Category: Music News

Bez and his mates will be back touring as the Happy Mondays have announced a new set of dates.

The band will be supported by The Sunshine Underground to follow up their very popular sold out summer dates. The full tour listing is:

September:

27th – Nottingham Rock City
28th – Glasgow Carling Academy

October:

1st – Sheffield Octagon
2nd – Newcastle Carling Academy
3rd – Bristol Carling Academy
5th – Oxford Zodiac
6th – Brixton Carling Academy
8th – Norwich Uea
9th – Southampton Guildhall
10th – Leeds University
12th – Birmingham Carling Academy
13th – Liverpool Carling Academy

www.happymondaysonline.com

More rumours are circulating on the status of Blur.

According to a report in The Mirror, the band are going to hit the studio in November with Graham Coxon in tow. The paper states:

“They’ve all had lots on with solo projects, cartoon bands and farming. But by the end of summer, their plates will be clear. They’ll go into the studio in November”.

Rumours of fanboy Abjekt running around whooping at this news are as yet unconfirmed.

www.blur.co.uk

The newly reformed Smashing Pumpkins will be playing a one off show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on June 19th and will be their only UK show before their comeback album is released.

Zeitgeist will hit the shops on July 9th.

www.smashingpumpkins.com

The Gallows launch party for their Abandon Ship single literally rocked the Thames last night! The party, organised by Crossfire was electric with Mike Davies and DJ Feebz smashing rock and punk in the main room, Danny Watson and his crew supplying the classics downstairs and party vibes from Zac Slack’s Crossfire Sound System.

Free beer and Jack Daniels fuelled a riotous show with the band exploding in front of a select 150 people. It was utter carnage as they romped through tracks from their new album ‘Orchestra Of Wolves’ released on June 18th. The crowd took over the stage grabbing mics and singing the words to every song. It was the gig of the year so far without a doubt!

Look out for the band on tour in June, dates are here.

Beirut will be performing at the Jazz World Stage at Glastonbury this year.

In support of the single, Elephant Gun, which is out on June 25th, Beirut will also be playing the Tripod in Dubling on June 22nd and Koko in London on June 26th with the Glastonbury date falling in on the 24th of June.

Check out the video to Elephant Gun here.

www.beirutband.com

Bad Religion will be releasing a digital single on June 11th.

Honest Goodbye is taken from their upcoming album New Maps Of Hell which will see them celebrate their 25th anniversary. The single is inspired by Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood about the crimes of Perry Smith.

www.myspace.com/badreligion

Gallows are running a competition on their myspace to win tickets for their album launch tomorrow [June 5th] on a boat in Central London. There is a Crossfire room on board with Zac and James both playing all night!.

To be in with a chance of winning tickets to this event, take a photo or make a video clip relevant to Gallows, upload the photo to MySpace or the video to YouTube and send the link to rock@warnermusic.com. Make sure you don’t send files to that address, just links!

Winners will be selected at random but must be 18 or over and ID will be required at the door.

Click here for the competition.

www.myspace.com/gallows

Jose Gonzalez has spoken about his upcoming album.

In Our Nature, the follow up to Veneer from 2005, is due out in September and the singer has said that it will “bring out the primitive aspects of human beings.”

He is currently on tour in South America and will be hitting the festivals this summer. The tracklisting for the album is:

‘How Low’
‘Down The Line’
‘Killing For Love’
‘In Our Nature’
‘Teardrop’
‘Abram’
‘Time To Send Someone Away’
‘The Nest’
‘Fold’
‘Cycling Trivialities’

www.jose-gonzalez.com

Sufjan Stevens will compose a piece of music dedicated to a “major expressway” in New York.

The singer agreed to write the piece about the stretch of road from Brooklyn to Queen for the Brooklyn Academy of Music which will accompany a “virtual road trip”.

He will compose the music which will be played by a live orchestra during the film’s premiere in November. Stevens’ website said the inspiration of the piece centres around:

“abstract patterns and stories in the snaking traffic, potholed pavement, billboards, badly marked exits, and beautiful city views, revealing what happens when Manifest Destiny converges with urban blight.”

And here’s us thinking it’s just a bit of road.

www.sufjan.com

Michael Jackson has bought the rights to some of Eminem’s catalogue, it has been reported.

According to Yahoo, Jackson bought the rights to Without Me and The Real Slim Shady in a buying spree which including music by Beck and Bjork as well as the soundtracks to The Godfather and Mission:Impossible.

Seems like he’s chosen to ignore Eminem’s pisstake of him in the video for Just Lose It then.

www.eminem.com