Ever since he jumped on the Twitter bandwagon late last year, LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy has been micro-blogging about working on the band's forthcoming record, and his tone's been getting persistently more exasperated. (Last week: "is so desperate to socialize with another human being not in a studio that he might go to the deli and buy a sandwich he doesn't want.") But this morning, Murphy chimed in with some very encouraging news, both for us and for himself: "mixing last song right now to send to the amazing bob weston to master. meaning, record DONE. i hope people like it." Jyeah!

On the official LCD site, Murphy was even more plainspoken: "looks like we added another paris gig. oh, and something else. the fucking record is done."

Depending on how fast Weston works, we might even get the album in time for that projected March release date, though I wouldn't bet money on that. A second behind-the-scenes video chronicling the making of the record was recently posted on the LCD website. We've embedded it below.

Meanwhile, Murphy's got a busy few months coming up. Alongside the album, he's also been at work on the score to the forthcoming Noah Baumbach movie Greenberg. And come April, Murphy will hit the road on a tour that'll take him to both sites of the Atlantic. Stops will include Coachella, Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, and our Pitchfork Music Festival. Dates below.

LCD Soundsystem:
04-16 Indio, CA - Coachella
04-20 Dublin, Ireland - Tripod *
04-21 Dublin, Ireland - Tripod *
04-23 London, England - Brixton Academy *
04-24 London, England - Brixton Academy *
04-26 Birmingham, England - Academy *
04-27 Leeds, England - Academy *
04-28 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands *
04-29 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands *
05-01 Manchester, England - Academy
05-02 Bristol, England - Academy *
05-04 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso *
05-05 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique *
05-06 Berlin, Germany - WMF *
05-08 Paris, France - Bataclan *
05-09 Paris, France - Bataclan *
05-30 George, WA - Sasquatch Festival
06-11 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Festival
07-17 Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival
09-12 Isle of Wight, England - Bestival

* with YACHT

Last night, M.I.A. rifled off three quick posts on her Twitter: "BANNED FROM LEAVING THE U.S, FAMILY BANNED FROM COMING TO U.S TO SEE ME, BABY, RECORDING LP, SIGNING THE DOPEST ACTS THATS HITTIN 2010," "I THINK IM READY," and "JUNE 2010."

Which seems to suggest the U.S. government still believes she's some sort of threat and that her much anticipated third album is coming out in June. Either that, or she just really likes the month of June and wants to tell people about it. (She also posted a link to photos from a Jeremy Scott fashion show, saying "IRANIAN PRINCESS SADE IS SPREADING.")

M.I.A. worked with producers Diplo, Rusko, Switch, Blaqstarr, and Sleigh Bells' Derek Miller on the LP. (Could the currently label-less Rising duo Sleigh Bells be one of said "DOPEST ACTS"?) Last week, Rusko Tweeted that the album is finished. And she posted a version of new song "Space Odyssey" on her Twitter last month. More info as we get it.

The personal assistant of punk-rock pioneer and celebrity real estate broker Linda Stein has been convicted of bludgeoning her boss to death with a piece of exercise equipment.

Jurors spent less than a day reaching a second-degree murder verdict in the Manhattan trial against Natavia Lowery, the personal assistant to Linda Stein, who managed the Ramones before becoming a real estate agent with celebrity clients including Madonna and Sting. Lowery showed no reaction when the verdict was read Feb. 23.

Prosecutors said Lowery stole more than $30,000 from Stein, then clubbed her to death to try and hide the theft.

Lowery's lawyers had acknowledged she stole from Stein and at least one previous employer, but they denied she killed Stein. The 28-year-old woman's attorney said in closing arguments Monday that police plied Lowery into a false confession after 12 hours of questioning.

Prosecutors had presented evidence showing Lowery had a troubled history, which included arrests on charges of stealing a roommate's identity and being fired for embezzling from a church while working there. The allegations hadn't been reported to authorities or had been dropped, prosecutors say. Stein apparently didn't know about any of the incidents.

Lowery had worked for about three months for Stein before the 62-year-old woman was bludgeoned to death in her Fifth Avenue apartment on Oct. 30, 2007. Blood was spattered in her living room and her skull was fractured as she was hit about two dozen times.

Lowery initially denied any knowledge of the killing, then blamed it on a masked stranger who told her not to report it, and finally gave her videotaped account of beating Stein to death with a piece of exercise equipment after the broker badgered her about the pace of her work and blew marijuana smoke in her face.

Authorities later determined there was no marijuana in Stein's body when she died, and she suffered far more than the roughly six blows Lowery described.

