Yoko Ono has told NME.COM that The Beatles' remastered back catalogue – which is released worldwide today (September 9) – makes the Fab Four's music sound better than ever.

When asked which of the bands albums benefited the most from the remastering, Ono admitted that she couldn't choose, simply saying "all of them".

Ono added that she thinks the band's latter, more studio-orientated albums will be the most interesting for fans to listen to.

"Not so much the ones in the beginning, because they sort of sound like they did then – they we're just there," she said. "But when it became a little bit more complex – the latter albums – the sound wasn't as clear and loud as what we're used to now, so the remastering really suits those records."

Speaking in this week's issue of NME (out nationwide today), Paul McCartney revealed that he wants The Beatles' back catalogue to be made available digitally.

McCartney was speaking to NME as part of this week's special issue devoted to The Beatles. Featuring 13 different covers – one for each of the band's LP releases – the issue is available on UK newsstands now.

Each cover will be available to collect from the usual outlets except that of 'Magical Mystery Tour', which was originally released as a double EP in the UK. That cover is only available from the NME Store.

You can also order any of the other covers at NME.COM/store now.

Source NME

The poster for Michael Jackson's comeback concert rehearsal footage film This Is It, has been released today (September 9).

The forthcoming film, made by Sony Pictures Entertainment, garnered from filming of Jackson's last weeks, as he prepared for his London 02 Arena residency, will be released worldwide from October 28, for two weeks only. Tickets to see the film, will go on sale from September 27.

The film's producers have also today announced that the Michael Jackson motion picture, based on his life, is to be directed by the This Is It Concert director Kenny Ortega with the full support of The Estate of Michael Jackson.

Ortega, also director of the This Is It concert and film, says: “This film is a gift to Michaels fans. As we began assembling the footage for the motion picture we realized we captured something extraordinary, unique and very special. It’s a very private, exclusive look into a creative genius’s world"

www.ThisIsIt-Movie.com

Source UNCUT

Former drummer for The Band, Levon Helm is to honoured with the title Artist of the Year at the Americana Music Association Festival Awards in Nashville next week (September 17).

Helm is being bestowed the career honour after another year of acclaimed live shows, and the recent release of new album 'Electric Dirt'.

Enthusiastically commenting on the announcement, producer Larry Campbell says: “Levon represents everything in American music that appeals to me. All genres within what is called Americana—rock ’n’ roll, blues, country, bluegrass, old-time music and soul—he can do with authority. Levon starts singing it and you believe it.”

Over 2000 artists attend the annual awards, hosted by Gibson, and previous performances at the ceremony have included Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s last live performance together, Robert Plant and Mavis Staples.

americanamusic.org

.Source UNCUT

Trent Reznor came to Los Angeles to end it all. Two decades after releasing his first Nine Inch Nails album, Reznor brought the band’s life as a touring act to a close Thursday with a sweeping three-hour concert at the Wiltern Theater, erupting with sounds intense and emotional from throughout his career for a full house of more than 2,200 fans.

He ended NIN at full power, not nostalgic but fully engaged, and still an important contemporary act long after the band’s ’90s breakout. Reznor led guitarist Robin Finck, bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen and drummer Ilan Rubin through a 38-song set that mingled their best-known work with songs from The Slip, released in May as a free download, returning the band to the brooding, ambitious sounds explored to epic proportions on 1999’s The Fragile.

Photos from Nine Inch Nails’ last-ever live show.

“This is it,” Reznor said early in the set, and added during the night’s third encore: “We’re not going to tour anymore as Nine Inch Nails, but we’re all still going to be making music.”

The big room was already sweltering and filled with fog by the time the lights went down and Reznor stepped up to the microphone, lunging forward and clutching his mike stand as desperately as ever for “Somewhat Damaged.” He raged across the layers of industrial noise and melody: “Poisoned to my rotten core / Too fucked up to care anymore!”

There was no “Closer,” but the night delivered a generous selection from the range of NIN’s recorded work. Songs raged and flowed from one to the next as if from a single piece of music, a consistent vision across decades holding the night together. Fans shouted along to lyrics of loathing and release during “March of the Pigs,” and Reznor fell to one knee, rising with arms wide open to sing the song’s sudden moment of melodic clarity amid the noise: “Now, doesn’t that make you feel better?”

The Wiltern concert came at the end of NIN’s “Wave Goodbye” tour and its concluding series of farewell gigs in Los Angeles, where Reznor now lives after a dozen years in New Orleans. He brought several guests onstage for the occasion, beginning with pianist Mike Garson, known for his ’70s work with David Bowie and later with NIN on The Fragile. He stayed for several songs, including a solo instrumental run on “Down in the Park.”

