Eels Design Contest and i-Pod Nano Giveaway

There are a couple of new contests at the official Eels website . They might appear well-timed to coincide with the tour the group just announced, but let's not be cynical. Coincidences are a beautiful thing.

A "LIFETIME of bragging rights" is just one of the prizes for the winner of the "Show Us Your Eels Art" Design Contest. A limited edition t-shirt will be produced, using the winning design, and the Eels-endorsed artist gets 5 of the shirts.

Indeed, Eels themselves are judging the contest, so you can essentially force them to look at your art! It's a prize in itself!

Unsurprisingly, Eels will own the winning design, they reserve the right to sell any merchandise they want using it, and the designer will not be "entitled to any associated revenue or profits". Bummer about that last part, but it only cuts slightly into the pleasure of a "LIFETIME of bragging rights". Not getting "associated revenue or profits" doesn't sound quite as bad as not getting "tall stacks of money". Five shirts, a cool credit, and those bragging rights could be worth more than the "associated revenue" ever amounted to! Either way, at least it would be a band you like making money from your art.

To enter the contest, check out the rules and disclaimers, slave away on one design, and send it by email or snail mail by April 24 at 4:00 PM.

The other contest requires luck and money, rather than skill. From now until May 5th, everyone buying "$20 or more (subtotal)" at the eels' official store is automatically entered to win one three eels i-Pod Nanos, "loaded with the EELS U.S. iTunes Store catalogue, and engraved with a personal message from the EELS!" It's probably something interesting too, not something along the lines of "Thanks for purchasing $20 or more (subtotal) of EELS merchandise from the EELS official store!" Particularly since that sort of message would have to be in very tiny text. Those i-Pod nanos are quite small; you could easily fit one in your mouth. You probably shouldn't, but you could.

As for the Eels tour, the guys announced the 2006 Live And In Person! No Strings Attached Tour, the name both differentiating it from and slyly promoting their "Eels With Strings: Live At Town Hall" album and DVD.

The tour begins with a couple of "warm-up" shows May 25 and 26 in West Hollywood, CA and continues through over two dozen dates in North America and Europe, with more to be announced, including shows in Australia.

Smoosh will open the North American dates; no supporting acts have been announced for the European shows.

Eels Tour Dates:

May:

25 & 26 - West Hollywood, CA - The Roxy (warm-up shows)
27 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
28 - Santa Ana, CA - Galaxy Theatre
31 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore

June:

1 - Sacramento, CA - Harlow's
3 - Portland, OR - Roseland
4 - Seattle, WA - Showbox
6 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
7 - Boulder, CO - Fox Theater
9 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue
10 - Pittsburgh, PA - Three Rivers Arts Festival (free)
11 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
12 - Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
13 - New York, NY - World Financial Plaza (free)
15 - Somerville, MA - Somerville Theatre
16 - Montreal, Quebec - Le Nacional
17 - Toronto, Ontario - Mod Club Theater

August:

5 - Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)

Eels - Sweet Li'l Thing (from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)

Eels - Pretty Ballerina (Left Banke cover, from Eels With Strings: Live At Town Hall)

Eels - Guest List (from Beautiful Freak)

Eels - Lone Wolf (from Shootenanny)

Eels - Jennifer Eccles (Hollies cover, from B-sides and Rarities)

Replacements Record New Songs For Best-Of

Billboard brings welcome news of at least a brief, limited-purpose Replacements reunion, with Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars recording two new songs together for a Replacements collection, set for a June 13 release. Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements includes 18 previously released tracks and the two freshly recorded songs, "Message to the Boys" and "Pool & Dive", both penned by 'Mats frontman Paul Westerberg.

Last year, Westerberg told an interviewer that drummer Chris Mars had "moved on into art" and was not interested in a Replacements reunion. Westerberg said, "It can't be the Replacements without Chris".

"Sources" tell Billboard that a Replacements box set (planned for 2007 at the earliest), and expanded editions of the 'Mats albums are in the works.

Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements Track Listing:

Takin' A Ride
Shiftless When Idle
Kids Don't Follow
Color Me Impressed
Within Your Reach
I Will Dare (from Let It Be)
Answering Machine
Unsatisfied
Here Comes A Regular
Kiss Me On The Bus
Bastards of Young
Left of the Dial (from Tim)
Alex Chilton
Skyway
Can't Hardly Wait
Achin' To Be
I'll Be You
Merry Go Round
Message to the Boys (new)
Pool & Dive (new)

Morrissey Not Hungry For A Smiths Reunion

Morrissey was interviewed recently by Uncut magazine. Asked the inevitable question about a possible Smiths reunion, he was not very enthusiastic. He told them:

"It has been 18 years since it ended; I don't know them, they don't know me, they know nothing about me, I know nothing about them. Anything I know about them is unpleasant, so why on earth do we want to be on stage together making music? I would rather eat my own testicles than reform The Smiths, and that's saying something for a vegetarian."

So perhaps he's saying just a brief return to the studio then?

Moz also flung mud at other assorted targets; it would be shocking if he didn't. He had these remarks about the Brit Awards for instance:

"The Brits are ghastly and there has never been a time when they haven't got it wrong. For me to ever accept a Brit, well, I never would. It would be like Laurence Olivier being happy getting a TV Times award."

Morrissey - The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores (from You Are The Quarry)

This world, I am afraid, is designed for crashing bores
I am not one, I am not one

Kurt Cobain: The Doll

It doesn't bode well when a press release includes a phrase such as, "While Kurt Cobain may no longer be part of the corporeal world" (May). Doesn't seem like the folks who wrote that could be up to anything great. They could be headed to Paranormal Cringeville: "Our finest psychics, tarot readers, clairvoyants, fire dancers, and aromatherapists will contact Kurt to ask what messages he has for those of us still living in the corporeal world. We'll also discover how his spirit smells. A reproduction of this scent will be available for only $250 per quarter ounce collector's edition bottle for a limited time only!" Or they could be zooming, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, toward Tacky Product Land, but minus the contacting-Kurt angle. That's the case here:

While Kurt Cobain may no longer be part of the corporeal world, his words, voice, music, and attitude can still be felt today thanks to the full albums, videos, and unheard of amount of bootlegs left behind. Sure, there are still some songs here and there that diehard Nirvana fans may have not been able to get in its finest form of clarity, and we are still waiting for an official DVD release that catalogs all their music videos, but the one thing that many fans have been asking for and have never received in ANY form, official or not, is an action figure.

Just because "many fans" ask for something -- I'll give the benefit of the doubt that that's true -- doesn't mean they should have it. Would Cobain have wanted such a thing? If he was able to decide for himself, perhaps he'd want to know more about this doll version of himself before rendering an opinion.

The action figure is based on Cobain's appearance in the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video, "rendered in painstaking detail", comes with a guitar and part of the gym floor as its base. The press release headline is "Kurt Lives", and seeing his tiny doll doppleganger, I suppose you might almost think he was alive, except for the part where it's just a tiny inanimate plastic version of him (that oddly doesn't look that much like him) and not, like, an actual living Cobain. I wouldn't file this under evil, but it strikes me as tacky.

Weird Al Yankovic - Smells Like Nirvana (from Off The Deep End)

When asked about Weird Al's parody in an MTV interview, Kurt Cobain said:

"Oh, I laughed my ass off. I thought it was one of the funniest things I ever saw. He has some good people working for him. Those people really know how to... I mean, I'm sure he has a lot to do with it, but they really know how to reproduce things to the T. He had the exact same setup. It's the same video with him in it. It's great."

Also, in a posthumously-published diary entry, Cobain referred to Yankovic as the closest thing America has to punk rock.

Also on the way: a Freddie Mercury action figure with motion-activated sound. It's "Based on his appearance from memorable concert [sic] at Wembly Stadium 1986".

Mercury is action-figure-worthy for many reasons, but chiefly because "With a versatile musical sound-scape and a voice that could make a pack of dingos keep from eating babies, Freddie Mercury lead Queen into a spot in the lore of Rock music that no other band will ever come close to taking."

Would Mercury have liked the idea of an action figure version of himself? Maybe...

