Joy Division members: 'wish we'd done more for Ian Curtis'

New Order and former Joy Division members Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner have been sharing their thoughts on late member and friend Ian Curtis on the eve of new biopic 'Control'.

The film - which centres around the life and suicide of Curtis, whose epilepsy and depression led to his suicide on May 18 1980 - has been both a deeply personal and upsetting reminder for his former members.

Each one has recalled the torment Ian Curtis faced when dealing with his epilepsy, at a time when the condition was little understood and often ridiculed.

"People thought he was on drugs because of the way he performed," Bernard Sumner explained to The Sun's Something For The Weekend, "but he never took drugs. He was just losing himself in the music."

Curtis was diagnosed with epilepsy in 1979 and the medication he was subsequently prescribed only added to his depression.

Speaking of his friend's turmoil, Stephen Morris added, "Looking back, I wish I'd helped him more. I think that all the time... But we were having such a good time, and you're very selfish when you're young. Epilepsy wasn't understood then. People would just say, 'He's a bit of a loony - he has fits.'"

Despite the painful memories the new biopic brings, Hook insisted the release of the film is a positive thing.

"I'm glad 'Control' shows how important Ian's role was in the band," he said. "He was the driving force who held it together when we were upset or down. He'd always inspire us to keep trying."

The film 'Control' will hit screens on October 5 with the soundtrack out on October 1.

[via nme.com]

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Led Zeppelin reunion: 'We won't tour'

Robert Plant, frontman of the newly reformed Led Zeppelin, has quashed rumours that the band are set for a full tour.

So far the band have announced a single reunion show at the O2 Arena in London on November 26.

Speaking to The Daily Express, he explained that there would only be one show, then added: "We need to do one last great show, because we've done some shows, and they've been crap."

Plant went on to explain that he was considering stepping away from live music completely after the November show.

"I know I'm getting on," he said. "When I come back from touring I'm shocked to find a lot of my mates tend to be going to bed far too early, and that means I should probably be doing the same. Maybe I should stop having a good time and get old."

[via nme.com]

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Duran Duran Celebrating New Album On Broadway

Duran Duran will celebrate its upcoming album in grand fashion with nine shows at the Barrymore Theater on Broadway in New York. The gigs are set for Nov. 1-2, 3, 5-6 and 8-10 and will feature complete performances of "Red Carpet Massacre," due Nov. 13 via Epic. The album's first single is "Falling Down," which was co-written and produced by Justin Timberlake.

"We have made an album that we are all really proud of and we wanted to present it in a very unique way," frontman Simon LeBon says. "Staging a run on Broadway is something that we've often talked about over the years -- but the time has never seemed right until now."

Producer Timbaland was behind the boards for "Nite-Runner," "Skin Divers" and "Zoom In." As keyboardist Nick Rhodes previously told Billboard.com, "I'm always personally really inspired by working with urban producers, moreso than rock producers. They really bring something to the songs that we don't have completely covered, whereas with rock producers, often I find [they suggest] things we'd do ourselves naturally anyway."

Here is the track list for "Red Carpet Massacre:

"The Valley"
"Red Carpet Massacre"
"Nite-Runner"
"Falling Down"
"Box Full o'Honey"
"Skin Divers"
"Tempted"
"Tricked Out"
"Zoom In"
"She's Too Much"
"Dirty Great Monster"
"Last Man Standing"

[via billboard.com]

***

Trentemoller featured in Billboard magazine

Danish artist Anders Trentemoller -- better-known simply by his last name -- released his debut full-length last year. "The Last Resort" (Poker Flat) was a moody collection of deep electronica, offset by delicately rendered vocals and live instruments. The artist adapted the material for a live band and took it on the road, touring small clubs as well as Europe's big festivals. (His nine-date American tour kicks off Oct. 3.)

That was 2006. So why, one year later, are we gifted with "The Trentemöller Chronicles" (Audiomatique), a retrospective? Chalk it up to MySpace. "Many people, especially on MySpace and also when we were touring, always asked if it wasn't possible to get more rare stuff and B-sides on CD for normal people, not DJs," Trentemoller says.

"Chronicles" is one CD of rarities plus another of his best remixes, including the ones that cemented his star status: Moby's "Go" and Royksopp's "What Else Is There?"

[via billboard.com]

***

Bee Gees Greatest (Special Edition)

There's no “Jive Talkin'” here except for the Bee Gees chart-topping single, one of many legendary '70s-era classics from the Brothers Gibb on this bonus-packed, updated 2-CD reissue of their five-years-out-of-print hits compilation BEE GEES GREATEST.

The collection was first released in 1979 as a double LP, 20-track set that hit #1 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. Rhino's remastered & expanded remaking of it features all that original greatness plus two previously unreleased tracks - including one song making its recording debut - and scorching new remixes of four immortal hits from Saturday Night Fever.

This historic reissue coincides with Paramount Home Entertainment's 30th Anniversary Special Collector's Edition of the film classic Saturday Night Fever, a defining statement of the disco era - but perhaps not as much as its companion soundtrack, which was dominated by Bee Gees smashes. That landmark 1977 #1 title - also newly reissued by Rhino in 30th anniversary splendor - has sold in excess of 30 million copies, is one of the top-selling soundtracks ever and is #131 on Rolling Stone's list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”

It's also the source for six of GREATEST's all-time greatest from Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, including five #1 smashes: “Jive Talkin',” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “You Should be Dancing,” the GRAMMY®winning “Night Fever” and “Stayin' Alive,” plus “More Than A Woman To Me.”

Four of those classic songs also boast feverish new, previously unreleased bonus remixes on GREATEST from hot contemporary mixers and producers: “You Should Be Dancing” (Jason Bentley/Philip Steir Remix); “If I Can't Have You” (Count Da Money Remix); “Night Fever” (Future Funk Squad Remix); and “How Deep Is Your Love (Supreme Beings Of Leisure Remix).”

GREATEST, which overall spotlights the ultimate hits from Bee Gees studio albums released between 1975 and 1979, also boasts standouts including the #1 pop singles “Love You Inside Out,” “Tragedy” and “Too Much Heaven,” as well as the signature songs “Nights On Broadway” and “Spirits (Having Flown).”

In addition to the bold new remixes, bonus material also includes the recorded debut of the previously unissued song “Warm Ride” and the rare 12”, promo-only version of “Stayin' Alive.”

You could have been dancin' for the past five years, but it would have been without a new copy of GREATEST to call your own. That's remedied now with Rhino's makeover of the previously retired title, reborn as GREATEST (SPECIAL EDITION). The only authentic Bee Gees '70s era-centric hits collection available, it's made even more special with new remixes of four iconic SNF grooves.

Bee Gees' marathon legacy spans five decades, seven platinum albums, eight GRAMMYs, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and over 60 chart hits - including six straight #1 singles. Look for Rhino's other Bee Gees titles, all part of our first-ever restoration of the legendary group's extensive catalog, which will eventually be revitalized and upgraded in its entirety. GREATEST also includes a special hidden track of Stayin' Alive as remixed by Scandinavian rock/pop sensations Teddybears.

***

Teddybears Remix Bee Gees

First they were working with Iggy Pop, now they've turned their sights on disco. The Teddybears recently remixed the classic Bee Gees' song "Stayin' Alive." The remixed version is included as a hidden track on a brand-new Bee Gees compilation out now through Rhino Records.

Audio: Bee Gees - "Stayin' Alive" (Teddybears Remix)
Real Player
Windows Media Player

Thanks, Tublenco!

[via pluginmusic.com]

***

David Bowie donates $10,000 to defend US accused

David Bowie has contributed $10,000 to a defence fund for the 'Jena Six', a group of black American teenagers who many believe are innocent of the assault of a white classmate.

One of the teenagers, Mychal Bell, was convicted of second degree battery in June, although this verdict was later overturned by the Third Circuit Court of Appeal as he was sixteen at the time of the crime but was tried as an adult.

Despite this, however, Bell remains in jail, unable to raise $90,000 needed for his bail.

Commenting on his donation, David Bowie said: "There is clearly a separate and unequal judicial process going on in the town of Jena. A donation to the Jena Six Legal Defence Fund is my small gesture indicating my belief that a wrongful charge and sentence should be prevented."

It's estimated that up to 60,000 protestors will march through Jena tomorrow (September 20) in protest at the affair and other cases of racial tension in the area. It's not yet known whether charges will be brought against Bell again.

Julian Bond of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said: "We are gratified that rock star David Bowie was moved to donate to the NAACP's Jena campaign. We hope others will join him."

***

Led Zeppelin reunion: ticket ballot finally closes

Fans have one in 50 chance of getting into reformation show

Registration for the ticket ballot for Led Zeppelin's reunion show has finally closed this afternoon (September 19).

Organisers said there have been 1,000 million page impressions on the site Ahmettribute.com, with one million people registering to be in with a chance of getting one of the 20,000 tickets for the gig, to be held at the London O2 Arena on November 26.

At one point, it was receiving 5 million hits per hour, a total of 80,000 hits per minute.

Tickets cost £125 each and will be limited to two per person. Successful applicants will find out if they have been picked after October 1, with organisers warning that any tickets appearing on online auction sites will be immediately cancelled.

The ballot was due to close on Monday (September 17), but was extended to noon today due to the exceptional demand.

"We are absolutely overwhelmed with the number of hits received," declared promoter Harvey Goldmsmith.

He added: "In the first day alone, we received an unprecedented number of hits that literally knocked the website out. Over the last seven days we have recorded over 1,000 million hits. This response is amazing and from it we have had over one million registrations. We would like to thank all the fans for their support and we hope that all those fortunate to be successful will keep the tickets out of the hands of touts."

Led Zeppelin are set to top a bill on November 26 that also includes Pete Townshend, Foreigner and Paolo Nutini, with Bill Wyman And The Rhythm Kings backing those three acts as well as playing their own set.

The show is being held to raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which pays for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey.

The fund was created in honour of the Atlantic Records founder who died last year. Ertegun also helped further the career of a host of acts, including Led Zeppelin.

"For us he was Atlantic Records and remained a close friend and conspirator," explained Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant of the band's decision to reform. "This performance stands alone as our tribute to the work and the life of our long-standing friend."

[via nme.com]

***

Interview with Lou Reed

In 1975, Lou Reed released Metal Machine Music, a notorious, 65-minute noise opus comprised almost entirely of guitar feedback: fans spat, critics withered, and most who trudged through each of the album's four sides presumed Reed was either staging an elaborate joke or weaseling out of his record contract with RCA. Over the next three decades, Metal Machine Music fell out print, was re-anointed by burgeoning noise fiends, and, ultimately, remastered for a digital reissue. In 2002, Ulrick Krieger transcribed the album and arranged for it to be performed-- with Reed on guitar-- by Zeitkratzer, an 11-member classical ensemble. The concert was held at the MaerzMusik Haus Der Berliner Festspiele on March 17, 2002 and just released on CD (with an accompanying DVD) by San Francisco's Asphodel Records. Pitchfork talked to Reed about the performance, Tai Chi, and whether or not Metal Machine Music is anything more than an epic prank.


