Talking Heads cut a deal with Crist

Charlie Crist had used Talking Heads music without permission in a political advert.

Now we get a grovelling apology from a former Florida governor:



Do you suppose David Byrne signed off the line "for using his famous song and unique voice"? He wouldn't have actually suggested that wording, would he? It can't have been the record label, though, as the phrase "available at Target, FYE and online record stores" would have been jackhammered in, too.

I guess that's just about the most humiliating thing a politician has done since... well, Nick Clegg popping up on Daybreak this morning.

Byrne to Gove: Start making sense

David Byrne isn't the first person to point out that Michael Gove is making education rubbish, and he certainly won't be the last. But he is the most famous American to do so, so far:

"I think it has already been proven that arts education in schools benefits areas beyond the arts," Byrne said. "To cut in that way is narrow-minded. It is not about how many artists you produce, it is about what it does to the thinking of everyone else."

"School is how I found art," Byrne went on. "I had an art teacher who would encourage me and didn't tell me what to do. He would give me a pass to say I didn't have to go to gym class if I had something I was trying to finish. I realised it was a way to discover things about myself and a solace."

Ah, Michael Gove would counter, but can you name the consort to the third Tudor Monarch?

David Byrne sues Charlie Crist

At first, I thought the news alert said Byrne was suing Christ, but on closer inspection it was Crist - someone with a God complex, but not the family connections. Billboard reports:

The suit (Case Number 8:10-CV1187-T26 (MAP)) was filed early Monday afternoon in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa.

Byrne tells Billboard.com that he became aware of the Crist ad from a friend in New York, where the Talking Heads co-founder resides. "I was pretty upset by that," says Byrne, who had Warner Bros. Records contact the Crist campaign, which subsequently stopped using the ad. But, Byrne contends, "in my opinion the damage had already been done by it being out there. People that I knew had seen (the ad), so it had gotten around. The suit, he adds, "is not about politics...It's about copyright and about the fact that it does imply that I would have licensed it and endorsed him and whatever he stands for."

Crist is running as an independent for Senator; the Florida governor had used Road To Nowhere in an attack ad on a rival for the Republican nomination.

Byrne is asking for a million dollars. But it's not about the money, of course. It never is.

Downloadable: Byrne, Boy and Santigold

It feels a bit like turning up late at a meeting - you hear that the first fruits of that David Byrne and Fatboy Slim concept album about Imelda Marcos is available for sampling, and just nod and go "of course - the Marcos concept album. Of course."

Here's that sample:

They didn't call it Shoegazing, which is a disappointment.

[via @warriorgrrl]

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

David Byrne meets Thom Yorke and Wired records their conversation about the In Rainbows experiment and what it means for the music industry:

Byrne: What about bands that are just getting started?

Yorke: Well, first and foremost, you don't sign a huge record contract that strips you of all your digital rights, so that when you do sell something on iTunes you get absolutely zero. That would be the first priority. If you're an emerging artist, it must be frightening at the moment. Then again, I don't see a downside at all to big record companies not having access to new artists, because they have no idea what to do with them now anyway.

Byrne: It should be a load off their minds.

Yorke: Exactly.

Byrne: I've been asking myself: Why put together these things — CDs, albums? The answer I came up with is, well, sometimes it's artistically viable. It's not just a random collection of songs. Sometimes the songs have a common thread, even if it's not obvious or even conscious on the artists' part. Maybe it's just because everybody's thinking musically in the same way for those couple of months.

David Byrne goes to IKEA

It's always nice to enjoy a new cultural experience.

For David Byrne, going to IKEA counts:

IKEA is huge. We went up to the second floor where the shelves, sofas, tables and lamps are all arrayed into tasteful little room settings — rooms, but with mysterious tags hanging everywhere. Immediately I thought it was like entering a videogame world. Who lives here? What do they do? Why is that book on the table? Is that significant? Could it be some kind of clue to the occupant’s identity?

Unfortunately, David was killed by a giant Swedish Meatball before he could get to level two.

Bookmarks: Some other stuff to read on the web

Nanci Griffith is being blocked by George Bush, she tells IC Birmingham:

"I haven't been able to write anything for two years. I have been so angry with my president and the war in Iraq."

Despite her 'fan club' including the legendary Bob Dylan, Nanci is not tempted to pursue the protest song route when it comes to Iraq.

"For me, I have never been the kind of person to write in anger."

David Byrne goes to the Stasi Museum in Berlin:

Maybe the intent was NOT to hide this surveillance gear too well, the idea possibly being to make people aware they were being looked at and listened to. If you’re not aware you’re being observed then you won't live in fear, so what’s the point? Sometimes buildings here in the U.S. put up fake surveillance cameras in the hopes of discouraging perps. Of course, it wasn’t all just nutty surveillance stuff — people’s lives were ruined, destroyed, their careers came to a dead end at the least suspicion, there were prison terms and torture without stated reason (where have I heard that one before?) and information and culture was heavily censored. And the food wasn’t that great, either.

The Guardian meets with Pearl Spam out of Powder, as she publishes her memoirs:

One thing she is most definitely not concerned about is the reaction of her old friends to the book - which, I can assure you, is a surprisingly compulsive read. Celebrities, particularly the celebrities with whom Lowe was hanging around, tend to be very visible in their public lives but keep their private lives protectively closeted. And although Lowe carefully avoids naming individuals - other than listing at one point that her crowd included Kate Moss, Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Liam Gallagher, Jonny Lee Miller and Patsy Kensit - the book does convey just how central drugs were to her gang. "There was a general belief in our world that you couldn't have fun unless you were slightly out of it," she writes. There are anecdotes about group dinners at the Ivy, with Lowe dashing off mid-meal in someone's chauffeured car to go and buy cocaine for the group. "You're my best friend," one gushes when she returns.

David Byrne enjoys a good plating

There was an episode of Starsky and Hutch which featured someone who collected deocrative plates, prompting Hutch (or maybe Starsky) to ask, genuinely bemused, "how do you eat off them if they're stuck to the wall?"

David Byrne knows the answer to this. Apparently he collects plates as a hobby:

“At breakfast my mother was eating off one of my commemorative plates — and she apologised quietly to the Queen Mum for putting bread on her face.”

She's lucky she's not British, David - that'd be treason, that would, as surely as setting fire to a naval dockyard.