The Dandy Warhols: Welcome to the Monkey House
Release date: Out Now

The Dandy Warhols new album 'Welcome To The Monkey House'is their fourth, and is the much anticipated follow up to 2000's 'Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia', which has sold over 200,000 copies in the UK and contained the worldwide mega-hit 'Bohemian Like You'.

The new album, which takes it's title from Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s classic 1968 short story collection, features guest appearances from Chic guitarist/ producer Nile Rodgers, who joins the Dandys on 'I Am A Scientist', and Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon, who lends backing vocals on 'Plan A'. Ex-Lemonhead Evan Dando also contributes, co-writing 'You Were The Last High'with The Dandy Warhols' Courtney Taylor-Taylor.

'Welcome To The Monkey House'was produced by Taylor-Taylor and Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes, except for 'The Dope You Are' and 'Rock Bottom' produced by TaylorTaylor & Tony Visconti, and'You Come In Burned'produced by Taylor-Taylor.

Based in Portland, Oregon, The Dandy Warhols are Courtney Taylor-Taylor (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Peter Holstrom (lead guitar), Brent DeBoer (drums, vocal harmonies), Zia McCabe (keyboards).

The first single from'Welcome To The Monkey House'is'We Used To Be Friends'.
This is in many ways a challenging album, laden with complex melodies and song structures, but it all works exceptionally well.

Cinerama: John Peel Sessions: Season 2

Release date: Out Now

Like The Wedding Present before them, David Gedge's Cinerama have had a close association with the John Peel Show from the outset.I'm a big fan, so this release is something special for me.

This second collection of recordings made exclusively for the programme, both in live performance and in studio sessions at the BBC's famous Maida Vale Studios in London, features the earliest renditions of songs that went on to form the the core of the band's second and third albums, Disco Volante and Torino, released in 2000 and 2002 respectively.

Included are six songs that eventually became singles, among them the string-laden epic, Health & Efficiency, Number the in 2001's Festive 50 and a French vocal version of the ultra-sexy Lollobrigida. The album also features Quick, Before It Melts, Number two in 2002's Festive 50 and Your Charms, written to order for a title supplied by Peel himself!

Cinerama's transition from Gedge's solo project to full band is now complete, and the surprise ending to the group's enchanting cover of The Carpenter's Yesterday Once More even shows The Wedding Present's trademark guitar sound starting to filter back through. However, the songs were recorded with a string section, flute and trumpet and display the full orchestration that has become Cinerama's trademark.

David Gedge is currently living in Seattle, Washington and writing material for a new album. Looking forward to it....
Tracklisting...
Your Charms
Heels
Apres Ski
Superman
Because I'm Beautiful
Lollobrigida (French Version)
Sly Curl
Yesterday Once More
Careless
Get Smart
Quick, Before It Melts
Health And Efficiency

INSPIRAL CARPETS: "COOL AS"
RELEASE DATE: out now

The Inspiral Carpets have released a deluxe three CD package, "Cool As", containing two audio CDs and a DVD on the respected Mute Label.

The album coincided with a tour featuring the definitive band line-up of Tom Hingley/vocals, Clint Boon/keyboards, Craig 'Noddy' Gill/drums, Martyn Walsh/bass and Graham Lambert/guitars.

The "Cool As" package contains a CD of all the band's singles, Including their first two releases (on Playtime and Cow) and the unreleased, new track 'Come Back Tomorrow' while the second CD features the three unreleased tracks, 'Iron', 'I Don't Want To Go Blind' featuring Basil Clark and 'You've Got What It Takes'. CD2 also contains B-Sides, rarities and mixes never before released on CD as well as their take on '96 Tears'; the Northern soul classic 'Tainted Love', most famously recorded by Soft Cell and Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid'. The DVD contains all the Inspiral Carpets' promo videos, live tracks, a new exclusive interview with the band plus hidden extras - all for the first time on DVD.

The Inspiral Carpets' music and spirit epitomised the creativity of the early 90's, and together with the Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses brought psychedelic indie-guitar "Madchester" kicking and screaming into the mainstream. The Inspiral's achieved huge success in the 90s, earning.13 Top 40 singles with the likes of 'Joe, 'Dragging Me Down', 'Saturn 5', 'This Is How It Feels' and 'She Comes In The Fall' and four Top 20 albums including "Life" (1990) "The Beast Inside" (1991), "Revenge Of The Goldfish" (1992) and "Devil Hopping.
This is an excellent look back over their career.

MARTIN L.. GORE: "Counterfeit2"
Out Now

Martin L. Gore, songwriter and one of the founder members of Depeche Mode, has released 'Stardust', a version of the David Essex classic, as the first single to be lifted from this album. So, nothing like Depeche Mode then.
"Counterfeit" is the second in Martin L. Gore's counterfeit cover version series and, like his first Counterfeit release, it is a wildly diverse and passionate collection. The new album sees Gore radically rework 11 tracks, originally made famous by the likes of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, John Lennon, Brian Eno and David Essex.

Recorded over 18 months at his home studio, Gore revisits and reinvents songs which have touched him deeply over the years. The tracks range from sultry 21st Century blues to achingly lovely sci-fi lullabies; sublime alt-country crooners to engrossing electronic torch songs. A glittering haul of buried treasure, their only guiding spirit being the visceral emotional attachment felt by Martin towards them.

"I really wanted to get across a fan's perspective." Martin told MusicWeb. "There is something about the songs I like that somehow gives the album a thread. Deep emotions, I suppose. There has to be a personal connection."