Motley Crue Vinyl Box Set

new coming soon

Motley Crue
Journals of the Damned [6 LP Box]

THE ESSENTIAL VINYL COLLECTION
180 gram vinyl - cut from the original analog masters






Featuring:

Too Fast for Love
Shout at the Devil
Theatre of Pain
Girls, Girls, Girls
Dr. Feelgood
Saints Of Los Angeles

Release Date: 16-Dec-2009
Label: Eleven Seven Music

Available for preorder at $129.98: http://vinyluniverse.com/a=CollectingVinyl

Nirvana's Nevermind baby recreates famous image

The baby who graced the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind album has recreated the famous image 17 years on. Spencer Elden was the four-month-old baby photographed in a swimming pool reaching towards a dollar bill on the end of a fish hook.


Now a teenager, Spencer Eldon strikes a familiar pose

The picture became the cover of Nirvana's second album, released in September 1991, which went on to sell 26 million records worldwide. Seventeen years later, he has recreated the classic underwater shot, this time wearing shorts. Now the 17-year-old high school student, who lives in Eagle Rock, near Glendale, California and his ambitions are to go to art school next year.

In 1991, his parents were paid $200 for allowing their friend, underwater photographer Kirk Weddle, to photograph their baby. The original photograph and the recent recreation by the British photographer John Chapple were shot from the bottom of the pool at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Centre in Pasedena, 17 ft (five metres) underwater.

Spencer said: "It's kind of cool, knowing that I've been on an album cover"


Spencer Eldon stars on Nirvana's Nevermind album

"But I feel pretty normal about it because growing up, I've always known I was the Nirvana baby. It never really struck me like, 'Oh, ****, that's me on the cover'."

"Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis. It's kind of cool, I guess," he told the Independent. "I feel like I'm the world's biggest porn star. But I'm just a normal kid living it up and doing the best I can while I'm here."

For Nirvana, it was the band's breakthrough record, bringing the Seattle grunge scene to a worldwide audience. The first single, Smells Like Teen Spirit has been described as one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

The album replaced Michael Jackson's album Dangerous at number one. Three years after its release, Kurt Cobain, the band's lead singer, shot himself in a suicide believed to be linked to his drug addiction.

SOURCE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Classic Rock Videos

The Beach Boys - Wouldn't it be nice

Aretha Franklin Named Greatest Singer of Rock Era

Rolling Stone's new issue names their picks for the 100 greatest singers of the Rock Era based on a poll of 179 industry professionals.

Aretha Franklin tops the list with Mary J. Blige saying "Aretha has everything — the power, the technique. When it comes to expressing yourself through song, there is no one who can touch her. She is the reason why women want to sing." Franklin is followed by Ray Charles and Elvis Presley.

For the poll, each individual was asked to name their 20 "best" vocalists from the Rock era in order of importance. All of the lists were then combined, using a weighting factor based on how high they were on each individual list, producing the final 100.

Among those voting were Eric Burdon, Solomon Burke, Dave Clark, Alice Cooper, David Crosby, Clive Davis, Dion, Mick Fleetwood, Art Garfunkel, Merle Haggard, Daryl Hall, Etta James, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Mike Love, Loretta Lynn, John Mellencamp, George Michael, Bette Midler, Iggy Pop, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Roger Waters and many more.

What is striking about this particular list is the abbundance of what we call Veteran Artists (those whose recording career started at least 25 years ago). Only eight singers whose career started before the mid-80's even made the list.

Rolling Stone has been guilty in the past of loading many of their "Best-Ofs" with modern artists may not have belonged on the lists and leaving off much more deserving artists. This time, the breadth of the people asked to vote has been able to keep a better perspective of older artists withing the framework of the times.

