the first song of the night, “Holidays in the Sun.” But he added some bonus lyrics along the way, notably “Paris Hilton, kiss my arse” in “Stepping Stone.”

He also struggled with sound problems and the heat. “It’s hotter than (expletive) hell up here,” said Lydon, 51, clad in a traditional Indian kurta, tartan pants and blue vest and guzzling red wine from the bottle.

The combustible singer was in cheerily sarcastic form for much of the night. When a young woman bounded onto the knee-high stage and hugged guitarist Steve Jones, 52, in the middle of a song, Lydon quipped, “Steve Jones always gets the fat ones!”

Towards the end, Lydon took an unscheduled bathroom break and emerged a little later “15 pounds lighter.” But Lydon eventually lost his temper after he was hit in the face with a drink. He threatened to kill the “coward” if he caught him. The fan, 21-year-old Manuel Vasquez, told Reuters he snuck into the show.

Sufjan Stevens premieres next project
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onG8FzAYdls&rel=1&border=0]
At the upcoming Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, indie impresario and geography savant Sufjan Stevens will premiere his new multimedia film and music spectacle, “The BQE.” The 16-mm cinematic tribute to one of the nation’s least-loved freeways will be accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by Stevens and his 38-piece orchestral backing band. While all three dates are already sold out and doing a brisk business among the scalpers on Craig’s List, hopefully additional tour dates will be added around the country.

Pete Doherty declares he’s off drugs, massive ice skate sale in hell commences

Pete Doherty, who is now probably more known for his inebriated escapades and model carousing than as former Libertine and current Babyshambles lead singer, has apparently vowed to stay off drugs.

Moments after a British magistrate revoked the remaining months of his compulsory supervision order Doherty was quoted as saying,

“I have kind of had enough really. “It is just the beginning, you know what I mean, in their eyes. My life has changed, but I’m still a little bit wobbly. I am taking it one day at a time.”

According to Reuters, Doherty’s pledge was made outside court just moments after a magistrate congratulated him on his progress in tackling his drug problem.

The good news is that he just mentioned “drugs”. That means he’s still allowed booze! Smart man.

In a related article, Columbia’s GNP plummeted catastrophically sending the country into (more) chaos.

OiNK founder speaks up

Alan Ellis, OiNK’s founder, has spoken to the UK’s Daily Telegraph regarding an international investigation into his website’s allegedly illegal activities. Ellis essentially stressed OiNK’s inherent “search engine” architecture (wherein torrents are simply introduced rather than actual MP3s posted): “…if Google directed someone to a site they can illegally download music, they are doing the same as what I have been accused of.” He would not, however, comment on voluntary member contributions and how said money was spent. OiNK’s Amsterdam servers have been seized and, despite internet rumors confirming and denying the presence of user logs, there is no official word yet on whether authorities plan to track down individual members. According to Ellis, “If this goes to court it is going to set a huge precedent. It will change the internet as we know it.”

Patti Smith plans New Year’s-centered dates, more

New Year’s Eve in New York City means Dick Clark in Times Square, right? True, but this year Clark won’t be the only music biz legend busy that night. Proto-punk poetess Patti Smith will be finishing up a three night stand at the Bowery Ballroom on the evening of December 31, 2007. Smith also has a couple of New York city shows to round out this month, a late-year gig in Washington, DC on the books too, and another Gotham show planned for early next year.

10/30-31 New York, NY – United Palace
12/28 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
12/29-31 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
1/18 New York, NY – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kingblind Giveaway: OASIS- “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” single.

Kingblind.com is excited to be giving away the new Oasis single “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” (On Vinyl). The single is from the new double DVD of the same name. To enter send an email with OASIS in the Subject line to kingblind(at)gmail.com with your name and address in the body of the message. Remember No subject line, No name and addy= NO WINNER. Good luck.. Will will be picking 2 winners today.

About the DVD-
What happens when a film maker follows one of the world’s biggest
bands on a year long world tour? What happens when the film maker is
granted unique access to that band, is present for the ups and downs,
the moments of greatness and the periods of the same interview in 10
different languages in as many days? What happens when that band is
Oasis, travelling across 26 countries on their biggest world tour to
date playing to a total of over 2 million people?

The answer is Lord Don’t Slow Me Down (Big Brother/Hip-O/UMe), a
double DVD set that not only gives you the definitive feature length
documentary seen in selected cinemas last year, but also the option
of voice over commentaries from the band, a Noel Gallagher Q & A
session with fans from New York City, out takes from the film, and a
second 90 minute bonus disc capturing the band’s homecoming show at
the City of Manchester Stadium together with footage sent in by fans
from around the world who attended that show. If you wanted to know
what the members of Oasis make of their lives on tour and their
audience, then the answers are on these two discs.

Directed by Baillie Walsh who has previously worked with Massive
Attack (he made ‘Safe From Harm’), Spiritualized, New Order and
Kylie’s Slow, and is now working on a film with Daniel Craig, this
DVD set is a compendium of Oasis entertainment par excellence.

Oasis YouTube Page

Oasis Official Website:
http://www.oasisinet.com/

Universal Music Website

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Dont-Slow-Me-Down/dp/B000WMEAK2/
ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-2962074-5701734?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1193088334&sr=1-1 “>Amazon Purchase Link for DVD

British Sea Power Ready To ‘Rock’ Again

Rock act British Sea Power has one question guiding its new material: “Do You Like Rock Music?” Such is the title of its third album, due Feb. 12 via Rough Trade. The set was mainly recorded in Montreal and mixed in the Czech Republic by Graham Sutton (Jarvis Cocker), who previously worked with the group on its “Open Season” album.

“We started the whole thing two years ago now, in terms of writing. And they took a long time, unfortunately,” guitarist/vocalist Scott Wilkinson said. “Instead of layering up tracks, we took a lot more direct approach, in that we went in a room and played together.”

Wilkinson describes “Do You Like Rock Music?” as more “contemporary” than previous efforts, and that the title exemplifies what the band was trying to accomplish. “Partly what we’re saying is that rock is a broad and encompassing thing, capable of a lot,” he says.

New to the mix this time are female backing singers and “funny little instruments, like harmoniums. We tried to get a big choir feeling,” Wilkinson says. “That’s part of why we took so long; we were at home, adding things and experimenting.”

Caribou:: Andorra (Album Review)

The fourth album from Caribou is the sound of the summer we’re only just getting round to enjoying. Caribou, known to his friends as maths genius and soundscapist extraordinaire Dan Snaith has relocated to London from his native Canada and his music now reveals touches of British psychedelia. ‘Sandy’, ‘Desiree’ and the multi-layered masterpiece ‘She’s The One’ (nothing to do with the Robbie Williams abomination of the same name) are refreshingly sweet, with beautiful baroque touches thanks to the guchin that Snaith learned to play during a visit to China. Essentially ‘Andorra’ sounds like The Zombies’ legendary 1968 album ‘Odessey And Oracle’ if it was reworked by Four Tet. So much so on opener and single ‘Melody Day’, that if people are still drinking pseudo-Irish cider over ice in 40 summers’ time, this song will surely soundtrack the advert.
(Nathaniel Cramp)

Radiohead to sign with XL?

The BBC reports that Radiohead are going to sign with XL Recordings for the international distribution of their upcoming release “In Rainbows.” XL Recordings is the so-called indie label who is home to The White Stripes and MIA and who released Thom Yorke’s solo record “Eraser” last year. According to an earlier article by The New York Times, Radiohead will release the album in the US through ATO Records and Side One Recordings. The band was courted by several major labels and one major coffee chain before opting to go with the smaller label. And, really, did Starbucks think they had a chance with a band that let their fans pick the price for the digital download? Who does Starbucks think they are? Paul McCartney? In the deal they purportedly inked, Radiohead will license the album to XL for a set period of time, but ultimately the band will retain ownership of the recording.

It is expected that “In Rainbows” will be released on CD early next year.

Arctic Monkeys side project desperately seeking name

According to an NME article Arctic Monkeys front man Alex Turner’s side project is nearing completion. The album, made in partnership with Miles Kane of The Rascals, should be wrapped by the end of the year and ready to climb the charts by early next year. However, the project and album are still unnamed. Not that the lack of a name should be much of a problem for a guy from a band that hit number one in England with nothing more than a song in their heart and a Myspace page.

The unnamed duo is joined by British uber-producer and Simian Mobile Disco member James Ford who helped put the anonymous album together and provided drums, bass, and keyboard on some tracks. Other songs feature the backing sounds of Final Fantasy, who you may recognize from stints pulling strings on the Arcade Fire album. In a BBC 6 Music article, Ford confessed that the group played ping pong, ate cheese and drank red wine while recording in France. Perhaps they were too busy playing wine pong to make time to think of a name? Arctic Rascals? Mobile Monkey Rascals? Simian Rascal Arctic Fantasy? Just pick a name already!

