Sunny Day Real Estate: “Seven” (Live on Jimmy Fallon Video)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GOFCpLfjPk&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Major Lazer – Keep It Goin’ Louder – (Music Video)
Another surreal treat from Major Lazer – aka Diplo and Switch. This time we get to see clubbers turned into melting cartoon zombies and zapped to death by our favourite Jamaican commando.

Thom Yorke forms new band, announces two nights in Los Angeles

When word came of Thom Yorke’s latest solo endeavors earlier this month, word also came that the Radiohead frontman might tour in support of the release.

Well, as it turns out, a Yorke solo tour, or whatever you call two dates in Los Angeles next month, will indeed be happening.

Thom, take it away…

hi
in the past couple of weeks i’ve been getting a band together for fun to play the eraser stuff live and the new songs etc.. to see if it could work! here’s a photo.. its me, joey waronker, mauro refosco, flea and nigel godrich. at the beginning of october the 4th and 5th we are going to do a couple of shows at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. we don’t really have a name and the set will not be very long cuz ..well …we haven’t got that much material yet! but come and check it out if you are in the area. we’ve also got locals Lucky Dragons playing.
all the best

So, to recap, just in case you missed any of the above thanks to another of those Radiohead induced comas, Thom Yorke, along with drummer Joey Waronker, percussionist Mauro Refosco, bassist Flea (of Red Hot Chili Peppers duh!), and longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, will take to the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on back-to-back nights in early October for performances featuring material from Yorke’s solo album, Eraser, and his recently released 12″, but because this apparently isn’t much material, it won’t be very long. Oh yeah, and Lucky Dragons will be opening.

Epic.

The Shins’ James Mercer and Danger Mouse Team Up for New Band

Mercer has teamed up with producer extraordinaire/one half of Gnarls Barkley Danger Mouse to form a new band. The band’s name is still up in the air, but they’re going with Broken Bells for the time being. The debut from Broken Bells (or whichever name they decide to go with, I guess) is due early next year on Columbia.

To be clear, this is not just a “produced by Danger Mouse” one-off thing. Mercer and the Mouse are apparently in it for the long haul and already have plans extending past their first album. The pair recently collaborated on the Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse album Dark Night of the Soul. Our review hailed the Mercer track, “Insane Lullaby”, as “one of the finest moments on the album.”
(via pfmedia)

Has a Stroke Gone to Rehab?

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This may be the wildest rumor since Rod Stewart got his stomach pumped, but there’s serious buzz in NYC nightlife circles that Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. has halted recording on their new album to check into an L.A rehab.

The story goes that the other Strokes, no abstainers themselves, were so concerned about Hammond’s recent behavior that they urged him to check into an L.A. rehab within the past few days. Hammond’s stay has reportedly delayed recording sessions in New York for the Strokes fourth album, and is said to be costing the band a small fortune. No word on whether this supposed spiral had anything to do with the demise of his relationship with British supermodel Agyness Deyn. We emailed Hammond’s mouthpiece at Nasty Little Man p.r. about this nasty little rumor, and are awaiting an official response. We hope he’s okay!
(via Gawker)

Phoenix´s Thomas Mars to Write Music for New Sofia Coppola Film

Okay, this goes to show how little I know about celebrity couples: I had no idea, until today, that Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars has a baby with Sofia Coppola. Not only are the couple collaborating on the raising of their daughter, Romy, but now Coppola has tapped Mars to pen original music for her upcoming film Somewhere, The Playlist reports.

Although I’ve had Phoenix’s amazing new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix stuck on repeat all year, I’m not very familiar with their earlier work. It’s no surprise, then, that I never noticed the entire band’s cameo in Coppola’s last film, Marie Antoinette, where they serenade the title character with lutes.

Somewhere is slated for a 2010 release and stars Benicio Del Toro, Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, and Robert Schwartzman (Rooney frontman, brother to Coconut Records’ Jason Schwartzman, and cousin to Coppola).

Hey, now that Coppola is keeping her films scores in the family, she should call up Nicolas Cage’s son Weston. If she dares…

Girls: Album (Album Review)

As unconventional musical ensembles go, Girls must surely register at the top of the pile when it comes to spontaneous muddled creations that confound any kind of pre-conceived expectations. Much loved by both the New York art-rock fraternity and UK underground indie scenes alike, this San Francisco duo and their assorted helping hands have somehow managed to conjure up an Album that doesn’t just hop between genres at random like an overexcited rabbit, but actually creates its own guessing game in the process, enticing the listener into a rabid frenzy of self-doubt. “What will come next?” indeed.

The story of Girls is even more sporadic, as main songwriter Christopher Owens’ nomadic upbringing as part of an ecclesiastical cult called the Children Of God undoubtedly accounts for many of the lyrical formats and themes that punctuate Album. From the opening line of first song ‘Lust For Life’ where Owens opines “I wish I had a father, I wish I had a loving man in my life” there’s almost a sense of regret that many artists with a similar story to tell would allow themselves to become embroiled and eventually bogged down in. Not Owens though, as the song itself turns into one of the most upbeat, guitar-orientated pop songs committed to vinyl all year.

What the other constant half of the duo, Chet JR White contributes to both band and record is a musical sheen that doubles as a production outlet, and therefore lifting Owens’ musings from the acoustic ramblings they no doubt began life as both towards the end of his separatist years and also in his first serious musical project Curls, which is how the two first met, White replacing Owens former girlfriend of the time as his main musical ally.

How many of the songs here reference his former beau only Owens can validate, but on the likes of ‘Laura’ (“I really want to be your friend forever”) and ‘Lauren Marie’ (“I might never get my arms around you but that doesn’t mean I won’t try”) there’s an impending sense of loss and regret that suggests Album would probably have never turned out in such dramatic fashion had Owens and his partner not gone their separate ways.

What makes Album such a timeless experience, however, is the way it borrows from four decades worth of popular music, whether that be the more traditional heartbreak rock’n'roll epistle that is ‘Ghost Mouth’, the Beach Boys speed comedown that is ‘Big Bad Mean Mother Fucker’, or reverb-tinged highlight ‘Morning Light’, which actually sounds uncannily like The Boo Radleys during their once-maligned but now historically revered Ichabod And I phase that kickstarted their career.

Aside from the musical delicacies on offer, and the majority of Album would have been obvious single material in another lifetime, its their frivolous experimentalism and willingness to toy with all aspects of the past that make Girls such an invitingly warm and honest proposition, and although Album’s lack of a coherent flow may prove to be its undoing with several purists, to these ears the whole element of surprise offers an engagingly pleasant sound.

Black Lips’ Jared Swilley and Wavves’ Nathan Williams in bar brawl

A fight between Black Lips’ Jared Swilley and Wavves’ Nathan Williams was broken up by police on Friday night (September 25).

Swilley was reportedly left bloody after the fight erupted at Daddy’s in Brooklyn, after both bands had played separate gigs in New York that night, reports Brooklynvegan.com. Black Lips had been supporting Yo La Tengo at the city’s Roseland Ballroom, while Wavves took to the stage at the Market Hotel.

Both Swilley and Williams have spoken about the fight, though their statements are conflicting.

Williams says Swilley had approached him at 4am in the bar, and that his girlfriend then spat in his and his friends’ faces.

He stated: “I have no problem with Black Lips or anybody else that I haven’t met, but Jared has been at me every chance he had. I just want to play music and have fun. It was unfortunate that it escalated to that point, but he got what was coming to him.”

Swilley responded to Williams’ statement by denying he went after the Wavves man.

“First of all, I just wanna say that Wavves was NOT involved in that fight. Didn’t even touch me,” he said. “I’ve never ‘come after’ that kid, it wasn’t 4am, that wasn’t my girlfriend, no one was spitting, and I didn’t attack him. I don’t give a shit about that kid and his music.”

