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:: Album Title! ::
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It's been confirmed by nme.com that the Muse's second album will be called 'Origin of Symmetry' and will be released on June 18th in the UK (I'm presuming they mean only the UK). Other details, such as tracklistings and international release dates aren't out yet although an August 28th US release date has been strongly rumoured. I'll pass along that info as soon as I find it. The article goes on to mention that the video for 'New Born' will be filmed in Prague later on in the month.

Mention is also made regarding the Stereophonics quibble that Matt has made reference to on Muse's official news page. Read the nme.com's article for more info on that.

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:: New Messageboard and More ::
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For those of you who were wondering what was up with the messageboard, I'm happy to tell you that it's back up and new and improved! Give it a go here.

Also, check out the news page on the official site and you'll find a response from the band regarding an incident with The Stereophonics. Read for yourself!

On that very same page you'll see that they've announced support acts for the UK tour:

FIRST LEG - THE COOPER TEMPLE CLAUSE
SECOND LEG - THE SMUT PEDDLAS

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:: Hello Again ::
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Well it's been a while since the last update. Sorry about that! Here's everything that's happened in the past week and half:

• To recap from before, the second single New Born is coming out on May 28th. Musefans.com has a download of it on the audio page.
  

• The new album is rumoured to be titled Symmetry of Origin. Another possible title is Space Dimension (thanks to musclemuse.com) and will be out sometime in early to mid June everywhere except for the US, which will get it on August 28th.
  

• Rockpalast is webcasting the Muse gig at Düsseldorf, Germany on April 15th. Check their site that day for a link to the webcast and also for an interview with the band. If you think you're going to forget, keep checking back here and I'll remind you!
  (thanks to Thomas Bachmann from Rockpalast)
  

• Tom was good enough to send Pink Ego Box a transcript of the AOL chat that Matt did a little while back. Click here for the transcript. Many many thanks to Tom!
  

• The comic strip, The All New Bobbins Show, has a little Muse mention... see if you can catch it. Here is the first one. The Muse reference is on the next comic (click on "next comic"). Enjoy!
  
  
  

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:: New Born Download! ::
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The new Muse single, New Born, was premiered tonight on Steve Lamacq's show on Radio 1. All I can say is... it's friggin amazing. Musefans.com has a download of it on the audio page. Give it a listen. Give it two listens. Have it going constantly until you hurl. Just listen to it!

According to Lemacq, the New Born single comes out May 28th, a week or so before the full second EP comes. Let the wait begin.

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:: Celebs In Their Beds and More ::
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Radio 1 has posted up a transcript and a real audio stream of the Celeb's In Their Beds with Matt from March 10th. Read it!

Matt is near incoherent for the first few minutes, but just bear with it! He comes around eventually...

Also on the Radio 1 website is something called People vs. Muse. It's an interview with Matt regarding Plug In Baby and the sound of the new album. You can once again read the transcript or listen to the whole thing via the real audio stream. Enjoy!

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:: Updates from the Official Site ::
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The official Muse website has been updated a little with some changes. The most frequently updated items (latest news, message board, photo diary, and ramblings) have been put up as separate html pages (as opposed to how the rest of the site is in Flash)

The official site confirms the support acts for the upcoming European Tour:

EUROPEAN TOUR - SUPPORT BANDS

APRIL 11 - APRIL 29 = JJ72
APRIL 30 - MAY 21 = FEEDER

The site also let's us know that the boys are mixing the album right now. Word on the grapevine is that the album should be out in June everywhere except for the US which will get it on around August 28th.

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:: New Interview With Matt ::
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Music365 has a fairly intereresting interview up with Matt. Here's a snippet:

Music365: As you say you’re more into science than religion. Does genetic engineering, for example, interest you?

Matt Bellamy: Yeah, definitely. It sounds lame when I talk about it though but I think that consciousness is that which causes matter to evolve to a higher state of order. Like, before the ‘Big Bang’ broke it was a conscious thing and it broke into lots of little things that formed little nucleuses and then electrons surrounding them caused an atom. Then at any point which is the highest state of order, that is what has consciousness, and the universe is about breaking down into smaller things and each one of them is constantly trying to break up and attach itself onto other matter, and become a higher state of order.

