Coldplay just want to be 'cool'

We all know the line from 40 year Old Virgin don't we? "I know why you're gay, because you listen to Coldplay". Well, Chris Martin hopes Coldplay's new album can stop bullying and make it "cool" for teenagers to like the band.

The musician has tried to make the band's upcoming LP, 'Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends', "cool" so teenagers won't be afraid to admit they like their music. He told Britain's BBC Radio 1: "When making this record we were incredibly hungry to prove why people have heard of us and I also wanted it to be OK for a 16-year-old to say they like Coldplay in the playground.

"Hopefully, with this record, they won't be teased so much - that's basically the motivation. I just want it to be OK to like Coldplay."

Chris also revealed the band will play in Barcelona, Spain, following the announcement of free shows at New York's Madison Square Garden and London's Brixton Academy.

Coldplay's new single 'Violet Hill' was downloaded for free by over 600,000 people in the 24 hours since it was made available at 12.15pm on Tuesday April 29.

In the first 12 hours it was downloaded by 300,000, a figure which doubled overnight as other countries logged on to coldplay.com, the source of the free download.

The single will be available free for a week and will then be released as a paid-for digital single on May 6.

In case you were wondering. staff at Music Universe are cool and don't mind being called gay because they are happy that they listen to Coldplay!!

http://www.coldplay.com/

Coldplay's 'Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends' out June 12th

It might sound strange, but Coldplay have bought an old bakery in London’s Primrose Hill.

According to Chris Martin, it is the perfect place for their new headquarters away from fans and paparazzi. Martin explains, 'For years I used to walk past this building everyday and think, 'What an ugly place.’ 'Then one day a 'to let’ sign appeared outside. I thought, 'Hmmm that place is so ugly, I bet no one would bother us if we move in there.’

It will be the band’s first 'home’ together since their university days, and they plan to be based there while promoting their new album, 'Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends'. The LP, the follow-up to 2005’s 'X and Y’ has had its release date brought forward and will now hit shops across the world on June 12.

Coldplay have announced they will play two free shows, in New York and London, to support the album’s release. Fans must keep checking the band’s website to find out how to attend.

Coldplay have just released their first single off the album, 'Violet Hill', online. Fans can download it for free off the coldplay website.

http://www.coldplay.com/

CSS set to release 'Donkey' in July

Alala alala, CSS have revealed that their second album, ‘Donkey’, will be released this July.

The band will precede the album with a special download-only release of new song, ‘Rat Is Dead (Rage)’ via their website on April 28th.

Following 18-months of extensive touring, CSS have spent the last four months recording their second album in Sao Paulo.

The sophmore album has yet to be given a specific release date, although future tour plans will be confirmed over the coming weeks.

As reported earlier, CSS recently lost their bassist, Ira Trevisan, who decided to leave the group because she was concerned about climate change.

www.myspace.com/canseidesersexy

Metallica set to follow Radiohead's footsteps

Metallica are considering whether to follow in the footsteps of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails by self releasing material once their record contract expires.

Drummer Lars Ulrich, told Rolling Stone magazine that he would hate to go the way of Madonna and U2 by signing lucrative contracts with Live Nation. Instead, he said the band would like to keep things in their own hands.

Asked about signing a ‘360 deal’ like Madonna, Ulrich said: "We've never sold ourselves that way. No disrespect. We want to be as free a player as possible. We've been observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor and in 27 years or however long it takes for the next record, we'll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the Internet."

Despite this, Ulrich admits he’d be sad to see the traditional record shop disappear, adding: "The record store has been such a huge part of our lives. When I was 12, 14 years old in Denmark, the record store was the Holy Grail and the guy who worked there was my hero."

Metallica's upcoming ninth studio album will be their final one to be released through Warner Bros. It’s set for release sometime this year.

http://www.metallica.com/

Pop Levi dead or alive?

