Writers Guild of America strike officially finished
Cutting to the short and quick of it, the Writer's Guild strike is officially over. The announcement came yesterday (Feb. 12) evening from WGA West president Patrick Verrone, who said, "The strike is over. Our membership has voted. Writers can go back to work." The announcement comes after 100 days of picket lines. Final ballots for the new contract agreements showed outstanding support for the newly negotiated terms, with 92.% of 3,775 ballots cast in favor of returning to work. In response to this agreement, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers issued a statement saying, "This is a... read more
The Mars Volta announces first set of spring tour dates
The Mars Volta has confirmed a handful of spring tour dates in support of its new album The Bedlam in Goliath. Goliath is the band’s fourth album since its inception in 2001 by former At the Drive-In bandmates Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The album was released Jan. 29, and entered the Billboard Top 200 last week at #3. Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala have a reputation for being anything but conventional, and indeed, they have already completed an 11-date preview tour for the new album in January. The band also released the video game Goliath the Soothsayer Jan. 2 as a... read more
Radiohead announces tour dates, gets remixed
All right, Radiohead-heads, it's that time. We know it's been a minute since our last proper Radiohead Roundup, but we are, at long last, ready to satiate your Rainbow-related hunger once again. Tour dates, Amplive remixes and an EMI-released greatest hits collection are coming your way from (or not so much from) the beguiling Brits. 1. Oakland producer/DJ Amplive's Rainydayz Remixes, taken entirely from In Rainbows material, is finally being released after Radiohead's cease and desist put a temporary stop to the project. After acknowledging he probably should have obtained permission from Radiohead before releasing the remixes, all parties... read more
New album finished, Blind Melon set to tour
Blind Melon has a new album coming out, and will hit the road for a two month tour starting at the end of February. Singer Shannon Hoon died of an drug overdose in 1995, and the four remaining band members issued an outtakes record in 1996. Although they tried to keep the band's identity relevant for a time, they officially called off the search for a new singer in 1999. The four remaining members went their separate ways for a while, until guitarist Chris Thorn and bassist Brad Smith met singer/songwriter Travis Warren. Thorn and Smith were called in... read more
Timbaland partners with Verizon on “mobile album”
Remember how cell phone novels are the cool new thing? Oh, you don’t? Well they are. In Japan. We’re not making this up—just take a look. OK, now that we’re on the same page, we can tell you that while you may not be reading works of literature on your phone, you will soon be able to listen to the world’s first “mobile album.” Is that disbelief? Didn’t we prove our truth-telling credentials with that cell phone novel fact? Well, the mobile album is real, as you can see right here. Every month in 2008, Timbaland will produce a song... read more
Rockstar Games issues Bully on Wii and Xbox 360
If you already have a PlayStation 2, then perhaps you’ve already experienced the thrill of being a pixilated high school student. But on March 4, the opportunity will be granted to those individuals who prefer Wii or Xbox 360. That’s right, Rockstar Games’ Bully is coming to a console near you in an expanded version known as Bully: Scholarship Edition. The game offers the same great ability to live the life of an oppressed high school student that you’ve come to know and love, but it also offers some new features. There are fresh missions, classes, characters and outfits, as... read more
Shrek takes on Broadway this December
Although the fourth installment of the ongoing Shrek franchise is not scheduled to come out until 2010, this hasn’t stopped people from creating a buzz around the zygote beginnings of the latest edition of the animated film. Most recently, there has been talk of Sir Paul McCartney signing on to do the soundtrack and possibly even a little CGI cameo in Shrek Goes Fourth. But you won’t have to wait two years before hearing some new Shrek-inspired tunes. That’s because the big green ogre and all his fairytale friends are going to be hitting the stage. Although there will be... read more
Bon Iver tours, gives away cool posters
Around this time two years ago, Justin Vernon was just emerging from the three months spent in his father’s hunting cabin up in northern Wisconsin, where he’d unknowingly recorded the first album of the rest of his life. Following the self-release of that record—For Emma, Forever Ago—under the name Bon Iver in 2007, Vernon’s wintery opus will be officially released via Jagjagjuwar this coming Tuesday (Feb. 19). If "Skinny Love," Bon Iver’s track on Paste’s sampler 40, caught your ear—or if you’re just looking to redeem yourself for procuring For Emma by some less-than-legal means last year—you might want to... read more
Sonic Youth plans album, art exhibition, more
Sonic Youth seems bent and determined to prove its superhero levels of endurance this year. With three staggeringly diverse projects in the works, Superman couldn’t keep this kind of schedule. Already one of rock’s hardest working bands with more than 20 albums to date, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley will reunite this spring to begin writing material for a new album after a four-month break, NME reports. The as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2006’s rather-good Rather Ripped is scheduled for release sometime next year. The band is also poised to enter the art world with an upcoming show,... read more
The Long Blondes spread glamour on international tour
Like any good band, The Long Blondes really appreciate their fans, hence why they announced new U.K. tour dates after all their March shows sold out. Then they started feeling really bad that the rest of Western Europe was being left out, so they expanded their April dates throughout the European Union. After that, they realized they were leaving the (former) colonies in the cold and marked their calendars for some late spring shows in the U.S. and Canada. The “Pretty in Punk” group is touring to support its upcoming LP, Couples, coming via Rough Trade on April 7. If... read more
The Gap colors Raveonettes, Dntel, Swizz Beatz, more