OiNK.cd Servers Raided, Admin Arrested

The servers of OiNK.cd – one of the most popular private BitTorrent trackers with over 180.000 members – are raided and the admin, a 24-year-old man from Middlesbrough, is arrested.

The man releases Chris Walla’s hard drive

The long saga of Chris Walla’s (Death Cab For Cutie) hard drive has come to a conclusion. U.S. Customs seized the computer from sound engineer Brandon Brown as he tried to bring it into the U.S. near Blaine, Washington. The Death Cab for Cutie singer cried foul and insinuated that he was targeted for his songs’ political content. U.S. Border Portection has stated that the seizing of the hard drive was standard procedure.

Swervedriver Returning To Duty For 2008 Tour

U.K. rock act Swervedriver will reunite for a worldwide 2008 tour after a nearly decade-long hiatus. Dates and other details have yet to be announced.

The group (vocalist/guitarist Adam Franklin, guitarist Jimmy Hartridge, bassist Steve George and drummer Jez) split on the heels of its 1998 album “99th Dream.” Although it never enjoyed major commercial success in the U.S., Swervedriver was beloved by fans for its psychedelia-tinged rock sound, best heard on the 1993 album “Mezcal Head.”

Of late, Franklin has recorded with his band Toshack Highway and as a solo artist. He’s presently in the midst of a solo outing in support of his recent album, “Bolts of Melody”.

Believe It Or Not, The Music Industry Is Growing

Chris Anderson has compiled stats showing that, if declines in CD sales are set aside, every other aspect of the music industry is growing.

* Concerts and merchandise +4%
* Digital tracks +46%
* Ringtones +86% last year, but single-digit growth this year
* Licensing for commercials, TV shows, movies and games. Warner Music saw licensing grow $20 million last year.
* Vinyl singles sales more than doubled in the UK
* If you include iPods in the music industry, as Anderson argues we should, they are up 31% this year

Only CD’s which with mp3 player sales included make up 25% of the music industry (60% without) were down 18% last year.

I’m not sure I agree with Anderson’s assertion that portable players are a part of the music industry. It’s a bit like saying refrigerators re part of the farm economy.

But in every other way the message is crystal clear. In Music 2.0 and beyond record companies must become music companies to survive. New models are emerging. Madonna and Live Nation is but one example. Bold innovation is being rewarded. Just look at Radiohead.

The major labels have the resources, but do they have the will? And beyond low risk partnerships with the artist what real innovation do we see at the indies?

Killing Joke/Ministry Bassist Paul Raven Dies

Paul Raven, the bass player with influential British post punk group Killing Joke, died in his sleep during the early hours of Saturday morning, at the age of 46. He was in Geneva, Switzerland, where he had been recording. The cause of death was apparently a heart attack.

Born Jan. 16, 1961, in Wolverhampton, England, Raven earned his stripes in local punk band the Neon Hearts, with whom he recorded one 1979 album, and then Kitsch, which he formed with Tyla, later of Dogs D’Amour.

Raven joined Killing Joke in 1982, replacing original bassist Youth, and made his debut with the band on the 1983 single “Birds of a Feather. The band’s 1985 album, “Night Time,” was its biggest commercial success, reaching No. 11 in the U.K. album chart and producing the unlikely hit single “Love Like Blood.”

Raven was fired from the band in 1987, but rejoined two years later. That lineup of Killing Joke folded in 1991, but Raven appeared in a new version of the band in 2003. He also played with Prong, Murder Inc., Pigface and Godflesh, in addition to touring with Ministry in 2006 and working on that band’s albums “Rio Grande Blood (2006) and “The Last Sucker” (2007).

A statement on the official Web site of Ministry mainman Al Jourgensen’s 13th Planet Records said that, at the time of his death, Raven “was working with French recording artists Treponem Pal on their new collaboration with Ted Parsons (ex-Prong/ex-Killing Joke/Jesu) and members of the Young Gods in a small village on the French/Swiss border.”

“We are all deeply stricken with grief at the unannounced departure of possibly the funniest man on planet Earth and a brother to us all: Paul Vincent Raven. Unimaginable sadness is felt by all,” Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman and guitarist Geordie Walker said in a statement.

Funeral details have yet to be announced.

Band of Horses- Is there a ghost (Live on Letterman)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLMTtSfYSm8&rel=1]

Band of Horses- Cease to Begin (Album Review)

It seems odd to say about a record so dependent on overdriven guitars, but Band of Horses’ second album is an obviously rural record. Its sense of place comes not just from Ben Bridwell’s lyrics, which reference stray dogs, wheelbarrows and fields of dogwood, but the music’s connection with a deep wellspring of American tradition. Cease to Begin was recorded in Asheville, South Carolina, as un-rock’n'roll a town as you like, and the result is an album that’s unmistakably southern, though it’s the south of early REM, a mystifying, elliptical place, rather than the south of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers. At a push, it’s country-rock that never remotely sounds like country (even when Band of Horses settle into a boogie, on Islands On the Coast, the soaring, sparkling guitars prevent it becoming a cliche). And it leaves one pondering why more bands don’t move to the countryside, if it produces such delicious melancholy.

Zeppelin might record new songs

The Led Zeppelin reunion concert remains at present a one-off gig. But a single performance might not be the only thing to come out of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones getting back together (with John Paul Jones’ son Jason on drums). Page recently dropped hints to the Winnipeg Sun that, with the four prepping together for the show, new material could organically arise. (How a small Canadian paper got this scoop is anyone’s guess.) Page said he would be “surprised if their wasn’t” some new material that came out of the whole shebang. He explained further, “We’re musicians–as we’re playing we’ll probably be coming up with all manner of things.”

Evan Dando keeping busy

For someone who embodies the slacker ethos, since his band was always too lazy to jump on the grunge gravy train to millionaire-ville, Evan Dando sure has been involved in a flourish of activity lately. Last year he resurrected the Lemonheads moniker for a new album. And now that version of the band has announced a run of November and December shows. Those will come after Dando finishes up this month with some solo sets opening for the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Dando solo:

10/22 Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
10/23 Los Angeles, CA – Wiltern
10/26 San Francisco, CA – Fillmore
10/28 Denver, CO – Fillmore

Lemonheads:

11/3 Atlanta, GA – Dave-FM Oysterfest
11/30 San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
12/1 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
12/2 Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
12/4 San Diego, CA – Casbah
12/5 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
12/8 Fort Collins, CO – Aggie Theatre
12/9 Kansas City, MO – Record Bar
12/10 Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
12/11-12 Chicago, IL – Double Door
12/13 Maryland Heights, MO – Harrah’s Casino Voodoo Lounge
12/14 Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s Lounge
12/15 Ann Arbor, MI – Blind Pig
12/17 Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
12/18 Lancaster, PA – Chameleon Club
12/19 Washington, DC – Black Cat
12/20 Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
12/21 New York, NY – Highline Ballroom
12/22 Cambridge, MA – Middle East

Death Cab for Cutie: “We’re six songs in.”

Chris Walla blogged on his recording studio’s website, Hall of Justice, that Death Cab for Cutie is recording a new album. After taking most of the year off from touring while Ben Gibbard toured and Chris Walla recorded his his own solo album, Death Cab for Cutie’s record “is in full swing; we’re six songs in.”

“Thus far it’s pretty weird, and pretty spectacular; lots of blood. It’s creepy and heavy… We’ve got a ten minute long Can jam, and had you suggested that possibility to me in 1998, I’d have eaten your puppy’s brain with a spoon.”

Not so humorously, the hard drive storing Chris Walla’s solo album was confiscated by the US Homeland Security. Walla has been recording most of the album in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. The incident happened as Walla was traveling back into the US.

Chris Walla vented his frustration about being unable to retrieve his hard drive of tracks:

“I’m told it’s at ‘computer forensics in Quantico’ but I wouldn’t be able to tell you what that means in any real way; you see, there’s exactly no customer service element to our federal government. I’m here to tell you that if the drive containing your solo record is confiscated at the border, the feds don’t have to do shit for you. And, in fact, they don’t.”

Chris Walla will be releasing Field Manual with Barsuk Records, Death Cab for Cuties’ former label, on January 29, 2008. The album will be released under his name, not the Martin Youth Auxiliary tag that he has surfaced material under in the past. Assuming that Walla made backup copies of Field Manual before crossing the border, this incident has become a perfect PR opportunity to inform the masses about his upcoming solo album.

