We all like to think we have better musical taste than our cohorts; it’s an essential element of the human condition. Now, thanks to a new website, you can actually get charts and graphs to justify your position.

Songkick.com is a London-based site dedicated to helping you find a good concert to see in your area. They do so by monitoring Amazon sales, blogosphere activity, and various MySpace statistics (song plays, profile views and number of friends) from the last five weeks and applying an undisclosed algorithm to come up with a proprietary ranking for every band in their database.

The coolest thing about the site is their Battle of the Bands page, which allows you to put in any three bands and compare their stats. So I thought it would be fun to put together a TO-centric battle royale to see who would come out on top.

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It’s so hard for a young, unknown band to get some exposure these days. Thankfully, there’s the Colbert Bump, the inevitable rise in popularity one receives after appearing on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.

The latest recipients of this prestigious honour are R.E.M., currently flogging their latest studio project, Accelerate.

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I stumbled across a wicked cool link while researching a feature I’m writing about the pride of Newmarket, Tokyo Police Club, who are currently touring all over North America in support of their soon to be released full length LP, Elephant Shell. They’ve come up with a novel approach to tour blogging; rather than give you the boring details of going from show to show, keyboardist Graham Wright has taken to writing specifically about the various restrooms he encounters along the way, briefly discussing their merits and ranking them on a scale out of 50 on such things as cleanliness, amenities, décor and functionality (always the clincher).

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Here’s some bona fide Radiohead news for this April Fools Day. They’ve announced a remix contest for the song “Nude.”

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I came across this seemingly alarming post today before I realized what date it was …

Jonny Greenwood Quits Radiohead, All North American Dates Cancelled!?!

Happy April Fools Day!

Search for songs by Radiohead on iTunes

Today, Virgin Mobile announced a tentative lineup for the third annual Virgin Festival, scheduled to be held over the weekend of September 6 and 7 at Toronto Island Park.

So far, only 10 bands have been announced, including Foo Fighters, Oasis, ex-Jam singer Paul Weller, the Constantines and the Weakerthans. In past years, the festival has offered dozens of acts performing on multiple stages, so expect many more bands to be added to this list some time after all the tickets have sold out.

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I feel a deep obligation to check out every new Bob Mould record. The early work of his old band, Hüsker Dü, was one of the driving inspirations leading to the purchase of my first guitar, and his debut solo album Workbook never left my turntable when I went through my first really bad break-up. Plus, he wrote the theme music for the Daily Show! His music has gotten me through some pretty rough times, and for that I’ll be eternally grateful.

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When I first heard Flogging Molly, it was a music geek’s dream come true: after years of listening to the Pogues and waiting for a big-ass hardcore guitar to kick in, someone actually put together the band I’d been yearning for, a perfect blend of Irish folk and American punk.

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Sunday night the Foo Fighters walked away from the Grammy Awards with trophies for Best Rock Album (Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace) and Best Hard Rock Performance (”The Pretender”), bringing the band’s tally up to six, including three for best album. Not bad when you consider ESP&G is only their sixth studio record. Kudos, Mr. Grohl and Co.

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I’ve always said that Millencolin are the punk rock answer to Abba: their Swedish, there’s four of them, they write catchy, upbeat, hook-laden tunes with great big harmonies and they’re gay icons (okay, maybe not) …

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