Attention synesthetes: The Gap will theoretically be raising public awareness of your disorder—as well as the store's brightly-hued spring and summer collections—this month with the upcoming "Sound of Color" promotion featuring new songs by Dntel, The Raveonettes, Swizz Beatz, Marié Digby and The Blakes. Gap gave each band/artist a color and asked them to work their wizardry, resulting in "Turning Red" (Dntel), "Black and White" (The Raveonettes), "Candy Paint" (Swizz Beatz, for green), "Magic" (The Blakes, for blue) and "Yellow" (Marié Digby). Additionally, in a move that begs the question, "How much money are they spending on this promotion,... read more
Star Wars CGI animation to hit big, small screens
Movie goers haven't seen the last of the Star Wars franchise. Clone Wars, chronicling the events between Episodes II and III, will take to the big screen this August as an event that will kick off the 3-D series' launch on Cartoon Network. Distributed by Warner Bros. instead of 20th Century Fox, Clone Wars will mark Lucasfilm's first use of CGI in an animated Star Wars spin-off, working as a higher-budget expansion to a 2003 cartoon miniseries of the same name. Related links: Clone Wars trailer TV.com profile Star Wars: Episodes I-VI — The greatest post-modern art film ever Got... read more
Coen Brothers adapting Michael Chabon
The last time the Coen brothers adapted a work by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, the results spoke for themselves in No Country for Old Men. This time, the siblings are mining similar territory via Michael Chabon's recent novel The Yiddish Policeman's Union. The book takes place in an alternate reality where the government plans on turning the Jewish settlement Sitka, Alaska over to Alaskan natives. Since this was Chabon's take on older pulp murder mysteries, the focus of the work is on the noir-esque search for someone who killed a chess prodigy who may in fact be the messiah. The... read more
Wholigans rejoice: The Who deliberates new album
Two years ago The Who marked its comeback to the studio with Endless Wire. Now, Pete Townshend has begun to talk of plans for a follow-up. Reportedly, Townshend and Roger Daltrey both have started writing individually, in hopes of producing an album that reflects a classic Who sound. “Roger is working on his own idea for an album for us, with the producer T-Bone Burnett, who is an old friend of mine,” Townshend said recently on his blog. The Who would be in good company should Burnett decide to produce. Aside from his 2002 Grammy win for producing the soundtrack... read more
British Sea Power sets sail for Rock once again
Avast! British Sea Power extended its tour of the North American territories by two months in support of its latest quest, Do You Like Rock Music?, out today in a record store near you! Rejoice, as these young artists bring their quirky maritime aesthetic to the stages of SXSW and NoisePop as well as to individual townships, joined at various points by their trusty companions Colourmusic, 1900s and The Rosebuds. Early predictions say the forthcoming journey will go as thus: February 25 - San Diego, Calif. @ Casbah w/ Colourmusic 27 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Echo w/ Colourmusic... read more
Indiana Jones trailer to premiere on Valentine's Day
It's still a little bit crazy to think of a new Indiana Jones movie coming out this summer. Not to worry, though, because Steven Spielberg is still on top of his game...right? In any case, the first real glimpse of the film will be out this Thursday (Feb. 14) when the teaser trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull premieres. The trailer will air first during Good Morning America (8:00-9:00 a.m., ABC), and will be available immediately afterwards on IndianaJones.com, Yahoo! Movies and in theaters, specifically before The Spiderwick Chronicles. The film itself premieres May 22,... read more
Sasquatch! 2008 announces dates, expands to three days
The Pacific Northwest's Sasquatch! Music Festival, that elusive (and irritable?) beast, has announced that this year's Memorial Day Weekend monster event has expanded, for the first time taking place over a full three days. May 24-26, 2008, The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington will play host to the seventh year of the big-footed festival, one which has hosted the likes of Coldplay, Beastie Boys, Bjork, Beck, Arcade Fire, NIN, Pixies, Wilco, Kanye West, The Shins, The Postal Service and Sleater-Kinney in the past. Sightings of the full line-up have yet to occur, but fuzzy amateur shots (i.e. the official announcement) will... read more
Roy Scheider: 1932-2008
Two-time Oscar nominee and talented character actor Roy Scheider died Sunday in Little Rock, Ark. at the age of 75. The cause of death was multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood cells very similar to leukemia. He had battled the disease for two years. During his career, Scheider was first nominated for an Oscar for his role in The French Connection, and then eight years later he was nominated again for his work in Bob Fosse's All That Jazz. Despite these critically acclaimed performances, Scheider is probably best known for his role in Jaws where he uttered the immortal... read more
Hilary Swank, Mira Nair team up for Amelia Earhart biopic
The director who brought us Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake and Vanity Fair is making a biopic of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic who mysteriously disappeared in 1937. Amelia will star double Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don't Cry). Swank has a history of playing strong women in film, and her cinematic choices of late have ranged from award-caliber films to horror and romantic comedies. The script for the film was written by Oscar-winner Ron Bass (Entrapment, Snow Falling on Cedars, What Dreams May Come, Rain Man), who used several... read more
Marc Broussard to release digital EP on Atlantic
New Orleans soul singer Marc Broussard will release his digital five-track EP Must Be The Water Feb. 19, marking his Atlantic Records debut. Must Be The Water is a preview of a full-length album to come later this year. The EP was recorded during Broussard’s recent stint on the Rock Boat. Broussard and his band used a bare-bones studio set-up to record five new songs during the cruise, hoping to capture the feel and energy of the live shows they were performing every day on the ship. Broussard’s soulful, Cajun-influenced 2004 debut Carencro was a reflection of both his Louisiana... read more
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