BLIMEY - SOMETHING GOOD ON BLOGCRITICS: Okay, we're being harsh on them, but they're a shadowy cabal, dammit. Anyway, this by Al Barger is rather a fine take-apart of 21st Century Springsteen - a man who, No Rock has no doubt, plans on being the first President also in the R&R Hall of Fame. Barger seems convinced, too: "Indeed, Springsteen has become a politician instead of an artist. He speaks for his audience- not himself. None of this album comes across to an objective listener as the heartfelt personal reaction of an artist. Rather, these are the carefully calculated and extremely predictable responses of a politician looking for votes.

DANCE STANCE: Sigur Ros are, apparently, following in the footsteps of The Fall and doing the music for a ballet. They're working with Merce Cunningham on a new dance extravaganza which should debut in New York next October.

CHATROOM OF THE WEEK: Don't worry, it's not a Tim Dowling one, but a transcript of No Rock's New Pop Hero Pink. It's worth sticking with, as she flames back when she gets flamed. Have we mentioned that we love Pink? Oh, good.

LADIES, MANN IN THE WHITE HOUSE: The story is Barenaked Ladies and Aimee Mann to appear in The West Wing; we just wanted to do the headline.

EIGHTY MILLION POUND MAN: It doesn't take a genius to see that the Robbie Williams deal with EMI isn't about flogging records in the UK, but turning him into a Transatlantic Star. I wonder if Robbie paused to watch last night's Showbiz Set before inking the deal, and wondered if he was going to be another Tom Jones or - as seems more likely - merely the new Englebert Humperdink, trying desperately to please Boise and Bath and landing "with a splash in the mid-Atlantic"?
Apparently (which means 'we read on popbitch'), the struggling and desperate EMI tried to use the example of Kylie as a demonstration that they can be relied upon to break a UK name through to the American audience. Hmmm, really? We could have sworn that Kylie was broken in America because she was embraced by the gay market - more down to QAF than EMI. Are we supposed to believe that Mr. Williams is going to be retooled to appeal to San Fran as a leaping-off point for the wider US market? Can't see that working in the same way, somehow.

REALISM IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: We must say we're slightly surprised that the music industry, after years of moaning that free music downloads have created a culture where people have come to expect to get music for nothing, they've now declared Digital Download Day and are going to, um, give away downloads. This time, though, its all in order to promote the existence of the new, legal download service for Europe, based at HMV and a few other sites.
Even more encouraging is the realistic pricing structure the new service has for when you've used up your freebies - while a quid to burn a track to CD seems a bit steep, downloading a track for ten pence and streaming for a penny is the first official download regime we've heard which doesn't sound like a rip-off. Our CD prices may be outrageous, but in Europe, at least our digital music is fairly-priced. Let's just hope the tracks on offer are good, and the format they're offered in is one that works.

YOU WEREN'T THE ONLY ONE, MARK: Mark Knopfler - who is looking more and more like Bill from King of the Hill - has told Reuters that whenever his music used to come on TV or Radio, he'd immediatley switch channels. Which makes you wonder why he carried on inflicting stuff that caused him pain on us as well. Surely, the most basic criterion we should expect artists to hold up to their work is "Do I want to listen to this?" - okay, maybe nobody wants to think Britney stays at home, DVD on auto-shuffle, touching her moisty innerself (no we don't), but you'd hope that at least she can get through hearing Boys on MTV without feeling queasy.
Maybe the Court of Pop should force musicians to spend a day in a room with their music on a constant loop.

RIAA SUES RADIO STATIONS: It's only a matter of time [The Onion]
Thanks for the link: Becky

A DANCING DEMON? NO, SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT THERE: At long last, Rounder Records has brought us what we've been waiting for: Once More With Feeling, the Buffy Musical Soundtrack album. Not only is it worth buying, but its worth buying because it's almost a political act after the way the episode got fudged out the running for an Emmy. (In a move worthy of Jeb Bush's gerrymandering in Miami-Dade, they 'forgot' to put Buffy on the ballot; they tried to tell people of their error but, by then, it was too late.) I'm not sure how much sense the CD would make without seeing the episode itself, but most of the songs work abstracted from their context. Amber Benson's I'm Under Your Spell - the most mainstream and explicit lesbian-shag song in recorded history, surely? - and Emma and Nicholas' cornball I'll Never Tell - the only song to ever approach a line like "his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe" and carry it off- certainly. If they had their wits about them at the NME, they'd have got a bunch of bands to cover these for their charity effort. We hope they release a single, if only to get to see Giles on Top of the Pops.

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SING SING: They say they want it spread far and wide, so rather than send out sing sing's ecard, we're just hanging it on the web for your delectation.

