One of Bruce Springsteen’s most haunting albums is being revisited in a new documentary from Thom Zimmer entitled, ““The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town”. The film was recorded from 1976-1978 as Bruce worked on his follow up to Born To Run. The documentary featuring recording sessions and rehearsals will debut at the Toronto Film Festival on September 14th. “Darkness” included classic Springsteen tracks like “The Promised Land”. “Badlands”, “Racing in the Street”, and the title track “Darkness on the Edge of Town”. At that juncture in his career, Springsteen still wrote with the Romanticism he displayed on Born To Run, but the tone of his songwriting definitely got “darker” for lack of a better word. The title track is a great example of The Boss’ songwriting at its best. The song’s heartbreaking story of how a man becomes homeless is one of his best. Plenty of Springsteen fans will be patiently awaiting the DVD release of new doc later this year. 

Smashing Pumpkins lead man Billy Corgan is breaking in his most recent band formation on a tour. Corgan and his new bandmates will be playing venues across the USA at least up until the end of July with Kill Hannah and Bad City as supporting acts. Billy Corgan’s most recent project is the 44-song concept album, “Teargarden by Kaleidyscope”. The band has plans to release each song one by one on their website for free download, and then eventually release a album. There is also plans for an eventual box set. Last night Smashing Pumpkins put on a great show in Cleveland at the House of Blues. New drummer Mike Byrne, guitarist Jeff Schroeder, and bassist Nicole Fiorentina accompanied Corgan on Pumpkins favorites like “Tonight, Tonight” and “1979″. Smashing Pumpkins play the Orbit Room in Grand Rapids, MI tomorrow night.

The Roots released their 9th studio album “How I Got Over” on Tuesday to great reviews amid all the success the hip hop band has had as the house band for the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Show. The band has had the opportunity to play with numerous musicians and perform live on national television every week. “How I Got Over” recieved 4 stars from Spin Magazine in a review that called the record “cold-eyed hip-hop existentialism”. The new audience The Roots have garnered from their foray into late night televison will find “How I Got Over” a great introduction to a band who’s been pushing the limits of hip hop for 16 years. Scores of artists colloborated on the album including singer Cody Chesnutt (who sang and wrote The Roots biggest hit “Seed”) and My Morning Jacket lead man Jim James. Check out the music video for “How I Got Over” to get a sneek peak at The Roots’ new album.

Brandon Flowers, lead singer of the highly successful rock band The Killers, is currently working on his debut solo release entitled Flamingo. More details have come to light about what to expect from 28-year-old Flowers first foray into music as a solo artist. Flowers told the press that he’s working with producers Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam), Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan), and Stuart Price (The Killers, Madonna). Friend Jenny Lewis of Riley Kiley has also been working with Brandon on a few songs, and the two recorded “Hard Enough” together. Flowers has certainly lined up some talented people for this record, but it wasn’t the Las Vegas native’s dileberate intention to go solo. Following The Killers’ Day & Age world tour, the band decided to go on a “indefinite hiatus”. Flowers maintains that the band will get back together and would have preferred this album to have been with the rest of The Killers. There is no release date set for Flamingo, but fans are already pumped up to see the final product.

French Rock band Phoenix made huge waves last year with the release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The album won a Grammy for best Alternative Rock album and was rated the #3 best of the year by Spin Magazine.  catapulting themselves into the shine of mainstream music world. The melody makers have been at it for 10 years and are finally start to see some big results come their way. Lead singer Thomas Mars and the gang have a knack for writing inspired short epics that stay with you long after you hear them. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’s “Lisztomania” was featured in the trailer for the movie Where The Wild Things Are and a number of American television shows. The band will be on tour this year in both the United States and Europe.

After taking a year off from touring, My Morning Jacket is embarking on a 9 city tour featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans. The partnership between the two bands began when MMJ lead man Jim James recorded a benefit song with the group of New Orleans jazz musicians last spring. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has long been a New Orleans institution playing shows in the historic Preservation Hall on St. Peter Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The jazz band has fallen on tough times since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Big Easy in 2005. Band members have struggled to find consistent paying gigs since the hurricane, but My Morning Jacket has partnered with them on the up coming tour. It is unclear whether the PHJB will play an opening set alone, but expect the two bands to play at least a few songs together.

When you get to see Kiss, you will be treated to a big show. After all, that’s what the main idea of the band is in the first place. Back when it was founded, the concept of a band was very different; it was often kind of button-down and normal. But they introduced big costumes, makeup and other aspects of the current rock-and-roll world that they hadn’t seen before. In case you didn’t know it, the band is back on tour and they’re bringing in some of the most interesting work they’ve done yet. I don’t think they’ve written any or many new songs, but they are still giving a big flashy show. Does he still breathe fire and throw up blood? You’ll have to see them to find out, but I will tell you they still have fireworks and other pyrotechnics, exciting lighting and great music!

When Andy Murray became a tennis player, we knew that he was going to be amazing. He’d already proven it in a lot of ways, which is some of the most fun for us. We are in awe of his serving and volleying. But suddenly, it starts to look like he wants to start a new career: he produced a rap. I haven’t heard the rap yet, but there are a lot of people who have and they don’t like it. It’s become a bit of a joking matter for tennis watchers. He doesn’t have a very good voice and his instincts for the style just aren’t there. He’s never really tried it before, so maybe he could get better. So if you think about tennis and rap at the same time ever again, you will know!

Though Radiohead is still in action and they’re still working on music, Thom Yorke is working on his solo career and experimenting with new projects with other musicians. His music is still as intelligent and tough from a musical standpoint as it ever has been. His latest foray in Los Angeles with a mixture of musicians from several different bands included a lot of dance music. It wasn’t, however, necessarily the kind of music that makes you want to get up and dance. It was almost a melancholy kind of piece that makes people not want to dance as much. But the critics are saying that it has real potential to be great music. They might get this group back together sometime next year. It is great and Yorke will really show his skill if they end up doing that!

Peter, Paul, and Mary was a group that had a surprising amount of impact back in the 60s. They brought folk rock to the fore like few others could. They had a little more emphasis on the “folk” part of the name, as opposed to Clapton and so on. We loved them. Mary Travers, of that group, passed away this week at the age of 72. She had been ill for awhile, but it’s sad news anyway. They did impressive covers of a lot of the music back then too. Their compilations for children are also well-loved, even to this day. It’s a little bit odd to watch this generation of musicians as they pass away because they are actually so iconic for many of us. Travers will be missed.