Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has ruled out hopes of a full Led Zeppelin reunion tour. It had been hoped that the band would extended their one-off show at London’s O2 Arena on November 26th to allow more people to see the veteran rockers make their comeback. Plant has now definitely ruled out the prospect of more dates, however, saying: “We need to do one last great show, because we’ve done some shows and they’ve been crap." The frontman also told the Daily Express that he’s planning to take it easy after the tribute show for Ahmet Ertegun. "I know I’m getting on. When I do come back from touring I’m shocked to find a lot of my mates tend to be going to bed far too early and that means I should probably be doing the same. Maybe I should stop having a good time and get old," the singer confessed. Almost twenty million people applied for tickets to the band’s show in London. Successful applicants will be notified by October 1st.

New Order and former Joy Division members Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner have been sharing their thoughts on late member and friend Ian Curtis on the eve of new biopic ‘Control’. The film - which centres around the life and suicide of Curtis, whose epilepsy and depression led to his suicide on May 18 1980 - has been both a deeply personal and upsetting reminder for his former members. Each one has recalled the torment Ian Curtis faced when dealing with his epilepsy, at a time when the condition was little understood and often ridiculed. “People thought he was on drugs because of the way he performed,” Bernard Sumner explained to The Sun’s Something For The Weekend, “but he never took drugs. He was just losing himself in the music.” Curtis was diagnosed with epilepsy in 1979 and the medication he was subsequently prescribed only added to his depression. Speaking of his friend’s turmoil, Stephen Morris added, “Looking back, I wish I’d helped him more. I think that all the time… But we were having such a good time, and you’re very selfish when you’re young. Epilepsy wasn’t understood then. People would just say, ‘He’s a bit of a loony - he has fits.’” Despite the painful memories the new biopic brings, Hook insisted the release of the film is a positive thing. “I’m glad ‘Control’ shows how important Ian’s role was in the band,” he said. “He was the driving force who held it together when we were upset or down. He’d always inspire us to keep trying.” The film ‘Control’ will hit screens on October 5 with the soundtrack out on October 1.

Cat Power has settled on a Jan. 22 release date for “Covers II,” her second Matador album of material popularized by other artists. The track list for the project has yet to be confirmed, but it will feature Chan Marshall backed by her Dirty Delta Blues band. “Covers II” follows 2000’s “The Covers Album,” which featured her interpretations of songs by the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Moby Grape and the Velvet Underground. The new album will be the follow-up to last year’s “The Greatest,” which won the 2007 Shortlist prize for creative achievement. Cat Power will hit the road with the Dirty Delta Blues Band beginning Oct. 14 in Norfolk, Va., and has shows on tap through Nov. 4 at the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas. She can also be heard covering Dylan’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile With Memphis Blues Again” on the soundtrack to “I’m Not There,” due Oct. 30 via Columbia.

