Supermachiner, the haunting, mostly instrumental side project from Converge members Jacob Bannon and Kurt Ballou, will soon have its complete 30-track, two-disc collection, Rust, available through Deathwish Inc. Listen to a few tracks here.

Big Business has announced the release of its new album, Mind the Drift, for April on Hydra Head. Listen to a new track, "Gold and Final," on the group's MySpace page.

Japanese post-rockers Mono have a new album, Hymn to the Immortal Wind, being released on March 24 on Temporary Residence. The album boasts guest contributions from a 28-member orchestra.

Seven Signs, the Southern culture documentary by J.D. Wilkes of Th' Legendary Shack Shakers, is now available on DVD.

Following the release of Old Money via Stones Throw on January 26, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez takes his group to Europe in March. Click here for a list of dates.

A new alt-metal super-group called Shrinebuilder is recording a debut album for Neurot Recordings, due this summer. The group consists of Wino (The Hidden Hand), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep), and Dale Crover (Melvins) and will be in the studio with Toshi Kasai (Big Business).

Orange Tulip Conspiracy, the exceptional multi-genre new group led by Estradasphere guitarist Jason Schimmel, will play a full US tour in May. If you're involved in setting up shows, you can help Schimmel fill in dates — head here for details.

Grandaddy singer/songwriter Jason Lytle has a solo debut album, Yours Truly, being release on Anti- on May 19.

Finger-tapping indie-rock specialist Kaki King is playing a "solo guitar and no other bullshit tour" in California from January 21-31. Head here for the dates.

Post-rock/jam keyboardist Marco Benevento plays a weekly residency in February at Yoshi's in Oakland in the middle of a handful of other West Coast dates. During the stint, Benevento will be joined by special guests that include Scott Amendola, Billy Martin, Reed Mathis, Jeff Parker, and Skerik.

California math-rock trio Tera Melos has a new EP of cover songs available to download for free. Band member Nick Reinhart also has new band with drumming wiz Zach Hill, called Bygones, that has a debut album set for release in March on Sargent House.

Starting today, the new Cattle Decapitation album, The Harvest Floor, is streaming in its entirety on buzzgrinder.com. The stream will run through January 19.

Thrash/punk four-piece Trash Talk has announced a handful of shows that span Japan, California, and Georgia (the state). The shows include performances with Fucked Up, Pig Destroyer, Converge, Torche, Mastodon, and Neurosis.

Hardcore tough guys Hatebreed have posted a cover of Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist" on their MySpace page. The cover is included in the soundtrack to Punisher: War Zone.

The Bad Plus: For All I Care (Heads Up International)
With a penchant for reworked rock songs, this hard-hitting jazz trio issues a new album full of covers. Three of the disc's tunes are classical pieces; the rest are rock/pop and include vocals, a first for the group.

Powersolo: Bloodskinbones (Crunchy Frog)
A pair of oddball Danish brothers, dubbing themselves "the Railthin Brothers," create eclectic, off-the-wall rock creations as Powersolo. This full-length follows their recent X-mas single Beam Mig Op, Jesus.

Zu: Carboniferous (Ipecac)
This experimental Italian trio combines sludgy alt-metal with complex rhythms and free-jazz freakouts. If it's possible, Carboniferous presents the group's accessible side for one of the winter's better albums.

March

Kylesa: untitled (Prosthetic)
With a new disc for Prosthetic Records, Georgian stoner-metal squad Kylesa issues its first full-length since Time Will Fuse its Worth from 2006.

Dan Deacon: Bromst (Carpark)
Electro-spazz solo artist emphasizes live instrumentation for this anticipated follow-up.

Jerseyband: untitled (self-released)
It's a downright travesty that this East Coast septet is unsigned. Horns + math metal = 100% awesome.

Spring

Mastodon: Crack the Skye (Warner Bros.)
Even when Mastodon issues a dud, it's better than 95% of all metal albums. Here's hoping that it's a return to the form of Remission.

Summer

Mondo Cane: untitled (Ipecac)
Mike Patton's orchestral Italian pop covers. Enough said.

TBD

Coalesce: untitled (Relapse? Hydra Head?)
This previously defunct hardcore outfit doles out crushing grooves, mathy rhythms, and the trademark tracheal attack of vocalist Sean Ingram. Following the outstanding Salt and Passage 7" from late 2007, the group unveils a proper follow-up to 0:12 Revolution in Just Listening from 1999.

