LA TImes interviews Dhani Harrison

Good feature on George's kid.

From the outside, though, Thenewno2 looks a lot like a band, in which guitarist, singer and songwriter Harrison and guitarist-keyboardist Jonathan Sadoff are joined by guitarist Jeremy Faccone, bassist Nick Fyffe and drummer Frank Zummo.

Harrison notes that Hecks, with whom he wrote most of the songs on the group's debut, "You Are Here," is sitting out this current tour to concentrate on film work. That's one indicator of the new model these creative partners are mapping out. Each has multiple talents and passions, none of which they're willing to set aside to focus full time on playing in a rock band.

"We're all studio nerds -- that's who I've surrounded myself with," Harrison said. "Every single person in the band is also a mix engineer or a soundtrack engineer or a composer or a filmmaker or some other kind of nerd. I design video games -- that's my nerdy side."

Paul helps out on Ringo's new album

A bit more detail on Ringo Starr's upcoming album:

Ringo Starr grabbed a little help from his friends for his new album Y Not, due January 12th, 2010. The Beatles drummer will be joined by his Fab Four bandmate Paul McCartney on a couple of tracks, including first single “Walk With Me,” which finds Macca and Starr sharing vocals. Other guests and songwriters on Y Not, Ringo’s first album since 2008’s Liverpool 8, include Joe Walsh, Joss Stone, Van Dyke Parks, Ben Harper and Richard Marx.

New Ringo album out Jan. 12

Here's the cover for Ringo Starr's new album, Y Not, out Jan. 12 from Hip-O. Not much additional info at the moment.

David Lynch plans film on Beatles' Marharishi

Details:

Lynch has announced that his next project will be a film about The Beatles’ meditation guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The India native gained worldwide fame in the 1950s for his Transcendental Meditation technique and work with numerous high-profile. He died just last year in at the age of 90.

“It won’t be a so-called David Lynch film, really; it will be about Maharishi and the knowledge he brought out,” Lynch explained to Nymag.com. “It’ll hold a lot of abstractions. We’re on our way to India in December to start the India part of it.”

Lynch went on to add that the film will likely come in the documentary form.

“I don’t think it’ll be a talking heads kind of thing, but we’re going to do a lot of interviews with people. We’ll interview — I hope — in India, a 97-year-old man who was with Maharishi from the beginning and get stories of times that weren’t so well recorded.”

Details on Nowhere Boy soundtrack

Here's cover art and the preliminary tracklisting for the official "Nowhere Boy" soundtrack.

CD1
Wild One - Jerry Lee Lewis
Mr Sandman - Dickie Valentine
Rocket 88 - Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats
Shake, Rattle & Roll - Elvis Presley
Hard Headed Woman - Wanda Jackson
I Put A Spell On You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Maggie May - The Nowhere Boys
That'll Be The Day - The Nowhere Boys
Rockin' Daddy - Eddie Bond & The Stompers
Twenty Flight Rock - Eddie Cochran
That's Alright Mamma - The Nowhere Boys
Movin and Groovin - The Nowhere Boys
Raunchy - The Nowhere Boys
Hound Dog - Big Mama Thornton
Be-Bop-A-Lula - Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps
Hello Little Girl - Aaron Johnson
In Spite Of All The Danger - The Nowhere Boys
Mother - John Lennon

CD2
Elvis Presley - Baby Let's Play House
The Isley Brothers -Twist & Shout
Duane Eddy - Rebel Rouser
Charlie Rich - She Loved Everybody But Me
Lonnie Donegan - Putting on the Style
Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue
Frankie Vaughan - These Dangerous Years
Dale Hawkins - Susie-Q
Barrett Strong - Money (That's What I Want)
The Del Vikings - Come Go With Me
Bill Haley - Rock Around the Clock
Lloyd Price - Stagger Lee
Little Richard - Rip It Up
Alligator Charles - See You Later
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally
Chan Romero - The Hippy Hippy Shake
Buddy Knox - Party Doll
Shirley & Lee - Let the Good Times Roll
Fats Domino - Ain't That A Shame
Everly Brothers - Bye, Bye Love
Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law
Jimmy Lloyd - I Got A Rocket In My Pocket

Transcendental meditation cuts heart attack risk

Meditation is good for the body as well as the mind, scientists have discovered, as the practice significantly reduces the risk of a heart attack for people with heart disease.

...Transcendental Meditation, practised by the Beatles and based on an ancient tradition of enlightenment in India, involves sitting quietly and concentrating to focus the mind inwards by silently repeating a mantra. The practice is said to induce inner peace by allowing thoughts to flow in and out of the mind.

More

See a trailer for Beatles: Rock Band Sgt. Pepper

Here it is.

Corps, Ltd., MTV Games and Harmonix, the world’s leading developer of music-based games and a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), today released a new gameplay trailer for The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) that will be available in its entirety for purchase and playable as downloadable content in The Beatles™: Rock Band™ Music Store starting November 17, 2009.

Rolling Stone streams Sean Lennon's newest LP

Hear Sean's mainly orchestral score to the new indy flick "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead."

Limited edition USB Apple contains stereo Beatles remasters

Giving new meaning to Apple(s) in Stereo:

The exquisitely crafted, apple-shaped USB drive is loaded with the critically acclaimed re-mastered audio for The Beatles’ 14 stereo titles, as well as all of the re-mastered CDs’ visual elements, including 13 mini-documentary films about the studio albums, replicated original UK album art, rare photos and expanded liner notes.

A specially designed Flash interface has been installed, and the 16GB USB’s audio and visual contents will be provided in FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit and MP3 320 Kbps formats, fully compatible with PC and Mac.

Order yours at the official Beatles Web site store. (When I posted this, however, there was no listing for the item in the U.S. version of the store, nor any price provided. You'll need to keep checking back there.)

Additional info from the Beatles Examiner:

EMI Music announced Tuesday they will release a limited edition of 30,000 Beatles stereo USB apples on Dec. 7 in most of the world, except North America, where they will be available Dec. 8. A price on the drive was not available.

Beatles vinyl remasters on the way

Oh man, now I'm going to have to buy these too!

The Beatles' back catalogue will be reissued on vinyl, says Jeff Jones, Chief Executive of Apple Corps.

Speaking exclusively to MOJO, Jones revealed that work on the next stage of the Beatles Remastered campaign is currently underway: "We're working on them now," said Jones, "I don't have a release date. To put a release date next to them forces us into a situation where we're releasing something that might not be ready. "