Bat For Lashes aka Natasha Khan knows to take her stripped velvety voice, add the tambourine and take an overplayed track and make it enjoyable all over again.

Visiting the BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge studios recently to promote her new album Two Suns, Natasha covered Kings of Leon’s Use Somebody adding more cool to the cool factor that is Bat For Lashes.

Bat For Lashes

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On the Dark Was the Night indie all-star contributor list was the track ‘Happiness’ from Riceboy Sleeps.  Who is this little fellow, you ask? Well, it’s Sigur Ros vocalist Jon Thor (Jónsi) Birgisson and his partner Alex Somers. The two have collaborated on visual art under the moniker and now we have an album to go along with it.

What to expect? Magical, ambient,  innocent, elegiacal instrumental music.

And straight from the bio:

Played solely on acoustic instruments in Iceland (and featuring long-time string collaborators Amiina, as well as the Kopavogsdaetur choir) and then endlessly toyed with on solar-powered laptops in a raw food commune in some far corner of Hawaii, ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ has a suitably, uh, organic feel to it.

I do like that ‘organic’ is actually being used literally. Take a listen.

Riceboy Sleeps by Jon Thor (Jónsi) Birgisson & Alex Somers — out 17th July.

It was premiered on Perez Hilon today, so you pop-junkies should have already heard… The trailer for Ravishing in Red Katy Perry’s Waking Up In Vegas vid is at http://perezhilton.com/2009-04-10-your-first-look-32.

Yes, it’s cinematic enough to need a trailer. We’re talking Lambourghini’s, stretch-limos, gold confetti (probably 24K), tears, and smeared make-up (yet again).

Power Pop at it power-iest.

Thankfully Operator Please have been able to keep the world up to date with the progress for their second album with this teaser clip.  The recording is as yet untitled, but there’s a few of their suggestions in the video and feel free to comment your own ideas – they’re all ears.

Huzzah for this awesome new demo track too – listen up!

Operator Please myspace

When Iron Maiden flew into Australia for the Somewhere Back In Time Tour in Feb last year, every one of the 100K punters broke out their outfits to declare Maiden Pride. The cities were surreally swamped with black Maiden tees and combat boots – and I didn’t want to cross any of ‘em. But the lure of the pumping arena was just too tempting.

The show at ACER Arena was simply visually and aurally spectacular, as was the ferocity of the roaring crowd. Fave moment was the 20ft cyborg Eddie trampling the stage and gunning down the audience. Words really can’t do it justice, so head to the triple j gallery for pics of the Sydney show.

The Somewhere Back In Time tour was attended by 2million+ punters worldwide, transported entirely by Flight 666 (the band’s own plane piloted by frontman/legend Bruce Dickinson), covered 6 continents with 91 shows, and took way over a year to complete. Frankly, that’s worthy of a major motion picture.

Flight 666,  in the cinemas worldwide on April 21 and it will sell out because Maiden fans are hardcore. Book your tix at www.ironmaiden.com/flight666.