British-born McLaughlin, 65, accompanied trumpeter Davis on the seminal 1969 "Bitches Brew" and "Silent Way" albums, which shocked jazz purists and delighted others by bringing together elements of jazz and rock. He has continued to fuse different musical styles such as Indian classical music with improvisations over complex chords and time signatures. Despite the skeptics, he has won praise as one of the world's great guitarists. "It stems from certain puritanical ideas about what they think jazz truly is," McLaughlin said of critics in an interview after playing at the Monterey Jazz Festival late last week. "I could care less. What do they know? "You find this everywhere. I've played with a number of musicians who are really not jazz musicians. Paco de Lucia, for example, when we made this association in the '80s, Paco was viciously criticized by the Flamenco purists. "When Zakir and I got together, when we came out in '76 with (Indo-jazz group) Shakti, there was real consternation in the Indian camp because they thought the music was going to be sullied by my influence," he told Reuters. Over the years, McLaughlin has performed a wide variety of styles, from acoustic groups in which he sat on the floor with tabla player Zakir Hussain and other Indians to hard-charging electric groups such as the electric fusion Mahavishnu Orchestra. He is now touring the United States with his electric fusion group, the 4th Dimension. "Frankly speaking, if I care what people write, whether it is positive or negative, I believe personally I'm on the wrong path," he continued. "To pay attention to flattery or criticism is a waste of time for artists." GREATEST GUITARIST? Even if rock guitar heroes such as Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page attracted many more fans, some music lovers see McLaughlin as the fastest, most versatile guitarist of his generation. "We are contrasted, but the idea of a superior or inferior guitar player is an absolute nonstarter," said McLaughlin, a resident of Monte Carlo, Monaco. Of his stardom, he said he's "a little marginal, but jazz is a marginal music, compared to mainstream pop, rock, rap." Indian music has provided important inspiration for the guitarist and he lived in India with his family between November 2006 and July 2007. He is soon to release an instructional video on how understanding Indian rhythms can help inspire musical composition and improvisation. Although the Internet has made it easier than ever to access specialized types of music, McLaughlin said he must rely on concerts and other work to earn the bulk of his income. "If I had to live on record sales, I'd be pushing up the daisies," he said over a breakfast of eggs at a Monterey hotel. "In my world, if you want to make a record to make money, you're already off to a bad start." McLaughlin says he has twice come perilously close to bankruptcy because of what he called unscrupulous agents. "You have to become a musician with your eyes wide open, especially a jazz musician, because if you are lucky, you can make a living," he told Reuters. "I knew, throughout my life, really excellent musicians struggle just to get by." Even with his skill in improvising at breakneck speed before a live audience, McLaughlin says he has not mastered the six-stringed instrument. "As soon as you try to play a musical instrument, you learn the meaning of humility," he said. "The greatest musicians I have ever known, they're all humble." "The discovery of how little you really know, this is very sobering. But this is very good: it separates the men from the boys."

Lennon was shot and killed outside their New York City apartment by deranged fan Mark David Chapman on Dec. 8, 1980. “This is something that we spoke about 40 years ago,” Ono told The Associated Press by phone this week before heading for Iceland. “Our dream is finally coming true.” The Imagine Peace Tower is a stories-tall beam of light that will emanate from a wishing well bearing the words “imagine peace” in 24 languages. The tower will be lit each year from Oct. 9 to Dec. 8, “so it has the feeling of the shortness of life, but the light is eternal,” Ono said. Ono, 74, came up with the concept for the light tower in 1965. Lennon was interested, she said. “He was visualizing then that it would probably become a reality one day,” she said. When she turned 70, Ono decided she needed a place to keep the thousands of wishes she had collected through the “wish trees” she had set up at gallery shows around the world. “I was collecting the wishes for world peace, of course,” she said. “I thought: `I have to put them in a tower or something … a peace tower.’” With that, she set out to make her conceptual light sculpture a reality. Engineers from Iceland and Japan worked from her design to build a 55-foot platform beneath a 6 1/2-foot-tall wishing well that houses nine spotlights. The tower sits on the coast of the Island of Vioey. Ono said she chose Iceland “because it is a very eco-friendly country” that relies on geothermal energy. “It’s so beautiful,” she said. “There’s a certain strangeness to it. I would like to say it’s magical.” The wishes Ono has collected — about 495,000 so far — will be buried in “capsules” around the tower, each topped with a tree. “Eventually it will be like a forest,” she said. Wishes can be submitted by mail or through the Imagine Peace Web site. “This is the biggest birthday present I gave to John,” Ono said. “He’s very, very happy about it, I know.”

