Paul McCartney and Radiohead are today confirmed to be performing live at this year's Grammy Awards which are taking place in Los Angeles on February 8.

Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl, Jay Z and Kanye West are also set to appear live at the 51st annual ceremony.

As previously reported, Radiohead are shortlisted in five categories including Album of the Year for last year's 'In Rainbows.'

Paul McCartney is expected to be accompanied by Dave Grohl on drums.

Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West are set to perform together for a version of their single 'Swagga Like Us'.

Coldplay have received seven nominations for the 2009 ceremony, while Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen are also included in the awards' expansive shortlist.

Robert Plant is up for Record Of The Year ("Please Read The Letter"), Album Of The Year ("Raising Sand"), Best Pop Collaboration Wih Vocals ("Rich Woman"), Best Country Collaboration With Vocals ("Killing The Blues") and Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album ("Raising Sand").

Neil Young is up for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for his turn on "Chrome Dreams II"'s "No Hidden Path".

Bruce Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" is nominated in the same category, while the same track is up for the Best Rock Song gong.

The Raconteurs' "Consolers Of The Lonely" is up against Coldplay and Kings Of Leon in the Best Rock Album category.

Source Uncut

U2 preview new album to Q

Q has had a world exclusive preview of the forthcoming new U2 album, provisionally titled No Line On The Horizon.

Sessions for the long awaited album were completed at a feverish pace at Olympic Studios in West London throughout November. However, recording actually began in October 2006, with U2 teaming up once more with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois after first exploring the idea of working with Rick Rubin. Between them, Lanois and Eno worked on the key triptych of U2 records - The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby.

"We learned a lot from Rick," says Bono. "He's head over heels in love with the concept of the song. But our feeling was, you don't go to rock'n'roll just for the songs. We wanted songs that would take us into a different world.

"And because Brian and Dan are experimental in their niches, the opportunity to bring some experimentation into the pop consciousness is so exciting to them. And to us."

By the time U2 arrived at Olympic Studios, Eno was shepherding the album to a conclusion with various other producers being called in to mix specific tracks - long-time cohort Steve Lillywhite and Black Eyed Peas man Will.I.Am among them. As has become customary for U2 records, tracks were being re-worked - and in some cases completely overhauled - right up to the final deadline.

Q initially heard previews of seven tracks at various stages of completion as the band were winding up. First impressions were that, while the two most recent U2 albums (2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind and 2004's How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb) marked a return to basics, No Line On The Horizon is more in keeping with the spirit of 1991's Achtung Baby: which is to say, a bolder, more testing collection.

The material itself runs a gamut from the classic U2-isms of Magnificent, which echoes The Unforgettable Fire's opening track A Sort Of Homecoming in its atmospheric sweep, to the straight up pop of Crazy Tonight (the track Will.I.Am was taking a pass at) and the swaggering Stand Up, wherein U2 get in touch with their, hitherto unheard, funky selves - albeit propelled by some coruscating Edge guitar work, a signature feature of a number of the tracks. The latter track is also home to the knowing Bono lyric, "Stand up to rock stars/Napoleon is in high heels/Be careful of small men with big ideas."

Among other instantly striking tracks are Get Your Boots On, a heaving electro-rocker that may mark the destination point the band had been seeking on Pop; Winter, featuring a fine Bono lyric about a soldier in an unspecified war zone, surrounded by a deceptively simple rhythm track and an evocative string arrangement courtesy of Eno; and the stately Unknown Caller, which was recorded in Fez and opens with the sounds of birdsong taped by Eno during a Moroccan dawn.

At Olympic, particular excitement was reserved for two tracks: Moment Of Surrender and Breathe. A strident seven-minute epic recorded in a single take, the first of these sounds like a Great U2 Moment in the spirit of One, while Eno suggests the latter (at the time still a work in progress) is potentially both the best song the band had written and that he had worked on.

A week after the Olympic playback, Bono treated Q to a private audience of two further unfinished tracks - playing both on his car stereo at teeth-rattling volume whilst being piloted through London's rush-hour traffic. Two versions of the title track were extant: the first is another Unforgettable Fire-esque slow burner that builds to a euphoric coda, the second a punk-y Pixies/Buzzcocks homage that proceeds at a breathless pace.

"We recorded the second version just last night," explained the singer whilst enthusiastically air drumming along to it. "I'm very excited by that one,"

Q begged to differ, casting a vote for the more layered earlier version.

One other track, Every Breaking Wave, was beginning to take shape around an emotive Bono vocal and an appropriately grand swell of a climax. "We might be on to something special there," noted Bono.

