The Fall at the Charlotte: Touch Sensitive
Next on our quick trip back to Leicester in 2006:
[Part of The Fall at the Princess Charlotte]
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Next on our quick trip back to Leicester in 2006:
[Part of The Fall at the Princess Charlotte]
Dom Passatino on Ich Luge Bullets looks for a Beasties monument:
You don’t even get desperate for attention mixtape rappers recreating the “Paul’s Boutique” cover in search of blog real estate.
So, OK, there’s no Beastie influence on rap. But where’s the Beastie Boys influence on rock or indie or pop? Dave Grohl has, to the best of my knowledge, stopped wearing “funny” costumes in his videos, so that’s gone. I looked at Spike Jonze’s recent videography and it looks like a list of bands Carles deleted from his Google Alert in late 2009. Have the Beastie Boys become the most important band to have left no trace whatsoever?
Is it really a great tribute to New York firefighters for Cee-Lo to remake Fuck You as Thank You?
More from Mark E Smith in a back room in Leicester:
[Part of The Fall at the Princess Charlotte]
While everyone here was excitedly watching the pile of No votes grow in the referendum ("will they topple over? will they reach the moon?"), across the Atlantic something called Access Industries were buying Warner Music Group for USD8.25 a share.
Which values WMG at around three billion dollars.
Was it a shrewd deal? The shares immediately fell to USD7.63, so like most owners of Warners Access have started to lose money immediately.
Len Blavatnik, Chairman and founder of Access Industries, said, "I am excited to extend my longstanding involvement with Warner Music. It is a great company with a strong heritage and home to many exceptional artists. I look forward to working closely with the many talented people within the company."Access have owned a chunk of Warners for quite a while - they bought in at the same time as Bronfman, but were only holding 2% of the stock prior to takeover.
The 2009 incident where young girls went wild in a Long Island Mall during a Justin Bieber appearance has reached its legal resolution, with Bieber's manager and label cutting a deal:
According to E! News, the charges against [Scott] Braun were dropped Friday after Bieber agreed to make a public-service announcement for an anti-cyberbullying campaign and his record label, Island Def Jam, pleaded guilty to the ordinance violation and agreed to reimburse the county almost $8,000 to pay its share of the costs associated with the law enforcement and fire marshal response after the melee.If I'm reading this correctly, Braun has got off by getting Justin Bieber to do his community service for him. Now, that's a manager who has someone's balls in a vice. Probably literally, by the sound of it.
Clearly, the 'one where you make some vague empowering statement' is now as firmly entrenched in the set of solo hairstyle female singers as the 'slow ballady one' is vital to any mainstream metal album.
Taylor Swift has just churned out one, called Mean, and MTV explains the video:
Now, Swift is dressed in a little white '20s-style dress and is being tied to the tracks by an old-timey villain. [...] But Swift and the others are hardly the only victims in the clip. Viewers are back in modern time, where a girl, wearing a fast-food uniform, is being made fun of by her peers.Obviously, there's a happy ending for all:
Another girl is being teased in school and can't sit with "the cool girls" at lunch and is forced to eat in the school bathroom. All the while, Swift is plucking away at her banjo. Her words are empowering the young people affected by their bullies.
The boy reading the fashion magazine is now a famous fashion designer. The fast food worker saved up for college and is a big-time executive. The other girl? Well, she's in the audience watching Swift perform, cheering her on just liked Swift's song cheered her on.I'm sorry... what was that? I can just about take the hackneyed slagged-to-riches outcomes for the other two, but is Taylor really claiming that it's a success over bullies to... what? Be able to use Ticketmaster successfully?
Musicares has thrown a pricey bash to raise funds for charity and, erm, applaud Dave Gahan for not being a lush any more:
Dinner was served but alcohol was off the menu.Yes, you might expect that.
Gahan, 48, told Reuters before the event that he lives a clean life now, although it requires discipline and self-control to avoid giving in to temptation.If you sit in a barber's shop long enough, you're going to get a haircut. If he wasn't parading his sobriety, you'd have to have assumed he was drunk when he said that.
"If you sit in a barber's shop long enough, you're gonna get a f---in' haircut," he said with a laugh.
"I don't hang out with people that are getting high because I'm not that strong. It's fun to party and I had a lot of fun, and I kind of used up all my chips in that department."
