Fables of the Reconstruction: R.E.M. is Still a Rock Band

Live albums are usually a cop-out.
Many of them are done by artists looking for a cheap way to get out of a record contract; many others are done as a way to cash in on a tour, almost like a souvenir
Many of the aren’t even live- yes there is a crowd, and there are some live elements to the sound, but the imperfections are glossed away in a studio.
Many of them are rote re-interpretations of greatest hits.
It’s not to say they are always bad. Peter Frampton made a career on a live album, while other bands like the Grateful Dead, their live albums are superior to anything they’ve done in the studio.
On R.E.M’s new record, they threw out the rules.
There are virtually none of their big hits on the record. “So. Central Rain” is as close as it gets. The sound is obviously 100% live. It is all guitars, bass, drums and a bit of piano thrown in. You hear Peter Buck’s guitar feedback and Michael Stipe’s sometimes cracking vocals. When Mike Mills plays piano, you don’t hear a bass line.
They are not really promoting anything. There are a few songs off their early 2008 release Accelerate, so you can say they’re trying to milk a few extra sales off that relatively poor selling record. However, it is well past that record’s “recording/release/tour’ cycle. If there is an underlying motive, it’s to tie-in their rawer guitar-based older stuff with their back-to basics sound of Accelerate.
This record is a valentine to their old fans. The ones who bought Chronic Town and Murmur, probably also bought Reckoning and Fables of the Reconstruction, but slowly drifted off after that. The album is full of raw re-telling of songs like “Pretty Persuasion” and “West of the Fields”. It is virtually all deep cuts. Even early hits like “Radio Free Europe” and “Can’t Get There from Here” are left off, not to mention “Losing My Religion” or “Stand”
The band more or less stays away from its big rock star era and it also ignores most of the relatively recent atmospheric stuff of Up, Reveal, and Around the Sun. The one song they do from that era, “I’ve Been High”, is re-done sounding like a Fables-era piano ballad.
You don’t hear the eclectic amalgams of Out Of Time, or the graceful southern goth of Automatic for the People (“Drive” being the exception). Some of those textures and the finer material on those records are missed. R.E.M. used to bring along a few sidement to help re-create those sounds, but on Olympia they sound like a three-piece, accompanied by drummer Bill Reiflin.
The seeming result is to re-identify to themselves and their fans as a true rock band. They get well over two hours of pure R.E.M.-style guitar rock, even minus the hits and chunks of their career. It looked like the departure of drummer Bill Berry sort of threw them into a sometimes meandering voyage of re-self discovery. On Accelerate and Live and Olympia this voyage seems to bring them back where they started, as the raw, yet sublime rock band they always were.
R.E.M. has truly given up aspirations of being a U2-style rock dragon. They gave it up long ago. Nowadays they play to their sizable niche. Live at the Olympia is an attempt to re-connect with some of that niche they may have lost during the Big Rock days and the post-Bill Berry experimental period. It succeeds well in that regard. Non-R.E.M. fans may not get it and may not be interested, but that would probably be fine with the band.

Smells Like Dollar Signs: the Flap over Cobain on Rock Band 5

We’re all sellouts
Some are more blatant than others. Aerosmith and Bon Jovi are at least up-front about it. They will happily ham it up for anyone who offers them a big enough check.
Who are we to argue?
The person who is unemployed or behind on their mortgage, or who has been slaving away in bar bands for thirty years certainly wouldn’t.
It’s the hypocrites you have to watch out for. There are those who publicly bleed integrity and sanctimoniousness, but behind the curtain are revealed to be not much more than the Bon Jovi’s of the world.
Of course they don’t buy up tickets for their shows at face value than re-sell them to scalpers like some of the bands mentioned, but you never know.
Courtney Love is angry because Activision is using Kurt Cobain’s likeness on Guitar Hero 5 to not only sing the Nirvana songs he wrote and sang, but also to possibly sing along to songs by other bands- yes even Bon Jovi.
I don’t play it, but someone showed Cobain’s avatar “singing” “You Give Love a bad name” along with the cartoon backing band on YouTube and it was pretty disturbing. At least to someone who was around in the early 1990’s and saw Nirvana break huge with Nevermind, playing music that didn’t play by the “rules” but still was very popular. Bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam came up with the punk scene, and although they did get signed by large record companies, took pains to maintain their artistic integrity and independence.
To us late thirtysomethings and fortysomethings, it is unsettling, but to the kids who play Rock Band, Cobain is just another dead or aging rock star. Most kids nowadays couldn’t tell Bon Jovi from Nirvana, and wouldn’t care even if they could. It’s all of us old people getting riled up.
Love is angry, and even though she agreed to use Cobain’s likeness for the game, she said that she thought that he would only be singing Nirvana songs.
“You are correct in stating that Ms. Cobain (Love) is extremely upset at Activision’s use of Mr. Cobain’s image in a video game allowing him to sing songs of others. Kurt’s songs have a unique and special meaning to his fans and his image and legacy is extremely important to Ms. Cobain.” said her lawyer.
Cobain's old bandmates, Krist Novolesic and Dave Grohl agree.
“While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character.” Adding, “This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in ‘re-locking’ Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.” They said in a joint statement.
Somebody’s lying, or somebody’s lawyer didn’t do his job. Both the game company and Love have high-priced lawyers looking through the documents, and it’s hard to believe that somebody didn’t catch the clause where Cobain would be aping along to Bon Jovi songs.
Everybody got paid. Activision will sell a ton of games, Cobain’s estate and the other artists featured on the game will get paid and get additional exposure for their music. Nobody is starving off this deal.
It’s one of two things. Activision is either greedy or ignorant, or perhaps telling the truth. Love may be telling the truth, but it also may be a face-saving measure to something she either agreed upon or overlooked.
It’s either dollar signs or ignorance, and I’m picking dollar signs.
Integrity or not, Nirvana signed the big record contract. Even Love’s band Hole had a large record contract in the 1990’s, Grohl’s band the Foo Fighters has been churning out radio-friendly music for years now. All have been well paid, and there is nothing wrong with that. With the money, comes compromise, I’m sure. Nobody is innocent then, nobody is innocent now.
Now comes word that Iggy Pop has agreed to use his likeness for a Lego version of rock band.
No one is innocent.

