While the members of The Black Keys are both busy touring with their solo projects this fall, the Akron-based act did manage to make their way into the recording studio this summer for an interesting collaborative project they’ve dubbed Blakroc. The duo, who are known for their fuzzy blues-rock, have teamed up with an all-star roster from the world of hip hop that includes Mos Def, Q-Tip, RZA, Pharoahe Monch and Ludacris. The results will be heard on the collective’s self-titled debut, which hits stores on November 27.

• List Time: 16 Albums To Look Forward To This Fall
• Bruce Springsteen to receive Kennedy Center Honor award
• Cover Alert: Jill Andrews tackles My Morning Jacket
• Woodstock to be turned into a Broadway musical
• Trail Of The Dead are inviting their fans to be a roadie for the day
• Iggy Pop will reunite with The Stooges for some 2010 dates

Finally, it seems like the surviving members of seminal grunge band Nirvana aren’t happy with the makers of Guitar Hero over the use of Kurt Cobain’s likeness in the latest version of the popular video game.

In a press released issued by Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic the duo stated they were dismayed in “the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game.  The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area.” They also went on to denounce how gamers will be able to unlock Cobain, allowing the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants and have asked Activision to “re-lock” him. No more Kurt playing Bon Jovi.

Up until OK Computer came out, most Americans knew Radiohead as the band who put out Creep. OK Computer quickly erased that perception amongst the mainstream but Radiohead always hated the image that Creep projected. Our friends at Spinner put together a fun list of 10 songs disowned by the people that made them famous, including Creep.

We’ve got six more links to help you get over that dreaded hump…

• If you buy Joy from Newbury Comics you’ll get a pint glass
• iClips unveils Woodstock TV with Mountain Jam footage
• Jambands.com has the full scoop on JFJO’s extensive tour
• Sub Pop’s Bleach reissue includes a live Nirvana recording
• R.I.P. Jim Dickinson – Memphis producer, musician and dad
• R.E.M. unveils the details of their new 39 track live DVD/CD

Finally, there’s been more questions than answers about the contents of the new Beatles remasters up until recently. Beatles News summarizes the details about the remasters that were unveiled by a couple of Beatles historians at a fan festival in Chicago. The remasters hit stores on 9/9/09.

In what seems to be the hot thing to do among indie acts these days (for examples see Jenny Lewis and Arcade Fire) – Conor Oberst is set to release a documentary called One Of My Kind. The 60 minute film focuses on the last year and a half of Oberst leading his Mystic Valley Band and includes behind-the-scenes footage of their 2008 tour as well as from the recording of their first album. One Of My Kind will be available as a free stream or HD download exclusively on Causecast.org, IFC.com, conoroberst.com, mergerecords.com, and wichita-recordings.com – with the hopes that fans will donation to one of the variety of nonprofits or causes on Causecast.

• List Time: 30 Most Controversial Album Covers
• HAD can’t seem to get enough of French band Pheonix
• Cover Alert: Of Montreal tackle David Bowie
• Rolling Stones to reissue their 14 most recent albums
• IFYAF kicks down Blind Pilot’s recent show at the Iota Club
• Kurt Loder remembers Kurt Cobain 15 years after his death

Finally, highly underrated jam act Assembly Of Dust will release their second full length effort Some Assembly Required on July 21. This marks their first album without keyboardist Nate Wilson, who left the band to pursue solo work. The album features a veritable who’s who of the jam community guesting throughout the effort. Among those who stopped by the studio to lend a hand are Mike Gordon, Keller Williams, Grace Potter, Bela Fleck and Al Schnier. The band kicks off a brief West Coast run on April 23 in Los Angeles.

Following on the heels of Mike Gordon’s Variety Show at Chicago’s Park West, Jim Pollock will be throwing open his doors to host a free art show on Saturday, September 6th from 11am-5pm. The show will highlight Pollock’s original artwork for bands such as Phish, Umphrey’s McGee, the Disco Biscuits and festivals such as the 10,000 Lakes Music & Arts Festival, Wakarusa & Summercamp. Head over to Jim’s site at PollockPrints.com for much more information on Saturday’s event.

