Festival Wrap Up

It's music festival season in Europe and while it's the place to be musically I still enjoy watching from a distance. Interestingly, it's Las Vegas' The Killers, and their singer Brandon Flowers (who spent his pre-Killers days in the micro-internet scene of Modern Synthpop) that have been getting the most attention. Here is nme's take on the Oxegen Festival:

The day belonged to The Killers. Though only third on the bill, the Las Vegas favourites drew the biggest ever crowd at the festival with 40,000 adoring fans – at a conservative estimate – thronging the main stage to see them. Such was their appeal, that all the other stages suffered with just handfuls collected to watch when The Killers were in action.

: in Scotland's T In The Park it was Flowers who got the attention of the press again during New Order's set:

Flowers joined the band for 2001 single ’Crystal’. The band in the video for the song were called The Killers.

The band also dedicated the Joy Division classic ’Atmosphere’ to the people of London after the recent bomb attacks on the city.

Bassist Peter Hook said: “There was just no need for that, no need for that at all.” He had earlier told NME.COM: ”It’s really scary. It shows what a rotten world we live in.”

He also praised Scottish audiences, saying: “They seem to love us, even after some of the dodgy shows we’ve played here! They don’t bottle us anyway.”

: The same festival saw Flower's "rivals" play in what I assume was poorly received set as well:

THE BRAVERY have paid tribute to the local culture during their controversial T IN THE PARK appearance this afternoon (July 10).

The band began their set with a full Scottish marching band, complete with bagpipes and drums, who played several traditional songs before joining in with The Bravery’s material.

”It’s awesome, I’ve always wanted to play with bagpipes my whole life,” singer Sam Endicott explained. “And I must say I’ve never seen better bottle throwing in my life!”

However the link up with the be-kilted ones proved more difficult to pull off then the band first hoped.

Initially a police band were booked but they were then called-up to reinforce security at the nearby G8 summit, then The Bravery’s late arrival on site after their plane was delayed meant they had little time to practice with the pipers.

The late arrival also saw the band’s set dramatically cut short, as the plug was pulled as the band tried to play closing song ’Unconditional’ leaving The Bravery to helplessly apologise to disappointed fans.

: T also brought some shocking news as well. The writer's block prone Liam Howelett has some new songs less than a year after the cool reception of “Always Outnumbered…”:

Liam commented: “Now we’re back on the road as a trio we’ve been coming up with new tunes. I write tunes on my laptop. We’d play gigs before but weren’t coming up with new stuff.”

: Perhaps my prediction of that band's demise was premature. Time will tell.

Bad Press

I first saw this story on Thursday evening:

London was the scene of carnage Thursday after a series of deadly blasts but American R&B crooner Omarion, who suffered no injury or inconvenience, wants people to pray for him.

“Omarion was in London during the tragic bombings that struck this morning,” a statement by the singer’s publicist AR PR Marketing, released hours after the bombings, said.

Making no mention of the fatalities or casualties of the blasts, the singer’s statement concluded, “He would like his fans to pray that he has a safe trip and a safe return home. He appreciates your support.”

...his publicist Shana Gilmore told Reuters from Los Angeles. Asked why anyone should pray for him, Gilmore said, “He wasn’t hurt or anything, but just the fact that he was there and all that.”

: I assumed it was the work of an overactive publicist and I may have been right according to this follow up story that details Omarion's people denouncing the story as a hoax going on to explains that "his publicist" had a degree of separation or two from the singer with her own poor sense of appropriateness:

Gilmore, whom Omarion's camp said "is not known to the artist," works for AR PR Marketing. But to MTV.com, even she denied working with Omarion. She said Reuters misquoted and misidentified her.


"This kind of sucks," Gilmore told MTV.com. "I didn't make those quotes. This is sad and it hurts."


Presumably, though, not as much as Londoners are hurting.

London

My heart goes out to all those who have felt the effects of yesterday's bombing in London. Most everyone I know online who live in the area have checked in, and while I've always known it is a small world I was totally shocked to find that one of my best friend's sister was four blocks away from one of the explosions while on a school trip. I found the following response to the attacks from the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, reprinted on the Pet Shop Boys site and found it touching.

I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.

That isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith - it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other. I said yesterday to the International Olympic Committee, that the city of London is the greatest in the world, because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I'm proud to be the mayor of that city.

Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life.

I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.

In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.

They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don't want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.

Storm Blows Itself Out

PSB fans should recognize Pete Gleadall as the 3rd Pet Shop Boy who has been credited with programming on most of the bands records for the past decade and has even been out to help the Neil and Chris play deejay sets, so I found it odd when I was reading an article about Live 8 that used him for the story's only quotation, and it was about the weather:

Some workers setting up scaffolding and sound systems lamented the unusually rainy weather that has plagued the Russian capital for the past week.

"Well, it has been (awful), but it is getting better," said Pete Gladdel, a sound engineer for the Pet Shop Boys. "I think it's rained for the day and then it's going to be nice from now on we're hoping."

It was so random that I had to take note of it. I imagine my fifteen minutes of fame will be as well spent.
As for the Boys' performance, aol has essentially ignored the Moscow portion of the concert with a chance to see parts of it if you tune into the repeating global stream and wait for it show up again, so I've only seen "Go West" at this point. It was different from any other take on the song I've heard and that impressive in my book because they only rehearsed for five days before taking to the (almost) global stage.
In the spirit of Live 8 I leave you with this taken from a wrap up of the Canadian portion of the concert:

Apparently, there weren't too many Celine Dion fans at Park Place. When Ackroyd and Tom Green introduced the Quebec pop diva, the jeers were so loud that it drowned out the co-hosts.

Reach The Understanding

For the next week you can stream Röyksopp's new album "The Understanding" by launching a player by way of vh1. Based on my first listen it's an album that is well worth getting excited about featuring electropop songs that soar and instrumentals with purpose. In other words it's much better than I feared from my initial reaction to the first single...

Oh La La

With only eight months until the album is released in the US, the video for Goldfrapp's "Ooh La La" just showed up online and you can see by way ofnme.

What A Beautiful Situation

After failing to get his initial solo album, which would eventually turn into "Other People's Songs," off the ground, Andy Bell's solo career just got some good news:

Erasure frontman Andy Bell has signed a worldwide solo recording deal with Sanctuary Records, and announced details of his debut album, which will be released on 3rd October 2005, and entitled 'Electric Blue'.

The first single release will be 'Crazy', released on September 26th. The single will come on three formats, with club remixes from Erasure partner Vince Clarke, plus Cicada, MHC and King Roc...

The album features 14 brand new tracks, including two duets, with Claudia Brucken (of Propaganda and Act) and Jake Shears (of Scissor Sisters), and encompasses a variety of musical genres.

'Electric Blue' was co-written and recorded throughout 2004 and 2005 with Manhattan Clique (Philip Larsen & Chris Smith)...

Live dates are being planned for late 2005/early 2006, and the trio are also planning a series of PA's and DJ gigs around album release.

: Bell has also worked with Manhattan Clique to remix the upcoming Goldfrapp single "Ohh La La" where he added aditional vocals. The man's keeping busy for someone who had hip replacement surgery in the past few years.

Vanishing Point

New Order have a DVD collecting their videos due out this fall and the fanatics over at NewOrderOnline got their hands on a tracklisting. Here it is with what I remember of what I've seen.