Christmas may be months away, but for the record business it actually began a few weeks ago. The opening shots of what is the most crucial time of year — for an industry that could use all the help it can get right about now I might add — were actually fired with the much ballyhooed release, and subsequent competition, between Kanye West and 50 Cent. Now, nobody actually believes 50 Cent is going to retire, even though Kanye looks to be wiping the floor with him at the moment. But you can bet the record industry was watching the numbers of those two releases — as well of those of country boy Kenny Chesney — that week, and will continue to do so right up until Santa comes down the chimney in December. So, let the games begin. You see, the record industry — and by that, I mean the people who still actually sell CDs — does most of its retail business for the year in the last quarter during Christmas time. This year is especially crucial, since pretty much everybody seems to sense that change (to say the least) is in the air, as far as the future of the CD is concerned. So that means, for the next several weeks leading into Christmas, you are going to see the labels rolling out all their big guns as far as new releases are concerned. Next week it’s Springsteen, the week after that it’s Neil Young, the next it’s — well, you get the picture. This week however, it’s all about Joni Mitchell, who releases her first album of brand new material in nearly a decade with Shine. This is also Mitchell’s first album for Starbucks Records — err, I mean Hear Music — where she joins labelmate Paul McCartney on the coffee counter’s new music imprint. I’ve actually been sitting on a review copy of Shine for about a week, but was waiting for a special moment to sit down with a nice glass of wine (or at least a cold microbrew), to properly savor it. I also for some reason thought that it wasn’t coming out until October. Which means I better order up that microbrew pronto, since today’s actual release means the review was technically due something like yesterday. So I haven’t heard Shine yet, but it has a real pretty cover and the buzz is that Mitchell was artistically invigorated when she recorded it. I’ve also been told that her voice sounds better here than it has in years. I do know that it has an updated version of her classic song “Big Yellow Taxi.” Personally, I’ve always liked Mitchell’s so-called “jazz period” best, when she was making albums like The Hissing Of Summer Lawns and Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, in the seventies with people like Jaco Pastorius and The Brecker Brothers. For that reason, I’m pretty excited about this week’s release of Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters, where the jazz keyboard great does an entire album of music either written or inspired by Mitchell. Hancock is joined on the album by musicians like Wayne Shorter, as well as vocalists Norah Jones, Leonard Cohen, and even Joni herself. A week or so ago, Pico wrote such a great review here of this week’s Miles Davis boxed set release of The Complete On the Corner Sessions, that there really isn’t a lot I can add to it. Judging by what I read there, this sounds like an absolute must for any Miles Davis, or any serious jazz fan period for that matter. But don’t take my word for it, just read Pico’s very insightful and comprehensive review instead. The advance word on Chaka Khan’s Funk This, is that this is a return to her seventies funkified greatness, that has Chakaholics around the world salivating for it’s release today. Chaka is said to sound better than she has since the days of Rufus here. The Foo Fighters are reunited with producer Gil Norton (who produced their 1997 hit The Colour And The Shape) for Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Dave Grohl and company once again mix up the rockers with more acoustic sounding folk-rock here, continuing the musical expansions they began exploring on their last album, which was a two record set. Finally, Kanye West and 50 Cent may have to make room at the top of the charts for will.i.am’s Songs About Girls, which is the hip hop artist and producer’s first solo outing for a major label. The album is led by the humorous, and quite hooky single “I Got It From My Mama.” Here are all of this week’s new album releases courtesy of All Music Guide: Devendra Banhart Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon XL Lo-Fi, Alternative Folk, Acid Folk Miles Davis The Complete On the Corner Sessions Sony Legacy Jazz-Rock, Fusion, Jazz-Funk, Free Funk, Funk Foo Fighters Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace RCA Post-Grunge, Alternative