January 8, 2008

Tuesday’s Bemusing Music News Day

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News

  • The Kinks’ Dave Davies is denying rumors that the band may reunite; his brother and ex-bandmate Ray had told the press that the band members were considering “getting back together.” Dave told NME that he and Ray “haven’t even spoken in over 6 months… a tour hasn’t even been discussed.” Dave suffered a stroke four years ago but has continued a solo career.

  • Rappers Lupe Fiasco and Rhymefest are exchanging a war of words over support for Barack Obama, and of course it’s all on their MySpace blogs. Fiasco told hip-hop news site SOHH.com that Obama “doesn’t impress me” because of “his agendas the bombing of Iran and all that stuff.” When confronted by Fest, Fiasco expressed cynicism about the democratic process: “I have no faith in it.”

  • The former Jamaica Broadcasting Corp seems to have lost a “massive collection” of 1970s music, including original recordings by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh as well as videos of historic concerts and events. The archive was apparently stolen, with a former program manager for the JBC calling the theft a “national disgrace.”

  • Eminem was in the hospital over the holidays due to complications from pneumonia. Huh?
    •

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    THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

    At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

    It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

    But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

    So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

    The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

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