Filed under: News of Note | Tags: ABBA, Black Gold, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Filter, Genesis, Girl in a Coma, iTunes, Jeff Beck, Kids Company, Kiss, LL Cool J, Matador Records, Metallica, Michael Jackson, MySpace, NME, Pitchfork, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rolling Stone, Run-DMC, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, The Stooges
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio
PREVIEW: WATCH the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ video for Californication.
Rolling Stone reports that the Red Hot Chili Peppers, LL Cool J, Kiss, Genesis, the Stooges and ABBA are among the artists nominated for the 2010 class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. This is the first year in which LL Cool J and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are eligible for induction. Last year’s inductees included Jeff Beck, Metallica and Run-DMC. (Previous 20 Watts Coverage: Industry News, Week 3)
Brooklyn’s indie duo Black Gold has decided to embark on a US tour supporting Texas-native punk sweethearts, Girl in a Coma, as reported by Filter. The multi-instrumental duo comprised of Eric Ronik (lead vocals, keyboards) and Than Luu (drums, percussion, vocals) will be performing tracks from their debut full length entitled Rush, which was released this past February. You can check out their dance beat-infused tunes on both iTunes and Myspace.
An unreleased Michael Jackson single and album has been announced for release in October, reports NME.COM. The track “This Is It” is the fist posthumous Jackson single to be released and will come out October 12, followed by a compilation album on October 26 and a movie entitled “This Is It” on October 28. In a message on Jackson’s Web site, it was revealed that the compilation album will be a two-disc set featuring past hits, previously unreleased mixes and a spoken-word piece from Jackson called “Planet Earth.” [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: Syracuse Reacts to Michael Jackson’s Death]
Syracuse.com’s Listen Up Blog posted an especially sentimental birthday note to The Boss, who is celebrating his 60th Birthday today. Bruce’s last gigs in ‘Cuse include a two night stand at the Dome in 1992 and a critically acclaimed show at the Landmark Theater in November 1996. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee apparently celebrated his 60th during a concert on September 21 in Des Moines, Iowa. Seriously, Bruce? No rocking the Spectrum (actually, he’ll be there in October) or perhaps MSG (where he’ll be this November) on the big day? I guess you are getting old…
Pitchfork and NME.com report that Coldplay have donated one million pounds ($1,616,809 American dollars) to the charity, Kids Company. Kids Company aims to provide support for inner-city children. According to NME the band also plans to give music lessons to kids at Kids Company centers. [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: The 20: An Essential Guide to Britpop]
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists haven’t had much luck with record labels in the past after Lookout! Records folded and Touch and Go stopped releasing new records. Pitchfork reports that the band has signed to Matador Records.
–20 Watts Staff
Filed under: News of Note | Tags: accuradio, American Gangster, Converge, David Letterman, EMI, Fuck Yeah Fest, FYF, iTunes, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Kurt Vile, Massive Attack, MGMT, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Neon Indian, Nine Inch Nails, NME, No Age, Paul McCartney, Pitchfork, Radiohead, Ratatat, The Beatles, The Beatles: Rock Band, The Blueprint, The Blueprint 3, Thom Yorke, Torche, Trent Reznor
Kid Cudi releases new track "Pursuit of Happiness" featuring MGMT and Ratatat
PREVIEW: DOWNLOAD Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness” MP3
Pitchfork posts new Kid Cudi song “Pursuit of Happiness” featuring indie gods MGMT and Ratatat. The single will be the third off his upcoming album Man on the Moon: The End of Day, to be released September 15, 2009. The single alludes to his search for weed (Cudi’s drug of choice) as the pursuit of happiness — a theme highlighted nicely by MGMT and Ratatat’s synthpop beat. Catch a live performance of “Pursuit of Happiness on tonight’s “The Late Night Show With David Letterman.” [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: Editor's Pick #71: Cudi Gets Psychedelic]
Rolling Stone reported the change of release dates for Jay-Z’s new album The Blueprint 3 from its planned Friday drop date to today, a more conventional Tuesday release. While the move means the album no longer drops on the eighth anniversary of the first Blueprint, it should assure Jay the top spot on Billboard’s albums chart. The album is his first release since 2007’s American Gangster. [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: 20 Watts Reviews Jay-Z's Blueprint 3, Editor's Pick #168: Jay-Z Endorses Indie Rock]
RS also reported that Nine Inch Nails has changed the date of its final show to September 10. The band was due to end its performing career on Sunday, September 6, at Los Angeles’ Echoplex, but after frontman Trent Reznor’s short illness, the final concert will now be Thursday at L.A.’s Wiltern. Over the last few weeks, the band has also performed shows in New York and Chicago on its “Wave Goodbye” tour. [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: Editor's Pick #147: Alice in Chains' "A Looking in View", Trent Reznor Announces Final Nine Inch Nails Tour Dates]
