Well CATATONIA is indeed coming to the United States to promote "Equally Cursed and Blessed" but it isn't exactly going to be a "tour". The band will play New York on January 24th and L.A. on January 27th and will also make some promotional appearances for radio. We will pass along further details as they become available.

Happy Mondays vibemaster BEZ (born Mark Berry) is now recovering from a motorcycle accident. He landed in intensive care with a punctured lung and broken ribs according to the weekly column written by Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder.

ELASTICA have set another date on their second album, reports NME. Apparently the record will be released in March on Deceptive. An insinder says the album is, "very moody and minimal with not much in the way of pop songs."

Ex-Verve frontman RICHARD ASHCROFT has a small article in this month's Alternative Press. Asked about the new recordings, Ashcroft says, "I don't think people will expect the songs to be as full sounding as the Verve, but I'm achieving that--rich, timeless sound."
Helping out on the record is bassist Pino Palladino and a few members of the old Verve team, including Pete Salisbury on drums, producer Chris Potter, string arranger Will Malone, and B.J. Cole, who played pedal-steel on the Verve's final tour.

Universal and BMG, two of the five big record companies, are going to start testing their new format for digital downloadable music. This new format for music will eventually allow record companies to sell music online. If everything go according to plan they expect e-commerce to begin in April or May.

Noel Gallagher has told Melody Maker, as well as the Canadian press, that the forthcoming OASIS album will not be released on Creation Records. The elder Gallagher said in a recent Canadian interview, "We're looking at other alternatives." This news follows Creation's earlier claims that the band have no plans to leave the label.

OASIS kicked off their North American radio festival warm-up tour last night in Philadelphia to mixed reviews. The band's set was extremely short, consisting of only FIVE songs: Cigarettes and Alcohol, Supersonic, Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, and a closing Noel-led cover of "Helter Skelter." More importantly, the radio station sponsoring the show, Y100, played an exclusive new track from the forthcoming new Oasis record, a cut called "Who Feels Love" that Noel described as the likely choice for a second single off the album.

Orbital, Leftfield, and Asian Dub Foundation will be contributing new music to The Beach sountrack. Moby will include a remix of Blur's 'On Your Own' and as reported earlier, New Order will include their first new track in over six years, 'Brutal'. The soundtrack will be released February 8th on London Records.

File this under Quite Possibly the Funniest Story of the Year, and it couldn't happen to a better bunch of blokes. Remember 80's cheeze-metal masters EUROPE? Well, according to sources at Q Magazine, Europe were getting ready to reap the millennium buck by reissuing their "classic" hit, "The Final Countdown," when suddenly all copies of the single had to be destroyed. Why, you ask? Because a printing error had omitted the first "o" in the word "Countdown," making it The Final C... you get the picture. Cheers.

File this under Bollocks Rumour of the Week, but everyone's talking this morning that LIAM GALLAGHER has gone missing since last Friday. The story appeared this morning in the British tabloids, and we've yet to hear any form of official comment (though several fans have posted to the NME message board that Liam was, in fact, at a Fun Lovin' Criminals after-hours on Friday.) Of course, it's likely false... we'll keep you up-to-date.