Music News & Notes

Alt-Country Rockers Cross Canadian Ragweed Release New Album This Week

Alt-country rockers Cross Canadian Ragweed have just released their new album, Happiness and All the Other Things, this week. Hailing from Yukon, Oklahoma, the quartet has been a staple of the live circuit since their start in the late 1990s. Although not a household name in the mainstream rock world yet, Cross Canadian Ragweed have already built a huge and loyal fanbase through their gritty live shows. They’ve also long-been celebrated by the music press with USA Today gushing, “This ferociously rocking band is one of the better-kept secrets around…As usual, their best stuff is so good you wonder why more people aren’t noticing…”

Ragweed’s utterly natural Southwestern rock style abounds on Happiness and All The Other Things. The 12-track opus opens with a one/two punch/kiss combo that sets the band’s wide parameters: The fiercely rocking road tale “51 Pieces” followed by a sweet taste of the Texas Hill Country springtime on “Blue Bonnets,” whose sparse and lovely arrangement features harmonium by Joe Hardy (the star recording engineer who mixed the album) and dobro by noted musician and producer Lloyd Maines (also the father of Dixie Chick Natalie Maines). The band will be out throughout the rest of the year and well into 2010 promoting the record.

Alice Cooper told Noisecreep.com that he is concerned about the state of American rock. "I heard the title Vampire Weekend and I thought, 'Oh, man, that's gonna be great. I gotta see it and there are these guys with little Gap T-shirts on and I'm going, 'What happened to the balls in rock 'n' roll? Why are American bands so wimpy?'"

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More Beatles Sets Coming

Amazon has posted the following on its website in reference to the Beatles in Mono box set. "The manufacturer has informed us that they will be producing additional mono box sets due to high demand. While the mono box set will still remain a limited production item, it will no longer be limited to 10,000 copies for the U.S. market, as originally reported."

Radio stations across the country will be breaking from their normal programming on Wednesday to celebrate the reissue of the Beatles' catalog and the release of the Rock Band game. WRXP in New York are sending Matt Pinfield and Leslie Fram to Abbey Studios in London to broadcast the Wednesday edition to their show. Other stations will have big giveaways, Beatles blocks and other promotions.

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Mick & Keith Reliving Old Times

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have been in the studio reviewing outtakes and unreleased material from the Rolling Stones' 1972 album Exile on Mainstreet. It's all leading up to the first archival/deluxe release of the band's career.

Richards told Rolling Stone, "There's new songs on there, stuff we've forgotten about. Mick and I were looking at each other like, 'Ah, did we do that?'"