Most blogged artists: Gorillaz, Phosphorescent, Pretty Lights

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Gorillaz continues to be the most blogged act of the moment on March 4, according to The Hype Machine. The British alternative/electronic act is due to release the much-hyped album Plastic Beach on March 8. In second and third positions in the blogosphere are Ontario, Canada indie rock band Born Ruffians and New Jersey indie band Titus Andronicus. Other talked-about bands of the day include Phosphorescent and Pretty Lights.

Phosphorescent is the musical moniker for American musician Matthew Houck, who released a new track in anticipation of a May 11 album release from his indie folk/alt-country act. "It's Hard to Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)" is the first song to come out from the upcoming album, Here's To Taking it Easy, for which Houck has employed a full band. Dead Oceans, Phosphorescent's label, says Houck took influence for the upcoming album from "early 70's Rolling Stones, Bobby Charles and Dylan's Street Legal (1978)."

Pretty Lights is the digital sampling project of Colorado musician Derek Vincent Smith, who has so far released four albums, all available from his website free of charge. The most recent, Making Up a Changing Mind, consists of six tracks Smith produced in January and February 2010. Downbeatscape (downbeatscape.blogspot.com) shares "I Can See It In Your Face" from that album, calling it an "electro hip hop jam" that "mashes a few genres together - hip hop, downtempo electronic, funk and even blues... ."

The 10 most blogged artists on The Hype Machine on March 4 at 10:00 AM GMT:

• Gorillaz (unchanged)
• Born Ruffians (unchanged)
• Titus Andronicus (+4)
• Phosphorescent (new)
• The New Pornographers (unchanged)
• Club 8 (+2)
• Ellie Goulding (-1)
• Girls (new)
• Phantogram (new)
• Pretty Lights (new)

Launched in 2005, The Hype Machine aggregates information from more than 1,000 music blogs worldwide. Known for identifying up-and-coming artists, the site enables music fans to easily find out what music is hot in the blogosphere and to instantly hear and buy MP3s.

http://hypem.com