- There’s never a shortage of news from the Wu-Tang Clan, and our first four items are devoted to them. Up first: The Wu will be playing the Rock the Bells festival tour at the end of August, performing their masterpiece Enter the Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers) in its entirety. This year’s bill also includes Rakim, KRS-ONE and Slick Rick, among others.
- Raekwon has released a new mixtape, Cocainism, Vol. 2, and you can download it here.
- Pollen, The Swarm Part 3 is on its way, and you can download the first track, “Roll with Killer Beez”, here.
- It was inevitable: RZA is making a kung fu film. The Man with Iron Fists was co-written by RZA and Eli Roth and will be directed by and star RZA.
- Filmmaker Don Letts has produced a documentary about the creation of Strummerville, the foundation that carries on Joe Strummer’s work of promoting music from beyond the fray, and the DVD of the film is being sold exclusively through the Strummerville site where you can also watch a trailer for the film.
- Pitchfork’s One Week Only feature this week is The Shield Around the K, the story of K Records, the independent label founded by Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening in 1982 and still operating to this day.
And because you know I can’t let an opportunity to push the Black Keys pass, here’s a web exclusive of the guys performing the excellent “Ten Cent Pistol” during their appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week. (And you can see their televised performance of the bangin’ “Howlin’ for You” here.)
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