TK Webb: Lonely Wine

Arthur Brown: Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Belgium TV

Black Mountain: Druganaut

To get the mp3 for the Black Mountain song Tyrants.
Go to: www.grantmanship.com

The Binges: Hear Me Out

Jesus & Mary Chain Record

Jesus & Mary Chain will release their first new album in a decade next year, they have confirmed.

The noise-pop legends reformed this summer to appear at the Coachella Festival in the Californian desert.

They have now revealed plans for the first new recordings since 1998's "Munki", with sessions yielding a selection of tracks for the record, due next Spring.

Speaking about the currently untitled album, William Reid says fans of the band can expect a slightly different sound. "I would say it's an evolution", he explained.

"It definitely sounds like the Mary Chain, but I guess you evolve as a person and a writer. You can't really stand still. If you do that, you're lost."

The Mary Chain are currently without a record deal but are in discussions with a number of labels about releasing their new material, according to manager Kevin Oberlin.

"The band has been making decisions on their own terms without a lot of outside pressures and taking things slowly, so the process of deciding on a label is likely going to follow the same pattern", he told Billboard.

Meanwhile, speaking about the success of the reunion, Reid admitted that he and brother Jim "hated each other" when they split in 1998.

"A lot of that was down to drink and drugs. Jim's completely sober now, and I don't drink during the shows. But there is a kind of wariness", he explained.

"We're both aware that we could snap at each other, but we're trying to hold it together. We love this band, and we love each other."
Source: music_news.com

Black Cab Sessions: Cold War Kids (Dream Old Men Dream)

Entrance: Grim Reaper Blues

A New Addition

We would like to welcome a new member & our Chicago Corospondant to The American Underground: Her name is Heather, & She will be posting some great new topics on here so keep your eyes out.

The Black Jesuses

"The first time I heard The Black Jesuses, I literally started sweating. I got that worked up. The first song I heard, “Roll Call”, was stuck in my head for weeks. Actually, it still is.I can’t really think of the last time I heard a band, let alone a two-piece, that pumped out the blues as hard hitting and raunchy as the ol’ jesuses do. The great thing about this duo is that they clearly are in tune with the stripped down, bones bare essence of the blues. They don’t fuck around trying to be fancy. It’s obvious that they’re fantastic musicians, but it sounds like they’re barely lifting their fingers when they play, and any effort being made to try and impress anyone is either non-existent or masterfully hidden. It also doesn’t hurt that they have plenty of experience writing and performing great rock songs, as I am inclined to inform you that they are also members of The Parlor Mob. If the guitar is truly an extension of a man’s penis when he plays, then guitarist/singer Dave Rosen is blowing his load all over your face and he doesn’t care if you love it or not. It’s just fun The only music currently available is a batch of live recordings posted on their myspace page, including a fucking fantastic version of The Beatles’ “Yer Blues”, driving that catchy little riff into your skull and/or groin as if you’ve just heard it for the first time. And if you need to quench your thirst for a good old-fashioned heart-wrenching ballad, they have that too in “Closer”. It’s an acoustic diddy that can make any little girl wish they were the muse and any guy wish he was bad ass enough to write a song that comes with a guaranteed lay, whether he’d ever admit to it or not. Please, do yourself a favor and listen to this band. I command you.
Source: Heather


www.myspace.com/theblackjesuses

The Kills: Announce New Single

'U.R.A Fever' to be released in January.

The Kills are set to release new single 'U.R.A Fever' on January 7.

It is their first release since their 2005 album 'No Wow', and will be released on a one-sided seven-inch vinyl with etchings on the b-side.

The track is taken from their new album, which is expected in March 2008.

No title has been announced.
Source: nme.com

Bob Dylan Joins Jack White In Hank Williams Tribute

The White Stripes rocker Jack White has teamed up with American singer-songwriter, author, musician, poet and, of late, disc jockey Bob Dylan to complete a series of as yet "unfinished" Hank Williams songs.

The lead vocalist of the rock duo star is one of a selection of musicians asked by Dylan to work on completing the "lost" songs - some of the final tunes and lyrics written by the late legend.

White recorded the unfinished Williams song You Know That I Know at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Tennessee with engineer Joe Chiccarelli. Dominic Suchtya, the bassist who guested on the White tracks, says, "Dylan had contacted him (White) to see if he'd like to finish some of these tunes.

