NASA have revealed that they use songs by artists including The Beatles and The Doors to wake up their Mars Curiosity robot each morning.

The space buggy landed on the Red Planet last month and, in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, NASA employee Eric Blood unveiled the playlist of 'wake-up-calls' for the remote-controlled robot, which also included Anthrax and the theme tune from Star Wars.

Blood, who works in surface systems, said that the robot was "less cranky with a good wakeup song". He then listed some of the tracks used to stir the Curiosity into life, including 'Good Morning Good Morning' by The Beatles, 'Got The Time' by Anthrax, The Doors' 'Break On Through' and Frank Sinatra's 'Come Fly With Me'.

He also named a number of movie scores, including the theme for Mission Impossible, and classical music such as Wagner's composition 'The Ride Of The Valkyries'.

from nme.com

The Darkness have premiered their cover of Radiohead’s Street Spirit.

Track: The Darkness – Street Spirit

File under: the weirdest cover version since Paul Anka recorded Smells Like Teen Spirit (or the Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain did Anarchy In The UK)

The Darkness’ rendition of Street Spirit will be included on Justin Hawkins and co’s forthcoming album Hot Cakes which will be released on August 20 through PIAS.

Radiohead originally recorded the song on their second album, 1995′s The Bends, and The Darkness have been featuring it in their live set for, oh, ages.

“It’s not going to be for everybody, but the band [ie. The Darkness] isn’t for everybody,” said frontman Justin Hawkins in a recent interview with Gigwise. “We didn’t do it in a mocking way, to take the piss out of Radiohead.

“Radiohead are one of the very few bands that we all agree on. We wanted to do a cover that showed we didn’t hate Radiohead – because we were so sick of people saying that we hated Radiohead.”

Drummer Ed Graham added: “If you don’t want a song to be covered – don’t release it.”

Listen to The Darkness’ version below.

from classicrockmagazine.com

Muse have confirmed that they will play the Olympic closing ceremony.

The band, who penned the official track for the Olympics, titled 'Survival', reveal in this week's issue of NME, which is on newsstands from today, or available digitally now, that they will play the track at Sunday's closing ceremony.

"I'm happy with the song. It's a proper Muse song," drummer Dom Howard told NME. "It's not something we just did for the Olympics. They sowed a seed by asking us to do some music but then five months went by. We showed them a few songs when they asked us about [playing the] closing ceremony and they loved it. It represented the enormous competition of what the Olympics is".

'A Symphony of British Music: Music For The Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games', an album containing music performed on the final night, will be released digitally on August 12.

The line-up for the closing ceremony, which will celebrate 50 years of British music, is being kept a closely guarded secret, with only Muse, Ed Sheeran, and George Michael confirming that they will be performing. The Who, Take That, and the Spice Girls are all rumoured to be appear at the event. Yesterday, rumours also started to circulate that Kate Bush could perform, after a remix version of 'Running Up That Hill' was posted on Amazon, and subsequently removed.

from nme.com

Sometimes reunions work and sometimes they don’t. In Jane’s Addiction‘s case, their second time working with bassist Eric Avery, who was initially the first original member to leave the band, just didn’t pan out.

Singer Perry Farrell says that having taken advantage of several opportunities to reunite only to split again after the ‘Strays’ album, it took some convincing to give another run at the band a try. He tells Syracuse.com though that guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins, who had been with the band in each of its incarnations, were not really hard sells though, but bringing Avery back into the fold was a little more difficult.

He recalls, “It was a bit of a selling job, but not much. Three were very keen [to reunite]. The bass player wanted to do festivals only and cash in. I was of a different opinion. I say, you need currency or you become a retro act. In my opinion, retro acts recede. You have to be continually planting seeds and getting new crops. You can’t rest on the seeds you planted 25 years ago. They start to diminish.”

Farrell says that while there were a few bumps in the road before eventually bringing ‘Strays’ bassist Chris Chaney back to play, he’s happy about ‘The Great Escape Artist’ album and thrilled to be touring again.

He adds, “We got to do this tour the old-fashioned way. Get out for the people and travel. Be a troubadour. That’s the life of a musician. The recording industry brought so much money and fame that it changed the life of a musician for a while. Now it’s back to the times when a musician was a traveling minstrel, when the job was to make parties special occasions. Today, that’s what you’re looking at. That’s the job detail. For Jane’s Addiction, that’s been our strong suit.”

Farrell recently stated that Jane’s Addiction looks like it’s going to stick this time, with plans to address a new record later this year after their touring winds down.

from loudwire.com

Billy Corgan is prepared for the Smashing Pumpkins to continue on without him in the future, telling the Daily Beast that he's prepared if the band decides to move on with a different lineup.

He stated that he goes back and forth on whether to keep making music with the band or not.