He went on to describe his version of events, and admitted that he called Williams a “faggot”.

He revealed: “What happened was, after we finished our set I went to Daddy’s with some friends and saw that faggot from Wavves talking to a photographer friend of mine. The only thing I did was walk up to him and say ‘You’re that faggot from Wavves and I don’t like you’. He smiled a bit but didn’t say anything.

“After that, I went outside and saw their tour manager hanging around with some guys. They started getting all chuckles with me and so I told them I wasn’t gonna have it. After that, Wavves tour manager hit me square in the face with a bottle. Blood started pouring out and six dudes fucking started kicking me until I blacked out. All I remember is getting hit with the bottle and my friends dragging me to another bar. They wrapped my head up until I looked like a Confederate soldier.”

Swilley added that his injuries forced him to miss three flights the following day, because his head “kept cracking open”.

Watch Clip: Jack and Meg in New White Stripes Documentary


Jack White caused quite a stir at the Toronto International Film Festival this past weekend, announcing the White Stripes’ denial from the Guinness Book of World Records, an upcoming album he recorded of Nashville transit bus drivers, and, of course, spoofing Kanye West. Most importantly, however, is that reviews of the new White Stripes documentary, Under Great White Northern Lights, have all been (pardon the pun) glowing.

A scene from the film, which sounds like a somewhat somber affair, came out today as an “exclusive” on multiple sites, but it’s up on good ol’ YouTube now, so there goes that. Between this scene and the much talked about poignant final “Meg crying” scene, I, for one, am hoping they found a distributor at TIFF to get this thing into theaters.

Watch Jack and Meg walk through a cemetery in Canada while a live performance of “We’re Going to be Friends” plays below[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSGvhTUyvhw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

vivian girls: “when i’m gone” (Video)

Beatles sell 2.25 million albums in 5 days

LOS ANGELES – Nearly 40 years after breaking up, The Beatles are still breaking records for album sales.

EMI Group PLC says consumers in North America, Japan and the U.K. bought more than 2.25 million copies of the Fab Four’s re-mastered albums in the first five days after their Sept. 9 release.

Most of the records were broken for most simultaneous titles in the top-selling charts by a single artist.

On Billboard magazine’s pop catalog chart, for example, the band had 16 titles in the top 50, including all 14 re-mastered CDs and two box sets.

The Beatles’ original U.K. studio albums were re-mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London over four years and released to coincide with the sale of “The Beatles: Rock Band” on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.

The Reigning Sound: Love and Curses (Album Review)

As good as Reigning Sound’s 2004 album Too Much Guitar was, the title was both an accurate self-review and a preview of what was inside; the deep soul influences that made the group’s first two albums so memorable were pushed to the side, and while the album rocked hard and strong, it seemed as if bandleader and songwriter Greg Cartwright was ignoring an integral part of his musical personality in favor of making his music better understood to the nuevo-garage crowd. After a three-year layoff and a rewarding detour backing up Shangri-Las’ vocalist Mary Weiss on her fine solo album Dangerous Game (with Cartwright producing and writing most of the material), Reigning Sound have returned to the studio with Love and Curses. The album finds the group getting most of their balance back, and while calling it a return to form suggests Too Much Guitar was more flawed than it really was, Love and Curses gives a clearer and more compelling picture of what Reigning Sound does best. “Call Me,” “Only Want You More,” and “Is It True” confirm that Cartwright and his partners’ rock & roll is as tough as ever and bassist David Wayne Gay and drummer Lance Wille are a powerful and elemental rhythm section, but here they also make more room for the soulful edges of Cartwright’s voice and Dave Amels’ keyboards. And when the band turns down the tempo and lets their R&B influences step forward, Cartwright reaffirms that he’s one of the most powerful and affecting blue-eyed soul men recording today, and the spirit and passion in “Trash Talk,” “Something to Hold Onto,” and “Love Won’t Leave You a Song” is thrilling stuff that hardly anyone on the indie scene today can touch. Reigning Sound also dip their toes into the social relevance thing with the working class anthem “Stick Up for Me” and “Banker and a Liar,” a curious but fascinating finale which matches a slightly Dylan-esque lyric about the wealthy and corrupt backed with an accordion and a mandolin. Love and Curses features 14 songs driven by soul, strength and fierce belief, and with a voice as strong as Greg Cartwright fronting a band this tight and effective, Reigning Sound are just about unbeatable; they’re one of America’s great bands and they’re firing on all cylinders with Love and Curses.

The Flaming Lips- I can be a Frog (Music Video)

Pearl Jam- Backspacer Vinyl Giveaway!!

Pearl Jam is about to release Backspacer, their ninth studio album, independently on their own MonkeyWrench label. As manager Kelly Curtis says, the band is “making good on its longstanding desire to release its music on its own terms.” It’s by no means a rejection of large corporations — in fact, Target is the the album’s exclusive mass retail partner, but as Curtis also say, it’s an effort to “make the music accessible across multiple platforms for our fans and work with businesses — big and small — supportive of [the band's] overall sensibilities.”

So in celebration of this fantastic release we are giving away a 12″ Vinyl copy of the album..

So how can you win? It’s easy! Just send your name and address to WE HAVE A WINNER!! Andrew from Avondale Estates, GA.. Congrats Andrew.

Check out Pearl Jam’s new video “The Fixer”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj-sFIHQWLY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Wes Anderson´s Fantastic Mr. Fox Soundtrack Revealed

If Wes Anderson was hoping for a lot of hype today surrounding the unveiling of the soundtrack to his upcoming stop motion animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox, the New Moon tracklist announcement probably didn’t help.

In his soundtrack Anderson combines a few predictable choices (Rolling Stones, Beach Boys) with some lesser-known artists (Georges Delerue, Nancy Adams) and a Jarvis Cocker-penned theme song to make for a pretty interesting playlist. And just when you thought you were winning, Chris Weitz, Anderson sees your Bon Iver contribution and raises you three Burl Ives tracks.

Check out the full list below (*Music Composed, Conducted, and Produced by Alexandre Desplat):

1. “American Empirical Pictures”*
2. “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” – The Wellingtons
3. “Mr. Fox in the Fields”*
4. “Heroes and Villains” – The Beach Boys
5. “Fooba Wooba John” – Burl Ives
6. “Boggis, Bunce, and Bean”*
7. “Jimmy Squirrel and Co.”*
8. “Love” – Nancy Adams
9. “Buckeye Jim” – Burl Ives
10. “High-Speed French Train”*
11. “Whack-Bat Majorette”*
12. “The Grey Goose” – Burl Ives
13. “Bean’s Secret Cider Cellar”*
14. “Une Petite Île” – Georges Delerue
15. “Street Fighting Man” – The Rolling Stones
16. “Fantastic Mr. Fox, AKA Petey’s Song” – Jarvis Cocker
17. “Night and Day” – Art Tatum
18. “Kristofferson’s Theme”*
19. “Just Another Dead Rat in a Garbage Pail (behind a Chinese Restaurant)”*
20. “Le Grand Choral” – Georges Delerue
21. “Great Harrowsford Square”*
22. “Stunt Expo 2004″*
23. “Canis Lupus”*
24. “Ol’ Man River” – The Beach Boys
25. “Let Her Dance” – Bobby Fuller Four

DJ Roc Raida R.I.P.

According to All Hip Hop, master turntablist and DJ Roc Raida (born Anthony Williams) passed away on Saturday. He was 37 years old; the cause of death is not yet known.

Roc Raida’s passing was confirmed by Busta Rhymes, who toured with the DJ. “I am sorry 2 say that on this day at 2:05 Sept 19th we lost another incredible life…Dj Roc Raida died 2day my personal Dj is gone,” wrote the rapper on his Twitter.

