Not that they take themselves too seriously or anything, but Enigma have placed a countdown clock on their website, enigmaspace.com, in anticipation of their new album, 'Seven Lives, Many Faces.' Before you soil yourself with excitement, don't believe the hype: the clock is for the European release from this German giant. Americans will have to wait eleven additional days -- to September 30 -- to get their hands on a copy.

In the album's press release, Enigma's Michael Cretu hints that the album, which was drafted from his digital archive of 400,000-plus sounds, is partially a cross-breed of symphonic string arrangements with driving hip-hop beats.

Never one for pretension, Cretu says, "The idea behind Enigma is to make the impossible, possible." They should probably start with more accurate, geographically-minded countdown clocks (which, by the way, is totally possible).

For then-drummer Darren Jessee, the breakup of his band Ben Folds Five in 2000 provided him an opportunity at the time to catch up living life and enjoy his new home of New York City.

"I basically took my time," he tells Spinner, "and started writing songs that I cared about. I just needed to find myself in some kind of way. Somehow it turned into a full-fledged project."

Thus began Jessee's new band Hotel Lights, which put out its self-titled debut in 2005. The group's second album 'Firecracker People,' was released this week and features Jessee's lead vocals, acoustic guitar and songs. The new album's atmospheric, subdued and sometimes melancholic sound is a departure from the rock music of his former North Carolina-based band.

"That's just how I've always kind of worked," he says. "Ben [Folds] was the primary songwriter for that other band. So I think that's the big difference. This sound of Hotel Lights is something I've been doing since about 2000, just kind of refining it and working on it."

Santa Cruz-based Sound Tribe Sector Nine (STS9) have always done things a little differently. (See: once touring according to the Mayan calendar and later, inviting artists of all kinds -- painters, writers, flower-arrangers -- onstage with them.) A favorite act at festivals like Bonnaroo and Rothbury, the instrumental trance-rock band's latest album, 'Peaceblaster,' is their most accessible album yet. "It's our Polaroid of America right now," bassist Dave Murphy tells Spinner. "It's a beautiful place. We live a peaceful lifestyle here, but there's also a real dark underbelly to it. It's reflected in the name, in the music, in the message and we felt like we really hit home this time."

And yet, 'Peaceblaster' might be the last CD the band ever releases. By traditional means, anyway. "For one, music has moved into a day and age when people are going to quit listening on CD players, so therefore the CD is an obsolete product if you will," Murphy explains. Additionally, for a band so environmentally conscious, it makes no sense to use all the resources it takes "to put out a CD and manufacture all that product to put out there when people aren't really buying that medium anymore."

The details surrounding U2's forthcoming album are coming out a slow trickle but here's another drop in the bucket: the effort will reportedly be titled 'No Line on the Horizon' and is expected to be released on Friday, November 14, according to a recent report in the Sunday Mirror. While the band's camp has yet to confirm the news, U2's record label, Universal, corroborated the story -- at least partially -- by registering the URL www.nolineonthehorizon.com.

According to the Mirror, songs set for 'No Line on the Horizon' include 'For Your Love,' 'Love is All We Have Left,' 'One Bird,' 'Moment of Surrender,' 'If I Could Live My Life Again,' 'The Cedars of Lebanon' and the title track. An additional report by a fansite revealed that Anton Corbijn and a crew of 19 shot a video footage for the latter -- tipped to be the first single and expected late next month -- with director Anton Corbijn in the Spanish city of Cadiz, although Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. were not present.

The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde recently unveiled new music from her band's first album in six years, and it may surprise longtime fans of the group's punk-fueled rock sound to learn that 'Break up the Concrete' finds Hynde in the country territory. As it happens, the shift shocks no one more that Hynde herself.

"I've avoided country music all my life," says the 56-year-old who has been living in England for the last 35 years, but has been spending more time lately in her hometown of Akron, Ohio. She quips that the geographical change has "perverted my sense of musicality," and adds, "It is odd though, isn't it, the way that country music and rock is such a separate industry here. It's nice to think we might f--- it up a little bit, and that they might not know where to play our records."

