Category: music

I just found out (via Scott Andrew) that, due to poor ticket sales, Lollapalooza will be cancelling all its tour dates.

Well that’s a fine howdoyoudo. I was all set to attend at least one day of the two day festival, immensely proud of myself for not only recognizing but actually owning albums by several of the bands on the bill (The Flaming Lips, The Polyphonic Spree, The Coup). The same can not be said of the original incarnations of the festival where, by the time I had heard of many of the headliners, they had broken up, died, formed other bands or begun acting careers.

This year, the theme appeared to be “Music for fans old enough to remember the first Lollapalooza.” Tattoos, body piercings and flannel have been replaced by Neo-Beach Boy Harmonies, Fanticiful Electicism from Oaklahoma, and 28-Member Musical Group Hugs.

A friendlier, sweeter place this ‘Palooza would have been and I was all set for it. It wasn’t “indy”, it wasn’t “alternative.” It just looked like a ton of great music. Perhaps the idea of an entire day of sun, mud and rock doesn’t wear well into your thirties, no doubt about the average age of fans for these artists. I don’t know. It’s sad that we were all willing to throw our bodies into a giant glorious mess for hours on end ten years ago and can barely commit to a tickets worth of listening now.

I didn’t buy mine in time either. I have only myself to blame.

I love the song “The Laws Have Changed” by the New Pornographers particularly this line…

“We are shocked to be here in the face of the meantime”

I would love to be able to use it in conversation but fundamentally have no idea what it means. Do you?

I agree with my buddy Scott. This is the best musician’s ad I’ve ever seen.

Taken from the Summer 2003 issue of Jest magazine. My personal favorites…

“Slanted and Enchanted” by Pavement: “Everyone in this room is an asshole except me. And yes, I know my T-shirt is too snug.

“Crossroads” by Eric Clapton: “I have to swing by JCPenney and Suncoast Video so why don’t we just meet up in the food court?”

“8 Mile Soundtrack” by Eminem: “Well, no, I don’t actually “hang out” with black people. But I get it. You know, their whole deal.

“Crash” by Dave Matthews Band: “I know sororities are lame, but I’m still probably going to rush. You know, just like a goof. Because I am sooo not a dumb sorority girl. Right? Right?

I never thought I’d say this but good for Gavin Newsom. This takes guts. Should these long lines and lousy weather continue, I’m going to volunteer to help out somehow. Maybe serving breakfast or something.

I think my friend Scott has an excellent point when he talks about how fundamentally silly the premise of the new Pepsi/iTunes ads. I also think that I am a complete sucker.

Yes, there’s absolutely nothing subversive about Apple and Pepsi getting in bed with one another to give away 100 million free songs (when you buy a bottle of Pepsi of course) as the commercial would indicate. Ballsy sure. But about as subversive as a mutual fund. The RIAA is probably dancing in circles with joy that a bunch of stupid kids think they’re sticking to the man by buying Pepsi to get free songs that have been paid for already.

I am one of those stupid kids.

I think the add is effective as all get out. I’ve watched it 50 times. I spedn yesterday on my bus ride home hunting around for lose Pepsi caps.

But I am not a musician. I am an IPod slut in the midst of a musicial metamorphisis. Free music without the intermidable “More Sources Needed” warnings at Kazaa to me is like crack.

But fundamentally it’s nonsense, bold clever nonsense yes, but still nonsense.

This is a great parody (via Boing Boing). Also if your music tastes skew towards independent, smaller labels, painfully underrepresented on iTunes, consider Tune Recycler, which allows you to swap your Pepsi cap numbers for independent music, though I don’t quite understand how.

Would someone like to explain that one? I’m still humming “I Found the Law.”

In my quest for new musical horizons, I started using Launch.com and quickly fell in love. Not only does it program your favorite artists but then makes suggestions based on those you give them. I’ve already bought several songs from the Apple Music Store based on their ideas.

Now I find out that Launch refuses to work on a Macintosh system even if you follow all of their requirements to the letter (WMP 7.0 or above, IE 5.5. Any Mac OS above 8.0 but lower than X. What’s next? A tuning fork jammed in your printer port?). I have a beautiful new iBook G4 that I bought with my book advance and I use at work. I figured Launch would be a great way to listen to music while sorting through the day’s mundane tasks. Instead, it sticks its tongue out.

Just what do they think they’re doing? Macs may be a small market share but iTunes and the Apple Music Store are rapidly pulling away from the pack. If people increasingly use their computers as juteboxes, Launch will leave itself out in the cold. Based on their attitude, its exactly what they deserve.

Is their an answer to this? Another program like Launch, for Mac People?

Update: I’ve posted to Lazyweb asking the same question. Who has designed (or will design) a plug-in to allow Launch.com to work on a Mac OS X system? Who knows an alternative program to use in the meantime?

I had a brief, unremarkable career in college as a DJ on WHSR, Hopkins Student Radio. I hosted two shows, one called “The Grand Illusion” which was all 80’s pop and another with my friend Jeremy called “Access All Areas” where I would play bad 70s arena schlock and he would play Wierd Al B-Sides. It lasted one semester and the station only reached to the buildings on campus. Often we were locked out of the station because the student monitor didn’t show up to let us in. Our show was Friday night, 10-12.

So I was pretty happy to hear than Hopkins Radio had been put out of its mercy in 2000 and reborn this year as hopkinsradio.com, streaming live over the Internet. The shows seem more diverse then in my day (it was the early 90s and disgruntled “alternative” was everywhere) and I only hope that online broadcasting has eliminated some of the silly hurdles we had back then.

I’m going to listen and see.

Big kudos to my buddy Josh Benton for pointing out Pitchfork’s Media’s Top 50 Singles of the Year and how the list isn’t top heavy with white indie bands who all look and sound like a 3-day coffee hangover [simile mine]. Pitchfork attributes this to the ease of buying songs from services like Apple Music and the ubiquity of file sharing. Music fans are now able to dip their toes in different styles and genres without the prohibitive financial commitment of a $17 CD attached.

This is wonderful news. I think the dirty little secret of services that claim to be arbitors of musical taste and outlets like much of the nation’s college radio stations is that, in the name of promoting independent, non-corporatized music, they skew almost unfailingly toward all white, guitar-based bands. Funny, I thought musicial diversity was the whole point. It’s also only gotten worse since these days, much of pop music is rooted in the acendency of hip hop to mass culture. As I’ve said before, the latent racism behind the whole “Rock is Back!” movement of the last few years can best be described as “Thank God we don’t have to listen to all that black music anymore.”

So bravo to Mr. Benton and sites like Pitchfork and Epitonic for embracing music beyond the narrow confines of “indy” or “alternative.” Since I’m in the middle of overhauling my own catalogs, it’s nice to know I’m not alone.

I’m a little late but I just found out that Warren Zevon, who has spent the last year recording his final album while suffering from inoperable lung cancer, died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday afternoon.

I’ve always been a closet fan, sporatically poping in his Greatest Hits album and enjoying the boppy hunor of “Lawyers, Guns and Money” and the shimmering beauty of “When Johnny Strikes up the Band”. But I’ve been paying closer attention the last year as Zevon knew his days were short and simply continued on. His purpose here on earth was to make music and, with remarkable courage, he embraced this in the face of his own death, without drama, without fanfare, without even asking for our sympathy. To him, it just was.

Creative people cannot stop themselves, not even when their time is up. We artists all have something to learn from the last year of Warren Zevon’s life. Or as my friend Dave said, better than I could, “I’ll miss him. I’ll miss his example.”