Well, sugar assault me now, Pop Levi is dead! – or so its been claimed by an internet prankster who has edited his Wikipedia page.

Written entirely in the past tense, Levi's Wikipedia entry says that he lived from 1960 to 2007 and claims that he died in a car crash on December 23.

However, not believing this for a moment, Levi's label, Counter Records, falsified this statement and categorically denied that Levi has popped his clogs.

Perhaps it’s a lesson to us all that we shouldn’t believe a thing that’s printed on Wiki.

Here’s the full Wikipedia entry before it's swiftly taken down:

Pop Levi, 1960 - 2007, was an English musician and filmaker from London. Pop Levi's career started in Liverpool. He got the opportunity to play bass for electronic-rock artists Ladytron (who he did remix work for, and contributed the song, "Twins", to their Softcore Jukebox mix album). He was also a member, along with Snap Ant and Loka, of Super Numeri. Pop Levi has been listed as one of Lauren Laverne's favourite artists to make it big in 2007 on BBC2's The Culture Show. He released a solo album, The Return to Form Black Magick Party on February 2, 2007.

Levi was killed in a car accident on the 23rd of December 2007.

http://www.poplevi.com/

Arctic Monkeys talk about follow up album

The Arctic Monkeys are ready to follow up last year’s sophmore album, 'My Favourite Worst Nightmare'.

In an interview with BBC 6Music to promote his ‘other’ band The Last Shadow Puppets, Alex Turner hinted at a 2009 release for the next Monkeys outing.

“We did a bit [of studio work] in January. We had tunes that we’d already been playing on tour so we recorded them. That’s six [songs],” he proffered. “We’re going to take it easy and start practicing over the summer and doing new stuff. We did a little thing in January and it was almost tempting to go again ‘cos it was dead exciting but we thought, ‘No, take it easier, chill out a bit and consider’.”

'The Age Of The Understatement' is out now and has just gone number 1 in the UK.

http://www.arcticmonkeys.com/

The Strokes talk of 4th album

One of Jase Knows Music's top 5 bands of all time, The Strokes, have confirmed they are working on a new record.

After releasing 'First Impressions of Earth' in 2006, The Strokes embarked on a back-breaking tour circuit which included a string of Australian dates. Now the much-loved New Yorkers have resurfaced with news of a fourth album.

“It’s been a long break but much needed for us to remain together as a productive band,” bass guitarist Nikolai Fraiture concedes in a post on the band’s website. “I’d like to say that I’m still looking very forward to a fourth album release. We just need to work out a few technical kinks.”

We love you Julian Casablancas!!

http://www.thestrokes.com/

AC/DC record new album

AC/DC has finished recording its new album.

AC/DC guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young remain in the Vancouver studio with producers Mike Fraser and Brendan O'Brien to finish mixing.

The groups vocalist Brian Johnson revealed this during an interview with Washigton D.C.'s DC 101 radio station.

Brian also stated that a tour would follow the release.

http://www.acdc.com/

Splendour in the Grass 2008 lineup

Splendour in the Grass is back again and the wait is now over for those of you who were setting up all those rumour pages.

There are a few killer international acts and some of the best Aussie talent around ready to blow your minds on the first weekend in August.

Acts include geniuses Devo, Icelandic mood-rockers Sigur Ros and a welcome return to the scene, The Music, who played a blistering Splendour set back in 2003.

Recent hyped up bands will be playing live too including Vampire Weekend, who make their first journey to Australia, Band of Horses and Cold War Kids who should keep the uber-cool trendsetters happy.

Other notable international dazzlers include The Fratellis, The Wombats and one of Music Universe's currently favourite acts, Lightspeed Champion.

The Aussie contingent is nothing to be scoffed at either, with Wolfmother, The Vines and The Living End all making welcome returns to the live scene.

Splendour in the Grass will take place at Belongil Fields, Byron Bay on August 2 & 3, 2008.

