Ian McCulloch has recorded an album worth of orchestral versions of Echo And The Bunnymen songs as part of his new solo album. Scroll down to hear the new version of ‘Bring On The Dancing Horses’ now.

McCulloch’s latest solo album will be a double album with one disc dedicated to orchestral versions of the Liverpool band’s greatest hits. The idea for the album came about following a show McCulloch played at the Union Chapel in London in May 2012. Producer Flood (PJ Harvey, The Killers) has re-recorded the tracks, which will be released under the title ‘Holy Ghosts’.

Speaking about the Union Chapel show which inspired the plan to re-record his bands songs in a new fashion, McCulloch said: “It was like, something’s happening here that you might want to document. The fact that it was so spontaneously decided we’d record it was lucky, because on the night I’d more or less forgotten. Usually you’re too aware of everything being mic’d up and all that, but this time, after the first chord had been hit, I was in a world of me own.”

Other songs which have been reworked by McCulloch and Flood include The Bunnymen’s ‘Lips Like Sugar’, ‘Rescue’, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, and ‘The Killing Moon’. Holy Ghosts is released on April 22 via Edsel Records and will come with McCulloch’s fourth solo studio album ‘Pro Patria Mori’.

Echo & The Bunnymen will support Primal Scream in London on Thursday (March 21) as part of the Noel Gallagher curated Teenage Cancer Trust concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Michelle Shocked lived up to her nom de plume on Sunday (March 17) by telling a San Francisco concert audience that gay marriage will lead to the apocalypse during a series of bizarre homophobic rants.

According to the Bay Area Reporter, Shocked (nee Karen Michelle Johnston) played a two set show at Yoshi’s. The former Grammy nominee completed the first set without a hitch. The second set, however, went awry as soon as she told the crowd it would be “all about reality.”

As detailed in the Reporter:

“‘When they stop Prop 8 [the California initiative that banned gay marriage] and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilization and Jesus will come back,’ she said.

“Loud gasps were heard from the audience. Many fans walked out.

David Bowie’s producer will take part in a new stage show as part of The Record Producers Live series.

Jason Molina, the singer and guiding force behind Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Company has passed away due to natural causes. He was 39 years old.

“This is especially hard for us to share,” his label, Secretly Canadian, wrote in a press release. “Jason is the cornerstone of Secretly Canadian. Without him there would be no us — plain and simple.”

The singer had been mostly absent from the world of music since cancelling a tour with Will Johnson in 2009 to deal with alcoholism and related health issues.

Molina was born in Lorain, Ohio. Although he would make his name as a performer of far more delicate music, Molina’s musical career began playing bass in heavy metal bands around Cleveland, Ohio. However, Molina found his true calling as a singer-songwriter. He began distributing homemade albums under a variety of different names– Songs: Radix, Songs: Albian and Songs: Unitas. The end result was Songs: Ohia, with a breakthrough self-titled debut in 1997.

Songs: Ohia released eight albums, including the live Mi Sei Apparso Come Un Fantasma, before Molina halted the project in the wake of 2003’s Magnolia Electric Co. He continued to record solo music under his own name, including the collaboration with kindred spirit Oldham, before assembling a new, Crazy Horse-like band under the name of Magnolia Electric Company in 2005. They released five full lengths, the last being Josephina in 2009.

Molina’s struggles with alcoholism were made public in 2011, when his family solicited donations to help pay for medical bills stemming from several trips to rehab. In a post to the Magnolia Electric Co. website titled “Where is jason molia [sic]” the family expressed optimism that Molina, then “working on a farm in West Virginia raising chickens,” had been making progress towards “becoming healthy” and was “looking forward to making great music again.” Eight months later Molina posted a thank you note on his website for help of all sorts (“good vibes are worth more than you might think”), mentioning that he had written to 500 fans who had sent get well soon letters.

“Jason was incredibly humbled by his fans’ support through the years,” said Secretly Canadian in their release “and said that the two most important words he could ever say are ‘Thank you.'”

Molina’s last project, a 10” LP that accompanied a William Schaff art book, was released in September.

Stephen Stills has compared himself to pop superstar Taylor Swift.

Interviewed in the current issue of Uncut, Stills is asked whether he ever felt he uncomfortable revealing so much of himself in his love songs.

“No,” replied Stills. “I’m a little like Taylor Swift in that regard. Wear your heart on your sleeve, then just write about it. Fuck ‘em.”

Stills also revealed that Neil Young is his closest musical compatriot, far more so even the other two CSNY members.

