Neil Young  has announced the release of new solo album “Le Noise,” due out Sept. 28 on Reprise Records. The eight-song follow-up to 2009′s “Fork in the Road” is a stripped-down collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan).

Recorded in Lanois’ Los Angeles home, “Le Noise” features Young on acoustic and electric guitar with no backing band or overdubs. “Neil was so appreciative of the sonics that we presented to him,” says Lanois, adding that the pair had “taken the acoustic guitar to a new level.”

“Le Noise” will be issued as a standard CD, vinyl, digital download, and as a deluxe CD/DVD set. The DVD portion, which showcases Young performing each of the album’s eight songs, will also be released as a Blu-Ray in November.

Here is the tracklist for “Le Noise”:

Walk With Me
Sign of Love
Rescue Me
Love And War
Angry World
Hitchhiker
Peaceful Valley Blvd.
Rumblin’

From Billboard 9/1/10

http://www.billboard.com/news#/news/neil-young-announces-new-album-le-noise-1004112260.story

Elton John 

and Leon Russell have issued the first single from their forthcoming collaborative album, “The Union,” due Oct. 19 on Decca Records. Titled “If It Wasn’t For Bad,” the song features vocals from both musical legends as well as John on piano.

Produced by T-Bone Burnett, “The Union” is John and Russell’s first collaboration since 1970. In July, John said the album was an attempt to move away from pop music and “be mature” with his work, and that he hopes the disc brings more exposure to Russell’s solo recording career.

Elton John Teams With Leon Russell For ‘Mature’ New Album

The pair also worked with songwriter Bernie Taupin and brought in Neil Young and Brian Wilson to guest on the album. John said he plans to tour with Russell next year as well.

From Billboard 9/1/10

http://www.billboard.com/news#/news/elton-john-and-leon-russell-release-first-1004112450.story

Just as a studious group of Nine Inch Nails fans (“This One Is On Us”) did with the last show on NIN’s “Lights In The Sky” tour, a team of over 4 dozen Radiohead fans have carefully edited a slew of live footage from the band’s set in Prague last August to produce a free, multi-format concert film, dubbed Radiohead: Live in Praha. Though a pro-edited, fan-shot live show is certainly noteworthy on its own, the best part was revealed modestly below the setlist on their official download site: “Audio masters kindly provided by the band.” (!)

Ever since SKoA pointed us to the page this morning, it’s been crawling as eager fans devour that sweet, sweet bandwidth, so bookmark the page now for when things pick up over there and enjoy the entire film on YouTube or a few choice clips through the link below:

http://www.twentyfourbit.com/post/1044545603/radiohead-and-fans-team-up-for-free-live-film

From TwentyFourBit 8/31/10

T.I. recently gave a scene-stealing guest verse to fellow Southern rap monarch Rick Ross‘ big-money posse cut “Maybach Music III”, and now Ross has returned the favor. The new T.I./Ross collab, possibly intended for T.I.’s forthcoming King Uncaged, is nearly eight minutes of brutally regal tough talk, and it bears the unfortunate title “Pledge Allegiance to the Swag”. The gigantic-sounding beat comes courtesy of J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. Download the track over at Nah Right.

From Pitchfork 9/1/10

http://pitchfork.com/news/39929-hear-tis-eight-minute-rick-ross-collab/

Includes live material, B-sides, Dylan cover

Last year, Dirty Projectors made a leap forward with Bitte Orca, Pitchfork’s second-favorite album of the year. And on September 28, that LP will get something of a victory lap when Domino releases a double-disc expanded version of the album, featuring rare material.The expanded Bitte Orca features the original album on one disc. On the second, there’s a live acoustic performance from the New York record store Other Music, as well as vinyl-only B-sides from the “Stillness Is the Move” and “Ascending Melody” singles and this cover of Bob Dylan’s “As I Went Out One Morning” (UPDATE: The cover that appears on the expanded edition is new and unreleased). We’ve got the tracklist below.

Over the next few months, the band will play a ton of shows, including a Madison Square Garden date with Phoenix and Wavves. Check the schedule below the tracklisting.

