Excellent Online

I saw this link to Sunspot on Slashdot about how Universal and Sony are going to start offering you to purchase downloadable music (with the ability to burn the audio to CD) this summer. The prices are set around a buck for a song, and ten bucks for an entire album.

In case you were wondering what impact bands like Radiohead and the Doves have had on up-and-coming American groups, just point your browser to www.turnerjoy.com and check out the three new demos from TURNERJOY, who consistently remain atop our list of favorite unsigned US bands. The Chicago-based group, featured on Excellent Online's own "Intertwined" downloadable album, have been tucked away in the studio for most of 2002, and they've just posted three new demos from the forthcoming new album - and they're fantastic to say the least.

Cellist and singer ISOBEL CAMPBELL has left BELLE AND SEBASTIAN, it was announced today. According to a press statement from the band's official website, Campbell left the band and returned to England mid-way through their recent American tour (and none of us apparantly noticed?!) Campbell's contributions to the band were clearly evident by her vocals, which appeared on a good percentage of the group's recorded materials, including the new album "Storytelling," released this week.

Torr dropped the news that Alfie will be heading out on their first US tour. There's only going to be five dates starting with New Jersey, then New York, Toronto, San Francisco, and finally ending in Los Angeles. The respective venues can be found on our tour page

There's an article over at Salon about how a new startup, FightCloud.com, is selling CD's for only 4.95 (that's the shipping and handling). Now obviously you're not going to find the latest Oasis, Chemical Brothers, or Badly Drawn Boy albums there, but it's important to note that every CD sold is making a profit. Also, according to the article, those independent artists are making twice as much as the major label artists are on CD sales.

Piero runs the Ticket To Ride site and has announced that there will be new Ride material released this year. Click on 'Read More' for the full announcement.

I saw this Wired link over at Slashdot about how Aphex Twin encoded his face into one of his tracks. You can view the images through spectrograph software. As the Wired article explains, there's a software package called MetaSynth where you can scan in an image and create music from it.

Michael sent in a link to Jam! with a recent interview with Sigur Ros. They talk about their followup to 'Agaetis Byrjun' and how it's expected to be completed by the end of this year. It was also nice to hear from Jonsi Birgisson, the lead singer, because he rarely gives interviews.

The Doves, Dieselboy, and Blue Man Group are the latest additions to Moby's Area2 festival. The Doves and Blue Man Group will be added to the main stage while Dieselboy will perform in the dance tent with Carl Cox, John Digweed, DJ Tiesto, the Avalanches, and DJ Dan

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! THE GOTHS ARE COMING!

I realize it’s been a while since my last missive, but I had to come back to warn you all of this terrible danger.

What I tell you may be hard to believe. But it’s the truth. And it’s a danger that could very well be lurking right here… in your hometown… maybe even… your… very… home.

GOTHS are apparantly attempting to take over Missouri.