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Ray Davies has revealed that The Kinks are working on a new album. - Source

Johnny Marr officially became a university lecturer yesterday (November 4), as he spoke to more than 1000 people at the University of Salford in Manchester. - Source

California's garage rockers have made their new album available to download from their website. It's "just abstract"... - Source

Alan McGee, who founded the Creation record label, signed Oasis and went on to manage bands including The Libertines and The Charlatans, has said he has quit the music business. - Source

No matter how technology progresses, there's something about the smooth black grooves of a vinyl record that just hug you a little closer than the cold plastic casing of a CD. And happily, soon you can get that warm, fuzzy feeling with all of Nada Surf's studio albums -- including Lucky, released this past February -- as the collection is released in a limited edition vinyl boxed set on November 25. - Source

The Beatles remain a glaring holdout on the iTunes Store, despite years of false rumors and repeated licensing attempts.  But i... - Source

Tim Burton's cult stop-motion film turns 15 this year, and as previously reported a motley crew of indie and goth-pop acts have recorded covers for an updated soundtrack called Nightmare Revisited. It's fun to hear Polyphonic Spree and Album Leaf interpret Danny Elfman, even if you risk hearing Korn's contribution, too (always with the terrible covers, those guys). Check out our faves after the jump. - Source

That previously reported Monkey: Journey To The West project, involving Gorillaz collaborators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett in the classic tale of a Monkey King approaching monkey enlightenment one monkey day at a time, has become a pretty big deal. First there were the classy openings at opera houses around the world, followed by the BBC commissioning a Hewlett/Albarn reprise (Journey To The East) for their 2008 Summer Olympics Coverage. But this is the pinnacle for this Simian Mobile Opera: a YouTube homepage takeover. Shrimp and white wine for all.

Damon and Jamie sat to talk about it, and also chose the occasion to premiere the video for the Monkey project soundtrack's first single, "Monkey Bee." It's part Gorillaz backbeats, part Chinese folk/modal melodies, part Lord Of The Ringsy epic battle-sequence art direction, with some tail-end post-punk and unhelpful subtitles just in case you need more things to pay attention to. - Source

Last week "Space Bible With Volume Lumps" put us in the proper mindset for Christmas On Mars, the seven-years-in-the-making science-fiction film written and directed by guitar hero Wayne Coyne. The DVD's out in two weeks, and in its deluxe form includes a Lips score of almost all-new instrumental material. One such song, "Once Beyond Hopelessness," soundtracks a scene in which Major Syrtis has to convince Santa Claus to appear in the colonists' Yuletide pageant before they run out of oxygen. I'm guessing. I haven't seen it. - Source

A date for the opening statements in the murder retrial of famed music producer Phil Spector has been set. - Source