That’s just music

The White Stripes and The Raconteurs leader Jack White had announced the release of his new project’s single. The Dead Weather is another thing, which belongs to his unlimited talent, and surely gives one more credit to the future of new albums and singles. Practically, his new thing is called “Blue Blood Blues” released with the help of his own Third Man Record label in Nashville. This record will be available in the vinyl format in three versions, and one of them was particularly invented by White himself. Strangely, a lot of musicians keep on being interested in vinyl, some of them find it cool, and others just see it as the form of nostalgia. First two formats are standard seven and twelve inch types, B-sides include concert records of “Jawbreaker” and “No Hassle Night”/” Just Want to Make Love to You” respectively. Third format was called Triple Decker Record and represents vinyl within the vinyl so to speak; after finishing the first twelve-inches it’s possible to open the actual record up, and get another seven-inches to listen another track which is not available in other versions. Pretty complicated, and even innovative for the vinyl thing, but again it’s hard to understand why modern artists can be so obsessed with these old classics.

Rare, and previously not released anthology of Jimi Hendrix’s records is getting prepared to hit the stores with the help of Legacy Recordings. As legend’s official website said, it should include five disks under the name of “West Coast Seattle Boy-Jimi Hendrix Anthology”, it must come out on November 16; at the same time the whole thing will be accompanied with the release of a single - “Love Or Confusion”, which is getting out on September 27. A lot of such musicians have a lot of things to leave after they parish, and even forty years seem to be nothing, especially when another huge compilation is getting out into the world. Also, it should incorporate previously un-released demo versions and studio-doubles of “Are You Experienced”, “Axis” Bold As Love” and “Electric Ladyland”, plus some absolutely rare concert records with the Band Of Gypsys. First disk will contain cover versions on Isley Brothers, Little Richard, Frank Howard, Ray Sharp and others that were recorded by Hendrix between 1964 and 1966. Fifth album will include the DVD with a documentary - “Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child” filmed by Bob Smeaton. This director was already getting some Grammy’s, particularly for his movie “The Beatles Anthology”. As the New Musical Express noted, right before the above mentioned release the world is going to see his other things coming out, and those are - “Jimi Hendrix Experience: BBC Sessions”, “Jimi Hendrix: Blues”, “Live At Woodstock” and even “Merry Christmas & Happy New Year”.

American bands Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, which are commonly considered to be “the big four” of thrash-metal music are planning to release the concert DVD that was filmed during their recent European tour. Practically, during this tour four bands were performing together, something quite rare in their history, hence certain artistic rivalry kept on haunting them for decades. As the New Musical Express noted, “The Big Four Live From Sofia” DVD release will include two disks of their joint concert performance in Bulgaria, and must hit the stores on October 25. It should also include the backstage activities and interviews, surely a lot of fun, and fans or just those who like these bands must look forward to it. The most interesting thing about it all is that Metallica and Megadeth had won over it’s rivalry because it was nearly legendary in the past. Megadeth’s frontman Dave Mustaine was once a member of Metallica, and later due to his behavior was kicked out from it way back in 1982. Since then two bands were bitterly looking toward each other, and simply could not overcome the differences. Finally, two legends are playing live on the same stage. Metallica on the other hand is about to release one more concert album, said Undercover. On September 20, they’re going to compile the mini-album called “Six Feet Down Under”, which must consist of eight tracks recorded during their recent Australian tour.

Ex-The Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney was recently honored with the award given to him by the John Kennedy Center for his accomplishment to the American culture, said The Daily Telegraph. Thirty third ceremony is going to take place in Washington D.C. in December this year, and it should be attended by the President Barack Obama. McCartney keeps on receiving grandiose prizes for his not less grandiose talent, and powerful history, which stands right behind of his musical career. Possibly, he is the most respected musician here on earth today. While bringing this news to him, center’s representatives noted that he is the most influential and successful songwriter of all times; McCartney on the other hand had underlined, “President Kennedy was such an icon for us in the Sixties and his presidency was so inspiring for so many people that it is a great pleasure for this kid from Liverpool to receive this honor”. Notably, Sir Paul was already nominated for this award eight years ago, but could not arrive at the Washington due to his cousin’s wedding. “We first asked if he had any relatives getting married the first week of December”, laughed the ceremony’s producer George Stevens. Surely, McCartney deserves all of this, and let’s wish him to get more of such awards in the future.

Infamous drummer Mike Portnoy had left the band Dream Theater, said his official website on September 8. As he noted, this decision was not taken quickly and easily, practically it took more than a year before musician came up with it. Mike also wrote that during this year he was participating in many side projects, which he has enjoyed more than working in Dream Theater. In particular, those side projects include Hail, Transatlantic and Avenged Sevenfold. Surely, a lot of musicians stop liking their previous or constant bands, and wish to leave them for good, however often they come back once again. At the same time, he had underlined the fact that he truly respects Dream Theater and keeps good relations with other band members. It’s just that moment when they simply have to separate, at least for a while. Dream Theater was formed way back in 1985 by Mike Portnoy, bassist James Myung and guitarist John Petrucci, thus establishing the unchanging lineup of the band for twenty five years. At the same time, other band members still wish to continue to work under the name “Dream Theater”, even though things surely must get more complicated. Portnoy was one of those ‘original nails’ that held the artistic creativity process together, so other musicians should either hire someone equal to him, or just carry on with their own talents.

