Muse Back For Eclipse

Muse is back on board the Twilight train! Even though the British rock band told us in April that they would not be contributing a track to the upcoming Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack, news of the album’s first single has been revealed — and it’s a new tune from the band called Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever). (Perhaps even Muse is unable to resist the hormonal pull of Edward Cullen’s topaz eyes . . .)

A post on Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s official website confirmed the news that Meyer’s “very favourite band” will be featured as the first single for the soundtrack.

For the original Twilight soundtrack, Muse contributed the bombastic Supermassive Black Hole. For the indie-heavy New Moon compilation, they offered the whimsical glam-rocker, I Belong to You. But when we spoke with the band’s Dominic Howard earlier this year, he told us they had pulled their contribution from the Eclipse soundtrack.

“Nah, it’s gone,” Howard said, before adding, “Oh, it’s nothing to do with Stephenie, she’s totally cool. It’s the people in the movie business, completely outside of the writers and the creative types, the non-creative types, I suppose, are the people who are quite hard to deal with in Hollywood, so it didn’t work out.”

When asked about the then-untitled song, Howard told us, “It was a love song, so it’s a personal song, and it wasn’t really (anything) to do with the films. But it was sounding good . . . I mean, it was great. We worked on it in Australia, we were ready to record, we were going to do some recording with Butch Vig, so we might still do it. I’m sure the song will definitely come to life for real at some point, but I think for this film, it’s not going to happen.”

Luckily for Twi-hards (and music fans), the tune is once again destined to be scoring a gushy scene between Bella and her undead true love. Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever) hits radio May 17, and the Eclipse soundtrack will be released June 8.

Muse Play Intimate Set at SXSW

Muse and Hole play intimate sets at SXSW

The latest from this year’s festival in Austin, Texas

Muse delivered no-frills set as Friday’s night’s last-minute South By Southwest (SXSW) headliners yesterday evening (March 19).

The trio, whose recent US performances have included elaborate staging and spectacular light shows, kept things simple and focused on the tunes rather than theatrics.

Matt Bellamy and company delivered a hit-filled set that clocked in at just over an hour at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q. The gig was a last-minute addition to the SXSW schedule, which left delegates and fans scrambling to get into the venue.

The set focused in the main on Muse‘s most recent album, ‘The Resistance’ with ‘Uprising’, ‘United States of Eurasia’ and the album’s near-title track ‘Resistance’ featured in the set, along side older tracks including ‘Time Is Running Out’.

Muse seemed to win over the largely industry crowd, and ended with the epic ‘Knights of Cydonia’.

Muse played:

‘Uprising’
‘Supermassive Black Hole’
‘Resistance’
‘Hysteria’
‘Stockholm Syndrome’
‘Nishe’
‘United States Of Eurasia’
‘Starlight’
‘Time Is Running Out’
‘Unnatural Selection’
‘Plug In Baby’
‘Knights Of Cydonia’

The show was opened by Canadians Metric frontwoman Emily Haines telling the crowd
“It’s good to be here with old friends,” as they kicked off their short set.

Earlier in the day, Hole made their first live US appearance in more than a decade at the Spin day party. Courtney Love and company kicked off their set with a cover of The Rolling Stones‘ ‘Sympathy For the Devil’ before previewing several new tracks from their forthcoming album ‘Nobody’s Daughter’.

The band also performed older crowd-pleasers including ‘Miss World’ and ‘Violet’.

“Hi kids, we’re Hole,” Love told the audience. “I didn’t say a big hole or a little hole or a big flapping vagina. Just Hole.”

Meanwhile The Drums headlined the NME/British Embassy party, with the New York City-based band thrilling the packed venue with their theatrical stage show and rousing tunes including ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ and ‘I Felt Stupid’.

Elsewhere, The XX gave an intimate performance at Los Angeles radio station KCRW‘s Austin studio, one of several SXSW gigs from the London trio.

Muse Have Olympic Dream

Muse and The Horrors have both declared hopes to release the official anthem of the upcoming London Olympics.

The Horrors rocker Rhys Webb told BBC 6 Music that he and bandmate Tom Cowen have already penned a track for the 2012 event, and that the pair recently forwarded it to London Mayor Boris Johnson for consideration.

Describing the song, Cowen said: “It’s an electronic piece and it’s very evocative of the human frame and very athletic, but also graceful. It would be a lot better than whatever they choose, that’s for sure.”

Meanwhile, Muse drummer Dominic Howard has said that the Devonshire trio are considering a track for the event, which is due to take place from July 27 to August 12 in 2012.

