With Hillary Rosen and the RIAA piercing the music journals with their sad-sack ammoniac whining about how downloading is ripping into their profits and P2P users are the spawn of Beelzebub himself, it's kind of funny that this little news item slipped by major media. Bet you didn't know there was a price-fixing lawsuit against the record industry, didja? I sure didn't.
Attorney Generals in 41 states accused record companies of overpricing their product between 1995 and 2000, bilking CD consumers for billions and billions of dollars. Rather than carry it out to trial, the RIAA decided to settle the case. Here's the great thing -- if you live in one of those 41 states, you can actually apply for a part of the settlement! I mean, it'll probably only amount to four bucks per person or something, but hey! That's 4 of Vern Rumsey's beloved Hot Mama Sausages! Not sure which states were in the lawsuit or not.
WEA denied all wrongdoing and said the settlement was merely a business decision. Yeah, I've always found parting with large sums of money to be a good business decision.
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Speaking of Herr Rosen, ringleader for the RIAA, on Tuesday the U.S. house approved a royalty payment scheme, a result of a compromise between smaller webcasters and the RIAA. This agreement is a good deal better for internet radio stations that bring in less than $1 mil a year, lowering their royalty payment to 8% of revenue rather than a flat rate of 7 cents a song. It still doesn't sound kosher to me, but that's because I don't like talking about money. The smaller webcasters in question seem happy with the compromise, though.
But in an interesting twist, the final version of the House bill had to be amended at the last minute. Democrat John Conyers noted a little loophole that Hillary Rosen tried to sneak past the prom planning committee, which stipulated that artists were not guaranteed that they would be paid directly. I presume that means the check was to be cut to the record companies in question first, who'd then distribute it to their artists as they saw the books. Aha! Nice try, Hilly! We'll make sure you get a home version of the game for your sporting effort!
After a revision changing this line item to the satisfaction of musicians, the bill passed the House. Now it goes onto the Senate. In the meantime, the Euros are shaping up their own revenue plans for their radio websites.
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Speaking of speaking of Herr Rosen -- did you know she had this little brainstorm that would involve the RIAA hacking into your computer, legally, if you were suspected of downloading shit?
Who the fuck are these people?
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There hasn't really been that much hype to disbelieve with Public Enemy in recent years, but their new video "Gotta Give the Peeps What They Need" has been banned from MTV. After seeing the video I thought it was because of the shots of real-life violence that bookend the clip, which were in fact not that startling to watch. As it turns out, that's not the case. MTV was jittery about one single, solitary word in the lyric -- "free."
MTV asked PE to delete that word from a lyric that goes "Free Mumia." This is in reference to Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing a police officer in Philadelphia. A former Black Panther and journalist, Abu-Jamal has had Amnesty International, the California AFL-CIO(!), and the city council of Paris, France defend him, as they believe the conviction was unwarranted and the trial was unfair.
Whether or not one disagrees with the sentiments expressed by Public Enemy, this is a pretty clear attempt to shut up debate about the whole issue from the people who insist The Real World actually takes place in the real world. You can see the video in its entirety with your QuickTime application and a trip to mp4.com.
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You think the record industry is being a bunch of Nazis over the downloading and internet radio issues? You got no idea what past fascist experience Bertlesmann Music Group (BMG) brings to the floor.
BMG's past ties to Adolf Hitler have been known about for awhile, but in his new book, Bertelsmann in the Third Reich, historian Saul Friedlander reveals that BMG assisted Hitler with producing his propaganda. BMG founder Heinrich Mohn was, in fact, a card-carrying member of an SS sponsors group, and their publishing arm produced a lot of books sympathetic to Adolf. The book however mentions, but can't substantiate, rumors that BMG's closure in 1944 was because of the "company's opposition to Hitler."
Obviously it's not entirely fair to blame current management of German companies for their misguided ties to ethnic cleansing efforts 60 years past (just ask Bayer Aspirin -- or better yet, sue 'em). BMG, who releases products by Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Mobb Deep, Outkast, and others Hitler might not have tapped his jackboots to, made a statement confirming their past ties with the Nazis, expressing regret and emphasizing the importance of historical accuracy.