Confusion Fantastic! The video reenacts how the band fine tuned the song by taking it down to the disco and seeing how it did on the dance floor. Bernard (I think) sports some short shorts and even back in the day Arthur Baker was one huge dude.
The Perfect Kiss Quite possibly the best performance video of an electronic song. Great frog samples.
Shellshock
State of the Nation
Bizarre Love Triangle Bouncing!
True Faith A Daft Punk video before there were Daft Punk videos.
Touched By The Hand Of God Take a silly concept like NO dressing up like Bon Jovi and intercut with a rape(?) scene? Art from the director who would go on to make “Point Break.”
Blue Monday ‘88 Wasn’t that good, but I remember objects and bold use of colors that come across as very 80's at this point.
Fine Time Bedtime fun time for the kids!
Round & Round I think is the one with the models staring at the camera, great stuff.
Run It’s been awhile but I remember something about a street corner and becoming quickly annoyed.
World In Motion Football hooligans and Barney in an Elvis jumpsuit.
Regret Split screen with lots of edits, one of my favorite videos.
Ruined In A Day I’ve only seen clips of this and if it’s got subtitles then I can’t wait to see the whole thing.
World Best use of band member cameos. Some of the best use of long takes and slow-ish motion ever used in the music video format.
Spooky My pick for the worst New Order single ever had a video?
1963
Crystal Received a lot of notice lately because of The Killers connection, but a bit too much like that first Blues Traveler video.
60 Miles An Hour I’ve only seen this once and it was truly horrible.
Here To Stay Was this on the CD single or something because it sounds vaguely familiar. Not a good sign that I don’t remember a thing about it.
Krafty Like Pulp’s “Do You Remember The First Time?” video, but with more kissing.
Jetstream I have this horrible feeling that they approved the pitch after seeing that recent U2 video and saying hell we should be playing surrounded by computer animation too. Oh, why did they even bother putting Anna Mantronic in the video if she’s not actually interacting with the band or really with the videos concept?
Waiting For The Sirens’ Call

Extras:
Round & Round – USA/Patty
Regret – Baywatch
Crystal – Gina Birch version

Live:
Temptation (from 3.16)

New:
Ceremony (dir. by Yu Likwai)
Temptation (dir. by Michael H. Shamberg)

Represent

Born and raised in beautiful San Jose, California my day got a bit better when I heard this news earlier today:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that the South Bay city has overtaken Detroit to become the 10th largest city in the country, with a population estimated at 904,522. San Francisco continues to be in 14th place, with 744,230 residents.

: While I now live on the Peninsula now, I can't help feel a bit of family responsibility for this trend because my grandparents left Detroit in the late 50's to move with my mom to San Jose. Of course, why no one knows where San Jose probably stems from this part of the story:

The other cities in the top 10 all have high-profile sports teams. San Jose has only the Sharks -- who joined the rest of the National Hockey League in missing all of last season because of a lockout -- but for years has been trying to lure a Major League Baseball team from San Francisco or Oakland.

: Just in case you're into checking links I am well aware of the irony of using a San Francisco newspaper as my reference in a story about San Jose, but the Mercury News wants people to register to read their stories. At least they're not still charging $10 a month like they did when they first went online...

PSB Live In Red Square

Does this mean that the Pet Shop Boys are now officially over their rock charity phobia?

It has just been announced that Pet Shop Boys will be performing at the Live 8 concert in Moscow, Russia, this Saturday (July 2). The concert will take place in Red Square from 19.00 to 22.30 and is the ninth Live 8 concert to be announced for Saturday...

Pet Shop Boys are busy rehearsing for their Live 8 performance this coming Saturday. After confirming their participation at the weekend, Neil and Chris have gone straight into rehearsals with Mark Refoy (guitars), Dawne Adams (percussion) and Sylvia Mason-James (vocals). For more Live 8 details see below.


On returning from Russia, Pet Shop Boys will continue recording tracks for their new album with Trevor Horn who is now producing the bulk of the album.

from petshopboys.co.uk

Rockism Watch

I love the "Voltage" blog maintained by Maximus where he frequently posts about Rockism within the music press. Here's an excerpt he cited from a New York Times article that did some peer reviewing:

If The Believer's music issue is more problematic, that's because it's also more neutral. In an effort to stamp out snark, the editors also seem to have stamped out skepticism, and so the magazine takes it for granted that indie-rockers are the most important musicians on the planet: the harpist and songwriter Joanna Newsom, for example, taps into "a deep, universal pain." ...

There is scarcely any mention of the kind of music left out. Mainstream pop music is mainly off-limits, although Rick Moody makes a grudging confession: "I like pop songs, too, of course, in reasonable doses." (Later, he takes a swipe at "the bland affirmations of the contemporary 'country' radio format.") And black and Latin music is almost entirely absent. At one point, Mr. Roderick claims that "indie-rock culture is the real ghetto of people who have convinced themselves that they're too sensitive to be yelled at or to yell." The interviewer responds with what might be The Believer's unofficial credo: "When it's genuine, though, it's different."

: It's this elitist attitude about what is "acceptable" and "authentic" music that turns me off from much of the music press. Thanks for the link Maximus!

From The Past Until Completion

Blue Monday Owner's Club is an evolving art project site that collects regular folks posing with their copies of New Order's electronic classic:

It's well known that on its release, Blue Monday was only available on 12" format and it sold in truck loads. Around 3 million copies. The best selling 12" single ever. And it lived in that futuristic sleeve, appropriated from the design of a floppy disk for a sequencer. It was so clear that the recorded contents were at home in that slickness. The perfect synthesis of synthetic sound and design.

: A fun site which seems to indicate that there are plenty of white guys out there willing to pose with at least of some of their record collection...
(Thanks to VoodooRu on bimfactor for posting the link)

Twist

Sad news for US fans of Goldfrapp:

As part of the global strategy to launch and break the highly anticipated forthcoming album by GOLDFRAPP--the U.K.'s finest electronic pop alchemists--Mute US will now release Supernature in February 2006 to accommodate the overwhelming demands of the international marketplace.

The UK and Europe--where demand for GOLDFRAPP is extremely high, both on the promotional and touring side--will release the album on August 22, 2005. European tour dates begin this summer with festival dates and continue into the fall with club dates. The duo--Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory--are already in the midst of a very extensive European promotional trip.

Because of the demand for GOLDFRAPP in the UK and Europe, Mute U.S. will release the album in the New Year to take advantage of the increased visibility and flexibility in the band's schedule. This scenario allows them to be in America to coincide with Mute's U.S release date in February.

Through pioneering electronics, crystalline vocals, visual theatrics and dark-sex decadence, GOLDFRAPP have moved through the ambient shadows into the technicolor dream that is the hallmark of classic British pop music.

Supernature follows their Mercury Prize-nominated debut release Felt Mountain (2000) and second album Black Cherry (2003), which received one rave review after another in the American press including four-star accolades from Rolling Stone and Blender. The new album is the sound of GOLDFRAPP breaking through their own crash barrier--a strident, psychedelic, 100% uncompromising creative force at the top of their very own game. Alison says Supernature is “…an über world of sound and hybrid creatures. It’s a place to take part in fortnightly disco séances, where people dance with spirits and howl like beasts of the forest wearing lycra and stilettos.”

: While it's fantastic that Goldfrapp will be making out to the US to actually promote their music I don't want to wait another half a year to buy the album.

Freezepop Forever

I'm a bit sweet on Freezepop and while they have their detractors who dismiss them as the Weird Al of the synthpop set I admire the fun spirit they bring to their music while using strong songwriting. This excerpt is from a photo essay posted to a fan's live journal who acted out the lyrics of "Chess King" is but one example of how they've inspired fans and I think that speaks volumes about the quality of their music.

So Easy

Röyksopp's new album "The Understanding" is due out in less than a month and their label just put out an ecard worth looking at featuring the new video, streams of a couple songs and an album sampler. Astralwerks describes the new album as:

Röyksopp's most accomplished release yet, an inspired & ambitious musical confection fusing otherworldly melodies, irresistible rhythms and a cinematic sweep that transcends categories.

: I would describe the first single "Only This Moment" as a bit dated and too "up" for my tastes, but it's still not a song I can simply dismiss. Maybe you'll like it.

Hot Ride

I'm guessing that Liam and company are thinking it's time to call it day and move on. Here's the news from nme:

PRODIGY are to release a greatest hits compilation in the summer.

The dance veterans release 'Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005' on August 22.

The record will feature tracks from all of their studio albums, as well as two new songs.

: It will be interesting to see if the disowned "Baby's Got A Temper" is included.

Environmental Changes

Bob Woodward recently wrote an in depth article describing his relationship with Mark Felt and how it began before he had decided to go into the news business. Here are some highlights of the spy games they used to plan meetings while the scandal was unraveling:

We would need a preplanned notification system -- a change in the environment that no one else would notice or attach any meaning to. I didn't know what he was talking about.

If you keep the drapes in your apartment closed, open them and that could signal me, he said. I could check each day or have them checked, and if they were open we could meet that night at a designated place. I liked to let the light in at times, I explained.

