Best band name of the month sighted in the gig listings — We've Got A Fuzz Box And We're Going To Use It... Best buy of the secondhand gear market if you're after a nice old semi-acoustic guitar — Hofners. You can still pick up a good specimen for a couple of hundred quid in the Smoke, cheaper elsewhere. Prices are, however, rocketing so speed is of the essence... Socialists and would be street-credible Fulham people, The Faith Brothers, cancelling interviews because, according to their press officer, "they're in LA for three weeks remixing the single." Very 1977... watch out for American band They Might Be Giants, a two-piece that feature guitar and, yes, accordion. Rumour has it that after the instrument's role in videos by Grace Jones, Talking Heads, Lloyd Cole and all over the Tom Waits album, it's due for a huge comeback. It's even been seriously foretold that Paul Simon is at present making a rock'n'roll accordion album... Friendliest studio gear of the month must be the Publison Infernal Machine 90. This excessively expensive stereo sampler is programmed to say 'Hello' via its display in two languages, and chats disarmingly while describing its list of functions. Alarming for 2001 fans, though... Jazz brothers Branson and Wynton Marsalis mispronounced as Branston and Winston Marsala by member of staff recently. Much better... Onetime managerial type Malcolm McLaren apparently now working for bearded film whizzkid Stephen Spielberg as 'advisor' or 'consultant' or summat equally vague. Maybe a scratch mix of ET in the offing?... Still on t'other side of the pond, newest sensation in the music market is New Age Music, that vaguely ambient, ethereal, floaty stuff that Eno, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass etc. turn out. Seems despite low media profile, it's selling in health food shops and bookstores by the bucketful. It's now being pushed here, so dig out your old Tangerine Dream albums and your polysynths... talking of which, to give a fellow journalist a break, Melody Maker technical type Mark Jenkins has his synthish doodling released on vinyl by AMP Records. Contact them via (Contact Details) for more details — let it merely be said that the music will appeal to those of a Euro-synthrock persuasion... Thompson Twin Alannah Currie's pride and joy at the moment is a custom-built MIDI marimba with digital chip memory. "The technological breakthrough of the century!" claimed Twins' mainman Tom Bailey. Really?... Psychedelic Blabber: loony garageland legend Sky Saxon of Seeds fame is presently recording another album with modern-day sidemen like members of the Long Ryders, Green On Red, etc. etc... AC/DC drummer Simon Wright gets through up to eight snare skins per gig. Real men do, you know. Talking of which, Aussie Angus and the boys are going to do the soundtrack to a Stephen King film soon... more from the Metal zone — ex-Motorhead skinslammer Phil 'Philthy Animal' Taylor is back on the trail of major ear damage and looking for a band, so if you fancy the man in your band phone his management office on (Contact Details)... Dooran Doooooran offshoot Arcadia have finally been sussed as the Genesis of the sampling age. Bassist Mark Egan of Pat Metheny Group infamy habitually uses a double-necked handbuilt bass with four and eight-string necks, and has a solo album out in the US with bass solos galore on it...