The Best Sci-Fi Concept Albums

The folks at Wired believe the Best Sci-Fi Concept Albums are:

Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine (1977)

Kraftwerk - The Robots (from The Man-Machine)

Deltron - 3030 (2000)

Deltron - Mastermind (from 3030)

Sun Ra - The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1 (1965)

Sun Ra - Of Heavenly Things (from The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1)

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1973)

David Bowie - Starman (from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars)

Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (1976)

Parliament - Dr. Funkenstein (from The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein)

Tubeway Army - Replicas (1979)

Tubeway Army - I Nearly Married a Human (from Replicas)

Radiohead - Kid A (2000)

Radiohead - Optimistic (from Kid A)

The 10 Worst Albums Ever, Other Than The Obvious Ones

Q magazine, as they are wont to do, has come up with an allegedly-definitive music list, this one determining the ten worst albums of all time. However, Q's deputy editor Gareth Grundy qualifies that somewhat, noting "The list is a mixture of the unspeakable and those ridiculous acts of hubris, although we tried not to pick on the obvious soft targets." So it's a list of the top ten worst albums of all time, excluding the obvious ones.

The Top Ten Worst Albums Of All Times According To Q (Other Than The Obvious Ones, Which Are Worse):

1. Duran Duran - Thank You (which Q calls "DOWNRIGHT INSULTING")

Duran Duran - 911 Is A Joke (from Thank You)

2. Spice Girls - Any of their solo albums ("WRETCHED")

3. Various Artists - Urban Renewal ("WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL")

4. Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music

5. Billy Idol - Cyberpunk

Billy Idol - Wasteland (from Cyberpunk)

6. Naomi Campbell - Baby Woman ("GOBSMACKING HUBRIS")

7. Kevin Rowland - My Beauty ("HIDEOUSLY MAWKISH")

8. Mick Jagger - Primitive Cool

9. Westlife - Allow Us to Be Frank

10. Tin Machine - Tin Machine II

Some good music might be a nice treat for your ears after those iffy songs. Womenfolk has a couple of lovely ones, covers of Crowded House and XTC songs, Jennifer Kimball's "Fall At Your Feet" and Nouvelle Vague's "Making Plans For Nigel".

Faking Friendliness Is Stressful

A new study addresses the potential impact of faking friendliness on our health. How harmful can it be?

"Have a nice day - and a short life" reads one headline. "People who smile a lot and say 'have a nice day' are headed to an early grave, while the grumpy stay fit." reads the sub-heading.

Sounds pretty conclusive. Time to stop smiling a lot and telling people to have a nice day, then? (If you already do. If you don't, time to make a mental reminder to not start doing either?) Maybe not. Alarmist headlines may be more fun to write than mild ones.

Truth is, no one apparently even died in the study, which is good. But perhaps less dramatic.

Psychologists at Frankfurt University put students to work in a simulated phone center where "clients" treated them in an abusive manner.

Students who were required to be "polite and friendly" at all times had a racing heartbeat long after the "abusive" calls ended. The heartbeats of students who were not required to be polite to rude callers was also elevated, but soon returned to normal.

The psychologists concluded that "being friendly against one's will causes nothing but stress".

Researchers also studied the emotional behavior of 4000 people who have to deal with the public for long periods of time, including flight attendants. The authors of the study believe the forced friendliness involved in such jobs can lead to depression, and hinder the immune system's ability to defend against a variety of illnesses.

Much of this seems logical, as long as it isn't taken to alarmist extremes. Perhaps the most shocking realization is that Mr. Rourke, Fantasy Island's very well-informed host, must have known full well that his rather insistent instructions to "Smile everyone, smile!" were not in the best interests of his underlings. Yet he nonetheless proceeded to issue them, week after week, year after year. The heartless bastard.

David Gilmour - Smile (from On An Island)

Boo Radleys - Smile Fades Fast (from Everything's Alright Forever)

Stereophonics - Have A Nice Day (from Just Enough Education To Perform)

The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It (from Hot Fuss)

New York Sues Gratis Internet

New York Attorney General Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today sued Gratis Internet for selling the "user records" of as many as 7 million people, in violation of their promises to keep such information confidential. If proved, Gratis' actions would apparently constitute the largest intentional breach of a privacy policy ever successfully prosecuted.

Although Gratis' websites, such as freeipods.com, include statements such as "We will never give out, sell or lend your name or information to anyone," and "We will never lend, sell or give out for any reason your e-mail address or personal information.", Spitzer alleges that Gratis made such information available to three separate e-mail marketers, after which "hundreds of millions" of e-mail solicitations were sent.

Gratis Internet has called the charges "completely untrue", specifically denying any transactions with an e-mail marketing company called Datran Media, which last week agreed to pay $1.1 million dollars and change its data collection practices to settle a lawsuit filed last week accusing it of illegal data-mining practices.

One good lesson here is that if you're going to give any information to any possibly-sketchy company -- give them a "disposable" e-mail address -- one you're only using for that company. That is, if you want to deal at all with a company that sets off your spidey sense.

Blue Rodeo - Trust Yourself (from Greatest Hits, etc.)

Male Humpback Whales Are Copycats

Using information theory, researchers studying the songs of humpback whales have concluded, in a study published in the March Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, that, although the songs did not quite meet the standards of a true language, "elements of language are seen in their songs". The songs involve "complex grammatical rules" and show, for the first time, a creature other than humans can communicate using a hierarchical syntax. It was already known that whales from different areas speak in different dialects. Although impressive amounts of information are conveyed by whale songs, researchers noted that they convey much less information than humans. The comparison cited is: whale songs: less than one bit per second, human: 10 bits per word spoken, but I wonder what our rate is when singing. Also, a whale can sing for 20 hours; maybe they can afford an oven pace instead of a microwave pace. Perhaps their information is tastier and more accurate.

Naturally, researchers chose to study whales during their mating season. It's a long one, though, so a bit less convenient to schedule around it, if they were inclined to, which I doubt they were. During the whales' six-month mating season, all males sang the same song, even as it kept growing more complex. Researchers speculated that a male whale would find more luck in the mating game by changing the song, and that this would not go unnoticed. The other guys would in fact react by copying his successful song. Bummer for the one creative whale, but don't hate the playas, hate the game.

Streaming audio of humpback whale songs is available at LiveScience.com.

Catatonia - Whale (from Way Beyond Blue)

Cerys Matthews, the former lead singer of Catatonia, is now working on a solo album, which is set to be released this year. She'll be playing a few shows in July as follows:

July 22 - Llangollen Town Hall
July 24 - Cardiff The Point
July 26 - London The Scala
July 29 - Cambridge Folk Festival

Brian Eno Lacks Interest In Shiny Clothes, Rejects Roxy Reunion

Apparently when Bryan Ferry's website reported that Roxy Music, with its original line-up, including Brian Eno, had been "back in the studio", working on a new album, they were only part right. Eno was in the studio, alright, but he has not been working on the Roxy Music album (nor will he be joining them on their upcoming tour).

According to the EnoWeb Info Centre, "Brian popped in to visit the members of the group when they were in the studio. Hearing of this, some journalist somewhere decided that it is a truth universally acknowledged that a solo artist in possession of a fine career must be in want of tinsel jackets, peacock feathers, ego clashes, laundry ruminations and everything else that goes with rejoining a band he left 33 years ago. Great oak false rumours from tiny fact acorns grow..."

Perhaps Eno does miss the tinsel jackets, but decided they aren't worth the laundry ruminations they cause. It's unclear how the erroneous report ended up on Bryan Ferry's official website, which I had imagined was run by Ferry himself. I pictured him insisting only he knew how his website should look, and what belonged there. Figured he updated it frequently, whether traveling or at home, always clad in an elegant suit. Including a tinsel jacket, naturally, accented with a few (very tasteful) peacock feathers.

Roxy Music - Mother Of Pearl (from Stranded)

Roxy Music - To Turn You On (from Avalon)

Brian Eno - And Then So Clear (from Another Day On Earth)

Paste Magazine CD: April/May 06

The Flaming Lips don wacky outfits for the cover of the latest Paste, which perhaps fits in neatly with the cover copy, "The Flaming Lips Demystified: Working Like Mad to Generate Madness". Or perhaps not; how hard is it to wear a silly outfit?

