Red Fang- Wires (Music Video)

PDX stoner rock gods bring us another music video gem (Flash Required)

Mix the dark sound of Brighton’s foursome with the visuals of a modern gothic thriller, and you have the recipe for an awesome debut single. (Flash Required)

Jay-Z and Kanye West’s collaborative LP as the Throne, Watch the Throne, hits iTunes on August 8, with a physical release scheduled for August 12. Best Buy has an exclusive on the deluxe edition of the CD for its first 10 days. Independent record stores around the country aren’t too happy about this arrangement.

Earlier today, the folks behind Record Store Day sent out an e-mail to participating independent record stores, asking them to sign an open letter addressed to Jay-Z and Kanye West that they plan to publish “shortly” in Billboard magazine. Many indie store representatives have already signed it.
The letter says of the iTunes and Best Buy exclusives, “We believe this is a short-sighted strategy, and that your decisions will be doing great damage to over 1,700 independent record stores — stores that have supported you and your music for years.”

They add, “We know that you are busy, and that you put most of your energies into creating great music, but we are writing to you in the hope that you will hear us and take the time to rectify this matter. As representatives of the independent record store music community, we are asking you to allow record stores and music fans equal access to your new album.”

Read the full letter below.

Dear Jay-Z and Kanye West,

Dedry Jones, The Music Experience
Mike Dreese, Newbury Comics
Judy Negley, Independent Records
Mike Batt, Silver Platters
Tobago Benito, DBS Sounds
Brian Faber, Zia Records
Karen Pearson, Amoeba Music
Bryan Burkert, The Sound Garden
Mike Wise, Monster
Rob Roth, Vintage Vinyl
Joe Nardone, Jr., Gallery of Sound
Jonathan Fernandez, Rasputin Music
Dilyn Radakovitz, Dimple Records
Dustin Hansen, Graywhale Entertainment
Bill Kennedy, BK Music
Jim Bland, Plan Nine
Steve Wilson, Kiefs
Tom King, Central Square Records
Alayna Hill Alderman, Richard Storms, Record Archive
Karl Groeger, Looney Tunes
Paul Epstein, Twist and Shout
Nancy Salzer, Salzer’s Records
Rick Ziegler, Indy CD
Laura, Finders Records
Deon Borchard, Nic Fritze, The Long Ear
Chuck Oken, Rhino /Mad Platter
Allan Miller, John Bevis, Disc Exchange
Charlotte Kubat, Magnolia Thunderpussy
John Kunz, Waterloo Records
Chris Avino, Rainbow Records
Mike Fratt, Homers
Rich Koch, Off the Record
Skip Hermans, Skip’s Record and CD World
Jason Patton, Oz Music
Quinn Bishop, Cactus Records
John Timmons, ear X tacy
Lou Russell, Lou’s Records
Roger Weiss, Streetlight Records
Terry Currier, Music Millenium
Andrew Chinnici, Lakeshore Record Exchange
Michael Bunnell, The Record Exchange
Mike White, Boo Boo Records
Steve Baron, CD Central
Eric Levin, Criminal Records
Pat O’connor, Culture Clash
Dan Plunkett, End Of An Ear
Paula Kret, Exile On Main St
Chris Penn, Good Records
Doyle Davis, Grimey’s
Travis Searle, Guestroom Records
Jim Mcguinn, Hot Poop
Isaac Slusarenko, Jackpot Records
Jason Nickey & Heath Byers, Landlocked Music
Todd Robinson, Luna Music
Darren & Jim Blase, Shake It
Anna & Chris Brozek, Slowtrain
Kimber Lanning, Stinkweeds
Tom “Papa” Ray, Vintage Vinyl
(via Pitchfork)

In the 16 months since the Black Keys released their last album Brothers, the blues-rock duo have toured the world, accepted three Grammys, played Saturday Night Live, rocked festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo, and filmed a few videos, including the short film Howlin’ For You starring snowboarder Shaun White and Twilight’s Christian Serratos. Oh, and drummer Patrick Carney got engaged to be married.

Somehow they found time to record their seventh studio album, too.

