Cop a load of The Bronx

• LA punk band The Bronx are set to knock your block off when they headline the infamous Shred Yr Face tour in 2009.
Following the release of their blistering album The Bronx III, out in the UK on January 26, the group will be playing dates alongside Rolo Tomassi and one other band, whose name cannot be printed in family newspapers, in Nottingham and Birmingham this Spring
The group will also be releasing a single, Young Bloods, on January 19.
• Power pop upstarts The Days, who rose to fame covering pop hits such as Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl on website You Tube, release their debut single on January 26.
No Ties, a good-time piano-driven rollicker, will no doubt feature when the group come to Nottingham and Birmingham as part of a headline tour in February.
• The website behind this column has announced the winner of its Album Of The Year 2008 poll.
Work-shy Bristol-based band Portishead’s trip hop masterpiece Third scooped the award, run on www.echoisaacashe.blogspot.com, with around 40 per cent of the votes.
Thanks to everyone who logged on and registered their vote.
• Rising stars The Saturdays will be playing in Loughborough this Spring.
The girl band, who have had two top 10 UK singles, will perform at the student-only end of term ball at Loughborough University.
• Blind Malian couple Amadou & Mariam’s sophomore LP Welcome To Mali has been named the best of 2008 by music review aggregator Metacritic.com.
The website, which gives releases an average score out of 100 based on reviews taken from sources around the world, rated the releasea 92 out of 100.
Second was The Bug’s London Zoo with an average of 90, and third was Fed by rocker Plush, which scored 89.
• If all of this is music to your ears, you can read more from the pop world online at www.echoisaacashe.blogspot.com