Radiohead Giveaway

Radiohead. What’s left to say about this seminal British band that has defined Britpop for nearly twenty years? The genre defying genius of Thom Yorke and company can be charted over the course of their seven albums, but post OK Computer (1997) releases further shape the evocative mood and style that would come to define this their sound over the next decade.

In honor of Capitol/EMI’s recent release of 2CD “Collectors Editions “and Limited Edition 2CD + DVD “Special Collectors Editions” of Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail To The Thief, we decided to take a look back at these three influential albums.

Released in 2000, Kid A became the first Radiohead album to top the charts in the US, debuting at number one and was nominated for an Album of the Year Grammy. Transitioning to a more ambient and electronic sound with tracks like “Idioteque” and “Everything In Its Right Place” this album cemented the band’s place in music history. The stirring fluidity of “How to Disappear Completely” stands as one of the most haunting tracks of the bands catalog.

Released just eight months after Kid A, 2001’s Amnesiac features tracks “Knives Out” and “Pyramid Song,” both natural extensions of the band’s developing ambient sound. “Life In A Glass House” showcases their experimentation with jazz influences, with trumpet and trombones accompaniment.

Radiohead returned to their guitar roots, combined with other electronic influences on 2003’s Hail to the Thief. Tracks like “There, There,” “2+2+5” and “Where I End and You Begin (The Sky is Falling In)" exhibit this fusion with more prominent guitar work.

In celebration of these releases, we are giving away a limited number of the “Special Collectors Editions.” Each “Special Collectors Edition” includes both CDs and a DVD with live music performances and various video clips all packaged in a deluxe, lift-top box. Just e-mail us by this Friday October 2nd.

POST BY GUEST BLOGGER VERONICA

Monday Morning Newsletter (3-16-09)

Frodus will have it’s first reunion in a decade next week. The host of this event will be the Radio Room in Austin, TX on March 21st. Filling in on bass will be Liam Wilson of The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Billy Corgan testified last week to the the House Judiciary Committee on the Performance Rights Act. As expected, he’d like to get paid more. The Smashing Pumpkins’ vocalist appears on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. The act would require radio stations to pay additional royalties for the music they play. Jose finds it strange to agree with Billy Corgan on any topic.

Only days after their catfight with The Cure’s Robert Smith, Radiohead have begun hissing at Hannah Montana. Backstage at the Grammys, Miley requested to meet the band, and they declined. Miley publicly pouted. A spokesperson for Radiohead responded, "When Miley grows up, she'll learn not to have a sense of entitlement."

The Grand Duchy will be releasing it’s first full-legnth LP on April 14. The album is a side project of Frank Black working with his wife Violet Clark. The album will come out via Cooking Vinyl.

Hella have hit the studio are working on a new album. This follows a statement that the next Hella album will be a return to their roots as a duo. It will be their first album as a two-piece in 5 years. It’s tentatively scheduled for a late 2009 release.

The music video director Floria Sigismondi is producing a film on the seminal all-female punk rock band The Runaways. Dakota Fanning has been cast to play the part of the group’s lead singer, Cheri Currie, who was also 15 when she joined the band. Kristen Stewart, will play the part of singer Joan Jett. Filing starts this spring. the part of Lita Ford is as yet un-cast. Jose hopes for Lilo.

The Orb will be releasing their 17th LP this June. The album, Baghdad Batteries will be coming out on Malicious Damage. It is the third in their “orbsessions” series. I almost described the album but it all goes oonce oonce oonce like the last 16. http://www.myspace.com/orbisms

The Beverly Hills Police Department has issued a warrant for Lindsay Lohan's arrest, stemming from her 2007 DUI conviction. She is reported to have violated the terms of her probation. She had pled no-contest to her DUI back in 2007. Jose wants to see her and Amy Winehouse catfight.

The 2009 Grammys or Why do I Still Watch This Shit?

Seriously, the title should sum it all up - why do we tune in to this anymore? I tune in, year in and year out, hoping that deserving bands win Album of the Year mostly. This year there was great reason to tune in: the Grammys were actually relevant! Talented, decent artists were nominated. Kings of Leon won a Grammy; M.I.A was pregnant, performed and nominated for Record of the Year; Album of the Year was between two amazing albums, two not so bad albums, and an album of seasoned veterans that won the day nominations were announced. It's how the Grammys always goes. Oh, and Radiohead played "15 Step" with the USC Marching Band and owned the damn night.