“It’s the fastest we’ve ever played,” singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach says of the LP’s new songs, which he says were inspired by the Clash, the Cramps, and old rock’n'roll, rockabilly, and garage rock records. “The new album doesn’t sound like Brothers. It doesn’t have that open soul feel to it. It’s way more driving and the tempos are really fast.”

The yet-to-be-titled new record will be released later this year. It was recorded at Auerbach’s Nashville studio during breaks in the band’s schedule when their producer Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, could fly in. “He understands all the different kinds of music we’re into,” Auerbach says of Burton, who also helped produce their last two albums, starting with 2008′s Attack & Release. “He’s got really great ideas about melody and song structure. For him it’s all about the song.”

The album opens with “Lonely Boy,” which is “one of the first songs we recorded,” says Auerbach. “Almost every song on the record has a foundation of live drums and guitar together in the room. It’s guitar bleeding into the drum mics. It’s pretty raw.”

Of “Little Black Submarine” Auerbach says: “We recorded it four or five different times in different ways. We would start from scratch and then start over. The version that we ended up with is weird. It starts with just acoustic guitar and vocals and by the end it sounds like Black Sabbath!”

He says that the Keys were seeking a group groove: “I’ve never been into guitar solos. I really like when every instrument in the band is a rhythm instrument. This record has a lot of that going on — guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards all working together as a rhythm instrument. But unlike Brothers, which has more of these slower songs with an open feeling, [the new LP] is definitely fast.”

So fast, in fact, that the sound may be tough to recreate live. “Pat’s never played drums like this before — he’s never played this fast,” Auerbach says of his bandmate. “He’s definitely worried about being able to play some of these songs live.”

The Black Keys have only a handful of live gigs scheduled this summer, leaving them time to mix and master the album.

Still, Auerbach is keeping busy with side projects, producing albums from Texas rockers Hacienda, who are friends, New Orleans legend Dr. John, and Long Beach, CA, garage rockers the Growlers. “They’re like my favorite band right now,” Auerbach says.

And what of a follow-up to Auerbach’s 2009 solo debut, Keep It Hid? “I really want to make another [solo LP],” he says. “But I’m sort of running out of free time.”

Radiohead drummer Phil Selway has confirmed that the band are discussing plans for a full tour in support of their album ‘The King of Limbs.’

Since the album release in February, the Oxford group have played only one stage performance at Glastonbury festival and one televised ‘From the Basement’ session with producer Nigel Godrich.

“It seemed to be an appropriate was of airing that material for the first time,” Selway told BBC 6 Music. “It felt an exciting thing to do, to just go out [at Glastonbury] and jump in at the deep end.”

When asked if they come of stage wishing they should do more live performances, Selway said, “Absolutely, and that’s what we’re talking about at the moment. It felt exciting doing that. It felt as though we had something different to offer again musically on top of what we’ve done in the past, and it just felt like a new lease of life in what we were doing. So yes, we’d like to see where that takes us.”

In the interim, Radiohead have been releasing ‘The King of Limbs’ remixes from electronic artists including Caribou and Jaques Greene. The series was originally going to appear across four vinyl records, but At Ease report that the band have decided to increase this to six or seven, with all tracks being collected on one CD in September.

But of course, poor Selway’s solo record is being swept under the carpet by Radiohead updates. So don’t forget to listen to his new ‘Running Blind’ EP which was released on Monday, July 25.

According to the video’s creators:
A shot-for-single-shot remake of LCD Soundsystem’s 2007 music video for ‘All My Friends.’ This is part exercise in lip-syncing and digital effects, part tribute to the band that no longer is. Physical elements shot with a Nikon D50. Compositing and effects done in After Effects CS5. Face designed in Illustrator CS5.

Anyone growing old waiting for My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless remasters to come out will find this compilation a diverting stopgap. Texans (via Atlanta, GA) Ringo Deathstarr released their debut album of homages to the Valentines and the Jesus and Mary Chain last February, joining a coterie of indie revivalists such as the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Yuck. A vinyl EP available in three colours, Sparkler collects Ringo Deathstarr’s earlier works, even more beholden to the wasted buzzsaw melodics of the late 80s. “Starssha” is a sped-up version of J&MC’s “Just Like Honey”; “In Love” apes J&MC’s “Sidewalking”. But it’s the boy-girl vocals of Elliott Frazer (guitar) and Alex Gehring (bass) that recalls the Valentines most of all. We all know Shields will never sue.

