Embed and breakfast man: Help Stamp Out Loneliness

A smattering of Manchester indie-loveliness from Help Stamp Out Loneliness, which you could file under 'twee' or 'C-86' if you want. For us, though, we're stapling them firmly onto the 'sounds a bit like The Would-Bes' card we keep in our musical filing system.

It's nothing to do with this, by the way:



This is what it's about, Record Shop, live from the Buffalo Bar:



That's a little distorted in sound, but you get the idea.

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HSOL covering Bruce Springsteen
The Torvill and Dean single seems to have been sold out

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Help Stamp Out Loneliness at Indietracks

Beatles online: For now

The entire Beatles back catalogue has appeared online in a proper download shop. Bluebeat are knocking the lot out for 25 cents a go.

Bluebeat. You surely have heard of them?

Wired is surprised, too:

The idea that the various stakeholders involved with the Beatles would license an unheard-of music store to sell the band’s music at such a steep discount seems highly unlikely. After being tipped off by MusicAlly (subscription required), we’re looking into this. So far, neither BlueBeat, BlueBeat’s “partner” BaseBeat or Media Rights Technologies, which actually owns both BlueBeat and BaseBeat, has responded. The company is located in Santa Cruz, California.

A spokeswoman for the Beatles’ label, Apple Corp, Ltd., told Wired.com she doesn’t think BlueBeat has any sort of permission to be doing this. EMI, which with Apple Corp distributes the band’s music, has yet to respond but we don’t imagine they’ll be too pleased about this either.

They're still there at the moment.

Could it be that there's soon to be a legitimate appearance of Beatles stuff across digital stores, and BlueBeat are already prepping a "oh, sorry, we stuck it all live far too soon" press release as the pay-off? Or has BlueBeat taken a stupidly audacious step to promote itself, figuring it can pay off Apple, say sorry, and enjoy the traffic surge?

We are all of us in the gutter, but some are pretending to be seeing stars

They're taking We Will Rock You on a tour round the country - I think the phrase is "sharing the pain" - and they're planning to make a bit of a fuss in Edinburgh:

Queen stars Brian May and Roger Taylor have revealed they will join the star-studded cast of the smash hit musical based on the band for the opening night at the Playhouse next Wednesday.

Didn't ask Paul Rogers, then?

Still, a star-studded cast. That's exciting. Who have you got studding the cast with these stars?

The announcement is a huge boost for the thousands of fans who have already snapped up some of the tickets for We Will Rock You, expecting to see the likes of Darren Day and Coronation Street actor Kevin Kennedy sing Queen classics.

Is that a star-studded cast or not? Because the phrase "it's a huge boost" implies that, without the presence of May and Taylor, it'd be a bit of a let-down. "Cheer up, there's two of the people who actually got in the way of Freddie Mercury going to be on stage."

May said: "We are completely hands-on, and we will be visiting.

"People definitely come out of the theatre feeling that in a strange way they now know us, Queen, and our struggle, our journey."

They come away understanding your journey? But this is the plot of the play:

We Will Rock You' is a futuristic tale which tells of a massive corporation - Globalsoft - which sends computer generated music to all of the people on the planet. Singing, musical instruments, and any expression of creativity, are banned. But Lost Texts are known to exist which talk of music from years gone by. A group of rebels (the Bohemians) strive to discover the lost music, and bring down the corporation. The two heroes, Galileo and Scaramouche, discover musical instruments buried in rock, which they use to vaporise the head of the corporation (The Killer Queen), and send the Power Of Rock around the world to free the masses, thus enabling the masses to be musically creative once again.

You do know that isn't something which happened to you, don't you, Brian? If people are coming out of the theatre going 'thank god Scaramouche out of Queen found those hidden guitars', not only have they not understood your journey, but they've confused made-up bobbins with real life.

Downloadable: Annie

Annie knocked out a new album a couple of weeks back - Don't Stop [also available in digital form].

If you haven't yet decided if you need her confident ice in a second serving, perhaps you should try the free download of I Don't Like Your Band. That'll make your mind up. [Spolier: You do need the whole thing.]