So Alison Krauss & Robert Plant won every award they were up for basically. They then got to perform right before taking home the night's top honor Album of the Year. Coveniently enough they had to walk all of 10-25 feet from backstage. It then got me to thinking, and going to the source to be reminded of how the Album of the Year category always goes. Typically, they are 3-4 really solid, culturally noticed albums vieing for the top prize. Typically, these albums lose to a record put out by bands of longevity, bands who deserve for putting the time in. During his acceptance speech, Plant acknowledged that back in his day, this would have been called him and Zeppelin selling out. Now, it's just a nice way to spend his Sunday evening.

So what am I getting to? My point is that in a flailing industry where sales of the record decline more and more each year, the industry needs to come up with a plan to see more records get sold. Typically, albums see a spike in sales after winning a Grammy - this time next week, Billboard will report that the Krauss/Plant collab Rising Sand will see a sales increase of 113% or something. But with people downloading music illegally these days more than going to their big box/chain store to purchase the record, they need to come up with a tactic to make profit. This is done by awarding Album of the Year, the highest honor, to an album with a buying demographic. The other nominees typically will win the top prize in their genre - Radiohead: alternative, Lil' Wayne: rap, Coldplay: ...rock - and then give the big one to the one that will move most units. When the record by the man who fronted one of the world's biggest rock bands and a legendary country singer gets the recognition of Album of the Year, their fans will buy the album because their fans are older people who don't know how to download music; they might not even know how to buy things online, so they go to Wal-Mart, spend $15 on the CD and everyone wins.

But look at this year's other nominees: Lil' Wayne's Tha Carter III has a feat that no one has done in a long time, selling over a million copies in its first week and thus becoming the top selling record of 2008. And then there is that Radiohead band who defied all odds, told the industry to fuck off, and should have been recognized last night with their ballsy name-your-own-price method for In Rainbows. They even disclosed with the public how many copies were sold and how much money was made. They even sold 100,000 copies of a limited edition discbox of it that retailed at $80 bucks. But I guess NARAS couldn't recognize them for defying the industry and releasing it themselves.

And it wasn't like this year was the first. Last year, the Foo Fighters, Kanye, Vince Gill and Amy Winehouse lost to Herbie Hancock doing a bunch of Joni Mitchell covers! No one's gonna waste their time downloading that for free. In 2005, Ray Charles had passed so he automatically won, beating out Green Day, Usher, Alicia Keys and Kanye again. The years that stick out to me the most are 1997 and 2001 particularly. In '97, Celine Dion beat out such heavyweights as Beck and Smashing Pumpkins, while in '01 we saw Steely Dan beat out Beck, Radiohead and Eminem. I still can't believe Outkast won Album of the Year in 2004. Then again, they were up against Evanescence.

So, yes, the Grammys will always be political. They'll never recognize great albums anymore, just ones by people who follow the rules, who are still amidst the confines of record labels, and, most importantly, to those who can still sell records.

In Cineplexes This Weekend: Choke

A few years ago, an ex-girlfriend of mine lent me Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. If I remember the month of May that year, I turned 19 and could not stop reading this book. It had left such an impression on me and still does years later.

This weekend, life gets that much better when the film adaptation of Choke finally hits theaters, starring the illustrious Sam Rockwell in the lead role of med student dropout / sex addict / backbone of Colonial America, Victor Mancini. I read a pretty favorable review on the commute to the office today only exciting me even more about seeing this twisted tale on the big screen.

What's even better is the rather rad soundtrack which ATO released this week digitally. Besides having great contributions from Radiohead, Fiery Furnaces, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, it also features some nifty unreleased and rare tracks from Blitzen Trapper, Buzzcocks, Shout Out Louds and the original version of that Spoon hit "Don't You Evah" from the Natural History.

Choke is out this weekend via Fox Searchlight. Here's a nifty video with Ben Kweller and his song "The Rules" with some clips from the movie:

Lollapalooza 2008, Part One

I’m now four days removed from this year’s Lollapalooza, and I find myself thanking God that nothing happened to me that would project flashbacks a la Vietnam. I still have matching bruises on my knees, albeit they are fading. My jaw, which suffered a blow from what I’m pretty sure was an unintentional fist thrown, has recovered. I’m now writing this finally, days later, in a car after a much-needed rest on the shores of New Jersey. You could now refer to this part of my vacation as Part One Million: The Sickening. My throat, sore and scratchy from the most yelling I have done in 24 years, finally gave way to a snotty head cold, probably from living in a hotel the past seven days surrounded by germs, air conditioning and cigarette smoke.

