'Gobbledigook,' Sigur Ros

In 2008, Sigur Ros fans had their worst nightmare come true -- the band released a three-minute pop song! With a melody you can actually hum, and a beat you can actually tap, 'Gobbledigook' could've even charted on radio, had the lyrics only been in English. Watch your back, Coldplay!


Buy it on iTunes

Motley Crue and Guitar Center are on a mission to discover the next big thing. After sorting through thousands of submissions as a part of Guitar Center On-Stage, they chose one band to open for them on tour and to grant a record deal to: The Last Vegas, a five-piece hard rock band from Chicago. In addition to getting the supporting slot on the 'Saints of Los Angeles' tour and a deal with Eleven Seven Music, the winners also took home a load of cash and Gibson gear. Not bad, eh?

"The overall talent and energy of the Last Vegas surpassed our expectations," Motley Crue's Vince Neil told Spinner. Check out the first single from the winners below, and read exclusive interviews with Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx and the Last Vegas after the jump.

Listen to 'I'm Bad' and buy it on iTunes.

With the Beijing Olympics imminent, a chat with Sa Dingding -- a rising Chinese star on the global-music stage -- seemed a perfect opportunity to gain some insight into the vast and daunting world of her country's sounds. After all, her international debut album, 'Alive,' presents an artist with one foot in the music of her childhood on the Inner Mongolian grasslands and her other in a pan-Chinese approach embracing everything from Tibetan traditions to the most modern hi-tech rhythms and textures of Beijing and beyond.

So who does she want to single out as a current influence?

"Jay-Z -- I like him very much," she says. "Jay-Z has a very good sense of rhythm."

Any Chinese artists?

"Dou Wei," she says, noting a prominent Beijing pop and rock artist of recent years, whose Web site calls him "moody and creative," lists his roles in various Chinese groups of recent years and makes references to such Western acts as the Cure, Bauhaus and dark-toned English "post-rock" act Bark Psychosis. "He mixes his music -- some rap, a little electronic and plays the flute."

"Engin gúmmístígvél/Hlaupandi inn í okkur/Vill springa út úr skel"
--Sigur Rós' 'Hoppípolla,' from 2005's 'Takk ...'

Oh, right, that's nice and original. Who doesn't have rubber boots running inside of them? If you're gonna rehash that old line, you could at least make it rhyme.

Artist No. 3: Sigur Rós

The Deal: Since its 1997 debut, this Icelandic band has composed ethereal soundscapes with ambient textures and hints of dreamy pop -- the musical equivalent of Radiohead taking a long, deep breath. The first single from Sigur Rós' upcoming fifth album takes a surprisingly energetic new direction.

Sounds Like: Radiohead, Múm

Free Song: 'Gobbledigook' (MP3)

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• Bjork and Sigur Ros are teaming for a concert to be held in their native Iceland on June 28. The gig, which will be held at an undisclosed location in the capital of Reykjavik, aims to bring about evironmental awareness.

• Liz Phair has written the score for a new CBS TV series called 'Swingtown.'

• Spiritualized is set to open select dates for Lenny Kravitz, beginning June 7 in Finland.

• Yoko Ono lost her legal bid to prohibit the use of John Lennon's 'Imagine' in the film 'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,' which challenges the theory of evolution.
  

Artist: Sigur Rós
Songs: 'Gobbledigook'
Album: 'Gobbledigook' [iTunes]
Sounds Like: Mum, Radiohead

Download: 'Gobbledigook' (MP3)

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