"It is simply time for Sugarbomb to go find a new home," said lead singer Les Farrington. Just one week after the release of their debut album Bully, local boys Sugarbomb and their record company of choice, RCA, have parted ways. Farrington said the split was of little surprise to the band. "First, we started to see a lack of radio promotion, then a lack of tour support. We knew something was going on."

Contrary to most record label/band splits, Farrington said he has nothing bad to say about RCA. "They are being very cool. This is not an angry, vicious divorce. They wish they could be there for us, but they can't, so they let us go."

Representatives at RCA could not be reached for comment, though Farrington said he believes one of the reasons Sugarbomb was released from RCA was because of financial issues within the label. "Unfortunately, with the state the label is in and the state of [our nation], they couldn't afford to keep bands that [aren't selling millions of albums]. And it is not just us; there were two other bands dropped the same day we were."

Although details of the split were not released, Farrington said Sugarbomb was financially compensated to some extent, and RCA gave the band their album to shop to other labels, which are already beginning to line up. Farrington said the band will have a record-label showcase later this month at Los Angeles' legendary Viper Room. Among the labels scheduled to attend are DreamWorks, Universal, and Warner Brothers. Sugarbomb will play at the Merge 93.3 Cool Yule at the Bass Hall November 9.

The 17 or so Tarrant subscribers to Sundance Channel will want to set their VCRs for Friday night: Videos from Cibo Matto, Radiohead, Gorillaz, the strangely popular Travis, and others will be featured during the second season (they call it "season," but it's only three episodes) of Sonic Cinema. The series explores, as Sundance says, the "singular alchemy of music and film" and is hosted by some guy from Rolling Stone. (Is HearSay the only suave and attractive music writer in this nation?) The first episode, "Video to Screen," aired last Friday, but HearSay has a tape if anybody wants to borrow it.

Next up, this Friday, is "Animators." Jamie Hewlitt, the creator of Tank Girl, presents two videos of the animated band Gorillaz; animé pioneers Toei Animation Studios, who originated Sailor Moon, show off their space-age sagas for electronica artistes Daft Punk; plus shorts from Bill Plympton ("Can't Drag Race with Jesus") and Mark Brierly ("Hotspot"). This is, in HearSay's humble opinion, the best episode of the lot.

The series winds up October 19 with the "exclusive television premiere" of ten wicked-cool shorts inspired by Sparklehorse's latest album, It's a Wonderful Life. Filmmakers include Guy Maddin, Grant Gee, and Gariné Torossian. HearSay probably won't lend out this tape.