VIBE Magazine Out Of Business [Pitchfork]
More Changes in East Side Punk History: Morrison Hotel Leaving CBGB Location [Brooklyn Vegan]
“Question Time”: Jarvis Cocker on Panel for Political TV Show [Pitchfork]
Michael Jackson’s Body for View at Neverland Ranch [NME]
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Making Moves: Deals With Sony, Atlantic [Billboard]
No, It’s Not Another Weird Supergroup: Bob Dylan on Beastie Boys’ Album [NME]
Gang Gang Dance To Tour North America [The Tripwire]
Brooklyn to Jamaica! Slew of Brooklyn Musicians in New Film, “Wah Do Dem” [The Tripwire]
Wavves’ Nathan Williams Talks to Pitchfork About “The Freakout” [Pitchfork]
Beck Announces “Planned Obsolescence,” Another Online Project [Prefix]
compiled by Erin Sheehy
RESONANCE PREVIEW
This Wednesday at Bar Matchless, Hannah Fairchild, Dustin Edge, Accidental Seabirds, and Natureboy (pictured) perform at Resonance, for FREE.
Hannah Fairchild and her soft, melodically crafted songs will get the evening started, followed by Dustin Edge’s rock-inspired, high energy acoustic compositions. After Dustin, Accidental Seabirds returns to Resonance with a full band, promising to deliver energetic and dynamic renditions of lead singer Jesse Lee’s exceptional songs. Lee stays on the acoustic as accompanying drums, bass, electric guitar and saxophone expand sonic horizons and create a solid launching pad for the singer’s striking vocals. Closing the night is Natureboy, the atmospheric, often minimalist, electric guitar driven songs of guitarist and vocalist, Sara Kermanshahi. Kermanshahi’s voice is gripping and haunting, and her songs simultaneously soothing and invigorating (listen to “Heart to Fool”).
For show details, click HERE.
Dan D’Ippolito
June 29, 2009
In Memory of Michael Jackson
A Memory of Michael by Chris Kiehne
Last Words on Michael Jackson by Brook Pridemore
LeChan is Not My Son by Frederica Bepler
Michael Jackson’s Music Videos by Justin Remer
Moonwalker by Erin Sheehy
Thank You For Your Goodness by Genette Nowak
The Mozart of Our Time by Chris Arp
The Five Stages of a Tweeter’s Grief by Ashby Hardesty
Never Can Say Goodbye by Josh Kurp
Janet Jackson and Michael’s Brothers May Do Tribute Tour [Billboard]
Historic Lower East Side Punk Collective “ABC No Rio” Gets a Ton of Government Money! Wait…Isn’t That Not Punk? [NYTimes]
Erykah Badu and the Roots Lay Down Quick Cover of Jackson’s “I Wanna Be Where You Are”; Stream It! [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Jay Z Debuts Official “Death of Auto-Tune” Video; Co-Starring LeBron James and Harvey Keitel Getting Hova-ed [Spin]
Pixies To Play All of Seminal Album Doolittle on Tour…Pixies Fans “Gone to Heaven” [NME]
Springsteen Opens With Clash’s “London Calling” At Glastonbury Festival [NME]
Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon to Release Between My Head and the Sky as Plastic Ono Band [Pitchfork]
Slayer Announces Typically-Bad-Ass-Named Album World Painted Blood [Billboard]
MGMT and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O Guest on Flaming Lips’ Upcoming Embryonic [Pitchfork]
Stream Scotland’s Twlight Sad’s New Single “I Became a Prostitute” [MySpace]
Neil Young and Paul McCartney Play Sgt. Pepper’s “A Day in the Life” at Glastonbury [The Tripwire]
San Francisco’s Recently In the Tube-d Girls Sign to Matador [Tiny Mix Tapes]
compiled by Max Sebela
My Teenage Stride is not just another pop band. For one, they’re not from Sweden, which, as of late, is an oddity. If only they were from DC; that city hasn’t heard pop in years. Alas, they reside in Brooklyn. And just as many of the current crop of pop purveyors have found success in the Scandinavian hook-filled fortress of Sweden, they have staked out a position for themselves in the local pop scene stateside.
Existing in name since 2003, My Teenage Stride is built around a working unit of songwriter Jedediah Smith. Since then, they have played consistently around New York, with occasional stints on the West Coast and in the South. They were also part of both NYC’s (this year’s at Cake Shop and 2008’s at Music Hall of Williamsburg) and San Francisco’s Popfest, and have played shows with bands like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Palomar. It’s their song writing skills, however, that send listeners reeling well after they leave the dance floor. Take, for instance, “Theme From Teenage Suicide”, their faux theme song, which would be the perfect soundtrack to gothic versions of Can’t Hardly Wait or 10 Things I Hate About You; it’s what happens at a high school dance party gone wrong, in that great sardonic twist of fate when the anti-hero realizes he’s gone too far. Other songs draw from lighthearted fictional situations.
