Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce from THE SMITHS will be touring the US this month as a DJ pair. The tour starts tomorrow in Miami at the Winter Music Conference and will hit most major markets. Who would've thought that the "other" guys from the Smiths would be DJ'ing??

I'm sure many of you have heard the hubbub lately about Urban Outfitters selling T-Shirts baring the slogan "Voting Is For Old People". Wherever your political inclinations lay it wasn't considered Excellent worthy news to us until now as Al Jourgensen of MINISTRY has thrown his two cents into the ring in a match up of retailer versus musician.

In a letter posted to punkvoter.com, Al Jourgensen addresses the recent controversy to Urban Outfitters chairman of the board and president Richard Hayne. Read the letter below...

If your looking to hear an interesting live show you can pop over to Bethan and Huw on BBC Wales on Thursday (March 4) at 8 PM GMT (that's 3PM East Coasters) and give a listen to a set from American Indie veterans YO LA TENGO with Welsh fiddlers GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI celebrating St. David's Day in Cardiff this past weekend. You can also stream a number of interesting tracks from the site including exclusive live material from HYBRID (with Peter Hook of NEW ORDER), MC MABON, and BRAVE CAPTAIN.

Well... Mike Skinner is back. The man behind THE STREETS caused quite a ruckus with his first record, and we'll find out soon enough whether his sophomore release can appease the punters. On April 26 the first single "Fit But You Know It" will make an appearance on British record store shelves with the album "A Grand Don't Come For Free " following a few weeks later on May 10.

One of the tracks, "Dry Your Eyes", was originally a collaboration with COLDPLAY frontman Chris Martin... but it has been axed from the record and re-recorded. Skinner told the NME, "I wrote the track and I thought that he (Martin) would sound really good on it. I asked him to do it and he did. After that I don't really know. I don't think his record company liked it. But maybe he didn't like it. On the day he was (happy with it). Well, maybe he wasn't, maybe he was lying to me and he walked out going 'This is not working'. But it wasn't massive stress. It would have been nice, but we've re-recorded it and it sounds great."

Yes, strange combination but it's true. ABC is premiering a new Stephen King series next week called "Kingdom Hospital" to the theme of "Worry About You" from Ivy's 2001 album Long Distance. As if that combination isn't weird enough Ivy member Adam Schlesinger actually received a phonecall from Mr King requesting that he write a new tune sorta like "Stacy's Mom". Adam (also in Fountains of Wayne) thought it was a joke as apparently bandmate Andy Chase is quite the prankster. No joke... the show's producers and Stephen King agreed to using "Worry About You". You can tune into ABC March 3 to hear it.

MORRISSEY has finally succumbed to the world wide web. Although his image and music has been plastered about the net since it's inception it took until 2004 for the king of the fops to have an official website. And what news does this new 'official' site bring us? Why record release dates of course! Morrissey's first album in seven years, "You Are The Quarry" is set for a May 18 release in America and the 17th in the rest of the world. The single "Irish Blood, English Heart" will be preceeding the album's release by a week, but I'm sure many of you die hard Moz fans have already heard the live rendition he's been singing for a few years now. Oh... and the other news? If you happen to be in the UK on May 22, Herr Morrissey will be playing the Manchester Evening News Arena. Get your tickets while you can.

Nah, no worries, Grunge has not made it's way back into fashion (yet). Seattle based power-pop band THE POSIES have decided to make a go of it again and have inked a new deal with Ryko. The Posies (Jon Auer & Ken Stringfellow) originally called it quits in 1998, but resurrected the band for an acoustic tour in 2000. We've got a full blown band to hear now though with the edition of Darious Minwalla and Matt Harris on drums and bass respectively. If you're a Big Star fan, don't fret... buth Auer and Stringfellow plan on continuing their participation in that project as well, but will be focusing on the Posies material first and foremost. Apparently the band is in the studio right now and has tentatively scheduled their first release on Ryko for later this summer. Want a preview? The boys are expected to be playing at SxSw later next month during the Ryko Label Showcase.

A new UK band THE POPPYFIELDS have scored their first UK Pop Chart hit... or have they? It appears the single and video release was quite the genius publicity stunt from aging Welsh rockers THE ALARM. According to the BBC, the Alarm hired a group of unknown teenagers from Chester to stand in for them during the video shoot for their new single '45 RPM'... and then labeled the single release under the pseudonym The Poppyfields.

"We decided we would do something where it was judged purely on its own musical value," (Singer Mike) Peters, 44, told BBC News Online.

Editorial note: Interesting timing as this falls the same week as The Darkness take home top honors at the Brit Awards this year... hrm.

DJ Danger Mouse is in hot water with EMI for mixing The Beatles' White Album and Jay-Z's "The Black Album" to create his Grey Album without authorization to sample either record. While some might find the combination blaspheomous, I think it outshines a lot of the crap mixes out there. Check it out.

Just when you thought the best of lists for 2003 were over... the Pazz and Jop rears it's ugly head to show us just how different (or similiar) our tastes are from the majority of the music journalists. The Village Voice has the results for the annual Critics award online as of this morning... and some things will probably not come as a shock. As much flak as we took here at Excellent for having such high chart placement for Outkast... the P&J results aren't so different. Besides... it is interesting to see the individual music writers votes.