"You were talking loud enough so that only you could hear." - The Red and The Black.

TMT thinks outside the box a bit and points out something very interesting: Radiohead are currently without a recording contract, apparently, opening up the prospect that the band could self-release any forthcoming recordings or jump to a different label. Sort of makes that story about how EMI is really sweating the success of the latest Coldplay joint (saying that it will make or break their earnings for the year) seem a little more credible.

Earlier this year EMI's debt rating was cut to junk status, in part because the Coldplay record was delayed. Anyway, we enjoyed Coldplay's impassioned performance on SNL last night. They played their single "Speed of Sound" in the first slot (Stereogum mentions the performance and has a link for the audio -- get it while it lasts), which rocked pretty steadfastly. So it seems EMI may actually have hitched their wagon to the right horse. The band has always been a bit too restrained for our tastes, but we've liked all their singles and enjoyed listening to their first two records via Rhapsody back when we had our free press subscription (good times).

Something else that might boost sales of the new record: there is some buzz online that the new record will feature unspecified anti-ripping technology. Story is that the promo single for "Speed of Sound" didn't feature the tech, which is why the music from that disc can be found. This supposed anti-ripping tech is probably just the same old Suncomm shizzy from a few years ago. But we suspect, if there is truth to any of this, there will be more chatter about it in coming weeks.

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This weekend we watched Eddie and the Cruisers. When we were 10 we thought this movie was the tops. Now it seems pretty bad on a lot of levels, particularly structurally. Also, the band in the movie does a pretty bad job of pretending to play and sing. Interestingly, the music really is the strongest thing going for the flick. Not that Michael Pare, Tom Berenger, Ellen Barkin, Joey Pants and David Silver's father from 90210 can't hold it down. But there was only so much they could do with that script. Too bad, 'cause the story is actually pretty good.

Switching gears: a song to kick off the week. This started off being a post about All About Chad and their song "Embarrassing Moments," and how there is more than one version available, and how we prefer the one on Jiffy Boy Records' Ten Cent Fix compilation. But then we went to the CD rack and came up with Chunk Records' Hotel Massachusetts comp, which we referenced in our prior post. Specifically, we reference some crucial cuts. One of these was a tune called "Sunday" by a band called Home. We don't know what else, if anything, that Home has released. Googling "Home" does not yield useful results. Based on the strength of the song we made a point to show up to see the band at the Loud Music Festival in Northampton, MA in 1995, where they were playing on a showcase, if memory serves, that also included Craig Jones' Sydra. Anyhoo, Home's set was very reminiscent of the type of stuff Karl Hendricks Trio was doing at the time: heavy, emotional indie rock. Which contrasted pretty heavily with the breezy but resigned pop of "Sunday." Anyway, it's Sunday night, so that makes this post a bit appropriate. This is the kind of tune you'll be singing to yourself for a couple days.

That is all.