Roc Raida was a member of the pioneering turntable crew the X-Ecutioners and won the DMC World DJ Championship in 1995. He released several albums as a solo artist, and collaborated with artists as diverse as Big Pun, Pink, Nelly, and Bill Laswell.

He also starred in Doug Pray’s turntablist documentary Scratch. Check out a clip from the film featuring the X-Ecutioners below, along with Roc Raida’s winning DMC routine:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYiogxey6Yo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

F—ked Up Wins Polaris Music Prize

Of the all the acts on the shortlist for Canada’s Polaris Music Prize, Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up seemed the least likely to take the $20,000 award. But that’s exactly what happened as a jury of 10 Canadian music journalists, bloggers and broadcasters awarded the band the prize, previously won by Caribou and Patrick Watson.

The six-piece band’s latest album, “The Chemistry of Common Life” (Matador), was given the award, much to the surprise of its frontman.

“We got here today and got frisked on the way in,” said burly, bearded Damian Abraham. “And I thought this is going to suck getting frisked and not coming away with anything, but at least we’ll get a free iPod [given to nominees]. Well, we won the Polaris. It’s a lot better than an iPod.”

During its performance at the Sept. 21 ceremony, Fucked Up were joined on stage by Owen Pallett, the string player known as Final Fantasy who won the first Polaris Prize in 2006. By the end of the song, Abraham was wearing nothing more than his underwear.

Ten acts played sets during the awards show program, which lasted more than three hours. Other acts nominated for the award included Newfoundland’s Hey Rosetta!, Toronto’s Metric, and Canadian/Somalian rapper K’Naan.

A one-hour Polaris show will air on Sept. 26 on MuchMusic at 9pm ET.

Fucked Up have played in Toronto since 2001. “The Chemistry of Common Life” is the band’s second album.

Zooey Deschanel and ‘Deathcab’ Front Man Married

Actress/folk singer Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard of indie band “Deathcab for Cutie” wed on Saturday.

After a year of dating, the beautiful actress/singer, Zooey Deschanel, is the new wife of indie rock front man Ben Gibbard, as of Saturday, September 19, reports MTV.com.

Gibbard is lead singer and guitarist for the band, Deathcab for Cutie, whose last album, “Narrow Stairs,” earned much critical acclaim, according to the New York Daily News. The band is also gaining notoriety by putting out a new single for “Twilight’s” “New Moon” soundtrack, and Gibbard himself actually scored a role in John Krasinsky’s film, “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,” debuting in theaters this Friday.

Deschanel, along with her band, “She & Him,” is doing her best to break out into the music scene as well.

As for the ring, Deschanel was awarded a three-carat diamond and platinum Neil Lane ring last year and the girl was “swept off her feet.”

The wedding was near the city of Seattle.

Tom Waits Preps Glitter & Doom Live LP

The baker’s dozen of dates on Tom Waits’ Glitter & Doom tour didn’t include much love for the left and right coasts, but thankfully we’re all getting a taste of what went down — that is, aside from the usual shaky YouTube bootlegs. Photographer Michael T. Regan has leaked the news that Waits is preparing to release Tom Waits: Glitter & Doom Live on 12” vinyl and likely other formats.

Regan got the scoop on the upcoming Waits live album because five of his photos have been tapped by Waits’ label, Anti, to be included in the project. This isn’t Waits’ first live release (not to mention his VH1 Storytellers, of which I just found a bootleg at Captains Dead), but it is the first live album with Waits’ son Casey playing the drums.

No release date or other deets have surfaced, but we’ll pass them along as soon as we hear. In the meantime, check out Waits’ spoof press conference announcement for the Glitter & Doom tour below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOrG1r3S6ZA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Leonard Cohen collapses on stage in Spain

MADRID — Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was forced to cut short a concert in Spain late Friday after he became ill and collapsed on stage, Spanish media said.

A member of his band, Javier Mas, said Cohen suffered a “severe attack of indigestion” and vomiting but that his situation was not serious, the newspaper El Mundo reported on its website.

It said Cohen, who turns 75 on Monday, was performing “Bird on the Wire” about half an hour into the show in the eastern city of Valencia when he lost his balance as he went to pick up a guitar.

He was saved from falling by backup singers, but moments later he collapsed again and was helped off stage to receive treatment from a medical team.

Mas came out almost an hour later to tell the thousands of people gathered in the Luis Puig Velodrome that Cohen would not be returning to the stage that night, but that he hoped to reschedule the show for another time, El Mundo said.

Valencia was the penultimate stop on his nine-concert tour of Spain, which is due to end in Barcelona on Monday.

The Canadian poet, novelist and singer-songwriter emerged in the 1960s with his first album “Songs Of Leonard Cohen”, which included one of his best-known songs, “Suzanne”.

He quit the music scene in the early 1990s, living at a Buddhist monastery in California, where he was ordained a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the name Jikhan, meaning “silence”.

But he was forced to return after being swindled out of his retirement nest egg by his former manager

The Police´s Stewart Copeland Scores, Narrates Ben Hur Live

What do 150 actors, 46 horses, five falcons, two vultures, two eagles and 120 doves have to do with The Police? Drummer Stewart Copeland has composed the music for Ben Hur Live, an adaptation of the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ into an “arena spectacular,” which makes its premiere in London this week, Straits Times reports.

“I’ve played arenas, scored films and written grand opera, but not all in one place,” Copeland, who began work on the soundtrack eight months ago, told AFP.

What’s more, the show’s official site says that Copeland will also be the live narrator at the London performances. Copeland says, “This is certainly going to be one of the biggest gigs I’ve ever done.”

Pavement’s Scott Kannberg: ‘We start rehearsals in the new year!’

Pavement guitarist Scott ‘Spiral Stairs’ Kannberg has explained how the reunited band are going to prepare for their first gigs in over a decade.

The band yesterday (September 16) confirmed they are to reunite, and announced their first date, which will take place in New York on September 21, 2010 in Central Park.

Kannberg said the reunion came about naturally after a recent phone conversation between him and singer Stephen Malkmus.

“Steve and I just had a conversation on the phone, and we’d never talked about it before at all. We’ve talked over the years, but the subject never came up,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then our agent asked us about these New York shows, so we went around to everybody in the band, and they said, ‘Yeah, the time is right. If everybody’s ready to do it, then we’ll do it and see what happens’. There was no real impetus – it just kind of happened naturally.”

The guitarist added that the band are now planning to reconvene in early 2010 for rehearsals.

“We’ll do some rehearsing in the new year,” he said. “The Central Park shows, we’ll probably end up doing one or two of those. There’s festivals and stuff that we’re talking to, like Coachella. After that, anything that happens in the future is in the future.”

Speaking about what he wanted from the reformation, Kannberg said the band are all adamant that the gigs shouldn’t seem forced.

“It’s not gonna be like Echo And The Bunnymen, where they don’t talk to each other, yet they tour every year. I flew in to see them do ‘Ocean Rain’ at Radio City last year, and it was good, but it wasn’t the same, you know? I don’t think we’ll be that way. We’re not still trying to flog a record or anything. It’ll probably feel like we’re just starting again. It’ll be fun to play these songs.”

He also revealed that original drummer Gary Young may make an appearance with the band, saying: “Eventually it might be fun to do something with Gary at some point as well. We love Gary.”

In the meantime, Scott ‘Spiral Stairs’ Kannberg will be releasing a solo album, ‘The Real Feel’, on October 4

It’s official: Pavement is reuniting, Plus tour and ticket info

Ever since that fateful night in late 1999 when Pavement left the public eye with a final show at London’s Brixton Academy, we’ve often fantasized about the day when we could finally tell the world “yes, Brooklyn Vegan scooped us, Pavement are back.”

After years of speculation, the most important American band of the 1990’s is returning to the stage, with the lineup of Mark Ibold, Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg, Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich and Steve West reuniting for dates around the world in 2010. Please be advised this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion.