Veteran artists who made the list:

1. Aretha Franklin
2. Ray Charles
3. Elvis Presley
4. Sam Cooke
5. John Lennon
6. Marvin Gaye
7. Bob Dylan
8. Otis Redding
9. Stevie Wonder
10. James Brown
11. Paul McCartney
12. Little Richard
13. Roy Orbison
14. Al Green
15. Robert Plant
16. Mick Jagger
17. Tina Turner
18. Freddie Mercury
19. Bob Marley
20. Smokey Robinson
21. Johnny Cash
22. Etta James
23. David Bowie
24. Van Morrison
25. Michael Jackson
26. Jackie Wilson
27. Hank Williams
28. Janis Joplin
29. Nina Simone
30. Prince
31. Howlin' Wolf
32. Bono
33. Steve Winwood
34. Whitney Houston
35. Dusty Springfield
36. Bruce Springsteen
37. Neil Young
38. Elton John
40. Curtis Mayfield
41. Chuck Berry
42. Joni Mitchell
43. George Jones
44. Bobby "Blue" Bland
46. Patsy Cline
47. Jim Morrison
48. Buddy Holly
49. Donny Hathaway
50. Bonnie Raitt
51. Gladys Knight
52. Brian Wilson
53. Muddy Waters
54. Luther Vandross
55. Paul Rodgers
56. Mavis Staples
57. Eric Burdon
59. Rod Stewart
61. Roger Daltrey
62. Lou Reed
63. Dion
65. David Ruffin
67. Jerry Lee Lewis
68. Wilson Pickett
69. Ronnie Spector
70. Gregg Allman
71. Toots Hibbert
72. John Fogerty
73. Dolly Parton
74. James Taylor
75. Iggy Pop
76. Steve Perry
77. Merle Haggard
78. Sly Stone
80. Frankie Valli
81. John Lee Hooker
82. Tom Waits
83. Patti Smith
84. Darlene Love
85. Sam Moore
86. Art Garfunkel
87. Don Henley
88. Willie Nelson
89. Solomon Burke
90. Everly Brothers
91. Levon Helm
92. Morrissey
93. Annie Lennox
94. Karen Carpenter
95. Patti LaBelle
96. B.B. King
97. Joe Cocker
98. Stevie Nicks
99. Steven Tyler

SOURCE: http://winkscollectibles.blogspot.com

Album Cover Art

Here we are at #40 of the dirtiest and sexiest album covers as put together by the crack staff at Gigwise.com:


40. Goldfrapp: ‘Supernature’ - Supernature is the third album by British electronic duo Goldfrapp. It was released by Mute Records on 22 August 2005 in the United Kingdom, and was the duo's first album to receive mixed reviews. Most critics complimented its blend of pop and electronic music, while others called it uninspiring. Supernature was a top five album in Goldfrapp's native United Kingdom, and its lead single "Ooh La La" was a top five single. In North America, where "Number 1" was promoted as the first single, the album was released on 7 March 2006, peaking low on the Billboard charts.

The album represented a change in Goldfrapp's musical style, and featured pop and electronic-dance music; inspirations were disco music artist Donna Summer and New Wave band New Order. Supernature received a Grammy Award nomination in 2007 for "Best Electronic/Dance Album". In January 2006, the album was certified platinum in the UK, and has sold one million copies worldwide as of early 2007.

Supernature debuted on the UK albums chart at number two (blocked from the top position by James Blunt's Back to Bedlam), and sold 52,976 copies. The album remained on the chart for thirty-one weeks, and was certified platinum on 13 January 2006. In Australia, the album reached number twenty-three, although it received limited promotion. The album reached the top forty in Austria, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and Switzerland and sold one million copies worldwide.

Supernature became Goldfrapp's first release to chart on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the United States, where it peaked at number one-hundred thirty-eight. It reached number three on the Top Heatseekers chart and number five on the Top Electronic Albums chart. The album has sold 49,000 copies in the US since its release in March 2006.

This Date In Music History-November 13

Birthdays:

John Hammond Jr., son of the famous Columbia A&R man and a creditable white bluesman, was born in New York in 1942.

Guitarist Roger Steen of performance art-rockers the Tubes ("She's a Beauty") was born in 1949.

Birthday wishes to Nikolai Fraiture of the The Strokes.

History:

The Jackson 5, ranging in age from six to thirteen, first performed publicly at Mr. Lucky's, a nightclub in their hometown of Gary, Indiana in 1964.

In 1965, The Byrds reached #1 with "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "Tambourine Man".

Atlantic Records announced in 1968 its signing of a "hot new English group" named Led Zeppelin.

