Jenny & Johnny’s Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice are no strangers musically, but they admit it was a little change of pace to work together in the studio. Rice and Lewis say their new album, I’m Having Fun Now, is a true collaboration, and Rice admits that was something different for him. Lewis notes Rice was originally working on a solo album, but once they started teaming up on songs they could see a different project taking shape. She explains, quote, “I think it was more in the attitude towards the material than the material itself. I think once we decided to actually make something together, we both suddenly became very open.” Lewis adds, quote, “We had collaborated in the past, but with this it was clear there was no boss.” Jenny & Johnny’s “ I’m Having Fun Now is in stores now.  You can see Jenny & Johnny when they perform at Jefferson Theater on Tuesday, October 26^th.

Mumford and Sons have been playing the festival circuit over in Europe all summer long. The reaction from concertgoers has been huge with massive numbers turning up for the band’s sets. What does singer Marcus Mumford chalk their success up to? He joked with NME saying, “It’s down to lots of strobe lights, lots of nudity, handing out chocolate and pouring vodka into people’s mouths down the front. That will get any crowd going.” Mumford and Sons’ debut album, Sigh No More, is out now.

Band of Joy by Robert Plant.

From Rolling Stone

Band of Joy follows the intimate, moody vibe of his Grammy-winning collaboration with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, but the songs are more powerful, like the blazing spiritual classic “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down” and a hard-driving take on “Harm’s Swift Way,” a rare Townes Van Zandt track.

Resurrecting the Band of Joy, Plant picked out top-notch roots musicians and session players for the group: multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott, guitarist and co-producer Buddy Miller, drummer Marco Giovino and bassist Byron House. “I’m working with arch-bishops of good taste,” Plant said.

The band first hit the studio last December, recording in the 10 days leading to Christmas, but Plant was a bit disappointed with the results. “It sounded like Moby Grape outtakes,” he said. “I was in absolute heaven. But I took it home and realized there was absolutely nothing that kicked up.” He called up Patty Griffin and asked her “to add her Shangri Las-type vocals,” Plant said. The singer gave the group the jolt Plant was seeking: “After Christmas, we went into overdrive.”

Band of Joy hits stores September 14.

Arcade Fire’s new album is called The Suburbs, and the suburbs are mostly what fans will get with the band’s latest video. We Used To Wait is an interactive clip the band came up with as part of a partnership with Google Maps. If you visit thewildernessdowntown.com and enter the address of the house you grew up in, a video will load with an aerial view and street shots of the neighborhood. Viewers may also write a postcard of advice to their younger selves as part of the interactive experience.

U2’s first concert on Russian soil may be remembered for the arrests that surrounded it. BBC News reports that police took activists into custody Wednesday night for their alleged lack of permits. The activists were camped outside of U2’s Moscow show. Identified as members of Amnesty International, they reportedly made attempts to talk to concert goers as they handed out informational leaflets. Sergei Nikitin, head of Amnesty International’s Russian Offices, says he was told by U2’s management that the group had permission to be outside the venue. Nikitin adds, quote, “I am very sad about what happened. I do not know if Bono knew about what happened to us, but I fear that he did not. It was a typical publicity event, which this organization has carried out in every city where U2 has performed.”

According to Spinner.com, representatives from U2’s ONE foundation against AIDS were not arrested, but were asked to leave the stadium. The incident took place just one day after Bono met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about the global AIDS crisis. The concert itself was reportedly a success, with an estimated 75-thousand fans in attendance. U2 will be on stage next Monday, August 30th. The band is playing the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, Austria.

Bjork is lending her talents for the upcoming three-D children’s movie, Moomnis And The Comet Chase. The Icelandic vocalist penned a new track titled The Comet Song for the movie, which will arrive digitally on September 6th. Bjork is donating all the proceeds from sales of the track to Unicef in support of the victims of the recent Pakistan flood. The video for the song is posted below. Bjork is also reportedly working on music for a new full-length album, which is expected next year.

