Second Them Crooked Vultures album promised in interviews

So, is it unanimous? Them Crooked Vultures should make a second album? I'll round up what the band says in just a moment ...

This thing I got on iTunes this Tuesday morning is hot. I am so proud to be able to tell my grandkids someday that I was at a show on the first Them Crooked Vultures tour.

(And when they say, "Who?.......")

Well, how about that second album? Who's ready?

John?
Hell yeah, John Paul Jones wants a second album. This is only the best band he's ever been in, or so he says. Wait, did he just compare his current project to Led Zeppelin -- and TCV wins? He can't be serious!! In case you missed it, check out what he said. Here's the highlight, though:

"I hope there's maybe going to be another album. I don't have a band that's going to call me back – the other two do. But they're going to have to fight me for them because we're having a bit too much fun at the moment."

That's what John told Australia's Nova 91.9 FM as published Nov. 10 and summed up here. He'll have to contend with Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters before there'll be another Them Crooked Vultures. The one group has "fighters" in its name. Oh well, Jonesy seems up for the challenge anyway.

OK, what about those other guys in the Vultures? What do they have to say about it?

Josh? Yeah, he's in. Here's the scoop:

"I can't wait to make another record [with Them Crooked Vultures] because in the end, it was so much easier than it should have been and honestly, it's the hardest record I have ever made. You have to climb Everest eventually."

That's what Josh told the Herald Sun, also Australian. This dude's obviously in.

So, if my tally is correct, we have two out of three, which is a majority but not binding unless it's unanimous. So, what's our lone holdout, Dave Grohl, have to say -- now that he knows what his bandmates would like?

(Wow, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones are bandmates! I love reciting that! Let's just say he's not the only one to have dreamed about it.)

Dave?

The answer comes, this time, not from Australia but from Canada: Alan Cross of "the world's largest global newspaper," metronews.ca, poses his open question to the band whilst seated with them at Homme's Pink Duck Studios in Los Angeles.

How far can they take this? Dave props himself up against some pillows on the sectional. A big grin spreads across his face. "As far as it will go."

For those of you keeping score, it's a tie game. They've all now admitted, at least once each, that they're in for round two.

So, the question is no longer: Will there be a second album? There will.

The question becomes instead: Will it be right away, or will they be doing separate projects first?

Uncut prompts fans to submit interview questions for John Paul Jones

Uncut magazine has announced the John Paul Jones will participate in the "Audience With" feature, which allows fans to submit questions to be answered by their favorite musicians.

Get your questions ready and send them to Uncut by Nov. 17. Don't forget to include your name and location with your questions!

The best questions, and John Paul Jones's answers, will be published in a future issue of Uncut.

John Paul Jones proclaims Them Crooked Vultures now 'the best band in the world'; he hopes for second album, says Led Zeppelin won't be calling him back

John Paul Jones, in an interview published today by Australia's Nova 91.9 FM, says that for the second time in his life as a musician, he finds himself in "the best band in the world." Them Crooked Vultures has now taken Led Zeppelin's position as the world's best band, Jones says.

The full context of his statement comes in an in-depth interview that touches on the vows of silence under which the band labored all year to create the album now streaming online and soon to be released commercially, the reasoning behind the secrecy, his satisfaction with both of his bands, and the fact that he no longer expects to work with Led Zeppelin.

Unlike at least one other recent interview with Jones, there was no mention during this one of the group with Jimmy Page and Jason Bonham that did not come to fruition last year after being heralded by the press as a second coming of Led Zeppelin with a singer other than Robert Plant on vocals. Today's interview focuses solely on the events since this February, when Jones began working with current bandmates Josh Homme and Dave Grohl, and comparing the impetus behind their music with that of Led Zeppelin's from 1969 to 1979, when that band was releasing albums and, according to Jones, was the world's greatest.

"I always try to be in the best band in the world, I promise myself," says Jones. "I'm obviously very proud of the Zeppelin legacy, and I'm hoping I'm keeping the spirit alive with this band."

In some real ways that deal with the music, he does seem to be. "There are so many parallels with the old Zeppelin days," says Jones. "We're making music that we want to make. You're not thinking, 'What's going to sell? What is everybody else going to like?' We're making music for ourselves, and Zeppelin was exactly the same. We never thought, 'What's the new record going to be like?' We just got the songs together. It's all an organic process. None of it's manufactured."

