Kings Of Leon’s Jared Followill and Mona’s Nick Brown unveil new side project

Kings Of Leon bassist Jared Followill and Mona frontman Nick Brown have unveiled the first results of their new side project Smoke & Jackal.

‘No Tell‘ is the debut single from the pair, and is streaming through Soundcloud below.
A six-track EP entitled ‘EP1‘ will follow on October 15th after being recorded earlier this year. According to the duo, ‘No Tell’ was written on the very first night they recorded together at Brown’s studios in Nashville, with the final EP being finished within a week.
“Coming together just worked,” Jared Followill has remarked. “I think it’s because we took such an easy approach to it, we didn’t bring any egos to it. We just talked about each other’s ideas, neither one of us got our feelings hurt. It just worked.”
“It was all about tone and vibe and what felt right in that moment,” Brown adds. “Not second guessing, just having fun in that moment.”

http://soundcloud.com/smokejackal/no-tell

Yellowcard - Fix You (Bonus Track)

Bullet with Butterfly Wings - The Smashing Pumpkins live in Manila

Bullet with Butterfly Wings - The Smashing Pumpkins live in Manila

Paul McCartney's Olympics Payday: Around $1.50

Paul McCartney / Photo by Getty Images

July 31 2012
by Kory Grow

Performers at the London games' opening ceremony collected a nominal fee for their services (gladly)

Negotiating a fair price for something special is delicate work. The people who organized the performances at the opening of this year's London Olympics are masters, though, and each "na-na-na" of Paul McCartney's "Hey Jude" last Friday cost them mere pence. That's because artistic director Danny Boyle & Co. paid Sir Paul — and allegedly the ceremony's other performers, including Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, Underworld, Mike Oldfield and others — a single pound note, or about US $1.57, for their services.
The thing is, Macca and the others had originally agreed to play for free. In order to make their performance contracts legally binding, though, the organizers had to offer up a nominal fee. Scottish R&B singer Emeli Sandé, who performed the hymn "Abide With Me," commented to the London Evening Standard, "I got paid £1 for my work…I signed the contract myself. Mind you, I haven't received anything yet!" Then she added, "When I do, though, that £1 will be truly special."
Like Sandé, the other performers, including McCartney, thought the experience was worth it. "It was a trip and very exciting," the former Beatle commented in the same article. "It was a great opening ceremony." And rapper Dizzee Rascal seems as though he was overwhelmed by the experience. "The energy in the stadium was unreal," he told the Standard. "These opportunities only come by once in a lifetime and to be part of it was an unforgettable experience…I’ve loved being part of the build-up to the event, running with the torch, performing at Hyde Park and getting involved with [Rascal's song] 'Scream' being an official Olympic track — hopefully it will inspire the team to win gold."

The Killers - Runaways

July 30, 2012

US fans outraged by axing of Arctic Monkeys, Emeli Sande, Sex Pistols from Olympics Opening Ceremony

 

Photo Gallery: Arctic Monkeys
Photo: PA

US music fans were left outraged after NBC's broadcast of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony failed to include a number of key musical segments.

Arctic Monkeys' version of The Beatles's 'Come Together' was included in the broadcast, but their performance of 'I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor' was replaced by an advert break, as was Scottish singer Emeli Sande's version of 'Abide With Me', which was sung in tribute to the victims of the terrorist bombings in London on July 7, 2005.

The segment which featured Sex Pistols hit 'Pretty Vacant' was cut from the final NBC broadcast and Frank Turner's appearance in the prologue to the ceremony was also ignored. Twenty-four advert breaks were placed into the four hour long Opening Ceremony, reports Yahoo, which was screened free of commercials live on BBC One last Friday (July 27).

Stateside music fans watching the delayed broadcast took to Twitter and began using the hashtag #nbcsucks when it became clear that the channel was not showing the full event. NME blogger Lyndsey Parker wrote:

Lÿndsey Parker @lyndseyparker

Seems NBC edited like 15 minutes out of the musical portion of Olympics opening ceremony. No punk tribute, no Britpop section. #nbcsucks

28 Jul 12

She also added: "Ummm, did NBC really cut to commercial RIGHT when Arctic Monkeys started to perform "I Bet You Look Good..." at Opening Ceremony? #nbcsucks"