"And smile in reassurance as you whisper down the phone..." - Pink Floyd.
We are sure we will ultimately be disappointed by it, but news broke today that Pink Floyd will reunite with Roger Waters for Bob Geldof's Live 8 festival. We just can't imagine the band will run out of the proverbial baseline a bit -- the gratification of the crowd who thirsts for FM radio hits will probably be too hard to deny. We would love if they played More front to back, but that's unlikely. Of course, the announcement does little to quell criticism that the event is too Anglo-Saxon. Anyway, Waters apparently has not played live with the band since 1981. We can't remember that far back, but we guess that means the band did not tour in support of The Final Cut, a record we loved in 7th Grade, during which we transcribed the lyrics to many of the songs onto the required brown paper textbook jackets of most of our books. The Final Cut was recently redeemed by Pitchfork's Chris Ott. We've always loved how melodic the record was, and were glad somebody finally stood up for it, whether the record represents the band or just Waters, we don't care.
We promised last week to re-post Fitz of Depression's version of the Tommy Tutone hit "867-5309 (Jenny)." So there you go.
Coolfer is skeptical that even a big bland marketing effort will help excite people about MSN Music's big bland digital music service. Related: MSN Music plans to offer a subscription service. Welcome to 2003, Herr Gates.
Scenestars thinks the world stops spinning when their site goes down. Did anybody else feel it? Not us.
Administrative Note: Clicky Clicky Command Central is now home to a super little greyhound named Olive. We are, for the moment anyway, the type of blogger who talks about our pets. Oh well.
That is all.
June 12, 2005
June 9, 2005
"What's left over to stay on for, already told her I loved her." - Haywood.
Another coincidence in the Land of Clicky Clicky. Turns out our very own Reader #6, better known to some as "that guy from Haywood" or "this dude who works at MTV," made the promo we heard but didn't see last night that used the Say Hi To Your Mom song. You can watch the promo here in some odd TV advert industry rag we'd never heard of. Anyway, you can do a search at that site under Reader #6's [insert preferred higher power]-given name and find a couple other commercials he wrote and directed, including a really funny one called "T-Bone." We have to say, we hate 99% of MTV's shows (if only they would put that 'roided up MTV stuff with the indie rock onto basic cable!), but these spots are great. There is an article about the spots, which are part of a larger ad campaign, here, but it's pretty critical. So screw them. We think they mispelled "ensconsed" anyway.
Buddyhead. Back with a vengeance. To whit: "The Used & My Chemical Romance 'joining forces' on that Queen cover reminds me of that time I had a migraine and explosive diarrhea at the same time." Also features a great collection of Liam Gallagher quotes. Fun. As Catbirdseat exclaimed earlier, "Buddyhead update days are good days."
Bars & Guitars has some nice things to say about the Slow Dazzle record, and has posted a track from the album. The blogger has his Mendoza Line songwriting fractions wrong, but we forgive him.
Hey, go grab the Hockey Night track posted at Music.For-Robots, it smokes in a Strokes kind of way.
Hit Me Baby One More Time is just starting on NBC. We are both excited and fearful to see the historically great Tommy Tutone. The studio audience is totally nuts tonight. We wonder if the crowd noise is fake. Probably. Anyway, The Knack open the show and they are pretty sharp. They even look pretty well. Seems like the songs aren't as horribly truncated this week, but still truncated. The Knack are going to play that rockin' Jet song later in the show. That sounds promising. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for Tutone.
That is all.
Another coincidence in the Land of Clicky Clicky. Turns out our very own Reader #6, better known to some as "that guy from Haywood" or "this dude who works at MTV," made the promo we heard but didn't see last night that used the Say Hi To Your Mom song. You can watch the promo here in some odd TV advert industry rag we'd never heard of. Anyway, you can do a search at that site under Reader #6's [insert preferred higher power]-given name and find a couple other commercials he wrote and directed, including a really funny one called "T-Bone." We have to say, we hate 99% of MTV's shows (if only they would put that 'roided up MTV stuff with the indie rock onto basic cable!), but these spots are great. There is an article about the spots, which are part of a larger ad campaign, here, but it's pretty critical. So screw them. We think they mispelled "ensconsed" anyway.
Buddyhead. Back with a vengeance. To whit: "The Used & My Chemical Romance 'joining forces' on that Queen cover reminds me of that time I had a migraine and explosive diarrhea at the same time." Also features a great collection of Liam Gallagher quotes. Fun. As Catbirdseat exclaimed earlier, "Buddyhead update days are good days."
Bars & Guitars has some nice things to say about the Slow Dazzle record, and has posted a track from the album. The blogger has his Mendoza Line songwriting fractions wrong, but we forgive him.