It seems to be the exception and not the norm in the current climate of today's music scene. Jones agrees: "To my ears there's not much around that actually excites me, and this music that we're making excites me. So I assumed it might excite other people too. That's the only way you can think of it."

Furthermore, this is the first time Jones has felt this way about a band of his since Led Zeppelin's breakup in 1980, so why would he want the feeling to stop with the release of this album? Why would he want to make this disc his sole statement with Them Crooked Vultures?

He says he'll be ready to head back into the studio with Homme and Grohl, and he'd rather fight off the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age than not work with those two again right away. Jones testifies, "I hope there's maybe going to be another album. I don't have a band that's going to call me back – the other two do. But they're going to have to fight me for them because we're having a bit too much fun at the moment."

And there it was: Jones slips in that he won't be anticipating any future work with Led Zeppelin. The window of opportunity for that to happen has firmly shut, Jones affirms. There really is, as LedZeppelinNews.com anticipated not long ago, no reason to believe. Who's going to be at Glastonbury with Robert Plant? Not John Paul Jones and, therefore, not Led Zeppelin.

Jordana Borensztajn's interview with Jones carries so much more, though, than one member's de facto denial of a Led Zeppelin reunion. As for the reasons Them Crooked Vultures kept its existence the secret it was for months and months, Jones says, "We kept it quiet so there wasn't all the speculation and the pressure. There was enough pressure between ourselves to do a really good record, and we did try to impress each other. ... We just wanted to get on and concentrate on the music."

The best part of touring this new material prior to its release, says Jones, was that nobody in the audience was familiar with it and, therefore, was uniquely capable of giving honest reactions to hearing the music in a live setting for the first time. "To have an audience just stand there and listen, and take it all in – it's just amazing," says Jones. "They're reacting really, really well and it's new for them because normally they would have heard the record first and know the lyrics. It's a new experience which they look like they're enjoying and they sound like they're enjoying, certainly." Talk about taking a risk! And yes, Led Zeppelin was always known for taking those.

Jones on the band's sound:

"When people ask what it sounds like, it sounds like me playing bass and Dave playing drums and Josh singing and playing guitar. It's very obvious. It's just us -- it's straight ahead, it's very honest and it really rocks. It's multi-layered and sounds fantastic. We love it. We play it and we're like, 'Wow, this is really good.' ...

"Josh is great. You know those old competitions in magazines where they show you a familiar object from an unfamiliar angle and you have to guess what it is? That's how Josh seems to look at life. He just looks at it from a really unfamiliar angle and it's just so refreshing. ...

"And Dave is just a killer drummer – a bass player's dream. And he's a great musician. He listens, he's very enthusiastic, very excitable, he drinks a lot of coffee and there's a lot of laughter and a lot of joking all the time. It's a very nice position to be in, I have to say. ...

"We all listen to each other. With the experience [we have], nobody has to explain anything to anybody else. If something's not working, everybody knows it's not working. And also, when you're with experienced musicians, you can fail. You can try something out knowing that it might now work."

There's one other comparison Jones makes to Led Zeppelin, and that has to do with the fan reaction. The fact that the music is not "manufactured" but is made just to please the musicians themselves greatly affects whether or not fans too will like it. As Jones says, "This music that we're making excites me, so I assumed it might excite other people too."

He and his bandmates suspected their individual names had some drawing power but weren't sure exactly what effect that alone would have on public interest, on creating enough demand to fill clubs and excite festival audiences when the audiences knew not what to expect.

"We knew we would create some sort of splash and it would be noticed but you never really know the circumstances," Jones says. "It's the same as Zeppelin. People would say, 'Did you realize when you were writing "Stairway to Heaven" what a huge song it was going to be?' Well, not really."

He describes Them Crooked Vultures concerts like this:

"Our shows are extremely loud, and slightly terrifying. We love doing them. Nobody shouts out Zeppelin numbers or Queens numbers or Foo numbers at our shows -- nobody does it. And that's refreshing. They're here for us. In fact, none of us have played any covers in rehearsals or jamming and we're very, very happy with that."