RIP Jim Carroll

In my late teens, punk rock changed my whole worldview. You didn't have to listen to the same music everybody else did. You didn't have to dress the way everyone else did. I'm sure I speak for many when I say it put me on a path to self-realization. It wasn't a bad thing, and sometimes it was a good thing to not fit in. Besides me, it turned music upside down. Music had become lethargic in the mid-1970's, and punk rock turned it upside down.

Jim Carroll was a footnote, but a big one at that. His song "People Who Died" was a long litany to his friends who had passed away in New York's seamy underside. Written over a raw, chug-a-lug of guitar, bass, and drums, Carroll read off his long list of characters without seeming emotion, saving his big salute for the last one. It was almost like a dark and fatalistic response to "Walk on the Wild Side"

Carroll's "Basketball Diaries" had a similar effect on the literary world. Based on journals he wrote as a thirteen year old, he detailed a double life as a prep school basketball player and a drug-addicted street hustler. Equal parts Salinger, Rimbaud, and Henry Miller, he stred at the darkness in an unfliching, almost conversational manner.

The big regret is that he wasn't more prolific. He did some other music and books, but nothing ever hit the stride of "People Who Died" and "Basketball Diaries". Both have left indelible marks on the literary and music world, whether directly or indirectly.

James Williamson to Re-join Stooges

Stooges fans upset at the passing of founding guitarist Ron Asheton will get the next best thing. James Williamson, who played guitar on the opus Raw Power, will replace him, according to Rolling Stone. Williamson, who has been a software developer in the Silicon Valley, was recently talked into re-joining the band by Iggy Pop, and new music may even be a possibility.
“He asked me if I wanted to play guitar again,” says Williamson, who hasn’t performed a single gig since the Stooges dissolved in 1974. “I was about to take an early retirement from my job in Silicon Valley, so I figured ‘what the hell, let’s do it.’ ”
The only show on the books now is the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival on May 2 and 3rd of next year, but Williamson says many more are coming. He also hopes to write new material with Iggy. “The two of us have a long history of writing new tunes,” he says. “It’s probably a safe bet we will at some point.”
The big debate among Stooges fans and rock fans in general is which Stooges album had a bigger effect on punk rock, the sludgy Fun House or the crash and burn of Raw Power. Asheton played thumping, sludgy, and dirty guitar on The Stooges and Fun House, while Williamson’s style was closer to what the Ramones and Sex Pistols would later do, more driving and chaotic than Asheton’s tighter riffing.
The idea of new music with the Stooges is intriguing. Iggy’s recent solo stuff is quite eclectic, so it seems that he is due to rock out some more with his old bandmates.

Charlie Watts Leaving Stones?

An Australian website reported form “inner circles” of the Rolling Stones than Charlie Watts was leaving the band. The band almost immediately denied the rumors, so it’s hard to say where that stands. For a long time it has been said that Watts was the member of the band most reluctant to tour and seemed to be happy staying at home with his horses and playing in his jazz band.
The source told the Australian site Undercover, “Charlie Watts has quit the band. He will never record or tour with the band again”. The site went on to say “its little secret that Keith Richards had to coax Watts into participating in the band's 2005 album 'A Bigger Bang' and its subsequent global tour. ‘
The band was quick to deny it. The band’s spokesperson, Fran Curtis, tells Entertainment Weekly there is no truth to the rumors: “Contrary to a fabricated story that ran this morning,” she says, “Charlie Watts has not left The Rolling Stones.’’
Watts leaving the Stones would have a devastating effect on the band. His drumming, in tandem with Keith Richards’s guitar, is the bulwark of their sound. Nobody can bring those guys together like Watts, although rumored replacement Charlie Drayton is a great drummer in his own right, Charlie is irreplaceable. No doubt Richards and Mick Jagger would go on without him, but it would be a travesty.