Lou Reed: Hello, hi. How are you, Amanda?

Pitchfork: I'm great.

Reed: How do you say your last name?

Pitchfork: Petrusich.

Reed: Wow. A name name. That's a real name. You should be a movie star. What nationality is it?

Pitchfork: It's Croatian.

Reed: It's a great, great name. Are you married? What's your husband's name?

Pitchfork: Stetka. Which is a Czech name.

Reed: What's it like when you say them both?

Pitchfork: Petrusich-Stetka.

Reed: That's pretty good, don't you think?

Pitchfork: It's not bad.

Reed: What if you got knighted? That would be pretty good.

Pitchfork: [laughs] I watched the DVD of the performance last night. The DVD is my favorite part-- watching these extremely focused musicians hunched over, attacking their instruments, it's so physical. Was that something you thought about-- the physicality of the work-- when you were first approached about a live performance?

Reed: Absolutely. If Metal Machine is anything, it's energy and physicality, and you should be able to physically feel it, and it takes a lot of energy to perform it. So when Ulrick Krieger, who's the guy who transcribed it for Zeitkratzer-- he's an independent musician, he plays with a lot of different bands-- he called and said, "I want to do this, I've always loved the piece and I want to transcribe it." I said it can't be transcribed. It defies transcription. And he said, "Well, you know, I've always loved this thing, I know I can do this, and I know we can play this. Let me transcribe a little bit of it and we'll record five or ten minutes of it and you listen to it and decide whether it's OK or not."

So he did and it was amazing. I just couldn't believe it, that he could do this. But he did.

Pitchfork: The idea of Metal Machine Music as a performance piece also makes sense, in a way, because I get the impression that the record was recorded live-- obviously there aren't any overdubs, any loops. How did Krieger's transcription change your own understanding of the work, if at all?

Reed: It was amazing to hear the pieces that he latched onto, as pit stops, or [as places] to take off from. There are a lot of things he could be listening to, and he picked this one or that one, and I found it fascinating-- what he was doing, his way of listening. It's an interesting question. There's a lot of ways [to listen], if you're gonna listen to it [at all]. But if you can't listen to it like that, like the way you just said, then it's just a mishmash of noise.

But if you go in, and you scope it, and put your attention here, there, wherever you think the fun is, then it has shape. And that's what he did. He took off from the same starting point I did, but [from there] it depends on how you focus it, because you could parlay it in a lot of different ways. It was obvious that he could really hear it, that he could notate this for real. He was really paying attention to the harmonics. I just didn't even realize that guys into the electronics had gotten that far. I really didn't know. Within the past couple of years, I've been meeting a lot of younger musicians, and they collect a lot of analog pedals, a lot of electro-harmonic stuff. And I'm like, "Why are you doing this? How come you don't have the new versions?" And they say, "Well, the sound is really great on these old analog pedals." But they don't play guitars, they don't play keyboards, they play machines. And they all know. So they say "Oh, on Metal Machine, there's this, this, and this.'' It's pretty astonishing to me.

Pitchfork: Well, accurately or inaccurately, Metal Machine Music is often credited as inspiring, in part, much of the contemporary avant-garde music scene-- noise, in particular. I know you've performed with Sonic Youth, who have obviously taken cues from Metal Machine Music, but do you listen to any younger, maybe more experimental, post-Sonic Youth noise bands? There's a whole, burgeoning movement of people who I think are really clearly inspired by this record.

Reed: You know, I hear a lot of that kind of stuff. I wouldn't presume to say, "Oh, they've been listening to Metal Machine." But on the other hand, sometimes I hear something and it's-- that kind of feedback, that kind of aggression, that kind of ripping guitar-- and I say well, that sounds familiar! I know who did that-- who does do that. I mean, I still do that. I liked it then and I love it now. I'm still involved in that kind of thing. And I really, really like it. I get a kick out of it. It requires a certain kind of energy that young people have.

Pitchfork: It requires a certain energy from the audience, too.

Reed: Well, the thing is coming at you. But, you know, it's friendly.

Pitchfork: On 2003's The Raven, you included a white noise track called "Fire Music", and...

Reed: Aren't you smart! Yes, I did. It's a direct descendent.

Pitchfork: ...And then this year, you released Hudson River Wind Meditations, which many have described as both antithetical to and an extension of Metal Machine Music. Are you finding yourself less and less interested in traditional verse-chorus-verse songwriting?

Reed: Funny you should ask that. "Fire Music" came after 9/11, and I was [living] just a couple of blocks from [Ground Zero]. And I was talking to some gearheads, some tech guys-- I wanted to know if you could do certain things that I was able to do on Metal Machine because it was analog. In digital, they said, "You can do this, you can do that, but you can't do that, it will lose punch. You could technically do that, but it wouldn't sound too great." I thought that was kind of fascinating. So I wanted to do this little piece with a Metal Machine approach. It's only two or three minute long. That's "Fire Music".

"Fire Music" just kills me. We mastered it...if you ever get to hear it on a big system, cause it's only two or three minutes long, but that thing, about two-thirds of the way through, rises up and advances out of the speakers, and I swear to you, it is amazing. I was up at [producer] Bob Ludwig's where he listening on these huge, God knows what...and that thing just rises up like this huge sonic wave, it's amazing. If there wasn't a wall to catch you, you'd still be heading south! It's just so astonishing. I started doing this other kind of music, and I was running these programs through guitar pedals. And it wasn't meant for guitar pedals. I found out lots of people do that.

But that's what I was doing, and that led into what became Hudson River Wind Meditations. That happened because I started getting this sound, and I've tried to get the sound back, but I can't get it back-- it's the one on the record, but I can't reproduce it. I was using some stuff by Line 6, and I don't know, coupled with a virus. I'm not sure what exactly did it, but I've never been able to get it back, because I didn't write it down and it wasn't MIDIed. But I had this thing and I really loved it and it was really good for meditation, it was really good for doing certain physical workouts, like Tai Chi. I took it to my class and the class liked it so we kept it there and used it. I would practice my routine to it. And I also did meditation to it. And then some people said, "Can we borrow that thing?" and I thought OK, I will move out of the rock thing because I don't want rock people thinking that there are rock'n'roll songs here, like they did with Metal Machine Music. It's for someone who wants it and knows what it is.

But you know, "Fire Music", I hadn't gone back to Metal Machine in a long time, but on The Raven, there are all these little electronic pieces in between the songs, and that built up to "Fire Music". I've got another one that I've got that I haven't released. It's the other side of the meditation music, it's called Purity. It's really amazing.

Pitchfork: Is it similar to the Hudson River songs?

Reed: It's the aggressive side of it.

Pitchfork: And you're releasing it?

Reed: I do want to release it. It really comes at you. I like music that comes at you.

Pitchfork: Me too.

Reed: What can you do?

Pitchfork: It's a critical cliché, but plenty have said, retrospectively, that Metal Machine Music was released ahead of its time-- it was reissued in 2000, and then performed in 2002, and now released as a live record in 2007. Do you think 2007 is its time?

Reed: I did [the live record] because I really loved it and I got a chance to work with these great musicians again, and we all had a great time doing it. I know that young kids out there find this music on their own. And they take it in the spirit in which it's done. I don't expect a lot of people to go for it, but I think there are some people who will get a lot of pleasure out of it.

Pitchfork: There's always been considerable chatter about whether or not Metal Machine Music was intended as a joke, or a stab at the record industry-- do you think the continuing conjecture about your intentions for the record is, now, as much a part of the art as the music?

Reed: The myth-- depends on how you look at it, but the myth is sort of better than the truth. The myth is that I made it to get out of a recording contract. OK, but the truth is that I wouldn't do that, because I wouldn't want you to buy a record that I didn't really like, that I was just trying to do a legal thing with. I wouldn't do something like that. The truth is that I really, really, really loved it. I was in a position where I could have it come out. I just didn't want it to come out and have the audience think it was more rock songs. It was only on the market for three weeks anyway. Then they took it away.

Pitchfork: Right, I read that it was the most returned record at that time...

Reed: It still may be the all-time champ.

Pitchfork: Do you think the critical and commercial response would have been different if it had been released on a classical label or an avant-garde label?

Reed: I haven't a clue. I tried to have it released on the classical label at RCA. And on it, it says "An Electronic Composition". That means no words.

Pitchfork: Plus it's got that cover...

Reed: That's a rock'n'roll cover, that's for sure.

Pitchfork: As a songwriter in 1975, what kinds of contextual or personal cues made you want to experiment with things like drone, volume, and sustained sound?

Reed: In the Velvet Underground, my guitar solos were always feedback solos, so it wasn't that big of a leap to say I want to do something that's nothing but guitar feedback, that doesn't have a steady beat and doesn't have a key. All we have to do is just have fun on the guitar, you don't have to worry about key and tempo. We just had tons of feedback and melody and licks flying around all over the place. I had two huge amps, and I would take two guitars and tune them a certain way and lean them against the amps so they would start feeding back. And once they started feeding back, both of them, their sounds would collide and that would produce a third sound, and then that would start feeding and causing another one and another one, and I would play along with all of them.

Pitchfork: Earlier this summer, you toured with your 1973 album Berlin. How have these opportunities to revisit old work-- to place it in a new context, to reexamine and recreate-- affected you?

Reed: I think it's amazing to have the opportunity to do things like that.

Pitchfork: To bring those records to new generations of people?

Reed: Well, a new generation, or maybe two new generations. I'm not sure how many years a generation is. I don't know if it's 10 or 20 years, I'm not sure. But if Berlin was 1973 and Metal Machine was '75 and now it's 2007, that's more than 30 years, so maybe it's a generation and a half. I think it's a real honor to be able to take these things out there and let people hear them.

Pitchfork: Both of those records were skewered, critically, on their release.

Reed: They didn't have much of a chance. Out they came and away they went.

Pitchfork: Were you anxious about Metal Machine Music's initial release? You must have had some sense that it was going to be shocking to people who bought and loved "Walk on the Wild Side" or "Sweet Jane".

Reed: I honestly thought "Boy, people who like guitar feedback are gonna go crazy for this." Count me among them. If you like loud guitars, here we are.

Pitchfork: Has it been interesting to see bands appropriate the idea of feedback as art, or feedback as its own instrument? I imagine it has to be gratifying to see that happen.