• Nirvana’s Manager, Danny Goldberg, recently penned his memoir: Bumping Into Geniuses – My Life Inside the Rock N Roll Business, which details his dealings with A-level artists such as Patti Smith, KISS and Bruce Springsteen. Spinner shares a riveting excerpt from the book on the rise and fall of Kurt Cobain. We can’t wait to read the whole thing.

The summer concert season reaches its crescendo this upcoming weekend when three of the longest running festivals in the nation take place. Out in Chicago the promoters of Lollapalooza defended themselves from accusations that their radius clauses are killing the local music scene. Meanwhile, the schedule for the Newport Folk Festival came out, and there are plenty of maddening conflicts. For those of us unable to attend next weekend’s other major festie, the Gathering of the Vibes in Bridgeport, CT, you can follow the action on iClips.

We’ll have plenty of news, reviews and photos from all three festivals.

Let’s see what else is goin’ on as we gear up for another busy week:

• After a chaotic start, Canada’s Pemberton Festival went very well
• Bready of Fresh Bread shares some stellar photos of Black Kids
• NPR checks in with the kid from the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind
• Heaven and Hell have started recording new material for a box set
• Les Claypool prepares his first video game score for Mushroom Men
• The Police look forward to finishing their tour in a little over a week

It’s been at least two weeks since we’ve heard any Led Zeppelin reunion tour rumors, so we thought we’d share the latest. Gigwise reports that the reason the band hasn’t moved forward is due to a rift between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Come on guys, bury the hatchet and let’s get it on before you’re too old.

Maybe I’m a little skeptical about the validity of the story because it comes from something called News Of The World – which has a supermarket tabloid ring to it, and judging by their website I think that assessment is on par – but the U.K. site is reporting that the ashes of Kurt Cobain were stolen from Courtney Love’s L.A. home. Here’s what News Of The World has to say about the possible theft:

THE music world was In Bloom-in’ shock last night after hearing that the ashes of grunge god KURT COBAIN have been PINCHED!

I can also reveal that the wife of the NIRVANA legend, COURTNEY LOVE, is said to be “suicidal” after finding Kurt’s remains missing from her Hollywood home.

She had kept the singer’s ashes in a pink teddy-bear-shaped bag along with a lock of his hair.

But a couple of weeks ago, she was horrified to discover them gone, along with thousands of pounds worth of clothes and jewelery.

Courtney said: “I can’t believe anyone would take Kurt’s ashes from me.

“I find it disgusting and right now I’m suicidal.

“If I don’t get them back I don’t know what I’ll do.” The sad news will sicken the millions of Cobain and Nirvana fans worldwide.

Odds are the story is about as true as an Elvis sighting, but we thought we’d pass it along just in case. We’ll let you know when Courtney starts issuing denials…

For their Rolling Stone cover shoot back in 1992 Kurt Cobain famously wore a t-shirt declaring “Corporate Magazines Still Suck” as a way of sticking it to the establishment that was fawning over the band and seeing dollar signs. I’d like to see what Kurt’s reaction would have been to the new limited edition line of Converse sneakers that are coming out with his name attached to them…

The sneakers hit stores this summer in both high and low top versions, as a part of Converse’s Century Icons campaign. Who would actually buy these kicks?

UPDATE:  The Daily Swarm has more info on the Cobain Custom Chuck’s

Everyone has been focusing on naming their favorite albums of 2007, but I’m more of a visually oriented guy. Each week I browse Amazon and Netflix to find out what rock-related concerts and documentaries are coming down the pike, and I do my best to check out any that seem worthwhile. There were many flicks both good and bad that made their way into either my DVD player or DVR this past year. This week’s B List focuses on the 10 Best Music DVDs of 2007:

10. The Other Side of the Mirror – Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival

Bob Dylan changed folk music forever when he took the stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with some bona fide electrified rockers. The Other Side of the Mirror examines not only Dylan’s 1965 performance, but also his more straightforward turns at the ‘63 and ‘64 festivals. Murray Lerner’s fantastic documentary gives us 20 songs from Dylan’s three appearances, most of which haven’t been released before.

