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October 31, 2007
Brooding With Beirut
Beirut's newest release, The Flying Club Cup, has been haunting me for more than a week.The album, released by Ba Da Bing Records earlier this month, is sentimental, pretty, melancholy, and eery. And I can't get enough.
The 21-year-old Zach Condon, the brains of Beirut, made the album as an homage to the culture, music, history, and fashion of France, where he moved after spending two years studying Balkan folk music and Eastern European music scales. The album is an indie kid's interpretation/infatuation with nostalgic notions of European sounds and styles; sort of like a hipster marching band parading through the Old World.
October 30, 2007
Clear Channel Bans New Bruce?
Blogs are atwitter with the news that Clear Channel radio, famous for issuing company wide no-play edicts, has apparently issued another. But this time it's against The Boss, and that's even got Fox News upset:
Bruce Springsteen should be very happy. He has the No. 1 album, a possible Grammy for Best Album of the Year for "Magic," an album full of singles and a sold-out concert tour. Alas, there’s a hitch: Radio will not play "Magic." In fact, sources tell me that Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from "Magic." But it’s OK to play old Springsteen tracks such as "Dancing in the Dark," "Born to Run" and "Born in the USA."
While Bruce's left-leaning politics bring up memories of the recent blacklisting of the Dixie Chicks, I'm not entirely sure about this. First of all, "sources" say the memo was sent out to classic rock stations, which by definition are stations that play old music. We don't really have a classic rock station in San Francisco, but a quick look at San Diego's 101 KGB, "The Classic Rock Experience," shows their most played songs are "Ballroom Blitz," "White Room," "Rock & Roll All Night," and "Good Times Roll." Not even the rockingest of current rock jams are breaking through into the classic rock pantheon, to say nothing of stuff that sounds a lot like the Magnetic Fields. Clear Channel are probably reminding programmers that just because a standard classic rock artist has new songs, that doesn't mean they fit on the playlist.
This is of course not to defend radio, which at this point is kind of like a nearly deserted mall in a depressed Midwestern suburb: the last remaining stores are mostly selling trash. However, the Fox News article is mistaken on one point: it says tracks from Magic are "not being played on any radio stations, according to Radio & Records, which monitors such things. Nothing." Not true: in fact, "Radio Nowhere" is down from #2 to #3 this week on the Triple A National Airplay chart at Radio & Records, just behind Snow Patrol and KT Tunstall, and just ahead of Spoon. Triple-A radio's snowy-white "adult" brand usually annoys me, but that's not a bad Top 4, and people worried about Bruce not getting airplay should just change the station.
(Not So) Neato Viddys on the Intertubes
UK electro duo Simian Mobile Disco are pretty darn good, and their now-oldish track "Hustler" is one of the best songs on their new album, Attack Decay Sustain Release. Its dark breakbeat backing is combined with a repetitive, stream-of-consciousness rap about being too broke to buy records and stealing them instead. It already had a pretty good (if eyebrow-raising) video featuring a circle of hipster girls whose game of "secret" turns into a makeout session, but for some reason the band (or their label) decided that wasn't exploitative enough. Now we get a new video featuring dancing models who, er, binge and purge, in Technicolor:
Send-up of cheesecake videos, blistering indictment of the modeling industry, or crap? It brings to mind a couple other electronic artists whose tracks apparently needed attention-grabbing and ultimately exploitative clips: first, The Prodigy's already-controversial "Smack My Bitch Up" featured a typical laddish night out of booze, fighting and sex (along with similar amounts of vomiting), until the perspective switcheroo at the end. (NSFW).
While nobody saw the Shyamalan-style twist coming, it's still dumb, and feels like a tacked-on way to make the other 99% of the video acceptable.
Don't forget the clip for UNKLE's "Rabbit in Your Headlights," a dull ballad with Radiohead's Thom Yorke on vocals. The video uses special effects to create what's basically an ultraviolent snuff film where a mentally disturbed man is repeatedly run over by cars until, again, a kind of surprise ending, I guess:
That one ends up on lots of "best video ever" lists, but it just makes me feel kind of ill. Perhaps the lesson with these clips that it's a slippery slope between ironic, winking exploitation and actual, grody exploitation?