Pop/Rock Herbie Hancock River: The Joni Letters Verve Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Contemporary Jazz, Jazz-Pop, Pop, Modern Creative Iron & Wine The Shepherd’s Dog Sub Pop Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Indie Rock Joni Mitchell Shine Hear Music Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Contemporary Jazz will.i.am Songs About Girls Interscope Pop-Rap, Party Rap, Contemporary R&B, Urban, Hip-Hop Athlete Beyond the Neighbourhood Astralwerks Alternative Pop/Rock, Post-Rock/Experimental The Bird and the Bee Please Clap Your Hands Blue Note Indie Electronic, Indie Pop Michael Ian Black I Am a Wonderful Man Comedy Central Observational Humor, Standup Comedy Chris Botti Italia Sony Smooth Jazz, Standards, Instrumental Pop, Crossover Jazz, Contemporary Jazz Birdie Busch Penny Arcade Bar None Singer/Songwriter, Indie Pop The Cave Singers Invitation Songs Matador Neo-Traditional Folk, Folk-Rock The Cheetah Girls TCG Disney Teen Pop Keyshia Cole Just Like You Geffen Urban, Contemporary R&B Damon & Naomi Within These Walls 20/20/20 Dream Pop, Indie Rock Natalie Dessay Bellini: La Sonnambula Virgin Classics Romantic Opera Dethklok The Dethalbum Williams Street TV Soundtracks, Heavy Metal, Death Metal/Black Metal Pat DiNizio Pat DiNizio Famous Monsters Pop/Rock, Hard Rock, Power Pop Steve Earle Washington Square Serenade New West Alternative Country, Americana, Singer/Songwriter, Roots Rock Melissa Etheridge The Awakening Island Contemporary Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Folk-Rock Bill Evans The Interplay Sessions Milestone Modal Music, Cool Amp Fiddler Afro Strut [US Version] Play It Again Sam Us Neo-Soul, Contemporary R&B, Funk, Soul Kevin Fowler Bring It On Equity Contemporary Country, Honky Tonk Freezepop Future Future Future Perfect Rykodisc Synth Pop, Dance-Pop Georgie James Places Saddle Creek Indie Pop, Indie Rock José González In Our Nature Mute Sadcore, Indie Pop, Alternative Singer/Songwriter The Heliocentrics Out There Now Again Post-Bop, Jazz-Funk, Modern Creative, Funk Billie Holiday Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles Legacy Vocal Jazz, Traditional Pop, Swing, Standards, Torch Songs, Ballads, Classic Female Blues Charlie Hunter/Bobby Previte as Groundtruther Featuring John Medeski Altitude Thirsty Ear Free Improvisation, Avant-Garde Jazz, Experimental, Free Jazz, Post-Bop, Modern Creative The Intelligence Deutoronomy In The Red Experimental Rock, Noise-Rock, Lo-Fi Jagged Edge Baby Makin’ Project So So Def/Island Urban Music Urban, Contemporary R&B Janine Jansen Bach: Inventions & Partita Decca Baroque Orchestral Music Donell Jones The Best of Donell Jones LaFace/Zomba Contemporary R&B, Urban Chaka Khan Funk This Burgundy/Sony BMG Contemporary R&B Rahsaan Roland Kirk Pre Rahsaan Prestige Hard Bop, Post-Bop, Modern Creative Kites Hallucination Guillotine Load Electronic, Post-Rock/Experimental Bettye LaVette The Scene of the Crime Anti Northern Soul, Soul Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Brazil [Hybrid SACD] Telarc Modern and Contemporary Music for Guitar Quartet Magik Markers Boss Ecstatic Peace Experimental Rock, Noise-Rock Matt Pond PA Last Light Altitude Chamber Pop, Indie Pop, Indie Rock Nellie McKay Obligatory Villagers Hungry Mouse Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Contemporary Singer/Songwriter, Cabaret, Alternative Pop/Rock Múm Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy FTC Indie Electronic, IDM, Electronica Meshell Ndegeocello The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams Emarcy/UMGD Post-Bop, Psychedelic Pop, Contemporary R&B, Neo-Psychedelia, Urban, Funk, Soul, Fusion, Downtempo New York Polyphony I Sing the Birth Avie Music for Vocal Ensemble Office A Night at the Ritz New Line Indie Rock, Pop Underground, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock Martin Rost Organ Landscape: Estonia MDG Estonian Music for Organ William Stromberg House of Frankenstein [Complete 1944 Score] Naxos Film Music Original Soundtrack The Darjeeling Limited ABKCO Indian Folk, Film Music, Soundtracks, Indian Art Film Music, Pop/Rock, Folk-Rock, British Invasion Rahsaan Patterson Wines & Spirits Artistry Neo-Soul, Contemporary R&B Queen Latifah Trav’lin’ Light Verve Labels American Popular Song, Adult Contemporary, Contemporary R&B Rascal Flatts Still Feels Good Lyric Street Contemporary Country Red Krayola/Art & Language Sighs Trapped by Liars Drag City Experimental Rock, Indie Rock, Experimental Jimmy Reed Best of the Vee Jay Years Shout! Factory Blues Revival, Electric Harmonica Blues, Electric Chicago Blues, R&B Jill Scott The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3 Hidden Beach Neo-Soul, Contemporary R&B Brian Setzer Orchestra Wolfgang’s Big Night Out Surfdog Retro-Rock, Retro Swing, Rockabilly Revival Billy Joe Shaver Everybody’s Brother Compadre Americana, Outlaw Country, Honky Tonk, Singer/Songwriter, Country-Rock, Progressive Country Shocking Pinks Shocking Pinks Astralwerks Indie Pop, Indie Electronic, Dream Pop Rob Sonic Sabotage Gigante Definitive Jux Underground Rap, Hip-Hop Soul Asylum Welcome to the Minority: The A&M Years 1988-1991 Hip-O College Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Hard Rock