The matter which makes up our bodies used to be part of a star and went supernova and caused this particular solar system to arrive. We are literally children of the stars if you like. We consist of the elements that are out there somewhere.

Music365: Wow...!

Matt Bellamy: We’ve come together as a collection of matter and we are the highest point in evolution on this planet. The reason we are constantly arguing with each other and having wars and trying to come together in some sort of international government is because we’re trying to get rid of the burden of consciousness and become one. The thing is that will never happen and that’s why we have so many problems. That’s why so many civilizations die out in the past because we fail at that particular hurdle.

The rest of the article can be found here: http://www.music365.co.uk/autocontent/feature_60712.htm

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:: Uhh... ::
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So nothing is really happening now. Rumour has it that the new album is being mixed as we speak, probably with Matt and another engineer. The rest of the band is probably just taking it easy and will probably start rehearsals soon for the upcoming tour that kicks off on March 31. That's really all the news on the Muse front... Hope everyone is enjoying their Plug In Baby singles!

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:: Maida Vale Setlist ::
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William Petter has scanned in the setlist from their recent Maida Vale show. Apparently they were planning on playing the new song, "Screenager" as the fourth song in the set. It has Matt playing an acoustic Chet Atkins Nylon Guitar, most likely for the Spanish-style playing he has used (since that is often what nylon-string guitars are used for) on the b-sides Nature 1 and Bedroom Acoustics. And it seems as though the last song in the playlist really is called "Bass Trem"! Or at least tentatively.

BTW, I'm planning on writing a little piece about Matt's brilliant new geetar soon. (the one with all the fancy knobs and switches) Keep your eyes peeled here for it!

source: Willam Petter

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:: dotmusic Video Interview Up... Sort of ::
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dotmusic has put up a link to the promised video interview with the band... but it doesn't work! I'm hoping that maybe they just need to upload a few files or something along those lines. In any case, I suppose that I'll just keep clicking on the damn thing until they fix it! You can join in on the fun right here.

UPDATE:
ahh... since I am a computer genius, I have found the real link to the interview! Here it is. Enjoy!

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:: New Official Site Up! ::
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The brand spankin' new official Muse website is now open for business. There's tons to explore so give it a look!

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:: Matt's Picks ::
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UK music magazine Q has a little piece about Matt's 10 favorite albums on their website. Who would've guess that Matt was a Simon and Garfunkel fan??

source: Jo Davies

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:: New Song Names? ::
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Some of the comments to the pictures of the Astoria sessions for the new album reveal two tentative song titles: Electro Empire and Space Dementia (featuring the sound of Matt's trouser zipper at the end!). Here is the updated list of known songs for the new album:

• Bliss
  
• Hypermusic
  
• Origin of Symmetry
  
• Love Bleach
  
• Shrinking Universe
  
• Razor Song
  
• Plug In Baby
  
• Citizen Erased
  
• New One
  
• Apolitical
  
• Screenager
  
• Bass Trem
  
• Electro Empire
  
• Space Dementia

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:: dotmusic Video Interview ::
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dotmusic will be posting a new video interview with the band later this week. Discussed were the new album and "much more". Check back here to find out when it's up!

source: dotmusic

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:: Celebs In Their Beds ::
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Josh from the friendly instantMUSEnger mailing list has discovered that Matt Bellamy will be on the Radio 1 show, "Celebs In Their Beds" with Nemone this Saturday. The show runs from 7am until 10am and usually consists of Nemone ringing up a celeb on a Saturday morning at their home. Matt should make for an interesting guest.... I've always wondered what he would be like first thing in the morning! If you've been wondering the same thing, check the news page on Saturday when I will have the interview up for download. If you want to hear it live this Saturday morning, here is a link to the live webstream of the Radio 1 broadcast. Happy listening!

source: Josh