Tuesday Coos, "Music News Day"
October 29, 2007
Top Ten Stuff 'n' Things - 10/29/07
This week, psychedelic space-rock reunions and retro Brazilian romps, plus a soul singer does her best King of Pop impression and a troubled pop princess gets a mashup makeover. Look at all that alliteration, it's like Top Ten tonguetwisters. What?
10. Mary J Blige – "Just Fine" (from Growing Pains out 12/11 on Geffen)
Justin Timberlake's whole career is predicated on a post-Michael Jackson equation, i.e.: people want soulful dance-pop, and they're tired of waiting for Jacko to provide it, so they'll take an imitation. Well, now Blige is stepping up to the MJ plate, aiming right for Off the Wall-era disco-lite. She vamps and struts over a backing track that's uptempo yet delicate, with an acoustic guitar and keyboard filigrees that are oddly reminiscent of Steely Dan's "Peg." Did I mention it's good?
9. Blue States – "Allies" (from First Steps Into… on Memphis Industries)
The UK producer (otherwise known as Andy Dragazis) is known for his Vangelis-style electronic swirls, and this track is appropriately dreamy. The video, on the other hand, is a somewhat disturbing look at how the random little details in our daily lives could bring about drastically different conclusions. Don't drop your keys!!
8. Reminiscing about seeing Daft Punk in concert
…by watching really awesome videos like this one below or a full-length (if pretty shaky) video of their entire set at this weekend's Vegoose festival. Human! Robot! Anyway, if you missed them, sorry.
7. Blonde Redhead – Live at the Warfield, San Francisco, 10/24/07
I'm not sure how Blonde Redhead do it. In order to replicate the full, multi-instrumental sound of their albums, the three-piece must be using some sort of tape in concert. Sounds of pianos and backing vocals show up without physical manifestations thereof, and oddly, it adds to the general otherworldliness of their live experience. The band's newer material is almost "shoegaze"-level fuzzy, but their edgy, unusual songwriting adds a strangely retro feel, as though you're watching an old Italian movie.
6. Black Dice – "Kokomo" (from Load Blown on Paw Tracks)
It's nice to see this freaky Brooklyn combo have calmed down enough that you can actually make out individual notes in their songs, but this isn't going to the top of any hit parades anytime soon. Just sit back and remember your tripped-out college days, when a throbbing bassline and random, surreal images of Froot Loops commercials and freaky patterns would have totally made your Monday.
5. Team9 – "Britney – Dead or Alive?" (Britney Spears vs. Daft Punk vs. Dead or Alive vs. Justice) (download at his website here)
The true measure of a good mashup is if it can take sources you thought you'd heard too much of (or didn't want to hear much more of) and suddenly make them favorites again. There's nothing too surprising about "You Spin Me Round," for instance, but the way this Australian producer weaves these songs around each other is both technically adept and dancefloor-mania-inducing.
4. Various Artists – Basement Bhangra (mix by DJ Rekha)
(Download at The Fader)
Whether you're already a fan of funky Indian hip-hop or just a bhangra newbie, this 20-minute mix is both a solid update and a great introduction. The requisite Punjabi MC is in effect here, there's also relative unknowns like Dhol Foundation, who update the South Asian sound with dancehall grooves.
3. Nelson Angelo e Joyce – "Vivo ou Morto" (from Brazil 70: After Tropicalia – New Directions in Brazilian Music in the 1970s) (Listen at Motel de Moka here, buy from Soul Jazz here)
It's hard to believe that only 40 years ago, Brazil suffered under an oppressive military dictatorship; music was forced to move away from the Tropicalia sound (and used as propaganda by the government as proof, ironically, of Brazil's great freedoms) but still managed to progress in astonishing ways. This track incorporates both echoes of Tropicalia and an airy psychedelia, managing to sound both oddly familiar and mind-bendingly exotic.
