YouTube Rodeo: The Beginning Of The End?

>> Our savvy analyst and former-analyst friends are predicting the end of the Wild West days of YouTube, so we wanted to peruse the site today and dig up any gems we've missed heretofore in case YouTube becomes totally co-opted by and beholden to The Man. So above is a link to our favorite song by defunct Philadelphia-based sort-of supergroup The Bigger Lovers. The band features guys who play with The Pernice Brothers and Lefty's Deceiver and several other acts we discuss here with some regularity. Anyway, the tune is called "Bought Your Ghost" and it is from the band's excellent set Honey In The Hive, which came out on Yep Roc several years ago.

>> We've been keeping an eye on YouTube for the last year waiting for decent video of Meneguar to pop up. And while that day has yet to come, there are two recent clips from a show at the Spazz in Greenville, N.C., that are worth looking at if only because the sound and video isn't absolutely abysmal and there is so little else out there to watch. The video is choppy and splices together pieces of a couple different songs from the band's stellar I Was Born At Night record, which was first released in 2005. The main chunk is a song that is new to us. Meneguar is apparently working on finishing a second set that we seem to remember reporting that Troubleman plans to release next year.

>> Here's a live clip of The Jam doing an energetic version of "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight." There's not a lot to say about this clip, except it is sort of amazing to see Paul Weller looking so young -- probably younger in the clip than we are now, which is scary to think about; how did we get older than Paul Weller? There are lots of great hairstyles in the video, not the least of which is the bass player's hair helmet.

>> The are currently at least 1,600 clips of The Cure on YouTube. Which is a lot. Monitoring the number of those clips in the coming weeks and months might give the casual observer an idea of how a licensed, legitimate YouTube will look in the future. Here's the band as a trio in Dec. 1981 performing a haunting version of "The Figurehead" in a cramped room for a promotional clip. We've always preferred the more stripped-down Cure, and wished the same sort of musical economy that characterized the first few records carried over into their more popular ones. We harbor what is likely the rare opinion that Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me suffers under the weight of all the keyboards. Anybody know what kind of guitar Fat Bob is playing here? Can anyone recommend a definitive Cure biography? We know there are many, but we are looking for recommendations on the most thorough and up-to-date book, since we already know a lot about the band.

>> Finally, here's a live clip from July in which New Order performs one of our very favorite songs, "Ceremony," which has been featured prominently in promos for the forthcoming film "Marie Antoinette." This clip is woefully short, but we thought we'd throw it up given that we've seen every one of the other 600 or so clips currently on YouTube. Incidentally, this blog was almost called Avenues All Lined With Trees, and we still consider changing it now and again. OH SNAP -- here's the band performing the song in 1981, less than a year after Joy Division's Ian Curtis hanged himself. Bernard Sumner's vocal is pretty lackluster, but otherwise the sound and picture here is superlative.

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From The Admin Cubicle: General Business

>> We've gotten on board with the whole del.icio.us social bookmarking thing. Which means if you'd like to read articles and blog posts that we've deemed particularly interesting, you can scroll down a bit and hit one of the tags listed in our sidebar. Generally we point to articles reflecting action on the industry side of things, and not the artist side. That's because if we see any artist information that is particularly interesting we note it in our regular Today's Hotness feature. Here is our del.icio.us profile.

>> We're endeavouring to post more MP3s here at :: clicky clicky ::, and we'd like to reiterate that if someone owns or controls the copyright to any work we post here and would like it removed, send us an email and we'll de-activate it lickity-split. Our email is linked in the right sidebar. We won't personally upload any pre-release material (although we will continue to, as always, link to appropriately cleared pre-release files and streams), and we won't personally upload more than one song from a particular record unless we are making a larger editorial point that necessitates it. Anyway, we hope you enjoy the music as much as we do; that's why we're here, after all.

>> As we have mentioned the sidebar already, we'll continue on and point out two more things. Want to know what we are listening to? Did we like a record so much that we actually put it in our ITunes? We have a Last.fm page here. Want to be our MySpace "friend"? Well, we've got a profile, but generally we don't "make" "friends" with anyone unless 1) they are actually our friends IRL or 2) we want to follow the goings-on of a particular band via any MySpace bulletins it might send out.

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Allegra D Lunch: Johnny Greenwood's "Popcorn Superhet Receiver"

NME here points to the Beeb, which is hosting a recent classical composition of Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, BBC's current composer in residence. The eighteen-minute-plus piece "Popcorn Superhet Receiver," which was premiered in April 2005, opens to quiet tufts of strings sliding across harmony and discord. About midway through percussion asserts itself, and the tune takes on the dramatic vibe of an action film score. No surprise, really. Fans of the Radiohead guitarist/instrumentalist will recall Greenwood issued a solo debut, the score to the documentary "Bodysong," in 2003. Stream "Popcorn Superhet Receiver" here [scroll down]. We, in our prescription allergy-medicated state, rather enjoyed it.

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Today's Hotness: Juana Molina, J. Church, Sony BMG Settlement

>> On Tuesday The New York Times ran this compelling profile of Argentinian electroacoustic luminary Juana Molina. The piece gives an informative overview of Ms. Molina's career, which is substantially longer than the several years we've known about her. Her first solo record Rara was issued 10 years ago -- we had no idea it was that old. The section of the article describing Molina's struggle for musical acceptance after a very successful television career is particularly notable. Juana Molina's most recent record Son was released by Domino in June. [photo credit]

“The apathy or even hostility of the crowds was terrible, with people walking out all the time,” recalled Fernando Kabusacki, a guitarist who accompanied Ms. Molina through 2003. “They would tell her to go back to comedy, and backstage afterwards she would be in tears."

