Contrary to reports in Billboard last week, U2 are still planning to release an album in 2014 not 2015 as stated. Speaking to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the band said, "U2's album is planned for this year (2014), is still on track and touring plans haven’t been confirmed yet."
Spoon have confirmed via Twitter that they are a week away from finishing their new album. No release date nor details were released.
As the biopic on Jimi Hendrix, All By My Side, will make it's debut at SXSW this week and will hit theaters in June, producer Danny Bramson told Spin how Andre 3000 prepped to get into the role of the legendary axe man. Bramson said, "I found a really patient teacher and put together a regimen for André when he came out to Los Angeles. He sat in a small studio, six hours a day, putting in dedication [to learn how to play left-handed]. His guitarmanship had to carry the idea of grace and fluidity. [Writer-director John Ridley] and I declared that we didn't want to have the camera cropped on his face and not the guitar. He kept working in a rehearsal room throughout the production."
The Stooges are going to be releasing an album on Record Store Day but without Iggy Pop. The album, called Re-Licked, will feature guest vocalists like Ariel Pink, Mark Lanegan, Jello Biafra, the Orwells' Mario Cuomo, blues singer Carolyn Wonderland, Le Butcherettes' Teri Gender Bender, on many Raw Power-era covers and live songs.
Speaking for the first time since he was fired from Black Flag, former singer Ron Reyes is speaking out about the band's internal debacle with guitarist Greg Ginn, and lawsuit with the other Black Flag band, FLAG. He told Rolling Stone, "When I found out about Flag, one of the first things I said to Greg was, 'We must take the high road on this. Do not disrespect those guys in public. They have the public's support. People LOVE Keith Morris, people LOVE Chuck Dukowski, people LOVE Bill Stevenson. If we come against those guys we are going to look like bitter old men. Greg said, 'Fuck it. I am bitter.' He did it and it completely backfired. I didn't even know about Greg's lawsuit until the day it went public. Mike V told me. Once the lawsuit came out (August 2013) we were the Evil Flag. There was the Good Flag and the Evil Flag...it was really hard. When I started I was on good terms with those guys. All of a sudden they stopped responding to my emails. Relationships were severed and I was guilty by association."