Hey, go grab the Hockey Night track posted at Music.For-Robots, it smokes in a Strokes kind of way.
Hit Me Baby One More Time is just starting on NBC. We are both excited and fearful to see the historically great Tommy Tutone. The studio audience is totally nuts tonight. We wonder if the crowd noise is fake. Probably. Anyway, The Knack open the show and they are pretty sharp. They even look pretty well. Seems like the songs aren't as horribly truncated this week, but still truncated. The Knack are going to play that rockin' Jet song later in the show. That sounds promising. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for Tutone.
That is all.
June 8, 2005
"So how's your mom, and are you working the same place?" - Swearing At Motorists.
We just were moving some stuff hither and thither around the house when we distinctly heard some of that good old-fashioned indie rock on the television. It seems Brooklyn-based indie rockers Say Hi To Your Mom, who released a new record called Ferocious Mopes today that we are mid-way through reviewing for Junkmedia, have finally rode their excellent song "Let's Talk About Spaceships" into the mainstream, as the tune is featured in a promo for some MTV program or another. The song is from their 2004 record Numbers and Mumbles and you can download it from the band's web site (scroll down). We highly recommend you do, as the song even gained a coveted spot on one of our mix CDs last September, and it is getting beyond the point where you will be cool for knowing about them. The band was apparently Spin.com's band of the day today. Next stop, The O.C. We're guessing.
Say Hi To Your Mom's name always reminds us of Ohio's own Swearing At Motorists, whose excellent cut "Flying Pizza" covers related territory in its chorus. Right click and save as to download it.
Not a lot of interest found in our spin through our usual sites today, but here is some good news: AC/DC's Back In Black just became the fifth highest-selling record in the U.S. ever, according to the RIAA. As of now, the record has shipped (not sold?) 21 million units. Good work, AC/DC.
WMG is doing its financials Monday. Why not dial in and listen for old time's sake? If anything, we're glad to see Will Tanous is still attached to the label group. Real chill dude. Looks like they changed his phone number, but at least homey's still got a job, considering the upheaval surrounding Warners in the last three or four years.
There are exactly 7,600 songs in our ITunes and IPod today.
That is all.
We just were moving some stuff hither and thither around the house when we distinctly heard some of that good old-fashioned indie rock on the television. It seems Brooklyn-based indie rockers Say Hi To Your Mom, who released a new record called Ferocious Mopes today that we are mid-way through reviewing for Junkmedia, have finally rode their excellent song "Let's Talk About Spaceships" into the mainstream, as the tune is featured in a promo for some MTV program or another. The song is from their 2004 record Numbers and Mumbles and you can download it from the band's web site (scroll down). We highly recommend you do, as the song even gained a coveted spot on one of our mix CDs last September, and it is getting beyond the point where you will be cool for knowing about them. The band was apparently Spin.com's band of the day today. Next stop, The O.C. We're guessing.
Say Hi To Your Mom's name always reminds us of Ohio's own Swearing At Motorists, whose excellent cut "Flying Pizza" covers related territory in its chorus. Right click and save as to download it.
Not a lot of interest found in our spin through our usual sites today, but here is some good news: AC/DC's Back In Black just became the fifth highest-selling record in the U.S. ever, according to the RIAA. As of now, the record has shipped (not sold?) 21 million units. Good work, AC/DC.
WMG is doing its financials Monday. Why not dial in and listen for old time's sake? If anything, we're glad to see Will Tanous is still attached to the label group. Real chill dude. Looks like they changed his phone number, but at least homey's still got a job, considering the upheaval surrounding Warners in the last three or four years.
There are exactly 7,600 songs in our ITunes and IPod today.
That is all.
June 7, 2005
"Life could be worse in the sun..." - The Farmhands.
Good way to spend 90 minutes: Listening to Quicksand's excellent 1993 hardcore gem Slip (which arrived in today's mail at the office to replace our old cassette dub) about three times this morning at work. Bad way to spend 90 minutes: Having our dentist, who is a very nice guy we like a lot, botch three procedures (not all his fault) to close out the afternoon. The seven shots of novocaine are still wearing off, and the real pain is wearing in. Anyhoo, does anyone recommend any of the post-Quicksand projects, Handsome and Rival Schools? We haven't heard either, but as a heavy music phase is starting to manifest itself, perhaps the time has come.
AllMusic is spotlighting The Books. Which basically means there is a nice picture and a snippet of their bio on the front page right now. No matter, still nice that such a deserving band gets attention.