Bonnie Raitt released her debut self-titled album in 1971.

Slow news day apparently- In 1963, Paul McCartney catches the flu. Hour-by-hour progress reports on his condition appeared in the British press.

Having bought the island of Dorinch off Ireland in 1969, John Lennon declared any hippie who wished was free to live there.

Bill Doggett ("Honky Tonk") died of lung cancer in 1996.

Paul McCartney wakes up the space shuttle astronauts in 2005 by singing "Good Day Sunshine" to them live from his concert in Anaheim, California.

Led Zeppelin's fifth tour of the U.K. in 1972 sold out in four hours. Jimmy Page says, "When I heard the news about the tickets, I felt very humble." The tickets cost a princely $1.50 each.

The Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was released in 1961.

As a follow-up to their number one hit "Hang On Sloopy", The McCoys' released "Fever", which will climb to number 7 on the US charts in 1965.

The Beatles' animated movie "Yellow Submarine" premiered in the U.S. in 1968.

Madonna's "The Immaculate Collection" was released in 1990.

In 1992, Elton John performed in Mexico for the first time before 90,000 people in Mexico City.

In 1965, James Brown's "I Got You" entered both the Billboard Pop and R&B charts, where it will reach #3 and #1 respectively. The record would become one of the Godfather of Soul's most enduring and readily identifiable songs. It reached #29 in the UK.

Three Dog Night's "Old Fashioned Love Song" was released in the US in 1971, where it will climb to #4 on the Billboard Pop chart. It was a tune that songwriter Paul Williams would later say that he wrote in 20 minutes.

Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night" was the top tune on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976, despite being banned from the play lists of many radio stations because of its sexually suggestive lyrics. It made #5 in the UK.

After 42 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" finally falls off of the chart in 1982, passing the old longevity record held by Paul Davis' "I Go Crazy" by three weeks.

In 1987, Sonny and Cher reunited for a rare performance on TV show Late Night with David Letterman.

In 2007, Led Zeppelin continued their march to have more repackages than The Beatles with the release of "Mothership," a 2 CD compilation with 24 remastered tracks. In addition, a 165-song Zeppelin "digital box set" is available at iTunes. Also, individual songs in the band's catalog go on sale via the online music retailer. And finally, "The Complete Led Zeppelin" contains 13 studio albums plus "Mothership." It comes in for under $100.

Mosaic Records Plots a Return to Vinyl

The great jazz and blues reissue label Mosaic is re-entering the vinyl business after releasing only one LP title since 2000 - the 1957 Carnegie Hall concert by the Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane that was issued in 2005.
And they're already talking "Lucky Thompson Meets Oscar Pettiford," one of my absolute favorite jazz albums ever.

Label head Michael Cuscuna explains the HQ Vinyl Series that will be launched early next year.

"Vinyl has become a media story with large chains selling reasonably-priced turntables to 20-somethings and major labels judiciously releasing old and new titles. And of course, the audiophile labels are still plugging away with 'I-told-you-so' Cheshire cat smiles on their faces.

While preparing the Ahmad Jamal CD box set due next spring, it occurred to us that an eight-CD set doesn't have to give birth to a back-busting box of 12 180-gram LPs; it can also give birth to a double-album reissue of both LPs of Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing, the groundbreaking albums that generated such influential hits as 'Poinciana.'

Freed from thinking that Mosaic LPs have to mirror out large CD sets, we've engaged in a treasure hunt coming up with new title ideas like reissuing those two magnificent Lucky Thompson-Oscar Pettiford albums on ABC-Paramount or Duke Ellington's 1963 masterpiece 'Afro Bossa.' How about the complete Thelonious Monk 'Live At The It Club' on LP for the first time, beautifully remixed from the original three-track masters? We've only just begun."

Jimi Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell dies at 62

By Theresa Carson


PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) – Mitch Mitchell, a pioneering drummer best known for his work with 1960s rock icon Jimi Hendrix, died on Wednesday, at age 62.

Mitchell was found dead in his Portland, Oregon, hotel room. A Multnomah County coroner's spokesman said it appeared he died of natural causes, although a formal finding had not yet been issued.

The drummer had been in Portland for the last stop on an 18-city U.S. tour with Experience Hendrix, a concert series celebrating the legacy of the late rock star.