This writer must fess up to shouting for Jones's post-Zeppelin instrumental "Spaghetti Junction" as a request between songs at the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C. To my ears, Grohl may have teased "Moby Dick" between songs that night, but Jones didn't sate my palate for "Spaghetti Junction." Instead, he sated it with the band's new album plus other new material perhaps destined for that second Them Crooked Vultures album Jones has now publicly expressed interest in recording.

After all, he says there's no band from his past that will be calling him back. And you can take that to the bank.

John Paul Jones: Project with Jimmy Page, Jason Bonham 'fell by the wayside' last year

Two days after Robert Plant's remarks carried by the BBC fueled rumors that Led Zeppelin would reunite at the Glastonbury Festival in eight months, the BBC carries an interview with John Paul Jones on the Led Zeppelin splinter group that nearly formed last year.

That splinter group, which would have consisted of Jones plus Jimmy Page and Jason Bonham and the singer of their choice, never advanced beyond the planning stages.

Jones first announced the group one year ago this week, during the Mansons Guitar Show in Exeter on Oct. 26, 2008 and quickly followed up by a radio interview with BBC Radio Devon. At that time, Jones described an incomplete band with Page and Bonham making "loud music" with him.

Anonymous tips to the press said their trio had been rehearsing and auditioning singers -- namely Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge, the only person who has admitted his participation. Other singers were weighing in with their comments; David Coverdale of Whitesnake volunteered himself and Joe Elliott of Def Leppard.

A year ago, Jones confirmed that singers had been brought in, although he didn't volunteer any names.

Now that a year has passed, Jones is back in England, promoting the November release of the debut album from Them Crooked Vultures, the band he has been rehearsing with since early this year. In an interview with the BBC, he discussed this project and mentioned that it came about shortly after the group with Page and Bonham "fell by the wayside," in his words.

Jones told BBC 6 Music, "Jimmy and I rehearsed a bit with Jason Bonham, and we couldn't really agree on singers and that fell by the wayside. Then this came along and, to be honest, I'm really happy."

From another interview Jones gave this month, we now know how the band came about. Jones told KUT 90.5 in Austin, Texas:

"He came up to [the] GQ Awards in London last year to present us with, um, Men of the Year, I believe it was, with Zeppelin. And we got to talking, and he says, 'Well, you know, if you're ever not doing anything, I want to get a little band together with Josh singing, and give you a call.' You know, so, I found out I was doing nothing after a while."

Singer auditions weren't necessary when Jones called up Dave Grohl to take up his offer to form a band. Grohl had already begun rehearsing on drums for a project with Josh Homme, singer and guitarist for Queens of the Stone Age. Homme's band was on a hiatus at the time, as was Grohl's Foo Fighters. So, the timing was right for those two.

As for Grohl and Jones, they had worked together a few times in the past like at a Foo Fighters show, at the Grammys and on a Foo Fighters album. But Grohl thought having a regular project with Jones was just a pipe dream. Back in 2005, he blurted to Mojo magazine that he dreamed of forming a band with himself on drums, Homme on guitar and Jones on bass.

But Jones fell into place, much to Grohl's surprise. In a separate interview this month with KUT 90.5, Grohl said:

"I bumped into him in London, and I said, 'Hey, I got this project I think might be kind of fun. Me and my buddy Josh are gonna do something outside of our bands.' And he kind of went, 'Oh, yeah, right.' And then I didn't hear from him for a while, and then a month later, he called and said, 'Hey, when do you think you're gonna do it?' So I called Josh, [and I'm] like, 'F***, man, I think he actually wants to do it! This is amazing!'"

To Jones, Grohl was exactly the kind of drummer he wanted. He now tells the BBC:

"I immediately recognized that this was a drummer that was -- A -- really good, and -- B -- groovy and -- C -- listened, all those nice things that bass players like in drummers."

No shortage of original riffs at Them Crooked Vultures show; John Paul Jones puts on display with array of instruments

The all-too-brief North American tour by Them Crooked Vultures comes to a close tonight with a performance at New York's Roseland Ballroom. If it goes anything like last night's concert at the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C., the Big Apple is in for an ear-splitting treat consisting of well over an hour of riffs.

Dave Grohl's career since Nirvana may have flourished the most with him singing for the Foo Fighters, but make no mistake: He belongs pounding on the drums, where his power is rivaled by his imaginative drum beats and long (trance-inspired?) fills.

