Off to NYC!!

Hey kids, Off to NYC for the week.. See you after Halloween! Oh, yeah.. Enjoy the NYC inspired MP3's as well.

Saint Etienne - New York Skyline

The Kills - What New York Used to Be

Serge Gainsbourg - New York U.S.A.

LCD Soundsystem - "New York I Love You"

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - NY, NY (punk version)

Frank Sinatra - New York New York (Chew fu big room remix)

Microsoft Zune 8gb/16gb Media Player (2nd Generation) (Product Review)

The Zune 8GB has the same form factor as the first generation iPod Nano. Being part of the 2nd generation mp3 player to come out of Microsoft, the Zune 8GB was designed to directly compete with the largest selling model of iPods, The nano. (Microsoft also offers an 80gb and 120gb harddrive version of the Zune (Similar to the iPod classic). But this review will be focused on their mini 8gb/16gb player.)

At 1.4 ounces (47 grams), it weighs about the same as the current iPod Nano. The main difference in the navigation is that while we’re all familiar with the click-wheel, the Zune has a touch pad which allows navigation by sliding in both horizontal or vertical directions as well as click-selection (you can turn the slide pad feature off if you want via the settings).

There are two compelling features the Zune has that the Classic iPods and Nano's do not have — WiFi (for wireless synchronization) and an FM radio tuner. You can synchronize the music collection in your PC/laptop with your Zune via WiFi so you don’t need to bring the cable connectors all the time except when charging. The Social feature also allows you to share music to anyone who has a Zune, wirelessly up to 30 meters (We were unable to get this feature working with multiple Zune's hmm. So much for the Social). Having an FM tuner is also a plus, a feature I wondered why Steve Jobs would not add in the iPods. You need to turn off WiFi when not in use so it doesn’t drain the Zune’s batteries.

The Zune Desktop Media player is simple yet does the job well. (This current generation software works very well, That being said it's still not as polished as Apple's iTunes software) After registering and creating a Zune account , I was able to login and pull down all the official album art covers of my music into the player. iTunes’ cover flow might be superior but it really looks a bit dull to look at when all you see are gray default album covers. Sound quality is at par (almost indistinguishable) with the iPod Nano, with volume scale from 1 to 20. The good thing about the music management is that you just tell the Zune Desktop player which drive folder to use and anything you drop into that folder gets detected and synchronized into your Zune player on your next synch.

At 320 x 240 pixels, the screen size is just enough though I wish they’d use up all that extra space. Music and video playback is smooth and crisp.

Overall the Microsoft Zune is great leap forward for this product. Microsoft has yet to have anything as close at the iPod Touch which is leaps and bound ahead of any Zune product. But for a standalone iPod Nano competitor the 8gb/16gb Zune is a great little MP3 for the Windows only crowd.

For complete Zune information please visit http://www.zune.net

Pros: Small size, high capacity, light weight, very portable, easy to use, wireless sync and sharing, high resolution screen, touch pad control, Zune Pass (Subscription based music service. Similar to Rhapsody) FM radio.

Cons: Small screen, Zune desktop software is not as easy to use as iTunes, Windows only compatibility. Small number of 3rd party accessories support.

Original Jane's Addiction Lineup To Play L.A.

The original lineup of Jane's Addiction will perform for the second time this year tonight (Oct. 23) amid signs that the pioneering alternative rock band might solidify reunion plans after a 17-year hiatus.

The group will play about 10 songs at the tiny La Cita bar in downtown Los Angeles, bass player Eric Avery and guitarist Dave Navarro said on their respective blogs. The 390-capacity venue is reportedly sold out of the $5 tickets.

It will mark the band's first gig since it performed at the inaugural NME Awards in Los Angeles six months ago. That was Avery's first show with Navarro, singer Perry Farrell and drummer Stephen Perkins since the band originally broke up in 1991. Avery declined to participate in subsequent reunions, but is now indicating he is more amenable to the idea.

"We never know what the future has in store for us; especially with this band," Avery said on his blog. "But, at least right now Jane's Addiction has a future that one would have to call somewhat promising. We are a great band."

Beastie Boys In The 'Middle' Of New Album

As the Beastie Boys prepare to begin their barnstorming Get Out and Vote tour, the group is also at work on the follow-up to the 2007 instrumental album "The Mix-Up."

"We're actually in the middle of recording it right now," group member Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz said. "We hope to have it out sometime next year. It's a lot of vocals, a lot of words -- very wordy. And it's political, depending on what you call political. You know, if toilet talk and fart jokes are political, which they can be, in that sense yeah, very."

Any chance of new material getting played on the "Get Out and Vote 08" tour? "I don't think so," Horovitz laughs. "It's always weird when you play the new songs that people don't know. Anytime we play new songs, it always seems like a brick."

Horovitz says the decision to stage Get Out and Vote came down to the simple fact that in the last presidential election, 70 million registered voters didn't make to the polls.

"70 million people is a lot of people to not vote," Horovitz says. "So this all happened really quick, like a month or so ago and within the past few weeks, literally. We were just stressing on what to do and then we were like, 'We're a band and we play shows, so let's go to these swing states.' We thought it would be a good idea to get people to vote.

"Basically, we just called a bunch of people and asked them if they wanted to play," he says. "It's literally like, whoever called us back (is on the tour)."

The seven-date trek begins Oct. in Charlotte, N.C., and runs through Nov. 2 in Denver. Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones, Crosby & Nash, Santogold and Tenacious D will play in different incarnations throughout. Horovitz says the Beasties also reached out to De La Soul, Nas, Nine Inch Nails and Moby, but those acts were unable to participate for scheduling reasons.

Stephen Malkmus: Gardenia (Video)

Morrissey to write autobiography

Morrissey has revealed that he is set to write his autobiography.

The former Smiths singer told Janice Long on BBC Radio 2 that the book would span his career in the music industry, although he did not reveal how far through writing it he was or when he hoped to release it.

"So much crap is written about me, it's hard to live with sometimes," he said. "It all gets burned down in history and becomes a part of your legacy."

Morrissey went on to claim that his forthcoming new album, 'Year Of Refusal', was his best album yet.

"It's fantastically strong," he said. "It's very, very strong and it's interesting for me after all these years, but it's the strongest."

The album is set to be released in February.

Eagles of Death Metal: Wannabe in L.A. (Official Video)

Black Keys, ZZ Top To Write Together

The Black Keys will head to Los Angeles this weekend for songwriting sessions with ZZ Top's Billy F. Gibbons and producer Rick Rubin, in the hopes of creating material for the latter group's upcoming, Rubin-produced album.

"There are so many people who love them and what they did," Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach tells Billboard.com of ZZ Top, with whom Rubin is planning to make a more back-to-basics blues rock album. "Billy came to our show in Columbus, Ohio, and played us some new songs, but this will be the first time we've gotten together in a musical way."

"I'm such a big fan of those guys ... it makes total sense," Gibbons said earlier this year of the Black Keys. "And that's pretty down and dirty, which is good for ZZ Top."

The Keys are briefly off the road, having played a Democratic party fund-raiser on Oct. 17 in their Akron hometown, alongside fellow Akronites Devo and Chrissie Hynde. The evening concluded with all the acts onstage together covering the new Pretenders song "Break Up the Concrete."

"It felt like that once-in-a-lifetime experience -- something so Akron-centric," Auerbach says. "I'd walked by Chrissie in a bar in downtown Akron before but I never said hi. She knew who we were. Both she and (Devo's) Mark (Mothersbaugh) were saying the nicest things, about how we made them feel proud of Akron again. It was a heartwarming experience."