Behind the kinda-mad cover, Paste examines the question "Does Live Music Still Matter In Manhattan?" Rising real estate prices and fewer customers have led to the closing of many clubs, such as The Bottom Line, Wetlands, and Fez. And even CBGB is planning to close in October. The closing of all these music clubs has left New York with at least one more deli, though. Now, I've never been to New York, but I was under the impression that there are a lot of delis there, but perhaps there weren't enough. The world needs music, but the world needs sandwiches too. If the area was lacking in delis, truly, this is a conundrum.

It's probably stress from being reminded that there aren't always easy answers in life that made Paste decide to run a feature on premium chocolates, complete with a taste-test of "ultra-premium" bars. Who wouldn't want to conduct that sort of taste-test, especially if they get to say things like "this is an approachable chocolate for the candy-bar set" without anyone suggesting that some people consider chocolate bars to be candy.

Other non-musical content in this issue includes an article about Googie architecture, look at neon in Vegas, and a piece on the anamorphic illusions created in Julian Beever's artwork.

A Glimpse At Some of Paste's Interviews This Month:

Dolly Parton naturally (?) is asked "If you were a man, what kind of man would you be?" Her answer: "A good one. An honest one. A fun one. A smart one. A passionate one. A horny one. Did I say a hansome one?"

There's a brief chat with Donald Fagen, whose latest solo album, Morph The Cat, is garnering high praise, but it looks like they didn't ask him what kind of a woman he would be, if he was a woman, so I lost interest pretty quickly.

Mates Of States were simply asked the five best things about making music with their spouse. Three is my favorite number, so let's just look at #3: "You Have To Fight The Rock 'n' Roll Myths: Because we're married and have a kid, people assume we're a domestic, family act and that we're not rock 'n' roll," says [drummer Jason] Hammel. "But the two things are not incompatible. [Organist] Kori actually got pregnant on the road - it was backstage while Death Cab was playing." Yes, but during what song(s)? Oh, the curiousity! I may never know the answer. If only my favorite number was five, I could have written about Kori's bragging that they don't have to wait for groupies and can have sex whenever they want. Oddly, in the picture accompanying this piece, Kori is smiling, but Jason looks troubled. This seems to be something of a theme in their publicity photos. Not to read too much into it, but... whenever they want, or whenever you want, Kori?


Not the photo from Paste (don't have that one); a different happy Kori/unhappy Jason pic...


Right...


Oh dear.


Their expressions match here, but it's difficult to consider it progress. Hang in there, kids! Just keep listening to Death Cab, making sweet music in the multiple senses of the term, and... maybe schedule fewer publicity shoots. I think it may just be posing for photos that's annoying.

Elsewhere, Jason Lytle discusses the breakup of Grandaddy. "Unfortunately, money was a big part" of the decision to end the band, he tells Paste. According to Lytle, his bandmates were "always broke" and he "was exhausted with having to constantly dish out excuses and assurances and false hope. We did this for a long time, often considered on the verge of greatness, and greatness never came, and collectively the will to make that happen disappeared." Some of his former bandmates "are already well into their new jobs, jobs that have nothing to do with music." Some are sticking with music, and Lytle feels they "are sure to make themselves known in due time." Lytle's sticking with a career in music as well, and says he plans on "working even harder" than he did when he was in Grandaddy, "and making every second of it matter even more."

This issue of Paste includes many more interviews, including ones with Hem, His Name Is Alive, Calexico, and Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan. There are longer interviews with Josh Ritter, The Flaming Lips, Built To Spill, Alejandro Escovedo, and Wim Wenders and Sam Shephard.

Review-wise: another 3-star review for Morrissey's Ringleader of the Tormentors, same for Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood.

More to Paste's liking:

* Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies (4 1/2 stars - "What is a masterpiece? It's not an aberration, but a crystillization of vision; it's the components of an artist's conceptual mechanism thrumming in perfect harmony... he sings with the prolixity and conviction of Dylan in his prime, reeling off lyrics Alexandrian in their dense allusiveness - the sort of magical prtiod pastiches The Decembrists would give their corsets to write.")

* Half-Handed Cloud - Halos & Lassos (4 stars for the latest album from John Ringhofer, who records as "Hald-Handed Cloud" and often collaborates and tours with Sufjan Stevens. Paste calls Halos & Lasos"the most focused. melodically punchy and accessible release in" Ringhofer's catalog.

* Josh Rouse - Subtitulo (4 stars - "With its gentle rhythms and 33-minute running time, Substitulo seems slight at first listen but the songs eventually marry, suggesting the progression from a dead end to a new start - one that's clearly romantic in nature")

* Centro-matic - Fort Recovery (4 stars - "A crafty deposit in our collective musical bank account.")

* Liars - Drum's Not Dead (4 stars - "a concept package of thick, heavy rhythms and snaking guitar drones tied up in a bow of oddly sweet vocal melodies.")

Among the other albums deemed worthy of 4 stars: Jason Collett's Idols of Exile, Loose Fur's Born Again In The USA, The Concretes' In Colour, Tres Chicas' Bloom, Red & The Ordinary Girl, Tim Robinson's Money in the Woods, and The Wood Brothers' Ways Not To Lose.

As always, this issue of Paste includes a CD; this month's CD is quite good. Subscribers get a DVD as well. This issue's DVD contains some short films, assorted clips and trailers, and 30 music videos (including Eels' "Dirty Girl", Amos Lee's "Colors", KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and Cherry Tree", VHS or Beta's "You Got Me", Beth Orton's "Conceived", Rosie Thomas' "Pretty Dress", and John Cale's "Perfect").

The Paste April/May 06 CD Track Listing:


1. Built To Spill - Conventional Wisdom (edit)
2. Mates Of State - Fraud In The '80s
3. Nicolai Dunger - Hunger
4. Rhett Miller - Help Me, Suzanne
5. The Golden Dogs - Yeah!
6. Richard Julian - Cheap Guitar

7. Margot & The Nuclear So And So's - Skeleton Key (from The Dust Of Retreat)

With the exception of a "Wooo!" toward the end, this is a really good alt-pop-rock song. I'd like to the use of "Wooo!"s in songs to be pretty much phased out, as I feel they tend to translate to "I. Cannot. Believe. How. Hard. We. Are. Rocking!" in a rather dorky way. That's "dorky", as opposed to "geeky", which could be cool. I still like "Skeleton Key".

8. The Little Willies - Roly Poly
9. Donald Fagen - H Gang (edit) (interesting jazz-pop tune)
10. Amy LaVere - Day Like Any

11. Mellowdrone - Oh My (from Box)

Zippy fun...

12. Sonya Kitchell - Let Me Go

13. Luke Doucet - Emily, Please (from Broken (and other rogue states))

There are a lot of torch songs/songs heavily influenced by that sound on this CD... including this one from Luke Doucet...

14. Ellery - Anna
15. Wrinkle Neck Mules - Liza

16. Guster - One Man Wrecking Machine (from Ganging Up On The Sun)

Very catchy tune...

17. Garrison Starr - Let Me In
18. The Wood Brothers - One More Day
19. Umphrey's McGee - Liquid
20. Stone Jack Jones - Bread

21. Teddy Thompson - I Should Get Up (from Separate Ways)

The riff at the beginning is familiar; does anyone know what song it might be from? A song from the 70s perhaps?

22. Feathermerchants - Change My Night

Plenty of CDs, including many by these artists are available at PasteMusic.com

Belle & Sebastian In-Store at Amoeba 3-20

Belle & Sebastian gifted Los Angelenos with a 5-song in-store performance at Amoeba Music today, playing mostly requests. However, many of the requests were rejected, prompting guitarist Stevie Jackson to chide frontman Stuart Murdoch, "You always ask requests and never do them." Murdoch was unphased: "I'm just compiling them." He said the problem was some of the desired songs required a piano, one of the few Belle & Sebastian instruments absent this afternoon. Still, several requests were granted, though Murdoch needed to borrow a copy of Dear Catastrophe Waitress for its lyrics (this is but one reason artists should include lyrics with their albums; they may be handy later). Just two songs from the band's latest album, The Life Pursuit were played ("Funny Little Frog", which opened the set, and the winsome "Sukie In the Graveyard"). The crowd was large, and apparently full of Belle & Sebastian fans; there was no need to win them over. The set was lively throughout, from a young "lassie's" granted request for "Dog On Wheels" to the bubbly "Sleep The Clock Around" and the closer "If You Find Yourself Caught In Love". The band started late, and had to leave "unexpectedly early", leaving some disappointed fans left with only pre-signed CD inserts (others could choose one item to be signed, for instance either a CD or the poster they received free with a Life Pursuit purchase). However, during the set Murdoch did express concern over the "water situation" in Los Angeles and promise to take care of it and build reservoirs if they ever move to Los Angeles, so we have that going for us, which is nice.

