To celebrate the release of Jim Kerr’s debut solo album ‘Lostboy AKA’ out next week Jim is putting on a special Glasgow Preview to take place in the tiny ABC2 venue, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow on Tuesday 18th May 2010. Doors open at 8.00pm UK time.

Tickets cannot be bought for this special performance but 25 pairs of tickets can be won from Jim’s official website www.lostboyaka.com

Produced by Jez Coad (Simple Minds last 2 albums) and featuring Charlie Jones on bass (Robert Plant, Page & Plant, Goldfrapp) alongside long-time Simple Minds drummer Mel Gaynor, Lostboy! AKA showcases a new musical alter ego for Jim, whilst retaining strong links with his 40-million selling, 33-year career with Simple Minds.

Lostboy! AKA is all about big melodic themes, turbo charged rhythms and guitars that shine. It is a noisy and juvenile explosion that comes from a wise head and a sophisticated heart; a rock and roll clatter that involves sequencers and hidden symphonies. It is also an eclectic collection, with tracks ranging from the Joy Division-esque, electro-tinged She Fell in Love With Silence via pop gems such as title track Lostboy! and Bulletproof Heart, to the instantly recognisable Simple Minds sound of Shadowland, which has also been selected as the lead single for this epic record.

The album will be released in 4 physical formats as well as digitally; a standard 11-track CD; 12” Vinyl; a limited edition CD featuring 3 bonus studio tracks, and a collector’s edition bundle which includes both the CD and a 7” vinyl single featuring covers of Velvet Underground’s “What Goes On” and The Verve’s “Lucky Man”.

Jim Kerr says, “Unbelievably I seemed to have reconnected with the spirit of the kid I was when I first started to make rock music. As if I had come face to face with the lost boy that I had left behind. I wanted to make music that reflected the rediscovery of the energy with which I had reconnected. I am delighted with the result and convinced that Lostboy! AKA is something special that will grow quickly over the next years in parallel with the ongoing great story of Simple Minds.”

Tracklisting for all physical formats:

CD and 12” Vinyl LP:

01. Refugee
02. She Fell In Love With Silence
03. Shadowland
04. Return Of The King
05. Red Letter Day
06. Remember Asia
07. Bulletproof Heart
08. Lostboy!
09. Nail Through My Heart
10. Solo Man Solo Head
11. The Wait

CD Ltd. Edition: Same track listing as CD plus 3 bonus studio tracks

1. Mr Silversmith
2. Karma To This Rain
3. Sad Stone Child

7” Vinyl+CD (Collectors Edition): 7” A-side What Goes On (a Velvet Underground song) B-side Lucky Man (a Verve song)

Lostboy!AKA Jim Kerr will perform some small intimate UK dates in May including:

Fri 21st Aberdeen Warehouse 0844 847 2319
Sat 22nd Glasgow King Tuts 0141 221 5279 SOLD OUT
Sun 23rd London The Borderline 08448 472 465 SOLD OUT

Online tickets for Aberdeen from www.ticketweb.co.uk. Doors in Aberdeen and London 7pm

Sweethead’s debut contains the slithering rock gem “Traumatized And Dumb,” which was previously included on their EP Traumatized and Dumb, which was only released in Europe. From the punk influenced track “Turned Our Backs” to the gritty “City Of Dirt” Sweethead is a potent reminder of the sheer thrills of rock ‘n’ roll decadence.

Purchase the album from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003K40RKG?ie=UTF8&tag=red_dist-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003K40RKG

Recently, Venuszine.com premiered the video for the track “Traumatized And Dumb,” which was filmed while the band toured Europe with Eagles of Death Metal and Them Crooked Vultures last year. Watch it here: http://venuszine.com/clips/video/music/94/Exclusive_Premiere

For the month of May Sweethead have settled into L.A.’s seminal indie-rock venue Spaceland. The residency kicked off on May 3rd, and every Monday following the band will be playing a FREE show. The residency wraps on May 24th with a “family night” featuring other QOTSA-related acts such as Mini-Mansions, Alain Johannes and a “very special guest.” Ashes Divide, Slang Chickens, Earthlings? and Red Fang are among other acts playing alongside the band during the stint.