But what brought us here? What has brought us to a moment that, a week after we touched down in Chicago, finds me even more under rest than before?

--

I had never seen a line like this. It might as well have just gone around the entire diameter of Grant Park. It wasn’t like this last year; honestly Gianni and I don’t remember it being this bad. The mass of people outside of the Lolla locale was nothing like I had see before in my life. Maybe it was because nine hours later, Radiohead would grace the AT&T stage and would go on to play an amazing two hour set to somewhere in the neighborhood of 70,000. What was the biggest downfall was after reaching the front gates, people were just walking in: we didn’t need to wait in line anyway.

We missed Bang Camaro start the day off, but we headed to the South end of the park anyway. Holy Fuck was the first band on the AT&T stage; people were already drinking their $5 Bud products, passing J’s and lord knows what else as turntableism was in battle with a furious live drum kit. I honestly had never been so hot in my life and I’m pretty sure day one, known in my group as The Bitchening, was the hotter than any day Gianni and I took in last year.

We planted are hooves and then asses in front of the MySpace stage, trying to stay cool as we awaited Rogue Wave to get their set started. I knew it was probably going to be the best Rogue Wave show I had ever seen – the band have many a time professed a love for the Windy City, as evident in the track “Chicago X 12”, a song about playing in Chi City. Before they even took stage, the Q101 DJ’s who introduced them had already made reference to the fact that the band, who had a song called “Lake Michigan”, was playing right before it. The set was odd: they opened with typical closer “Love’s Lost Guarantee” and closed on the assault of “Harmonium” which just signaled a great day was ahead for all. I also probably had sweat out five or so pounds, but I really didn’t seem to mind at all. I just did my best to stay hydrated and in the shade when I could.

Conveniently, as in up the steps on the other side of the bushes on the Citi Stage, Louis XIV was the next band on our to see list. Before that, I did manage to let my ears pick up on a few moments of Yeasayer’s set from the AT&T stage and it actually really made me want to sit with All Hour Cymbals. Yeah, I’ll get right on that. I wasn’t sure where Louix XIV was from – I thought they were either from across the pond because of Jason Hill’s snide and snarky vocals, or Detroit. They’re actually from San Diego, but apparently hang out with their friends in Las Vegas that moonlight as The Killers from time to time. I thought I’d notice some of the songs from The Best Little Secrets Are Kept since it was all over during my college radio tenure, but really the only song I noticed was their minor hit “Finding Out True Love Is Blind”.

A sausage and Sweet Leaf lemonade later, we headed to the North end of the park for the first time all day so Gianni could catch the Black Keys tearing it up on the Bud Light stage. We got there right in time for them to start, missing every last possible second of Duffy’s set on the Playstation 3 stage. They catered to their fan base, not only playing their most recognizable songs like “Your Touch” and “10 AM Automatic”, but also songs form their Danger Mouse produced Attack & Release.