Belle & Sebastian Tour Dates:

March 21 - San Francisco, CA - Concourse (with the New Pornographers)
March 23 - Portland, OR - Roseland (with the New Pornographers)
March 24 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom (with Rose Melberg)
March 25 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre (with the New Pornographers)

April 30 Glasgow, Tramway

May 6 Paris, Bataclan
May 7 Ludwigschafen, Feirenbendahaus
May 8 Amsterdam, Paradiso
May 9 Brussels, AB
May 11 Cologne, E-Werk
May 12 Hamburg, Grosse Freiheit
May 13 Malmo, KB
May 14 Oslo, Rockefeller
May 15 Trondheim, Samfundet
May 17 Stockholm, Berns
May 18 Gothenburg, Tradgarn
May 19 Copenhagen, Vega
May 21 Berlin, Columbiahalle
May 23 Munich, Tonhalle
May 24 Milan, Rolling Stone
May 25 Modena, Vox

June 1st Osaka, Hatch
June 3rd Tokyo, Stellar Ballroom
June 4th Tokyo, Stellar Ballroom
June 7th Perth, Concert Hall
June 9th Adelaide, Thebarton Theatre
June 10th Melbourne, Forum
June 13th Sydney, Enmore Theatre
June 15th Brisbane, Tivoli
June 21st London, Wireless Festival @ Hyde Park

July 6 Los Angeles, Hollywood Bowl
July 14 Barcelona, Summercase Festival at Montjuic
July 15 Madrid Summercase Festival at Boadilla del Monte

August 13 Leicester, Summer Sundae festival
August 18 Salzburgring, Frequency Festival

Another Sunny Day (from The Life Pursuit)

For Your Pleasure, Roxy Music Reunites to Record, Tour

Bryan Ferry has revealed that Roxy Music has been "back in the studio for the first time for over twenty years." All the original members of the art pop/glam rock group -- singer Ferry, saxophonist Andy Mackay, guitarist Phil Manzanera, drummer Paul Thompson, and keyboardist Brian Eno -- have been laboring on a new Roxy album, which is being produced by Rhett Davies and Chris Thomas.

Prior to the studio album's release, there will be a remix album "in which various Djs and producers will be putting their own spin on Roxy and Ferry's back catalogue."

The group will also tour this summer, with a few festival dates in Europe scheduled at this point, and more dates expected to be announced later.

Roxy Music began in 1971, and underwent a number of lineup changes from the start. Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno were considered the group's primary creative forces, but they wanted to take the music in different directions. Ferry was interested in art pop and soul. Eno, who had no music or music theory training, but was extremely creative, wanted to pursue more experimental directions, and was interested in "deconstructing rock". He clashed with Ferry, who would not record his work, and left Roxy Music after a couple of albums.

The group announced a "temporary" break-up in 1976, which lasted two years. Paul Thompson left the group in 1980 due to "musical differences". In 1983, the band split up. Manzanera and Mackay recorded together and pursued solo careers. Paul Thompson worked on a couple of Concrete Blonde albums and with many other artists, including Mackay.

Ferry and Eno have had (very different) successful solo careers, reflective of the contrasting directions they had in mind for Roxy Music. Ferry has frequently lent his elegant vocals to cover albums and songs. He's Eno is immensely inventive and original. He is considered the "father" of ambient music and came up with the term, used to describe music that can be "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener". It's not a competition, and both men have produced excellent work. If it was a competition, and it was about who was more prolific, Eno would likely walk away with it, particularly as one would have to consider his work as a producer (with Talking Heads, John Cale, U2, et al).

After leaving Roxy Music, Eno has also worked with... Bryan Ferry. While all the Roxy Music members haven't recorded together in many a year, Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno have recorded together much more recently, with the guys writing and performing "I Thought" for Ferry's 2002 album, Frantic. Eno also played keyboards and sang backing vocals on another song on the album, "Goddess of Love". In 2003, when Ferry was asked "whether there will ever be another Roxy Music album", he replied, "I don't think there will be another Roxy album." However, he had only praise for Eno, saying, "He's a great character, Brian." It was nice to work with him again."

Roxy Music Tour Dates:

July 5th and 6th - Vicar Street, Ireland

July 8th - The Werchter Festival, Belgium

July 9th - The Bospop Festival, Weert, Holland

July 21st - Lovely Days Festival in St. Polten, Austria

Roxy Music - Do The Strand (from For Your Pleasure, etc.)

Roxy Music - Avalon (from Avalon, etc.)

Brian Eno - Sky Saw (from Another Green World)

Bryan Ferry - All Tomorrow's Parties (Velvet Underground cover, from Taxi)

Soft Rock is Back With a Mellow Vengeance

Depending on your feelings toward Christopher Cross, Supertramp, Chicago, and other gentle musical giants of the 70s, you may be elated, baffled, or disturbed by news of the resurgence of 70s-style soft rock in the UK.

Three spots in the top ten of this week's U.K. singles chart are heavily influenced by the likes of Bread and Air Supply.

Los Angeles band Orson has the #2 single, "No Tomorrow". Their singer now declares himself "unabashedly a giant supporter of Hall and Oates, Steely Dan and the Eagles". Still, Orson only tried mellow rock after the world said "I can't go for that!" to a Radiohead-influenced Orson and a "How you like us as The Strokes?" Orson. The version of Orson whose singer says things like, "I think squareness is coming back in" will tour the UK this May and June, at last having found a sound that works for them.

At #8 on the singles chart is Meck feat. Leo Sayer's dance song "Thunder In My Heart Again" which samples ELO, Gallagher and Lyle, and Elton John.

One spot down is The Feeling's "Sewn". Their singer Dan Gillespie-Sells says his "massive record collection" is "all naff pop music. That's what interests me." The Guardian, messengers of the news about 70s soft rock, say The Feeling are "one of Britain's most hotly tipped new bands." The song is awfully mild coming from a hot band. But we are living in harsh times, and perhaps people need the aural equivalent of an exceptionally soft blanket to make them feel safe and cozy. Like the lyrics of "Sewn" say, "You stop the blood and make my head soft." If you think that's a good thing, The Feeling may be the band for you!

You can listen to some of their songs on The Feeling's website. They will also give you access to three live tracks if you sign up for their mailing list, which signs you up for unrelated spam as well, with the opportunity to opt out of it later. Not necessarily the greatest way to treat your fans, but go easy on them; their singer's head is soft from love.

DJ Sean Rowley drew a crowd of 1,600 people to a "Guilty Pleasures" themed club night in London, featuring music from 70s artists such as Christopher Cross and the Captain and Tenille. Other Guilty Pleasure nights have followed and a compilation album is planned. Rowley notes that past 70s-inspired artists, such as Zoot Woman ("They were like a Hall-and-Oates tribute act") did not meet with much success.

So why all the love for the current wave of lite-rockers? David Balfour of Record of the Day, the site that The Guardian says "first brought Orson to the British music industry's notice", thinks it's a matter of the public wanting something different. He says, "The edgy rock thing has gone round and round in circles for so long that people are looking for something new, something that's going to introduce you to music you haven't heard before."

It's a soft backlash then, is it? That's what you get for buying all those Strokes and Kaiser Chiefs albums. It's all fun and games now, but if you tolerate this, a disco revival is next.

Meck feat. Leo Sayer - Thunder In My Heart Again (Miami Calling Mix) (from the "Thunder In My Heart Again" single)

Christopher Cross - Ride Like The Wind (from The Very Best Of Christopher Cross)

Chicago - Saturday In The Park (from The Very Best Of Chicago)

Zoot Woman - Hope In The Mirror (hey, this is kinda awesome... from Zoot Woman)

Hall and Oates - Family Man (from Starting All Over Again)

Irish Music For St. Patrick's Day (Day 3)

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

A few Irish proverbs:

A good beginning is half the work
A buckle is a great addition to an old shoe
Proverbs cannot be contradicted
Speed and accuracy do not agree
'Tis afterwards that everything is understood
Trouble hates nothing as much as a smile
The windy day is not the day for thatching
You must empty a box before you fill it again

I can only vouch for that one about thatching.

