Quite a bit of news today in music, so lets start with The Dead Weather. I included them in the top albums of 2009, so wouldn’t you be happy to hear that they are going to release a second album in 2010! Not only that but this April!!! That’s pretty soon. Talking to an Australian radio station, Jack White had this to say: “The Dead Weather are finishing recording the last couple of songs,” White said. “I’m going to start mixing in the next two weeks, so yeah it should be out in April.”
As for the sound of the album, White added that the record was “bluesier and heavier than we ever thought we could be” and stated that the first new single ‘Blue Blood Blues’, would see him take on vocal duties, instead of Alison Mosshart. Bluesier and heavier? I say fantastic! “Will there be enough water” was an overlooked closing track to their debut LP, I hope they have room for songs like that again on the second coming of the weather.
A month ago or so I reported on the death of garage rock hero and prolific songwriter Jay Reatard, who was only 29. Well for some time his death has 
been a mystery and there were rumours of foul play, but today it was determined that drugs and alcohol killed him. In the reports released today (February 3), Shelby County Medical Examiner Dr. Karen E. Chancellor said the 29-year-old muscian died from “cocaine toxicity, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in his death,”, reports CommercialAppeal.com.
Another rock genius taken by drugs. Well at least he almost made it to 30…
In petty little news, which I will run over quickly here: Pete Wentz says he can’t see himself playing Fall Out Boy again since their “break” and to that I say woot! Fuck Fall Out Boy, biggest joke to “rock” in a while and Pete was the worst of the bunch.
Another Pete, this one being of the Doherty variety was called into court today to talk about how his manager used his car in a hit and run. Shit. Then The Subways’ Billy Lunn uses Twitter to attack Doherty saying he hijacked a set from another bandat London’s Proud Galleries last night. Everyone has called bullshit on that story and Twitter is fucking stupid anyways.
Expect albums from Slash (boo!) and Them Crooked Vultures (ok) this summer. Vultures only just released an album as far as I can remember, I have barely even heard anything from them in the past couple of months and now they’re making a second? Go you!
IN THE MOVIES
Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau has used Twitter today to say that his new film could be a prequel to The Hulk. What?! you may say. Well, Favreau retweeted a question from a follower, who asked ‘Does ‘Iron Man 2’ take place before or after Hulk movie?’ Favreau succinctly replied, ‘Before’. Now, he may have just been pulling the leg of the imaginatively-named @ThiagoSiQueiraF, but if not, then he’s dropped a fairly big piece of news there. As you will doubtless recall, The Incredible Hulk ended with a cameo from Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, recruiting William Hurt’s General Ross in his Avengers Initiative, with a view to hunting down and stopping the fugitive Hulk.
Fast and The Furious are going to get a 5th both based on the “success” of the original cast 4th. This one will be called Quick & Angry. This s stupid people, and Vin Diesel can actually act if you give him a real role believe it or not. At Least Michelle Rodriguez’s character is dead (worst actress ever!)
Empire saw this over at DC and I saw it at Empire and now you’re seeing it here. This could be good or bad for you depending on how much of a Watchmen freak you are (and I’m not talking about the lame band). That crackling sound you can hear is Alan Moore setting fire to his beard. Comics news site Bleeding Cool is reporting that, in the wake of Zack Snyder’s block-rocking Watchmen movie, DC is thinking the unthinkable. Alan Moore’s graphic novel, untouched for twenty years, may finally get the franchise treatment. The word is that, despite DC’s very public falling out with the irascible Moore, head honcho Paul Levitz was always adamant that Watchmen, at least in print form, was not to be messed with. But with Levitz stepping down, Watchmen is now without in-house defenders. And with the movie propelling the book to the status of DC’s all-time bestseller, the barbarians are howling at the gates. Apparently an expanded Watchmen universe is now the pet project of DC’s senior vice president Dan Didio, who has visions of a series of comics prequels, sequels and spin-offs, and, of course, further movies.
Need a one-stop shop for all the weird, supernatural phenomena that constantly crop up in the world? Welcome to the Musunahi (bless you). Better known as the Museum of SuperNatural History, the web resource for strange, inexplicable and quirky info and discoveries, it’s now being considered by DreamWorks as the jumping off point for a movie.
New trailer released today
Malick is one of the best directors ever. EVER! You wait years for a new Terrence Malick film and then two come along at once. The notoriously meticulous filmmaker was, last we heard, toiling away on Tree of Life: his song of innocence and experience starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. But Deadline Hollywood’s Nikki Fink is reporting that Malick is already prepping another project, which he’s written and will direct. According to Nikki, it’s an as-yet untitled love story, with Christian Bale, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko (she is so hot) already attached to star. No more details are forthcoming, which isn’t unusual from Malick: we still don’t really know much about Tree of Life. We do know, however, that Nicolas Gonda, Sarah Green and Bill Pohlad, all of whom were involved behind the scenes with Tree of LIfe and its predecessor The New World (which also starred Bale), will be producing, and that the plan is to shop the project around the European Film Market in Berlin. Shooting, we’re told, will begin in the autumn.
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