Bitte Orca (Expanded Edition):

CD1:

01 Cannibal Resource
02 Temecula Sunrise
03 The Bride
04 Stillness Is the Move
05 Two Doves
06 Useful Chamber
07 No Intention
08 Remade Horizon
09 Fluorescent Half Dome

CD2:

01 Fluorescent Half Dome (Live at Other Music)
02 Temecula Sunrise (Live at Other Music)
03 Two Doves (Live at Other Music)
04 Cannibal Resource (Live at Other Music)
05 No Intention (Live at Other Music)
06 Ascending Melody
07 Emblem of The World
09 Bitte Bitte Orca
10 Stillness Is the Move (Lucky Dragons Remix)
11 As I Went Out One Morning

Dirty Projectors:

09-07 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club *
09-08 Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero *
09-11 New York, NY – Terminal 5 *
09-13 Boston, MA – Wilbur Theater *
09-14 Montreal, Quebec – Le National ^
09-15 Toronto, Ontario – Opera House ^
09-17 Chicago, IL – Metro ^
09-18 Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theatre ^
09-19 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue ^
09-23 Pomona, CA – Glass House #
09-24 Los Angeles, CA – Wiltern #
09-25 San Francisco, CA – Fillmore #
09-28 Portland, OR – Aladdin #
09-29 Portland, OR – Aladdin #
09-30 Seattle, WA – Showbox #
10-05 Durham, NC – Page Auditorium
10-20 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden %
11-06 Austin, TX – Fun Fun Fun Fest
12-07 London, England – Koko
12-10 Minehead, England – ATP Festival

* with Owen Pallett
^ with Happy Birthday
# with Dominique Young Unique
% with Phoenix, Wavves

In this exclusive video (through the link below), TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek brings us into the L.A. studio where he recorded Maximum Balloon, his funky, Eighties-pop-influenced project, in stores September 21. Sitek called on friends including Karen O, David Byrne, and TVOTR band mates Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe to sing over the tracks he created. “I needed to get a bunch of pop music out of my system,” he tells Rolling Stone, contrasting Maximum Balloon against TV on the Radio. “We don¹t have any nine-minute epic songs about global warming.”

TVOTR have been on hiatus since last year, and Sitek — who has produced the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Thee Oh See’s and Scarlett Johansson’s solo album Anywhere I Lay My Head — doesn’t know when they’ll reconvene. “We’re the lousiest band with plans you’ll ever see,” he explains.”So if we said we’re going to start on this day, then we automatically jinx it. [We'll play] whenever we’re all around each other.” Sitek took an easy-going approach to Maximum Balloon as well, prepping for recording sessions by inviting friends to his L.A. studio and spinning music by the B-52′s, Mobb Deep and Aphex Twin.

We asked Sitek about three standout Maximum Balloon tracks:

“Tiger,” featuring Aku: Sitek was in a New York studio eighteen months ago producing a “cornball” artist he won’t name when he began experimenting with a propulsive rhythm, funk guitar, and fuzzy synth. Sitek called his friend Aku, singer for the Brooklyn psych-rockers Dragons of Zynth, and they spent the rest of the day recording vocals. The track, which plays in the video above, went viral when Daisy Lowe, Gavin Rossdale’s model daughter, stripped to the track in a video shoot for Esquire. “She heard it and then called me and was like, ‘I hope you don’t mind I used the song for a video I did. I’m dancing around in my underwear.’ I was like, ‘okay.’”

“Communion,” featuring Karen O: Sitek invited the Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman to dinner just as the album was wrapping. “I was like, ‘You know, everyone else is on this record. If you’re not, that’s kind of lame,’” he recalls. Karen O chose this smoky, stomping club number, where she demands, “Give me that beat / Show your love.” “You get all of the Karen worlds in one song,” Sitek says. “You get that real immediate presence, softer voice, and then you get the banshee” at the end of the track.

“Apartment Wrestling,” featuring David Byrne: Sitek took a friend’s advice and called Byrne, a hero of Sitek’s, who quickly agreed to add vocals from New York. “He was like ‘What do you think of this?’ I¹m like, ‘Why do you even care what I think? You’re David Byrne!’” Sitek says, adding, “There’s no hiding behind effects with him. You just put him front and center and, oh my God …”

Maximum Balloon Track Listing

1. Groove Me, feat. Theophilus London

2. Young Love, feat. Katrina Ford

3. Absence of Light, feat. Tunde Adebimpe (Hear this song at the Fader)

4. If You Return, feat. Little Dragon

5. Shakedown, feat. Kyp Malone

6. Communion, feat. Karen O

7. Tiger, feat. Aku

8. The Lesson, feat. Holly Miranda

9. Apartment Wrestling, feat. David Byrne

10. Pink Bricks, feat. Ambrosia Parsley

From Rolling Stone 8/30/10

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/17386/196742

The celebrations for what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday, on October 9th of this year, have begun to take shape. On October 5th, EMI will reissue freshened versions of Lennon’s solo albums, along with some previously unreleased home recordings. And on the actual anniversary, Yoko Ono will hold her annual lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower on an island off ReykjavÌk, Iceland. “The fact that this year is John’s 70th birthday year is very special for us all,” Ono tells Rolling Stone. “We are all together celebrating John for having given us so much good energy in his lifetime and now.”

