Inspirations

Pope Wears Prada

Benedict Emerges as Virtual Fashion Celeb

VATICAN CITY -- Whether it's Prada and Gucci, or just fancy ecclesiastical tailoring, Pope Benedict XVI is his own man when it comes to dressing.

Just days before Christmas, Benedict showed up at his weekly public audience in St. Peter's Square wearing a fur-trimmed stocking cap that could have passed for a Santa Claus hat.

Earlier this month, he made another fashion statement -- donning a red velvet cape trimmed in ermine for the traditional papal visit to the statue of the Madonna near the Spanish Steps that marks the beginning of Rome's Christmas season.

Coming after gossip about his wearing Gucci sunglasses and bright red Prada loafers, the vintage styles have turned Benedict into something of a fashion celebrity.

"Those red shoes have made quite an impression," said Vatican historian Alberto Melloni.

Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, had no use for fancy papal attire. Most often he put on the basic white cassock and white gold-trimmed sash. In winter, however, he enjoyed a crimson wool cloak trimmed in gold braid, at times allowing children to play hide and seek in its deep folds. 

The 83-year-old Benedict lacks John Paul's natural charisma, and the trappings of Vatican splendor may be a way to compensate.

The bright red Santa cap certainly has a distinguished papal pedigree. Called a caumaro, the long-forgotten head-covering dates to the Middle Ages and figures in many famous papal portraits, including one of Julius II by Raphael. It was last worn by John XXIII, who was pontiff more than 40 years ago.

The velvet cape called a mozzetta has also been part of official papal attire but hadn't been seen since John XXIII's successor, Paul VI, in the 1970s. With its regal trimming, it is reminiscent of a time of papal political power some prefer to relegate to history books.

But those who know Joseph Ratzinger from his years as head of the Vatican's doctrinal office dismiss any notion of vanity in the new pope's dressing habits. 

"He wouldn't know Gucci from Smoochi," said Marjorie Weeke, a former official at the Vatican's Social Communications office. She recalled Ratzinger's daily walk across St. Peter's Square from his home just outside the Vatican walls to his office, wearing a black beret and black overcoat and carrying a worn leather briefcase.

"He probably donned the cape because it was in the papal closet and would keep him warm on a winter evening," she said of the mozzetta.

A need to keep warm would also solve the sweater mystery.

When he came out on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to give his first blessing minutes after his election April 19, an inappropriate black sweater peeked out from under the cuff of his hurriedly donned white cassock. Apparently there was no heating in the Sistine Chapel where the conclave was held, and the new pope might have needed some woolen comfort.

Another fashion issue in the news recently: papal hemlines.

During Benedict's first public appearances, his cassock was way above the ankle, revealing white socks and bright red footwear. The hem was soon lowered a few inches, although he still prefers a sporty around-the-ankle look instead of having the cassock draped over the shoes. 

Show me your back!

Die on the Floor

Can't Stop Feeling

My soul starts spinning again
I can't stop feeling
No, I won't stop feeling
And the fun's not fun anymore
I can't stop feeling
No, I won't stop feeling

And you leave me here on my own
Yeah you leave me here on the floor
You can't feel it
And you can't feel it
You can't feel it
And you can't feel anymore

Soul boy, down and alone
And his soul is broken again
But you can't stop moving
No you won't stop moving along

My soul starts spinning again
I can't stop feeling
No, I don't stop feeling
And we're not 'us' anymore
I can't stop feeling
No, I won't stop feeling

And you leave me dancing alone
Yeah you leave me to die on the floor
You can't feel it
No you can't feel it
You can't feel it
And you can't feel anymore

Other:

Twilight Eclipse Official Trailer 2010 and Movie Release Date Review

Twilight Eclipse Official Trailer 2010 and Movie Release Date Review.  The newest edition of Twilight will be released on June 30, 2010.  The anticipation is building with the release of the official trailer.  The reviews of the movie will be rave from Twi-hard fans, but maybe not critics.

But hey – the critics weren’t fond of “New Moon” but it was a box office smash. Everyone that saw New Moon that follows the Twilight series had nothing but great things to say about the film.  Eclipse is already set up to be better.

There’s a serious love triangle developing between Bella, Jacob, and Edward and many are waiting to see who Bella chooses.

There are also rumors that there is a real life triangle between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson – but so far they are just rumors.  Kristen and Robert have been identified as an item, but recently Kristen has been photographed with Taylor touching her cheek.

