Soundbites today has news of a setback for The Strokes as they record their new LP, a new collaborative effort between Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse, the dismal weather reports for this weekend’s T In The Park, and there’s also news of Google’s move into music downloads, while Justin Hawkins is good enough to dismiss rumours of a Darkness reunion.
Julian Casablancas has revealed he now expects The Strokes’ hotly-anticipated new record to be released no earlier than next March after initially stating he believed the album would be out by next January. In an interview with BBC 6Music, the frontman said the new LP is only ‘half way done’, and added: “We keep thinking, ‘OK, we’ll do it, for like these three weeks and then we’ll be done.’ And then we do it and we decide that we’re not done, or something comes in the way.”
After worrying rumours began surfacing this week that The Darkness maybe considering climbing back into their spandex, former frontman Justin Hawkins has moved quickly to put the music world’s mind at rest. Writing on Twitter, Hawkins said the rumours were ‘essentially horse shit’, and continued: “Neither Dan nor I were aware of a ‘bitter feud’ that has last half-a-decade. We’ve been at war for over 30 years.”
Following one of the hottest Glastonbury festivals ever last month, it seems festival-goers heading to Kinross for this weekend’s T In The Park are not going to be so lucky, and could be set to endure heavy rainfall. Early predictions claim the worst will come on Friday and Saturday, while Sunday’s forecast is yet to be confirmed. Muse, Eminem and Kasabian head another impressive line-up this year.
Producer Mark Ronson has announced he has recorded a new song with Amy Winehouse, following their hugely successful collaboration on the 2006 album ‘Back To Black’. Ronson has worked on a cover of Lesley Gore’s 1963 song ‘It’s My Party’, which is set to feature on a new tribute album in honour of veteran producer Quincy Jones. Ronson told BBC’s Newsbeat: “It’s quite funny to come off of my album where the whole tag line, or thing we told ourselves, was no covers, no horns and then to do a very Amy-sounding record like that.”
Internet giant Google has announced plans to launch it’s own music download service before the end of the year. An arduous brain-storming session has come up with the name ‘Google Music’, and the news was leaked by Google product manage Gauray Jain to Israeli press. The launch is expected to coincide with the unveiling of Google’s re-vamped smartphone system Google Android 3.0.