Back to Leicester:
[Part of The Fall at The Princess Charlotte]
Something of a treat today, possibly: some chunks of The Fall playing The Princess Charlotte on March 24th, 2006. Presumably this was part of a tour to support the mighty number 115 smash Fall Heads Roll.
First off, here's the The Theme From Sparta FC:
More bits to come...
Good news from Gordon's corner this morning: N-Dubz are going on hiatus.
They're going to spend eighteen months concentrating on "solo projects" Dappy has announced.
It's possible that that's just what they've told Dappy, of course.
So, what are these solo projects?
"TULISA is going to do her films and her fragrances."'Doing fragrances'? Doesn't that consist of nodding when you're told what it's going to be, having a photo taken, and turning up at a party? Let's hope there's quite a lot of film work to keep her busy.
"FAZER is going to produce half of my album and I'm going inside the studio to write songs with Tulisa.Is it just me, or does this sound like they're all working together during their solo time?
"I've got bangers for you - I've got a big solo album coming for you, three smash singles. By Christmas, hopefully, I'll have two No1s. One of my first ones is called No Regrets."Does Dappy know when Christmas is?
I know that, when trying to weight the risks and advantages of the decision by The White House to not releases photos of Osama Bin Laden's face, I've had trouble coming to a firm opinion. The reason?
Well, who can decide where they stand on such a question without guidance from Nelly Furtado.
Thank the lord, she has now broken her silence:
Canadian singer Nelly Furtado has applauded U.S. President Barack Obama for refusing to release photographic evidence of terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden's death.It was, of course, a matter of taste and decency that had been staying Obama's hand, and nothing to do with the risk of inflaming extremist passions around the globe leading to a series of bloody reprisals against Americans and their perceived allies.
And Furtado is glad a grisly image of bin Laden with a bullet wound to the head is being kept hidden away.
In a post on her Twitter.com page, she writes, "So grateful that we'll have one less violent photo circulating throughout the world. White House has good taste."
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Remember when Madonna made Jon Bon Jovi apologise for suggesting she exploited her kids?
This morning:
MADONNA is preparing daughter LOURDES to inherit her pop crown when she finally hangs up her conical bras.Perhaps Lourdes never wanted any other career.
The singer has collaborated with the teen on a recording and hopes it will set her on the way to a successful career.
The track is called It's So Cool and Madge is in two minds over whether to feature it on her next album or the soundtrack to her new movie about US socialite Wallis Simpson and her relationship with Edward VIII.I'm struggling to imagine exactly what point in the narrative of the abdication crisis that a song called It's So Cool would be appropriate.
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Alki David, a filmmaker with more beef than a Texan rancher, has launched a class action lawsuit against CNet. He's looking for musicians and other filmmakers to join in to claim damages after CNet distributed Limewire software.
I know what you're thinking - aren't any damages already being pursued through the lawsuit against Limewire? Yes.
There's a plodding twenty minute video in which David churns slowly through his case, like a man who assumes his audience might not be actually awake, but the key bit is his claim that there's "many billions of dollars" to be shared. (Presumably Alki is expecting CBS to bankrupt itself in any judgement?)
David is convinced, or has convinced himself, that CNet's distribution of LimeWire was with "malicious intent". He drags in a lot of other irrelevances to his case, straighfacedly suggesting that showing someone how to strip DRM from a track is "teaching people to steal".
In a bid to perk up the video, he's cut in some images of angry skeletons - it doesn't really perk the video up.
By about 12 minutes, he's on to Bittorrent, and claiming "the liability in this is into the many trillions of dollars". Yes, you'll recall that the music industry used to be worth several trillions before filesharing was invented.
About 16 minutes in, he's trying again to liven up his video by doing what appears to be a parody of the Victor Kiam adverts. That's okay, though - that's covered by fair use.
After that, though, comes the real reason for this: David's long-running argument with CBS over his Film.On service. It's all quite extraordinary.
Does Gordon have any women friends? Has he ever spoken to a woman? It's hard to believe as it seems like the very idea that a girl might say she fancies another girl leaves his mouth agape.
This is a response to Adele saying that she thinks Rihanna is quite sexy. Or, as Gordon puts it:
Given the chance, she would whisk her off on a two-week beano to the Greek island of Lesbos.Yes. He did. In a newspaper.
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One of the problems faced by anyone hoping to sell music online is the numerous rights bodies you have to deal with. Frankly, unless you're well-resourced from the get-go, or concentrate on an impossibly small marketplace.
