AMG is pleased to announce that Kevin Madigan has joined the team. He has been writing about music for longer than he cares to remember and also worked in the music industry pushing product by everyone from Frank Zappa to David Bowie. Read his Imogen Heap review here.

Athlete have won the UK’s Ivor Novello songwriting award for “Best Contemporary Song” for “Wires”. The prestigious Ivor Novello Awards, now in its 51st year, honors “excellence in contemporary songwriting and composing”. Winners in other major categories include KT Tunstall and James Blunt . For a full list of winners, please go to: www.britishacademy.com. Athlete have recently released an exclusive live session from San Francisco on iTunes. The session debuted at #13 on the iTunes alternative download chart (#58 overall). The video for “Wires” is also available for download on iTunes. “Wires” is taken from the album, Tourist. You can read AMG's interview with the band from last year here.

Rival Entertainment announced that it's 1,035 capacity EarthLink Live venue will assume its heritage name, Center Stage Atlanta again. Center Stage was converted to EarthLink Live under a name-in-title sponsorship agreement that has been in effect for the past 5 years. Under that same ownership, the 300 capacity Vinyl opened in the same building in 2002 and the 650 capacity The Loft opened in 2005, creating Atlanta’s only multiple live performance venue facility. In 2004, Cook, event producer Josh Antenucci and talent buyer Lucy Lawler teamed to form Rival Entertainment as the management company responsible for all venue bookings and operations. Last week, owner Tom Cook & event producer Josh Antenucci formed Center Stage Entertainment, combining ownership of all three Atlanta venues under one entity. Rival Entertainment will continue its roles of venue operations manager and talent buyer. “Renaming EarthLink Live to Center Stage Atlanta presents some exciting new opportunities for us as a venue, promoter and event marketer”, says Antenucci. “Even after 5 years of branding the EarthLink Live name, a vast majority of our clientele have referred to the theater as Center Stage, so given the opportunity to re-brand once again, it makes perfect sense to go back to the name the music fans know and trust. Further the prospect of operating a venue without a corporate name has opened some doors on future cross-marketing opportunities with other companies willing to invest in music related marketing. We expect new partnerships soon that will contribute to the concert experience at Center Stage, The Loft & Vinyl.” Tickets for all current shows billed as “EarthLink Live” are valid at Center Stage. For more information visit www.centerstage-atlanta.com

When touring, there's more than just good music to be had from Nine Inch Nails. The band is making available to the public a selection of photographs from the current month-long summer tour. NIN's official photographer Rob Sheridan, director of the video 'The Hand That Feeds,' is shooting and assembling images from each show, which can then be bought online two days later. The tour will reach Hi Fi Buys Amphitheatre on Wednesday, June 7th. www.frcphotos.com

Yeah Yeah Yeahs are looking for fans to star in the video for their new single "Cheated Hearts." All you have to do is record yourself on DV tape performing the song. For complete details, visit www.yeahyeahyeahs.com.

Synth rockers VHS or Beta will be DJing The Relapse Theater on Saturday June 17th. Local act Shock Cinema will be performing live, and there will be DJ sets from Drew Van Atten, Reacharound, Preston Craig, and Jeff Myers. Doors are at 9pm. Tickets are $8.00 in advance through Ticket Alternative, and $10.00 at the door.

Local bands and solo artists may now apply for Open Mic Madness 2006! Every year, over 120 bands play the single elimination music tournament at Smith's Olde Bar, which is a great opportunity to get your music heard by hundreds of local music fans and music industry professionals. This year, the event takes place August 21 - 26. Previous winners include The Whigs, Bain Mattox, Avenge Vegas, and Sovus Radio. The winner receives 2 full days at Nickel and Dime Recording Studios with producer Don McCollister, a slot on The Rock Boat VI, rehearsal time, and more. For more information + application details, visit www.openmicmadness.com.

Everything you could possibly want to know about this year's AthFest can be found at www.athfest.com It's all happening from June 21st through the 25th in downtown Athens, GA. Just to make things more interesting, the organizers are giving away a ten day trip to Italy.

A new band from England called Forward, Russia is creating quite a stir with fans and critics. NME said the band is "the most exciting post-punk racket since Bloc Party and Rocksound declared: "you'll feel an impulse to run around smashing things and shouting. That, essentially, is what rock music is all about." The album Give Me A Wall was described by The Observer as "a petulant little outburst of a debut." The band played at SXSW and will return shortly to the U.S. for dates in New York and California. Stay tuned for a review of the CD..

