ERICA: Greg and I went to see Coldplay this weekend and I cried. It was an eighth grade, passing notes in class, TLF kind of moment, but I cried nonetheless.

Five years ago I moved here to NYC from LA and made my way to the east coast with two friends on a crazy cross country trip. We brought a ton of music with us, but wound up basically listening to Coldplay's Parachute album on a constant loop for six days. Some people get super duper sick of an album after that much listening, but I swear if I could have dated an album, Coldplay and I would have been going steady for shizzle. I spent the next six months trying to find a job, an apartment and some friends...and the whole time I continued listening to Coldplay like it was my mission in life. As silly as I feel admitting this, Coldplay sort of got me through it all.I had a really magical moment at the meadowlands this weekend. The band started to play one of my favorite songs from that first album, and it just hit me all at once: How all of the things I was looking for 5 years ago have all managed to find their way to me in spades...every single one of them.

Dear God or whoever you are,

Thanks for reminding me that all of this wedding planning BS is about a 10 on a scale of 1-10 of things that are pretty unimportant in life. And also for reminding me how lucky I am to have a wonderful family, a whole new career and to have found such a groovy guy and a cute puppy dog.

Rock on,

Erica

Source: http://thebridalblog.observer.com

SONY and Bertelsmann, the partners in the SonyBMG music label, are preparing to retain investment banks to examine a deal that would see the German company sell its €1.5 billion to €2 billion (£1 billion to £1.37 billion) share.

Sony is expected to use Goldman Sachs, amid expectations that Bertelsmann will rely on JPMorgan — although Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank are still hoping to be involved.

The operation, which handles song copyrights for Robbie Williams and Coldplay, would attract interest from Universal, whose publishing operation is weak despite its size in recorded music. The less glamorous publishing business is traditionally more profitable than recorded music. EMI is the market leader with a global share of 20 per cent, while Warner Chappell is in second place at about 15.5 per cent.

Read the full article here

On the brink of topping the American Billboard Hot Dance Play Chart today is Mink, who is in the number two slot followed only by Coldplay's "Talk."

Other than the fact that Mink had enjoyed airplay in Japan, where she debuted, little had been known of her. However, the newcomer's song "Glory of Life" is one of the most played songs on the U.S. club scene. It turns out, though, that Mink is a 22-year-old Korean. She is currently signed with Japan's recording powerhouse Avex Trax.

According to a press release issued by Avex and distributed by local SM Entertainment Tuesday, Mink went to Japan in her early teens to study and landed a contract with Avex, one of the world's largest independent record labels in the world, after she sent in a demo tape.As Japan's top dance record company throughout the 1990s, Avex is responsible for producing some of J-pop's most popular singers like Amuro Namie.

Mink stands for "Made In Korea." "I thought that it would be nice to see people become happy from listening to the songs I sing," she said as the reason why she decided to pursue a career as a singer. Aside from listening to music, she also enjoys playing online games.

An animal lover, Mink also said she would like to involve herself in the animal rights movement.

Mink is set to release her second single "4 Love" on April 19.

"Eternal Love," one of the tracks on this album, is the title song of the soon-to-premier Japanese movie "Gamera." It's English version will also be released internationally, although a date has yet to be set.

Billboard magazine's Hot Dance Club Play Chart is a compilation of the most popular songs playing in U.S. dance clubs. It is issued weekly by the magazine, based on playlists submitted by club DJs.

Source: times.hankooki.com

Senoir boys at The Edinburgh Academy are wearing their green tweed jackets for the last time this week. After 40 years, the garment has been ditched from the school uniform.

A new blue blazer is being introduced in September, and after March 30 the boys will be changing to a lightweight navy blazer for the summer. Academy rector John Light said the school was situated on two nearby campuses, but was very much a single school. "We hope that by introducing a co-ordinated uniform we will reflect our one-school philosophy," he said.

Much of the new uniform is Academy blue in colour and has been designed around clothes worn by pupils in the school's archives. Former pupils who have worn the green jacket down the years include TV presenter Nicky Campbell, Coldplay guitarist Guy Berryman and Scottish rugby star Mike Blair.

Source: news.scotsman.com

The Football Association yesterday unveiled indie band Embrace as its choice to compose England's World Cup single, hoping the group's journey from obscurity to triumphant comeback can inspire the team to similar success.

Ending months of speculation tipping everyone from the Kaiser Chiefs to the Streets for the official soundtrack to England's efforts in Germany, the FA said Embrace had started work on the track, entitled World at Your Feet.