"We're all devastated to hear of Mitch's passing. He was a wonderful man, a brilliant musician and a true friend," Hendrix's sister, Janie Hendrix, said in a statement on behalf of the estate.

"His role in shaping the sound of the Jimi Hendrix Experience cannot be underestimated," she said. "Over the course of the recent tour, he seemed delighted with the interchange with the other musicians and the audiences. There is no question that he was doing what he loved."

The British-born Mitchell started in show business as a child actor but abandoned that for his true love, jazz and rock music.

He was a top session drummer who joined the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966 and backed the rocker for his legendary performance at Woodstock three years later. He drummed on Hendrix classics such as "Fire," "Manic Depression" and "Third Stone from the Sun."

Mitchell also is credited with helping to develop a "fusion" drumming style that combined rock with jazz and was influenced by such jazz giants as Elvin Jones and Max Roach.

The style made the drums essentially a lead instrument, an innovative concept in rock and roll.

Hendrix - a songwriter, guitarist and showman - was a pioneer of the 1960's psychedelic rock scene who died in September, 1970, at the age of 27.

(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, editing by Vicki Allen)

Vinyl Releases

Vinyl Release:

Kudos to my vinyl friend Virgil over at www.vinylcollective.com for this great news!

Vinyl Collective has announced its second release, The Jealous Sound's much loved full length Kill Them With Kindness. The record will be issued as a double LP gatefold, colored vinyl. The pressing will contain the entire album, "Kill Them With Kindness" as well as the Self-Titled EP. The album and EP which were originally released on CD by Better Looking Records has been licensed by the cooperative for release on vinyl.

The Jealous Sound's "Kill Them With Kindness" double LP will be pressed on 2 colors (333 on baby blue vinyl, 667 on White). The record will be housed in a Gatefold jacket. Since the 210 unit holders and 10 board members will all receive copies of the most limited color in addition to band and label copies, only 40 will be available for sale in our pre-order. There will be 500 copies of the White vinyl available but there is a very high likelihood that these will sell out before entering the retail marketplace.

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In other vinyl news:

Fat has issued a double-vinyl LP of the Good Riddance posthumous live album, Remain in Memory: The Final Show. According to the label, only 1100 copies were pressed and each record is colored vinyl with hand-numbered gatefold jackets, including an full color, 56 page Good Riddance photo history book.

The album is a live recording of Good Riddance's final show in their hometown of Santa Cruz, California on May 27th, 2007.

Album Cover Art Stories

As usual. I want to thank Michael Goldstein over at www.RockPoPGallery.com for the exclusive rights to reprint this material:


Cover Story - "AC/DC's Classic Logo" by Gerard Huerta


Subject - "AC/DC Classic Logo", a logo/typographic design by Gerard Huerta used as a principal design element on a number of LP/CD/DVD covers for AC/DC, including "Let There Be Rock”, a recording released in 1977 on Atlantic Records.


Released as a follow-up to their album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, the 4th AC/DC album - Let There Be Rock - was the first to be released simultaneously world-wide (Dirty Deeds was not, in fact, released in the U.S. until 1981, and went on to sell over 6 million copies in the U.S.). As with the band's previous recordings, fans in different parts of the world received slightly different products, with U.S. fans getting a record sans the naughty "Crabsody In Blue" (which was replaced by "Problem Child"). However, while the fans in Australia received a record packaged in a pretty mundane cover, U.S. fans enjoyed a cover that featured the debut of Mr. Huerta's classic logo (Australian fans did finally see this product a bit later when the packaging was replaced to be the same world-wide).

The last recording with original bassist Mark Evans, Let There Be Rock was eight tracks of down-and-dirty AC/DC badness. The focus then was on doing what they did to separate their sound from other hard rock bands at the time - these boys were nasty and proud of it. With singer Bon Scott telling us (from experience?) that "Hell Aint A Bad Place To Be" and that sex was best with big girls in "Whole Lotta Rosie", these proud practicioners of the "Bad Boy Boogie" established themselves at the forefront of the emerging heavy metal scene, playing with endless energy and joining Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and others in this formidable assault on the eardrums of rock fans world wide.