We needed another signal, he said, indicating that he could check my apartment regularly. He never explained how he could do this.

Felt and I agreed that I would move the flowerpot with the flag, which usually was in the front near the railing, to the rear of the balcony if I urgently needed a meeting. This would have to be important and rare, he said sternly. The signal, he said, would mean we would meet that same night about 2 a.m. on the bottom level of an underground garage just over the Key Bridge in Rosslyn....

Felt said if there was something important he could get to my New York Times -- how, I never knew. Page 20 would be circled, and the hands of a clock in the lower part of the page would be drawn to indicate the time of the meeting that night, probably 2 a.m., in the same Rosslyn parking garage.

Con Dolcezza

If you had any doubt that the world is a strange place, our Secretary Of State is doing benifit concerts:

A musician long before she became an academic and then a world-famous diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took to the Kennedy Center concert stage Saturday to accompany a young soprano battling an often-fatal disease.

Rice's rare and unpublicized appearance at the piano marked a striking departure from her routine as America's No. 1 diplomat. A pianist from the age of 3 she played a half-dozen selections to accompany Charity Sunshine, a 21-year-old singer who was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension a little more than a year ago....

Rice, whose first name is a variation on the Italian musical term "con dolcezza," which is a direction to play with sweetness, learned to read music at the age of 3.

Now I imagine some will accuse her of misusing her time, but it's an unexpected move that I respect.

I Lost Myself

Pitchfork's interview with Casey Spooner is a cut above his usual ranting:

But a lot of rockers-- and this is why I never wanted to be in a band-- are so uptight. It's the most ruthless, codified, strict, unspoken, irritating fraternity. You can't like certain things, and you can't do certain things. That's the thing that's weird about it; supposedly it's from this tradition of rebellion, but it really is the most non-rebellious thing you can do. That's the reason why I like working with Warren; he enjoys it when I do things that are really wrong and really rebellious.

Galang Alang Alanga

I've grown increasingly obsessed with M.I.A.'s "Galang" since it was featured as a free itunes download a couple of weeks ago and while I'm interested in hearing more, in large part to Richard X producing some of her album, I had to pause when I saw Needle Drop's breakdown of the critical reaction to her music. Any article that can casually drop something like this:

...as a takedown of the misguided Simon Reynolds review of Arular that appeared in the Voice only a week earlier, Christgau's piece also short-circuited what could have been a significant momentum shift against the album.

: into it's ninth paragraph is obviously something fairly thought out.

Out Of Order

In case there is any question why New Order haven't been as commercially successful in the US as they could be look at this mess of a release schedule compiled by the good folks at neworderonline:

New Order - Best Remixes – Release June 21st

01. JETSTREAM - Richard X Remix (7:36)
02. KRAFTY - DJ Dan Vocal
03. CRYSTAL - John Creamer & Stephane K Main Mix (11:25)
04. SPOOKY - Out of Order Mix (6:19)
05. WORLD - The Perfecto Mix (7:33)
06. RUINED IN A DAY - Reunited in a Day Remix (6:14)
07. REGRET - New Order Mix (5:10)
08. WORLD IN MOTION - Carabinieri Mix (5:52)
09. ROUND & ROUND - 12" Version (6:50)
10. FINE TIME - Silk Mix (6:15)
11. BLUE MONDAY - Blue Monday 1988 12" Mix (7:09)
12. TRUE FAITH - The Morning Sun Extended Remix (8:59)
13. BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE - Shep's Extended Dance (6:41)
14. STATE OF THE NATION - (6:31)
15. THE PERFECT KISS - Live Version from the Perfect Kiss Video (5:18)
16. HERE TO STAY - Felix Da Housecat Mix: Extended Glitz Mix (8:09)

Jetstream Maxi (digital) – Release June 21st

1. Jetstream - Radio Edit 3:42
2. Jetstream – Richard X Remix Edit 3:34
3. Jetstream - Jaques Lu Cont Mix 8:21
4. Jetstream - Richard X Remix 7:36
5. Jetstream - Arthur Baker Remix 7:00
6. Jetstream - Tom Neville 7:30
7. Jetstream - Pete Heller 9:01
8. Krafty - Passengerz Remix 7:43
9. Krafty - DJ Dan Dub 8:12

Jetstream Maxi CD – Release July 12th

1. Jetstream - Radio Edit 3:42
2. Jetstream - Jaques Lu Cont Mix 8:21
3. Jetstream - Richard X Remix 7:36
4. Jetstream - Arthur Baker Remix 7:00
5. Jetstream - Tom Neville 7:30
6. Jetstream - Pete Heller 9:01
7. Krafty - Passengerz Remix 7:43
8. Krafty - DJ Dan Dub 8:12

: I know I should be happy that anything past "Krafty" is getting any release, but why all the delay betweeen the import, the digital release and the physical single? I suppose if I knew that I could work at a record label and not just post random blog complaints about it. At least the Richard X mixes will find their way to my collection (I was damned close to picking up the import).

Unsolved Mysteries

The identity of Deep Throat has finally been revealed and it's not Diane Sawyer.... I had been rooting for the Nixon dog walker theory in the Kirsten Dunst movie "Dick," but it looks like that didn't pan out. At least right wing radio will get a kick out of DT living less than an hour from San Francisco.
Since we're wrapping things up, it look's like Trent got his money.

A jury awarded Nine Inch Nails alternative rocker Trent Reznor $2.95 million after finding his former manager breached his contract and acted fraudulently, a lawyer said Tuesday.

The jury in Manhattan federal court delivered the verdict Friday against John Malm, Reznor's longtime manager, said attorney Zia F. Modabber. The award likely would top $4 million when interest is added.

Modabber said he called Reznor, who is on tour, with the news.

"He was almost silent at first. It's still sinking in," Modabber said. "It's been a difficult thing for him in a lot of ways. They were very, very close friends."

Spin Spin Sugar

Ladytron's video for their new single "Sugar" just arrived on their site. Ladytron's "Witching Hour" will be out at the end August.

Bite The Hand That Feeds You

When do you drop out of an appearance promoting your new album? When it not doing the gig brings you far more publicity.

Nine Inch Nails dropped out of the MTV Movie Awards after clashing with the network over an image of President Bush the band planned as a performance backdrop.

The Bush image was to accompany the song "The Hand That Feeds," which obliquely criticizes the Iraq war. It includes the lyrics: "What if this whole crusade's a charade / And behind it all there's a price to be paid / For the blood on which we dine / Justified in the name of the holy and the divine."

MTV said in a statement to its news division that the network was disappointed the industrial rock band would not perform but had been "uncomfortable with their performance being built around a partisan political statement."

Given the network's political philosophy (see the mtv "news" coverage of last years election that made fox look like a non-partisan paradise) I was a bit surprised by the turn of events. As odd as this story is with the network's attempt to become apolitical (or at least not transparently left) and people actually talking about music on mtv, it's ultimately Reznor that gets extra points for this zinger.

Reznor said in a statement posted on the band's Web site Thursday that the image of the president would have been unaltered and "straightforward."

"Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me," he said.

We Don't Need No Education

The new video for Fischerspooner's "Never Win" has arrived on the net. Lots of glitchy editing going on along with a look that says something...Elton John maybe?


(link from Mia at electrofreaks)

Being Nobody

BBC recently interviewed Richard X as part of a series profiling major songwriters of recent years. It examines his mash-up past,

The idea, he explains, was "escaping from that world of formatting - which the DJ culture and club culture relies on so much.

"They were supposed to be the future of pop music."

and he's a bit modest about his production abilities on a #1 UK single:

"When we made the Sugababes thing there was a loop, some handclaps, the Sugababes and a semi-broken synthesiser."

"You could probably forget about the synth and as long as you had the Sugababes around at your house, you could recreate that record."