But the band made an unlikely comeback by returning to the top 10 in 2004 with Gravity, written by Coldplay's Chris Martin. Their subsequent album, Out of Nothing, confirmed their resurrection by also hitting number one, while the new single, Nature's Law, is at number two.

"The band can't wait to get into the studio and record the new track. We think we've got a really good song and hopefully it will repeat the success of previous songs, such as New Order's World in Motion," said lead singer Danny McNamara, who is accustomed to hearing the band's songs used as soundtracks for football highlights montages.Like the FA, he is hoping their 2005 single A Glorious Day proves more fitting to England's campaign than 1999's Hooligan. Past form suggests finding a formula that successfully combines terrace appeal, chart success and critical approval is difficult. On the Ball, by Ant and Dec, and On Top of the World, a bizarre collaboration between the Spice Girls and Echo and the Bunnymen, are among recent official efforts that have failed to set the charts alight. A poll by Littlewoods this year found that This Time, a tuneless attempt by the 1982 England squad, was considered the worst World Cup record of all time. But the FA's marketing manager, Tom Harold, said he was confident Embrace's song would "capture the imagination of the fans and players alike".

"The official England World Cup song has become something of an institution and it is really important that we have an original and exciting track," said Mr Harold.

"With only 75 days to go until England's first game against Paraguay, everybody has been asking who will get the gig. We'd like to think we've pulled off something of a coup by bagging such a great band and keeping it secret."

After early success during the heyday of Britpop, including a number one debut album, Embrace were close to splitting up after subsequent albums proved less popular and they parted company with their record label in 2002.

Mark Richardson, managing director of the band's record label, Independiente, said: "This is another high point for Embrace. Since the success of Out of Nothing they have gone from strength to strength. It's a great moment for us."

Melanie Johnson, the band's publisher at EMI Music Publishing, suggested the band to the FA. "Their music has an uplifting, anthemic feel which will capture the spirit of the occasion," she said.

The Kaiser Chiefs, also from Yorkshire, the winners of three Brit awards this year, had been strongly tipped to provide the official track. But it is believed the band pulled out of talks after news of their potential involvement leaked to the press.

Source: guardian.co.uk

Elbow has released a string of ambitious albums, but no masterpiece. Its 2001 debut Asleep in the Back evoked its title image by making you feel disoriented yet serene; the follow-up, A Cast of Thousands, coughed up bigger singles, louder guitars and a Gospel choir. Neither album put the band at the top of the British music scene—Radiohead strikes a better balance of mood and songcraft, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin gets The Girl—but Elbow’s unique atmosphere and creeping emotions always set it apart.

This time, the band has elected to not let great be the enemy of good. They’ve toned down their aspirations and settled for a solid, comfortable record, full of choruses that roll like hills, and love songs that coo and sigh. There’s no tension here, maybe because it’s a homesick album that’s already made it home; the band wrote the songs on the road, but recorded them in a cozy spot near its native Manchester, and you don’t listen to the result so much as put up your feet and lounge in it.

Read the full review here

Just call them the Blunos. Canada’s top music awards, the Junos, are sailing into Nova Scotia this week.

Canada’s sexiest export, Pamela Anderson, will play host for Sunday night’s live broadcast from Halifax on CTV (7:00 pm ET). Performers include Bryan Adams, Michael Buble and Nickelback [pictured], as well as British band Coldplay and U.S. group Black Eyed Peas.

Also scheduled to perform are Bedouin Soundclash, Broken Social Scene, Divine Brown, Hedley and Massari. Nova Scotia's Buck 65 will provide music throughout the show, including the opening.

Read the full article here

Glastonbury The Film is on its way to a cinema near you, thanks to Orange and Sony Ericsson.

The film, the first to provide a unique insight into the ‘ultimate’ live music festival, will be launched in key towns across the UK in April, supported by live acoustic sets.

Since the first Glastonbury Festival was held four decades ago in 1970, this semi-annual event has grown into the UK’s biggest music going extravaganza, frequented by some of the biggest bands in the world. Musicians featured include an array – from The Velvet Underground, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Primal Scream, Alabama 3, Billy Bragg, Cypress Hill, The Scissor Sisters, Radiohead and Babyshambles to The Levellers, David Gray, Bjork, Coldplay, Chemical Brothers, Stereo MC’s, Blur and Morrissey, amongst many others.

Read the full article here

Expanding its content library to include the largest catalog of recording artists, FunMail, Inc., a leading provider of mobile entertainment applications and services, has announced a mobile content licensing agreement with EMI Music, the world's largest independent record company. As part of the agreement, EMI artists, such as Coldplay, Norah Jones, Dem Franchize Boyz and Keith Urban, will be featured in FunMail's TrueTones Universe™ application, which is available through major wireless carriers throughout the USA.

