Making Me Sweat Now

This week's top 10 singles in the UK:

1. Gorillaz – ‘Dare’
2. Rihanna – ‘Pon De Replay’
3. Daniel Powter – ‘Bad Day’
4. Jessica Simpson – ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’
5. Oasis – ‘The Importance Of Being Idle’
6. Simon Webbe – ‘Lay Your Hands’
7. Black Eyed Peas – ‘Don’t Lie’
8. David Gray – ‘The One I Love’
9. Les Rythmes Digitales – ‘Jacques Your Body (Make ME Sweat)’
10. James Blunt – ‘You’re Beautiful’

: What is LRD’s “Jacques Your Body” doing as a top 10 single in 2005? The song was on Stuart Price’s pre-millennial “Darkdancer” album and a little research reveals that the song is being re-released because it has been featured in a “dancing robot tv ad” and has a new stunt-filled video. By my count this is the third time the song has been released as a single, most recently in 1999 when the song was “featured in the Sunny Delight new basketball ad.” Regardless I have a feeling this is the song’s highest charting which shows if you put quality product out there often enough you can sell some records. Not too bad for a song I started playing in my college radio days when it was first on the Wall Of Sound label's "Bustin Loose" compilation. Back in 1998.

Finally Down From That Hill

There is news of the welcome return of a voice that has been silent for far too long:

Singer Kate Bush will release her first album in 12 years in November - a double album entitled Aerial.

The 47-year-old performer's last album, The Red Shoes, reached number two in the UK album chart in 1993.

Her last public appearance was in 2001, when she received Q magazine's "classic songwriter" award in London.

: The new material is rumored to be in part inspired by Goldfrapp, but I don't know how much credence to give that since Bush is known for her self production and sounding exactly like herself. Of course it could be she is coming out of her musical seclusion to make the ten year wait between the last two Peter Gabriel albums seem short.

It's What You Play That Counts

I'm told that the August issue of Guitar Player magazine has an interview with Bernard and Phil of New Order (well Phil‘s sort of like the stock replacement guitar player who is filling in while Gillian is out of the band, but you get the idea). It’s an interesting interview that cuts to the meat of what I want to read in interviews with artists- the creative process. In particular, Bernard talks about writing and how "in the past we’ve had our fingers burnt" led to their current approach to producers. Here’s my condensed version of the interview:

BS: See, we write songs two ways. One way is me sitting in front of a computer with a guitar or a synth and constructing a track brick-by-brick. The other way is getting myself, Hookey [bassist Peter Hook], and our drummer Stephen together in a room and jamming. In that scenario, we would typically come up with three solid ideas, and then I would go off and write melodies and lyrics for those ideas. The problem with that way of working, however, was that when I left, the whole writing process came to a halt, because there wasn’t a guitarist around. But this time, when I left, Phil was there, and they could continue on.

Phil, you’ve worked with both Johnny Marr and Bernard. How different are their respective attitudes toward the instrument?
Cunningham: Totally different. Johnny is “Mr. Guitar.” You go to his studio, and he has books on the history of guitar, and a spare room full of every guitar you could possibly name. He’s obsessed with all things guitar. Bernard, on the other hand, has two guitars, and he uses them strictly as song generators.

Bernard, how would you describe your guitar style?
Sumner: I just try to keep what I do very basic, but I make sure that what I do is good basic. I’m not a virtuoso. For me, the guitar is simply a tool to make a track exciting because it’s a very punk instrument.

Yeah. I’m no more accomplished on the instrument than I was in 1979. I reached a level long ago where I was good enough to write songs, and I like to keep it that way. I’m not a big fan of virtuosity, because it’s not how you play that counts, it’s what you play—right? If you read a book, for instance, you don’t look at the typography, or how well laid out it is, you focus on the story. Also, I feel there’s something to be said for playing guitar with your brain, not just your hands. If you’re not amazingly articulate from practicing scales every day for five hours, there’s a certain crudeness to what you do. But you make up for that by using your imagination.

: Bernard doesn’t usually bring up the “me sitting in front of a computer” but equally interesting is the effect this may have had on NO’s song structures over the years. In most of the band’s songs the vocals are rarely central, and instead of the standard verse-chorus-verse approach many of their songs go back into further instrumental passages after the vocals wrap up and this might have come about from the Gillian days when she would add some extra melodic synth components while Bernard went off to write lyrics.