Remembering Joe Strummer

I’m terrible with birthdays. Joe Strummer would’ve turned 57 yesterday, and I missed it, so I will enlighten you all with my take on him and his music. He was, in my mind, a combination of James Dean, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Rotten. Not that he was necessarily the larger-than-life figure those guys were, but instead he combined the rebellion and the swagger of them, and to me, was the face on punk rock..
The Clash’s debut album had the best of both worlds- an angry punk attitude with great melodies and songcraft. Strummer and Mick Jones weren’t rank amateurs, but instead experienced musicians who were blown away by the punk movement. “Give ‘Em Enough Rope” showed they could match guitars with any metal band with the same ferocity as the debut album. London Calling was a landmark. The band not only perfected their songwriting chops, but also mixed reggae, pop, and soul into their musical mix. It was a statement album that proved punk rock could be diverse musically and appeal to a wide audience, and still not compromise. “Sandinista” while, inconsistent took the experimental touches of London Calling three steps further. Combat Rock broke the band to huge mainstream success, with “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and “Rock the Casbah”, but began a divide in the band with Jones wanting to experiment more, and Strummer wanting to stick closer to their punk rock roots. They never made another Clash record together.
The Clash was Strummer’s as well as Jones’s finest moments. Joe’s solo records and Jones-less Clash record had their moments, but he was never able to connect to the musical zeitgeist the way he did with the Clash. As a listener, you kept hoping they’d get the band back together, that they would have this great re-union and re-establish themselves as the best rock band in the world, which in the early 1980’s they arguably were.
He died way too soon. It was right about the time that it looked like society would “get” his solo records, maybe not in a larger-than life way they did with the Clash records, but it looked like there was hope, maybe even for a Clash reunion. Jones, Strummer, and Paul Simonon were on good terms, who knows.
Either way, rock needs a rebel like him and he will never be replaced,

Bottle Rockets "Lean Forward" on new release

Before you listen to the Bottle Rockets, it is refreshing to just look at the song credits, they don’t have twelve song doctors on each song, preferring to actually write their own songs. They don’t have a team of “ace’ producers, or a long list of studio musicians. When you listen to their music, you get the same feeling. They write songs that pay equal homage to old school Nashville songwriters as they do garage bands like the Ramones and The Replacements. There is not one shred of B.S. to be found anywhere in their music. And that is not to say they are some humorless wannabe purists. With a songwriting style vaguely reminiscent of John Hiatt, they mix even their most serious songs with a dry sense of humor, and never forget that they’re writing three minute rock songs and not John Steinbeck novels.
Like many artists of their ilk, they’ve paid a price. The Bottle Rockets have had enough record company drama and hijinx to fill up a Nashville Spinal Tap movie. They’ve also had numerous personnel changes which would’ve broken up many bands. Despite all of that, guitarist/ vocalist Brian Henneman and drummer Mark Ortmann, the bands mainstays, have kept the band on the right track. Their latest release, “Lean Forward” is as raw and uncompromising as anything they’ve done. After being together about sixteen years, it doesn’t seem like they’re anywhere close to slowing it down and playing it safe.
The opener “The Long Road” is a fine statement of purpose with the chorus “the long road isn’t the wrong road/a wrong turn isn’t the end/if it’s understood that something good may be coming around the bend” propelled by the two guitar attack of Henneman and John Horton, and the tight, reliable rhythms of Ortmann and bassist Keith Voegele. Throughout the record the same theme resonates: “Hard Times” sings about keeping one’s head up even when things are tough, and the songs “Get On the Bus” and the ballad “Open Your Eyes” talk of survival and resilience.
There is also the quiet heartbreak of “Solitaire”, the anti-war ballad “The Kid Next Door”, and a couple tunes about the losers who can’t get it right with “Shame on Me’ and “Done it All Before”.. The band sings with the knowledge and compassion of one who’s been there before, not one who read Studs Terkyl and John Steinbeck for inspiration.
What makes it all work is that they never forget that they’re a rock band, and while it may seem their preference to rock out on songs like “The Long Road” and “The Way it Used to Be” they don’t forget their older roots, either. There is the swamp boogie of “Hard Times” the country swing of “Get on the Bus”, and the reflective Nashville balladry of “Open Your Eyes” They like to mix it up, even though it seems they like to return again and again to the jagged stomp of “Nothing but A Driver”.
The band on “Lean Forward” is all about staying tough in the face of life’s dramas. The songs have a hard-won optimism that could only be pulled off by a band with the survival skills of the Bottle Rockets. They are played by the band with energy and attitude, not like a band that is ready to slip into the easy elder statesmen mode.