Read on after the jump for the remaining best music DVDs of the year…

We couldn’t have been happier when the New York Times finally took down their Times Select pay wall, allowing free access to nearly all of the illustrious paper’s articles since 1981. While we love reading old reviews, news stories and columns from some of the best music journalists in the history of the game, we don’t like paying $3.99 to read a 500-word article. Mr. Sulzberger, tear down this wall!

We’ve been bookmarking some of our favorite articles from the vast NYT archives, and recently we realized we should probably share the links so people don’t have to enter 100 different search phrases like we did. This week’s B List compiles one great article from each year between 1981-2007:

1981: Tom Petty: Ready to Fight the Good Fight [May 6th, 1981]

”A lot of our fans have been with us for a long time, and I think they trust us,” the 29-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist said recently. ”MCA has done a great job selling our records, but they couldn’t see the reality of what it’s like on the street – they couldn’t see that raising the album’s price wouldn’t be fair.”

1982: Talking Heads Fans Get a Night to Remember [August 23rd, 1982]

”THIS ain’t no party,” the Talking Heads warned gravely a year ago when they made their most recent concert appearance in the New York area. But the group’s expanded lineup, with a vocalist, guitarist, percussionist, extra bassist, and keyboard player added to the basic Talking Heads foursome, belied those words. Their shows were parties -joyous, celebratory, and loose.

1983: Police perform for 75,000 at Shea [August 20th, 1983]

”We’d like to thank the Beatles for lending us their stadium,” said Sting, the bassist and singer of the Police, near the end of the trio’s concert at Shea Stadium.

1984: Miles Davis Returns With Revamped Band [June 24th, 1984]

This revamped unit provides richly layered, rhythmically emphatic accompaniments for Mr. Davis and for two other absorbing soloists, the saxophonist Bob Berg and the guitarist John Scofield. The earlier group sounded like a collection of competent but uninspired individuals. Now Mr. Davis has a real band , and like all his better bands, it is an instrument that he plays as deftly and dramatically as he plays the trumpet, an extension of his own personal sound.

Read on for many more articles, reviews and columns from the Grey Lady…

We got a well needed chuckle this afternoon at these witty LOL-Cats pictures of Kurt Cobain singing on MTV Unplugged — we always thought there was something hilarious about Cobain’s always-intense gazes. And if you haven’t pre-purchased a copy of the new Unplugged DVD, be sure to enter our giveaway, so you can come up with your own funny (and perhaps darker) captions.

• Thom Yorke said no when Paul McCartney asked him to record a duet
• Have you ever seen 250,000 faces melted simultaneously?
• Levon Helm sits in on indie band Ida’s new album
• Speaking of strike-busters Duran Duran moved their concerts from the Ethel Barrymore Theatre to the Roseland in order to avoid striking stagehands
• Gibson unveils pictures of the self-tuning Les Paul
• Van Halen announces more early 2008 tour dates
• R.I.P: 28-year-old Nicholas Phillips on Friday night died of a drug overdose at a usual HT haunt, the Knitting Factory
• Brian Heisler on Umphrey’s McGee’s Night at the Terratorium Halloween concert
• Nutsie provides an official music playlist of all the songs used in Rock Band
• A.V. Club lists 21 good albums that would have made great EPs

Finally, Jesse Jarnow caught our attention last week when he told us about the incredible shot-by-shot re-creation of Raiders of the Lost Ark that recently hit small arthouses across the country. Double J found a torrent of it, and he shares his thoughts (and the torrent file) with us. It also plays in New York tomorrow night.