We first encountered Shelley Short when she, along with GLONO's own Quasar Wut-Wut, opened up for Colin Meloy of the Decemberists at Schubas a few years ago. Our pal Andy Rader even played upright bass with her for a while. Her stuff is always worth hearing, so seek her out. New album coming this fall.
"And Lady GaGa's 'LoveGame' is still No. 5," states this week's Billboardchart action report, and you can almost sense the screen saying "I know, can you believe it?" While GaGa herself reads Billboard's statement and declares that she hasn't lost a step in the bed, America reads it and figures it's true: her best material peaked too early, and now there's no one left to fight off will.i.am's advances. We need a hero.
The problem with today's pop heroes is that they fly too close to earth. They're awesome all of the sudden, but then slam through three or four billboards on the interstate before skidding a few times and coming to a stop in a pile of "Why is THIS on your iPod?" That leaves the veterans -- "Check out the vintage section at this year's Lolla! I got some MCA-green Manic Panic!" -- and Michael Jackson -- "That's a big Sha-MOAN!" -- to grab the summer jam gauntlet. Can they do it? Probably. Vincent Hannah chimes in: "They will walk and you will let them."
Pacino and the screen are probably right. It's tough being a pop fan when's there no new jam to like or even dislike at any great volume. And just like that, Colbie Caillat drifts to a no. 12 debut on this week's chart, her "Falling for You" drifting like a Sunday morning stroll through Boredom Woods. It sure is pretty in here. Wait, which way is out? Hello? Anyone? Michael?
JTL
Each week Johnny Loftus will select a song from your hit parade to explicate, celebrate, or humiliate.
Writing a summary of Rothbury is kind of like explaining the Lord of the Rings trilogy to my 4-year-old daughter. I can give her a broad overview of some of the plot points and make some specific comments about some of the characters, but there's just no way she's going to understand without so much extra exposition that it's pointless to even make the attempt. Not to mention that there's just some stuff you're not going to go into regardless.
That said, let's delve into just a few details that should help set the Rothbury scene:
1. Rothbury is dirty in every way imaginable. (Not to mention literally; showers cost $10.)
2. Everyone is getting fucked up pretty much all the time.
3. I don't know how you could have more fun at a concert -- I never have.
To put that last point in perspective, consider that I am 36 years old and have been to well over 100 big-name touring act shows in the past 23 years since my first (Springsteen). I can't even begin to estimate how many bar shows I've attended in that time. I have seen damn near every classic rock icon, plenty of indie rock, lots of metal shows, and even a handful of legendary jazz artists. So for Rothbury to compare this well to my better-with-age memories of Lollapalooza 2, Clash of the Titans, or some of the old-school Pine Knob shows when nobody cared what you brought in to the show, well, that's saying something.
Holy crap, by the end of this summer, all four of the Donnas will be thirty years old. Time flies. This is the second album they've released since parting ways with Atlantic (WMG), and despite its title, Greatest Hits Vol. 16 contains some new recordings, some b-sides, and some live tracks. Now that they're officially grown-ups, after spending more than half their lives in the band, perhaps it's time to update their schtick. Or is the plan to keep recording the same hard rock album over and over forever like their early inspiration, the Ramones?
Beck has started a new thing on his website called Irrelevant Topics that features "conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction." To kick it off, he offers "Tom Waits x Beck Hansen : Pt. 1," and it's a great read. Talking about songs disappearing over the years:
BH: There's sort of a planned obsolescence or something. That's just part of it.
TW: Yeah and we have every generation making a whole bunch of new ones. Even though the generation before says, "What's wrong with these tunes? We've got plenty of good tunes lying around here. What are you making new songs for? We've got cool songs about everything you're writing about. We've got plenty of songs about girls." "No, no. That's all right, Dad. We're doing something else, something cooler over here. You go ahead." And the dad says, "Do you know Jimmy DURANTE? Have you ever heard of Jimmy Durante?"
Looking forward to Pt. 2, and upcoming interviews.
Wilco has the seventh best selling album of the week, which, when you subtract the three Michael Jackson "catalog" albums ahead of it, places it as #4 on the Billboard 200, selling almost twice as many copies as Off the Wall!
The big news though is the Catalog Chart, which MJ sweeps:
1. Michael Jackson - "Number Ones" - 339,000 (up 215%)
2. Michael Jackson - "Thriller" - 187,000 (up 86%)
3. Michael Jackson - "Essential Michael Jackson" - 125,000 (up 23%)
4. Michael Jackson - "Off the Wall" - 51,000 (up 58%)
5. Michael Jackson - "Dangerous" - 26,000 (up 85%)
6. Michael Jackson - "Bad" - 23,000 (up 33%)
7. Jackson 5 - "Ultimate Collection" - 10,000 (down 44%)
8. Michael Jackson - "Ultimate Collection" - 10,000 (down 10%)
9. Michael Jackson - "Invincible" - 8,000 (up 76%)
10. Michael Jackson - "Vol. 1 - Greatest Hits - History" - 7,000 (down 36%)
Top 10 of the non-catalog albums after the jump...
When I first heard about this movie, I thought it sounded cheesy as shit. But this trailer looks really cool. The documentary "tells the personal stories of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos" and "reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing." Am I being a sucker or might this actually be good?
New video for one of the highlights of last year's Furr. The very literal video ("Her mouth was sewn shut, but her eyes were still wide") has an O Brother, Where Art Thou? vibe, following the actions of the narrator as he travels the country killing people just to watch them die. Yes, the lyrics are composed entirely of well-worn outlaw cliches ("Then I stole me a horse and I rode it around"). It shouldn't work, but it does. And that's the power of a good song: to take dumb lyrics and make them sound awesome.
Check out some "Behind the Scenes" footage after the jump...
Webcasters with significant advertising revenue, like Pandora or Slacker, will pay the greater of 25 percent of revenue or a fee each time a listener hears a song, starting at .08 cent for songs streamed in 2006 and increasing to .14 cent in 2015. Pandora had $19 million in revenue last year and expects that to rise to $40 million this year.
Small sites with less than $1.25 million in revenue, like AccuRadio, Digitally Imported and RadioIO, will pay 12 to 14 percent of it in royalties. All stations will be required to pay an annual minimum fee of $25,000, which they can apply to their royalty payments.
The rates are still higher than what terrestrial radio stations pay. But it looks like internet radio will survive a little longer. Who knows how long? So enjoy it while you can...
• linas on Freebird: That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: I had neighbors who would get stoned, and then yell 'freebird' out the window. We all thought it was funny...
The visceral electricity that had once defined the Mooney Suzuki was painfully absent. Where once there was leather was now covered in pinwheels and orange; the quartet looked like "Hullabaloo" hopefuls dressed by clueless network executives.
In this week's Pay to Slum, JTL yawns through the stagnant singles chart, and checks in on Colbie Caillat at Six Flags.
