It's taken ten years and an unthinkable amount of studio time but perhaps the most highly-anticipated album of all time will finally hit shelves this fall: ladies and gentlemen, Guns N' Roses' long-fabled 'Chinese Democracy' will be released on Sunday, November 23rd. Before you pinch yourself, there is a catch of sorts: It will only be available through Best Buy. Hence the Sunday release date as opposed to the industry-standard Tuesday. Of course, we're just happy for a release date at all, at this point.

We'll see how going exclusively through Best Buy shakes out for Axl Rose and his hired Guns, but this move is certainly not GNR's first unconventional record release. Their previous two studio albums were both released on the same day in 1991 ('Use Your Illusion' Part I and II, respectively).

While you're at Best Buy, don't forget to pick up CD-R's. After all, your friends will want to hear this too. (We're kidding. Seriously.)

Oasis' new album, 'Dig Out Your Soul,' released today, finds the Manchester band recapturing the swagger and craftsmanship that led them to the top of the music scene in the mid-'90s. Frontman Liam Gallagher tells Spinner the band knew they were onto something special straight away.

"Everything we was putting down was just coming out sounding f---ing great," he says. "The magic was there. You go into a studio to make great records all the time. Some days you come out with a record with a bit of magic on it, and this one's got it."

Oasis have been enjoying a resurgent rise in popularity, with a 'Q' magazine and HMV poll last year finding 'Definitely Maybe' and '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' named the best two British albums of the past 50 years, respectively. As a result of that surge, Gallagher is seeing some younger fans in the audience. "Now they come to concerts with their older brothers and it's getting a bit like that vibe with the Stones, which is cool," he says. "I'm good with that."

Green Day have tapped famed Nirvana producer Butch Vig to oversee the long-awaited follow-up to 2004's 'American Idiot,' as Vig's Garbage-mate Shirley Manson told talk show host Carson Daly on Friday night.

The move marks the first time Green Day has worked without producer Rob Cavallo since 1994's 'Dookie,' save for their self-produced 2000 effort 'Warning.' Vig, who in addition to working on Nirvana's '91 classic 'Nevermind', has worked with the likes of Sonic Youth and the Smashing Pumpkins.

Little else is known about the upcoming Green Day disc, which is expected in 2009. Earlier this year, the group toured briefly behind 'Stop Drop and Roll!!!,' the debut album from side project the Foxboro Hot Tubs.

The sound of Waylon Jennings is forever rooted in country music, and on what is being called his final recordings, 'Waylon Forever,' due October 21, it remains that way. But fans of the legend, who passed away in 2002, might have gotten a rather different portrait of the man if the original version of the album, which he began in the mid-nineties with his teenage son Shooter, had been released.

"They're really tripped out," Shooter tells Spinner. "[There are] like screaming guitars and drum machines and [it's] very like industrial-ish, 'cause I was really into all that s--- then."

Shooter, now 29, and a father himself (to daughter Alabama), said the original recordings were influenced thanks to his youthful interest in Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy and Ministry.

Lucinda Williams will follow her upcoming studio album 'Little Honey' with a digital-only EP comprised entirely of protest songs. The project, dubbed 'Lu in 08,' will feature four live tracks, including covers of Buffalo Springfield's 'For What It's Worth,' Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' and 'Marching the Hate Machines Into the Sun,' which teamed Thievery Corporation and Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne. Williams' own new tune, 'Bone of Contention,' which was originally intended for 'Little Honey,' rounds out the collection.

"It's a pretty powerful protest song," Williams told Billboard.com. "The track didn't come out the way I wanted it to [in the studio]. We went out to do some shows, and I played the song live by myself at Summerfest. It just came out killer."

Be it serious or ironic, everyone loves a good cover song (emphasis on good). NYC's indie darlings the French Kicks are no exception. To that end, the band released an EP this week comprised entirely of covers, titled, well, 'Covers,' which finds the Kicks taking on the Ramones, Zombies, Lindsey Buckingham and the Shirelles. Seriously.