One thing is certain – Bella will be well protected.  She’s got a vampire and a werewolf fighting for her honor.

Now that one official Twilight trailer has been released, many are waiting for a second.  So far, no Twilight Eclipse trailer other than the one below has been released.

I'm definitely thrilled by the full trailer of Eclipse: I didn't know I was missing Bella (Kristen Stewart), Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) so much! I was a bit afraid that David Slade wouldn't respect the emotional content of Stephenie Meyer's book and that it would overemphasize action over emotion. But I guess he's been guided in his movie adaptation, and the result looks splendid: there is a fine balance. The movie twilight Eclipse is going to rock!

Is Lily Allen set for a new life as wife?

Lily Allen has looked loved-up for a while now - and there could be even happier news on the way for one of my favourite singers.

Her boyfriend SAM COOPER has let slip to pals down a West London boozer that a proposal is not too far off.

My perfectly-placed source tells me: "Sam was quite open about how well things were going between them. Someone made a quip about the prospect of a wedding this year - and Sam was not ruling out the idea at all."

The Fear singer Lily, 24, has made no secret of her feelings for builder Sam.

And during a gig last month she told fans: "I want to have a baby. I'm not saying I'm pregnant now. Shut up, Lily." The star was devastated by a miscarriage two years ago when she was seeing Chemical Brother ED SIMONS, 39.

And the star - currently enjoying a four-month "retirement" from music - is now hankering for a life outside of London with Sam.

They began dating last August and he moved into her £1million home in Marylebone, West London, in December. A friend of Lily's tells me: "She's absolutely smitten with Sam. If he decided to propose, I know she wouldn't hesitate in saying, 'Yes'."

Drinks With: Arctic Monkeys

Skip Matheny— currently a songwriter in the band Roman Candle and former bartender in a retirement community — caught up with Alex Turner and Matt Helders of the Arctic Monkeys before their show in Chicago, Illinois, last fall.

Did you write these songs for the newer record after you had moved to Brooklyn?

AT: No. But I have written a lot since I’ve moved there.

A lot of writers have a newly infused life behind their writing once they leave their home country… it’s like they can write with an almost clearer eye about anything. Robert Frost, for example … his writing really took shape when he moved his family to the U.K. Have you experienced anything like that?

AT: Yeah. I think moving there seems to have given me like a kick up the arse or something. I mean I’ll sit there quite often, more frequently than I used to, and write. I feel like there is a lot more room here or something. But actually the songs on this record all came before [I moved]. But the next record probably will all be these songs I suppose.

Did either of you, have sometime when you were a kid when you heard a song and thought, “This thing or idea of a pop song, I get that. I might try to do that one day?”

AT: Well, I remember I must have been like twelve years old or something, and hearing “I Am the Walrus” and thinking, “Well, this is just like nonsense. I could write something like this, surely.” And sort of attempting to write in that style and really struggling with it. I distinctly remember getting aggravated because it’s like, “Well, he’s singing about custard and a cob sitting on a cornflake and why can’t I think of that?”[Laughs] And I still can’t do that exactly.

It reminds me of when I saw a Jackson Pollock painting as a kid and I thought, “Oh man, this guy has fooled everybody. This is some really easy stuff.” And then you get a little older and realize that there is something else going on there.

AT: Exactly. And there are other things: I remember being on car journeys with my parents and, I feel like that situation is the first time that I would hear music, as a kid. I suppose my Dad was talking to me about Beach Boys tunes and the harmony aspect of [their songs] as well. They evoke feeling from you—almost involuntarily—and the idea of that is something that’s stayed with me, because before the lyrics or anything in those songs, the chords and the vocal harmonies sort of get you. I remember being stirred even at a young age. It’s almost like you can’t help it.

