As though recording an album of Tom Waits covers weren’t cool enough, Scarlett Johansson collaborated with Yeah Yeah Yeah’s guitarist Nick Zinner on one of the songs, as well as an original. The Tom Waits covers record is called Anywhere I Lay My Head, and it’s due out this May. It’s practically guaranteed a spot […]

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Murder by Death’s debut for Vagrant records, Red of Tooth and Claw, is due out March 4. Preceding the full-length is a digital EP entitled Fuego!, which is available February 12. Signing to a (mostly) pop-punk label worked for The Hold Steady, as far as propelling the band into the limelight is concerned. We’ll see […]

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While I’m somewhat excited about the new Portishead record news (it’s almost too little too late), I can’t help but be annoyed by the projected album title, Third. Seriously? Almost eleven years have gone by and that’s the title you come up with? It just seems so frustratingly uncreative and decidedly coy. I know having […]

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Since Paul Weller has come down with a nasty case of principles, his remaining two ex-bandmates in The Jam have reunited under the catchy moniker From the Jam: Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler. The leftover duo has recruited some anonymous scabs Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers two replacements to fill in for Weller on an […]

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It’s been seventeen years since The Wedding Present recorded its aggressive master work, Seamonsters, with engineer Steve Albini. The marriage of Albini’s penchant for abrasiveness with The Wedding Present’s strumming frenzy of guitars may have frightened some of the band’s early pop fans, but it cemented its underground allure. Even though The Wedding Present never […]

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Sebastian Grainger, former drummer and lead singer of Canada’s sadly defunct Death From Above 1979, has a new band called Sebastian Grainger & The Mountains. The quartet’s myspace page has three “working mixes” posted, and they sound very, very promising, despite being a far cry from DFA1979’s glorious pummeling bass/drums attack. From the default profile […]

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I know it pays the bills and everything to sell the remains of your dignity to soulless corporations, but would you really want a classic song off your defining early LP associated with Grade D beef that’s barely fit for human consumption? It’s probably a clever marketing ploy, since Joe Jackson has a new record […]

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