Stephin Merrit, the man behind cult synth-based act The Magnetic Fields’ is to release a ten song collection of rarities this Autumn.

The disc – entitled ‘Obscurities’ – features fourteen cuts recorded by Merritt before The Magnetic Fields 1999 breakthrough with the triple-disc ’69 Love Songs’, including a track from those landmark sessions.

The compilation includes five unreleased cuts, including three from an unreleased sci-fi musical co-written with Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snickett). The disc will also include ‘You Are Not My Mother and I Want To Go Home’, a track written for the audiobook version of Neil Gaiman’s ‘Coraline’.

The tracklisting for ‘Obscurities’ is:

‘Forever And A Day’ (previously unreleased)
‘Rats In The Garbage Of The Western World’ (The Magnetic Fields)
‘I Don’t Believe You’ (The Magnetic Fields)
‘Plant White Roses’ (Buffalo Rome)
‘Rot in the Sun’ (the 6ths)
‘The Sun And The Sea And The Sky’ (previously unreleased)
‘Yet Another Girl’ (the 6ths)
‘Scream (Till You Make The Scene)’ (previously unreleased)
‘The Song from Venus’ (previously unreleased)
‘Beach-A-Boop-Boop (The Magnetic Fields)
‘When I’m Not Looking, You’re Not There’ (The Magnetic Fields)
‘Take Ecstasy With Me’ (The Magnetic Fields)
‘When You’re Young And In Love’ (previously unreleased)
‘You Are Not My Mother And I Want to Go Home’ (The Gothic Archies)

‘Obscurities’ is released on September 5th.

Manchester indie-poppers James will release their first ever box set this coming October.

‘The Gathering Sound’ will include three CDs and a DVD.

The first two CDs feature an disc’s worth of live rarities and one of studio rarities, while the third will contain 2010’s ‘The Morning After’ and ‘The Night Before’ mini-albums. The DVD makes ‘Come Home Live’, available beyond the VHS format for the very first time.

In addition, a USB stick containing 302kb MP3 and FLAC versions of all of the band’s eleven studio releases, plus all of the promo videos. A heavyweight 180g vinyl containing unreleased ‘Gold Mother’ era demos will also be included.

The entire package will be augmented by an A% booklet containing essays and a 44 page scrapbook containing unseen photographs.

The set will include 12 previously unheard songs among it’s thirty-three studio rarities, but since no complete track listing has surfaced, it is not known whether the live rarities disc will include ‘One Man Clapping’, the band’s self-financed limited edition live album from 1989.

An official trailer for ‘Living In The Material World’, Martin Scorsese’s documentary movie about Beatle George Harrison, has been released.

The documentary will be screened on the HBO channel over two nights on Oct 5th and 6th.

‘Living In The Material World’ follows the legendary director’s films about Bob Dylan (‘No Direction Home’) and The Rolling Stones (‘Shine a Light’), which were released in 2005 and 2008 respectively.

The trailer can be seen below.

Florence + The Machine will make a welcome return this November with their long-awaited new album.

The as yet to be titled record was recorded at Abbey Road’s Studio 3 and follows the band’s multi-million selling debut, ‘Lungs’, released in 2009.

The new record was produced by Paul Epworth, and as yet, no formal tracklisting has been revealed. It it set to be released on November 7th in two formats: a regular CD and deluxe edition.

To date, the band’s debut has acheived 4x Platinum sales in the UK, after being issued in three formats, all with exclusive bonus content.

Alice Cooper has released an official video for his new track, ‘I’ll Bite Your Face Off’, which can be seen below.

The song comes from Cooper’s forthcoming album, ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’.  The album is the legendary showman’s 26th studio release, his first since 2008’s ‘Along Came A Spider’.

The new album is a sequel to Alice’s 1975 masterpiece ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ and picks up where the previous story ended.  Other links with that point in Cooper’s career include extensive appearances from guitarist Steve Hunter, who worked on the original 1975 album and the often derided ‘Alice Cooper Goes To Hell’, released the following year.

Three songs on the new album also reunite members of the original Alice Cooper band: Neal Smith (drums), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and guitarist Michael Bruce, who collectively last played with Cooper in 1974.  Pop singer Ke$hia also makes a guest appearance.

Song writing collaborators include Bob Ezrin, Buckcherry’s Keith Nelson, 70s Cooper cohort Dick Wagner (who co-wrote many songs on 1975’s ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ and Desmond Child – the man responsible for Alice Cooper’s big comeback in the late 80s.

Overseeing the whole project is legendary producer Bob Ezrin, producer of the original ‘Nightmare’, and producer of Cooper’s sorely underrated ‘DaDa’ record from 1983.

‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ is released on September 13th.