Last Friday, Sheridan Square Entertainment , owner of V2 North America , axed the label in order to shift focus to digitally distributed media. Consequently, V2, a giant in the American independent label world and home to Moby , the White Stripes , and the Raconteurs , laid off all 35 of its employees, including president Andy Gershon. Keeping afloat with modern times, Sheridan Square is hoping to capitalize on the internet download market. A possible merger...

Y'all ready for a Lily Allen digest? Unless you have been living under a rock these past few months, you already know that British sensation Lily Allen is causing a major stir in the US. Not only is Allen is recognized across the boards as an artist to watch in outlets such as The New York Times, Vibe, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Spin and The Los Angeles Times , she also ranked #1 on Blender ’s list of “25 Reasons to Love ’07” and #1 in URB ’s Future Music...

Just announced: Gnarls Barkley will perform live for the 49th Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. In addition to garnering 5 nominations this year as Gnarls Barkley, the two members as solo artists are no strangers to this prestigious event: Danger Mouse won a Grammy for his productions while vocalist Cee-Lo Green has received 5 nominations in past years. The event will be...

Finnish-born New York resident and long time favorite of ours, Janita just released a new video for the second track off of her widely acclaimed Seasons Of Life . Shot in classic faded black and white, bossa-tinged "I Miss You" ’s visuals can be enjoyed below. Janita - "I Miss You" Video

Original Organized Konfusion member, Pharoahe Monch has a new LP ready to fire early this year entitled Desire ( Rifkind records). After recording an unreleased sophomore album and battling his way out of a contract with Geffen , eight years after his debut Internal Affairs Monche has finally finished his 2nd proper full-length. "On a creative and business level, I've never been this excited," Monche exclaimed. "I've had the time to work...

“We want to reinvent the phone,” Steve Jobs stated. We won’t know if Apple will accomplish its goal until the iPhone’s release in June, but a momentary perusal of its list of features will blind you to every other phone on the market. It does everything you might expect from a normal mobile phone: it calls, it texts, it takes pictures and it checks voicemail. However, these basic features operate in a fundamentally different fashion. The user controls the...

Sublabel of Blue Note , Narada Jazz has created a media player for two of their artists' newly released albums, Bees + Things + Flowers by Incognito and The Best Of Down To The Bone . Both LPs come highly recommended from us, so be sure and check out their player here .

Tracey Thorn's artistic rebirth is eminent. Following her filial hiatus, she's finally releasing an album of her own called Out Of The Woods (released in the US March 20th through Astralwerks and the UK in February via Virgin ). And instead of repeating Everything But the Girl records with her husband Ben Watt , she's branching out and working with other artists including Metro Area, The Rapture and electro-house power-producer Ewan...

Lily Allen's recently voiced an array of smileys (talking smiley icons) that can be cleverly inserted into emails and IMs. Available exclusively at Smiley Central , the application's already being heavily downloaded and if you’re friends are in-the-know, you might have already received one. Allen's Smile digital EP through iTunes accompanies the phenomenon and can be found here:

The South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW) , which takes place March 9-18 this year in Austin, Texas, announced a series of distinguished speakers to present on crucial issues concerning the music industry. The event will commence with an interview and performance by keynote speaker, The Who’s Pete Townshend . Other confirmed interviews include vocalist Emmylou Harris , Tropicalia revolutionary Gilberto Gil , CEO/Co-founder of Nettwerk Terry...