A children’s book written by Paul McCartney, Geoff Dunbar, and Philip Ardagh is being made into an animated feature film and the ex-Beatle has signed on to write “a score of original songs” for the project. Variety reports the film, High in the Clouds, will be directed by Lion King director Rob Minkoff and adapted by Edward Scissorhands co-writer Caroline Thompson.

“The book, about a squirrel’s quest to find an animal sanctuary, marks McCartney’s largest involvement in an animated pic since the Beatles frontman was part of 1968’s Yellow Submarine,” Variety’s Michael Fleming wrote.

It looks like McCartney’s not going to let Jack White be the only one working on a dozen projects at once this year. As previously reported, if MGMT or Bob Dylan ever find his phone number, McCartney wants to work with them as well.

Radiohead and Nigel Godrich definitely have a Beatles/George Martin thing going on at this point: They have collaborated for fifteen years, creating some of the most critically acclaimed and classic records of those years. Now Radiohead is the biggest band in the world (sorry Bono) and Godrich is one of the most sought after producers. Nobody’s bringing Phil Spector into this relationship, however, as they are currently hammering out Radiohead’s 8th album and according to a recent interview with Godrich, nothing’s getting in the way of this “marriage.”

“We get inside each other’s underwear and brains and it’s always a completely different, completely unique experience,” Godrich told FTB Live’s Joe Colly on the difference between working with Beck or Radiohead. “You create something that you both love,” he added. “That is a very intimate experience and also a really wonderful one. I mean, my particular career has been based on a few different marriages to people, that’s the analogy, it’s like I have these very intense relationships with different people. It’s always a bit awkward when they’re all in the same room.”

Godrich goes on to describe how he loves working with Radiohead, is “happy to do just that,” and that he doesn’t fantasize about working with other artists. “I really don’t take on a lot of new projects now because I do a lot of Radiohead stuff, and at the moment I’m not a gun for hire. I don’t enjoy that, I never really did. I just feel like relationships that just develop over 15 years are much more productive. I’ll never find another band to have that relationship with.”

Sorry Kanye, Thom must’ve given you the cold shoulder ‘cause they’ve already got a man.

Jay Bennett’s sudden tragic passing not only marked the loss of one of the most talented musicians and producers around, but it also left the issues between Bennett and his former band Wilco sadly unresolved. Bennett’s former bandmate and songwriting partner Jeff Tweedy released a brief statement immediately following Bennett’s death, but now he has commented further on his confused feelings regarding the loss.

“I really hadn’t been in contact with Jay for eight years now,” Tweedy told Metromix’s Scott Timberg. “Obviously there’s a lot of ambivalence there—from the unplugging of our lives from each other… it’s a confusing thing. The tragedy of it is certainly not lost on me, and I feel it very deeply. He was an extremely bright, and gifted guy, and I wish he was still around and I wish I could have seen him thrive and flourish, especially in the years he’s been out of Wilco. And I feel really sad [he] didn’t in the way he was capable of.”

Everyone’s reporting today about the White Stripes’ upcoming Canadian tour documentary that I posted about a month ago and I’m feeling a little left out, so here’s a Jack White bit for the day’s festivities.

It’s well known that Jack’s a purist when it comes to retro recording techniques, but nowadays the Internet has become the bane of his artistic expression. Speaking to The Ampersand, the Dead Weather, Raconteurs, and White Stripes frontman sounded off on Pro Tools for the second time in as many weeks and added that though he can control his method of recording, but the release and promotion of his precious analog gems still requires that pesky series of tubes:

“Do I really need a MySpace page for this f—king music?” White asked. “Do I really need to do that? There’s a part of me, that just out of spite, says I don’t want to do it because it’s so antithetical to what I do. I just question what it all means. If a million people see your webpage, how many people actually buy something, buy a record or a song? Feels to me, if you give them a chance to fast forward, rewind, or click off to the next web page, they will do it.”

What’s more, the Internet also interfered with White’s Dead Weather unveiling. “If not for the Internet, we would have loved to have done six months of small clubs down south to really build up what we are and discover what we are,” White said.

Luckily, Jack’s just a little cranky about the digital revolution and not quite crotchety yet. By the way, one little bit about the upcoming film The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights which hasn’t made today’s reports is that it is slated to close the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Okay, I feel better now.

There’s something about buying Ryan Cabrera at Sam’s Club that makes total sense to me, but Bad Brains “Rootz Beer” and New Found Glory “Fufu Berry” just isn’t quite as appetizing.