OTHER CHANNELS: While one of their rivals disappears, it's unlikely that they'll be popping open the champagne down at Camden Lock, as Media Guardian are reporting that BSkyB is trying to reduce the price it pays for the MTV portfolio by half. As MTV's biggest audience provider and paymaster, the sudden withdrawal of ten million quid is going to be a shock to the network's system. It could mean that MTV Europe produces less original programming - not that it makes a great deal here as it is - leading to a lot more showings of Shania Twain Behind The Music on VH1, or, if we're lucky, more videos, less flim-flammery like Undressed.
Anyone who thinks there may be some link between the treatment of MTV and BSkyB's plans to launch own-brand pop channels may need to call the DTI.

NO MORE PLAY: As their website says, Play UK has gone off the air - supposedly because of the closure of ITV Digital, which we think has the air of twang about it - lack of viewers, bad place in the Sky Digiguide, confusing comedy and music proposition, endearing but commercially suicidal habit of running evenings of non-stop Larry Sanders, constant rotation of a small collection of shows - did none of these things play a part?
Anyway, for what it's worth, we'll miss Play.
So, once more for my baby:
For letting us be in your house every night to entertain you. It's an honor and, uh, to tell you the truth, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do without you. Thank you so much.
God bless you, and you may now flip.

NO MORE PLAY: As their website says, Play UK has gone off the air - supposedly because of the closure of ITV Digital, which we think has the air of twang about it - lack of viewers, bad place in the Sky Digiguide, confusing comedy and music proposition, endearing but commercially suicidal habit of running evenings of non-stop Larry Sanders, constant rotation of a small collection of shows - did none of these things play a part?
Anyway, for what it's worth, we'll miss Play.
So, once more for my baby:
For letting us be in your house every night to entertain you. It's an honor and, uh, to tell you the truth, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do without you. Thank you so much.
God bless you, and you may now flip.

NO MORE PLAY: As their website says, Play UK has gone off the air - supposedly because of the closure of ITV Digital, which we think has the air of twang about it - lack of viewers, bad place in the Sky Digiguide, confusing comedy and music proposition, endearing but commercially suicidal habit of running evenings of non-stop Larry Sanders, constant rotation of a small collection of shows - did none of these things play a part?
Anyway, for what it's worth, we'll miss Play.
So, once more for my baby:
For letting us be in your house every night to entertain you. It's an honor and, uh, to tell you the truth, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do without you. Thank you so much.
God bless you, and you may now flip.

DISC COMPACT: Last week, you might recall, we coughed politely as the UK Music Industry (in the form of the BPI and Music Week) slapped itself on the back and preened that only some of their Cds were more expensive than the same item in Europe. We pointed out that that's still loads more than they are in the US. Well, this week, the labels and the US government have come to a payment schedule after the agreement that the record companies won't any more use their near-quinopoly to keep prices in North America artificially high. So, to make it simple for the people at Chrysalis: We're paying more in the UK for items in the US that are officially recognised as being overpriced. Tell us why we should be happy.

MORE HEARSAY: Bet they wish they'd listened to Mel C now, don't you?

STUDIO WET DREAMS: Will Smith. Jennifer Lopez. A Star Is Born - what could possibly go wrong?

IF WE HAVE ANY NEW YORK READERS: nme reckons there's a free White Stripes gig in New York Union Square Park today - October 1st - at noon. Go down and shout something about bras for us.

BLIMEY - IT ACTUALLY WORKS: We thought sitting here being snippy about under-performing wastes of vinyl was merely cathartic, but Hear'Say - in their valedictory interview with The Sun tell us that it actually works. The now-defunct band whine "they're tired of getting abuse from the public, which makes their lives "hell".:
Hmmm, the odd spot of snark and some people not liking you - who knew that popstars had to undergo that, eh? The thing is, this exposes the problem in flinging together bands and acts as a side-business to TV game shows: it's like buying cheap furniture - you get what you pay for, and what you're paying for isn't a group of people hungry for fame, determined to make music, desperate to sing to people. Those people don't use shortcuts like PopStars, as they'll have been out with guitars and tamborines since they were fourteen; those people don't get all flustered when someone goes "boo" when they walk on stage, as having a proper career arc would have toughened them up - you can cope better with rejection when an entire room has emptied when you've come on stage a few times.
Hear'Say, basically, won fame rather than worked for it, and they've treated it pretty much like Viv Nicholson handled her pools win - easy come, easy go. Roy Castle - a man who knew a thing or too about working your way up - used to observe that Dedication was what you needed. Without that, and getting your hands calloused on the way up, it's clear that you ain't gonna last long at the top.
Two months ago we were held up by a gunman and the next day people thought we had made it up as a publicity stunt.
"What kind of people think we would make that up?" wails Danny. Danny, sweetheart - you're popstars. Popstars pretend to be in love with Chris Evans, or Rod Stewart's ex, or that their bosses forced them to abort Robbie Williams Jr; or else the tabloids make up claims they've cut their dog's vocal chords or do it six times a night, or eight hours at a throw. Why should we believe you just because you've been on telly? It's probably best you give it up now.
Who knew, eh? There's no substitute for graft after all.