Tickets will set you back $199, or $206 for a "green" ticket (they use the extra cash to buy carbon credits). Camping will set you back an extra $132, but for that price, get a place in town and walk to this otherwise great festival.

Tickets are on sale at 9am, May 22, so you have a few weeks to sort yourselves out.

Lineup so far.....

Devo

The Music

Wolfmother

Sigur Ros

The Living End

The Presets

Tricky

Vampire Weekend

Ben Lee

Cold War Kids

The Fratellis

The Wombats

Pnau

Laura Marling

The Vines

The Grates

Operator Please

Band of Horses

Van She

The Panics

Gyroscope

MSTRKRFT

Lightspeed Champion

The Brown Birds from Windy Hill

Scribe

The Gin Club

http://www.splendourinthegrass.com/

C.S.S bassist quits

Brazilian electro-trash group CSS (former Cansei de Ser Sexy) have parted ways with their bassist Ira Trevisan for "personal reasons".

On the band's MySpace, Trevisan said "I decided to move forward and dedicate more of my time to fashion and other projects. Just a big change of priorities, as I will never stop playing music. I am also a bit worried about climate change. People should care more and do something about it. I decided to fly less. CSS will always be in my heart. They said goodbye to their bass player, but they won a new life time fan. In health and sickness, in happiness and so forth. Blah blah blah, so help us God."

Drummer Adriano Cintra will move to bass duties, and a new, unnamed, drummer who is "a friend of the band" will jump in for live performances only.The band's second album will be released in July.

www.csshurts.com

Pete Doherty in jail or in a hotel?

Pete Doherty is getting "five-star" treatment in jail.

The troubled rocker has been given his own cell, a TV, radio and bunk bed in a secure unit of Wormwood Scrubs Prison, in London.

A source told Britain's The Sun newspaper: "He is on the segregation unit because of who he is. It's thought he could be vulnerable. It's basically the five-star treatment which takes most prisoners weeks of good behaviour to achieve."

Doherty was jailed for 14 weeks after breaking the terms of his suspended sentence. Judge Davinder Lachar ruled the Babyshambles star was in "breach of time-keeping, non-compliance of his order and using different drugs" when handing down the sentence earlier this month.

Doherty has reportedly been adjusting well to prison life, with the help of video messages from former girlfriend Kate Moss. He has also been getting involved in prison activities, including auditioning for the part of Romeo in a production of 'Romeo and Juliet' and has vowed to work on the next Babyshambles album.

www.babyshambles.net

The Music new album 'Strength In Numbers' out June 16th

The Music have announced details of the release of their new album.

Strength In Numbers, the bands third album, will be released through Yes Please / Polydor on June 16th 2008.

The 12-track album, recorded in late 2007, was produced by Flood (Killers / U2) and Paul Hartnoll (ex Orbital).

Recorded at The Townhouse in London, the full tracklisting for the album is as follows:

1. Strength In Numbers
2. The Spike
3. Drugs
4. Idle
5. The Left Side
6. Fire
7. Get Through It
8. Vision
9. The Last One
10. No Weapon Sharper Than Will
11. Cold Blooded
12. Inconceivable Odds

The album will be preceded by a single, the album’s title track, Strength In Numbers, on June 9th 2008.

Consistently one of the most incendiary live bands in the UK, the Leeds-based band, remarkably still in their early 20s, released their much-acclaimed self-titled debut album in 2002 and quickly established themselves as an original and exciting musical force. This was followed in 2004 by their second long-player, Welcome To The North.

Both albums combined have sold in excess of one million copies worldwide and the band have enjoyed considerable live success; they have headlined festivals as far a field as Japan and Australia, toured extensively in the US and Europe and played stadium shows alongside the likes of U2, Oasis & Coldplay.

http://www.themusic.co.uk/

The Kooks nearly split!

Ex Kooks bassist, Max Rafferty, officially left the band in January this year, due to on off bouts of illness and absences from the band, its been revealed.