And as quickly as they had started and we had arrived in that end of the park, we vanished and headed back south in time for Grizzly Bear. I had been wanting to see them perform since not going to that TV On The Radio / Grizzly Bear tour in the fall of 2006, so this was one performance I was not going to miss. The band never looked more cool and confident. Adorning shades, polo shirts and shorts, it was Ed Droste that got me entangled in a momentary conversation with another fan. He said that if he were 10 or 15 pounds lighter, he’d wear those shorts, too. I just confessed that if I were in a band, that would be my wardrobe for a summer event like this. Really, Will Sheff and Jason Hill I’m talking to you, the three-piece suit is not appropriate in terrible heat. Thank you. New songs were tested and sounded fabulous, as was my jam, “Knife,” which of course Droste would then be keen to point out that CSS was up after them (their rendition of “Knife” was featured on last year’s Friend EP).
We then headed over to the AT&T stage for the rest of our Friday, trying our best to stake out a spot for Radiohead, and we did succeed in my opinion. Before them, though, we had to get through Bloc Party. It would be the fourth time I saw them, and I really wasn’t looking forward to it, but I must say I’m happy to have caught them again. The band played a set like it was a greatest hits tour, playing the best songs from both Silent Alarm and A Weekend In The City, an album I’m not super fond of, but live the songs finally transpired for me. Sadly, they wasted a few minutes of our evening by playing new single “Mercury” which, sadly, does not hold over well at all. Sorry, Dany Sloan.
All day, I had been making predictions of what Radiohead was going to start with. This being the first night of the second leg of their US tour for In Rainbows, I referred back to previous set lists for pointers. “All I Need” and “Bodysnatchers” were frequent openers, but it would actually be “15 Step” that would get the night started. The thin lights were in place, dangling from the rigs and placed around members of the band. They would eventually light up the night sky, competing with the city’s skyline. The screens behind the band were long, with cameramen up high, focusing in on each member so we were not to miss a note or a sneeze for the next two hours. They would play all of In Rainbows, breaking it up with some of the best songs of their career. Ganni was overjoyed with “Paranoid Android” and “Fake Plastic Trees”, I was happy there was no “Creep” and that “The Gloaming” snuck in the middle. “The National Anthem” was a multimedia assault; the red, white and blue lights flashed amidst samples that made me feel like we were eavesdropping on people on phones and other modes of communication. Maybe we were and I don’t even know it. But what might’ve been the clutch moment was the second encore of “2+2=5” in to “Idioteque”. After that, it was 10:01 PM, and we could all say that it was easily the best performance of the day. The real question was how would it stand up to the rest of the weekend? Was there someone else who could challenge, even defeat the ‘Head?
--
Day Two, known among this year’s travel collective as The Insultening, was a drastic change in temperature and scenery from Day One. The humidity was gone as the festivalgoers were treated to a lake effect breeze and clear skies. This would prove to be our busiest day, with nothing but two hours that would were spread out that featured no one we wanted to see.

We started off on the North side this day, catching Does It Offend You, Yeah? as they played to a rather large crowd on the Bud Light stage. We were nice and close to the front for optimal photo opportunities. Going in to it, I was nervous since I had read their live sets were pretty much amazing or horribly awful. Lucky for us, the band was on the spot. There were some off moments, like the unplugging of a mic here or the breaking of a string there, but who cares, they had the crowd’s full attention. I was so enthralled by the fact that they were performing my favorite song off of You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into (“With A Heavy Heart (I Regret To Inform You)”), that we missed one of the band’s members throw up. After that, I was excited to run over to the Playstation 3 stage and catch Mason Jennings, but was sadly let down. After five or six songs, and not a one off of this year’s pristine In The Ever, I was ready to walk away. Something about DIOYY in to Mr. Jennings just didn’t work for me. A bad transition I was not ready for.

Something else I was not ready for, rather not expecting, was who was next. For many a month now, I could not get in to Foals to save my life, but their set that afternoon on the Citi Stage gets the award for Most Surprising Set To Be Rather Enjoyed By Me. Their musicianship was tight: they played like they had been doing it for centuries, not missing a step or a beat. I guess I need to track down Antidotes now.

Down the steps we trekked after the infamous Chicken On A Stick, and saw what had to be the biggest crowd at the MySpace stage all weekend for MGMT. Rather than scoot up in to that, we took the advantage of the AT&T stage being somewhat empty and getting a good spot for Brand New.

Brand New. Brand New. Tsk tsk. Almost two years ago now, Gianni bugged me, begged of me, to listen to The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Of Me. When I finally did, it came in to my life at the perfect time and I can still listen to it and enjoy it. I was about as excited as he was to see them, being his first time seeing one of his favorites. What we ended up being treated to was something we were not expecting. Maybe it was something we were not even ready for.

The crowd was huge. Were they all Brand New fans or were there people staking out a spot for Rage Against The Machine that night? Whatever the case, lead singer Jessie Lacey was none too pleased. Between two songs, he asked the crowd “Why are you not seeing Explosions In The Sky?” referring to the fact they were playing at the same time as them a mile away. “You should be seeing them, you’re all fools.” A song later, they introduced the following number as “Go See Explosions In The Sky”. Was Lacey surprised and upset by this many people seeing him? Was he upset because his guitar was totally out of tune for part of “Sowing Season”? Did somebody forget to take their meds? Whatever the case, they started “You Won’t Know,” introduced as “Bomb Track”, a Rage Against The Machine song. During the song’s bridge, Lacey finally cracked a smile, swaying back and forth as he belted out the line ‘Cause you’re the apple of my eye anyway,’ but I’m convinced that was all sarcasm. Moments later, his guitar came off and he threw it right in to the drum kit. I was surprised no one was hurt. 15 minutes before they were due to end, it was all over. Were there more songs, no one knows. Chuck caught a glimpse of the out of focus set on the big screen like I did, and that could’ve been it. We were all convinced that it was a premature finale. While MGMT played and we sat and listened, right before their first song they stated “We are Radiohead, thank you for coming to see us play,” which I found hysterical, but for some reason, Lacey’s ungratefulness didn’t sit so well with me. This would lead me to a great joke later on about him joining Joy Division at the BMI stage.

