The Strokes' Nick Valensi has formed a new band called CRX. While not much is known about the new group, it does feature Ralph Alexander of The Dose, Richie Follin of Guards, Darian Zahedi, and Jon Safley of The Reflections. Take a look at their promo shot, above.
BBC Radio is streaming a special 2-hour long tribute to David Bowie curated by Iggy Pop. Take a listen HERE.
It has been quiet on the Mike Skinner front since he disbanded The Streets in 2011. Skinner, who has DJ'ed and formed The DOT with Rob Harvey of The Music has laid low for the most part. Now, in an interview with Shortlist, Skinner said he could not reactivate The Streets if he wanted. “People get it wrong when they think I’m being a bit belligerent about it,” Skinner said. “If someone asked me to make a Streets album tomorrow, I honestly don’t think I could do it. I wouldn’t know how to – it’s been that long. It’d just sound weird. I’m not sure if people want to hear an instrumental Streets album. All I did before The Streets was DJ. It’s like with Idris Elba – people know him as an actor, but he was a really good DJ before that. With The Streets, I wanted to be a producer and I ended up writing songs that – thank goodness – became popular.”
Speaking to NME, The National's Matt Berninger spoke about the making of their forthcoming album and it sounds as if they are still working on it. The singer said: "We’re playing together in a room, which means we’re jamming more. But it’s not a jam record at all — the songs are much more like weird, math-y, electronic-y stuff. A lot of songs are going in completely different directions. But that’s a really fun place to be. We’re in the middle of the wilderness, in a rainforest full of really fun noises. We could probably crank out a great National record in a weekend, but none of us are interested in following up with another record that sounds like Trouble Will Find Me. That record was a great accomplishment and I’m so proud of it. But even if we could make a record that good and put it out tomorrow, we wouldn’t, because we’ve already made that. We’d rather make a terrible record that opens up new possibilities. It’s going to be great!" No release date nor any other info has been given.
The Chromatics, who were supposed to release their sophomore album, Dear Tommy, last year, may have given an other update.... or not. The band's management, Echo Park Records, tweeted an image of what appears to be singer Johnny Jewel holding a guitar drenched in blood with the caption: "Dear Tommy." Take a look.
Dear Tommy pic.twitter.com/XIPGbY9Qgp— echoparkrecords (@echoparkrecords) August 1, 2016