Basement Jaxx is unleashing a new album, called Scars, that will feature a star-studded set of guests. Coming to us on October 6, the production duo’s fifth album has collaborations with Santigold, Yoko Ono, Kelis, Lightspeed Champion, Eli “Paperboy” Reed, and Yo! Majesty, just to drop a few names. While their last album, Crazy Itch Radio, “strayed too far into pop territory” as half of the duo, Simon Ratcliffe puts it, other half Felix Buxton promises, “Scars is very much back to the kind of thing we used to do.” If you’re itching for a preview, enjoy the above video of their single “Raindrops” with this one caveat: it’s not what we would call office-appropriate.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr joined Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison at the E3 Business & Media Summit in New York today to premiere The Beatles: Rock Band, the next installment of the popular video game and one that’s billed to provide a “revolutionary tour of The Beatles’ music, career, and legacy.”
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The new John Lennon exhibition “The New York Years,” which opened yesterday at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex in NYC, just got a bit more somber. One of the new features for the exhibit, which runs through the end of the year, will be the clothes Lennon was wearing the night he was murdered — blood and all.
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Forty years after they planted acorns for peace in 1969, Yoko Ono is keeping she and John Lennon’s weird (though well-intentioned) work alive by mailing acorns to more than 100 world leaders. Meanwhile, back here on earth, an exhibition based on Lennon’s years in New York City will open next month at the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Annex.
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[Photo by Jamie Beeden]

From the excitement on the faces of our British dance fans, we were able to surmise that a new Basement Jaxx single has hit the airwaves. Last week, Basement Jaxx premiered “Raindrops” on Pete Tong’s BBC Radio 1 show Essential Selection. Featuring Felix Buxton on vocals (and on the vocoder), “Raindrops” has a much sunnier disposition than it’s title would suggest.
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