Surveillance videotape showed Lowery leaving Stein's building soon after the estimated time of the killing.

In the wake of Warner Music announcing they will stop licensing their artists' tracks to free streaming services such as Spotify, Muse, one of Warners biggest-selling acts, have come out against the idea.

Muse bassist Chris Wolstenhome expressed his disappointment at the prospect of Warner's plans going ahead.

"It's like taking your song off the radio isn't it?" he said. "You're instantly taking your song away from a group of potential listeners."

Wolstenhome also emphasised that such initiatives as these are not being instigated by the bands themselves.

"The corporations are setting the rules on these things because they're clutching at straws," he said. "I do sometimes feel that this whole restriction that's been set on how your music can get out there these days doesn't ever really come from the bands. It's coming from the corporations behind everything.

"As far as bands are concerned you just want people to hear your music whichever way they can."

Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman last week said that free streaming services are "clearly not net positive for the industry" and "is not the kind of approach to business we will be supporting in the future."

Other artists who will be unavailable on Spotify, Last.fm, Grooveshark and the like include R.E.M., the Flaming Lips and Madonna.

Sub Pop announced today that they will release the 4th album by sisters Bianca “Coco” and Sierra “Rosie” Casady, aka CocoRosie on May 11th. The album, Grey Oceans, was written and recorded with “amazing and diverse musicians” that the duo discovered while traveling to Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Berlin, and New York in 2008.

Bianca Casady described their plans for the follow-up to 2007’s The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn to Quebec’s Le Soleil last fall:

We want to return to a more stripped-down, acoustic sound the time of [our first LP] La Maison de Mon Rêve. This is not a is not a setback, just a less stringent way of making music.

Check out the Grey Oceans tracklist below:

1 ) Trinity’s Crying
2 ) Smokey Taboo
3 ) Hopscotch
4 ) Undertaker
5 ) Grey Oceans
6 ) R.I.P. Burn Face
7 ) The Moon Asked the Crow
8 ) Lemonade
9 ) Gallows
10 ) Fairy Paradise
11 ) Here I Come

The Runaways, which opens on March 19th, starring Twilight's Kristen Stewart alongside Dakota Fanning. Highly musically charged, The Runaways describes the groundbreaking all girls 1970s rock band, originally comprised of the legendary Joan Jett, and Cherie Currie. (Watch Trailer Below)

The Hold Steady, Brooklyn's finest purveyors of booze-n-sweat-fueled rock, are set to return this spring with their fifth album, 'Heaven Is Whenever.' Due May 4, the record is a reportedly a departure from the band's prior records, in that the keyboards and piano are delegated to the background this time. The group is down to just a four-piece after the recently-announced departure of Franz Nicolay.

"I see it as being less anthemic and more complex," singer Craig Finn said in a released statement. "The lyrics speak a lot about struggle and reward. It's about embracing suffering and understanding its place in a joyful life. I think that some of the characters from old records are there, but I don't name them by name. I think it continues to examine the highs and lows that we've looked at on previous records."

Compared to previous recording sessions, it's also said that 'Heaven Is Whenever' benefits from more spread-out sessions, with the band even making a makeshift studio in the back of their tour bus where they could test things out right as the mood was striking them.

'Heaven Is Whenever' stands at just 10 tracks, and sounds like it will have a variety of inspirations. Guitarist Tad Kubler said that he's recently been influenced by Calexico as well as film composers such as Jon Brion and jazz trumpeter Terrence Blanchard. "I feel like the most interesting sounding records are made by using what you know and knowing how to use what you have," Kubler said in the release. "It's not just about capturing a performance. I like to hear the character of the recording come through in the songs themselves."

With all this change this time around, we're still holding on to the notion that rocking out is still an option. If May seems to far off, Finn and Kubler's prior band Lifter Puller recently reissued their entire catalog, so there's no shortage of material out there at the moment.

The Hold Steady kick off a spring tour on April 2 in Ardsley, New York. Here is the track list for 'Heaven Is Whenever.'
1. 'The Sweet Part of the City'
2. 'Soft in the Center'
3. 'The Weekenders'
4. 'The Smidge'
5. 'Rock Problems'
6. 'We Can Get Together'
7. 'Hurricane J'
8. 'Barely Breathing'
9. 'Our Whole Lives'
10. 'A Slight Discomfort'

LA Times:

Reaction to the video seems to be divided, with some thinking it was maybe a joke…

It’s not a joke. It’s born out of the reality of the world at the moment, out of the fact that I know what I’m doing and that I can help really refresh the brand. I feel I can do it and that I’m qualified, which is why I’m serious about it.

