A weekly roundup of unreleased songs, new singles, and assorted musical detritus trickling out to the Web.

Bob Dylan: “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”
Leave it to Bob Dylan to make dad-rock feel post-apocalyptic. There’s not that much to the song—just your typical blooze jam with a little bit of accordion dropped in for flavor—but Dylan’s gravelly and cryptic lyrics about emptiness, love, and “boulevards of broken cars” elevate the song beyond the level of Law & Order-outro music. This song’s totally good enough for a montage-scene on the Wire.

Marylin Manson: “We’re From America”
Marilyn Manson has been trying to stir controversy with good old Wal-Mart-shopping heartland Americans for so long that even the most devoutly conservative God-mongering ideologues must be bored by his antics by now. “We’re From America” probably won’t do much to get them excited again, despite its aggro industrial-rock riffs and controversy-baiting lyrics. “We don’t like to kill our unborn/We need them to grow up and fight our wars,” wails Manson. Somewhere, Billy Graham is flipping his wrist and saying, “Shit, that guy again? Whatever.”

Mika Miko: “I Got a Lot”
Give Mika Miko some credit for inverting the traditional rock-n-roll career trajectory. The Los Angeles-based punk quintet has just gotten sloppier and more chaotic in the two years that have passed since the band’s debut album, C.Y.S.L.A.B.F., came out. At least that’s the case on “I Got a Lot”, with its barely intelligible vocals and Misfits-via-Erase Errata guitars. Their full-length, We Be Xuxa, comes out in May.

Wolfmother: “Back ‘Round”
Bassist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett split from Australian power-trio Wolfmother sometime last year, leaving guitarist Andrew Stockdale the sole remaining original member of the band. But Stockdale wouldn’t let the departure of the entire rhythm section get him down—apparently he just grabbed the next batch of road-worthy longhairs and got back to business as usual. “Back ‘Round”, with its regal guitar-monies and Ozzy-style falsetto vocals, proves that Wolfmother, whatever or whoever that might be, still has some retro-rock mojo left. —Aaron Leitko

Dylan/Zimmy/Judas wasted no time after last October’s release of the sprawling retrospective, Tell Tale Signs: on April 28, Columbia will release his new studio album, Together Through Life, Billboard reports.

If label hype is any indicator—which, in this case, it sort of probably is—the record’s packed full of nostalgic, tumbleweed-y vignettes, Chi-town blues, and churning boogie. Plus: banjo, mando, and…accordion! Promo materials go on to explain that on his new record, Dylan’s aiming for a retro-minded fusion of Chess & Sun sounds. Which—correct me if I’m wrong—is what he’s been doing since about 1964.

Read More “New Dylan to Drop April 28; Weird Album Art Already Iconic” »

With the new year comes not-so-new traditions: purging your closet of heinous holiday sweaters, resolving to dissolve your waistline and, if you’re Rolling Stone , looking to Top 40 lists and tired-and-true troubadours to compile your list of the 50 “Best” Albums of the Year.

Read More “Rolling Stone reaches new lows with ‘Top 50 Albums’” »

Ever the bearer of bad news, I’d like to alert BPB readers to another rock ‘n roll fatality: This time it’s Merl Saunders, who passed away last Friday at the age of 74. Complications from a stroke sidelined him in 2002, effectively ending a remarkable career that included luminous collaborations with Miles Davis, B.B. King, Mike Bloomfield, and Jerry Garcia. His keyboard stylings combined an earthy rhythm-and-blues approach with a jazz aesthetic and, in the early 90s, a surprisingly unregrettable foray into New Age-style fusion.

For anyone interested in the remarkable, decades-long, “let’s make David Grisman jealous” collaboration between Saunders and Garcia, check out the Legion of Mary sessions and the Keystone concerts. Of special note: Saunders’ fat, swirly Hammond on Dylan’s “Positively Fourth Street” (below, from the Keystone). Troppo largo, perhaps, but a textural improvement over the already lovely Kooper-era original.

NPR Music reports that Columbia is releasing Tell Tale Signs—Volume 8 of the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series—on October 7. (Click here for full streaming audio.) The new two-disc album chronicles a period of resurgence for the poet laureate of rock ‘n roll, involving several excellent bands, lots of lovely wordplay, and a tasteful minimum of proselytization.

Previous entries in the (thoroughly official and hardly bootleg) series include the 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert (Judas, anyone?), Live 1975 (which documents the Rolling Thunder Tour), and the soundtrack from Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home.

So what’s new in this iteration? Much over which to rejoice, in fact. Besides offering a far crisper sound than any of the previous seven volumes, Tell Tale Signs features solid alt-takes from Oh, Mercy (”Most of the Time” and “Everything Is Broken,” especially), some fun David Bromberg and Ralph Stanley collaborations, two (two!) versions of “Mississippi” (a neat little unreleased tune left in the wake of Time Out of Mind), and a jivin’ live version of “Cocaine Blues.”

Listen below to “Dreamin’ of You,” the pre-release single also available for free download here.

Bob Dylan, “Dreamin’ of You”:

Photo courtesy of JL2003