Heave Media

The British Are Coming

The Clash come alive, The Cribs make an addition and The Mystery Jets find young love.

Fans of "the only band that matters,” The Clash, will be happy to know that The Clash Live:Revolution Rock DVD will hit stores April 15 via Epic/Legacy. The DVD features rare performances from Joe Strummer and crew, including their very last appearance with Mick Jones at the 1983 US Festival. For those of you not willing to spend cash on this fine item, PBS will broadcast excerpts from the film in early March.

It's been five years since the Reality LP, and Iman must be getting tired of David Bowie sitting around packing on the cosmic pounds; luckily, those hoping to get a dose of Serious Moonlight only need to wait until May 19. That's the day Scarlett Johansson gives the world her Tom Waits cover album entitled Anywhere I Lay My Head. David Bowie has contributed to two tracks, “Falling Down” and “Fannin Street.” Bowie said, “The songs are great, really good Tom Waits stuff, and Scarlett's performances are mystical and twice cool. She creates a mood that could have been summoned by someone like Margery Latimer or Jeanette Winterson.”

You can only spend so much time with Isaac Brock before he starts to creep you out. It now seems that journeyman guitarist, Johnny Marr, will be contributing to most of The Cribs latest recordings. Bassist Gary Jarman reveals more, “He's gradually working his way into more and more songs, so he's doing about five or six with us now. He very much understands the band and everything he comes up with is really great stuff that we'd want on there anyway. We see this as something for the future that's gonna keep going,” Gary revealed. "We're gonna do some recording together and then obviously those songs will only ever work as a four piece anyway. We're dead excited about it really and have high hopes for it so hopefully it will continue for a while.”

The Zutons caught the ear of one of the “fab four” this past week in Los Angelos. Saxophone player Abi Harding spotted Ringo Starr outside Sunset Sound Studio, where The Zutons are recording their new album. “I was sitting outside the studio when my jaw dropped ‘cause Ringo had just pulled up in front of me. I was proper shocked and ran over to him and gave him a big hug.” Starr was invited in where he was given a preview of some of the new tracks. Harding added, “He came in and talked to us a bit and had a listen to a couple of our songs that he seemed to really like. He said he liked the way I played sax so I was made up all day.” The George Drakoulias produced follow-up to Tired Of Hanging Around is set for a late summer release.

This week's featured band is The Mystery Jets, with perhaps the most charming song since Peter Bjorn and John’s "Young Folks." The Mystery Jets debut album, Zootime, released in May of 2007, and was quickly lauded as the second coming of prog or new prog. I don't know what they mean by that, but the band rejects the label and I, for the life of me, don't hear Yes or early Pink Floyd. The debut showcased the bouncy vocals of lead singer Blaine Harrison, as well as bassist (and father of Blaine) Henry Harrison. The sound is reminiscent of a little XTC with overtones of the first two Magazine albums. March of 2008 will see the release of The Mystery Jets next single, "Young Love." The song, which features the soothing style of British chanteuse Laura Marling, has a cheery springtime chorus sure to make you sigh.

Posted by Joe Roth on Feb 27, 2008 @ 12:00 am