In today’s Soundbites we have news of a new album from Smiths legend Morrissey, details of a show-stopping gig at this year’s Latitude festival, Muse’s plans to put their feet up after Christmas and the latest in a long line of Biffy Clyro singles. There’s also an update from Amy Winehouse on her new album, Lou Reed’s reputation takes another kick, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins slates Pro Tools and The Strokes discuss the fun to be had while making a new record.
Morrissey is set to issue a new deluxe verison of his 1990 album ‘Bona Drag‘ to mark the compilation’s 20th anniversary. The new edition will come in both cd and vinyl formats and will be released on September 27th and will feature six previously un-released tracks. The vinyl will be a double heavyweight 180g edition, with a pull-out poster, while the cd will also feature an exclusive eight-page booklet.
The Latitude festival has already taken in what is likely to be one of the most memorable gigs of the weekend, on the eve of the main event getting under way. An intimate midnight performance from veteran crooner Tom Jones attracted thousands of fans to the festival’s wooded area last night (15/7). Due to the high demand, large numbers had to be turned away from the performance which omitted the many favourites from Jones’ back catalogue, and which was instead dominated by tracks taken from his new album. Florence & The Machine are set to headline the festival tonight, and will be followed by Belle & Sebastian and Vampire Weekend.
Amy Winehouse’s long-awaited comeback album could be released in the next six months, according to the singer. Amy told the UK’s Metro newspaper: “The album will be six months at the most. It’s going to be very much the same as my second album, where there’s a lot of jukebox stuff and songs that are, just jukebox really.”
Lou Reed’s reputation as one of the more…distant artists to work with took another victim recently, with upcoming singer-songwriter Uffie succinctly echoing a long-list of complaints by describing him as ‘fucking difficult’ after attempting to clear a sample of The Velvet Underground’s ‘Rock & Roll’for her new album. “I don’t know what this guy’s problem is but on the credits I think it even says something like he wrote it. He gets everything,” she told The Quietus. “I was like, ‘I hope I never hear this song again!’ afterwards. It was fucking difficult because by that stage I couldn’t not use the song. It was difficult but at least he let me use it. And I guess I should be goddamn thankful for that.”
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins has spoken of his dislike of the increasing influence technology is having on modern music. “It’s ruined music as far as I’m concerned, at least rock ‘n’ roll,” Hawkins said. “It’s great for dance music.” Hawkins used techonoly to enable Queen legends Brian May and Roger Taylor to record parts for his new solo album in seperate studios before sending them over the internet, something which Hawkins describes as the exception to his rule: “It’s one of the only good things the computer has done for music,” he declared.
Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro have announced details of yet another single to be taken from their latest album ‘Only Revolutions’. ‘God & Satan’ will be released on August 23rd, and will be followed by a winter tour, details of which can be found over on our Tickets page.
With recent news that the new Strokes album has been delayed, frontman Julian Casablancas has told UK digital station XFM the work on the new record has been a ‘labour’, but has insisted it will not affect the quality of the new material. “It’s been a labour!”, he said. “It’s all good. I was going to make a joke and say it was a labour of necessity, but no, it’s going to be fantastic.”
Muse have told NME they plan on taking a break from music when they conclude their massive tour in December. Bassist Chris Wolstenholme said: “We’ll definitely start working on a new album next year. I think the most time we’ve had off is about six weeks in the last 12 years, so we’re due a break.”