Coolfer points to more verbiage about the dust-up between WMG and Tom Waits' former publisher. WMG is claiming purchasing a download means you are buying a product, not a license, which they believe apparently boosts their case. We seem to remember the same "license" construction being used the opposite way a few years back, where labels were trying to limit the fair use/sharing argument for (old-style) Napster etc. by claiming that purchasing a CD is actually purchasing the right to use the music, not purchasing a product (We are sure that we could find some label dood/ette making that argument in the Webnoize archives, if such a thing were to exist). So which is it? Anyhoo, dig in to the issue at the Berkeley Intellectual Property blog.
IndieWorkshop has the first Slow Dazzle review we've seen. It's also the first one with a sentence fragment we've seen. And incorrect use of "it's." Etc. We'd write and complain, but we think we already hassled the same reviewer last year for misspelling Bracy and Deppler's names in a review of Fortune, so we'll lay off this time. Anyhoo, the Slow Dazzle record, released on Misra, streeted today. [A quick check of American Book Congress reveals the location of another review].
Despite assertions that his blogging days are numbered, Mystical Beast continues to turn out great stuff. Check the first part of a week-long exploration of Tiny Lights. [OK, the post is by Sleeve and not Dana, but whatever…].
That is all.
Good way to spend 90 minutes: Listening to Quicksand's excellent 1993 hardcore gem Slip (which arrived in today's mail at the office to replace our old cassette dub) about three times this morning at work. Bad way to spend 90 minutes: Having our dentist, who is a very nice guy we like a lot, botch three procedures (not all his fault) to close out the afternoon. The seven shots of novocaine are still wearing off, and the real pain is wearing in. Anyhoo, does anyone recommend any of the post-Quicksand projects, Handsome and Rival Schools? We haven't heard either, but as a heavy music phase is starting to manifest itself, perhaps the time has come.
AllMusic is spotlighting The Books. Which basically means there is a nice picture and a snippet of their bio on the front page right now. No matter, still nice that such a deserving band gets attention.
Coolfer points to more verbiage about the dust-up between WMG and Tom Waits' former publisher. WMG is claiming purchasing a download means you are buying a product, not a license, which they believe apparently boosts their case. We seem to remember the same "license" construction being used the opposite way a few years back, where labels were trying to limit the fair use/sharing argument for (old-style) Napster etc. by claiming that purchasing a CD is actually purchasing the right to use the music, not purchasing a product (We are sure that we could find some label dood/ette making that argument in the Webnoize archives, if such a thing were to exist). So which is it? Anyhoo, dig in to the issue at the Berkeley Intellectual Property blog.
IndieWorkshop has the first Slow Dazzle review we've seen. It's also the first one with a sentence fragment we've seen. And incorrect use of "it's." Etc. We'd write and complain, but we think we already hassled the same reviewer last year for misspelling Bracy and Deppler's names in a review of Fortune, so we'll lay off this time. Anyhoo, the Slow Dazzle record, released on Misra, streeted today. [A quick check of American Book Congress reveals the location of another review].
Despite assertions that his blogging days are numbered, Mystical Beast continues to turn out great stuff. Check the first part of a week-long exploration of Tiny Lights. [OK, the post is by Sleeve and not Dana, but whatever…].
That is all.
June 6, 2005
"Superfreak get on your feet and throw your secret signs." - Halo Benders.
Music.For-Robots gets the royal treatment from NYT. The piece includes the interesting tidbit (we love hard numbers) that the Robots have only sold 150 CDs, or 15% of their inventory, in the first two weeks since the disc came out. Meaning that our earlier exhortation to go buy the CD a couple weeks ago for fear that it would sell out was well off the mark. All the same, we think the disc is pretty listenable. Ultimately it will probably just sit on the shelf we've designated for comps and jazz in our guest room, gathering dust somewhere between A Dog So Large I Cannot See Past It and This Is Harrisburg Not Topeka (Scroll down -- Targo, Torgo, it's all ball bearings...). But even if viewed as purely a vehicle for the new Haywood cut, $10 bucks seems a pretty fair price.
Coolfer rounds up a few pre-release hype-builder interviews with Coldplay. Stereogum rounds up people hatin' on the band; Pareles' piece in the NYT makes a very sound argument that neatly ticks off all the reasons Coldplay can be annoying.
IndieWorkshop executes a much-needed and solid redesign. We really couldn't feel the flow of the old model. This is a marked improvement. We're still not so crazy about some of the CD reviewers' stizz, but the site has broad coverage and a decent news product.
MysticalBeast runs down the ins and outs of TeenBeat's The Teenbeat Story: Superstars On 45 comp. Unfortunately, he doesn't highlight the tunes from it we'd most want to hear, but it is an interesting piece of reading if you are a fan of the label.