Fleet Foxes are extending their tour in support of theur new album, Helplessness Blues. New dates include more North American shows in July, with Fleet Foxes tickets going on sale on April 18th (pre-sale) and 19th.

FLEET FOXES TOUR DATES
04-29 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Vogue Theatre
04-30 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Vogue Theatre
05-01 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
05-02-03 Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
05-05 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
05-06 San Diego, CA – Spreckels Theatre
05-07 Hollywood, CA – Hollywood Palladium
05-08 Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
05-10 Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
05-11 Dallas, TX – Palladium Ballroom
05-13 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
05-14 Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle
05-15 Washington, DC – DAR Constitution Hall
05-17 Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
05-18-19 New York, NY – The United Palace Theatre
05-21 Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theatre
05-25 Berlin, Germany – Astra
05-26 Munich, Germany – Dachau Summer of Music
05-28 Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound Festival
05-30 Paris, France – Bataclan
05-31 – 06-02 London, England – Hammersmith Apollo
06-23 Wolverhampton, England – Civic Hall
06-25 Belfast, Northern Ireland – Custom House Square
06-26 Cork, Ireland – Live at the Marquee
06-28 Manchester, England – Manchester Apollo
06-29 Edinburgh, Scotland – Corn Exchange
07-01 St. Austell, England – Eden Sessions
07-02 Arras, France – Main Square Festival
07-03 Werchter, Belgium – Rock Werchter Festival
07-04 Paris, France – Days Off Festival
07-06 Poznan, Poland – Malta Festival
07-08 Lisbon, Portugal – Alive Festival
07-10 Turku, Finland – Ruisrock
07-14 Toronto, Ontario – Massey Hall
07-16 Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
07-17 Minneapolis, MN – State Theatre
07-18 Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater
07-19 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
07-21 Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
07-22 Salt Lake City, UT – Red Butte Garden Amphitheater
07-23 Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
07-24 Troutdale, OR – Edgefield Amphitheater
08-11 Oslo, Norway – Oya Festival
08-12 Gothenburg, Sweden – Way Out West Festival
08-13 Rees-Haldern, Germany – Haldern Pop Festival
08-20 Brecon Beacons, Wales – Green Man Festival

THE SHAKES PULL SHAPES AND BEND SPOONS WITH 42 DECIBELS OF STEEL,TUBE AND RAW HUMAN LUNG POWER. WATCH AS THE SHAKES TEACH YA WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW HOW: THE MATADOR, THE BOOT KNOCK, THE HIP DIP, THE FULL BODY SEIZURE, THE ONE-LEGGED FOX TROT,THE THUNDERBIRD,THE COBRA SNAKE, THE THREE-STEP, THE PRE-APOCALYPTIC STRUT, THE POST-APOCALYPTIC STRUT, THE REVERSE RAIN DANCE AND MORE…. WATCH AS THE SHAKES READ YOUR MIND. PUT IT INSIDE YOU. THERE WILL BE SWEAT. THERE WILL UNCONTROLLABLE TOE TAPPIN, NECK SNAPPIN AND ATTENTION GRABBIN. THERE WILL BE SOME ROCKIN. WE WILL BE COMING FOR THEM BRAINS.

Atlanta underground metal overlords Mastodon now have a release date for their new album The Hunter: September 27, via Reprise (Roadrunner will handle release duties outside of North America).
Right now, you can pre-order The Hunter “Limited Edition Package” over at the band’s site; the whole shebang includes a CD/DVD package with an alternate cover, a 20″ x 30″ Lenticular Poster featuring that balls-tripping album cover you can see below (at the end of the video), an “Augmented Reality Experience” by Total Immersion (which, apparently, will be explained in due time), and an instant download of album cut “Black Tongue”, and a download of first official single “Curl of the Burl” at a later date.
Watch artist A.J. Fosik creating the album’s cover art piece in the video below, soundtracked by the new song “Black Tongue”:

Feist’s follow-up to her 2007 breakthrough “The Reminder,” which included her iTunes ad-featuring hit “1,2,3,4″ will arrive Oct. 4 via Cherrytree/Interscope. Titled “Metals,” Feist’s fourth album is being teased via 12 online vignettes, the first two of which are now available on Feist’s site. “The Reminder” sold 729,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while “1234″ had 1.2 million downloads and peaked at No. 8 on the Hot 100 chart.