Throughout the show, Grohl watched carefully as his bandmates out front unleashed each riff. Beneath a mop of hair that has been soaking since the first song, Grohl's face displayed a sly look as he eyed the man to his right, who heretofore was most famous in the band that placed him with John Bonham. A spontaneous and stilted "Moby Dick" reference between songs last night brought to mind the drummer who has been missed since 1980. For John Paul Jones, all bets are that this lineup is his favorite since those days of expanding upon Willie Dixon-derived tunes.

No Willie Dixon royalties were earned or withheld last night. The band bashes through only completely original riffs in its uncompromising set that's devoid of cover songs. The creative forces that wrote these songs in a short time this year execute them flawlessly in their live setting. The complicated rhythmic changes are memorized and performed without even the slightest exchange of a visual cue. It's all done with ears, not mirrors.

Jones inadvertently steals the show with his mastery of an array of different instruments. As each new one is strapped around his neck and displayed on the stage, the audience responds with an approval. But it's surprising to see Jones confined to a four-string bass when he's just tinkered with the freedom 10 or 12 strings a song or two earlier. He makes your average professional bass player look like an amateur.

A title and release date for the band's album have not been officially announced, although one online U.K. retailer shows Nov. 23 as the date in question. Singer and guitarist Josh Homme said their disc would be self-titled, but that could change if a new catchphrase in line with the past "Follow What's Heard" and "Deserve the Future" is favored.

In the meantime, NPR says it hopes to air, given the band's permission, a multi-track recording made at last night's show. It appeared to be an error-free show that was captured on tape, with the third public performance of the recent composition "Highway One," so it would make sense to offer the show up to the airwaves.

New song by Them Crooked Vultures debuts during tour; song titles in flux as band travels through United States

The new song, debuted during the Boston show on Oct. 11, is called "Highway One" although in rehearsals it has gone by the working title "Mandril."

At the beginning of the tour, John Paul Jones told an Austin radio station that the songs are "all still growing" as they play them each time.

Also during the Boston show, singer Josh Homme introduced a song previously called "Mind Eraser-No Chaser" under a new name, "Not in a Race and No Chase."

A source close to the band indicates that Them Crooked Vultures song titles often change.

Jones has admitted in interviews over the years that he is bad with associating song titles with songs. It must not help when the titles are in constant flux!

I wonder what cues he gets onstage. I'll try to find out on Wednesday night when I watch them play at the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C.

Them Crooked Vultures to release CD by end of year, Josh Homme says in forthcoming interview

Kudos to the folks over at Antiquiet for being the first to get some important details out of any member of Them Crooked Vultures regarding their upcoming album.

Singer and guitarist Josh Homme said he's not quite sure when to expect a CD release by his new supergroup with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones. As a matter of fact, none of the band members knows! Says Homme:

"We’ve been doing a lot of stuff real kind of secretive, and we actually made a pact to not know when it’s coming out, the band guys. I’m betting… Well it’s going to be before the end of the year… We kind of have a little running bet on what the date is. And I intend to win that bet, because I’m going to cheat."

Josh, I invite you to cheat by visiting TheCrookedVultures.info for that information as soon as I learn it, hopefully, before you do.

Also of note is Antiquiet got Homme to break the band's silence on whether or not it is signed to a record label. Here's the discourse:

Antiquiet: Any idea as far as an agreement on a label, or how that’s all going to work out distribution wise?

Josh Homme: Yeah… It’s going to come out on Interscope in the states, and Sony/BMG internationally.

Antiquiet: How do you feel about that? You’ve been pretty outspoken in the past about not feeling so hot about Interscope anymore…

Josh Homme: Well, you know… If it was up to me, I’d just get a real big hot air balloon, and put ‘em all in the basket of that, and just (miming) pull the cord and let it drop over places, you know?

But, you know, it’s not up to me always.

Again, kudos to Antiquiet. You can read the full interview with Homme there.

Dave Grohl, as drummer, loves his new band with John Paul Jones and Josh Homme

Dave Grohl's back on drums! That's what a lot of the buzz is that's currently surrounding Them Crooked Vultures as the band sets off to cruise across North America.

