We're Too Busy Singing

Beatles Beatles Beatles. It's always about the Beatles. Well, they did set the gold standard and they still continue to milk it.

Paul McCartney's pornographically-named Kisses on the Bottom comes out in two weeks. It's a covers collection featuring tunes that influenced Macca himself as well as a couple new ones. Methinks this one didn't make the cut...


Ringo is quite the prolific cat. The unimaginatively-named Ringo 2012 is out next week. Here's hoping the music is a bit more inspired than the name and artwork (seriously, Ringo, flashing the peace sign again?!)

And finally and perhaps most interestingly, George Harrison('s estate) is releasing an iPad app called The Guitar Collection, which "brings George Harrison's personal guitar collection to life."

The George Harrison Guitar Collection from George Harrison on Vimeo.

The Beatles continue to rock our world. Hallelujah.

John? Hello? Oh, hey, Julian.

All The Good That We Do

Unbelievably it's been over a decade since Julian Lennon released his pleasant, Beatley Photograph Smile. Prolific he's not. So it's good news that you can now pre-order his next release called Everything Changes (not to be confused with one of my favorites Change Everything by Del Amitri). No official artwork or previews are out quite yet,

Hey, Jude's new album comes out 10/4 via import for us dirty Americans (his native UK friends get it on 9/26).

Tracklist (according to Amazon.co.uk)

1. Everything Changes
2. Lookin' for Luv
3. Hold On
4. Touch the Sky
5. Invisible
6. Just for You
7. Always
8. Disconnected
9. Never Let You Go
10. Guess It Was Me
11. Don't Wake me Up
12. Beautiful

Check out the rough mix of the title track here. Very nice.

We Still Love You Lucy

Julian Lennon and James Scott Cook give a great acoustic rendition of "Lucy". Julian is looking and sounding great. Can't wait for his next album.

We Still Love You, Lucy

Julian Lennon and James Scott Cook have released LUCY, a new one-song collaboration being released to memorialize Lucy (in the sky with diamonds) Vodden who recently passed. It is being released exclusively through Jules' new company theRevolution with proceeds going to support Lupus research in Lucy's name.

Download LUCY

Julian's new album - Everything Changes - will be released early next year.

And She's Gone

RIP

Lucy "in the Sky with Diamonds" Vodden
46 years young

Time Has Gone Since I've Been With You

He's a simple man deserving of a simple post:

My next record is scheduled to come out early 2010.

Julian (Lennon)

Can't wait!

Try Again The Best You Can

"Julian Lennon is going to write music to go with lyrics dad John wrote in 1960s"

So reads the Internet headline connected with "bizarre" tabloid news via The Sun. If you actually read the story, the reality is a bit different:

Julian said: ... "If the time was right, if it felt right, then I would consider looking at the lyrics and maybe trying to work with them and write something."

IF, IF, CONSIDER, MAYBE, and TRYING do not equal IS! True journalism right there, friends.

Regardless, this would be frickin' awesome.

Thanks, JBro, aka DirtyPop!

I Just Want Peace of Mind

It's been nearly a decade (!!) since Julian Lennon released his excellent underrated Photograph Smile, an album on which he finally embraced his melodic Beatley chops to full effect. It appears he's finally readying the follow-up album that will hopefully be released sometime later this year. You can sample a few new tracks on hisspace. If you've followed his career at all, you'll appreciate what you hear. They sound like the next natural steps after Photograph Smile. Enjoy, and let's hope it doesn't take another ten years for new music from Jules.

So what has he been doing? Evidently he's been dabbling in documentary film-making with WhaleDreamers and winning awards for his efforts! Are you a fan of the message behind Lennon's hit Saltwater? Seems like you'll enjoy this production of his then as well as a new version of the song at hisspace.

Choose What You're Watching

The Beatles' second generation continues with a (sold-out) release from George's son Dhani.

thenewno2 = dhani harrison + oli hecks

This is definitely a cool direction to go for the son of a Beatle. Sounds better and certainly less whiny than anything Sean Lennon has tried to do to stand out. It sounds different than the shamelessly (albeit lovely) Beatley tunes Julian Lennon puts out. Since James McCartney has limited his music to performing with his pop and Zak Starkey has performed with The Who and Oasis, they haven't put out much of their own material (although Starkey was in The Semantics with Ben Folds and Owsley).

Currently, a promo EP from thenewno2 is out of stock here. You can check out clips from the EP here and here. Hopefully we'll see a proper release from this sometime soon. In the meantime, check out their one and only video.

Don't You Know You Haven't Got a Clue?

I'm not one to get too riled up about stupid lists that pop up on blogs, but I call bullshit on this one. Say what you will about Julian Lennon's 80s albums. They are far from being timeless, but they do have a place and they did produce a few good tunes. But the two albums he released in the 90s certainly compete with each other for being the best of his career.

1991's Help Yourself is a richly produced pop gem and makes for great headphone listening. The hit Saltwater, as precious and earnest as it is, will likely go down as his best song. The other tunes are quite varied in style and mood, which makes for a nicely balanced album.

1998's Photograph Smile took the focus away from lush production and placed it squarely on the simplicity of melody. Virtually every song on this one could have been a single for anybody other than Julian Lennon. It's incredibly obvious, and perhaps unfortunate, that he's a huge Beatles fan because this is the type of album a Beatles fan makes, which makes it an excellent listen. I saw his concert in support of this album and it was indeed exciting. His resemblance to his father is chilling.

Julian is never going to win over the cool crowds like his overrated brother might, and he'll never match his father's ethos by any means. But what a cruel comparison anyway. Let his music stand on its own.

With that said, it appears he'll have a new album out next year. It's only taken nine years.

MP3: Julian Lennon - Too Late For Goodbye (scroll down)

Now It Seems You Don't Care For Me

Sean Lennon is a self-righteous prick and Julian Lennon used to sport a righteous mullet.

Previously...

It's All Inside Your Head You Know It

Sean Lennon is getting all artsy on your arse. Billboard reports his first solo album in eight years, which is released September 26, will be a multimedia release complete with "short films," which in the 80s and 90s were known as music videos. You can see a trailer for Friendly Fire here.

I couldn't care less about little pretentious movies with Lindsay Lohan and Asia Argento (remember her? She was the cover girl for the most unearned and ridiculous Rolling Stone cover ever). But the music sounds pretty good -- very good actually. It sounds like it surpasses the fey qualities of his debut and reaches more of a psychedelic vibe. That could be good.

It's fascinating that he worked closely with Harper Simon (Paul's son) on the album. Makes me think about what kind of Beatles' spawn supergroup could be put together with Zak Starkey, Dhani Harrison, and James McCartney, all accomplished musicians in their own right. And don't forget Julian. Poor Julian. Everybody forgets Julian. Although I've seen Julian and he's quite good.

Previously...