This was in today's newspaper EL MUNDO, April 19, concerning Mikel Erentxun's new album.

In the US, Mikel Erentxun is known as the Latin Morrissey. "it's funny", he admits, "people there come to my concerts in Morrissey or The Smiths T-shirts". And that's something that doesn't bother the artist at all, a confessed mythomaniac, particularly about Morrissey (with whom he might play in CA) or Lloyd Cole, who plays in one of his new songs "Te Dejas Ver".

This is all beyond me, really. His covers of The Smiths and Morrissey leave a lot to be desired.

Update (4/25): Link to the interview on the El Mundo site, "La mirada acústica de Mikel Erentxun from Marc Duquet and also María.

Today (4/12) I was driving to school listening to KROQ Los Angeles and No Doubt was being interviewed. When a caller asked who had influenced their music they all said British punk bands, they mention the Cure, Depeche Mode and the caller asked "Morrissey?" The singer (Gwen Stefani) said, "Yes I love Morrissey."

From Asif Husain:

No Doubt were on the KROQ Kevin & Bean show and when asked their influences they emphasised their love for Morrissey and The Smiths. I believe Tony Kanal even called Moz brilliant.

The Bloodhound Gang were on KROQ's Kevin & Bean show and the lead singer apologized for being such a boring interview, "unlike Morrissey who would come in and talk about lying on the beach..."

Not much of an item, but in an interview on insound.com, Doug Martsch-- singer/guitarist/mastermind of Built to Spill-- cited Hatful of Hollow as one of the records by which he was most affected. If you haven't checked out BTS, you should. They're on tour now and just put out a live record.

Here's the excerpt:

Built To Spill Exclusive

Do you remember the first album you bought that you were completely floored by?

There were lots of them. I was thinking about that the other night. There were a couple of records where the band was my favorite band and they put out their favorite at that time. That hasn't happened in 10 years or more, where I just been totally in love with a band and they put out their new record and it's their best. Like the Butthole Surfers and Hairway to Steven was one of those records where I loved them and then they put out a perfect record. Or The Pixies when Doolittle came out. I already loved them and thought they'd made an even better record. There's lot of them that blew me away. Dinosaur's records. The Smiths' Hatful of Hollow really blew me away. Even R.E.M. and Murmur. I've since listened to that and I can't stand it. There's one song I thought was good and the rest of it did nothing for me. But at the time it sounded great to me. David Bowie was a big influence. He was kind of a transition from rock to alternative music.

I found this item in the new Rolling Stone (with Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cover). Very small, but curious. In the Raves section, Philip Anselmo of the heavy metal group Pantera lists The Smiths as an influence: "I adore them: the honesty and great songwriting, and everybody in the band is just a badass."

If there's one thing Morrissey never been called is a "badass," so worth a mention.

Just thought I'd pass on to you that I was at the Siren Disc site today and noticed that the release date of the Morrissey singles box set has been pushed back to June 19.

HMV CD Singles 88-91 (10xCDS), BOX $52.99
33 track 10 disc collection includes all the HMV label singles from "Suedehead" to "Interesting Drug", with all the original B-sides, packaged in pochette picture sleeves within a cigarette-style box. Release Date: 19-Jun-00

Okay, this is fairly left-field, but I've heard this commercial so many times, and what I'm going to say just keeps sounding more and more accurate each time, so finally, I'm writing.

There's a commercial playing in the USA for a prescription anti-Fungus toe medicine ("Have yellow toenails?", etc) called Lamicil. The ABC station in Milwaukee, WI plays it incessantly, especially at night. Anyway, what does all this have to do with Morrissey?

The music sounds like a string quartet instrumental rendition of "Now My Heart Is Full", off Vauxhall & I. I've heard the commercial many times, and try to find a portion that doesn't sound like it, but I've not been able to pin anything down... the similarity remains.

Did Morrissey or someone at his company approve this, or is it just a sound-alike song that the Lamicil people figured no one would notice? Who knows... but well, there you go.

Here's a site about Lamicil, no Morrissey mention there (haha).

(Note: This isn't an joke... just a strange, whodathunkit observation)