Oh, the NO “Singles’ album looks like it really is going to happen later this year. No word yet about a US release.

More Homework?

Soulwax just announced a remix album of their recent material and since they employ the services of the finest remixers in the world I am interested. Besides, it's got their cover of Daft Punk's "Teachers" on it (I will always regret not asking Luke Slater, who I interviewed for a video show I was working on a few years ago, how it felt to be included on DP's list) so what's not to like about that?:

’Nite Versions’ features brand new interpretations of tracks inspired by and taken from the band’s last LP ’Any Minute Now’.

The songs have been expanded and extended to make them work on the 12” format – an idea following in the footsteps of Talking Heads, The Human League and New Order.

The full ’Nite Versions’ tracklisting is:

’Teachers’
‘Miserable Girl’
‘E Talking’
‘Accidents And Compliments’
‘Compute’
‘Slowdance’
‘I Love Techno’
‘KracK’
‘NY Lipps’
‘Another Excuse’

: I wonder if this is why The DFA's take on "NY Excuse" was pulled off itunes in the past couple of weeks. These disappearing songs on itunes are testing the limits of my already fragile hold on sanity.

E Talking

Forging ahead into the future of 1999, just consider smaller labels have been doing the same thing with releases that are likely not profitable to press for some time, Warner Brothers just announced a new "e-label":

Warner chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr said: “Our most important job is to work with artists and help them hone their craft.”

Bronfman said that too many young artists were being dropped when their first albums did not sell enough copies.

He explained: “While the old system allowed an artist time to develop and grow, today's business is such that an initial commercial failure for most artists means they no longer get a second chance."

While I'm pleased that the majors are looking for new ways of funding artist development I am puzzled why it's "today's business" environment that is to blame. I remember reading articles in the late 90's in Rolling Stone and Spin about the major label's movement away from traditional artist development towards picking up bands that already had achieved local radio hits and other situations where they signed bands to release a specific song. It's not like the one hit wonders haven't always existed, but the music industry is foolish if they don't realize they own the lion's share of the blame for the commercial climate of the music business today.

I also read another article about the same announcement where they mentioned the bottom line response of big labels to government policies (like the recent Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Betamax doctrine to stand):

"We like government levies when they benefit us," Bronfman said. "I would like none of the legislators in France, for instance, to say they should no longer pay us a levy for all the blank CDs that are being sold, (though) it doesn't make up for the revenue that we're losing...If the government mandated filtering technologies, we'd be delighted."

: Remember, it’s their most important job to help artists…

B-a-n-a-n-a-s

I knew things had been taken to the next level for Gwen Stefani’s solo career when a fifty-something co-worker exclaimed she loved that song when “Hollaback Girl” came on the radio a few days ago. Having just announced a second Bay Area arena show and a fourth single that is all over the airwaves could there be any doubt that Gwen Stefani posses a killer pop instincts? She was on to something when she began positioning herself as hip hop savvy new waver a couple of No Doubt albums ago when they hired Hype “Directed Every Hit Hip Hop Video For Five Years’ Williams to create the clip for “Ex-Girlfriend” and then she began moonlighting from the band to work on Eve’s big hit “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.” Now she’s cashing in with her genre-hopping album, and it’s not like she didn’t have a plan when her record company funded her working with top producers:

"I knew it was an easy, upbeat album, that even if you hated me you couldn't help but like some of the songs, because they were meant to be these addictive songs.
That was the goal, to make a record where picking the singles would be a big issue because every song could be a single."
The fourth single, Cool, has been chosen by Stefani to show the more laidback aspects of the record. She also wants her New Order pastiche, The Real Thing, to be a single.

: Of course the problem here is that releasing “The Real Thing” would end Stefani’s string of hit singles, so I don’t see it happening. Besides, both Andre 3000 tracks are better tracks with more radio potential. Stefani also spoke a bit about her follow up album that is expected before the years end:

She's compiling the best of the unreleased songs and has plans to release them as a companion album at Christmas. One song, Wonderful Life for Him, features Depeche Mode's Martin Gore on guitar. It's especially poignant, as the song was written about the first boy Stefani ever kissed, who has since died.
"He was a huge Depeche Mode fan," she says. "He actually turned me onto them. I was really into Madness. I was, like, 'Depeche Mode? That's electronic weirdo music'. My friend would not believe Martin Gore is playing on this song I wrote him."