Reed: Feedback is a complete style of playing. People get better and better and better at it. Controlled feedback is really...I've devoted a lot of time to trying to do that. To have what I call the good harmonics, and avoid-- through electronics and the way the thing is built and the distance from the amp-- the bad harmonics. And also not go deaf while I was doing it. Because it used to be done by volume, and I thought, "I'll go deaf doing it this way." So I met a guy named Pete Cornish. The idea was: how can I have a loud sound soft, so I don't go deaf? How can I do that kind of feedback? How can I get that kind of physicality going and not knock my own ears out while I'm at it? Because if the amp is offstage, then I don't have the distance to play around with the note. I have to be reasonably near the amp to be able to work with the feedback.

Pitchfork: You're currently collaborating with the Killers, and you've mentioned being a fan of Okkervil River-- are there any other new bands that you find particularly compelling?

Reed: I can't remember the names. There are lots of them. I would have to go into my iPod and look them up. But Okkervil River, sure. I like Amy Winehouse-- I hope everything's OK with her, but what a great song.

Pitchfork: And the stuff with the Killers...

Reed: That band is genuinely great. The thing we did, I think it's called "Tranquilize".

Pitchfork: I know you have to go right now. Thanks so much for talking.

Reed: It's been a real pleasure talking to you, Amanda. Thank you.

[via pitchforkmedia.com]

***

Bye, bye Virgin Megastores, hello....Zavvi?

Zavvi Entertainment Group has today completed a management buyout of the Virgin Megastores UK and Irish chain from Virgin Group, creating the British Isles’ largest independent entertainment retailer.

All the existing one hundred and twenty five UK and Irish stores will continue to operate under the name Zavvi, as will the company's recently-revamped online offering. UK Stores are set for rebranding by November 2007 with the website and Irish stores to follow suit in January 2008.

Commenting on the buyout, Simon Douglas, managing director of the new company, waffled on obscurely for a few paragraphs, before concluding: “there is still very much a place on an increasingly homogenised high street for an independent entertainment specialist that puts customers, product, service and personality at the top of the agenda.”

Speculation is rife as to whether the takeover will have a similar impact on falling record sales as the recent closure of Fopp, as the brand continues to switch focus from music to sales of DVDs, mobile phones and computer games.

***

Radiohead Ends Download Ban Via 7digital Deal

adiohead has finally broken its long-held ban on digital downloads by placing much of its catalog on a U.K. digital download service.

The band's former label, EMI Music Group, struck a deal with 7digital for such albums as "The Bends" and "OK Computer." Only the full albums are available, not individual track downloads. The catalog also will be sold without any DRM protection, per EMI's broader effort.

This has been a sticking point with Radiohead for some time, and is the primary reason its work has not yet appeared on iTunes. Radiohead does have a handful of songs on iTunes that were included on various soundtracks or compilations.

The 7digital service has scored a number of high-profile content exclusives of late due to its willingness to sell in album-only formats. Earlier this month it added Pink Floyd's catalog, and in August nabbed more than 20 Rolling Stones albums.

***

Zack De La Rocha Wraps First Solo Album

Rage Against The Machine vocalist Zack De La Rocha has completed his first solo album, on which he has been working on and off since first leaving the band in 2000. Billboard.com has learned that De La Rocha worked extensively on the as-yet-untitled project with former the Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore.

Sources familiar with the album say it features De La Rocha playing keyboards and that the sound is a hybrid of "Led Zeppelin and Dr. Dre. Some of it has the power you'd expect from him in Rage."

A portion of the recording took place recently at Jack Johnson's new eco-friendly studio in Los Angeles. De La Rocha is understood to be unsigned and mulling offers for how to best distribute the album.

Post-Rage, De La Rocha has recorded material with DJ Shadow, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and the Roots' ?uestlove, but it is unknown if any of these tracks appear on the finished album. One song with Reznor, "We Want It All," appears on the 2004 compilation "Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11."

Rage Against The Machine reunited in late April to co-headline the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and has played a handful of gigs since. The lone shows left on the band's itinerary are in late October at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans and the Vegoose festival in Las Vegas.

[via billboard.com]

***

Live music is more spectacular, popular and expensive than ever

The pointless wait for the main attraction, the ear-splitting whistle from the microphone, the sweaty crush as the band gets going and then the anti-climactic exit down a badly-lit fire escape. The live music business has often tested the patience of fans.

Ten years ago, Melvin Benn started to see signs that this patience was running out. The Mean Fiddler, which once played host to the Pixies and Billy Bragg and gave its name to a group of venues Benn ran until this summer, began to lose money. Five years later, it had to be shut down.

“If I’m honest with you, it was because of the location,” recalls Benn, now a silver-haired version of the teenage enthusiast who used to hitch-hike to festivals in the 1970s. The Mean Fiddler sits on Harlesden High Street in north-west London, a featureless suburban strip of kebab shops, convenience stores and minicab offices. “In the mid- to late-1990s, people didn’t want to be in the sticks of London to watch live music any more. It was becoming a more accessible activity, and while the old music fans hadn’t minded being in slightly less salubrious areas such as Harlesden, the new music fans wanted to get out of the Tube and feel comfortable about where they were walking.”

On a Tuesday night in late August, a crowd spills out of the concrete and glass Underground station at North Greenwich towards the spiked canopy of the O2 arena. They have come to see Prince, in residence for a record-breaking 21 nights at the rebranded, refitted Millennium Dome. Well-dressed, multilingual and spanning a wide range of ages, they look like the definition of Benn’s new audience.

As they file past uniformed greeters and a branch of Starbucks into a vast, 20,000-capacity arena that boasts seats designed to improve the acoustics, they are also vivid proof of how the live music business is growing up.

The concert industry was once the poor relation of the record business. “It used to be that the tour was there to sell the record,” says David Glick, a former lawyer who last year set up Edge Performance VCT, a £20m fund for investing in live music. Now, with compact disc sales collapsing, it is the other way round.

In an age of media fragmentation, digital disruption and rampant piracy, live music is one of the few parts of the entertainment industry to be enjoying impressive growth. In the US alone, ticket sales grew by 16 per cent last year to $3.6bn, up from $1bn a decade ago according to Pollstar, one of the few research firms attempting to measure the fragmented business. The audience has grown by 50 per cent in that period and average ticket prices have more than doubled.

As if to confirm that the album now promotes the tour, Prince gave away 3m copies of his latest CD in the UK through a tabloid newspaper. Prince is an extreme case, according to Paul McGuinness, U2’s manager since 1978, who argues that the diminutive star would have struggled to find 3m buyers for the album. Unlike Prince or the Rolling Stones, who also packed the O2 arena this summer, U2’s new albums still routinely top the charts. But even Bono and his fellow band members have seen a stark shift in their business model.

“Twenty years ago, we were losing money on the road,” says McGuinness, who keeps the same share of U2’s takings as its four better-known frontmen. The 1987 Joshua Tree tour sold out but the profits were only about $5m – just enough to fund the making of a spin-off film, Rattle and Hum. Last year, when U2’s Vertigo tour wrapped up after 131 shows and 4.6m tickets, it had grossed $389m, McGuinness notes, making it the second most lucrative on record after the Rolling Stones’ tour in 2005. In 20 years, the average ticket price for a U2 concert has risen from about $12 – about the same as a CD – to $85, five to 10 times what many physical albums sell for.

Several connected factors share the credit for this turnround. An expanding audience has allowed promoters to push up ticket prices, tempting more artists out on tour, creating demand for ever more elaborate shows and attracting investment in a new generation of venues to cater to concert-goers who would never be seen dead in Harlesden.

The fact that this is happening just as CD sales are falling off a cliff is no coincidence. A near-30 per cent decline in revenues since the once lucrative format peaked in 1997 is forcing artists back on the road, according to Harvey Goldsmith, who began organising gigs as a student in Brighton and is now, at 61, the UK’s biggest promoter, with events such as Live Aid and Live 8 to his credit.

“With record sales dropping so fast, artists lost their primary source of income,” he says. “If they were going to keep going, the only way to do it was to play live. So more and more artists have suddenly become available. Bands who’d been living off royalty income are starting to reform and go on tour.”

This week, Led Zeppelin announced they were reforming for a one-off gig at the O2 arena, their first full concert in more than 20 years. With the likes of other veteran rockers such as the Eagles, Genesis, Pink Floyd and The Police all now back on stage, the demographics of the live music consumer have been transformed, bringing in older baby boomers with their legendary disposable incomes. Some bands remain wary of simply falling back on their old fans. “The 50-year-olds are perfectly welcome – I’m over 50 myself – but we must recruit new followers each time, otherwise it becomes irrelevant,” says McGuinness, but even U2 are benefiting from the fact their audience is far broader now than 20 years ago.

McGuinness, known as an uncommonly astute manager for having negotiated one of the highest royalty rates in the business for U2, believes he has to “break the band again with each record”. He has stuck to a formula of touring about once every four years, always on the back of a new album, but as audiences have grown, the band has seen the profits from its recordings become less relevant. “We thought from the very beginning it was important not to be at the mercy of the record company, so we had to have a parallel [live] career,” he says. “In those days, nobody foresaw the extraordinary inflation in ticket prices. [But] now record sales and the publishing income that goes along with those sales is a much smaller part of our total business – probably no more than a quarter.”

According to Benn, the economics of touring have become heavily stacked in performers’ favour. “In the 1960s and 1970s, it would have been hard to describe the artists as all-powerful but they are now,” he says. “The rule of thumb now is that 85 per cent [of the ticket revenues] goes to the artist.”

The industry’s growth has been such that there is plenty left over for venue owners, however, and the surge in takings has prompted a wave of investment in what once barely qualified as an industry. At the top end of the market, a few global operators are accumulating large portfolios of existing venues and building new ones. AEG, which this year reopened the much-mocked Millennium Dome as the O2 arena after a £600m overhaul, and operates Manchester’s 20,000-seat MEN Arena, is now working on a 4m square foot “entertainment district” in Los Angeles, where it already owns the similar-size Staples Center. LiveNation, which this year bought the House of Blues chain, has also been reminding record companies of the industry’s changing balance of power by bidding to manage Madonna’s future album releases as well as her tours.

On a smaller scale, funds such as Edge, which Goldsmith runs alongside David Glick, and an £18m venture capital trust raised by Ingenious, a London-based media investment group, are backing entrepreneurial promoters and new events while offering investors what Glick calls “showbiz without tears” – exposure to the sector with the risk-reducing sweetener of tax relief on their profits.