Radiohead Returning To The Road In 2008

Radiohead will embark on a rare international tour starting next spring, Billboard.com can reveal. Although details are still sketchy, expect the British alternative rock band to play multiple markets, in sizeable venues.

“We plan to tour next year, starting in May through to probably the end of the year. With lots of holidays in that period,” says Bryce Edge of Courtyard Management, the firm that manages the band.

“At the moment we are talking with our agents in North America and for the rest of the world, trying to get a schedule which works for the band and works financially,” he adds.

An extended run will be a treat for dedicated fans who missed Radiohead’s summer 2006 dates, which landed in a handful of European and north American markets.

“They toured last summer almost for creative reasons, definitely not for financial reasons. And I think they quite enjoyed it,” explains Edge. “The next set of touring will be slightly larger-scale venues.”

Frontman Thom Yorke is anything but a fan of international treks and, in the past, the singer has raised concerns over the effects of touring on climate change.

“He likes to do shows, but the whole business of schlepping around the world is not top of his list of favorite things to do,” adds Edge. “He really enjoys playing to the fans — it’s just the process of how to do that which is the pain in the neck (for Yorke). They’re not road dogs. They never have been.”

Radiohead tore up the industry manual when they allowed fans to name their price to download its latest album, “In Rainbows,” released Oct. 10. To date, representatives for the band have remained tight-lipped on the sales performance of the studio set. Edge downplayed as “exaggerated” reports that “In Rainbows” had shifted more than 1.2 million copies, but admitted the average price paid was “probably pretty close” to £4 ($8).

“We haven’t analyzed the data yet,” he explains. “The servers are still functioning on delivering the records to people. When that calms down a bit, we will have a moment to analyze and drag the data off. “

And he was philosophical on reports that the illegal platforms have delivered millions of units. “The fact of the matter is, as soon as a record goes into manufacture, or advance copies are released to the press, it goes onto BitTorrent,” he says. “That is the fact. What we are dealing with is a situation that we always dealing with.”

A label deal has yet to be struck for the physical release of the album, a spokesperson for the band says.

Black Moth Super Rainbow- Sun Lips (Music Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC6aAs4kkbY&rel=1&border=0]
Kingblind saw this band open for the Flaming Lips.. Great stuff.. Like a cross between Mogwai and Boards of Canada. But they look like hippies from Pennsylvania.

Universal, Warner, and EMI to sell music on flash drives

The major record labels’ ongoing fixation with physical media continues on, as Universal, EMI, and Warner have each announced plans to sell music preloaded on flash drives. Universal says the move is “aimed at the younger, 12 to 24 year olds, who no longer believe that the CD is as cool as it used to be,” but that “people still want to own a physical product.” Yeah, too bad that physical product is a DAP. Predictably, the $10 flash drives will cost twice as much as normal CD singles but contain additional content — just like that ridiculous “ringle” concept we just heard about, only with more plastic and manufacturing involved. There’s no word on what format the music will be in or what the DRM will be, but it’s not like it really matters, since no one is going to buy these anyway. No word on when we’ll see this Stateside, but UK teenagers can expect to be patronized by the record labels sometime in the next few months. Will they never learn!!

Homme Itching To Record With New QOTSA Lineup

Josh Homme is so happy with Queens Of The Stone Age’s current lineup that he can’t wait to get the group back into the studio to work on new material.

“The other night we were up ’til six in the morning, all of us playing guitar,” Homme says of a roster that includes multi-instrumentalist Troy Van Leeuwen and drummer Joey Castillo, who joined in 2002, and new members bassist Michael Shuman (Wires On Fire) and utility man Dean Fertita (the Raconteurs, the Waxwings).

“Queens sounds better than it ever has live,” Homme continues, “but we’re trying to figure out how to tour and how to (write and record), ’cause I think for everyone right now the idea of creating something is even more enticing than going on the road. This lineup feels like we could basically blow through a whole record quick.”

And then some. Homme says that what he’d really like to do is “make an EP or two before making another (album),” although he’s not sure QOTSA’s label, Interscope — which turned down his request to release an EP of outtakes from the new “Era Vulgaris” sessions — will go along with that plan.

“The difficult thing is to bend other people to your will,” Homme says with a laugh. “Songs need to have a home. If you just record them, they’ve got no destination, no home.”

Homme says that he “absolutely” plans to document the current QOTSA configuration via a live album and/or DVD. “It would be a crime not to,” he says. Meanwhile, the group is also taking an interim creative step during its current North American tour of “rewriting bunches of our songs” to best display the virtues of the current quintet.

“They’re just, like, open endings and cues and saying, ‘Let’s try to head this general direction’ so it’s not endless jam band stuff,” Homme explains. “That way we never get bored and it’s always fresh for us. That gives us the best chance of trying to blow people away, blow their minds. I don’t think we’ve touched the tip of the iceberg of what we’re able to do now. We should really be stretching as far as possible.”

Dinosaur Jr. to never stop touring again, ever

When a band has a comeback going as good as Dinosaur Jr. does, what with sold out concerts and a new album that actually lives up to the quality and vitality of the group’s classic releases, said band might as well keep it rolling. That’s definitely what Dino will be doing as what’s been a busy 2007 for the band comes to a close. The indie-rock mainstays have announced a run of November and December gigs.

11/20 Millvale, PA – Mr. Small’s
11/21 Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom
11/23-24 Boston, MA – Paradise
11/27 Washington, DC – Black Cat
11/28 Raleigh, NC – Lincoln Theatre
11/29 Knoxville, TN – Blue Cats Live
11/30 Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
12/1 Jacksonville, FL – Freebird Live
12/2 Orlando, FL – Club at Firestone
12/3 Athens, GA – 40 Watt
12/5 Memphis, TN – Young Ave. Deli
12/6 New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
12/7 Austin, TX – Emo’s
12/8 Dallas, TX – House of Blues
12/9 Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom
12/11 Iowa City, IA – Picador
12/12 Omaha, NE – Slowdown
12/13 Kansas City, MO – Harrah’s Casino Voodoo Lounge
12/14 Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
12/15 Aspen, CO – Belly Up

Kingblind Downloads

Flaming Lips celebrate Zaireeka 10th anniversary

The Flaming Lips will be observing the 10th anniversary (!) of the four-disc Zaireeka by adding a fifth disc, a DVD with 5.1 Surround Sound. The DVD will feature a virtual Wayne Coyne who will provide commentary. The fun continues in Seattle on October 22nd at the Crocodile Cafe (in conjunction with Sonic Boom Records) who will play Zaireeka as it was meant to be played—all four cds at once. Dallas’ Good Records will do the same on October 30th. More in-stores expected to be announced soon. Check with your local independent record store to see if they will be joining in on the fun with quadrophonics. There is no official release date for the DVD as of yet.

In Lips’ related news, the Flaming Lips alley in Oklahoma City is being dedicated on October 25 at 11:30 a.m. at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark (the Plaza at Mickey Mantle entrance).

Chris Walla solo album finally done and ready for release

This one’s been long-gestating. We initially told you about the in-the-works solo album from Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla way back in January of this year, when it was going under the working title It’s Unsustainable and was projected for a Fall ‘07 release. Now entitled Field Manual, the record is slated to see the light of day via Barsuk on January 29. It’s not like Walla has simply been sitting around doing nothing instead of finishing his solo debut up; also an in-demand producer, Walla has recently lent a hand to albums by Tegan and Sara and Mates of State. (Part of the delay can also be explained by the confiscation of a hard drive containing integral pieces of the album by U.S. Customs officers at the Canadian border.) For production help on Field Manual, Walla turned to Warne Livesey, who has also worked with The The and Midnight Oil.

Elliott Smith’s girlfriend won’t see a dime

The girlfriend of troubled troubadour Elliott Smith won’t collect any cash from his estate, a California appellate court ruled, because she acted as an unlicensed talent agent, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jennifer Chiba sought more than $1 million from the Oscar-nominated songwriter’s estate. She claimed she was his manager and agent, booking gigs for him, which entitled her to 15 percent of his worth. So if roughly $1 million equals 15 percent of his worth, that means his estate is worth how many millions? (Sorry, I was told there would be no math.) Besides working for him, she claimed she should be paid because she lived with him, they were basically husband and wife, and says he promised to take care of her for the rest of her life. But the court said that the fact that she acted as an unlicensed talent agent prohibited her from making a claim on his estate under a “cohabitative agreement.”