"EMI's extensive music library incorporates all music genres, which will enhance TrueTones Universe's position as a leading source of mobile music entertainment," said Adam Lavine, FunMail's Chief Executive Officer. "TrueTones Universe enables mobile phone users to interact with content, and with each other, to personalize their mobile experience, which is the most important aspect of the mobile lifestyle."

Read the full article here

X&Y From A To Z

While most U.K. groups go down as easily in America as a plateful of haggis or a mug of room-temperature beer nowadays, there's one band that continues to lead a British invasion all on its own.

In fact, with their epic third album X&Y (13 tracks of universally appealing, U2-worthy rock--or "soft rock," as singer Chris Martin puts it), not to mention sold-out stadium tours and a regular spot in the tabloids thanks to Martin's high-profile marriage to A-list actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Coldplay seem on the verge of genuine world domination.

Read the full article here

When Coldplay cut A Rush of Blood to the Head, the rock band didn't want the album's production and distribution to add to the greenhouse gases flowing into the atmosphere. So, working with a small British firm, the CarbonNeutral Co., the group bought 10,000 mango trees for villagers in Karnataka, India. Since plants breathe in carbon dioxide as they grow, Coldplay figures the mango trees will eventually neutralize all the CO2 released in the making and selling of its CDs.

It's a sweet deal all around. Coldplay gets to do right by the environment; the impoverished Indian villagers not only get the mangoes but will also earn money from the CO2 locked in the trees when the gas is sold on a surging new market--one that trades carbon saved for carbon burned.

Read the rest of the article here

Bertelsmann is making preparations to sell its music companies as Europe's largest media company fights to maintain its private status.

People briefed on the plans said it had mandated investment bankers to prepare disposals of its music publishing catalogues and its stake in Sony BMG, its recorded music joint venture with the Japanese group.

Four people familiar with the company's plans said a sale was under preparation, though still at an early stage. The group is examining the sale of its 50 per cent stake in Sony BMG and of its wholly-owned BMG Music Publishing division, which has the rights to more than 1m songs from artists including Christina Aguilera, Keane and Coldplay.

Read the full article here

I know, it's only frock 'n' roll but they like it, like it, yes they do.

Musicians love to shop. The guys from Oasis, here for an ACC gig early this week, had been spotted everywhere from Roots to Harry Rosen's and Uncle Otis in Yorkville. Dropping by Roots for T-shirts, sweats, jackets and shades has been an Oasis ritual for the past decade. Roots even specially made a pair of negative-heeled shoes called Manchester City Blues for Liam Gallagher and his wife.

Coldplay's Chris Martin, who played ACC later in the week, strolled Queen St. W. and dropped by the sporty store Billabong. But presumably not for a little something for the fashionista wife, Gwyneth Paltrow.

Read the full article here

"I can’t stand biographies. Most of them are just bollocks, aren’t they? I’d like a biog that just has a list of what I’ve done and a few quotes. As little soapy bullshit as possible please. That would be top. Thanks." - Richard Ashcroft, November 2005

Well, you heard the man, so let’s keep this simple. Keys To The World is Richard Ashcroft’s third solo album, following July 2000’s Alone With Everybody and November 2002’s Human Conditions. He wrote its ten songs (which last 44 minutes) over a number of years, but recorded most of them over a few days in Richmond, west London.

Keys To The World, which was released this past Tuesday, March 21, debuted at number two in the UK when it was released last month. Currently, Ashcroft is touring in support of the album on the Coldplay tour, which wraps up on April 6.

Source: filter-mag.com

Death, if we're so lucky, comes in the waning years of one's life. It would arrive with little suffering, as painless as closing your eyes and entering a deep sleep. Some of us aren't so lucky. My iPod wasn't. It suffered. And I cried a thousand tears.

On Monday, Feb. 27, 2006, at approximately 4:10 p.m., my 20-gigabyte, special-edition U2 black-and-red iPod died. No warnings, no goodbyes. It happened as I exercised on the elliptical machine at the gym. Its last words were: "You're seeing the world through cynical eyes"... ("All Possibilities," by Badly Drawn Boy). Then the screen froze.

Have you ever lost a childhood pet? That's how it feels. You don't appreciate it until it's gone, and then you think about all the good times you've shared. One time, I jogged along the lake with Outkast blaring its Deep South brand of hip-hop. I never ran so far and so long in my life. There's the time my desk mates at work were yapping about this, that and the other. I slipped on the white ear buds, thumbed the click wheel clockwise to turn up the volume, and let the outside world drown in a sea of Coldplay.For the fiercely loyal 42 million iPod owners worldwide, this is our worst nightmare realized.