(Thanks to Si for posting this at bimfactor)

Guilt Is A Useless Emotion

When EMI records released a profit warning a couple of months ago when it became known that the new Coldplay album would be released slightly late I took note, but I found Chris Martin’s entirely too sincere response when asked about this last week too much to pass up. As some one who desperate to maintain artistic credibility Martin went on an anti-corporate rant where he called shareholders “the great evil of this modern world". Was it surprising then to see Coldplay's beer company sponsored performance on SNL this past weekend followed by three commercials in a row selling their new album? That’s an unprecedented amount of attention and advertising dollars at work with Coldplay specific ads from itunes, best buy and tower all gracing the same commercial block. Ask Martin, it’s rough dealing with "the slavery that we are all under to shareholders” when they all are supporting your career.
Not to be outdone, Bono has also gone on an outside forces-style rant where he has disowned the released version of “Pop” because U2 apparently rushed the album because they prematurely booked their tour before they had all the ideas worked out. Strange that didn’t come up when you were promoting that album Bono. It’s always good to remind yourself that artistic failure doesn’t come from within.
Since I’m dealing with shocking revelations, corporate responsibility advocate and “Super Size Me” star/director Morgan Spurlock who said “The only agenda I had going in was to make a film that would hopefully cause people to think about how they eat and live their lives.” might be full of it. I’ve suggested that he made the movie primarily as an attempt to further his career and a new lawsuit would support that theory:

The suit, filed at the New York Supreme Court, accuses Spurlock of "engaging in self-interested and wasteful activities" and diverting assets into a new company.

: Hmm, could that be the company producing Spurlock’s new tv show? It’s hard to believe someone so selfless as Spurlock wants to appear would facing lawsuit from someone who supported him early on with a “bet on this long shot”.

Left To My Own Devices

The official Pet Shop Boys site reports that they've made some progress on their new album with some help from an old friend:

Chris and Neil are busy in the studio with producer Trevor Horn working on five tracks for their new album due for release in Spring next year.

Trevor Horn produced "Left to my own devices" and "It's alright" for Pet Shop Boys in 1988/89 and recently produced the song "Numb" for them which was originally intended for the "PopArt" compilation but will now appear on next year's album. At the end of last year Pet Shop Boys appeared in the "Produced by Trevor Horn" show at London's Wembley Arena which also featured Seal, Tatu, Grace Jones and Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Songs being recorded at the moment include "Luna Park", "Casanova in Hell" and "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show". The musical style is described as "electronic and quite epic".

: Epic and electronic are the right direction for the Boy's to take their music and Horn produced a few of my favorite PSB songs along with great tunes from ABC and his own work with Art Of Noise. Not that they've been still too long, but Neil Tennant co-wrote and did the vocals for a Superchumbo track that will be out in a month or two. Not a bad amount activity for a band that had it's first hit twenty years ago.

Madchester Revival

I'll admit to having missed most of the original Madchester craze because I was bit on the young side and on the wrong contentinent, but the current wave of dance rock owes a debt to them and this story from nme.com caught my eye:

HAPPY MONDAYS have confirmed their first MANCHESTER date in five years.

The band will play at the Manchester Evening News Arena on October 29, with support from The Farm and Stereo MCs.

: Now that's a bill with some history behind it. I do own The Farm's greatest hits somewhere, since they were an okay band with some good singles that never got around to making a solid album, but I got the impression that they gave up that "being a band" thing long ago. The liner notes to that collection were one of the saddest things I've ever read because they thought of their personal highlight as a band was going on stage before The Stone Roses at a festival. It's never good when you're a supporting act even in your finest hour. Oh, the liner notes also mentioned that they figured out that they were going to be dropped by their label when Madonna failed to show up at one of their gigs. Once again playing second fiddle to someone more famous.
And now for a picture of Bez...

Handing It Over

Is it wrong that I find the new cute Faithless video so much better than latest from Bjork? Done to promote their new greatest hits collection, Faithless have redone "Why Go?" from a couple of albums ago where they've changed vocalists (no more Boy George apparently) and changed around the music (again apparently, can you tell I didn't buy that one?). The video is a fantastic example of taking a basic concept and taking it too the extreme. Essentially it follows a woman who can't stop dancing, and never does throughout the video as we follow her through her about ten years of her life (or about as long as Faithless have been releasing records) and in spite of the changes in her life she remains the herself which is an interesting commentary for a band looking back on their career. The best moment: the look on her face during her wedding.
While Bjork is the one artist I enjoy that translates in the world of video's consistently, but one the Spike Jonze directed video for "Triumph Of A Heart" she jumps the shark. While shooting a video roughly in the style of dogme 95 is usually an idea I endorse which talents like Bjork and Jonze, they ran into a brick wall with the whole Bjork has a complicated relationship with a cat storyline and then backed up to smash themselves to death with the whole dancing cat sequence. Don't get me wrong, part of genius of Jonze is that he's willing to go places he shouldn't, but this was just a bad, bad idea.
Of course, I'm still chuckling about Bjork's "Who Is It?" video from a few months back because I keep conjuring up a vision of record execs saying "now we let you do the whole album with just voices, and we respected your creative freedom, but wouldn't be great if you made an alternate version of the song for the single, maybe with some instruments." Bjork agrees, and three months later the exec ends up with a video of a bell chorus in a field and no instruments to be heard but bells.

Is My Timing That Flawed

Today marks 25 years since the death of the troubled Joy Division singer Ian Curtis at the age of 23. Over the years he has become an iconic member of the tragic rock star club, and there are currently two films being produced about his short life. What are his former band mates doing this week? New Order have been promoting their lightest and most pop-oriented single ever, with the possible exception of their football anthem "World In Motion," in "Jetstream." Considering all the sentiment this week, it's a bit of a surprise that it's the single's guest vocalist Ana Matronic that has been getting all the press. Of course, New Order aren't doing too bad for themselves, fan site NewOrderOnline had half a million hits between March 26th and May 5th, and their sense freedom from the darker sensibilities of Joy Division in releasing pop tracks like "Jetstream" means they are as far out of the shadow that Curtis left behind as they ever will.

That's What I Get

Trent Reznor celebrated his 40th birthday yesterday by making the news suing his manager. If it shakes out that Reznor did actually figure out that he was low on funds just a short while ago it would explain all those rumors about "With Teeth" being recorded in a matter of just a few months (as opposed to the usual years and years). As for his birthday, Reznor shares it with quite an assortment of really talented people like Jordan Knight, Enya, Bob Saget and that kid who played the ten-year old genius who skipped six grades to be in high school with his teenage siblings on "The Smart Guy" but who wasn't quite smart enough to not be on UPN. Where is it that Reznor finds all that angst...

Those Amazing Electro Osbournes

The booker on "Jimmel Kimmel Live" is a mad genius. Last Friday they had Ozzie Osbourne and Fozzie Bear on the same show that saw Erasure as the musical guest. Sharon Osbourne seemed to be enjoying herself chair dancing to Erasure and Ozzie bravely attempted to hold onto his metal cred while Fozzie and his manager Rizzo The Rat got their Muppet groove on between the couple. What can I say? It was a moment that was totally unique.
Kelly Osbourne has her new electropop album due out shortly and the good folks at the Mtv Europe site are streaming it for the next week. I'm still making my way through a first listen, but I'm astonished by how similar some of the tracks on "Sleeping In The Nothing" are to The Bravery. Maybe it's the same lead synth sound but "Redlight" and "Edge Of Your Atmosphere" left me double checking to make sure I opened the right file. All in all, Kelly's album isn’t nearly as bad as it should be. It's good to have enough money to hire Linda Perry.

Crapage

Somehow I ended up on an industrial specialty store's mailing list (I don't know how since I've never bought anything from them or gave them my email address) and in their latest update which had info about a new Front 242 dvd they described as the product as the "LIVE DVD fromone of the continuing frontrunners of electronic music!" Having heard Front 242's recent material I can safely say it's not running in front of anything.
Now consider this quote from a review at industrial mag Regen:

Though, the problem is that those who know better just can’t get the trailblazing bands of the ‘80s out of our minds and can’t stand the extreme overflow of clones in today’s scene.

: While the review is a slam at the modern synthpop scene (with some decent points about the scene's mentality), tell me this doesn't completely apply to the offspring of industrial. The superiority complex of rivetheads confounds me.

