Metallica are set to release the soundtrack for their forthcoming 3D feature film Metallica – Through The Never on September 23.

Metallica – Through The Never (Music from the Motion Picture) will comprise two CDs and includes tracks from their shows last year at Rexall Place in Edmonton and Rogers Arena in Vancouver, the gigs where the band recorded all their performance footage for the movie. A vinyl version will be available later in the year. The film will be released in the US on September 27 and in the UK later this autumn.

Speaking about the soundtrack, Lars Ulrich from the band commented: “Let’s hear it for the old school soundtrack! Not only are we beyond psyched about our movie coming your way shortly, but the fact that we get to share the music directly in all these formats is way fuckin’ cool.”

Metallica recently travelled to San Diego to appear on the Comic-Con panel for the film. During the panel, the first full-length trailer for the movie was unveiled – click below to watch it.

Metallica – Through The Never is a hybrid of concert movie and fictional feature film. Actor Dane DeHaan, best known for his roles in Chronicle and next year’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, plays a roadie who gets sent on an urgent mission during a gig and ends up on a surreal adventure. “The stage is the star of the film,” Ulrich explained. “Making a movie about a stage and then bringing it to the people is a cool idea.” Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett then added: “It’s the biggest stage you’ll ever see anywhere.”

The ‘Metallica – Through The Never (Music from the Motion Picture)’ tracklisting is:

Disc 1

‘The Ecstasy Of Gold’

‘Creeping Death’

‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’

‘Fuel’

‘Ride The Lightning’

‘One’

‘The Memory Remains’

‘Wherever I May Roam’

‘Cyanide’

‘…And Justice For All’

Disc 2

‘Master Of Puppets’

‘Battery’

‘Nothing Else Matters’

‘Enter Sandman’

‘Hit The Lights’

‘Orion’

Jack White has donated £130,000 ($200,000) to the National Recording Preservation Foundation.

The NRPF is an independent, non-profit, charitable organisation launched in 2011 by the US Congress. Its aim is to support archives, libraries and other cultural institutions committed to preserving America’s recorded sounds.

White is on the board of directors for the charity. His donation will get the project off the ground, its executive director Gerald Seligman said in a statement (via Billboard). “[It] is our first and therefore provides the welcome opportunity to go from talk about the needs and priorities of audio preservation to concerted action. With this contribution we can now put up our basic structure, begin enacting the preservation plan – and give out our first grants. We’re committed to doing that right away, and certainly within the coming months,” he said.

Sam Brylawski, the chairman of the National Recording Preservation Board, added that he hopes White’s “extraordinarily generous donation inspires many others, especially those in the recording business—record companies, artists, songwriters, and others—to follow his lead to help ensure that we are able to preserve and make accessible recent and historical recordings at risk of loss.”

The Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly has revealed in the new issue of Uncut that he and Morrissey used to wrestle.

The guitarist collaborated with the former Smiths singer on his debut album, Viva Hate, released in 1988.

Recalling the recording of the album, Reilly says: “Me and Morrissey used to have wrestling matches. He was very physically together, very strong. We’d find a corridor, suddenly it would go off and no-one knew what to do.

“Or me and Mozza would be in the sauna, stark-bollock naked. Everybody else was too stupid about everything to do something like that, but Morrissey liked it: ‘What’s all the big fuss about?’”

In the piece, celebrating 25 years since Viva Hate’s release, collaborators including Stephen Street, Mike Joyce, Clive Langer and Steve Lillywhite remember working with Morrissey on his early solo albums.

The new issue of Uncut, dated September 2013, is out on Wednesday (July 31).

Manic Street Preachers have revealed the video for new single “Show Me The Wonder” – scroll down to watch.

The track, due for release on September 9, is the lead single from the band’s 11th studio album, Rewind The Film, which follows a week later.

Recorded in the band’s own studio in Cardiff, Rockfield in Monmouthshire and Hansa in Berlin, the album features guest appearances from Lucy Rose (on ‘This Sullen Welsh Heart’) Cate Le Bon (on ‘4 Lonely Roads’) and Richard Hawley on the title track. The band have said: “[If] this record has a relation in the Manics back catalogue, it’s probably the sedate coming of age that was ‘This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours’.”

Shortly after the album’s release, the band will tour the UK and Ireland – playing Newport, Dublin, Bristol, London, Manchester and Glasgow. Manic Street Preachers will play:

Newport Centre (September 13)

Dublin Olympia (20)

Bristol Colston Hall (22)

London Shepherds Bush Empire (24)

Manchester Ritz (27)

Glasgow Barrowland (29)

Manic Street Preachers – Show Me The Wonder on MUZU.TV.

Jonathan Wilson has announced details of his new album, Fanfare.

Listen to a track from Fanfare, “Dear Friend”, here.

The album, which will be released through Bella Union on October 14, is the follow up to 2011’s Gentle Spirit.

“Fanfare as a word represents a fanciful showing, a bodacious movement of energy, a celebration of sound,” explains Wilson. “Something to signify an arrival, a very special occasion.”

