Excellent Online

Well, just when you thought you'd seen 24 Hour Party People all the way to the end, Manchester impresario Tony Wilson has once again resurrected the mighty underdog FACTORY RECORDS for a fourth slow and painful slide into bankruptcy. The new label, this time called simply F4, arrived via f4records.co.uk just a few days ago. Three artists appear to already be signed, including a hip-hop act called RAW-T and, of course, Factory mascot Vini Reilly, whose new incarnation of The Duritti Column has put out new material just for the F4 website. The first music drops in March, stay tuned. If nothing else, it might make a good movie sequel...

Ever since we (along with every other music site on the planet) reported earlier in the week that the fabled COCTEAU TWINS were reuniting for this spring's Coachella Festival, the internet has been rife with rumors. A new album? A full tour? Warm-up gigs?

Well, the band are working hard to squash most of those rumours with a news blurb on their site today -- assuring fans and the rest of the free world that, for the time being, Coachella is a one-off reunion gig and should NOT indicate any future touring or recording plans. Though leaving us with a tempting, "No one has said, 'Never,'" it makes this Coachella gig all the more important to fans.

OASIS are set to fill the void left by the New York Knickerbocker's craptastic season and play a gig in their home court. Perhaps as a warm-up to festival season, the Gallaghers and Co. have booked a one-night gig at no less than Madison Square Garden on June 22nd. JET will help fill the stands by opening the show. The new Oasis album is due later this year.

UPDATE: Oasis and Jet have now added more shows to their quick US jaunt - Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, and Philadelphia have been confirmed on top of their gig at Madison Square. Info on our TOURS page.

Gee, here's a shocker. BABYSHAMBLES frontman Pete Doherty's in trouble again. This time Pete was arrested for robbery and blackmail. The alleged victim? Documentarian Max Carlish, who's been following Doherty around with a film crew. (Word is that they've got some pretty hardcore footage of Doherty using drugs.) There's really been no word yet on what caused the incident, though Carlish is attempting to get all charges against Doherty dropped, saying "frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if in three weeks time he's hanging on the end of a rope in a jail cell somewhere. I do not want that to happen, so I'm not going to press charges." While the NME reported that Doherty made bail, a story off the wire refutes NME's claim and says that Doherty missed bail, and, as result, will spend the weekend in the pokey.

Wowsa. The lineup for Coachella 2005 this spring in Indio, CA has been announced, and boy, is it a doozy. You've already read today's astonishing news that THE COCTEAU TWINS are reforming for the fest (if not more.) The rest of the bill is just as headspinning. The gig's taking place on the weekend of April 30-May 1, and tickets go on sale February 5th at noon PST from all Ticketmaster locations. Want to see the amazing lineup? Click on READ MORE to get the full list.

Yes, the rumors floating around the internet are true. It's finally been announced this afternoon (UK time) by the Official Cocteau Twins website that the band has indeed reformed and their first date will be the opening day of Coachella.

"Ah, the official announcement. Many apologies to all who tried to get confirmation from us about this...We weren't teasing, it's just that nothing could be announced before the damn thing was confirmed....So, who's going?" -- Robin Guthrie, 1/31/05

A REFORMED Cocteau Twins will be performing at the Coachella Valley Music Festival on Saturday April 30, 2005, along with a number of other artists, including former label-mates Bauhaus, plus Weezer, Chemical Brothers, Wilco, and more. More news and details as they become available.

Wow.

Well, here it is, almost February, and I'm coming in pretty damn late with my year-end picks. Sorry. My dog ate it, I swear. Well, okay, maybe not. Maybe it's got more to do with my wild and crazy year, I dunno. For those who don't know, I'm actually writing a weekly humor column now for the major newspaper in my town, so that's been eating up a good chunk of my time. Add to that the fact that I got a new computer for Christmas, so the past few weeks have been spent transferring files and de-bugging, so yeah. It's late. Sorry.

2004 was one hell of a year for music, though, wasn't it? There are a lot of people I've talked to who have expressed their displeasure... well, at least their boredom... with the past year in music. Me, I was in heaven for a surplus of reasons. In fact, here are 25 of those reasons now.

Over on Slashdot, I read an article about how everyone from major labels to local bands are using software to determine if songs are going to be the next big "hit". The program is called HSS (Hit Song Science) and it analyzes tracks and compares them to a database of 30 years of Billboard hit singles.

Ah, 2004, we hardly knew ye.

It seems just last year we were like, "Franz WHO?"

Now it's a new January, and of course, time for us to get all music nerdy on ya with the results of our 2004 poll of the members of Excellent Online. Ready to learn what our top-voted album of the year is? Who the Indieboy of the Year could possibly be? Want to know how many times we can type the word "Interpol" in one news story? Then read on, dear friends... check out the poll results by clicking on "Read More" below!

But where will we get our Welsh punk fix now?! MCLUSKY have called it a day after releasing last year's critically acclaimed The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire. A message from frontman Andy Falkous on the band's website simply reads: "The three-piece rock band known as Mclusky have disbanded, as of Friday January 7th, 2005. The reason for this parting is private, though probably not as entertaining as you'd imagine. Personally, I would like to thank all the people, places and times that occured on or near us. I'm grateful for the love and to a lesser degree, the hate. There'll be more music soon, from all of us. Regards, Falco."