>> As we've previously reported on the health problems dogging J. Church's Lance Hahn recently we think it is worth pointing out news of the pop-punk band's forthcoming set. PunkNews reports here that No Idea has posted an MP3 of the song "Vampire Girl" [right click and save as]. The tune is from the forthcoming record The Horror Of Life, which currently has no release date.

>> KoomDogg pointed us toward this page laying out the endgame of the Sony BMG rootkit debacle. We don't imagine many of our readers were affected, since the technology was generally deployed on CDs we wouldn't make our dog listen to, but the economics and mechanics of the settlement offer is interesting (ironically, just clicking on the .pdf link to the page listing the affected CDs froze our browser). One proposed remedy is an offer of MP3 files of the relevant music -- there is no mention of the files being copy protected. It's another rare instance of a major label embracing uprotected MP3s. We guess that when you messed up as bad as they did, you have to give stuff away. Anyhoo, here are the settlement offer basics:

You get a benefit if you have a SONY BMG CD with XCP content protection software, or have already returned such a CD to Sony BMG or to the place of purchase...

[Y]ou may receive a replacement CD, a free download of the music on the CD, and software fixes for known security vulnerabilities. In addition, you may choose to receive either (i) a cash payment of $7.50 and one (1) free album download from CONNECT Music, f.y.e., iTunes, or Wal-Mart; or (ii) three (3) free album downloads from CONNECT Music, f.y.e., iTunes, or Wal-Mart.

You get a benefit if you bought or have a SONY BMG CD with MediaMax content protection software... Your benefit differs depending on the version.

For Version 3.0: you may receive free downloads of the music on the CD and software fixes for known security vulnerabilities. For Version 5.0: you may receive free downloads of the music on the CD and software fixes for known security vulnerabilities, plus one (1) free album download from CONNECT Music, f.y.e., iTunes, or Wal-Mart.

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From The Admin Cubicle: Sick

We've contracted our completely debilitating semi-annual sinus/allergy/cold thing and are taking the night off to stare into space with watery eyes and fuzzy head while listening to some new stuff that has come over the threshold in the last day or so, including the new Sean Lennon joint. We'll be back with new editorial tomorrow or the next day. -- The Management.

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Stream New ...Trail Of Dead: "Wasted State Of Mind"

We have to say we're pretty pleased with this new ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead song, if only because it has completely dodged our expectations. If someone told me that "Wasted State Of Mind" was a track from the new Damon Albarn project The Good, The Bad And The Queen we'd have no trouble beleiving it. This new song is certainly good, very textured in surprising ways, opening with polyrhythmic drumming and ending with a drum roll and accordion. Really. It is about as far as you could get from what we'd expect from the same group of guys we watched toss their gear up into the ceiling tiles of TT The Bear's club here in Cambridge several years ago. Anyway, have a listen and decide for yourself. The song is the third track on So Divided, which streets Nov. 14.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead -- "Wasted State Of Mind" [RM | WM]

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Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Bloc Party

Energetic post-punkers Bloc Party return to North America supporting emo teenthrobs Panic! At The Disco in less than a month. Bloc Party is hitting some secondary markets this go-round. Ergo, Boston doesn't get a show -- instead the act takes its show to nearby Lowell's Tsongas Arena. That's a little far for us to travel to see a band we just saw this summer (here are video clips from the show -- the lights were really stunning), but we are pondering it... We had some electronic correspondence with a friendly Vice Records rep who says the label expects the band's long awaited sophomore set will hit racks in February or so. Bloc Party played a few new tracks during its summer tour, and we expect you'll hear even more of the new stuff if you get out to see the lads in November and December. The band's live show is electrifying (read our review of the July show here), and we definitely recommend you see the band do their thing live. We just double-checked and some dates are already sold out; full dates below. In other news, the band reports here that it recently recorded something in a solar-powered recording studio -- perhaps a b-side or two? We don't know.

Bloc Party | InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube

11/07 -- FL Bank Atlantic Centre -- Fort Lauderdale, FL
11/08 -- UCF Arena -- Orlando, FL [SOLD OUT]
11/09 -- HiFi Buys Amphitheatre -- Atlanta, GA
11/10 -- Cricket Arena -- Charlotte, NC
11/11 -- Patriot Center -- Fairfax, VA
11/13 -- Theater at Madison Square Garden -- New York, NY [SOLD OUT]
11/14 -- Theater at Madison Square Garden -- New York, NY [SOLD OUT]
11/16 -- Ricoh Colliseum -- Toronto
11/17 -- Gordon Field House -- Rochester, NY
11/18 -- Tsongas Arena -- Lowell, MA [SOLD OUT]
11/19 -- Wachovia Center -- Philadelphia, PA
11/21 -- The Palace of Auburn Hills -- Detroit, MI
11/22 -- UIC Pavillion -- Chicago, IL
11/24 -- US Bank Theatre -- Minneapolis, MN
11/25 -- St. Charles County Family Arena -- St. Louis, MO
11/26 -- Mid America Centre -- Council Bluff, IA
11/28 -- Magness Arena -- Denver, CO
11/29 -- The E Centre -- Salt Lake City, UT
12/01 -- Memorial Coliseum -- Portland, OH
12/02 -- Pacific Coliseum -- Vancouver
12/03 -- Everett Events Centre -- Seattle, WA
12/05 -- HP Pavillion -- San Jose, CA
12/06 -- Long Beach Arena -- Long Beach, CA
12/07 -- Glendale Arena -- Glendale, AZ
12/08 -- Orleans Theatre -- Las Vegas, NV
12/09 -- iPay One Centre -- San Diego, CA

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