The reunited Afghan Whigs have released a video ahead of their first new album in 16 years.

Scroll down to watch the video for the track “Algiers“.

It’s taken from Do To The Beast, the band’s first album since their last album, 1965, which was released in 1998. Do To The Beast will be released on Sub Pop on April 14.

Do To The Beast features core members Greg Dulli and bassist John Curley, but it is the first Whigs album that doesn’t feature the band’s original lead guitarist Rick McCollum.

The band reunited briefly in 2012 for a series of festival dates.

The Afghan Whigs will play live at Coachella around the release, performing at the Californian festival on April 11 and 18.

Speaking about his decision to reform the band with Spin in 2012, Greg Dulli revealed: “I did this acoustic tour about a year and a half ago and John Curley did six of the shows with me, and we had a great time. We hadn’t spent any time on the road together since the band. In the spring, I spent a couple days in Minneapolis with Rick McCollum, and that was also a great time. Plus, I had nothing really pressing this summer, so it gives me something to do. ”

Jonny Greenwood has accused modern guitar bands of playing their “grandparents instruments”.

Speaking to NME in a new interview, which you can read in full by clicking here, Greenwood was asked about the challenges facing guitars players in 2014. “Guitar bands forming now are often playing the instruments of their grandparents’ generation – and often in the same style,” he commented. “The Beatles didn’t pick up banjos when they started, after all…”.

Greenwood, who plays Wapping Hydraulic Power Station this Sunday (February 23) with London Contemporary Orchestra soloists, added: “I guess, looked at in the right way, things like 808 drum machines are now very old, but still ubiquitous. So maybe it’s better to think of all these things as being as current – or as retro – as anything else. I enjoy there being lots of technology to play with, however old it is.”

Speaking about his plans for this weekend’s show, he said he’ll be playing new material, including “A few short pieces – hopefully one with guitar and strings, if it’s sounding OK in rehearsals.” He will also be performing his soundtrack material from There Will Be Blood, Norwegian Wood and The Master.

It was recently revealed that Greenwood will score the soundtrack to the new Thomas Anderson film, Inherent Vice. The guitarist worked on the music for the director’s last two films – There Will Be Blood and The Master – and has now signed up to write the score for the upcoming crime movie, with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Next month (March 3), Greenwood will release a split album of orchestral compositions with The National‘s Bryce Dessner. The LP, entitled St. Carolyn By The Sea/Suite From There Will Be Blood will feature Dessner’s 2011 work St. Carolyn By The Sea – on which Dessner’s brother, The National’s Aaron Dessner plays electric guitar – 2012’s Lachrimae and 2007’s Raphael alongside Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood score.

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan is set to play an eight hour long gig based on author Hermann Hesse’s 1922 novel, Siddhartha.

The free show will take place on February 28 at Corgan’s own Madame ZuZu’s Teahouse in Highland Park, Chicago. Writing about the performance on Facebook, Corgan said the performance will last 8-9 hours. “Performance will be centered around an ambient/musical interpretation of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha; built by modular synthesis, on the fly,” he said. “Readings of the text to go hand in hand with whatever is created; + the first @Hexistential poster, and event t-shirts too. Hope to see you there.”

In March 2013, Corgan said that Smashing Pumpkins had officially started writing their new album. “Excited to announce today’s our 1st official day of writing for new SP album. Wish us luck!,” he tweeted. On February 5 of this year, he also posted a picture of himself with a guitar with the caption “Writing new SP songs”.

Smashing Pumpkins released their last album, Oceania, in 2012. It was their eighth studio LP.

Devo’s guitarist Bob Casale has died, reports Variety.

Devo founder Gerald Casale broke the news on the band’s Facebook page

“As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning,” wrote Gerald Casale. “He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got. He was excited about the possibility of Mark Mothersbaugh allowing Devo to play shows again. His sudden death from conditions that lead to heart failure came as a total shock to us all.”

Former Devo drummer Alan Myers, who played with the band from 1976 to 1985, died from cancer in June 2013.

David Crosby has confirmed he underwent heart surgery on Friday, February 14.

