Guardian Music — (Warner Bros)When Steely Dan released Two Against Nature in 2000, it was as if their creative duo, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, had found nothing interesting musically to draw on in the two decades since their last release. But they've been on mor... more info

Guardian Music — The Californian hip-hop artist and record-digger extraordinaire on his love of James Brown, his thirst for new music, and why Dr Dre sounds like homeDuring his most intense period of collecting, Josh Davis, alias DJ Shadow, would spend several hours ... more info

Guardian Music — The time has come round again for this week's RR playlistAnother week, another Readers Recommend theme, regular as clockwork. Last week's call for songs about circles solicited some profoundly heady adventures into the subconscious and expressions of... more info

Guardian Music — (Atlantic)Releasing a covers album as the successor to Rumer's hit debut seems to have "stopgap" written all over it, but Boys Don't Cry is not entirely thus. Though made with the intention of keeping fans sated until the official followup to 2010's ... more info

Guardian Music — Rumer's second album features covers of songs written by men in the 70s, including this Neil Young classicIn a recent interview with Q magazine, Rumer, aka Sarah Joyce, was asked about the period following her platinum-selling debut album, Seasons of... more info

Guardian Music — Bass guitarist with Booker T & the MGs, the band at the heart of the Stax soul soundThe soul music created at Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, was an indelible part of the soundtrack of the 1960s. The magisterial and hypnotic bass-guitar lines on ... more info

Guardian Music — Booker T and the MGs groover was a familiar presence on blues and soul recordings and played himself in 'The Blues Brothers'Musician Donald "Duck" Dunn, the pioneering bass player whose grooves drove Booker T and the MGs and hits including Otis Reddi... more info

Core News — “Solid Steel in association with Serato (11th May) Coldcut open with the strange and wonderful Connan Mockasin and slide effortlessly into classic Issac Hayes and the Trojan sounds of Vin Gordon. It’s more reggae from Donovan Carless and Roy Pant... more info

Guardian Music — Guitarist behind the 'wacka wacka' sound on Isaac Hayes's Theme from ShaftThe film Shaft was notable for inaugurating the blaxploitation genre in Hollywood, winning an Oscar in 1972 for best original song. Composed by Isaac Hayes, Theme from Shaft â€... more info

USA Today Music — Charles "Skip" Pitts, who played the distinctive guitar in Isaac Hayes' 'Theme From Shaft,' died Tuesday. more info