Downloadable: Yeasayer

More free aural goodness: Yeasayer are sharing Ambling Alp. This widget might even work, too:

Downloadable: Brett Anderson

The lovely people at We7 have teamed up with Brett Anderson to offer a limited-time eight track Anderson mp3 compilation. For free.

Gordon in the morning: Happy Halloween, ladies

Don't ask. Just don't ask.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet - Cory Doctrow

Cory Doctrow takes to The Times to patiently explain to Peter Mandelson why it won't work:

Fifteen years of draconian copyright regimes show that when you create powerful enforcement tools without any consequence for misuse, they get misused. And half a century’s worth of evidence on digital technology shows that no amount of enforcement will make computers and the internet worse at copying. Hard drives won’t get magically bulkier and more expensive. Networks won’t get less accessible, slower and harder to use. General technological literacy won’t decline. If you want copying to stop, physics is not on your side.

Iommi tries to save his hands

Tomy Iommi has, effectively, buggered his hands with years of heavy-riffing, and now he's turned to stem cells to see if he can reverse the problem:

“I’ve had this problem with my hand and I’ve had this stem-cell treatment on it,” Iommi told the BBC Radio 2 Radcliffe and Maconie Show. “The cartilage [was worn out between] the joints, and the joints [were] rubbing on the joints. It was bone to bone and it was getting a bit painful.”

It turns out that there's a load of injuries guitarists get:

The Robens Centre for Health Ergonomics at the University of Surrey has researched musculoskeletal disorders that affect electric guitar players.

Peter Buckle said: “We have found a whole set of injuries affecting the hand, arms and wrist which you would normally associate with working on a hard, fast production line.

“Strain injuries result from overexertion and the way that guitarists hold their instruments. The temptation for younger musicians is to press too hard on the strings and try to force the frets.

“Holding the instrument away from the body to excite an audience may look good but it can put a huge pressure on the shoulder and upper arms.”

And that's before you factor in the splinters from all that guitar-smashing.

Our musicians end up with bad backs, blown ears, useless hands and - well, god alone knows what's happened to Ozzy, but that. Perhaps the money from downloads should be going direct to special hospitals rather than to fund their swimming pools?

Tribute to Swells

Roger Sargent has made this rather wonderful tribute to Steven Wells:

Steven Wells Tribute Film from Roger Sargent on Vimeo.

[Via NME Video blog]

Radio figures

A couple of things from yesterday's RAJAR figures - first, Smash Hits and The Hits, for long the leading light of commercial national DAB stations, seem to be imploding. Can't help that the magazine title and the TV station the brands are based on are both now defunct.

Second, NME Radio has picked up 3,000 new listeners (or "a margin of error" as statisticians call it) to arrive at 218,000. It's hard to imagine that those are the figures they were hoping for at launch - even in a good advertising environment, you'd be struggling. You wonder if maybe the audience is being held back by a too-mainstream programming policy? The competition is surely Last FM and Spotify, so why battle Absolute Xtreme and XFM?

Downladable: Air France v Saint Etienne

I dare say you'll already know this, but The Line Of Best Fit is currently uploading for the downloadings an Air France reworking of Saint Etienne's Spring.

Oh... it's only going to be there for 48 hours. Quick!

Feargal Sharkey helps the gamers

If I were the games industry and keen for ideas how to protect myself in the face of digital rights meltdowns, I'm not sure I'd turn to the music industry for tips.

They have, though, getting Feargal Sharkey in for his ideas. (The Independent piece is a bit vague about who, exactly, it is who asked him.)

Sharkey takes pride in what he has done, mind:

"We still haven't cracked the problem," he said. "Then again, we're six years ahead of, say, the games industry."

Bloody hell, if the games industry is six years behind the music industry, what must their approach to piracy be like? Putting labels on boxes claiming "drawing your own Battleships board is killing games"? Sending previews of Sonic around on consoles glued up so you can't take it out?

It's important, though:

"The UK entertainment industry is worth £16bn and so it needs to be protected."

