Joe Strummer - The Future is Unwritten The Future Is Unwritten , last year's beautiful love letter to the life and passion of Joe Strummer, has just been released on DVD, packed with bonus material not seen in the original film. Even if you don't subscribe to the motto that The Clash was "the only band that ever mattered," I can't see how any beating heart couldn't tear up at director Julien Temple's salute to the purity and soul of a man who, despite his fame, walked with the common bloke in humble soles shared by Woody Guthrie and Bob Marley.

Narrated by Strummer himself from the sessions of his BBC radio show, the two-hour film and the 100 minutes of bonus interviews are peppered with anecdotes from his bandmates, Flea and Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Don Letts, Joe Ely, Courtney Love, Grandmaster Melle Mel, and directors Jim Jarmusch and Martin Scorsese. Not just a Clash retrospective, the film covers his entire life in music, from the pub-rock 101'ers to his final backing bands, Latino Rockabilly War and the Mescaleros.

The audio alchemists of Negativland are back. This coming Tuesday brings Thigmotactic, the return of the "band" to song-based compositions, rather than the cut-up collage-based manipulations the sound terrorists are know for. Opening the Seeland Records release is the cryptic voice of Tricky Dick himself in "Richard Nixon Died Today," and as with each of the 17 tracks on the disc, a lovely CD booklet juxtaposes the song's lyrics with an original artwork by band leader Mark Hosler, who lists the collage's "found ingredients" along with the credits of who played what at the song's recording session. Some of these visual jumping-off points have toured the country in the group's traveling art show, Negativlandland, and all are for sale on the group's Web site (http://www.negativland.com).

 

Television Alert

 

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno welcomes Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis on Thursday and Jakob Dylan on Tuesday; The Late Show with David Letterman boasts Jason Mraz on Monday; Late Night with Conan O'Brien presents Joe Cocker this evening and Daryl Hall and KT Tunstall on Tuesday overnight; The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson hosts Chris Isaak on Monday overnight; and Jimmy Kimmel Live sports Lil Wayne on Thursday, Cyndi Lauper on Friday, and Billy Idol on Monday.

 

New Releases Coming Tuesday, July 15

 

American Teen - original motion picture soundtrack (Almost Gold) featuring music by Black Kids, MGMT, and The Ting Tings

David Banner - Greatest Story Ever Told (Motown) with guests Jim Jones, Snoop Dogg, and Akon

The Black Crowes - Warpaint (Silver Arrow) 180-gram audiophile LP edition

Brothers & Sisters - Fortunately (Calla Lily) helmed by siblings Will and Lily Courtney, this is pure Austin, Texas, magic, blanketed in California-sun melodies and late-night drive twinkle

Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow: Live (Koch Vision) DVD of her PBS Soundstage performance from 2004, featuring a cover of Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding"

CSS - "Left Behind" (Warner Bros.) import-only single featuring a cover of The Breeders' "Cannonball" on the CD, and the previously unreleased B side "Blackwing" on the seven-inch

The Dark Knight - original motion picture soundtrack (Warner Bros) score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard

Einsturzende Neubauten - The Jewels (Potomak) furthering the noise collective's exploration of what can be considered musical instruments, the unconventional genesis of these new songs is a random series of collected cards - each prescribing a specific musical or dream element

Drew Emmitt - Long Road (Compass) third solo album from the mandolin player and voice of Leftover Salmon, featuring seven new originals and cool covers of the Marshall Tucker Band's "Take the Highway," Supertramp's "Take the Long Way Home," and Van Morrison's "Gypsy in My Soul"

Gaelic Storm - What's the Rumpus? (Roar/Lost Again) the group's seventh studio album

The Hold Steady - "Sequestered in Memphis" (Rough Trade) import-only seven-inch single with an etched B side and a bonus temporary tattoo

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (Vagrant) with guests Doug Gillard of Guided by Voices and Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers; bonus tracks are featured on a limited-edition version of the CD and the LP

Greg Howe - Sound Proof (Tone Center) featuring a funky, blistering spin through Stevie Wonder's "Tell Me Something Good"

Icy Demons - Miami Ice (Obey Your Brain) with guest Jeff Parker of Tortoise and Russell Higbee of Man Man, this third release by the Chicago/Philadelphia orchestral collective is a coy, playful, free-form adventure

Iggy & the Stooges - Escapedmania (Charly) two-DVD set filmed at the 2005 Lokerse Festival in Belguim

Jet Black Stare - In This Life (Island) on tour now with Shinedown and Saving Abel

Kerli - Love Is Dead (Island) a huge star in her native Estonia, the song "Beautiful Day" was co-written with Benji Madden of Good Charlotte

Liars - Freak Out (Mute) digital-only EP release featuring two audio tracks and four videos

Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long (A&M) expanded reissue of this album from last year, featuring a bonus DVD of videos and the band's hot new duet with Rihanna

John Mellencamp - Life, Death, Love, & Freedom (Hear Music) featuring a bonus DVD of the album utilizing the new high-definition CODE format

Miss Autopsy - The Hill (Lens Records) featuring drummer Jason Garner of The Paper Chase, this third album by Chicago's Steve Beyerink writhes and sputters out a tortured love manifesto like an Ed Wood cabaret musical

Mugison - Mugiboogie (Ipecac) hot off touring Canada with Queens of the Stone Age, this Icelandic one-man band fuses old-time blues voodoo with slacker shudder and kitchen-sink freak-out

Nas - Nas (Def Jam) featuring production by Mark Ronson, Jermaine Dupri, Green Lantern, Stargate, Stic Man, and DJ Toomp

N.E.R.D. - "Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in Line for the Bathroom)" (Polydor) import-only single

O.A.R. - All Sides (Everfine) also available in a limited edition of 1,000 hand-numbered boxes that contain VIP passes for backstage meet-and-greets

Opio - Vulture's Wisdom, Volume One (Hiero Imperium) the first in a trilogy of new solo material by the founding member of Souls of Mischief, featuring a bonus DVD of videos and animated short films

Rehab - Graffiti the World (Republic/Universal) with guest Steaknife on three tracks, the new CD features a new recording and a cool acoustic spin through the hit "Sittin' at a Bar"

Sam Champion - Heavenly Bender (North Street) shadowy garage-pop shakin' the rafters from the Lower East Side of New York City

Patti Smith & Kevin Shields - The Coral Sea (PASK Records) two-CD live recording of the poet rocker's spoken-word audio/visual performance in honor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, with guitar and sound-effect backdrops by the My Bloody Valentine founder

Tesla - Comin' Atcha Live! 2008 (Tesla Electric Company Records) DVD filmed earlier this year in Maplewood, Minnesota, featuring the debut of the troop salute "Dear Pvt. Ledbetter"

UNKLE - End Titles ... Stories for Film (Surrender All) featuring collaborations with Black Mountain, Abel Ferrara, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, and Joel Cadbury of South, and music created for a Spike Jonze skate video and an overseas BMW commercial

The Vines - Melodia (Ivy League) Australia-only release

Andy Yorke - Simple (Aktive) import-only debut CD from the younger brother of the face of Radiohead

Ace Young - Ace Young (Fontana) all new from the recent American Idol

various artists - The Imagined Village (Real World) with guests Peter Weller, Billy Bragg, The Copper Family, and Sheila Chandra, this genre-smashing experiment by Simon Emmerson of Afro Celt Sound System puts new grooves on classic British folk songs

various artists - Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered (Rapster) a dozen of the Thin White Duke's best, performed and re-invented by a worldwide list of electronic artists including Matthew Dear, The Thing, Au Revoir Simone, and the Zoos of Berlin

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