Cranky?

Let’s hear it for aging rock stars. Bob Dylan, the man who wins any award that baby boomers can think to give him, apparently isn’t a fan of new music. NME reports his current tour program has the following rant:

I know there are groups at the top of the charts that are hailed as the saviours of rock'n'roll and all that, but they are amateurs. They don't know where the music comes from…

: Damn kinds! I realize he’s just playing to his base of fans who believe any music worth listening to was recorded years ago, but this from the guy who wrote overrated staples like “Lay Lady Lay?” Come on.
Continuing with the aging theme, in one of the better New Order interviews ever (where were these promoting “Get Ready”) The Independent found Bernard talking about Hooky going down to yell at The Libertines about having the tv up too loud while they were at the same residential studio recording their new albums. There’s something to be said for the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle…

Internet Drama

Here I just wanted to have fun with my blog, but internet drama has shown up again and someone has to set the record straight. At this point I haven't posted this to any forums, but due to the amount of sympathy he has been receiving I feel the need to point out Kirlian Blue (aka Mark)’s recent “banning” on slothradio never actually happened. KB has admitted to visiting sloth (logged in oddly enough) since his “banning” took place when someone asked him about it in the EN thread he started, KB went on to say that Sloth was denying that KB was ever banned. Why would Sloth do that? Because KB was never banned.
I did a little time stamp detective work and the way it shows up in my browser Kirlian posted his last sloth message (oddly enough a jab at someone who got banned at bimfactor) at 3:42PST and then announced on bimfactor at 3:42PST that he had been banned from slothradio. I could see the minutes being off by a bit, but given that it was before 5am in Utah I don’t think this final post pushed Sloth over the edge to ban him.
The deleted thread KB is ranting about before his “final” post was a promo (I did see it and was surprised that it made it past the auto censor, which for the record is essentially the same as the one that they used on the late Electrogarden which spawned these forums that are now fighting) for his band which if other recent posts are similar, mentioned their site, "controversially" named album and the song “Date Rape Lovers” which given the fairly strict guidelines at sloth one would expect the post to get deleted (you would think one would get the idea of boundaries after 150 posts or so on a given forum). Given that I have also seen Kirlian complaining on EN about trying to get his band added to the SlothRadio playlist and not having any success, it would make sense for KB to use this fake banning as a launching point for his radio station (that put his band in high rotation) and to further promotion of his band which recently found itself no longer involved with KMA Records. When it comes down to it, KB has received an enormous amount of sympathy over this, and it’s a lie.
Of course I’m probably more on top of this because I was recently stung by KB on the slothforums because I dared question the ability of any one artist (in this case Numan) to be the sole influence of all synthpop and KB launched into an attack on me where he accused me of slandering him. This supposed slander came from one post on bimfactor about how I didn’t think his music was major label quality and I questioned effectiveness of his promotion abilities. Always secure and indifferent to the inferior opinions of others, Kirlian sent me an email (I don’t know where he got my address) where he questioned my “facts” about the number of downloads I believe he claimed to have received. Since this happened after KB had actually been banned from ElectroCulture (for fighting with one of the people who believed he received special treatment from the site's owners and then ended up founding the bimfactor forums) I wasn’t able to back up my point because all his posts had been deleted from that forum, so I publicly and privately apologized for the remark about the number of downloads but never backed down on my opinion of his music. At this point you've probably figured out that I've changed my mind about his promoting powers. He's played everyone like a fiddle.

Worst Headline Ever?

Finally A Grammy For Britney

Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine

Much to my surprise, the new Moby single turned up on itunes this morning. On the first few listens, "Beautiful" isn't the single I was wishing for. I do like Moby's rock stuff when it's got a new wave taste to it, "We Are All Made Of Stars" or "South Side" are about as good as rock gets to my taste, but this is a bit more straight rock and lacking any immediate spark. It could be that I'm missing it, so we'll see what I think in a couple of weeks.
I also noticed the Kylie Minogue song that the Scissor Sister's wrote for her turned up on itunes recently as well. I had heard the song a couple of months ago, and it turns out to sound even better when it's not being streamed. It's not quite as interesting as SS's on their own, but it's still the best song I've heard from the "disco with a string section" school in months.
Aren't videos where the music doesn't start until a third of the way in the best? Take the new J Lo video takes nearly a minute and half to get into the song. Maybe this says something about the music, which isn't bad, but I suspect it's so Jennifer can show off her acting chops (she was taken seriously as an actress not that long ago, believe it or not). The video is fantastic because J Lo gets to play her pop-star-using-the-least-functional-fur-coat-in-years self in the video within the video, a club dj single mom, a dancer, someone else, and a dorky girl getting into the groove (by far the most sexy persona) where all of these women's lives meet in this happening club where the crowd goes nuts for her song. Tell me this isn't acting taken to the next level. Just try it.

We Are All Made Of Free Downloads

Inspired by Bloc Party's contribution to the amazing new Chemical Brothers album I stopped by their site where they have free downloads of three great songs off their EP. Predictably, my favorite is the remix of Banquet which is fantastic dance rock.
I've also recently discovered Tristan Shout, the new project of Bill the former synthman for Moonlife. At the moment TS is primarily making mash-ups and his stuff ranks with the best I've heard. Who would have thought that Moby's "We Are All Made Of Stars" would become permanently confused in my mind with Covenant's "Dead Stars" and I would suddenly start feeling a strong connection between Kraftwerk and Rupaul? Unbelievable stuff, and his originals have that spark that got me hooked on Moonlife. I can’t wait for more.