2. A Place to Bury Strangers – "To Fix the Gash In Your Head" (from the self-titled album on Killer Pimp) (listen at their MySpace)
After I saw My Bloody Valentine live (at First Avenue in Minneapolis back in 1992) my ears rang for three days, but whatever permanent hearing loss I've experienced as a result was totally worth it: it was a majestic, awe-inspiring show. Brooklyn's Strangers take the deafening side of MBV as a launching point, mixing in a little Joy Division and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club for a sound that's both hypnotic and, probably, painful.
1. The Verve – "The Thaw Session" (download here or search around)
You know the story by now: space rock band has massive international hit which, due to an uncleared sample, they make not a penny off of, and then break up. Is there hope for these bittersweet eccentrics? Well, if this improvisational, 14-minute jam from their very first recording session together is any indication, the answer is "hell yes." It was offered as a free download last week on NME but it's gone now, so you have to do some internet spelunking, but it's worth it.
NY Times: Rockers Celebrate Brand Awareness
Here on the Riff, we've covered the thorny issue of putting your music in commercials (with commenters coming down pretty evenly split, if I'm reading their incoherent ramblings correctly), but today's Times goes straight for the top: Duff McKagan, formerly of Guns N' Roses, currently of Velvet Revolver, and business school graduate. The Times kind of rubs in that the dude is 43:
Like other rockers easing into middle age or seniorhood, Mr. McKagan is also experimenting with new partnerships in response to a music business in flux. Amid plunging record sales and Internet file sharing, rockers are eagerly plastering their names everywhere. Their “brands” are now found in television commercials, tour sponsorships, and merchandise as diverse as cars, private-label wines and celebrity cruises.
"Seniorhood"? Ouch. The article brings up more aging rockers who have left their youthful anti-commercial ideals behind: The Stones (Budweiser!), Paul McCartney (Starbucks!), Sting (Jaguar!). Why is everybody shilling for The Man? Because nobody's buying records:
All of this has been set in motion by a well-known reality: record sales “fell off a cliff,” says Jonathan Daniel, a former musician and now a partner at Crush, a management company that represents such bands as Panic! at The Disco and Fall Out Boy. Shipments of CDs were $9.16 billion in 2006, down 31 percent from their peak of $13.21 billion in 2000, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
Panic! at the Disco and Fall Out Boy: the Beatles and Stones of our generation.
It's nice to see, then, that a few rock stars are drawing the line, er, somewhere: Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails won't even make ringtones, Bruce Springsteen says he doesn't "rent his name or stage out," and Nicki Sixx of Mötley Crüe refused to license baby bottles, saying "I think you can go too far."
The article, somewhat randomly, brings up Madonna's ground-breaking deal with Live Nation; apparently even pursuing alternate modes of distributing your albums is part of the "selling out" paradigm these days. Well in that case, everyone's a sell-out if you do any, um, selling.
While it's both interesting and kind of depressing to see the diversity of responses to the current music industry's complexities, the article does reassure us that there are certain places even the most publicity-starved corporation won't go: "Good managers will not work with a band or an artist that doesn’t have their head screwed on straight," says a law firm guy, "there’s too much money involved. They’ll reject them — no matter how talented they are." It's nice to know there will always be artists too fucked up to sell out.
Country Legend Porter Wagoner Dies at 80
Country music legend Porter Wagoner died yesterday in Nashville after a brief battle with lung cancer. While his string of hits in the '60s might not be immediately familiar to contemporary audiences, Wagoner's trademark flashy rhinestone suits made him a symbolic country music figure, and his hand in launching Dolly Parton's career proved his own eye for talent.
Wagoner signed to RCA in 1955 and had a syndicated TV show in the '60s and '70s. He hired a 21-year-old Parton as a duet partner in 1967, and the two won the Country Music Association's "Duo of the Year" award in 1970 and 1971. Wagoner's career petered out in the '80s, and he only returned to the studio this year, recording an album for alternative Los Angeles label Anti-. His last show was this summer where he opened for the White Stripes at Madison Square Garden.