I love this song because it reminds me of my love ♥

Come On Home
Although my lover lives in a place that I can't live
A kind of find I like a life this lonely
It rips and pierces me in places I can't see
I love the rip of nerves, the rip that wakes me
So I'm dissatisfied, I love dissatisfied
I love to feel there's always more than I need

So come on home
So come on home
So come on home

You're where you want to be, I'm where I want to be
C'mon we're chasing everything I've ever wanted
I replace you easily, replace pathetically
I flirt with every flighty thing that falls my way

But how I needed you, when I needed you
Let's not forget we are so strong, so bloody strong

Come on home
So come on home
So come on home

Blue light falls upon your perfect skin
Falls, and you draw back again
Falls, and this is how I felt
And I can not forget this
And I can not forget this

Come on home
So come on home
But don't forget to leave

A Band Moves Away From the Style It Helped Make Mainstream

It was around 3 in the afternoon when Alex Kapranos’s hangover began to wear off. Mr. Kapranos, the lead singer of the Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand, and his bandmate Nick McCarthy, who plays guitar and keyboards, had spent the previous evening in a refined version of debauchery. They went to a concert — by the British group the Last Shadow Puppets — followed by a late-night feast at the Spotted Pig, the West Village gastropub. Mr. McCarthy capped it off with some dancing at a downtown club, staying out until 5 a.m.

Now both were sitting at Momofuku Noodle Bar in the East Village, recovering.

“I’m feeling very, very tender,” Mr. Kapranos, 36, said.

“Do you have any tea?” Mr. McCarthy, 34, asked the waitress.

“No hot beverages,” she replied. They ordered water.

The odyssey of a night out, from drug-fueled anticipation to dance-floor frenzy to post-hook-up comedown, is also the subject of the band’s third album, “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand,” released on Tuesday on Domino/Epic Records. On it, the group — which includes Bob Hardy on bass and Paul Thomson on drums — aimed away from the wry, propulsive post-punk that defined its first two records and made its global 2004 hit, “Take Me Out,” an unlikely stadium anthem; even the Yankees used it.

Since then the members have found that their aesthetic — from their high-hat beat to their mod wardrobe — has gone mainstream, especially in Britain, Mr. Kapranos said. “You feel like, right, that’s become so much a part of musical vocabulary of the contemporary band, it’s now a cliché, and you have to leave it,” he said.

So no more “angular guitars,” Mr. McCarthy said, a description that has stuck to the band as surely as their slim-cut suits. (Or their angular haircuts.)

But though the band added more keyboards, bass (“It’s nice to be the lead onstage occasionally, so that I can show off a bit,” Mr. Hardy wrote in an e-mail message), unusual instrumentation, echoes of dub and even an acousticy ballad, “Tonight” will sound familiar to Franz fans, with Mr. Kapranos again singing disco songs about girls and hedonistic behavior.

He has a reputation as a foodie: he met Mr. Hardy when they worked at a Glasgow restaurant, and eventually wrote a food column for The Guardian in Britain. (A collection was released in the United States as a well-received book, “Sound Bites: Eating on Tour With Franz Ferdinand,” in 2006.)

Over an elaborate lunch — kimchi and other pickled vegetables, East and West Coast oysters, pork and shitake mushroom buns, noodle soups and hamachi with beet purée — he and Mr. McCarthy discussed their attempts to sidestep the clichés of postpunk stardom while still making a record people could dance, and debauch themselves, to.

“It’s a mixed blessing when a band gets that much attention early on,” said Jason Bentley, the music director of KCRW, the influential radio station in Santa Monica, Calif., and the host of “Morning Becomes Eclectic.” In 2004 that program, with Nic Harcourt as the host, first featured Franz Ferdinand in the United States. Less than a year later the band was opening the Grammys with “Take Me Out.”

“For a while there, you thought, ‘Are these guys going to go down as a one-hit wonder?’ ” Mr. Bentley said.

Not that they mind having their music back arena-size sporting events. “I always thought it was funny,” Mr. Kapranos said, “because we are the least sporty people in the world.”

Still, “Tonight” is an attempt to regroup as the small Glasgow band the members started, rather than the stylish name brand one they seemed poised to become after their self-titled debut, which had a narrowly defined look and a taut signature sound and sold more than a million copies in the United States.

Franz Ferdinand's Nick McCarthy says he loves Peru's folk music

Nick Nick Mccarthy, guitar player of Franz Ferdinand, told the press that he likes Peruvian folk music very much, and he would have not any objection to include some Peruvian rythms in any future production.

“A Peruvian girl taught me Spanish, and she also told me about the cotton and the big mountains of Peru. Maybe someone can take me to a Peruvian music show while in Lima,” he said, adding that it would be “great.”

He also said that they tried some Peruvian food in Brazil: “we went to a Peruvian restaurant and had some pisco sours. It was a quite funny mixing after the caipirinhas,” he added.

