Excellent Online

IAN BROWN, of course formerly of the STONE ROSES, was sentenced last week in Manchester Magistrate's court to spend the next four months imprisoned, due to that infamous air scuffle earlier this year, where he threatened to cut off the hands of a flight attendant while onboard a British Airways flight from Paris to Manchester. Thoughts of the post-jail, hard-edged, street-savvy New Millenium Monkey are disturbing indeed, but perhaps we can hope that he'll use his newfound spare time to learn to sing, eh?

UNCONFIRMED RUMOR! We here at Excellent Online have to take a very cautious approach to unconfirmed rumors. Every few months we come across a major rumor- sometimes they turn out to be true, but often they turn out to be pure fabrication. Having said that, the rumor surfacing out of the STONE ROSES mailing list is that BLUR have officially split up, due to conflict between Alex and Graham. Frankly, this rumor seems doubtful at best, given the confirmed reports that BLUR's next album has already been recorded without incident.

Some good news for a change. The ever classy SAINT ETIENNE , now signed to Sub Pop in the U.S. are set for a brief U.S. tour in December. The tentative dates are up in Tours. Prior to this jaunt, the band have only played two U.S. dates in their nearly ten year history, both of which were in conjunction with the CMJ conference in 1994.

Guitarist Tony Grantham has reportedly left MARION. A temporary guitar player will be filling in for the band during their upcoming L.A. show.

The short career of KENICKIE has come to an abrupt end, as the band announced their split at the end of their show last week at the London Astoria.

The Candyskins first American tour in years is now official. Click on Tours for the itinerary. Also, it appears that the E.A.R. tour has been postponed for about a month.

More bad news to report. While we still haven't seen an official source for this news, it seems clear that the EMBRACE tour of the U.S. is off, at least for now. There's been some talk that the band will set new U.S. dates in January. In happier news, THE CANDYSKINS look to be touring the U.S. briefly in late October. As soon as we get the details, we will post them in tours. Finally, top U.S. popsters PAPAS FRITAS are set to hit the road in anticipation of their third album. Click on tours for all the details.

Well, remember a few days ago when we reported that the Manic Street Preachers had been dropped by their U.S. label? Well, it's happened AGAIN, as we're now receiving word (unconfirmed but very reliable) that ASH have officially been dropped by Reprise Records in the States, which means the new Ash record, Nu-Clear Sounds, scheduled for an October U.S. release, will most likely now have to be obtained via importer. This is really getting ridiculous.

The MANIC STREET PREACHERS have been dropped by their American label. Sony US, along with two other US major labels, have turned down the Manic's forthcoming new album, "This is My Truth, Tell Me Yours," claiming it to be "too dark" for American chart success.

We're beginning to hear word about a North American tour from THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH. One report has them opening a few dates in November for the Barenaked Ladies; another report has them playing a few one-off gigs, including Johnny Depp's infamous Viper Room in L.A. Of course, we'll keep you posted as the dates become official.