For Goldsmith, an impatient character who has spent more than three decades trying to find appropriate locations for artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen and the recently deceased Luciano Pavarotti, the emergence of large, professionally-run venues is long overdue. “There has always been a general laziness on behalf of owners, who don’t understand venues have to be updated and refurbished,” he argues. Like Heathrow airport and too many other examples of rusting British infrastructure, “things fall apart, people become jaded, and if they don’t have to use it, they won’t.”

Until the O2 arena opened, artists looking for a large venue in London were limited to two sites built in the 1930s for other purposes: the 12,000 capacity Wembley Arena, where aficionados say the acoustics are affected by the old Empire pool beneath the stage, and Earls Court, an echoing 15,000-seat exhibition hall where concerts have to be squeezed in between trade fairs.

“In the UK, there hadn’t been a large, dedicated music venue since the Royal Albert Hall in 1872,” says David Campbell, a one-time helicopter pilot who, as president and chief executive of AEG Europe, oversaw the Millennium Dome’s redevelopment.

When Bon Jovi opened the O2 in June, the venue started with the disadvantage of having to shake off memories of the ill-conceived Dome, but the early shows here have been greeted with enthusiasm by the music industry. “I wish there was an O2 in every city in Europe. There are precious few arenas in Europe and those that there are are small,” McGuinness says, adding that U2 is likely to play at the arena after their next album, which is expected some time next year.

Campbell likens Europe’s lack of modern performing facilities to the period in which America had discovered the multiplex cinemas “while we were still having to put up with the two-screen Odeon in the High Street”. Just as the cinema industry was forced to sharpen up its act by the DVD boom, live music venues are having to work harder to coax people away from their iPods. And just as theatre owners make their margins from popcorn and bucket-sized servings of cola, concert venues are now paying more attention to other sources of revenue beyond their share of the ticket price.

At midday outside the O2, local schoolchildren are shooting hoops at an NBA-branded basketball area. Inside, a few tourists are wandering around, taking photos of each other in front of a large BMW grille, which forms part of the carmaker’s sponsorship of the venue. Naming rights alone bring in £6m a year from O2, the mobile operator, but AEG has signed up a host of other sponsors from Nestlé to NEC. They have helped fill the ring of corporate boxes around the arena, which account for one in 10 of the seats and a far greater share of the takings.

Sitting at one of 20 bars and restaurants that line the circular route around the inside of the O2, Campbell says the business model also relies on a strategy of filling the venue for more than just a few hours each evening. Outside the bar, an 11-screen cinema is advertising that weekend’s UK premiere of High School Musical 2, hard-hatted workmen are preparing the Tutankhamun exhibition that will open in November, and diggers are clearing the sand from a temporary indoor beach, which will give way to an ice rink for the winter.

“The challenge is how do you create little entertainment cities,” says Campbell. Just as Las Vegas turned itself from a one-business town to a hub for shows, galleries and celebrity-endorsed restaurants, the O2 is wrapping other activities around the music venue at its core to persuade people to come early and stay late. Gambling is one activity that will be missing from the site when the final third of the old Dome is filled in, however. A government change of heart put paid to hopes of installing a super-casino, leaving Campbell to find other uses for the space, and delaying plans for a hotel.

Even without the hotel, he has been recruiting staff from the hospitality industry to bring another innovation to the live music industry: customer service. Chris Moyles, the Radio One breakfast show DJ, began a recent show with five minutes of breathless praise for the staff he had met at the Rolling Stones concert, from the helpful “big dude on the door” to the cheerful “fellow in a luminous jacket” directing people to the station after the concert. “It’s like they’ve had American training,” he said. “I’ve never known anything like it.”

Genevieve Glover, AEG Europe’s “human solutions” director, has been playing the Moyles tape to security guards before they go on shift ever since. “The whole selection process is geared around customer service, no matter what job you’re coming for,” she says.

Since the arena opened, more than 2,000 staff, contractors, tenants and casual workers have been through a one-day “orientation” programme, she says. The presence of smiling, uniformed young women wishing customers a good evening as they leave the Prince concert is a stark contrast to the bouncers of old.

Such investments do not come cheap but Goldsmith believes they are vital to the venue’s success. “Part of it is the magnet of going to the O2. People are not disappointed with the experience, so they’re coming back.” For promoters and artists, a popular venue can make the difference between unsold tickets and a full house, he adds. “The Royal Albert Hall is the busiest venue on the planet. Everybody loves it, because I can put a show on with Mr No Name and I’ll sell 20 per cent of the venue. People just like coming to the Royal Albert Hall.”

Goldsmith came up with the idea for the Millennium Dome to be redeveloped as a music venue, and his Edge fund has exclusive arrangements with the O2 arena (the day after our interview, he put tickets for a Springsteen concert on sale and watched them sell out within two minutes). He predicts the venue will comfortably exceed its target of putting on 150 shows in its first year.

If so, it will have demonstrated one important advantage over the vast arenas in every US city that have made America such an attractive touring market for bands. In venues such as the Staples Center or Madison Square Garden, Campbell notes, acts have to fit around the home games of resident basketball or hockey teams, which may take up 50 or 100 nights a year. “Here, we could put a lot more focus on music.”

Acoustics are not just important for the purists, he insists. The delay period – an artist shouting into a microphone and the crowd responding – is just two seconds in the O2. At older venues, it can be five times as long. “The ones who really get it are the comedians,” Campbell says.

Such improvements are also essential if acts such as U2 are to expect their audience to be willing to pay more for each production. “People have come to expect better shows, sounding better with big productions,” McGuinness says. The visual effects that have become possible as the cost of vast screens has come down are equally important, he adds. “If you invite 60,000 people to a football stadium, you’d better do something they can see.”

With the best tours now borrowing from fine art, video art and architecture, McGuinness says: “The audience intuitively knows a lot of money has been spent to produce this spectacle. They have an innate sense of getting value for their ticket money.” McGuinness, confident that U2’s elaborate productions are worth the money, says: “The proof of that is we did not have one unsold ticket on the last tour.”

He adds that the averages are being boosted by the development of VIP areas such as the O2 arena’s corporate boxes, where tickets can cost hundreds of pounds. “Bono always says rich people have rights too,” he notes.

How long, though, can the virtuous circle continue? Despite the development of new arenas from Coventry to Glasgow, Campbell admits he would be nervous opening anything on the scale of the O2 outside a capital city: “No disrespect to Manchester, but you could never have 21 nights of Prince in Manchester.”

Goldsmith sees some risk that a tougher economic climate, spiralling ticket prices and over-exposed bands could lead to saturation. “There will be a point when artists get too greedy in what they’re asking for, and people think, ‘It wasn’t that good and I’ve already seen them 15 times,’” he says.

But the live music business has one more thing going for it, which most other sectors of the media do not. So far, it cannot be replicated better or more cheaply online. “Is a YouTube experience the same as going to the show?” asks Goldsmith. “You know the answer.”

***

Pete Doherty moves in with Shane McGowan

Chaotic rock star Pete Doherty has said he will move in with Shane McGowan after his most recent stint in rehab.

The Babyshambles frontman is undergoing yet another legally enforced attempt to kick his addictions to heroin and crack cocaine.

When he comes out of rehab, however, he will have nowhere to live and will therefore move in with the wild-living Pogues singer Shane McGowan above North London rock 'n' roll haunt the Boogaloo Bar.

Babyshambles' new album Shotters Nation, which has received positive reviews, will be released in the U.K. on October 1.

[via music.yahoo.com]

***

Iceland Airwaves Single Festival Passes Now Available

Single festival passes for the 2007 Iceland Airwaves festival are now available for purchase. For the international folk, Icelandair has crafted the perfect deal for their US and European friends. The package includes a plane ticket, festival pass and optional hotel accomodations. Festival passes will grant access to all festival shows for the entire weekend.

The festival will house over 190 bands from October 17-21 in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland. Confirmed US acts include, !!!, Of Montreal, Grizzly Bear and Deerhoof just to name a few.

***

SpiralFrog to offer free music downloads

SpiralFrog.com, an ad-supported Web site that allows visitors to download music and videos free of charge, was scheduled to launch Monday in the U.S. and Canada after months of "beta" testing.

The music service, which has arranged to pay record companies a cut of its advertising revenue, aims to lure music fans who normally flock to online file-swapping networks to share and download music for free. The recording industry has sued thousands of computer users for doing so in recent years.

"We believe it will be a very powerful alternative to the pirate sites," said Joe Mohen, chairman and founder of New York-based SpiralFrog Inc. "With SpiralFrog you know what you're getting ... there's no threat of viruses, adware or spyware."

To deter users from posting copies of songs and videos they get from SpiralFrog, the service requires that users register and log on to the site at least once a month. Otherwise, the content locks up and can't be played.

The Web site's registration screen queries users on demographic filters such as their age, gender and ZIP code. The information is used to determine what kind of ads the users see when they are on the site.

Like other online music services, the SpiralFrog site also features reviews and other information on its artists.

At launch, the service was offering more than 800,000 tracks and 3,500 music videos for download. Much of that content comes by way of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company and the only major label that has licensed its music and videos to SpiralFrog.

The site, which also boasts content from independent record labels, expects to have more than 2 million tracks over the next several months, Mohen said.

Though free, the audio and video files on SpiralFrog carry copy protections like those found on tracks available for sale at Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store and elsewhere.

Downloads cannot be burned to a CD, but they can be transferred to dozens of digital music players. The content, however, is not compatible with Apple's Macintosh computers or its market-leading iPod.

Users are allowed to copy their downloads to no more than two portable music players or compatible mobile phones at one time.

SpiralFrog began allowing some computer users to try out the service earlier this year.

The company aroused interest last fall after it announced its licensing deals with Universal Music and performing rights organization Broadcast Music Inc. But the company missed its early 2007 launch and instead underwent an executive shuffle that ended with the ouster of then-CEO Robin Kent.

Mohen has attributed delays to the time-consuming process of obtaining rights from music publishers and other technical issues.

[via news.yahoo.com]

***

Nick Drake's Fruit Tree Box Reissue Due

Fragile folk-rock icon Nick Drake coaxed three albums out of his brief recording tenure, all of which have grown in reverence from fans in the years since Drake's death.

Once upon a time, far before the folks at Volkswagen gave Drake a boost, those albums-- Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, and Pink Moon-- were collected together in a box set that served as the perfect encapsulation of Drake's majestic ways to blue. That box, titled Fruit Tree (and not to be confused with this year's Family Tree), has been out of print for seven years. But come November 6, as previously mentioned, UME/Fontana will give fans a crack at accruing a good chunk of Nick Drake's discography all at once.

Apart from the classic trio, the 10,000 copies of the Fruit Tree CD box and the 2,000 vinyl sets will come with a 108-page book "featuring song by song analysis by producer Joe Boyd, engineer John Wood, arranger Robert Kirby and songwriter/music journalist and friend Robin Frederick," (says the press release) as well as a DVD copy of the recent Drake documentary A Skin Too Few. This is, the manufacturers warn, a one-time-only run, so acting fast is advised.

