Excellent Online

The NME is reporting today that William Reid has walked out on the JESUS AND MARY CHAIN following an onstage row during their US tour this weekend. According to NME, the band are continuing their American tour unabated without the tempermental guitarist. A replacement, or even an official press statement, has yet to be announced. We DO know that Excellent member and staff contributor Mia Welch saw the band last night in Denver, and proclaimed it to be "maybe the greatest show I've seen all year."

The big NEW ORDER reformation is officially on for now, with the band expected to record a new album for release in 2000. In the interim, new stuff from THE OTHER TWO, MONACO, and ELECTRONIC are on the way, as well as the long-long-long delayed New Order 11 disc box set, "Recycle".

On a slow news day, THIS made us laugh a lot:

We're happy to report that ANIMALHOUSE, the new band featuring Mark Gardener and Loz Colbert of Ride, have been signed this week to a subsidiary of BMG Records in the UK, and a single is planned for rush-release in October.

NME is reporting this weekend that BILLY BRAGG has confirmed that he and WILCO will be recording yet another album of Woody Guthrie tracks. The thing is, WE told you about this last week in our Billy Bragg feature. Yeah, "Brag(g)" may indeed be the word of the day.

Over a two-gig period this summer, Excellent member Vince Iannelli got the privilege to see and talk to one of the founding fathers of politically conscious British Independent music, Billy Bragg.  Vince wrote of his exploits in an article that originally appeared in the University of Calgary's paper, The Gauntlet.  It is with the permission of The Gauntlet and the author that we here at Excellent are pleased to bring you an edited reprint of Vince's article, which provides some insight into the 90's version of Bragg, and his fabulous new release, "Mermaid Avenue."

story by Vince Iannelli

NME is reporting today that SUEDE have chosen to part ways with long-time producer Ed Buller. Their new record, due out in early 1999, is apparantly now being handled by Steve Osbourne, who's previously worked with U2, Placebo, and co-produced the Happy Mondays' "Pills, Thrills, and Bellyaches." Interestingly enough, it was the band's previous insistence on using Buller that provided the major catalyst for the departure of original guitarist and songwriter Bernard Butler, who said at the time that Buller had all but destroyed the "Dog Man Star" album.

EMBRACE have announced details of a US tour... and we've got the dates! Click TOURS on the left to find out more.

Today saw the unveiling of DEPECHE MODE's US tour itinerary for this winter. The dates, which stretch from late October through mid December, have been added to our TOURS page... use the link on your left to take you there.

It's official... NEW ORDER are back in business! Former bassist Peter Hook told the BBC today that the band hit it off so well at last weekend's V96 Festival that they've booked studio time to record a new album, hopefully to see the light of day by next year. The band is scheduled in the studio sometime soon after Christmas, and have also stated their intent to put on a US tour in support of the new record.