Described in their own Wikipedia entry as having experienced “moderate commercial success”, Pavement’s catalog for the Matador, Domino, Drag City and Treble Kicker imprints has come to define in the eyes of many the blueprint for independent rock over the past generation. In spite of this, the records are still pretty fantastic, and we’re fully prepared to remind you of such with a details-to-be-determined compilation album planned for release sometime in 2010.

The first show announced is a New York performance on September 21, 2010 at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. Things worked out really well when Diana Ross played Central Park in 1983, and we have no reason to suspect Pavement’s return to the live arena won’t generate similar headlines.

A pre-sale begins at 10:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 18, 2009 (tomorrow). The password for the pre-sale is ZOWEE . The general on-sale is slated for 10:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 25, 2009. Please note that tickets will be available without surcharges from the Nokia Theatre box office in Times Square and from Earwax at 218 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.

The new Spiral Stairs LP/CD/digital album ‘The Real Feel’, Scott Kannberg’s first album under the S.S. nom de plume after two Preston School Of Industry long-players, is available October 20, 2009. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks are playing 4 Australian shows later this month, and plan to begin recording their 5th album in the near future.

Again, Here is the specific ticket information:
A pre-sale begins at 10:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 18, 2009 (tomorrow). The password for the pre-sale is ZOWEE . The general on-sale is slated for 10:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 25, 2009. Please note that tickets will be available without surcharges from the Nokia Theatre box office in Times Square and from Earwax at 218 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.
This is the ticketing link. You can read more at Matablog and should check out crookedrain.com for current/future details.

Muse: The Resistance (Album Review)

Almost inevitably, the listener will arrive at a point during Muse’s fifth album when they are gripped by the absolute certainty that some kind of limit has been reached, that the trio simply cannot continue further on their current trajectory without succumbing to self-parody, and making a record of such high-camp ridiculousness that the only response is to laugh at them. Perhaps that point will come during the three-part orchestral work called Exogenesis: Symphony. Or I Belong to You, a song based on a Saint-Saëns aria that features frontman Matt Bellamy singing in French – plus a clarinet solo. Or perhaps the title track, on which Bellamy becomes the first non-Daily Mail reader in years to use the words “thought police”, apparently in all seriousness. Not all of it is palatable, but there’s something unrepentant in The Resistance’s insane ambitiousness that demands respect rather than mockery. The day Muse topple irrevocably into self-parody will surely come. But, apparently, not yet.

Devo Whips Up Record Deal, Suits Up For Tour

Devo is headed back to the future thanks to new deal with Warner Bros. Records, the group’s original major label, and a series of concerts celebrating a pair of older albums.

The company has announced a “unique, ground-breaking worldwide partnership” during which it will “internationally service all aspects of the band’s career, including recorded music, touring, merchandising, web services, promotion, ecommerce, sponsorships, licensing and endorsements.” It begins with the Nov. 3 release of deluxe editions of 1978′s gold “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” and 1980′s platinum “Freedom of Choice” on both CD and limited-edition colored vinyl, as well as a seven-inch vinyl single featuring “Jocko Homo” and “Mongoloid.”

On the same day, Devo will kick off a seven-city, 14-show tour during which the group will play each album in its entirety on alternating nights. Fans who purchase tickets to the shows will also receive previously unreleased demos of “Whip It,” “Turn Around” and the original version of “It’s Not Right,” then known as “Red Shark.” The group already performed “Q: Are We Not Men?…” at England’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in May.

Devo’s Gerald Casale promises that the group, which has been working and playing live sporadically during the past two decades is “back in a serious way. We have two audiences now, two distinct audiences, and it’s great. We have a college audience that discovered us by watching YouTube…and we have the people that were around that remember what Devo did to begin with, when we were some kind of cultural icon or…whatever you want to call it. And when we look out at the crowd we see both age groups, which is fantastic.”

The group has plans to release fresh material as well. It released one new song, “Don’t Shoot Me (I’m a Man),” via the Internet in April and previewed two others, “Fresh” and “What We Do,” during concerts earlier this year. The group is also reaching out to modern acts such as LCD Soundsystem, OutKast’s Andre3000, Justice and others, just as it did with Teddybears on a version of “Watch Us Work” for Dell computers.

No release date has been announced for a new album, and the Devo members say they’re considering a variety of options for the material.

“The new challenges…are interesting to us,” says Mark Mothersbaugh. “With the business turned upside down like it’s been in the last couple years, we’re looking for ways to use new technology that wasn’t around when we did this the first time.”

Casale adds that “there are a lot of novel ways to distribute your music without the conventional channels…through mobile means and through the Internet, through novel playback devices, toys…We’re interested in all of that.”

Devo’s tour itinerary includes:

Nov. 3-4 Los Angeles (Henry Fonda Theater)
Nov. 6-7 San Francisco (The Regency Ballroom)
Nov. 8-9 Seattle (The Moore)
Nov. 11, 13 Chicago (The Vic Theatre)
Nov. 15-16 Washington, DC (9:30 Club)
Nov. 20-21 New York (The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza)
Nov. 23-24 Toronto (Phoenix Concert Theatre)

Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan Talks ‘Popular Songs’

After adopting the name Condo Fu–s to release the all-covers record “Fu–book” (Matador) in March and scoring the Greg Mottola-directed film “Adventureland,” Yo La Tengo’s studio album “Popular Songs” (which was released Sept. 8 on Matador) marks the band’s third set of music in 2009. Vocalist/guitarist Ira Kaplan talks to Billboard about scoring films, using new sounds on “Popular Songs” and his love of old ad jingles.

Was there anything from the “Adventureland” score that carried over into music you were working on for “Popular Songs”?

Nothing as explicit as outtakes, but there’s a lot of things we like about doing the score work, and among them is that it does end up pointing us in directions that we haven’t pointed in before. One thing that I think had a lot to do with it is the decision to record the record in Hoboken [N.J.] at our own space [instead of at producer Roger Moutenot's Nashville studio]. We’ve done so much work recording ourselves in our own space in the last couple of years, so we’ve gotten extra comfortable there.

Were there any particular instruments or sounds that you knew you wanted to focus on?

We don’t tend to work that way where we make a plan to concentrate on something. I think things happen a little more accidentally. In the last couple of years we bought a Hammond organ. We’ve used Hammond organs in the past when studios have them, but never as much as we did on this record because we were rehearsing with it. And the other thing that leaps to mind is that a couple of songs had to have string sections on them, which we’ve done the tiniest bit of in the past, but never to this extent.

Yo La Tengo has done a lot of shows with a fun angle, like the Freewheeling Yo La Tengo tour and a series of Hanukkah shows. What do you like about doing those types of performances?

Those are all things that we came up with as a creative way to present ourselves and to work within an environment. We had this notion of, “Wouldn’t it kind of be slightly funny and slightly audacious to play eight nights in a row at Maxwell’s [in Hoboken]?” And then once we had the idea, how to do it just sprung from that pretty naturally.

Will there be a particular angle for the tour in support of “Popular Songs”?

No, there isn’t at the moment. There’s always the thought of, “Gee, wouldn’t it be great to have a string section on one night?” But I can’t imagine it would be anything we’d want to tour with because it doesn’t happen on enough songs. But we do like to make our shows very different from one another and, because of the fact that the three of us have played together for so long, we have a lot to draw on.

With so much music being listened to on computers and iPods, did the fact that many people listen to songs individually rather than as full albums affect the way you sequence or structure your albums?

It didn’t. We thought about it and then ultimately decided to pretend it’s not happening. I think the record was sequenced in a way to be listened to from start to finish.

Do you have any licensing deals for music or for songs written specifically for advertisements?