He was followed by electronic pioneer Gary Numan, a profound influence on Reznor from his days growing up in “a cornfield in Pennsylvania.” They did three songs together, with Numan as lead vocalist on a searing “Metal” and “I Die: You Die.” Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro unfurled a quick, furious solo on “Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now).”

During the second of NIN’s three encores, the band was joined onstage by members of Dillinger Escape Plan, who share Reznor’s appetite for chaos and destruction, smashing instruments and nearly teetering off the stage during “Mr. Self Destruct.” Near the end, things quieted down for a moment as Reznor sang a haunted, sorrowful “Hurt” to Finck’s acoustic guitar, reinventing a career-defining standard of pain and disgust for a live audience desperate to hear it one last time.

Set List:

“Home”
“Somewhat Damaged”
“The Collector”
“Discipline”
“March of the Pigs”
“Something I Can Never Have”
“The Frail”
“The Wretched”
“Ruiner”
“Head Down”
“Burn”
“Just Like You Imagined” (with Mike Garson)
“La Mer” (with Mike Garson)
“Eraser” (with Mike Garson)
“The Becoming” (with Mike Garson)
“Down in the Park” (instrumental piano by Mike Garson)
“Down in the Park” (with Gary Numan)
“Metal” (with Gary Numan)
“I Die: You Die” (with Gary Numan)
“1,000,000″
“Letting You”
“Survivalism”
“Suck”
“Down In It”
“The Hand That Feeds”
“Head Like a Hole”

First encore:

“Me, I’m Not” (with Atticus Ross)
“The Warning”/”Sign” (with Dave Navarro)
“Piggy” (remix)
“Gave Up”

Second encore (with Dillinger Escape Plan):

“Mr. Self Destruct”
“Wish”

Third encore:

“Atmosphere”
“Dead Souls”
“The Good Soldier”
“The Day the World Went Away”
“Hurt”
“In This Twilight”

Source RollingStone

After launching his "Spectacle" TV series last December and releasing his latest studio effort, "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane," this past June, the punk icon is set to debut "The Costello Show Series," a selection of rare live recordings from throughout his career. First up is "Live at the El Mocambo," a heavily bootlegged concert from March 6, 1978 in Toronto. The 14 song set is due September 29 on Hip-O/Universal and originally appeared as a part of the "2 1/2 Years" box set issued by Rykodisc in 1993, but has never stood on its own as an official release.

The concert was originally broadcast on CHUM-FM and was pressed in a limited vinyl run as a promotional item. Costello was touring in support of his landmark debut, "My Aim Is True." The show features several early versions of what are now considered Costello classics, including "Pump It Up," "Watching the Detectives," and a fiery version of "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea." "Live at the El Mocambo" captures Costello at a very young age, with a raw sound in both the quality of the recording as well as the material.

While little information is available on how many shows will be included in future releases, the series is set to roll out concerts over the next year, with a performance from June 4, 1978 at Hollywood High slated next.

Costello has been a rather prolific renaissance man over the last twenty years, releasing a number of recordings with a bevy of different collaborators, including Allen Toussaint, Bill Frisell and Burt Bacharach. "Se ret, Profane & Sugarcane" continued his recent forays outside of the "punk" lexicon, pairing him with Americana legends T Bone Burnett, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Douglas and Stuart Duncan. Since June, it has sold 89,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Costello is currently on break from summer touring activities, resuming on October 5 in Singapore before heading to Australia.

Here is the track list for "Live at the El Mocambo":

"Mystery Dance"
"Waiting For The End Of The World"
"Welcome To The Working Week"
"Less Than Zero"
"The Beat"
"Lip Service"
"(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea"
"Little Triggers"
"Radio, Radio"
"Lipstick Vogue"
"Watching The Detectives"
"Miracle Man"
"You Belong To Me"
"Pump It Up"

Source billboard

Sex Pistols legend John Lydon has announced that he is reforming his other 70s band Public Image Ltd for a series of UK live gigs at the end of the year.

PiL celebrate the 30 years since the release of their Metal Box in November 1979 with five live shows announced so far.

Public Image Ltd will see John Lydon joined by Damned guitarist Lu Edmonds, former Slits drummer Bruce Smith and bassist Scott Firth.
The revived version of Public Image Ltd will play the following UK live dates, tickets on sale on Friday September 11 at 9am.

• Birmingham, O2 Academy (December 15)


• Leeds, O2 Academy (16)


• Glasgow, O2 Academy (18)


• Manchester, Academy (19)


• London Brixton, O2 Academy (21)

Source UNCUT