Down on the Corner

It is impossible not to feel good when you hear this song. From the shuffling bass line that begins the song, it has you nodding your head in unison to this tune about Willy and the Poor Boys playing “early in the evening, just about suppertime”
I heard the cooks in my kitchen playing it on the broken-down radio that sits on top of the microwave. The new kid who told everyone he was an Iron Maiden fan brought this CD in. It got everyone smiling. It put the night cook in a good mood, even though we were short one cook and the Iron Maiden fan was a newbie. It got the servers smiling as they picked up plates and filled up ice teas, It got me in a good mood while I was trying to entertain my bar crowd and find solutions for my two missing employees. Everyone was smiling, and if a song does that, it succeeds.
Some music is written to inspire. The melody to “Where the Streets Have No Name” is a spiritual call to arms. U2 has made a career writing songs like this. Some music is about confrontation. Public Enemy’s “Fear of a Black Planet” is an album about revolution. It isn’t something you’d normally listen to while doing your laundry on a Tuesday night. Other kinds of music are meant to be more introspective. Leonard Cohen’s “The Future” is good for that.
Some music is for light and easy escape. Not light and easy as in brainless, but something you can tap your feet to. That is “Down on the Corner” It is about a band that plays on street corners for nickels to entertain. Main CCR songwriter John Fogerty was probably writing an idyllic 1960’s portrait seen through the eyes of a small southern town, but the emotion connects, the snaking bass line connects, the spare rhythm guitar connects, the whole song connects, a three minute slab of perfection that helped make what could’ve been a rough night for my crew a pleasant and happy one.

A Morning Car Ride With The Beatles

I’ve come to this realization that I’m not in the Pitchfork Generation. I love talking about and listening to whatever bands might come my way, but there is no way I can keep up with the maelstrom of young bands anymore. I love to write and I love music, but there is just too much going on.
One of the things I stumbled on many years back that I keep on going back to from time to time is the radio show Breakfast with the Beatles. It plays on KLOS in the Los Angeles area and on Sirius radio elsewhere. It’s not just a rehash of Beatles hits that you hear anyway on classic rock radio. Host Chris Carter (who was a founding member of 80’s rock band Dramarama) plays outtakes, solo material, re-masters, deep cuts, and anything else except for straight radio cuts.
Back in my punk and metal years, I hated the Beatles. Their earlier stuff seemed like carbon copy pop songs- super tight arrangements, two to three minute song lengths, flawless vocal harmonies, and seemingly mindless songs. I liked their later stuff better, but not much. It seemed like psychedelic noodling to me. I preferred at first the aurally grandiose sounds of Queen and the mythical thump of Led Zeppelin to the overly cute and perfect three minute pop songs of the Beatles, or the later balls-out aggression of Black Flag to what I saw as the silly nuances of Sgt. Pepper. I didn’t realize that although the Beatles didn’t perhaps invent those perfect harmonies and melodies, they sure as hell perfected them. I also didn’t realize that the sill absurdist noodling, they did largely invent, and countless others would spend the next forty years trying to copy.
It wasn’t until I began to appreciate more modern songwriters and bands like Elvis Costello and The Replacements. Eventually you got the feeling of the tremendous debt they owed the Beatles, which they would acknowledge themselves. They struggled, even in their best work to come close to the perfection of the Beatles, and this is no knock on them. It is more a testament to the genius of the Beatles.
This comes to mind for one reason that it is the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock. That festival was the culmination of a musical revolution that had been brewing for four years. While the Beatles weren’t there, having given up live performance at the time, they still had an indelible mark on that festival.
The beauty of a show like Breakfast with the Beatles gives one some hope for terrestrial radio. It flies in the face of radio convention. It is in direct contradiction to the overly formatted, killed with commercials, flavor-of-the-month radio that is popular these days. It is a fine history lesson I get in the car on my way to work on Sunday morning, and has me showing up to work with a smile on my face.

My strange American Idol fetish and other weird tales

I know you’re all waiting for it, but there is no news about Queen and Adam Lambert. Instead, we’ve got news that Paula Abdul is leaving American Idol. This is a disaster for the show. She is a complete train wreck, and one of the main reasons that the show is worth watching is to watch her bizarre antics. Whether it’s rubbing up to Simon Cowell or her inane comments, it was always entertaining. I used to not watch at all, but my kids like it, and since we only have one TV these days, I started watching. Once in awhile, there is some good talent on there, but it is ultimately Simon Cowell’s stinging comments or Paula’s bizarre behavior that makes it worth watching.
Fox is making a mistake, unless they find some other reality TV refugee to fill her shoes. And what is Paula going to do? She can’t think that her singing career is going to go anywhere. If it wasn’t for Milli Vanilli, she would’ve been the lip-synching poster child of that era. Paula and Fox should work it out, unless Courtney Love or Lindsey Lohan is available.
As far as Wilco’s last record, it’s lack of experimentation put me off a little at first, but after a few more listens, you can’t hide from the fact that they are great songs that are executed well by the band. They are the best melodies Tweedy’s come up with since “Being There”. Sometimes us critics come up with all this drivel about “brilliance” and the fact that if a band isn’t always pushing to new horizons, that they are somehow a disappointment. Wilco throws that theory out the window. Good songs, clean but not overbearing production, and great musicianship always wins out.
Wilco aside, anyone who thinks Americana died when No Depression stopped printing, was way wrong. Besides the fact that blues, country, and folk will never really die, it is good to know that last week’s Newport Folk Festival was dominated by young up-and-comers like The Decembrists, Low Anthem, and Fleet Foxes, among others. It is nice to know that there are tons of young artists out there doing new and interesting things with old-school music.
Now there is the heat that Leonard Cohen is taking about playing Tel Aviv. The Palestinians freaked out, the leftist Israelis freaked out, so he had to promise to make donations to all these peace groups and call it a “benefit”. Settle down, people. There are always axes to grind, and there are those that will exploit every opportunity to grind theirs, especially when there’s some money or a headline in it for them.