Rafferty struggled to cope with the demands of touring and recording, and allegedly he also succumbed to the slayer of many a good artist – namely, drugs. The boys knee jerk reaction veered towards splitting up, but common sense prevailed.

Dan Logan, the bass player with Cat The Dog has stepped in on a temporary basis, and may become a long term replacement for one of the Brighton band’s founder members.

New album, Konk, is due out on Monday 14 April.

www.thekooks.co.uk

Coldplay announce tracklisting for new album 'Viva La Vida'

Coldplay have finally confirmed the tracklisting for their new album 'Viva La Vida', slated for a winter release in Australia.

In an interview with Billboard Chris Martin and the band spoke of the follow-up to 2005's "X&Y".

On the fact that producers Brian Eno and Markus Dravs let the group explore new musical territory Chris said:

"We're still obsessed with making songs that can be sung to the rafters. We just wanted to present them differently", he explained.

"Brian has this amazing ability to demystify wonderful music and make it seem very achievable. We weren't afraid to try anything", drummer Will Champion said.

The tracklisting for "Viva La Vida" is as follows:

"Life in Technicolor"
"Cemeteries of London"
"Lost!"
"42"
"Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love"
"Yes"
"Viva La Vida"
"Violet Hill"
"Strawberry Swing"
"Death and All His Friends"

The album is scheduled for release on June 17.

www.coldplay.com

Wolf and Cub sign with Domino

Adelaide's Wolf & Cub has signed a publishing deal with the UK's Domino Publishing.

General manager for Domino Publishing UK Paul Lambden said in a statement that "Joel Byrne (Wolf & Cub) writes great tunes that rock our world and Domino Publishing is proud to have him on board."

Domino is home to Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys.

The band released its debut album 'Vessels' on 4AD in the UK.

Wolf & Cub are currently in the studio writing and recording for the their next album with the first single due for release mid year.

http://www.wolfandcub.com/

Powderfinger 'Upstairs at The Downstairs' sold out

The 'Upstairs at the Downstairs' tour for Powderfinger was an almost instant sell-out after tickets went on sale this morning.

Powderfinger's first shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on the 'Upstairs at the Downstairs' tour sold out in 5 minutes.

More shows are now on sale as follows:

Brisbane – The Tivoli – Sunday, 8 June

Sydney – Enmore Theatre –Thursday, 12 June

Melbourne – The Forum - Saturday, 14 June

http://www.powderfinger.com/

The Wombats to play Splendour 2008

Splendour In The Park's first act has unofficially been announced today. The Wombats have announced that they will be playing at Splendour this year, as well as a whole lot of other festivals.

Glastonbury will be shoehorned into an already packed festival season that already sees the band co-headlining the NME/Radio 1 stage at the Carling Weekender, and playing T In The Park, Isle of Wight and Oxegen. Meanwhile in Europe they will play at no fewer than 17 festivals, including Ibiza Rocks and Pukkelpop (at which they are the only British act to perform) - not forgetting a quick trip to Japan to play Summer Sonic and Australia for Splendour.

The Wombats will also release the single 'Backfire at the Disco' on 21st April through 14th Floor Records. It follows on from the band's two previous Top 20 singles 'Let's Dance To Joy Division' and 'Moving To New York', both taken from the Gold-selling debut album 'The Wombats Proudly Present...A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation'.

www.thewombats.co.uk

Architecture In Helsinki go on tour

Known for switching instruments almost as much as they change genres, Architecture In Helsinki are about to hit the road for a short east coast tour in May, all in aid of launching their ‘Like It Or Not’ single.

The band have added a Newcastle date to the tour, which will have patrons of the Steel City rejoicing. However, for fans from the nation’s capital, unfortunately they have been forced to cancel their show at the University Of Canberra as a result!