In 1980, AC/DC released a live concert motion picture entitled AC/DC: Let There Be Rock (with an audio recording of this same event released on CD in 1997). In total, the band has sold more than 150 million albums worldwide (almost half in the U.S.). Their 1980 release "Back in Black" has sold 42 million units worldwide, making it the second best-selling album ever and the biggest-selling album by any rock band. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2003, and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler joined them on stage during the induction (there's another electrical term!) ceremony to perform their hits "Highway to Hell" and "You Shook Me All Night Long".

The Young brothers claimed that the idea for the band's name came to them after seeing the letters "AC/DC" on the back of a sewing machine owned by their sister. Since the boys felt that the band's recordings and performances drew equally from their raw energy, they thought that the name AC/DC was appropriate and adopted it. Mr. Huerta was touched by that same energy as the inspiration for his designs - let's let him explain...

In the words of the artist, Gerard Huerta -

"Album cover design in the '70s was the place to be if you were an artist, illustrator, photographer or letterer. The twelve and a half by twelve and a half inch surface was one of the largest areas to fill for anyone involved in graphics. What seems somewhat rare now in the digital age was commonplace
then - i.e., artists actually drawing things. My role first as a staff member at CBS Records and later as a freelancer was designing albums with an emphasis on the typography. As a young and eager artist, I took any chance I could get to invent letterforms for album covers - not only for rock, but for classical and country albums as well. It was a wonderful opportunity and always a challenge to see what you could get printed. I worked on the first Boston album with Roger Huyssen, designed a number of titles for Ted Nugent¹s albums as well as for Blue Oyster Cult, Willie Nelson, Alvin Lee, Rick Derringer, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Earl Scruggs, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Isley Brothers, Stan Getz, Archie Bell and the Drells and many classical albums. After CBS, I worked on albums by Foreigner, Stephen Stills, Chicago, Firefall, The Outlaws and AC/DC.

AC/DC was on the Atlantic label and I had first drawn some lightning bolt-style lettering for an album titled High Voltage (which featured a photo by Michael Putland and, incidentally, was their 2nd album with that title - the first being an album released in Australia only). It was basically my typographical interpretation of the title. Bob Defrin was the art director there and I designed many pieces of art for him and his staff.


Usually an album had a theme or title and it was my job to interpret that in letterforms. I was hired to design lettering for the next AC/DC album (after their hit 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap'), entitled Let There Be Rock, the title providing me wit an obvious reference. I recalled a live album I worked on at CBS for Blue Oyster Cult called On Your Feet or On Your Knees. The BOC cover featured a moody composite photo shot by Creative Director John Berg of a church with a limosine parked in front of it. The sky was dark and the limo had a flag retouched in with the BOC emblem on it. After researching religious typography and, in particular, the Gutenberg¹s bible type, I came up with some lettering based on that, with the twist being that it was metallic, as if it were a car nameplate. The lettering took on a slightly sinister look, particularly when placed over this wonderful photo.

This record featured a cover photo of the band on stage with a dark sky overhead and bright light shining down through the clouds. One of my sketches used the BOC Gutenberg-inspired lettering, but this time it was orange in color and dimensional. This lettering is probably the only typography I have designed that was made entirely of straight lines. The final artwork was produced on illustration board out of cut color adhesive backed overlay film with some starbursts airbrushed on."

The rest, they say, is history...

About the artist, Gerard Huerta -


Based in Connecticut, Gerard Huerta is a designer of letter forms. From trademarks and logotypes to mastheads, from illustrative lettering to Swiss Army watch face designs, he has worked in a variety of typographic styles. Born and raised in southern California, he graduated from Art Center College of Design and began his career at CBS Records in New York designing album covers and creating letterforms for Boston, AC/DC, Ted Nugent, Blue Oyster Cult, Stephen Stills and Foreigner. He started Gerard Huerta Design in 1976 and has been drawing custom letters and logos ever since.