Gordon Gano's New Times

No college experience would be complete without the Violent Femmes. If you’ve never heard the name, you’ve at least heard “Blister in the Sun” or “Add it Up”, two paeans to adolescent horniness. Gordon Gano whines away about unrequited lust while Brian Ritchie thumps his ubiquitous bass line, and Victor de Lorenzo doesn’t seem to do much but hit a snare. I thought they were pretty much a 1980’s snapshot that no one before or since would care about, but when I went to call someone into work the other day, the nineteen year old girl had “Blister” on her phone.
Fact is, while their first self-titled album continues to be huge. It is nearly double platinum (two million sold) without ever being on the Billboard charts, they continued to record and tour quite successfully until 2007. While their recordings were hit-and-miss, they would tour the world to sold out crowds until legal problems brought them to heel. Alleged chief songwriter Gano sold “Blister” to Wendy’s over the public objections of Ritchie, and it went downhill from there. As of this ranting, Ritchie is suing Gano for half of the songwriting royalties of the band. While it’s hard to know to us outsiders exactly who did what in the studio, it is sad to see one of the great cult bands go down like this.
One way or another, Gano is moving on. In the fall he will release “Under the Sun” under the moniker Gordon Gano and the Ryan Brothers. It is his collaboration with Brendan and Billy Ryan, previously known as members of 1990”s indie band the Bogmen, but perhaps even better known as the guys behind movie scores like The Heartbreak Kid, Fever Pitch, and MO. They were all living close together in New York City, and began collaborating.
Under The Sun has many of the things that made the Femmes who they are. Gano’s vocals are in fine form, and most of the record hearkens back to the spare rock the femmes were known for. “Wave in the Water” and “In the Sand” sound like classic Femmes, but the undersexed rants are now replaced by real songs that have more acceptance and joy than the intensity and nervousness in his older band. They haven’t abandoned quirkiness, however. “Here as A Guest” follows along the lines of Gano’s spiritual songs (in the old days when he wasn’t singing about being horny, he was singing about being close to God), and also recalls his old band’s fondness for East European rhythms. “Under the Sun” is as down in the dumps as anything he does, while “The Way That I Creep” has the silly wordplay he has always been known for. They don’t really break new ground here, but sort of like Legendary Hearts-era Lou Reed, his songs sound more mature and he doesn’t seem to feel the need to write the tragicomic breakup anthems he was known for in the past.
It’s hard to say where this will go or what will happens with this collective or the Femmes, but it does show that Gano does have some cool new music, and isn’t quite ready to completely give himself away to the 1980’s oldies circuit.
You can hear the new record stream for free at the band’s MySpace page. http://www.myspace.com/gordonganoandtheryanbrothers

