After multiple records-- and seemingly more name changes-- the latest Silver Mt. Zion release finds the strings finally moved into the background with guitars located in the foreground, inverting the group's original template. - Source

Oasis have announced their first gig of 2008, set to take place at Canada's Virgin Festival Toronto. - Source

Midnight Movies are one of those bands that, for some reason or another, seem to be lost in my musical collection. Every time I get something new from them I am impressed with it, listen to it a lot and then pack it away only to dig it out again when something new from the Los Angeles band appears. I can't explain it - Source

As the music industry continues to find itself desperately seeking a new business model to keep their ships afloat, one way that has been popping up recently is the 360 degree record deal. To many artists and bands out there, any type of record deal seems - Source

Franz Ferdinand, Sex Pistols and Sigur Ros have been confirmed for Ireland's Electric Picnic 2008 festival. - Source

The well tread internet joke that Gawker once called the web equivalent of '80s bait "...NOT" should need no explanation by now. But if your mouse has had a sheltered existence, you can find a text summary of the phenomenon here.

And that's Rickrolling: misdirection from an anticipated link, leading you instead to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." It's been a web phenomonen for a good year now -- an update on duckrolling -- and is now transcending the internet to be embraced in entirely new and exciting nerd ways. For instance at sporting events (via NYT)...

The women's basketball game at Eastern Washington University on March 8 started out like any other, as the Eagles of E.W.U. faced off against the Montana State Bobcats.

But a routine timeout turned into a 1980s flashback, as two men on the sidelines briefly hijacked the proceedings with a popular prank known as rickrolling. They surprised the crowd by blasting the British singer Rick Astley's 1987 hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up" through the gym, while one, dressed as a look-alike in Mr. Astley's signature trench coat, lip-synched and mugged to the music.

The NY Times goes even further with the live-action redefinition of the web joke:

Rickrolling has also come to mean a disruptive blast of the Astley song in a variety of situations. Former Scientologists protesting against the church, for example, have been playing and singing the song this year outside Scientology offices in London, Washington, Seattle and other cities.

We provide all this background to say, yes of course we also have wondered what Astley makes of all this. When told about it, does he just awkwardly dance it off in a big trench coat and sunglasses? Or has it gone to his head? The Times says: "It is not clear what Mr. Astley himself thinks about rickrolling. He has not spoken publicly about the meme and efforts to reach him through his agent were unsuccessful."

Fortunately, the LA Times had a little more luck getting their man. - Source

Drinking Buddy and a few of our friends were able to check out MMJ at SxSW. If you missed it (like me), here’s the set free for download.
My Morning Jacket at SxSW 2008 - Source

Their trek will include:

Apr 21 Hiro Ballroom: New York, New York
Apr 29 Vista Theatre: Los Angeles, California
May 18 Oysterfest: San Francisco, California

Visit the duo on MySpace. - Source

As the band record their third album, drummer Paul Thomson has told fans to expect something softer. - Source

Crowded House have announced that they will play an intimate club tour across the US this spring. - Source