No. It’s been a while since we’ve done that. Maybe the products we wrote music for did not take off in the right, hoped-for way [laughs]. And as far as licensing existing songs, we’ve done that for movies and for television but it’s something we’ve shied away from in other venues and so far we’re sticking to that. It just feels right to us. I think a lot of times it’s the way we respond as music listeners that informs a lot of our decisions of what we do as a band, and as a listener it continues to bother me when I hear songs in advertising. But then I have such fond memories of advertising jingles that the thought of writing a specific jingle seems like fun.
(via Billboard)

Report: Pavement to Reunite Next Year

Music journalists, bloggers, and fans alike have been buzzing about it for years, but Stephen Malkmus solo albums just kept coming and our hopes were slowly fading… until today: Brooklyn Vegan reports that, “according to reliable sources,” Pavement will reunite next year at NYC’s Central Park SummerStage for multiple nights at the September event.

Speculation has already begun that these shows could be part of a larger tour and the SummerStage gigs have not been confirmed by the band, but we think BV can be trusted with this one.

Also, as Consequence of Sound points out, this reunion news falls perfectly in line with hints that guitarist Scott Kannberg made earlier this year about a possible Coachella unveiling. Not sure why Pavement may have chosen to reform now, but perhaps they were just waiting for Trent Reznor to retire or something.

Jack White Donates $170k for Detroit Baseball Field Restoration

Jack White may have ditched his hometown of Detroit to settle down more comfortably in Nashville, but he’s definitely not leaving behind his old stomping grounds to fester amid the recession. In fact, the White Stripes, Raconteurs, and Dead Weather rock star is trying his hand at philanthropy.

The Detroit News reports that White covertly donated $170,000 towards the restoration of Clark Park field, a baseball diamond where White played ball as a kid. “He was good,” said Mo Blackwell, former brother-in-law to White and father of Dirtbombs drummer, Cass Records founder, and Jack’s right-hand man at Third Man Records, Ben Blackwell. “Smooth left-handed swing.”

Jack has always kept in touch with the volunteers at the park, including Deb Sumner, who recalled meeting once-girlfriend “Rene Wellzinger, or however you say it.” Sumner had been imploring Jack to do a charity concert for years when an LA lawyer called on behalf of a then-anonymous donor. White’s donations paid for restorations that include new dugouts, grandstands, and a revamped infield.

Paul McCartney: ‘We spoke a lot about reuniting The Beatles’

Paul McCartney has revealed that The Beatles spoke “a lot” about reforming after they split up in 1970.

McCartney revealed that the band discussed getting back together as a result of being offered “huge” amounts of money by promoters.

In a video interview that you can watch by scrolling down now, McCartney told Entertainment Tonight Online that the band took the offers seriously, though they wrestled with the idea of ruining their reputation if they did reunite.

“We talked about it a lot and we always said that if we did [reunite] it might not be great, whereas The Beatles’ career had been great. We’d gone from A to Z and it had been a great journey. If now we were going to go to ‘Z plus’ and it wasn’t very good, you’d ruin the whole thing,” he said.

He added: “Even though the offers were huge, and there were people [saying] ‘I’ll pay you this to do it!’ we talked about it and we sort of said ‘nah’. [There was] something not right about it.”

Watch McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison talking about The Beatles below:

Radiohead drummer Phil Selway to release solo album

Radiohead drummer Phil Selway has announced that he is set to release a solo album.

Selway, who sings on the album, is currently in the process of recording the as-yet untitled record in his band’s Oxfordshire studio.

He enlisted the services of Wilco members Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone to play on the project, and multi-instrumentalist solo artist Lisa Germano and bass player Sebastian Steinberg have also contributed.

The Radiohead man debuted a solo song, ‘The Family Madness’, live in Auckland in January, playing guitar and singing. The show was for the 7 Worlds Collide project, which the musicians working on his album are also part of.

Selway is yet to reveal the release date – and crucially as a member of Radiohead – the method by which his solo album will come out.

Jim Carroll R.I.P.

The New York Times reports that the writer and musician Jim Carroll died in his Manhattan apartment on Friday. Ex-wife Rosemary Carroll says the cause of death was a heart attack. He was 60.

As the frontman of the Jim Carroll Band, Carroll recorded a couple of totally indelible slices of jagged, grimy new wave in “People Who Died” and “Catholic Boy”. Carroll, already renowned as a poet, formed the band in the late 1970s. The band, signed to Atlantic Records after Keith Richards arranged a deal, recorded three albums before breaking up in the mid 80s. Carroll also released the 1998 solo album Pools of Mercury, and he collaborated with Lou Reed, Rancid, and Blue Öyster Cult.

More than music, though, Carroll is famous for The Basketball Diaries, his fascinating 1978 memoir of being a smack-addicted high school beatnik basketball star in mid-60s Manhattan. The follow-up memoir, Forced Entries, covers the years when Carroll kicked around Andy Warhol’s Factory.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBbuPnfG0Vo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Beatlemania Hits Retail As CD Reissues Sell Fast

The much-anticipated reissues of the Beatles’ catalog hit stores on Sept. 9 are doing brisk business.

According to SoundScan’s Building Chart data, more than 235,000 albums were purchased in the U.S. on Wednesday (Sept. 9) and Thursday (Sept. 10). The Building Chart’s panel of reporters is made up of seven merchants that SoundScan estimates represent more than 70% of all U.S. album sales: Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, iTunes, Starbucks, Borders, Target and Anderson Merchandisers.

That 235,000 figure is a mighty impressive number, considering in the week ending Sept. 6, the band’s entire catalog shifted a total of 21,000.

“Abbey Road” was the band’s bestseller in those two days, shifting 32,000 copies while “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club” was in second-place with 27,000. Next up were “The White Album” (22,000), “Rubber Soul” (21,000), “Help!” (16,000) and “Revolver” (15,000).

With those kinds of preliminary figures already racked up, the Beatles will easily overwhelm both Billboard’s Top Comprehensive Albums and Top Pop Catalog Albums charts next week. Nielsen SoundScan’s sales tracking week runs from Monday through Sunday of each week and Billboard’s new album charts will be revealed next Wednesday (Sept. 16).

On the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart, it looks like the Beatles will own nine out of the top 10 titles, with only Michael Jackson’s resilient “Number Ones” the lone non-Beatles set.

Chart watchers note: the two new “Beatles in Stereo” and “Beatles in Mono” boxed sets will chart on the Billboard 200, as the tally houses current and new releases (generally those 18 months old or less). Over on the Top Comprehensive Albums chart, both old and new albums mingle together. Thus, the individual album reissues of the Beatles’ catalog will chart on the Top Comprehensive Albums and Top Pop Catalog Albums charts.

Record label sources predict that “Abbey Road” could end up selling as much as 100,000 copies by the close of the tracking week on Sunday night, Sept. 13. Those well-trained industry eyeballs also figure “Peppers,” “White Album” and “Rubber Soul” may shift anywhere between 45,000 and 60,000.

“The Beatles in Stereo” and “The Beatles in Mono” are also selling well, considering their hefty price tags. Industry sources think “Stereo” could sell 25,000 by week’s end while the “Mono” offering may do 10,000.

Collectively, chart prognosticators think the Beatles catalog of albums may sell between 500,000 and 600,000 by Sunday night.

Predicting first-week sales for the Beatles re-issues is more complicated than usual. Because the albums are being sold not just through music retailers, but also in an array stores that don’t normally sell music, this throws a wrench into traditional sales projection models. In turn, all of these projections could very well grow to be bigger than expected once the sales week ends.
(via billboard)

ACTIVISION, GROHL AND NOVOSELIC RESPOND TO GUITAR HERO ALLEGATIONS

Activision is responding to queries regarding the usage of Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5 with the following statement “Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero® 5.”

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, the two surviving members of Nirvana, have no say whatsoever in the usage of Kurt Cobain’s likeness.