MP3: Porter Wagoner – "Committed to Parkview" (from Wagonmaster, 2007)
More Halloween Fun: Flaming Lips Host Flaming Skeleton Parade
I guess the joke would be, "Do you realize/that you have the most beautiful skull?" Or maybe not. The legendary Oklahoman psychedelic-rock combo played host to the "Ghouls Gone Wild" Halloween parade in Oklahoma City over the weekend, managing to recruit 1,000 fans to dress up in spooky skeleton costumes and carry flaming torches in what the band's recruitment e-mail referred to as "a spectacle celebrating the mysterious, the supernatural, and the otherworldly." Kind of like Zaireeka?
The parade, sponsored by the Oklahoma Gazette with the stated purpose of "celebrating creativity and artistry in Oklahoma City," kicked off at 7pm on Saturday night, but not without a bit of a hitch: the specially-designed skull masks the band had ordered for marchers were deemed too vision-impairing to be worn by people carrying, say, flaming torches. "We do not want anyone catching on fire," Lips frontman Wayne Coyne reassured parade-goers in a speech before the parade.
I'd just like to point out that if this parade had happened here in San Francisco, you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between the costumed participants and the homeless lining the streets, there would have been a fight between anti-war protesters and 9/11 conspiracy theorists, and like seven people would have been shot.
October 26, 2007
First Listen: Jay-Z – American Gangster
Proving once again that retiring is the best way to drum up interest in your work, America's Richest Rapper (TM) returns with another surprisingly interesting album. Okay, sorry, maybe it shouldn't be surprising, everything Jay-Z's done is basically stellar, except for last year's lazy, aimless Kingdom Come. For American Gangster, though, Jay-Z has some inspiration: the upcoming Denzel Washington vehicle of the same name. Now, this isn't the soundtrack, but Jay-Z says each track on the album was inspired by a specific scene in the film, which he then reinterpreted through an autobiographical prism, focusing on growing up in the projects in Brooklyn. Understandably, this is emotional territory. Check out the Marvin Gaye sample in "American Dreamin'": "Oh no/I never give up," he sings, in a loop from 1976's "Soon I'll Be Loving You Again" that sounds more like a plaintive cry against greater and greater odds as the song goes on.
But don't worry, the album isn't all tearjerkers; the very next track, "Hello Brooklyn," with the ubiquitous Lil Wayne on guest vocals, is all thudding bass and handclaps, with Jay-Z telling the borough "I ain't mad at you." While Diddy and the Neptunes take production credit on much of the album, "Fallin'," a highlight featuring dramatic strings and a Motown-style chorus, was produced by Southerner Jermaine Dupri. On it, Jay-Z's lyrics come fast and furious, with complicated, tongue-twisting internal rhymes, and a final denouement: "Fightin', you'll never survive/Runnin', you'll never escape/So just fall from grace."
The title track is listed as a "bonus track" on Wikipedia; I'm not sure what that means, since the song is awesome. A funky, horn-filled sample gives it a kind of '70s vibe, with appropriately snazzy metaphors: "The way I shine, it's like a zillion-dollar light bill." Jay-Z has been known for pushing the sample envelope, but on Gangster he sticks to classic soul, creatively cut up, and it gives the album a driving, urgent focus. Are we talking another Blueprint, or even Black Album? Well, probably not, but it's another fascinating chapter in the Jay-Z saga.
American Gangster is out November 8th on Roc-A-Fella, but it's leaking over here at mylifemyhiphop. Get it!
Let's Get Scared with Spooky Halloween Mashups
Hey, look at that, Halloween is next week, and your best chance for spooky revelry is probably this weekend. Is it just me or did that kind of sneak up on us? I haven't even decided whether I should be Wolverine again. I haven't been growing my muttonchops so it's probably moot. Anyway, some of my cohorts in the pointless world of putting songs with other songs have produced a whole compilation's worth of Halloween-themed mashups, perfect for your costume party or, uh, erotic ball. Called Mashing Pumpkins (and not to be confused with the Irish tribute band), the album had to endure some unexpected popularity after getting mentioned on Boing Boing, and their original website crashed or got overwhelmed or just shut down by unsympathetic web service providers. Now that's scary. But both Boing Boing and Mashup Town rushed to the rescue, archiving the tracks and offering them for free download; the latter even has the super scary artwork.
