As far as headlines go, "Rollins Angry About Terror Accusation, Stoked About Talk Show" is pretty self-explanatory. The huge-necked former Black Flag screamer is indeed "stoked" about his new talk show, "The Henry Rollins Show" (which starts April 1 on the Independent Film Channel), or so he tells MTV news. He is also very far from stoked about a "Fahrenheit 451"-esque incident that happened on a recent flight from New Zealand to Australia. Apparently, Rollins was reading Ahmed Rashid's book "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia" during the flight, which prompted the man sitting next to him to report Rollins to the Australian government, which in turn paid the singer a threatening visit. Fortunately, Rollins knows all about tolerance and fostering global understanding, and has a message for the guy who ratted on him: "The next time I get out to Australia -- that is, if they let me in -- I am going to talk about that guy in every interview I do. And it will get to him. It's a small country, in that there aren't a lot of people there and most of the country's just sand and flies. So it will get to him."
A few highlights from last week's Brit music awards have found their way online, including Madonna's Anglophilic acceptance speech: "It is British recording artists who have influenced me the most: from David Bowie to Elvis Costello, Portishead to Radiohead, the Pet Shop Boys to Goldfrapp," she gushes. Never mind that, the important question is who influenced Madonna's accent, which now occupies a sort of middle ground between posh English and Australian, and features prodigious use of a carefully enunciated "brilliant." Also available is Kelly Clarkson's hard-rockin' Brit Award performance of the glorious "Since U Been Gone" -- which is, as the Modern Age points out, noticeably similar to her hard-rockin' VMA performance last year, right down to her screaming "Jump!" before the first chorus.
Also at the Brits, Chris Martin seemed to imply that Coldplay are splitting up; they're not, apparently, but -- in a sad turn of events for those who prefer their pop screamy and chaotic rather than pleasant and parent-friendly -- the British rockers Test Icicles are. In a statement released on Thursday, the band's frontman Rory Atwell said: "We started this band in August 2004, our only intention was to have bit of fun, to play a few shows, cause some trouble and to split up shortly afterward, the fact of the matter is that we played our 5 millionth gig the other day after a year of multiple tours and we're sick, tired and miserable, and to put it simply, it just isn't fun anymore and hasn't been for a very long time, so we've decided it's time to find something that does make us happy because unfortunately this isn't it." Mogwai -- whose promotional push for their forthcoming album "Mr. Beast" seems to be based almost entirely on putting down other bands in print -- had this reaction to the young band's split: "Test Icicles have split up because of 'the constant pressures of touring'!? That is so ridiculous it doesn't even merit a snide sarcastic comment. Jesus, they've only been going for about three bloody weeks!!" (via Drowned in Sound)
-- Matt Glazebrook
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