British electronic band Massive Attack is going to release the mini album, which is later must be used by the charity organization War Child, said ClashMusic. Practically, it’s an old tradition, originally created to drag some amount of money in order to spend it on charities, and surely a lot of musicians use it to help people. This new work by the founders of trip-hop had received the name “Atlas Air”, and should be released as the limited vinyl addition only in 1000 copies. The release will be dedicated to the fifteenth anniversary of another release called “Help”, which was directed by the War Child. “Help” compilation was recorded by Massive Attack together with Brian Eno, who also wanted to participate in the charity activities. This year’s record was named after the last song from the Massive Attack’s fifth album “Heligoland”, it came out in February this year. Besides this newly written track, the album should include Guy Harvey’s song “Redlight”; on the regular basis he is working in the band Elbow. However, even this thing will not be the last thing Massive Attack is dedicating to the War Child organization. They’re planning to perform live during the specifically established venue in London, and the concert itself should welcome some very special guests.

A group of physics had used one of Lady Gaga’s songs as the title to a scientific article about the dark matter in the Physical Review D magazine. It was reported by another scientific issue, the Symmetry magazine, which is being produced by the SLAC - Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. This article was written by Daniele Alves, Mariangela Lisanti and Jay Wacker, and was called “Poker face of inelastic dark matter; Prospects at upcoming direct detection experiments” Surely, not more and not less even scientific papers began to include Lady Gaga into their writings, she is conquering everything on her path and it all seems quite unstoppable. While talking to Symmetry, Jay Wacker has noted that this unusual move is the result of his argument with Alves, who insisted on some different point of view regarding dark matter. Eventually, Wacker had lost it to Alves and as the result, Lady Gaga must be on the issue’s cover page, also including the title from her song “Poker Face”. Recently, nearly every music oriented media produce will include something about this singer, some say that her talent is overvalued, and some believe that she is the best pop singer since 1980’s. Clearly, media gives her a lot of time, and therefore even scientists see her as something worth of mentioning. What’s clear for sure is that Lad Gaga is far better than any pop singer right now.

Chris Martin had announced a new Coldplay song, said NME. It was recently aired during the Apple software presentation, which took place in San-Francisco on September 1. Well, the band is going commercial, and this is very obvious; it’s not necessary to say that such things are terribly corrupt inside, but for some reason rock bands, and generally speaking people of creativity who join forces with the commercial side of the world seem to be less creative. According to many views commercialism cannot associate itself with the true essence of music, but surely it sounds a little bit odd too. A song that was produced by Martin is called Wedding Bells, and interestingly was not accompanied by any of his band-mates during the actual presentation, except for piano on which he had personally performed. “This is a new song called ‘Coldplay 2.6′ and it has a lot of new features, it features seven different kinds of chords and even a new one that our closest rivals have no idea about”, he noted. The last part of his comment was surely including some funny manner in which Apple representatives usually refer to other software companies. During this presentation he had also performed traditional Coldplay songs - Yellow and Viva La Vida. Currently, Wedding Bells is available on YouTube.

Sony Corporation had announced it’s first “cloudy” Music Unlimited service on September 1, said CNET news. Many expect that this thing will enable various electronic devices to get attached to the online music libraries. Another gadget for the ‘masses’, and surely it will get into progress, as long as there will be no rivalry on the side of some other company, which produces similar electronic toys. Listening process can be done as a stream, but everything would be synchronized with the library; Music Unlimited should become a part of already started Qriocity service that allows people to see movies. So far it’s unknown what particular devices will support Music Unlimited, some mention Sony TV sets, Blu-ray, PlayStation 3 game consoles and computers under the Windows flag. In the future Music Unlimited will be available on many portative devices, so the whole idea is not stopped on the mentioned above gadgets. This new service was announced almost at the same time when Apple had produced nearly identical device, thus Sony needs to overcome some rivals along the way to success. Practically, it must become available by the end of this year, and it’s price remains to be a secret, but hopefully it will not be too expensive anyway.

Radiohead had released the concert DVD album, which is based on the material filmed by the band’s fans on August 23, 2009 in Prague, said The Guardian. Originally, this disk had to come out unofficially, but along the process of creating it some new things and ideas began to appear. An initiative group of fans had collected a lot of videos from the above mentioned Prague concert, and mixed it with the audio track, also recorded during the same venue. When the first video fragments were published (filmed by more than fifty cameras) onto YouTube, it could be finally judged by musicians. Eventually, the band just loved their fans’ work, and gave them professionally worked-out version of the concert sound record. The final result of this experimental DVD is now available for free on the specifically designed website (http://radiohead-prague.nataly.fr/). “Strictly not for sale. By the fans, for the fans. Please share and enjoy”, says the sign. Also, it’s available in many formats including DVD, (PAL and NTSC), AVI, HD Quicktime and others. Radiohead is definitely extremely innovative and would never deny it’s fans’ talents when they wish to capture the band’s concert activity; live presentations by Radiohead matter a lot, and can be seen as something absolutely unique in their genre.