Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon has helped to design a sneaker for 'cruelty free' footwear brand, Keep. The double Grammy winning musician has joined forces with Los Angeles based company Keep to make a 'salmon' pink canvas shoe, which features "herringbone accents" and "a black fishbone detail across the toe".

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are planning to release 18 previously unheard songs from the sessions for their last album, I'm With You. According to Rolling Stone, the band will begin on August 14 with the release of "Strange Man" and "Long Progression", and on September 11 they will release a follow-up, "Magpies" and "Victorian Machinery".

The Rolling Stones have denied reports they will retire next year with a headline slot at Glastonbury. It was reported "sources" close to the band had indicated that their Glastonbury appearance will be their final date in a "handful" of shows in the UK and USA in 2012. It was also suggested that, as it is part of the group's 50-year anniversary, it will be seen as a good time to call it a day on live performances.

Damon Albarn unveiled a new track at a poetry festival in London earlier this week (June 14) – scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to watch. Consequence Of Sound reports that the singer, who was performing at the Poetry Olympics at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, included a brand new song in his set which he told the crowd he had recorded "last week".

Here we go, then: my 40 favourite albums of 2012 thus far. A very personal list, I should say, so please don’t think it constitutes any kind of canonical Uncut pronouncement.

REM's Peter Buck has posted his first solo material online – scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to hear his track '10 Million BC'. The song, which surfaced via Slicing Up Eyeballs, is set to appear on the guitarist's debut album, although a title or release date for the LP have yet to be revealed. In March of this year, Scott McCaughey – Buck's Minus 5 band mate and frequent REM collaborator – confirmed that he had been working on the record and hinted that it would be released on vinyl only.

Wayne Coyne has said that the band's new album could be the best Flaming Lips album that the band ever make. The Oklahoman band are set to release their collaboration-heavy LP The Flaming Lips And Heavy Fwends on CD and digitally on June 25 but, in an interview with Spinner, the singer said the band were already looking ahead to their new studio record.

Radiohead's drum technician, Scott Johnson, has been named as the man who died after a stage collapsed before the band's concert in Toronto on Saturday (June 16). A relative confirmed to the BBC that the 33-year-old from Doncaster had died when the roof of the stage fell on top of him. A further three people are injured, with one reported to be in a serious condition, in the incident at Downsview Park. Scroll down the page and click to view footage, shot from a helicopter, of the aftermath.

The Rolling Stones will bow out from live performances with a headline slot at next year's Glastonbury festival, according to a tabloid report. The band have never played the Worthy Farm festival but a rumour suggests that they will be heading there for their first and only time next summer, according to the Sunday Mirror.

The latest Scandi-TV import proves the Nordic crime wave hasn’t peaked just yet...