New Anticipated Releases: Death Cab For Cutie’s new album, Narrow Stairs is out today. Pick up a copy at your local record store or pick up a digital copy at iTunes by clicking here. Death Cab is the benchmark for the indie bands, they got it down to a science. If you don’t believe us, just stream the album here..

10 Years new record, Division is out today. The album is #6 on the iTunes Chart and is expected to land in the top 15 on the Billboard album charts. Who said rock is dead? Rock is alive and well, just have to do it right. Pick up a copy on iTunes by clicking here.

Idol Ratings Continue To Slip: Even though American Idol ratings are slipping away, the show itself is still huge. Cowell suggests that the viewership may just be bored. We haven’t got the right personalities at the moment,” Simon Cowell told a reporter over the weekend. They’re “very media-savvy. They say the right things. They don’t argue with me. It’s too safe at the moment.”Things are too old-fashioned,” Cowell said.

TVT Records Set to Meet Its Maker? Pitbull, the top-10 rapper has been angry for months at both the label and its owner, Steve Gottlieb, and has even gone on the radio to urge listeners not to buy his 2007 release, “The Boatlift”. TVT Records is scheduled to be sold out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. According The NY Post, “There are said to be about 30 investors weighing whether to make a bid on TVT. If the bidding is less than robust, unsecured creditors may only receive pennies on the dollar”. “I just want to make sure my artists are taken care of and I do right by my creditors,” Gottlieb said.

Rise Fast, Fall Hard: The queen of pop marketing wasn’t astute this time as in the past — or simply, her record company didn’t care since she was leaving. After one week, Madonna’s”Hard Candy” has fallen a whopping 71 percent in sales to No. 5 says Fox’s Roger Friedman.

But…

Leona Lewis “Bleeding Love” is a smash. And say what you will, but Lewis’ American success is directly related to Clive Davis and his team at J Records. Only in the record business would execs be dumb enough to tamper with that formula says Friedman.

Leeds Laid Off: Jeff Leeds the Los Angeles music biz reporter who wrote for The New York Times has been laid off. “I feel badly for him because he’s always had a good handle on his beat. He also writes regularly and breaks news. “It came as a surprise. H was upset to be cut,” an insider tells me. “But it’s an odd beat to cut because it’s not like there’s overlap”.