Given that the industry is worth £16billion after ten years of file sharing, you might argue that it looks like it doesn't really need very much in the way of extra protection. Indeed, that it's thriving.

Feargal then starts to go a little... well, odd:

"So what we all have to do is ensure that we find out where people get their games, music and films from and ensure that artists and publishers get money from that."

This seems to be a slightly different line from the one we've previously heard from UK Music, which has been 'find out where people are getting things, close it down, and make sure they return to us.'

"The likes of iTunes is great but it's not the sole outlet - games also has multiple outlets. We need to identify them all and, when it comes to those who steadfastly refuse to pay, hit them hard."

Fry and Laurie once had a sketch which suggested the SAS existed mainly as a masturbatory aid for Tory backbenchers; I'm starting to think three strikes might serve a similar function for UK Music.

Punkobit: Chuck Biscuits

Charles Montgomery - better known as Chuck Biscuits - has died.

His drumming in DOA helped create the sub genre Hardcore. His energetic battering of drums took him through a number of Vancouver bands before he moved to California. Arriving in 1982, he started a five-month spell with Black Flag before moving through another large number of stools - Circle Jerks and Weirdos included - and, eventually, joining up with Glenn Danzig. Biscuits drummed with Danzig for four albums, until arguments over money led him to quit.

Charlie would then drift through some more acts - Run DMC calling when they decided they needed a human dynamo in place of a human beat box - before winding up in Social Distortion. He joined up with them shortly before the release of White Light, White Heat, White Trash; he left at the end of the last century.

His family announced his death in a short statement:

“In response to the inquires, thank you for all the support. Chuck did not survive his battle with throat cancer. He passed surrounded by his family on 10/24/09."

Chuck Biscuits was 44.

UPDATE: Chuck Biscuits is still 44, and he's not dead. Turns out this was all a Whigfield, as Brooklyn Vegan explains:

Though I didn't completely realize it at the time of my own hasty posting, James's Chuck Biscuits obituary was THE source of it all. Before I re-posted his words I had read about Chuck's death - in addition to at the sources mentioned above, in the BrooklynVegan comments, and was told about it via an IM, and saw that someone had updated Wikipedia with his death info (reliable, I know), and noticed via Google that Punk News had even put a "-2009" after his name and date of birth.

Apparently, the original post from James Greene Jr was made in good faith - he's been the subject of a long, elaborate and cruel practical joke.

Has anyone ever lied to you for six months about being a terminally ill hero of your musical youth? It's fucking weird. You think I wasn't devastated when I read the e-mail the other day that announced his "death?" That's why I wrote this blog in the first place. I wanted to give CB the obit I knew he deserved. I knew there'd be source questions, but what was I supposed to do, e-mail his "wife" back and be like, "Hey, can you send me pics of the body?" I had no suspicions. I thought I had this shit on lock down. Who would lie to a NOBODY blogger about this kind of thing for so long?

It's easy to attack me in hindsight, but again - this had been going on since May. Who the fuck lies about being a dying Chuck Biscuits for half a year? Are my friends/enemies smart enough to hack enough related e-mail accounts to perpetrate something like this? I just want to know how it happened.

The XX splinter

Let's hope it's not over before it's really begun: The XX have pulled a series of European dates because Baria Quereshi stepped down yesterday with exhaustion.

They played London without her, but they're not sure what the future holds:

Sim added that the band will be discussing their future this weekend after Quereshi's temporary break and nothing is set in stone. "Baria didn't perform last night after feeling exhausted from the XX's recent touring commitments. As a result, the band ... have postponed some European shows which they are hoping to reschedule," according to a statement.

[Watch some XX video]

Just because you're Courtney Love and paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you

Courtney Love tells the New York Daily News about the latest subsect of everyone who is out to get her:

One night, Love says, "a flood of guys, at least 10, came to my house. They said there was an ambulance outside, even though we never saw one. I tried to be charming. But one of the guys points a gun at me. My daughter, Frances, ran and hid under the house."

