September 3rd, 2012

Brontide work their trade in a tough and often unappreciated field.

Purely an instrumental band, their music isn’t typical of the genre they hail from. Rather than being sparse, experimental or even generally progressive, their songs tend to take shape as an exhilarating stew of beat driven electronica, complimented by heavy metal guitars for good measure.

Alt-J have announced more UK dates for spring 2013 as demand grows for the band following the release of ‘An Awesome Wave‘ back in May.

Pearl Jam‘s headline gig at last weekend’s Made In America Festival in Philadelphia included a special cover version of Jay-Z‘s classic rap single ‘99 Problems‘.

The grunge survivors were joined onstage by Jay-Z for the performance, which arrived on the final night of the Philadelphia event yesterday (September 2nd), and followed Jay-Z’s own headline appearance at the festival two days earlier.

Fan footage of the cover has been posted on YouTube, and can be viewed below.

’99 Problems’ proved to the penultimate song of a cover-heavy setlist, which also included Pearl Jam’s takes on The Clash‘s ‘Know Your Rights‘, The Who‘s ‘Love Reign O’er Me‘ and Neil Young‘s ‘Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World‘.

Setlist:

‘Go’
‘Corduroy’
‘Save You’
‘Given To Fly’
‘Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town’
‘Unemployable’
‘Even Flow’
‘Got Some’
‘Daughter’
‘Unthought Known’
‘The Fixer’?
‘Nothingman’
‘Do The Evolution’
‘Jeremy’
‘Know Your Rights’
‘Rearviewmirror’
‘Love, Reign O’er Me’
‘Spin The Black Circle’
‘Better Man’
‘Comatose’
‘Black’
‘Alive’
‘W.M.A.’
’99 Problems’
‘Keep On Rockin’ in the Free World’

Hollywood star Bruce Willis is planning to sue digital giant iTunes over a dispute surrounding the ownership of his music collection, according to reports today.

Of Monsters And Men and Elbow have enjoyed a strong week of sales on the UK Album Chart, debuting at #3 and #4 respectively with their brand new releases.

On the day of its release (September 3rd), The Vaccines have made their second album ‘The Vaccines Come Of Age‘ available to listen to in full on the Guardian’s website.

Animal Collective is a strange band in setup. With three members based along an imaginary line across the States (LA, Baltimore and Washington DC respectively), and one of their main men across the Atlantic in Lisbon, it’s a wonder that they manage to continue work to together.

Even stranger is the resulting slow burning success they’ve achieved. But that explains the anticipation that surrounds this latest release, ‘Centipede Hz‘.

Following the success of 2009’s ‘Merriweather Post Pavillion‘, one could be forgiven in expecting Animal Collective to stick with that album’s formula. That’s not how this band works.  Original member Deakin has returned to the fold joining Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist for their next genre-defying leap. ‘Centipede Hz’ is an album submerged way deeper in a psychedelic fug; an aural assault on the senses.

Post-punk US band Swans are at number one on the UK Record Store Chart this week with their twelfth studio LP ‘The Seer‘.