Why make a video campaign rather than contacting Simon Fuller or someone at 19 directly with a formal pitch?

We did that as well. The video was cut and sent to 19, then somebody put it up on YouTube.
Steve Lillywhite is a famed Music Producer, You can find more information on him HERE

Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has been reunited with a guitar stolen 10 years ago after a gig in September 2000.

The 1964 cherry red Gibson SG -- worth at least £30,000 -- was found in a fan's north London home after he admitted stealing it from the Scala in Kings Cross after a concert by Johnny Marr and the Healers in 2000.

Stephen White, 38, says that he is "disgusted" with himself for taking the guitar and not returning it. Highbury magistrates court heard last week that it had been a "spur of the moment decision" after White found himself backstage following the gig. The court heard how he had noticed the guitar unattended and then fled out of a fire exit.

The theft came to light following a tip off from a guitar shop in Denmark Street (popularly known as Tin Pan Alley) in London's West End where White had taken it to be repaired.

White, who had no previous convictions and was on anti-depressants at the time of the theft, was sentenced to 200 days community service.

Marr, currently on tour with his current band the Cribs in New Zealand has been contacted about the guitar and according to police sources bears no malice towards White.

Police Constable Christopher Swain, of Camden's Beat Crimes Unit, said: "We tracked down Mr Marr through his management company and he was absolutely chuffed."

The vintage cherry red Gibson isn't the only SG in Marr's collection he also owns a blonde version that was custom made for him. Other famous SG owners are Eric Clapton, James Hetfield, Keith Richards and Angus Young.

Jack White has been dabbling in music video directing a bit lately, but at least one forthcoming single from Third Man Records has been shot by an old pro. Floria Sigismondi, director of a slew of famous music videos (including the White Stripes’ “Blue Orchid,” where then-mustachioed Jack White met his future wife, Karen Elson), as well as the new Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning-starring rock biopic The Runaways, has shot a video for the Dead Weather’s new song “Die By The Drop,” Video Static reports.

Admittedly, I was expecting that the first video from White, Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita, and “Little” Jack Lawrence would be for the song “Blue Blood Blues,” which White recently claimed would be the first single off their next LP (due out in April). Perhaps Sigismondi’s video will be to the second single or maybe they’ve changed the release plans, but one thing is for certain: Jack White has lots of surprises on the way.

No word yet on when we’ll get to hear/watch “Die By The Drop”

English professor Spenser Simrill isn’t your typical academic: he got to hang out with hipster messiahs Of Montreal on their 2009 European tour, capturing both their bizarre stage antics and their equally bizarre backstage confessionals and pushup competitions. Seriously.

World Premiere: Chicago International Movies and Music Festival: March 5, Heaven Gallery 8 PM.

For tickets, please visit: HERE

Four albums into a career that appeared to begin as an art-school goof, Hot Chip look more likely than any of their peers to ascend one day to the intellectual electro-pop heights of Pet Shop Boys or Scritti Politti. As with those acts, personality is a big part of Hot Chip's appeal (especially to rock critics); frontmen Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard are both sweet record nerds who would have been some other kind of nerds had records not come along.

Yet equally appealing is the band's generous view of dance music as an open-ended form, one with enough room for slow songs and piano ballads and earnest lyrics about monogamy and domesticity and playing Xbox with your brother. Hot Chip make the disco sound like a bedroom and (even more impressive) vice versa.

Fuller than usual of slow songs and piano ballads, One Life Stand is their mellowest, most thoughtful effort so far — which means it carries the risk of also being their most boring. (Contrast is one of their secret weapons, though it didn't seem like such a big deal until now.) But keep listening: slow to reveal, its charm is just as slow to fade.

Guardian:

The original lineup of 808 State is set to reunite, according to co-founder Gerald Simpson. More than 20 years after the group’s debut, Simpson and Graham Massey reportedly plan to return to their acid-house roots for a tour and even new recordings.

Simpson, better known as jungle legend A Guy Called Gerald, reportedly revealed his plans in an interview at London’s Red Bull Music Academy. According to Exclaim, he and Massey had a “serious discussion” about reuniting the original 808 State and will make an official announcement “in the months to come”.

Simpson, Massey and Martin Price founded 808 State in 1988, but Simpson quit the group after their first album, Newbuild. While 808 State eventually embraced the melodic dance music of 90s contemporaries such as Orbital, Simpson had a huge solo hit with the acid-house single Voodoo Ray. Price left in 1992, and 808 State’s revised lineup of Massey, Andrew Barker and Darren Partington released four more albums, most recently 2003’s Outpost Transmission.