We stopped for a round of beers as we headed over to catch Broken Social Scene on the Bud Light stage. Two years ago, many easily deflected that the Canadian superpower were the performance of the entire weekend, mainly in part to the hot indie sex dream of Feist, Amy Milan and Emily Haines altogether on the same stage. Would we get an encore this year? Of course not. The band took the stage as the sun hid behind the Sears Tower and Brendan Canning immediately caught my attention. It was not his burly beard and safety goggle glasses, but more his colorful tank top, white pants and matching shoes. I declared it was a rather indie Elton John look he had bestowed upon the crowd. I guess I was right. “Pacific Theme” would start the show off, leading in to “Cause = Time”. Amy Milan would eventually join them to sing Feist’s part of “Shoreline (7/4),” and they would end an hour later with a gut wrenching take on “It’s All Gonna Break”. As a long time fan, I was a bit let down they ended a festival set with the 10-minute epic that closes out their self-titled album and would’ve loved for them to close on “Ibi Dreams Of Pavement” but it was still good none the less. They did, after all, play “Love Is New”.
And it was back across the park we headed, that long mile we were all so familiar with by the end of that day, for Rage Against The Machine. We staked out a spot on the right, and inched in a bit to the left. I was convinced that maybe the crowd wouldn’t be so nuts back that far, while the rest of my friends said I might be surprised. We could hear the Toadies playing to their masses, running through “Possum Kingdom” and “Tyler” from the MySpace stage, as the camera started to focus on the crowd in front of the AT&T stage. The crowd was already shifting and moving, and the red star hadn’t even been erected yet. But once the lights went out and that banner came up as the backdrop, and the band took the stage, it was coming. Tom Morello’s never to be replicated guitar style ripped open and Brad Wilk started the drum roll that would introduce “Testify”. The crowd surged forward, the song launched, and so did all of we. And then, a fist clocked me right across the chin. I also lost track of two of my closest friends. The next 90 minutes would be interesting for all.

To Be Continued.

Lollapalooza: We're Here!

Arriving at Grant Park this morning, the line was around the block. The heat is not our best friend at the moment - while watching Rogue Wave, I'm convinced that I lost 5 or so pounds that got sweated out. What's the rest of the day look like - who knows. Black Keys for sure, Grizzly Bear a maybe, and some Radiohead band will have us under their rainbow spell at 8PM local time.

Monday Morning Newsletter (06/02/08)

Oxford Collapse is releasing their fourth album, Bits, on August 5 on Sub Pop Records. It was recorded primarily with Eric Emm at Brother Studios. They’re also releasing a new 5-song 12-inch on Comedy Minus One Records. This follows a new 7-inch on Flameshovel records. The supporting tour begins June 13 in Madison, Wisconsin at The Terrace. These boys need a hobby.

Chopper Challenge, a motorcycle-building reality show on CMT, will soon be featuring the band Seether. The bike for episode 104 will feature the band’s logo and likeness. This is slightly less whorish then the cable and insurance company bands they normally use.

The Stills third album, Oceans Will Rise, is coming out on August 19 on Arts & Crafts. There is no word of a tour yet but the band has announced three shows in Canada this June.

The Caesars are releasing their 6th album Strawberry Weed August 19th. This will be their third on Astralwerks and was produced by Ebbot Lundberg of the band Soundtrack Of Our Lives. To the Swedes the band is known as Twelve Caesars or Caesars Palace. Copyright law is a bitch.

Rapper 50 Cent is in trouble again. His Dix Hills home was destroyed this week by a suspicious fire. Six people who were inside including his ex-girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, and their 11-year old illegitimate son Marquise. The couple had been fighting over the 2.4 million dollar house.