Sex Pistol singer John Lydon to reform Public Image

LONDON (Reuters) – Punk rock singer John Lydon, formerly known as Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, is re-forming his band Public Image Ltd — or PiL — after a 17 year hiatus with a five-date tour in December, according to media reports. Lydon told Britain’s Guardian newspaper that the influential band he created in 1978, a year after the disintegration of the Sex Pistols, and which lasted for 14 years, would reform with a new line-up. He said the new-look PiL will not contain original band members Jah Wobble or former Clash guitarist Keith Levene but will feature guitarist Lu Edmonds, drummer Bruce Smith and a new arrival, multi-instrumentalist Scott Firth. PiL, which had chart success with singles such as “Public Image” and “This Is Not a Love Song,” will start its tour on December 15 in Birmingham. The band is also launching a new website (www.pilofficial.com). “We’ll see where we can go,” 53-year-old Lydon told the newspaper. “Some things may be quite similar, some may not.”
Lydon reunited with other members of the Sex Pistols last year for a series of gigs to mark the 30th anniversary of the band’s seminal album “Never Mind The Bollocks.” But Lydon, who became a figurehead of the short-lived punk revolution in England in 1970s with his anti-establishment stance and attacks on Britain’s class system and the monarchy, appears to have mellowed in recent years. He starred in British reality TV show “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” in 2004, has hosted a few animal documentaries, and also starred in an advertisement for butter wearing a tweed-suit.He also has no tolerance for noisy, opinionated youngsters any more, it seems. “Younger people at the moment are very mouthy and aggressive,” Lydon told the Guardian.

The Beatles: Here, There And Everywhere Except iTunes

Could a band that broke up in 1970 really become the best-selling act of the decade?

The Beatles might just pull it off, thanks to EMI Music’s September 9 release of their remastered catalog. Eminem currently reigns as the best-selling artist of the decade, with sales of 32 million albums in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, followed by the Fab Four with 28.2 million. The Eminem catalog is sure to pick up more sales by year’s end, thanks in part to the continued strong performance of his May release “Relapse,” which has sold 1.4 million copies.

Beyond the fan excitement generated by the first remastering of the entire Beatles catalog in more than 20 years, sales will also benefit from the massive marketing push behind MTV Networks’ video game “The Beatles: Rock Band,” which will be released on the same date. Sources say the game is backed by a $20 million-$25 million advertising campaign, which includes the value of advertising on TV networks owned by MTV parent Viacom. That will provide consumers with a timely refresher course on their favorite Beatles songs — and perhaps prompt many of them to pick up a newly minted remaster.

EMI is banking on the legendary band to be a strong seller through the year-end holidays. The label is shipping 4 million copies worldwide on street date, including 1.9 million in the United States. The catalog relaunch will also get its own $1 million-$2 million TV advertising campaign, which will include spots on key cable networks like ESPN, TNT, TBS, TV Land, USA Network and MSNBC. Sources say that the primary spend will be at MTV’s fellow Viacom sibling Nickelodeon as part of an effort to turn the network’s young, game-playing audience into Beatles fans.

And just in time for the start of the holiday shopping season, sources say ABC is planning to air a two-hour prime-time special on Thanksgiving night that will feature Beatles footage and contemporary artists performing Beatles songs.

SoundScan sales tallies of the remastered Beatles albums could be diluted somewhat by a boxed set that includes all of the remastered titles in stereo and a collectible monophonic boxed set of the Beatles albums originally released in mono. According to sources, EMI is shipping worldwide about 150,000 copies of the stereo boxed set and 40,000-50,000 copies of the mono set. Each U.S. sale of either multidisc set will count as only one SoundScan sale, however, which could deflate total unit sales.

Even though EMI has ramped up production of both boxed sets, consumers may find them tough to find initially. Amazon, which took preorders on both versions, says it’s sold out based on its initial allocations but is encouraging customers to continue preordering the sets, promising to let them know when more are available. After initial shipments are sold out, sources say the stereo boxed set — expected to be a popular Christmas gift purchase — won’t be back in stock until late September. The mono set is expected to be back in stock in mid-October.
(via Billboard)

Yo La Tengo:: Popular Songs (Album Review)

Yo La Tengo have hit that stage of band life – 25 years in for husband-and-wife Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, 17 for bassist James McNew – when they can do pretty much anything, however preposterous, and get away with it. They’ve already released one album this year, a blistering collection of garage covers recorded under the name Condo Fucks; now Popular Songs presents an iPod shuffle of styles and sounds at once idiosyncratic and surprising. They swagger in with Here to Fall, a grandiose display of orchestral metal to which Kaplan’s soft voice is comically unsuited, end with 15 minutes of hypnotic Krautrock sizzling with white noise, and in between sidle from honeyed Motown pop (If It’s True) to strutting, tongue-in-cheek funk (Periodically Double or Triple). What stops it from being an incongruous mishmash is the mood of intimacy and exuberance: you might be hanging out with them in their basement studio, sharing the jokes, shivering with delight.

Win a Beatles Litho!!

To celebrate the release of the complete Beatles catalog being remastered Kingblind.com and our friends at Cornerstone promotion are giving away a beautiful new Beatles litho (See pic above). Wanna win? It’s easy!! Just send an email to CONTEST OVER with your name and address and we will randomly pick a winner!! remember!! No name and address, No winner!! (U.S. Residents only please).
Thanks and good luck!!

More about The Beatles remasters:
On September 9, 2009, after a nearly 22-year wait, digitally remastered versions of all of the Beatles studio albums will be released. Each album will feature the track listings and artwork as it was originally released in the U.K. and come with expanded booklets including original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited time, each of the Fab Four’s 12 proper albums will be “embedded” with a brief documentary about its making. The rereleases will include the Beatles’ 12 studio albums and Magical Mystery Tour as well as Past Masters Vol. I and II, which will be packaged as one collection. All 14 discs will be available with DVDs of the documentaries in a stereo box set, and a set titled The Beatles in Mono featuring 10 discs will also be released.

A crew of engineers at London’s Abbey Road Studios have spent four years working on the remasters using new technology and vintage equipment, the press release says, in an effort to preserve “the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings” and ensure “the highest fidelity the catalog has seen since its original release.” 9/9/09 promises to be a huge day in Beatles lore, as it’s the same day The Beatles: Rock Band will hit stores.

U2 To Perform on “Saturday Night Live” September 26th Premiere

U2 will serve as the musical guest on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 26th, cast member Bill Hader told Access Hollywood. The band’s performance will come just two days after the Dublin rockers bring their 360° Tour to two sold-out nights at East Rutherford, New Jersey’s Giants Stadium. Jennifer’s Body star Megan Fox will handle the hosting duties on the premiere.

U2’s upcoming performance on SNL will mark the third time Bono, the Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton have played Rockefeller Center’s Studio 8H. The No Line on the Horizon band made their SNL debut on a December 9th, 2000 episode hosted by Val Kilmer, then returned when Luke Wilson hosted on November 20th, 2004.

Apple might offer a `Cocktail’ of new iPods and music

Apple is holding a music-themed press event tomorrow, where it is expected to unveil a package of goodies that will start being attached to sales of full digital albums.

The product, code-named Cocktail by the record labels, will include interactive lyric sheets, photos and other virtual extras aimed at replicating and improving on the old experience of opening a vinyl record sleeve or CD boxed set filled with trinkets.

The San Francisco event will come the same day as the release of the remastered Beatles catalog, although that material itself won’t be available via Apple’s online store iTunes.

“Conversations between Apple and EMI are ongoing and we look forward to the day when we can make the music available digitally. But it’s not tomorrow,” Ernesto Schmitt, EMI’s global catalog president, told the FT’s Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson.

The holdup is EMI’s conern about the prospects for piracy, Paul McCartney told The Observer.