Band of Horses- Is There a Ghost (Music Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK716RqoUms]

White Stripes get their own Lomography cameras

Don’t look now, but Jack and Meg are at it again. Yep, the White Stripes are once more reaching out to the retro lovin’, geeked-out crowd by offering up a set of “all-plastic,” limited edition Lomography cameras. The JACK Holga and MEG Diana+ seem to only differ from their standard counterparts externally, but fans of the band are sure to appreciate the Rob Jones-designed motifs. Notably, the JACK Holga Starter Kit includes “an additional Fisheye lens, three filter set and a custom Peppermint lens filter,” while MEG’s version comes with the “Nobody Knows How To Talk To Children” ringflash and a custom Peppermint Film Mask filter. Both kits are available as we speak for $180 apiece, but you better make haste, as only 3,000 of each camera were constructed.

Kingblind’s Favorite Finds

A Paler Shade of White- How indie rock lost its soul.

Sex Pistols’ ‘Bollocks’ Hits U.S. iTunes

Dashboard Rewards Core Fans With New Album

The Smiths get top academic honours

Cracked has John Frusciante list the 15 most ill-advised career reinventions in rock music history.

Drowned in Sound interviews Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian reviews The Confessions of Rick James: Memoirs of a Super Freak.

The Cornell Daily Sun interviews John Collins pf the New Pornographers.

Amy Winehouse and Babyshambles collaborate for “1939 Returning”

Whether you think she’s the shit or more akin to a used ashtray miming Sharon Jones, the fact is the enigmatic Amy Winehouse has done something right with her latest effort, the smash hit Back To Black. And she has now collaborated with the world’s most recognizable addict, er…Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty on a “ska” track titled “1939 Returning,” on which Amy boasts her talents on guitar! And apparently Babyshambles guitarist Mik Whitnall is pretty impressed, here’s a quote courtesy of NME
: “”She plays better than James Brown playing acoustic guitar,” he said. “She thinks she’s shit but she’s not. I’ve never met a girl who plays like that, let alone a man.” “1939 Returning” was written by Doherty after a six-week stay in rehab. Nice to see these guys putting the focus where it should be kept, on the music.

Cornelius adds ‘08 U.S. dates

Get out there and get sensuous when Japanese art rock collective Cornelius hits five select U.S. cities early next year. The group, as always the brainchild mainly of Keigo Oyamada, will be supporting its album from earlier this year, Sensuous. Cornelius is known for a live show the seamlessly melds intriguing visuals with eclectic music. Find out where to catch the experience after the jump…

1/17 Los Angeles, CA – Disney Concert Hall
1/18 San Francisco, CA – Fillmore
1/23 Chicago, IL – Metro
1/25 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
1/26 New York, NY – Webster Hall

Trail of Dead & Dethlok hit the road for Adult Swim

Adult Swim, the late-night sister network of Cartoon Network which showcases animation and live action for adults, announces a 12-stop college tour beginning October 29 with two of the country’s top rock acts, And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and Dethklok. All shows will be free for students and ticket information can be obtained at adultswimpresents.com.

This marks Adult Swim Presents’, a series of live entertainment performances, premiere event. The announcement came to support the release of Dethklok’s new album, Dethalbum, which was released on September 25. This coincides with the greatest most metal band in the world’s DVD release of Metalocalypse season 1, a two-disc DVD, which was released October 2.

Dethklok is the undisputed greatest animated metal band in the galaxy. Created by Brendan Small and Tommy Blacha, their crusades into darkness have been immortalized in Metalocalypse, the animated series available on Adult Swim. This college tour marks the band’s most epic journey where they shall emerge from the brackish pits of darkness to wipe the blood from their mighty axes.

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is currently comprised of three core members: Conrad Keely, Jason Reece, and Kevin Allen. Formed by Keely and Reece in 1994, Trail of Dead has delivered 5 albums since and has toured the world extensively, winning over fans with its guitar-laden anthems. With each album, a new generation joins the ever-growing legion of fans across the globe. The band’s most recent album, SO DIVIDED, is available at iTunes, Emusic (along with other online outlets) and in stores nationwide.

“We are most metally honored to be able to shred for the minds of the collegiate institutions of the United States of Metal America,” said Brendan Small creator and most metal member of Dethklok. “Their blood will surge in the wake of our destruction.”

Schedule for Adult Swim Presents Trail of Dead and Dethklok:
10/29/07: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M.
10/31/07: University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nev.
11/01/07: University of California, Los Angeles, Calif.
11/02/07: University of California, Berkley, Calif.
11/05/07: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.
11/07/07: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.
11/08/07: University of South Dakota, Vermillian, S.D.
11/11/07: University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
11/13/07: Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Ill.
11/15/07: University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla.
11/17/07: University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.
11/18/07: Northwestern University, Chicago, Ill.

Kingblind’s Favorite Finds

Radiohead Sell 1.2million Copies Of ‘In Rainbows’

Arcade Fire Rocks With Springsteen In Ottawa

Trent Reznor- Steal My Music

The truth about Hunter S. Thompson

Black Lips on Conan

Justice on Kimmel

Zeppelin Catalog Going Digital In November

Led Zeppelin will end its digital music holdout when Warner Music Group makes the legendary rock outfit’s entire catalog available to download starting Nov. 13. All online music retailers will offer the group’s full albums or a la carte downloads on that date.

Through a new exclusive partnership, Verizon Wireless will become the first mobile music service provider to deliver Led Zeppelin full-song over-the-air downloads, ringtones, ringback tones, alert tones and wallpapers.

“The addition of the digital option will better enable fans to obtain our music in whichever manner that they prefer,” Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page says in a statement.

The digital release program is timed to coincide with the release that day of the 24-track, two-CD Atlantic/Rhino compilation “Mothership,” which spans the band’s 12-year career.

On Nov. 20, a newly remixed and remastered version of the “The Song Remains The Same” soundtrack will be reissued with six songs that were not on the original album.

The British rockers will reform for a one-off performance on Nov. 26 at London’s O2 Arena to salute Atlantic Records co-founder and chairman emeritus Ahmet Ertegun, who died last December. The band recorded for Atlantic its entire career.

Portishead doubt future of ‘free music’

Portishead have dismissed the possibility that music will be distributed for free in the future, following Radiohead’s monumental decision to let fans download ‘In Rainbows’ for a price of their choice.

Geoff Barrow compared the idea of “free music” to not paying workmen for their labour.

Writing on the band’s website, he said: “So then…music for free, is it? Well, fucking great. So if you get our album for nothing or very little, does that mean I can get my boiler fixed for free?

“I could tell the plumber that it’s all for the love of sharing and it’s to combat the evil money grabbing corporation that is Zanussi. I’m sure he will understand.”

However, he then denied he was criticising Radiohead’s actions, saying: “I’m not having a pop at Radiohead, they are fucking good and clever with it. Anyways, I’m sure it will all become clear at some point.”

Barrow also shed more light on the progress of the band’s third album, their first since 1997′s ‘Portishead’, saying: “We met the label the other day which was good, I don’t think we scared them too much…well, maybe a little.”

He added: “Going to London to have a listen in a proper studio soon but until then we’re just mixing the stumps, stems, whatever. Thinking about names.”

Bowie falls to earth, lands at Target

Hope you haven’t bought all your fall clothes yet; noted fashion designer Keanan Duffy has shipped his fall collection to Target stores everywhere, and it’s based on the life and career of Mr. David Bowie. And, yes, many of Bowie’s most famous looks are faithfully represented. There’s the trench coat and dress shirts from The Man Who Fell to Earth and for those who need a piece of clothing with lyrics, Target is selling a gray button-down shirt printed with the words to “Let’s Dance.” In non-apparel related news, Bowie has the aptly titled David Bowie Box Set out on November 27, and will make a guest appearance on SpongeBob Squarepants on November 11.

Radiohead- In Rainbows (Album Review)

Radiohead bloody Radiohead, they make jabbering idiots of us all. Has anyone stopped to think that, this time around, it’s all a bit of a swizz? That the brouhaha surrounding In Rainbows’ internet release conveniently eclipses the music itself, a collection of odds ‘n’ sods up to a decade old? That they’re sticking it to their fans, not the man, by charging forty quid (About $80.00 USD) for a version with decent audio quality? That these whey-faced misery mongers might just be The Arcade Fire of a past-it generation?

Or not. Because In Rainbows really does present Radiohead at their most full-blooded and confident. Kid A-style weirdness adds colour to what are, essentially, ten of their most irresistible melodies, fully realised, in a row. Pitched at the heart rather than the head, romantic tenderness replaces clumsy political swipes. They sound like they had such a blast in the studio that you’d half expect a cheering children’s choir to come in. There is one. Final judgement demands time and perspective, but it’s already clear that In Rainbows is miles better than it has any right to be.
(David Jones)

Queens of the Stone Age:: 3′s and 7′s (Live on Letterman) Video
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNHWftPcMhA&rel=1]

Kingblind.com Ticket Giveaway (The Cave Singers) Seattle, WA

Kingblind and Matador Records are giving away a pair of tickets to see The Cave Singers live in Seattle, WA at The Crocodile Cafe on Saturday, Oct 27th. SWEET!