Alex Kapranos, lead vocalist, has already expressed that he is “ eager to try Peruvian food,” and McCarthy says that "we will definitely try Peruvian food."

Franz Ferdinand's concert in Lima is scheduled for March 30, and tickets are already on sale at TuEntrada (Plaza Vea and Vivanda supermarkets).

Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos: 'There's no musical or comedy set in a Russian abattoir'

Singer admits his flights of fancy were taken a little too seriously

Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos has declared he will not be writing a musical, despite declaring that he had "an amazing idea" for a show.

The frontman was speaking about his inspiration while on tour in Australia, but has since used Twitter to declare he has no intention of hitting the West End or Broadway.

"I'm not writing a bloody musical. I was talking about an idea I had for one. Doesn't mean I'm going to write it," he wrote, before explaining that it was just one of a series of fantasy projects he has had.

"I had an idea for a sitcom in a Russian abattoir. I'm not writing that either. Or the sci-fi movie script Time Bin," he explained. "But In Through The Outbox, a rom-com about business rivals falling in love over internet while unaware of their real identities, is a hit."

He was later informed by one of his followers that In Through The Outbox was very similar to the Hollywood film You've Got Mail, causing him to quip: "What? They stole my bloody idea!!!"

Kapranos also admitted the misunderstanding about the musical idea was his fault as he replied to the Triple J radio station that broadcast the initial interview.

"My fault! Opening my mouth and letting my imagination go etc," he wrote. "It was fun to chat about it though."

Just because i love the band....

Lily Allen breaks down

Lily Allen broke down mid-show after witnessing a fight.

The ‘Not Fair’ singer was horrified by the brawl in the crowd at London’s O2 Arena and left the stage in tears as security escorted the middle-aged men out.

Upon her return, she said: “That’s the worst sort of violence. It’s f***ing sick and you lot should be ashamed of yourself.”

However, controversial Lily did not end the night on a low point, and dedicated her expletive-filled song ‘F**k You’ to Conservative Party leader David Cameron, who last month declared her music unsuitable for children.

She said: “I’d like to dedicate this next song to someone. David Cameron.”

The 24-year-old star was playing one of her last performances before her retirement from music – she plans to set up a vintage clothes shop and launch a record label.

Lily recently revealed she wanted to take a break from music for five years, saying: “I'm just doing a different job for a bit. I'm having a career change. I just want to stay in London for a while. It's not a particularly healthy lifestyle being on the road."

The Prodigy, Franz Ferdinand Blitz Future Music Festival 2010

With Empire Of The Sun, Spank Rock and more...

Monday March 8th 2010 – The Future Music Festival hits Adelaide's Rundle & Rymill Parks with The Prodigy, Franz Ferdinand, Empire of the Sun, Erick Morillo, Boys Noize and Spank Rock...

An up-and-coming hip-hop star’s album sounds more psychedelic than MGMT and Ratatat combined. An Australian discards a decade of writing classic rock ballads for electronic extravagance. Big-name trance DJs enlists Pitchfork’s finest as guest vocalists. A British indie mainstay headlines a self-confessed “rave” festival. And a rock music reviewer, complete with inappropriate attire, is meant to feel welcomed at said festival.

I say “meant” because, at the end of the (festival) day, the Future Music Festival was not the most welcoming place for what it attests to have accommodated for through its lineup. This has nothing to do with organisation or the bands, yet the atmosphere itself. If this festival is indeed indicative of the future of humanity, I do not want to be a part of it.

Any festival where a guy simply trying to leave the heaving throng of the main stage crowd is greeted with “Wat du fuk R u doin u fagget! Git ‘way frum me U Gaylord!!!” (pronounced as written) will not be seen in a positive light. Especially when the person making this call is only wearing a pair of G-Star underwear and watching David Guetta.

For the record, it is this select majority that makes festivals unbearable for many a music fan. If it were up to me, most of my word count would be used to write a scathing open letter directed bluntly at that select majority. But I have a word count, an editor, stakeholders in this content, and really much better things to do than to whine for 800 words or more about the several girls and guys who look like they’re on the set of an amateur porno and make normally danceable, fun music akin to the experience of chopping off one’s ear.

That’s not to say it was all bad. For every failed-attempt-at-avoiding-an-overhyped-superstar-DJ, there were quaint moments of brilliance. And by quaint moments of brilliance, I mean The Prodigy headlined. Everyone else phoned it in.