Pitchfork:
… in a statement, the Dead Kennedys themselves have taken issue with Heineken: “Dead Kennedys emphatically deny that they ever gave Heineken permission to use the song. The band’s attorneys have contacted Heineken to address the un-authorized use. Dead Kennedys have never authorized any company to use this song or any of the band’s songs to promote a consumer product (let alone the consumption of alcohol) in this or any advertisement.”

All this raises the question: What genius thought it was a good idea to use any version of “Too Drunk to Fuck” in a beer ad? That’s like using “California Über Alles” in a state tourism board commercial…

Previously:
Beer Ad Featuring a Cover of ‘Too Drunk to Fuck’ Taken Down, Somehow Interpreted As Encouraging Binge Drinking…

Singer Amy Winehouse, infamous for erratic public behavior, arrests and drug problems, was found dead at her apartment in London Saturday, the UK Press Association reported. She was 27. Her death came less than two months after her latest release from a rehabilitation program and weeks following a disastrous performance where she was booed off a Belgrade stage by disappointed Serbian fans. Winehouse died at the same age as four other music legends. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison each died of drug overdoses when they were 27. Kurt Cobain was 27 when he committed suicide, soon after his release from rehab. Police called the death “unexplained” early in their investigation. London police said they were called to a home, which matches Winehouse’s address, Saturday afternoon in response to “a woman found deceased.” “On arrival officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene,” a police statement said. The “Rehab” singer had a history of battling drugs and alcohol and recently left a British rehab program that a representative said was intended to prepare her for scheduled European concerts. But she cut short the European concert tour last month following a concert in Belgrade, Serbia, where she staggered around the stage and stumbled through several songs. Audience members booed Winehouse off the stage that night just a few songs into the concert, the first of the tour. Winehouse spokeswoman Tracey Miller told CNN at the time that the singer “agreed with management that she cannot perform to the best of her ability and will return home.” “Everyone involved wishes to do everything they can to help her return to her best and she will be given as long as it takes for this to happen,” representative Chris Goodman said in a statement in May. A new, but almost identical, similar statement appeared on her website Saturday, saying “Amy Winehouse is withdrawing from all scheduled performances.” Winehouse’s soulful, throaty vocals brought the British musician stardom in 2007, but her off-stage life gained her notoriety. The lyrics of her songs, especially the hit “Rehab,” chronicled her troubled life.
The song, in which she sang “They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no,” helped form the public’s view of Winehouse. “I don’t care enough about what people think of me to conform to anything,” she said in a interviews. Winehouse, born in London in 1983, became a picture of a tattooed teenage rebel after she was expelled from a prestigious performing arts school. Her first album, “Frank,” debuted in 2003, when the singer-songwriter was 19. international success came with her 2007 album “Back To Black,” winner of best pop vocal album and album of the year Grammys in 2008. The single “Rehab” won Grammys for record of the year and song of the year. Winehouse’s volatile marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil took a toll on the singer’s career. The couple divorced in 2009 after a stormy two years filled by drug addiction and arrests. Winehouse’s parents went public with their efforts to help their daughter, telling the London Telegraph in 2009 that she was on the road to recovery.
“A gradual recovery, which is good,” Winehouse’s father Mitch told the Telegraph. “With slight backward steps — not drug backward steps, more drink backward steps if you follow my drift. I think that will be the pattern of recovery.” (VIA CNN)

Eleanor Friedberger – My Mistakes from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Damon Albarn is leading a pack of producers and musicians into the Democratic Republic of Congo to record a charity album.

Teaming up with Oxfam offshoot DRC Music, Albarn will make the album in seven days with T-E-E-D (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs), producers Dan the Automator and Jneiro Jarel, XL Records owner Richard Russell, Actress, Marc Antoine, Jo Gunton and Kwes. They aim to complete the album in seven days, bringing in local musicians for some authentic Congo influence.

Several of the musicians are documenting their journey on twitter. “I never for a second thought my music would take me to Africa,” tweeted T-E-E-D before the trip, while Kwes gave the most recent update: “In DRCongo with the peeps, on a yellow chair, witnessing local musicians tirelessly play. LOVE.”