All you have to do is send an email with CAVE SINGERS (In the subject line) and your name and address (In the body of the message) to kingblind(at)gmail(dot)com

Listen to The Cave Singers
“Seeds of Night” from ‘Invitation Songs’

About The Cave Singers:
Pete Quirk – vocals, guitar, melodica, harmonica
Derek Fudesco – guitar, bass pedals
Marty Lund – drums, guitar

Here is the mystery of Seattle’s Cave Singers: They never listened to much folk music, they never intended to play folk music, and more importantly, their guitarist never picked up the instrument until recently. Yet, this strange trio is writing and performing some of the most hypnotizing folk music we have today.

One listen to Invitation Songs, however, and you’re ready to call bullshit on them. It sounds like an updated version of the Anthology of American Folk Music. Not the graduate-student, learned interpretations of folk music circa 1962, but folk music approached by way of punk rock. It’s sparse, melodic, creepy, and alluring, like the widow mourning graveside in Johnny Cash’s “Long Black Veil”. Guitarist Derek Fudesco’s bottom-end acoustic work sounds like Mississippi John Hurt’s soft, rolling finger plucks. Singer Pete Quirk’s appealingly nasal voice simultaneously echoes Arlo Guthrie and a mosquito’s buzz. And drummer Marty Lund plays like he’s slapping a newspaper on a kitchen table.

Though Quirk spent time in Seattle post-punk group Hint Hint, Lund in Cobra High, and Fudesco as bassist for Pretty Girls Make Graves and the legendary Murder City Devils, maybe they’ve been folk artists all along and we just haven’t been open to the idea.

The band maintains that they never made a conscious effort to play a certain ‘style’ of music, and that, besides the odd Dylan record, their favorite bands are still the Replacements, the Pixies, Fleetwood Mac. With that in mind, I do believe it was Big Bill Broonzy who quipped: “All music is folk music.”

Invitation Songs is the Cave Singers’ debut. It was recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia by Colin Stewart (PGMG, Black Mountain), and its title is appropriate; it is one of the warmest and most welcoming records of 2007. Each track is coated in a dense atmosphere that feels humid but not stifling. The shuffle-stomp rhythms on “Seeds of Night” and “Dancing on our Graves” recall Civil War marches, highlighting Lund’s innate abilities. Elsewhere, on “Royal Lawns” harmonicas sigh and echo back like ghosts in abandoned railway cars. The brooding, washboard-driven “Called” is kin to Ugly Casanova’s chain-gang musings, and Quirk’s mid-song yelps don’t sound planned, but rather like the ultimate summoning of his inner turmoil.

“Helen”, a classic tale of a long lost lover (“Helen, you’re eyes are frozen in my brain”), employs a wavering synth to create a Martian blues vibe. On the rustic rock-flavored “Oh Christine”, another strummy song of a love just out of reach, Quirk takes on an almost jazz-poet tone. “I saw you smoking in the bar just the other night/If I saw you right…I saw you drinking in the bar just the other day/And what’s that I heard you say?” Nothing fancy, but he sings as if he is conjuring memories so personal he has to force them through his pinched teeth.

You see, the Cave Singers’ music demands attention. You’ll throw this record on, maybe in the morning while you’re getting ready for work. Then, in the middle of the day, one of Quirk’s lyrics or Fudesco’s riffs will pop into your head, the way a Townes Van Zandt song does. You won’t be able to shake it. You’ll go home and listen to it again. Pretty soon, Invitation Songs will have worked its way into your subconscious and become the soundtrack to this moment in your life. Invitation Songs will remain a part of you forever.

Spiritualized adds U.S. west coast dates

For a couple of weeks now, it seemed like J. Spaceman was only going to land his musical mother ship known as Spiritualized in New York City for one lone North American show. But now the band has added three dates all the way across the continent. They’ll come before Spiritualized’s previously announced date at New York’s legendary Apollo Theater on November 16. The flurry of touring activity comes on the heels of news that the next Spiritualized album is all wrapped up, but concrete release details remain unknown for that record.

Follow on after the jump for Spiritualized’s new American dates…

11/11 San Francisco, CA – Bimbo’s
11/12-13 Los Angeles, CA – Vista Theater

Radiohead responds to bitrate critique

Give people potentially free music, and they’ll still find a reason to complain. Some complaints have surfaced about the bitrate of “In Rainbows” digital distribution – it clocks in at 160Kbps, compared with iTunes standard rate of 128K (though iTunes “enhanced” tunes are available at 256K). Guitarist Johnny Greenwood responds as such:

“I don’t know, we talked about it and we just wanted to make it a bit better than iTunes, which it is, so that’s kind of good enough, really. It’s never going to be CD quality, because that’s what CD does.”

Here’s why people are stupid, and Greenwood’s response is utterly spot-on, despite its tossed-off insouciance. You’re buying shitty digital tracks. Period. MP3 has long been demonstrated to introduce artifacting into tracks – if you buy it, you’re basically saying, I don’t care about quality, I care about small tracks that can fit onto my flash drive. Sure, going from 128 to 192K can offset the quality difference, but y’all aren’t pumping this stuff through your vacuum tube amplifiers, I guarantee. There are no doubt some audiophiles out there that can spot the differences, but the vast majority of the audience out there would not be able to tell in a blind taste test.

Given the number of folks who stick with their stock iPod earbuds and don’t invest in some quality Shures, it’s hard to take such concerns seriously. If you want CD-quality, buy the official box set and rip it to an uncompressed .WAV file.
(via Prefix)

Rock group R.E.M. plans to debut a song from its upcoming album Wednesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360°” program.

R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe says the band was honored to be involved with the “Planet in Peril” project.

The song “Until the Day Is Done” also will appear later this month in “Planet in Peril,” a four-hour CNN documentary that looks at environmental crises around the world.

“With ‘Planet in Peril,’ Anderson Cooper and his team have done an amazing job capturing global eco-devastation,” said R.E.M singer Michael Stipe in a news release. “The images in the film are beautiful, while at the same time heartbreaking and frightening. We are honored to have our song included in this monumental project.”

This isn’t the first time R.E.M. has worked with Cooper. The band premiered its video “Bad Day” on the show in 2002.

“Planet in Peril” executive producer Charlie Moore said the group’s longstanding commitment to environmental causes made them a natural choice for the project.

Moore said they contacted R.E.M. earlier this year to see if the group would be willing to write a song to go with the documentary, and the band happened to be in the studio working on their upcoming album.

“We were able to hear some of the stuff they were doing and this particular song fits perfectly for the project,” Moore said.

He said the group, their management and their record label were eager to be involved.

“It’s sort of serendipitous that we were able to work something out with them,” Moore said. “All the stars were lined up for this to happen, they were in the studio, they were working on a song that fit with the feeling that the pictures portray and they really match up very well. And we like their music, we like their work and are just thrilled that they wanted to be a part of it.”

“Planet in Peril” features CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and “Animal Planet” host and wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin.

The two-part documentary was filmed in 13 countries and focuses on the issues of climate change, deforestation, species loss and overpopulation.

CNN will air “Planet in Peril” on October 23 and 24 at 9 p.m. ET. It also will be broadcast on CNN International.

In a message on the R.E.M.’s Web site, the group said it had finished recording songs for the new album, which is scheduled to be released next year.

The band also is releasing a live CD/DVD on Tuesday with 22-tracks recorded at a 2005 concert in Dublin, Ireland.

Radiohead In Direct-Licensing Deal For New CD

Radiohead’s industry model-busting new digital album release, “In Rainbows,” will sidestep traditional authors’ rights licensing channels.

The album will be released as a digital download this morning (Oct. 10) via Radiohead.com, with consumers able to decide the price they pay for the recording.

For the download version of the album, all rights — musical work and sound recording — are vested with the band, a spokesperson for the U.K.’s collecting society MCPS-PRS Alliance explains.

“No one is being bypassed. Rather the band, in cooperation with us, have created their own model of direct licensing for online,” says the spokesperson. The arrangements do not apply for the physical release — details for which have yet to be disclosed — or for broadcasting, which are being licensed under standard agreements with the collecting society.