Party Ben recommends:
Track 5 – "I Want My Mummy"
A cheeky upbeat combo of The Who, Steve Martin, and some mummy-oriented clips from LA's Mr. Fab.
Track 6 – "Snap Yo Specials"
While the Specials' "Ghost Town" seems only tangentially Halloween-related, Lil' Jon's growly raps flow perfectly over the top.
Track 10 – "Bad Moon Werewolves"
You can't go wrong with "Werewolves of London," and the fact that the UK's Cheekyboy got "Bad Moon Rising" to fit over the top is nothing short of miraculous.
So is it time for the Christmas-themed mashup albums yet?
Friday? Drop By for Music News Day
October 25, 2007
Vanity Fair's Top Movie Soundtracks of All Time Kind of Boring
The esteemed Vanity Fair has put together a list of the 50 greatest movie soundtracks ever, set to be announced in their next issue. The top ten has been revealed early to drum up some publicity, and I'm falling right into their trap—I can't help it, I love lists! Here's what they said:
10. The Big Chill
9. American Graffiti
8. Saturday Night Fever
7. Trainspotting
6. Superfly
5. The Graduate
4. Pulp Fiction
3. The Harder They Come
2. A Hard Day's Night
1. Purple Rain
Wait, are these just the top ten selling movie soundtracks of all time? I mean, they're all fine, and achievements in one way or another, but what about great, ground-breaking soundtracks that didn't exactly go platinum? Here's a couple ideas:
La Planete Sauvage ("Fantastic Planet") (1973)
So it's way in the future and humans are kept as pets on some planet by giant blue people, in a kind of inverse-Smurfs, complete with mind-bendingly surreal animation and political metaphor. I don't think it played the multiplex. Anyway, the soundtrack is appropriately futuristic, or at least what "futuristic" meant in 1973: Shaft meets, uh, Pink Floyd? You can watch a lot of it on YouTube, here’s Part 1:
Liquid Sky (1982)
I promise not all my choices are freakish, cult sci-fi flicks. Sure, this one qualifies, but it's completely different from Planet: a glammy tale of new wave New Yorkers whose brains are taken over by miniature aliens who feed off the endorphins you release when you do, say, heroin. Just a feel-good hit of the summer. The soundtrack was one of the first to use the new Fairlight CMI sampler, and takes the angular synth-pop sound of the early '80s to a whole new level. Here's a trailer that should give you the idea:
Krush Groove (1985)
Remember, we're talking soundtracks here, not the films themselves, but ignore the silly Def Jam fluff job and just look at the artists on the LP: LL Cool J, Chaka Khan, Debbie Harry, Beastie Boys, Gap Band! And remember there was even better stuff in the actual movie that they couldn't put on the album. I guess that shouldn't count, but even so: "I Can't Live Without My Radio"!!
Do the Right Thing (1989)
It's pretty sad that 18 years on from this explosive movie, racial politics are still a powder keg (see MoJoBlog's coverage of a noose recently placed on a Tupac statue). Actually, is it just me, or did things seem somehow a little more optimistic back in '89? I dunno. Anyway, this soundtrack is a mixed bag (Al Jarreau?) but the presence of Public Enemy's towering "Fight the Power" redeems any missteps. That song's basis in a James Brown riff is distorted and layered with an atonal soundscape of samples and abrasive noises, a cacophonous anthem that was revolutionary in both the political and artistic senses.
Dead Man (1995)
This oddball Jim Jarmusch pseudo-Western was one of the great overlooked movies of the 90s, a surreal, hilarious, and strangely affecting tale of… well, accepting your fate, or something? And who better to provide the music for such a quirkily (and quintessentially) American film than Neil Young, who performs an entirely instrumental (and mostly improvised) set that provides an emotional foundation for the film's wanderings. You can hear echoes of Young's earlier tunes here, notes reminiscent of "Old Man" or "Needle and the Damage Done;" it's almost like a distillation of his whole career into a potent elixir of pure melody.