In the Foo Fighters, Grohl's talents behind a drum kit were hidden away in a bushel basket so that he could be the frontman, screaming indelicately into a microphone with a guitar strapped to his back. But the former Nirvana drummer has consistently returned to the drums whenever he's linked up with Queens of the Stone Age founder Josh Homme, himself an ample guitar player, singer, songwriter and frontman.

So it's long been Grohl's dream -- and probably fans of his -- to be able to return to the drums in a tight-knit group. Grohl envisioned himself forming a band with Homme years ago -- and who better to play bass than John Paul Jones? But who among us wouldn't desire to recruit Jones to join a rhythm section in much the same way we draft reliable running backs for fantasy football? Grohl probably never seriously thought he could form a band with both Homme and Jones.

Until he got that unexpected phone call.



As Grohl explains in his backstage interview with radio station KUT 90.5 Austin:

"I'd worked with John on a Foo Fighters record and asked him. I guess it was about a year ago. I bumped into him in London, and I said, 'Hey, I got this project I think might be kind of fun. Me and my buddy Josh are gonna do something outside of our bands.' And he kind of went, 'Oh, yeah, right.' And then I didn't hear from him for a while, and then a month later, he called and said, 'Hey, when do you think you're gonna do it?' So I called Josh, [and I'm] like, 'F***, man, I think he actually wants to do it! This is amazing!'"

Grohl says that when he, Jones and Homme all started jamming together for the first time, it took him only as much as two or three minutes to realize it was the best band he'd ever been involved with.

"John, I mean, you know, John is ... he's ... he's an incredibly gifted musician. Anything that he picks up, he plays with feel, he plays with passion. He's ... he's a ... you know, he's a classically trained f***ing genius. But he rips on anything! He'll pick up a mandolin and just blow your head off! You know? And ... and everybody knows what he can do with a bass guitar, and watching the two of them go at each other, you know. I get to sit there and watch those two every night, and it's awesome."

It was presumably Grohl's first interview about Them Crooked Vultures since the band's formation early this year, and so he gushed over the fact that he was finally able to talk freely about the band.

"Nobody knew; we kept it a secret for eight months. Nobody knew. And that was the best part. I'm actually relieved now that I can talk about it because I used to -- you know, I had to keep it a secret. It's like I had a secret lover for eight months and I was trying to hide her away from everybody. You know? I couldn't tell anybody!"

The only remaining secret with the band that neither Grohl nor Jones was at liberty to address in their interviews with KUT 90.5 Austin was when Them Crooked Vultures will be releasing any of their studio recordings. When Grohl was asked if he could reveal anything about their record, he clammed up, reverting to the tight-lipped nature of the band since its public debut in August. Grohl simply told the reporter:

"No. You'll see."

While some media outlets are still reporting the band's debut album will be titled "Deserve the Future" and released late this month, it's really not even certain there will be an album release in the traditional sense. As I said one month ago yesterday:

For all we know, Them Crooked Vultures may forego an in-store physical album release altogether. Too passé!

Why not drop the entire album free of charge over the course of a month, hiding uncompressed digital files on different Web sites. We'd have to follow the social networking accounts of a couple dozen different henchmen affiliated with the marketing scheme and click incessantly on suspect links to various indistinguishable vultur.es URLs. Most would reveal comical images of crooked vultures, while only a handful would be those proverbial needles in the haystack, unleashing track by track the powerful music created for fans of loud rock.

Truly, then, only the most patient and ardent fans would deserve the future.

John Paul Jones to sit in with Sara Watkins in afternoon set at Austin City Limits

Over a three-day stint in Austin, Texas, John Paul Jones is playing the Austin City Limits festival and the TV show of the same name as well as a great local venue for live music, all with Them Crooked Vultures, plus making a special guest appearance at the festival sitting in with Sara Watkins.

Watkins, who first became known as the sultry female vocalist and multi-instrumentalist in Nickel Creek, became solo star earlier this year with a debut album produced by Jones. They first played together on the road in 2004 as members of Mutual Admiration Society. Watkins now spends many of her days on the road, splitting her gigs between solo events and gigs with her latest group project, the Works Progress Administration.

Update: Footage from her performance with Jones added

During her solo set at 1 p.m. today, Jones will join her onstage again, just as he last did joining her on the set of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" in April. Around that time, Jones was hinting of a new project of his, something secretive that eventually became revealed to be Them Crooked Vultures.