Radiohead’s music publisher for the past 15 years, Warner/Chappell, stipulates that “all necessary licenses will be in place to allow proper payment of publishing royalties on both physical and digital sales of ‘In Rainbows.’”

“Warner/Chappell fully supports Radiohead in their desire to find new ways to present their music to their fans and to the wider world,” comments Richard Manners, managing director, of Warner/Chappell Music U.K. “These new ways are iconoclastic in nature; they acknowledge the realities of a digital society and they challenge existing commercial assumptions. It is in this spirit that band and publisher are working together.”

Modern rock radio network Xfm will premiere “In Rainbows” tomorrow afternoon. The station will play all 10 tracks uninterrupted from the 42-and-a-half-minute long album.

Shonen Knife cuts back in to North America in November

Japanese grrrl power rock band Shonen Knife has scheduled a series of North American live shows that kick off next month. The band released a new album, Fun!Fun!Fun!, earlier this year in Japan. There’s no word on any possible U.S. release of the record, but the band will have it available for sale at all of the upcoming tour stops. Follow on after the jump for info on what’s been dubbed the “Knife an Dagger ‘07″ tour, since one of Shonen Knife’s opening acts will be the Juliet Dagger…

11/19 New York, NY – Blender Theater
11/20 Philadelphia, PA – North Star Bar
11/21 Buffalo, NY – Venue TBA
11/23 New York, NY – Luna Lounge
11/24 Washington, DC – Black Cat
11/25 Cambridge, MA – Middle East
11/27 Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
11/28 Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
11/29 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
11/30 Chicago, IL – Reggie’s Live
12/1 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock
12/2 Lawrence, KS – Bottleneck
12/4 Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre
12/5 Salt Lake City, UT – Burt’s Tiki Lounge
12/6 Las Vegas, NV – Venue TBA
12/7 San Diego, CA – Casbah
12/8 Pomona, CA – Glass House
12/9 Los Angeles, CA – Knitting Factory
12/11 San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
12/13 Vancouver, BC – Richard’s on Richards
12/14 Portland, OR – Berbati’s Pan
12/15 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey

Is Band of Horses singer a sellout or a smart businessman?

“The world is such a wonderful place,” Ben Bridwell sings on “Ode to LRC.”

The song on Band of Horses’ new album, “Cease to Begin,” which comes out Tuesday (Oct. 9), is a rhapsodic sonnet about journals Bridwell read in a caboose camouflaged by forest on the Oregon coast.

Band of Horses’ popularity has allowed Bridwell, a Columbia native, to see the world. But he wouldn’t want to live anywhere other than Mount Pleasant. (Too bad his touring schedule has kept him away from here since he moved back to South Carolina from Seattle in 2006.)

Bridwell and his dad, David, drink canned beers, talking like old buddies on his father’s back porch.

They shuffle through University of Georgia football, birds swooping to scoop fish from the lake, Mount Pleasant tourists, writing songs and touring.

And Wal-Mart.

Specifically, Band of Horses’ “marketing relationship” with Wal-Mart.

Or, as indie purists construe it, Band of Horses’ “selling out” to Wal-Mart.

If Bridwell is concerned about whether his indie cred will suffer, he hasn’t stopped fielding licensing queries: “One Tree Hill,” the Southern teen soap, wants to use a BoH song, his manager texts him.

The Bridwells, who didn’t see eye to eye much when Ben was homeless in Seattle and sleeping in the back of rental trucks, share a similar position now.

They’d rather talk about the harmonious elegance of “Marry Song” or the painful nature of “Window Blues,” which is comforted by a banjo and Ryan Monroe’s shivering keyboard.

“I told Ben he would pay for this exposure,” his dad said, “but there is no way you don’t do that.

“As a father, I don’t like someone critiquing my child, especially when it’s not warranted.”

Band of Horses allowed Wal-Mart to use “The Funeral,” a song off last year’s debut, “Everything All the Time,” in a Web advertisement. If he had turned down Wal-Mart’s offer, Bridwell said: “What are you left with? People will forget you were high and mighty.”

The licensing of “Is There a Ghost” to a Ford TV commercial also drew sellout calls. Independent of the deal, both Bridwells drive Ford trucks. Ben’s is a rusty, battered F-150 with a broken window motor that makes parking under trees when rain threatens a good idea.

Bridwell released a statement through Sub Pop, the band’s label, explaining his position. He feels he shouldn’t have been asked to do that.

“Every commercial has music,” David Bridwell said.

“Any (person) with a computer can write a blog,” Ben Bridwell said. “What do you do for a living? Do you not work?

“Do you not get paid by someone?”

Here’s an idea many critics failed to present when sounding off: Bands no longer make enough money from album sales and touring, so licensing is essential to sustaining a career.

And — surprise! — it’s hardly a new trend.

Wilco’s music is being used in Volkswagen commercials. Sonic Youth will release a tribute compilation, “Hits Are for Squares,” through Starbucks. And who hasn’t hummed to Outback Steakhouse’s reworking of “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” by Of Montreal?

Selling a song to a retailer — like Peter Bjorn and John, who sold their song “Young Folks” to Target — doesn’t mean the song isn’t catchy, glamorous and, ultimately, good. So should “The Funeral” be buried?

“I’ve caught enough flak from purists,” Bridwell said. “So should I go all out?” (“The Funeral” also might appear in a Wal-Mart TV ad, he said.)

Some say the issue solely is with Wal-Mart. But Wal-Mart’s advertising team apparently wants good music to articulate its definition of a quick-stop destination for bread, tires, toothpaste, T-shirts and electronics.

Wal-Mart also sells Kleenex for those crying foul. Would those same people turn down, say, $100,000, for the use of one of their songs?

Good music always will be good music. Selling out in the digital age, though, is for promoters, ushers and box-office attendants to worry about.

Add T-Mobile, which will provide a fall tour bus to BoH, and the TV show “Criminal Minds,” which used Band of Horses’ “Monsters” and “The Funeral.”

“We saw the episode when we were in the studio,” Bridwell said. “It’s weird to hear your voice over a CBS TV show.”

David Bridwell, a cigar smoldering in his mouth, says it was strange seeing Band of Horses open for Iron & Wine at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta in 2005.

“That was bizarre,” he said, his eyes gleaming to punctuate a giggle. “That was the first I had really heard (Ben) sing.”

One can hear Bridwell sing in a variety of mediums: on the “Late Show with David Letterman” Oct. 18, YouTube, TV shows, the film “Penelope,” concerts and now a Wal-Mart ad.

His voice is a hollowed hitch that lifts and pulls at emotion in the most beautiful of ways. His voice — and the band’s music — should be heard by as many people as possible.

When Bridwell sings, “The world is such a wonderful place,” you believe him. Sitting on David Bridwell’s porch in Mount Pleasant, just talking seems like the most wonderful thing in the world.
(Via- The State)

Radiohead:: In Rainbow (UPDATE)

Here is straight from the horses mouth kids. Just a quick update

YOUR UNIQUE ACTIVATION CODE(S) WILL BE SENT OUT TOMORROW MORNING (UK TIME). THIS WILL TAKE YOU STRAIGHT TO THE DOWNLOAD AREA.

HERE IS SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE DOWNLOAD:

THE ALBUM WILL COME AS A 48.4MB ZIP FILE CONTAINING 10 X 160KBPS DRM FREE MP3s.

The Black Lips- ‘Good Bad, Not Evil’ (Album Review)

Judged solely on their music – fuzzy, chopped-at chords; blunt bass; restless drumming – the Black Lips are fairly ordinary, if highly capable, garage revivalists.

The Atlanta quartet has obviously studied its obscure ’60s-punk compilations, and it knows how to squawk and hammer for frenzied 3-minute intervals. Of course, so do a million other bands.

What’s different about the Lips is that they’re eerily unreadable. Lead singer Cole Alexander isn’t the most outwardly loony frontman in rock – you’ll rarely catch him shouting, for example – but his straight-faced, almost tossed-off delivery makes it hard to tell when he’s being serious.

As such, it’s easier to marvel at, than relate to, something like “How Do You Tell a Child,” a country song about explaining death to a youngster. The same goes for “Katrina,” which personifies the deadly hurricane of the same name, imagining her as a cold-hearted lover.

Guitarist Ian St. Pe is from New Orleans, so it’s not a totally irreverent move, but it doesn’t exactly feel like healing through laughter, either.

Perhaps the rationale for much of what the band does comes on “Bad Kids,” a wad of bubblegum pop stuck to the bottom of a school desk. It’s a sympathetic rallying call for juvenile delinquents, offering explanations for bad behavior, not apologies.

Spoon- The Underdog (Live on SNL)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_WXb_1Oj0w]]

Here’s a link to the second song Spoon performed, “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb.”

