February 8, 2008

Music News: Winehouse Sings Via Satellite, Neil Young Gives Up, Timbaland’s On the Phone, Beck Admits to Nonsense

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News - Feb 8

  • Amy Winehouse, denied a visa to come to the States for the Grammys on Sunday, will appear on the broadcast via satellite from London. Winehouse actually used the phrase “raring to go” in a statement.

  • Neil Young either got up on the wrong side of the bed, or has given up all hope for the future of mankind. Introducing a film in Berlin on Friday, he told the audience that “the time when music could change the world is past.” Some of us are so cynical we’d make a joke about that time not existing ever, but we got up on the wrong side of the bed, so we don’t really care.

  • Hello, Timbaland calling: the super-producer has announced a deal with Verizon Wireless to create a “mobile album,” available only on the carrier’s service. And you thought mp3s sounded bad! A Verizon spokesman managed to keep a straight face while calling the deal “a marriage of promotional opportunity and a large distribution platform,” but I bet he was doing something funny with his fingers behind his back.

  • Beck has confirmed that some of the lyrics on his seminal 1995 album Odelay were “scratch” lyrics, i.e., nonsense meant as a placeholder during the recording process. “We just grew attached to them,” said the singer. So you’re telling me those years I spent on my dissertation trying to parse “mouthwash jukebox gasoline” were a waste?

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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.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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