They've supported the Rolling Stones, been on the cover of NME twice and had a number one album in the UK, but this weekend's appearance at Lollapalooza marked the debut appearance of British rock trio the Enemy, in the USA.

The band, fronted by Tom Clarke, has been riding high on their debut album, 'We'll Live and Die In These Towns,' which hit U.S. shelves this week. And starting the band's seven date Stateside tour at a festival seemed perfect for an act, who spent all summer hitting big music events across the world. "They're pretty good," Clarke tells Spinner of his festival tour schedule. "There's normally a lot of mud and it rains, and it's bit sh---- like that. But when you get to a [certain] level, there's a lot of people that want to slag you off. It's a good time to change a lot of people's minds."

Clarke says he was proven right thanks to the message he's received on the Enemy's MySpace, which yes, the band checks themselves. And it was comments they got from early American fans that made them want to come Stateside so much, even though -- like many UK acts -- they'll lose money.

Now that we know the rumors were false and Daft Punk isn't currently planning a tour, we can bank that they won't be playing LCD Soundsystem's house anytime soon. So, to distract house guests from the lack of a certain French duo spinning in their living room (or, more likely, to keep busy during LCD's downtime), band leader James Murphy and his cohort Pat Mahoney are taking their 'Special Disco Versions' party on the road. The parties started at Santo's Party House in New York City as a monthly series the duo took up, as a hobby, when they came home from touring with LCD. his month, they'll bring the party to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as multiple dates overseas.

"We are playing other people's records -- it's not that exciting to watch," Mahoney says. "People look at each other and dance; it's fun to dance!" Indeed, it is. According to Mahoney, the soundtracks at these parties feature "disco anthems, electro-boogie, proto-house and weird stuff that we love."

We like dancing and weird stuff, too.

Singer-songwriter James Taylor, who has routinely supplemented his self-penned chart hits with takes on classic tunes such as 'Handy Man,' 'Up on the Roof' and 'Mockingbird,' is set to release an entire collection of remakes, spanning three decades of pop, soul and country music.

The appropriately titled 'Covers,' is due Sept. 30 on Starbucks' Hear Music label, and will be available at both traditional retail outlets and Starbucks locations.

Billboard.com reports that Taylor and his 'Band of Legends,' with whom he's been touring this summer, have put their unique stamp on everything from Big Mama Thornton's 'Hound Dog' and Junior Walker & the All-Stars' '(I'm A) Road Runner,' to Leonard Cohen's 'Suzanne' and Glen Campbell's 'Wichita Lineman.'

'Covers' is Taylor's first studio set since 2002's 'October Road,' and his second for Hear Music. He partnered with the label to release 'One Man Band,' a live CD/DVD collection, last November. See the full tracklisting after the jump.

With a new album on the way, former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland is mighty happy with his new project Black Light Burns. He's left Limp Bizkit in the dust.

"I have no plans on working with Limp again," Borland tells Spinner. "It's better for me for sure. I'm having a great time doing."

While Borland is in the studio recording a new album, he is pushing his band's covers collection 'Cover Your Heart and the Anvil Pants Odyssey,' a combination CD/DVD package due in stores Aug. 5.

Packed with reinterpreted songs of bands including Duran Duran ('Hungry Like the Wolf'), the Jesus Lizard ('The Art of Self Defense'), Sisters of Mercy ('Lucretia My Reflection') and PJ Harvey ('Rid of Me'), 'Cover Your Heart and the Anvil Pants Odyssey' could have been two albums, Borland says.

"It was probably the most fun I've ever had making a record," Borland, who drew the line at 10 covers, says. "The hard part was done. The songs were written. So it was just having our take on the songs, having our way with the songs and having fun with it."

Having fun for Borland means not only interpreting others' songs, but writing his own for Black Light Burns, which allows Borland to explore his musical and vocal side, something he was unable to do in Limp Bizkit. "I can write a song and know what it's about and tailor the music," he says. "It all makes sense together, instead of random lyrics on top of music that sounds cool."

On September 9, fresh-faced British rock trio, the Subways, finally release their second album, 'All or Nothing.' Produced by 'Nevermind' producer Butch Vig, the album is a long time coming, with their debut album,'Young for Eternity, having dropped in 2006.

