Saturday, March 05, 2011

Streaming now: Wild Flag

NPR have got the first, proper recording from Wild Flag.

If you need a prompt:

Oh, yes. The album is coming out on Record Store Day, but NPR have a taste to dip your beak into.

[via @sleepssundays]

Bookmarks - Internet stuff: Borders

Christopher Caldwell mourns Borders' demise in The FT [irritating registration required]. He focuses more on its core book business, but his analysis applies to the CD department, too:

The forces that crippled it are the same ones that killed Tower Records, with the lag accounted for by the surprising fact that music wound up being easier than literature to digitise to customers’ satisfaction. Borders’ rise was computer-based: it was the first bookstore to carry out the digital revolution in inventorying. It could display more books because its software kept precise track of what was selling and how fast. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Borders’ inventorying turned out to be relatively simple to duplicate. Walmart and Target, not to mention, were soon able to match and beat its prices. Tax policies that favoured virtual enterprises over physical ones hurt, too.

John Lydon didn't like being called a punk




Gordon in the morning: Cardle can't judge

The one thing we can hope about Murdoch adding all of BSkyB to his Xanadu collection is that maybe he'll tell his editors to stop spending so much time promoting ITV, and the X Factor in particular.

In the meanwhile, we're months away from the next series, and yet we get stuff like this from Gordon every day:

X FACTOR winner Matt Cardle said he'd refuse to be a show judge because he's too NICE.
He hasn't been asked to be a judge. Given that his experience is winning a game show, even Cowell might baulk at bringing on a man whose position in the musical pantheon is just below the man who played the drums at the time the woman danced with a man who'd danced with a girl who'd danced with the Prince Of Wales.

So we've got a story in which someone is turning down a job for which he is unqualified and which hasn't been offered.

Is this story even exclusive?
Matt, 27, told ITV1's This Morning yesterday...
It's a non-story that has already been broadcast on television. Smart might as well just print the X Factor logo and invite his readers to nuzzle their faces against it until Autumn.

Friday, March 04, 2011

Maroon 5 cuts out the middle men, gets fans to do their job

Maroon 5 - yes, it turns out they're still going for some reason - are inviting fans to tell them what their music sounds like.

Given the sludge of their records sounds like it's been created by a series of focus groups anyway, it's not entirely clear what difference this might make.

I think we're supposed to assume that up until now, the band's songs have been created by the five members working together; by inviting all their fans to collaborate instead, they're going to see what it's like if fewer people create a track.

The recording session, to be held in London, will be steamed live on the internet and the band will work with fans in real time to create the one-off track.

Fans will appear to the group through a movement based projection system, which will stream their thoughts and comments to the whole studio space rather than the group - Adam Levine, James Valentine, Jesse Carmichael, Michael Madden and Matt Flynn - having to gather around a computer screen.
Yes, this idea is so dull, they're trying to make having a projector sound like it's an exciting development. Jesus, guys, even the monthly East Midlands Region Wagon Wheel Sales Team meeting hooks a laptop to a projector.

The really heartbreaking thing is that isn't even something Maroon 5 are doing because it's a good idea, but are instead doing it because Coke are paying them:
The session takes place in association with Coca Cola, and Joe Belliotti, Director of Global Entertainment Marketing for the company, said: "We are excited to be working with Maroon 5. "They have worked closely with us to help shape the event and ensure the session will be a fun and engaging experience for fans no matter where in the world they are.

"This is the most ambitious and experimental effort in music Coca-Cola has ever undertaken."
Really, Mr Belliotti? Wasn't attempting to build a Coke-branded digital music download store and unseat Apple as the key provider of online music not a little bit more ambitious than putting an internet-enabled PC in a recording studio?

Still, it'll be a lot of fun, I'm sure, and can I just stress that logging in simply to suggest writing a song about how great Pepsi is, or the way trades unionists whose activities were awkward for Coca-Cola had a nasty habit of turning up dead would be a terrible abuse of the generosity of the Coca-Cola company. If that's the sort of thing you're planning, you might want to keep well away from the project's website.

