Niki N. Phaser

          Mark Hoppus has announced that Blink 182 will be touring Europe for a few weeks, during the summer of 2010. No exact dates or locations have been published yet, but in the following months, everything will be revealed. To be sure that you are not missing anything, check the band’s official site for future information. Since the band reformed, there has been talk of a new album, but there is still nothing certain. Drummer Travis Barker has been working on his solo record, which will feature, among others, RZA and Chester of Linkin Park and Dead By Sunrise. It will be out next year, under the title Mr. Barker’s. Mark Hoppus has been in the studio also, producing a lot of new bands, while Tom DeLonge’s side project, Angels and Airwaves is about to release a new album, Love, and also an experimental movie of the same name. The first single, Hallucinations, has been released as a free download, as will the entire record. However, some sources state that the band will be working on a new Blink 182 album before touring Europe in 2010. Their last one was released in 2003.

Tori Amos rose to prominence in the 90′s and back then, being a strong independent female didn’t mean you get to dance with high-heels surrounded by half-naked muscular dudes. She became a genuine role model for women all over the world, not just because of her artistic creativity, but also because of her activism in stopping violence against women — she co-founded RAINN, an organization dealing with helping victims of sexual assault, Amos herself being a survivor of rape. But there is so much more to Tori Amos then being this brave female artist which metamorphosized an awful experience into something beautiful. She’s a brilliant composer and an even greater lyricist.

If this would have been the review of a Single Masterpiece, it would most definitely be about Crucify, but, even so, it’s (continue reading…)

French pop-rock legends, Indochine are preparing the official release (November 20) of a new single, Le Lac, taken from their latest album, La République des Meteors, their eleventh. Not the most obvious choice for a single, Le Lac is still a nice song, but not as poignant as Republika, which was overlooked for the third time. Maybe the fourth is a charm. La lettre de métal is also quite a gripping piece of music, displaying once again Indochine’s pop-rock complexity. Nicola Sirkis and co. have been touring the new album, follow-up to 2x masterpiece Alice & June, in all the familiar places, to great success. They’ll keep at it all troughout the next year, when they have scheduled a monster-gig on “Stade de France” on June 26. It’s been sold-out almost a year in advance.

Le Lac VIDEO and also try La Lettre de Metal and maybe also Republika