If you live in or will be traveling to England anytime after January 7 of 2010, you might be able to purchase your favorite classic (or new wave for that matter) album in stamp format. So there’s a cheap souvenir! Albums that look to be a part of the collection at this point include The Clash’s London Calling‘, Led Zeppelin IV, Power, Corruption & Lies by New Order, Primal Scream’s Screamadelica, Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones and yes, A Rush of Blood To The Head by Coldplay. Good thing it wasn’t Viva La Vida, or Joe Satriani’s face would have been legally obliged one tenth of the stamp. We kid. (Via: NME)

Rumors have been floating around the internets for a while now about a collaboration between Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl, and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. Now, a confirmation of sorts has come in the form of a last-minute announcement of a Lollapalooza aftershow to be held August 9th at the Metro, with the three bands’ logos on the flier. Apparently the three musicians call themselves Them Crooked Vultures, and have been working on a studio album for three years. So far nothing has been officially confirmed, but the cryptic post isn’t too hard to decode. (via Consequence of Sound)

In other signs of a possible economic turnaround, an anonymous bidder paid $64,000 for John Bonham’s (drummer for Led Zeppelin) gong. Although the purchase price was significantly lower than the anticipated $120,000 auction price, it’s both comforting and disorienting to know that someone has enough cash to shell out that much money for someone’s gong. I wonder where they’ll display their purchase.

The official trailer for the forthcoming documentary “It Might Get Loud” is live on the New York Times Movies page. The movie dives into the brainspace of three generations of guitar icons: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, U2’s The Edge, and White Stripes beast Jack White.

It. Looks. Awesome.

IMGT opens in select theaters on August 14th.

Notes From Middle America is contributor Danny R. Phillips’ monthly column. You can read past installments here.

Being a long jaded follower of many musical genres, it’s hard for me to be leveled by a new live band; rare is the evil smile on my face or the slow climb of a shiver up my crooked spinal column. Since I’ve become a “professional” music critic as opposed to just another wiseass amateur arguing about music with anyone within earshot, few acts have issued a response in my mind higher than “they’re ok.”
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