There may well be little applause for Rufus Wainwright on his current European tour. No, not because his performances are ear-achingly bad, but because the audience are under strict orders not to clap. The reason for this? Well, it's all part of the act, apparently. A message to punters on his website reads, "Rufus has asked us to pass on this ...

Crystal Castles [pictured] have brought forward the release date of their self-titled new album, which will now come out digitally on Friday, April 23. The physical release of the LP -- originally scheduled for June 7 -- has been advanced two weeks to May 24. The change in release dates follows the Internet leak earlier this week of the Toronto ...

Pixies will have surely made plenty of people's Mondays more pleasurable with the announcement that the indie-rock behemoths will play two UK shows in early June. An e-mail went out to their fan mailing list on Monday April 19 confirming the details. Both performances will take place at the Troxy in East London on June 3 and 4, with tickets on ...

The BBC has got off relatively lightly in avoiding censure over Rage Against the Machine's swearing on BBC Radio 5 Live this past December. The band -- who was promoting its campaign to beat the 'X Factor' winner Joe McElderry's single to Christmas No. 1 -- swore four times over the duration of the live performance before the broadcast was cut. ...

Despite a Cream reunion five years ago, Jack Bruce has dismissed any chance of any new shows and has said that the Cream story "is over," the bassist told BBC 6 Music. Bruce was talking about his new autobiography, 'Composing Himself.' The legendary Eric Clapton-fronted blues rockers re-formed in 2005 for a series of live shows after splitting ...

Laura Marling has spoken out about the criminalisation of illegal music downloaders in an interview with the NME. In the piece, when asked about whether music should be free for all, Marling said, "No, because of the time and money it takes. I don't think people should be criminalised for getting music for free because it's there, it's offered ...

Some of the lineup for this year's Offset Festival -- which will take place in Hainault Forest and Country Park, on the borders of Essex and London -- has been announced, including These New Puritans, Sheffield outfit Rolo Tomassi, and legendary krautrockers and Brian Eno collaborators Cluster. Also slated to perform will be Sub Pop-signed ...