“By about five miles…I think it’s probably because we both have a taste of autism,” he explains. “…It’s like we bonded so deep that he’s actually going to be pissed if I don’t call him soon.”

In the interview Stills also discusses his recording session with Jimi Hendrix, writing “For What It’s Worth” and reveals the details of how he, David Crosby and Graham Nash started singing together.

I suppose Alan Partridge is the, uh, albatross round Steve Coogan’s neck.

I’ve felt Coogan has struggled very hard at times to distance himself from his most celebrated creation, and not always successfully. From the range of characters he presented in Coogan’s Run – his first attempt to extend his repertoire after the success of Knowing Me Knowing You – the most memorable was regional salesman Gareth Cheeseman (best line: “A wank, I think”), who really felt like a riff on Partridge.

Tony Ferrino, The Parole Office and Dr Terrible’s House Of Horror were all equally unsuccessful attempts to move Coogan’s career out of Norwich’s finest Travelodges. Critically, they just weren’t funny. It was only really when he worked with Michael Winterbottom for the first time, in 24 Hour Party People, that Coogan found a way to move forward – A Cock And Bull Story, Saxondale, The Trip, and even his erratic American movie career gradually begin to develop. Coogan has seemed a little more relaxed about Partridge – tellingly, he called his first live stage tour in 10 years, Steve Coogan Live: As Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters.

Recently, of course, Coogan’s resurrected Partridge for a series of short online episodes – Mid-Morning Matters – which found him reduced to presenting on North Norfolk Digital. An autobiography followed, a Sky series and now, 23 years after he made his debut on Radio 4’s On The Hour, the Alan Partridge movie is almost upon us.

But what will it be called? The Norfolk Factor? Hectic Danger Day? Chap Of Steel?

Watch the trailer below and find out…

The Alan Partridge film opens in the UK on August 7.

A new documentary about Jim Morrison is now in production.

Before the End: Jim Morrison Comes Of Age, is reported to focus of Jim Morrison the person, rather than Jim Morrison the music icon. Many of the interviews will be from loved ones speaking about Morrison for the first time – including brother Andy Morrison, Florida State University roommate Bryan Gates and star of Jim Morrison’s student film, Elizabeth Buckner.

Before the End: Jim Morrison Comes Of Age will also contain previously unseen home video footage and family photos.

The movie is being shot by Z-Machine Productions, run by husband and wife team Jeff and Jess Finn. Z-Machine has one other film to its credit, a documentary about UFOs titled Strange Septembers: The Hill Abduction & The Exeter Encounter.

No release date has been given. The last film about Morrison and The Doors was Tom DiCillo’s When You’re Strange, released in 2010.

Nick Drake’s producer Joe Boyd is hosting a special event in London to celebrate the late singer-songwriter’s life and work.

Joe Boyd presents Way To Blue – The Legacy Of Nick Drake will take place at Wilton’s Music Hall on April 2 and 8pm. Boyd will talk about his relationship with Drake and also his work on Way To Blue, an album of Nick Drake covers recorded in London and Melbourne, Australia and featuring Vashti Bunyan, Green Gartside, Robyn Hitchcock and others.

Hitchock and Gartside will be among a number of performers playing songs from the album on the night.

Way To Blue is released on Navigator Records on April 15.

More information about tickets for Joe Boyd presents Way To Blue – The Legacy of Nick Drake can be found here.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse are rumoured to have filmed their March 13 show in Melbourne, Australia for a possible future release, according to an Australian music website.

Noise 11 claims that “Neil Young’s Shakey Pictures filmed this Melbourne ‘Alchemy Tour’ show for their next concert documentary.”

Noise 11 goes on to say “With a capacity of 5000… Melbourne’s Plenary Hall was the smallest room Young has ever played in Australia. Every other show to date has been arenas. The Plenary show was billed as a special show and indeed it was because Neil was making a movie.”

Neil Young And Crazy Horse have already been the subject of several DVD films – including the Rust Never Sleeps concert film and Jim Jarmusch’s Year Of The Horse documentary. Young himself has recently completed a trilogy of concert films with director Jonathan Demme – the final installment, Neil Young Journeys, was released last year.

Reports that this Melbourne show was filmed have yet to be officially confirmed.

The set list for the March 13 show was:

Love And Only Love (from Ragged Glory)


Sedan Delivery (from Rust Never Sleeps)

Encore:

Like A Hurricane (from American Stars N’ Bars)