On Wednesday night, a small crowd entered an Austin TV studio to witness Them Crooked Vultures' first performance in America since its debut show in August. Amid the studio audience, champion cyclist Lance Armstrong snapped cell phone pictures despite a prohibition on cameras inside. The next day, Armstrong wrote on Twitter, "Them Crooked Vultures put the hurt on me last night. Ouch.." The episode of "Austin City Limits" is to air on PBS early in the new year.

Them Crooked Vultures played at Stubb's BBQ last night and is scheduled to play an hour-long set beginning at 7:30 tonight.

John Paul Jones gives first interview since debut of Them Crooked Vultures; bassist compares band's onstage improvisation to that of Led Zeppelin

John Paul Jones has given his first interview since the debut of Them Crooked Vultures. In his interview for KUT 90.5 in Austin, Texas, he commented on a number of topics all related to the new band.

There were no questions about the status of a Led Zeppelin reunion.



How Them Crooked Vultures got together:

"It's all Dave's fault. It's all Dave's fault. He came up to [the] GQ Awards in London last year to present us with, um, Men of the Year, I believe it was, with Zeppelin. And we got to talking, and he says, 'Well, you know, if you're ever not doing anything, I want to get a little band together with Josh singing, and give you a call.' You know, so, I found out I was doing nothing after a while. ... I just came over in February, met with Josh for the first time, went pretty much into the studio, and just started having fun basically."

On the fact that the band got together despite none of the three members needing to have another band at this time:

"It's got to be fun. It really has."

On the blues-based groove present in the band's songs:

"Yeah, yeah. There kind of has to be. Josh is pretty bluesy too, and I suppose my history is blues-based. Blues-based rock. And it all comes from the blues for me. I just like the sound of it, I like playing it, and we're doing basically what we want, you know."

On releasing their studio recordings:

"Yes, it is hard to come by, but ... There will be music ... real soon now, as they say in the computer world."

On the method of release:

"I can't really comment on that, but it'll be everywhere soon, don't worry."

On the band's ambitions and longevity:

"We're still a young band hoping to go places. It is, yeah. They're all still growing. We all play 'em fine, of course, but this is again one of those bands where different things happen onstage and you take the songs from different places and discover new stuff about bits. It keeps the interest, and it's good fun to do. ... Yeah, I think it's going to go for a while. Honestly, you know, their respective bands will call them back eventually, but I think we're going to get a good run of it before anything like that happens."

In a separate interview for 90.5 KUT, Dave Grohl discusses the status of the Foo Fighters and explains what it is like playing in a band with John Paul Jones.

Want your chance to watch Them Crooked Vultures tape 'Austin City Limits'?

Before the North American tour by Them Crooked Vultures starts in October, the band is to take the stage next Wednesday, Sept. 30, for a taping of the TV program "Austin City Limits." Click here for your chance to attend the taping in person and enjoy the new tunes from John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme.

In other news, a new Foo Fighters track called "Wheels" is now getting some radio airplay. It is going to appear on the band's Greatest Hits, scheduled for a Nov. 3 release.

Also, Grohl was spotted earlier this week playing drums for a new song by Slash, who's been busy making a solo album. The former Guns N' Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist was also joined on the track by Duff McKagan, who was bassist in both of those bands. Slash wrote on Twitter after their Tuesday night recording session:

"Great jamming w/Duff & Grohl tonight, the track is a killer intrumental [sic], very heavy."

Slash's solo album is also said to include some work by drummer Jason Bonham, who accompanied him on a festival date this June and now is scheduled to appear with him again next Friday, Oct. 2.

Reminder: John Paul Jones on Rod Stewart box set released today

Rod Stewart's 4-CD box set of previously unreleased material was released today.

It includes a previously unreleased studio track with guest musicians John Paul Jones on organ and David Gilmour on guitar.

The track is a remake of the song "In a Broken Dream" recorded in the summer of 1992. For more information on the circumstances of that studio recording, click here.

Warner and Rhino released the 4-CD box set The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998 today in the United States.

Click here to listen to this very Pink Floyd-sounding track now from Spinner!

Them Crooked Vultures add German shows in December, N.Y. show in October

John Paul Jones's new supergroup with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme announced four additional concert dates today: one in New York and three in Germany.