Times Change

I was reading an article about a NIN's new album debuting at the top spot on the US charts and in the process learned a bit more about the downsizing of American Bizkit fans:

Limp Bizkit, one of the few artists ever to achieve a million-copy sales week, was an afterthought on the Billboard 200 with its new seven-song EP, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1). The seven-song disc, which admittedly got little or no label promotion, sold 37,000 copies at number 24 bow. Just two years ago, the group sold 325,000 first-week copies of Results May Vary, which was considered a relative disappointment at the time.

: Oddly enough I did have a request for the Limp boys during my college radio electronica show before they opened the floodgates to rap-metal mania, but it was from some girl who called all the station's guy djs, regardless of what genre they played, so it's not like she was actually listening to the music. Let's hope we're out of that cycle of music for a good long while...

Techno Cow Bell

Arron of the modern synthpop group Eight To Infinity recently bought a slightly used 808 drum machine only to randomly discover that it originally belonged to 808 State. Apparently the seller of the boom box told him that it had been left at his house "by some guy called gerald," which turns out to be A Guy Called Gerald who was an early member of 808 State. Here it is today and with Graham Massey recording with it in the late 80's.

Maybe I've Forgotten

Apparently years of drug abuse haven't been kind to Bernard Sumner's memory. Here are some pictures of his autocue lyric prompter taken by some members of NewOrderOnline at recent gigs.


Just a note, but it's likely that one of the pictures has been photoshopped a bit to play with autocue’s content.

Getting Smaller

When Barcode is on point they express what I haven't been able to put into words. Take a look at some of their recent review of VNV Nation's new album:

Emerging like a rat from the infestation of Industrial music, VNV calculated that to be different from their forever-unevolving contemporaries, they would have to do something distinctive. Hence the creation of their “Futurepop” sound, whereupon industrial aggro is watered down into repetitive melodies and a House beats.

: "Forever-unevolving" is exactly why I didn't look back (too much) when I left my interest in the industrial/ebm scene to the past a little over 10 years ago. What I loved about the music is that it had a vision that was different even apart from the "dark" and "scary" nature of the genre. Industrial was music that was going somewhere; this was a genre that was progressing. In the past decade it's gone almost nowhere. Now groups like VNV and Covenant have tried to add elements from trance and drum 'n' bass to the mix, but it is reliance on the genre's cannon that have left it stagnant for far too long. Of course the blame could be placed on the relative silence and stumbling of the genre's mainstream stars like NIN, Ministry and KMFDM, but the blind leading the blind into repetitive mediocrity should shoulder the weight of the burden.
Speaking of NIN, Trent's got a new record out. I once was a massive fan, but my taste and my perception of "The Fragile"'s quality (all I read were raving reviews, even if it seems to be critically disowned this time around) have tempered my enthusiasm to near nothing. It was something of a shock to me that the new single "The Hand That Feeds" is strong enough to rekindle some of that passion. Having listened to "With Teeth" I'm afraid that I won't be returning to the NIN-fold too soon. There are a few tracks that have spark, but tracks like "You Know Who You Are?" are warmed over echoes of previous efforts without the passion. If the pre-release rumors of this being the final NIN album that might not be such a bad thing. Maybe Trent needs a new avenue to grow his music.

Kelly-Mania Lives

Famed baseball cap wearing Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys just chatted with the folks of Skrufff newsletter about their new "Back To Mine" compilation and in the process proved that Dave of synthpopmusic.com isn't the only one spreading the gospel of Kelly Osbourne's electro makeover.

Chris Lowe:"...The best thing though is when you’ve just bought a record that you can’t wait to play, then DJing is so much fun….Do you like the Kelly Osbourne record?”

Skrufff: I’ve not heard it.


Chris Lowe: “I really like it. The verse is Visage – Fade To Grey, but then it goes into a really catchy chorus which is unexpected. It’s really good.”

Podcasting On The Radio?

I'm always interested in radio, and this is unique. From sfgate:

Next month, Infinity will convert an underperforming station in San Francisco to a format that will play only "podcasts," or amateur recordings distributed via the Internet to listeners' iPods and other digital music players.
Infinity, which is part of the Viacom Inc. media conglomerate that also owns CBS and MTV, announced Wednesday that it would convert its KYCY-AM station in San Francisco to the new format on May 16...
Joel Hollander, the CEO of Infinity, said the station, which would be promoted under the name KYOURADIO, would run material submitted by listeners but screened to make sure it conforms with federal broadcasting standards for decency.
Hollander described the format change as something of an "experiment," but he said the company had not decided how long it would try it before deciding whether to keep it. He said the station won't charge or pay for the podcasts contributed by listeners.

: It is worth mentioning that the article also talks about how the stations current format doesn't even register an Arbitron rating.

Downloading Gangs

I'm not sure if I find it more troubling that this new law was passed as rider on the user's rights oriented Family Entertainment and Copyright Act or that I had heard nothing about it until I saw something in the UK press. Here's the gist from cnet:

The law had drawn some controversy because it broadly says that anyone who has even one copy of an unreleased film, software program or music file in a shared folder could be subjected to prison terms and fines of up to three years. Penalties would apply regardless of whether that file was downloaded or not.
...The law's stiff penalties apply to "audiovisual" works, music and software that are "being prepared for commercial distribution." It's not clear how that would apply to fans who redistribute video files of TV shows aired in other countries first, or movies like Shaolin Soccer and Japanese anime flicks that can take years to arrive in the U.S. market.

: I don't know why anyone would ever think that lawmakers are just out to help business when there are violent crimes with smaller penalties. I found the most puzzling quote justifying the bill in the nme article:

Dan Glickman, president of the MPAA said: “There is evidence that criminal gangs use this kind of theft to support and expand their criminal enterprises.”

: So this is really about helping curb the gang problem. It all makes sense now...

Around The World

I was browsing through sites last night and checked in Pop Producer's blog and found an item I wrote for synthpop.net updating Pet Shop Boys news. It was just very odd to find something I wrote in California about a British band on a Swedish site show up in a blog from Argentina. It's a small world, and it must be an even smaller scene.

The End Of Everything

A week ago I was going to write something about the Electronode Radio Station going off the air, but my personal life has been a bit busy and now that I'm getting the chance to get back on the internet it seems that Electronode has completely shut down. From what I understand the site's owner Jeff hasn't been active on the forum much since he took over the site a year ago and apparently has been disinterested in "synthpop." Given that Jeff has reportedly paying $50 a month to keep the forum running, I completely understand why he might want to shut it down, but it appears that process was accelerated by an argument with Kevin of Pop Star Who Kills. Regardless of the site's demise I respect Jeff for fronting the site and genuinely trying to rebuild some sense of community that has largely splintered since the days of the Electrogarden, and I'm sure he will find success with whatever direction he takes.

A Personal Note

While I usually keep this blog impersonal or at least limited to my life on the internet I can't help but mention that my first child Ally was born earlier this week. Fortunately mother and child are in great shape and my daughter is even more beautiful and amazing than I could have imagined. I've never been happier.

Hush That Fuss

If last year's presidential debates where any indication, there is a popular belief that there are many unnecessary lawsuits out there, but the estate of Rosa Parks suing Outkast has got to be near the top of the list of amazing wastes of our legal system. If you missed it, here is the story from nme:

OUTKAST have settled a lawsuit with civil rights activist ROSA PARKS.

Parks, who helped trigger the civil rights movement in the 1950s and the rap duo have come to an agreement over the use of her name on the group's 1998 'Aquemini' album.

Under the settlement, OutKast and co-defendants Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC and LaFace Records will help to develop educational programs to "enlighten today's youth about the significant role Rosa Parks played in making America a better place for all races," according to a written statement.
...Parks unsuccessfuly sued the band in 1999 for defamation and trademark infringement because they did not ask permission to use her name, but the band were protected under the First Amendment.

Now I know the song and fortunately the nme article does point out one major point that her lawyers may have missed.

The OutKast song ‘Rosa Parks’ does not mention her by name, but its chorus runs “a-ha, hush that fuss, everybody move to the back of the bus.”

Doesn't it seem the two attempts at litigating the song seem have done far more damage to the revered name of Rosa Parks than one inoffensive Outkast song? The sad thing is I'm left with impression that lawyers duped the elderly Mrs. Parks, who apparently now suffers from dementia, into the claim in an attempt to get some cash for themselves.

