News

Bill Doss of Olivia Tremor Control has died at the age of 43. A singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he was also a co-founder of the Elephant 6 collective, and played with the Sunshine Fix and Apples in Stereo, as well as being part of cult indie rock group, Olivia Tremor Control. The band announced the news on their website – via Rolling Stone - writing: "We are devastated by the loss of our brother Bill Doss… We are at a loss for words." A cause of death has not yet been announced.

Tom Waits has released a cryptic picture, fuelling speculation that he is set to announce live shows, possibly of port cities or even aboard a boat. The photo, pictured above and entitled Permission To Come Aboard?, sees Waits dressed as a cigar chomping pirate - complete with cutlass and eye patch - above the date August 7, on which a full announcement is expected to be made.

KISS have revealed full details of their new studio album 'Monster'. The album, which is the 20th LP of the metal veterans' career, will be released on October 15 in the UK and October 16 in the US. You can see the album's artwork at the top of the screen. Monster contains a total of 13 tracks, including recent single "Hell Or Hallejulah", which serves as the album's opening track and which you can hear by scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

Blur played two intimate gigs at London's Maida Vale Studios yesterday (July 31) and aired a number of rare tracks. The four-piece, who recently broadcast their two new songs, "Under The Westway" and "The Puritan" from a secret UK location via a live video stream performance on Twitter, first performed an intimate session for BBC Radio 6Music, which you can see at the bottom of the page.

Killing Joke have appealed for information about the whereabouts of their singer Jaz Coleman, who they say has gone missing. The band, who released their 15th studio album 2012 earlier this year, have posted a statement on their official Facebook page saying that they are "concerned for Coleman's welfare" as they have not heard from him. The band have posted the statement after a post on their Facebook page, purported to be from Coleman, suggested that they were pulling out of a tour with The Cult and The Mission.

Aerosmith have revealed that Julian Lennon and Johnny Depp are set to feature on their forthcoming album Music From Another Dimension!. The album, which is the band's 15th, will be released on November 6 in the US. It was previously slated for August 28 but was pushed back because of that week's hectic release schedule.

David Byrne and St Vincent have released a second track from their forthcoming album, Love This Giant. The track, "Weekend In The Dust", follows "Who", which they released in June. You can hear "Weekend In The Dust" here. It can be downloaded when you pre-order Love This Giant. The album is released on September 11 on 4AD/Todo Mundo.

Singer Tony Martin has died at the age of 98. The legendary crooner, who was best known for his hit singles "I Get Ideas", "Begin The Beguine" and "There's No Tomorrow", passed away on Friday (July 27) from natural causes at his home in West Los Angeles, reports Reuters. Martin, who enjoyed the most successful periods of his career in the 1930s and 1950s, was a contemporary of the likes of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra and sold over one million copies of his most successful single "To Each His Own".

Paul McCartney was reportedly paid only £1 for his performance at the Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday [July 27]. According to Associated Press, McCartney, as well as fellow performers Mike Oldfield, Emeli Sandie and Dizzee Rascal, were paid nominal fees of £1 ($1.57) to make the Olympic contracts binding. The ceremony was watched by an average of 42 million people worldwide. However, many music fans in America were left outraged after NBC's broadcast of the Opening Ceremony failed to include a number of key musical segments.

Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder has said he's happy his band didn't as wait as long as The Stone Roses to reform. When asked by The Guardian if he wished he had left it longer to reform the Mondays after finding out the amount of money the Roses were offered to reform, which has been estimated at £26 million, he replied: "What, and got as skint as they did? No thanks! I've got six kids who've all gotta go to private school!"