LIFE WITHOUT LIFE WITHOUT BUILDINGS: It may look fishy after Wisdom Goof are kind about us to link straight to a piece from them, but we hadn't heard that Life Without Buildings had split; and from the same five things, we can match their overheard comment about Ash - we were on a bus home last week when we heard someone say "They're okay, but they've got teenage hair. They've been going for about ten years with teenage hair. Teenage hair is alright when you're teenaged, but... they'll probably still have it when they're about forty...

NAPSTER TWANG: Napster mulling offers in the region of USD10million? Oh yeah?

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER: More on the evil that Clear Channel do from the MusicDish , who report that the US radio conglomerate have announced that, in future, they'll deal only with three plugging companies for its black music stations. In the entire country. Now, you don't have to be a genius to see what the implications for local, new acts will be if a nationwide company is going to accept pitches from only three plugging companies. Nor, of course, that if this works in R&B, it'll be a policy adopted across all of Clear's stations in all genres. The knock-on effect has been the chosen lucky three promtion companies have celebrated their good fortune at this exclusive access by ramping up the prices they charge for their services. Naturally.
This is good for music... how, precisely? Again, this is the sort of thing that you'd imagine the RIAA would be up in arms about, but - of course - they're too busy fretting about Kenny T Student and his mix CD of Radiohead tracks to do anything about something that could royally screw their members up in a very short space of time.
Meanwhile, they'll be coming for us soon - MediaGuardian reports on the first stage in the next era in UK radio, where Chrysallis has just taken over LBC; the first move in the post-White Paper rationalisation.

TEN YEARS AFTER: The NME has just announced the tracklisting for One Love, the 50th anniversary CD where stars cover number ones from the last umpteen years in aid of charity. Here, elegantly cut and pasted from their website, is the rundown:
Starsailor - 'All Or Nothing' (The Small Faces, 1966)
Feeder - 'The Power Of Love' (Frankie Goes To Hollywood, 1984)
Sugababes - 'Killer' (Adamski, 1990)
The Muse - 'House Of The Rising Son' (The Animals, 1964)
Stereophonics - 'Nothing Compares 2 U' (Sinead O' Connor, 1990)
Faithless/Dido - 'Dub Be Good 2 Me' (Beats International, 1990)
Oasis - 'Merry Xmas Everybody' (Slade, 1973)
Elbow 'Something In The Air' (Thunderclap Newman, 1969)
Ms Dynamite - 'Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) (Soul II Soul, 1989)
Manic Street Preachers - 'Out Of Time' (Chris Farlowe, 1966)
Badly Drawn Boy - 'Come On Eileen' (Dexy's Midnight Runners, 1982)
Prodigy - 'Ghost Town' (The Specials, 1981)
Jimmy Eat World - 'Firestarter' (Prodigy, 1996)
McAlmont And Butler - 'Back For Good' (Take That, 1995)
Darius - 'Pretty Flamingo' (Manfred Mann, 1966)
More Fire Crew -'Dreams' (Gabrielle, 1993)

Now, there's a couple of things there we'd like to hear - particularly the McAlmont/Butler Back For Good and we're curious to see what the More Fire Crew do to Gabrielle - but there's a sense of disappointment about the whole project - Oasis covering Slade isn't an event, it's almost their career; the Stereophonics are probably going to batter the life out of Prince's song and still think they're being emotionally raw; and Darius being there at all feels wrong (probably guarantee a few extra quid for charity, but even so...)

Compare this, though, with the NME's Ruby Trax, same idea, only ten years ago. Firstly, the ambition was greater - a triple album, featuring a range more top drawer acts than the new effort, and more space for surprises and delights - like the Mission taking on Atomic, EMF battering Joe Dolce and the Neds Never Being To Me. Indeed, the fact that so many artists chose to try and find the sublime in the throwaway suggests that the artists of the 90's were more attached to the charts and music in general back then; embracing the Top 40 for the quirks it used to throw up rather than scouring the list of number ones for something they could do which came with the credibility hard-wired. Yes, Sugababes doing Killer will be worth hearing, and their people have chosen a great tune for them, but wouldn't it have been better to get them doing Una Paloma Blanca? And yes, Ms Dynamite, you know your r&b history choosing Back To Life, but couldn't you have found space in your schedule to serve up The Chicken Song for charity?
Suggestion for your 60th, NME - get the bands, and put the songs in a hat. The random element will make for a spicier listen.
(That Ruby Trax listing in full:)
Disc 1
1. the wonder stuff - coz i luv you
2. billy bragg - when will i see you again?
3. the jesus and mary chain - little red rooster
4. the mission - atomic
5. the fatima mansions - (everything i do) i do it for you
6. st etienne - stranger in paradise
7. the wedding present - cumberland gap
8. aztec camera / andy fairweather-low - (if paradise is) half as nice
9. dannii minogue - show you the way to go
10. welfare heroine - where do you go to my lovely?
11. the blue aeroplanes - bad moon rising
12. senseless things - apache
13. teenage fanclub - mr tambourine man