In addition, the San Francisco City Arts & Lectures series will host "Remembering Nick Drake", which finds Nick's sister Gabrielle, his producer Joe Boyd, and songwriter Jolie Holland in conversation. That'll take place at San Francisco's Herbst Theater October 2. Both Ms. Drake and Mr. Boyd will be on hand in L.A. October 5 when the American Cinematheque presents "A Place to Be - A Celebration of Nick Drake", which features more dialogue, the L.A. premiere of A Skin Too Few, and a series of short films inspired by Drake and composed by the likes of longtime video lensman Tim Pope and Aussie dreamboat Heath Ledger. A Skin Too Few will also screen October 3 as part of San Francisco's Documentary Festival.

[via pitchforkmedia.com]

***

Chromeo Collaborating With Hall and Oates!

Sure, Chromeo are geeked to open for the Beastie Boys on a handful of their upcoming Canadian dates. Who wouldn't be? But that's nothing compared to the other piece of news coming from the Montreal electroids today.

The duo will apparently be working with throwback pop soulsters/unlikely indie stars Hall and Oates on the veteran duo's forthcoming LP. Sez a press release, "Indeed, Chromeo's idols Hall and Oates have asked them to collaborate with them on their upcoming record! Needless to say, the gentlemen are giddy like schoolchildren to be given this opportunity."

Idols! Sweet talk from the Tender lads. Anyway, that's happening, eventually.

In addition to the Beasties dates next week, Chromeo have shows all over the place, from Miami to Moscow, all the way until December.

You used to be my Chromeo:

09-19 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis *
09-20 Montreal, Quebec - Bell Center *
09-21 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Center *
09-22 Toronto, Ontario - Hummingbird Center *
09-29 Los Angeles, CA - Neighborhood Festival
10-04 Vancouver, British Columbia - TBA
10-05 Edmonton, Alberta - Starlite Room
10-06 Calgary, Alberta - The Legion
10-20 Reykjavik, Iceland - Iceland Airwaves Festival
10-25 London, England - Scala
10-26 Brighton, England - Digital
10-27 Leeds, England - Stylus
11-10 Miami, FL - Bang Music Festival
11-16 Moscow, Russia - Pavillon Production
11-17 St. Petersburg, Russia - Ice Palace
11-22 Newcastle, England - Digital
11-23 Manchester, England - Warehouse Project
11-24 Bristol, England - Thekla
11-29 Glasgow, Scotland - Sub Club
11-30 Liverpool, England - Korova
12-01 Birmingham, England - Rainbow Warehouse

* with Beastie Boys

[via pitchforkmedia.com]

***

The Modern Lovers "The Modern Lovers" (1976 original, 2007 reissue)

History's pegged Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers as proto-punk, but it's only been with the benefit of hindsight that his music has found a place at all. Like fellow ships at sea the Stooges, the New York Dolls, or the Velvet Underground, there was no precedent for what Richman was up to, nor was there much of a declared intent behind it. The Modern Lovers, like all of those other acts, were a rock band first and foremost. They played rock'n'roll. How others defined them was out of their hands.

Punk's rallying cry remains the "1-2-3-4!" count-off, but it's obvious that there's more to Richman when he gleefully keeps counting up to six on "Roadrunner". That track kicks off the Modern Lovers' self-titled debut, the impact of which has rippled through the work of fans as diverse as the Sex Pistols, Brian Eno, NPR fixture Sarah Vowell, sly subversives Art Brut, and lovesick crooner Jens Lekman. Back at the beginning, though, it was all about Richman, his insular world, and specifically his own obsession with the then-novel Velvet Underground, an appreciation he brought back home to Massachusetts after a trip to New York in the late 1960s.

You can hear the Velvets coursing though the Modern Lovers' debut-- impossibly out of print in the U.S. for nearly 20 years-- and not just because most of it was produced by John Cale (notorious impresario Kim Fowley gets credited with a couple of tracks, too). Richman had an innate knack for the Velvets' chugging drones, except rather than explore the dark stuff as Lou Reed did, Richman aims (mostly) for a certain innocence and naivete that's often at odds with the music itself. Indeed, Richman would switch gears before the album's belated release, and he all but disowned the harsher original sound of the Modern Lovers after shifting to softer, gentler sounds.

That belated release originally came in 1976 through the Beserkley label-- three years after most of the material had been recorded and two years after the original Lovers had broken up-- and these songs have been released in several forms since. Ratifying Richman's role as some sort of pioneer, what sounded revolutionary in the early 70s still worked in the late 70s, and endures as something special to this day. In fact, "Roadrunner" alone would have been enough to solidify his legacy: Its rinky-dink organ, Richman's stuffed-up nasal delivery and rudimentary "Sister Ray" guitars remain the perfect synthesis of garage rock sensibilities and nascent punk rule-breaking.

"I'm in love with the radio on/ It helps me from being alone at night!" exhorts Richman in his half spoken/have sung voice as he hurtles down the highway like the titular bird (or at least its Looney Tunes equivalent). "I'm in love with rock'n'roll and I'll be out all night!" It's the perfect encapsulation of rock's romance and power, captured in a compact song so great it could honestly go on forever and keep you in the car until it's run its course (or at least until you've run out of gas).

The rest of The Modern Lovers is just as good, if slightly less eternal (the same goes for the alternate version included as a bonus track). "Pablo Picasso" is a hilarious take on the notorious painter's womanizing ways and their unsuitableness for the real world ("Some people try to pick up girls and get called an asshole/ This never happened to Pablo Picasso"), with Richman mixing envy, pity and disdain. "I'm Straight" is nervous nice-guy geek-rock that presages the Talking Heads (who, of course, eventually enlisted Modern Lover Jerry Harrison), and finds Richman touting his squareness the way others play up their bad-boy cool. On "Girl Friend", he innocently but earnestly craves companionship for his walks through the Fenway and the Museum of Fine Arts.

During the "Old World", Richman extols the virtues of his parents' generation and pledges to maintain those bygone ways in the present. But on "Modern World", he's just as enthusiastic about 1970s America: "Well, the modern world is not so bad/ Not like the students say," he sings. "In fact, I'd be in heaven/ If you'd share the modern world with me." Even when he's trying to get some in "Astral Plane" ("I know we've been together just this week!"), his desperation comes off charming, especially when it's paired with his "Someone I Care About" confession: "What I want is a girl that I care about/ Or I want nothing at all."

What reads as contradiction is simply one effect of Richman's irresistible inclusiveness. It's what sets him apart from the Velvets, the Ramones, the Stooges and the like-- acts attracted to themes that matched their ragged sounds. Richman's music is tough, but he is not. He loves the old world, he loves the modern world. He loves rock'n'roll, he loves girls, he loves America, and most importantly, he loves you. Leave the anomie of "1969", the sleaze of "Waiting for the Man", or the mean streets of "53rd & 3rd" to the tough guys. Richman wants to rock you just like all the others, but he also wants to give you a big hug when he's done.

***

David Shrigley gig: Hot Chip + more for 'Worried Noodles' launch party

Artists: Scarlet's Well, Max Tundra, Hot Chip, Simon Bookish, Psapp, Munch Munch, James Chadwick, Cibelle

"In 2005, acclaimed Glasgow-based artist and writer, David Shrigley produced an LP-sized book of lyrics to imaginary songs called Worried Noodles (The Empty Sleeve) for the independent record label Tomlab.

"The lyrics and drawings making up the book were all drawn and worded in Shrigley’s distinctive mordantly funny style of line drawn cartoons and always bizarre and often disquieting subject matter.

"Inspired by the deranged quality of the work Tomlab immediately started approaching the crème de la crème and newest bright sparks of the indie rock world to set the lyrics to music."

...we couldn't have put it better ourselves. Crème de la crème and bright sparks located, work has finished on the record - all 39 tracks - and the Worried Noodles compilation will be released on the 15th of October.

Contributors include Franz Ferdinand, Liars, Deerhoof, Scout Niblett, David Byrne, and TV On The Radio, amongst others. Some of those others will play a celebratory launch gig for the record at the Scala in King's X, London on the 14th of October.

Read:

Upset The Rhythm and Tomlab present…
David Shrigley’s ‘WORRIED NOODLES’
Hot Chip
Psapp
Max Tundra
Simon Bookish
Munch Munch
Cibelle
James Chadwick
Scarlet's Well
+ more TBC

The night will run from 3pm 'til 11; tickets setting you back £10. Rough Trade has them, too.

[via drownedinsound.com]

***

Soulwax to release double-disc remix LP

Remixes: things on the b-side of shitty singles, and also the title of Soulwax's forthcoming double album. Awesome: what it'll be, actually.

Released on October 22, the double-disc set includes offerings - reworked, obviously - from the likes of Hot Chip, Daft Punk, The Gossip and Muse. Get those four in a room and you've a party.

Tracklisting:

CD one

The Gossip - 'Standing In The Way Of Control' (Soulwax Nite version)
Lcd Soundsystem - 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' (Soulwax Shibuya mix)
Human Resource Vs 808 State - 'Cubique' (Soulwax edit)
Klaxons - 'Gravity's Rainbow' (Soulwax remix)
DJ Shadow - '8 Days' (Soulwax remix)
Justice - 'Phantom Pt2' (Soulwax Nite version)
Kylie Minogue - 'Cant Get You Out Of My Head' (Soulwax rock version)
Gorillaz - 'Dare' (Soulwax remix)
Robbie Williams - 'Lovelight' (Soulwax Ravelight mix)
Arthur Argent - 'Hold Your Head Up' (Soulwax remix)
Lords Of Acid - 'I Sit On Acid' (Soulwax remix)
Daft Punk - 'Robot Rock' (Soulwax remix)
Sugababes - 'Round Round' (Soulwax remix)
Muse - 'Muscle Museum' (Soulwax remix)

CD two - rare/previously unreleased material

Wes Phillips - 'I'm Just A Sucka For A Pretty Face' (Soulwax remix)
Tiga - 'Move My Body' (original version)
Playgroup - 'Make It Happen' (Soulwax remix)
Felix Da Housecat - 'Rocket Ride' (Soulwax Rock It Right Mix)
Ladytron - 'Seventeen' (Soulwax remix)
Hot Chip - 'Ready For The Floor' (Soulwax dub)

Soulwax are to perform Remixes live - presumably this means they'll just be DJing? - at a series of Radio Soulwax shows. Announcement on that to follow...

[via drownedinsound.com]

***

Interview with Justice

French Touch: chain smoking in the church of Justice
Artists: Justice

Justice is fierce. A raw-knuckled, regal, vessel-bursting beast.