In tandem with the Keys upcoming European tour, the band will on Nov. 18 release a concert DVD, "Live at the Crystal Ballroom," taped April 4 in Portland, Ore. The film was directed by Lance Bangs, who also handled the video for the Keys' "Strange Times."

"Lance basically said, 'Hey, do you mind if I bring some cameras and shoot?' And we said, 'Sure!,'" Auerbach says. "This was the only one we filmed, so it's a warts and all performance and is pretty raw." The DVD is rounded out by footage of the Keys recording their latest album, "Attack & Release," with Danger Mouse and three music videos.

Also on the horizon for Auerbach are production gigs with Hacienda and Buffalo Killers at his Akron studio.

AC/DC: Black Ice (Album Review)

AC/DC ... Their sound is like Noel Edmonds' hair - unadulterated since 1974.

Of all the adjectives that could be applied to AC/DC, "unique" is perhaps the least likely. There must be hundreds of bands exactly like them in bars and pubs around the world, ruining locals' attempts to have a quiet pint, performing songs called things like Spoilin' for a Fight, attempting to leaven their hackneyed blues-rock with a few risqué gags about tits and bums. And yet, in one sense, AC/DC are unique. It's impossible to think of another band that's been praised so much and rewarded so lavishly for doing so little, at least artistically.

Their sound is like Noel Edmonds' hairstyle: it was hoisted into place at some point in 1974 and has remained almost entirely unaltered ever since. Those who queue up to buy Black Ice, like those who queued up to buy its 15 predecessors, do so knowing precisely what they're going to get. There will be staccato guitar riffs, Angus Young's admirably unflashy and economical soloing and songs with rock'n'roll in the title. And there will be smutty puns. No one over the age of 12 or outside the offices of Viz has ever made so much capital from the words "big", "hard" "stiff", "up" and "balls".

You could perhaps compare AC/DC's dogged single-mindedness to that of the Ramones, but even they felt the need to briefly adopt the warp-speed stylings of hardcore punk in the mid-80s, which by AC/DC's standards marks them out as worrying dilettantes. And the Ramones split up after 22 years. Nothing - not line-up changes, changing tastes nor even death - can flatline AC/DC's career. If the global warming doomsayers' worst predictions are realised and the world is entirely subsumed beneath a flood, there seems the distinct possibility you will find AC/DC bobbing about atop the deluge, still gamely performing a hard-edged blues-rock number, probably called something like Balls Deep.

A cynic might say that the kind of person who can distinguish a good

AC/DC album from a bad one is like those faintly disturbing wine buffs who can tell you the terroir in which grapes were grown just by holding a glass to the light: it's a specialist skill garnered through a lifetime of intensive research, a considered judgment based on infinitesimal differences, entirely beyond the ken of ordinary mortals. The cynic has a point, although it's pretty obvious even to a layman that much of the band's thrilling early malevolence departed with their late lead vocalist Bon Scott - a man rejected by the Australian army on the grounds of being "socially maladjusted" - and that their sound reached a peak of perfection on Highway to Hell and Back in Black, the albums made immediately before and after Scott's death.

There are moments when Black Ice boasts the same irresistible appeal to the lower self with which those albums are packed, when AC/DC's sound seems fundamental and undeniable: the crunching chords with which the chorus of Rock 'N Roll Dream introduces itself, the gripping slide guitar riff of Stormy May Day, the way Young's guitar weaves and stabs around Brian Johnson's vocal during War Machine's verses, She Likes Rock 'N Roll's gleefully idiotic chant of a chorus. Equally, there are moments where the most remarkable thing about AC/DC seems to be the prodigious feat of memory that enables the members to recall which song they're playing.

But Black Ice clearly isn't a record particularly interested in what the layman thinks: if you've sold 200m albums worldwide, you don't really need to go around touting for new clients. It's a record aimed at the band's existing audience, and far more important than any qualitative highs and lows is the fact that everything you might expect is present and correct. Black Ice delivers not just songs called Rock 'N' Roll Dream and She Likes Rock 'N Roll, but one called Rock 'N Roll Train as well: a veritable bumper harvest. If there isn't actually a song with "balls" in the title, there is at least Big Jack, the titular hero of which can boast among his many attributes "a full sack". It's business as usual, and it's a brave or foolhardy soul who would bet against business being extremely brisk.

Phil Spector murder retrial gets underway

Jury selection in the murder retrial of famed music producer Phil Spector began in Los Angeles today (October 20).

Approximately 80 potential jurors were narrowed down to 18 at the proceedings in Los Angeles Superior Court. Judge Larry Paul Fidler, who presided over Spector's first trial last year, asked questions to ensure the jurors could be fair and impartial.

"What we do not want...is people with an agenda," Fidler said.

One potential juror revealed that her son had been murdered, and another said he believed celebrities often have an unfair advantage because they can afford attorneys that others cannot.

Spector, 69, appeared in court today in court with his wife, Rachelle, reports the Associated Press.

Spector - the pioneer behind the 1960s Wall Of Sound technique - is accused of murdering actress Lana Clarkson at his Los Angeles mansion on February 3, 2003.

After five months of heated testimony last year, the jury reached a 10-2 deadlock in favour of convicting Spector, which resulted in the judge declaring a mistrial.

Alleged Guns N' Roses Leaker Pleads Innocent

A man accused of placing unreleased Guns N' Roses songs on the Internet pleaded innocent yesterday (Oct. 20) in Los Angeles federal court.

Kevin Cogill, 27, is charged with violating federal copyright law. No date has been set for the trial, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The FBI says that Cogill posted nine tracks from Guns N' Roses' upcoming album "Chinese Democracy" on the Web site antiquiet.com. Cogill was arrested in August at his Los Angeles home and released on bail the same day. He faces three years in federal prison if convicted, and five years if the court finds he posted the songs for commercial gain.

Guns N' Roses said in a statement at the time of the arrest that while it did not condone Coghill's actions, "our interest is in the original source" of the material. Mrozek declined to comment on whether there would be any additional arrests.

"Chinese Democracy" is due Nov. 23 exclusively in Best Buy stores. The project has been delayed multiple times over the years as singer Axl Rose shed all his original bandmates.

Franz Ferdinand Keeps Grooving On Third Album

Franz Ferdinand makes good on its stated desire to produce a "dirty pop" album with "rhythm- and dance-based" songs on "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand," due Jan. 29 via Epic.

Throughout, the Scottish band lets its funky bass lines handle much of the heavy lifting, decorating them with vintage synth melodies straight out of the Genesis (opener "Ulysses") or Sparks ("Live Alone") playbooks.

Elsewhere, the band's cold grooves nod to Wire ("Turn It On"), Can ("Send Him Away") and "Miss You"-era Rolling Stones ("Kiss Me," "What She Came For"), while "Dream Again" is a more subdued number with drum machine backing and closer "Katherine Kiss Me" trots out acoustic guitars.

Franz Ferdinand recorded the 12-track album at its own headquarters in Govan, Glasgow, and the London studio of producer Dan Carey. "Tonight" follows 2005's "You Could Have It So Much Better," which has sold 378,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Following a handful of one-off performances last week in New York, the band returns to the road for a short European tour beginning Nov. 13 in Paris.

