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Queens of the Stone Age bandleader Josh Homme and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl are no strangers to collaboration, pooling their talents on several occasions, most notably on QOTSA’s 2004 album Songs for the Deaf. Now, Homme’s wife and ex-Distiller Brody Dalle (busy promoting her new outfit Spinnerette) has let the cat out of the bag on their most newsworthy venture yet – a trio comprising of Homme, Grohl and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Dalle revealed to Antiquiet.com that “[the project] is pretty amazing. Just beats and sounds like you’ve never heard before.” This star-studded collaboration has been on the cards for years, but now Homme and Grohl are taking a break from their respective day jobs and Led Zeppelin have shelved their plans to reunite, it has time to develop. The three main players are remaining tight-lipped, and very few people are thought to have heard the sessions. Back in 2005, however, Grohl told MOJO magazine that “the next project that I’m trying to initiate involves me on drums, Josh Homme on guitar, and John Paul Jones playing bass. That’s the next album. That wouldn’t suck." If this album ever does surface, there’s no question it'll be one of the most hotly anticipated releases in rock.

Here's a video of QOTSA performing at Glastonbury 2002, with Dave Grohl on drums:

--Gillian @ SoundUnwound

SoundUnwound's editorial team write about the latest big music news and quirky stories which catch the eye. We'll be posting a selection of these news stories on Chordstrike every week; for much, much more, visit SoundUnwound.com, the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.

In honor of Independence Day, Amazon MP3 is offering a sharable code to download a free copy of any version of America's national anthem, "Star Spangled Banner" -- and there are a lot of them. I went digging through the list of songs and found everything from Jimi Hendrix's classic Woodstock rendition to Molly Ringwald's Mickey Mouse Club version. There are over 600 to choose from!

But before you go perusing, browsing, and downloading, make sure you enter the code (JULY4MP3) into your account (that's the part that makes it free). You can find simple instructions on how to do that here. But do it quick--it all goes away, much like the fireworks, BBQ stains, and sleeping in, on July 6th (ok, so maybe the BBQ stains will stick around a bit longer).

It's limited to one per customer, but if you want to share the FREEdom with someone else, send them to Amazon MP3where they can download their own favorite version, as well.

Have a safe and fantastic 4th of July, and happy birthday, America!

--Alan Wiley

Ex-Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker doesn't do album promotion in the usual ways. In May, SoundUnwound reported on his plans to spend a week in a walk-in gallery in Paris, France, with a loose program planned of jamming, yoga and Pilates sessions, and activities for kids. Now he's set to appear on the UK's most high-profile political TV show, Question Time, on BBC1 this week.

OK, so he's unlikely to whip out a copy of latest CD Further Complications for discussion. Cocker has a history of appearing as a commentator in the British media, and Question Time is not a forum for promotional appearances. Instead Cocker is expected to be asked for his opinion on the big issues of the week, like the economy, the leadership of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the death of Michael Jackson. Cocker has an interesting history with Jackson: at a 1996 Brit Awards performance by Jackson of "Earth Song", Cocker became angry at what he perceived as Jackson's Christ-like posturing, and invaded the stage in mocking protest. It'll be intriguing to see whether he acknowledges that incident on Question Time, should Jackson's death be mentioned, and whether he can deal with it tactfully.

This 10-minute long clip of the performance features Jarvis Cocker's stage invasion at around 4:45...

Cocker will be joined on the panel by deputy leader of the Labour party, Harriet Harman, former Conservatives leader Iain Duncan Smith, MP David Laws, and journalist Peter Hitchens.

--Ally @ SoundUnwound

SoundUnwound's editorial team write about the latest big music news and quirky stories which catch the eye. We'll be posting a selection of these news stories on Chordstrike every week; for much, much more, visit SoundUnwound.com, the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.

The last place in the world I would have expected a musical revolution to take place would have been renaissance vocal music. How many different ways can a group sing "Now is the Month of Maying"?  Beginning with The Deller Consort in 1948, we've enjoyed a usually high standard of vocal ensembles and since the 1970's the major universities and conservatories of the world have gestated a group of note every five years or so. Making things more unlikely, the newest kids on the block have arrived on the most well-beaten path for groups like this. Most are ex-choral scholars from Cambridge University.

The ensemble in question is Stile Antico and over the last few years they have broken into a different paradigm of performance for vocal groups of this sort.  Recently harmonia mundi released their third recording Song of Songs and they've just completed their US debut at the Boston Early Music Festival.

As the title suggests, this recording is a compilation of renaissance compositions using texts from the Song of Solomon, the biblical collection of love poetry, purportedly written by King Solomon to a Shulamite girl.