Radio Radio

The world is changing. In some ways it’s for the better, in some ways for the worse, and in some ways, it’s just change, neither better nor worse.
I am selling some of my beloved CD’s. Music is my life. I’d hate to think how much money I’ve spent on it in my lifetime, but I’ve always lived for the next great song, the next great record, or the next great tour. But reality hits. I don’t have time to listen to all these CD’s first of all. Between working my day job for 10-11 hours a day, attempting to be a decent father and husband, and good ‘ol sleep, there is rarely a whole hour in a day where I can sit and listen to a record beginning-to-end. I still love music, I still get all tingly listening to a great song I’ve never heard, but there is the time factor. There is also the space factor. It’s much easier ripping them on them onto my hard drive, or downloading them. That way I get my music without tripping over it when it is dark.
It’s changing for the ‘ol radio too. Congress, with bi-partisan support seems to be pushing through a bill called the Performance Rights Act, which would force terrestrial radio to not only pay songwriter royalties, but also to pay those who actually performed the song. That way, the twelve people who wrote the latest Britney hit wouldn’t be the only ones getting paid, but Britney and her backup musicians would get paid, also. Most of the other music platforms already pay this out, but for whatever reason, terrestrial radio has been spared. It sounds pretty logical to do something like this. It’s hard to debate the fact that singers and musicians should be compensated when their music is played for profit. If you understand, however, the condition that terrestrial radio is in, perhaps this debate isn’t so black and white.
I grew up listening to top-40 radio on the car speakers, and from the radio at home. In my 'tween years, I was able to discover FM radio, where I was turned onto Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd. It was also where I discovered alternative music toward the end of high school on KROQ. In college, I began to seek out little college radio stations like KXLU and NPR where they played, and continue to play cutting-edge music. I loved the radio, but somewhere between now and then, it changed. The few Los Angeles area-stations that aren’t talk radio or Spanish-speaking are more tightly formatted than an Imodium AD capsule. No one gets played if they’re not some Jordin Sparks-type flavor of the month. Classic rock and alternative stations are as tightly formatted as the Top 40 stations. It’s a guarantee you will hear “Whole Lotta Love” or “Bohemian Rhapsody” at least twice a day, or if alternative is your taste, let’s just hope you’re a Foo Fighters fan who likes the same four songs. In between this, there are tons and tons of commercials, and more on the way.
Yes, I know free radio has to pay the bills. Commercials do this, so does (hopefully) playing songs that they know connect with people. The fans of terrestrial radio are declining. Some fans are turned off by the extensive commercials or the force-feeding of music programmers. Others are into XM or Sirius, which have more choices and fewer commercials. There is also internet and cable radio. Music fans are also becoming increasingly balkanized. Each type of music has their niche, and fewer and fewer people wish to step outside of it. As a result artists are increasingly marketing to the already converted, as opposed to preaching to a new audience who probably doesn’t care. Look at Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead. Both release records over the last couple of years that were quite successful with little or no free radio airplay or mainstream promotion. There are many others like them, and it is hurting traditional radio.
The passage of this bill, while perhaps not a death knell to terrestrial music radio will cost them more, and the listener will have to deal with more commercials, even tighter programming, and less stations that play popular music. Some will go dark, some will go ranchera or nortena, some will go talk, and others will go dark. The radio people are fighting this tooth-and-nail.
"It's a bad idea in a good economy. It's a horrible idea in the economy we're facing right now," said Kris Jones, a spokesman for the broadcasters' association.
Dennis Wharton, the association's executive vice president of media relations, called the Performance Rights Act "the biggest threat to radio in 50 years."
The millions — and probably billions — of dollars in annual performance fees could prompt stations to lay off workers, decrease charitable donations, convert to all-talk formats or go dark, Wharton said.
To the musicians and record companies, it is an issue of fairness. In virtually all other formats, the performers do get a cut of the royalty pie. It has its share of big name supporters- Sheryl Crow, Nancy Sinatra, will.i.am, Herbie Hancock, Billy Corgan and others have appeared in front of Congress to support it.
Corgan, the leader of The Smashing Pumpkins, told Congress what a fan of radio he was. “I was able to find an audience, in no small measure, because of the long support of my music by terrestrial radio. I am a big fan of radio, and am interested in its continued health and well-being.”
While he acknowledged that songwriters were compensated, it was his thought that the performers should get their cut also.
“If the performance of a song has particular value to a terrestrial radio station in its airing, I believe it is only right to compensate those performers who have created this work. Simply put, if a station plays a song, both the author and performer should be paid.”
It’s by no means a done deal. Over 200 lawmakers have signed on to the Local Radio Freedom Act, a non-binding resolution that declares opposition to "any new performance fee, tax, royalty or other charge on radio for music airplay."
Every story has more to it than it seems. While many of us still rely on traditional radio for their music, it is in decline, and it has its issues. For instance, there is no way on God’s green earth that radio programmers would take a chance on a band like The Smashing Pumpkins these days, but on the other hand, bands like The Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, and Radiohead, along with countless other artists, have fine, lucrative careers without traditional radio exposure.
Should we dodge the fairness question to prop up a fading dinosaur? Or should we also subtly help another fading dinosaur, the large record companies, who stand to score big bucks if the resolution passes through. Many of these performers have record contracts where the record company scoops up a large percentage of the profits. It is not as easy as it seems to answer this question.
The one thing is certain, though, times are changing. Whether you are some middle-aged guy trading in his CD’s, a radio programmer scared for your job, or a country singer whose sole mis-fortune was not writing his own songs, the times are changing. Some ways for the better, some ways for the worse, some ways neither.

Wilco- Retreat or Re-affirmation?

