Today's Hotness: Matthew Herbert, Eels, Neil Young

>> Pfork touted this exclusive Tuesday on news about British electronic provocateur Matthew Herbert's forthcoming !K7 set Scales. Herbert is known for didactically conceptual records, and has undertaken sonic explorations of consumerism, domesticity and the human body in the past. Scales concerns "the idea of distance in our lives." This doesn't sound like the words of a guy known for sticking it to The Man. Fear not. Herbert also offered this in his email swappery with Pfork: ""My goals, as always these days, are to bring down Tony Blair [and] the American empire, a withdrawal of troops in Iraq and bring[ing] about an end to our reliance on oil." Expect a double A-sided single in May for the tracks "Movers and Shakers" and "Harmonize." A second single will street in July, a month before Scales' release date.

>> PunkNews here points to a stream of the new Eels record With Strings: Live At Town Hall. If you can stop listening to Destroyer and the Lilys records you bought today, check this one out. The only track we've heard so far features a vocal that is very Eric Bachmann. Well, Eric Bachmann doing his Neil Diamond thing.

>> On the heels of Buddyhead's posting three tracks from Neil Young's rare 1973 record Time Fades Away earlier this month, Scenestars ups the ante by streaming the whole damn thing. It's seriously top shelf. Here's the link [scroll to the bottom of the item]. Time Fades Away is a live record committed to tape during Young's Harvest tour, during which Young stymied audiences by playing only brand-new unrecorded material instead of crowd-pleasers like "Heart of Gold" and such. Time Fades Away was never released on CD, but the recordings Scenestars is streaming are pristine -- there is no indication they are ripped from vinyl at all, which makes us wonder if someone has gotten their hands on the master reels. Here's the track list:

1. Time Fades Away
2. Journey Through The Past
3. Yonder Stands The Sinner
4. L.A.
5. Love In Mind
6. Don't Be Denied
7. The Bridge
8. Last Dance

>> Hype merchants Billboard and NME breathlessly reported here and here respectively that Radiohead are embellishing an old number from the OK Computer days called "Nude" as part of its current recording efforts. NME insists fronter Thom Yorke has confirmed the song will be on the band's forthcoming set, but doesn't back up its assertion at all.