Here is the track list for "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand:

"Ulysses"
"Turn It On"
"Kiss Me"
"Twilight Omens"
"Send Him Away"
"Live Alone"
"Bite Hard"
"What She Came For"
"Can't Stop Feeling"
"Lucid Dreams"
"Dream Again"
"Katherine Kiss Me"

Majors create new music format (For some unknown reason)

Okay, so when I say “slotMusic,” do you hear “Blue-Ray” or “HD-DVD”? Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony BMG have joined SanDisk to create a new music media format, slotMusic. Emerging from the land of electronics in the form of tiny disks, slotMusic cards have one gigabyte of capacity (enough for songs, liner notes, album art, videos, and the like), and they are to sell for approximately a price of a CD. At the risk of sounding like a slotMusic infomercial, here is the companies’ description of how they work: “slotMusic cards enable [people] to instantly and easily [listen to] music from [certain artists signed by Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony BMG] without being dependent on a PC or internet connection. Users simply insert the slotMusic card into their microSD-enabled mobile phone or MP3 player to hear the music without passwords, downloading or digital-rights-management interfering with their personal use.” Yow!
(Via KEXP)

Kingblind.com is proud to present ROCKTOBER.. Saturday October 18th at Vain Gallery. Our latest art show in Seattle, WA- Rocktober is a tribute to Rock N' Roll with music-driven, rock inspired works by: MATTEBLACK, METHANE STUDIOS, Michael Lane, Sarah Joann Murphy and Many more. CLICK HERE for directions to the Vain Gallery.

Art on display through November 30. (Sat, Oct 18 to Sun, Nov 30)

The Strokes to record fourth album in February

In an interview with the BBC, Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture revealed the band is going to be heading into the studio next year to begin work on their fourth LP.

"We are looking at going into the studio in February now and getting back to being a band again,” he told the BBC.

Fraiture also discussed why its been nearly three years since The Strokes have put out any new material:

"It started with Nick (Valensi) having twins with his wife (two years ago) and he asked for a good amount of time off.

"After about six months he was ready to come back but other members of the band were doing their own thing. Albert (Hammond Jr) was doing his thing with his solo project and Julian (Casablancas) needed time off.

"One thing led to another so studio time kept getting pushed back."
(Via BBC)

Thievery Corporation - Radio Retaliation (Album Review)

Ambient, downtempo, lounge, chill. Whatever the pretentious-sounding genre classification, the one thing that's hard to deny about the music of Thievery Corporation is that it grooves. Mellow and self-assured, the group's records woozily meander through a smorgasbord of multicultural influences - acid jazz, French pop, bossa nova - like some sort of warped UN-sponsored rock concert.

Over the course of four records, the DC-based electronica duo of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton has proven itself to be a premier auteur of 'hip', releasing album after album of suave, seemingly effortless electronica music tailor-made for swank clubs, luxury-car commercials, and Zack Braff indie films. (Lebanese Blonde figures prominently in Garden State).

After garnering attention for The Mirror Conspiracy and The Richest Man In Babylon, the group enlisted the help of a surprisingly high-profile list of artists on 2006's The Cosmic Game, fleshing out their grooves with vocal turns from the likes of Perry Farrell, Wayne Coyne and David Byrne.

By now, the formula is almost routine. Most of the songs on Radio Retaliation, the band's fifth go-around, follow a strikingly similar pattern: an inoffensive rhythm section of sparse guitar licks, lush piano chords and programmed drums hum along for a spell, before giving way to some reggae-tinged soul-singing and a variety of worldly instruments that include Arabic strings, New Orleans brass, and anything else Garza and Hilton can sample from their dusty record bins. Simple and effective, the recipe goes down smooth as ever on tracks like the Latin-inflected El Pueblo Unido.

At the same time, Retaliation is undeniably the group's funkiest album to date, chock-full of punchy horns and chicken-scratch guitar numbers such as The Numbers Game, which finds go-go legend Chuck Brown convincingly huffing, cackling, and commanding the listener to "shake out your mind". Even the slow-simmering, sitar-led Mandala eventually breaks out into a cathartic blast of DJ-scratching and triumphant trumpets.

Like a well-meaning mother pureeing some carrots into the mac-and-cheese, Thievery arms its ear-candy with decidedly political undertones, from the anti-establishment mood of Sound the Alarm that kick off the album to the ominous marching-band percussion that propel (The Forgotten People). Thankfully, the message doesn't interfere with the music: the swaying horns and polyrhythmic drums of Vampires do a commendable job of disguising the song's clunky political metaphors. ("If you go to Darfur, what do you find? Vampires!")

Seeing as this a Thievery Corporation release, echoes of earlier albums are frequent and glaring. Notch's vocals on Radio Retaliation and Blasting Through the City rehash Amerimacka and The Richest Man in Babylon from previous records, while the hip-shaking Hare Krsna borrows liberally from The State of the Union's swing-hop number Liberation Front.

Such lazy retreads highlight Thievery's more overarching problem of gravitating towards style over substance, and groove over composition. While Karzil and Hilton prove their narrative prowess with the dips and swells they orchestrate on tracks such as Mandala and Sweet Tides, elsewhere nebulous exercises like 33 Degree blend into the woodwork thanks to their formless, unremarkable hooks.

Even an anthemic instrumental like The Shining Path feels incomplete, seemingly begging for a full-throated rock singer to infuse it with passion and urgency. For better or worse, Thievery is ultimately content to stick to the script, busting out another batch of worldly background noise perfect for a post-party VIP lounge in Ibiza.
(Adam Conner-Simons)

Strokes' Nikolai Fraiture makes full solo debut in London

Nickel Eye, the solo project of The Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture, played their first full gig at the London Borderline last night (October 15).

Fraiture, who was backed by members of British group South, played a half-hour set of mainly acoustic songs at the show, revealing a voice pitched somewhere between bandmate Julian Casablancas and The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan.

Having warmed-up with a stripped down warm-up set the night before (October 14) at the Boogaloo venue in north London, the show marked the band's first full performance.

The group previewed material from their forthcoming debut album 'The Time Of The Assassins' during the set, including 'Brandy Of The Damned' and 'Where The Cold Wind Blows'.

The band also covered 'These Days' by Nico towards the end of their set.

Referencing the packed crowd at the venue, Fraiture also broke into a short a capella version of Nelly's 2002 hit 'Hot In Herre'.


Nickel Eye played:

'You And Everyone Else'
'Back From Exile'
'Fountain Ave'
'This Is The End'
'Brandy of the Damned'
'Providence, RI'
'Where The Cold Wind Blows'
'Another Sunny Afternoon'
'These Days'
'Dying Star'

'The Time Of Assassins' is released January 27, and features guest spots from Regina Spektor and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner.

Best Buy Posts 'Chinese Democracy' Track List

The track list for Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" is now up on an inactive pre-order page at Best Buy, which will release the album exclusively in the United States on Nov. 23. A small album cover image also appears there.

Of the 14 songs, 11 have either been played live or leaked online in the decade-plus since Guns N' Roses began work on "Chinese Democracy." The only three unfamiliar tracks are "Scraped," "Sorry" and "Prostitute," while a song originally known as "The Blues" appears to have been renamed "Street of Dreams."

Before "Chinese Democracy" hits stores, GNR's seminal 1987 debut, "Appetite for Destruction," will be reissued on vinyl on Oct. 28 via Interscope.

Here is the track list for "Chinese Democracy":

"Chinese Democracy"
"Scraped"
"Shackler's Revenge"
"Street Of Dreams"
"If The World"
"Better"
"This I Love"
"There Was A Time"
"Riad N' The Bedovins"
"Sorry"
"I.R.S."
"Catcher"
"Madagascar"
"Prostitute"

Arctic Monkeys speak about Josh Homme-produced sessions

Arctic Monkeys' Matt Helders has spoken about his band's recent recording sessions with Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme in Homme's Joshua Tree studio.