Five of us are reclining in the tight caverns of London’s Koko. Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay are telling the Observer Music Monthly that they’re not giving their readers any steer on hometown nightlife. Petulant? Perhaps it’s the red walls and a lack of caffeine that’s making them spar. That or they’re playing bouncer for a seedy, cherished, clandestine demi-monde.

Nah, they say. It’s just that Paris doesn’t have the clubs to step out to. And even if there were, the twenty-something duo talk like they’d rather be at home reddening their eyes in front of GarageBand.

Question: what drove you to make the record? “Just because we were kind of like... geeks,” offers Gaspard through a thickening fugue of fag smoke. “We had to find a way to talk to girls.” He recommends me to the window, gesturing at the smoke detector on the ceiling.

I know you said earlier that there weren’t many places to go out in Paris – do you think that helped in a way? That you ended up staying in and smoking and writing tracks rather than going out? A lot of dance albums, when you play them back at home they don’t sound very good, but yours sits well just to listen to.
Xavier: Club music is something we discovered really late, when we started to DJ really. It was never open to us before. We are just trying to make pop music but with the tools of today – because the tools of today make it sound modern and also allows you to make everything from beginning to the end. There are reasons why it sounds electronic but our main concern is just to make music you can listen to at home or in the car…

So when you say that… imagine maybe if you were around in the ‘60s - you wouldn’t use electronics? Maybe you’d’ve picked up guitars instead? Made pop that way?
X: I think if we had the possibility of working with a musician - if we had a big studio in Paris for a few months, I think we would just make like West Coast pop music. Like Steely Dan or Billy Joel… If we had infinite possibilities we would end up making this kind of pop music.

Quelle surprise, Billy Joel. Couldn’t tell it was your fire raging in this beast’s belly. Draw back, try another oft-given gauge…

I remember you mentioned Bad Brains earlier [in the OMM interview]. Did you grow up listening to hardcore punk or anything like that?
X: No. I think that sound is just a reaction after recording ‘We Are Your Friends’. Pedro Winter (AKA Busy P, Mr. Ed Banger) said like, “Okay guys, it’s been a long time now so maybe you should make another EP”. And he said, “I’ve booked a recording session for one month, that means you have one month to make your next EP”. We thought: Okay, we have to make something – it doesn’t matter if it’s less successful, because maybe, probably, we’ll sell fewer records – but we have to make something that people would notice and remember [us] by.
And that’s why you went for that aggressive, tough…
X: Yeah. Also, before we were playing regularly we were using that distortion to cover up a lot of mistakes. Now we’re playing more and getting better.

While the guttural synth and knife-happy production that grazes Justice’s debut record (review) continues to collect admiration in fresh sweat and pheromones, it has also drawn an amount of sniffling from more wizened quarters. Those with ears tuned more to skill than sentiment have seen through a few cracks in the sheets of noise and raised hands to tell the tale.

You say you don’t come from a dance background - have you encountered much criticism from the dance community?
X: We are a target for criticism from many type of person – obviously for a techno purist and stuff like this, they don’t like that… we don’t try to educate people. We just like to make people dance, and I understand if this makes them angry. We are also a good target for… y’know, like they say the first person who loves you, the two after will hate you? But this is something we’ve been prepared for since the beginning because we know the process of to love and then to hate. And we used to do the same, at high school. We cannot be angry with these people because it is a natural process – that’s one reason we stopped reading reviews on the internet because it’s impossible to ignore.
I think a lot of reviews on the internet have been really positive…
X: Yeah, but there are also a lot of bad ones. At the beginning we used to check for feedback or what – but now it’s just like fake, it’s impossible to… but once again I understand totally why people hate us.

From here, the conversation dives into a discussion on French pop, and Augé and de Rosnay’s appreciation of it. Their traits as an act echo those of foregone Gallic luminaries – contrary and almost stubbornly not cut to type. Justice are rockers who didn’t like to rock, dancers who never raved ‘til they DJ’d; carriers of Christian effects into dens of inequity like Koko. Self-confessed, home-bound geeks flown to rock and fashion’s glossiest pages.

That idiosyncrasy works at levels most obvious in Gainsbourg, though the names cited this evening are François de Roubaix, Vladimir Cosma and Francis Lai. And, despite an alleged dedication of single and standout album track ‘D.A.N.C.E’ to Michael Jackson, they’re proud of music they see as nearly lost at the expense of Anglo-American imitation. Imitation that can’t draw on the “stronger music history” of Britain or the US that allows, they say, bands like their friends Klaxons to plunder, re-appropriate and excite sections of support from dance kids, rock kids, pop kids.

X: Most of the French people, they really hate what was done in France in the ‘80s and are really not proud of the typical French music because it started to sound more like American hip-hop or something like this. French kids they have one thing they like so they just stick on it. So many musical styles are coming from the UK – when you compare it to France – apart from the pop music, which is really special…
But what I’ve heard of that is very much ‘French’, it doesn’t try to take too much from American or English…
X: Yeah, it’s really French. The way of writing songs is really French, the way of producing the songs is really French and this is something we learnt very quickly. What was big in France more was just really bad pop music – singers imitating, like y’know James Blunt?
Yeah.
X: Just a piano and a voice, there is no personality or whatever.
No personality, no rhythm, nothing interesting about it.
X: And what people saw is French hip-hop, but this is just a bad copy of American hip-hop.

de Rosnay will worry less about copy-cat hip-hop and Blunt residue now - any swing that had on the trade corridors out from France has been hijacked by the pirates at Ed Banger; a one-label armada taking dancefloors global. At the galleon’s helm and head of the vanguard is Pedro Winter, flagged earlier in this feature. Pedro’s been busy fostering an export packed and branded with the Tricolore – Justice, Medhi, Oizo, Vicarious Bliss, So Me, SebastiAn, Uffie, Feadz: all young, casual arrogants; motley fluoro, star-tipped hedonists.

How important is Pedro Winter to Ed Banger and this wave of Parisian music?
X: He’s really involved in everything… he was like a DJ at the start and he’d play club nights on the condition that we could play too. We played in Australia last year, it was just Justice y’know, Pedro was coming with us [as part of the label] – but six months after everybody has forgotten us and just talks about Pedro. He’s a real character. I think he has a really strong presence.
You talk about Australia and you’re about to go all over the world on tour. Where has the best crowds?
Gaspard: London, I think.
You don’t have to say that…
G: No, it’s funny because we get asked that a lot, but it’s London I think…
X: …and in September 2007 Los Angeles. I don’t know why – it’s crazy in the USA. We don’t really exist there so we just know a few cities. I don’t know why but in Los Angeles people are just crazy.
Which city has the best girls?
G: Los Angeles…
Justice’s PR: You’re supposed to say London!
G: No really, Los Angeles.

The night will go on to see a typically acerbic, typically fierce set from Justice (review), who pack the balconies, bars and floors of the old Palais out from wall to wall. The hour-long mix trips over itself at points, rhythms barging sans grace into each other, but on the whole it goes down rapturously. These things are to be expected, too, from an act that only made their live debut two months ago on the Sahara stage at Coachella. Before the freshest sweat and pheromones there’s time for one more question.

People wonder if you’re Christian, because of the cross. Are you?
X: Yeah… yeah. 90 per cent of the French population is Christian. I think people might get confused, y’know, and see the logo of Justice and it’s the logo of Jesus Christ.
Do you think in the future more people will come to associate it with Justice than Jesus?
X: Ah, we’re not going to make the same mistake of saying we are bigger than Jesus Christ!
Yeah... yeah, sorry… I shouldn’t have tried to trick you into that, should I?

Geeks learn quick. Justice is swift.

[via drownedinsound.com]

***

Prince To Sue YouTube, eBay Over Unauthorized Content

Prince plans to sue YouTube and other major Web sites for unauthorized use of his music in a bid to "reclaim his art on the Internet."

"YouTube ... are clearly able (to) filter porn and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success," a statement released on his behalf said.

YouTube responded by saying it was working with artists to help them manage their music on the site. "Most content owners understand that we respect copyrights, we work every day to help them manage their content, and we are developing state-of-the-art tools to let them do that even better," said YouTube chief counsel Zahavah Levine.

In addition to YouTube, Prince plans legal action against online auctioneer eBay and Pirate Bay, a site accused by Hollywood and the music industry as being a major source of music and film piracy.

It is rare for an individual artist of Prince's stature to take on popular Web sites, while some up-and-coming performers actually encourage online file sharing to create a fan base and buzz around a record.

"Prince strongly believes artists as the creators and owners of their music need to reclaim their art," the statement added.

British company Web Sheriff has been hired to help coordinate the action. "In the last couple of weeks we have directly removed approximately 2,000 Prince videos from YouTube," said Web Sheriff managing director John Giacobbi.

"The problem is that one can reduce it to zero and then the next day there will be 100 or 500 or whatever. This carries on ad nauseam at Prince's expense," he told Reuters.

He said his company had also removed around 300 items from eBay, where whole lines of pirated goods trading on Prince's name had appeared, including clocks, socks, mugs and key rings.

***

Registration Extended For Red-Hot Zeppelin Tix

Organizers of the Led Zeppelin-headlined Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert on Nov. 26 in London have extended the registration deadline in the wake of "unprecedented demand" for tickets.

The ballot has now been extended from a midday Sept. 17 close to midday Sept. 19, after the Web site set up to handle ticket registrations received 89.5 million attempts in a 12-hour period today (Sept. 13).

"The Web site has been receiving over five million hits per hour since the press announcement 24 hours ago," said show organizer Harvey Goldsmith. "The service provider is doing their best to keep the site running and has moved it to a server on its own."

Since confirmation Wednesday of the one-off Led Zeppelin comeback at London's O2 Arena, the online service has had 80,000 requests each minute, at one point causing the system to crash, according to a spokesman.

Just 18,000 tickets, priced at $250, will be distributed to applicants on a lottery basis, capped at two tickets per household.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Goldsmith admitted 852 corporate tickets, priced upwards $2,000 each, would be held aside to cater particularly for interest in the U.S.

Zeppelin will play "all the big numbers" in a "meaty" set of roughly two hours, Goldsmith said. The Who's Pete Townshend, Bill Wyman, Foreigner's Mick Jones and Paolo Nutini are also on the bill.

***

James Brown Colleague Bobby Byrd Dies At 73

Bobby Byrd, a longtime collaborator with James Brown and co-founder of the Famous Flames, died this week at his home near Atlanta. He was 73.

Byrd died Wednesday, a spokesman for Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home in Atlanta said. News accounts attributed the death to cancer.

