Astralwerks has added Manchester trio DOVES to their roster. Stateside fans will be pleased to know that a U.S. version of "Lost Souls" with bonus tracks will be released by Astralwerks/Heavenly on October 3.

Just a quick note of confirmation: REMY ZERO has snagged the support slot for the forthcoming North American TRAVIS tour.

There's finally a North American release date for the acclaimed debut album from BADLY DRAWN BOY. "The Hour of the Bewilderbeast" will finally see its stateside hour of glory on Oct. 3 through XL Recordings/Beggars Group.

COLDPLAY have signed in North America to Nettwerk Distribution. That's the good news. The bad news is that the band's critically lauded album "Parachutes" won't be released until early November at the earliest. You want more good news? The band is planning a stateside tour in early 2001.

A Federal Appeals Court has just granted a stay of execution for NAPSTER, pending the outcome of the upcoming trial. We'll keep you informed as events progress! For the time being, file share away!

Today is Judgement Day for NAPSTER and possibly the future of file-sharing software on the Web, as the RIAA suit against the popular music-sharing site makes it way to a federal judge. The RIAA has filed for an injunction to shut Napster down until the court renders a final decision - a judgement on the injunction could happen later today - we'll try to keep you informed of any breaking news.

Effective 4 p.m. PST this Friday, NAPSTER is no more. The controversial music-sharing giant has been stopped in its tracks by a federal judge who moments ago granted the RIAA's injunction to close the Napster server pending the outcome of the RIAA lawsuit against the company. Early reports on the web indicate that designers of similar music-sharing networks OpenNap, Gnutella, and others are already preparing for a huge influx of new users by week's end. Napster will be making a last-ditch effort to appeal the injunction on Thursday.

There's finally a Stateside release date for the ELECTRONIC album that came out overseas last year. "Twisted Tenderness" will appear September 12 in North American record shoppes, thanks to a new distribution deal with Koch Records (who also inherited the back catalog of the late & great Velvel Records.) Don't expect any US promotional activities, though - guitarist Johnny Marr is busy with new band The Healers, while vocalist Bernard Sumner is (we can hope) working on that oft-rumoured, oft-delayed New Order comeback record.

The BJORK/THOM YORKE collaboration has been released to the public today, and is available for download from www.bjork.com currently. The track will feature on the soundtrack to the award-winning and Bjork-starring flick, "Dancer in the Dark," which turned many a head at the recent Cannes film festival.

Can't those pesky OASIS lads stay out of the news for ONE day? Apparantly not, with music journos of the world chiseling out a tombstone for the band based on last weekend's shows at Wembley. All hype aside, it DOES appear as though time is running out for the Good Ship Gallagher, as Hurricane Liam punctuated the band's weekend set by being as much of an arse as possible. On estranged wife Patsy? "Bitch." On Noel? "We've been touring the world making money for you while you sit at home." On Wembley?