This much we know for sure: The second album by the UK's rootsy Mumford & Sons -- the followup to Sigh No More -- is coming on September 24.
What we don't know is anything else aboutt he record. You might think that this teaser "trailer" for the band's sophomore release might shed some light on what we can expect, but . . . .well, you watch and see what you can figure out:
Mysterious, right? I will say this -- those little colored icon things at the end are nautical flags, and they spell out "BABEL." According to Yahoo Answers:
Babel means confusion. The tower of Babel was where they tried to build an earthly structure to reach the Heavens. God "confused" their languages so they could not communicate, and they separated to different parts of the earth.
I guess the big question for a lot of people, upon hearing that former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck was doing a solo record, is "can Peter Buck actually sing?" Now you can decide for yourself. Peter's buddy and musical collaborator Scott McCaughey leaked this new track during an appearance on a New York radio station, and it definitely sounds nothing like R.E.M.. Check out "10 Million BC:"
Van Morrison will release a new album, Born to Sing: No Plan B, on October 2nd on the legendary Blue Note records. "With most record companies being so corporate I am happy to be working with Don Was and the team at Blue Note," says the often cranky Morrison. "To have such a creative music person as the head of my recording label assures me that all the effort taken to write and record this new album will be rewarded with a music-based focus and marketing approach. I look forward to many fruitful years together.”
Some of the titles of the 10 songs on the disc are "Open the Door (To Your Heart)," "Going Down to Monte Carlo," "Born to Sing," "End of the Rainbow," "Close Enough For Jazz" and "Mystic of the East." Maybe a tour will follow. Van's definitely performing at the London Blues Festival on Friday.
Meanwhile, North Carolina's Avett Brothers will return with their first album in three years this fall -- the followup to their breakthrough release I And Love And You. The Carpenter -- their sixth overall album -- will be out on September 11th. It was produced by the very high-profile studio wizard Rick Rubin. The first single, "Live and Die," will be out as a digital release next month. You can preview it here.
And then there's Green Day, and their very ambitious plan to put out three albums in a row. "Oh Love" is the first single from the first of the three albums, Uno, and it arrives on July 16th. The full-length Uno is due out September 25th, with Dos out on November 23rd and Tre on January 15th.
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, from 1963. But it has to be the early version containing the track "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues." Columbia Records removed that track from the record, so if you have a copy with that song on it, you're looking at $20,000.
Check out the whole list here, then head out to your garage. Good luck, and don't forget to tip the DJ who gave you this information.
Here's something cool I found in SPIN Magazine. If you've ripped your CD collection to your computer so you can play mp3s on all your various devices, you may be wondering what you do with those discs now.
Here's the answer:
CD Sweep, an initiative benefitting the Autism Science Foundation, is looking to whisk away your old CDs because they need them more than you do.
Founded last year, CD Sweep takes used CD and DVD donations to iPodmeister, a CD reseller that ships used discs to overseas countries, where they have higher resale value. Each disc donated earns 50 cents that is then donated to ASF, which provides funding directly to scientists conducting research into the causes and treatment of autism.Donating itself is probably just as easy (if not easier) than what you were planning on doing with your discs (depending on how much you hate CDs, that is):
Even if, for some reason, you're not able to rip your own CDs to your computer on your own, there's an option on the donation form to have CD Sweep digitize the CDs for you and return them to you as MP3s.
You'll be e-mailed a prepaid FedEx label, which you can simply slap on a box and drop off at a FedEx location.
He's always been kinda quirky, so for some reason it makes perfect sense that singer/songwriter/Judy Garland uber-fan Rufus Wainwright chose to do this medley of chewing gum jingles. Come on, sing along -- you know you want to:
If you're a Matchbox Twenty fan, it's been a pretty long dry spell -- they haven't put out an album of all-new material in ten years. Their fourth album North is finally on the way, and they've leaked the first track off the record.
'She's So Mean,' is really a tongue in cheek song about a girl who keeps doing you wrong, but you can't stay away," Rob Thomas tells AOL Music. "Like a drug, every guy and girl have had someone like that in their life at some time or another."
Go here to listen to the whole track. North arrives on September 4.
See that sweet dog? in 2004 I adopted her from the Seattle Animal Shelter. She'd been a stray, and at the shelter, they gave her the name Pokey, because she was so mellow. When they rescued Pokey she'd just had a litter of puppies, which the shelter people weren't able to find. Her nipples were gigantic (for nursing) but her body was emaciated. For some reason, I saw something in her eyes that told me she needed to come home with me. Here we are, eight years later. Her name is Zoe now, and she's a healthy, robust, affectionate 11-year-old girl and I can't imagine life without her.