Irish Tunes - Day 3 - not all by Irish artists, but everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

Dropkick Murphys - Dirty Glass (Irish punk, albeit from an American band (see above note; not all the others are by Irish artists either...), from Blackout)

Great Big Sea - Lukey (rollicking song, from Road Rage)

Sinead O'Connor and Aslan - Up In Arms (wistful, slightly spacey song, from Collaborations)

The Frank and Walters - Cemetry Gates (Smiths cover, from The Smiths Is Dead)

The Mahones - Paint The Town Red (another rollicking one, from Rise Again, etc.)

The Chalets on Morning Becomes Eclectic Today

The Chalets will perform on the St. Patrick's Day edition of Morning Becomes Eclectic today. No time is given for their performance, but the show will air 9 AM to noon PST and will be rebroadcast 4 - 7 PM. You can also listen online anytime via RealAudio.

Irish Music For St. Patricks Day (Day 2)

More music in celebration of St. Patrick's Day...

Irish Tunes - Day 2:

The Divine Comedy - Charmed Life (if you pay close attention to the lyrics, this is not exactly the most romantic love song ever. But for people who appreciate the Divine Comedy's wry brand of wit, it's plenty charming. From Absent Friends)

Feargal Sharkey - She Moved Through The Fair (cover of a traditional Celtic folk song, from Pure Celtic Chillout)

Gemma Hayes - Back Of My Hand (excellent alt-pop tune, from Night On My Side)

Hothouse Flowers - Pop Song (REM's "Pop Song 89": "Hello, my friend, are you visible today?" Hothouse Flowers' "Pop Song", from 1998's Born: "You introduced me to all of your friends... The universe cries out to be your friend/You might have kissed her." Coincidence? I think not!)

The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God (Classic. Folk-flavored punk -- or just call it alternative and make life easy -- from The Ultimate Collection)

The Thrills - Say It Ain't So (power-pop, from So Much For The City)

Irish Music For St. Patricks Day (Day 1)

Kicking off three days of Irish music in honor of Saint Patrick, one of three patron saints of Ireland (clearly the one who had the best agent). Or the most impressive set of achievements. Either way, I'll wager more people have heard of Saint Patrick than either Saint Brigid or Saint Columba. Not saying they're not excellent Saints, just likely a bit lesser-known, particularly outside of Ireland.

It is thought that Match 17 is the day St. Patrick died, so naturally it was the day chosen to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

Although it appears that St. Patrick did not banish any snakes -- because there weren't any on Ireland for him to banish -- the snake-banishing for which he is renowned likely refers to some equally interesting accomplishment, such as druid-banishing. You never hear about druids slithering around and attacking random passersby in Ireland, do you? Well then, order a green beverage this Friday and say a toast to St. Patrick.

Irish Tunes - Day 1:

Ann Scott - Start (a sweet one, from Live & Rare Vol. 1)

Ash - Everybody's Happy Nowadays (alt rock, from Meltdown and the "Orpheus" single)

Flogging Molly - Salty Dog (Celtic punk, from Swagger)

The Frames - Finally (alt-rock, from Burn The Maps)

Damien Rice - Delicate (singer-songwriter, still file it under "alternative", from O)

The Undertones - My Perfect Cousin (heavily-praised pop-punk from Hypnotized, etc.)

Psychics to Attempt to Hassle John Lennon

April 24th could be a very big day for John Lennon. That is, if you believe that he's currently enjoying some form of peace, and that this peace could be disturbed by, say, a a pay-per-view seance.

Prior to the seance, assorted "famed psychics" will try to reach out and poke Lennon with a paranormal stick, though most of them seem to have no particular reason for doing so. The famed guy in India has a mission:

In India, a spirit reader at an ashram believes he will be able to contact John Lennon to receive musical notes and lyrics from the other side. If successful, these notations will be flown to Los Angeles, where a composer will arrange the notes, add vocals and backgrounds to produce a new song.

Other famed people will attempt to "make contact with the spirit of John Lennon" but seem to lack any other plan. They should write down what they will say if the dude really shows up, because right now everyone but the guy in India seems woefully unprepared for any "contact" past "Hi."

The other locations where psychics will stalk Lennon's spirit are the Dakota Building (where he was fatally shot) and Central Park's Strawberry Fields memorial, and the Capitol Records Building in Los Angeles.

All of that will eat up an hour of the pay-per-view "special"; the last half-hour is the seance. "Psychics, colleagues and confidantes" (of who? does it matter?) will participate in "the most incredible 30 minutes of psychic contact ever recorded." They're even using infra-red cameras "providing the ability to capture any presence or spirit that enters the room." Does that mean they think someone else might show up instead of John Lennon, or that he might bring a guest?

During the special, music professionals and individuals who worked with John Lennon will be used to verify whether they believe contact was made.

It likely will come as no shock even to non-psychics that the press release provides a disclaimer that "The Spirit of John Lennon is being done without the knowledge or consent of John Lennon's Estate."

Paul Weller - Instant Karma (from Fly On The Wall: B-Sides & Rarities and Q: Lennon Covered)

Tina Dico: Building Sandcastles for Carnal Purposes

Danish singer Tina Dico, like up to a third of all alt-musicians, is in Austin this week. South by Southwest falls neatly within a whole heap of tour dates scheduled to promote Dico's first full-length album, the plaintive In The Red. Perhaps this is the week she's destined to meet and become BFF with the guys from Alien Ant Farm or Echo & the Bunnymen. You never know who you might bond with during the so-called meal of "continental breakfast" at a convention...

Dico, who previously sang on a couple of Zero 7 songs, has a lovely, expressive voice. That allows her to pour emotion and a strong sense of yearning into her already-wistful lyrics. Unfortunately, those lyrics are not always quite as stong as Dico's voice, though I'll give her a pass on this one, from "Nobody's Man": "So come and lay by my side/In my castle of sand", partly because the first time I heard it, I thought she sang "So come and lay by my side/In my castle of sin". That would have been an interesting lyric, but a more jarring one. The next lines are "Let's love til the early tide/Breaks down the dam." The other reason I'm giving her a pass on that lyric is that anyone who can build a sandcastle large and sturdy enough to "get busy" in is entitled to awkwardly brag about it.

Tina Dico Tour Dates:

March 16 10:00 PM - Austin, TX (South by Southwest - The 18th Floor at Capitol Place)
March 19 8:00 PM - San Diego, CA (The Casbah)
March 20 9:00 PM - Los Angeles, CA (Hotel Cafe)
March 21 7:00 PM - Los Angeles, CA (Borders - In-store performance and CD signing)
March 22 8:00 PM - San Francisco, CA (Boca)
March 23 8:00 PM - Seattle, WA (Chop Suey)
March 24 7:00 PM - Vancouver, BC (Media Club)
March 26 6:30 PM - Morgantown, WV (Mountain Stage, Creative Arts Centre)
April 3 8:00 PM - Glasgow (ABC 2)
April 4 8:00 PM - Newcastle (Academy 2)
April 5 8:00 PM - Nottingham (The Maze)
April 6 8:00 PM - Birmingham (Glee Club)
April 9 8:00 PM - Manchester (Night & Day)
April 10 8:00 PM - Milton Keynes (The Stables)
April 11 8:00 PM - Reading (Arts Centre)
April 12 8:00 PM - London (Dingwalls)

Tina Dico - Losing (from In The Red)

Zero 7 (feat. Tina Dico) - Home (from When It Falls)

Zero 7 is touring in England and Scotland this May and June.

Sell-Out Report: Kinks, Kermit Edition. Also: Beasties Boys Screen 'AWESOME'

Perhaps Ray Davies has found both a way to ease the ache he might feel from missing the Kinks, and to pass some time until their possible reunion: counting enormous stacks of money, then spending it.

Four Kinks songs written by Davies have been licensed for assorted commercial purposes in the United States. However, the first source I could find to put a dollar figure on the sales is The Sunday Times, which says the band will collect 6 million pounds for the use of the four songs, which the paper says is the most a British band has ever been paid for commercial use of their songs. At the moment, 6 million pounds converts to $10,360,174.39 in the States, $12,015,161.36 in the land of Tim Horton's and ending sentences with "eh?", and a whopping 728,011,215.17 in Iceland Kronur.

