Trans am

Brooklyn brainiacs go back to basics? Not quite...

Another issue in the bag, and these are the records that have got us through the last couple of days of production. Mostly very good, with a few probably glaring exceptions.

There was exciting news this morning about the release on September 10 of a new Bob Dylan album, which if you haven’t seen the official announcement is called Tempest. There was much talk of the record a few weeks ago, backstage at the Hop Farm Festival, where one or two people rather teasingly inferred they had heard it, or knew someone who had.

Last night [July 16], the BBC pulled a documentary about last summer’s riots just hours before transmission after a court ruling prevented it from being broadcast. It’s foolish, of course, to speculate who initiated proceedings and for what purpose - although at the risk of sounding paranoid, you suspect there’s plenty of people who’d rather not have such pesky reminders of the riots on our screens in the run up to the Olympics.

We don't need no education...

Today, as you may have heard, is apparently the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones’ first gig.

Following music on Twitter, it sometimes feels as if a hyped album or a track is listened to for, at best, six hours now before it becomes in some way obsolete: if it’s not trending, it must be passé.

Tom Waits appeared on Monday evening's edition of Late Night With David Letterman, where he performed "Chicago", from his most recent album, 2011's Bad As Me, live for the first time. Musicians joining Waits on stage included his son Casey Waits on drums, long time bassist Larry Taylor, guitarist David Hidalgo, keyboardist Augie Myers and guitarist Big Bill Morganfield. You can watch Waits' performance on the CBS show below.

Six core, transitional works of Will Oldham's canon remastered...

New Order closed the first night of Open'er Festival in Gdansk, Poland last night (July 4) with a 90-minute greatest hits set, culminating in an encore of Joy Division classics. The appearance marked the Factory records legends' first ever appearance in Poland and had particular poignancy as Joy Division were initially named after Polish capital city, Warsaw.