If you were intrigued by my review of Redemption Song, the biography of Clash front man Joe Strummer, but weren't sure you could stomach 600 pages about anything, then there may be an easier way to relive some of the punk rock legend's life. Julien Temple, director of Sex Pistols pic The Filth and the Fury, has a new documentary about the life of Joe Strummer, and it's getting pretty good reviews. Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten uses archival footage of Strummer's own voice from his BBC radio show as narration, bringing the singer-songwriter (who died in 2002) eerily back to life. It currently has an 8.2/10 user rating on IMDB, and a 100% "tomatometer" rating at Rotten Tomatoes (that's good).
The film is now playing in Europe and Japan, but has only had a few festival screenings in the U.S.; a limited stateside release is planned for November 2nd. Watch the trailer below.
The leader of a Palestinian terror group has targeted Madonna and Britney Spears for spreading "Satanic culture," and threatened to behead them. Muhammad Abdel-Al, the head of the Popular Resistance Committees, based in the Gaza Strip, made the comments in a new book, Schmoozing With Terrorists, that presents interviews with members of terror organizations. Abdel-Al was quoted as saying:
If I meet these whores I will have the honor—I repeat, I will have the honor—to be the first one to cut the heads off Madonna and Britney Spears if they will keep spreading their Satanic culture against Islam... If these two prostitutes keep doing what they are doing, we of course will punish them.
NME reports the comments come just as Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie are heading to Israel to celebrate the Jewish New Year. Terrorists, they say crazy stuff.
Via Towleroad comes these mocked-up adverts for some unfortunately fake greatest hits collections of the Bush administration (and, in a special guest appearance, John McCain)—although, even more unfortunately, the quotes themselves are all too real. They're all pretty great, but I have to say the glowing disco sunshine of the "Condi" album cover is especially sublime.
Funny how much difference a few days can make, huh? Kanye West is known for his egotistical outbursts and random baloney-spewing, but with his new album getting great reviews and headed for #1, suddenly he's also making a lot more sense. First of all, his statements about the MTV VMAs "scandal" on a Sirius Satelite Radio morning show Tuesday are pretty much right on. Describing Britney Spears' terrible show-opening performance, he blamed MTV, telling Sirius the network was "just trying to get ratings, and they knew she wasn't ready and they exploited her." West wanted to perform "Stronger" as the show opener, but was apparently told to host a "suite party" in a hotel room instead, where his performance of the hit track was under-lighted and attended only by pre-selected industry zombies.
"They exploited her, they played me and I really don't mess with MTV," he said. "So why do you have me do 'Stronger' in a suite, but you end the show with Justin? I looked at 50 like, yo, we need to help each other as much as possible."
Considering the massive sales for "Stronger" over the last few weeks (and now for the full album), it does seem a little cynical of MTV to give the show-opening performance to Britney, while Kanye is so clearly on top, but what else is new?
Well, no matter what you think of the whole debacle, West is making great music, and if you think he's got a bad attitude, check this out: French duo Justice, you'll remember, are supposedly the rapper's arch-rivals after they beat him for "Best Video" at the European VMAs in 2006. This year, in a cute rematch, the animated-T-shirt-featuring video for their track "D.A.N.C.E." was up against West's "Stronger" for "Video of the Year." Rihanna won, so now, everybody's best friends: the director of the video, So Me, was recruited by West to direct his own new video, which turned out so spectacularly you'd forgive a hundred tantrums. The liquid animations help you focus on West's intricate phrasings, and give added "oomph" to the track's already-high spirits. More Franco-American collaborations, please, and you go, Kanye.
After cancelling their upcoming appearance at Austin City Limits , Detroit duo White Stripes have gone one step further and cancelled their entire Fall U.S. tour. Yesterday the band announced they would be pulling out of the Austin City Limits festival this weekend due to a "nervous breakdown" on the part of drummer Meg White; the reason being given for the full tour cancellation is that Meg "is suffering from acute anxiety and is unable to travel at this time." Refunds are available at points of purchase.
All the best to Meg, but I do have to say this clears up a bit of a conflict here in the Bay Area: the Stripes' 9/21 show in Berkeley was to be the same night as the Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem show at the Shoreline in Mountain View, as well as Simian Mobile Disco's local debut, although I'm probably the only one who cares about that last one.
As we reported earlier in the rumor stage of things here on the Riff, seminal British rock band Led Zeppelin will reunite for one show only at the 22,000-capacity O2 Arena in London on November 26th. Jason Bonham, son of original drummer John Bonham, will join the three surviving members of the band for a two-hour set. The show will be part of a tribute to Ahment Ertegun, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, who died last year; other performers include The Who's Pete Townsend, Foreigner's Mick Jones and Paolo Nutini, as well as former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman and possibly current Rolling Stone Mick Jagger.
The chance to buy a pair of £125 ($254) tickets was to be awarded via lottery, but the event's website, Ahmettribute.com, crashed within minutes of its 4pm (UK time) opening, and appears to still be offline. In the meantime enjoy a couple Led Zeppelin mashups.