As the elliptical machine in the gym came to a stop, I held down the menu and select buttons to reset the iPod. A folder with an exclamation point popped up, with a Web address for Apple Support. I reset the iPod once more, and the same screen came up, followed by a whirring sound, like it was crying.

And then, for a moment, I coaxed some psychic echoes from the player -- a few scraps of songs -- only to have my hopes dashed. Freeze. Whirr. Nothing. The bus ride home was the longest 15 minutes of my life.

The iPod helped me get in shape, making the treadmill less of a chore. It helped me ignore both panhandlers and Greenpeace volunteers. It was my lucky rabbit's foot, my medulla oblongata, the wind beneath my wing. Did it ever know it was my hero?

The memories flooded back as I walked into the Apple Store on Chicago's Michigan Avenue the next day. The man at the counter held the iPod to his ear, listening to its inside. The same whirring sound came up. And then, with as much sympathy as diagnosing a hangnail, he told me: "Hard drive failure." My stomach sank.

He explained several options. Apple could fix the iPod, but that would likely cost more than the device itself. I could take it to a third-party repairer, but that would involve mailing my iPod away to strangers, for days and possibly weeks at a time.

His last suggestion, the one he gave the most enthusiastic pitch for, was for me to buy a brand-new iPod. The new one has a screen in color, it hold holds more songs, and hey, it plays videos! Awesome! I walked out.

Since the death of my iPod, I've been lumbering around with this unwieldy apparatus called a portable CD player, a device I purchased more than a decade ago. Besides the fact it only plays a dozen songs at a time, doesn't really work while jogging, and requires four fresh AA batteries every other week, it still works like a charm. Hmmmm.

I now ponder the $299 question. As much as I question the worthiness of a new video iPod (under my previous, $350, special-edition iPod's lifeline, it worked out to $21.81 a month), I'm resigned that it's not a matter of if, but when I'll buy a new one. But there's something about ol' Poddy I can't let go -- the scuff marks, the way it contours in my hands, the arresting red click wheel. But then I remembered...

When I was younger, I found my pet goldfish floating lifeless on the surface one morning. After it went round and round down the porcelain grave, my parents bought a new goldfish from the pet store that same day. I could barely tell the difference.

Source: kansas.com

Snow Patrol, the emotive indie U.K. outfit fronted by the lanky, tender-voxed Gary Lightbody, return with their fourth album, Eyes Open, May 1st.

The follow-up to 2004's Final Straw -- boosted by the Coldplay-esque single "Run" -- was crafted with longtime producer Garrett Lee over the course of a year in the band's country of Scotland, and in a renowned little house at a dramatic location on the Irish coast."We were staying in this place called 'The Roundhouse,'" drummer Johnny Quinn says of the band's six-week stay last summer. "It was just this round house perched on a cliff in one of most westerly points. Kate Bush used to go there to write songs. The front living room we converted into a little rehearsal/recording studio with a panoramic view across the Atlantic."

The time spent in near-isolation allowed new bassist Paul Wilson, who replaced Mark McClelland last year, a chance to settle in without distractions. "It was really important that we got away from everything else and got reacquainted with each other," says guitarist Nathan Connolly.

After writing a host of cuts including "Chasing Cars" and "Beginning to Get to Me," the band returned to Scotland, where Lightbody wrote some of his deepest and darkest lyrics to date. "I purposely went off on my own and kind of went mental, really," the singer admits. "I was unhappy in many ways, and very broken after two-and-a-half years of touring. All my relationships were fucked-up. I wanted to repair myself, so I basically cut myself up and put myself back together again and [that led to] some really dark moments on this record."

More ominous lyrics are at work on tracks like "Headlights on Dark Roads," which Lightbody says was like an outpouring. "The rawest kind of lyrics -- 'I'll pull the thorns from our ripped bodies and let the blood fall in my mouth,'" he says. "It's terrifying imagery, but I was really angry." The singer pauses, then adds, "Obviously, I'm not a vampire. It's a metaphor."

On the opposite end of the spectrum is a cut like "Chasing Cars," which the band demoed live at California's Coachella festival last spring. "It's the purest love song that I've ever written. There's no knife-in-the-back twist," says Lightbody. "When I read these lyrics back, I was like, 'Oh, that's weird.' All the other love songs I've written have a dark edge."

Despite his talk of heavy themes, Lightbody hopes Eyes Open is a complete emotional journey. "At the end of the record, there is a kind of happy ending," he says. "I didn't want to leave people feeling kind of angry. I think the record -- stealing a line from U2 -- there is a kind of arc in it, a dramatic arc. It twists and turns. I think you need to show the darkness to show how amazing the light is."