Many groups have fished in this pool before, but Stile Antico's repertoire choices and exquisite program notes (written by Matthew O'Donovan, one of the basses) draw a well delineated link between the surge in medieval popularity and the suitability of these texts for the purposes of the Marian 'cult' that portrayed the Virgin Mary as the representation of the church as a whole.

This album holds together as a concert and a concept better than any other attempt at this repertoire that I have heard (actually, all three of their albums do that) but Stile Antico really set themselves apart in the way in which they perform.  These musicians work without a conductor, which is common practice for chamber instrumentalists, but uncommon in a group of this size. Perilous as the concept might sound for a group of singers, I've never heard people present this repertoire with such a high level of commitment.

I'm currently mixing an interview with Carris Jones, one of the Altos in the group, that I'll post here, but far better than I can, Carris sums up the quantum shift the choice of no conductor makes in the collective consciousness of the group.

"It give us, most importantly, a direct communication with our audiences and it means that we cannot, any of us, go on what I would term "choral autopilot."  We're not conveying what one other person, i.e. a conductor, wants us to convey.  We're conveying a message what we have got together as a group, agreed corporately, rehearsed over many weeks and then put that practice into performance and it's a very different discipline to singing for a conductor."

I include a couple of samples so you can judge for yourself, but any of the tracks on the MP3 page show what this group is about.  Also their other releases, Music for Compline and Heavenly Harmonies offer the same exquisite ensemble and intelligent programming choices.  I know the group will be in New York in October, this year, but for a full breakdown of their concert itinerary I'd check their website.  This repertoire has never been more engaging. -- Hugo Munday

Vosotros Presents: the Years
Suggested if You Like: Amy Winehouse, Al Green, velvet smoking jackets

Nicola Conte Presents Viagem 2
Suggested if you like: Astrud Gilberto, Elis Regina, mid-century modern furniture

Chumbawamba - "Rich Pop Stars"
Suggested if you like: Belle & Sebastian, Billy Bragg, totally not joking about a new Chumbawamba single being good

Krizz Kaliko - "Misunderstood"
Suggested if you like: Gnarls Barkley, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, pop songs that might not ever be popular (but should)

Bombay Bicycle Club - "Dust on the Ground"
Suggested if You Like: Interpol, Editors, voices that can be described as both "husky" and "quavering"

Naledge (of Kidz in the Hall) - Chicago Picasso
Suggested if You Like: the Cool Kids, Black Milk, the Midwest

-- Jeff Reguilon

Most musicians probably take for granted the fact that they can carry around their instruments to concerts and band practice. In today’s world, a small Fender amp and Stratocaster are all a musician needs to get rolling. And in yesterday’s world, as we learned in anthro-musicology news last week, something as simple as a little vulture bone and mammoth tusk made a fine instrument some 35,000 years ago.

On the opposite end of the scale – literally – fast forward several thousand millenia and consider that one particular instrument of choice is so large that it probably requires an installation plan, building permits, and perhaps an architect. Yes, I’m talking about the world’s largest instrument: the pipe organ.

While recently digesting some minutia related to Renaissance piano concerto transcriptions with my friend Pete who provided background research for this piece, he brought up an interesting point that there seems to be a recent resurgence of the pipe organ in concert halls nationwide.

That’s right, it turns out that pipe organs are not just for Sunday School anymore, even though many followers of the craft still convene in grandiose churches, as they did in Seattle last weekend to pay homage to the pipes and not necessarily the holy water.

Could this new movement bring pipe organs into the mainstream of the classical music world? Or does the fact that so many pipe organs already exist in concert halls indicate a fait accompli for pipe organs beyond the hallowed walls of churches everywhere? To help answer it all, let’s look at some of these noble beasts up close and personal based on their most notable features:

The Newborn: We start off by highlighting the pristine William J. Gillespie Organ which is the newest concert hall organ to be built and resides at the  Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, CA. 

The Cubist: As one might expect, one of the most visually spectacular, and extremely controversial new pipe organs is the monster Rosales Opus 24 in the new Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles. 

The Big Boy: One of the most recent additions, and attracting tremendous attention, is the new Dobson (2006) at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

The Southern Bell: One of the smaller blowers in the ring of newly christened organs calls Music City its home in the Nashville Symphony's new concert hall. Hmm, I do love me some honky tonk mixed with a little organ music on a Friday night to kick off the weekend.

The Postmodernist: In the category of Things To Come (a couple years away), Casavant is currently building a major organ for the new Kauffman Center in Kansas City.

The Orphan:  Alice Tully Hall in NYC is still awaiting the glorious return of its pipe organ after it was removed prior to the hall's acoustical renovation.

Calling attention to the new concert hall trend, the New York Times states that, "An organless Tully means that New York has no major concert hall with a pipe organ, bucking a nationwide trend. 

