Music Notes: Mindy McCready Dead; Alabama Shakes on "SNL;" New Music from Civil Wars, The Strokes, & More

Among the notes on new albums this post was going to report, there's a sad new bit of news: country singing star Mindy McCready was found dead of a gunshot wound Sunday, apparently self inflicted, at a home in Heber Springs, Arkansas.



The 37-year-old performer, best known for her mid-1990s hits such as "Guys Do It All the Time" and "Ten Thousand Angels," had a turbulent personal life following her initial professional success. There were problems with doing drugs and with trying to fraudulently buy OxyContin, as well as a custody battle (with her mother) over her oldest son, a drunk driving arrest, an overdose, and at least two suicide attempts.

It's sad to see such a talented and popular singer derailed by personal demons. R.I.P., Mindy McCready.

Here's some other recent music news, which all of a sudden doesn't seem so important...

* Alabama Shakes got a big publicity boost last night when they were the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live." The band, which played "Hold On" and "," was the number-one item on Google Trends, a listing of the most-searched-for topics on the world's leading search engine.



* Radiohead fans will be glad to know that Thom Yorke and the boys are planning to start work on a new album in September. (via Rolling Stone)

* British Sea Power is also coming out with a new album, "Machineries of Joy," and you can stream the title track at Consequence of Sound. (via Consequence of Sound)

* And there's more new music: The Strokes have released a new single, "All The Time," and the Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett (who just won a Grammy with Taylor Swift for "Safe and Sound") also have a new song out. (via Rolling Stone)

* The word "out" is also associated with Lady Gaga, but not in a good way: the singer is out of action for the time being. She's been forced to cancel her entire current tour due to a tear in a hip muscle, which will require surgery. (via Consequence of Sound)

* Mudhoney is going on tour to support their latest album, "Vanishing Point." The Seattle band, one of the original grunge-rock bands from the 1990s, will play Bowery Ballroom on May 11th and Music Hall of Williamsburg the next night. (via Consequence of Sound)

Music Notes: Lucinda Williams Headlines WFUV Concert; Civil Wars Cancel Tour, Hear Prince Demos & New "Twilight" Soundtrack

A couple of musical items today, and a couple of sets of music for streaming.

* Lucinda Williams will headline this year's WFUV Holiday Cheer concert. The annual benefit for the Fordham University radio station will be held December 5th at the Beacon Theatre.

Other guests will be announced later, but this concert usually gets a good lineup of acts that the station's listeners will be familiar with. Tickets are priced at $40 to $120 and will go on sale Friday at 11 a.m. Or you can try the presale that started today (see the code to use at the WFUV announcement).



* What's going on with the Civil Wars? The Grammy-winning folk duo abruptly cancelled its world tour and then posted a cryptic note on its website and Facebook page, using terminology that made the development sound like a divorce:

"We sincerely apologize for the canceling of all of our tour dates. It is something we deeply regret. However, due to internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition we are unable to continue as a touring entity at this time. We thank each and every one of you for your amazing love & support. Our sincere hope is to have new music for you in 2013.  —Joy Williams & John Paul White"

People are scratching their heads over what's going on. Maybe a disagreement over how much commercial success to reach for, or venues to play, or how much touring to undertake? One factor may be the fact that Williams is a new mother—and that her husband is the duo's manager.

* Want to hear some demos and rarities from Prince? Check out Duane Harriott's show yesterday on WFMU. See the playlist and stream the show using several different options.

* Speaking of streaming, you can listen to the entire soundtrack for the forthcoming "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2" at Pandora. The soundtrack—which features contributions from Feist, Green Day, Passion Pit, St. Vincent, Skrillex, and more—will be released Nov. 13th, three days before the movie. (via Consequence of Sound)

Music Notes: The Civil Wars Make Billboard Cover, Imperial Teen Contest, & More

The Civil Wars are the subject of a recent cover story in Billboard.

This edition of news from the music world includes another big accomplishment for an acclaimed duo, a unique contest to get attention for a returning indie-pop band, a new signing for an established rocker, and more concert podcast downloads from South by Southwest.

* The run of good luck just keeps on going for The Civil Wars, with the duo making the cover of last week's Billboard. The accompanying story describes their other accomplishments, including scoring a movie, having one of their songs featured on the "Hunger Games" soundtrack, and co-writing a song with megastar Taylor Swift. Oh, and that's all besides their one-minute appearance on this year's Grammys, which gave them the show's second-largest bump in sales after the telecast (trailing only Adele).

* Imperial Teen has come up with a novel way to drum up attention for its latest album, "Feel the Sound": it's encouraging fans to download and print out masks of the band members, and then create videos of themselves wearing them. The idea came from fans' requesting their own copies of the masks that appear in Imperial Teen's "Runaway" video. And that led to a full-blown contest.



"Feel the Sound"(Merge Records) is Imperial Teen's fifth album, and the first in five years for the San Francisco band that features Roddy Bottum, formerly of Faith No More. See reviews of the album in Rolling Stone and Spin.

* Speaking of Merge, the indie label added another prestigious name when it announced during South by Southwest that it had signed Bob Mould. The former member of Hüsker Dü and Sugar is working on a new album, which will be out on Merge in the Fall. According to Mould's website, the album will be "recorded with his current bandmates, Jon Wurster (Superchunk, The Mountain Goats), and Jason Narducy (Robert Pollard, Verbow)."

As noted here before, Mould is planning a limited number of shows in the coming months at which he'll perform Sugar's album "Copper Blue"(which was released 20 years ago). He was scheduled to perform "Copper Blue" at South by Southwest last night (March 17th).

* There are more SXSW concert downloads available from NPR Music, including Sugar Tongue Slim, Lower Dens, and Poliça. The set by The Magnetic Fields will be posted sometime later, NPR says. And if you didn't hear or see Bruce Springsteen's SXSW keynote address, make sure you check it out; it's a great discussion on the history and meaning of music, and is definitely worth your time.

* WFMU has posted the archives from its March 17th live show at Beerland for SXSW, featuring performances from The Men, Jason Sigal and Brian Turner, Electric Jellyfish, and more.