Excellent Online

So you say you want a revolution? So do Robert '3-D' Del Naja of MASSIVE ATTACK and Damon Albarn of BLUR. As the NME has been reporting for awhile, the pair have been teaming up with CND and 'Stop The War' coalition to register their dissent with the British government's involvement in an upcoming (aka on-going) war in Iraq. 3-D has been extremely active in advertising his resistence through the NME and actively attempting to involve fellow musicians. According to a new NME story, their attempts are only to escalate as the push for war increases.

On a music related note, the new MASSIVE ATTACK album, as yet untitled, is still scheduled for a UK release on January 27. No word yet on an anti-war theme. ;-)

Currently available for download on OF MONTREAL's official website is a free live album recorded live at the Eyedrum in Atlanta last April. Included in the live set are such highlights are Peacock Parasols, Sleeping in the Beetle Bug and Penelope.

OF MONTREAL are currently on tour.

Over at News.com, they're running a story about how the NAPSTER creator, Shawn Fanning, has sold the rights to his life story to MTV. In other music industry news, the Onion is reporting that the RIAA is suing Radio Stations. Laugh, it's funny.

Due to a mixup with obtaining the correct visa documents, THE FALL have once again cancelled their US tour. I'm sure most venue's will be offering a full refund for advance ticket sales. Please contact the venue in your area for details.
The following statement was sent to each venue's booking agent:

"first of all thanks for your help so far.I'm sorry for not being in touch but only this week we lost hope and have now decided to cancel the tour, as the visa-application should have been processed first, and then a tour booked. I understand this is the correct procedure, but as you know Ed just booked the tour without making sure we would have a visa. The agency you recommended seemed hopeful at first,but it soon became clear that the processing times are too long at the present moment. I am very sorry that due to the strict visa regulations we cannot do anything else but cancel all shows. Any further bookings in the future will certainly be made in the correct way.
Mark E. Smith apologises to all fans and promoters."

Ryan sent in a SOUTH update. They won't be releasing their 'Nothing Personal EP' and are choosing instead to work on their follow up to 'From Here on In'. In exchange for a new EP, they're offering up a new track, 'Out in a Day', that you can download from their site, www.south.co.uk. They have some other cool stuff on their download page too, like an instrumental remix of IAN BROWN's 'Dolphins Were Monkeys'.

THE VINES are premiering their new video for "Outtathaway" online. The video was directed by David Lachapelle (1996 VH1 Fashion Photographer of the Year, you can check out his books "Hotel Lachappelle" and "Lachapelle Land: Photographs" on Amazon.)
The video will be premiering on MTV2 on Thursday, October 3rd.

The top five record labels and the top three music chains have agreed to pay 67.4 million in cash to settle the price-fixing case that was started two years ago. They also agreed to distrubute 75 million dollars of CD's to public and non-profit groups. My favorite quote from USAToday, "Former FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky said at the time that consumers had been overcharged by $ 480 million since 1997 and that CD prices would soon drop by as much as $ 5 a CD as a result." Hopefully prices will start dropping soon so I can afford to buy CD's again.

The new SUPERGRASS album "Life On Other Planets" comes out in the UK on Monday. While I can't verify a US release date, any fan can listen to the album through the Parlophone website for a limited time.
The band also launched a brand new website of their own and dedicated it to Douglas Adams.

Taking into account the new ELF POWER CD that debuts next week and the recent release of IVY's "Guestroom", the US has seen a rash of cover albums this month.

You can sample the IVY album courtesy of Minty Fresh here.
Real Player Required.

Hot off my confession of having listened to 'Exile In Guyville' an ungodly number of times recently is a news bit on Pitchfork Media about LIZ PHAIR. She is apparently collaborating with The Matrix (think April Lavigne, Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, etc.) on some new material for her upcoming album on Capitol.
Editorial: Come on now... has she really fallen so far from the Girly Tape days? This is disturbing. Seeing her backup Sheryl Crow recently on Leno was bad enough, but employing other people to write and produce her music? Words cannot describe the pain....