With the additional date, the first North American tour of Them Crooked Vultures is now scheduled to close Oct. 15 at Roseland Ballroom in New York. The tickets will be available to the public beginning Sept. 26 by clicking here. An edition of the band's official newsletter distributed today included presale information for the New York show.

Shows in Munich, Berlin and Cologne are to take place in early December, in the days leading up to the U.K. tour launch scheduled for Dec. 10. Information to purchase tickets to the three German shows can be found here.

On sale now are tickets to the band's six shows in Australia and New Zealand:

• Jan. 19: Challenge Stadium, Perth, Australia
• Jan. 22: Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia
• Jan. 25: Riverstage, Brisbane, Australia
• Jan. 26: Hodern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia
• Jan. 29: TSB Bank Arena, Wellington, New Zealand
• Jan. 30: Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand

Them Crooked Vultures to headline in Australia this January

Check it out: Them Crooked Vultures will be touring Australia and New Zealand early next year.

Dates are set up for Perth on Jan. 19, Melbourne on Jan. 22, Brisbane on Jan. 25, Sydney on Jan. 26, Wellington on Jan. 29 and Auckland on Jan. 30.

This, of course, follows previously announced dates in the United Kingdom and North America and extends existing tour dates beyond December and into 2010.

Zep members benefit charity front

News today from Led Zeppelin headquarters as all three surviving members have donated an assortment of band memorabilia to a charity auction benefiting Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.

Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant have joined other people close to the band in donating an array of books, photographs, and even two autographed Electric Magic fanzines, to be auctioned off for the hospital's benefit.

Of the items related to Led Zeppelin, the highest valued one is a concert program from the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert, held in December 2007 at the O2 arena. (The event, of course, became more famous for its headlining act, the reunited Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham on drums in place of his father.) Now bearing autographs by Page, Plant and Jones, this hardcover concert program, shown at right, carries an estimated value determined to be approximately $500.

The auction also includes:

• live still photographs of the band in concert in 1973, 1975 and 1977;
• an 8 mm film reel of footage shot from the front row of a Led Zeppelin concert in 1972;
• a photo of John Paul Jones playing the bass at the Knebworth festival in 1979, autographed by the man himself; and
• a rare promotional 12-page promotional book published by Atlantic Records in 1997, which highlighted the upcoming release of the Led Zeppelin album BBC Sessions.

In addition:

• Jason Bonham has autographed an issue of the fanzine Electric Magic from 1991 with his image on the cover; that's being auctioned.
• Page has done the same to another 1991 edition of Electric Magic bearing his image on the cover.
• Sam Rapallo, the author of those Electric Magic fanzines, has also signed a copy of his book, "Led Zeppelin: The Montreux Concerts," along with coauthor Gilles Chateau; that's being auctioned.
• There's also a rare photo collection by Mick Bonham, brother of the late Led Zeppelin drummer, titled "Bonham by Bonham," which was released posthumously in a limited and numbered set.
• Finally, there is a Robert Plant/Alison Krauss Raising Sand CD that is autographed on the cover by Plant.
  

Bidding for the Led Zeppelin-related items closes on Oct. 8 at 10 p.m. Eastern.

The announcement of these auction items comes 48 hours before Plant, who recently turned 61, is to take the stage at the O2 arena for the first time since the Led Zeppelin reunion. He's billed to appear at the star-studded Rockwell fundraiser.

The Rockwell lineup -- which also includes Tom Jones, Lulu, David Gray, Razorlight and Joss Stone, among others -- promises "unique collaborations." However, from an announcement of the full line-up, it does not appear Plant will be pairing up with any other acts on the bill. That doesn't mean he won't surprise us!

Proceeds from this concert on Friday are to benefit Nordoff-Robbins, a U.K. charity that uses music therapy techniques as a means to improve the quality of life for people living with various illnesses and conditions.

Them Crooked Vultures solidify tour plans in third newsletter edition

Tour plans announced earlier today are correct, with concert tickets for the North American shows in October going on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. In addition, an official newsletter sent minutes ago by Them Crooked Vultures provides details for special presales set to begin Thursday at 10 a.m.

For those hunting for concert tickets to any of the U.K. shows taking place in December, the presale starts in only a few hours, at 10 a.m.

"Tour dates! [pause] This is tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow ..."

