STEREOLAB are about to release their first material since the death of member Mary Hansen. The 5 track EP titled 'Instant 0 in the Universe' will be limited to 5000 copies and be released October 13 on their label Duophonic UHF Disks. The group has been understandably quiet this year, but they have finished a new record that is expected to be released early in 2004. You can listen to snippets of the new EP on www.stereolab.co.uk.

We're not exactly sure why but it appears that the POLYPHONIC SPREE shows scheduled from today until the 28th (Atlanta, Birmingham, Asheville & Philadelphia) have been cancelled due to a family emergency. According to the bands website, "Details on rescheduling and/or ticket refunds will be announced as soon as they become available." We'll also try to keep you updated.

In the meantime you can get a fix of PolySpree frontman Tim Delaughter on yesterday's Fresh Air on NPR.

Start looking out your windows for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse, as KEVIN SHIELDS, former frontman of My Bloody Valentine, has re-surfaced with his first non-instrumental solo track since the days of "Loveless."

The reclusive guitarist was coerced by Sofia Coppola and the team behind her new flick, "Lost in Translation," to contribute new material for the soundtrack. The result is one new song with vocals, a couple more new instrumentals, and a My Bloody Valentine classic on the record.

NPR actually got Shields to sit down for a brief interview this week (gasp), and they've got it online to hear on their site. Check it out HERE.

For those of you unfamiliar with Shelds' work, well.. well, first off, you should be slapped silly until you head to the nearest record store and grab a copy of "Loveless." But anyways, this is officially a BIG DEAL, as the elusive Shields only seems to come out of his reclusion when Bobby Gillespie fires up the Primal Scream machine (Shields played live with the Scream on their last tour.) In certain circles, this would be bigger news than Richie Manic turning up in Iowa or Syd Barrett releasing an album of standards. Even though the track with vocals is only about three minutes long, it's gorgeous and just what the doctor ordered to start a lazy autumn.

SOUTH have postponed their entire forthcoming US tour due to injury. South guitarist Jamie McDonald has broken his wrist while playing football on Sunday. He was later admitted to hospital for emergency surgery, and has been advised that he will be unable to play guitar for the next 8 to 10 weeks as he recovers. The band hope to reschedule the tour as soon as McDonald's condition is better known.

Bjork - Toronto - 09/03/03

What do you get when you put thousands of Bjork fans on an island?

It could very easily be the set up for a really bad joke or the opening line of a trailer for an even worse movie. And at times during ferry ride to and the 2-plus hour wait to get off of Olympic Island, it did indeed seem like I was in the middle of "Escape from Bjork Island" - coming soon to a theater near you!

Well, the Shortlist is out... and it's contents aren't too shocking: Black Keys, Bright Eyes, Cat Power, Cody Chestnutt, Floetry, Interpol, Damien Rice, Sigur Ros, The Streets and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It should be just enough of every genre to satisfy the average rock critic.

The concert is gearing up to be an interesting affair as Interpol, Damien Rice, Bright Eyes, Cat Power and Black Keys are all confirmed to be performing at the October 5th event at the Wiltern in LA. If you can't fly to Cali, don't worry about it as apparently MTV2 will be turning the event into a sixty minute "special" and airing it multiple times in October. According to David Cohn, GM, MTV2 "The MTV2 special will not only give our viewers an inside view of the artist 'Listmakers' deciding the winner, but will also feature exclusive live performances from these great artists."

So it's no longer about the shortlist nominees and instead about those that vote for the shortlist? Fabulous, let's make it even more pretentious and run clips for the new Spike Jonze movie while we're at it! - Liz

The new STEREOPHONICS album gets a Stateside release next week, and in addition to their tour dates, the band will be doing a series of in-stores at selected Virgin Megastores along the way. We're told to expect a 30 minute set, followed by autograph sessions at every in-store.

Ride are continuing their post-breakup releases with a collection of BBC Sessions, titled Waves. Already out in the UK, it will see a US release October 7 on The First Time Records. The seventeen song session features tracks recorded with Peel, Goodier and Radcliffe from 1990-1994. Included on the collection are Ride favorite's 'Like A Daydream', 'Dreams Burn Down' and covers of Dead Can Dance's 'Severance' and the Pale Saints 'Sight Of You'.

Mark Gardener will be touring the US this September in support of the release with British band Goldrush. As opposed to Mark's tour this past spring, audiences can expect a full electric showcase with Mark's new solo material and perhaps a few Ride diddys.

Well, The Strokes are attempting a sophomore album. Long in the works, it appears that 'Room On Fire' is finally set for release on October 21. As was reported ages ago, the band did start working with producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead) but didn't finish any material with him. Instead, they went back to work with Gordon Raphael who produced their first album. Raphael told Undercover Australia, "There was no pressure at all from outside forces, and all the hard work and crazy long nights we spent working on this thing came only from the bands desire to make sure that every hi hat, Kick drum and note sounded and felt as perfect as possible to fit the message and tone of the song." Hmm... that's strangely the EXACT opposite impression Julian Casablanacas gave a reporter for VH1/MTV News, "Pressure on the band is heavy to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump. The bandmembers are wrangling with their label and with each other over singles, mixes and artwork, because this time expectations are even higher."

Well, whatever... let's just see what the album holds. I'd expect US tour dates to be announced soon as a followup to the forthcoming single "12:51". The band is currently working with Roman Coppola on a video that should be airing on MTV soon.

There's been quite a bit of talk lately about the new project by Dean Wareham of Luna. As his sideproject with Britta Phillips (also of Luna and UltraBabyFat) took off, the pair set out on a US tour to promote their record, L'Avventura. Now it appears they want to take that one step further with the new release L'Avventura reimagined by Sonic Boom. Sonic Boom is best known for his Spaceman 3 work with Jason Pierce of Spiritualized although he's also worked with the likes of Yo La Tengo and Kevin Shields. According to Jet Set Records, "Every track is a brand-new aural adventure, as Mr. Boom gets deeper into the dream and finds the smoky heart of Britta and Dean's gorgeous compositions." The official release of the record is October 3, but it can be picked up now at various independent record stores across the country.