new john frusciante solo album announced!!!

here is an email i received from redhotchilipeppers.com recently:

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Friends and Fans, 

The Empyrean is my new record and will be released worldwide via Record Collection on January 20th 2009. It was recorded on and off between December 2006 and March 2008. It is a concept record that tells a single story both musically and lyrically. The story takes place within one person, and there are two characters. It contains a version of Tim Buckley's, 'Song To The Siren' and the rest of the songs are written by me. My friend Josh plays on it, as does Flea. It also features Sonus Quartet, Johnny Marr and The New Dimension Singers. I'm really happy with it and I've listened to it a lot for the psychedelic experience it provides. It should be played as loud as possible and it is suited to dark living rooms late at night. 

- John Frusciante, November 3rd, 2008 

The Empyrean Track listing:

1. Before The Beginning
2. Song To The Siren
3. Unreachable
4. God
5. Dark/Light
6. Heaven
7. Enough Of Me
8. Central
9. One More Of Me
10. After The Ending

***********************************

holy crap. i cannot wait. this email makes me so happy.

the shining and rob zombie! a very good tuesday.

this past tuesday was an extra exciting one for me. not only did rob zombie's live cd, entitled simply zombie live, come out, but a 2-disc special edition of my-favorite-movie-of-all-time-ever, the shining, also came out. i hurried out and bought both the moment i got off of work.



the rob zombie live album is nothing short of amazing. the sound quality is excellent, the music kills, as always, rob's voice sounds so awesome, even though i can't figure out for the life of me how he screams like that the whole show; just a great album. hopefully a live dvd will follow shortly as well. zombie and the band cover lots of ground in this set. you hear songs from white zombie's la sexorcisto and astro creep: 2000, and songs from all three of rob's solo records. here is a complete track listing:

sawdust in the blood
american witch
demon speeding
living dead girl
more human than human
dead girl superstar
house of 1000 corpses
let it all bleed out
creature of the wheel
demonoid phenomenon
supercharger heaven
never gonna stop (the red, red kroovy)
black sunshine
superbeast
devil's rejects
the lords of salem
thunderkiss '65
dragula



as for the shining, i thought i had all i was ever going to get for this movie, with the dvd release in 2001 that had a great documentary shot by stanley kubrick's daughter, vivian kubrick. this release, along with it being presented in widescreen format, adds a second disc with three additional featurettes: view from the overlook: crafting the shining, the visions of stanley kubrick, and interview with wendy carlos, composer. i usually don't get excited about all the so-called bonus footage on dvds these days, because it usually takes up an extra hour of my precious sleep time after the movie is over, and i don't hardly ever get anything from it except maybe a few minor laughs. with this, though, i could watch 10 extra hours of bonus footage and never tire of it.

i won't talk about the movie itself - if you haven't seen this, climb your sorry self from under your rock and watch it as soon as possible. i mean, come on, halloween is right around the corner, so you should be loading up on all the scary movies you can get your hands on. you can even borrow my old dvd copy (are you kidding, of course i am not getting rid of that one - it is full-frame!). i will be watching this as soon as i have nearly 4 hours of spare time to watch all of it at once. i can't wait!

new releases to which i am looking forward...

next tuesday (october 2nd) is an exciting one for me and my wife, anna, as there are two releases that we are very much looking forward to purchasing. pj harvey has a new one coming entitled white chalk, which should be really sweet. she has consistently put out excellent albums since the early nineties. i can't wait to hear it. for your listening pleasure, there is a chilling new track on her myspace page called "when under ether".



high on anna's list for sure is the new solo album from siouxsie. you heard it right, siouxsie is back yet again, as if she ever left. apparently, she has announced her divorce with banshees and creatures drummer and collaborator, budgie, and she is going at it alone, or at least without him. You can listen to samples of a few tracks from the new album on her official site.



later down the line, in november, the hives release the black and white album. very good to see them back. listen to their new single tick tick boom right away.

new releases - september 25th

a few noteworthy releases to help you make 'til october:

the foo fighters have returned to rock your face off with their latest effort echoes, silence, patience and grace. definitely check this one out, as well as their sweet video for the pretender.



iron and wine has released a new album entitled the shepherd's dog. it is more upbeat music-wise than his previous efforts, drawing from his recent efforts with calexico, i believe, but this is not a bad thing. his voice is as soft and strong as ever, and there are some really good tunes here.

the last thing i picked up this past tuesday was the new one from a new favorite of mine, devendra banhart entitled smokey rolls down thunder canyon. this latest effort includes many songs that seem to call back to his hispanic heritage (he was raised in venezuela), and i swear even includes a gospel track. this is one weird cat, but he makes some really beautiful music that i love to sing along with.