The Nip & Tuck Class: (currently or recently under renovation):

The Energizer Bunnies: Two really venerable old guys, not recently rebuilt but kept in shape by virtue of excellent maintenance:

The Atlantic City Convention Hall (which also claims to be the largest in the world).

The venerable Hutchings by Steere/Skinner in Woolsey Hall at Yale.

The Storage Rack:  Speaking of Steere, we would be remiss not to mention that Springfield, MA (Pete’s hometown) has a fine concert hall with a 1902 Steere organ that has been in crates for 30 years in the basement of a municipal building. The Steere & Turner company was located in Springfield and subsequently bought out by Skinner (then the General Motors of the organ world) in the 1920's.

Last year, Chicago MC Rhymefest honored one of his favorite artists by enlisting the help of producer Mark Ronson and making the Michael Jackson tribute mixtape Man in the Mirror. Featuring beats cobbled together from familiar MJ tracks and actually entertaining skits wherein 'Fest and Ronson engage in hilariously fake conversations with the King of Pop, this set was solid enough to be one of my most listened-to albums of 2008. Rhymefest's relatable, witty, insightful style paired with a melange of undeniably awesome MJ sounds is a peanut butter/chocolate-level combination for me. Listening to it now serves as a reminder that, even though the world won't be graced with any new music from Michael, his contributions continue to shape the pop landscape and inspire vital work. Since it would be a legal nightmare/financial catastrophe to clear these samples, it was never released through official channels, but you can download the Man in the Mirror Mixtape for free from Rhymefest's site. Please beware, though, the language does get a little salty. Keep the kiddos earmuff'd or just throw on Off the Wall one more time if curse words aren't your thing.

If you, on the other hand, are looking for a way to escape the wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage, giving a listen to the new Fleet Foxes song, "Blue Spotted Tail," is a good alternative. It's more of the gentle, nature-fied sound that made the Seattle harmonizers critics' darlings and vaulted them to the top of several year-end best-of lists. To be fair, it's the same sound that made a fair number of folks saw logs, but those of us in the former camp might consider heading over to the Pitchfork news section to download an MP3 of the song ripped from a performance on the BBC.

-- Jeff Reguilon

As reported by numerous sources, Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop,” has died in Los Angeles, California. He was 50 years old.

Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana and began his musical career at age 5 as the youngest member of the Jackson 5. He released 9 regular full-length solo albums with both Motown and Epic Records from 1972-2001. According to Grammy.com, Jackson won 13 Grammy Awards during his career, and was honored with a Grammy Legend Award in 1993.

To this day, his 1982 album Thriller is the biggest-selling album of all time. It was produced by Quincy Jones and featured a duet with Paul McCartney, a guitar track with Eddie Van Halen, and spoken word material from Vincent Price. 

In the twilight of his career, a number of noteworthy and highly publicized news events shadowed Jackson in his personal life for several years.

In more recent news, Jackson was planning a 50-date concert tour starting in London in 2009.

We honor the memory of Jackson for his music and many memorable appearances over the last several decades.

 Rest in Peace, Michael.

--Lucas Hilbert

Sa-Ra Creative Partners - Nuclear Evolution
Suggested if you like: Erykah Badu, Dwele, vacationing on Mars.

Lushlife - Cassette City
Suggested if you like: Lupe Fiasco, Little Brother, popping open a fire hydrant on a hot Saturday.

God Help the Girl
Suggested if you like: Belle & Sebastian, She & Him, meeting girls on the internet.

Amerie - "Why R U"
Suggested if you like: Jade, Jazmine Sullivan, artists who return from label purgatory.

Birds of Avalon - Uncanny Valley
Suggested if you like: the Raconteurs, Apollo Sunshine, laser light shows.

Black Rio, Vol. 2: Brazil Soul Power 1968-1981
Suggested if you like: Carlinhos Brown, James Brown, funky Brazilians

-- Jeff Reguilon

As an admirer and devourer of most things related to the great David Lynch, including the soundtracks and scores from Angelo Badalamenti, I was pleased to learn that he has a new music project releasing soon: Fox Bat Strategry: A Tribute to Dave Jaurequi.

A long-time pet project of film director David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive), Fox Bat Strategy features a cast of musicians who began collaborating with Lynch surrounding the filming of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With  Me.

The same line-up of players appeared on Fire Walk With Me's two roadhouse cuts: "The Pink Room" and "Blue Frank" (as well as made cameos in the film itself). In 1994, these same musicians, with an invitation from Lynch, re-entered the studio for experimental collaboration. What emerged were these 6 tracks. For nearly fifteen years these songs have remained unreleased and unheard, slow-cooking in the ether of time, all the while retaining a uniquely modern sensibility. This release is a tribute to the album's late singer and guitarist Dave Jaurequi, who passed away suddenly in 2006.

--Lucas Hilbert