The newsletter contained passwords for the presales. (I won't repeat them here. You were warned to subscribe.)

Also in the newsletter is a new Them Crooked Vultures T-shirt design. This shirt sells for only $25 instead of $30 as with previous shirts. Shipping is only $6 compared to $10 on previous shirts.

Finally, the newsletter also contains one more of those lovely animated videos we all crave, with a sampling of audio from Them Crooked Vultures in the studio. The music is an instrumental portion of their track "Scumbag Blues." Here it is, followed by an assortment of other good stuff.



Enjoy!

Vultures tour plans include North American club tour in October

And just like that (snap!), Them Crooked Vultures drops a load of North American and U.K. tour dates on us all at once. This came through the band's official forum. (Update: I've added links to the applicable venue, box office or ticket information for each date.)

North America Fall Tour 2009

View TCV North America Fall Tour 2009 in a larger map

• Thu, 1st October / Austin TX Stubb's BBQ
• Fri, 2nd October / Austin TX Austin City Limits festival (SOLD OUT)
  
• Mon, 5th October / Nashville TN War Memorial Auditorium
• Tue, 6th October / Columbus OH LC Pavilion
• Thu, 8th October / Detroit MI The Fillmore
• Fri, 9th October / Toronto ONT Sound Academy
• Sun, 11th October / Boston MA House of Blues
• Mon, 12th October / Philadelphia PA Electric Factory
• Wed, 14th October / Washington DC 9:30 Club

U.K. Winter Tour 2009

View TCV U.K. Winter Tour 2009 in a larger map

• Thu, 10th December / Plymouth / Plymouth Pavilions
• Fri, 11th December / Portsmouth / Portsmouth Guildhall
• Sun, 13th December / Blackpool / Empress Ballroom
• Mon, 14th December / Birmingham / O2 Academy Birmingham
• Tue, 15th December / Edinburgh / Edinburgh Corn Exchange
• Thu, 17th December / London / Hammersmith Apollo

Presale information is still expected to come today via the band's official newsletter, "The Crooked Times."

Update: Blabbermouth also shows Them Crooked Vultures as recording a set for the TV show "Austin City Limits" on Sept. 30.

Tour blitz unravels throughout morning; Vultures sitting on summary of concert plans

Let there be no doubt that an orchestrated campaign has been in place to announce a wave of Them Crooked Vultures concert plans all on one day.

After earlier revelations today of a six-date jaunt through the United Kingdom for which tickets go on sale this Friday, it has now been confirmed the supergroup with John Paul Jones will play an Oct. 2 set at the Austin City Limits festival.

All tickets and passes for the event are already sold out.

This marks a return to U.S. soil, which two out of three band members -- drummer Dave Grohl and singer/guitarist Josh Homme -- call home although the majority of their band's live work was conducted in Europe. Only their debut concert, set at a Lollapalooza afterparty in the Chicago club Metro, was in America.

Almost certainly, more tour dates can be expected to trickle out today as we await official word through the band's own e-mail newsletter, "The Crooked Times."

Six-show U.K. Vultures tour spans mid December

NME.com has posted an "exclusive" report of six shows on a December U.K. tour by Them Crooked Vultures. This would confirm the three dates already observed at this ticket site and also add three other dates around the same time frame.

Still no word from Them Crooked Vultures directly today, but here are the six year-end tour dates as reported first at by NME.com:

• Plymouth Pavilions (Dec. 10)
• Portsmouth Guildhall (Dec. 11)
• Blackpool Empress Ballroom (Dec. 13)
• Birmingham O2 Academy (Dec. 14)
• Edinburgh O2 Academy (Dec. 15)
• London HMV Hammersmith Apollo (Dec. 17)

You can also follow my Twitter updates at twitter.com/ledzeppelinnews.

Year-end U .K. tour evidently planned for Them Crooked Vultures

Tickets go on sale this Friday for at least three concerts that will make up the first U.K. headlining tour for Them Crooked Vultures.

This morning, music media have already announced a London show scheduled to take place Dec. 17. But a page on this ticket site indicates the Hammersmith Apollo date will be preceded by shows in Blackpool and Birmingham on Dec. 13 and 14, respectively.

An official announcement from Them Crooked Vultures is forthcoming today. More on this as it develops.