How ironic that Noel leaves the Oasis world tour during the same week as Billy Corgan announces the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins. Both bands have had a history of infighting -- frankly, nobody with a casual interest in either band can be too surprised as to either of these announcements. Toward the end, both bands pretended to be something they are not -- a cohesive unit in the case of the Pumpkins, and a five piece band in the case of Oasis (as opposed to Noel Gallagher's songwriting ego). Due to these recent events, the critics will have the last laugh. Those who claimed that SP have been less a band than a showpiece for Billy Corgan's ego can now claim they were right all along. Those who claimed that Oasis have been less a band than a seven year ongoing Celebrity Deathmatch between Liam and Noel can also toast themselves. They say you can only fool most of the people for some of the time -- no reason to believe that rock bands are the exception to this rule.

I haven't yet heard any of Sonic Youth's "NYC Ghosts and Flowers", but from the reviews, it sure sounds a lot like Mogwai, doesn't it? "Washing Machine" sounded exactly the same as "Daydream Nation", so after coming full circle over the course of those seven years, SY finally took cues from the Bristol and Chicago lo-fi scenes, i.e. they finally fed back sounds from bands who they profoundly influenced back into their own music.

A significant phase of Tindersticks' career is over. They certainly haven't lost a step with their music, as last year's excellent "Simple Pleasures" proves in spades. When holding the liner notes, well, it doesn't have the feel of a typical Tindersticks release, I mean, what's this: only nine songs! song take numbers!!, this is the band that wouldn't print their own names, but the name of their tailor was there in black and white. Welcome to the Tindersticks glastnost era. If only CF GF, the album's final track and perhaps the finest song of the band's career, didn't sound so elegiac. It sounds like the end, like a goodbye, it's ending rambles on beautifully, proudly overstaying the typical welcome of a 'Sticks song. It recalls the way Suede's "Still Life" said goodbye. In hindsight, we now know that it was the end of Suede:Era 1, not the end of Suede. Hopefully the same applies for the Tindersticks.

Toni Braxton's music is often not very interesting, but her uncanny ability to shed more and more clothes with the passing years certainly is. It seems she feels upstaged by the likes of Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez, who get more and more naked with each video. The top she wears on the cover of her latest album covers approximately one fifth of her chest and likely contains less material than Ms. Lopez' now famous Grammy "dress". At this rate, female musical divas will be performing naked in the year 2007. I also expect pasties by 2004.

RIP Ian Curtis, 20 years ago today. We should all listen to Unknown Pleasures before going to bed tonight.

Blondie's "Rapture", released in 1980, is a near singular release in the history of music. It is a remarkable case of a very, very mainstream act paying homage to a very, very underground movement. Who, outside of select circles of people in New York, even knew what hip-hop was in 1980? I remember becoming acquainted with the video around 1983, and I've never been sure why I didn't consider it to be radical -- everyone's favourite musical sex kitten, Debbie Harry, was slumming it with graffiti artists in some dimly lit after-hours location. The mind struggles to come up with a possible contemporary culture clash. Christina Aguilera going trance? AC/DC doing drum 'n bass? The closest examples in recent times are Madonna's take on electronica on "Ray of Light" and Bowie going jungle on "Earthling". However, these albums were career resurgences by their respective artists. On the other hand, "Rapture" featured Blondie at the peak of their commercial viability. Also, while Bowie and Madonna looked to increase their hipness quotient by embracing electronica with a considerable amount of fanfare, Blondie did no such thing. Hip-hop was years from being trendy and their recognition of it presaged that of any other mainstream group by a considerable margin.

Is there any originality left in British rock? It all went downhill after Oasis. They are not musically inventive or lyrically adventurous. They write simple three chord singalongs. In the golden days of Britpop, Blur fastidiously ripped off the Kinks, but the songwriting arrangements were exquisite, and such attention to detail is not at all common. Now, Travis write simple three chord singalongs. Catatonia write simple three chord singalongs. Stereophonics write simple three chord singalongs. Yes, the songs are frequently great. But it's the slightly different sketch on a single template.