So it's not entirely in anyone's interests that EMI have pulled their digital rights in the US from ASCAP to deal with them themselves.
Sure, ASCAP aren't ideal, but taking a quarter of the major acts out of ASCAP and forcing groups to have a parallel set of negotiations isn't really going to help smooth the journey from physical to digital sales.
Frankly, unless you're incredibly patient, you might just give up on the legal route altogether.
Sony are trying to link Anonymous - the loose internet affiliation, not Joe Klein - for the lifting of thousand upon thousand of pieces of personal information.
It doesn't seem to have said sorry for its weak security, mind you.
Although trying to suggest a link between the security breach and an apparent Anonymous Denial Of Service attack, Sony mumbles that it might have been a coincidence:
The attack that stole the personal data of millions of Sony customers was launched separately, while the company was distracted protecting itself against the denial of service campaign, Sony said.What's really interesting is the complete lack of haste that Sony brought to the loss of all this information:
Sony said it was not sure whether the organizers of the two attacks were working together.
The company noticed unauthorized activity on its network on April 19, and discovered that data had been transferred off the network the next day."Hey... you know all that unauthorized activity yesterday? D'you reckon that we should check to see what happened?"
The company also said it waited two days after discovering data was stolen from its PlayStation video game network before contacting law enforcement and did not meet with FBI officials until five days later.It's funny: if Sony get a hint of someone putting a unlicensed song on YouTube, it's takedown machine swings into action straight away. Someone walks off with people's personal data, and it's nearly a full week before the FBI are brought in.
Oh, poor Beyonce. Arriving at a charity do at the New York Met, she decided she wasn't going to hang around for the photographers and only did a quick pose.
The photographers? They weren't happy, and started to boo her.
Unfortunately, Beyonce was wearing a hobble dress and, as she tried to get away, discovered that she couldn't climb the stairs.
Which meant that, in her bid to not spend too much time with the photographers, she wound up having to be slowly half-carried up the stairs while the camera pit continued to boo her.
The moral of this story? If you want to make a quick getaway, don't wear a fetish dress.
Spotify edges a step nearer to being, if not an iTunes killer, at least some sort of viable alternative, as it adds the power to sync playlists with iPods:
(They're wrong about albums somehow having come "after" singles, unless you consider a 78 to be a "single"; clearly, the concept of a "single" required a comparative "album" concept to make some sort of sense.)
By the time they launch in America, they're going to have a compelling offer. If they ever launch in America.
Some bad news from The Decemberists - Jenny Conlee has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and is going to miss this summer's tour while she gets treatment.
Good news, though, is the prognosis is good and everyone's sounding policy:
Hello to Everyone,Good wishes to Jenny.
I am very sorry to say that I will be missing a few shows coming up as I go through treatment for breast cancer. It has been great to be on tour these past few weeks. The band and crew are like family to me and have been incredibly supportive and understanding. To be making music with everyone and seeing the fans has helped me to feel more positive and keep my mind off of my diagnosis. But, alas, as the tour winds down, it is time for me to get back to reality. I will try to get into surgery as soon as I can after we return from this leg of the tour so I can begin my recovery. There are still a few unknowns out there concerning my cancer, but I am thinking positive and hope to be back on the road soon. Thanks for all of your support! See you soon!
Lots of love,
Jenny
Yesterday, Simon Cowell "invented" a game show, which appears to be people guessing from two things, but in a big arena surrounded with people cheering.
Today, he's inventing a new Top Of The Pops:
But Cowell, 51, said last night: "It's not cost effective just doing it in the UK.The Sun have decided this means it's going to be "global" rather than the more plausible American/British version.
"To do it properly it would need to be bigger than one country."
Si, who is launching X Factor in America, said: "It's for a year down the line."In other words, it's never going to happen.
Girls Aloud set for OlympicsReally? Is the Team GB BMX squad scraping around for members?
GIRLS ALOUD are planning their biggest ever gig - to mark their 10th anniversary next year.Eyes set on... so you mean: they'd like to play?
They have their eyes on the OLYMPIC GAMES for their landmark celebratory show.
[Manager Hilary Shaw] is now talking to promoters about a slot alongside top acts such as COLDPLAY and, potentially, THE ROLLING STONES.In other words, she's hoping that by trying to make it sound like it's going to happen, by plopping the story in the press, it might have to happen.