: She’s been talking about that Gore song for over a year now (when she originally began promoting the album months before it was finished), and her story has tweaked a little bit. I recall her first talking about being into dance pop music, not Madness, before this old boyfriend. I’m sure she just got confused about her past after the hundreds on interviews she’s done. Something about the subject matter and how it didn’t make the first album’s cut tell me that it’s probably not the most upbeat and radio-friendly song.
What really impresses me is the order that Stefani has released the album’s single so far. I can’t think of another example of an album that released tracks #1-#4 as singles in the order they appear on the cd. The closest I can think of is New Order’s “Republic” did use the first four tracks, but changed the order up.
And it’s also worth mentioning that Stefani, while sticking with arena support standby’s Black Eye Peas for the first local arena show, is still taking chances. Somewhat controversial electro-dancehall-something star M.I.A. will be opening for Stefani later on her tour. Maybe she’s the person who decided to take The Faint to open large venues with No Doubt before most hipsters knew who The Faint was? That would be bananas.

You're My Greatest Hit

They disbanded three years ago and only managed to release two albums in their career, but Leftfield are putting out a greatest hits album:

’A Final Hit’ will feature their early hard-to-find 12” releases ’Not Forgotten’ and ’More Than I Know’ alongside their hits, including Open Up’ which features John Lydon.

Bandmember Neil Barnes said: “I had never sat down and listened to the music that spanned our career in this way before. The essence of Leftfield was to simply make exciting music, push back some boundaries, and to take creative steps forward. We had some great fun on the way.”

: This begs the question of whatever happened to the duo. I thought they both planned solo careers and my internet searching powers have come up empty on any information about what they are up to these days. In any case it's a shame there won't be new tracks on the compilation because the band did stay together another three years after their final album.

Then there’s the rumor that New Order are releasing another greatest hits album later this year. Not a good move. “Best Of?” felt a bit rushed given there were only two albums after “Substance” but it wasn’t a bad thing. I never picked up 2003‘s “International” which came out only one album after “Get Ready” and this new compilation would is following right on it’s heels. One would think this might drain some good will from fans looking forward to the possibility of a completely new album from NO next year (assuming the band have been truthful in this years interviews). Bah.

Electro Distortion

Side-Line just reviewed the new version of Miss Kittin's "I Com" which appears to package the US only "Mixing Me" EP with the original album, and their review highlights the problems of writing about minimal techno:

I’ve been seduced by the acid-groovy Abe Duque remix of “Requiem for a hit” and the groovy 80s dance “Original” version of “Soundtrack of now”.

: The big problem here is that both tracks mine the same acid techno sound, but the description would lead you to believe that "Soundtrack Of Now" somehow sounds more dated than the remix which just isn't the case. I addressed the same tracks in my own review of "Mixing Me" by attempting to avoid super broad generalizations like "80s" but even then I'm not sure I painted a strong enough picture of the music. Rock and pop critics have it so easy.

Can't Fight

The official Pet Shop Boys site has been fairly quiet about their "Battleship Potemkin" soundtrack that is due out in early September, except in the US (where we still don't have 2003's "PopArt" collection). What they do mention is that the album is an EMI Classics and Parlophone co-release, and that a DVD version of the film with the soundtrack might be released in the future but they are currently having difficulty obtaining the rights (only slightly ironic given the film's celebration of Russia's communist roots). So far there has been no confirmation to outside reports that "No Time For Tears" will be getting a single release or really much of anything which leads me to believe that they have fairly low expectations for the release (well, what could you expect from a mostly instrumental soundtrack to a 1920's silent film).
However, the site is already pushing their next album:

Neil and Chris are currently working on a new batch of four songs for their next album with producer Trevor Horn, making a total of nine tracks. The latest four are described as "more electro--pop" than the first "epic" five Horn has produced. The Diane Warren composition, "Numb", originally recorded for the "PopArt" compilation and produced by Trevor Horn, will also feature on the new album to be released in Spring, 2006.

: Of course the new album should be fantastic given PSB's recent rebound with "Disco 3" and the new "PopArt" singles. Still Warren's involvement is puzzling. What's the woman who wrote "Because You Loved Me", "Un-Break My Heart" and "How Can We Be Lovers" doing with these people who's music I love? I think the answer lies in Leann Rimes who recorded Warren's "Can't Fight The Moonlight"* with Horn for the "Coyote Ugly" soundtrack.