The band recorded about 15 covers before settling on four. Frontman Nick Stumpf tells Spinner that the chosen ones were a mix of songs the band played when they first began, or tunes they played for fun at sound checks. "Some we just decided on the spot," he adds, "like [Buckingham's] 'Trouble', which was [guitarist] Josh's selection."

The French Kicks recently wrapped a jaunt at NYC's Bowery Ballroom. Stumpf says they'll head to the West Coast this winter (smart fellas), and fans will surely get to hear one of the new tunes. "[We] usually do at least one oc the covers live," he says.

Metal men Mastodon aren't wanting for famous fans. The Foo Fighters and Metallica, among others, have professed their love for the band, but it's one rocker's seal of approval that have Mastodon glowing: Bruce Springsteen.

You see, E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg's son, Jay, is a big fan of the band. "He's been coming out to see us play for the last like three or four years and we've maintained a relationship with him and his father over that period of time," Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor tells Spinner.

That friendship is what ultimately led Mastodon to work with producer Brendan O'Brien, who produced Springsteen's 'The Rising' and 'Magic.' "We went to [the E Street Band] show here in Atlanta, basically met [Springsteen] and sent him our demos," Dailer says. "I guess he dug it and we got the word from Bruce that [Brendan] was awesome."

Weezer haven't even launched their tour in support of the 'Red Album' (officially, their third eponymous disc), and already they're planning their next release. Drummer Pat Wilson told Billboard that the band plans to return to the studio in November, just a week after closing night for their month-long trek (which kicks off this Tuesday). For the sessions, they're bringing in producer Jacknife Lee and have already begun sending him sketches, ideas and loose demos.

Why the sudden productivity from one of those bands that's been known to, ahem, take their time between albums? Wilson attributes it to once-dictator Rivers Cuomo finally giving up his throne, allowing his fellow bandmates stake in the songwriting process. We were always under the impression that the democratic process makes things take even longer, but we're not complaining. After all, now that we have green, blue and red, by springtime we'll be ready for more colors.

On the heels of indie-rock stardom in Field Music, Peter Brewis is taking after his bandmate and brother David Brewis by releasing a side-project album under a pseudo-band moniker. Dubbed 'The Week That Was,' Peter tells Spinner that the music is similar to Field Music except that he "called all the shots" and wrote the music during a one-week creative spurt in which he turned off the television, shut down his internet and stopped reading the news.

"The original idea was to sit down for a week and write some songs based on a little story I'd come up with," Brewis says. "I didn't really intend to be so shut off but in doing so it certainly affected my state of mind and the content of the songs. Afterwards, I realized that I can't just cut myself off from things because I don't trust the presentation of whatever is going on. Actually, I realized that as I was writing the stuff. I just hadn't realized quite what I'd realized."

Perhaps Lars Ulrich finally learned the old adage, "Don't bite the hand that feeds." After infamously shaking his finger at the Internet's capabilities (file-sharing for those keeping score), the drummer is turning a new leaf in the wake of the leak of Metallica's new album, 'Death Magnetic.' The leak came to pass after a French record shop sold copies of the album nearly two weeks before it was due on shelves.

"If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days," Ulrich told his local Bay Area radio station Live 105 FM. "It's 2008 and it's part of how it is these days, so it's fine. We're happy."

Among the leaked new tracks on 'Death Magnetic' are 'The Unforgiven III,' 'The Judas Kiss' and 'All Nightmare Long,' which frontman James Hetfield tells Spinner "might end up being the third release." "Metallica is very grateful to still be around because of our near-death experience with 'St. Anger,'" Hetfield says in an upcoming Spinner interview. "'Death Magnetic' has a lot to do with that near-death experience -- the reality of it, but also the gratitude that comes afterwards with where we are now, remaining together and being able to do what Metallica does best, and that is create music."

'Death Magnetic' will be available for purchase on iTunes and other download portals on September 12.