Embed and breakfast man: Lykke Li

Fresh from last night's Jimmy Fallon:

[Buy: Wounded Rhymes]

Gordon in the morning: Man gets slightly older as he gets a bit older

Robbie Williams won't see 35 again. This irrefutable fact doesn't seem to have stopped Gordon Smart being surprised that Williams' hair has started to grey a little and his waistline has started to expand a little.

Thursday, March 03, 2011

Avril Lavigne soaks up life experience

Why hasn't there been an Avril Lavigne record since 2007?









Vo.x denies homophobia - gays are just wrong, they're not afraid of them

Getting on for a year ago now, Armenia-British band Vo.X churned out a pop video which suggested that being gay was a "peversion", on a par with air pollution and, erm, neglecting historical sites, and should be stamped out if Armenia was to be a nice place to live:

They also seem to think they're a Britpop band, but let's let that one go.

It's taken a few months, but Vo.x have come up with a response:

by VO.X

March 2nd, 2011
Yerevan, Armenia

To Whom It May Concern

I hereby state that, based on Biblical principles, I personally hold the belief that Christianity and homosexuality cannot be viewed as reconcilable phenomena (This approach was reflected within the context of my music video "I Love Armenia", which spoke of cherishing Christian values in traditional Christian Armenia).

Nonetheless, by no means does that imply that I have ever intended to promote homophobia or hate towards sexual minorities through my musical career.

According to a commonly known definition (also stated by Wikipedia), "the term 'homophobia' is often used inaccurately to describe any person who objects to homosexual behaviour on either moral, psychological or medical grounds. Technically, however, the term actually denotes a person who has a phobia – or irrational fear – of homosexuality. Principled disagreement, therefore, cannot be labeled 'homophobia'." My case is that of objection on moral grounds. Hence, I cannot be viewed as a homophobe, because, in fact, I am not.

Being a human rights defender by nature and generally a peaceful tolerant person with a pacifist world view, I would never deliberately offend or discriminate any person or a group of people. Nor would I ever cross the boundaries, set by the amount of freedom of speech and expression assigned to me as an individual.

Therefore, if it ever appeared that I was willingly offending a specific category of people through my musical activities, I can sincerely assure the persons concerned that I had never been driven by such a motive.

I sincerely regret that it all led to certain forms of misconception, I regret that people were offended by the above-mentioned video and I truly wish to settle the matter once and for all.

Aram Rian
songwriter, musician
You know that as soon as someone reaches for a dictionary - or Wikipedia - to parse the word "homophobia" to react to such an accusation that they really don't have much a defence. It's a bit like a racist going "how can I be xenophobic? If I was afraid of foreigners, I'd not chase them for a ruck, would I?"

Aram doesn't quite explain why putting a big red cross through gay people's faces isn't hate filled, or that suggesting that Armenia cannot be a happy, shiny place while gays live there isn't calling for discrimination. Perhaps Vo.x are still looking for the Wikipedia page on why being an asshat isn't, strictly speaking, asshattery.

Gordon in the morning: Jessie - an example to all

Jessie J "guest edits" Bizarre this morning. As guest editor, she'll get the respect she deserves, right? Erm...:

IF JESSIE J were a character in The Inbetweeners, she would definitely have featured in Jay's premier league of clunge.
You know, Gordon, even in the context of the sitcom, that was pretty nasty. Using the phrase to introduce a piece in a national newspaper about someone who's sat right next to you is quite something.

J was apparently at stage school with one of the InBetweeners, James Buckley:
"I remember he was really into his music. It was mainly a dance school but he was focusing on drama. I'll have to dig out the pictures of him when he was there."
But you know what? She doesn't have to, as Gordon gets his "team" to mock up what he must have looked like:
Yes. I'd imagine that's exactly what it looked like.