In addition to his well-known designs for the music industry, some of his logos and logotypes have included Swiss Army Brands, MSG Network, CBS Records Masterworks, Waldenbooks, Spelling Entertainment, Nabisco, Calvin Klein¹s Eternity, Arista Records, Type Directors Club, the mastheads of Time, Money, People, The Atlantic Monthly, PC Magazine, Adweek, Us, Conde Nast¹s Traveler, Working Mother, WordPerfect, The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, The National Catholic Register, Illustration and Architectural Digest as well as corporate alphabets for Waldenbooks, Time-Life and Conde Nast. He has been featured in Money Magazine, The Penrose Annual, Typographic i, Scripsit, The Graphis Business Issue, How Magazine, Step-By-Step Magazine, Westport Magazine and the books Graphis Typography 1: Masters of Typography and Friedrich Friedl¹s reference book Typography: When Who How.

He is also a guitarist and singer in the group The Merwin Mountain Band (www.merwinmountainband.com) and his studio is in the historic Southport Freight Station.

To see more of his current work, please visit Mr. Huerta's site at http://www.workbook.com/portfolios/huerta/

To see examples of Gerard's work for AC/DC in the RockPoP Gallery collection, please click on the following link:

http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/ac-dc/list.htm?1=1

Except as noted, all other text Copyright 2008 - Mike Goldstein & RockPoP Gallery (www.rockpopgallery.com) - All rights reserved.

Classic Rock Videos

The Beach Boys - Barbara Ann

eil.com Open Up the Vinyl Vault of a Legendary Journalist to Reveal Hidden Treasure

For over two decades eil.com have been buying and selling quality vinyl, so you would think that they would have seen pretty much everything there is to see, right?

Wrong.

They have recently purchased what is, without a shadow of doubt, the finest collection of pristine vinyl records their buyers have ever seen.

Quite a statement when you consider some of the collections the company have had the pleasure to pass on to collectors over the years.

This one belonged to prominent journalist Weston Taylor, who wrote the society & music review pages for the News of the World, active from the early sixties until his death in 1975. The collection has remained untouched for the past 30 years, stored with incredible love by his daughter.

There are more than 3000 LPs and 4000 singles, all 60s & 70s originals, covering genres as diverse as beat, pop, psych, mod, freakbeat, northern soul, prog, rock and jazz - 90% of the 45s are demos, the LPs are factory sample or review copies, some played just once then carefully filed away, others unplayed to this day.

This incredible collection will take their team of adders many months to sort through.

Julian Thomas Co-founder of eil.com said. "The snipers out there are picking off targets as soon as they come into sight such is the rarity and sheer quality of this vinyl - you could wait a lifetime before another chance like this comes along."

eil.com is the world leader in rare and deleted records, cds and music memorabilia. It is also home to the ‘one you haven’t got’, the missing piece of your collection. eil.com has a dedicated team of experts with over two decades of experience in sourcing, authenticating and selling memorabilia.

Stop by for a visit! http://eil.com/index.asp?AdType=1984

Album Cover Art

Let's look at #41 (out of 50) of the sexiest and dirtiest album covers as compiled by Gigwise.com:


41. Grace Jones: ‘Island Life’ -Island Life was Grace Jones' 1985 compilation album, featuring songs from her Island Records albums Portfolio, Fame, Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing, Living My Life, and Slave to the Rhythm. No tracks from Muse were included. The album was a huge success in the UK (reaching number #4 on the UK Album Chart in December, 1985), with "Pull Up to the Bumper" (#12 in the UK Singles Chart) and "Love Is the Drug" (#35) re-entering the charts a second time.

The cover is by Jean-Paul Goude. The body position is anatomically impossible. It's an example of Goude's cut and paint technique, and it's from 1978. Good thing, I can't see anybody posing like that, it hurts to look at it!

Track Listing Revealed For Cadillac Records Soundtrack

Cadillac Records, the new movie on the rise of Chicago's Chess Records and it's associated artists, is set to premier on December 5. The soundtrack album will hit stores on December 2 via Music World/Columbia as either a 1-CD, 2-CD or Vinyl LP set.

The movie stars Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess and includes a wide array of modern artists playing the greats of the Chess stable, including Mos Def as Chuck Berry, Beyonce as Etta James, Cedric the Entertainer as Willie Dixon, Columbus Short as Little Walter, Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters and Eamonn Walker as Howlin' Wolf.

