Radiohead.com has announced the release of a new album from Thom Yorke and company.

According to the announcement Radiohead will release their sixth album 'Hail To The Thief' on June 9th. The album will be preceded by a single titled "There There" on May 26. 'Hail To The Thief' features 14 tracks and was recorded in Oxfordshire and Los Angeles. It was produced by Nigel Godrich and Radiohead, and mixed by Nigel Godrich.

Former Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha and progressive hip-hop producer DJ Shadow have posted an mp3 of "March Of Death," one of their collaborations -- which may or may not have been slated to appear on Zack's forthcoming solo release -- on Zack's website. I thought Rage's post De La Rocha work as Audioslave --though of decent enough quality -- was just lacking something. I'm happy to report that Zack on the other hand came through with flying colors with this first forray into solo work. It's got all of the political overtones you would expect and it manages to stray more towards hip-hop than Rage ever was but remain 100% rock'n'roll. This shit is hard, it's grimey, it's funky, and best of all it's waving a flaming American flag.

In related politically charged music download news Providence based hip-hop act Non-Prophets ( featuring emcee & poetry slam champ Sage Francis and Joe Beats ) have a track called "Hey Bobby" from their forthcoming album available for download on their website. It features some lyrics I heard Sage kick when I saw him live last fall and attacks the downright un-American actions of American political and corporate powers. The lyrics touched me back when I first heard them and all the more so now that the Bush administration has gone ahead with it's misguided invasion of Iraq.

A new Beastie Boys track has surfaced!

It's called "In A World Gone Mad."

It's anti-war in case you couldn't tell.

And it's available for free download at the other end of this link.

I can't even begin to describe how much I'm feelin' Snoop Dogg's new single "Beautiful" featuring Pharell Williams of The Neptunes. This song is straight heat. I don't think I've dug a Snoop song this much since "Deep Cover" back in '92 or so. Yeah the production dopeness courtesy of the seemingly unstoppable Neptizzles and the infectious crooning from hook master Mr. Pharell Williams are definitely a huge part of the track's appeal, but Snoop Dogg is in rare form himself. The man is f-l-o-w-i-n-g! He hasn't come off this slick in a long time. But umm, can we get a Pharell singing album any time soon? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know The 'Tunes dropped that N.E.R.D. joint last year, and it was dope, but after my man's recent chorus appearance I'm fiendin' for more.

Some news is floating around about a new Beastie Boys album. A June 2003 release date has been mentioned and the record is rumored to feature guest spots from Prince Paul, Beck, The Neptunes, a reunited Phife & Q-Tip, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Nora Jones and Flea! Hottness!

Friday night saw me, The Original Emeyesi, The Guru M.A. Williams and Animated Mike mounting an expedition out to Worcester to see the Gangstarr, Talib Kweli and Common tour as it made it's stop at The Palladium. Emeyesi and I had obtained our tickets free of charge through the radio station and since we came with crazy promotional materials -- posters, stickers and what-not -- to hand out to the crowd we managed to get The Guru and Animated in without them having to shell out dough for tickets either. Pretty cool huh? So we got there during sound-check, rolled inside and posted up on the right side of the club where we set up a couple of tables and started rolling up mad posters. When the doors opened heads just started pouring in and they gravitated to our tables like moths to a flame. I've never seen so many white people so hungry for free shit in my entire life. Even during the performances we got a steady stream of kids coming up for goodies.

Talib Kweli held it down with just himself and his DJ. He did tracks from his recent 'Quality,' 'Train Of Thought' and the Blackstar project. My man had crazy energy, but at times it seemed like he had trouble keeping up with himself and either he was running out of breath or just forgetting his lines. His performance of "Get By" was crazy fresh though and had everybody waving their hands in the air and singing along.

Gangstarr did pretty much the same show I saw them do at the Panache Ballroom here in Springfield back in 1992, just with an updated song catalog. They put in a solid effort, but all of us were kind of disappointed with their routine and song choices. They neglected to do a lot of their classics and used up time they could've used pleasing their hardcore fans by rocking their own joints with pointless talking and a gimmicky "lets test the audience's knowledge of hip-hop" schtick that seemed kind of tired to us old heads. Being die-hard Gangstarr fans we were a little let down, not so much by their actual performance or energy level so much as their set-list and stage antics.