Dooku

I admit it. I'm getting a little excited about the new Star Wars movie because it actually looks like a Star Wars movie. For a laugh, you might like the response posts in this imdb thread which proves to be a great exploration of the humorless nature of the hardcore fans.

Would You Like To Come Inside?

A few random thoughts today. It looks like Si's well written review of the new Cosmicity singles collection has over seventy hits since it went live yesterday. Since I have yet to see anyone link to it I assume this says something about an artist who has built a fan base by releasing quality material consistently.
This past Wednesday was a big music night for my musical tastes with Moby, Bloc Party and The Bravery all hitting the late shows. Interestingly, Moby has been on a media blitz this week, appearing on Craig Ferguson, MSNBS and PBS, but it was only on Conan that he played live. Quite honestly, his performance wasn't that terribly exciting, but he did have a different live set-up than I've seen him use in the past. I'll see if that holds up when I see him live next month. What was interesting was the difference in watching Bloc Party and The Bravery play a few minutes apart. Their material isn't too far apart, but their stage presence is world's apart with The Bravery looking like posers stepping out of a tiny club into a spotlight they aren't ready for, while Bloc Party's performance was understated but fueled by a confidence that the music would carry them through. Perhaps it's a bit rash to make a call like this based on one night of late night tv performance but I think we'll still be interested in Bloc Party five years from now, while The Bravery will have faded into a distant memory.
The Electronically Yours internet station is now essentially off the air having just changed status so is now for live 365 preferred members only. I can only assume that Orac hasn't had the time or interest in updating the station so he let his subscription run out, which is too bad because it was a great, even if not frequently updated, station that tied newer electropop in with classic tracks. Of course the real shame is that Orac hasn't updated his online column in over a year because he offered a truly insightful and intelligent look at electropop. Hopefully, his schedule will clear up and he'll get back to it soon because his view is missed.

Disco Infiltrator

I mentioned that I recently picked up the debut album from LCD Soundsystem, and as I expected it grew on me. What has surprised me is the backlash in the mostly positive reviews the album has received from folks who usually support electronic music with vocals. In particular I've read reviews in sideline and sickamongthepure which both claimed that it was over hyped and for people who don't understand electro (or something else to that effect). I disagree, but what I found most interesting in those reviews is that they spent as much time attacking the band's fans as the music itself leaving me feeling that they didn’t properly address the music because they didn't agree with the influences the band is sourcing for it's music. Why? It is different than most of the ebm/synthpop that sustained "the style" throughout the nineties before electroclash made vocals and electronic alright together again while bringing people back from the "techno" and indie crowds. This conservative rejection of influences from "other" on music is annoyingly consistent from reviewers in the microscene zines and all the more strange because of the claims of frustration from one of the writers from one of these about how "the scene" could be so much bigger if it made a few changes. The changes are here. Can you accept them or is this the attitude that is holding “the scene” back?

Stream Away

You might be interested in the new Fischerspooner album. Vh1 has been streaming "Odyssey" this week and it seems to me that the boys are trying desperately to get some substance going with their new material to counter the claims that they are pure style. Do they succeed? Mostly. The album is definitely worth a listen.
Need more? A new Gorillaz video is always worth a look because they've got some amazing visuals.

Other People's Songs

Moby is doing a bit of promotion in my area today with a book signing at a Barnes & Noble a couple of miles away from where I live. I won't be going because I'll be at work (the joys of a strange rotating work schedule), but I did catch him on the radio where he chatted and picked out songs. Nothing too surprising was revealed, his partner does most of the work at Teany, his home studio looks like the bridge on Star Trek and "Spiders" was inspired by Bowie, but it was nice to hear him. One of the songs he chose to play on the program was Massive Attack's "Teardrop" which I remember Garbage picking to play during a radio interview back when the song was new. Great song then and it sounds even better today.

Did I Say I Liked It?

This week has brought a virtual flood of interesting music. Not only did I buy the impressive new Moby album and got the chance to pick up the LCD Soundsystem album and I discovered that the new New Order album is being streamed (for a limited time only) at a couple of places on the internet.
Is New Order's "Waiting For The Sirens' Call" the horrible disappointment the folks on the forum at NewOrderOnline say it is, or a strong return to forum as I've heard elsewhere? Well, it all depends on which New Order you're into because the album finds the band pretty much dropping any serious attempt at being "edgy" and creating a few pop songs along the way. The big problem with the album is that it takes a couple of listens to get into, but fortunately once you're past the initial shock it's a really solid album that I've been listening to it pretty much nonstop. I can't wait to hear it on a proper cd with decent sound quality because I'm sure it will be all the much better.
As for the albums I bought, I love the new Moby album even if I haven't been in the mood for the bonus "ambient" disc. It's really fantastic how he's developed as a songwriter and the new wave/modern rock setting of the album isn't something I expected from him but it sounds great. At this point I've only had a chance to listen to the LCD Soundsystem album (which got a strong seal of approval from the record store clerk) once, and it seems to be the sort of album that will take a few listens to grow on me as a whole, but for the moment the singles and "Tribulations" really stand out.
In my travels across the internet, I stopped resisting and recently joined myspace (for a second time) so you can click here to find me there. Also my review of Everything But The Girls new remix album went live on synthpop.net recently and you can see what a review of a bad album from an artist I respect looks like.

McDocumentary

A few months ago I overheard a rather plump suburban woman telling her thinner friend all about the hit documentary “Super Size Me“ and how it told “the truth” about how stupid most people are about food. Well, despite my misgivings I did see the movie earlier this week and I see why it played well to elitist audiences.
The film starts off with a quote from Ray Kroc, referring to him as the founder of McDonalds, which isn’t true. McDonalds was founded by the McDonald’s brothers who created the original restaurant which Kroc franchised and expanded it into it’s current massive corporate form. Beginning a documentary showing us “truth” with a half-truth is a bad start. But that’s not my main problem. Director/star Morgan Spurlock asks where individual responsibility and corporate responsibility begins early on and then goes through great lengths to demonstrate that people are incapable of making rational decisions because of the marketing power of corporations. Even as a Democrat with a leftist outlook this offends me, because this viewpoint assumes that everyone except those who agree with him are too stupid to care for themselves. Then the film demonstrates it, with not one single person outside his friends and his experts ever making a valid point or even given the chance to seem intelligent.
He achieves this mostly by doing “man on the street” interviews where Spurlock quizzes random people about meta-issues involved with lifestyle choices related to fast food. Anyone who’s seen similar set ups by Jay Leno or “Street Smarts” should realize that when you catch someone unprepared and stick a camera in their face while putting them on the spot most people don’t perform very well under the pressure. Particularly frustrating is when Spurlock confuses issues when he captures a mostly overweight family in front of the White House, asks them to do the pledge of allegiance which they attempt several times dropping a couple lines each time, but when he asks them to sing the “Big Mac Song” they all know it. This is a key moment where we see that they don’t have the most basic understanding of citizenship, but instantly recall everything involved with their fattening drug. Right? No, this only shows the power pop culture. The “Big Mac Song” is just a catchy jingle, and people know the jingles for tons of products they never use. Hell, my wife knows jingles for products that were stopped being made before she was born.
As with most films targeting elitists, the movie has a strong anti-American element to it, which would be fine, but since this is who Spurlock is supposedly trying to save with this film it comes across as a little bit demeaning. He finds a French woman, oddly enough one of the largest people in the film, to talk about how she can’t eat fast food in the US, because the portions are far larger than in the liberal utopia of France and according to Spurlock’s argument the portions are why Americans are so fat, but he doesn’t explore other factors of eating habits such as which meal is the main course. In the US, it’s dinner, often eaten late, and in France it’s lunch when people still have plenty of activity throughout the day to burn off the calories. Beyond that Spurlock makes passing references to Bush throughout the film as demonstration of how stupid Americans are, which forgets that Clinton was the big burger eating President just a few years ago and then Spurlock wraps himself into a American flag speedo for his final weigh-in when his all McDonalds diet has turned his now plump belly into the average American.
It’s Spurlock’s distaste for the people he is supposedly educating that undermined the movie and his points for me. He also used a number of other shaky arguments, such as using the same high school as an example of teaching poor eating habits and a great example of running a fitness program that I won’t go into, but it’s leaves the films overall argument on poor ground. Of course if you’re an unquestioning elitist, you’ll love the film and how it proves that you too are better than everyone else.