While the majority of the album is made up of new recordings of the classic Chess songs, a few originals are included by artists like Little Walter, Buddy Guy and Elvis Presley.

The track list:

Disc 1

I'm a Man - Jeffrey Wright
At Last - Beyoncé
No Particular Place to Go - Mos Def
I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man - Jeffrey Wright
Once in a Lifetime - Beyoncé
Let's Take a Walk - Raphael Saadiq
6 O'Clock Blues - Solange Knowles
Nadine - Mos Def
The Sound - Mary Mary
Last Night - Little Walter
I'd Rather Go Blind - Beyoncé
My Babe - Coco Short
Bridging the Gap - Nas

Disc 2

Maybellene - Mos Def
Forty Days and Forty Nights - Buddy Guy
Trust in Me - Beyoncé
Juke - SOUL7
Smokestack Lightnin' - Eamonn Walker
Promised Land - Mos Def
All I Could Do Was Cry - Beyoncé
Surfin' U.S.A. - Will Lee Voices
My Babe - Elvis Presley
I Can't Be Satisfied - Jeffrey Wright
Come On - Mos Def
Country Blues - Bill Sims
Evolution of a Man - Al Kapone

Music News and Notes

The Prodigy are set to release a new record in 2009

The Prodigy are set to release a new record in 2009. Invaders Must Die is the upcoming, fifth studio album by the electronic act The Prodigy. It will be released on March 2, 2009 on the band’s new label, “Take Me to the Hospital” and distributed by Cooking Vinyl. It will be the first studio album released by the band since 2004’s Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned and is the first Prodigy album since 1997’s The Fat of the Land to feature Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim. The album will be released as a CD, CD/DVD, Double Vinyl, Luxury 7 inch Vinyl box set and Digital Download. No tracklist is available at this time and we will post more details soon.

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The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are just about done, done, done.

The Brooklyn indie-rock trio's nearly finished with a year-long writing and recording process to deliver the follow-up to last year's Is Is EP (review) (Interscope). While the band isn't ready to give the set a title, it's pretty adamant that the new album won't sound much like any previous records.

"Will it sound kind of like Show Your Bones (review)? No, been there done that," the band said in a blog post. "What about Is Is? Is that more of the direction it's going in? Absolutely not, it sounds very different from last year's EP. Did we go back to our roots and write something closer to Fever to Tell (review)? No looking back now silly, just full speed ahead."

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Ultravox's Classic Lineup Reunites

The best known lineup of synth-pop act Ultravox is getting back together for a tour.

The reunion tour, which runs through much of April in the United Kingdom, places singer/guitarist Midge Ure at the front of the band. Ure's responsible for the best-known in the States recordings by Ultravox, particularly 1982's Quartet. He split with Ultravox in 1985, and the act folded shortly thereafter.

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MASTODON vinyl box set

A collector's edition MASTODON vinyl box set will be released on November 18 via Relapse Records. This box set will be a one-time pressing strictly limited to 1,000 copies and include nine 180-gram LPs encapsulating the legendary band's entire history of recordings.

The box set will be cased in a heavy duty, foil stamped black box and include the following:

* The vinyl pressing of MASTODON's 2006 Reprise debut, "Blood Mountain", on expanded double LP.
* The band's critically acclaimed 2004 release "Leviathan", expanded to double LP.
* MASTODON's covers of "The Bit" (MELVINS), "Emerald" (THIN LIZZY) and "Orion" (METALLICA).
* A live record documenting the band's performance at the Relapse Contamination Festival in 2003. This LP is, and will remain, exclusive to this box set.
* The band's reissue of early recordings, "Call Of The Mastodon".
* The final vinyl pressing of the original "Lifesblood" recording.

The box set will also include an embroidered logo patch, a vinyl sticker set, as well as a custom MASTODON turntable mat. All of these items will be exclusive to this box set, never to appear outside of it.

SOURCE: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net

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M83 Albums on Vinyl

Mute Records will release all five M83 albums on vinyl for the first time on Novemeber 25th. Each release will include a bonus CD and all are double LPs (save for Digital Shades Vol. 1 - which was previously a digital only release and just came out on CD October 28th).