There was a big hullabaloo about Prince and Radiohead this week. Prince covered Radiohead's 1993 single "Creep" live at the Coachella Festival. About a hundred bad cellphone videos of it appeared on YouTube overnight. Then in a typical Prince anal-retentive response, his label (NPG) had YouTube yank all the videos. But then Thom Yorke appealed to Prince publicly to permit said videos back online. So today we are all free to see the shitty grainy videos with terrible bootleg audio. Oh joy. Jose prefers the Miser version if you need a cover.

Morrissey has announced his 9th studio album, Years of Refusal, which will be released this September. Producer Jerry Finn also produced his 2004 album You Are The Quarry. Also planned is a Sony BMG reissue of Morrissey's 1995 album Southpaw Grammar. No US label has been announced for Years of Refusal. Morrissey will also be appearing in a UK set of E.D. commercials plugging Viagra alongside Bob Dole.

Neil Young has been moonlighting as a venture capitalist, funding an electric car project. Young has teamed up with Wichita-based Johnathan Goodwin, owner of SAE energy. Young has gambled about $120,000 on the project so far. He was quoted as saying "You know, I thought long ago you could change the world by writing songs, but you can't.”

New Raconteurs Album Next Week

A few days ago, I was reading a post on a message board I sometimes frequent from a person who works at a record store claiming there was a new Raconteurs album coming out today. No one really believed it, but then again with the way rather large artists have been dropping things out of the sky these days (Radiohead, NIN, etc.,) maybe Jack White had a trick up his sleeve. Did he really have the band finish their new album, go to Warner Bros., and demand it be released ASAP? Yes. Yes he did.

And with that, Jack White's other band will release their sophomore album, Consolers Of The Lonely, next Tuesday. What's special about this compared to the NIN and Radiohead releases, though, is that this isn't just a digital release, it's a normal release: it will be out via CD, vinyl, and as a digital download via iTunes from your friends at Third Man/Warner Bros. Wow. Mighty impressive I must say, now we just have to wait and see how impressive the record is when it lands.

Until then, there's always Pee Wee's cameo in this video:

Monday Morning Newsletter (02/18/08)

Well, well, well, what better way to spend your President's Day than to read more of the slanderous accusations of drug use and the odd tour date in Jose Fritz's Monday Morning Newsletter.

We Are Scientists have scheduled the release of their next album for March 5th. It might be named Brain Thrust Mastery but maybe not. We’re not sure. It might be on Virgin records again but probably not. They’re feeling very unconfident after their drummer left. It’s hard to commit to big decisions like this.

Mindless Self Indulgence's new album If will see a release through The End on April 29th. It will be the best album of 2008. End of discussion.

Ours has set up a short set of tour dates after canceling their New Year Eve Show. The release of their new album Mercey is pushed back from March 15th into mid April amid paranoid rumors that Jimmy has run out of Heroin.

Norma Jean has announced that for their new album will be titled "The AntiMother". They are on schedule to be dome by mid-summer. Helmet's Page Hamilton is collaborating on one track.

Many wondered last week why at the last minute My Bloody Valentine was cut from the Coachella concert bill. Kevin Shields came out this week conceding that while his arthritis was a factor, his Alzheimers is the real issue. Coachella founder Paul Tollett said “I envy the elderly and senile, they have Medicare and they get all the best drugs free.”

Sleepercar the side-project of Sparta’s Jim Ward will be out April 22nd. It’s titled West Texas.

On April 4th, Fearless Records will release their Punk Goes Crunk compilation. It boasts songs by classic rappers and not one but two dead MCs. These classics are covered by the likes of New Found Glory and The Secret handshake proving the age-old lesson: white people should not rap.

Tapes N’ Tapes is putting out a new record, Walk It Off, on April 8th through XL Recordings. The first single is “Hang Them All.” The band in all their open source hippie-dom has posted a version in .flac on their website.

If you hadn’t heard Shihad has ditched their Warner Bros pseudonym of Pacifier in 2004 and are Shihad again. They are so Shihad in fact they are touring Australia to let everyone know that they are sorry about the whole pacifier thing. Their latest album Beautiful Machine comes out this April.

More rumors surface about Scarlett Johansson and her mystery album reportedly due out this Summer. Tom Waits confirms he gave his blessing to the covers album. Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio confirms that he has been acting as producer and that David Bowie guests. On a related note, Jose Fritz confirms that he will write an ode to her breasts in the record review.

Radiohead have announced the first leg of their U.S. tour dates. They are predicted to sell out before you can get your wallet out of your pants.