Pearl Jam is not looking for a showy party to mark their latest milestone. Guitarist Stone Gossard tells Billboard.com that the closest thing they’ll have to a 20th anniversary celebration will be their performances this fall at Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit. Gossard says, quote, “It’s perfect — not too blown up. It’s not about us, it’s about all those kids that are on stage with you and about Neil Young and his commitment, his influence.” This will be Pearl Jam’s eighth Bridge School appearance. The music weekend starts one day after the band’s official anniversary. Pearl Jam played their first show on October 22nd, 1990 as Mookie Blaylock at Seattle’s Off Ramp club. Young’s 24th annual Bridge School Benefit concerts will take place in Mountain View, California on October 23rd and 24th.

Neil Young has revealed the details to his upcoming album.  The singer posted on Facebook that his latest release will be called Le Noise and will come out on CD, vinyl and digitally on September 28^th.  Then, in late November, it will be issued on Blu-Ray and as a free iPhone and iPad app.  Le Noise was produced by Daniel Lanois, who recently described it to Rolling Stone as “a couple of solo acoustic songs, but the rest is very electric.” Learn more at Facebook.com/NeilYoung. 

The lead singer of the ’80s band The Call has passed away. Vocalist Michael Been died last Thursday while watching his son perform at a show in Belgium. The 60-year-old Been had been working as a sound engineer for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, a group that features his son Robert on bass. The elder Been suffered a heart attack backstage at the Pukkelpop Festival. As the frontman for The Call, Been sang on such favorites as The Walls Came Down and Let The Day Begin.

The members of The Swell Season note they’re “shocked and saddened” by the apparent suicide of a concertgoer at their show in the San Francisco area Thursday night. The band was playing outdoors before a crowd of nearly two-thousand in Saratoga, California, when a man climbed to the stage roof and hurled himself onto the floor below, landing just a few feet away from vocalist Glen Hansard. A fan told SFWeekly.com, quote, “At first we thought it was a prank or part of the lighting, but after seeing the horrible shock on Glen’s face, we realized it was something very serious. He came out of nowhere. The staff acted quickly and tried to resuscitate the man, but to no avail.” KTLA-TV is reporting a doctor in the crowd worked to revive the jumper, who was pronounced dead within moments. Officials with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office say they’re treating the death as a suicide.

The Swell Season also note they’re continuing with their tour. They explain, quote, “Making and performing music is what the band has always done in good times and in bad. Our hope is that in this communal experience…we can somehow help our own grieving process after what we just witnessed.” The group adds, quote, “We wish to continue to be sensitive to family and friends of this individual and hope that in performing it is not viewed as a selfish act…We continue to have them at the forefront of our minds and hearts.” The Swell Season wrapped up the North American portion of their tour in Canada with a show in Vancouver, British Columbia Sunday night. The group will launch a South American trek in Brazil on Friday.

Fans of funnyman Conan O’Brien will be interested in a spoken-word piece the comedian recorded at Jack White’s Third Man Records in June. O’Brien recorded his take on the Frankenstein story And They Call Me Mad, and the release comes out tomorrow on seven-inch vinyl. The B-side features White interviewing O’Brien. Fans can hear a snippet of the piece now at ThirdManRecords.com.

Florence And The Machine vocalist Florence Welch credits her music career to a rather wild youth. The singer tells The Mail Online that she started drinking at age 14 in order to cope with her parents’ divorce, and that led to more partying over time. Welch says, quote, “I got a lot out of my system, went to wild parties, met some bizarre, amazing people, did mad things like running around naked in fields in Cornwall covered by leaves.” But she notes the most important thing that happened was she found the courage to sing. Welch explains, quote, “I lost a lot of inhibitions and I was encouraged to sing. That was a revelation. I discovered, as a shy kid, I could lose myself completely in singing. I didn’t think it would be a career.” Welch notes that now singing is her greatest pleasure. She adds that she’s put the hard-partying days behind her to stay healthy and keep the focus needed to make her music career work.

Elvis Costello has announced the release date for his new album, National Ransom.  The follow-up to 2009’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane will hit shelves on November 2^nd and like that album, Ransom was also produced by T-Bone Burnett.  Learn more at ElvisCostello.com.