R&B sensation Chris Brown dazzled the crowd with his table-hopping VMA performance earlier this month, and while Brown will be taking his moves on the road, first fans will hear new music when his latest album, ‘Exclusive,’ drops on November 6.”The new album is crazy,” Brown tells PopEater. “I think definitely with the choice of songs and the growth that I’ve had, it’s been great for me personally just changing it up — musically, concept-wise and just me being 18 in the mix-up.”To help show that growth, Brown enlisted an all-star list of collaborators, including Will.I.Am, T-Pain, Pharrell and Timbaland, among others. “You get different vibes,” he says of working with that slew of talent. “You see different personalities — different creative minds — and you get to combine your creative mind with theirs and then come up with a great project.”

Patrick Watson has been awarded the 2007 Polaris Prize for his album ‘Close To Paradise’. Watson’s album beat Arcade Fire’s ‘Neon Bible’ and Feist’s ‘The Reminder’ in the competition, which is the Canadian equivalent of the UK’s Mercury Music Prize. The winner who is awarded $20,000 is voted for by around 200 Canadian music journalists and experts. The nominees were: Arcade Fire - Neon Bible The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse The Dears - Gang of Losers Julie Doiron - Woke Myself Up Feist - The Reminder Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye Miracle Fortress - Five Roses Joel Plaskett Emergency - Ashtray Rock Chan VanGaalen - Skelliconnection Patrick Watson - Close to Paradise

How many times have you gone into a music store and seen an album or disc of music by some long dead musician? Nine out of ten times the music gathered has either been released previously, or is stuff the person, if still alive, would never allow to see the light of day. What I find even funnier is how many of these same releases are of such dubious quality that the only way you could have bought them twenty years ago was as bootleg, or illegal recording.In those days bootlegs were usually made by a cheap cassette recorder in the audience taking the sound from the air. If you were really lucky, they were made from tapes the sound guys made through the board while they were mixing the show. That was still no guarantee of quality because they might just be running a line to the lead vocalists vocal monitor and nothing else.I go into stores now and see releases that I know were originally only on bootlegs and wonder who would be sleazy enough to sell this as high quality music, or legitimate recordings? Rare live concert footage, or previously unreleased studio version, is the usual way of selling these packages. Make it sound like something valuable instead of the garbage it is and watch the money flow in, is the credo these folk operate by.They have absolutely no respect for either the memory of the performer in question or the people who think they are buying something special. Thankfully, some companies out there do their best to offset these rip-off artists with the obvious love and respect they have for music, the people who perform it, and the people who listen to it as well.Over the past couple of years, I've had the pleasure of getting to know labels who love the music they release to the extent of taking as much pride in it as if they had written it themselves. For treasures from the past of jazz and blues the label I've come to respect most has been Delmark Records out of Chicago. Almost every month they'll bring out reissues of treasures that will make your eyes pop out.Take for example the August 21st release of a disc that was originally recorded back in 1965 on the Pearl Label out of New Orleans. Economy Hall Breakdown features a quintet headed up by trombonist "Big" Jim Robinson (1888 or 92-1976) recorded live at the world famous Preservation Hall. It seems that Jim Robinson took up permanent residence at the Hall, playing with whoever happened to walk through the doors on a particular night from the early sixties until his death.The gig recorded for this album was a genuine one of a