The album was recorded over a nine-month period at Wilson’s Fivestar Studios in Echo Park, Los Angeles, and then mixed at Jackson Browne’s Groove Masters studio in Santa Monica.

Guests appearing on the album include Graham Nash, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Josh Tillman, Wilco’s Patrick Sansone, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith and Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell from Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. Additionally, Wilson co-wrote several songs on the record with Roy Harper: Wilson and his band will also feature on Harper’s album, Man And Myth.

“There are an awful lot of wizards on this album; wizards of all ages and life experiences, all these amazing voices and musicians. There is a high degree of musical prowness and pedigree here. Cross-generational musical sharing and passing down traditions is very important to me, and is something that must continue. This is the way you keep the fanfare’s blowing, this is how you keep the energies interacting.”

Blondie drummer Clem Burke has revealed that singer Debbie Harry is considering bringing the band to an end after 40 years.

“Debbie is 11 years older than the rest of us, so it’s on her mind,” 57-year-old Burke told the Daily Mail. “We’ve tried to keep it going for as long as possible, but it’s not just up to me. Nothing is finalised yet, but obviously there’s no Blondie without Debbie Harry.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Harry told the newspaper: “They are in a hiatus at the moment. They will do some tour dates next year. Nothing is confirmed yet.”

Blondie completed an extensive UK tour earlier this month (July), including a set at Isle Of Wight Festival, and have a run of North American dates scheduled during September and October. The band are due to release a new album called Ghosts Of Download later this year and the lead single, “A Rose By Any Name”, which features Gossip singer Beth Ditto, was released on iTunes last month.

Mick Farren, author, counterculture radical and singer, has died aged 69.

According to reports, he collapsed on stage at London’s Borderline last night [July 27] while playing with his band, the Deviants.

Farren, who was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was a man of many disciplines. A key writer (and, briefly, editor) of the International Times, he also wrote for the NME, for whom he authored the famous The Titanic Sails At Dawn polemic, first published June 19, 1976, which prefigured punk: “The iceberg in this case seems to be one of a particularly threatening nature,” he wrote. “In fact it is an iceberg that is drifting uncomfortably close to the dazzlingly lit, wonderfully appointed Titanic that is big-time, rock-pop, tax exile, jet-set show business.”

He also authored a memoir, Give The Anarchist A Cigarette – a vivid snapshot of the British counter-culture during the 1960s – as well as 23 novels, 11 non-fiction books and four books on Elvis Presley. A career-spanning anthology of his writing, Elvis Died For Somebody’s Sins But Not Mine, was published earlier this year by Headpress.

As a musician, Farren was best known as singer with his band, the Deviants, which formed in 1967 in Ladbroke Grove. They released three classic LPs between 1967 and 1969: Ptoof!, Disposable, and 3. In 1970, Farren released his first solo album Mona: The Carnivorous Circus. But his place within the counterculture went deeper. He was doorman at the UFO club in 1967, the Deviants played at the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream and also opened for Led Zeppelin early on in their career. He wrote lyrics for Hawkwind and Motörhead, and in 1970 he brought both the MC5 and William Burroughs to Worthing, Sussex, to appear at his Phun City Festival. The same year, he was instrumental in “freeing” the Isle of Wight festival after helping bring down the fences.

Politically active throughout his life, Farren had taken part in the anti Vietnam war march on the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, London, March 1968 and also founded the London chapter of the White Panthers.

Most recently, he co-authored a hardback book, Classic Rock Posters: 60 Years Of posters, Flyers And Handbills: 1952–2012, published by Omnibus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmNavln3NAU

Photo: Estate Of Keith Morris/Redferns

Sad news this afternoon, with the announcement that the great JJ Cale has died.

According to a statement on www.jjcale.com, the singer-songwriter suffered a heart attack and died at 8pm last night (Pacific time) in Scripps Hospital, La Jolla, California. He was 74. “Donations are not needed,” the statement continued, “but he was a great lover of animals so, if you like, donations can be made to your favorite local animal shelter.”

Born John Weldon Cale in Oklahoma City, and raised in Tulsa, Cale’s career was inexorably connected with that of Eric Clapton: it was Clapton who recorded one of Cale’s early songs, “After Midnight”, raising his profile and allowing him to embark on a solo career that encompassed 14 solo albums (the last, “Roll On”, was released in 2009). Cale continued to work with Clapton up to this year’s “Old Sock” album, the latter also covering perhaps his most famous song, “Cocaine”. Other notable versions of his songs included Spiritualized’s take on “Call Me The Breeze”.

Cale’s trademark Tulsa sound was a kind of mellow boogie, a laidback interpretation of the blues that was further enhanced – especially on his 1972 debut, “Naturally” – by an irreverent approach to roots music, where his gently noodling guitar lines would be underpinned by a prototype drum machine.

In the press biography for “Roll On”, Cale was asked whether it bothered him, “that contemporaries and critics list him amongst legends, and fans might love his songs yet not even know his name?”