And what of J herself? She wants to be a role model:
"I'm just proud I can be a decent influence on girls.

"As long as I am known for my music first and all the other stuff comes second, I'm cool with it.

"When my arse was on the front page of The Sun this week I knew I had made it."
Yes, having your arse on the front of The Sun both puts your music centre stage and provides a glowing example to young women. Mission accomplished, Miss J.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Record shop update: Birdel's to close

Last time, two years ago, when Joe Long tried to close New York record store Birdels, he wasn't allowed to. His customers made him keep open.

This time, though, he really has closed up for good.

On the down side, the city has lost what sounds like a brilliant music store. On the plus side, it sounds like Joe Long is really planning to enjoy his hard-earned retirement:


[via @PatrickTrojman]

My name is Prince! And I am apparently a bit rubbish at settling my bills!

Prince is being sued by his own lawyers who claim he owes USD700,000 in unpaid legal bills.

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler reckon that he hasn't settled with them for work done representing the Purple One in overseas affairs; he also hasn't paid them for doing his divorce.

If you don't pay your divorce bill, do you get remarried by default? Prince might want to check on that.

Spotify: Now with added Nazis

Unpleasantly lurking in the belly of Spotify is hard-right band Skrewdriver and their Live At Waterloo album.

I'm sure the advertisers who keep Spotify afloat would be thrilled that you might hear their spot after listening to White Power or When The Boat Comes In (Nigger Nigger). How many companies would feel that doesn't hit their brand values spot on, eh?

You might like to suggest to Spotify they drop the race hate.

Get well soon, Poly Styrene

Some bad news via the press team looking after Poly's new album:



Luv Poly X”
Fingers crossed for a full-on cancer-ass-kicking.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Hanging is too good for them

It's understandable that Gennaro Castaldo might be grasping at any straws right now, but even bearing that in mind, his rant calling for people to be thrown off the internet is surprising:

Gennaro Castaldo, HMV's spokesman for the UK and Ireland, believes government legislation must be in place to compel internet service providers to adopt the so-called 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy in order to deter would-be bootleggers.

"It's ironic that the very people who often engage in piracy are those who love the creative industries, be it film or music," he says. "They wouldn't dream about going into a shop and stealing a DVD, but they just don't realise that by downloading a film or TV show illegally they are doing exactly the same thing.

"It's all well and good to educate people about the damage their actions are doing, but maybe the only way to tackle it is to really crack down on illegal downloaders. The problem is people feel they can continue to download because they won't be sanctioned."
Nobody would dream of stealing a DVD from HMV, it's true, as that would mean you'd have to go into a branch of HMV in the first place.

Gennaro: it won't work, it's too expensive and too restrictive. What you're asking for is for the government to make laws compelling the communications industry to try and make up for the entertainment industry's failings. You might as well campaign to insist that newsagents be forced to give you ten pence every time someone whistles while buying tobacco.

Music Week brings news from Canada and Denmark

Music Week reports on a couple of surveys about unlicensed music:

The debate around P2P and its impact on music sales is never short of controversy and now two new studies have been published which reveal the extreme ends of thinking.
Eamonn Forde's piece doesn't quite live up to this eyecatching opening. Not much is "revealed" at all - indeed, one of the surveys is little more than a crunching of other survey findings.

This is done by the Canadian copyright farming industry, which looks at other surveys from between 2005 and 2008, and concludes that people who use peer to peer networks would spend an extra £110 a year on music if p2p didn't exist.

As Forde points out, looking at a survey about the internet in 2008 to draw conclusions about 2011 is flawed from the very start, and even if you can get round that problem, and except their rather elaborate extrapolation, you're still left with the basic problem that this is all "so what?"

If there weren't p2p networks, people would spend £110 more on music. Maybe. If there were no proper shoes, I would wear flipflops. If there wasn't rain, people would spend less on umbrellas. Perhaps the Canadian Intellectual Property Council might like to conduct a survey into what would happen if there were really unicorns?