For the tour they’ll be joined by El Guincho, who is described as a “sun-soaked, Spanish psychedelicist”.
Architecture In Helsinki tour dates:

Thu 8th May – Prince Bandroom, Melbourne
Fri 9th May – Queens Wharf Brewery, Newcastle
Sun 11th May – Metro Theatre, Sydney
Tue 13th May – The Tivoli, Brisbane

www.architectureinhelsinki.com

Kasabian talk 3rd album

Kasabian are in the studio working on their third album and they're almost done.

The Sunday Mirror has reported that the Leicester band are "80% finished" their psychedelic "road movie soundtrack" album.

Bassist Chris Edwards told the paper, "We go to the studio, potter around, eat sandwiches and it's hard to get things finished. We're about 80 per cent done now."

He added, "We're going to play it for Noel Gallagher in a couple of weeks. He speaks his mind."

In other Kasabian news, Kasabian will be headlining Creamfields 2008 on their tenth anniversary.The festival takes place on the 23rd and 24th of August.Tickets are on sale now, and they can be bought on http://www.creamfields.com/.

http://www.kasabian.co.uk/

Cajun Dance Party set to release debut

The debut album from English buzz band Cajun Dance Party will be released on April 28.

The band was almost thrown together by Danny Blumberg in 2005 who gathered up his school friends to form a band for a school concert. "We formed just to play that and thought we'd record some of the songs after," Blumberg says. "From that came 'The First Untouchable' from our first rehearsal demo, which became our first single and will be on the first album".

After recording the demos, Cajun Dance Party put their 4 track demo up on MySpace and that opened the flood-gates of interest. Suede's Bernard Butler heard them at a small party and wanted to produce. "He was one of the people who contacted us after the early demo," he said. "We didn't know who he was. He later told me I ignored his email".

Butler did end up producing Cajun Dance Party and soon after they signed with XL Recordings.

"That was in April 2007," he says. "The majors wanted us to release an album straight away. We had gotten a lot of press in the UK but it was all hype. We didn't like the way that it was about our age and not our music".

The debut album for Cajun Dance Party will be released through XL Recordings on April 28th.

www.cajundanceparty.com

Stone Temple Pilots reuniting

Stone Temple Pilots have officially revealed that the band will be reuniting and will launch a massive 2008 concert tour encompassing over 65 dates and hitting all corners of North America.

Marking the first national tour for Stone Temple Pilots in almost eight years, the 65 date stretch will hit amphitheatres across North America.

The tour is scheduled to kick off May 17th with the band headlining the Rock on the Range Festival in Columbus, OH and will continue through November 2008.

http://www.stonetemplepilots.com/

Lollapalooza line-up revealed

Chicago-based music festival Lollapalooza has had its full line-up released hours outside of the official announcement, and it promises to be a good one.

Taking place from Friday August 1 to Sunday August 3, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails will headline two of the festival’s three nights on the main stage. Recent visitors Rage Against The Machine, plus local standouts Kanye West and Wilco, stand at the top of the announcement.

Tickets are now on sale at www.lollapalooza.com for US$190.

Some of the sizzling bands to see are listed below.

Radiohead
Rage Against The Machine
Nine Inch Nails
Kanye West
Wilco
The Raconteurs
Gnarls Barkley
Bloc Party
The Black Keys
Broken Social Scene
Lupe Fiasco
Mark Ronson
Cat Power
The National
G.Love
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
Explosions In The Sky
Okkervil River
John Butler Trio
Girl Talk
CSS
Battles
Spank Rock
Brazilian Girls
Chromeo
The Kills
Rogue Wave
The Go! Team
Grizzly Bear
MGMT
Santogold
and more................

Mars Volta return to tour Australia

Here’s some tour news to make heads spin. Rock anarchists The Mars Volta are returning to our shores to promote their most unhinged, next-level album to date.