So what songs could be worth that much cash? And who are these wealthy companies, anyway, able to toss away hundreds of millions of Kronur like they're AOL CD-ROMs?

Well, Americans can look forward (or not) to hearing "All Day And All Of The Night" on commercials for Tide detergent. Yeah! What's more Rock N' Roll than clean laundry? Not sure that anything is more rock than clean clothes, but there might be a tie, because the same song has been used by Kohl's, Saab, and GM in the past "couple of years". Hopefully it gets less expensive with each licensing agreement. Its commercial value seems likely to be diluted as the public gets more and more tired of it and comes to think of it less as a "song I like" and more as a "song that is constantly being used in different commercials".

"Everybody's Gonna Be Happy" has been licensed to Abbott Laboratories to promote medicine(s); insert your own disbelieving and/or sarcastic remark [HERE]. "Lola" will be used to hawk the services of la la, which is a company planning on facilitating CD swaps for a fee, and giving 20% of their revenue to musicians.

"I'm Not Like Everybody Else" is being used in an IBM ad, which debuted yesterday. The ad is part of IBM's new "Innovation That Matters" campaign. It shows people "who appear to be singing along" to the tune, which "speaks to the new positioning: 'I'm Not Like Anybody Else.'" The message is apparently that you are absolutely unique, just like everybody else! Perhaps IBM couldn't find a song they liked called, "I'm Like A Snowflake".

The copy on the screen during the IBM commercial asks: "What makes you DIFFERENT? What makes you UNIQUE? What makes you SPECIAL?" At the beginning of the ad, we see "a stream of blue flower petals that emerge from a factory's smokestack and float over various settings, such as a cluster of office cubicles or the baby ward in a hospital."

Chris Wall, co-executive creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, the firm behind the campaign, explains that the flowers are a metaphor for hope, optimism, and change, as well as "a deliberate kind of magic symbol." Trippy. You are different, unique, and special, and the magical, uh, flower petals, of IBM recognize that, and can help you with their innovative ways. They even know you like the "rock and roll" music, especially bands like the Kinks, whose music has a certain "timelessness". That might be another way of calling it "classic rock", which might be another way of saying "this is likely to appeal to baby boomers".

Then again, even Kermit the Frog (who has only existed as a frog since 1969) sold out his song "Bein' Green to hawk a vehicle. Apparently, however, the corporation might have been better off stealing some other beloved green icon of childhood, then trying to sell it back to us for thousands of dollars. Perhaps The Hulk?

And sure, Miss Piggy was already doing ads for a fast-food restaurant, but everyone already knew she was pretty much a whore. But Kermit the Frog? If a puppet can have a soul, Kermit should have had one, and it should not have had a price tag, not even a cute one.

The Kinks - Everybody's Gonna Be Happy (from Kinda Kinks, etc.)

The Kinks - I'm Not Like Everybody Else (from Kinkdom, etc.)

And for this lyric:

I might stick around or I might be a fad
But I won't sell my songs for no TV ad

Beastie Boys - Putting Shame In Your Game (from Hello Nasty)

A Beastie Boys concert film, AWESOME: I FUCKIN' SHOT THAT!, assembled from footage shot by 50 audience members at an October 2004 concert (from 50 camcorders returned to the store the next day) will be released on March 31st.

On March 23rd at 8:00 PM, "AWESOME" screenings will be held in many cities across the U.S. and at 9:00 PM in several Canadian cities. A mini-movie featuring David Cross will be shown exclusively at these screenings.

Product Placement in Pop Songs

Arizona's East Valley Tribune takes a look at product placement in songs in today's edition.

The article says that according to "American Brandstand," a study by Agenda Inc., "music artists gave more than 1,000 shout-outs to some of the world's largest and most recognizable brands from Mercedes-Benz to Louis Vuitton in 2005."

Actually, the study only extended to songs in the Billboard Top 20, so the number of products mentioned in songs released in 2005 is bound to be much higher than that mentioned by the study. It would be pretty difficult to track every song every song released in 2005...

However, since 2004, "the total brand count fell from 1215 to 1129", a 6% drop Agenda Inc. attributes to "the post-bling environment of hip-hop 2005". In 2005, 35% of the 106 songs in the Billboard Chart mentioned brands.

That's still a lot of corporate-name-dropping.

Mercedes was the most-mentioned brand in 2005, and 50 Cent was the top brand-dropping artist. Runners-up were Nike and Ludacris (respectively).

Agenda Inc. claims that "branded lyrics have been almost exclusively the domain of hip-hop lyrics" but moved into R&B in 2004 and into pop in 2005 with songs like Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl".

Those are rather broad statements, and again, perhaps meant only to refer to the Billboard Top 20. Or perhaps Agenda Inc.'s memory for music is short; they've only been doing these studies since 2003. As the Tribune notes, mentioning specific brands and products in music pre-dates hip-hop. The paper, too, gets overly broad, referring to all product mentions as positive. This is hardly the case.

Neil Young isn't giving Coke and Pepsi positive press in "This Note's For You":

Ain't singin' for Pepsi
Ain't singin' for Coke
I don't sing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke
This note's for you.

The Beautiful South's numerous corporate "shoutouts" in "One God" aren't the kind of advertising the companies likely want:

A plastic world and we're all plastic too
Just a couple of different faces in a dead man's queue
The world is turning Disney and there's nothing you can do
You're trying to walk like giants
but you're wearing Pluto's shoes

And the answers fall easier from the barrel of a gun
Than it does from the lips of the beautiful and the dumb
The world won't end in darkness, it'll end in family fun
With Coca Cola clouds behind a Big Mac sun

Coke in particular is so synonymous with both America and big business that it works well as a shorthand way of drawing a picture of either, often for purposes of commentary or criticism.

Alternative artists may not make it to the Billboard Top 20 as often as their hip-hop counterparts, but they do their share of corporate name-dropping. It's just that when alternative artists name-drop, they're often a bit more subversive about it.

Ben Lee - Catch My Disease (from Awake Is The New Sleep, a giddy exception to most of the other more pointed "name-dropping" songs posted here)

Placebo - Commercial For Levi (from Black Market Music)

Elvis Costello - Brilliant Mistake (from King Of America)

Blur - Look Inside America (from Blur)

The Andrews Sisters - Rum & Coca-Cola (old-school product placement, from Capitol Collectors Series)

The Drones Win Australian Music Prize

The Drones, a rock foursome not best described as "shoegazers", have won the first Australian Music Prize, along with 25,000 (presumably Australian) dollars, for their second album Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By.

The group beat out fellow nominees the Devastations, Don and Charlie, the Go-Betweens, Mess Hall, TZU and Tex, the Go-Betweens, Wolfmother, and Ben Lee to take the prize, intended as the Aussie equivalent of Britain's Mercury Prize.

The Australian Music Prize seeks "to financially reward and increase exposure for an Australian artist (or group of artists) who have produced and commercially released what specially appointed judges vote is the best contemporary music album in any one calendar year."

As for the money, bassist Fiona Kitschin says it "will come in really handy, just to work on getting known." According to Kitschin, the $25,000 "will go to just touring and fixing broken instruments and stuff like that."

A half-dozen MP3s by The Drones are available at the sounds page of their website.

Copper Press Magazine and CD

Discovered a new-to-me magazine today, Copper Press. Their current issue, cp26, sports an entirely black front cover. Perhaps it wears black on the outside because black is how it feels on the inside? Indeed, sunshine-yellow might not have worked as well for this issue's theme, "Darkness Warshed Over the Dude." However, the darkness is a bit broken up, for two stickers also apparently warshed over the dude. One reveals the price ($5), the other lists a slew of bands (interviewed in the magazine), then mentions the free CD included with the magazine.

The latter sticker also includes the potentially-helpful instruction "Display in the Music Section". While I appreciate the magazine's bold use of color and their willingness to risk appearing bossy for the sake of Art, I'm not sure I will display this issue in my Music Section. My concern is that I would face judgment for not displaying it in my Art Section. Is it Music or is it Art? Or neither? Both? One person's Music is another person's Art is another person's trash. I'll just keep it safe and sound in my Magazine Section for now.