Now for snippet of discussion taken from the Boys fan magazine "Literally" captured during their XFM session last year:

Waiting, they discuss whether there is any possibility that the film Love Actually could be worth seeing.
"I met someone who saw Love Actually yesterday who said it made them want to leave the cinema and hug someone."
"Oooh," says Chris. "Was this someone who also liked Dido?"
"I think it was," Neil concedes.

* Doing a bit of research I found that someone claiming to be Saint Etienne recorded a euro cover of "Can't Stop The Moonlight" a few years ago. I haven't been confirm it outside artistdirect apart from discogs (and it's on a different label than the rest of their material), so maybe they got it wrong this time...

All You Do Is Talk Talk

Thanks to Live 105's "Coldplay Weekend" I had a chance to hear the much-debated-on-electronic-music-forums "Talk" several times. Essentially there was an odd amount of fuss a few months ago over the adopting the synth melody from Kraftwerk's "Computer World" into a repeated guitar solo in the Coldplay song. The amount of debate the song received surprised me considering the amount of sampling pioneered by Kraftwerk themselves (although usually in a modernist context as opposed to the post-modern referencing point that sampling is often used as today) and in the electronic scene in general. Regardless of whatever pointless controversy surrounds the song it is heartening to see how well the “Computer World” melody translates into an arena rock guitar line. If nothing else it speaks to the timelessness of Kraftwerk, and their continuing influence on so much of today’s music.

I found this at cute story at Contact Music regarding how Coldplay obtained permission to use the riff:

But he was only able to obtain the riff by writing to frontman RALF HUTTER and begging him to let Coldplay use it.

He admits, "The only thing I could think of was the pen pal letters I learnt in German lessons at school. I had no idea if they knew who Coldplay were so had to explain myself like a 15 year-old school-boy.

"Dear Ralf, I sing in a band called Coldplay, blah, blah. I drew a little picture. Everyone says it's extraordinary that they said yes.'

Compare clips: Kraftwerk, Coldplay

Louder Than A Bomb

NME reports that Tiga has a new single out this October that is produced by Soulwax and features Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters on vocals. The song sounds highly promising because Tiga is fantastic (even if he does too many covers and not enough original material), SS's are one of my faves and Soulwax's "NY Excuse" is my anthem right now (yes, it's good enough for what I pay). Of course I also like the Tiga & Shear's previous collaboration, covering "Hot In Herre" and Tiga remix of "Comfortably Numb" is top notch as well. What I really hope is this signals that Tiga is finally releasing a proper (non-dj-mix) album. The guy's been at the edges of electro scene for years and just keeps teasing us with singles. It's time to shows us the goods Tiga.

Simply Berzerk

Stephan Groth, the man behind Apoptygma Berzerk has a history of changing up his musical styles at least a bit, but his new single has really thrown me for a loop. The last time we saw Apop they were headed out of a traditional ebm sound towards something with a synthpop vibe, and around the same time he also went somewhat electroclash with his Fairlight Children project (taking a cue from the Leeb/Fulber tradition of changing names when not creating specifically “scary” music). While I don’t dislike Groth, his music has never particularly appealed to me so I’ve dragged my feet in sampling something from his new album. What a surprise it was to hear the new rock direction he took with “In This Direction.” Not only does he sport some sort of tracksuit looking jacket in the video, but the music is like Stabbing Westward doing some sort of Bon Jovi/Van Halen cover. It just does not work musically because it, or anything else with a 80's pop metal vibe, just shouldn't and to make matters worse the video is annoying as well (with an ending that is definition of unclever).

Wrong Number

Having just changed their live lineup about a month before playing Live8, it looks as if The Cure have a new album on the way. NME recently spoke to Robert "Fat Bob" Smith at a festival in Spain where he revealed some details:

“We want to start recording in October/November and get it out by birthday next year, which I know is quite cheesy.”

Smith turns 47 on April 21 2006.

The star also revealed he intends to work with former Siouxsie And The Banshees colleague Steve Severin on new material.

Smith added: "I'm not sure though. We might kill each other!"

: If working with a Banshee wasn't excitement enough for you, then you have to see this bit of background from the NME story:

The band were thought to have split, but returned with an eponymous and critically acclaimed album in 2004, eight years after 1996’s ’Wild Mood Swings’.

: It appears "Bloodflowers" was never released. See what happens when you release an album without a song that is worth being a single.