The drummer said that the sessions went well and that the band may return for more recording. He did not reveal whether the sessions were set for the band's next album.

"We did a few days in the desert and it was amazing," he told BBC 6Music. "The studio is just like a house that's converted into a studio, but the area surrounding it; you've never really seen anything like it.

"Before we went, he [Homme] was saying that special things happen there. We were like, 'What can he mean?' But it really had quite an effect on us."

Speaking about how the new material sounded, Helders said that the desert environment may have added a "spaghetti western" influence. "Maybe subconsciously there'll be some 'spaghetti' in there," he said.

He said the band may return for further sessions with Homme. "We don't know yet when he can fit it in or when we can fit it in," he explained. "We're gonna spend a bit of time listening to what we just did and see how we feel and what we wanna do next."

Radiohead reveal how successful 'In Rainbows' download really was

The statistics behind the pay-what-you-like release of Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' album, released on October 10 last year online, have been revealed today (October 15).

According to reports most fans chose to pay nothing to download the album. However, it still generated more money before it was physically released (on December 31) than the total money generated by sales of the band's previous album, 2003's 'Hail To The Thief'.

According to Music Ally, Jane Dyball, head of business affairs at Warner Chappell (the publishing company that oversaw the release of 'In Rainbows'), refused to reveal the average price people were downloading the album for.

However, Dyball, set to speak about the release at the Iceland Airwaves conference later, explained that Warner Chappell and Radiohead's management were monitoring the average price daily, and was prepared to cancel the download facility if the average price became too low.

The download facility was taken down after three months, and the album went to Number One in the UK and USA after being physically released.

Statistics revealed that most fans downloaded the album through file-sharing service BitTorrent, but that this had been anticipated before the release.

The band sold 100,000 copies of the 'In Rainbows' box set, which contained extra songs not available on the standard download or CD release.

Warner Chappell concluded that the new release style was a financial success, but did not reveal whether Radiohead plan to release an album in a similar way in the future.

Buzzcocks Reissue and Perform Early Albums

Buzzcocks are hopping aboard the nostalgia train with reissues of their first three full-lengths and a tour on which they'll play the first two in their entireties.

The reissues come to the UK courtesy of EMI on October 27. Another Music in a Different Kitchen (1978), Love Bites (1978), and A Different Kind of Tension (1979) all get the deluxe treatment. That means two discs per reissue full of associated singles, demos, live versions, backing tracks, and Peel sessions, some of which are previously unreleased.

Then in January, the band will hit the road for a UK tour performing Another Music in a Different Kitchen and Love Bites front-to-back and other songs from their catalog. They're calling this trip the "Another Bites Tour".

In addition to the Buzzcocks tour, guitarist/vocalist Steve Diggle has a single solo show at Harlow, England's the Square on November 28.
(via AP)

Neil Young to release 1968 live album

Neil Young is preparing to release an album that chronicles his famous two-night stand at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1968.

'Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968' is due out November 25 in the US and features songs including 'Expecting To Fly', 'Mr Soul' and 'Out Of My Mind'. It was recorded just a few days before Young's 23rd birthday.

Meanwhile, Young has reportedly pushed back the release date of his highly anticipated 'Archives Vol. 1'. It is now expected to come out sometime in 2009.

The 'Sugar Mountain' tracklisting is:

(Emcee intro)
'On the Way Home'
Songwriting rap
'Mr. Soul'
Recording rap
'Expecting To Fly'
'The Last Trip To Tulsa'
Bookstore rap
'The Loner'
'I used to' rap
'Birds'
'Winterlong' (excerpt) and 'Out of My Mind' (intro)
'Out of My Mind'
'If I Could Have Her Tonight'
Classical Gas rap
'Sugar Mountain' (intro)
'Sugar Mountain'
'I've Been Waiting for You'
Songs rap
'Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing'
'Tuning Rap & the Old Laughing Lady' (intro)
'The Old Laughing Lady'
'Broken Arrow'

Green Day confirm they're working with Nirvana producer Butch Vig

Green Day have posted a video online confirming that they are working in the studio on new material with former Nirvana producer Butch Vig.

The video shows Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong playing guitar in the studio while Vig sits on a settee.

Garbage singer Shirley Manson revealed earlier this month that Green Day were working on a new album with her Garbage bandmate Butch Vig.

Green Day released an album and toured briefly under the name Foxboro Hot Tubs last year.

Their last album as Green Day was 2004's 'American Idiot'.

Watch the video by clicking below.

Monkey: Journey to the West (Album Review)

Don't worry about the grunting pigs - stick with Damon Albarn's opera and you'll hear some real musical magic

These days, Damon Albarn seems to be making a career out of doing things he shouldn't. Every shred of historical evidence suggests that it's a bad idea for rock stars to dabble in world music, or form supergroups, or get involved in the world of musical theatre. He's already done the first two with an assurance that verges on the maddening, but the latter seems a tougher call still. Here is the dark and treacherous road down which lurk We Will Rock You, Jesus Christ Superstar and the awesome union of Catherine Zeta-Jones, Fish from Marillion and Ladysmith Black Mambazo that occurs on Jeff Wayne's musical version of Spartacus. You need a lot of chutzpah to head down it, but, as has oft been remarked, chutzpah is not a commodity in which the former Blur frontman is deficient.

It's notable that the central character of Journey to the West, the Ming Dynasty novel on which Albarn's "pop opera" is based is a peculiarly difficult hero to love. Self-important, vain, utterly convinced of his own brilliance, Monkey succeeds in irritating the crap out of almost everyone he comes into contact with, but nonetheless eventually triumphs over adversity and reveals himself to be abundantly more talented than his peers. What, you wonder, could possibly have attracted the notoriously self-effacing paragon of humility and charm that is Damon Albarn to such a figure?

The opera opened to rave reviews, but posed the pressing question of how well Albarn's music might stand up when divorced from the opulent staging. Can it succeed without the aid of English surtitles (the lyrics are in Cantonese), aerial marital arts sequences and the perennially diverting sight of lissom Oriental ladies wrapping their ankles around the back of their necks?

The 22-track CD dispenses with the arrangements heard in the theatre in favour of lo-fi electronics. Analogue synthesiser arpeggios, the tick-tock of a primitive drum machine and the ondes Martenot - a 1920s electronic instrument that sounds not unlike a bowed saw - figure heavily, alongside an acrylic instrument invented by Albarn, conductor David Coulter and artist Gavin Turk to recreate the sound of massed car-horns on China's traffic-choked roads. Unexpectedly, there are moments when divorcing the music from the staging causes it to come alive: it's easy to overlook how glorious the tune of The Living Sea is when you're distracted by the simultaneous appearance of a woman hovering above the stage doing scissor-kicks in a starfish costume and oversized sunglasses, a giant prawn pushing a shopping trolley packed with rubber-limbed contortionists twirling parasols, and a man dressed as a monkey in a tracksuit vigorously rubbing his private parts.

You're struck by how, despite the talk of Albarn composing the music for Monkey using the five-note pentatonic scale found in Chinese folk music, the melody lines are so immediately recognisable as his: they drip with the same kind of languorous melancholy found in the songs he wrote for the Good the Bad and the Queen's album. More importantly, it never slips into ah-so parody. You may be very aware of who wrote the music, but you never feel as if you're listening to Blur in black bean sauce: one of Albarn's more remarkable tricks, also demonstrated on 2002's Mali Music album, is his ability to somehow impress himself on world music in an unassuming fashion. The result is often dazzling, as on Heavenly Peach Banquet, a sumptuous cocktail of echoing electronics, harp, fluttering female vocals and sly musical quotations from Minnie Ripperton's Lovin' You - as magical a piece of pop music as you're ever likely to hear.