One of the chief architects of Brown's trademark sound, Byrd's contributions can be heard on early James Brown soul tracks and on hits that laid the foundations of funk, like "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine." The punctuating phrase "Get on up," which repeats throughout that song, was sung by Byrd.

"You listen to those records and those voices together, it was incredible," Keith Jenkins, a member of Brown's Soul Generals, told the Augusta Chronicle. "Whether they were singing in harmony on something like 'Licking Stick' or doing call and response on 'Sex Machine,' it was always something special."

Brown, who was born and raised in poverty, was serving a sentence in a north Georgia reform school for breaking into cars when he met Byrd, and Byrd's family arranged to take Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his gospel group. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B.

Byrd stayed with the Famous Flames, and the JBs after that, until 1973. Later, he would have a string of modest R&B hits.

Jenkins said Byrd was no longer playing with Brown during his tenure with the band, but he remained a strong presence and often accompanied the band. "He (Brown) didn't always call him out to do anything, but he liked having him there. He was family," he said.

Byrd performed at the James Brown Arena in Augusta during Brown's memorial service in December.

Brown's daughter Deanna Brown, who refers to Byrd as Uncle Bobby, told the Chronicle that one of her fondest memories is of her father and Byrd performing, in tandem, at her wedding. She said it's the sort of impromptu performance only those two men could give.

"I mean, when you go back that far, some 50 years, you are family," she said. "Uncle Bobby and Daddy, they were like brothers. They wrote the music that lifted people up, you know. It's an important lesson and one people, I hope, can recognize."

Services for Byrd are scheduled for Sept. 22 at Ray of Hope Christian Church in Atlanta.

[via billboard.com]

***

Ryuichi Sakamoto & Yellow Magic Orchestra Update

Ryuichi Sakamoto sends word about a YMO update, his podcast and a new score he’s working on.

YMO Reunion

The original members of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) were back together in Japan recently to celebrate the launch of the group’s first ever song being available for sale by download. Many obstacles have kept the group’s music off download sites for years, but they were recently able to record a new version of Rydeen, retitled Rydeen 79/07, available for sale in Japan from the commons/Avex label.

YMO teamed up with Kirin Beer to celebrate the occasion with the Kirin Lager meets YMO ad campaign. Since the site is in Japanese, we’ll save you a few hapless clicks by telling you to click on the yellow circle on the bottom right corner of the page.

Silk Soundtrack

Ryuichi Sakamoto is currently in production on the original motion picture score for director Francois Girard’s (The Red Violin), Silk. Based on a novel by Alessandro Baricco, Silk tells the story of a married silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler in 19th century France traveling to Japan for his town’s supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out their African supply. During his stay in Japan, he becomes obsessed with the concubine of a local baron. Starring Keira Knightley and Michael Pitt, Silk is currently slated for a fall, 2007 theatrical release.Radio Sakamoto Podcast

Highlights from Sakamoto’s J-Wave (Japan) radio show are now available around the globe via podcast. Generally airing six times a year, there are currently three episodes available for free download.

Radio Sakamoto podcast details
Additional information is available at the show’s J-Wave homepage (Japanes):

Ryuichi Sakamoto+Shiro Takatani Artists in Residence @ YCAM

Ryuichi Sakamoto+Shiro Takatani present the “LIFE - fluid, invisible, inaudible …” opening event with a special laptop concert on Saturday March 10th at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) in Yamaguchi, Japan. The opening will be followed by a special artist talk with Sakamoto and Takatani on March 11th.

After the opening “LIFE - fluid, invisible, inaudible …” can be experienced daily at YCAM through Monday, May 28th (closed Tuesdays) from 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM.

Chain-music updated

Sakamoto’s chain-music project has just been updated with a contribution from agf. The piece can be heard in its entirety at http://sitesakamoto.com/chainmusic.

To date, 22 artists have made a contribution to chain-music: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Towa Tei, Atom Heart, Ryoji Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai, David Sylvian, Mika (Pan Sonic), Thomas Knak, Cornelius, moOg Yamamoto, Christan Fennesz, Paul D. Miller (a/k/a DJ Spooky TSK), Daniel Bernard Roumain, Hector Zazou, mukul, Taylor Deupree, Christopher Willits, groopies, O.Lamm, sutekh, and more to follow!

Here’s Sakmoto’s official ‘notion’ for chain-music:

”In March, 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, I felt that I had to advocate peace over war, so I started this little web project. Even though the 100,000-plus Iraqi civilian and the 3,000-plus US military lives lost to date can’t be brought back, I want to keep this project alive and open until the war has ended, until peace comes to Iraq. The idea is to chain musical pieces from one artist to another, like a chain letter. The purpose is to musically mark the passage of time that Iraq is in a state of war, to mark the steps to peace, to take each day that there is war and build a musical memorial to the desire for peace as well as to mark off the time of war. So far 22 artists have contributed their musical pieces, adding on to the existing work vertically as well as horizontally, overlaying or extending the existing creation. There are no rules how to contribute musically, except that the contributor must not eliminate any of the existing music as he or she adds to it, because the existing music is the result of the artistic contribution of the other artists.”
-Ryuichi Sakamoto February, 2007

Babel

Babel recently won the THE ANTHONY ASQUITH AWARD for Achievement in Film Music at the 2007 Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAS) for the original score composed by Gustavo Santaolalla. In additional to Santaolalla’s score, Babel also prominently features several Sakamoto compositions, including Bibo no Aozora in the film’s closing scenes.

[via synthopia.com]

***

New Grizzly Bear (Feat. Dirty Projectors & Beirut) - "Alligator (Choir Version)" (Stereogum Premiere)

Folks rolled up their sleeves 'n' split into camps for Feist's made-for Late Night choir. OK, maybe those outfits were a bit much, but it's gonna be difficult griping about this bouyant remake of "Alligator" from Grizzly Bear's quiet-is-the-new-loud 2004 debut Horn Of Plenty (that's right, they had the name before the National!). Increasing the original minute-and-a-half sliver into five minutes and change of stunning, cloud-lined harmonies, the Grizzly boys are joined by Zach Condon and Dirty Projectors, soaring through the roof. Sweet, epic beauty with an off-the-charts final crescendo and well-played anticlimax to brass swell and drifting exit. Sorry if we're drooling -- but it's that good.

***

The National Cover Springsteen on New Single

The scruffy, Cincinnati-bred chroniclers of twenty-something life known as the National will take on that scruffy, Jersey-bred chronicler of blue collar life known as the Boss aka BRUUUUUUCE aka plain old Bruce Springsteen on the B-side of their new single.

The band's cover of Bruce's Nebraska gem "Mansion on the Hill", recorded live at the opening night of last year's New York Guitar Festival, will back the"Apartment Story" single. Beggars Banquet will release "Apartment Story" in the UK on November 5 and November 6 in the U.S.

The National also have tour dates stretching into December in support of this year's quietly good Boxer.

Dates:

09-14 Dallas, TX - Grenada Theater @
09-15 Austin, TX - Emo's ^
09-16 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits Festival)
09-18 Denver, CO - Ogden Theater @
09-19 Omaha, NE - Slowdown @
09-20 Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line @
09-21 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater @
09-22 Chicago, IL - The Vic @
09-23 Cincinnati, OH - Madison Theater @
09-26 Los Angeles, CA - "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" (TV appearance)
09-27 San Diego, CA - Casbah @
09-28 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern @
09-29 San Francisco, CA - The Grand Ballroom @
10-01 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom @
10-02 Seattle, WA - Showbox @
10-03 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom @
10-06 Boston, MA - Roxy
10-07 Montreal, Quebec - Le National
10-08 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Hall
10-09 Buffalo, NY - The Tralf Music Hall
10-10 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
10-11 New York, NY - Terminal 5 @
10-30 Dublin, Ireland - Ambassador Theatre @
10-31 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Spring + Airbrake @
11-01 Dublin, Ireland - Olympia Theatre @
11-02 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC @
11-03 Sheffield, England - Leadmill @
11-04 Manchester, England - Academy 2 @
11-06 Birmingham, England - Irish Centre @
11-07 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire @
11-08 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire
11-09 Bristol, England - Anson Rooms @
11-10 Portsmouth, England - Pyramids @
11-12 Brussels, Belgium - AB !
11-13 Reims, France - La Cartonnerie !
11-14 Paris, France - Elysée Montmartre !
11-15 Rennes, France - Ubu Club !
11-16 Toulouse, France - La Nef !
11-17 Barcelona, Spain - Apolo !
11-19 Clermont-Ferrand, France - The Cooperative de Mai !
11-20 Lausanne, Switzerland - Le Romandie !
11-21 Milan, Italy - Transilvania !
11-22 Zurich, Switzerland - Abart !
11-23 Zagreb, Croatia - KSET !
11-24 Vienna, Austria - Szene Wien !
11-26 Stuttgart, Germany - Schocken 12 !
11-27 Cologne, Germany - Prime Club !
11-28 Amsterdam, Holland - Melkweg !
11-30 Copenhagen, Denmark - Amager Bio !
12-01 Stockholm, Sweden - Berns !
12-02 Oslo, Norway - John Dee !
12-03 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega !
12-05 Hamburg, Germany - Knust !
12-06 Berlin, Germany - Postbahnhof !
12-09 Moscow, Russia - Apelsin Club

@ with St. Vincent
^ with Blonde Redhead
! with Hayden

[via pitchformedia]

***

Tommy Lee quits Motley Crue

Drummer quits perm rockers over lawsuit.

Tommy Lee has quit US rockers Motley Crüe in a row over a lawsuit.

Lee's former band-mates Mick Mars, Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx had filed a lawsuit against Lee's manager, Carl Stubner, over a dispute over payments, prompting Lee to tender his resignation.

In a statement, Lee said that he had: "recently informed Sixx and Mars, the shareholders of Motley Crüe, Inc., that he was resigning from the band and his resignation was accepted."

"Mr Lee has not made any allegations against his current personal manager," the statement continued. "Mr Lee feels fortunate to have been part of the Motley Crüe reunion tour, as well as other opportunities outside of Motley Crüe over the past several years.

"It is unfortunate that others believe that they all could have made more money had Mr Lee exclusively participated in the band that he co-founded in 1980."

***

Peter Hook: 'I WOULD play bass in New Order again'

Exiled bassist hints at possible reunion for Tony Wilson.

Exiled New Order bassist Peter Hook has hinted that he would consider playing bass with former bandmates Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris again in New Order.

As previously reported on NME.COM, a rift between Hook and his former bandmates had appeared after Hook declared the band split up, prompting Morris and Sumner to declare that they would carry on as New Order without the bassist.

Writing on his MySpace blog, Hook has detailed a conversation he had about a possible tribute gig for Tony Wilson, the late Factory Records boss who signed Hook when he was in Joy Division.