Any other overlooked soundtracks in your collections, Riffers?
October 24, 2007
Bruce Springsteen Edges Out Kid Rock for #1 Spot; a Relieved Nation Weeps With Gratitude
He couldn't stop George W. Bush, but at least this is something. Billboard magazine is reporting that The Boss' new album Magic just barely beat Kid Rock's Rock N Roll Jesus for the #1 spot this week, with only a few hundred copies separating the two titles. Both albums debuted at #1 (Rock last week and Bruce two weeks ago) and their sales figures fell significantly from previous weeks, with both albums selling just over 77,000 copies, but a few more good Samaritans making sure that Kid Rock's reign was short.
While I haven't heard Kid Rock's whole album, and Kelefa Sanneh of the New York Times kind of liked his show (huh?!), the first single, "So Hott," is probably the most-mocked song of the year amongst people I know, its lyrics ("I don't wanna be your friend/I wanna fuck you like I'm never gonna see you again") so profoundly stupid they almost read as parody. Although, come to think of it, doesn't Thom Yorke sing the first line of that, er, couplet, in "House of Cards" on the new album? Is Kid Rock the American Radiohead?
Back to the charts: in another sign of declining music sales, Jimmy Eat World's latest long-player, Chase This Light, debuted at #5, one notch higher than the 2004 debut of Futures. However, the new CD actually sold only 62,000 copies, less than two-thirds of the 99,000 first-week figure for Futures. And that's without OiNK!
Neato Viddys on the Intertubes: Portishead
Yesterday, news emerged that legendary (and legendarily unreliable) Bristol combo Portishead were "one day" from finishing their long-awaited third album. Could it be true? With the 'head, one hesitates to get one's hopes up, but just in case, perhaps this is a good time to familiarize ourselves with the band's previous work, or remind you why you care.
While Portishead share a hometown with other so-called "trip-hop" artists Tricky and Massive Attack, their music has always been less "trippy" and technological than jazzy and, well, bleak. In a typically artsy move, the band's first release was actually a short film, "To Kill a Dead Man," a work that makes explicit the band's fascination with the dark world of spies and assasins, accompanied by a soundtrack that's both experimental and oddly retro.
Portishead – "To Kill a Dead Man" (1994)
The band's first album, Dummy, spawned an unlikely mini-hit: "Sour Times," a song whose lack of appearance in a James Bond film is downright criminal, although the dulcimer sound is, tellingly, sampled from the Mission: Impossible TV series.
Portishead – "Sour Times" (from Dummy, 1994)
Tellingly, "Sour Times" couldn't even break the U.K. Top 40 until its second release: the band were too weird even for England. It took "Glory Box" to pave the way, a chilly number that echoed the cabaret era, but its mellow hip-hop beat and vinyl scratching at least gave listeners a contemporary entry point.
Portishead – "Glory Box" (live on "Nulle Part Ailleurs," 1994)
As you can tell from that video, the band were unique among their contemporaries in the fact that they were even better live than on record. Their musicianship bordered on the obsessive: the band once described in an interview that the vinyl records the DJ was scratching with were in fact melodies composed by the band which they recorded, pressed to acetates, and then used in the performances. Psycho.
Their self-titled 1997 album both intensified and expanded upon the band's sound, somehow becoming even more harrowing and hypnotic. Check out the Chris Cunningham-directed video for "Only You," whose eye-popping effects were filmed underwater:
Portishead – "Only You" (from Portishead, 1997)
Eek. After another tour, excitement about the band's live performances reached a fever pitch, culminating in the release of a live album, Roseland NYC, recorded mostly in New York, although "Sour Times" was recorded at the Warfield here in San Francisco, and if you listen closely, you can hear my jaw scraping the floor. There's no video of that performance that I could find, but the Roseland show was put out on DVD, and the footage is awe-inspiring, showcasing the talents of each band member, with the frail-looking Beth Gibbons standing in the center, isolated.
