This award isn’t based on popularity or politics; only the crème de la crème are welcome here. Past winners have included Primal Scream, Gomez, Badly Drawn Boy, Arctic Monkeys and Dizzee Rascal, to name but a few. When all is said and done, the winning artist will be remembered for creating the album of the year for U.K. critics and listeners alike. So it almost goes without saying that for such relatively new artists as Wild Beasts and Villagers, this is a pretty big deal.

Nominated for their sophomore album, Two Dancers, the Kendal-based Wild Beasts have graced numerous “best of” critics lists over the past two years, praised for their uniquely personal angst-laden style of indie pop driven by lead singer Hayden Thorpe’s countertenor voice. Domino’s other nominated act is Irish singer/songwriter Conor J O’Brien, better known as Villagers. A recent addition to the Domino line-up, Villagers’ debut album Becoming a Jackal has already gained widespread acclaim from folk and rock fans alike.

Here’s hoping one of Domino’s nominees goes home as 2010’s Mercury Award winner!

Tekked has launched the El Watusi digital music store, www.elwatusi.com, powered by Audiosalad. The new digital music store focuses on the latin and world music genres and features hard to find and rare releases across many genres. In addition to its deep musical content the new site features news articles, interviews, interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes info, guaranteed to hit the right note with real music fans.

Take a look at the El Watusi music store here: www.elwatusi.com

Tekked has added its physical product e-Commerce functionality to the Fania Records site. Powered by Audiosalad, the updated Fania site now carries a wide range of merchandise and physical CD’s that fans can purchase right along side digital downloads. The Audiosalad platform allows the Fania administrators to quickly and easily model their physical products, create product bundles, set inventory levels, locations and everything else required for physical product sales and fulfillment.

Take a look at the new Fania Records Shop Page.

Also see: SXSW Official Site [www.sxsw.com]