He told the station: “Since it’s in London, sure. We’ve got a new song, so maybe we could use that.”

Bernard Sumner, who wrote the 1990 football World Cup anthem ‘World In Motion’ as part of New Order, also expressed his interest in writing a song for the games.

“[I'm] very interested,” he explained. “I’m a sporty guy myself. I go jogging every day. I jog 20 miles every day so I’m well into athletics.”

Possible Muse/U2 Collaboration?

Matt Bellamy has revealed that he would love to collaborate with Bono in the future.

Bellamy explained that he would like the U2 star to join Muse on stage when they headline Glastonbury this summer.

Speaking to the Daily Star, he said: “I’d like to maybe get Bono to come and sing a song. Not sure if he’ll hang around for it but I’ll ask him anyway.

“Glasto is definitely the best festival. It still has its roots in what festivals used to be, hanging out in the country and taking it easy.”

Muse recently admitted that it will be “very strange” to perform at Glastonbury as drummer Dominic Howard’s father died suddenly backstage after their 2004 set.

Muse Win At NME Awards 2010

Yes they did it again, not Best Live Band this time around but BEST BAND period! Along with Best looking male which was also a one, two for the band with Matt taking the honours followed closely by Dom as well as a coveted award for Best Website for www.muse.mu.

Here is their backstage interview and realisation that Matt has won his extra special award.

More Musiness news, they have also been annouced to headline the T In The Park festival which takes place in July.

Muse bassist Chris Wolstenholme said: “T In The Park we’ve done three or four times before but we’ve never headlined it before.

“I think Eminem is amazing. I haven’t listened to the last album much but the album before that was incredible. I’ve never seen him live before.

“The only problem we have is that it’s world cup final weekend. If it falls on the world cup final and England happen to be there I might have to go and watch England play instead.”

Muse To Make Tour Documentary

Muse have revealed that they hope to make a film about life on tour, in the style of Nirvana’s video album Live! Tonight! Sold Out! from 1994.

“We’d like to something more along the lines of a touring documentary as opposed to just a live gig this time,” said the Devon trio’s bassist.

Muse are no strangers to live DVDs.

They released Hullabaloo in 2002, Absolution Tour in 2005 and H.A.A.R.P., featuring footage of their 2007 Wembley Stadium gigs, in 2008.

Referencing Nirvana’s Kevin Kerslake-directed documentary, Chris Wolstenholme explained to Australia’s Triple J radio station: “I think that was one of the best tour documentaries I’ve ever watched; just life on the road and what it’s like, with obviously a bit of music here and there, and other loads of other random stuff as well.”

Much of Nirvana: Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! was compiled by Kurt Cobain, but it was not completed before his death in 1994, so Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic got Kerslake on board to finish it, with their aim to stay true to Cobain’s vision.

It’s pretty crazy, there are probably 70 or 80 people on tour when we do the big European shows. Muse bassist Chris Wolstenholme

Most of the shows Muse play are recorded, so there’ll be no shortage of footage, and Wolstenholme thinks it would be good to feature some of their touring family.

“We’ve got the same people with us everywhere; we’ve got our core crew of people that have been with us for years, then outside of that you have the PA and the lighting crew,” he said.

“Each tour it seems to get bigger and bigger and there are more buses and more trucks. It’s pretty crazy, there are probably 70 or 80 people on tour when we do the big European shows.”

The band is currently playing the Big Day Out festival in Australia, a touring event which kicked off on 17 January in the Gold Coast Parklands and finishes on Sunday 31 January in Perth.

Muse Confirmed For Glastonbury Festival 2010

Michael Eavis reveals Muse and Stevie Wonder to play Glastonbury at Event Production Show…

The new-look Event Production Show launched today at Olympia (2 February) and in one of the first sessions Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis revealed the headliners for this year’s event.

The festival, which runs from 23-27 June, had already confirmed U2 as headliners for the Friday (25 June).

However, Eavis revealed that Muse would headline the Saturday (26 June) and that it was “probable” the legendary Stevie Wonder would close the festival as the main act on the Sunday (27 June).

Fans of the festival have been waiting for months to see who the major acts would be, as this year the event celebrates its 40th birthday.

Rumoured bands have included Radiohead, The Rolling Stones and Led Zepplin. However, it now appears that Wonder is going be the final headline act.

Eavis also revealed the event cost £25m to put on each year, with most of the money going to securing the perimeter.