Portishead – "Strangers" (from Roseland NYC, 1998)
After ten years, it's hard to say what the band might have in store for us now, but no matter what, they can have my $10. And if you get wind of a tour, buy tickets even if you have to cancel a wedding or open-heart surgery.
Senate Investigates Lack of Radio Love for Arcade Fire (Really!)
With the FCC poised to relax media ownership rules again in December, the U.S. Senate is starting to get the message from constituents that maybe it's not such a great idea. During hearings today, Merge records founder and Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan testified about the sad state of radio:
The deregulation that followed the 1996 Telecommunications Act allowed for unprecedented consolidation in commercial radio, which has resulted in a homogeneity that is often out-of-step with artists, entrepreneurs, media professionals and educators—not to mention listeners.
Of course, he couldn't resist getting in a couple plugs for Merge artists Arcade Fire and Spoon:
In 2007, two of the albums we released–by the bands Arcade Fire and Spoon–both debuted in the Billboard Top Ten. They appeared on Saturday Night Live. The mainstream print media has written extensively about them, and both bands tour the world, playing highly successful, sold out concerts. Yet both of these bands have been virtually absent from the commercial airwaves.
Well how do you think they got in the Top Ten? Mac was out there promoting to their target demographics: our nation's elected officials. Actually, he's not being entirely honest: Arcade Fire has received significant radio support, even from giant mainstream juggernauts like LA's KROQ (see "Wake Up" at #37 on their 2005 year-end countdown... right above Foo Fighters). But Arcade Fire are the exception that proves the rule.
Back in 1996, the Telecommunications Act did have an effect on radio, and I saw it from the inside: San Francisco's LIVE 105 (my former employer) used to be owned by a small Seattle broadcasting company, and its playlist reflected that independence; but then it was bought by Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS) in 1997, something that would not have been possible before the Act. Within about a year, the station had been consolidated with (former competitor) KOME/San Jose, losing our local morning show, much of the playlist's independence, and eventually, listeners.
Like global warming's relationship to hurricanes, media ownership rules are only part of a chaos theory of quality radio, and clearly there are exceptions: LIVE 105 itself attempted to recapture some of its progressive glory days between 2002 and 2006, and there are many commercial stations, some even owned by large companies, that do a good job. But at this point, even Republicans are starting to see how relaxed ownership rules put a chill on independent content: Trent Lott (R-Miss.) joined with Byron Dorgan (D-ND) today to introduce a bill that would block the FCC from easing the restrictions. But with satellite, non-commercial and good old intertube radio gaining listeners, one wonders if it isn't already too little too late for the 92-plus region of your FM dial.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World
At the risk of becoming a dreaded aggregator, here are a few choice tidbits I couldn't help shaking my head at:
Belgian cops being politely asked to stop hitting the bars and brothels while on duty.
Technology's response to gropers gone wild on Tokyo's subways.
And, my fave: these lucky bastards dancing women around the world vs. this doomed one who found a huge, honking diamond while with his fiance and actually believes it's going in his collection since she already has one. Smart money says she'll either be wearing it by Thanksgiving or dis-engaged.
October 23, 2007
Tuesday? Ensues Music News Day
CDs Out Today and a Word From Critics
Coheed and Cambria
No World For Tomorrow (Sony)
Rolling Stone: "Impressive" (3.5/5 stars)
Blender: "Blazing" (3.5/5 stars)
Dave Gahan
Hourglass (Mute)
The Guardian: "Magnificence" (4/5 stars)
Rolling Stone: "Depeche-sounding" (3/5 stars)
Carrie Underwood
Carnival Ride (Arista)
Slant: "Cliché-addled" (2/5 stars)
NY Times: "Clever" (no grade)
Serj Tankian
Elect the Dead (Reprise)
Billboard: "Arty" (no grade)
AllMusic Guide: "Ambitious" (4/5 stars)
Nawt from Dawt
Slate's Patrick Radden Keefe links to a post reminding us that, no matter how good Ben Affleck's new movie Gone Baby Gone may be, the man is simply Nawt from Dawt. Keefe's rev