The genesis of 'The Bedlam In Goliath', the band’s fourth studio album, is uncanny even by Mars Volta standards. Here’s how the story goes. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez embarked on an impromptu 10-day trip to Israel (of course), where he bought bandmate Cedric Bixler-Zavala a Ouija board they named the Soothsayer. Playing with the gift while on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Omar and Cedric began to experience otherworldly occurrences. Their studio flooded, the band’s bass player contracted a rare blood disease, recordings were lost and one of the usually-dependable engineers tried to destroy the completed files. 'The Bedlam Of Goliath' was recorded anyway, and it’s as crazed and brilliant as you’d expect.

With the all that chaos feeding into the record, you can be sure none of the Mars Volta’s electric, urgent stage presence has been lost. The seven-man band still swears by its live show and will surely not fail to impress. After their last visit left the country reeling, expect this tour to be another visceral experience.

'The Bedlam In Goliath' tour will tear through the following cities:

Tuesday 17 June – Metro City, Perth
Thursday 19 June – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Saturday 21 June – Brisbane Convention Centre, Brisbane
Monday 23 June – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Tickets on sale Wednesday 16 April.

http://www.themarsvolta.com/

Come Together Festival 2008

This June long weekend, the cream of indie and alternative rock bands from around Australia plus some special international guests, will converge on Sydney’s Luna Park for the annual 'Come Together Festival'.

For the 5th time Sydney’s favourite boutique all ages rock festival is back under the Big Top and this year’s line up may well be the best to date.

Boasting a huge line-up of both Australian and International guests, Saturday attendees can expect to stay glued to the dancefloor while listening to the best that indie pop rock has to offer, while those that like it a bit harder and faster will find all their musical desires filled on Sunday, when you’ll get to see everything from punk to hardcore to alt rock and everything in between.

Acts include:

The Thrills (IRE)

The Living End

VHS or Beta (US)

British India

Faker

Gyroscope

Birds of Tokyo

The Getaway Plan

Young & Restless

Cut Off Your Hands (NZ)

Dappled Cities

Sparkadia

The Dirty Secrets

Little Red

The Hot Lies

Children Collide

and more.......

Tix on sale now - check the website for various outlets

http://www.cometogether.com.au/

The Black Keys tour Aus again

Regulars to these shores, the blues brothers, The Black Keys are gracing us with their presence again this June.

The tour is to promote new album Attack & Release, which, unsurprisingly, has been greeted with effusive reviews. The Black Keys recorded with producer-du jour Danger Mouse in CLeveland, marking the duo’s first departure from their studio in Akron. As a result, Attack & Release is a rollicking, unvarnished ride through bluesy rock and soul. The pay-off is much the same at a Black Keys live show: only two guys, but a whole lot of grunt.

Don’t miss The Black Keys on their Attack & Release tour of Australia.

Tuesday 17 June – The Tivoli, Brisbane
Thursday 19 June – The Palace Theatre, Melbourne
Saturday 21 June – Manning Bar, Sydney Uni – Early show 3.30PM DOORS
Saturday 21 June – Manning Bar, Sydney Uni – Late show 9PM DOORS
Sunday 22 June – Metropolis Fremantle, Fremantle

www.theblackkeys.com

We Love Sounds Festival 2008

The line-up for the We Love Sounds music festival in Sydney has been announced with more than 2 dozen international acts and a similar number of Aussie acts making up the bill.

Heading the line-up, The Bravery from New York, Mix Master Mike from Beastie Boys, Utah Saints and Cassius.

We Love Sounds will be held on Sunday June 8 at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney.