There are moments when it feels as if something has been lost in translation. On stage, Confessions of a Pig worked because the staccato, grunted vocals of Pigsy lamenting his past misbehaviour fitted perfectly with the movements of the actor who played him, suggesting a figure so self-indulgent and overweight that he was barely capable of walking and talking at the same time. Here, it just sounds like a bloke grunting.

There's no getting around the fact that some of this is incidental music. You can go a fair distance without encountering a tune, which is less of a problem when there is something to look at. But even during the occasional longueurs, it's hard not to marvel at the ambition on display here, hard to think of anyone who would dare attempt something similar, and impossible to imagine someone else pulling it off with more aplomb.
(Alex Petris)

Oasis:: Dig Out Your Soul (Album Review)

There’s more to Oasis’s oeuvre than What’s The Story Morning Glory, but no album since their 1995 hit has been as consistent. Every subsequent disc has had its great tunes and more than a few bombs, and those missteps prevented the band from becoming the next Beatles, whom they so badly wanted to be.

While they squandered their chance to become the new Lennon-McCartney a long time ago, their new disc, Dig Out Your Soul, is about as close to What’s The Story greatness as they can get.

With this balanced collection of solid rockers, more airy, toned-down tracks and far less self-indulgent noodling, Oasis prove they can learn from their mistakes. What makes this different from past efforts is that the songs are all insanely infectious, well crafted and, for the first time in a while, it sounds like they really care about their music.

Beastie Boys Plot Star-Studded Vote Shows

The Beastie Boys have drafted Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Jack Johnson and Ben Harper to join them on the Get Out and Vote tour, which will begin Oct. 28 in Richmond, Va. Shows are also set for Nov. 1 in St. Paul, Minn., and Nov. 2 in Milwaukee.

"This election is too important to stay at home," the rap trio said this morning (Oct. 10), adding that it is endorsing Barack Obama for president. "We hope that you can come out, have a nice night, dance, sing, get your freak on, and then wake up the next morning and get everyone that you possibly can to get out and vote."

Crow, Jones, Johnson and Santogold are on the bill for the Richmond show, while Harper and Tenacious D will support in St. Paul. Harper, Tenacious D and David Crosby and Graham Nash will join the Beasties in Milwaukee.

For ticket information, visit the Beasties' Web site.

Kingblind.com is proud to present ROCKTOBER.. Saturday October 18th at Vain Gallery. Our latest art show in Seattle, WA- Rocktober is a tribute to Rock N' Roll with music-driven, rock inspired works by: MATTEBLACK, METHANE STUDIOS, Michael Lane, Sarah Joann Murphy and Many more. CLICK HERE for directions to the Vain Gallery.

Art on display through November 30. (Sat, Oct 18 to Sun, Nov 30)

Beck:: Gamma Ray (Live on Letterman) (Video)

35 Year Collection of Top 100 45 RPM Records

Think your MP3 collection is impressive? How about picking up the top 100 songs from each year between 1955 and 1990 in this 35 Year Collection of Top 100 45 RPM Records ($275,000). Encompassing more than 18,000 records, this ultimate 45 RPM collection includes plenty of rare and collectible gems from the likes of the Beatles, Beach Boys, Hendrix, and more. Analog FTW.
(via uncrate)

The Pretenders- Break up the concrete (Album Review)

Break Up the Concrete is the first Pretenders album since 1990s Packed! where Chrissie Hynde wrote almost every song on the album on her own, but unlike the generally listless Packed!, Break Up the Concrete is an effective rebirth for Hynde, a reconnection to her roots undoubtedly effected by her return to her native Ohio. This may be a stripped-down record carrying echoes of the Pretenders past, but this is hardly a conscious recreation of the group's first two records, as it lacks any of the stylish guitar colorings of James Honeyman-Scott, and the group's early hard rock swagger has been swapped out for a frenetic rockabilly bop, as infectious on the barrel-headed boogie "Don't Cut Your Hair" and Bo Diddley romp of the title track as it is on the ingenious Dylan send-up "Boots of Chinese Plastic." Hynde's revived rockabilly roll finds a comfortable pairing in the easy county-rock vibe of her ballads, of which there are far more of than there are rockers here. This emphasis on rockabilly and country-rock gives Break Up the Concrete a bit of an Americana feel -- something enhanced by the gently murmuring accordion on "You Didn't Have To," which otherwise is a cousin to the sighing pop of "Kid" -- but this doesn't necessarily feel like a departure for Hynde: it just feels like a lively, deeply felt Pretenders album, one that has better songs and better performances than usual.

Beastie Boys for 'Get Out and Vote' tour

Beastie Boys have announced they will play a series of shows to encourage people to vote in the upcoming general election in the US.

The band will perform with several acts including Santogold, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones and Tenacious D on the outing, which so far has three shows announced.

Kicking off October 28 in Richmond, VA, the band say that the election is “too important to stay at home.”

“We hope that you can come out, have a nice night, dance, sing, get your freak on, and then wake up the next morning and get everyone that you possibly can to get out and vote,” they said, according to rollingstone.com. “We are very excited about Obama. Hope you all feel the same.”

The dates announced so far are:

Richmond, VA Richmond Coliseum (With Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Jack Johnson and Santogold) (October 28)
St. Paul, MN Roy Wilkins Auditorium (With Ben Harper and Tenacious D) (November 1)
Milwaukee, WI U.S. Cellular Arena (With Ben Harper, Crosby & Nash and Tenacious D) (November 2)

Death Cab for Cutie: Cath (Live on Conan) (Video)

Kingblind Downloads (Free & Legal)

Crooked Fingers - Phony Revolutions

Deerhoof - Offend Maggie

Department of Eagles - No One Does It Like You Do

Her Space Holiday - Sleepy Tigers

Jolie Holland - Mexico City

Lambchop - Talk Like A Pirate Day

These Arms Are Snakes - Red Line Season

Vivan Girls - Where Do You Run To

These United States - West Won

Charlie Pickett - All Love All Gone

Franz Ferdinand Unveils New Songs In Brooklyn

Scottish rock ombo Franz Ferdinand previewed a handful of new songs from its forthcoming album to a packed house at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg last night (Oct. 8). Frontman Alex Kapranos said the band has finished work last week on the project, dubbed "Tonight," and will release it in January via Epic.

The new material finds Franz Ferdinand taking its arty post-punk in a new direction, supplementing spiky guitar jams with funked-out basslines and R&B-like breakdowns. Among the new cuts were the jaunty, keyboard-driven "Ride Together," "Ulysses," a rocker that kicks off with gritty guitars, and a warped keyboard-backed dance pop number.

Crowd favorites from the band's 2004 self-titled debut like "Michael," the buzzing dance track "Tell Her Tonight" and breakout single "Take Me Out" were peppered in along with hits from 2005's follow-up "You Could Have it So Much Better," such as "The Fallen" and "Outsiders," which ended with all four band members banging on the drum kit.

One night earlier, the band played the same venue as part of the Barack Obama fundraiser Barack Rock, alongside Guster, Les Savy Fav and Andrew Bird, among others.

GNR's 'Chinese Democracy' Gets Release Date

More than a decade after its conception, Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" will finally see the light of day before year's end, sources close to the situation confirms. The set will be a Best Buy exclusive and will be available Sunday, Nov. 23, rather than the usual Tuesday.