DRC Music will fully document the album production on their blog and twitter, which says the group are currently making their way to the studio in Kinshasa.

It’s not the first time Albarn has recorded in Africa. In 2001 he joined Oxfam in Mali to produce the album Mali Music, and later he worked in Nigeria with the Good, the Bad and the Queen cohort Tony Allen.

Although release details are not clear, Fact magazine believes it will eventually be released on Warp, with some proceeds going to Oxfam.

Not only will Beck’s music collaboration streak continue in coming months, but it looks like he has more print publishing projects in the works as well, following this summer’s guest design for Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope: All Story literary magazine. News of the latest studio team-up for Beck — after May’s production/performance on Thurston Moore solo LP Demolished Thoughts and this month’s Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks release — arrived buried in a press release for Dwight Yoakam, which, in addition to announcing that the country star will return to a major label, included this somewhat surprising bit: “Yoakam also has been recording some tracks with Beck.” I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised by anything from a guy who covered an entire Yanni album, but still… Either way, whatever they put to tape has a very good chance of becoming a hit.

Meanwhile, recent collaborator Stephen Malkmus revealed to Spin this month that Beck is plotting “a ’60s-style private press. Limited editions books of writings, drawings, poetry.” More details on both projects are forthcoming.

Sir Paul McCartney is to wed for the third time. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, the former Beatles bassist and singer is to marry American divorcée Nancy Shevell. In marked contrast to his previous wedding to former model and campaigner Heather Mills, the wedding is to be a quiet ceremony in London for just close family members.

It is understood that the couple will then fly to New York to celebrate their union with Shevell’s family and friends. A friend of McCartney’s was quoted by the paper saying, “Paul loves Nancy very much, but does not want a big wedding.”

You can’t really blame Sir Paul for wanting a modest ceremony. His previous wedding to Heather Mills took place in the grounds of Ireland’s Castle Leslie in 2002. Around 300 guests attended the lavish ceremony which included Beatle Ringo Starr. Thousands of pounds were reportedly spent on flowers and a spectacular firework display as well as team of security guards. The couple separated just four years later and Mills was awarded £24.3m in the divorce in 2008.

Sir Paul proposed to Shevell in May with a vintage Cartier diamond ring.

(Flash Required)

Adele, PJ Harvey and Elbow will battle it out for the Mercury Prize in September after the nominations were announced in London on Tuesday, July 19.

Adele receive a nod for ’21,’ the biggest-selling record of the year so far, while Harvey has received a nomination for ‘Let England Shake,’ which has been a massive hit with the critics. Harvey won in 2001 for her album ‘Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea.’

Elbow — also previous winners in 2008 for their album ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ — are also nominated for their fifth album, ‘Build a Rocket Boys!’

Rapper Tinie Tempah has scored a nomination with his debut album ‘Disc-Overy,’ as have indie four-piece Everything Everything and singer-songwriter Anna Calvi.

Some of the more notable albums left off the list include Radiohead’s ‘The King of Limbs,’ Arctic Monkeys’ ‘Suck it and See’ and Wild Beasts’ ‘Smother.’

The full list of 2011 Mercury Music Prize nominees is:

Anna Calvi — ‘Anna Calvi’
Everything Everything — ‘Man Alive’
Metronomy — ‘The English Riviera’
Adele — ’21′
PJ Harvey — ‘Let England Shake’
Katy B — ‘On a Mission’
Ghostpoet — ‘Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam’
Elbow — ‘Build A Rocket Boys!’
King Creosote and Jon Hopkins — ‘Diamond Mine’
Tinie Tempah — ‘Disc-Overy’
Gwilym Simcock — ‘Good Days At Schloss Elmau’
James Blake — ‘James Blake’

Borders will be closing its doors by then end of September, with liquidation of its remaining 399 stores starting as early as this week. The closure comes as the United States’ second-largest bookstore struggled and ultimately failed to find a buyer to keep the company going. The final decision to cancel a bankruptcy-court auction scheduled for today was fueled by a general lack of interest from buyers. Since filing for bankruptcy-court protection in February, Borders has struggled to receive merchandise on advance from publishers, causing the company to further hemorrhage money. The company currently has around 10,700 employees.
Borders’ defeat marks the beginning of a new era, where online book sales and digital downloads for e-readers dominate the market. “We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the head winds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, [electronic reader] revolution and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now,” Borders President Mike Edwards said.