The ex-Beatle said he, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison wanted to release the music on iTunes, but EMI, which owns the master recordings, objected.

“If one [EMI] employee decides to take it home and wap it on to the internet, we would have the right to say, ‘Now you recompense us for that.’ And they’re scared of that,” Mr McCartney said.

The Cocktail project has been a top priority for the record industry as it tries to revive flagging sales of 10 or so tracks at a time. While iTunes and Apple’s iPod and iPhone mobile players have juiced legal downloads of singles, they haven’t done much for larger bundles.

Because the iPod generates less interest than the iPhone, and Apple’s tablet computer isn’t expected to debut for some months, one or more content deals would help the company manufacture more excitement.

Apple is also expected to roll out a revamped line of iPods, possibly with still or video cameras installed. And it is likely to announce its first pre-set ringtones for the iPhone, as opposed to those that consumers edit from songs themselves.

ITunes will also get some changes, possibly including new features for sharing listening habits among friends with social-networking features.

This being Apple, there has been the usual flurry of rumour and speculation about other moves the company might make Wednesday. But there has been as much focus on the presenter as what might be presented.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been back at the company from his medical leave for more than a month, and he gave the main speech at last year’s September music event.

But most analysts aren’t expecting him this time around, in part because he is still recovering from a liver transplant that followed his bout with pancreatic cancer and in part because they don’t think Apple has anything truly tremendous to roll out.
(via FT)

New Morrissey B-Sides, Live Album Due Next Month

Perhaps it’s the underwhelming album art or the very un-Morrissey title, but this new release has been hanging out under the radar for a few days and it must be mentioned. On Oct. 26th, Morrissey will release Swords, an 18-track compilation of b-sides from his past three albums on CD and double vinyl. What’s more, Moz has included a Live in Warsaw bonus disc, which includes 8 songs from his 2009 tour.

Most of the Internet isn’t quite sure how these details leaked, but the apparent culprit site is none other than eBay. Check out the album cover above and the full track list below. Over and out:

1. Good Looking Man About Town
2. Don’t Make Fun Of Daddy’s Voice
3. If You Don’t Like Me, Don’t Look At Me
4. Ganglord
5. My Dearest Love
6. The Never-Played Symphonies
7. Sweetie Pie
8. Christian Dior
9. Shame Is The Name (With Chrissie Hynde)
10. Munich Air Disaster 1958
11. I Knew I Was Next
12. It’s Hard To Walk Tall When You’re Small
13. Teenage Dad On His Estate
14. Children In Pieces
15. Friday Mourning
16. My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye
17. Drive-In Saturday (Live)
18. Because Of My Poor Education

Live in Warsaw 2009

1. Black Cloud
2. I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris
3. I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
4. Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself
5. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
6. You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby
7. Life Is A Pigsty
8. I’m OK By Myself

Nick Cave Unveils Bunny Munro Soundtrack

Nick Cave has a lot more in store for the release of his second novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, than a few creepy dramatic readings. Along with an e-book, audiobook, and video of Cave narrating his new “bizarre road trip” book to you, the iPhone app store is now stocked with a full soundtrack to his follow-up to And the Ass Saw the Angel, NME reports.

“The fact that the reader can choose his or her own experience is interesting because the true meaning of a book lies in the reader’s own interpretation and the circumstances of that interpretation,” Cave said of the multimedia Bunny Munro experience.

Cave teamed up with his The Proposition collaborater Warren Ellis, as well as Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard for the project. Forsyth and Pollard, an artistic duo who are presumably not in charge of marketing the soundtrack, dropped the project’s best selling point to date: “We’ve not heard anything like this before – the result sits somewhere between a film soundtrack, a radio play and an hallucination.”

The Beatles: Repaving ‘Abbey Road’

Any appointment at Abbey Road still involves walking over the most famous pedestrian crossing in popular music. And the history of the north London studio hangs heavy in the air when the meeting is with the engineers who have just finished digitally remastering all the original Beatles albums, from “Please Please Me” through “Abbey Road.”

Borrowing a phrase from one of those engineers, project coordinator Allan Rouse says wryly that his seven-member team has spent the last four-and-a-half years “fiddling with the crown jewels,” a phrase that could induce alarm in audiophiles. But Rouse and his colleagues have years of experience with the Beatles masters among them, and they approached the most famous 525 minutes in recorded-music history with meticulous respect.

Rouse, who joined EMI straight from school in 1971, began his career working with Beatles engineer Norman “Hurricane” Smith. Recording engineers Guy Massey and Paul Hicks worked on the 1995 “Anthology” DVD set, while Rouse and others oversaw the 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes of the 1999 “Yellow Submarine” reissue.

Even so, they knew that one intrusive piece of sonic tweaking could infuriate hordes of fans-many of whom have a relationship with Beatles albums that borders on the obsessive.

“There were seven of us involved, so as not to put this huge amount of pressure on the shoulders of one individual,” Rouse says candidly. Sean Magee, who worked with Hicks on the mono versions of the remasters, adds, “You have to switch into work mode. You basically do it as you would any remastering job, with due reverence to what went before.”

Rouse passionately defends the decision to go back to master tapes that were last reissued in 1987. “There was nothing really that wrong with the ’87 [releases],” he says. In some ways, however, they’re no longer up to today’s standards. “It’s a long overdue overhaul. The minute the CD got invented, everybody thought it was adequate to get the master tape out and put it onto CD. Remastering was something that happened maybe a decade or so later.”

Disembodied Heads Meet Serato (Video)

But if you haven’t already seen it making the rounds, you owe yourself a little video watching break to check out Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs, Inc., an audiovisual dreamscape in which disembodied heads form electronic drum heads and spin on turntables. The work is produced by Chris Cairns of Partizan Lab, who has a striking resume of commercial spots and worked with folks like Lady Sovereign.

Drive by Truckers: The Fine Print (A Collection Of Oddities And Rarities 2003-2008)(Album Review)

Eleven years after releasing their first album and eight years after redefining themselves with Southern Rock Opera, the rare concept album whose execution was just as impressive as its ambitions, the Drive-By Truckers have gained a richly deserved reputation as one of the hardest-working and most rewarding rock bands at work today. Having cranked out five great albums in seven years, they presumably felt bad about not having a new studio effort for 2009, so they’ve offered fans not one but two time-honored stopgaps — a live album (actually an installment in New West’s Live from Austin, TX series of live discs drawn from the archives of Austin City Limits), and a collection of outtakes and rare tracks. The Fine Print: A Collection of Outtakes and Rarities brings together a dozen songs that, for a variety of reasons, didn’t appear on one of the DBTs’ albums, including four covers, alternate versions of two tracks, and a few numbers that didn’t fit the pattern of the sets for which they were intended. The oddball Christmas tune “Mrs. Claus’ Kimono” is the only tune here that was clearly left behind for reasons of quality (it’s an amusing novelty but not much more), though “The Great Car Dealer War” has a hard time capturing the sense of menace that permeates The Dirty South, though it tells its story quite well. While the alternate take of “Goode’s Field Road” doesn’t match the version that later appeared on Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, the re-recording of “Uncle Frank” that appears here rescues the song from the band’s flawed debut album, and along with “Little Pony and the Great Big Horse” serves as a reminder that Mike Cooley is truly this group’s secret weapon as a vocalist and songwriter. Jason Isbell’s “TVA” doesn’t really need to be seven minutes long, but it’s full of brilliant moments, and along with “When the Well Runs Dry,” stands as a reminder of how much he brought to the band before departing for a solo career. The cover of Warren Zevon’s “Play It All Night Long” sounds as gritty as Zevon was reaching for in his original, and Tom T. Hall’s “Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken)” is a brilliant choice for a cover, sounding as sadly pertinent and tragically honest as it did when it was written in the late ’60s. And though the world doesn’t really need another Bob Dylan cover, the version of “Like a Rolling Stone” that closes this set shows this band full of gifted writers who understand how to approach a great song. Like most odds and ends collections, The Fine Print is uneven and doesn’t match the consistent quality of the Drive-By Truckers’ usual work, but nearly all of these tracks are too genuinely good to have been left to gather dust, and even the DBTs’ scraps can make for a pretty satisfying meal.

Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards recording with Jack White

The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards has revealed that he has been working with Jack White.

Richards was tight-lipped about the hook-up, but told Rolling Stone magazine that the two guitarists have collaborated. However, he was cagey on the subject on whether he might enlist White to produce for his band.

“I enjoy working with Jack,” he said. “We’ve done a couple of tracks.”

On the possibility of White producing for The Rolling Stones, he added: “I couldn’t fuel that rumour any more than to say Jack and I are in touch.”

Richards did, however, confirm that it was his plan to get his band into the studio next year to record their next album.

“I’m trying to gather the boys together,” he explained. “One way or another, I’ll get them back in line.”

Meanwhile yesterday (September 2) The Rolling Stones denied drummer Charlie Watts was quitting the band after reports emerged in Australia suggested he was calling it a day.

Johnny Marr ‘too busy’ for Smiths tour

Johnny Marr has said that he is “too busy” to reunite with his old band The Smiths for live gigs – but has not completely ruled out the possibility of his schedule freeing up to allow it to happen.

The Cribs’ guitarist has repeatedly said that he is not interested in reuniting with singer Morrissey, bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce. He even released a statement last December outlining that there was no truth in any Smiths reformation rumours.

However, in a new interview with the Daily Mail he has refused to rule out the possibility of being persuaded to take to the stage again with the band, who split in 1987.

“I can’t speak for Morrissey, but I know that I’m too busy right now to get The Smiths on the road again,” he said. “Is that likely to change? Who knows?”

He added: “I can’t bear the thought of a Spandau Ballet-style comeback. What’s the point? Spandau are reforming, so they put on a big chicken-in-the-basket event, which is all they amounted to in the first place.

“Maybe someone should pay them £20 million not to reform. Supposedly we were offered $10 million (£6.2 million) to play a handful of Smiths gigs in 2007, and I wasn’t remotely tempted.”

The Cribs’ new album, ‘Ignore The Ignorant’, is out on Monday (September 7).

Them Crooked Vultures:: Live @ O2 Brixton Academy
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMiuhYbBU8g&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

THEM CROOKED VULTURES FIRST EVER NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES CONFIRMED

Them Crooked Vultures–a/k/a Dave Grohl (drums, backing vocals), Josh Homme (guitar, vocals) and John Paul Jones (bass, keyboards, backing vocals)–has confirmed the dates of its first ever North American tour. The dates kick off with an October 2 performance at the Austin City Limits music festival, to be preceded by a September 30 Austin City Limits TV taping to air at a later date TBD, as well as an appearance at the October 1 Austin City Limits festival pre-party.

Tickets for the headline shows go on sale Saturday, September 5 at 10 a.m. local time.

To date, Them Crooked Vultures has played one show on U.S. soil, an August 9 one-off at Chicago’s Cabaret Metro. Of that show, the Chicago Sun-Times hailed the band as “one of the rarest things in rock: a supergroup that not only deserves that appellation, but which actually is greater than the sum of its storied parts,” while the Chicago Tribune opined “The term ‘supergroup’ gets thrown around way too often in rock, but in the case of Them Crooked Vultures, it applies.” The band recently wrapped a string of surprise appearances across Europe and the UK, of which the Times of London remarked “the sound climbed to super-threatening levels and the music new heights of heaviosity…this was a monster on the loose” and the Sun added “there were moments of gentleness too – including some mesmerising piano work from Jones.”

Following Austin City Limits, Them Crooked Vultures’ headline dates commence October 5 at the Nashville War Memorial and include engagements in Columbus, Detroit, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC.

For further information, tickets, go to http://themcrookedvultures.com and sign up for the newsletter.

THEM CROOKED VULTURES
North America Fall 2009

Thu-Oct-01-09 Austin TX Stubb’s
Fri-Oct-02-09 Austin TX Austin City Limits
Mon-Oct-05-09 Nashville TN War Memorial
Tue-Oct-06-09 Columbus OH LC Pavilion
Thu-Oct-08-09 Detroit MI The Fillmore
Fri-Oct-09-09 Toronto ONT Sound Academy
Sun-Oct-11-09 Boston MA House of Blues
Mon-Oct-12-09 Philadelphia PA Electric Factory
Wed-Oct-14-09 Washington DC 930 Club

Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer EP (Album Review)

In 2007 Blitzen Trapper’s third album Wild Mountain Nation drew favourable comparisons with the wonky indie pop of Pavement circa Wowee Zowee. On the follow-up, last year’s Furr, the Oregon band narrowed their hitherto scattershot approach to focus on the country-rock which was prominent, but by no means dominant, on its predecessor.

The Black River Killer EP finds Blitzen Trapper honing their sound further still. This is still, unquestionably, a country-rock release. It consists of the title track – an excerpt from Furr – plus six songs that until now have only been available as a CDR that’s been flogged on tour from the band’s merchandise table. That description rather screams the words ‘inessential toss-off’ at the potential customer, but that would greatly misrepresent this EP. The six new-ish songs are thoughtfully written, professionally recorded and performed with considerable proficiency. In short, it’s pretty good.

First, the title track. It seems that Blitzen Trapper are now so comfortable with their status as a country-rock act that they feel the need to add a Johnny Cash-style murder ballad to their oeuvre, and that’s precisely what we get with Black River Killer. It’s likely to seem familiar to any listener – and not just to those who’ve already heard the identical album version.

Black River Killer is a macabre tale, written from the perspective of a murderer and beginning with the discovery of his latest victim (“They found a girl’s body in an open pit / Her mouth was sewn shut but her eyes were still wide…”). The narrator then charts his ensuing brushes with the law; the lyrics are a veritable litany of Western/Gothic imagery – there are sheriffs, sins, “the key to the kingdom” and, er, horses.

It’s an accomplished song but it also feels as if the band are trapped within a stylistic straightjacket. Fortunately the remainder of the EP finds Blitzen Trapper in a more relaxed mood. Silver Moon and Preacher’s Sister’s Boy exhibit the amiably shuffling sound that’s become the band’s signature, aided by, respectively, harmonica and a high-pitched synth.

The best of the bunch might be Going Down. It boasts a debonair melody which recalls the very best AOR of the 1970s, and hints that the influence of Steely Dan may loom large over the next album. Of the seven tracks, only the aimless Black Rock feels like filler, and even then its moody acoustics serve as an essential throat-clearing exercise before Big Black Bird’s Lynyrd Skynyrd-indebted boogie closes the set.

The Black River Killer EP isn’t the best place for Blitzen Trapper newbies to start – that would be Furr or Wild Mountain Nation. But, as a stopgap for existing fans, it’s well worth a download or – if one’s feeling old-fashioned – a trip to the music emporium.

Them Crooked Vultures announce UK Tour

Them Crooked Vultures are set to tour the UK in December.

The rock collective – featuring Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones – will play six UK live dates as part of the gig run.

The jaunt will begin in Plymouth on December 8 and wrap up at the London Hammersmith Apollo on December 17.

Them Crooked Vultures played a secret show at the Leeds Festival on Friday (August 28), then one at the Reading Festival on Saturday (29).

Tickets for the December tour go on sale at 10am (BST) on Friday (September 4).

Them Crooked Vultures will play:

Plymouth Pavilions (December 10)
Portsmouth Guildhall (11)
Blackpool Empress Ballroom (13)
Birmingham O2 Academy (14)
Edinburgh O2 Academy (15)
London HMV Hammersmith Apollo (17)