First it was the indie clusterfuck that was the recently revealed New Moon soundtrack, and now television has proven itself to be the new frontier for fantastic musical collaborations: Ian Brown of Stone Roses fame is joining up with Johnny Marr of the Cribs to work on the soundtrack to a TV series being developed by their mutual friend. Brown, in an interview with BBC News, also indicated that he would like to involve former Stone Roses bandmate Mani and Happy Mondays’ Paul Ryder in the project as well.

Discussing the project itself, Brown said, “The idea is that Johnny writes the music and I write the words and the melodies. We’ve got a mutual friend who’s writing a drama series. One of them’s about ticket touts, another one’s about grafters – kids who sell T-shirts and things like that – and another one’s about pickpockets. We’re going to get together and do the soundtrack for these dramas. We’d have to bring a drummer or a bass player in.”

A TV show about enterprising children using the black market to fatten their wallets, featuring a sure-to-be-solid soundtrack? Count me in.

Pitchfork reports Crowded House’s Neil Finn, Johnny Marr, Ed O’Brien (Radiohead drummer), Phil Selway, Jeff Tweedy, KT Tunstall, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Pat Sansone and others have formed this supergroup-esque collaborative follow-up to 2001’s 7 Worlds Collide. Unfortunately, Monsters of Folk just announced their record and Dead Weather remains fairly awesome. Too many supergroups in existence at one time will swallow all other non-super bands into a supergroup black hole, but we can look the other way just this once because this one’s a benefit for Oxfam International and not just a publicity stunt or excuse to tour with your bros. It’s also less a supergroup and more Judgement Night-style pairings of famous artists with other famous artists for individual tracks, only instead of rappers pairing up with rockers and our music collections suddenly including a Mudhoney/Sir Mix-A-Lot song, Neil Finn teams up with KT Tunstall and a ton of little kids around the world get to eat.

After adding former Smith Johnny Marr into the mix of mayhem surrounding  The Cribs, it looks like the British band has managed to latch on to another opportunity that could skyrocket them into musical maturation; working with acclaimed producer Nick Launay on their next studio album.
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