Misguided Focus

If you've even flipped past cable news in the past few months you know the inappropriate amount of airtime a certain news story has received and how it has been:

twisting traditional notions of news judgment and becoming Exhibit A in the media's fascination with missing people - as long as they happen to be young, white, female and pretty.

: I was pleased to see a story examining the lack of actual news value of the coverage, and unhappy to hear that it appears to be catalyst for Greta Van Susteren's recent ratings victories. In the big picture Van Susteren's focus is completely misplaced:

With war and terrorism in the news, critics wonder how one missing person case can so dominate a news program. Even on the night President Bush nominated John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court, "On the Record" spent far more time on Holloway.

Her name came up 178 times during a computer search of "On the Record" transcripts from the past two months, only seven times for the same period on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" on MSNBC. The count was 434 times for Fox's three prime-time news shows; 50 for CNN's.

: Now compare the number of people effected by this story with, say the London bombings which have changed speech laws in the UK and prompted random bad searches in the New York subway. Or consider the decades of influence that Roberts' could have if he reaches the Supreme Court. It's just mind boggling that involving one person could deserve so much attention given that no one watching will likely have any effect on the case since it's taken place in another country. The sad thing is that Van Susteren has nothing on Nancy Grace (who never met a person who wasn't guilty). TV news can be a scary place.

Special Cases

It’s official. Sinead O'Connor is leaving behind her most recent retirement, announced in 2003, to release something of a sequel to her cover album “Am I Not Your Girl?”:

Her new album, 'Throw Down Your Arms', will be released on October 3.

Recorded in two weeks, the record is made up of tracks which have “inspired Sinead in her life and work for the past fifteen years”.

Even though much of her music is outside of my immediate musical passions I’ve long considered Sinead to be one of Our Great Voices and it’s been a sad watching her once promising career sink into public indifference. Still I don’t know how much to expect from this new album because it seems to be mostly takes on reggae songs which isn’t something I would expect from Sinead, but I’m willing to give it a chance. At least it’s a move away from the unfortunate 90’s Celtic revival that she was lumped into (not that she’s directly to blame for Lord Of The Dance or Enya-mania but you get the idea).

Perhaps more promising is Sinead’s recently released collection of her Collaborations. My favorite material from her usually includes electronics, like “I Am Stretched On Your Grave”, and this album delivers tracks with Massive Attack, Jah Wobble‘s Invaders of the Heart, Conjure One, Bomb The Bass and Moby providing the music.

If Madonna Calls

The new Madonna album is expected out in a few months and at least the lead single is produced by one of my favorites:

’Hung Up’ will be the first track to be lifted from the forthcoming LP ’Confessions On A Dancefloor’, which is expected this autumn.

According to madonna.com, the song was produced by Stuart Price aka Jacques Lu Cont, who is currently in Los Angeles mixing the album with the singer.

: It's about time Madonna let Price loose in the studio since he has worked with her on recent tours and co-wrote a song that, under the direction of rival(?) producer Mirwais, was mysteriously featured in an unplugged version on "American Life." It could be that Madge may just now realizing what a talent he is since he has been just about everywhere in the past year producing New Order and Juliet as he continues working his magic remixing Gwen Stefani and Fischerspooner with versions that are superior to the originals. Have I sold out my "alternative/electro/underground" side with the hope that it will turn out better than NO's "Jetstream"?

Something I Can Never Have

Thanks to TVT Records financial troubles you can own the rights to NIN's first album. Details from the MTV Europe site:

‘Pretty Hate Machine' is part of an overall biddable package that also includes the rights to the Television's ‘Greatest Hits' compilations and the ‘Mortal Kombat' movie soundtracks. In addition, the highest bidder will be able to collect a percentage on future sales of Nine Inch Nails' other TVT-related releases, including ‘Broken', ‘Fixed', 'The Downward Spiral' and ‘Further Down the Spiral'.

: Reznor spent years complaining about his treatment at TVT and even blamed it for silencing NIN before he released "Broken" (in retrospect the three year gap between releases was rather quick by NIN standards) so it would be interesting to see if he attempts to join a party making a bid.

Download USA

The move towards UK style festivals in the US in the wake of the success of events like Coachella continues with the announcement of the Download Festival making it's first American appearance:

The Killers will headline the first U.S. edition of the U.K.'s successful Download Festival, Billboard.com has learned. The event will be held Oct. 8 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., and will also boast performances by Modest Mouse, the Arcade Fire, Doves, H.I.M. and Mindless Self Indulgence.