In a recent interview with the Australian website Junior Online, OutKast MC Big Boi says that he’s already recorded a ton of music for his next album, the follow-up to last year’s excellent Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. In the interview, Big Boi says that he’s completed 17 songs for the album, tentatively titled Daddy Fat Sax: Soul Funk Crusader. Frequent collaborator Janelle Monáe guests. Excellent news!

Big Boi told Junior Online, “It’s going to be S-A-X-X-X triple unadulterated funk to the extremest level. Straight lyrical assassin, and the beats are going to be as hard hitting as always. I’mma let everything else be a surprise, and just let it speak for itself.”
Of course, it took Big Boi years of label politicking to release Sir Lucious Left Foot, so we probably shouldn’t hold our collective breath. But still! (Don’t forget that Big Boi is also helping out with the new Modest Mouse album.)

Last night, at a party for an exhibition of pieces from the Playboy archives, Vulture found out what James Murphy is getting up to now that LCD Soundsystem is kaput: producing music with Reggie Watts. “James and I might be doing a single sometime soon,” Watts, the anarchic, musically inclined stand-up comedian, explained. “It’s still 60 percent loose, but he seems down to do it and I think it would be fun to work with him. That would be great.” Yes it would! And when might this collaboration come to light?

“I think it’s going to be a seven-inch single with a remix on the other side. I would be the vocals and we would probably be doing some kind of a cover. I’m going to guess sometime next year, early next year, or maybe — he’s a fast dude! Maybe he’ll turn one around.” Great work. Yes, please. Also, since the subject of Playboy has already been broached, here’s a bit of Reggie Watts’s personal history: “My dad had a subscription in the mail and I used to sneak ’em. In the beginning it used to come — when my dad got it in the late seventies, early eighties — it was a brown paper package, which made it easier for me to break into before he read it. But then they switched to the plastic. And then I even remember it going from staples to whatever this is called. The spine! Anyways. I was a die-hard Playboy fan. As a little boy, my parents never knew I read ’em. My dad had stacks and stacks — and still does — of Playboys in the basement, so when I go back home sometimes I’m like, I remember that one. I remember all the centerfolds.”

When Interpol played this year’s Coachella, the band’s performance of “Lights”, from last year’s self-titled effort, was accompanied by a film by David Lynch, titled I Touch a Red Button (watch video of the performance here). Now, Matablog points out that I Touch a Red Button, which is soundtracked by “Lights”, is available for viewing online. Watch it below.

Today Converse Inc. officially announced the opening of its Brooklyn recording studio, Converse Rubber Tracks, which allows artists to sign up and record songs for free.

Converse announced the studio last fall, and bands were able to apply for studio time on the Converse website until May 31.

New York and New Jersey artists Aabaraki, Majuscules, G.I.C. & Funk Face, Andre Henry and Super Rocket Car were selected as the first musicians to begin recording this summer. Starting today, funk/R&B group Aabaraki is entering the studio. Each artist is given at least a day or two of studio time, depending on what needs to be accomplished. Applications run in three-month windows, and at the end of the summer, the next set of musicians will be able to apply online.

“By opening Converse Rubber Tracks, it’s a way for us to say thank you to musicians all over who have helped us become the brand we are and to provide a place for new artists to have access to resources they may not be able to afford,” said Converse Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Cottrill in a release. “This is our way to invest in the future of music and we couldn’t be more excited about it.”

Artists are given the opportunity to record on top of the line equipment with a staff of engineers, and when the tracks are finished, the artists themselves will retain all rights to their music. Although, as the Converse website explains, musicians will have the option of giving Converse limited rights so that the company can publish the tracks online and across social media sites.

Said Ra Ra Riot’s Rebecca Zeller in a statement released Wednesday: “Knowing how hard it is to make a living as a musician and the amount of money it takes to get into a studio of that caliber, it’s unbelievably generous for Converse to provide it for free… Coupled with the fact that artists retain all rights to their music is a testament to Converse.”

