by SHANE SINNOTT

Oasis have announced their intention to release a record this fall (Oct. 7), on their own label. It’s called Dig Out Your Soul, and Noel Gallagher is making of point of telling anyone who’ll listen that there’ll be no Radiohead-style downloading: “That’s not our bag,” he said to the BBC. “I didn’t spend a year in the most expensive studio in England, with the most expensive producer in America, and the most expensive graphic designer in London, to then give it away. Fuck that.”

And then on Radiohead: “To me, it looked like marketing—a great way of getting a load of marketing for free, really. But good for them. That’s what they do, they’re rebels and outsiders.” Anyway, if Oasis happens to be your bag, you can download the four most recent tracks to leak. These came out last month, and while they’re not on the tracklist for the new album, I presume it will give one an idea of what to expect. “I Wanna Live a Dream (In My Record Machine),” “Nothing on Me,” “Stop the Clocks” and “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” are all available at tinyurl.com/54qfck.

And now, with the business out of the way, on to the fun—Chinese Democracy, the supposedly forthcoming studio album from Guns N’ Roses. Following this one has become a small obsession for me, because there are so many great parts to the story. The album has been in the making for over 10 years, and currently more than $16-million has been spent on it, making it the most expensive album never released in history. The budget ballooned with things like weirdo studio musicians requiring chicken coops built in order to focus, and Axl Rose himself being given $1-million as an incentive, with another million promised if he finished within the year—back in 1999. Clearly, nothing is going to rush him, all of which makes it more fun when the inevitable leaks occur and Axl completely loses his shit. Three new songs (some are saying demos, others masters) came a couple weeks ago, which even resulted in the FBI visiting the guy who first put them up! Here’s two of them: “Rhiad and the Bedouins” (tinyurl.com/5vshlc) and “If the World” (tinyurl.com/579xzb).