R.E.M. fans were devastated at the news that, after 31 years, the band decided to ” call it a day”.

Their final album will come out November 15, a 40 song retrospective that collects, for the first time ever, songs from R.E.M.’s entire back catalog, including the early years on IRS. A brand new song ” We All Go Back to Where We Belong” will sent available October 18.    

The album ” R.E. M. Part Lies, Part Heart. Part Truth, Part Garbage” is available for pre-order on Amazon. com.

Here’s the line-up!

Disc 1:
Gardening At Night
Radio Free Europe
Talk About The Passion
Sitting Still
So. Central Rain
(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
Driver 8
Life And How To Live It
Begin The Begin
Fall On Me
Finest Worksong
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
The One I Love
Stand
Pop Song 89
Get Up
Orange Crush
Losing My Religion
Country Feedback
Shiny Happy People

Disc 2:
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Everybody Hurts
Man On The Moon
Nightswimming
What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?
New Test Leper
Electrolite
At My Most Beautiful
The Great Beyond
Imitation Of Life
Bad Day
Leaving New York
Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Supernatural Superserious
ÜBerlin
Oh My Heart
Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter
A Month of Saturdays
We All Go Back To Where We Belong
Hallelujah

Last month, Wayne Coyne revealed the bands’ “ridiculous” plan to release new Flaming Lips music on a USB drive that would be housed in an edible gummy skull.  When first hearing about this, it sounds absolutely out of this world.  Strange.  However, I also found myself thinking, “Damn, I want one of those!”

He pulled it off – touche Wayne Coyne.  The Lips frontman dropped by the Oklahoma City, OK, record store Guest Room yesterday to sell a few “copies” of the item – which sold for $150 a piece.  Now the music contained therein has hit the web.

Two of the new songs – “Drug Chart” & “In Our Bodies, In Our Heads” – are streaming online.  Both, as expected, are as unconventional as their method of release.  “Drug Chart” is five minutes of drugged-out, Pink Floyd-style drone, with sharp blasts of synths.  Coyne, who sounds like he huffed on tanks of helium, sings unintelligible lyrics throughout the duration of this ingenuity.  “In Our Bodies, in Our Heads” is even cooler: four minutes of weirded-out jazz-funk fusion that recalls Miles Davis circa Bitches Brew.

Gummy Skull, I want you!

Wilco’s new, self-owned record label – dBpm Records – will come out with its first release.  Fittingly, a new single from Wilco.

The band announced on their Facebook page (where else?) that the 7″ single will feature a new song, “I might”, backed by an apropos cover of Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label”.  It will first be sold at Wilco’s own Solid Sound Festival, taking place June 24-26 in North Adams, Massachusetts, and then everywhere else in July.

The single’s release will lead up to Wilco’s next full-length.  Jeff Tweedy mentioned to SPIN that the new LP is tentatively title Get Well Soon Everybody.  It won’t be ready for release until later this year, September-ish.  Apparently the band is still in the process of selecting which songs will appear on the record, which might turn out to be a double album.

“I do think it’s a little bit more obnoxious and irreverent of a pop record than people have heard from us, maybe ever.” – Tweedy

Tentative song titles include “Art of Almost”, “Whole Love”, “Born Alone”, and the intriguing 14-minute jam “Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend”, which Tweedy says is an autobiographical song featuring ten (holy!) verses.

Being a Wilco fan, I’m intrigued.  Will I enjoy the new poppiness of the new album or will this album hinder my love?  Why that direction?   So many questions that can’t be answered until September. Ish.

R.E.M. LAUNCH “IT HAPPENED TODAY” REMIX PROJECT    

DOWNLOAD RAW TRACKS AND CREATE YOUR OWN REMIXES OF “IT HAPPENED TODAY,” A SONG FROM BAND’S UPCOMING ALBUM, COLLAPSE INTO NOW

 In keeping with R.E.M.’s ongoing commitment to giving their fans an interactive musical experience, the band have announced an exciting remix project in conjunction with “It Happened Today,” a track on R.E.M.’s upcoming new album Collapse Into Now, which is due from Warner Bros. Records on March 8^th.

 R.E.M., and Collapse Into Now’s producer, Grammy-Award winner Jacknife Lee, are offering you the opportunity to remix the entirety of “It Happened Today” from the ground up by distributing the raw source for the song as both a Garageband file for Apple Macintosh computers, or as raw stem audio files for other platforms. Lee, himself, has prepared both sets of files, which delivers the song in its “raw” state with no reverb, mixing, or effects.