"No one has heard it as it was a Hank Williams lyric sheet that Jack put to music and edited a bit. Jack was sent most of or all of the unfinished tunes and picked this one to finish.
Source: music_news.com

Tapes N Tapes: Complete New Album

Minneapolis four-piece Tapes 'N Tapes have completed work on their new record.

The sessions, with The Flaming Lips and Sleater-Kinney producer Dave Fridmann at the helm, have yielded 15 tracks. Guitarist Josh Grier suggests the material bears less of Fridmann's trademark hugeness than the producer's credit might suggest.

"It was nice to be able to work with someone who has a real studio," Grier told Billboard. "Having a budget was awesome, but there weren't any over-indulgences. There's no orchestral arrangements or anything."
In a separate interview with the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, however, Grier does concede that a few Fridmann-esque moments have crept into the songs.

He admitted: "There's a few random sounds in there - Dave has a lot of toys in his studio. But we tried not to be too self-indulgent. There are no Freddie Mercury arrangements."

The new record is not yet titled, and no specific date for its release has been revealed beyond a target of "late spring".

Though the band expects to tour behind the new material, as yet Tapes 'N Tapes's only scheduled date is November 30 in Minneapolis.
Source: nme.com

My Bloody Valentine: To Play First Shows In 16 Years

Indie legends My Bloody Valentine have announced details of their first live dates since 1992.

The band, who have not released an album since 1991's 'Loveless', will play three shows in summer 2008.

They will play:

London Roundhouse (June 20)
Manchester Apollo (28)
Glasgow Barrowland (July 2)
Source: nme.com

The 12 Essential Gram Parsons Songs

1. She
2. Hot Burrito #1
3. A Song For You
4. Return Of The Grievous Angel
5. $1000 Wedding
6. In My Hour Of Darkness
7. Hickory Wind
8. Love Hurts
9. Dark End Of The Street
10. Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome
11. Hot Burrito #2
12. Christine's Tune (Devil in Disguise)

Brian Jonestown Massacre: Infinite Wisdom Tooth

Will Devendra Banhart be allowed to go mainstream?

As his latest album shows, the singer/songwriter wants to break free from the lo-fi freak-folk underground. Will his public let him?

I've been listening to Devendra Banhart's new album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, an enjoyable listen and yet it had left a lot of reviewers in a quandary. The album has a cinematic musical scope but it seems to be that its author is to be forever associated with his media tag of freak folkster - all beards, beads and bellbottoms, a tag that easily forgets Banhart's talent.

And however, as of late, his life has been more Hollywood than Haight Ashbury; being interviewed by Lindsay Lohan, hanging out with Beck, opening up Karl Lagerfeld's fashion shows, singing with Gael García Bernal and switching his management to Neil Young's main man, Elliott Roberts. Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon moves his mythology on further. It was recorded in Topanga Canyon, land of Woody Guthrie, Neil Young and Charles Manson; home to canyon rock and the cocaine cowboy.

An inveterate self-mythologiser, Devendra Banhart has a back-story that would make Dylan proud. Born in Texas, he was given the name Devendra by an Indian Guru mystic, went to live with his mother in Venezuela, was briefly brought up in the Divine Light Mission cult and ended up in San Francisco. The release of his first two albums, The Black Babies and Oh Me Oh My ... on Michael Gira's Young Gods label gave him underground buzz but it was the near-simultaneous release of Nino Rojo and Rejoicing in the Hands that significantly raised his profile. Those albums referenced the child-like nursery rhymes of Syd Barrett, the otherworldly voice of hippie-era Marc Bolan, and the tropicalia rhythms of Caetano Veloso; he was also responsible for bringing folk legend Vashti Bunyan back to life. And that same year he compiled the zeitgeist-capturing Golden Apples of the Sun, which featured Joanna Newsom and Antony and the Johnsons and made him, wittingly or unwittingly, the figurehead of the so-called freak folk movement.