Disc 2
1. another brick in the wall - carter usm
2. maggie may - blur
3. ashes to ashes - tears for fears
4. rock your baby - the house of love
5. i'm a believer - the frank & walters
6. shaddap you face - emf
7. brass in pocket - suede
8. ring my bell - tori amos
9. lady madonna - kingmaker
10. like a prayer - marc almond
11. don't you want me? - the farm
12. i've never been to me - ned's atomic dustbin
13. my sweet lord - boy george

Disc 3
1. jesus jones - voodoo chile
2. bob geldof - sunny afternoon
3. johhny marr & billy duffy - the good, the bad and the ugly
4. cud - down down
5. the fall - legend of xanadu
6. sinead o'connor - secret love
7. world party - world without love
8. inspiral carpets - tainted love
9. elektric music - baby come back
10. ride - the model
11. vic reeves - vienna
12. tin machine - go now
13. curve - i feel love
14. manic street preachers - suicide is painless

DEAF AS A POST: Phil Collins has announced he's pulling out of touring, as he fears unpleasant loud noises could make him go permanently deaf. The punchlines pretty much write themselves, don't they?

NO WAY, NO WAY: Last week, we were watching VH1's 100 Worst Videos of All Time (the winner, unfairly, was Wired For Sound by Cliff Richard - come on, it was 1981; technology was so low-fi we were excited by Walkmen, for crying out loud - it might look creaky now, but it stacks up besides most stuff from the time pretty well) and we came across a track called No Way, No Way by a band called Vanilla. Now, this is more like it - 1997, and still stuck with no ideas other than pointing a camera at a group of girls in horrid clothes (day glo crop tops and bikini bottoms; nobody matching anybody - nobody matching themselves); stood by a swimming pool singing a piece of fluffy nothing that was built around "mna-mna" from the muppets. Like gallstones, we found it hard to get the pain out of our bodies, and so just iddly googled on them, discovering that not only are they still around, but - perhaps shrewdly as it turned out - the band discovered Marx and announced they weren't in pop to make money. Bizarre publicity seekers? Really 'riot grrls on a pop platform'? Really about to re-release No Way No Way? Now, we're curious...

HOW CAN YOU BLAME THIS ON PEER TO PEER: Evidence from the Denver Post that this year's concert ticket sales have been worse than rubbish gives more creedence to the popular belief that the decline in record sales has been because the music has been less than inspiring ratehr than due to any downloading by the kids. If concert sales were rising while record sales were falling, then there'd be something wrong. However, falling ticket sales, and less recorded music being bought... that might suggest that the industry and not the consumers is at fault. Again.
We keep saying this, and we'll keep saying it.

IN ANOTHER CITY: By all accounts this year's Tony Wilson music yakfest In The City was the duffest since the start of the UK's answer to Midem, SXSW and the rest was created. Hmmm, you wonder why record execs can sytill find the cash for a jaunt to Cannes or New York but just can't scrape the readies together for a September weekend in Salford. Anyway, another attempt to get the British Music Industry to stop from standing outside PC World with placards is coming up in the form of Music Works, which kicks off at Halloween in Glasgow. While the seminars planned are interesting-enough sounding - why tracks get chosen for TV ads, who killed music TV - the confirmed participants don't really sound like they're going to persuade people to run the risk of Virgin West Coast come the clocks going back - £175 to hear the Shadow Minister for Culture. Does anyone actually know who he is?
There probably is room for one good UK music conference. There doesn't seem to be demand or material to keep two going.

THE GOOD DOG: Apparently, the Labour Party have been known to ring Damon Albarn up and asked him to not make the political statements he's been making (this according to Alex, writing in this week's New Statesman.) So, are we to conclude that the Blair machine would rather our popstars behave like this, instead: "I don't understand all these pop stars saying 'We should have a democratic debate about the war'...my opinion means nothing. The people in the White House can change this, I play guitar in a band and we're really good. Arsed about anything else."
Gallagher Brothers, Inc - the good men willing to do nothing:

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