Photos: John & Yoko: A New York Love Story

In Iceland, Ono will also present LennonOno Grant for Peace awards to four recipients — authors Michael Pollan and Alice Walker, public health advocate Barbara Kowalcyk, and documentary filmmaker Josh Fox — whose work is “based on their courage and commitment to peace, truth, and human rights.” She’ll then give a special Plastic Ono Band performance with a lineup that will include her son Sean. “A tribute concert for John given by Sean and I that evening will be the icing on the cake!” says Ono.

The Imagine Peace Tower fulfills, in a way, an old wish of Lennon’s. “I was inspired to conceive of a light tower in 1965, which was printed in ‘Sales List’” her 1965 Fluxus artwork “and appeared in my book Grapefruit,” Ono explains. “John picked this up and invited me over to his Kenwood mansion, asking if I could build the light tower in his garden. Of course, I had to tell him the conceptual nature of the work, and that I didn’t know how to make it into a physical object! Nearly 42 years after this dialogue between me and John, Imagine Peace Tower was built in Iceland and has become a physical reality.”

Lennon fans will get their own tangible objects in the form of upgraded reissues of his solo albums (from Plastic Ono Band through Milk and Honey) along with a single-disc compilation and a boxed set. The Gimme Some Truth box is particularly enticing: a bonus disc includes previously unreleased home recordings of songs from 1970’s volcanic Plastic Ono Band (“God,” “I Found Out,” “Mother,” “Love”) along with other tracks from his subsequent records. Also included: a “Stripped Down” version of Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1980 album Double Fantasy, in which Ono and producer Jack Douglas peeled away the original album’s production to reveal its basic tracks. “You feel like you’re in the presence of John interacting with Yoko and the players,” Douglas tells Rolling Stone. “It’s the same with Yoko’s songs. The dialogue between the two of them becomes even more obvious. There are a couple of songs that never sounded like duets but do now, like ‘Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him.’”

According to Douglas, tracks like “I’m Losing You” and “Watching the Wheels” benefited in particular from the makeover. “When you hear them raw, those are two of the jewels,” he says. ”’Watching the Wheels’ becomes this song with barely any accompaniment. ‘I’m Losing You’ was meant to be like this.” One of Ono’s tracks, “Yes, I’m Your Angel,” now includes a lead guitar part that was later replaced by horns. “It sounds like Brian May now!” says Douglas. “Amazing three-part harmony guitar lines backing up the song — very cool.”

Douglas found himself, to his surprise, reconfiguring the album in the same room where Double Fantasy had been cut — a Sony studio that once housed the legendary Record Plant. “They said, ‘Mr. Douglas, we have to tell you something — the very room that you’ll be doing your transfers in is rumored to be the last room where you and John worked together,’” he says. “I thought, ‘This is so strange.’ I started this project in the very same room in which I left it.”

From Rolling Stone 8/31/10

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/17386/197144

Chickenfoot is four songs and “seven pieces of new music” into its second album, according to frontman Sammy Hagar. But he acknowledges there’s some concern about keeping that not-so-old gang of theirs together.

The challenge is drummer Chad Smith and his regular gig with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are currently writing for the follow-up to 2006′s “Stadium Arcadium.” “Once they start recording, Chad’s never going to be able to get a break,” Hagar tells Billboard.com. “If he does, he’ll get a couple weeks here, a couple days there, which is not really enough to devote to Chickenfoot. And when they’re done with [the album] they’re gonna go on the road for a year and a half. So we either have to get a new drummer or wait for Chad…which is unfair to Chickenfoot. It’s too good a band.”

But Hagar says he, Smith and rest of Chickenfoot — guitarist Joe Satriani and founding Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony — are not frustrated by the situation. “We care, but at the same time [Chickenfoot] is not mandatory,” Hagar explains. “It’s not like we feel like, ‘Hey, this is our only chance in life.’ Everyone’s already been there, done that. Chickenfoot is not our bread and butter, and I think that’s really important.”

Chickenfoot will play together again on Sept. 10 in Indio, Calif., and Sept. 11 in Stateline, Nev. Hagar says the group had plans to hit the studio after that but things are “kind of up in the air.”

However, the frontman is stoked by the material he and Satriani are writing, including the four songs Chickenfoot has already worked on as a quartet. “We probably have a record ready to go,” Hagar reports. “It’s just waiting for when we can all get together to do it” — a process also complicated by the Oct. 5 release of Satriani’s next album, “Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards,” and a three-plus month world tour that starts Oct. 16 in Ireland and comes to North America in December.