Each year seven local farms are taken over to produce the festival, which is again exapading in size this year to accommodate people’s appetite for larger tents. There are also discussions to ban large flags at the event in an area in front of the stage. Eavis said he was keen to clear a line of sight for the audience but his daughter, Emily, who also runs the event, wanted the flags to stay.

In 2009 Glastonbury donated £2m to charity as a result of money raised through producing the festival.

The Event Production Show continues until tomorrow.

Muse – Resistance Official Video

It could have been a brilliant video, the song was there,. the lyrics convey a story yet its been let down and lets face it, by a shitty low budget music video.

I was bitterly disappointed with the new music video, being an ardent Muse fan I was left wondering why they chose the video they did rather than make what could have been a stunning video? Resistance to me is one of the strongest tracks on the album, a fantastic song with everything there to make the successful transgression to video but alas, no.

What we get is a video that was shot at the Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid on November 28th 2009 and shows the stunning stage set pieces which Muse are using for their Resistance Tour which you cant fault them for. Is it me or have the last 3 videos to accompany Uprising, Undisclosed Desires and now Resistance have been a bit crap?

Make your mind up here:

To make up for the terrible video, here’s Muse on Tour:

MK Ultra – Live:

360 Chocolatey Goodness

Okay, nothing to do with chocolate, not unless you eat it during a rather frenetic round of Modern Warfare 2 or are one of those people trying desperately to remove said wrapper from chocolate whilst at the same time trying to dodge incoming fire with the duck, cover and shoot method.

Alas no, but the goodness rather stems from the new upcoming games due out this year and what a bundle of fun they are, so without further ado, here is the list of games that I will be buying, borrowing and playing during the course of 2010.

In no particular order…

Bioshock 2
Mass Effect 2
Splinter Cell Conviction
Dark Void
Dante’s Inferno
Halo – Reach
Crackdown 2
Alan Wake

Alot of sequels in there but unlike their movie counterparts, sequels in games are however alot better than their movie brothers. Put it this way Id rather spend the money on buying Bioshock 2 than going to the cinema to see something like Transformers 2, Revenge of the Lego Robot or whatever the hell it was called.

Alan Wake has been on my watch list for what feels like a lifetime, I first heard about this game over a year ago and was intrigued and more so when trickles of video and pictures started to leak through, cant wait although I wont be annoyed should they delay it once more from release, annoyed no, disappointed yes.

What are the games you are looking forward to playing this year?

Almost, But Not Quite.

s of late, an interesting trend in movies has been bringing in a hip band to write the score that will set the tone for the entire film. Arcade Fire came on board to provide music for Richard Kelly’s film The Box and the band Mastodon has been set to score the upcoming Jonah Hex. Recently, it looks like another band had the opportunity to showcase their composition talents on the big screen as ClashMusic says that British rock band Muse was offered the chance to score the upcoming Clash of the Titans remake, however, going by their odd quotes and the timing of this story, it’s unclear if this is something that actually happened or not.

Muse’s lead singer and frontman Matt Bellamy talked with the British tabloid Daily Star about Clash of the Titans, but he doesn’t come right out and say they’re doing/have done the score – it’s confusing. He says:

“It’s something we’re up for doing – it’s just a case of timing because we’re always on tour. Clash Of The Titans is the first interesting offer we’ve had for film work. We’re definitely interested in writing for films at some point when we get a break from being on the road.”

So it almost sounds like they wanted to do it but it never got finalized. There’s also several other points of contention working against Muse’s involvement. First, IMDb lists Craig Armstrong as the composer on Clash of the Titans. On top of that, it’s also a bit late to sound so uncertain about composing music for an epic, effects heavy film that comes out this March especially since the band is supposed to begin a 12-date tour of the South Korea and Australia tomorrow. And finally, Bellamy has spoken of working on Titans before, way back in October, when he mentioned the possibility in an interview with The Ampersand.

Honestly, I wish and/or hope that this truly is a done deal so that we can hear the majestic sounds of Muse running through intense action sequences of monster fighting and deity battling, especially since I’m mostly displeased with the in-your-face hard rock/metal sounds on the current Clash of the Titans trailers. Muse has much more of an epic rock sound almost like a rock orchestra sometimes with remnants of woodwind and brass scattered throughout. If you’re unfamiliar or simply not confident in their skills or need for them to score a film, go listen to the three part “Exogenesis” tracks on their most recent album The Resistance.

Just close your eyes and tell me you can’t picture a spectacular film in action to their sweet sounds. Even if they don’t end up scoring Clash of the Titans then I hope they get picked up to score something else or even provide the title song for the new Bond flick. Either way, I hope we get to hear Muse on the big screen soon!