The Daily Swarm reports that soda company Jones has partnered with PunkRadioCast and “5 of their favorite bands to bring you a special edition six pack featuring artwork from” punk pioneers Bad Brains and a couple newer bands like Thursday and Less Than Jake.

I suppose now that Henry Rollins works at NPR and Iggy Pop is an insurance spokesman, punk’s anti-capitalist posturing is kind of out the window. Besides, who said teenage angst can’t also be refreshing?

Oasis singer and fashion designer Liam Gallagher is so reliably negative that it’s really no surprise to hear he revels in concert mishaps and audience chaos. What’s kind of amazing, however, is that he’s willing to admit that Oasis shows are boring without conflict.

“I like it when s**t happens at Oasis gigs otherwise it’s the same gig really,” Gallagher told fansite Stopcryingyourheartout.com. Referring to a 2005 concert in which there was a 25 minute delay after a barrier was broken, Gallagher added, “I like s**t like that, as long as no one dies or gets hurt or gets the f**king fever cause they’re too cold. I like it when s**t happens like that because I think once you have seen Oasis once, you have sort of seen we don’t really do that much, know what I mean.”

Also, I could’ve predicted Liam isn’t a fan of Duffy, but I didn’t expect the AT&T commercial singer to accuse her of being a sell-out: “Duffy, she was alright ‘til she opened her mouth, the music’s alright, know what I mean, ‘til she done that f**king stupid advert and things like that… It’s f**king ridiculous.”

Drew Barrymore might think she’s too cool for Devo, but an all-star lineup of producers are eager to get their hands on the iconic 80s band’s new material. Though there was a rumor floating around that LCD Soundsystem mastermind and DFA co-founder James Murphy was slated to produce Devo’s first album since 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps, frontman Mark Mothersbaugh has now denied that Murphy is producing the entire comeback record. He did, however confirm that Murphy is interested in collaborating, as well as a few other well-known DJs.

“That was a total misquote,” Mothersbaugh told LA Times’ Scott Sterling of the Murphy rumor. “Gerald [Casale] had said we were searching for people like James to work with, which somehow turned into him helming the entire album. When we contacted him to apologize for the misunderstanding, he said he’d love to work with us. We played a Japanese festival recently between Justice and Fatboy Slim, both of whom said they’d like to work with us too.”

It’s possible that all three knob twiddlers could end up contributing to the as-yet-untitled album because Mothersbaugh also said he’s “looking for some outside mixers and producers that might want to have fun with a Devo song,” adding that they could be “as deconstructive or reconstructive as they want to be.”

Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, didn’t hold back his excitement recently when he discovered that Coldplay allegedly plagiarized his song (not Joe Satriani’s), saying, “if you listen to [Viva La Vida] it’s mine! It’s the Foreigner Suite, it is!” Islam also insinuated that he would sue the band, but he wanted to let the dust settle a bit on the Satriani lawsuit before moving forward. Islam has now taken his time to make peace with the borrowed melody and he wants to hug it out (technically, tea it out):

“I stand by what I said,” Islam told the Daily Express. “They did copy my song but I don’t think they did it on purpose. I have even copied myself without even knowing I have done it… I don’t want them to think I am angry with them. I’d love to sit down and have a cup of tea with them and let them know it’s okay.”

It looks like Cat Stevens really is that man of peace he claims to be, but the Flaming Lips are going to be annoyed to hear that Coldplay get to settle their spat over tea while they had to split royalties for cribbing “Father and Son.” Tea must be a great mediator for UK-born artists.

Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold truly knows the power of the internet when it comes to breaking new music: With the wind of glowing reviews from Pitchfork and countless mp3 bloggers at their back, Fleet Foxes became probably the biggest musical success story from last year and they even made the transition from online buzz band to household name look easy with their appearance on Saturday Night Live earlier this year. It’s very likely that illegal downloading also played a crucial role in his band’s explosion and Pecknold is not about to bite the hand that fed him.

“I think we’re seeing that now with tons of new bands that are amazing, and are doing way better music now than was being made pre-Napster,” Pecknold told BBC News. Not only does he think illegal filesharing has been good for music, Pecknold admits that it was integral to his musical upbringing: “That was how I was exposed to almost all of the music that I love to this day, and still that’s the easiest way to find really obscure stuff,” he added. “I’ve discovered so much music through that medium. That will be true of any artist my age, absolutely.”

And in case he wasn’t being enough of a thorn in the side to the infamous piracy flashlight cop the Web Sheriff, Pecknold drove the point home: “I’ve downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records - why would I care if somebody downloads ours? That’s such a petty thing to care about. I mean, how much money does one person need? I think it’s disgusting when people complain about that, personally.”