According to a statement on his website, “At the urging of his doctor, on Friday, February 14, David Crosby underwent a cardiac catheterization and angiogram, based on the results of a routine cardiac stress test. The left anterior coronary artery was found to be 90% blocked, and two stents were placed to provide blood flow to his heart muscle. David is expected to have a full recovery. He did not have a heart attack, though it is certain that had he chosen to ignore his doctor’s urgent recommendation, it would have led to one.”

The statement continued: “‘I am very glad that I listened to my doctors and my family. It seems I am once again a very lucky man,’ says David Crosby. ‘I’m sorry to have to move the dates, but I promise the music will be good when we do play them.'”

Crosby, who is 72, has also rescheduled a clutch of solo dates.

The statement says, “Because he has been instructed to rest before resuming normal activities, the two (2) sold out shows scheduled for the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on Feb. 20 and 21 have been postponed to April 20 and 21. Please contact the box office at the Great American Music Hall for details. The five (5) sold out shows at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, CA previously scheduled for Feb. 23, 24, 25, 27, 28 will also be postponed to April. The exact dates will be announced very shortly.

“All Crosby, Stills & Nash shows will continue as scheduled. The first show of CSN’s 2014 tour kicks off in Richmond, VA on March 4th.”

Bruce Springsteen was joined on stage by Eddie Vedder over the weekend.

Springsteen and the E Street Band were performing at AAMI Park in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday (February 15).

They opened their set with a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell“, with Vedder joining in on vocals.

Vedder also performed “Darkness On The Edge of Town“, the second song of the set, with the band.

Bruce Springsteen had previously opened his set at the Perth Arena in Australia with a cover of AC/DC’s 1979 hit ‘Highway To Hell’ on February 6. The late AC/DC singer Bon Scott grew up near Perth.

The Specials have announced plans for an 11-date tour of the UK and Ireland this coming November.

The tour starts at Dublin Olympia on November 3, with dates in Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester and more to follow, including two dates at London’s Roundhouse on November 13 and 14. Tickets go on sale at 9am on February 21.

Ahead of the tour, Specials frontman Terry Hall will be DJing at The Wolf House in London’s Islington, on March 6, April 3 and May 1.

The Specials will play:

Dublin Olympia (November 3)

Nottingham Rock City (22)

Echo And The Bunnymen have almost finished their new album.

Writing on their Facebook page, the band revealed their new studio LP is “nearing completion”, adding that a European tour in support of the record has already been booked. They wrote:

We are very excited to announce that the brand new studio album produced by Youth (The Verve, Embrace etc) is nearing completion and that a title and artwork are decided plus a full European tour already booked. US dates to follow. Ian feels it’s the bands best work for a very long time.

The album is the band’s first since 2009’s ‘The Fountain’. In 2012 frontman Ian McCulloch released the solo album ‘Pro Patria Mori’, which came with ‘Holy Ghosts’, an album of orchestral versions of Echo And The Bunnymen songs.

The idea for the album came about after a show McCulloch played at the Union Chapel in London. Producer Youth re-recorded the tracks, including The Bunnymen’s ‘Lips Like Sugar’, ‘Rescue’, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ and ‘The Killing Moon’.

Photo credit: Joe Dilworth

Prince played the smallest so far of his London ‘Hit and Run’ gigs yesterday [February 17], performing at the 250 capacity Ronnie Scott’s venue.

The set included a surprise cover version of The Waterboys‘ “The Whole Of The Moon”. The song – originally released in 1985 – is long rumoured to have been written about Prince. The band have denied this but singer Mike Scott told Uncut that the sound was inspired by Prince.

Scott said: “The sound of ‘…Moon’, its synths, which crop up almost nowhere else in Waterboys music, was me copping sonic ideas from Prince, which Karl [Wallinger, keyboards], also a big Prince fan, was able to translate. I’d turned him onto Prince, played him ‘Purple Rain’ in the summer of ’84.”

Prince’s setlist, as reported by Gigwise, was:

‘Liathach’

‘Cool’

‘Do Me Baby’

‘The Whole Of The Moon’

A Detroit chef has designed a 10 course meal inspired by Radiohead’s Kid A album, reports The Huffington Post.

Beck is streaming his new album Morning Phase ahead of its official release.

The Los Angeles singer-songwriter is letting fans listen to the record a week early via NPR. Click here to listen to the album before its release on February 24.