M83's music, primarily Anthony Gonzalez (original member Nicolas Fromageau left after the tour for Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts) is at once cinematic in scope as well as emotionally stirring.

M83 has confirmed a headlining US tour throughout November. The tour kicks off in Atlanta, GA, on November 11th and wraps up in Los Angeles, CA, on November 29th. Following those dates, M83 will head across the pond to the UK to open for Kings of Leon (?!). These dates are all in support of M83's fifth record, Saturdays = Youth, which has been heaped with praise on this site: "(M83) makes something majestic, grand and sweeping, but never anything less than heartfelt and personal."

Morgan Kibby, M83's keyboardist on this tour, is contributing a tour blog from the European jaunt to Kevin Bronson's new website, BuzzBands.

The five M83 albums to be released on vinyl on November 25th are:
-Saturdays=Youth – originally released 2008
-Digital Shades Vol. 1 – originally released 2007 on digital format only
-Before the Dawn Heals Us - originally released 2005
-Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts – originally released 2004
-M83 – originally released 2002

SOURCE: http://rockandrollghost.blogspot.com

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McCauley's War Elephant reminiscent of Hank Williams Sr.
New album is actually a re-release.

By Tom Carbone

It all began one cold winter in 2004 - John McCauley, aka Deer Tick, locked himself into his bedroom in Providence, R.I., with a full bottle of brandy and Hank Williams Sr.'s Gold Collection. In this bedroom, an epiphany occurred for McCauley, and a few short months later he found himself touring around the country.

A lifestyle like this is quite hectic, especially for someone as young as McCauley. At the ripe young age of 18, he began to tour in support of the songs he was howling in his bedroom. With two full years of touring under his belt, the then 20-year-old released War Elephant in late 2007, but is now re-issuing the record on Partisan Records. The new release features a limited edition double vinyl and CD coupled with its new album artwork.

McCauley's uniquely pinched croon is spine-tingling - his voice cannot be overlooked. On the opening track "Ashamed," McCauley claims, "I am the boy your mother wanted you to meet."

"Ashamed" is a folksy acoustic piece that really sets a precedent for the rest of the record. His gritty-yet-fluid voice seems to be fully developed on this song, despite his young age. The lyrics, however, are a tad juvenile. This could be intentional, but it could also just be a result of his youth. There is no reason to complain about the lyrics, though, as they put across messages and ideas in ways that fully trained poets and musicians sometimes cannot do.

The Hank Williams in McCauley starts to shine with the second track, "Art Isn't Real (City of Sin)." A seemingly depressed McCauley states, "I gotta get drunk now/I gotta forget about some things." As he yells, a string section begins, and the song continues. The song is beautiful, despite its lyrical content. Ol' Hank has taught him well, but hopefully McCauley doesn't end up like him.

McCauley's pattern of drunken rambles and experiences changes with "Spend The Night," a poppy, upbeat tune about love that again can be directly compared to Hank Williams when he was performing more pop-influenced tunes. "Spend the night in my arms/I'll keep you tight, I'll keep you warm," McCauley promises. Even if you don't have McCauley in person to do this, the record will suffice; He's that talented.

Despite playing all of the instruments on War Elephant himself, he has now recruited two other full-time members to the band he tours and records with. This doesn't change the live show at all, but it remains to be seen what this will do to studio recordings.

Granted, if you've never listened to John McCauley before, don't expect to be in love with him after the first spin. These songs and his voice will grow on you much like Joanna Newsom's did. Or even Conor Oberst's. His voice isn't bad, but it's certainly unconventional.

SOURCE: http://www.themaneater.com
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Killers, Ludacris, Kanye albums move up a day

NEW YORK (Billboard) – New albums by the Killers, Ludacris and Kanye West will be released a day earlier than planned, on Monday November 24, to capitalize on the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, their Island Def Jam label said.

Each project has already spawned a hit. The Killers' "Human," drawn from the album "Day & Age," is No. 6 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart.

Ludacris' "One More Drink" co-starring T-Pain is No. 34 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs; it comes from "Theater of the Mind."

West's "Love Lockdown," from "808s & Heartbreak," has already peaked at No. 3 on the flagship Hot 100 single chart.

Reuters/Billboard