• The Black Crowes have announced that they will follow Pearl Jam in the spirit of making every concert from their upcoming summer tour available to fans. This beat-the-bootleggers-to the-punch attitude might prove to be the norm of the future as bands and plantation bosses try to wrestle artistic and commercial control of their art.

The goal was something young. Young performers. Young audience. Young composer. Those were the parameters the Quad City Youth Symphony Orchestra set two years ago when it asked for composers to apply for a commission, its first in more than a decade.

• As a connoisseur of interesting cover versions, I raise my glass and invite you drink deep from the new Face To Face collection, Standards & Practices, just released on the Vagrant label. Uncovering the band's personal guilty-pleasure nuggets from the new-wave 1980s and more contemporary influences is a real treat on this one - tearing into blistering renditions of selections like The Smiths' "What Difference Does It Make," the Pixies' "Planet of Sound," the Pogues' "Sunny Side of the Street," and the Jam's excellent "That's Entertainment.

In the booklet for Shaffer Street’s debut album is a gauzy picture of the band’s leader, Chris Shaffer, that suggests Rob Zombie about to do some damage – long hair, beard, made-up eyes, and a sly look of malevolence.