Beck recently revealed that some high profile collaborations could be made available later in the year. He told Billboard he set the tracks aside to focus on his new record but they could see the light of day before the end of 2014, “time willing”.

Speaking about Morning Phase in Uncut‘s 2014 Album Preview, Beck said: “I set out to make a gritty king of record, along the lines of those early ’70s singer-songwriter records. But the songs ended up having another quality to them. There are harmonies there: Simon & Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Everly Brothers, The Stanley Brothers. The Mamas & The Papas, even.”

AC/DC have revealed plans to enter the studio later this year in order to record their first new album since 2008’s Brendan O’Brien produced Black Ice.

The band will also be heading out on a 40th anniversary tour, which, says Brian Johnson, will comprise 40 special gigs. Speaking to Florida radio station Gater 98.7 – via Rolling Stone – Johnson said the band would be heading to a Vancouver studio in May to record their 16th studio album. Of a proposed anniversary tour, he added:

“Its been 40 years of the band’s existence. So I think we’re gonna try to do 40 gigs, 40 shows, to thank the fans for their undying loyalty. I mean, honestly, our fans are just the best in the world, and we appreciate every one of them. So, like I said, we’ll have to go out, even though we’re getting a bit long in the tooth. You know what? It’s been four years, and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Bruce Springsteen opened his set at the Perth Arena in Australia on February 6 with a cover of AC/DC’s 1979 hit “Highway To Hell”. Click here to watch it.

Tony Visconti has said that there are two or three “astounding” tracks left over from the sessions for the artist’s 2013 comeback album, The Next Day.

The producer was speaking at the Music Producers Guild Awards on February 14, where he collected Bowie’s innovation honour on the artist’s behalf. He said that the unreleased songs could still be put out one day.

BBC News reports that Visconti said both he and Bowie were “very excited” by the reaction to last year’s Mercury Prize nominated LP. “We were very excited with the reaction. Honestly I was in a daze for the first week, because keeping a secret for two years took quite a lot of lying. I almost started believing my own stories!”

He continued: “No one believed that David Bowie was going to make another album and so the timing was perfect, because everyone kind of gave up on him. There were rumours of bad health and rumours of retirement, and I’m laughing my head off every time I hear them. I’m in the studio with a very healthy man who has no problem writing songs, he wrote easily 30 songs for that album.”

Bob Dylan and his band will play two shows in Ireland this June, according to Aiken Promotions and Ticketmaster.

The dates are:

Live at The Marquee, Cork: June 16

The 02, Dublin: June 17

Although the dates haven’t been confirmed on Dylan’s website, a release from Aiken Promotions says tickets will go on sale Thursday, February 20 at 9.00am.

They can be booked online here or 24 hour credit card bookings 0818 719300 (ROI) / 0844 277 4455 (NI).

Dylan’s only other dates so far confirmed for 2014 are 14 shows in Japan, starting in Tokyo on March 31.

Cliff Richard has said that he will not go vegetarian when he supports Morrissey in America later this year.

As reported on Thursday (February 13), Morrissey has announced two major US arena shows with support from Sir Tom Jones and Sir Cliff Richard. In a statement, Morrissey said he was “honoured and thrilled” to have Jones and Richard on the bills.

Speaking to BBC News about his upcoming US date, Cliff Richard said he was happy to be on the bill but would not follow the same dietary regime as the headliner: “I like to think he might eat some meat when I arrive, but I wouldn’t expect him to. So I don’t think he’d expect me to be vegetarian,” he said. Adding: “If I found he was offended by people eating meat then I won’t eat it in front of him. But I’ll have a chicken curry afterwards.”

Speaking about Morrissey himself, Richards admitted that he is not completely au fait with Morrissey’s back catalogue: “I checked on the internet and saw a couple of shots of him live, and his audiences look really – I don’t know how to say this – they look really nice,” he said. “They were swaying in the crowd and mouthing lyrics and I was thinking, ‘Oh, my audiences do that’. So maybe his audience will be kind to me.”

“I like to move and shake and leap around the stage and sing a variety of pop-rock songs like ‘Ocean Deep’ and ‘Miss You Nights’. Of course I’m going to do them,” said Richard of his stage show. “I’m just going to make it really difficult for Morrissey to follow me.”