Idolator

ZZ Top! Of course! The trio will celebrate its 40th anniversary by herding into the studio with Rick Rubin later this year, after they wrap up a co-headlining tour with Brooks & Dunn. The band is aiming a sound more "La Grange" than "Sleeping Bag" (aw, can't they do both?), and Rick Rubin does seem the painfully obvious choice for a high-profile authenticity move. The band has also signed to Rubin's American Recordings, which heightens the prospect that its forthcoming album will get his full attention, rather than being one of eight projects he watches through a large telescope from inside his ashram. In recent years Rubin has worked with the Dixie Chicks, Linkin Park, Metallica, Weezer, U2, Kanye, Green Day, the dude from Semisonic... is there any respected figure in music that Rubin has yet to work with? I was able to come up with five who would be definite collaboration coups for both sides. More »

NME news editor Paul Stokes shares three "indie rock nightmares" on the magazine's blog, but they're along the lines of "I live with Julian Casablancas" and "this guy from the Klaxons is looking at me!" The world of indie rock has infinitely more disturbing horrors, and while I've never actually had the three dreams I describe below, maybe you will once you've read them. Prepare to Touch And Go...to hell! Eee-heheheheheheheeee! More »

In case you were wondering, Ian MacKaye is still alive and well, despite spurious Internet rumors that sparked a flurry of e-mails, Wikipedia updates, and Google searches earlier this evening. The "obituary" that was floating around, which I'm not going to repost for reasons that will become obvious, not only spelled MacKaye's name wrong and misused the comma about eight times, it said that he got hit by a car outside of a Fugazi show (!) in New Jersey before being taken to a hospital in Baltimore (!?). A note to the Dischord offices asking after the "news" elicited the following response: "Thanks for your concern, Ian is fine and all is well. Just an internet rumor." Hooray! To celebrate MacKaye's continued existence, give a listen to his agit-folk duo The Evens, because both their albums are terrific, and criminally underrated:

The Evens [MySpace]
Ian MacKaye is alive. Elvis is still dead [baltmoresun.com]

This is going to take a while to set up, but trust us, it's worth the trip: Last week, Alan Canfora—one of the survivors of the 1970 Kent State University shootings—released a newly enhanced audio snippet featuring 13 seconds of National Guard gunfire. The material was originally recorded by Terry Strubbe, a KSU student who had a reel-to-reel player on his dorm window, and according to Canfora, you can hear the words "Right here. Get set. Point. Fire" being spoken on the clip. Compelling stuff, to be sure—but you'll have to read way down to find a rather intriguing indie-rock connection: More »