kind performance. The players would probably never come together again in this lifetime. If you look closely at the original cover photo, that now graces the back of this release, you'll notice something about the drummer; he appears to be of Asian ancestry. Well, that's because Yoichi Kimura of Japan's New Orleans Rascals was studying for his Masters degree in the States that year and just happened to be available to sit in on drums for this one night. Also appearing for the first time on record was the owner of Preservation Hall. Allan Jaffe premiered his hot tuba sound, and he and Kimura make for a wonderful, if rather strange, rhythm section. Maybe it's because they were both so familiar with the Preservation Hall style of jazz it was second nature for them, but considering this was a jam session and they had never played together before; it is incredible how in sync and natural they sound. But of course the real pleasure is to be found in listening to the front men. Johnny Whigs (who wrote two of the tunes on the recording) plays a mean swing horn; Bob Greene plays piano ala Jelly Roll Morton; Raymond Burke plays clarinet with an abandon that I've not heard outside of Klezmar bands; and of course Big Jim on trombone. It's only been recently that I've really come to appreciate the trombone as a jazz instrument, and listening to Robinson play continued that education.With instruments like the saxophone and the clarinet – and even the trumpet to an extent, the sound is controlled by the pressing and releasing of valves combined with breath control. At times, this can make for a choppy, maybe even staccato sound. With the trombone's sound being controlled with a slide, the effect is completely different. Sure, using short, sharp movements of the slide can break it up, but you can also sneak up on a note with the sinuous grace of a snake. The trombone can be puttering away in the background when all of a sudden it swells up as if out of nowhere. Long graceful notes are draped around the rest of the players; filling in holes that you hadn't even noticed existed until you hear how full the sound becomes. "Big" Jim wasn't just called "Big" because of his physical size, but because of the nature of the sound he produced with his trombone. Not that he dominated the rest of the ensemble, but the way it would swell up out of the ground like some unstoppable force of nature.That was one of the great things about listening to this recording, the anticipation of awaiting that sound on each track. When and how would it make its appearance? How would the other players react to it, and where would it all end up? Of course, that sense of the unknown was also prevalent because this was a pick up band who had never played together before.Knowing the band as they played and recorded these tracks had only a little more knowledge than you do listening where the song is going, makes the experience even more exciting. However, all of them are such great players you never get the impression that they don't know what they are doing. Economy Hall Breakdown is a disc of high spirited New Orleans style jazz played by people who obviously love the music and are having a great time while performing.It seems a real pity there is more music like this waiting to be unearthed and companies waste their time and money on repackaging the same old stuff over and over again. Music lovers everywhere owe a real vote of thanks to companies like Delmark Records who are doing their best to bring treasures like this back to life.

Kicking around on eBay with "Mogwai" in the search bar turns up a lot of records, a few pitstained t-shirts, and some cool Gremlins swag. But a highly sophisticated piece of medical equipment emblazoned with the Mogwai name? Seems as likely as Weezy playing a D.A.R.E. rally. Still, awful soon, you’ll find just that. Who says there’s no heart in post-rock? As it turns out, Mogwai drummer Martin Bulloch just replaced his old pacemaker with a shiny new model, and the lads of Mogwai thought it’d be a lark to toss the old thing (after a proper washing, one hopes) onto eBay. Proceeds from the auction will go to the British Heart Foundation. Seems a far worthier (and healthier) cause than the other standard spot to blow eBay money: the liquor store. Thanks for the Stroh’s, Fairweather Johnson! The auction isn’t up just yet, but should be soon; the MySpace bulletin from which this news originates hints that "details will follow shortly." For now, here’s a helpful link. And in other Mogwai news, their drummer just had major invasive surgery! What more do you want!? UPDATE: This isn’t the first time Mogwai have sold a pacemaker on eBay. Crazy.