Jeff Tweedy should win the award for “most restless guy in rock”. Nobody in recent memory, except perhaps an early 80’s Neil Young has changed so much release-to-release. Wilco’s albums range from the indie country rock foundation of A.M., to the tortured atmospherics of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”, all the way to the de-constructed jam rock of “Sky Blue Sky”. Aside from bassist John Stirratt, there are no other original members of the band, whose lineup changes slightly record to record. “Wilco- The Record” may signal a change. Not only is it the same band that recorded the predecessor “Sky Blue Sky”, but the music represents a sort of full circle for the band.
As far as Wilco goes, this is the most straightforward collection since “A.M.” Take out the guitar noise workout of “Bull Black Nova”, and it sounds like a deeper, richer, more mature version of the band that recorded the debut record. “Wilco- The Song” rocks to an old Velvet Underground riff, while “You Never Know” has a barroom boogie feel to it. “I’ll Fight” would be a radio-friendly song if there were actually a radio station that would play it. This is their most song-based record they’ve made since “Being There”. Guitarist Nels Cline, while he does have some great guitar interplay with Tweedy and Pat Sansone, is more or less reined in, in favor of tighter song arrangements.
It’s truly a band record. The rhythm section of Stirratt and drummer Glen Kotche sounds comfortable and self-assured. Cline, whose guitar playing was the centerpiece of “Sky Blue Sky”, adds more atmospheric touches to the songs. The band’s playing is very self-assured, one of the advantages of actually staying intact over the course of two records. “Sky Blue Sky” also had a band vibe, but that record was more of a deconstruction of the singer/songwriter motif, than the more barroom approach of “Wilco”.
Tweedy is still far from a happy-go-lucky songwriter, but now he often turns his pain into the humorous Lou Reed-styles toss-offs on “Wilco- The Song” or to rockers like “Sonny Feeling”. Laying off the painkillers and alcohol will do that, along with less inter-band drama. The question posed here is whether a happier and more content Tweedy leading a stable band is a good thing for the music, too.
One can’t begrudge happiness, and this happiness shows through musically, if not lyrically on the record. Tweedy doesn’t seem as restless or driven as he did on “Foxtrot” and “A Ghost is Born”, and seems happy being in a band. The result is a record that has some of the best melodies he’s ever written, but lacks the cracked genius of “Ghost” and “Foxtrot”. You can’t deny the chops of “I’ll Fight” or “You Never Know” or the quiet beauty of “You and I” but you can’t help a slight feeling of longing for the baroque pop guitar workout of “Impossible Germany “or the demented Beatlisms of “Kamera”.
Is it a retreat? Perhaps not. A re-affirmation of their classic sound? Perhaps. One hopes that that this record, strong as it is, doesn’t signify the band entering a middle-aged comfort zone. Instead, the hope is for a new blueprint for a stable, yet still creatively restless Tweedy and Wilco to venture into some new realms.

Michael Jackson Long Live The King

My first encounter with Michael Jackson came in the late 1970’s when my friend’s brother put “Off The Wall” on the record player. I won’t say that I was immediately bowled over by his music, but I did like it much better than most of the other post-disco stuff that was on the radio in those days, and some of the melodies were amazing. I couldn’t keep “Rock with You” or “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” out of my head, even though I told myself I wanted to. Next came “Thriller”, and the only word for that was “ubiquitous”. It was everywhere. The songs, the videos, the press, and everyone were caught up in it. Even my longhaired stoner friends and I liked it, and we were brought up on the 1970’s singer/songwriter stuff and hard rock of bands like Led Zeppelin and Van Halen. He had that certain “something” you can’t define easily with words without running at the mouth, and he went on to dominate the 1980’s and into the 1990’s with his music and persona. He was our Elvis. And while he succumbed in an eerily similar way as the King, he influenced everything culturally the process. Music, dancing, fashion, and the video worlds were all influenced by him, and continue to be influenced by him.
In the late ‘seventies, there was “black” music and “white” music. Top 40 radio and to a larger extent disco were exceptions to the rule, but outside of the club scene, that was the case. Jackson changed this. My chain-smoking friend’s older brother played “Off The Wall” endlessly, while my pot-smoking friends and I eventually bought up “Thriller”. We weren’t the only ones. “Thriller” is still the best-selling record by anyone, and that means middle class, conservative white kids like me bought it. It opened up some huge doors. Although Prince is a contemporary of Jackson, it is hard to argue against the fact that “Thriller” opened up doors for him to make “Purple Rain”. One of my memories was my friends telling me in 1980 about Rolling Stones fans throwing bottles at Prince when he opened for them. Four years later, many of those fans were buying up “Purple Rain”. It is also not hard to believe that Jackson helped pave the way for white fans to enjoy black music. It was white kids who helped propel MC Hammer and Boys 2 Men to prominence in the late 1980’s and also who made hip-hop such a huge selling sensation it continues to be today. You can trace that all to Jackson. While “Thriller” was artistically not a huge jump, it caught the world’s attention at the perfect time. The rest is history.
Another way Jackson changed the world was through video. While as a medium video is not as huge as it once was, it was a precursor to the internet, where music seems to be retreating these days. MTV was gaining popularity when Jackson came around, and the argument can be made that that MTV helped Jackson as much as he helped it. Either way, his well-produced videos succeeded in expanding on the listener’s musical experience, as opposed to the medium basically being a three-minute ad for a record. Jackson’s videos, especially “Thriller” added elements that weren’t in the song, and added nuances that made fans yearn for his new videos as much as his new songs. It did have the unfortunate effect of making videos the star, where photogenic artists like Milli Vanilli became stars of videos where they didn’t really sing or perform. Many others went on similar formulas, and the result was some MTV stars that couldn’t really sing write or perform. Jackson was never guilty of this. His videos added a cinematic touch to his songs, and added dancers and elaborate effects, as opposed to lip-synching and simple storytelling other artists favored. It also opened up other avenues for Jackson to influence.
MTV taking off turned the whole world on not only to music, but also the fashion and performance the videos featured. The dance moves and the fashion weren’t just for the big cities anymore. Now everyone in the world was turned on to these things. The whole world was now part of the Michael Jackson craze, with the videos leading the way. They not only helped sell records, they created a creative new medium for fans to enjoy music, and made it accessible to all. Not long after “Thriller” took off, it pushed the envelope for fashion around the world. Now you could walk into a department store anywhere and find clothes and music that were once only found in the New Yorks of the world. Now it was universal.
Nobody, not even Elvis has had the effect on popular culture that Jackson has. He created a revolution in music, where what was once considered “black” music is now enjoyed by all. Nowadays, I see my white servers singing to Usher songs, while the Mexican cooks are cranking the hip-hop in the kitchen. We haven’t got to the point where the African Americans are buying up Matchbox Twenty albums, but the revolution Jackson started with “Off The Wall” and “Thriller” endures. He created a similar but shorter-lived revolution in video, where he forced musicans to push the envelope and turn videos from shallow lip-synching ads to a necessary component to newly released popular music. The hugeness of video was a precursor to the internet, which replaced video as a medium of choice for music lovers. There will never be another Jackson or Elvis. The music world is way too overly-balkanized to allow it. There are now many little clans that have their favorite style of music and do not step too far out of it. There are still big stars out there, but their influence will never match that of Jackson. Madonna who is almost as influential as Jackson is aging, and there is nobody coming up that has the talent and charisma to capture society’s zeitgeist the way Jackson did.