The complete line-up is:

INTERNATIONALS GUESTS

DUBFIRE (Deep Dish)
CASSIUS - dj / live (FRA)
MIX MASTER MIKE (Beastie Boys)
!!! (CHK CHK CHK) live (USA)
THE BRAVERY live (NY)
BONDE DO ROLE (4 Piece live, Brazil)
MR OIZO (Ed Banger, France)
STEVE LAWLER
DERRICK CARTER
STEPHAN BODZIN live
UTAH SAINTS
SCRIBE (NZ)
MODESELEKTOR live
BLACKGRASS - dj / live
GRAND NATIONAL live (UK)
THE WHIP live (UK)
ELLEN ALLIEN (B Pitch, GMNY)
HANS PETER LINDSTROM live (Norway)
EDU K live (Brazil)
M_NUS EXPERIENCE feat MARC HOULE live & GAISER live
DAVID SQUILLACE (Italy, Ovum Rec)
DUKE DUMONT
FUTURECOP (UK)
KLEIN & DABRUCK (GMNY)
STEREOHEROES (FRA)

LOCAL FEATURE ARTISTS

VAN SHE live
GRAFTON PRIMARY live
THEATRE OF DISCO live
GAMEBOY GAMEGIRL live
AJAX
BANG GANG DJS
KID KENOBI & MC SHURESHOCK
THE POTBELLEEZ
MIAMI HORROR
TRASHBAGS POSSE DJS - AFTERS & CHEAPFRILLZ
REDIAL
ROBBIE LOWE
MINIMAL FUSS DJS
HOOPS
KATO
ROSHAMBO
FIZZ
BEN MORRIS
GOODWILL
THE ASTON SHUFFLE
MATTT & TOMAAS
ALEX TAYLOR & JULES BEAUMONT (HOME TERRACE RE-UNION)
BAG RAIDERS
THE OUTLAWS

www.sounds.net.au

The Living End to record new album in US

One of Music Universe's favourite local bands, The Living End, are about to head into a New Jersey studio to record their new album with John Agnello (SOnic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. and The Hold Steady).

After trialling some new songs on their 'Longnecks' tour, they are itching to record them. Frontman Chris Cheney says he is excited by the new depth and heaviness to their songs.

Agnello agrees by saying that "from the moment I heard demos of the new songs, I knew this would be a speical record. Chris' vocals really blew me away and the lyrics are great". He added that songs like 'Kid' and 'Waiting for the Silence' were already his stand-outs.

The album will be mixed by producer Brendan O'Brien, who will work on it in between his commitments recording new AC/DC and Pearl Jam albums.

www.thelivingend.com

Reading/Leeds Festival 2008 first announcement

The Reading and Leeds double-header returns in August, with both festivals sharing the same acts over one mammoth weekend. The banner names are suitably colossal: among them Rage Against The Machine, The Killers, Metallica, Bloc Party and Queens Of The Stone Age.

Filling out the middle-tier are hipster-approved names ( The Enemy, Vampire Weekend, Foals, The Wombats ), hard rocking dependables ( Serj Tankian, Slipknot, Feeder ) and even a bit of laughter from Tenacious D.

There’s plenty more to come, but the line-up as it stands is:

Reading: Friday August 22, Leeds: Saturday August 23

Main Stage

Rage Against The Machine

Queens Of The Stone Age

The Fratellis

The Enemy

Biffy Clyro

Serj Tankian

Dizzee Rascal

Taking Back Sunday

Get Cape. Wear Cape.

Fly

Anti-Flag

NME/Radio 1 Stage

Babyshambles

The Wombats

Vampire Weekend

MGMT

Reading: Saturday August 23, Leeds: Sunday August 24

Main Stage

The Killers

Bloc Party

The Raconteurs

Editors

We Are Scientists

Dirty Pretty Things

The Subways

NME/Radio 1 Stage

Manic Street Preachers

Bullet For My Valentine

Justice

Foals

Reading: Sunday August 24, Leeds: Friday August 23

Main Stage

Metallica

Tenacious D

Slipknot

Feeder

Avenged Sevenfold

Dropkick Murphys

NME/Radio 1 Stage

The Cribs

Conor Oberst

Pendulum

Phew..................

Jase Knows Music went to this festival and cant truthfully say that of all the festivals he has been to in his time, this has got to be one of the greatest rock shows he's ever seen. Maybe a return in 2008 might be on the cards.