Source: rollingstone.com

The Philosopher Kings have been revving the mojos of the Canadian populace for over a decade with hit singles like "Charms," "Hurts To Love You" and "If I Ever Lose This Heaven." After a long hiatus where other side projects (Jarvis Church, Prozzak) were explored, TPK have their fourth studio album, Castles, ready to drop on Valentines Day. And although their music is always very soothing and full of suave sexual energy, when frontman Gerald Eaton is given the opportunity, he'll raise that deep voice of his and let loose on the ridiculousness of the music industry...

Are you finding that the industry isn't geared toward making careers anymore? It's more about those three singles?

Absolutely, it's over the top. It's such a sad thing. Kelly Clarkson is one of the biggest stars in the world. If her second album sucks, or doesn't have hit singles on it, she's gone. No one cares. It's not like Prince. We love Prince. He can do five shitty albums. You don't care. It's incredible. So few people have careers. It's because they're not building them the right way. I think it's just the type of career that they're making. If somebody said to me, "Hey, with The Philosopher Kings, we can build a TV show around you, drop $10 million into you. And in a year from now, you can be as big as Coldplay or U2," I don't think I would say no, but it's not to anyone's blame. Kelly Clarkson's lucky. She's a superstar all over the world. She's great. I just think they [the industry] have gotten insanely greedy and insanely overpaid. And they're used to enormously ridiculous lifestyles. The A&Rs roll around like they're rock stars with limos and bodyguards. At Columbia and Sony, that's how it is. Those guys are like rock stars. Labels don't need to be in office towers. Everybody who works at the label can be doing that at home on their computer.

Read the full interview here

Americans have been hearing about the next big thing in British rock, and wanting to believe it, ever since the Beatles made their clamorous stateside debut at New York's Shea Stadium in 1964. That may help to explain the scepticism, and the disappointment, that has greeted the Arctic Monkeys as they tried to replicate their impact on British pop culture on the other side of the Atlantic.

"Overhyped Monkeys," was the verdict of one critic. He was not alone. The Sheffield band made a mediocre impression when they appeared on the cult television comedy show Saturday Night Live, and failed to come over as much more than a pleasingly energetic garage band when they played the showcase performance at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

Coldplay: In 2001, Parachutes found its way on to a host of critics' "Top Tens" and fans embraced the band as the "nice guys" of British rock. The band now has a clutch of Grammys under its belt. Nobody thought they were terrible. Plenty of critics, in Canada and the US, liked their playing, liked their lyrics, liked their energy and honesty. Some even said they held the promise of future greatness. But almost none was prepared to say the greatness has already arrived.

"The complete package is damn fine. For about two or three tunes," the Canadian critic Stuart Derdeyn wrote after their Austin show. "Then you start grinding your teeth, and believe you've been had by the Brit music machine once again."

Variety had a similar reaction to a show in Los Angeles. "Maybe this was an off night," the entertainment journal said. "Perhaps, for all the sales and hype, the band has been brought up too quickly and isn't ready to headline." Word of the Monkeys' soaring reputation preceded them. Their US tour sold out in minutes, and they were the most hotly anticipated act at South by Southwest which attracts one of the most discerning, and influential, audiences of any music festival in North America. The Austin festival glaringly failed to give them the accolade of best band; that honour went to another bunch of Brits, Art Brut.

"They were risking it, an all-in move for more attention," New York Newsday wrote. "They weren't ready. Their set seemed nervous and rushed, though still adequate. Singer Alex Turner, whose well-written, detailed lyrics are a high point of the band's mix of raging, punkish guitars and Britpop pomp, was bratty, and, at times, inscrutable."

Arctic Monkeys are due to play tonight at Webster Hall in New York tonight, followed by three other US dates - in Philadelphia, Washington and Seattle - then fly to Japan. They return to Britain next month.

A tough market to crack

* The Beatles: The Fab Four stormed America on their 1964 tour, topping both the singles and albums charts.

* Oasis: The band lost their chance to break into America when Liam Gallagher abandoned the 1997 Here & Now Tour, leaving Noel to play a disastrous LA gig.

* Robbie Williams, right: Despite repeated efforts to take his European success Stateside, EMI was forced to say Williams had ruled out US plans.

* Coldplay: In 2001, Parachutes found its way on to a host of critics' "Top Tens" and fans embraced the band as the "nice guys" of British rock. The band now has a clutch of Grammys under its belt.

Source: Independent

Ok.. so I was the "big" winner of the Fan Cam contest by Global Canada and EMI Records.

