Mumford & Sons, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, The National, The Postal Service and The Killers are all heavily rumoured to have signed on for the U.S. festival Lollapalooza in early August. Lollapalooza is one of the world's most popular festivals, attracting well over 250,000 people annually across its three days.

Peter Murphy, lead singer of British rock band Bauhaus, was arrested this past weekend for a DUI/hit and run in Glendale, California. Murphy allegedly hit the rear of the vehicle in front of him, injuring the driver, before fleeing the scene. Eyewitnesses followed Murphy from the scene and later blocked him until police arrived. It is also alleged that Murphy attempted to conceal a bag of methamphetamine from police.

A violin which was supposedly played by a musician on the RMS Titanic as the oceanliner was sinking to calm passengers has been found. The violin, which belonged to and was played by Wallace Hartley as passengers were being loaded into lifeboats, was feared lost after the 1912 disaster but was found in 2006 and after years of testing by auctioneers (and even government forensic scientists) they are satisfied that the violin is indeed the one owned by Hartley.

The Field and Shit Robot will play The Button Factory on Sunday May 5th. Shit Robot, AKA Marcus Lamkin, is an Irish DJ/performer who was heavily involved with the formation of James Murphy's (of LCD Soundsystem fame) DFA Records ensemble. In fact, I used to share a house with Lamkin's cousin and she told me a tale of when Lamkin went on his first few forays to New York, where he met Murphy, they recorded a few demos together. One of these cassettes ended up in my friends possession, but she thought nothing of it, nor did she listen. An unreleased, likely never-heard-before James Murphy and Shit Robot demo is currently in an attic somewhere in Greystones gathering dust...

Foals, Kraftwerk and Bloc Party have been confirmed for the UK festival Latitude.

At 11am I got an email which stated that 90's dance act M People were to play Vicar Street in May. At 12.27pm I got another email informing me that it has been cancelled. That didn't take long, did it?

Hugely promising Dublin-based band Swords will play their debut Whelan's headline show on Friday 5th July. Tickets, priced at only a tenner, are available right here.