Burned By The Sun........

So, I booked my campsite at Lake Cahuilla (because the cheapest hotel in Indio, the Motel 6, was all sold out, but I kind of prefer camping because camping means you can eat s'mores) and I bought my Coachella tickets today (there's a presale on Ticketbastard until Sunday, password= GOBI). The lineup hasn't been announced yet, that's supposed to happen on Jan. 31, but I have faith it will kick ass. There was a bunch of stuff added to the list this morning. Wolf Eyes and the Killers are the new confirmations. I thought it was funny how in the NME article the singer of the Killers was complaining about how hot it was last year (and it wasn't 113 degrees, it was 103), yet during the set he refused to remove his blazer.

Other Stuff

-You can download the new Hot Hot Heat single here.

-So... I watched the second night of the American Idol auditions. I don't watch the rest of the season, just the audition episodes. My favorite people are the deluded souls who believe they are the greatest singers in the world, and are amazed and offended when the judges say they suck (which, in fact, they do). The St. Louis auditions raised an important ethical question: Is it better to tell someone with no talent that they can sing and avoid hurting their feelings, or tell them the truth so they don't make asses of themselves later in life? 'Cause it seems like the worst singers who auditioned were there because their families encouraged them. On a brighter note, I thought that one girl who grew up on the farm actually had a good voice. Not a stereotypical, dime-a-dozen diva voice (I fucking hate those! I'd seriously rather listen to William Hung...), but a pretty, almost country-ish voice. She'll probably be voted off immediately in favor of someone who can hit really high notes but has no expression or feeling in their voice.

News and Stuff
-Blame the Computers! The Guardian has an article about Hit Song Science, a computer program used to predict hits. Now if only the music went through a second computer, one that determines which songs are actually good.

-Sensitivity Goes Off the Deep End: If I heard the band name 50 Foot Wave, I wouldn't think of the recent tsunamis at all. I'm not being sarcastic; I'm serious. So it's dumb that Kristin Hersh's new band, who sent out the promo copies of their first album a week before disaster struck, is being scrutinized for the name.

-The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are slated to return to the studio in March to record the follow up to Fever to Tell, which should be out this fall. Supposedly they will be taking a different direction on this album. Sounds cool. More here.

-Speaking of new albums, the title of the new Flaming Lips album will be At War With the Mystics, and Wayne Coyne has said he wants Cat Power to guest on the album.

-The Good News: A previously uncirculated tape of a teenage Bob Dylan singing folk songs in a Minneapolis apartment has been donated to a museum. The Bad News: You have to go to Minnesota to hear it, and making copies isn't allowed.

-The Guardian has more on that Ian Curtis biopic. Turns out Curtis' widow and Tony Wilson will be executive producers, and the director will be Anton Corbijn, who took some of the most famous photographs of the band. It also says that rumors of Jude Law playing Curtis have been ruled out.

-There's a new Teen Girl Squad cartoon. This one involves a battle of the bands.

Another Coachella Confirmation
Thanks to an email I received earlier, I was led to this link, which shows a promo sticker for the group M83 (scroll down a little) that reveals they will be at Coachella.

News and Stuff

- Brit Award Nominees Are Out. I'm always amazed that European awards shows have at least some good nominees while our awards shows.... never mind.

- Pitchfork's got the Secret Machines' tour itenerary up. I definitely recommend seeing them. For their LA show Autolux and Moving Units are supposed to be the openers, which should be cool, since I've heard a lot of good things (especially about Autolux's live show. Shit, my friend has been telling me of the wonders of their live show since I first came here... in 2002. I've never had a chance to see them.).

- Oh, speaking of shows, I just saw an ad in the LA Weekly that Hot Hot Heat are gonna be at the Roxy on Feb. 25. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning. And Interpol are going to be at the Grand Olympic (weird, rock shows are hardly ever held there) on Feb. 19; tickets for that go on sale Saturday at 10am (and will probably sell out fast).

- This has nothing to do with music, it's just an insane and nonsensical paper about Oedipus. If I was a teacher, I'd be tempted to give the person an A, just for creativity and hilarity, and hell, I know I'd never have the guts to turn in something like this.

Hi everybody. No, I'm not dead, I had final exams and then Christmas break (where I spent about five minutes with the terrible computer I bitched about all summer before it crashed on me). This site will be all updated by the end of today. Really.

News and Stuff

New Albums
-Garbage: Bleed Like Me will be out on April 12. Billboard has a tracklisting (interestingly, Dave Grohl plays drums on one of the songs).

-Nine Inch Nails: Still no firm release date (big surprise), but now the title of the album is With Teeth instead of Bleedthrough. More here.

-Oasis: A sixth album should be out sometime in May. More here.

-Franz Ferdinand: A sophomore album should be out in late summer or early autumn, and may feature a song where bassist Bob Hardy sings, according to the NME. And while it's not really a new album, Franz singer Alex Kapranos' former band are re-releasing their 1997 album (that features Kapranos on vocals and guitar) next month.

Misc
-The Guardian has articles about Dolly Parton and Pete Doherty. Speaking of Pete, over break I read in my local paper, the Oakland Press, that Babyshambles is supposedly touring North America in 2005. I can't seem to find anything about that anywhere else, and it sounds a bit unlikely, since the Libertines supposedly had troubles getting a visa back in 2003 because of some drug charges... and there have been, uh, many more charges since then. But who knows?