Tommy Tutone will (attempt to) rock that awful NBC show this week, and we guarantee sometime this week we will post Fitz of Depression's awesome "867-5309 (Jenny)" cover to compensate for the certain disappointment we won't be able to tear ourselves away from.
That is all.
Music.For-Robots gets the royal treatment from NYT. The piece includes the interesting tidbit (we love hard numbers) that the Robots have only sold 150 CDs, or 15% of their inventory, in the first two weeks since the disc came out. Meaning that our earlier exhortation to go buy the CD a couple weeks ago for fear that it would sell out was well off the mark. All the same, we think the disc is pretty listenable. Ultimately it will probably just sit on the shelf we've designated for comps and jazz in our guest room, gathering dust somewhere between A Dog So Large I Cannot See Past It and This Is Harrisburg Not Topeka (Scroll down -- Targo, Torgo, it's all ball bearings...). But even if viewed as purely a vehicle for the new Haywood cut, $10 bucks seems a pretty fair price.
Coolfer rounds up a few pre-release hype-builder interviews with Coldplay. Stereogum rounds up people hatin' on the band; Pareles' piece in the NYT makes a very sound argument that neatly ticks off all the reasons Coldplay can be annoying.
IndieWorkshop executes a much-needed and solid redesign. We really couldn't feel the flow of the old model. This is a marked improvement. We're still not so crazy about some of the CD reviewers' stizz, but the site has broad coverage and a decent news product.
MysticalBeast runs down the ins and outs of TeenBeat's The Teenbeat Story: Superstars On 45 comp. Unfortunately, he doesn't highlight the tunes from it we'd most want to hear, but it is an interesting piece of reading if you are a fan of the label.
Tommy Tutone will (attempt to) rock that awful NBC show this week, and we guarantee sometime this week we will post Fitz of Depression's awesome "867-5309 (Jenny)" cover to compensate for the certain disappointment we won't be able to tear ourselves away from.
That is all.
June 5, 2005
"Hollywood cops shoot each other in bed." - The Replacements.
Spent a good portion of Saturday driving around and listening to Superchunk's On The Mouth. We'd never spent much time at the band's web site, but it appears they have very nice liner notey kind of write ups for each release, including interesting tidbits such as: the working title of our favorite number from the record (not including the title track, which was released on a single) was "Old Lady Package Thief." Also, in the discographical info for the comp Incidental Music, Jon admits to not knowing "Makeout Bench," or its release info. We can help out on this count: our recently mallied friend PEG told us back in the day that the song was issued on a cassette comp, the name of which escapes me now. It was one of PEG's favorite jams, and it became one of ours. Anyhoo, both records are definitely crucial. If you don't own them, throw up your hands in despair and then order them from Amazon or something. Then cross that problem off your list. Speaking of...
It seems Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano gets a bad rap, whether it is the indiescenti at ILM or AllMusic calling her band's debut "confused." Sure, the band's ultra sappy "Joey" is probably grounds for some derision, but we are always surprised how short so many music fans' memories are. Concrete Blonde came to national attention, in an '80s alternative rock kind of way in any case, on the strength of a real hot rocker, "Still In Hollywood," from the band's debut released on I.R.S. All fine and good. At the turn of the '90s Napolitano dueted with Westerberg on "My Little Problem," one of the more rocking songs on The Replacements' swan song All Shook Down. This post was going to detail other duets Napolitano did with some of our other favorite artists, but when we did the research it turned out that she hadn't sung the songs we thought she had. So just enjoy this one.
The Replacements (w/Johnette Napolitano) - My Little Problem.
TMT gets all Marx and whatnot on Clear Channel. An interesting bit of writing, although only slightly if at all illuminating on the subject of high ticket prices driving concert-goers away from concerts. Sound and fury signifying nothing, but in an entertaining manner. Good enough for us.
That is all.
Spent a good portion of Saturday driving around and listening to Superchunk's On The Mouth. We'd never spent much time at the band's web site, but it appears they have very nice liner notey kind of write ups for each release, including interesting tidbits such as: the working title of our favorite number from the record (not including the title track, which was released on a single) was "Old Lady Package Thief." Also, in the discographical info for the comp Incidental Music, Jon admits to not knowing "Makeout Bench," or its release info. We can help out on this count: our recently mallied friend PEG told us back in the day that the song was issued on a cassette comp, the name of which escapes me now. It was one of PEG's favorite jams, and it became one of ours. Anyhoo, both records are definitely crucial. If you don't own them, throw up your hands in despair and then order them from Amazon or something. Then cross that problem off your list. Speaking of...