Love says the standoff was defused by a private investigator she'd hired and who later urged her to get tighter security.

Yes, there's a private investigator who backs up her story:

Corroborating Love's harrowing tale are Adam DelMonte and Michael Kenworthy of AC Digital Services, who say they recorded the "blitz" on security cameras they installed in Love's house. "These impostors then flipped the situation on Mrs. Cobain and tried to strong-arm her and scare her into feeling she needed to hire them for protection," DelMonte and Kenworthy assert in a letter. "Fortunately, we were able ... to get them out of her life."

So, there's someone who backs up her story about people turning up demanding money and offering to protect her in return. And he's helping protect her and gets money in return for it.

Love has moved to New York and, with the help of other people she's paying, is seeking to put her affairs in some sort of order. She does realise she's got a challenge, though:

"My biggest problem," she says tearfully, "is that I'm Courtney Love."

Or at least used to be.

Griffin done... Harrods Lights

Dannii Minogue has switched on the Harrods Christmas lights, and Zoe Griffin was there to see it. She was a little disappointed:

They’re green because it’s a Wizard of Oz theme, which doesn’t excite me that much because a London shop should have more of a London theme.

Has Griffin ever been inside Harrods and seen the Egyptian elevator? And does she think that Oz is a real place - like Manchester or something?

But Dannii Minogue loses all of her calm as she grins manically as she pushed the button to turn them on with a young boy from Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Let's be fair: we all know what she means, don't we?

Yes, yes. That's the way to tempt Miley Cyrus back into public

Miley Cyrus vanished from Twitter a couple of weeks back, leaving her social network feeling a little bereft. They'd do anything to have little 140 character spurts of Cyrus insight back in their lives. Anything. Anything at all.

Absolutely anything at all:

A fan upset about Miley's disappearance from Twitter is making a plea to Cyrus to reactivate her account and has threatened to kill and eat her own cat if the pop star doesn't comply.

Because what could be more pleasant than communication that's taking place to avoid a person eating their pet, right?

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet - Boybands

Jude Rogers talks to five singing hatstands from various boybands, including one of East 17, The Jonas Brothers. Oh, and Simon Webbe:

I don't think an all-black boyband like JLS would have been signed in the days when we were starting out. The X Factor's great in that way: it shows the record companies what people really want – especially as most labels are run by old guys who have no idea what's going on in clubs or on the streets.

Marr and Morrissey: Is it Christmas cards, then?

Johnny Marr does talk to Morrissey. Just not very often:

“I wake up in the morning with about 200 e-mails from a lot of people I don’t know, so I’m assuming it’s going to be the same with Morrissey, that’s the way the modern world is,” he said.

“So by the time I’ve got through the e-mails I’ve got to do, I’m not going to go oh “Dear Mozzer, Having a cup of tea, blah blah, blah.”

If I'm understanding this correctly, Marr seems to be suggesting that by the time he's dealt with offers of penis-enlarging pills and sent off his money to get his European Lottery Winnings passed to his account, there just isn't time to keep up to date with Morrissey.

Gordon in the morning: Christmas with the turkeys

A few days ago, Gordon was trilling that there was going to be a chart battle between Robbie Williams and whoeverwinsthexfactor for the Christmas number one.

Which makes it a bit strange that today he's announcing that George Michael is at the heart of the struggle:

GEORGE MICHAEL is the popstar who is saving Christmas - well, for the bookies at least.

Good old George is making the Xmas chart battle interesting for the first time in years by releasing December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas).

So... does that mean Williams getting involved doesn't make it interesting?

The former WHAM! star can take credit for penning Last Christmas, one of the finest festive tracks of all time.

... which stalled at number two.

And given that Michael hasn't bothered the number one slot since Fastlove in 1996, is his entry into the competition a bit like John McEnroe turning up for next year's Wimbledon with a bat rather than a microphone?

But hold on, because Christmas could get even worse:

I can also reveal that COLDPLAY frontman CHRIS MARTIN has a belter of a Christmas song which has been burning a hole in his MacBook for more than 12 months now.