Paul McCartney told NME.com that he would like The Beatles’ catalogue available for download. According to McCartney, record label EMI is to blame for the band’s inaccessibility on the Internet. “We were having problems with iTunes — well not iTunes, EMI was the problem — with downloading which we’d like to do because that’s how a lot of people get their music,” McCartney said. The Beatles: Rock Band drops tomorrow, so this problem will be partially solved for players who can download songs from the Rock Band website. Rock Band developers Harmonix have plans to offer more Beatles albums and tracks for download in the future. [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: McCartney and MGMT, Beatles and iTunes Fail to Reach Agreement]
In other Beatles news, web radio heavyweight AccuRadio announced today that it will begin broadcasting a series of Beatles-themed channels tomorrow to celebrate the release of the Beatles’ remastered collection. The channels will include “Beatles Plus” — more or less all Beatles’, all the time — as well as the obviously named “Just Covers” and the intriguing “Beatles and Friends,” which claims to contexualize the remastered catalog with other bands and songs from the time. AccuRadio’s apparently endless roster of free niche radio stations also includes such appetizing options as “Sea and Sand,” “Canadian Pop” and “Hiptronica” — whatever that means, we’re into it. [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: Beatles Rooftop Performance, Beatles Rock Band Trailer]
Neon Indian, whose debut LP drops October 13, has announced the dates for his upcoming world tour. Unfortunately, he will not be stopping in Syracuse, but you can catch him in NYC at the Music Hall of Williamsburgon October 24. [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: 20 Watts Interviews Neon Indian]
Kurt Vile, after losing his job as a forklift operator, didn’t have much recourse but to pursue music full-time. Former lead guitarist of The War on Drugs, Vile released the albums Constant Hitmaker and God Is Saying This to You in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Now he’s hard at work on his Matador Records debut and has just released the album’s lead track “Hunchback.” Supposedly more of a rocker than the rest of the album, “Hunchback” follows a Youngian thread. [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: Yo La Tengo’s Popular Songs (Matador Records)]
British trip-hoppers, Massive Attack sat down with the magazine for a little Q&A about their career, the upcoming Splitting the Atom EP and their next full-length effort, set for February. Also included with the interview was the scenic, Thom Yorke-esque number “Bullet Proof Love,” which will be featured on Splitting the Atom, out next month. [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: Radiohead's "These Are My Twisted Words"]
No Age, Converge and Torche tore up Saturday’s FYF Fest in Los Angeles. Mixing genres from metal to hardcore to punk, the festival, formerly known as Fuck Yeah Fest, aims to raise awareness for the California state parks system. SPIN has pictures of the mayhem as it unfolded this weekend. [Previous 20 Watts Coverage: Free NYC Dirty Projectors Show on July 19th]
– 20 Watts Staff
Filed under: Throwbacks | Tags: Dance, French, In Rainbows, iTunes, La Ritournelle, Politics, Radiohead, Reckoner, Sebastien Tellier, Thom Yorke, trance
Sébastien Tellier pimping the shades as if Jesus was the Terminator
PREVIEW: Sébastien Tellier “La Ritournelle” MP3
French singer-songwriter Sébastien Tellier’s “La Ritournelle” is the only reason one would buy his 2004 album, Politics. Fortunately in the age of iTunes you can spend 99 cents for this gem of a track instead wasting money and drive space on an entire album.
Its name taken from the old school French dance, “La Ritournelle” begins with a hypnotic, repetitive piano chord progression that plays throughout the track with an epic and beautiful string section that soon follows, which glides in and out of the song. When you think this lovely instrumental can’t get any better, about halfway through, the man behind the curtain comes out and sings. The sappy lyrics (“Oh nothing’s gonna change my love for you/ I wanna spend my life with you”) are more than made up for by the beauty of the music and the sweetness of the melody — not to mention the funky-ass bass line that suddenly accompanies the vocals.
The general feel of the song is reminiscent of the title track from Thom Yorke’s debut solo album The Eraser. It plays as if that song were combined with the string section from the end of Radiohead’s “Reckoner” (on In Rainbows), with a nice dance beat to boot.
Chill out and play on repeat.
– Charlie Weeks
So if anyone is like me, they like sticking with the old and familiar. For months I have been ignoring the prompt asking me to update my iTunes. After my 4-year-old iPod broke last week (R.I.P), I had to upgrade to the new Classic iPod and with it, to iTunes 8.1. The version is pretty standard but with one new incredible feature: GENIUS. The feature reminds me of Pandora. It generates playlists based on a song of your choice, only with Genius, it fills the playlist with songs from your own iTunes music collection. I started obsessively making Genius playlists and songs I had completely forgotten about ended up on my lists. And who doesn’t like a good oldie? So, seriously, download the new version of iTunes if you haven’t yet! Start rediscovering the music you already have!