Day 1: March 21

We get to Toronto (four hour flight)

Nothing special happens...

Read the full story here

You can discuss this story here [thanks dajrekshn]

Julien Temple whittled down 54,000 minutes of home-movie footage to create the ultimate Glastonbury movie. You can practically taste the mud, says Patrick Barkham

Previous attempts to capture the craziness of the festival have fallen flat, perhaps because Glastonbury is all so unreal. This time, Temple, who made the classic Sex Pistol films The Great Rock’n'Roll Swindle and The Filth and the Fury, issued plea after plea for amateur videos taken by punters at the festival.

Deluged with 54,000 minutes of footage, he whittled it down to 128 that knit together an uncompromising tale of Glastonbury that comes as close to touching, hearing and feeling it as possible. It’s accompanied by plenty of Temple’s own camerawork, and BBC coverage of legendary performances (from the Chemical Brothers to Coldplay and Morrissey to the English National Opera). But the real stars are the tribes of festivalgoers - travellers, entertainers, drunkards, revellers, lads, girls, goths and trendies: everyone who picked up a video camera when they shouldn’t.

Read the full article here

Mark Steel has well and truly made it: his name was recently the answer to a question on University Challenge.

But it is as a stand-up comedian that Mark first made his name, and this spring he is touring with his new show, Vive La Revolution, stopping off at Llangollen, Bangor, Aberystwyth and Cardiff. Capitalising on the success of his book of the same name, it mixes trenchant humour with tales of The Terror, tumbrils and turmoil during the French Revolution.

"Last summer at the Glastonbury Festival, Tony Benn was due to give a talk in a tent holding 4,000 people. When I went along, I couldn't get in!

"Benn is the very opposite of Tony Blair - no spin,, just principles. He had this tremendous opening line: 'I've given up protesting. Now I'm going to start demanding!' The place went absolutely mad. Coldplay didn't get such a rapturous reception - and the great thing was, the average age must have been about 20."

Read the full article here

No rock assault since the '60s British Invasion has beat The Beatles or even whipped Cream, despite a steady influx of UK talent that conquers charts at home.

Oasis spearheaded a '90s wave before washing out. U.S. fans also tuned in for Radiohead and, to a lesser degree, Blur, Elastica and The Verve. (Related story: Elbow your way into 12 others, for maximo effect)

Mellower fare fared better. Coldplay's piano-driven pop seduced the U.S. mainstream, and crooner James Blunt's current No. 2 album status marks another successful leap across the pond.In the growing sphere of rowdy, brainy rock, Franz Ferdinand made a sizable splash, and Kasabian and Kaiser Chiefs saw modest gains here.

Now a new rock incursion is rolling, led by the Arctic Monkeys, a frenetic foursome from the grim industrial town of Yorkshire in the North of England. Preceded by heaps of hype, the Monkeys seemed poised to endure the same rebuffs suffered by other hot bands who stumbled at the doormat on U.S. shores. But the authentically cool Arctic outfit found acceptance on the airwaves with catchy single I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, and stateside fans seemed to connect to the youthful, smartly crafted rock tunes on Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. The album entered Billboard at No. 24 and has sold 98,000 copies. It's also No. 10 on Billboard's new "coolest garage albums" chart, annotated by Sirius' Underground Garage radio host Steven Van Zandt.

Two imports showing similar promise for U.S. success are Hard-Fi and The Subways, both already stars on their home turf.

The Subways

One incentive kept The Subways on track. Woodshedding in the sterile London suburb of Welwyn Garden City, the trio honed its sunny, hook-laden rock with a single aim in mind: Get out of town.

"It's a very boring area," says singer/guitarist Billy Lunn, who's joined by brother Josh Morgan on drums and girlfriend Charlotte Cooper on bass. "The prospects, job-wise or socially, are limited, and I suppose we always had this fire in our belly to get out and have a voice. That's why we took to music. There was nothing else for people our age to do, apart from get drunk or watch TV or play football in the street. It's Stepford Wives territory, where everyone has a social front. We're the first to break away and say that everything's not really cool here."

The really cool appraisals went instead to The Subways' songs. After a slew of homemade demos and EPs, the band released Young for Eternity, a pop-punk blast of uncorked energy and confidence that drew raves in the UK last summer. The trio got an unexpected stateside profile boost when The O.C. cherry-picked Rock & Roll Queen for an episode last November. The song subsequently spent three months in the Modern Rock airplay top 40.

"We're underdogs here," says Lunn, 21. "We have to work for it."

