Kings of Leon announced their sixth album ‘Mechanical Bull’, this new album will be released on 24th September via RCA Records. The new album was recorded with long-time producer Angelo Petraglia and was recorded in Nashville. The band’s bassist Jared Followill spoke to NME earlier this year talking about how youthful the album sounds and saying “It’s like a mix of ‘Youth & Young Manhood’ and ‘Because Of The Times’.” Since then it has also been said that the album is more musically complicated than their other work and the songs do sound like a culmination of their earlier works. From what has been said it sounds like it should be a brilliant album. I’ve always been a fan of the band and I do like all their albums but I must admit I do slightly prefer their older stuff so to me this sounds like it should be an album to get excited about.
The band announced the news of the new album on Jimmy Fallon’s show around a week ago and you can watch it below:
Kraftwerk confirmed last week that a new album is in the works from them, it has been over a year since they hinted that a new album would arrive soon and now we have confirmation of a new album being made. After their residency at Tate Modern playing their back catalogue of 8 albums the band have now moved on to creating new music and making album number 9. The band’s last album was released 10 years ago now in 2003 and they are set to play plenty of festivals over the summer months but hopefully we can expect that new release soon or maybe all our hopes are up a little too much. Either way, to read exactly what Ralf Hutter said in the interview with The Guardian where he confirmed the new album then click here.
A little bit of extra album news from bits and pieces I’ve picked up over the weekend from following NME’s twitter while they have been at Isle of Wight festival. Bastille have revealed that they have already written 10 new songs from their next album, seems like album number 2 could be with us sooner than any of us anticipated then and The Maccabees updated on the progress of album 4 again this week stating that they have recorded 2 new songs. I’m looking forward to new albums from both bands that is for sure but I definitely think that The Maccabees new album will be the one to appear first.
Apple confirmed that iTunes Radio music streaming service will launch this autumn. The free service will feature over 200 stations with plenty of music as the technology has set up plenty of contracts with major music labels. There will be a free version of iRadio for everyone which will feature adverts while iTunes Match users will get the service ad-free. Users will also be given the opportunity to use personalised radio stations tailored to their own personal taste via information from the music they already listen to on their iTunes. Users of iTunes on Mac and PC and Apple TV will be able to use the service as well as iPhone users in conjunction with Siri. Companies such as Nokia have criticised Apple about how slow they have been on the uptake to release their own streaming service in order to compete with Nokia’s Music service and sites like Spotify and we now have to wait and see how much of a success this will be.
It was a busy week for rock fans last week with the annual Kerrang! awards taking place on Thursday and the start of Download festival on Friday through until Sunday. The festival saw the metal giants of Slipknot, Iron Maiden and Rammstein headlining with acts such as 30 Seconds to Mars, Bullet For My Valentine, Motorhead, Limp Bizkit, HIM and Jimmy Eat World also playing. A brilliantly metal line up in terms of headliners with some big bookings making it one of the strongest line up’s over the past couple of years for sure. At the Kerrang awards the best of British and International rock was celebrated with Queen being honoured with the Service to Rock award and nice to see that Brian May and Roger Taylor were in attendance as well and Iron Maiden picked up an Inspiration Award from the magazine. Other winners include Biffy Clyro for their brilliant 6th album ‘Opposites’, All Time Low for Best International Band, Best British band being rightly awarded to Sheffield’s Bring Me The Horizon and Best Single being awarded to the newly off of hiatus Fall Out Boy for ‘The Pheonix’.
Here is the full list of winners:
– Best British Newcomer – Lower Than Atlantis
– Best International Newcomer – Of Mice & Men
– Best Single – Fall Out Boy – ‘The Phoenix’
– Best Album – Biffy Clyro – Opposites
– Best Live Band – Black Veil Brides
– Best Video – Pierce The Veil – ‘King For A Day’ (feat. Kellin Quinn)
– Best International Band – All Time Low
– Best British Band – Bring Me The Horizon
– The Relentless Award – Young Guns
– Kerrang! Inspiration – Iron Maiden
– Kerrang! Icon Award – Venom
– Kerrang! Hall of Fame – Pantera
– Kerrang! Service to Rock – Queen
– Best TV Show – Doctor Who
– Best Video Game – BioShock Infinite
– Best Film – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
– Best Comedian – Louis CK
– Tweeter of the Year – Gerard Way
– Hottest Female – Lzzy Hale, Halestorm
– Hottest Male – Ben Bruce, Asking Alexandria
– Best Festival – Download
– Best Event – You Me At Six: ‘The Final Night Of Sin’
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