Shirley Manson: Something new and charitable

Got 79p kicking about that you'd like to swap for something lovely and which will also help stand up to governments who would abuse human rights? Get yourself to the iTunes store and buy The Hunger, lifted from the Prometheus Bound musical and bringing together Shirley Manson and Serj Tankian.

It's all in aid of Amnesty International, so doubly worth investigating.

System Of A Down: Good news at last

Here's something to cheer up a gloomy winter evening: although they're not removing the threat entirely, System Of A Down aren't planning to get back together any time soon:

"We always have offers to play, from festivals and stuff, but we have not decided to do anything as of yet," [Serj] Tankian explains. "We're in touch. We talk. We call it an indefinite hiatus, and that's how we still look at it. Nothing's really changed."

Yes, the "as of yet" is a bit of a threat, but at least it gives us hope.

Meanwhile, Tankian is working on his, uh, solo project:

"It's pretty wild, musically," Tankian reports. "It's all over the place, from jazz to classical to noise to rock to electronic. And the story's really powerful, a story of tyranny and justice."

'Admittedly,' he continued, 'my decision to sing in a ickle bunny-wunny voice sits a bit uneasily with that, but...' Tankian tailed off. "I mean, nobody's actually going to want to listen to it, so I figured why not?"

System of a beam-me-Down

Serj from System Of A Down has an idea for saving the planet:

"We could reduce our need to travel if we could project ourselves into concerts. It's not like the audience can touch me, anyway."

The technology does exist to allow SOAD to appear virtually on a stage - it's called television - but until someone invents away for festival audiences to transmit bottles-filled-with-urine into contact with the stage from a distance of miles, the band are still going to have to turn up.