Queen and Adam Lambert

Okay- I got sucked in by Idol. There is no escape. The IPod my bosses play blares out Daughtry and David Cook, and it doesn’t sound bad in a harmless Creed-kind of way. My wife and kids go on and on about it all the time and now Queen is expressing an interest in Adam Lambert. Hmmmmmmm. Nobody will ever replace Freddie Mercury, especially not Paul Rogers, but Lambert may be the guy if they want to play new music that is remotely like their own.
You may first ask why Queen feels like they need to play at all. There is no way any singer anyway will work with them the way Mercury did. Not only was his voice the most recognizable thing about the band, but he was also arguably the best songwriter in the band and was largely responsible for arranging they layered vocals they are so well known for. For well over a decade they didn’t even attempt it, perhaps reluctant to mess with their legacy, choosing the route of Led Zeppelin over the questionable yet very lucrative route of the David Gilmour-led Pink Floyd. They then hooked up with Rogers, and had a pretty good run commercially, filling up stadiums around the world, and releasing Cosmos Rock. They sounded nothing like Queen, though. Rogers is about as far as you can get from Mercury, vocal wise. While he is a competent blues rock singer, his voice does not fit the classic Queen sound. Brian May and Roger Taylor gamely tried to fit their playing styles around him, with May playing some of his best guitar since News of the World, but it came off more as a heavily produced Bad Company than it did Queen. Perhaps even more missed was the songwriting of Mercury and the departed John Deacon. With a few exceptions, the songwriting was terrible. Rogers is a pedestrian songwriter, and there was a reason that Mercury and Deacon wrote most of the memorable Queen tunes. Rogers ended up running back to his old mates in Bad Company, leaving May and Taylor without a singer.
Enter Lambert. He got on Idol doing “Bohemian Rhapsody”. His flamboyant appearance and singing style brought on comparisons to Freddie. He had that mix of Broadway and hard rock that Queen had been missing. When they all did “We Are the Champions” he looked like a natural fit. You can never replace Freddie, but if they decided to make music with Lambert, it would seem on the surface to be a perfect match. Before all of us old Queen fans get too happy, though, we need to look into this.
First, while Lambert singing and stage presence is vaguely reminiscent of Freddie, he may not offer the other things that Freddie did. Nobody knows if Adam can write, and since Deacon is not in the fold, that leaves us with the same songwriting issues we saw on Cosmos. Sure, if Queen’s looking to clean up on a greatest hits tour, it doesn’t matter much, but this writer has a feeling that they want to work on new music, so the writing may be an issue.
Second, Lambert wants to do his own thing. While he said he’d love to sing with Queen, he’s also working on his own album and tour. Working with Queen would help his exposure to older fans that don’t follow Idol, while it would help Queen perhaps even more, turning a younger demographic to their still fresh-sounding music. Lambert seems pretty destined to follow his own course. Perhaps the Queen guys will wait around, but it doesn’t make a reunion necessarily a done deal.
Third, once again, why does need Queen need to re-form as Queen? The presence of Lambert would make for a very profitable tour, but does Queen want to risk their fine legacy on a rent-a-singer greatest hits tour? Robert Plant declined a couple of years ago on another go-around with Zeppelin that would’ve been huge. Why does Queen need to get out there without Freddie? Aesthetically, wouldn’t it be best to leave their legacy just as it is?
Lawyers and commitments aside, I can see this happening. The money and the exposure will be priceless. But if anybody sees it as anything more, they are fooling themselves. Queen would make a great backing band for Lambert, and the singer could win new fans by doing reasonably faithful renditions of Queen songs. But who even knows what will happen to him? The musical scrap heap is full of artists who did well on Idol, but disappeared soon after. Lambert seems like he has more going on than most of the others, but who knows? We don’t know yet if he can write a tune, we don’t know what kind of people he will be working with; it’s a great unknown, especially in today’s balkanized musical universe. So in sum, perhaps it’s not a bad idea if he hooks up with Queen, but for Taylor and May, it is more uncertain, but what the hell? Why not? It won’t destroy their legacy, and give the guys a few more years to live off their glory