It seems to be the done thing these days; if you're in a successful band, you start a side project. Just few famous examples of recent years - Jack White of The White Stripes and his Raconteurs; Damon Albarn and his Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad & the Queen; and Alex Turner and The Last Shadow Puppets. The success of these spin-offs has sparked a trend that has seen the least likely members of bands, the drummers, follow suit, such as Razorlight's Andy Burrows and Adam Ficek of Babyshambles.

Now, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O has a side-project, which she is airing online. The New York singer is fronting a new group called Native Korean Rock - and you can listen to five demos at www.myspace.com/nativekoreanrock. The blissfully named new songs "Sunset Sun" and "OOO" are just two of the uncharacteristically mellow tracks from the star, featuring Karen O on vocals and acoustic guitar.

Equally worth checking out is the collaboration from two more of music's hippest female stars, Santogold and MIA. The band Radioclit, with whom the pair recorded, are streaming the track "Get It Up" from their MySpace page, www.myspace.com/radioclit. For more output from another hugely talented starlet, the French singer-songwriter Camille's hilarious video to her single "Money Note" is on YouTube at http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=XNO-8B05YLg.

Warp records has always been synonymous with cutting-edge new music with a strong electronic leaning. To showcase its new signing, the Australian trio Pivot, it is starting a new series of online radio shows in the form of podcasts for fans to download for free. The first in the series, created by Pivot and named after their upcoming album O Download My Heart, features work by some of ambient and rock music's most influential artists (and notably the band's own influences, as listed on their MySpace page). As it is like a radio show, you have to download the whole chunk to get tracks including Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene IV", Brian Eno's "2/2" and Pink Floyd's "On the Run". You're recommended to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/ MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=285303518>.

(c) 2008 Independent, The; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Story Source: Independent, The; London (UK)