Or at least everyone that I saw. Operator Please were the first interesting act in a clash-heavy timetable (apologies, I did indeed miss Does It Offend You, Yeah? Booka Shade and Sven Vath). They’ve always been good with simple, twee pop, today giving a set of rehashed debut tracks that slight rave feel (read: they added synthesisers to most of songs).

The song that was once in everyone’s head, Just A Song About Ping Pong, hardly causes a ripple today but at least they’re playing well and enjoying themselves amongst paper flowers and streamers. They leave and the Aston Shuffle arrives on stage. Someone screams “Yes! Real dance music!” I leave.

I contemplated many a scenario behind Franz Ferdinand being booked for this festival, of all festivals to be booked for. Money? Stupidity? Intense risk taking? All of the above? Probably just the money, actually. And, well, they didn’t even try. They felt uncomfortable on stage in front of ravers and the ravers felt uncomfortable with a guitar pop band pulling out a greatest hits set in front of them. Sure, everyone sang along to the songs they knew, but otherwise it was a strange setting for them.

The worst facet, removing their peculiar performing environment, was that they were just plain. When Metric was faced with the same problem at last year’s Parklife, they pulled out all guns and eventually had the crowd in their hands. Alex Kapranos and company seemed content to just poke them every now and again.


If Franz Ferdinand were poking the crowd, then Empire of the Sun had built a 2ft-thick concrete wall between his audience and himself. Was he lip-synching? Was he bored? Was he too concerned with his impending UK tour? Has months of performing to the same disrespectful festival crowds with the same old lot of songs paying its toll on Luke Steele? The over-the-top performance aspects were all there (wait, there goes the LCD screen), but any sense of connection, albeit impersonal or personal, was gone. He began to warm to the crowd as he wandered around the edges of the stage singing Without You, but by that point I was already on my way out.

As so far I’ve had mediocre bands, bad sound, poor timetabling and crowd members from the seventh layer of hell. Aside from a brief run at “roller disco” and Bowie-themed face painting this festival has become akin to stress incurred when post-festival season credit card bills arrive. Then, in an act signalling a truthful plea for forgiveness, Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim Reality take the stage screaming World’s on Fire. A sea of bodies became a leaping, hypnotized chorus and the stage becomes a crucible, leaving behind the passion, testosterone and ferocity that the entire festival till this moment lacked.

Suddenly my worries were alleviated; the grandstand I am on feels like it may collapse and I may soon die amongst the same ilk that I’ve spent the past six hours detesting. But does that matter when you’re witnessing over twenty thousand punters being controlled by legends of the rave genre as they slap out Firestarter? Of fucking course not.

In what I had pictured as an escape to beat the crowds became simply a necessary departure, albeit without any sense of loss. Would I return next year to face another day of horrid conditions just for (presumably) one of the greatest live bands alive again? Knowing my spur-of-the-moment attitude, probably. Will I like it? Ask me in a year’s time, u fagget.

Glasgow rockers Franz Ferdinand know how to sauce things up, writes Bernard Zuel.

Did Franz Ferdinand bring sex to the world in 2009?

''I think there was sex already in the world,'' singer and co-writer (with guitarist Nick McCarthy) of the Glasgow rock band, Alex Kapranos, laughs.

Ah, that may be true, but there is a strong suspicion that those who heard Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, the third album from the group rounded out by bass player Bob Hardy and drummer Paul Thompson, may have been inspired to go on and put some of those salacious rhythms and saucy inferences to the test.

''I hope so, I hope so,'' Kapranos says. ''It would be good to bring joy to people's lives.''

Now, of course, if you think sex you may think sin. Or, to paraphrase Woody Allen, only if you're doing it right. But thoughts of sin bring up something that rarely gets a run in interviews with Kapranos - his stint at the School of Divinity at Aberdeen University. Doesn't that naturally flow from sex?

''Hmm, there wasn't a lot of that at divinity school,'' he says. ''When I was 17 I left school and wanted to go to university, wanted to do philosophy. I already had passed my Highers [equivalent of the HSC] but I'd failed maths so didn't get in. My insurance offer was divinity so I did that for a year instead.

''I kind of enjoyed it in some ways but it wasn't for me. I was a 17-year-old kid and most of the people there were middle-aged guys who decided they wanted to be ministers in the Church of Scotland.''

