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Another "American" Cash Ready for Fourth of July
The fifth installment of JOHNNY CASH's American series, recorded with uber-producer RICK RUBIN, will be released July 4th. Among the album's highlights are covers of HANK WILLIAMS' cutting "On the Evening Train" and GORDON LIGHTFOOT's striking ballad "If You Could Read My Mind," as well as Cash's final composition, "Like the 309," which comes full-circle to the steam-engine motifs of his debut single, "Hey Porter." Cash's American sessions with Rubin have landed the late country legend a younger, crossover audience since the first disc dropped in 1994.
Audioslave's Morello Rallies for Immigrant Workers
The NIGHTWATCHMAN -- AUDIOSLAVE guitarist TOM MORELLO's acoustic folk side project -- played to half a million people at the Monday march and rally in support of immigration reform in downtown Los Angeles. The longtime social justice activist joined the Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network (MIWON) and the We Are American Coalition to rally with workers and immigrants in their demand that Congress recognize them as American citizens.
Common, Method Man Join Rhymefest on the Road
COMMON and METHOD MAN will join KANYE WEST protege RHYMEFEST (a Grammy-winner for co-writing West's breakthrough single, "Jesus Walks") on the road for a tour that kicks off Tuesday in New Haven, Connecticut. Rhymefest releases his major-label debut, Blue Collar, on July 11th. The album features such diverse guests as West, CITIZEN COPE, MARIO and the late OL' DIRTY BASTARD.
Fiery Furnaces' Matt Friedberger Goes It Alone
He's already released two albums in the past year with his sister ELEANOR as the FIERY FURNACES, but that isn't stopping MATT FRIEDBERGER from releasing his solo debut, the expansive double album Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School, on August 8th. The first side is sixty minutes of sun-baked pop songs, while the flip is a "sonic novel" of quirky samples and backspun guitar chords. Unfortunately, GRANDMA FRIEDBERGER will not participate in the proceedings, as she did on last fall's Rehearsing My Choir.
Steve Miller, Rockabilly Reissues Set to Drop
Capitol marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Seventies rock classic, Fly Like an Eagle, on June 27th. The bestselling (more than four million copies) STEVE MILLER BAND standard will be presented in remastered CD and 5.1 Surround Sound DVD formats. Bonus tracks include a bluesy take of "Fly Like an Eagle," a slower version of the Number One single "Rock'n Me" and an acoustic rendition of "Take the Money and Run." . . . Before Billie Joe Armstrong could lift his sneer from Johnny Rotten, punk was predated by the roadster-ready rockabilly sounds of the Fifties. Rhino Records reminds us of the subgenre's legacy with the four-disc Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk and Rockabilly box set on June 27th, featuring both definitive (ELVIS PRESLEY, JERRY LEE LEWIS, JOHNNY CASH) and forgotten (CHARLIE FEATHERS, RONNIE DAWSON, FREDDIE AND THE HITCH-HIKERS) selections.
Wilco Man, Matmos Hit Can Can Event
Quite possibly the strangest free concert of the summer, the Bang on a Can Marathon will feature ten hours of avant-everything music at New York City's World Financial Center on June 4th. Can't-miss moments include ALARM WILL SOUND's neo-classical bent on the eccentric electronic music of APHEX TWIN, an experimental drum duo featuring GLENN KOTCHE of WILCO and BANG ON A CAN man DAVID COSSIN, and a mind-bending meeting of laptop architects MATMOS and the drum ensemble SO PERCUSSION. Did we mention it's free for the first time in nearly twenty years?
Keith Richards Bounces Back Once Again
A New Zealand hospital released KEITH RICHARDS on Tuesday after treating the ROLLING STONES guitarist for a mild concussion he suffered at a Fiji resort. Details of what caused the concussion were not disclosed (earlier reports involved a coconut tree), but the sixty-two-year-old is enjoying a "speedy recovery" just in time for a three-month European tour beginning May 27th in Barcelona, Spain.