Meanwhile, Hagar and his band the Wabos are currently supporting Aerosmith. He has no recording plans of his own at the moment but is working on an autobiography, “Red,” with San Francisco music journalist Joel Selvin that he promises will be “really revealing, right down to just about everything you’d want to know” — including his tenures in Montrose and Van Halen.

“I figure there’s only one shot at an autobiography, and you’ve got to tell the story, as much as it may be painful,” says Hagar, who has made two previous attempts at his memoirs. “I really believe there’s a lot of people out there that really have no idea where I came from and who I really am. I’ve never been a press junkie, and I think that’s a good thing. So I think the book is going to blow people’s minds.”

From Billboard 8/30/10

http://www.billboard.com/news#/news/sammy-hagar-on-sharing-chickenfoot-drummer-1004111903.story

Lost Highway

If there’s one thing Ryan Bingham doesn’t really get, it’s why people think he plays country music. It’s a preconception the Oscar-winning singer-songwriter is eager to dispel as he and his band, the Dead Horses, release a third album, ‘Junky Star,’ for Lost Highway Records this week.

“I just don’t get that. I wouldn’t call what we do country music,” Bingham tells Spinner. “I grew up in Texas and New Mexico and I do wear a cowboy hat a lot, so I guess if you wear a cowboy hat people automatically think you play country music.”

Perhaps it’s a fair enough assumption, though. Earlier this year, Bingham won the Best Original Song Oscar and Golden Globe for the dusty ballad ‘The Weary Kind,’ which formed the moving theme to the Jeff Bridges film ‘Crazy Heart.’ After all, it was a heart-warming film about a down-on-his-luck country singer. The 29-year-old Los Angeles-based Bingham co-wrote the song with music biz legend T Bone Burnett, who also produced ‘Junky Star,’ and like the 10-time Grammy winner, Bingham certainly has a rootsy swing to his songs.

However, one of the biggest influences on his career, he says, is far from a country music maker. Before working with Burnett, Marc Ford, the former Black Crowes guitarist and co-founder of blistering ’80s rockers Burning Tree, was something of a mentor. Ford produced Bingham’s label debut, 2007′s ‘Mescalito,’ and his first record with the Dead Horses, 2009′s ‘Roadhouse Sun.’ Bingham credits Ford with both giving him his Dead Horses bass player, his son Elijah Ford, and teaching him how to be more than a solo troubadour strumming a guitar.

“I met Marc when I first came out to L.A. and he really taught me a lot about music and about playing in a band,” Bingham says. “I was just used to playing by myself acoustically. I didn’t read music. I didn’t know about being in a band and playing with other musicians. He taught me how to do it.”

From Spinner 8/30/10

http://www.spinner.com/2010/08/30/ryan-bingham-junky-star/

Ninja Tune

Kid Koala has been indulging his louder tendencies of late with the Slew, but he’s not ready to dedicate himself to rock just yet. Finally finished work on his second graphic novel, ‘Space Cadet,’ the Montreal-based turntablist has also been putting the finishing touches on its accompanying soundtrack, a score that he calls “almost classical.”

“I recorded a lot of it on baby grand piano,” Kid Koala tells Spinner. “Then I’ve been scratching violin and woodwind counterpoints off of it with turntables, just really layering it. When you see the story, you’ll see that it kind of asks for that kind of music.”

This December, Koala (born Eric San) will hole up at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) to test and develop a multimedia live stage show. The DJ and his five-member team will live in the museum’s artist housing as they complete a week-long creative residency dedicated to fully developing the project’s live component. “If all goes well, we’re looking at taking it on the road in autumn,” he says.

‘Space Cadet’ tells the story of a young astronaut who goes on her first solo flight while her guardian, a robotic father-figure that has nurtured her since birth, goes through parallel experiences back on Earth. Given the heaviness of the concept, an exploration of interconnectivity and seclusion, the live show presents an interesting challenge.

“The music has this really isolated kind of feeling, which is something we want to get across in the show,” San says. “But we also want to make it a communal experience for everybody.”

To do so, San will subvert the regular concert-going experience by transmitting the music to each individual through headphones, rather than centralized amplifiers. “It’s like there are a bunch of people in a room, but they’re all just mellowing, having their own response.”

As the score is performed, 3D models of images and characters from the graphic novel will be projected on custom-made screens and handmade sets, creating an immersive environment in which each spectator can have an isolated, individual reaction. Everything, including the projections, will be recreated live.

“The book’s called ‘Space Cadet,’ so we had to find some way to present it in that context. But then for me, it’s also really important to have it be organic. It’ll be a tough balance, but it should be interesting.”

From Spinner 8/30/10

http://www.spinner.com/2010/08/30/kid-koala-graphic-novel-space-cadet/