Big Bird Sheds Her Feathers

And so, the good news: a famous female R&B star is to strip naked ('cept for her Jimmy Choos, natch) for charity at a show in London tonight. The bad news, I'm afraid, is it's Macy Gray. She tries. Bless 'er.

If you're not yet in love with The Fiery Furnaces, there are two potential explanations: you haven't heard anything by them yet, or you're an idiot. Narrow down the possibilities by buying Single Again, their latest single and first taster off second album 'Blueberry Boat', which hit the shops today. A typically skewed take on the circular nature of abusive relationships set against bonkers electronic doodling, it's as determinedly catchy as it is leftfield. FFin' fantastic, in fact. Related: check out these brilliant b&w live photos of The Fiery Furnaces from Jenyk.

Meanwhile, it would be remiss of me not to point you in the direction of Ben's site which is currently denser in content than a black hole sun. There's a lengthy debate with some blogging chums about nationalism and football, and if that doesn't float your flotilla he also has a detailed rundown of his Glasto experience, including a favourable review of The Duke Spirit.

The Carling Academy in Birmingham now has its' own website, in which I discovered that Echobelly(!) are playing the Bar Academy on August 3, in the unlikeliest comeback since Campag Velocet. (And anybody who has tickets for the Rickie Lee Jones gig at the Alexandra Theatre next week, should note this has now changed venue to the Academy 2.)

This week's likeliest comeback, though, has to be Meg. Not that I'm complaining, you understand.

And finally, via LinkMachineGo, Spiderman gets remixed. Just don't tell that bandwagon-jumper Norman Cook, 'kay?