Excellent Online

Psst... you can purchase SIGUR ROS tickets online now at the band's website: www.sigur-ros.com. Use the links on the site to go to the purchase pages for the shows listed. The password is october29.

The 16th Annual BRIDGE SCHOOL BENEFIT will be held October 26-27 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. Among the acts performing will be Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Neil Younge, Ryan Adams, Tenacious D, The Other Ones and more. The school is a nonprofit organization that helps people with several speech and physical impairments.

Past performers at the benefits include: Tracy Chapman, REM, the Chili Peppers, the Who, the Pretenders, Billy Idol, Pearl Jam, Ministry, Elvis Costello, Sonic Youth etc.

CHICKFACTOR may not be familiar to all as anything other than a Belle and Sebastian song, but this zine led by Gail O'Hara and Pam Berry has been a major player in the American and English indie music scene for years. It's time to celebrate as they release their 15th issue, launch of their new website, release a compilation cd on Enchante Records and sponsor a series of shows in the UK and United States.

In a month that sees very few new releases, one of the brightest glimmers in September has got to be the new LADYTRON full-length, "Light & Magic," in stores today. The fine folks at Emperor Norton are giving a sneak peek of the album - listen to it by clicking HERE.

From September 26 - 29th the world of indiepop will converge on the beautiful city of Montreal, Quebec for this year's Pop Montreal 2002 festival. Being touted as "more than a music festival", Pop Montreal is four days of concerts, parties, films and panel discussions for fans and industry.

Some of the bands playing at Pop Montreal this year include The Touch, The Sadies, Neko Case, The Walkmen, The Datson Four, Toog, The Russian Futurists, The Dears, Stars, Les Sequelles, Palomar, Hayden, The Goods, Interpol, Martha Wainwright and many more. A screening is planned of the Wilco movie "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" that follows the making of the band's last album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". Guest Panelists include Jeff Rogers (Manager: The Dears), Chris Taylor (Entertainment Lawyer: Nelly Furtado, Stars), Dan Webster (Greenland Productions), Peter Rowan (Manager: Julie Doiron, The Datson Four) and industry representatives who are experts in the publishing, administration, promotion and marketing, of independent music.

The rumour mill has been swirling lately about an upcoming release of new George Harrison material, titled Brainwashed. The official Dark Horse Records website has no information yet but according to Ice Magazine we are to expect a new release on November 19.

"While we have yet to get our hands on the full track list, we can report with authority that the CD will comprise 11 original Harrison cuts and one cover song." - Ice Magazine

This will be the first new release of Harrison material since 'Cloud Nine' in 1987.

Those of you who may have caught OF MONTREAL on tour in early 2001 may have been lucky enough to see ELEKIBASS opening. The Japanese band have finally released their first record, "California," on the very excellent Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records (on the web at www.hhbtm.com.) The best news is: they're coming for a quick Stateside tour! Dates for November are still being finalized, we'll put them up as they become available. Let me just tell you, though: This is one band you do NOT want to miss if you've got the opportunity. Their limited English combines with their twee-tastic pop enthusiasm to make what we can easily describe as one of the cutest, most charming groups around. Although none of the band are fluent in English, they've tried to put up an English version of their website, and it's true brilliance. For instance, THIS is how their website announces their tour:

"There is the American tour. We go to America again. The tour, 10 days, has planned all the 10 shows.
Details do to know, are to be it announces. Please come to play by all means. Just it is possible, we want enjoying at show in many people, is!"

While Kindercore keeps pushing around the release date of the new OF MONTREAL record, "Aldhil's Arboretum," the band have apparantly gotten sick of waiting and put the album for sale via Paypal through their website, www.ofmontreal.net. Go ahead, order it and see if Shane's crazy for proclaiming them the greatest band in America!

NOTE: The Of Montreal website linked above has been flooded with people ordering the new album. As a result, their site keeps jumping on and off-line due to bandwidth restrictions. If you go to the site and you get a message saying that it's temporarily down, just wait a few minutes and try again...

As one of the greatest bands in the history of rock and roll, The Frogs are capable of putting one hell of a show. I've seen it with my own eyes, and will gladly attest that they indeed are one of the best live acts out there today.

The infamous file-sharing website, Audiogalaxy, has returned with a subscription service called, Rhapsody. For only ten bucks you gain access to over 17,000 albums by over 7,000 artists. The good thing is that artists actually get paid with your monthly fees. The bad thing is that you don't actually get anything. You pay for the ability to stream the music to your computer. You can try out their service for free until September 15th. I searched for a bunch of artists, click on 'read more' to see which ones they have in their catalog.