It wasn't a lack of label, inter-band troubles or any of the usual rock tales that kept the group, who are currently on a brief U.S. tour, away. It had mostly to do with singer Billy Lunn's pipes.

"Since we finished touring in 2006 I've had vocal troubles," he tells Spinner. "We found out that I had polyps!"

After trips to a misdiagnosing doctor netted little effect on Lunn's condition, the group, who rose to fame in their native UK after the Glastonbury festival booked them for the summer romp, tried another doctor who sent him for surgery. "I couldn't speak for three weeks. I couldn't sing for two months after that and that was really difficult. I basically had to re-learn singing again," Lunn says. "It was like a rebirth basically."

The time couldn't be more apt for the release of the 3-CD collection 'Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 Presidencies.' With this highly watched presidential races coming to a close in just a few months, songwriters Christian Kiefer, J. Matthew Gerken and Jefferson Pitcher knew this was their chance.

What started as an album-writing contest in which Pitcher vowed to write 14 songs in 28 days has now become a project that will be released on Sept. 9. The collection features a gleaming cast of guest stars: Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon), Bill Callahan (Smog), Alan Sparhawk (Low), Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), Califone and Marla Hansen (Sufjan Stevens/Jens Lekman).

Kiefer said Pitcher, Gerken and himself wrote the songs for each of the 43 presidents, alternating songs so no one would have to be stuck in one time period. That was in Feb. 2006. "It eventually occurred to us that people might be interested in these songs, and all we had were these crummy demos," said Kiefer in an interview from his home near Sacramento.

'This is my bulls---,' Terrence Howard said as he introduced his album in an exclusive Spinner listening session. The Academy Award-nominated actor and self-taught guitar player glided into our New York office and previewed seven tracks off his upcoming album, 'Shine Through It,' which he finished, along with his 13 piece band, in six days.

"I'm no singer; I sing the way I talk," Howard admitted before pushing Play on the stereo. His raspy singing voice -- which can be easily compared to that of Seal or Ben Harper -- belts out introspective lyrics over horns, flutes and his own guitar riffs. "Every song is a different story for me," explains the actor turned musician, who was heavily inspired by beautiful women and precious love stories.

Black Kids have just released their debut album, 'Partie Traumatic,' but rather than celebrating with a fancy dinner and a heavy session at the bar, frontman Reggie Youngblood is on the phone. After spending months in Europe -- in particular the United Kingdom, where they've already had a Top 20 single -- the Florida-based indie-party band are finally back stateside and talking up the record.

"It's really kind of ass-backward for us to be popular there, being from the States," frontman Reggie Youngblood tells Spinner of the band's overseas success. "It just seems easier to get well known there quicker and in a way ... I always hoped it would happen that way."

While Europeans have had a chance to immerse themselves in the band's spirited blend of indie, dance and juvenile brat-pop, the band is thrilled about releasing their album in America. The effort was recorded this past spring in London with guitarist Bernard Butler of London Suede fame as producer.

Eminem is still hard at work on his first new album since 2004's 'Encore.' And, according to rapper Bishop Lamont, a protégé of Dr. Dre's who also records for the Aftermath record label, Em has recorded some "amazing stuff" for his long anticipated comeback album.

"Em is excited," Lamont told Entertainment Weekly. "He's been quiet too long, and he's got a lot to get off his chest. He went through what he had to go through. And now he's been able to take all the pain and stress and put it out in his music." Eminem gave his own brief update last month, telling listeners to his Shade 45 channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, "Everything is good. I'm just in the studio now working on songs."

Last September, while helping 50 Cent promote his studio disc, 'Curtis,' Eminem told New York radio station Hot 97, "It feels good now, the energy of the label [Aftermath]. I was going through some personal things. I'm coming out of those personal things. It feels good."

In 2006, Eminem – born Marshall Mathers – recoiled from the spotlight after the shooting death of his longtime friend and fellow artist Proof. Although no release date or official announcement has surfaced, Eminem's label, Universal Music, also confirmed the artist is in the studio. As for a possible title for Em's sixth disc, 'King Mathers' has been speculated, since it was mentioned in interviews with rapper Cashis and West Coast producer C Major, who both have ties to Eminem.