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Available this week in the UK is the new single by British crooner Ed Harcourt called 'All Of Your Days Will Be Blessed'. The limited edition single features two new bonus tracks and an enhanced video for the A-side. Ed just finished a support slot on the recent Supergrass UK tour and will be headling his own UK tour in the upcoming weeks. His new album 'From Every Sphere' will be released in the UK on Heavenly on February 17.

There's an interesting video of uh... Ed as "Racoon Boy" available on the Capitol website. Ed's last album was released in the US by Capitol. No word yet on a US label or date for the new album.

British Singer/songwriter Beth Orton will be appearing on the WB television series Charmed on February 9. She'll be performing her new single "Thinking About Tomorrow".

Beth recently joined The Flaming Lips during their London Forum gig in January for a cover of Kylie's 'Can't Get You Outta My Head'. She performed 3 songs with the band including a new, as yet untitled track and "The State We're In" (her collaboration with The Chemical Brothers on their 'Surrender' album).

Legendary producer Phil Spector is being held on one million dollars bail in LA this afternoon after being arrested for first degree murder. Phil was taken into custody early in the morning at his LA area home after police found an as-yet-unidentified woman dead on the scene.

Spector is just back from England where he had recorded four tracks with Starsailor at Abbey Road Studios in London for their upcoming sophomore album. "The greatest thing we've done so far was work with Phil. I think we took a lot away from that. It was like two worlds colliding. He's learned a lot from us about how studios work these days and we learned from him about older techniques." Starsailor's James Walsh recently told the NME.

Spector has been the subject of violent rumors in the past when he supposedly pulled a gun on The Ramones until they agreed to add horns to a track he was producing. Spector has worked with many of the biggest names in music history, amongst those The Ramones, John Lennon, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, The Righteous Brothers

, The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner and more.

January is a bastard wasteland of a month. It's cold, wet, and miserable outside, you've got no money left after December's parties-n-gifts overindulgences, and (perhaps the most important point), January is where music goes to die.

So the FCC is in the hands of Powell Jr and never before in history has a country seen the media consolidation we currently have in the US. So what's on the radio? Same crap, every station. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) is looking to do something about it by reintroducing the Competition in Radio and Concert Industries Act.

"Since originally introducing this legislation in June 2002, I have seen a groundswell of interest both in Congress and among artists, consumers, independent radio stations, and local promoters in restoring fairness to radio. My legislation will reduce concentration and crack down on anti-competitive practices, such as the new 'pay to play' system."

Cheers Russ!

In a victory for social commentator's everywhere, Mattel's lawsuit against MCA Records (on behalf of Swedish band Aqua) claiming trademark infrigement and defamation has been rejected by the US Supreme Court. The court rejected the lawsuit under the grounds that the song was a parody and therefore protected as free speech. I'm not sure which is more concerning... that Mattel attempted to sue or that MCA is claiming they sold more than 1.4 million copies of that horrid song.

Assassins - Schubas, Chicago 01/16/03

This will not be the typical review. I won't go on about songs, I will not go on about reproduction live vs on record, I will not even really discuss the members. I will tell you few basics, because that's all the information I have. ASSASSINS are the current project of Joe Cassidy (Butterfly Child) and four Chicagoans. They consist of two guitarists, (Joe and Merit Lear), one bassist, one drummer and one bloke on several keyboards.

Typical or not, I know magic when I see it.

Just when you begin to think that dance music is getting a little too serious, exploding onto the scene is the non-dancable duo of Lemon Jelly. The boys have created an online video game for their new single Nice Weather For Ducks. You can find links to Mac OS X, OS 9 or Windows versions at Beggars Banquet along with a screensaver for their full length album Lost Horizons. How can you do vs the killer ducks?

Louis Philippe (BBC Correspondent, Football Journalist and 'el recording artist extraordinaire) is set to release a new album, My Favourite Part of You on March 25. Appearing on the new album are Sean O'Hagan and Harvey Williams amongst Louis' usual collaborators. You can sample 2 tracks ( My Favourite Part of You and Seven Years) from the new material on Louis' Website. I'd love to see him do a small US tour to support this, but I was once told by Matt Jacobsen

that Louis has a heart condition that prevents him from long distance international travel.

On February 3 (UK) the Pet Shop Boys will release their third album in the 'Disco' series. Following in the tradition of previous 'Disco' albums, Disco 3 will be complimenting the recent studio releases, but in a new twist Disco 3 includes new tracks recorded during the studio sessions but not previously released.

The album will contain 10 dance tracks that were created during the studio sessions that begat 'Release' in 2002. It will be available on CD or the limited edition three-disc vinyl format (featuring extra remixes by Felix da Housecat and Westbam). The highlight of the new 'Disco 3' release could be the track that was written in 1983 by original PSB producer Bobby 'O'.