Helio Sequence has new album, tours with Minus the Bear

With Sub Pop snatching up so many great acts lately, like Blitzen Trapper and No Age, there’s a danger that the legendary label’s lesser known acts might get lost in the shuffle. To try to keep that from happening for the great duo the Helio Sequence, we’re here to inform you about the band’s fourth full length. It’s entitled Keep Your Eyes Ahead, and is scheduled for a January 29 release.

The band plays New York City’s Mercury Lounge tonight (October 8) and Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Middle East tomorrow night (October 9) before hooking up with Minus the Bear for a massive fall tour.

Keep Your Eyes Ahead’s tracklist…

1. Lately
2. Can’t Say No
3. The Captive Mind
4. You Can Come to Me
5. Shed Your Love
6. Keep Your Eyes Ahead
7. Back to This
8. Broken Afternoon
9. Hallelujah
10. No Regrets

Trent Reznor splits from Universal Music, goes completely independent

Trent just posted the news on nin.com and we’re repeating it here, given the non-archival nature of aforementioned blog. Hello everyone. I’ve waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is atotally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed.

The Hives- Tick Tick Boom (Music Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRNwueXuAPY]

Arcade Fire’s mystery website unveiled

And (drum roll, please)…it’s a video. Of the disembodied head and hands of frontman Win Butler. Not to sound disappointed, but after Radiohead gave us a whole album on the internet, there were high expectations about what mysterious thing Arcade Fire was doing with its own oddly named website. As of yesterday, beonlineb.com was showing the video, which features Butler singing along to the song “Neon Bible” while his hands magically perform various Mindfreak level illusions. On the whole very tastefully done, though the narrative would probably would have benefited from one of the hands getting trapped in a closet.

Kingblind Downloads

LCD Soundsystem- Hippie Priest Burn-Out

Minus the Bear- Knights

Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You

jose gonzalez-love will tear us apart(joy division cover)

athlete-lucy in the sky with diamonds(beatles cover)

Foo Fighters- The One

Jesus Lizard- Puss

Siouxsie- Mantaray (Album Review)

“I burst out/I’m transformed,” yowls Siouxsie Sioux on “Into a Swan,” the first track from the first solo album of her 30-year career. And transformation is what you’d expect from the British punk goddess, who’s left behind her band and her husband (Banshees/Creatures drummer Budgie), returning to a music world where everyone from P.J. Harvey to Goldfrapp owes their careers to her illustrious past.

On “Mantaray,” Siouxsie does some of the expected debt collecting, sounding like the latter act on the glammed-up dance tracks “Swan” and “About To Happen.” Yet with the help of producer Steve Evans (Robert Plant), she ends up reminding you of no one so much as herself, charting a path back to the eerie basements and dark corners of her own catalog. “Here Comes That Day” and “If It Doesn’t Kill You” explore the jazzy bent of 1991′s “Peek-a-Boo,” while the wailing “One Mile Below” travels even further, to the Banshees’ pounding tribal punk.

Throughout, Siousxie’s voice is as icily commanding as ever; she remains the latter-day Lotte Lenya worshipped by her young disciples. You could say the closing, piano-and-strings showcase “Heaven and Alchemy” borrows from some of them. But as a whole. “Mantaray” proves it’s much more the other way ’round.

Radiohead: New album to be released by Parlophone?

Speculation has been mounting that Radiohead’s new album ‘In Rainbows’ is to be released by Parlophone after HMV’s website listed it.

The website announced it was being physically released on December 3.

In emails sent out to subscribers HMV offer a pre-order of the album and discbox on the same day.

Radiohead’s management have told fansite Ateaseweb.com there was no truth in it. They said: “(There)’s no news on who the band will partner with as yet, or indeed when the release will be, so this is not the case. At the moment, there are no plans to release a commercial/standard CD before Christmas.”

As previously reported the band’s managers confirmed Radiohead would be signing with a record label for the physical release of the album in the future.

Modest Mouse Announce Fall/Winter Concert Dates

Following multiple sold-out US and European tours, Modest Mouse will hit the road again in support of their new album We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. The tour begins in Spokane, WA on October 31 and continues through December 15. Man Man and Love as Laughter will be opening acts on the whole tour. On October 5th AOL presents Modest Mouse in their first Spinner Sessions. This mini-concert was taped at AOL’s studios in Los Angeles and includes the first multimedia performance of “Broke” from the album Building Nothing Out Of Something. Also this month check out an online first Multiple Video Premiere at Myspace beginning October 10th. This exclusive 10-day event dedicated to Modest Mouse includes the premieres of videos for “Little Motel,” “Invisible,” “People As Places As People,” and “We’ve Got Everything.”

“Little Motel” directed by Justin Francis
“Invisible” directed by Terri Timely
“People As Places As People” directed by Andy Bruntel
“We’ve Got Everything” directed by Joe Stakun

Modest Mouse is Isaac Brock, Eric Judy, Jeremiah Green, Johnny Marr, Tom Peloso, Joe Plummer

31-Oct Spokane, WA Big Easy Concert Hall

1-Nov Spokane, WA Big East Concert Hall

2-Nov Calgary, AB MacEwan Ballroom

3-Nov Edmonton, AB Edmonton Events Center

5-Nov Saskatoon, SK Odeon Event Centre

6-Nov Regina, SK Conexus Arts Centre

7-Nov Winnipeg, MB Burton Cummings Theatre

9-Nov Des Moines, IA Val Air Ballroom

10-Nov Madison, WI Orpheum Theatre – Madison

11-Nov Milwaukee, WI Eagles Ballroom

12-Nov Indianapolis, IN Murat Egyptian Room

14-Nov St. Louis, MO Pageant

15-Nov Columbia, MO Blue Note

16-Nov Norman, OK Lloyd Noble Center

17-Nov Albuquerque, NM Kiva Auditorium

30-Nov Kalamazoo, MI State Theatre

1-Dec Detroit, MI Masonic Temple Theatre

2-Dec Chicago, IL Congress Theater

3-Dec Minneapolis, MN The Orpheum Theater

10-Dec San Diego, CA SOMA

11-Dec Tucson, AZ Rialto Theater

12-Dec El Paso, TX Abraham Chavez Theatre

15-Dec New Orleans, LA House of Blues

Nirvana’s ‘Unplugged’ Finally Heading To DVD

Nirvana’s Nov. 18, 1993, “MTV Unplugged” taping will make its DVD debut Nov. 20 via Universal Music Enterprises. “MTV Unplugged in New York” was released Nov. 1, 1994, on CD, the first Nirvana product to appear following Kurt Cobain’s suicide that April.

Like the CD, the DVD will include the songs “Something in the Way” and “Oh Me,” which did not appear on the original MTV broadcast. The DVD also sports four tracks from the band’s soundcheck and previously unreleased behind-the-scenes footage.

Nirvana’s “Unplugged” date is arguably the most famous in the long-running series, as the band eschewed most of its hits in favor of lesser-known album tracks and obscure covers (particularly, three Meat Puppets songs). The live version of “About a Girl” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock tally.

Here is the track list for “MTV Unplugged in New York”:

“About a Girl”
“Come As You Are”
“Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam”
“The Man Who Sold the World”
“Pennyroyal Tea”
“Dumb”
“Polly”
“On a Plain”
“Something in the Way”
“Plateau”
“Oh Me”
“Lake of Fire”
“All Apologies”
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night”

Band of Horses to play secret show in Seattle

All Ages super venue in Seattle, WA “The Vera Project” is having a super secret show on Saturday Oct 6th with Sub Pop superstars BAND OF HORSES. They only list that show as HUGE SECRET SHOW. But trust your friends at Kingblind.com, Band of Horses are the big suprise!! Enjoy yourself! It’s gonna be a great show MORE INFO ON THE VERA PROJECT

Arcade Fire joins internet craziness

Music fans can’t afford to turn off their computers. As soon as our collective hearts have recovered from the Radiohead hoax that led directly into the In Rainbows event, Arcade Fire are giving us another reason to stay to glued to the nearest web browser. The crafty Canadians have added a new link (click on the bee) to their webpage referencing “be oNline B”. The link leads to a teaser page that reads only “October 6th”. Fans of the band will want to keep an eye on that space this weekend. Check out the website HERE

Interpol- No I in Threesome (Music Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDm4Vs7xl6U]

Kingblind’s Favorite Finds

Turbonegro- Apocalypse Dudes

The Oxford American’s annual music issue hits the streets soon, and much of its content is already online.

NPR is streaming last night’s Washington performance by Swedish singer-songwriter Jose Gonzales.