To that end, The Subways are on a U.S. tour and, except for six weeks spent recording Eternity, haven't left the road since winning the unsigned-act competition at 2004's Glastonbury Festival. While they have escaped Welwyn, they aren't London-based, as a label bio states.

"We're based on our friends' couches and in our old rooms at our parents' houses," says Cooper, 19. "What we have in common is that our parents loved to travel, so touring comes natural to us. We're a band of gypsies."

Handy segue. While The Subways turned to such age-appropriate influences as The Pixies, The Jam and Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix also looms large in their tutelage.

"I had renegade parents," Lunn says. "Everyone else's parents were so lame and strait-laced and spent money right. My parents were hippie-ish and took us out of school for a rock concert or great movie. Their record collection was really important to me. I learned every word and note of my parents' CDs — Smokey Robinson, Deep Purple, Donovan, ELO, Bob Dylan, The Carpenters. It was very eclectic."

But it wasn't until Lunn got an earful of Oasis that he found a separate identity.

"My parents' music shaped me as a person, but Oasis felt like my band, a CD I could hand down to my kids," he says. "That's when I wanted to play guitar. I wanted a way to sculpt my thoughts, and with music I felt I could be articulate. It was the same with Josh, a frustrated soul who finally found his channel."

As young teens, Morgan, afflicted from childhood with the developmental disorder dyspraxia, and Lunn bashed out 30-minute "awful but colorful" Hendrix jams.

"I was an active little kid and I always listened to exciting music," says Morgan, 19. "My dad was into Hendrix. I was into T. Rex. My parents bought me a drum kit to make life a bit easier for themselves. It calmed me down and gave me a way to vent my aggression. I taught myself."

At first, Cooper idled nearby. One day, Lunn handed her a guitar and taught her Nirvana's About a Girl. A week later, the trio played in a local talent show.

"When Billy asked me to join, I was really excited about the challenge musically," she says. "I'd been playing flute and piano since I was quite young. I had only played classical music in orchestras, so it took me a while to get confident."

The band recorded demos in a kitchen with a borrowed mixer. In 2004, Lunn paid his dad 10 pounds a day to drive the band to 35 venues. The band built a fan base through non-stop touring and a website (thesubways.net, plus a MySpace page with 35,000 friends). A second album is half-finished, and The Subways foresee a long future, even as cynics wonder how they'll beat the curse of rock bands with brothers (The Kinks) or couples (Fleetwood Mac).

"I never thought it was a dangerous prospect until journalists brought it up," Lunn says. "It does get intense, because we know the maps of each others' heads, and we know where the self-destruct buttons are. But I feel more open with these guys. I can trust them. As for Charlotte, we have tunnel vision. We want to be together forever."

Morgan accepts volatile chemistry as a natural risk of family.

"I have mood swings like mad, and go from nice to horrible really easily," he says. "I like a little space where I can sit and read my books. Instead of throwing punches when Billy annoys me, I save it for the show and take it out on my drums. In this band, somehow the negative ends up positive."

Hard-Fi

Richard Archer held jobs as an airline caterer, photocopying temp and costumed Indian in a theme park. "Anything to bring in a few quid to buy records," he says.

Now he'd like to serve the music-loving public as a global rock star. As the singer for Hard-Fi, he's off to a fine start.

"We want to be successful," says Archer, 28. "We want to play places around the world. Forget the whole British indie-band mentality where it's uncool to say you want to do well. They're just scared to say that and fail and then hear people say, 'now where are you?' If you're like that, you'll never get anywhere. I've failed, and I can deal with it."

Looks like he won't have to. Q anointed Hard-Fi "the next major British band." The band's debut, Stars of CCTV, topped the chart in the UK, where it sold more than 500,000 copies and was named album of the year by NME. Released here last week, Stars "is that rare British import that lives up to the advance billing," states Billboard. Elton John declares it a keeper.

"It reminds me of The Killers' Hot Fuss," he says. "Every track is great."

Archer feels vindicated.

"We did this on our own terms," he says, calling from a tour bus during a 10-hour drive across Germany to a gig in Dresden. "We worked hard, and we're proud of it. Some people said, 'You're not good enough, it can't be done.' Now they're choking on it."

That negativity had dogged Archer after his earlier band, Contempo, folded. Archer returned to his bleak hometown of Staines, west of London, and formed Hard-Fi with guitarist Ross Phillips, bassist Kai Stephens and drummer Steve Kemp. They recorded a mini-album on a used computer in a rented taxi office for roughly $500 and pressed 1,000 copies to sell at live shows and via the Internet.