It should be pointed out that Martin has no plans to release this song.

Gordon, though, feels he should because he's had a Christmas number one before:

Chris gave us the last non-X Factor Christmas No 1...

Is your face as puzzled as mine as you try to remember Coldplay being number one at Christmas?

...with the reworked Band Aid single, Band Aid 20.

Does that really count?

I suppose that at least Smart's not suggesting we ring up Status Quo.

Talk Talk shout shout at Mandelson

That didn't take long, did it? Less than 24 hours after Mandelson had grimly announced his intention to allow the intellectual property industry to have people thrown off the internet, and the plan is already heading for court. Talk Talk are threatening legal action:

"The approach is based on the principle of 'guilty until proven innocent' and substitutes proper judicial process for a kangaroo court," said Andrew Heaney, the executive director of strategy and regulation at TalkTalk. "We know this approach will lead to wrongful accusations."

"If the government moves to stage two we would consider that extra-judicial technical measures and would look to appeal the decision [to the courts] because it infringes human rights," Heaney said. "TalkTalk will continue to resist any attempts to make it impose technical measures on its customers unless directed to do so by a court or recognised tribunal."

BT has been less strident, but aren't exactly delighted, either, saying they are:

"interested to hear whether or not customers will have some form of fair legal hearing before their broadband supplier is required to take any action against them".

One lawyer claims that there is no human rights worry about Mandy's plans:

Tony Ballard, partner at media and entertainment law firm Harbottle & Lewis, said that Mandelson's plan to suspend internet connections did not breach human rights regulations.

"This issue over whether removing someone's internet access breaches some fundamental right has been quite clearly settled by the European court of justice," Ballard added. "It ruled in a Spanish filesharing case last year that a user's fundamental rights are not absolute but have to be weighed against the rights of others, including copyright owners."

Maybe - although the same court has ruled that ISPs can't be compelled to hand over details of customers in file-sharing cases, too. Let's just pause a moment, though, and consider a lawyer saying that somebody's fundamental rights are not absolute. It's not clear if absolute rights would be fundamental.

Ballard said that it is for the "individual states and their courts to hold the balance". He added that Mandelson clearly had an eye on France where a tough "three strikes" cut-off policy has been implemented and approved by the French legislature.

Yes, Mr. Ballard - although you seem to have got confused along the line; the tough legislation was dumped, and replaced with a watered-down version because, erm, the original plan was considered too much of an infringement of human rights.

Google looking for tunes

Google is about to crank up the usefulness of its music search, by offering more direct links to play and buy tracks. But here, let them tell you about it:



The taking a lyric and offering a preview of the song its from is pretty neat. Depending on how well it works, of course.

Interesting that it doesn't seem to offer a link to YouTube videos of the songs.

Not all government thinking on copyright takes place on David Geffen's yacht

With Mandelson determinedly pressing ahead with his bid to take the internet away from naughty boys and girls, it's refreshing to see some brighter thinking coming from HM Government on copyright.

Today, the Intellectual Property Office published © The Way Forward. David Lammy has been in charge of steering this document, and PaidContent UK have picked out some of the themes:

The copyright system cannot be expected to command public support unless consumers can use works in the ways they want, such as sharing photos with friends on the web. This means rights holders offering works with broader terms of use.”

—It acknowledges that individuals resent restrictions on personal, non-commercial uses of material, and advocates an EU-level distinction between commercial and non-commercial copying...

—That could include legalising more outright copying, the creation of sound/image mashups, format-shifting and sharing material with family and friends, the report says. But: “(This) could impact on revenues for rights holders; (so) an element of fair compensation for any loss would be required” (who will pay?). And commercialising such mashups wouldn’t be allowed under these exceptions.

The "fair compensation for any loss" is the disappointment - someone is going to have to break it to the content owners that they're going to have to start accepting their profit margin has shrunk, and no attempt to reinflate to pre-web levels is going to work, but I suppose there needs to be some sort of vague promise to keep them on board.

A distinction between commercial and non-commercial copying, though, would be a great starting point.