"I have to be there. But maybe there comes a point like KISS where KISS is going to continue on without Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley]," he said. "Maybe there'll come a point in Smashing Pumpkins history where this band will continue on without me. I'll just write songs."

Corgan added that the Smashing Pumpkins moniker "means more than who's in it," saying that he understands "when people say, 'You shouldn't be touring under the name."

from alternativeaddiction.com

Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton says singer Steven Tyler's decision to quit TV gameshow American Idol came after band meetings aimed at hammering out a solution.

Hamilton says: "The thing is it turned out to be quite a demand on his time. The whole plan of how we were going to deal with Idol is something we hammered out last year. It almost got to the point of using real hammers."

The bassists says Tyler's schedule caused few problems with the recording process, but continues: "What would have slowed us down is if we released the album and only had a few weeks to tour behind it. What pleases me most is that if we want to extent the tour we can now do it."

from antimusic.com

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has released a solo EP, Helen Burns, to benefit the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit organization he co-founded in 2001 to facilitate music education among L.A.-area youth. The six-track EP, which features vocal contributions from Patti Smith, is now exclusively available to download on the Silverlake Conservatory website using a pay-as-you-like model. It will receive a widespread digital release on August 9th.

"Hi people who like the Red Hot Chili Peppers!" the bassist wrote in a statement posted on the organization's website. "I love you a lot! Mucho! Just wanted to give you a heads up about this little record 'Helen Burns' I am putting out on the Silverlake Conservatory website."

In a series of tweets, Flea revealed that the mostly instrumental EP (which he describes as a "trippy freakout") was recorded in a matter of days following the Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium tour that wrapped on August 26, 2007 in Leeds, England. Helen Burns, which finds the multi-instrumentalist playing trumpet, bass, synthesizers, drum machine and piano, bears little resemblance to the Chili Peppers' music: "Warning! It is not a Chili Peppers record," he wrote. "It does not have songs that are like the Chili Peppers at all. It is a mostly instrumental, weird and arty record, the music is mostly just me creating soundscapes that are very emotional for me, but certainly not for everyone! Just me tripping out at home."

Fans can also purchase a limited-edition 180-gram vinyl copy signed by Flea that also includes a piece of one of the bass strings he used on tour. The Chili Peppers, who are currently touring behind their latest album, I'm With You, are set to headline Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park on Saturday, August 4th.

from rollingstone.com

Trent Reznor has confirmed that he has written the theme track for "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," the latest iteration of the popular video game franchise.

In an interview with USA Today, Reznor said the track reflects the dark tenor of the game:

"There is a lot of reservation and angst and sense of loss and regret and anger bubbling under the surface. So it didn't make sense to have a gung ho patriotic feeling kind of theme song. It has to feel weighty."

Reznor, a longtime gamer, added that he is happy to be partnered with one of the industry's most "cutting-edge" productions:

"I have always looked to that franchise as the cutting edge of what seemingly unlimited budgets and full-on not cutting any corners can do in the current day and age."

"Call of Duty: Black Ops II" is due in November.

from alternativeaddiction.com

Muse have revealed the tracklisting for their new album 'The 2nd Law'.

The album, which will be released on September 17, contains a total of 13 tracks and includes the band's recent single 'Survival'.

'The 2nd Law' is the follow-up to 2009's 'The Resistance' and has been recorded in London. You can watch the video for 'Survival' at the bottom of the page.

Speaking previously about the record, the band have promised that it will be "very diverse", with frontman Matt Bellamy saying: "We've tried a bunch of new things, which the trailer gives a glimpse of. There's only one song that's like that. We've basically tried to do what Rage Against The Machine did with hip-hop in the 1990s and take a bit of the electronic world and dubstep and play it with real instruments. There's only one track like that, the rest of it is very, very diverse."

The Devon trio will tour the UK in October, playing five shows. The gigs begin at Glasgow's SECC on October 24, before the band move onto London's O2 Arena for two shows on October 26 and 27. They then play Birmingham LG Arena on October 30 before finishing up at Manchester Arena on November 1.

The tracklisting for 'The 2nd Law' is as follows:

'Supremacy'
'Madness'
'Panic Station'
'Prelude'
'Survival'
'Follow Me'
'Animals'
'Explorers'
'Big Freeze'
'Save Me'
'Liquid State'
'The 2nd Law: Unsustainable'
'The 2nd Law: Isolated System'

from nme.com

My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way and world renowned DJ Deadmau5 have teamed up for a new track called "Professional Griefers."

The song leaked online earlier this year after it was ripped from a Deadmau5 live stream. It will officially be released later this year, alongside a series of remixes, the details of which will be confirmed later this month.

Both artists are also hard at work on new music of their own. Deadmau5 is currently working on the follow-up to his 2010 album 4x4=12, which is due later this year.

My Chemical Romance's new album, currently in production, will serve as the follow-up to their fourth album Danger Day: the True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.

from alternativeaddiction.com