But when Common finally took the stage he tore the place down. Performing with a full band and accompanied by some nice stage lighting he rocked tracks from his recent 'Electric Circus,' many of his classic joints, some bugged freestyles and even a bunch of covers of classic hip-hop tracks by other artists. He, his band and his DJ's -- who did a dope two man scratch routine -- put on a tight show that represented hip-hop 100% but had a wholly enertaining musical edge that would please anybody who appreciates real musical artistry no matter the genre. I was a little irked that he didn't do "Aquarius" or "New Age" from the new album, but he more than made up for it by bringing Kweli out for an incredible version of "Respiration."

It was really DJ Twilight Tone who held the whole night together though spinning classic hip-hop tracks on the wheels of steel between sets. My man played the joints, and he played them well.

After the show we drove around Worcester looking for a spot to grub at. Unfortunately the only thing in the entire city that seemed to be open at 1:30 a.m. was an African hair braiding place. What the hell is up with that? Who the hell is getting corn-rows or hair extensions put in during the middle of the night? People in Worcester apparently.

Finding no food in the entire city we decided to break out towards home and grab something to eat at Denny's in Holyoke. The fact that that particular location is known for having some sexy Puerto Rican waitresses definitely played a part in our decision to chow there. Well, that and the fact that it's more minority friendly than some of the other Denny's in the region. As we were rolling down the Mass Pike bumping a c.d. copy of last week's episode of The Urban Alternative Show our discussion of these facts led into talk sparked by a little blurb in a recent issue of 'Vice Magazine' about how Denny's was origninally called Sambo's. That's some crazy shit. I guess there's still one last restaraunt still called Sambo's out in California somwhere.

When we finally got to Samb ... err, I mean Denny's we found a line of facifully dressed Puerto Ricans stretching out the door. We thought twice about trying to get a table since they were so busy but in the end decided to stay and wait. Once in line the ludicrosity reached it's zenith. As we were standing there waiting, a chick who Animated knew walked out and passed him without saying anything. He flew off the handle and yelled "What? You don't even know a brotha now?!?" as he picked up a Reminder Newspaper from a stack sitting there in the lobby and dashed out the door screaming "Biiiiiiiiitch ... what do you need? A Reminder?" only to throw the publication in her direction. Me, Masir and some random college looking guys standing there busted out laughing. Emeyesi had made his way to the front of the line to find out when we might actually get a table. Just then a guy who looked like an amalgm of Kenny Rogers and actor Jack Pallance or maybe The Gorton's Fisherman came in, walked right up to The Guru, pointed at him and screamed -- like Ghandi from MTV's 'Clone High USA' -- "Say Whaaaaat?!?!?!" This was too much and after this just about everything we said elicited peals of laughter from the afformentioned college looking dudes. Me, Animated and Masir being inspired by our audience and the presence of the strange amalgm man started an impromptu harmonized performance of Kenny Rogers' legendary hit song "The Gambler" which further elevated the humor level. The remaining time spent in line and every minute of our meal was filled with similarly entertaining ridiculousness. So much so that those same college dudes, now seated in the booth behind ours, spent most of their meal with food and soda shooting out their nose from laughing. We sang songs -- New Edition's "Cool It Now" & "Mr. Telephone Man" and Snoop Dogg & Pharell's "Beautiful" -- complete with beatbox accompaniment, imitated Chewbacca, made improper comments to scantily clad Latino women and heckled the freaky wanna-be lesbian couple sitting -- and groping eachother -- in a nearby booth.

Fun was had by all. So much fun in fact that I don't think I've enjoyed myself that much since I was a kid. Yes, the night was that fun. The only way I think I'll have as much fun again any time soon is if we can all get together again one night for the radio show, or maybe for a trip to the strip club. Ho-yeah!