Despite only having one album, London’s The xx utterly captivated a sold-out Bowery (moved from Mercury Lounge) with their dark and fragile sound that reverbed throughout the dimly lit venue (so dim that frontwoman Romy Madley Croft had trouble locating her chords and asked to turn the mood lighting up a notch!)

Before I even locate the well-appointed midtown Manhattan hotel that Tokio Hotel is staying in, I hear the unmistakable sounds of giddy teenage girls. This is a common sight and sound wherever the handsome, young men of Tokio Hotel might be, anywhere around the globe.

There is nothing like a crisp autumn day chatting with one-half of the dynamic duo that is South London’s Basement Jaxx (Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe). Buxton was in high spirits despite a packed day of press and a schedule that would take the boys to Chicago to deejay a rave…

It took me about a day to realize that Har Mar Superstar was not indeed finger banged by NME writer Alex Hoban. Tours and all of the energy that surround them can provide enough muck for a library of Marquis De Sade novels, so his tweets were quite believable and I was worried.

The glamorous, yet humble Via Tania, aka Tania Bowers, wasn’t so sure she wanted to be a front woman until someone suggested she take on the role of singer when she was still a teenager performing music with her sister in Australia, where they grew up. In those days, she wasn’t yet eighteen…

Tahiti 80 take me back to my high school days when I was just discovering the world of European pop music. The late 90s was a goldmine for Euro-poppers to win over US notoriety (and not just the likes of Robyn and The Cardigans). For French bands, there seems to be a continuous dividing line between entering the Anglo world or staying in France to make it.