Music/Kasabian
Henry Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
March 12, 2005

Around 1 P.M. a friend calls me to tell me that the doors for tonight's show open at 6pm with a sharp curfew at 9:30 P.M. It's a Saturday night, so they must have another club or something opening after the concert tonight. But it also means that if the show starts late, someone is getting cut off.

Alright Moz fans... you know the answer to the question so isn't it about time you saw a full length documentary about the man in the theatre? For one night only you can catch the world premier of Morrissey's "Who put the M in Manchester?" in US theatres.

All screenings will be taking place on Monday, March 28 at 8:30 pm local time (except San Diego which will take place on March 29). The $10 tickets are available online at pillarentertainment.com for the following showings:

New York
Loews E-Walk 42nd Street, 247 West 42nd Street

Los Angeles
Universal City 18, 100 Universal City Drive

Chicago
Loews 600 N. Michigan Avenue

Boston
Loews Theater Boston Common, 175 Tremont Street

Detroit
Emagine Novi, 4425 West 12 Mile Road

Washington DC
Loews Cineplex Rio 18, 9811 Washingtonian Blvd.

San Diego
UltraStar Del Mar Highlands, 12905 El Camino
UltraStar Chula Vista 10, 555 Broadway

As an added bonus if you get to the theatre early you catch see a performance of "How Soon Is Now?" (from Reading 2004) that will not be available on the DVD release.

THE OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL are reuniting. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's for exactly TWO concerts -- no more, no less. One is at England's annual All Tomorrow's Parties festival... while the other was JUST announced. Friday, April 15th, the band will take to the stage at -- where else? -- The 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA. FOr those residing on planet Mars, The Olivia Tremor Control were one of the three bands at the center of the Elephant 6 Collective, a loose fold of Athens area musicians who redefined indie psychedelia a few years back. While many of the original Elephant 6-related bands have soldiered on (Apples in Stereo, Of Montreal, Elf Power,) sadly the Olivias were one of the first to go on "extended hiatus." The group's co-frontmen have since launched new projects (Will Cullen-Hart founded Circulatory System, while The Bill Doss is now the primary force behind The Sunshine Fix,) but have agreed to reunite with John Fernandez and the rest of the band for these two shows. While this is exciting news, there are still a couple of bummers out there:

Bummer #1: Fernandez' posts to the Olivias message boards at e6townhall.com have stressed that this will be the band's ONLY U.S. reunion appearance for the foreseeable future, and that no plans exist to revive the band for further shows or recordings, and

Bummer #2: Advance internet sales for the show have already sold out. However, an allotment of tickets has been given to two Athens-area record stores, School Kids Records and Low Yoyo. These additional tickets will go on sale March 14. We don't know yet if either of these shops are set up to sell tickets online or over the phone, so if you're planning on journeying to the gig, you might want to MySpace up some friends in Athens real quick to pick you up tickets in person.

Our collective fingers are crossed that these quick gigs will re-ignite the spark for the guys to get together and make another record... but we're not holding our breath.

XL Recordings has finally announced a March 22 release date for the stellar debut full-length from Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. Yeah, we know. But trust us, it might just be THE album to beat in 2005 - it's THAT good. The record was initially penned in for a February release, but was held up due to legal issues with clearing the samples on the record. The track, "U.R.A.Q.T.," found on album advances and promos, will now NOT appear on the US version of the disc, due to an uncleared Quincy Jones sample. The same week that "Arular" hits stores will also see M.I.A. making some rare Stateside appearances. We've got 'em on our TOURS page.

Last week, the legendary Easley McCain recording studio in Memphis was pretty much totalled by an electrical fire that swept through the studio from two sides at once. The studio -- once known as the home of the Bar-Kays and more recently the birthplace of Pavement's "Wowee Zowee," Jeff Buckley's ill-fated final sessions, and Loretta Lynn's breaktaking 2004 album, "Van Lear Rose" -- is said to be a complete loss. Worse still was the news that master tapes of the forthcoming SILVER JEWS record were inside the studio at the time, awaiting to be mastered. Initial press reported that the tapes were destroyed... but Pitchfork is now reporting that the master tapes have turned up safe. The record remains on the Drag City schedule for release later this year.

Okay, that was my stab at an NME-esque headline -- did it work? So by now, we've all seen ZIA MCCABE of the Dandy Warhols nekkid. Whether it's on a stage or on some liner notes, the girl's got a penchant for exhibitionism. Now it's officially been taken to a new level, as the surprise girl of the day on the love-it-or-hate-it SuicideGirls website is the fabulous Zia herself. The bigger surprise of the full-frontal set: McCabe was VERY pregnant at the time (she recently gave birth to her first child, Matilda Louise.) McCabe swears she'll be reading everyone's comments to her on the SG website,

EDWYN COLLINS, former frontman of legendary Orange Juice, has suffered a brain hemorrhage. Collins, who shot to fame in the States a few years back with the quirky "A Girl Like You," was rushed to hospital where doctors are currently attempting to stabilize his condition. Information and updates have been promised via the message board at edwyncollins.com.

UPDATE 3/5/05: Edwyn's site is now confirming that on Wednesday, Collins suffered a SECOND hemorrhage and had to undergo emergency surgery to fix the problem. The site is reporting that his condition has stablized somewhat since the surgery and that "every day gets better." Hang in there, Edwyn.

"Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men's reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final."

- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, 1937-2005

We may be down one legend, but the struggle carries on.

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB have signed a new record deal with The Echo Label in Europe. They have been without a home since Virgin dropped them almost a year ago. They will keep their imprint, "Abstract Dragon" and future European released will be under Echo/Abstract Dragon. They are currently finishing up their third album with a working title, "American LP".

On February 28, SWERVEDRIVER's going to release a compilation called, "Juggernaut Rides". It's a 2CD set with some favorites, some b-sides, and a couple of unreleased tracks. There are also some tracks that have previously only been available on vinyl so I'm really looking forward to owning a clean copy of "Why Say Yeah" and "My Zephyr".

Regarding the two new songs, Adam Franklin (lead singer) was quoted in an old interview:

"There was a song called 'Just Sometimes' that I wanted to re-name 'Song of Laughter & Forgetting' which has all the instruments and melodies going round in cycles, a song called 'Neon Lights Glow' which is ten minutes long, has a string section on it and is a cross between 'Neon Lights' by Kraftwerk, 'Rumble' by Duane Eddy and 'Signed DC' by Love, and 'Ennio II' which has an Ennio Morricone feel but is really just a strange little instrumental. None of these tracks are available as far as I know, but what do I know?"