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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tuesday Rock Roundup

U-2 are almost done with their new album, which is tentatively called No Line on the Horizon and due out in February. The band has spent much of this month mixing the album in a London studio. And The Edge now says the album doesn't feature any of the songs written for the project when they were working with producer Rick Rubin in 2006. They hope to release that material later on yet another album.

Paul McCartney says The Beatles' catalog is no closer to being available for download through I-Tunes. A deal was expected soon in the wake of the group agreeing to a deal for a Beatles version of the Rock Band video game, but during a press conference in London yesterday, McCartney said talks have stalled.

The portable organ used by John Lennon at The Beatles' August 15th, 1965 concert at New York's Shea Stadium concert as well as on the studio recording of "I'm Down" sold for 182-thousand dollars yesterday at the latest auction of rock memorabilia at Christie's in New York. Also sold for 22-thousand dollars was a collection of unpublished photos and tape recordings from Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Bed-In for Peace" in Montreal in 1969.

John Lennon has been officially "forgiven" by the Catholic Church for his 1966 remarks in which he said The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Yesterday, the Vatican daily newspaper Osservatore Romano said Lennon's words "only [sound] like a 'boast' by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success, after growing up in the legend of Elvis and rock and roll."

Apparently China doesn't want rock fans in to search for Guns n' Roses' Chinese Democracy on the Web -- the fan site ChineseDemocracy-dot-com is inaccessible in the country, and Internet portal Baidu-dot-com has blocked searches for "Chinese Democracy." And the official paper of China's Communist party, the Global Times, said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn." The release of Chinese Democracy meant big business for Doctor Pepper's website on Sunday. The soft drink company followed through on its promise to give everyone in America a free can of Dr. Pepper if Chinese Democracy was released in 2008 by offering a coupon for the freebie. The demand was so great it slowed the site to a crawl, so the company extended the deadline to get a coupon through 6 p-m yesterday.

NEW RELEASES:

Rush's new 3-disc DVD Snakes and Arrows Live is in stores this week. It was filmed in October 2007 and July 2008 in the Netherlands and Atlanta, Georgia. This is the third tour in a row that the Canadian trio has documented with a live DVD. Darn darn darn. Snakes And Arrows Live has already been released on CD.

Paul Simon - Live From Philadelphia, a classic Paul Simon concert DVD from the middle of his solo career, just before the Graceland album, goes on sale today.

REM's 1983 debut album, Murmur, gets the deluxe treatment in a new two-disc set out today. The original album has been remastered and includes a previously unreleased concert recorded at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto in July 1983. The live disc includes early versions of three songs that would later appear in the band's catalog -- "Seven Chinese Brothers" and "Harborcoat" from 1984's Reckoning, and "Just a Touch" from 1986's Life's Rich Pageant.

Paul McCartney releases his third disc under the name The Fireman today. Electric Arguments. The low-key project features McCartney once again teaming up with U-K producer Martin "Youth" Glover, best known in this country for his work with The Verve on "Bittersweet Symphony." For Electric Arguments, McCartney and Glover went into the studio on 13 non-consecutive days without any material but with a goal to write and finish a song by the end of each day.

Metallica's self-titled 1991 album (also known as The Black Album) will be released on vinyl on Friday.


Also out:

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today CD by David Byrne
Daryl Hall & John Oates-Live at the Troubadour(CD/DVD) by Hall & Oates
Happy in Galoshes CD by Scott Weiland
Dreamboat Annie Live [Blu-ray] by Heart
The Paris Concert DVD by Living Colour
KISS: Collection DVD
Elton John: Tantrums and Tiaras DVD
The Beatles: Composing the Beatles Songbook DVD by Beatles
Did you miss 24: Redemption Sunday night? It's out on DVD already.
Did you miss A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! Sunday night? It's out on DVD already.
Hancock (Two-Disc Unrated Edition) DVD
Fred Claus DVD
Space Chimps DVD
Slap Shot 3: The Junior League DVD, a movie about as necessary as another appendix
Meet Dave DVD, also about as necessary as another appendix
Beverly Hills 90210 - The Sixth Season DVD
George Carlin: It's Bad For Ya DVD
2008 Philadelphia Phillies: The Official World Series Film DVD