His next release, Cripple Crow, was the first metamorphosis from hippie child to manchild. Boasting 22 songs, it was more akin to the White Album than previous efforts and contained varying influences of reggae, tropicalia, acid-rock and yes, folk-rock. By using Bearsville Studio - owned by the Band - and the recorded home to some of Banhart's heroes, Karen Dalton and Bobby Charles, it demonstrated that Banhart wanted to make his way out of the four-track lo-fi folk ghetto and make a statement. The results polarised people.

The same polarisation seems to have happened with Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. The influences are expansive: samba, Os Mutantes, the Doors, psychedelic soul, CSNY and reggae. Its eclectic and wilfully obtuse vibe is very reminiscent of the infamous canyon rock superstar David Crosby's work and demonstrates Banhart's willingness to grow from the underground to the city light of the mainstream. Will everyone allow him to do it? Or will Banhart's epitaph be, in the words of Morrissey: "I thought that if you had/An acoustic guitar/Then it meant that you were/A Protest Singer/Oh, I can smile about it now/But at the time it was terrible." Time will tell but I'm eager for the next act already
Source: Gaurdian Unlimited

NME: The 2007 "Cool List"

The list is:
24 Meg White, The White Stripes
23 Albert Hammond Jr, The Strokes
22 Eugene Hutz, Gogol Bordello
21 Serge Pizzorno, Kasabian
20 Jamie Frost, The Automatic
19 Jack White, The White Stripes/The Raconteurs
18 Carl Barat, Dirty Pretty Things
17 Ryan Ross, Panic! At The Disco
16 Cee-Lo, Gnarls Barkley
15 Tahita Bulmer, New Young Pony Club
14 The House Of Lords, The Young Knives
13 Jamie Reynolds, Klaxons
12 Liam Gallagher, Oasis
11 Paul Simonon, 'The Good, The Bad & The Queen'
10 Lovefoxxx, CSS
9 Thom Yorke, Radiohead
8 Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance
7 Kate Jackson, The Long Blondes
6 Kieren Webster, The View
5 Karen O, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4 Jarvis Cocker
3 Lily Allen
2 Faris Rotter, The Horrors
1 Beth Ditto, The Gossip
Source: nme.com

Radiohead: To Drop Seven Album Box Set

In a situation eerily familiar to Trent Reznor, Parlophone, the ex-label of forward-thinking rockers Radiohead, from which the Oxford-based quintet split in 2005, is gearing up to release a comprehensive box set spanning all the band's pre-In Rainbows albums. The seven-CD collection -- Pablo Honey (1993), The Bends (1995), OK Computer (1997), Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001), Hail to the Thief (2003), and the live album I Might Be Wrong (2001) -- will drop Dec. 10, arriving with new "digipack" sleeves featuring original artwork, and also offering special footage by inputting each CD into a computer. A limited edition 4 GB USB stick in the shape of the band's bear logo will also be available with digital artwork, as will a downloadable box set, all now available to preorder via the band's website.
Source: spin.com

Led Zeppelin: To Release Mothership

Available November 12, worldwide, Atlantic Records will honour Led Zeppelin with the release of Mothership, a 24-track, two-CD comprehensive collection that spans their illustrious career.

After nearly forty years, Led Zeppelin continues to inspire generations with their groundbreaking blues-infused, guitar-driven rock ’n’ roll.

Arguably the biggest rock band in the world throughout their 12-year reign, they remain one of the most influential and innovative groups in music history. With over 200 million albums sold worldwide, their catalog is one of the most enduring bodies of musical composition to come out of the 20th century, and it has influenced countless bands along the way.
They had the biggest tours; the biggest sound; the biggest record sales; the biggest reputation. Quite simply Led Zeppelin was the ultimate rock band.

All eight of the band’s classic studio albums are represented on Mothership, with the tracks being personally selected by the surviving members. Mothership includes landmark songs such as 'Whole Lotta Love,' 'Immigrant Song,' 'Kashmir,' 'Rock And Roll,' 'Dazed And Confused,' and 'Stairway to Heaven.' The set will also include new liner notes.
To top this off, November 19th will see the re-release of The Song Remains the Same on DVD, HD DVD, Blu-Ray Disc and Soundtrack CD, ahead of their historic one-off concert at the London 02 Arena on Decenber 10th.
Source: music-news.com

Spoon: The Beast & Dragon Adored (Live)

Babyshambles: MTV Europe Music Awards