He pauses and then adds with exaggerated philosophical tone: ''I guess we had different things that we wanted from life.''

Kapranos's ''other things'' saw him go to university in Glasgow to study arts (and catering!), playing in bands and booking bands like Belle and Sebastian to play at the uni. It led eventually to teaching Belle and Sebastian fan Hardy to play bass and talking him into joining this new band. The group has since won the Mercury Prize for 2004's self-titled album and two Brit Awards, including best British rock act. But what a loss to the ministry!

That gets me wondering if Kapranos had encountered any members of the Wee Wee Frees, the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland known for being a severely strict, austere branch of the protestant movement. It's fair to say you don't see many of them at a Franz Ferdinand gig.

All in all, it's a miserable world which could do with some disco rock, some sex and some Franz Ferdinand, a band that nearly broke up after their second album, even as they filled arenas globally. Internal misery saw the once-tight partners, Kapranos and McCarthy, barely speaking for a time.

But when the band was in Australia last year, Kapranos told the Herald that things had not just been patched up but were improved, helped by staying out of the spotlight and rebuilding relationships. The truth of that was in the freshness of Tonight, an album almost frisky in its energy.

They've already got a stock of songs for album No.4. So will we hear some of them on the upcoming shows? It seems not. ''With Tonight we were very open and public about the writing process and how everything evolved and changed. As soon as we had an idea for a song, we played it at a little gig, knowing that the fans would be there, filming it and put it up on YouTube. But this time … I want that to take place in secret, as it were, and for the world to see it when it completely appears.''

The result of the pre-Tonight policy was a flurry of stories that it would be full of Afrobeat or glossy pop, which amused, then annoyed, the band: ''I don't think I want people to see us working our way to that [finished] point any more.''

It's too late. From this story it will be obvious that the next album will draw heavily from Wee Wee Frees.

That means plainsong, no iconography and much less sex for the world.

FRANZ FERDINAND

Thursday, 1.30pm, Luna Park, $90.85. March 6, noon, Future Music Festival, Randwick Racecourse, from $144.85.

Owl City, Franz Ferdinand among 'Alice in Wonderland' artists

The soundtrack for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland will include tracks by Owl City, Robert Smith from The Cure, and Franz Ferdinand, announced Myspace's music blog. A full tracklist confirms that All Time Low, Avril Lavigne, Mark Hoppus, and Pete Wentz have also contributed tracks to the album, due out internationally March 2.

Called Almost Alice, the soundtrack album will feature artists' reinterpretations of the songs from Walt Disney's 1951 animated film. Among tracks are Robert Smith's cover of "Very Good Advice," All Time Low performing "Painting Flowers," and Kerli singing "Tea Party." A video for the soundtrack's first single, "Alice (Underground)" by Avril Lavigne," is due out in early February.

Almost Alice tracklist:

1. "Alice (Underground)" - Avril Lavigne
2. "The Poison" - The All-American Rejects
3. "The Technicolor Phase" - Owl City
4. "Her Name Is Alice" - Shinedown
5. "Painting Flowers" - All Time Low
6. "Where's My Angel" - Metro Station
7. "Strange" - Tokio Hotel and Kerli
8. "Follow Me Down" - 3OH!3 featuring Neon Hitch
9. "Very Good Advice" - Robert Smith
10. "In Transit" - Mark Hoppus with Pete Wentz
11. "Welcome to Mystery" - Plain White T's
12. "Tea Party" - Kerli
13. "The Lobster Quadrille" - Franz Ferdinand
14. "Running Out of Time" - Motion City Soundtrack
15. "Fell Down a Hole" - Wolfmother
16. "White Rabbit" - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Tim Burton's live-action adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland, starring Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, and Anne Hathaway, will begin making its way to theaters March 5.

Video with music:

Poet Laureate Gives Arctic Monkeys the Thumbs Up

Alex Turner, someone high up likes you. The UK's Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has come out as a fan of Sheffield's finest, Arctic Monkeys, as she prepared to host a charity event to raise money for earthquake relief in Haiti.

During the speech, she likened the frontman's lyrics to those of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

"Leonard Cohen's songs are poems, I saw him twice when he was touring here last year, Bob Dylan writes poems and the Arctic Monkeys write poems," she told the press agency the Press Association. "They (the Arctic Monkeys) are great lyric writers."