Guitar Center supplied the studio with equipment, instruments, and the Ocean Way HR2 large-format monitor system designed by Grammy award-winning producer/engineer Allen Sides. There will also be Fender, Gibson, Ernie Ball, BlackStar, Marshall and Schecter gear available for use.

Later this summer, Converse is hosting the Grammy Foundation’s annual Grammy Camp. The camp will be in Los Angeles in July and will be held at the Converse Rubber Tracks studio, Aug. 2-8.

Former Queens of the Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri was involved in an armed standoff with a Los Angeles S.W.A.T. team over a domestic disturbance, according to TMZ.

Apparently, the 39-year-old rocker’s girlfriend had recently begun to move out of Oliveri’s Hollywood home after he hit her during an argument. The next day, while she was removing her belongings, Oliveri locked the door and wouldn’t allow her to leave.

Los Angeles police were called to the scene after a neighbor heard the couple arguing. Oliveri refused to let officers in the house, which resulted in the cavalry being called. What followed was a two-hour standoff that ended without incident and Oliveri’s arrest.

A search was administered after the standoff which produced a fully loaded, high-powered rifle. Oliveri is currently being held on $100,000 bail, accused of felony domestic violence.

As Antiquiet points out, Oliveri has had a history of problems. Queens frontman Josh Homme told BBC’s Radio 1 in 2004 that the bassist had been fired from the band because of his attitude.

“A couple years ago, I spoke to Nick about a rumor I heard,” Homme told BBC radio. “I said, ‘If I ever find out that this is true, I can’t know you, man.’ Because music and my life are the same thing, there’s no rules until something massive happens. [Nick] was over here [in England] with [QOTSA vocalist Mark] Lanegan and something happened again, and he almost didn’t make it out of the country. That’s not music anymore.”

Kingblind is traveling so updates will be very light until the 18th of July. Happy summer kids!

The Pulp reunion is on in full force. The recently reborn Brit-pop legends have been hitting the festival circuit pretty hard and now frontman Jarvis Cocker has just inked a deal to release his first ever collection of lyrics. The book, which will be called ‘Mother, Brother, Lover: Selected Lyrics,’ is set to come out in October.

Cocker did not become a lyricist in any normal fashion. He started writing lyrics not by choice but by force, both human and natural. As a singer, his bandmates forced him to write words to accompany his melodies. As he said in a video interview with FaberBooks, “It was like homework in a way.”

“My breakthrough really came when I stopped thinking ‘Oh, I’ve got to be profound’ and just started writing about everyday normal things,” he said (in other words, writing about common people). “That was precipitated by an accident where I ended up falling out of a window and being in hospital for about a month. I really did come down to earth.”

Check out the video below to hear Cocker expound upon the impetus behind the book.

Jarvis Cocker on Writing and Publishing his Lyrics

Word reaches us this Friday afternoon (from an official source) that John Lydon and PiL are currently working on new songs together. We’ve seen some terrific gigs from the reunited Public Image Limited over the past year or so, most recently at Primavera. But we are anti-nostalgists, and generally hope that returning groups either vanish again, or knuckle down to writing new material. Glad tidings, then, that PiL’s John Lydon, Lu Edmonds (guitarist), Bruce Smith (drummer), and Scott Firth (bass) are in a studio in a location that Lydon describes as being “in the outskirts of knowhere”. Lydon has previously written with Edmonds and Smith for later PiL albums Happy and 9′ so both have played and worked John throughout the late 80s.

Lydon has long insisted that the PiL reunion was not solely about nostalgia, saying that the gigs were being done in part to fund studio time: “We’ve got no backing – no record company, no sponsors, nothing like that. The only way we can make money is the touring, and then we can make a new album,” he told Billboard in 2010. “It’s sort of like the old days of PiL, when the Pistols went kaput; I had to scrimp and scrape out of my own pocket. Not much has changed.”

Asked back then if he had songs ready, Lydon said, “Yeah, I’ve got piles. I never stop writing. Most of my influences have never really come from a musical act. It tends to be things like the poetic beat of a newscast. There’s a rhythm to the way it’s laid out. Movies can do that. Shakespeare and good poetry does that, and a bloody good book does that, or just a long walk.” (the quietus)