WTF! - so, Cumulus finally took over 99X this week - first thing they do - fire music director Jay Harren. Not only a good friend of everyone here at AMG but, a true long-time supporter of local music. Jay's helped many a local band, either directly like The Hiss or Red Letter Agent , or indirectly with every band he got to open for a national act at one of 99X's big events. The future of his weekly show Sunday School is in doubt. So, whereever you land mate, we wish you the best .. This quote from Jay's myspace page "So Long 99X... Just wanted to let everyone know that due to a corporate take-over, yesterday was my last day at 99X. I'm not sure about the future of Sunday School, or my involvement with it, I'll definitely keep you posted. Thanks to all of you who have listened, supported, commented, suggested, requested, and complained...all of your feedback on the show that I love doing has been appreciated. I'll land somewhere soon...in the meantime, please continue to support the Atlanta scene, its a good one. I'll keep my Myspace page for now, so by all means, keep in touch! All the Best- Jay Harren"

RIVAL ENTERTAINMENT has announced the SUMMERSOUNDS Music Series at Atlantic Station, a series of free concerts Friday & Saturday Nights from 6pm - 8pm at "Central Park" at Atlantic Station. The kick off Concert takes place Saturday, May 6 with ANTHONY DAVID and Guests. Bring a blanket, lawn chairs, food, drink & your friends to enjoy some of Atlanta's finest musical talent in an open-air environment.Check out the full schedule & become SummerSound's "Friend" at www.myspace.com/atlanticstation

Waving At Strangers won the 3rd round of the 99X/Miller Lite Taste Rock Live Battle of the Bands competition at the Wild Wing Cafe - they now move on to the final with Modern Society and Morning State. The 4th round features Ocha La Rocha , Libras , Holiday Parade , TxRx duking it out on May 14th.

Modern Society won the 2nd round of the 99X/Miller Lite Taste Rock Live Battle of the Bands competition at the 10 High. They beat out 3 other bands: Variac , the Julia Dream and High Flight Society, who 99X's Jay Harren described as "seriously unbelievable." The next round takes place tonight (May 1st) at the Wild Wing Cafe .

Unsigned buzz band Tapes 'n Tapes have announced a show at The Drunken Unicorn on Friday June 9th. Tickets for the Minneapolis 4 piece are on sale at www.ticketalternative.com - For more info visit: www.tapesntapes.com.

Star 94 has announced a one day music festival. Set for Saturday, July 22, Star Fest is a one-day, two-stage, outdoor music festival, located in midtown amongst the new development at Atlantic Station. The line up will be announced May 17th.

Congrats go out to Morning State today for winning the first round of the 99X/Miller Lite Taste Rock Live Battle of the Bands! The grand prize winner will win a slot on the main stage of Summerfest in Milwaukee, along with $2500 cash and bunch of new gear! Come out for the next round at the 10 High featuring Variac, Modern Society, High Flight Society, and the Julia Dream on Sunday, April 30th. The third round will be at Wild Wing May 1st and the fourth at Smith's Olde Bar on May 14th. The final is schedule for May 30th at The Loft! For more information visit www.99x.com/contests/onair/millertasterock

Southern Comfort Music Experience - Southern Comfort is bringing the SoCo Music Experience, a free outdoor concert event, to Atlanta May 20th & 21st, 2006. Several New Orleans musicians will perform along with The Flaming Lips (check out our giveaway!), De La Soul and locals Family Force Five for free in Centennial Olympic Park . Donations will be accepted to help save the music in New Orleans through voluntary contributions to the Big Easy’s WWOZ public radio station. The SoCo Music Experience (SCMX) is a unique music festival traveling the country from San Diego to Philadelphia. Southern Comfort will transform Centennial Olympic Park into a festival setting with local and national food vendors, Southern Comfort frozen cocktails, a SoCo Lime Lounge featuring a live screen printing poster shop and acoustic stage. You must be at least 21 years old to enter the event, which runs from noon until 11pm on Saturday and from noon until 10pm on Sunday.

Saturday, May 20
Beatin Path
Bonerama
Theresa Andersson
Family Force 5 (Atlanta band)
Ozomatli
Cowboy Mouth

Sunday, May 21
Flaming Lips
Big Star
De La Soul
The Gourds
The Moaners
American Princes

Save Fulton County Music Education - Fulton County school board members will meet this Tuesday April 18th to decide whether to eliminate music education programs in local area public schools. The Atlanta chapter of the Recording Academy is pushing to save music programs - click here to send school board members a message letting them know that you want to keep music in the schools! www.grammy.com