Coldplay frontman CHRIS MARTIN is a big fan of the girls so he will fight their corner to get them on the bill. And KEITH RICHARDS wouldn't be found complaining either - with RONNIE WOOD on his best behaviour he'd be delighted with a better looking backstage boozing partner in Sarah.Oh, yes. That'll swing it - there must be someone for Keith Richards to crash about backstage, pissed out their heads.
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That Morrissey behaved like a self-obsessed boor during an interview with Dermot O'Leary isn't a surprise:
During the interview, he branded the recent royal wedding "dreadful" and criticised other BBC presenters before making a series of prickly comments about O'Leary, telling listeners, "He doesn't listen - he gets paid all this money."Morrissey, you're not going to enjoy an interview with Dermot, so why bother in the first place? You're like a snob going into Nandos so you can just honk on loudly about how "of course the peri-peri sauce isn't authentic".
He also told the presenter, "There is just something about your face that says 'Please lie to me and I will believe you'", prompting O'Leary to later tell the singer, "(You need to) listen and not just wait for your chance to talk."
The interview ended with a tense exchange in which O'Leary said, "It's been really difficult but I've enjoyed it", with Morrissey replying, "You don't rule the world, Dermot."
"I'm sorry I made the (Dermot) O'Leary radio interview so difficult but I was in a foul mood, having spent a full week surrounded by the royal dreading (sic). England may very well be a Windsor dictatorship, but - PR Weddings aside, it is usually quite bearable...Somehow, Morrissey seems to have taken his rude performance on Radio 2 and twisted it into Britain being like a repressive dictatorship that kills protestors in cold blood.
"During the week of the royal dreading, Poly Styrene died. Having made an enormous contribution to British art and sound - at a desperate time when so many of us needed her - Poly Styrene's death was all but ignored by the British television news media, who instead rained hours and hours of blubbering praise onto Kate Middleton - a woman about whom nothing is known on a personal level. The message is clear: What you achieve in life means nothing compared to what you are born into. Is this Syria?"
Unhappiness over at Ministry towers, with Al Jourgensen launching a lawsuit against film producer Edward Bates.
Bates' Gigantic Pictures is distributing a film, Fix, about Jourgensen; Al says he never agreed to the final version of the movie. He wants a quarter of a million dollars and final say over what's in the film.
Not clear if, under the Al-edited versions, the scenes of him having sex with a roast chicken and offering "a bite" to Warners executives will remain in the movie.
I suspect Al is probably keener on trying to supress this sort of thing:
What would you do if you had the contact details of quarter of a million Americans who can't really sing as well as they think they can?
SyCo's servers have been hacked, and details of a quarter million US X Factor entrants have been copied.
The producers have sent out a warning email:
‘This week, we learned that computer hackers illegally accessed information you and others submitted to us to receive information about The X Factor auditions.Some contestants on Cowell's programmes have a tough time of it once they're on screen, with not very much care shown towards them. Who knew the twist for the X Factor's US launch would be you'd get poorly treated and exposed to christ-knows-what even before you audition?
It is possible that the information you did provide to us, which included your name, email address, zip code, phone number (which was optional), date of birth, and gender, may have been accessed.
We are taking this matter very seriously and are working with federal law enforcement authorities to investigate this illegal action.
The X Factor will never ask you to email personal information such as financial data, credit card numbers, Social Security numbers or the user name or passwords you use to access other websites.
If you receive an email that appears to be from Fox.com or The X Factor asking for personal information, please delete it, as it did not come from us.’
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I'm glad you asked.
ContactMusic has scoured what it calls "celebrities" reactions:
Melanie Brown writes, "We need to take a moment to give thanks to the soldiers who risked there lives."Meanwhile...
a stunned LeAnn Rimes exclaims, "Omg (Oh my god), Bin Laden!!! Blessings to our troops and a bit of peace for our country and those who lost loved one's (sic) in 9/11"I'm sure LeAnn will realise in a moment or two that this doesn't actually stop America being at war in Afghanistan. Or that if Al Qaeda was the force it was supposed to be, that there'd be dozens of idiots with weapons keen to avenge the death.
Nikki Sixx, who heard the news while in the Big Apple: "Being in New York and hearing that Bin Ladin (sic) is dead is icing on the cake...".Oh, yes. Where better to be on Osama Bin Laden Thrown Into The Ocean Day than New York? The cake of a summary execution and swift vanishing of the body can only, surely, be improved by a coincidental being in New York icing. Cursed are the poor celebrities who are merely having to eat an uniced cake.
