When unpleasant right-wing governments seize control by one means or another, a lot of wishful thinking often goes on among radical artists. Hard times, they speculate, will encourage a new counterculture; angry political art will flourish in the face of oppression. We heard a lot of this rhetoric from dissenters trying to put a positive gloss on the election of David Cameron in 2010. But as yet, a provocative cultural revolt against the Tories, if there is one, remains too underground to register on most radar.
Arcade Fire will release their fourth studio album on October 29.
The band announced the release date on Twitter earlier today (July 12) in a pretty unusual fashion - in reply to a fan who had tweeted "you're my favourite" at them.
The band Tweeted in response: "Thanks. Our new album will be out October 29th".
It had previously been reported that the album, the band's follow-up to 2010's The Suburbs, would be released on September 9.
Arctic Monkeys have revealed the artwork to their new album AM.
The artwork, which you can see above, was posted on Twitter by the band this morning (July 14) along with a message which reads: "Here's the artwork for 'AM', released on 9th Sept 2013." The minimal design is in keeping with the animated video and artwork for the album's lead single 'Do I Wanna Know?'.
Atoms For Peace have removed their music from Spotify.
Producer Nigel Godrich claims the streaming service is "bad for new music", complaints that were backed up by Thom Yorke.
Godrich posted a number of messages on Twitter concerning the removal of Atoms For Peace's album Amok from Spotify, explaining that he believes the system is run by the "same old industry bods trying to get a stranglehold".
We find ourselves in the wrong bar by mistake. Arriving at Hyde Park for this second London show on the Stones' 50 & Counting tour, we're issued with numerous coloured plastic wristbands that are intended to identify where we can travel around the site. There is this bar, that tier, this restaurant, these toilets... one of the first questions we're asked as we enter the site is whether we have a dinner reservation.
Beastie Boy Mike D has released his first new music since the death of bandmate Adam Yauch.
The producer and rapper has uploaded a 10-minute-long mix to his Soundcloud page under the name Humberto V New Reactionaries. The mix was inspired by hardcore bands such as Black Flag and Bad Brains as well as trap, the aggressive strand of hip-hop made popular by the likes of Gucci Mane and Wacka Flocka Flame.
A new book of rare and unseen images of The Smiths and Morrissey by former NME photographer Lawrence Watson is to be released in August.
The release of the book, The Smiths, on August 12 will coincide with the 25th anniversary of Watson's final shoot with Morrissey. The majority of the images in the book are previously unseen and context is provided by captions written by Watson himself.