Behind the black cover, interviews aplenty, with (musical) artists such as Askeleton, The Baptist Generals, The Cops, Paula Frazer, Pleasant, Chin Up Chin Up, Dirty Three, Motion City Soundtrack, Page France, and Ricky Fitts, as well as (visual) artists Ric Stultz and Amy Kuttab.

Along with news, reviews, and interviews, there are currently eight songs available on the Copper Press website (on the downloads page). Well worth checking out... the Human Television song ("Saw You Walking By"), for instance, is a great power pop tune. It's not new, but if you haven't heard it yet, give it a listen (or, as the kids say, "hear it again for the first time.")

The Copper Press CD included with this issue offers a generous 20 tracks with a variety of alt-sounds, including electronica, noise-rock, power pop, and a lovely slice of melancholia from a sensitive singer-songwriter.

Subscriptions to Copper Press are $14 for 4 issues via credit card at copperpress.com or, using what the postal service would prefer we not call snail mail, at:

Copper Press
PO Box 1601
Acme MI 49610

Copper Press Presents: cp26 Track Listing:

1. Pleasant - Lowly
2. AM Sailor - Kicking A Sailor In The Teeth
3. Rocky Votolato - White Daisy Passing (the lovely melancholia, from Makers)
4. Sicbay - Inhuman Resources
5. The Vertebrates - Late in the 13th Round
6. Mount Moriah - Flood Plain
7. Spitfire Tumbleweeds - Any Given Saturday
8. Sincabeza - Birdienumnum
9. Mise En Place - The Plot
10. The Bell County Silence - Jazz Righteous
11. Mesa Falls to Mephisto - In the Monotone
12. Mudville - Blown
13. Paper Airplanes - True Men Like You Men
14. Ricky Fitts - Edward, Unlock Her Gates Of Passion
15. Mussels - God Gets Creative
16. Tic Code - Crunchy Air
17. Magento - Isa (good, sweet alt-rock love tune, from Sounds Like Space. A couple other Magento MP3s are available at their record label's website)
18. Pinetop Seven - June (beautiful, intriguingly dark, lively song with elements of country, folk, blues, pop, jazz, and very possibly other genres. I like this more each time I listen to it. From The Night's Bloom. More MP3s from Pinetop Seven are available at their website)
19. Tone - Towers
20. Askeleton - Some People/Things (upbeat, encouraging alt-pop song, from (Happy) Album. More MP3s from Askeleton are available in the audio section of their website)

Blog Against Sexism Day

Via green LA girl, I learned today is Blog Against Sexism Day. March 8 was chosen because it's also International Women's Day. Bloggers, particularly those who rarely or never write about sexism, are asked to write against it today, and to post their blog's link or e-mail vegankid, the Blog Against Sexism Day organizer.

Funnily enough, I wrote a bit about a magazine cover I found sexist just yesterday. I love music magazines and the covers themselves are interesting. I don't consider Rolling Stone an especially good music magazine, but it's certainly a popular one, and their covers have long struck me as... interesting. I took a look at the covers of their 2005 issues... out of 25 issues, 4 women landed the cover on their own: Gwen Stefani, Jessica Alba, Evangeline Lilly (for "The Hot List" issue), and Madonna.









All are pictured flashing some skin, in suggestive poses. Only two are even musicians, though it's true that Rolling Stone is more of a pop culture magazine than a music magazine. When a man lands the cover of Rolling Stone alone, if he's posed suggestively (which is rare), even with a naughty headline like "Sex on the Beach with Orlando Bloom", he generally still gets to keep his shirt.



More often, when a man appears alone on a Rolling Stone cover, the focus is on his face.







This same is usually true of male cover subjects who are no longer among the living (Bob Marley excepted).



Rolling Stone (and its readers) might say, hey, female flesh sells. Then why the arguably unsexy Rolling Stones and McCartney covers? Wouldn't a semi-clad model on the cover of those issues have moved more copies?





And why did Meg White have to hide behind Jack?



Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn were on an issue last year, ditto for Darth Vader and King Kong. A lot of excellent women musicians haven't been deemed coverworthy by Rolling Stone.

Sonic Youth - Swimsuit Issue (from Dirty)

Uncut April 2006 Magazine and Playlist CD

The April 2006 issue of Uncut dubs The Flaming Lips "America's Greatest Band". What better way to honor America's allegedly greatest band than by presenting their lead singer with an anonymous, armed naked woman? Perhaps presenting him with a naked family friend, made anonymous for the purposes of a magazine cover? Or better still, let him "frantically" orchestrate a photo shoot for an article where you ask him questions like "What's the best thing about being Wayne Coyne?" And "Are the Lips The Greatest Band On the Planet?"

It's cool with Coyne if anyone calls his band "the Greatest Band on the Planet" (though Uncut toned their cover praise down to "America's Greatest"; hopefully that won't make Coyne's lob the fake grenade he's wearing on the cover toward the Uncut offices). He also says that he's not fond of Michael Stipe, and shares an old quote from one of his bandmates that R.E.M. hadn't done anything good in 20 years. Overly harsh criticism, though I don't like R.E.M.'s later work as much as their earlier work. Given the choice, I'd still take any R.E.M. album as a desert island disc over The Flaming Lips' entire discography. I don't dislike The Flaming Lips' music, I just like R.E.M.'s music much more.

Interviewed in this issue, along with the frenetic, great Coyne: Rick Rubin, Bill Wyman, and (briefly) Mystery Jets, Giant Drag, and Geno Washington (for a feature titled "Thought You Were Dead"). Tommy Lee Jones also discusses "The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada", the first film he's directed. It's a "heartbreaking Tex-Mex border western" in which he acts as well.

List-loving Uncut recommends the "50 Greatest Cosmic American Albums". Their top 10:

1. The Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
2. The Byrds - Fifth Dimension
3. Brian Wilson - Smile
4. The Band - The Band
5. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
6. Prince & The Revolution - Around The World In A Day
7. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
8. Tim Buckley - Starsailor
9. Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos
10. The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace Of Sin

Reviews-wise, a mere 3 stars for Morrissey's Ringleader Of The Tormentors, "yet another slightly underwhelming new album"... "Funnily enough, it's the lyrics that let Ringleader down the most... Morrissey seems content to coast on the power of his name."

The Elected's Sun, Sun, Sun also gets 3 stars, as does Mogwai's Mr Beast. I think both should be rated higher. 3 stars too for Seth Lakeman's Freedom Fields, named after a 1643 Civil War battle. All the songs loosely address "conflict, war and liberty." The reviewer feels "the earnestness in his voice can irritate, but there's no doubting the songwriting talent." Singing about "conflict, war and liberty" in a non-earnest way would have been another way to go, I suppose.

Gary Numan's Jagged, out next Tuesday in North America, is deemed worthy of only two stars ("Numan persists in churning out bombastic, comically serious prog-metal. Jagged is perfectly adequate for its genre, and certainly no better or worse than the average Korn or Fear Factory album. But behind its techno-goth shuders and horror-movie fireworks, it tells us precisely zilch about what it really feels like to be Gary Numan in 2006.")

Uncut does like some music. Lots, actually. Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Show Your Bones is awarded 4 stars. In particular, they praise first single "Gold Lion", "the riot grrrl blast of 'Honey Bear'", "the unintended Grandmaster Flash homage of 'Phenomena'", the "poignant" "Cheated Hearts" and "Dudley", and the "perfectly epic finish" provided by "Turn Into".

4 stars for Born Again In The USA, the second and possibly last album by Loose Fur, at least with their current line-up (Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche, and Jim O'Rourke, who for the time being has quit both Sonic Youth and music, in favor of the film business). Born Again is intended as "a materialist counterpunch" to God's having snuck into alt rock. "An air of cheerful skepticism prevails over the 10 tracks, all bathed in the kind of dry, warm production favoured by early-'70s radio rock, with Chicagoans Tweedy and O'Rourke sharing vocals."

Another 4 stars for Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood ("she has defiantly come into her own."), Mystery Jets' Making Dens ("A mini masterwork of magic-realist Britwork melodrama"), and Graham Coxon's Love Travels At Illegal Speeds ("Coxon has finally found his niche"). Uncut digs Willard Grant Conspiracy's Let It Roll and The Secret Machines' Ten Silver Drops as well, and tosses 4 stars to both.