Pity the impetus will probably vanish as soon as the first returning officer declares a result next May.

Folkobit: Taylor Mitchell

Horrible news: Taylor Mitchell has died after being attacked by coyotes at Cape Breton National Park in Nova Scotia.

The folk singer-songwriter was on tour in the area when the attack happened.

A recent graduate from the Etobicoke School of the Arts, Mitchell released her first album earlier this year. Produced by Michael Johnston, For Your Consideration featured a number of collaborations, including appearances by Jason Mercer and Anne Lindsay.

Taylor Mitchell was just 19 years old. Hikers who heard the attack had come to her aid, but she later died from injuries in hospital.

BET hip-hop awards: That's probably all we need from Eminem

During last night's BET HipHop Awards, Eminem took part in a rap-event which saw him trot out this line:

“My dick is so big if I add another inch to it you would swear when I raped you that you was actually into it.”

Rolling Stone's reaction is to flubber about if BET should have broadcast the line or just cut it out, which seems to be missing the point by an olympic length. Yes, they probably should have broadcast it rather than pretending Eminem didn't say it.

The question, surely, is what the hell was he thinking when he used the line in the first place?

Waiter... there's a hair in my Lady GaGa

The main advantage, presumably, of a $100 limited edition Lady Gaga special edition is, that as it comes with a lock of her hair, you can extract her DNA and clone her.

That'd be one for the RIAA copyright squad to worry over. Perhaps there's a EULA which forbids you from reproducing the DNA. Or maybe you can if you get a PRS licence.

The rest of the overpriced, pointless package consists of:

* Collectible puzzle
* Pictorials
* A behind the scenes look at her creative process
* Pull out posters
* Themed fanzines
* A paper doll collection
* 3 D glasses to view forthcoming Gaga visuals
* Personal notes from the artist
* Each book individually numbered

Did anyone else experience a shudder at the pretrailing of 3D Lady GaGa visuals?

Mandy plans the cut-off

Speaking at C&binet, Peter Mandelson has announced his intention to press on with plans to let media companies have people thrown off the internet. In an act of craven cowardice, though, it won't happen until Labour are likely to be out of power:

The effectiveness of the warning letters to persistent illegal filesharers will be monitored for the first 12 months. If illegal filesharing has not dropped by 70% by April 2011, then cutting off people's internet connections could be introduced three months later, from the summer of that year.

Enough to have Dick Geffen invite him back to the yacht, but without the nasty having-to-face-the-European-Court-ruling attached.

Mandy, of course, is convinced he's being reasonable:

"If we reach the point of suspension for an individual, they will be informed in advance, having previously received two notifications – and will have the opportunity to appeal," Mandelson added. "The British government's view is that taking people's work without due payment is wrong and that, as an economy based on creativity, we cannot sit back and do nothing as this happens."

Does the British Government have a view on using unfair legislation in order to artificially inflate the price of online sales?

No fresh Pulp

Almost nobody would have read the story in The People this weekend which claims Pulp were going to play Glastonbury next year. In case you're one of the few people who did, it wasn't true anyway:

Speaking to the Guardian, the Pulp singer said that he could "categorically" state that "Pulp have no plans to get back together. Someone asked me if I fancied playing at the 40th anniversary of Glastonbury, I said yes, they twisted that into a 'Pulp re-form' story. It's not true."

I've just plugged this into my tabloid story generator, and it's suggested this story really is:

RELAXED MUSCLE TO HEADLINE SUNDAY AT GLASTONBURY 2010.

Adam Lambert: This is not an accident

This is the cover of Adam Lambert's album cover.

This tweet might come as a surprise:

Thank you to those who appreciate and understand that the album cover is deliberately campy. It's an omage to the past. It IS ridiculous.

The surprise not that the sleeve is meant to look like that, but that there are apparently people who think the picture might have accidentally turned out looking kinda campy. How would you think that? Are there people who assume he's wearing a pair of dungarees or was fixing an engine but it got cropped out the final shot leaving the image looking a bit fey?