An amusing sidenote: The English version of Friedlander's book is published by Random House, which is owned by take-a-wild-guess.
For the second straight week, attempts to reach Presley for comment at his trailer in Saginaw, Michigan were not returned. He's probably a little embarrassed by this.
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Now that C. Love and was-Nirvana have resolved their differences, we have uncovered the lineup for the upcoming (and for most of us, probably utterly unnecessary) Nirvana best-of. Here it is: 1. You Know You're Right (new track), 2. About A Girl, 3. Been A Son, 4. Sliver, 5. Smells Like Teen Spirit, 6. Come As You Are, 7. Lithium, 8. In Bloom, 9. Heart-Shaped Box, 10. Pennyroyal Tea, 11. Rape Me, 12. Dumb, 13. All Apologies, 14. The Man Who Sold The World.
It's a weird case. For one thing, some of us feel so passionately about Nirvana albums as complete entities -- particularly Nevermind and In Utero -- that making a best-of seems silly. On the other hand, we know the Nirvana cash cow is bound to spring up at some point. But on a third hand, why don't we just wait for the box set, which (I figure) will be remastered and supplmented with bonus tracks and alternate versions? On a fourth hand, since when is an unreleased track a "greatest hit"? (I've had the fucker downloaded for two weeks and still haven't listened to it.)
On a fifth hand -- well, since the three biggest acts in rock history have all come up with spurious greatest-hits albums in the last year-and-a-half alone, I suppose it makes sense for one of the ten most important to do so as well. When they get to the New York Dolls, wake me.
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Speaking of Nirvana, will someone tell me why the fuck Courtney Love has it in for Dave Grohl? Exactly when has Grohl ever assumed anything more than a deferential stance towards his role in Nirvana? Was it after Courtney, who wasn't even in the band, sued him? Was she there? Listen to this -- here's a response Dave Grohl gave to a Spin reporter's utterly stupid question about whether, since Nirvana only got big after he joined the group, that Dave made Nirvana a better band:
"Grohl: Shit, it could have been better [without me]. What happened in Nirvana happened because of timing. It could have been us or Jane's Addiction or the Pixies or Hüsker Dü.
"Spin: A lot of this is Krist's deal, right?
"Grohl: Well, you have to understand that Krist is Nirvana. He said at one point, 'How many Nirvana shows have you been to? Because I've been to every one of 'em.' It was kind of profound. Nirvana was Krist's idea and project as much as it was Kurt's."
I like Dave. As a person. For the same reasons I like Garth Brooks, as a person. And for a loud-sounding, corporate-rock-still-sucks major-label band, you could do far worse than Foo Fighters. Creed, for example. And nobody wrote a more poignant post-Kurt song about Kurt than "Walking After You" or "My Hero." Did Courtney even try? No. And Dave Grohl made Mentos hip again, and utterly desecreated "Stairway to Heaven" on national television, when most of us had been praying to the skies that somebody would take that sacred cow and serve it up Philly-cheesesteak style.
I'm not afraid to say it. I like Dave Grohl. Even though he has a goatee. I say this with complete admiration and support for Courtney's efforts to release musicians from the prison cells of their long-term record contracts -- I'm far more ambivalent about Courtney than most people I know, which in Olympia, is saying a whole fucking lot. But getting on Dave Grohl's case? C'mon -- dude knew his place in the band, built something of his own, and is one of alt-rock's most obvious non-assholes.
I like and respect Dave Grohl. And I'm not afraid to admit it. Let's have him over for fondue.
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God knows, I got a major jones for Britney Spears. Not musically, although I actually like that "Lucky" song. And not sexually, since I prefer more modestly gifted girls who can legally drink and who I'm certain don't have to be artifically inflated. But ever since Brit said those curse words in Rio last year, standing up for her fans, I hafta admit, that Louisiana test-tube baby won me over the same way Garth Brooks did.