-Allison Polster, Copy Editor
Filed under: Free 4 All | Tags: download, Filckr, Firefox, Google, iTunes, last.fm, software, Songbird, Songkick, YouTube
Welcome to the launch of Ayo Technology, the newest addition to the 20W community. In this segment, resident expert Dan Bagnall will bestow upon us weekly blogs about the hottest music software trends and newest gear to hit the market.
In this installment he introduces a dope new music application (the biggest threat to iTunes) that has finally made it out of beta testing. It’s name: Songbird.
Imagine the power of Mozilla’s Firefox with the music functionality of iTunes and low and behold you have Songbird. Songbird is a cross platform, open-source media player that is under active development. Built upon the Firefox architecture, users can customize their Songbird anyway they like thanks to “add-ons.”
A few key add-ons come bundled with the download such as mashTape, a feature to discover Flickr photos, YouTube videos, last.fm biographies, Google news and more for the currently playing artist. Another favorite feature is “Concert Tickets,” powered by Songkick, where you can discover upcoming shows in your area based on the artists in your library. The consolidation of a web and media browser will have you never switching between windows again!
Download it now at www.getsongbird.com
– Dan Bagnall
Filed under: Industry News | Tags: branding, iTunes, Kanye West, licensing, merchandising, monetization
Prices on iTunes have officially changed in order to compensate record companies more fairly. Now, instead of each song selling off for $.99 every time, prices range from $.69 to $1.29. The more expensive songs will be the more popular songs, and the less popular songs are cheaper.
I checked today just to make sure the prices had changed, and it’s true. I typed in “Kanye West” into iTunes, and there were a few tracks that cost $1.29, and only one that cost $.69. Most songs still remain $.99 however. It’s not a huge change, yet if record companies want to be really fair about prices, there has to be a more extensive selection of $.69 songs.
Though the idea seems fair enough overall, I’m not sure how iTunes consumers will respond to these more expensive songs. It will be interesting to see if more obscure bands will reap the benefits from this variable pricing. Who knows? This plan may just be too little too late for record labels. It is certainly evident that bands are going to have to get creative when it comes to monetizing their music. And you’ll be surprised to see that actually selling music will be a very small part of this equation. Think about it: touring, branding, merchandising, licensing. The possibilities go on.
—–Jett Wells, Co-Reviews Editor
Filed under: Industry News | Tags: CD, China, Google, iTunes, Labels, Major
In boardrooms across the globe label execs are pondering their next key move in the battle against piracy. It may come as a shock, especially with the booming success of iTunes, however only 5% of all online music downloads are legal.
One sunny afternoon while anxiously twittering the intern to bring them some more damn coffee, these execs decided it’d be a good idea to drop this war on the individual and bring it straight to the source: the Internet Service Providers (ISP). In typical Major Label fashion, discussions have formed and dismantled between both parties, due to the unrealistic expectations of the majors.
I used to be a non-believer in subscription based music services. I mean, who doesn’t want to own a physical copy of something they just paid for. Then I got to thinking…every song at my fingertips, whenever, wherever I’d like, boy oh boy, that sounds like downright bliss. While such services aren’t new, its just taken AGES for the majors to get on board and license all of the catalogs to one subscription provider with a well-built interface capable of supporting the subscription based model.
Filed under: Industry News | Tags: DJ Ear Worm, Girl Talk, iTunes, Major Labels, Steve Jobs, YouTube
After watching my classmates battle head to head with a famous composer over Girl Talk’s controversial use of unlicensed samples and the related legal issue of copyright infringement, it got me wondering. How could Girl Talk possibly make these major labels happy? These are the same spoiled sports that vehemently pulled their artist’s videos from YouTube and laughed at Steve Jobs when he introduced them to the beta version of iTunes.
If someone was to try and make music such as Girl Talk’s and abide by the major labels fees for using the samples, there would be no possible way for an up-and-coming artist to afford it. If this were indeed the scenario, the barrier to entry would be so high that mash-up music would cease to exist all together.
Recently, the major record labels have be entering into licensing agreements with YouTube in order to create revenue from the most popular videos on YouTube, music videos. This got me thinking…if these mash-up artists created a mash-up video, then all of the labels could split the licensing fees recouped from the video, thereby making money from mash-up music. Then I found DJ Earworm’s music video for “United States of Pop 2008 [Viva La Pop]”. Peep it after the jump… (more…)