Led Zeppelin Passcodes: Almost As Hot As Hannah Montana Tickets

Music to Get You Laid: The Sex Songs

Bruce Springsteen calls out Bush Administration

Which successful bands haven’t been influential?

23 Album Covers that Changed Everything!

First RIAA trial gets under way with jury selection, opening statements

Ian MacKaye is alive. Elvis is still dead

A phone rings at 6:08 p.m. in Arlington, Va. A 45-year-old man picks up. The caller doesn’t even have the chance to offer a greeting.

“I am still alive,” reports Ian MacKaye, the frontman of such punk acts as Minor Threat and Fugazi, and the founder of Washington’s Dischord Records.

This would not be news except that The Sun and apparently many other organizations had been told that MacKaye was, in fact, dead. We were told that he died Monday night at Baltimore’s St. Agnes Hospital. A call to the hospital found no evidence of such a patient. We followed up with calls to Dischord (left a message) and to MacKaye’s home.

“I am happy to report that I am not dead,” says MacKaye. He and the record company had been blasted with calls, he says, after premature reports of his death were posted on MySpace and Wikipedia. He says he hasn’t been able to find the MySpace reference, but had the Wikipedia posting removed — and then re-removed, once someone reinserted the false news.

Kingblind Downloads

The Field:: A Paw in My Face

!!!- Must Be the Moon

Listen to full albums from Sharon Jones, The Boss, PJ Harvey and more

Sigur Ros – fönklagið [the funk song] (live) (

Blonde Redhead – 23

Division Day- Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode Cover)

The Verve announce new tour dates

The Verve have announced a series of new dates after their comeback shows sold out.

The band will now tour in December, with tickets going on sale on October 5 at 10am (BST).

The dates are:

London O2 Arena (December 13)
Glasgow SECC (15)
Belfast Odyssey Arena (17)
Manchester Central (20)

Meanwhile, fans who subscribe to the band’s mailing list on Theverve.tv can buy tickets a day earlier, from 9am on October 4 via a password-protected link. All registered users will receive the required password within the next 24 hours.

Radiohead Site Overloaded With New Album Orders

Fans flocking to Radiohead.com to order the band’s new album, “In Rainbows,” have slowed the site to a crawl in the past 24 hours. As reported yesterday, the album can be downloaded beginning Oct. 10 for any price the purchaser desires. It will also be available in early December as a “discbox” with both CD and vinyl versions.

“It’s getting busy in there — busier than they expected,” guitarist Jonny Greenwood wrote of the band’s official W.A.S.T.E. store, which is selling “In Rainbows.”

“So, if you please bear with us, it should get cleared out soon,” he continued. “I sound like a bouncer. Get behind the rope. No denim. Thanks for your patience with the site + interest in the record.”

Since the new album news hit late Sunday night, Radiohead jumped from No. 15 to No. 3 on Billboard’s Buzz 100 chart, which measures blog traffic. The band also rose from being the subject of 1% of blog posts tracked by Nielsen Buzz Metrics to 15% in that time.

Lips’ ‘Christmas’ Fantasy Nearing Completion

The Flaming Lips are eyeing a spring roll-out for their long-in-the-making film project “Christmas on Mars.”

Frontman Wayne Coyne said that he’s hoping to premiere the movie at the South By Southwest film and music festivals next March in Austin, Texas, where he and the Lips have debuted other projects over the years. “It is coming,” Coyne promises. “In fact, it’s better than ever. Because it’s taken so long, we’ve become better filmmakers. There’s better computer effects. I think it will be much better.”

Coyne says the Lips are currently working on final editing and transferring the film into a High Definition format, adding “some in-depth special effects” in the process. Once it’s premiered, he envisions taking “Christmas on Mars” on a kind of “tour;” rather than simply showing it in theaters, Coyne wants to hold special screenings to give fans “a Flaming Lips experience of another kind.”

“I want the Flaming Lips audience to shape this,” Coyne explains. “It’ll be like our live show, which evolves as it goes. We’ll show it to the audience and let them talk out there on message boards, and then maybe we’ll take that and go back and change it and put it out there again and see what they think. It’ll be a different experience than sitting at home and watching a DVD, for sure. I don’t know if a lot of bands can do that, but the Flaming Lips sure can.”

Mostly, he’s looking forward to not having to answer questions about when the film is coming out. “At the five-year mark it already felt like it was absurd,” he says. “Now, even though it’s six years, we still say five. If we say six years, people will think we’re lying.

“But it has built a little bit of an urban legend about itself,” he continues. “I talk to people, strange as it may seem, who think they’ve already seen it ’cause we’ve been talking about it for so long. So that’s working.”

The Lips have also contributed music to the new Farrelly Brothers movie “The Heartbreak Kid” and have written and recorded the theme song for a new Disney cartoon that will be announced soon. And once “Christmas on Mars” is out, Coyne says the group will turn its attention to following up last year’s “At War With the Mystics.”

“I have ideas I think could spur a great new Flaming Lips concept and a new sound and things like that,” Coyne, says. “But I feel like we have to finish ‘Christmas on Mars’ before we jump into anything else. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that next year, though.”

Radiohead Asks Fans To Name Price For New Album

As expected, Radiohead has gone an unusual route for distribution of its seventh studio album, “In Rainbows.” The set will be available for digital download from the band’s Web site beginning Oct. 10, but with a twist — fans can name their own price for the purchase. “It’s up to you,” reads a disclaimer on the checkout screen.

“Hello everyone. Well, the new album is finished, and it’s coming out in 10 days,” guitarist Jonny Greenwood said in a characteristically nonchalant post on the site. “In Rainbows” will also be sold in a “discbox,” which will feature the new album on CD and double-vinyl, as well as a second disc with seven additional songs, photos, artwork and lyrics. The materials will be encased in a hardback book and slipcase.

The discbox will sell for £ 40 and will ship “on or before” Dec. 3, according to the site. As for the new material, much of it was road tested on tour last year, although “Weird Fishes,” “Last Flowers” and “Faust Arp” appear to be songs written more recently.

Radiohead exited longtime label home EMI in 2005 and has yet to announce a new deal for distribution of its music beyond the “In Rainbows” package. Last week, the band began posting coded messages on its site that seemed to indicate a new album was imminent, concurrent with the launch of the site RadioheadLP7.com, which was quickly revealed to be a hoax.

“In Rainbows” is the follow-up to 2003′s “Hail to the Thief.” and can be order HERE

Here is the track list for “In Rainbows”:

“15 Step”
“Bodysnatchers”
“Nude”
“Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”
“All I Need”
“Faust Arp”
“Reckoner”
“House of Cards”
“Jigsaw Falling Into Place”
“Videotape”

Here is the track list for the “In Rainbows” bonus disc:

“MK 1″
“Down Is the New Up”
“Go Slowly”
“MK 2″
“Last Flowers”
“Up on the Ladder”
“Bangers and Mash”
“4 Minute Warning”

LISTEN TO RADIOHEAD LIVE PERFORMING A NEW TRACK “15 STEP”

Radiohead Countdown Site Revealed As Hoax

Earlier this week, the Web site RadioheadLP7.com began a countdown to an apparent announcement on Sept 29th, sending fans into a tizzy. Most assumed the site would reveal details about Radiohead’s new album, which is due next year.

However, the band’s publicist said the site is a hoax and that there is no plan to reveal any Radiohead news tomorrow. Indeed, over the course of today, the clock sped up and the site is now broadcasting a vintage video from U.K. pop crooner Rick Astley.

RadioheadLP7.com launched amid a string of coded messages on the band’s official Web site, which have featured snippets of new song lyrics and such phrases as “considering dissemination.”

That is an apparent allusion to the fact that Radiohead is presently without a record deal, although reports suggest the band is in negotiations with a variety of companies to distribute the new album.

Cat Power Goes Back Under ‘Covers’

Cat Power has settled on a Jan. 22 release date for “Covers II,” her second Matador album of material popularized by other artists. The track list for the project has yet to be confirmed, but it will feature Chan Marshall backed by her Dirty Delta Blues band.

“Covers II” follows 2000′s “The Covers Album,” which featured her interpretations of songs by the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Moby Grape and the Velvet Underground.

The new album will be the follow-up to last year’s “The Greatest,” which won the 2007 Shortlist prize for creative achievement.

Cat Power will hit the road with the Dirty Delta Blues Band beginning Oct. 14 in Norfolk, Va., and has shows on tap through Nov. 4 at the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas.

She can also be heard covering Dylan’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile With Memphis Blues Again” on the soundtrack to “I’m Not There,” due Oct. 30 via Columbia.