And within the U2 camp, this is the general consensus around the album as a whole. A clearly excited Eno told Q No Line On The Horizon could be the band's greatest album, a view also echoed by the Edge.

"We've learnt a few things over the years," said the guitarist. "So I think (the album) could be a bringing-to-bear of all those eureka moments from the past."

No Line On The Horizon is set for release on March 2. And you can read more about the album in Q magazine's world exclusive U2 cover feature from December 31.

Source qthemusic

Tracks bought from the iTunes store will now be compatible with MP3 players other than those made by Apple, the company has announced.

The firm will sell the digital track without the copy protection software which has until now prevented users of other players being able to play them. It announced yesterday that it has reached an agreement with Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner Music to end digital rights management software which is currently applicable to to iTunes tracks.

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, made the announcement during his keynote address at the Macworld conference in San Francisco.

"Starting today, 8 million songs will be DRM free and by the end of this quarter, all 10 million songs will be DRM free," he said.

A new pricing structure was also announced to replace the flat fee for any track in the UK which is currently 79p in the UK.

9:00 AM | 07/01/2009

Source qthemusic

Mitch Mitchell - the last member of The Jimi Hendrix Experience - has died at the age of 61, it was announced today.

The drummer, who was 61, died in his US hotel room while playing a series of gigs with the Experience Hendrix Tour.

An autopsy will be held but authorities said his death appeared to be from natural causes. The musician outlived his bandleader by 38 years, while bass player Noel Redding died in 2003.

Friends and colleagues paid tribute to the drummer whose work brought a jazz feel to the incendiary rock and roll formula of Hendrix on albums such as Are You Experienced? Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold As Love.

Janie Hendrix, the guitarist’s step-sister said: "He was a wonderful man, a brilliant musician and a true friend.”

Guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who is a member of the touring party said:
"Today many of us have lost a dear friend, and the world has lost a rock 'n' roll hero.”

The body of Mitchell, who joined Hendrix’s band in 1966, was discovered in the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday. During his career he had played with towering figures such as Eric Clapton, John Lennon and Muddy Waters.

11:35 AM | 13/11/2008

Source qthemusic

JERUSALEM – The musician formerly known as Cat Stevens released a charity song on Monday to help the children of Gaza.

The United Nations said the London-born Yusuf Islam recorded a rendition of the George Harrison song "The Day the World Gets Round," along with the German bassist and former Beatles collaborator Klaus Voorman.

All proceeds from the song will be donated to the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and to the nonprofit group Save the Children to be directed to aiding Gaza residents.

Gaza officials say 280 of the 1,285 Palestinians killed in the three-week Israeli offensive were children. Children make up 56 percent of Gaza's 1.4 million people. The offensive aimed at stopping rocket fire by Gaza's Hamas rulers into southern Israel.

Islam explained on his Web site that he hoped the song would "help remind people of the immense legacy of love, peace and happiness we can share when we get round to looking at mankind's futile wars and prejudices, and start to change our foolish ways."

UNRWA said the donation would help it continue its vital work in the Gaza Strip.

"This is a fantastically generous act and we hope to reach new audiences in bringing a message of hope at a time when Gaza so badly needs it," said Christopher Gunness, an UNRWA spokesman.

Cat Stevens sold 60 million albums in a prolific musical career that included the hit songs "Wild World," "The First Cut is the Deepest" and "Peace Train." In 1977, he converted to Islam, changed his name and largely distanced himself from popular music.

Israeli authorities have barred Islam twice from entering the country on suspicion he gave money to charity groups linked to Islamic militants. He has denied the accusation. He raised controversy in 1989 by making comments construed as supporting Iran's Islamic edict calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie. He said later he was misunderstood.

Throughout the years, Islam recorded a handful of spoken word records on Islamic topics, some with percussion. In 2006, he made a mini-comeback to pop music recording his first album since his conversion titled "An Other Cup."

Source YahooNews

NEW YORK – She's got a friend.

James Taylor said he will give a California woman a brand new music player loaded with his songs to replace the one she said she had to give up to a taxi driver when her credit card was declined after a trip to the airport last month.

Natalie Lenhart, 20, said officers at John F. Kennedy International Airport made her give the $140 iPod nano to the driver as payment for the $49 ride from Manhattan on Dec. 8. The driver said he'd return her iPod for the fare.

Lenhart's red iPod was loaded with oldies, including songs by the folk singer. Taylor has written classics such as "You've Got a Friend" and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)." Taylor said he might upgrade Lenhart's device to an iPhone.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency responsible for police at the airport, said it is investigating.

Source YahooNews