Vagrant has announced that they will be releasing the final recordings from country legend Waylon Jennings. On October 21st, the label will be releasing Waylon Forever, an eight-song collection of cover songs and originals feature the vocals of Waylon Jennings backed by his son Shooter Jennings and the .357’s. .

The inception of Waylon Forever began in 1995 when Waylon asked Shooter to collaborate on an album with him. “I’d been playing my dad the music I was inspired by at the time,” Shooter explains. “Whether it was Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, Pink Floyd or Cream he really enjoyed being apart of my musical journey. It was then he suggested we do an album together.”

Waylon Jennings’ career spanned for more than 40 years. During his lifetime he released over 50 studio albums which generated 16 number one singles and four Country Music Awards. In 1978 Jennings was awarded a Grammy for the song “Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys” and in 2001 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
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Filthy Thieving Bastards have a set of Californian tour dates scheduled for September in support of their 2007 full length I’m a Son of a Gun.

The Bastards of course feature Swingin Utters members Johnny Bonnel and Darius Koski with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes‘ Spike Slawson and drummer/producer Randy Burk.
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Morrissey will be releasing a new live DVD in the UK this fall. The set is titled Live at the Hollywood Bowl and is due out October 06, 2008. The forthcoming DVD captures Morrissey ‘Live at the Hollywood Bowl’ 15 years after his last gig at the legendary venue. He performed in front of more than 17,000 people and performed tracks like The Smiths’ classic tracks ‘The Queen Is Dead’, ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’, ‘Girlfriend In A Coma’, ‘How Soon Is Now?’, Please, Please, Please Let me Get What I Want’ and ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’.

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Dragonforce have launched a new e-card featuring their upcoming album. The record is titled Ultra Beatdown and is due out August 26, 2008.

You can check out the card here.
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The first batch of 2008 CMJ Music Marathon bands has been announced. More than 154 acts including 3OH!3, Anthony Green, Broken Social Scene, Jay Reatard, Minus the Bear, Parts & Labor, Broken Social Scene, Deerhoof and AIDS Wolf are in the first batch of confirmed bands.

The event takes place from October 21st to 25th in New York City at multiple venues.

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A Static Lullaby have debuted a new song from their upcoming full length. The record is titled Rattlesnake and is due out September 09, 2008. It is the follow-up to A Static Lullaby which was released in 2006.

You can check out “The Prestige” on their myspace page.
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Liquid Limbs have posted a new song from their upcoming album, Orquid. The band recorded with Derron Nehfur and Ryan Williams and the record is set for release as both a digital download and in a 12″ vinyl/CD combo package.

You can check out “As Long as I Live” on their myspace page.

The record is due out via Sound Study Records, a new label formed by Tom Rankine (ex As Friends Rust / Salem / Bird Of Ill Omen), Joe Simmons (ex As Friends Rust / Salem / Morning Again) and Matt Finch.
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Technology site Ars Technica has put together a lengthy feature on the new batch of bands who are eschewing labels and taking advantage of digital distribution and online promotion to manage their own careers.

One of the band’s featured is Chicago-based shoegaze act Panda Riot, who comment:

The struggle is no longer getting it there, but trying to market and promote once it is there. It’s all social network type stuff. Blogs are a huge part of the equation too, and Internet Radio (like WOXY.com) also plays a big role. It’s all about finding avenues that are global.

Interestingly, the band sees file sharing as more of a marketing tool than a problem to be avoided. The band noted:

At first, we were going to send a takedown notice, but then we decided to keep it up and see what happens. Well, our sales doubled. The funny thing is that we’ve actually had people say to our faces, ‘Yeah, I downloaded your album off some website. It’s awesome!’ It basically translates to ‘I stole your music and I like it.’

The article cautions that this is a “results not typical” type of situation however, and does not necessarily suggest that file sharing will work for every artist regardless of size.

The article provides an even-handed view of things from the perspective of a small artist and the various opportunities and challenges that they face in the Internet era. You can check it out here.
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I Am Ghost have posted a new song from their upcoming sophomore full length. The record is titled Those We Leave Behind and is due out October 07, 2008 (artwork)

You can check out “Bone Garden” on their myspace page.

Since the band’s last full length, Lovers’ Requiem, the band underwent a major lineup change with the departure of two members due to religious conflicts.
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Mad Caddies have posted an update on their plans for the next little while:

We have confirmed one tour date in Arizona which will also most likely include a week or two of US shows. Nothing confirmed yet but its in the works. Also in the works are a couple of other tours (US, Canada and Australia). Once again nothing is confirmed but its being worked on.

We get the question all the time about a new album. Nothing set in stone yet but hopefully we will have a new album done by [Spring] 2009. What you may see is an EP (5 song CD) or a release of a few new songs on iTunes. Times are changing so releasing new stuff may just change as well.

The band released Keep It Going in 2007.
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The final video for The Game’s collaboration with Blink-182/Plus-44‘s Travis Barker has been posted online. While Barker has previously remixed songs from the likes of Rihanna, Flo Rida and Busta Rhymes, this is his first proper studio collaboration.

You can check out the original studio recording here.

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Not content with playing just the Republican Convention, political rock act Rage Against the Machine have plans for the Democrats as well. The group has announced a partnership with Iraq Veterans Against the War to launch the Tent State Music Festival to End the War.

Along with Rage, the bill will feature the Flobots, The Coup, State Radio and Wayne Kramer. It will take place on Wednesday, August 27 at the Denver Coliseum with doors set to open at 9:30 AM, show begins at 11:00 AM. Tickets are free and available by lottery. You can sign up for the lottery, with a valid photo ID (person must be present) at Tent State University at Cuernavaca Park between 11AM and 6:30 PM (look for the Tent State Music Festival booth near the IVAW Tower) Sunday, August 24 through Tuesday, August 26 during the Democratic National Convention.

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Athens, GA’ Of Montreal have posted details about their upcoming album, Skeletal Lamping, due out October 7th via Polyvinyl. The album will feature seven different packaging formats, described in detail at Paste.

The LP version will fold out into a three-foot by four-foot horse poster, while the CD packaging will fold out to less dramatic dimensions. The album, however, will also be sold as a T-shirt, tote bag, button set, paper lantern, and wall decal set, all of them including a digital download of the album. The band stated that their goal is to “expand the perception of music packaging beyond traditional flat, square artwork and to bring consumers back to record stores to get it.”

Pitchfork Media recently posted the first single of the new album here.
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