Visit the band’s website, www.remhq.com, and download all 16 tracks Lee used to create the song, including vocals by Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, as well as those by special guests Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and The Hidden Cameras’ Joel Gibb, plus Peter Buck’s guitar and mandolin, Mills’ signature bass, and brass ensemble tracks from Bonerama. After creating their own versions of the song, you are invited to submit your remixes on the band’s website to share with the members of R.E.M. and other fans around the world.

 “It Happened Today” is currently available on iTunes as an “Instant Download” track for those who pre-order Collapse Into Now.

Ben Folds performs live at the Overture Center Thursday, January 27th in support of his new release Lonely Avenue. His 6th solo record is a collaboration with Nick Hornby author of High Fidelity. Hornby handed the lyrics over to Ben who then set the short stories to music recording all eleven songs in analog onto two inch tape.

But this wasn’t the first time Folds had asked for Hornby’s assistance. Over the years they had unknowingly developed a mutual admiration for each other’s work. Then in 2002 as Ben Folds was working on William Shatner’s Has Been record, he reached out to Hornby asking him to help write some songs for Shatner. With Lonely Avenue, Hornby again marked a definitive starting point for each song surprisingly yielding an even wider creative palate for Folds to develop the music to. There’s moog synthesizer , string arrangements, horns and much more on the record.

Street Corner Symphony from NBC’s The Sing Off will be the opening act on the 27th.  Folds is a judge for the a capella talent search.  He’ll have a four piece behind him when he takes the stage next Thursday. Last year he once performed songs on video chat site Chatroulette while on stage in front of thousands.  He likes to be unpredictable and has a tendency to improvise feeding off the audience during his performances which should make for a fantastic night out.

Check out this sweet live video of Cake performing their new single “Sick of You” live at our sister station KRXQ in Sacramento.

I’m digging it!

What do you think?

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros have some reworked versions from their debut album Up From Below.

If the name is unfamiliar, check out the video for their hit single “Home” – I bet you will recognize it! This group in known for their music videos – this past summer, the band released “Desert Song”, a music video which is part 1 of a 12-part feature-length musical. Visit their YouTube page to see more

Included in the session below is this track titled “Janglin’” – used in the 2011 Ford Fiesta commercial – and “Up From Below” – featuring the group’s signature wailing horns, group vocals, honky-tonk guitar and harmonica. Click the “down” arrow button on the right side of the player to download!

Edward Sharpe The Magnetic Zeros – Janglin’ (iTunes Session) by Pretty Much Amazing

Edward Sharpe The Magnetic Zeros – Up From Below (iTunes Session) by Pretty Much Amazing

Check out this really great video biography created for Gregg Allman’s Rounder debut; Low Country Blues. This is Gregg’s first solo album in 15 years.

This past June, Gregg underwent a successful Liver transplant. His recovery was quite rapid – and (in a sense) this has given him an opportunity to replenish his commitment to making incredible music.

You can pre-order the album here – there are a few specials available including the immediate digital download of three tracks from Gregg’s new CD, t-shirts, a beautiful limited edition poster autographed by Gregg, and a vinyl copy of the album.

All of the songs selected by Gregg are Blues Classics: Sleepy John Estes’ “Floating Bridge.”, Little Milton’s “Blind Man” Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman”.

The notable exception is the first single, “Just Another Rider” that Gregg co-wrote with Warren Haynes. It’s a archetypal Allman Bros influenced song that only Gregg could sing with such laconic acumen.

Unless you never turned on the radio in 2010, you couldn’t have missed one EskimO’s song Kandi. Have you ever wondered what  ” Kandi” has to do with the song?

It all started with Patsy Cline! Shortly before she died, she recorded a song called ” He Called Me Baby”.

In 2004, R& B singer Candi Staton covered the tune:

That’s the female voice you hear in the One EskimO song.

And now you know…. the rest of the story.

So, if you ever wanted to encapsulate Wilco in a beverage, now is your chance because you can get a cup of fresh Wilco direct trade coffee.
According to their website, “This past Fall, some members of the band dropped by our neighbors Intelligentsia’s Cupping Lab to select their favorite coffee. The unanimous selection is the Single Origin, Organic Ethiopia Sidama Homecho Waeno. This coffee comes from the Sidama region of Ethiopia and is grown by the Homecho Waeno co-op…”

What does it taste like?

“The aromatics of coffee blossom and violet make way for an incredibly graceful and elegant cup. The body has a light and silky quality, like fresh whipped cream, that beautifully compliments the ever-present note of citron, juniper berry and vanilla. As it cools, the cup blossoms into notes of confectioner’s sugar, rosehips, and soft raisin, resonating on a pristine finish with a touch of milk chocolate.”

The coffee will start shipping on December 9th.  It will cost $21 per pound and comes as whole bean only.