Friday, September 25, 2009

Music News & Notes

AC/DC To Make 'Exciting Announcement' Next Tuesday

Iconic Australian hard rockers AC/DC have launched a special web site, ACDCBacktracks.com, featuring a countdown to an "exciting announcement" that will be made on September 29.

A short video clip promoting the new web site can be viewed below.

AC/DC is rumored to be releasing a box set later this year that will come in a package that doubles as a working amplifier. The set will contain three CDs, two DVDs and a vinyl record. One CD will contain studio rarities and the other two will feature live cuts, while the DVDs will contain the third volume of the band's "Family Jewels" video collections. The vinyl disc will hold the studio rarities. The set will also come with a 164-page book, three black-and-white lithographs of unpublished band photos from 1977, a flyer for a 1976 British tour and a poster from a 1977 European trek. The complete package will be sold only through AC/DC's web site, while a CD/DVD-only version called "Best Of The Box Set" may also be made available.


AC/DC Backtracks Sneak Peek 9/24


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OK Go readies new album, sets club dates

OK Go has set a Jan. 12 release date for its new album, "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky," and will pave the way with a series of club dates.

The tour, which focuses on the Midwest and currently includes nine dates, gets underway Nov. 5 in Millvale, PA.

The upcoming 13-song album will be the OK Go's first full-length release since the Grammy Award-winning, treadmill-centric video "Here It Goes Again" launched the band into the mainstream consciousness.

In a statement, lead singer Damian Kulash said the new album springs from a different departure point than the band's previous releases. "It's not so much that we headed in a new direction," he said. "I think we've just expended the guitar-rock ideas from our teens and we're starting to get at more root-level influences." Kulash said the new songs were heavily influenced by Prince's "Purple Rain," an album he hasn't stopped listening to since he first got it at the age of 11.

In addition to being danceable, Kulash said "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky"--which was named after an 1876 book promoting the erroneous theory that blue light cures all ills--is contemplative and introspective with a vein of surrealism running through it. He said the album "embodies contradiction in a way I feel connected to. It's both the saddest and the most hopeful music we've made, and both the danciest and most thoughtful."

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PICTURE: New Album Details Revealed


30 years after the release of the group's debut LP, reunited '80s Dutch metal band PICTURE will release a new album, "Old Dogs New Tricks", on October 1. According to a press release, the new CD "contains a wide variety of hard rock and old-school metal songs, complete with a breath-taking ballad."

"Old Dogs New Tricks" was produced by Nico Verrips, who "kept the Eighties feeling, but gave the record a contemporary modern sound."

PICTURE was the first "real" Dutch heavy metal band. Formed in 1979, they were especially popular in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy for their live performances. They still supposedly have a huge fan base in South America, Mexico and Japan.

PICTURE supported AC/DC, TED NUGENT and SAXON in the Netherlands. With SAXON, they did a full European tour in 1981. Later on they toured with ROSE TATTOO in Germany and headlined tours in Italy and Israel.

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Tom Petty & Heartbreakers Announce Live Anthology Box Set Release

Tom Petty is releasing a multi-format live anthology that spans his entire career. The collection brings together material from 1978-2007, chosen by Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Ryan Ulyate, from hundreds of hours of live recordings.

The most impressive package will only be available at Best Buy, and will feature:

A deluxe box set featuring 62 tracks on 5 CDs; two previously unreleased DVDs including the 1978 New Year's Eve concert from Santa Monica, CA, and the Martyn Atkins documentary 400 Days shot during the recording and tour for Wildflowers; a re-mastered vinyl of the 1976 Official Live 'Leg bootleg; and a Blu-ray audio disc featuring all 62 tracks in both stereo and 5.1 surround sound.

If you fancy the black discs (don't we all?) there is a seven LP vinyl box set of 51 tracks mastered directly from the uncompressed 24-bit 96K files and pressed on 180-gram audiophile quality high performance vinyl.

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Austin City Limits Announces It's 2009-10 Schedule

The producers of Austin City Limits have announced the schedule for their 35th season on PBS stations across the country. It's one of my favorite shows, where I found great bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Arcade Fire.

Included will be the return of Willie Nelson, who appeared on the very first ACL show back in 1975. This time around, he'll be with another Austin City Limits favorite, Asleep at the Wheel, performing Texas swing music from their Willie and the Wheel album.

As usual, the season will offer an eclectic mix of music from veteran and modern artists, ranging from country (Kenny Chesney, Kris Kristofferson) to rock (Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam) to its first foray into Rap (Mos Def, K'Naan).

The schedule (check your local listings for exact date and time):

•October 3, 2009 - Dave Matthews Band
•October 10, 2009 - Ben Harper and Relentless7
•October 17, 2009 - Kenny Chesney
•October 24, 2009 - Andrew Bird / St. Vincent
•October 31, 2009 - M. Ward / Okkervil River
•November 7, 2009 - Elvis Costello / Band of Heathens
•November 14, 2009 - Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel
•November 21, 2009 - Pearl Jam
•November 28, 2009 – January 2, 2010 - Encore episodes
•January 9, 2010 - Allen Toussaint
•January 16, 2010 - Mos Def / K’Naan
•January 23, 2010 - TBD / Heartless Bastards
•January 30, 2010 - Steve Earle / Kris Kristofferson
•February 6, 2010 - Them Crooked Vultures (Josh Homme, Dave Grohl & John Paul Jones)
•February 13, 2010 - Madeleine Peyroux / Esperanza Spalding

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