But oops, the NYC restaurant she owns is in trouble for having dented cans.
No, no, no, not those types of cans, you pervert.
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Speaking of former Mousketeers who are now publicly dealing with their sexual latency periods, a close friend of mine insists the new Christina Aguilera video for "Dirty" outstrips (pardon the pun) SOS's much-beloved Kylie Minogue lingerie ad video.
I don't agree, but you can judge for yourself if you've the time. I mean, there's no mechanical bull in this video, y'know? Granted, there's a girl-to-girl blip, and a pretty obvious copulation suggestion towards the end, but none of the very integral moaning from the Kylie video. Not that I was viewing this from a pornographic standpoint or anything.
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All this major-label fish-in-barrel shooting is getting to me. Time to move on to this week's album recommendations. I have two this time.
Robyn Hitchcock's name has been brought up here a lot lately. He's one of my three favorite musicians of all time, locked in an eternal tie with Elvis Costello and Stevie Wonder. I know many of my beloved Rodeo Kill and King Dinosaur bandmates feel the same way, and that Sir Mayoknave and I probably first connected on our mutual love for him. And if you haven't caught the wave yet, you got a lot of buying to do, and all his past solo records are still, as I recall, in circulation. I'm biased, of course, having sworn devotion to Robyn based solely on the fact that he released Perspex Island exactly at the moment I needed it. (And it's not even a favorite Hitchcock album among fans of the man.)
But on an objective basis, he's one of the most consistent, foolproof songwriters of rock history -- his only bum album, Gravy Deco (or Groovy Decoy if you're a purist), was the result of bad production, which he was wise enough to purge himself from and never return to since. The rest of his output is pleasant at worst and downright beautiful at best.
Hitchcock's original band, the Soft Boys, disbanded more than twenty years ago. Last year they reunited for a tour, and watching guitarist Kimberly Rew (a member of Katrina & the Waves, and the man who actually wrote "Walking on Sunshine") in his unconquerable glee was, to be honest, a beautiful thing to witness. You may never see a guitarist in a live situation who looks more happy, more "into it", and more grateful to be playing music for a living than Mr. Rew. I know I never have. They're touring now, and if you want to see someone for whom music is everything, buy a ticket and look at Kim. You'll get it then.
Since their tour was a success, the Soft Boys rather unceremoniously got back together and recorded a new album, Nextdoorland, and released it last month. For fans of Hitchcock's solo work, Nextdoorland is merely a continuation of his amazing gift of combining smart, somewhat detached, but very connected lyrics with timeless melodies. Hitchcock always writes from a perceived distance, but if you let his songs infect you, they could just wind up meaning everything in the world to you.
For Soft Boys fans, Nextdoorland is simply a continuation of their career, with Kim's very crisp, very treble guitar lines showing that they've been sorely missed since the band went on a very long hiatus. It's just a damn good album, and one of the extremely few reunion attempts in recorded history to result in a record nearly as strong as the first incarnation. You'll love it. Find it. It's currently being offered as a sale item on amazon.com, along with the new Beck album, Sea Changes, whose beauty I realize I haven't done justice yet either.
And Soundtrack of Our Lives' new old album Behind the Music (ha ha) is being offered in combo with the White Stripes' excellent White Blood Cells. SOOL is from Sweden, like everyone else in music these days. They're linked with psychedelia, but that's not really accurate; their melodic gifts and self-assuredness reminds me more of Guided By Voices' devotion to the great melody. I recommend this album highly on the basis of its first two songs, "Infra Riot" and "Sister Surround." They're the catchiest one-two leadoff punch this year, and "Sister Surround" is so well put together and irresistible that it's already guaranteed a position of my Top 2 songs of the year. The album was released in 2001 in Sweden, but has now just gotten to the States. You should steal it today.
And now I steal away myself, till next time, footsoldiers of the KISS army. Good luck and good night.