The second survey is also a bit "so what":
Meanwhile, TorrentFreak is running details of a study into P2P user behaviour and ethical stances by the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit in Denmark. It found that 70% of those polled said that it was “acceptable” to source music illicitly from the web. Three-quarters, however, said they had moral objections to anyone then selling that illegally acquired music for profit.
People who use peer to peer networks don't have a problem using things like peer to peer networks to obtain music without proper licences. Excuse me while I frantically recolour my worldview.

[via @buzzsonic]

Nelly Furtado does the right thing, belatedly



But that was happening in 2007, says Amnesty:




In February 2007, Amnesty warned that:


Shirley Manson: Something new and charitable

Got 79p kicking about that you'd like to swap for something lovely and which will also help stand up to governments who would abuse human rights? Get yourself to the iTunes store and buy The Hunger, lifted from the Prometheus Bound musical and bringing together Shirley Manson and Serj Tankian.

It's all in aid of Amnesty International, so doubly worth investigating.

Gordon in the morning: Rotten tomatoes

As John Lydon grinds through some pantomime fauxpinions on the X Factor.

By accident, Gordon is quite acute in his response:

SEX PISTOLS legend JOHN LYDON's acid tongue is as lethal as ASHLEY COLE armed with a rifle at the Chelsea training ground.
Given that Ashley Cole merely pinged a pellet off an intern, and wasn't ever going to kill anybody at all with his underpowered weapon, Smart is actually spot-on. Lydon is about as lethal as a kid with an airgun. Here, for example, is his "acid" attack on Cheryl Cole:
"There's not much going on in the head, is there?

"Although she does bring men to the TV screen because they're all thinking we'd like a lot more going on in her head. We're just fellas – we live in hope."
Devastating, right?

And on Simon Cowell?
"He's like a pony with blinkers who is slightly embarrassed about his effeminacy.

"I think he's effeminate – any man that wears tight T-shirts and plays with his nipples on TV has got a social dilemma going on.
Really, John? "Has got a social dilemma going on" doesn't actually mean anything, you might as well say "editors please complete this comment".

More disappointing is the way that Lydon thinks that effeminacy - either suspected or genuine - is somehow a bad thing and that accusing a man of being effeminate is a devastating judgement. Disappointing, but even Lydon's hackneyed belief that calling someone a sissy is acceptable fails to surprise these days.

John Lydon is trying to sell his book.

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

HMV warn leaky boat might leak a bit more



The Guardian offer this handy graph of HMV share prices:



[Thanks to Michael M]

Clear Channel grabs thumbs

So, the mysterious "major media company" who is set to snaffle Thumbplay - the unpopular US subscription service - is revealed: All Things D report Clear Channel Radio are paying not very much to acquire the company.

It sounds like they're less interested in the handful of subscribers, and are instead keen to use the Thumbplay technology to drive their radio business.

The good news is all staff will be kept on; existing subscribers will be able to carry on listening in their dozens but, for now, Clear Channel isn't looking to grow their numbers:

[Bob Pittman, chairman of media and entertainment at Clear] says Thumbplay’s technology will be integrated in the coming months into Clear Channel’s “iheartradio” service, which offers 750 free Web radio stations and boasts 25 million monthly uniques. He says all 65 Thumbplay employees working on music services will get jobs at Clear Channel.

Clear Channel will get into subscriptions “eventually”, Pittman says. Clear Channel says existing Thumbplay subscribers won’t notice any change, but that the company will stop marketing for new customers.
Which also suggests the rest of the world won't really notice any change, either.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Quick, someone sign Justin Timberlake up for a movie

Because nobody has asked him to make a movie this summer, Justin Timberlake is threatening to make a record this summer.

"I'm unemployed right now," he admitted. "I haven't been hired for anything so I may hire myself to write some music. ... It's right around the corner."
That's great news. Who couldn't wait to hear an album made because the singer has nothing else to do, eh?

