Mr. White:

The first offering from Jack White in a post White Stripes world has arrived, naturally via his Third Man Records imprint. Dubbed “Love Interruption” the single, which you can now stream digitally (and buy later tonight) over at his new pop-up website will also be pressed on vinyl, available February 7th. While the record proper, Blunderbuss, will come April 23rd. Back to “Love Interruption,” though, don’t expect a cascade of brut electric guitar – this is a blues number, twinkled with some keys and a female backup vocal, showcasing White’s frenetic throat and some masochistic takes on love:, i.e. the opening lyric: “I want love to roll me over slowly, stick a knife inside me, and twist it all around.”

Crazy Jam:

Neil Young dot com went live with a 37-minute rock-ominous jam session this morning, highly suspected to be new material in lieu of Crazy Horse reunion rumblings. Posted via macro-rad video, hovering around a studio minus the visual appearance of any bandmates, could it be titular bits of the forthcoming record? Maybe not all of it, as some notes we all know as “Fuckin’ Up” and “Cortez The Killer” roll out. Though as Rolling Stone points out, one of the last pans includes a handful of unknown songs scribbled on paper from “Oh Susanna,” to “Oh My Darling” and “Clementine,” among others. Either way, it’s a lovely warm analogue reminder much to the chagrin of the now 66-years-young icon’s most infamous sentiment that it’s not always better to burn out, than to fade away. Or rather, rock and roll can certainly never die.

Bad Girls:

Sri Lankan political firecracker M.I.A. is readying the release of her fourth album, expected this summer, with a new single dubbed “Bad Girls.” A reworking of a track from her “Vicki Leekx” mix tape, produced by Danja, the four-minute lounge-hop anthem is infectious, per M.I.A. standard, vocal overdubbing the chorus with a rallying “live fast, die young, bad girls do it well.” Meanwhile, Pitchfork is reporting an official drop will happen round the globe come tomorrow followed by an accompanying video via “Born Free” director Romain Gavras this Friday, February 3.

Jesse Jackson Vs. The Grammys:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is amping the implied momentum that the Grammy camp is not entirely PC amidst a controversial category cut from the 53-year old award ceremony from 109 to 79 just this past April, citing “music of all arts should be expansive and inclusive” to The Associated Press. “So much talent comes from the base of poverty and those in the margins. You limit the base, you miss too much talent,” he said. To cut through the vagueness, Jackson is referring to a handful of categories from traditional gospel to zydeco and cajun that will suffer from the award trimming. This in the wake of a similar snafu back in ’89, when ironically this year’s current host, LL Cool J boycotted for the exclusion of Best Rap Song during the televised edition of the ceremony. While last year’s ceremony drew some fire, as well. But this new thing called indie and Arcade Fire made out like bandits.

Lyricapsule:

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Godfather of non-violent resistance and driving force behind India’s independence was assassinated on this day in New Delhi in 1948, the victim of three gunshot wounds to the chest. He was 78-years-young. 56 years later the howling Patti Smith wrote an eponymous song in ode, framing a searing nine-minute tale of the spiritual leader’s youth echoing in Morrison “The End“-ish fashion, “Awake from your slumber/And get ’em with the numbers.”