Pet Shop Boys have announced they are heading back into the studio to begin work on a new album that will be released in 2012.
Damon Albarn's other band, The Good, The Bad & The Queen will perform a special one-off concert this year in London at Coronet. The gig is a special show for Greenpeace. The band, which features The Verve's Simon Tong, Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen and Clash bassist Paul Simonon have not played together since 2008. Albarn keeps on hinting that new material from GBQ is on the way.
Speaking of Damon Albarn, his animated band, Gorillaz are set to release their first retrospective record culminating in the first decade of the band. Gorillaz will release, The Singles 2001-2011 next month.
The unnamed supergroup featuring Mastodon's Bret Hinds, former Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery, Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman and former Mars Volta drummer Thomas Pridgen have begun writing their debut album.
With his new album, Ashes and Fire being released this month, Ryan Adams talks about his first album without his backing band, The Cardinals by telling The Sun's Something for the Weekend that "It was time to duck out. I was really sick and I needed to cool it down plus I was done with being in The Cardinals." He then continued to say that "being solo is perfect." Since Adams split from the Cardinals in 2008, he has released various material on his own and the band have gone on to be studio musicians, most famously for New Zealand singer Gin Wigmore.