Beyond enticing pre-Thanksgiving shoppers, the move is tied to the structure of Best Buy's sales week, which runs from Sunday to Saturday. As such, "Chinese Democracy" would not be eligible to chart on The Billboard 200 until the week of Dec. 1, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In the run-up to release date, album track "Shackler's Revenge" will debut in the video game "Rock Band 2," while a portion of "If the World" is playing over the end credits in the new Leonardo DiCaprio/Russell Crowe film "Body of Lies."

In addition, GNR's seminal 1987 debut, "Appetite for Destruction," will be reissued on vinyl on Oct. 28 via Interscope.

The band's last new studio albums were the simultaneously released "Use Your Illusion I" and "II" in September 1991. A covers set, "The Spaghetti Incident?," followed in 1993, and featured some of the last GNR recordings from original guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan.

My Morning Jacket singer injured during show

Jim James has been released from the hospital after being hurt in a fall

IOWA CITY, Iowa - My Morning Jacket singer-guitarist Jim James has been released from the hospital after being injured in a fall during a concert at the University of Iowa.

A Cedar Rapids newspaper reported that James slipped and fell about 30 minutes into the show Tuesday night. The Gazette says James apparently hit his head in the fall, which happened between songs.

The rest of the concert by the Southern rock group was canceled.

Spokesman Tom Moore of University Hospitals said Wednesday that James, whose real name is James Olliges Junior, was treated and released.

FOO FIGHTERS DENOUNCE UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THEIR MUSIC BY MCCAIN CAMPAIGN

Having received confirmed press reports that John McCain has been using Foo Fighters' "My Hero" as the latest in a number of unauthorized theme songs at his campaign rallies without seeking permission from the band, its management, record label or publisher, Foo Fighters have issued the following statement: This isn't the first time the McCain campaign has used a song without making any attempt to get approval or permission from the artist. It's frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. The saddest thing about this is that 'My Hero' was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song--and start asking artists' permission in general!

Yoko Ono and EMI drop John Lennon 'Imagine' lawsuits

The late John Lennon's wife Yoko Ono and record label EMI have dropped lawsuits filed against documentary makers who used a sample of Lennon's song 'Imagine' without permission.

'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed', a film by the Premise Media Corp about scientists being supposedly discriminated against for opposing Dawin's theory of evolution, featured a 15-second clip of the song.

Despite initially filing copyright infringement lawsuits, Reuters reports that Ono and EMI's lawsuits have been dropped.

Anthony Falzone, a professor leading the counsel for the documentary makers, explained: "We think it was clear from the beginning that our clients had every right to use the 'Imagine' clip as they did, and we're happy we've vindicated that right."

Devo Playing Rare Akron Show For Obama

Devo will play a rare show in its hometown of Akron, Ohio, next weekend, with proceeds to benefit the Summit County Democratic Party's efforts to elect Barack Obama as president.

The event is set for Oct. 17 at the Akron Civic Theatre. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster. Devo last played the Akron area as part of Lollapalooza in 1996 but apparently hasn't done a headlining show there since 1979.

Devo formed in Akron in 1973, with materials for its early stage outfits having been provided by the city's Portage Broom & Brush. The group has long been based in California, but decided to focus its energies on the battleground state of Ohio as the Nov. 4 election draws near.

"We all have a vested interest in what happens here -- our families and friends who have been hurt of the nonsense of the past eight years," group member Mark Mothersbaugh says. "We hope to make an impact with this concert, and raise consciousness to what's happened in Ohio in the past -- and what will happen again if people are not made aware of what their vote means."

Flaming Lips Plan Another Halloween Parade

"Every skeleton will be carrying a torch with real fire. Anyone in the parade must sign a waiver."

The Flaming Lips: A band for all holidays. There's their flick Christmas on Mars, finally hitting theaters and DVD this fall. But before Christmas, the Lips are making plans for another holiday: Halloween. Much as they did last year, the band will lead the "March of 1,000 Flaming Skeletons" through the streets of Oklahoma City, leaving a path of destruction and surreal video footage in its wake.

This year's skull-stravaganza takes place Saturday, October 25, and interested parties would be advised to read the parade instructions and sign up now. To participate, you'll have to buy a costume through the band's webstore, but it comes with a fucking torch, so you won't mind the small fee. Because torches carry fire, and because you'll be carrying the torches, you'll have to sign a waiver to participate, and you have to be 18 or older to sign said waiter. That, and the thought of marching for two straights hours better not rattle ye bones, since that will be the approximate duration of the trek. Further instructions for participants will be mailed out later, and if you don't show up, you won't get your torch nor any manner of refund.

Point being: If you're gonna do this crazy awesome thing, you've gotta commit yourself.

(via pitchfork)

TV On The Radio and Faith No More front man form supergroup

Members of TV On The Radio, Subtle and Faith No More's Mike Patton have joined forces to form a supergroup.

TV On The Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe has revealed that he is working on an album with Patton and Adam Drucker of Subtle.

The singer told The Onion's A.V Club that the threesome are hoping to wrap up an album by the end of the year.

"It came from an idea that Adam had, to have the three of us just, basically, mess around vocally and see what comes of it," he explained.

The trio are yet to name their group or confirm a release date.

Kills' Tour Bus and Gear Found, Driver Still Missing

A quick update on the strange saga of the Kills' disappearing tour bus and driver: according to a Domino Records rep, the missing bus was found yesterday (October 5)-- with all gear onboard and intact-- after being spotted by an Argus-eyed fan in a Los Angeles parking lot. The driver, however, remains at large, and has not been seen since he and the bus vanished on Friday, September 26.

Here's hoping this guy turns up and has some crazy-awesome story/explanation that somehow involves David Berman (Silver Jews did play the Echoplex that Friday, just sayin'...). Really though, story or no, we just hope this guy's okay.

The Kills, no doubt half-relieved to at least have their gear and bus back, play a MySpace show in Baltimore tonight (October 6) before heading to Europe later this month.

The Kills:

10-06 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar (MySpace Secret Show)
10-18 Nice, France - Theatre Lino Ventura
10-19 Montpellier, France - Le Rockstore
10-21 Clermont, France - La Cooperative de Mai
10-22 Dijon, France - La Vapeur
10-23 Strasbourg, France - Zenith
10-24 Nancy, France - L'Autre Canal
10-25 Beauvais, France - Festival Picardie Mouv
10-27 Caen, France - Le Carg
10-28 Paris, France - Bataclan
11-03 Dublin, Ireland - Tripod
11-04 Glasgow, Scotland - Òran Mór
11-05 Newcastle, England - The Other Rooms
11-06 Middlesborough, England - Arena
11-08 Sheffield, England - Leadmill
11-09 Stoke-on-Trent, England - The Sugarmill
11-10 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
11-14 Mannheim, Germany - Feuerwache
11-16 Coventry, England - Kasbah
11-17 Norwich, England - The Waterfront
11-19 Cambridge, England - The Junction
11-20 London, England - Astoria
11-21 Brighton, England - Concorde 2

Kanye: New Album Coming Nov. 25

Kanye West made a surprise appearance at rapper T.I.'s MySpace-sponsored show in Los Angeles on Friday and announced his upcoming Def Jam album, "808s and Heartbreak," will arrive Nov. 25. It had been expected Dec. 16.

"We just finished the album. I just got back from Hawaii earlier today," he told the audience before breaking into a track titled "Heartless," which he confirmed is the set's second single. First single "Love Lockdown" has sold 402,000 digital downloads in just two weeks of release, according to Nielsen Soundscan, and debuted at a career-best No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

As previously reported, the original release date for "Heartbreak" would have put West a week behind 50 Cent's "Before I Self Destruct," a near-repeat of the 2007 battle between the two rappers.