That's why once again this year I'm hosting the Furry 5K Fun Run & Walk, which benefits the Seattle Animal Shelter and their Help The Animals Fund. It's this Sunday morning (6/10) at Seward Park on the shore of Lake Washington in Seattle. It's not too late to join me for an easy walk or run around the park, and the best part is that you'll be among a couple thousand dogs. That's a lot of dogs!
Click this banner for the details, and I'll see you (and maybe your dog) Sunday morning. (Zoe won't be there, because on Sunday morning, she sleeps in. I guess in some ways, she's still Pokey.)
I was just a little to old to be in the target audience for Mister Rogers Neighborhood, but when I was in college I worked at the school's PBS station. Mister Rogers aired every day right before we put on the 5:30 news, so I was always stationed at my audio console in the control room for the last five minutes of the show, when Fred sang, "It's such a good feeling, to know you're alive, it's such a happy feeling, you're growing inside . . . ." He was such a gentle guy, but when that closing song came on every day, our adrenaline amped up and we kicked into high gear because it was moments until our news show went live.
The point is, I think almost everybody has some kind of emotional attatchment to Fred Rogers, which is what makes this remix so sweet. PBS actually comissioned this, and they recruited a guy from Bellingham -- John Boswell, who does this kind of thing all the time via a music project called The Symphony of Science.
The English band Scars On 45 have had a lot of momentum over the last year or two with their super-melodic Fleetwood Mac-ish harmonies. One of the band's biggest assets is the voice of Aimee Driver, who was invited to join the band in the first place because of her ability to turn this classic Cure song into something even more beautiful and ethereal than the original.
"In every band's career or life, there are particular moments where something happened that spurred you on or gave you that kick on the backside to keep going, and for us, the songs were always there but there was always something that was kind of missing," vocalist Danny Bemrose recalls. "So Nova called me up and told me that he'd heard Aimee sing 'Friday I'm in Love' and he thought that her voice might work on this particular track that we were doing. We chose 'Friday I'm in Love' by The Cure because it was the moment that gave us Aimee, so to speak."
Take a look:
PS: Scars On 45 will play Chop Suey on Seattle's Capitol Hill this Sunday (6/10.) Here's the full story on the band's cover.
Nobody ever expects Neil Young to to anything predictable, and his new album, Americana, is a perfect example. When I heard he was going to do traditional American folk songs, I thought, "oh, he's doing a very rootsy, stripped-down record, like Springsteen's The Ghost of Tom Joad, right?"
Wrong. Check out what he does with "Oh, Susanna:"
Neil's coming to Key Arena on November 10, with Crazy Horse. This is big! Tickets go on sale this Saturday, but we'll be sending out details for a Mountain presale in Mountain Mail, and on Thursday we'll give you a shot at winning tickets for the show all day long when you hear the cue to text on The Mountain At-Work.
Here's the explanation of how these videos were created, from a blurb in Rolling Stone:
For his new album with Crazy Horse, Americana, Neil Young asked artist Shepard Fairey to create paintings to represent each of the record's 11 songs. The series of works premiered in L.A. last night at the Perry Rubenstein Gallery and will be on display there from June 28th through July 14th.
"We discovered a lot of depth in these songs and the visuals of these are just amazing," Young told Rolling Stone. "'Clementine' is so deep with its original verses and this art, you really get a feeling for the tenseness and desperation of the situation, the unresolved death and longing."
Fairey's work brought out a lot in the songs that Young believes he might not have seen otherwise. "Almost every one of them had a view that was unique to me," he said. "I wouldn’t have thought of it."
Brandi Carlile's impressive fourth studio album Bear Creek arrives today, and we celebrated with a session in the Carter Subaru Mountain Music Lounge. We'll get video from that session up on the web site in the next couple of days. But I wanted to point you to the video for the first single from the album, "That Wasn't Me." She befriended country/folk legend Kris Kristofferson and persuaded him to play a convict in the video for the song. You can watch it here.
And go here to check out Brandi at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, where she recorded the album.
Meanwhile, Brandi's doing a live in-store performance at Easy Street Records on Queen Anne tonight (Tuesday 6/5) at 8pm. Here are the details.
Oh yeah, and one more thing: Brandi's going to be back at Benaroya Hall in Seattle (with the Symphony!) on Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend (11/23-24.) Here's her tour page.
If you missed the MTV Movie Awards last night, you missed seeing Johnny Depp strap on a guitar and rock with the Black Keys. First, Johnny accepted the coveted (?) MTV Generation Award after being introduced by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. Then it was time to rock.
Johnny joined the Black Keys for "Gold On The Ceiling" -- here'st he whole thing:
They must feel energized after being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, because the Red Hot Chili Peppers have announced that they'll release 18 singles over the next few months, one by one by one. Yes, that's more than enough songs to fill an actual album, but for some reason, that's not the way they're going to do it. The plan is to put each song out on a 7" single, just like the old days, as well as a digital release.
Here's the full story. And don't forget that the Peppers will be at Key Arena in Seattle on November 15.
