Well, we jumped the gun a few weeks back and told you that the beloved Trashcan Sinatras had a session coming on the equally beloved Daytrotter website... and then it never showed up.  Today that session - including an UNRELEASED TRACK - went live.  Go adore it!

So after Blur pretty much definitively said that they were done following last year's heralded reunion shows, we were left again mourning the loss of our Britpop heroes once more to a sea of less-than-great solo projects, failed bids at Parliament, and worse-every-time Gorillaz records. That's why we were all in shock to see Blur release a quick limited edition 7" last month as part of the global hoo-ha to celebrate International Record Store Day. While the 7" was only available in the UK (boo! hiss!), we were stunned at how good the track "Fool's Day" was, which made their decision to again split all the more painful. BUT WAIT... because Blur/Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn is in NME today waxing poetic about the prospect of MORE new Blur releases... but only in the form of the occasional 7", as the members claim they're waaay too busy to bust out with a whole new album. We'll take what we can get.

It's rare to see an "opening band" worth talking about.  In my life of concerts, the only other time when an opening band has blown me away was Yo La Tengo when they opened up for Teenage Fanclub back in 1993.  Film School opened up for Swervedriver on their reunion tour back in 2008 and were absolutely brilliant, they had that perfect mixture of shoegaze/pop and it wasn't a refreshing new sound by any means, but it was so much fun to listen to.

At the time they were on tour supporting their 3rd album, "Hideout".  Since then they've been in the studio working on their follow up, "Fission".  It's set for a July 20th release date and I expect tour dates to follow.

Go give them a listen over at Amazon, you won't be disappointed.

Absolutely one of my favorite Depeche Mode songs is "Shake The Disease" and the Rogue Wave cover on KCRW was nothing short of stellar.  Watch it below.

We previously talked about Autolux's new label, TBD Records, and they have finally announced an August 3rd, 2010 release date for their followup to "Future Perfect".  This has to be one of the longest waits between albums.  "Future Perfect" was released on September 21st, 2004 which makes it just short of six years between full-length albums.  In an interview with Alarm magazine, lead guitarst Greg Edwards has this to say about recording:  "The traditional instrumentation of music is never interesting to me, I don’t respond to it. We try and use bass and guitar to create sounds that don’t necessarily sound like those instruments, to have a chaotic element but also have a strong melody and something that we can actually play again and again."

Interpol are making some announcements over the coming weeks.  But the important one is that you can click "read more" and download their new track, "Lights", below.  You have to put in your birthdate and email address and then they'll send you a link via email.  I've downloaded the track and it's not bad.  I'm looking forward to new Interpol music.

The National will be releasing their new album called, "High Violet" on May 11th.  From now until then you can hear the album in full over at the New York Times.  This is their follow up to the wonderful "Boxer" album and it's very highly anticipated.  I'm listening right now and it's sounding pretty good.

I'm heading out this weekend for the yearly Coachella festival and if the cell singnal is decent I'll be posting to our twitter feed.  Not because I'm a huge fan of twitter and I believe it's the future, but because I'm a big nerd and want to see if it'll work.  So if you're bored this weekend, check out our feed for regular and (hopefully) interesting updates.

Wow.  First it took a day or two to get over Ajay giving Little Boots an F in his Coachella pre-review below (*the opinions of site administrators are NOT necessarily the opinions of Excellent Online, Inc. or it's other Little-Boots-loving administrator.  And while we're at it, a C- for Yeasayer? Come ON, man! Hehe!)

But just as THAT shock faded comes news that beloved Britpop stalwarts SUPERGRASS are calling it a day following their current European tour.  Like the swallows to Capistrano, every year brought the expectations of a blindingly good Supergrass record, and their presence on every year's Upcoming Releases list will sorely be missed.

No future plans from any members announced yet, though I'd expect none of them are too eager to cash in a retirement check from the music biz just yet...   

Coachella is a mere 4 days away and I decided to do my homework this year and listen to at least one track by every band that's playing.  Below you will find my one-line review of every single artist plus my rating on an A-F scale.  A means I'm going to see them, F means that I hate them with a passion.  Naturally, most fall in the D and C category.  I've been to many Coachella's and this is the first time I've done this and I found some great gems that I probably would've otherwise overlooked.