Ah, but Donald Fagen's Morph The Cat gets a rare 5-star prize ("In 2006, as in 1976, pop music doesn't get any headier than this.")



Uncut April Playlist Track Listing:

1. Josh Ritter - Girl in the War (from The Animal Years)
2. Drive-By Truckers - Daylight
3. Morrissey - The Never Played Symphonies (from the 2-disc deluxe edition of You Are The Quarry)
4. The Secret Machines - Alone, Jealous and Stoned (from Ten Silver Drops)
5. Willard Grant Conspiracy - Flying Low (from Let It Roll)
6. Spirit - My Friend
7. The Flaming Lips - Mr Ambulance Driver
8. Loose Fur - Hey Chicken (from Born Again In the USA)
9. My Latest Novel - Poetry In A Panic
10. Mudhoney - Endless Yesterdays
11. Story - Cinnamon
12. The Moody Blues - Never Comes The Day
13. Howe Gelb - But I Did Not
14. Mystery Jets - The Tale (see yesterday's post)
15. Archie Bronson Outfit - Cuckoo
16. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Clean Hands, Dirty Hands

NME Shockwaves Awards CD

The current NME is a "special award winners issue", the awards in question being the NME Shockwave Awards.

*crickets*

You know, The NME Shockwave Awards... Kaiser Chiefs' Employment won Best Album (supported by HMV)? Very exciting. Franz Ferdinand won Best Live Band (supported by Carling).... Okay, maybe not that exciting, but it's a good deal for NME. They have an awards show and afterparty underwritten and that bands will actually attend. And, hey, readers get an awards-themed CD.

There's even more to the current NME than all the fascinating awards content. This issue also includes part two of an interview with Morrissey, fully in Ringleader Of The Tormentors promopalooza mode. This interview segment includes his comments on political matters -- he still hates Bush, Blair, and the Iraq War, feelings which inspired his new song "I Will See You In Far Off Places". Moz also gets personal. He is not celibate anymore and hasn't been for "a very long time". He also finds it "quite boring" when people make assumptions about his sexuality.

Alex James also submits to the NME interview machine. Asked whether there will be "an amazing new direction for Blur" on their next album, he responds, "It's pretty fucking tough-sounding. Foo Fighters are going to wet their pants when they hear it." Let's hope that's a good thing.

NME - The Shockwaves NME Awards 2006 - The Winners Track Listing

1. Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
2. Editors - Bullets
3. The Long Blondes - Once And Never Again (previously unreleased)
4. We Are Scientists - This Scene Is Dead
5. Oasis - Rock 'N' Roll Star (Live)
6. The Cribs - Mirror Kissers (Live) (Recorded at Leeds Cockpit. Original version on The New Fellas)
7. Maximo Park - Now I'm All Over The Shop
8. The Strokes - On The Other Side
9. Kaiser Chiefs - Saturday Night (Live) (Recorded at San Francisco Fillmore. Original version on Employment)
10. Ian Brown - My Star
11. Mystery Jets - The Tale (From the single "On My Feet")
12. Babyshambles - Albion

The Simpsons With Humans

Via Slashdot, news of a video re-enacting the opening segment of The Simpsons with humans. The clip was "filmed over 18 months in Britain" and will be used to promote the latest season of the program. According to an "insider", the actors were cast "not so much for their resemblance" to their cartoon counterparts -- and indeed the lack of similarity is rather noticeable -- "but becuase you can easily identify with them." However, the clip's promotional value might be limited the farther one travels from Britain. I for one don't particularly identify with any of them, not even with "moderate" ease. Also, if the promo was filmed over 18 months, why doesn't the baby grow into a toddler before our eyes? It's because of the nuclear plant, isn't it?

The Simpsons clip can be seen at The Sun Online or at YouTube.

The Word: March Issue and CD

An ambivalent-looking KT Tunstall graces the cover of March's The Word. She's not only ambivalent. She's "freewheelin'" and part of the "The New Folk Revival", deemed worthy of the mag's cover this month. You know it's a big story when it knocks "How Capote Got Away With Murder" to a small headline on the side, right above "Parody Album Sleeves". "Nick Drake: The case re-opened" is given a more prominent space at the top of The Word's cover. The headline refers to an article about a new biography about Drake, also excerpted in the mag, rather than to the actual re-opening of any investigation into Drake's death. Perhaps a trifle misleading, but as if to make up for it, The Word recommends a dozen Nick Drake songs: "Place To Be", "Time Has Told Me", "Cello Song", "River Man", "Fruit Tree", "Hazey Jane II", "Hazey Jane I", "Northern Sky", "At The Chime Of A City Clock", "Fly", "Pink Moon", and "Black Eyed Dog".

There are also plenty of acoustic music recommendations, cleverly placed immediately following The Word's interview with KT Tunstall. Like her? Then try Beth Gibbons! And Adem! And Stephen Fretwell! Seth Lakeman too! And... 26 other recommendations, although technically something like "Oxford Folk Festival" is more of a "festival" than an artist. Lots of artists are mentioned too.

Joss Whedon and Fiona Apple are interviewed in this issue, but not together.

Plus, the 20 worst and best cartoon characters ever "as decided arbitrarily by The Word".

Some of the "worst cartoons ever":

- He-Man,
- Fred Bassett
- Bratz
- Scrappy-Doo
- The entire cast of Doonesbury ("Does anyone have a clue what the hell is supposed to be going on here?")
- The Smurfs ("When someone goes blue, aren't they supposed to die?")
- The Love Is... couple ("Revolting, sugary, twee, precious little cartoons that make you a) vomit out your entire skeleton, and then b) wonder if hate was really all that bad.").

...The worst cartoon character ever according to The Word is The Crazy Frog.

Some of the "best cartoons ever":

- Spongebob Squarepants ("Enormously funny and lovable")
- Doctor Zoidberg (from Futurama)
- Dale Gribble (from King of the Hill)
- Beavis and Butthead ("The end of civilization when they came out in 1993. Now rather quaint and endearing." No explanation for why the two count as one)
- The Powerpuff Girls
- Cartman from South Park
- Brian from Family Guy ("Yes, there have been talking dogs on TV before. But not one that says, 'Hey, barkeep, whose leg do you have to hump before you get a dry martini round here?'")

... And the greatest cartoon character ever, according to the Word, is Homer Simpson.

Showing their versatility, some of the Word's writers have also written about their favorite love songs. Some of the choices: Deana Carter's "Did I Shave My Legs For This?", Billy Bragg's "The Price I Pay", The Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden", Bruce Springsteen's "Drive All Night", and Pet Shop Boys' "Love Comes Quickly".

Review-wise, Dar Williams' My Better Self is highly praised ("Music from the heart and the head, accomplished and highly listenable").

On She Will Have Her Way, an album combining Split Enz, Crowded House, and assorted solo Finn songs with covers of the songs sung by women from Australia and New Zealand, the reviewer feels "the women uncover a sensitivity and a delight in dancing on the edge of melancholy that makes the Finns such great songwriters and makes you wonder if the natural voice of their songs is actually female."

The response to William Orbit's Hello Waveforms is mixed ("the fun is never anything other than safe... Hello Waveforms is unquestionably a thing of beauty, but it's an ambient throwback rather than the herald of a new electronica age.")

The Word Magazine March 2006 CD Track Listing:

1. Nouvelle Vague - Teenage Kicks (from Nouvelle Vague)
2. The Minus Five - My Life As A Creep (from Minus 5 (aka The Gun Album))
3. Rosanne Cash - Black Cadillac
4. Citizen Cope - Bullet And A Target
5. Stephen Duffy - The Deal (from I Love My Friends)
6. The Czars - Song To The Siren
7. Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Handle With Care
8. Sophie Solomon - Lazarus (from Poison Sweet Madeira, featuring vocals by KT Tunstall)
9. Judy Collins - Can't Cry Hard Enough
10. William Orbit - They Live In The Sky (from Hello Waveforms)
11. Richard Thompson - Shenandoah
12. Imogen Heap - Hide & Seek
13. Martha Redbone - Hard Livin'
14. Kris Kristofferson - The Last Thing To Go

~ Note: This month's CD is the first I've seen from The Word (or Word of Mouth when the mag went by that name) to come in a cardboard sleeve rather than in a jewel box ~