Like the U.K. version of the event, which drew 150,000 people this year to London's Donnington Park, the U.S. edition will offer cutting-edge technology and media experiences.

: The festival is actually just about a fifteen minute drive away for me since the Shoreline is located on the backyard of Google's offices just down the way on the San Francisco Peninsula, but they have to sweeten the deal a bit more before I'll shell out as much as they are charging. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see The Killers and Doves but they've both been through town at much smaller venues that charged less in the past year.

Hyperspeed

NME report that Prodigy expect to have a new studio album out in 2006:

Despite the huge gap between 1997’s ‘The Fat Of The Land’ and last year’s ‘Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned’, Liam Howlett said a new studio album will be out by the end of next year.

He said: “Now we’re back together as three people, being on the road is a good place to write music. I write on my laptop, so we’ve been playing new tracks.”

He added: “We were going to put loads of new tracks on the best of but we thought that some of the tracks deserve to be part of the new album. They’ll take a few more
months to get right, but we’re thinking end of next year.”

: As always is the case with Howlett it is best to take this news with a grain of salt because Howlett's attempts at putting a timetable on his own creative output are rarely accurate with the predicted 2002 release of "Always Outnumbered" being just one example. Hopefully this burst of creative energy means Howlett's in a more inspired place than he was on the last album.

Precious

The new DM single was leaked to the internet today, and at least one source thinks it's part of a damage control campaign since so many Depeche fan still have a bad taste from the disappointing "Exciter." The story from Side-Line:

The new single from Depeche Mode, "Precious", is out on the online streets. Since last night the track and an unedited version of the video have quickly spread in the close circle of Depeche Mode fans worldwide. Side-Line contacted one of the maintainers of a server offering the track late yesterday evening, he told Side-Line: "So far we have had over 11.000 requests for the track and it looks like it is going up very fast every minute." Asked where the track got leaked from, he said: "All looks like the leaks came from people from the band's label seeing the quality of the leaked material, especially the video. And if there was any doubt, the speed of how this download got 'known' to the outside world just convinces me even more that this is a promo stunt. Most sources online were fed almost simultaneously, a fan would have a daytime job doing this..." The track is the first single to be taken from the upcoming Depeche Mode album, "Playing The Angel", to be released on October 17th and lets us hear a Depeche Mode that has improved tremendously soundwise compared to the rather disappointing "Exciter" album. If it can be compared with previous Depeche Mode material, one should say a mix between "Ultra" and "Violator", at least for this first track.

Heartbeat

Flipping past mtv this evening I had a bit of shock because their "You Hear It First" extended artist profile was about Annie. I don't know that I've ever seen an electropop video on mtv, but that was a pleasant surprise. You stream the profile from the mtv site so long as it's still up and also read through an interview where Annie discusses the mood of her music:

She dismisses the touch of melancholy in tunes like "Heartbeat" and "My Best Friend," insisting that she's keeping things upbeat. "For me, it's really easy to write depressive songs," she said, "and that's why I never do that. I try to do songs that are a bit happier and a bit more complicated. I think there are too many songwriters writing sad, depressive songs, and I find it really boring, listening to music where people are just complaining. People should stop whining!

"Right now I'm doing pop — kind of electronic pop music, with a twist of disco. But maybe the next album will be more like a country album," she laughed. "You never know!"

Mobile Village

When not watching "MTV's The 70's House" where kids talk about their dance instructor as that guy who "worked with John Travolta on that movie, um, that was highly regarded as a classic of that era" I like to keep up with what's happening to that decade's stars:

Victor Edward Willis, the original policeman in the 1970s music group the Village People, was arrested by real police who allegedly found a gun and drugs in his convertible.

Willis, who co-wrote disco hits such as "Macho Man" and "In the Navy" before leaving the Village People in the late 1970s, was taken into custody Monday after an officer stopped his Chevrolet Corvette.

Police said Willis didn't have a valid license or identification and at first lied about his name and residence. Inside the car, the officer found a .45-caliber handgun as well as rock cocaine and drug paraphernalia, police said.

Traces of cocaine and other paraphernalia were also found his home at a mobile home park in Daly City, just south of San Francisco, police said. Willis also had an outstanding felony warrant for possession of narcotics.

: Having spent two lovely years living in the constant cold fog of Daly City as it turned my car's once spotless paint job into rust I had forgotten there even was a trailer park in the town. At least he got out before the band hit the county fair circuit.

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.