by SHANE SINNOTT

Anything that Apple does music-wise is watched intensely, so rampant speculation was caused when the company filed a trademark for iTunes Live last week. Apple recently acquired lala.com, a site that lets you buy the rights to stream songs on any PC from a library hosted on their servers, and announced it was shutting it down at the end of the month. It’s hard not to believe that they are going to incorporate some kind of online streaming business of their own. Whether that has to do with iTunes Live or not, who knows, but you can see the (lame) logo here: tcrn.ch/apeiNk.

Much like Apple, anything Arcade Fire does also sparks a frenzy of interest and rumour-mongering. Last Thursday, a banner appeared on their website saying “Arcade Fire Presents ‘The Suburbs’,” prompting breathless speculation that a new LP of the same name is imminent. The banner quickly disappeared. Visit here to keep tabs: bit.ly/94oBaR.

Holy Fuck, meanwhile, have been having to deny that they have anything to do with the guerilla-type marketing of their latest single “Latin America” on the totally weird Chatroulette (bit.ly/dvnvpH) website. In between dudes masturbating, someone posted a stream of the song. Revealingly, in explaining that they had nothing to do with it, band member Brian Borcherdt said, “[For] Us, as a band, that would be pretty lame if we sat around posting our own music on the web.” Take note, zillions of bands who post or have people post their own music on the web.

Remember Atari Teenage Riot? That crazy German digital hardcore band? Alec Empire? They’ve reunited and are sparring with Apple over their new iPhone app, which features every song, video etc. that the band has done. At issue is a feature called Riotsounds Produce Riots, a sound-maker which includes, according to the band, “Very low sub-basses, square waves, [and] noise sounds which trigger hysteria and panic within the audience.” Apple is worried at the possible repercussions if your phone is hooked up to very big speakers—which the band encourages—and played to an unwitting audience. If you haven’t heard one, scroll down this page to listen to a square wave sample: bit.ly/dqnVOl.