You might not want to read this if you have already had breakfast, as Lee Ryan wants to appear in porn:
"I'd love to do porn. I would! I think I'd be great. I'd be brilliant.No, Lee, I think you'll find there's something else that's har... oh, never mind.
"I wouldn't stop though, that's the hard thing about being a porn star."
: "There's lots to be jealous of in this industry - we're surrounded by beautiful women.You've tried people in "the industry" - Lee, in case you don't know, has a job in the standing up and opening and closing his mouth in time to the backing track business - and you've tried people not in the industry, and yet every time it's shit. Have you thought what the one constant is in all your relationships, Lee?
"I've been with people in the industry and not - and they both suck.
"It's just I haven't had one great relationship - every relationship I've had has been shit."
Gordon reports this morning that Ashley Cole and Jay Z are going to team up to launch a record label.
It's clear why, if Cole was planning to put out some records, he'd need Jay Z's help. What is less clear, though, is why Jay Z would want Cole on board.
Smart has combed the cuttings to find evidence of Cole's value to a future label:
"I love TINIE TEMPAH, some 50 CENT, EMINEM and I like meeting guys like Tinchy. So it's something I'd like to do when I'm finished playing. I hope so."Yes, if you're cannily able to spot Eminem and 50 Cent just twenty years into their careers, you've clearly got A&R chops, Ashley.
The pair first met at a gig in 2009 and have kept in touch since. Jay is a huge sports fan and owns a share of basketball team the New Jersey Nets. He knows how big soccer is and that there is money to be made.Erm, yes, if you go into the music business with a footballer, you'd really need to understand the difference between a throw-in and a corner kick.
The rapper will need a better understanding of the game than most Americans, mind.
Room40 are celebrating their ten years in the electronic music business by giving away a 40 track sampler.
The headline names are probably Xiu Xiu, Grouper and Tenniscoats, but there's obviously much more to explore, sample and delight. Happy birthday, Room40.
[via CollapseBoard]
When did we start having to pretend to be excited at the announcement of the names of songs which are going to be on an album?
A veritable street party today, with the announcement of the song titles on the next Kasabian album:
Switchblade Smile
Neon Noon
Goodbye Kiss
I Hear Voices
Shelter From The Storm
Velociraptor
I literally cannot wait to hear what songs might be sitting under such inspired titles. Literally cannot wait. So I've just played the same leaden-plod-rock track Kasabian always make once and pretended it's called Velociraptor.
Kasabian, of course, are very excited about their new album:
Guitarist Serge Pizzorno said of the album: "Listening to the songs makes you feel great. Get your fucking jacket on, whack your fucking shoes on. It makes you believe things are going to happen."A song so great it makes you want to put your shoes on, eh?
Ooh, this is brilliant news: Comet Gain have got a new single on May 23rd. It's called Working Circle Explosive.
This is what it sounds like live:
Tucked into this month's Q interview with Brett Anderson, the slightly alarming news that Suede are writing new stuff:
q: any new material [at latitude]?"Alternative music from the early 80s", eh? The Cure and The Chameleons style?
ba: not likely, but we have started to write. it's early days but it's sounding interesting - we've been listening to alternative music from the early '80s, that's filtering through.
April's most-read stories:
1. Daily Mail says some bloke round the corner said rock music killed a girl
2. Lady GaGa snaffles copyright from photographers
3. Ticketmaster plans to try flexible pricing
4. RIP: Poly Styrene
5. What The Pop Papers Say: Ramones & Arctic Monkeys
6. Daily Mail says Google is robbing Adele
7. A day with the Jesuses: Hookers For Jesus
8. Video: Stars (contains naked woman with a tail)
9. Gordon Smart tries to explain why he wrote a made-up Roses reunion story
10. Pete Doherty: artiste or idiot?
These interesting releases emerged from the Bank Holiday:
Laura Cantrell - Kitty Wells Dresses
Download Kitty Wells Dresses
Tindersticks - Claire Denis Film Scores
Download Claire Denis Film Scores
The Fall - The Marshall Suite
Download The Marshall Suite
The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once
Download All At Once
Steve Earle - I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
Download Live At The BBC
Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
Download Hard Bargain
Pepsi & Shirlie - All Right Now
Download All Right Now