Matters Of Importance

I really try to avoid talking about the Scott Peterson trial, but the news coverage today was yet another example of going way overboard in the amount of coverage for the story's actual importance. Interestingly, it was the usually tasteful KTVU News that led their hour-long nightly broadcast with nearly ten minutes worth Peterson coverage and then teased their extended take for the later half of the broadcast including a story on how the Peterson coverage has distracted from other news stories. What they didn't say in the teaser that it would be stories of actual importance that lost out, but since KTVU is much closer to a hard news show than most local stations offerings I suspect that final "related story" was something they had wanted to do for a while. Beyond that I think the Peterson story got as much coverage as it did because it's an easy job. There have been virtually no new developments in the story that couldn't be summarized sufficiently in a single newspaper article that have happened in the last year, but yet it has had an enormous amount of time devoted to it. Of course, in all this coverage today who other than Amber Frey’s lawyer/book promoter found even more time to talk to the media and there are now rumors that the jurors who were present were considering book deals of their own. It’s just sickening.

(Entry Pretentiously Left Untitled)

I've only recently (re)discovered Barcode and I've been really impressed by the level of insight they've got going with their reviews (even if they are occasionally wrong). Particularly exceptional is their review of the new Autechre album that is an articulate description of my feelings on the group and to an extent their followers. Maybe it's just because 90% of the Autechre fans I know hate techno. Absolutely think it's trash and don't understand how anyone could stand to listen to any of it...except Autechre. Why? :

Electronic music itself has too often been labelled with the emotionally retarded tag, but as ridiculous as that is, its artists like Autechre that have often provided convincing argument for the cynic.

: If you praise music that confirms your uneducated opinion, once again 90% of Autechre fans I've met are only passingly familiar with only the work of three or four electronic artists, then you've established your superiority because your token acknowledgment of the genre confirms your biases.
Since I'm talking reviews it appears that David Vesel, who had been announced as the official reviewer for Electroculture/Electronode before the site went through an ownership change, will be adding his considerable reviewing powers to synthpop.net. I've been following his complete and insightful criticism since he worked through the Gods Of Music site and I look forward to reading more from him.

Human After All

In the last couple of days I've had a chance to stream the new Daft Punk album (thanks vh1!) and I've got to say that I'm disappointed. Of course meeting expectations I have for a group like DP are incredibly difficult since I credit them with changing the sound of underground dance music with their first record and sounding the call towards traditional song structures on "Discovery." Still, the record isn't without some great moments. "Robot Rock" and "Human After All" are great tunes with a unique quality to them, but not enough of the album has spark. I'm still planning on buying it.
We've reached a critical point that historians will point to as the moment when Old Navy commercials went from campy to just painfully awful with the new shorts commercial sung the theme of "Fame." Of course it doesn't help that the shorts look like the $3 variety from Kmart.

Do Androids Dream Of "Office Space?"

Could this be the best sci-fi film I've seen in ages?

(by way of Voltage)

Hotel Intro

I found an online preview of Moby's new album "Hotel" and on first listen it is amazing. I read on a forum earlier that someone thought "Beautiful" was the worst choice possible as a single, and they aren't too far off. Still the people at V2 turned "Play" into a massive hit by releasing all the least commercial songs as singles first, so I assume they know what their doing.
New Order's "Krafty" got it's digital release today, and it sounds so much better after a couple of weeks getting it slowly stuck in my head. Why not watch the video?

Write A Text, Not Too Complex

Fans of deconstructionist pop must check out this video from Sweden's Pay TV. With lyrics like "getting a hit can be easy/as long as you’re loud and cheap and sleazy" you know it's got something going for it, but once you hit the "tagging in" dance section of the video you'll be sold. I know I was.

(by way of PopJustice)

What I'd Really Like To Hear

A piano roll ragtime version of Blondie's "Heart Of Glass."

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.

I Can't Seem To Shake This Feeling

So I'm browsing through audioscrobbler profiles tonight and it occurs to me that I just can't trust people who listen to Weird Al. Don't get me wrong, I owned a couple tapes when I was twelve, but if you are over fifteen and the man's music is a staple in your listening habits I don't trust your judgment.

We Meet Again Dr. Jonze

I just saw the most recent Ludacris video for "Get Back" and it's got to be the best video I've seen in ages. Obviously Ludie has a twisted take on things and working with Spike Jonze was the right move to take. Check out the link and enjoy the fights with dogs, a posse that Public Enemy could love, and the best drink cameo in memory.
Beyond that I got around to updating my live 365 station today and ran into a couple problems with track names. I usual use musicmatchjukebox to create mp3s because it came on the computer and it's easy to adjust to Live 365's standards, but their cd look-up info is just terrible. It misnamed and misspelled tracks off four cds in a row, and it just shouldn't be that stupid. Of course, I went to use one of the tracks Live 365 has set up on their site and it turned Prodigy's "Hot Ride" into "Hor Ride" and I think they get paid to host the file. Go figure.
It's now day two since getting "Push The Button" and I've listened to the album half a dozen times. Great stuff!

The Big Jump

So the new Chemical Brothers album came out yesterday, and like their last three proper albums I went to pick it up the first day, but this time I ran into trouble. Maybe I got their too early, but when I arrived at Tower around 2pm there was only one copy of the album, not with the new releases, and it was marked up at full price ($19!) so I passed on it. I went looking again today and only found two copies of it at Best Buy, but with a good price. It's just a bit odd, since both these places had tons of copies of recent Fatboy Slim. Maybe there was a distribution problem? Well, I am listening to "Push The Button" for the first time, and so far I like it. Someone else is bound to want to buy a copy too.
Just another note about the album, I was doing a search through Live 365 today, and was surprised that SlothRadio had a song from the album added to the playlist. The station is, after all, what Cosmicity called* "the most conservative place for synthpop on the internet," and here Slothdog is playing a song with no vocals.
Dealing a bit more with the exclusive club, which those lucky Chems belong, of musicians who changed my views on music it recently came out that Portishead did not actually break up! NME recently reported that Portishead are "close" to finishing their third album, and Geoff Barrow doesn't understand why people think the group have broken up. Maybe an eight year break since the last album, with a side-project album from Beth Gibbons, might be the reason Geoff. While I look forward to any new material, I'm not going to hold my breath. "Close" within the context of eight years is a long time.
Here's an odd thing. I was reading about Bez, the Happy Mondays' dancer, winning "Celebrity Big Brother" in the UK when I was shocked to discover that the hardest working woman in reality tv came in third. Brigitte Nielsen, who I vaguely remember, but can not recall having seen any of her movies is suddenly the "it girl" of reality tv. She did "The Surreal Life" a couple of months ago, and her relationship with Flavor Flav spawned "Strange Love" and somewhere in there she squeezed in this Brit show. Why? I suppose it's raised her profile, but I have no idea where she would take her career from here. Yet another reason I'm not a Hollywood agent.


*Quote taken from memory, so it might be off by a word, but the sentiment was there.

The Time Has Come To...

The new New Order single has made it's way on to the internet, even officially. The link may become inactive at any time, but for the time being you can click here to listen to "Krafty."

The X Factor

When the news broke that the forever uncomfortable as "Big Brother" host Julie Chen married CBS president Les Moonves, my wife congratulated me on calling that match. Quite honestly I had forgotten my stong conviction that Chen was involved with a network exec after she made it back for a second season of that miserable show but I‘m happy to take credit for it now. Even I couldn't see how deep this went, but the higher up you deal with the corporate ladder the better job security I suppose.
A couple of things that bugged me today. On one of the boards there was complaining about the New York Synthpop Festival that took place last weekend mostly about the headliner not being from NY. Maybe this a version of the whole “school spirit” thing, never really my thing, but I’ve always assumed that when there is a festival with a name in front of it they are usually talking about the place it is happening, Something like the San Francisco Film Festival doesn’t just feature films from San Francisco, but the event takes place in SF. I don’t know, it just seems like such an odd thing to get up in arms about.
Not to get back to my feelings on the whole mess with the guy from Provision disrespecting the synthpop.net reviews, but the revised review that Jason wrote up has one of the most hits on the site. It’s got almost twice as many hits as a high average review so someone must be directing traffic towards it. Is it Breye? It beats the hell out of me, but it’s strange…

I'm Mr. Countdown

Somewhere in my time off blogging I did a countdown of songs played on my radio station in 2004. It took me forever to compile the list, and was a bit bummed out that I didn't find 50 songs to list like I did in 2003, but still some great songs and I tend not to add stuff to my station that I think is getting too much mainstream exposure (well, when I add it). Here's my list, or you can see it with a green background if you prefer...


