Slip-knot our fault

It's grimly amusing the way that bands who base their image on murder and death and fear and misery suddenly start backtracking when they suddenly get linked to actual murder and death. It happened with Marilyn Manson over Columbine; now, Slipknot are desperately trying to disassociate themselves from a murder in South Africa where the lad who stabbed four people with a sword while wearing a "Slipknot" mask:

Yesterday, a representative of the label representing Slipknot told The Times the band had no comment.

Declining to provide her name, the woman at Roadrunner Records said: “We’ve had no confirmation that it was, in fact, a Slipknot mask. The band is not going to respond.”

It's odd that they have so much to say about mayhem normally, but come over queasy when it's suddenly all real.

It's too simplistic to 'blame' music for people's behaviour, but if you don't want to find yourself being asked awkward questions about stabbings, perhaps you shouldn't dress up a serial killers and throw entrails about in the first place? If you're serious about shining a light into the darkest areas of the human psyche, why do you squeal and go into hiding when it gets reflected back?

Roadrunner caught by wily Cohen

The deal was announced over Christmas, but it's finally been completed: Roadrunner has been sucked into Warner Music Group.

Lyor Cohen trumpeted his delight:

"Very rarely do you find a record company with such a longstanding reputation and distinct viewpoint that its very name rises to the level of true brand. Roadrunner, from its strong artist roster to its deep catalog and first-rate creative team, embodies the hard Rock aesthetic to its core. Cees [Wessels] and I shared great success when we brought Roadrunner into the IDJ family in 2001, so naturally I'm thrilled today to welcome Cees and his team to Warner Music Group. We look forward to building upon Roadrunner's 25 years of success together."

Island DefJam had been distributing RoadRunner for the last five years.