According to the blog, Hook said to Wilson's son Oliver, "In honour of your father, I'd do anything," then clarified that this would include playing bass in New Order.

He added that this was not the only role he would consider: "This means I would sell the popcorn, take the tickets, sweep up after, play bass in New Order/Joy Division/Crawling Chaos."

No official announcements about a possible memorial gig for Tony Wilson have been made yet.

[via nme.com]

***

20 MILLION LED ZEPPELIN FANS CAUSE COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

The announcement yesterday (September 12) that Led Zeppelin are to reform to play a one-off gig on November 26 in honour of their former label boss Ahmet Ertegun, has caused internet meltdown.

Du to the predicted phenomenal demand a special website has been set up for fans to register for the lottery style tickets at www.ahmettribute.com - however within minutes of the announcement yesterday - the site crashed under the weight of internet traffic.

An estimated 20 million fans from round the world have already tried to log on - crashing the 02 Arena's website in the process.

Service provider Pipex report that there are around 80,000 fans a minute attempting to register their ticket applications at the site.

They are working around the clock to keep the website moving and may struggle to find a server large enough to handle capacity.

The message is to be patient. The website will be open until midday Monday (September 17, 2007) for anyone wanting register. It is NOT 'first come first served' and all successful applicants will be entered into the ballot for tickets to be drawn at random.

Led Zeppelin will headline a spectacular concert bill with Pete Townshend, Bill Wyman and the Rhythm Kings, Foreigner and Paolo Nutini in honour of Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records and the man who had a guiding hand in all of their careers. Ertegun sadly died last year at the age of 83.

[via uncut.co.uk]

***

LED ZEPPELIN DEMAND FOR TICKETS CRASHES SITE

Ticket demand for the forthcoming one-off Led Zeppelin reunion show has already caused the official registration site to crash.

The band are due to play London's 02 Arena on November 26 - a tribute night dedicated to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who died last year.

Concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith, who is putting on the event, said "Don't forget it's not just fans in the UK, they were massive around the world - I expect there will be huge demand from Japan, Australia and especially the United States. He predicted that the gig would cause the "largest demand for one show in history".

The only way to register for tickets, which cost £125, is to go to www.ahmettribute.com to be in the ballot. Registartion closes on Monday lunchtime (September 17).

There will be around 18,000 tickets allocated after this date.

[via uncut.co.uk]

***

Led Zeppelin reunion: full details

Led Zeppelin will reform for a one of show at the O2 arena in London it was confirmed today (September 12).

The band will reunite for the show in November 26, topping a bill that also includes Pete Townshend, Foreigner and Paolo Nutini with Bill Wyman And The Rhythm Kings backing those three acts as well as playing themselves.

The show is being held to raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which pays for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey.

The fund was created in honour of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun who died last year. He worked helped further the career of a host of acts including Led Zeppelin.

"During the Zeppelin years, Ahmet Ertegun was a major foundation of solidarity and accord. For us he was Atlantic Records and remained a close friend and conspirator," explained Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant of the band's decision to reform. "£his performance stands alone as our tribute to the work and the life of our long standing friend."

Tickets for the show cost £125 each and they are limited to two per person and will be distributed by ballot only.

Those wishing to go must register on Ahmettribute.com to be in the ballot. Registration closes on Monday (September 17), while any tickets that appear on online auction sites afterwards will be immediately cancelled.

A big after show for the gig is set to take place on the night at the O2's Indigo venue.

Led Zeppelin will feature original members Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, while Jason Bonham, the son of their late drummer John Bonham, will play with the band.

The band will also release a new best of compilation 'Mothership' on November 13.

Promoter Harvey Goldsmith said at the moment the band "have no plans to tour but hopes they will". He added they were enjoying working together again and were currently planning a two hour for the gig.

[via nme.com]

***

Welcome to Ahmet Tribute 1923 - 2006

Led Zeppelin Live At 02 Arena - 11.26.07

Shepard Fairey Designs Led Zeppelin Cover

The Daily Swarm reports that Shepard Fairey, the designer most recently known for designing the Smashing Pumpkins' Zeitgeist cover, announced at a press conference yesterday that he was recently commissioned by Led Zeppelin to design the packaging for the greatest hits collection titled Mothership.

Fairey is a well-known artist/designer responsible for the Andre the Giant Has A Posse street campaign as well as the Black Eyed Peas' album Monkey Business as well as publisher of Swindle Magazine and owner of Obey Clothing.

The Zeppelin double disc compilation is due out on November 13, but the band's members are gearing up for a formal announcement expected next week. Industry insiders suspect that the three surviving members will unveil plans for a one-night reunion, as previously reported.

[via dailyswarm.com]

***

Ramones Ultimate DVD To See Release

On October 2, Rhino Entertainment will release a double-DVD of over four hours of Ramones live footage titled It's Alive 1974 - 1996. The affordable set comes with a suggested list price of $19.99 and features the rotating members of the band—Johnny, Joey, Tommy, Marky, Richie, Dee Dee, and C-Jay—performing all over the world as arranged chronologically. The visual document of the band's consistent punk rock energy was four years in the making and curated by Tommy.

These are the performances as featured on the DVD set:

IT'S ALIVE 1974-1996

Disc 1
CBGB -- New York, NY (9/15/74)
1. "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue"
2. "I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement"
3. "Judy Is A Punk"
Max's Kansas City -- New York, NY (4/18/76)
4. "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"
5. "53rd & 3rd"
The Club -- Cambridge, MA (5/12/76)
6. "Chain Saw"
Max's Kansas City -- New York, NY (10/8/76)
7. "Havana Affair"
8. "Listen To My Heart"
My Father's Place -- Roslyn, NY (4/13/77)
9. "I Remember You"
10. "Carbona Not Glue"
CBGB -- New York, NY (6/11/77)
11. "Blitzkrieg Bop"
12. "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"
13. "Beat On The Brat"
14. "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue"
15. "Rockaway Beach"
16. "Cretin Hop"
17. "Oh Oh I Love Her So"
18. "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World"
The Second Chance -- Ann Arbor, MI (6/26/77)
19. "Rockaway Beach"
20. "Carbona Not Glue"
The Ivanhoe Theater -- Chicago, IL (7/6/77)
21. "Pinhead"
22. "Suzy Is A Headbanger"
The Armadillo -- Austin, TX (7/14/77) Early Show
23. "Commando"
24. "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"
The Armadillo -- Austin, TX (7/14/77) Late Show
25. "Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy"
26. "53rd & 3rd"
27. "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World"
Liberty Hall -- Houston, TX (7/15/77)
28. "Loudmouth"
29. "I Remember You"
30. "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment"
Liberty Hall -- Houston, TX (7/16/77)
31. "Oh Oh I Love Her So"
32. "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World"
Don Kirshner's Rock Concert -- L.A., CA (8/9/77)
33. "Loudmouth"
34. "Judy Is A Punk"
35. "Glad To See You Go"
36. "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment"
The Camera Mart Stages -- New York, NY (9/3/77)
37. "Swallow My Pride"
38. "Pinhead"
39. "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"
It's Alive, The Rainbow Theatre -- London (12/31/77)
40. "Blitzkrieg Bop"
41. "I Wanna Be Well"
42. "Glad To See You Go"
43. "You're Gonna Kill That Girl"
44. "Commando"
45. "Havana Affair"
46. "Cretin Hop"
47. "Listen To My Heart"
48. "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You"
49. "Pinhead"
50. "Do You Wanna Dance?"
51. "Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy"
52. "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue"
53. "We're A Happy Family"

Disc 2
Musikladen -- Bremen, Germany (9/13/78)
1. "Rockaway Beach"
2. "Teenage Lobotomy"
3. "Blitzkrieg Bop"
4. "Don't Come Close"
5. "I Don't Care"
6. "She's The One"
7. "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"
8. "Cretin Hop"
9. "Listen To My Heart"
10. "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You"
11. "Pinhead"
The Old Grey Whistle Test -- London (9/19/78)
12. "Don't Come Close"
13. "She's The One"
14. "Go Mental"
Top of the Pops -- London (9/28/78)
15. "Don't Come Close"
Oakland, CA (12/28/78)
16. "I'm Against It"
17. "Needles And Pins"
San Francisco Civic Center, S.F., CA (6/9/79)
18. "I Want You Around"
19. "I'm Affected"
20. "California Sun"
The Old Grey Whistle Test -- London (1/15/78)
21. "Rock 'N' Roll High School"
22. "Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio?"
Top of the Pops -- London (1/31/80)
23. "Baby I Love You"
Sha Na Na -- L.A., CA (5/19/80)
24. "Rock 'N' Roll High School"
Mandagsborsen -- Stockholm, Sweden (10/26/81)
25. "We Want The Airwaves"
TVE Musical Express -- Madrid, Spain (11/17/81)
26. "This Business Is Killing Me"
27. "All Quiet On The Eastern Front"
US Festival -- San Bernardino, CA (9/3/82)
28. "Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio?"
29. "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment"
30. "Rock 'N' Roll High School"
31. "I Wanna Be Sedated"
32. "Beat On The Brat"
33. "The KKK Took My Baby Away"
34. "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow"
35. "Chinese Rocks"
36. "Teenage Lobotomy"
The Old Grey Whistle Test -- London (2/26/85)
37. "Wart Hog"
38. "Chasing The Night"
Obras Sanitarias, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2/3/87)
39. "Blitzkrieg Bop"
40. "Freak Of Nature"
41. "Crummy Stuff"
42. "Love Kills"
43. "I Don't Care"
44. "Too Tough To Die"
45. "Mama's Boy"
Provinssirock Festival, Seinajoki, Finland (6/4/88)
46. "I Don't Want You Anymore"
47. "Weasel Face"
48. "Garden Of Serenity"
49. "I Just Want To Have Something To Do"
50. "Surfin' Bird"
51. "Cretin Hop"
52. "Somebody Put Something In My Drink"
53. "We're A Happy Family"
R.I.T., Rochester, NY (10/8/88)
54. "Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio"
55. "Wart Hog"
Rolling Stone Club -- Milan, Italy (3/16/92)
56. "Psycho Therapy"
57. "I Believe In Miracles"
58. "I Wanna Live"
59. "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)"
60. "Pet Sematary"
61. "Animal Boy"
62. "Pinhead"
Top of the Pops -- London (6/29/95)
63. "I Don't Wanna Grow Up"
River Plate Stadium -- Estadio Antonio V. Liverti -- Buenos Aires, Argentina (3/16/96)
64. "I Wanna Be Sedated"
65. "R.A.M.O.N.E.S."
66. "Blitzkrieg Bop"

***