Activistobit: Suze Rotolo

Susan Rotolo, one of Bob Dylan's muses, has died.





Don't call me Dave: Kinks with just one brother?

Ray Davies has suggested that, since Dave Davies thinks that a Kinks reunion would be a night of the living dead, he'll get the gang back together without him:



... but, hey, he won't rule out playing with Dave if they ever get a booking at Unicorn Gardens.

Thumbs down

Another would-be iTunes killer lies twitching in the long grass, as Thumbplay, home of a $9.99 subscription service, sells itself for what PaidContent calls a "very low" price.

Thumbplay had songs from all four majors and a catalogue of ten million tracks; what it didn't have was any traction. No word on who the buyers are, nor their plans for the service.

Oma, granmama

Thanks to @amoammo who - on hearing of the MTV Oma Awards tweets us with this:

hahaha saw your blogpost on those new MTV awards. You know Oma means "nana" in German, right?
I didn't know that, but am delighted to know it now - I love the idea that MTV might have been inspired by those "You're not alone" adverts trying to get older people online and will theme their digital prize giving after those Shreddies adverts...

Gordon in the morning: You must be at least this tall to ride

A day off for N-Dubz:

N-DUBZ must be the only grime stars to head off to a theme park during their time out.
Really, Gordon? Wouldn't going to a theme park be a fairly typical thing for someone of their age to do during time off?

Meanwhile, Project Cardigan is go:
MATT CARDLE's record label are bringing out the big guns for his first album.

Two top songwriters are in the frame to work with the X Factor winner.

BIFF STANNARD, who wrote for the SPICE GIRLS and FIVE, and RYAN TEDDER, who has worked with ADELE and LEONA LEWIS, are being lined up as co-writers.
As big guns go, there aren't quite anti-aircraft guns. Stannard does have some nice writing credits - he co-wrote a couple of tracks on the Little Boots debut - but it's been a while since the Spice Girls highlights; Ryan Tedder did write Bleeding Love, but also filed songs for Shayne Ward and Chris Cornell's solo career. In other words, both men have writer's credits which suggests an ability to deliver by the yard. You can be sure there will be songs; there's a question over how artisan built they might be.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Beth Ditto: Spokesperson for a generation, when she gets her head out the bucket

I've tried reading this from ContactMusic a dozen times, and still can't understand how anyone thinks it is a sequitur:

The Gossip frontwoman admitted while she has grown up in many ways over the past few years, she hasn't become any more respectable.

She said: "I got drunk and simultaneously puked and pissed my own pants recently.

"If anything I have more opinions now because I'm not a kid anymore and I know what I'm talking about. I just think about things a lot more now."
No matter how many your opinions are, nor what quality they might be, if you're sat in a pool of vomit and urine, you might find it difficult to get people to take you seriously, Beth.

Madder Rose weekend: Sleep, Forever


[Buy: Panic On the album]
[Part of Madder Rose weekend]

This week just gone

The most-read articles this month have been:

1. Brits Liveblog
2. Rolling Stone tries to clear up Beiber's 'rape happens for a reason' views
3. R Kelly: the sex video still interests people
4. Arcade Fire? What's that, then?
5. Duffy has had enough
6. McFly remove their pants to try and interest people
7. Tatu fume that people think they're lesbians. I mean, why would people think that?
8. The last Mark and Lard show: Liveblog
9. Billy Corgan claims new bassist is on album sleeve
10. Radcliffe and Maconie move to 6Music

These interesting things got released last week:

Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX - We're New Here

Download We're New Here

The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh

Download Smart Flesh

June Tabor - Ashore

Download Ashore

Frankie & The Heartstrings - Hunger

Download Hunger

The Secret Sisters - The Secret Sisters

Download The Secret Sisters

The Blow Monkeys - Staring At The Sea

Download Staring At The Sea