Last September, both men released new albums on the Sept. 11, with West's "Graduation" outselling 50's "Curtis" 957,000 to 691,000 in its debut week. "Graduation" has since sold 2.18 million copies in the United States.

TV on the Radio: Golden Age and Dancing Choose (Live on Later.. With Jools Hollad) (Video)

My Bloody Valentine Wraps Triumphant Reunion Tour

My Bloody Valentine wrapped its triumphant reunion tour last night (Oct. 2) in Santa Monica, Calif., its seven North American shows (all sell-outs) drawing nearly 26,000 people, generating well more than $1 million in gross and battering eardrums from New York to L.A.

And that's not counting another 3,000 fans who packed into an upstate New York resort to watch MBV perform and curate the All Tomorrow's Parties festival the weekend of Sept. 19, an event so successful that tickets are already on sale for its 2009 edition.

Following a 1992 tour, MBV basically dropped off the face of the earth. But some in the biz held out hope for a return to activity, particularly Frank Riley, who was the band's booking agent at Monterey Peninsula Artists. When he left to open High Road Touring in 2001, he kept MBV on his active roster for three years on the off chance Shields would call one day. Offers would occasionally come in, including a longstanding invitation from Goldenvoice's Paul Tollett for the band to headline the Coachella festival, "but there was no indication Kevin was interested in doing that," Riley says.

Then a year-and-a-half ago, "I got a phone call from Kevin saying [touring] was something they were thinking about," Riley recalls. "In a weird way, it wasn't that much of a surprise." (Shields declined to be interviewed for this story.)

Tollett came in with an enormous offer for the band to play the 2008 festival, which would have made it financially feasible for Shields to re-form and properly equip MBV. But the band wasn't ready to take the stage by late April, so Shields opted instead to team with All Tomorrow's Parties co-founder Barry Hogan for an opening salvo of U.K. dates starting in June, followed by some international festival appearances. MBV also agreed to headline the New York ATP show and then build a short North American tour around it.

Then came the hard part: Riley had to figure out the proper venues for a band that hadn't toured here since the first Bush administration.

"The most important thing for MBV was making sure that whatever they did sounded great," Riley says. "That requires a certain amount of equipment and power and volume and staging. I had to find venues that could accommodate that. Next, I had to consider which markets could fully support something within those sound specifications, which included no dB limits, an open floor in front of the stage and a certain capacity that could generate the income necessary to make the thing affordable."

Playing for a guarantee sources say was six figures not counting sizable merch sales, MBV laid waste to audiences with crushingly loud 90-minute sets, each of which ended with the wall-rattling feedback barrage "You Made Me Realise." "It sounded like a plane crashed at 300 miles per hour for 25 minutes," says Adam Fleming, who marketed the show at the San Francisco Design Center. In Chicago, MBV played the Aragon Ballroom, which is "four times the size of the venue we did on the 1992 tour, and it sold out in a day. It was one of the more exciting things I've seen in awhile," says Jam Productions VP of concerts Andy Cirzan.

Shields admitted to the New York Times that he spent more than $360,000 preparing for the shows, which means MBV won't wind up with a lot of take-home pay this time around. But the stage is now set for more touring, and much bigger paydays, at some point down the road. Riley will only say, "With the success of what they've accomplished, I think they'll consider additional dates in the future." Hogan adds, "It would be foolish to not continue. People want to see more of it."

With the tour finished and the prospect of new MBV material looming (Shields told the Times he plans to complete an aborted third album and then start another one), Riley says the situation is "entirely unique. The band is still together enough and capable enough to go back and reconnect with their music and then maybe find out that there's a larger audience for them now than there was all that time ago."

Coachella Moves 2009 Dates Up Two Weeks

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival is moving its 2009 dates up two weeks to April 17-19. The event will take place as usual at Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif., with a lineup to be confirmed early next year.

Goldenvoice's other major festival brand, the country-leaning Stagecoach, will be held the following weekend (April 25-26) at the Polo Field.

First staged in 1999, Coachella remains the premier American festival event of the year for alternative music lovers. The event has become renowned for reuniting or featuring cult favorite bands that hadn't played in the United States in years, such as Portishead, Rage Against The Machine, Daft Punk and Kraftwerk.

Stagecoach debuted at Empire Polo Field in 2007 and has been a quick hit with fans. Last year's headliners included Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Big & Rich and the reunited Judds.

John Lydon's butter commercial

The incomparable John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols / PIL fame stars in a new television advertisement for Country Life butter

Kingblind.com is proud to present ROCKTOBER.. Our latest art show in Seattle, WA featuring: MATTEBLACK, METHANE STUDIOS, Michael Lane, Sarah Joann Murphy and Many more. CLICK HERE for directions to the Vain Gallery We hope to see you there.

Department of Eagles: No One Does It Like You (Live on Late Night with Conan O’Brien) (Video)

Eagles of Death Metal, 'Wannabe in L.A.' -- Video Premiere

Death Cab's Airplanes Gets Reissue, Stairs Due on Vinyl

On November 25, Barsuk Records will do something it hasn't done in awhile: release some music from Death Cab for Cutie. The Seattle imprint will bring the band's latest album Narrow Stairs to vinyl for the first time with a bonus 7", and reissue Death Cab's debut Something About Airplanes as a celebration of its 10 year anniversary. Boy, it's hard to believe it's only been a decade since we were marveling at the thought of flight, but there it is.

For the reissue, 1998's Something About Airplanes will be packaged with a bonus disc that captures the band's very first Seattle show, a February '98 gig at the Crocodile Café that saw them opening for Harvey Danger. The band blasts through seven tunes during the set, including a cover of the Smiths' "Sweet and Tender Hooligan" that features vocals by Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger. Nelson also pens the set's new liner notes, and the artwork's been updated for the anniversary edition.

As for the Narrow Stairs vinyl, the first pressing of the disc will be accompanied by a 7" sporting demos of album cuts "No Sunlight" and "The Ice is Getting Thinner".

Death Cab will kick off their sizeable fall tour on Friday night in Boston. It includes shows with Neil Young and St. Vincent, as well as a performance at a to-be-determined college on a to-be-determined date as part of that Ultimate College Bowl voter registration drive.

Something About Airplanes bonus disc:

01 Your Bruise
02 President of What?
03 Fake Frowns
04 Sweet and Tender Hooligan (ft. Sean Nelson)
05 State Street Residential
06 Amputations
07 Pictures in an Exhibition

Death Cab:

10-03 Boston, MA - Agganis Arena $
10-04 Wallingford, CT - Chevrolet Theater $
10-05 Atlantic City, NJ - Showboat Casino Hotel $
10-06 New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall $
10-08 Columbus, OH - LC Outdoor Amphitheater %
10-11 Green Bay, WI - OKOBOS Festival
10-12 Champaign, IL - Assembly Hall ~
10-13 St. Louis, MO - Fox Theatre !
10-14 St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center #
10-16 Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre #
10-18 Regina, Saskatchewan - Brandt Centre #
10-19 Calgary, Alberta - Pengrowth Saddledome #
10-21 Everett, WA - Comcast Arena at Everett #
10-22 Vancouver, British Columbia - GM Place #
10-25-26 Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre (Bridge School Benefit)
10-27 San Luis Obispo, CA - Cal Poly Receation Center
10-29 San Diego, CA - Cox Arena #
10-30 Los Angeles, CA - The Forum #
11-01 Reno, NV - Reno Events Center #
11-04 Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center #
11-05 Omaha, NE - Qwest Center #
11-12 Belfast, Northern Ireland - St. George's Market *
11-13 Dublin, Ireland - Ambassador Theatre *
11-14 Edinburgh, Scotland - Corn Exchange *
11-15 Nottingham, England - Rock City *
11-16 Bristol, England - Colston Hall *
11-17 Sheffield, England - Carling Academy *
11-19 London, England - Alexandria Palace *
11-20 The Hague, Netherlands - Crossing Border Festival
11-21 Munich, Germany - Muffathalle *
11-22 Brussels, Belgium - Les Halles *
11-23 Paris, France - Bataclan *
11-24 Bielefeld, Germany - Ringlokschupen *
11-25 Berlin, Germany - Admiralpalast *

$ with St. Vincent
% with Tegan and Sara, City and Colour
~ with So Many Dynamos
! with Fleet Foxes
# with Neil Young, Everest
* with Frightened Rabbit
(Via Pitchfork)

Peter Hook: 'New Order was an empty shell'

Peter Hook has spoken out about the last days of his former band New Order, claiming that a lack of communication had left the band "an empty shell".