Duffy is hosting Poetry Live for Haiti, an event which will feature well-known poets including Andrew Motion, Roger McGough, John Agard, Dannie Abse, Gillian Clarke and Christopher Reid. Reid recently won the 2009 Costa Book of the Year.

Arctic Monkeys donated the white electric guitar Fender Stratocaster played by frontman Alex Turner in the band's first video for an to an online auction run by Oxfam and Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis to raise money for relief in the earthquake-ravaged Caribbean state. Some 150,000 people are feared to have been killed by this month's quake.

Arctic Monkeys also favoured the Oxfam charity as the only store to stock the vinyl release of the first single, 'Crying Lightning,' from third album 'Humbug' released last year.

Franz Ferdinand in Sony, McDonalds row

THERE will be no post-show McDonald's visits for Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand when they tour Australia in March.

Frontman Alex Kapranos (pictured, far right) has lambasted his US label, Epic, and its owner, Sony, for allowing the band's music to be used on a McDonald's website.

Kapranos took to Twitter when he found out, using angry expletives and calling the label arrogant.

The music was later withdrawn but Kapranos was still fuming when chatting to Insider on the phone from the UK during the week.

"I don't really want our music being associated with them," he said. "A lot of fans don't realise how often your music gets asked to be used in adverts. Every day we turn down things."

Franz Ferdinand have previously allowed their music to be used to endorse a beer in Scotland, an MP3 player in Japan, iPods, and mobile phones in Italy.

"Twenty years ago, there's no way we would have let anything we do anywhere near an advert," he said. "But because people don't buy records any more you have to think of different ways for people to hear your music."

Franz Ferdinand headline the Future Music Festival at Randwick Racecourse on March 6, with a side show two days earlier at Luna Park.

Arctic Monkeys – Joining The Dots (RTP Session)

I have been slacking on getting my posts out lately, so don’t hate me that I am a little bit late on this one. I have been sitting on it for a while, and decided that enough was enough. Time to get it out! I have not been going too Arctic Monkey crazy with you either, because they have been doing their thing on tour. Aside from their announcement of My Propeller as the third single off of Humbug, they have been pretty quiet. Well actually, they recently played a huge gig in Valencia for MTV. I have the audio on my desktop, but have not gotten around to it yet! If you want it, you know how to ask!

In the meantime, I realized I never got around to sharing the newer, better quality, acoustic take of “Joining The Dots” that the Monkeys did earlier this month. This wonderful live acoustic take of “Joining The Dots” needs to be heard. It is stunning. The only version I shared with you previously was the so-so sound quality one from that youtube video from the RXP NYC Session. This new performance was for the Portuguese radio station RTP. Alex’s vocals are flawless as usual, and he puts his all into this excellent take of the soon to be fan favorite b-side. The man cannot write a bad song. He won’t allow it!

Check it out:

Alex Kapranos reveals work has started on a Tonight follow-up

The Franz Ferdinand frontman has told 6 Music the band have been writing new material.

It's just over a year since their third studio album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, was released on Domino.

He says he and guitarist Nick McCarthy have already started putting new ideas down for their fourth record, but he wouldn't give too much away at this stage.

"I've been round at Nick's and we've been writing some things, and trying to do things in a different way again," he said and laughed, "You'll hear it before too long."

But we couldn't prize much more information out of him: "Before the last record, I talked far too much about it as we had the ideas and I made a vow that I wasn't going to say anything about what we are actually doing until we've done it, and then wait about another three weeks."

In the meantime he's been keeping busy. One project included working with the Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard on a song called The Eyes Of Mars, for a fashion campaign.

"I've been round at Nick's and we've been writing some things, and trying to do things in a different way again."

Alex Kapranos

The band wrote the song, which is the soundtrack to an advert in which the Nine actress plays a woman who, by night, transforms herself into a sultry singer.

"That was kinda fun," explained Kapranos. "Working with her was totally different from anything I've done before. Really refreshingly, she was just into learning it and learning it. Guys in indie bands are the laziest you've ever met in your life. They go, 'Oh, we have to run through it a fourth time?'"

Franz Ferdinand were in London this week to present the Music Producers Guild Breakthrough Producer of The Year award to Paul Savage, the man behind the desk on their latest album.

In the coming weeks, the band are off on tour in Australia, with dates in South America after that.