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The story of The Verve has always been a tumultuous one. In the late '90s while the likes of Oasis, Blur, Manic Street Preachers and Pulp were all enjoying their greatest successes, they technically didn't even exist. And when they finally achieved that level of worldwide success with "Bittersweet Symphony", effectively a coda for the Britpop era, they didn't end up seeing a penny of the royalties from the song and the band disintegrated again on the North American tour in support of Urban Hymns. If ever there was a band that had unfinished business to attend to, that needed and deserved a victory lap, it was The Verve.

Included in the bunch:

Kiss - Alive
U2 - Rattle & Hum
Daft Punk - Alive 2007
The Who - Live At Leeds
Wilco - Kicking Television
Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong

View the full list here. - Source

Watch the Q&A with Tim Burgess below. - Source

M. Ward and Zooey continue to mount their televised late night charm offensive with a stop in at Craig Ferguson's L.A. studio last night, convenient for Matt since he was already out Coachella way. Upon premature enunciation, we pronounced "Change Is Hard" to be a "charmer," which combined with a slower tempo than Z & M's song choice for Conan ("Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" with Yo La Tengo), made for dramatically fewer "I'm comfortable and charming no really!" Zooey bugeyed smiles, more opportunity to focus and her sweet and vulnerable twang (get your mind out of the gutter).
- Source

Enjoy the duo's clip for 'Stress' below. Download a reinterpreted Justice tune at bottom. - Source

Coachella conquered, Spiritualized have now set their sights on a long spring and summer out on the road, a bevy of bonus goodies surrounding forthcoming new album Songs in A&E, and the U.S. release of a certain iTunes EP. Let's start with that last one and work our way backwards, eh? - Source

Enjoy Songs In A&E's 'Soul On Fire' below. Visit SPZ at the band's official site. - Source

Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett & Chen Shi-Zheng are bringing their adaptation of Monkey: Journey To The West to the US beginning later this month. We've been drooling over this unbelievable project created by the Gorillaz crew ever since we caught a sneak peak nearly one year ago - Source

Speaking exclusively to Xfm on the eve of the launch of the new documentary, 'Joy Division', drummer Stephen Morris is sceptical about New Order's future. - Source

Veteran Canadian outfit Sloan are set to release their tenth studio full-length (discounting the Peppermint EP, including Recorded Live At A Sloan Party which was not recorded at a party, etc.) in 16 years. Prolific. That's what happens when you have four songwriters, though, and that's how they came upon the name for the new record: Parallel Play, as in that developmental psych term you learned while misdiagnosing yourself with every affliction in your Psych 101 book in high school. "I'm Not A Kid Anymore" comes from bassist/singer Chris Murphy, who explains the track's title like so:

I wanted to write a song about how we're old now and we think we have this pain in the ass job but in the scheme of things it's pretty awesome. We work 9 to 5 but it's the other 9 to 5 as in 9 pm to 5 am. It's really not that bad.

Yeah that's not a complaint to utter too loudly, Chris. (We know a good fifty some bands that would love trade places with you.) This song, on the other hand ... well, turn this shit up as loudly as possible. It's a gritty power popper with just the right the bit of Revolver-era harmonies to the bridge. - Source