The Pretenders are putting out a country record called Break Up the Concrete, due October 7th. They are currently featured on the CMT website.

Paul Westerberg keeps putting out more music. His latest is called 3oclockreep and is available here for $3.99.

According to Paste Magazine, Fountains of Wayne member and movie soundtrack whiz Adam Schlesinger is currently working on songs for Stephen Colbert’s Christmas special, among other projects.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Look what we found on flickr…

Austin Kleon, an Austin artist and writer, drew these during the Iron and Wine taping last night. Check out his own blog entry to read his account of the taping and to learn a little about his love of the pedal steel. He also located a couple other blogger reviews here and here.  It just so happens that Austin won tickets to see the taping right here on this very blog! So keep trying, and when you win, please draw awesome pictures and send them to us.

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Last night’s taping was one that I had hoped would happen for a long time. The ACL studio provided the perfect venue for Iron and Wine’s music and the audience remained captivated from the first strains of opener “Each Coming Night” throughout the 90-minute set. It was a magical night;  everyone and everything seemed to come together perfectly and the result was beyond gorgeous. While Sam’s lovely songs and soothing voice provided the foundation, I particularly noticed how Sara’s backing vocals, the marimba, and the pedal steel lifted the songs to their full beauty.

Don’t miss this one when it airs on November 15.

Here’s another review of last night’s taping by Joe Gross from the Austin360 Austin Music Source blog.

Aimee Mann riffs on…well, you’ll see in the headline. Go here for an interview with one of our favorite songwriters.

“Yes with cowboy hats” - that’s how a rock critic buddy of mine described My Morning Jacket a few years ago, when I was asking him if he thought this band I’d read so much about lately was worth seeing at the Parish here in Austin. He meant it derisively, but with that intriguing turn of phrase, how could I resist?

When I saw MMJ that night, the band’s latest record was the atmospheric At Dawn, though some of the tunes that would populate their major label debut It Still Moves were already in the set. Outside of a tendency towards both epic song lengths and countryish feel, I don’t know that the band particularly fit my friend’s description. But I was impressed with the group’s depth and range, not to mention how hard they rocked their songs into the ground. By the end of the set I couldn’t see anything but beards and long hair flying everywhere, and I became a fan for life.

Since then, MMJ has expanded way beyond the boundaries of being the indie rock answer to Southern rock. The band’s latest record Evil Urges has upset a lot of core fans - not everyone appreciates the group’s seemingly sudden turn toward psychedelic funk. But the R&B-flavored eclecticism has been hinted at for years; anyone who didn’t see this coming after hearing “Wordless Chorus” from the prior album Z wasn’t listening. In any case, I imagine many of those disappointed devotees will have a change of heart once they hear the Urges tracks live. To me, at least, the new stuff sounds of a piece with the rest of the band’s catalog, especially at their usual in-concert volume.

For their ACL taping, MMJ played every Urges song but “Remnants,” adding “Wordless Chorus,” a trio of tunes from It Still Moves (including a pulverizing, encore-closing “One Big Holiday” that would have been impossible to follow), a couple of numbers from their debut The Tennessee Fire and even an excerpt of “Cobra,” from the Chocolate & Ice EP. Personally, I dig the Urges tracks, and the band sounded like they were having a grand old time playing them. “Evil Urges” was a great, gauntlet-throwing opener, while “Librarian” was appropriately lovely. “Highly Suspicious” got its groove on with a wink and a smile, while “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2″ rode its Omnichord-addled disco beat smoothly and gracefully. “I’m Amazed” and “Aluminum Park” both proved that MMJ hasn’t abandoned their talent for anthems.

Throughout the show, frontperson Jim James shifted from sleazy falsetto to heartfelt tenor to inchoate shout as needed, mastering them all, even when wearing a Dracula cape or a towel on his head. The unsung hero was drummer Patrick Hallahan, who’s so adept at leading the band at rapid rhythm changes he should get as much credit as James does as bandleader.

Of course, everything was bathed in a sea of reverb, so much so that our audio engineer gave it its own track on the recording.

This was a nearly 2-hour show, so not everything will make the final edit, alas. But there’s so little fat to be trimmed that whatever we end up with will be a strong, tight program that will show My Morning Jacket at the peak of their powers. This episode will feed to PBS station on November 1; check with your local stations for airdates.