“No, it doesn’t bother me,” he replied, laughing. “What’s really nice is when you get a cheque in the mail.”

JJ Cale opened an aptly-named Twitter account, @SlowerBaby, in 2009. He posted, however, one solitary tweet: “I make rock n roll records.”

Bob Dylan has unveiled a new touring guitarist, following the departure of Duke Robillard on June 30 in Nashville.

Robillard had joined Dylan’s band in April. He played only played 27 shows with Dylan before he was replaced by Charlie Sexton – the guitarist that Robillard had replaced in Dylan’s band three month’s previously.

Then on July 15 at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto, Ontario, Dylan debuted a new guitarist, Colin Linden, a Canadian born musician and producer who’s previously worked with T-Bone Burnett, Lucinda Williams and Rick Danko.

It’s not clear whether Linden is a permanent addition Dylan’s touring band.

Dylan is currently on the AmericanaramA tour, with Wilco and My Morning Jacket. Bob Dylan was recently joined on stage by Jeff Tweedy and Jim James for a cover of “The Weight” by The Band.

Independent record shops sales soared by 44 per cent in the first half of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012.

According to an analysis of Official Charts Company data by the Entertainment Retailers Association, indies have seen a huge increase in sales, despite an overall decline in the sale of albums over the same period by 1.5 per cent.

The ERA, which represents music retailers in the UK, says that increased sales of vinyl albums – boosted by Record Store Day – is a key factor to the increase. As previously reported, UK vinyl sales were up 78 per cent in the first quarter of 2013. In 2012, vinyl sales across all music genres surged by 15 per cent to 389,000 copies sold, the highest level since 2004.

Although independent record shops only accounted for 3.2 per cent of the total albums sold over the first six months of 2013, 50 per cent of all vinyl album sold were in indies. Around one in seven albums sold in independent record shops are sold on vinyl, while in major retailers and online, only one in 250 albums sold is on LP.

The biggest selling album through independent stores in the first half of 2013 was David Bowie‘s The Next Day. The album is the 15th biggest selling album of the year, and overall indies accounted for 5 per cent of the album’s sales. Meanwhile, independent shops accounted for 35 per cent of sales for the new Boards Of Canada album Tomorrow’s Harvest and 31 per cent of sales for Savages’ debut Silence Yourself.

The 10 best-selling albums in independent record shops in the first half of 2013 are:

1. ‘The Next Day’, David Bowie

10. ‘Trouble Will Find Me’, The National

James Murphy has said that Arcade Fire’s new album has been “the food I eat and the air I breathe” and that he has now finished his work on the record.

The band, who teamed up with Murphy to record their forthcoming studio album, will release the new record in October.

Speaking to Billboard about his role in making the album with the band, Murphy said: “Producing is always really hard, and you can never tell who’s going to be easy to get along with and who’s going to be difficult. So I wasn’t sure what was going to be the case, since there’s a lot of them. I figured, they’re all super talented, do they need another dude there with his opinions? It turned out it was really nice, and everyone was amazingly respectful of one another.”

Elaborating further on the album, which was recorded between Murphy’s hometown of New York and Arcade Fire‘s native Montreal, he continued: “When you work on a record you don’t know any of the things around it. So when it comes out I’ll just be like, ‘The Arcade Fire record’s out — oh, right!’ It’s been the food I eat and the air I breathe for a long time now. That happens with my own records. I am officially done with it, we’ve just been passing things back and forth making choices on mixes.”

Earlier this month Murphy spoke to NME about the new Arcade Fire album, which he is helping produce. Quizzed on what it sounds like, Murphy said: “It sounds like Arcade Fire in the way that only Arcade Fire sound like Arcade Fire, you know? It’s really fucking epic. Seriously. I mean, I feel at this point like I’m too close to it to really talk it up and do it justice. You know?”

Arcade Fire announced the news of the record’s release last week by replying to a fan on Twitter who wrote “you’re my favourite”.

Bob Dylan was joined on stage by Jeff Tweedy and Jim James last night [July 24] for a cover of “The Weight” by The Band.

The performance took place on the AmericanaramA tour at Farm Bureau Live, Virginia Beach.

You can watch footage of the performance below.

This is not the first time The Band‘s presence has been felt on the AmericanaramA tour.

On July 20, at the Comcast Center, Mansfield, Massachusetts, guest opener Ryan Bingham joined My Morning Jacket for a cover of “Don’t Do It” – an arrangement of Marvin Gaye’s “Baby, Don’t You Do It” recorded by The Band.

On July 22, Band keyboardist Garth Hudson joined Wilco at Saratoga PAC in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he played on “California Stars”, The Band-adopted “Long Black Veil”, “Genetic Method” and “Chest Fever”.

Meanwhile, Dylan recently confirmed details of The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971).

You can read the story of The Band in this month’s Uncut on sale now.

Bob Dylan’s set list for the Virginia Beach show was:

Things Have Changed

Blowin’ In The Wind