After a week away, I've been catching up these past few days, and also trying to remember what I talked about before I went on holiday. Best place to start, maybe, is the Natalie Prass record that Matthew E White has been sitting on for well over a year (he played me some of it at Spacebomb in March 2013). Fantastic song, which I described on Twitter as a kind of nuts Anita Baker/Willie Mitchell/Feist/Charles Stepney thing with a beat that would've been samplefood for Dre 15 yrs ago. Sticking with that for now. Also the red kite feather we found on holiday in Avebury feels serendipitous.
A pair of Willie Nelson's braids will be among the more than 2,000 items going up for auction from the personal collection of Waylon Jennings, reports Rolling Stone.
The auction takes place on October 5 at the Musical Instrument Museum in Jennings' hometown of Phoenix.
Morrissey has appeared to criticise his record label, Harvest Records, with the singer hinting at "public deception" in the music industry in an update posted on fansite True To You.
A new authorised book of Nick Drake’s life and work is due to be published by John Murray in November.
Nick Drake: Remembered For A While has been compiled and edited by his sister Gabrielle Drake and by Cally Callomon, manager of Nick’s musical estate.
Stevie Nicks has unveiled a track "The Dealer" from her upcoming solo album, 24 Karat Gold — Songs From the Vault.
The album is Nicks' first since 2011's In Your Dreams.
According to a report on Rolling Stone, Nicks initially wrote and recorded "The Dealer" with Fleetwood Mac in the late Seventies during sessions for their 1979 album, Tusk.
Thurston Moore has formed a new band with My Bloody Valentine bass player Debbie Googe.
Spin reports that The Thurston Moore Band also boasts Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley among its ranks as well as English guitarist James Sedwards. A list of the band's European tour dates is listed on Sonic Youth's website with an appearance at the Dockville Festival in Hamburg, Germany first up.
A mountain in Montana has been temporarily renamed after Paul McCartney.
McCartney is currently touring the US as part of his Out There tour and performed in Missoula last night (August 5). Consequence Of Sound reports that to mark the occasion the University of Montana and city of Missoula renamed the local Mount Sentinel to Mount McCartney.
The mountain has a giant white 'M' on it, which officials said stood for McCartney for 24 hours.
Ry Cooder has announced details of a seven CD retrospective boxed set focussing on his soundtrack work in the Eighties and early Nineties.
Ry Cooder: Soundtracks will be released by Rhino on September 30.
The set contains scores for landmark films directed by Walter Hill and Wim Wenders; the musicians accompanying Cooder include Jim Keltner, Jim Dickinson, David Lindley and Van Dyke Parks, as well as Cesar Rosas and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and Heartbreakers' Benmont Tench.