Catch Sweethead live:
May 17th Spaceland Silverlake, CA
May 20th Hard Rock/Wasted Space Las Vegas, NV
May 21st Alex’s Bar Long Beach, CA
May 24th Spaceland Silverlake, CA
May 25th Casbah San Diego, CA

June 4th Rock Am Park Festival Germany
June 5th White Trash Berlin
June 6th Rock Am Ring Festival Germany
June 7th Molotov Hamburg
June 8th Helling Utrecht
June 9th La Maroquinerie Paris
June 10th 100 Club London
June 11th Download Festival Donington Park

www.myspace.com/sweethead
www.sweethead.net
www.twitter.com/sweethead

For their fifth studio album, ‘The Resistance’, Muse have created the most ridiculous, overblown yet in places most stunning album of their career, indulging their favourite paranoid themes of state control and eccentric conspiracy theories. Lyrically, it is also Matt Bellamy’s most personal record, playing like an open declaration of love to his wife.

First song and lead single ‘Uprising’ is a stomping glam rock reimagining of the Dr Who theme tune and sets the lyrical tone of the album – with its talk of ‘endless red tape to keep the truth confined’ and acts as a call to arms to fight oppressive governments and ‘take the power back’. Although this may sound a bit like the rantings of a sixth-form Marxist, this is quickly dispelled on next song ‘Resistance’. Matt Bellamy passionately asserts that ‘Love is our resistance’, suggesting that good old love is the best weapon against the tyranny of Thought Police and oppressive state control. This is done over an almost laughable Pet Shop Boys-esque backdrop of melodious keyboards and over-the-top backing vocals.

It’s hard to listen to ‘The Resistance’ without glimpsing the vivid cinematic world being conjured up. It plays like the soundtrack to an epic sci-fi film, depicting a dystopian world controlled by a totalitarian state. Like all good sci-fi writers, Muse know the genres biggest advantage is the ability to address the scary issues of the day in a direct manner – the futuristic, unfamiliar settings rendering the subversive themes more palatable to a mass audience. They use this tactic to great effect on ‘The Resistance’, shielding their mainstream audience from the provocative and frightening subject matter with pure escapist musical nonsense.

This is most evident in the fantastically extravagant and grandiose ‘United States of Eurasia’. Imagine Queen performing a national anthem for the New World Order, complete with ridiculously exaggerated key changes, and you’re somewhere close. Hidden within this operatic nonsense, though, is the heart and soul of Bellamy’s nightmarish vision – the all-conquering state annihilating free-will and individuality, selling mass control and indoctrination as world peace and harmony.

Not all of the album is as ambitious as all this though. Perhaps in an effort to avoid scaring off the majority of their audience with the sheer lunacy of it all, ‘MK Ultra’ and ‘Undisclosed Desire’ recall earlier fan favourites ‘Plug in Baby’ and ‘Supermassive Black Hole’. Likewise, ‘Guiding Light’ sounds like Muse on auto-pilot, although lyrically it is a touchingly open ode directed to Mrs Bellamy. Although these are decent enough songs in their own right, on an album dealing in such grand scales they feel like nothing more than filler. The worst culprit being ‘I Belong to You’, a plodding cabaret-esque romp which ends with Bellamy crooning in French. It’s at times like these you feel the album could have benefited from the guiding hand of a producer, but such self-produced indulgences are forgiven when we get to the albums gloriously over-the-top finale. If a producer were enrolled to sharpen the album up, you’d think the first thing to fall to the cutting-room floor would be a preposterously overblown three-song symphony dealing with mankind’s origins in outer space and the mass exodus of Earth to repopulate another planet. Yet here it is in all its intended glory. Composed entirely by Bellamy and coming in at just under fifteen minutes, ‘Exogenesis:Symphony’ is a beautifully orchestrated piece which shows off his virtuoso musicianship to the full – building and releasing tension and creating an unsettling atmosphere to frame the nightmarish visions the album evokes.

Although a little hit and miss, there is no doubt that Muse have made one of the most striking and captivating albums of the year. In a society where surveillance and state influence is becoming more and more apparent, ‘The Resistance’ could possibly become the most important political album of the decade.

For more information on Muse visit there official site at:

http://muse.mu/