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There are some bands that just never get a fair shake. Groups whose critical acclaim and unbelievable songs seem never to reach an audience outside of core fans and record store clerks. Bands whose greatest legacy is in their influence of OTHER bands.

THE GO-BETWEENS, at least on OUR shores, have always been one of those bands.

It could be argued that, sans Go-Betweens, there would BE no indiepop scene. You see, the Aussie band has been doing it since their first record in 1981. Their trademark sound, led by the great duo of Grant (GW) McLennan & Robert Forster has long influenced a stream of fantastic bands.

Last night, Grant McLennan died in his sleep. It won't even make a small blurb in your local paper. Yet the shock waves to the world of indie music are far and wide-reaching. Already tributes are pouring into the Go-Betweens website from bands like Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian, The Church, etc., as well as record labels like Jeepster and March.

What makes Grant's untimely death all the more shocking and hard to cope with is that, after almost a 10-year hiatus, the Go-Betweens reformed in 2000 and have been putting out arguably their best music to date in the years since.

Rest in peace, Grant. Thanks for the stellar music. Our thoughts and prayers to the families and friends of the Go-Betweens.

This will be Coachella number seven for me. I've reviewed it a handful of times and even though I don't write too many reviews, I always enjoy posting a wrapup of the weekend (2002, 2003, and 2004). Click on the "read more" link for a full account of the events and an explaination as to why this might be the best Coachella I ever attended.

Well, it's been a long time coming. I've even taken crap from my friends for backing the guy for as long as I have... but, quite simply, there comes a time when you've got to step away and look a situation realistically.

Pete Doherty, it's time for you to fuck off. Click READ MORE for my whole rant.

It's not very often you get to see the members of 3 bands on stage drop their pants at the end of their set and sing New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle" while the audience realizes they're all wearing the same underwear: pink boyshorts with the South logo on them. Such was the case tonight at the Casbah in San Diego.

We've got some sad news for fans of Mojave 3 and Slowdive to report. Rachel Goswell has written in her MySpace Blog that she's had a variety of health issues lately that will restrict her from touring and playing with Mojave 3 in the near future.

"Back in January I suddenly lost a moderate amount of hearing in my left ear. Accompanying this I have had really bad problems with my balance and awful tinnutis. It's been very debilitating for me and I haven't been able to do very much at all. The general day to day stuff on it's own has been quite difficult. It took 5 weeks to see a specialist. I've had a few tests now and have more to go through over the next month to determine why what happened happened. Ears are complicated things. What has happened to me I've been told is rare. I've had labyrinthitis (an inner ear infection) which has led to permanent hearing loss, permanent tinnutis and nerve damage in a couple of places in my inner ear. Some nerves have died apparantly and I keep getting additional middle ear infections. My immune system is currently through the floor. I've been on various medication since it all happened to me. The main one was to help me balance, I've come of these drugs now and am adjusting to my new way of life going through daily physiotherapy to retrain my brain to compensate for the loss of the left side. I'm also waiting for a hearing aid."

We wish Rachel all the best in her recovery.

One of my favorite movie quotes of all time comes from a quickly uttered line in the 80's classic 'Say Anything':

"You probably got it all figured out, Corey. If you start out depressed everything's kind of a pleasant surprise. " - Lloyd Dobbler

Such is my general outlook on life... if you start off jaded you won't be disappointed by whatever gets tossed at you. This was the state that I walked into The Aragon Ballroom last night to see the indie-hype-package-tour of Death Cab For Cutie, Franz Ferdinand and The Cribs. I make no qualms about being an indie elitist bastard (except the qualm that the tag is entirely unfair as I'm not really an elitist as I want the world to share in my musical joys) but man, did I feel like the ultimate music snob last night.

In a renewed effort to promote British music on US shores, a new tour will be kicking off from LA in May. The Brit Bus Tour is hoping to help a few British acts get their name and guitars out and loud on American shores. Welsh artist Julia Jones founded the Brit Bus tour last year in an attempt to alleviate the financial difficulty new British acts have in touring North America...

"For far too long new British bands have failed to make an impression in The States as the scale of the country and prohibitive promotional costs have combined to make access to this huge record buying public extremely difficult."
"This could be the big break that a new British band is looking for. We expect thousands of responses and look forward to working with the winner and inviting them to join us at our final event in New York."

In Jones' attempt to even the scales she has attracted support from the UK Government, The British Phonographic Industry as well as organizations such as Virgin Megastores, Visit Britain, Gibson Guitar and more. The artists on tour have not yet been announced but major acts such as The Magic Numbers, Hard-Fi, and Paul Oakenfold have thrown their support behind the project by boarding the bus on it's kickoff on May 1 in LA to sign CD's and Epiphone guitars that will be given away as prizes throughout the tour. Further information is available at britbustour.com.

I couldn't sleep so I went to see what's up with YO LA TENGO when I read that they will be appearing on the WB show, Gilmore Girls. SONIC YOUTH will also be appearing on the show which airs on May 9th. The subplot revolves around GRANT LEE PHILLIPS who is choosen to open for Neil Young. Once the news spreads, several bands show up to try to get in on the action. Sonic Youth will be playing an acoustic version of their new single, "What a Waste" which will be on their new album, "Rather Ripped", released on June 13th. Yo La Tengo have a new album coming out this fall and recently announced a covers-only CD, "Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics", which you can purchase from yolatengo.com.

GOMEZ are set to return to the US in May to support their fifth album, "How We Operate". They've been playing together for almost 10 years with the original lineup, which is fairly impressive. It's rare these days that a band can survive critical success and several US tours without breaking up. The new album is fantastic and some of my favorite tracks are "Notice", "Charley Patton Songs", and the first single, "How We Operate" which you can hear/see:

Audio: Windows Media - Quicktime - Real
Video: Windows Media - Quicktime

I think Gomez are one of the most entertaining bands live, their current tour dates are now listed.

I realize it isn't very exciting news to most people that a Danish band they've never heard of is finally releasing a record in America. I tell you, it IS brilliant news. You might not know MEW now, but you will... oh you will.

Enough of the foreboding know-it-all... Mew is a Danish 4-piece who have been wowing Europe for years now with their amazing progrock. The band released a record And The Glass Handed Kites to amazing acclaim last year (Drowned in Sound, Virgin Net, The Beat Surrender, Under The Radar, etc). Ok ok, so one of those glowing reviews was from me. There had been quite a bit of confusion among American fans eager to see Mew live and/or just be able to recommend a record to friends. August 11th, Mew will finally hit American record stores as the CD will see a release on Columbia Records.

In the meantime, you can hear some music on Mew's website or take a peek at the video for 'A Zookeeper's Boy' (Windows Media Broadband | 56k / Real Player Broadband | 56k).