1. Faithless- Mass Destruction
2. Pet Shop Boys- Flamboyant
3. Scissor Sisters- Comfortably Numb
4. Client- Radio
5. The Faint- I Disappear
6. Prodigy- Girls
7. Kraftwerk- Aerodynamik
8. Erlend Oye- The Black Keys Work
9. Air- Cherry Blossom Girl
10. Ferry Corsten- Whatever!
11. Crystal Method- The American Way
12. Freezepop- Chess King
13. Radio 4- Party Crashers
14. Fatboy Slim- Wonderful Night
15. Phoenix- Everything Is Everything
16. The Killers- Mr. Brightside
17. Richard X- You (Better Love Me x4) Tonight
18. LCD Soundsystem- Yeah
19. Chromeo- Needy Girl
20. Zero 7- Speed Dial No. 2
21. Miss Kittin- Professional Distortion
22. Tiga- Pleasure From The Bass
23. Felix Da Housecat- Rocket Ride
24. Chemical Brothers- Get Yourself High
25. Orbital- Acid Pants
26. Swayzak- Keep It Coming
27. Bjork- Triumph Of A Heart
28. Lamb- Sugar 5
29. I Satellite- Where In The World
30. Gwen Stefani- Serious
31. Scissor Sisters- Music Is The Victim
32. Le Tigre- Nanny Nanny Boo Boo
33. The Lovemakers- Internet Girlfriend
34. Junior Jack f/Robert Smith- Da Hype
35. Client- In It For The Money
36. Tristraum- Shiver
37. Proper Filthy Naughty- Fascination
38. Junior Senior- Shake Your Coconuts
39. I Am X- Your Joy Is My Low
40. Chemical Brothers- Galvanize

Shameless

Alright, it's been awhile and there is something I‘ve got to get off my chest. This whole Amber Frey writing a book about her experience with Scott Peterson. Now, I've seen far too much of the Peterson story over the last couple of years, mostly I thought because it was "local" story with the trial taking place a couple towns over in the same complex I got my marriage license, but I've had the misfortune of watching (flicking past really) more cable news in the past few months where the trial got tons of publicity which is totally disproportionate to the amount "news worthiness" of the story (which I believe initially caught on because it's from the relatively small town of Modesto, big enough for a minor league baseball team and a rodeo grounds, where Chaundra Levy was from a couple of months after that whole situation was all over the press). I've gotten far too sidetracked, but during the trial I saw Frey's attorney commenting every day of the trial, which I found really odd because her client wasn't accused of doing anything by anyone at this point, and I figured something must be up. Maybe a book deal? Sure enough, she ended up doing a tell all book about her relationship just days after the trial sentencing. Classless? Completely. At least someone got some profit out of this murder and the endless parade of publicity surrounding it…

Like A Motorway

With the last of my birthday money from last month in my hands I had the chance to visit a proper record store today. Rasputin’s in San Lorenzo stands so far ahead of the any competition on the other side of the bay, with so much more selection available than anything on the mid-peninsula. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tower, but they always mark their prices up after Thanksgiving , don’t do order rarer electronic stuff or singles and don’t have a decent used section. It’s times like this that I miss living in San Jose. Sure there are no decent clubs, but at least they have plenty of record stores (many of them open late).
My find of the day was in the random used bin where I discovered a copy of Electroset’s rave makeover of “Blue Monday.” I’ve been looking for the single off and on since it first came out nearly fifteen years ago and this was the first time I had seen it. Still it wasn’t as strange as the last time I was in Rasputin’s and found the same Moby cd I had reviewed for my college radio station with my handwriting still on part of it (I couldn’t tell you if they sold it to the store or someone stole it from the station though). Oddly enough one of the mixes on the Electroset single was ahead of it’s time, mashing-up Kraftwerk’s “Tour De France” with “Blue Monday.” I always appreciate old rave music that knows it’s roots.
Maybe I was just in nostalgic mood (or maybe the price was right) but I also picked up Saint Etienne’s new singles collection “Travel Edition.” I used to love Saint Etienne so much, played them to death on my old radio show, but their last three albums just haven’t been where my interests are these days. My biggest faults with the album are that they included too many of the wrong tracks at the expense of other, better singles. Strokes of pop genius like “You’re In A Bad Way” didn’t make the cut, but filler like “Goodnight Jack,” and self-indulgent meandering like “How We Used To Live” (all eight and half minutes of it) made the compilation. The lack of conventional sense is one of the reasons I was drawn to the band in the first place, but it gets a little frustrating when they try attempt to convey a legacy while leaving out some of my favorite parts. The other odd thing about the collection is that the only new track looks to be a Sarah Cracknell solo track since it’s written without the other band members and produced , programmed and mixed by the tracks co-writers. That being said, there is tons of great music on it, and they made some great moves working with Franz Ferdinand (now rumored to be working on the new New Order album) producer Tore Johansson and getting the colder Ladytron/Adult. side of electro clashright on the money back in 2000 with the even better now “Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi).“ Still you never want to see something you used to love drift apart from you when you wish they did things your way.
Of course what I was really looking for today I couldn't find. Scissor Sisters "Remixed!" album just isn't anywhere except online stores. From what I can find, it looks like it's just not getting any decent distribution because it's out on the SS's original indie label A Touch Of Class which just doesn't have the set up. Too bad.

Post With Link To Free Music Download (You Know You Want It)

I’ve been in the mood to post something clever recently, but sadly I have no clever thoughts for you. Instead the itunes release of the new Chemical Brothers single “Galvanize” has me thinking about the “electronica revolution of ‘97” and the artists I supported back when I was doing college radio. 2004 has been a troubling year for bands and artists that I was into back before they got major label deals and broke out (kinda) into commercial radio play and press coverage. The Crystal Method dropped the disappointing Legion Of Boom, Orbital went out with a whimper on “Blue Album,” Prodigy’s “Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned” didn’t get off the ground, and Fatboy Slim’s “Palookaville” is something of a disaster (admittedly with a great song in “Wonderful Night“). Really the only non-electro/synthpop electronica album I’ve loved from the past year is Ferry Corsten’s “Right Of Way” so I’m pretty happy that the Propellerheads still haven’t gotten around to releasing their second album (promised for a fall ‘04 release). Better to write off ‘04 as an off year for the big beaters of the “electronica revolution.” Things are looking up though, “Galvanize” sounds pretty good on the first week of listening although it sounds more “underground” than I would expect from the Brothers at this point in their career. From what I’ve read, both their album and the new Moby album are going to be full of vocal tracks which is a step in the right direction and I think they’ve got the songwriting skills to make it work. It should be interesting to see if it works, because I’ve just read an article about the superstar trance djs now going all “rock” which could be final signal of death for electronica as we’ve known it. Time will tell.
I was rather happy to see the Color Theory update on the message boards because it cleared up some confusion I had. Brandon Flowers, the singer for The Killers, has talked about how he spent the 90’s in a synthpop band called Blush Response and formed The Killers after being dumped by the band when they moved to LA without him. I’ve been looking over the past few months for any information about the band since they were a modern synthpop band and the scene isn’t very big. All I could find is that Flowers was also in another band Subversion that released one song on a compilation (“Electricity” on Ninthwave Records). But here comes the Color Theory update offering a free download of Blush Response’s “Your Sinister Heart” demo because it was produced by Brian of CT. Come to find out they sound pretty good, but never got past doing a couple of sets of demos. It’s well worth checking out and more polished than the Subversion track if you’re interested.
I was going to say something witty about something inane but it’s a cheap shot that I am so beyond…