– This morning the Mercury Prize nominees were announced in London. Consequence of Sound has the full list, which includes our faves Dizzee Rascal and Paul Weller (and The XX, who I care a little less about). NME has all the records for you to listen to. The winner will be announced on September 7.
– Andy Hummel, the original bassist for Big Star, has passed away at age 59. Spinner has the story.
– Rolling Stone premiered the new video for Bryan Ferry‘s new song “You Can Dance,” from his solo album Olympia, due out October 26. We’d like to be excited about it, since he’s back working with Roxy Music members Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Brian Eno, but it’s all a bit disappointing – the music is pretty uninspiring, and (though we know having sexy ladies everywhere is Ferry’s “thing”) the video is fairly dull too.
– Apparently a little music festival took place in Chicago this past weekend, by some indie blog called Pitchfork. Pretty much everyone and their mother has pics up, so we’ll default to Pitchfork themselves.
– Mark Ronson has released the album art for his upcoming release Record Collection, due out October 5. Since he’s been working a ton with Duran Duran lately, it’s not too surprising that it’s pretty influenced by some of the ’80s band’s own album art. He’s also got a video out for the fab tune “Bang Bang Bang” – it’s all up on Arjan Writes now.