It seems Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano gets a bad rap, whether it is the indiescenti at ILM or AllMusic calling her band's debut "confused." Sure, the band's ultra sappy "Joey" is probably grounds for some derision, but we are always surprised how short so many music fans' memories are. Concrete Blonde came to national attention, in an '80s alternative rock kind of way in any case, on the strength of a real hot rocker, "Still In Hollywood," from the band's debut released on I.R.S. All fine and good. At the turn of the '90s Napolitano dueted with Westerberg on "My Little Problem," one of the more rocking songs on The Replacements' swan song All Shook Down. This post was going to detail other duets Napolitano did with some of our other favorite artists, but when we did the research it turned out that she hadn't sung the songs we thought she had. So just enjoy this one.
The Replacements (w/Johnette Napolitano) - My Little Problem.
TMT gets all Marx and whatnot on Clear Channel. An interesting bit of writing, although only slightly if at all illuminating on the subject of high ticket prices driving concert-goers away from concerts. Sound and fury signifying nothing, but in an entertaining manner. Good enough for us.
That is all.
June 2, 2005
"Die young is far too boring these days." - Helmet.
We're currently watching the new National Broadcasting Corporation show Hit Me Baby One More Time. Purely just to see Loverboy. They rock (or shall we say, historically they have rocked). The show is only in its first minute and we can tell it is going to be a car wreck. For the record, Mike Reno is now really fat. He seems really unhealthy. OK, now the band is playing. How bad is your TV show that the big opening is a very grey and turgid iteration of Loverboy feebly rocking out? Anyway, just watch the video of the original song at the link supra. The version they played of "Working For The Weekend" live was horribly truncated. Oh man, this is bad. We can't keep writing about it...
Buried in this story about Tom Waits' former publisher suing for a larger cut of royalties from digital downloads: WMG's cut, and presumably its typical cut, of a $.99 download is $.67, or more than two-thirds the retail price. That is sort of interesting. We hadn't realized their slice of the pie (presumably for the mechanical royalty, though we can't really remember all the differences anymore) was so large. We assume WMG's cut includes a portion that is in turn paid to Waits, presuming any advance he had has recouped. Ditto for the publisher: presumably a cut of that goes to Waits, too. The point being that this story sounds like the publisher is going to bat for Waits, but in fact it just wants more money for itself. Guess that's no surprise.
Somehow we knew when we were seeing the Gang of Four show with BrighAAAAm last month that the performance would get written up at Pitchfork. Today Pfork obliges with a typically late but very solid review. Speaking of good show reviews, check out the New York Times' take on the Kraftwerk tour. They are the robots.
Getting indecent charges on your IPod battery? Sign up to get $50 bucks from them for your trouble.
FYI, Arrested Development just owned all the other bands. The host of this show needs to die. What an asshole.
In non-music-related reading: If you haven't been reading the Captain's Log lately, you've been missing out on some funny stuff.
That is all.
We're currently watching the new National Broadcasting Corporation show Hit Me Baby One More Time. Purely just to see Loverboy. They rock (or shall we say, historically they have rocked). The show is only in its first minute and we can tell it is going to be a car wreck. For the record, Mike Reno is now really fat. He seems really unhealthy. OK, now the band is playing. How bad is your TV show that the big opening is a very grey and turgid iteration of Loverboy feebly rocking out? Anyway, just watch the video of the original song at the link supra. The version they played of "Working For The Weekend" live was horribly truncated. Oh man, this is bad. We can't keep writing about it...
Buried in this story about Tom Waits' former publisher suing for a larger cut of royalties from digital downloads: WMG's cut, and presumably its typical cut, of a $.99 download is $.67, or more than two-thirds the retail price. That is sort of interesting. We hadn't realized their slice of the pie (presumably for the mechanical royalty, though we can't really remember all the differences anymore) was so large. We assume WMG's cut includes a portion that is in turn paid to Waits, presuming any advance he had has recouped. Ditto for the publisher: presumably a cut of that goes to Waits, too. The point being that this story sounds like the publisher is going to bat for Waits, but in fact it just wants more money for itself. Guess that's no surprise.
Somehow we knew when we were seeing the Gang of Four show with BrighAAAAm last month that the performance would get written up at Pitchfork. Today Pfork obliges with a typically late but very solid review. Speaking of good show reviews, check out the New York Times' take on the Kraftwerk tour. They are the robots.
Getting indecent charges on your IPod battery? Sign up to get $50 bucks from them for your trouble.
FYI, Arrested Development just owned all the other bands. The host of this show needs to die. What an asshole.
In non-music-related reading: If you haven't been reading the Captain's Log lately, you've been missing out on some funny stuff.
That is all.
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