"Why succumb to being pushed around by a major label?" Archer says. "There are other ways of skinning this cat. People think a record deal is the be-all and end-all, that a label will spend loads of money. But it's not always in the right places. I've recorded in an expensive studio, and a lot of times the recordings I did at home had more character."

Home is where Archer honed his musical talent and philosophy, starting at age 5, when an older cousin let him pound on her keyboards and guitars. Never active in sports, he began seriously playing instruments at 8, writing songs at 12 and forming "awful rubbish" bands at 13. His older brother introduced him to vintage sounds, and he grew up on a varied sonic diet that included reggae, punk, disco, retro soul and rock, all of which later filtered into Hard-Fi.

"(The band would) listen to Happy Mondays and The Ramones next to The Streets, next to Run-DMC, Nirvana, Nina Simone and Freda Payne," Archer says. "As long as it's a good track, we didn't care what anyone else thought."

Seeking inspiration to pen new songs, he didn't find it on London's alt-rock stations.

"A lot of my contemporaries sounded like they were trying to be deep but didn't actually say anything," he recalls. "They were making music for style cliques in the city. It took Morrissey, who was knocking on 50, singing First of the Gang to Die, to get me thinking. I started writing about my surroundings."

That meant debt-sweating hit Cash Machine and propulsive tunes about bored and broke teens in dead-end jobs and blue-collar purgatory. "There are towns like Staines all over the world," Archer says. "When I heard Nebraska, I got what Bruce Springsteen was talking about."

Hard-Fi's self-financed disc sparked a bidding war, attracting offers from every UK label and several U.S. companies. The band settled on Atlantic and reissued Stars of CCTV with five additional songs. Swept up by the band's dub-charged dance-rock, critics coined the style "diska," a mash-up of disco and ska. Says Archer, "We like to call it hard-fi."

Source: usatoday.com

This from The Sun (UK) newspaper:

Embrace frontman Danny McNamara has pleaded with my army of readers to help the band get to No1 tomorrow.

Yesterday I told you how a cock-up in counting downloads of new single Nature’s Law could mean the boys don’t hit the top of the charts. The band were woken up by panicked text messages from friends who had read Bizarre — and are now doing everything in their power to overhaul NE*YO in the race for the top.

Someone who will be as pleased as Danny if Embrace get their first ever No1 single will be Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.Danny told me: “Right now, if those lost sales were taken into account, we’d be No1.

“But we can still do it. We’ve done so many different versions of this song that fans can download and will count towards our chart position.

“At www.embrace.co.uk you can get live performances, an orchestral rendition, the first ever run-through we did of the song and even a version where all the words are changed as I got self-conscious and started trying to be clever.

“If Sun readers can download them and make a difference it would be amazing. If we do get to No1 we’ll come into your offices to thank everyone personally. We’ll even take the Bizarre team out for dinner!”

So come on, everyone — get that single.

Chris helped launch the band back into the spotlight by penning last year’s comeback track Gravity – a song which moved them out of their day jobs and back into the charts.

Danny added: "When Chris found out Nature’s Law was No1 in the mid-weeks he phoned me – but couldn’t stop laughing.

"There’s an answerphone message on my mobile where Chris says ‘Danny, I’ve just got your text about the mid-weeks…’ and there’s a minute of him just laughing before he adds, ‘that’s bloody brilliant news’.

"The guy can’t control himself – he’s just totally made up for us!"

Coldplay’s fourth single from X&Y, The Hardest Part is catchy and easy to listen to, but unfortunately in exactly the same way as any other Coldplay single is.

The song lives up to the band’s usual high standard of radio-friendly sublime ballads. It’s excellent mellow music to have in the background and wind down to, it’s instantly accessible to the listener and has almost universal appeal.

Somehow sounding familiar on even the first listen, it takes us through with the same mid-tempo pop fronted with unremarkable lyrics before the same old kick into a falsetto-laden chorus, much the same as Clocks or Speed of Sound.

The Hardest Part is by no means a bad song. It’s actually quite a good song, but with little different to recommend it from those that have come before it from a band which has found a winning formula and seems happy to stagnate and rest on their laurels.

Source: digitalspy.co.uk

Sinclair Broadcast Group has reached a distribution agreement with The Tube Music Network to broadcast the Tube's music channel to its markets.

The Tube bills itself as the first music network to be distributed through "digital multicasting." Viewers of Sinclair stations can get the network on their digital cable tier, or free over the air on television sets equipped with digital tuners. The network has no non-music programming, and viewers can buy the music they hear on the channel immediately online or by phone.

The Tube (OTCBB: TUBM.OB) says it plays classic artists such as Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones as well as newer artists like Coldplay, John Mayer and James Blunt.

Read the full article here