Speaking as part of BBC Radio 2's New Order week, the bass player spoke about how relations between himself and frontman Bernard Sumner had broken down.

New Order split up last summer, apparently for the final time.

Asked by DJ Stuart Maconie about the prospects of the band burying the hatchet, Hook explained: "I've no idea really. Sometimes you wonder what you were arguing about.

"From what I can gather, Bernard was upset that I didn't go and see him to tell him that I didn't want to work with him anymore. To my mind it had gone.

"I had a manager and I was paying my manager 20 per cent, so got her to do the dirty work. I didn't see why I had to do my own dirty work. She told him in February and he never said anything, he just went, 'Right'."

Hook also spoke of his anger at the 'New Order' statement released by his bandmates that claimed Hook had gone to the press without telling the other band members he had left the band.

"I told him every night after the Brazilian tour that I wasn't going to do this again," Hook said. "I did Brazil for the money. I just felt it was like an empty shell, New Order. It really was for me. I can't talk for the others."

However, Hook went on to say that the process of remastering the band's five albums for Factory Records had given him closure on the turbulence.

"I must admit that when I listened to it, I was really proud of them [his former bandmates]," he said. "It did cheer me up because it made me realise that while we fight like kids in the playground we actually achieved something that we should all be proud of."

Crooked Fingers - Forfeit/Fortune DVD Trailer

Here’s the trailer for the DVD that accompanies the deluxe edition of the new Crooked Fingers album, Forfeit/Fortune (out on October 7th)…

Dirty Pretty Things have split up.

Carl Barat, Didz Hammond, Gary Powell and Anthony Rossomando – announced the break-up of the band that formed in 2005 following the split of The Libertines.

Frontman Carl Barat explained that the members of the band would be pursuing new musical projects, but that these would not involve The Libertines.

"It is with some sadness we announce the farewell of the Dirty Pretty Things," the statement read. "It's been a glorious three years which we all would gladly live out again, but it is time for us to try new things (not The Libertines).

"We are reluctant to give up touring but will give the last waltz everything. We have and are determined to go out as we came in, after which we all have other ventures to be getting on with and splendid future plans.

"Heartfelt thanks to all who made it what it was, much love and we'll see you on the road."


The band's 11-date UK tour, set to kick off in Glasgow on Saturday (October 4), will still go ahead.

Dirty Pretty Things play:

Glasgow ABC (October 4)
Edinburgh Old Picture House (5)
Manchester Academy 2 (7)
Leeds Metropolitan University (8)
Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall (9)
Keele University (11)
Cambridge Junction (12)
Norwich UEA (13)
London Roundhouse (14)
Oxford Carling Academy (16)
Southampton Guildhall (18)

Mogwai :: The Hawk is Howling (Album Review)

Whereas Trent Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails serve as guide dogs for walks through the blindness of general psychosis (or the gratifying ascent from within it)--Mogwai excel as topographers for the complex Scottish psyche. Which is to say, a state of mind cultivated on the whiskey and ale soaked Sauchiehall Street--replete with conversations people have in early morning hours or the general wordless frustrations of staring into dawn after a night of pointless drinking. Whereas Reznor's recent forays into instrumental work have received criticism for length and lack of direction, Mogwai have spent nearly 15 years perfecting the art, composing an LP of aptly directional noise. Listening is almost as good as treading their turf (which is good, because with today's airfares, it's probably the closest you'll get to reproducing the sensation of Scottish travel). The Hawk is Howling is Mogwai at its best. Slow rolling like a shadow on a Scottish summer day, it's the music for impending darkness. Compelling in every sense of the word.

AC/DC Extends Tour, Heads To 'Rock Band'

AC/DC has extended its Black Ice tour of North America into early 2009. New dates begin Dec. 20 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and run through Jan. 31 in Nashville.

Tickets begin going on sale Saturday (Oct. 4). Eighteen previously announced shows have already sold out, according to the band's label, Columbia.

The tour comes in support of a new album of the same name, due Oct. 20 exclusively via Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores and AC/DC's Web site. First single "Rock'n'Roll Train" is No. 3 this week on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart.

"Black Ice" won't be the only AC/DC title available exclusively at Wal-Mart. In November, the retailer will be the only U.S. source for "AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack," a special edition of the popular video game devoted to the veteran Australian band. In December, the game will be available through multiple retailers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

"AC/DC Live" includes 18 songs from the band's DVD "Live at Donnington." This will be the first "Rock Band" version focused on one group. "Guitar Hero" already has an Aerosmith game and is planning another based around Metallica.

Here are AC/DC's new tour dates:

Dec. 20: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (Bank Atlantic Center)
Dec. 21: Tampa, Fla. (St. Pete Times Forum)
Jan. 5: Cleveland (Quicken Loans Arena)
Jan. 7: Pittsburgh (Mellon Arena)
Jan. 9: Toronto (Rogers Centre)
Jan. 11: Cincinnati (U.S. Bank Arena)
Jan. 13: St. Louis (Scottrade Center)
Jan. 15: Omaha, Neb. (Qwest Center)
Jan. 17: Fargo, N.D. (Fargodome)
Jan. 19: Minneapolis (Xcel Energy Center)
Jan. 21: Kansas City, Mo. (Sprint Center)
Jan. 23: Dallas (American Airlines Center)
Jan. 26: Tulsa, Okla. (BOK Center)
Jan. 28: Little Rock, Ark. (Alltel Arena)
Jan. 30: Memphis (FedEx Forum)
Jan. 31: Nashville (Sommet Center)

Here is the track list for "AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack":

"Thunderstruck"
"Shoot To Thrill"
"Back in Black"
"Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be"
"Heatseeker"
"Fire Your Guns"
"Jailbreak"
"The Jack"
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
"Moneytalks"
"Hells Bells"
"High Voltage"
"Whole Lotta Rosie"
"You Shook Me All Night Long"
"T.N.T."
"Let There Be Rock"
"Highway To Hell"
"For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)"

Jay-Z Playing Free Shows For Obama

Jay-Z will play two free concerts this weekend in support of voter registration and the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama for the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

The first show is set for Saturday (Oct. 4) at Detroit's Cobo Arena. Jay-Z will play Miami's Bayfront Park Amphitheatre the following day. Voter registration for the upcoming election ends Monday.

In Michigan, attendees 18 years and older can obtain tickets at a variety of Obama campaign offices; information is available here. For ticket pickup procedures for the Miami show, click here.

Jay-Z is the latest high-profile artist to sign on for Obama benefits. Yesterday, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel announced an Oct. 16 fundraiser at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom.