Music news

Far out. Years after madcap drummer Jon Bonham took the Stairway To Heaven, blues-rock turned heavy metal legends Led Zeppelin look set to stumble into the light of 2007 together again, albeit a tad Dazed And Confused, to relive the Good Times (&) Bad Times. Founding members Plant and Page may have had a bit of a Communication Breakdown over their hiatus period, but let¹s hope as they return to Ramble On, with a Whole Lotta Love, that The Song Remains The Same. The reunion show is tipped for Autumn at London¹s O2 Arena.

And you thought Tiger Woods' dad pushed him into golf early. The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are certainly on the same get your kid in early bandwagon. Comprised of father Jason on guitar and keyboards, mother Tina on slide projector, and their 12-year-old daughter Rachel on the drums, you gotta love this New york based indie-vaudeville-conceptual-art-rock band.
Avid collectors of vintage slide collections found in flea markets and thrift stores, their kooky shows revolve around setting pop-rock musical exposes to the projected lives of anonymous strangers. They've sung about everything from enjoying fondue in Switzerland to training employees to work at Wendys. Imagine the possibilities, they're endless!

After winning the Esky award for “Best Free Live-Music Site� only a year after its inception, the only way was up for daytrotter.com. Twice a week, in the middle of hectic touring schedules, some of the biggest indie bands screech into their tiny Futureappletree Studio One, Rock Island, Illinois,to record live and straight to tape. Cold War Kids guitarist Jonnie Russell recently declared the site to be “one of the last bastions of creative bootlegging.� Not only do Daytrotter give us a wealth of collectible live sessions, they also interview today’s best independent artists and then post the results alongside fabulous original illustrations. Kudos indeed.

Don'’t miss “the� Dappled Cities’ session from last week. It’'s a real highlight.

Either I'm having a dream or there is a boy/girl duo from out of LA who drive around in an ice cream truck - a pink one, no less - which is stocked with ice cream and candy and toys, which they give out in the street or at impromptu dance parties, and they also make electronic music, and they've done a glitched-up little remix of Huggy Bear's 'Her Jazz' which makes me just desperate to dj again so I can play it somewhere, and they are all neon and pink like that little cloud that Monkee used to whizz around on. And guess what? It is the latter.

It's a grey Monday in Melbourne
and I've just discovered that, sadly, another music legend has passed
onto history's page. Tony Wilson, the co-founder of Factory Records has
died of a heart attack aged just 57.
As the Factory Records boss, Wilson was responsible for signing legendary bands like Joy Division and New Order and set the benchmark for indie labels throughout the UK and beyond with his fervour and innovation. He also played a massive role in the Å’Madchester scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s with nut-job bands like The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. Blue Monday indeed.

Fare thee well.

Eugene McGuiness is a Morrisey-esque crooner from the North. The latest in a string of young Brit songsmith's to sweep London, but unlike the Lily's, Jamie's and Jack's, Eugene has crept up and knocked me off my feet with his swooning melodies and witty observations of everyday idiosyncracies. His first single, Monsters Under the Bed, is two minutes of poignant pop perfection, complete with hand claps, la da dap ba da ba's, and ascerbic lyrics about procrastination and uninspiring crap English weather.

Australian flags flew, at Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago, as Silverchair rocked out to
a sea of fans, proving they are in full come-back mode. The Australian/New York skinny-jeaned band MINK, currently touring with Satellite Party throughout the states, impressed with infectious rock riffs, bad-ass drumbeat and Mick-Jagger-limbed lead singer.