Ryan sent in a SOUTH update. They won't be releasing their 'Nothing Personal EP' and are choosing instead to work on their follow up to 'From Here on In'. In exchange for a new EP, they're offering up a new track, 'Out in a Day', that you can download from their site, www.south.co.uk. They have some other cool stuff on their download page too, like an instrumental remix of IAN BROWN's 'Dolphins Were Monkeys'.

THE VINES are premiering their new video for "Outtathaway" online. The video was directed by David Lachapelle (1996 VH1 Fashion Photographer of the Year, you can check out his books "Hotel Lachappelle" and "Lachapelle Land: Photographs" on Amazon.)
The video will be premiering on MTV2 on Thursday, October 3rd.

The top five record labels and the top three music chains have agreed to pay 67.4 million in cash to settle the price-fixing case that was started two years ago. They also agreed to distrubute 75 million dollars of CD's to public and non-profit groups. My favorite quote from USAToday, "Former FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky said at the time that consumers had been overcharged by $ 480 million since 1997 and that CD prices would soon drop by as much as $ 5 a CD as a result." Hopefully prices will start dropping soon so I can afford to buy CD's again.

The new SUPERGRASS album "Life On Other Planets" comes out in the UK on Monday. While I can't verify a US release date, any fan can listen to the album through the Parlophone website for a limited time.
The band also launched a brand new website of their own and dedicated it to Douglas Adams.

Taking into account the new ELF POWER CD that debuts next week and the recent release of IVY's "Guestroom", the US has seen a rash of cover albums this month.

You can sample the IVY album courtesy of Minty Fresh here.
Real Player Required.

Hot off my confession of having listened to 'Exile In Guyville' an ungodly number of times recently is a news bit on Pitchfork Media about LIZ PHAIR. She is apparently collaborating with The Matrix (think April Lavigne, Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, etc.) on some new material for her upcoming album on Capitol.
Editorial: Come on now... has she really fallen so far from the Girly Tape days? This is disturbing. Seeing her backup Sheryl Crow recently on Leno was bad enough, but employing other people to write and produce her music? Words cannot describe the pain....

ASTRALWERKS is throwing a Closing Night party for CMJ at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Saturday November 4. The event is featuring the *ONLY* US appearance by THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS in support of "Come WIth Us". The event features openers SIMIAN, ERLEND OYE (of Kings of Conveience Fame), and a DJ set by AUDIO BULLYS.

Tickets can be purchased through the Astralwerks website.

In an effort to prove that hardwork can sell records, SUPERDRAG are pulling out every tour stop on their current US Tour.  Available on the band's website for a limited time only are mp3 files for download of their show in Knoxville, TN from Dec 8, 2001, along with some early demos.

It was recently brought to our attention that The Pernice Brothers' are finishing up recording their album in a mountain lair in Vermont. Editorial note: Their last album "The World Won't End" has become one of my 10 desert island discs. Such guitar pop brilliance is hard to create and near impossible to duplicate, but I certainly hope they are trying with the new material.

Pitchfork Media has an interview up with Joe Pernice right now.

What Virgin Records was originally estimating as an October 22nd release of the new solo cd by RICHARD ASHCROFT has apparently been put off until after the new year. There is no word on why "Human Conditions" will not have a US release this year.