Coliseum: untitled (Relapse)
These Louisville hardcore/metal staples Coliseum continue life as a three-piece with their sophomore effort for Relapse.

Converge and Supermachiner: untitled (Epitaph / Deathwish Inc.)
This isn't a joint release, but they're worth mentioning together as Supermachiner is a semi-ambient side project from Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou.

Crudo: untitled (Ipecac?)
Mike Patton and Dan the Automator, who were the heart of the Lovage album released in 2001, unite as Crudo for what should be one of the better hip-hop efforts of 2009.

Fantômas: untitled (Ipecac)
The brainchild of Mike Patton, Fantômas resurfaces after a four-year hiatus with another unpredictable release. The music could be anywhere between incongruous genre spasms and ambient dirges, but Rock-a-Rolla magazine says that it might be an electronic record.

Garage a Trois: untitled (Telarc)
Beautiful groove rock from vibraphonist/percussionist Mike Dillon, drummer Stanton Moore, saxophonist Skerik, and keyboardist Marco Benevento.

Isis: untitled (Ipecac)
These purveyors of epic, accessible heaviness have gotten progressively more melodic. Whatever this new album sounds like, it should take another step forward while remaining heavy as hell.

Medeski, Martin & Wood: Radiolarians 2 & 3 (Indirecto)
The famed jazz/jam trio continues its experiment of meeting for brief writing sessions, testing out that new material (and only the new material) on the road, recording the material, and then repeating the process.

Secret Chiefs 3: Book of Souls (Mimicry)
The long-awaited follow-up of Book of Horizons from this incomparable Indian/surf/metal ensemble. It has to happen this year…right?

Stoner-metal outfit Witch has announced tour dates starting in late February with Tee Pee Records labelmates Earthless. Head to Tee Pee for the list.

Due to illness, Afrobeat star Femi Kuti has canceled his North American tour that was set to begin on Wednesday, January 7.

In anticipation of Bromst, his new full-length album due on March 24, Dan Deacon has posted "Get Older," one of the album's tracks, on imeem. Deacon also has a split 12" with electronic brethren Adventure coming out on January 27.

Converge and Supermachiner (side project with vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou) each have a new album in store for 2009.

Bannon's new experimental project, Irons, has a split 12" with Pulling Teeth also due in 2009. Bannon's label, Deathwish Inc., has a glut of releases planned for this year.

Chinese-American composer Wu Fei will perform on January 16, 17, and 18 in China to celebrate the recent release of her new album, Yuan, on Tzadik. Details can be found at her website.

Watch the brief trailer for Mastodon's new album, Crack the Skye, at the band's website.

Fifty free pairs of tickets are being given away to Kronos Quartet's performance of Terry Riley's Sun Rings in France on January 16. To request a pair of tickets (by Monday, January 12), e-mail announcements@kronosquartet.org, with the subject line "Paris Sun Rings – MySpace", including your name and e-mail address in the body of your message.

Bassist/guitarist Reed Mathis, a founding member of 15 years, has left Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey to pursue other endeavors. The group has a lineup with two new members that will perform for scheduled shows in January and February.

Founding drummer Pat Pengelly has quit Bedouin Soundclash, making the group, for now, a duo with Jay Malinowski and Eon Sinclair. The group's February tour dates will remain intact.

These Arms are Snakes has announced a month-long US tour, primarily hitting the Midwest and East Coast, that begins in late February.

Madlib has a new disc for his Beat Konducta series — Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6 — that will be released February 10 on Stones Throw.

Danish weirdo rockers Powersolo will release their new album, Bloodskinbones, on February 23.

Via an interview with band manager Peter Mensch, the BBC reports that the instrumental members of Led Zeppelin — Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham (son of John Bonham) — are looking to tour and record a new album without Robert Plant. The article says that it is unknown whether the group will continue under the famous name, but in a separate interview with Mensch on musicradar.com, the manager emphatically states that "Led Zeppelin are over."

Apple is finally doing away with DRM protection (short for digital rights management) on its iTunes music files.

Tonight, punk ensemble World/Inferno Friendship Society will perform a special one-off gig at New York's Webster Hall. The show, a multi-media operetta based on the life of Peter Lorre, is part of the Under The Radar Festival.