Music news

By Aerin Raymond

Posted on Thursday, September 9th, 2004, 12:00 am

Alt-rock band Franz Ferdinand was the recipient of the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. Various players in the music industry were formed into a panel of judges, and chose their top 12 albums of the year. Franz’s album, which won the top prize of $20,000, was chosen along with others such as “The Streets,” “A Grand Don’t Come For Free,” and The Zutons’ “Who Killed…The Zutons.”

Lead singer Jack White of the White Stripes recently dispelled rumors that the Stripes were going to break up in an interview with NME. White shared that songs are in the process of being written for a follow up album to their sophomore album, ‘Elephant’. The band is said to be going into the studio as early as next month to start recording.

On November 2nd, coinciding with the presidential election, A Perfect Circle will be releasing a compilation album containing songs about war, peace, love and greed. It will feature some new material from the band, such as the recently released “Counting Bodies Like Sheep To the Rhythm of the War Drums,” as well as songs like “Imagine” by John Lennon and “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye.

Powerhouse group U2 has revealed six of the 11 track names on their upcoming album, due to be released from Interscope on November 23rd. Rumored to be the first single, “Vertigo” is due to be released to the airwaves in late September. Other song titles confirmed for the album include “A Man and a Woman,” “Crumbs From Your Table,” “Yahweh,” “City of Blinding Lights” and “Sometimes You Can’t Make it on Your Own.”

Chicago rapper Twista was injured in a van crash in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday. The driver was a member of Twista’s security staff, state police said. The van veered off Interstate 90 around 4 a.m. Monday and rolled over in the median. The rapper has been treated and released from a hospital.