Marking his first full studio work since 2004’s challenging ‘Real Gone’ (from which, this site took its name), Tom Waits returns at the end of October with ‘Bad As Me’, a collection of thirteen brand new songs.

The track listing is as follows:

1 Chicago
2 Raised Right Men
3 Talking At the Same Time
4 Get Lost
5 Face to the Highway
6 Pay Me
7 Back In the Crowd
8 Bad As Me
9 Kiss Me
10 Satisfied
11 Last Leaf
12 Hell Broke Loose
13 New Year’s Eve

A double CD version adds three bonus cuts: ‘She Stole The Blush’, ‘Tell Me’ and ‘After You Die’.

Waits has also issued a video statement via his official website which celebrates the enjoyment of new music while rallying against internet piracy. It’s not as funny as his story about a horse and a stable door, but it’s still very much in his humorous style:

As the b-side of their current single, alt-country heroes Wilco recorded a version of Nick Lowe’s 70s song ‘I Love My Label’. The track was recorded during the sessions for the band’s upcoming full-length (and also featured on a bonus disc with early pressings of the release). Footage of the band performing the track live in the studio is featured below:

Wilco’s eighth studio album ‘The Whole Love’ is released on September 27th.
Nick Lowe’s fortcoming album is released on September 12th.

Lowe is also featured on a recent tribute to the work of Buddy Holly. Read a review here.

With the release of the Muppets-related ‘Green Album’ this week, OK Go have released a video of their performance of the Muppets’ theme song. The video differs from the recorded version in that it features input from the Muppets themselves.

Watch the video below:

Read a review of ‘The Green Album’ here.

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.