Perhaps the stress of putting out a new issue is getting to them, but everyone around the Mother Jones offices has been e-mailing each other cheesy corporate theme songs today. You're all kooks! Some of these are more well-known than others, but it seems a shame not to share them with you, dear Riff readers.
First up, the saga of Nixon Peabody. Once there was a law firm who thought celebrating some good press with a specially-commissioned tune was a great idea, and I guess you know the rest:
Style: '80s soul played by a wedding band
Great line: "There's no disputin'/The folks at Fortune Magazine agree!"
Next, feel the power of KPMG. Their theme song, "Vision of Global Strategy" got a blogger in trouble when he linked to it, back in 2001.
Listen here. Style: Japanese ballad
Great line: "We'll be number one, with effort and fun!"
This isn't really a corporate theme song, but I remember it as one of the first "Internet memes," back in the early days of this awesomely entertaining series of tubes. Steve Ballmer of Microsoft was filmed at a developers conference, chanting, well, "developers," over and over, and after it was circulated, people began making their own remixes and mashups. Check out the techno mix:
Style: The Prodigy
Great line: when he says "developers" the 293rd time
Don't forget Price Waterhouse Coopers, who burst onto the corporate theme song scene back in 2001 with their hands-in-the-air anthem, "Your World, Our People."
Listen here Style: What was that Kenny Rogers/Sheena Easton duet?
Great line: "We don't sell no dogma/All we've got is skill"
Finally, of course, late last year, a Bank of America employee was aiming for a raise and put together a little ditty about B of A's merger with MBNA, set to the tune of U2's "One." It's so excruciating, I've never actually sat through the entire thing; if you ever want me to stop being a criminal, clamp my eyes open Clockwork Orange-style and force me to watch this over and over, I'll be a real horrowshow chelovek.
Style: Bono gone bad
Great line: "We've got Bank One on the run/What's in your wallet, it's not Capital One"
Don't forget the level this came to: in November, comedian David Cross covered "One Bank," with Johnny Marr, formerly of the Smiths, before a Modest Mouse show in New York City.
Corporate anthem websites seem to come and go rather quickly as their hosts get hit with ceast-and-desist orders. Hopefully these fine companies have all found their sense of humor by now, ha-ha. Commenters, any other corporate themes out there make you want to abolish capitalism? Or any ideas for a Mother Jones theme song?
Momentum seemed to be building in Kanye's favor over the last few weeks in this, the great hip-hop battle of the millenium, but now we have actual statistics to back it up (albeit a pretty small sample from a completely unknown source). HHNLive.com is reporting today's sales figures at all Best Buy stores in the US show Graduation selling 42,438 copies as of 4pm EST; CURTIS has sold 32,640. Not bad.
iTunes has reflected these numbers as well, with pre-orders for Graduation outselling CURTIS all week. Currently, Graduation is lodged at #1 and #4 (the latter being a deluxe edition) with CURTIS at #5; similarly, on iTunes' singles charts, West's "Stronger" is at #1, with 50 Cent's "AYO Technology" at #5.
I know that release dates don't mean much these days, what with you kids and your intertubes and bittorrents. But today's a big day for new albums, even if we ignore the 50 Cent/Kanye West/Kenny Chesney showcase showdown. Here's some of the CDs or MP3 collections you can now legally acquire in the United States (listed in order of my personal priorities) as well as representative excerpts from a couple reviews.
Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release
"Mercifully brief" - Stylus
"Exciting" - Village Voice
The Go! Team - Proof of Youth
"Brisk" - Billboard
"Brash" - BBC
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
"Utopian" - Pitchfork
"Hallucinatory" - NY Times
Wiley - Playtime is Over
"Thrilling" - BBC
"Intricate" - Pitchfork
Film School - Hideout
"Wonderfully off-kilter" - NME
"Moody" - Spin
Hot Hot Heat - Happiness Ltd
"Soaring" - Canadian Press
"Expansive" - Entertainment Weekly
The White Stripeshave canceled their appearance at Austin City Limits on Friday, citing a "nervous breakdown" on the part of drummer Meg White. Aren't publicists just supposed to call this "exhaustion"?
Rapper Ja Rulereacts to the upcoming congressional hearings on offensive lyrics in hip-hop by encouraging everyone to look at the real problem: gays on MTV. He tells Complex.com "let's talk about all these f***ing shows that they have on MTV that is promoting homosexuality, that my kids can't watch this s***. Dating shows that's showing two guys or two girls in mid afternoon. If that's not f***ing up America, I don't know what is."
Keyboardist Joe Zawinul, who played with Miles Davis and in his own band Weather Report, died today in his hometown of Vienna. Zawinul was voted "best keyboardist" 30 times by Down Beat magazine. He was 75.
Momentum seemed to be building in Kanye's favor over the last few weeks in this, the great hip-hop battle of the millenium, but now we have actual statistics to back it up (albeit a pretty small sample from a completely unknown source). HHNLive.com 
Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release
The Go! Team - Proof of Youth
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Wiley - Playtime is Over
Film School - Hideout
Hot Hot Heat - Happiness Ltd
