Speaking to The Guardian, Johnny Greenwood gave an update on the progress of the new Radiohead record. The guitarist and musical mastermind said, "We’ve done a couple of months of recording, and it has gone really well. We haven’t listened to anything back yet, so at the moment we’re all very happy. Now, I guess we’re going to go and listen to what we’ve done and see if we were right to be so happy. But we left it at a good place when we last stopped. We’ve certainly changed our method again. It’s too involved [to explain how]. We’re kind of limiting ourselves; working in limits. So we’ll see what happens. It’s like we’re trying to use very old and very new technology together to see what happens."
Lady Gaga is set to star in the fifth season of American Horror Story called American Horror Story: Hotel. It will air next fall on FX, while we don't know what character she will play, she has acted before in the critically overlooked Machete Kills.
To mark the sweet 16 of their debut album, Sigur Ros will release an expanded deluxe edition of ágætis byrjun in the early summer. The deluxe set will feature previously unheard studio recordings and rare live versions from this pivotal period in the band's development, as well as a welter of photographic and documentary material from their personal archives and plenty more besides. The band also are planning reissues of Von and ().
Now, instead of having albums arrive on a Monday in some countries and a Tuesday in others, like here in the U.S., beginning this summer, everything will arrive on a Friday for all countries. IFPI head Francis Moore said in a statement: "Music fans live in the digital world of today. Their love for new music doesn't recognize national borders. They want music when it's available on the internet -- not when it's ready to be released in their country. An aligned global release day puts an end to the frustration of not being able to access releases in their country when the music is available in another country."
The proposal wasn't met with hosannas from every corner of the industry, however. While most agreed that a globally agreed-upon day for new music was best, there was some consternation over the choice of Friday. "The only justification for a Friday release date would be if it resulted in a net increase in sales," Entertainment Retailers Association Kim Bayley said in early October. (Sales weren't central to the IFPI's justifications for the move, though combating piracy could be considered the same thing.)
Just this week, Beggars Group chairman Martin Mills said: "I fear this move will also lead to a market in which the mainstream dominates, and the niche, which can be tomorrow's mainstream, is further marginalized. I fear it will further cement the dominance of the few -- and that is exactly what it is intended to do."