Death Cab For Cutie announce yet another Australian tour

Death Cab For Cutie’s last visit in August 2008 went so well, that the band have decided to make a hasty return this February.

Formed in 1997, Death Cab have been making sweet musical tunes for over a decade now. Their latest release, 'Narrow Stairs, has arguably made into some top ten albums for 2008 lists as well as pulling them a couple of Grammy nominations. They will be releasing their third single off the album 'No Sunlight' very very soon.

Death Cab For Cutie pulls in to the following venues in February. Tickets on sale Friday 9 January.

Thursday 19 – Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle [18+]
Sunday 22 – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide [Licensed And All Ages]
Monday 23 – Forum Theatre, Melbourne [18+]
Tuesday 24 – Forum Theatre, Melbourne [18+]
Thursday 26 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney [Licensed/All Ages]
Saturday 28 – The Tivoli, Brisbane [18+]

www.deathcabforcutie.com

Massive albums due in 2009

People! We thought we'd make you excited for 2009 by telling you about a couple of bands that will be releasing new albums this year. We mentioned in the previous article about Lily Allen, Franz Ferdinand and Antony and The Johnsons. Well there's a bunch more that will be coming out in the following months too.

A new Flight of Conchords record is just one of the announcements to spark the beginning of the end of a long wait for many music fans.

With news of a whole host of other musical endeavors in the works for many acts, 2009 looks set to be the year where there will be something for everyone.

Indie giants, the Strokes are ready to make a triumphant return to the music scene too, this following the success of drummer Fabrizio Moretti’s side project 'Little Joy'. Fellow Strokes member Nickolai Fraiture’s also completed his first album with his band Nickel Eye, set for release in late January.

Autumn is set to include the return of The Prodigy, with their first album to include all band members since the release of 'The Fat of the Land back' in 1997, not to mention an interesting appearance on drums from Foo Fighter Dave Grohl on the track 'Run with the Wolves'.

June will pave the way for new Massive Attack material, the English trip-hop group, who are currently working on their long-awaited fifth studio album. It is said to feature collaborations with Damon Albarn, Sinead O’Connor and Mike Patton of Faith No More fame.

There are also pending releases from Pop punkers Greenday, whose fans have been waiting faithfully for a while for the band's follow up to 'American Idiot' to hit shops.

British stadium fillers Muse are also penciled in for Spring ’09 which, according to NME reports, will be 'the hardest song we've ever written" and will feature a three part symphony.

We don't know when, but the likes of Eminem, Dr Dre., Gang of Four, Junior Boys, Pearl Jam, Placebo, Postal Service and Broken Social Scene have all mentioned that they expect to release a new album sometime in 2009.

Clearly, it's going to be a well and truly mixed bag of exciting and unusual announcements for the coming months. For the moment, 2009 appears to be a busy year for modern music.

Who we are hyped about for 2009...

A little while ago we put together a little article about the top aussie prospects for 2009 including the great Tame Impala, the exciting Empire of The Sun and the ever-so-wonderful Temper Trap. (Read more here)

Well, after extensive research and hours of listening, we believe we may have found the next batch of international acts to make some hype in 2009. We believe that we first mentioned the likes of MGMT, The Ting Tings, Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes here at Music Universe and look how their 2008 turned out. Well, here's the list we believe will be raging this year:

1. White Lies
Summed up: Think Joy Division, Interpol and Editors shoved into a blender.
Website: www.myspace.com/whitelies

2. Florence and The Machine
Summed up: Like when the sun sets over the sea on a summer's day- just beautiful.
Website: www.myspace.com/florenceandthemachinemusic

3. First Aid Kit
Summed up: Two teenage girls from Stockholm who do an amazing cover of Fleet Foxes
Website: www.myspace.com/firstaidkit

4. School of Seven Bells
Summed up: A good looking dreamy kind of band formed by dude out of Secret Machines.
Website: www.myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells

5. Hockey
Summed up: If James Murphy produced The Strokes and met Dylan and The Hold Steady during lunch.
Website: www.myspace.com/hockey

6. La Roux
Summed up: An electro-pop version of Annie Lennox playing the synthesizer. Mark my words...she' ll be big.
Website: http://www.laroux.co.uk/

7. Boy Crisis
Summed up: If MGMT ceased to exist, these guys would fill their shoes easily.
Website: www.myspace.com/boycrisis

8. Everything Everything
Summed up: Unconventional UK pop that makes you think whilst you move on the dancefloor.
Website: www.myspace.com/everythingeverythinguk

9. Mumford & Sons
Summed up: Think Coldplay turned hillbilly whilst enjoying an enchanting and unique experience
Website: www.myspace.com/mumfordandsons

10. Passion Pit
Summed up: File them next to Flaming Lips, MGMT, The Go! Team and expect your body to not stop moving
Website: www.myspace.com/passionpitjams

Honourable mentions:
- Amazing Baby (www.myspace.com/theamazingbaby)

- Chairlift (http://www.chairliftmusic.com/)

- Golden Silvers (http://www.goldensilvers.co.uk/)

- Rye Rye (www.myspace.com/tharealryerye)
- The Dø (www.myspace.com/thedøband)

Let's get the 2009 party started.......

Welcome back everyone!!!! Happy 2009!!!

Hope all had a merry Christmas and a festive new year! We want to wish everyone a safe, fun and positive 2009. Even more, let's hope the music in 2009 can be even better compared to 2008. There's a few new releases coming out early in 09' (Franz Ferdinand, Lily Allen, Antony and The Johnsons and Andrew Bird) and we can only hope they kick off what potentially could be a sweet sweet year.

A quick note that passed through the office yesterday was that music sales have topped 1.5 billion units for the first time ever in the USA.

Despite the constant perceived drop in the music biz, digital sales have fuelled the most successful year ever for total sales in the US music industry.

1,513 million sales were tallied during 2008 according to Nielsen SoundScan. That was up from 1,369 million last year or a 10.5% increase.

While overall album sales were down 8.5%%, digital album sales were up 32%. More people bought albums digitally than ever before last year. Digital albums accounted for 65.8 million sales.

The real surprise was the increase in vinyl sales. They were up 89% this year, albeit on a small total figure of 1.88 million.

More than 1 billion tracks were sold digitally in 2008. Digital track sales sold 1,070 million last year.

We won't mention who the best selling digital artist or best selling digital song was because they would never get a mention on Music Universe. However, we can tell you that the top selling digital album was 'Viva La Vida’ by Coldplay. Yes.