The record label Kill Rock Stars will release a collection of songs by the late, great Elliott Smith. Hitting stores on November, 2 the CD/ LP titled Introduction to… Elliott Smith will compile 14 songs from the singer-songwriter. The CD has 14 tracks and the listing is here:

An Introduction to… Elliott Smith:

01 Ballad of Big Nothing

02 Waltz #2

03 Pictures of Me

04 The Biggest Lie

05 Alameda

06 Between the Bars

07 Needle in the Hay

08 Last Call

09 Angeles

10 Twilight

11 Pretty (Ugly Before)

12 Angel in the Snow

13 Miss Misery (early version)

14 Happiness (single version)

Jack Johnson loves surfing, and he’s doing his best to keep the oceans clean. In his ongoing support of the world’s oceans, Johnson is ready to chip in another 70-thousand-dollars to aid in the Gulf Of Mexico oil spill recovery efforts. The vocalist tells Spinner.com that he’s teaming with All At Once to encourage volunteerism and donations during his tour. He’s also aiding fundraising efforts by providing 30-thousand-dollars in direct donations and another 40-thousand in matching grants.

Arcade Fire have the number one album in the country with their new record, The Suburbs. The indie band sold 156-thousand copies of the effort in its first week of release, much to the delight of their label, Merge. The band’s last album, Neon Bible, debuted at number two, making this the first number one for the band.

Some filmmakers planning to create a biopic about Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia have been dealt some bad news – they’re not allowed to use any of Jerry’s music.  According to Variety, Garcia’s estate and the band’s production company are not working with the film and thus, not licensing any recordings for the production.  The filmmakers plan to use cover songs that Jerry sang instead.  No word yet on when the flick will hit theaters.

The movie is based on the book Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia, which used interviews from people who knew Jerry to document the challenges he faced in life.

Film director Terry Gilliam can now add webcast auteur to his resume. The Brazil mastermind helped last night’s Arcade Fire performance from Madison Square Garden go out to their fans across the world. Gilliam tells MTV.com that he feels his role of directing the webcast was a bit overplayed, and jokes, quote, “I’m just hanging out with them. I’m just a really old groupie.” The director says his participation came together rather quickly, and he adds, “I have to thank them for liberating me from weeks of depression…Maybe the band and I will develop a relationship, so this really has become a meeting as opposed to anything else.” Gilliam confirmed that a documentary camera followed him around prior to the show while he was discussing matters with the band. But he notes he’s not sure if a documentary about the making of the webcast will eventually surface.

No Better Than This from John Mellencamp

From nodepression.com

Mellencamp and producer T-Bone Burnett obviously belong together. That was clear on 2008’s Life, Death, Love and Freedom and even more so here. Both are men born a generation or two late; they would rather be in Clarksdale, Mississippi in the 1930s or Nashville in the 1940s than a modern corporate-run world where oil is gushing out of the ocean, the Supreme Court overrules the people’s choice for President, and we are fighting a war against a country who didn’t attack us. I’m not saying that not be political, but because it’s the truth. Mellencamp has always dealt with political and social issues in his music, but usually in a way that looked to the past for answers. In “Rain on the Scarecrow” he longed for the days when a man could “work his fields and cows.” in “Ghost Towns Along the Highway” he spoke of towns that were once great that were now in despair. In “To Washington” he detailed everything that led up to the invasion of Iraq, but began the song by talking about the “eight years of peace and prosperity” that preceded the Bush administration.

“Save Some Time to Dream” kicks things off with a slow guitar and plenty of reverberation. Any connoisseur of classic American music will not need to look at the credits to know that this was recorded in Sun Studios. On the classic sides by Howlin’ Wolf, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and countless other legends the studio itself was an instrument and that proves to be the case here as well. Mellencamp delivers one of the best songs of his career, an uplifting, spiritual ballad that dispenses advice such as “save some time for living and always question your faith” before telling us to “save some time to dream, ’cause your dream might save us all.” Mellencamp’s cigarette-weathered voice sounds totally relaxed and at home, making this a real highlight of the album.

Arcade Fire just unleashed their new album The Suburbs yesterday and are celebrating in global fashion.  The Montreal based band is playing Madison Square Garden tomorrow night and you can enjoy the show.   The band called film director Terry Gilliam to help bring their concert to the internet.  Gilliam will film Arcade Fire’s show for a free live webcast on YouTube.  To enjoy the show CLICK THIS LINK at 10PM EST, for the meantime enjoy the trailer below and we’ll see you at Merriweather Post!

Untitled from Arcade Fire on Vimeo.