Despite lineup changes over the past years (they were now just a duo, Smith and drummer Brett Whitmoyer, are now a foursome sans Whitmoyer), and the always competitive, and often debilitating, band environment in New York, My Teenage Stride continues to put out quality music that has always been appreciated by their supporters. They seem poised to soon gain a lot of new ones.
Look for their digital EP Lesser Demons featuring “Theme from Teenage Suicide” on iTunes.
by Gordon Sharp
IN THE TUBE
Hipsters get a lot of shit. In Brooklyn, they are accused of ruining shows, neighborhoods, culture, art, music, fashion – anything. The anti-hipster ethos runs deeper as the music scene gets trendier and trendier, galleries and coffee shops open where small businesses once thrived, and every bar offers a can of PBR and a shot of well whiskey as a Happy Hour special.
What does the hipster stand for? Nothing. The stereotype is artistic apathy; style removed from substance. Moustaches grow long, turning from ironic-chique, to post-ironic chique, to genuinely “in.” V-necks grow deeper and deeper, till barely an inch of fabric binds the shirt at the bottom. Sure, they listen to music, but with bored, expressionless faces, cross-armed, slacking, and an occasional exaggerated closed-eyed sway. They are inactive, a generation of politics-less, issue-tired, sleepy-eyed nothings. New York (or LA, Chicago, San Francisco, whatever) dies, and it’s their fault. At least, this is the stereotype.
San Francisco’s Girls, mindful of it or not, offers a counterpoint to all this in their recent video for the blog-adored single “Hellhole Ratrace.” Here, we are given familiar hipster party fare: wine from the bottle, brown bagged 40s of malt liquor, artfully slopped apartments, and, of course, PBR. And yet, the entire thing is so celebratory. These kids look genuinely in love with each other. They carelessly kiss, smile, drink, dance, and laugh in the way we’ve expected of youth since Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused. Wandering aimlessly from party to diner to convenience store, unmindful of anything but each other, and the fun that’s bound to come along wherever. For most of the song, the line repeats: “I don’t want to die without shaking up a thing or two/ Yeah, I want to do some dancing too/ So come on, come on, come on, dance with me.” It’s a simple sentiment; working is hard, life moves fast, spend it enjoying yourself.
More on Girls | “Hellhole Ratrace”
Weekly Review
Unless you have been living in a bunker since Thursday morning, you don’t need me to tell you what the topic of this review will be.
I signed onto Gmail Thursday, at around 5:15, to receive five almost-simultaneous chats. “Did you hear about MJ??” “Dude, Michael just croaked.” “Oh my god, Michael Jackson is dead.” “Should I believe this news? Is it just a hoax?” “Thriller is no more. Start writing.” Just 45 minutes or so after he had been rushed to a Los Angeles hospital and I was already the last to know.
Jackson’s death was sudden, shocking, bizarre. It was hard, at first, to believe because nothing had indicated that we should. The news on Jackson as of late – the training sessions, the comeback tour – had us expecting his revival, not his demise. But after a life and career filled with so many sudden, shocking, and bizarre behaviors, why should his death have been any different?
If the happenings in New York today are any indication, as the dissemination of news and information has quickened (demonstrated spectacularly by the speed with which news of Jackson’s death spread), so too has the mourning process. It seems to have taken only seconds for the world to go from denial to anger to grief to acceptance, and finally, for some, to celebration. The number of concerts, tributes, and parties that have already been organized is astounding. Sitting in my borrowed apartment, I must have heard at least ten different Jackson songs blaring from speakers on the floats that were part of today’s Gay Pride parade. The event is always a joyous one, but the fervor, the energy, the shouts, of the crowd were never as strong as when Michael was singing.
And I think that would make him happy. Jackson’s life was mired in controversy – the impetuous spending, the strange relationships with children, the multiple plastic surgeries – and there were many who, at times, despised him for his behaviors. But, from what I gather anyway, he is being remembered positively, for his contributions and his accomplishments, not for his offenses.
And so, we will look back on the week that just passed, as the one that marked the end of a music era. There were, of course, other newsworthy happenings, but none that made their way into the collective conscience quite like this one. And it will likely be some time before anything else will.
Stay tuned for the rememberances and reactions of some of our regular, and not-so-regular, writers tomorrow. For now, though you have probably already seen it nine times this weekend, I leave you with that famous clip:
by Elana Jacobs
VIRTUAL JUNGLE
Last October, Congress fulfilled Pandora founder Tim Westergren’s wish by passing the Webcaster Settlement Act. The bill gave Internet radio providers the opportunity to negotiate lower royalty rates with SoundExchange, a royalty-collecting branch of the RIAA, which had intended to double rates by 2010.
Now, after nine months of talks, many webcasters still have not reached an agreement with SoundExchange even though negotiation time is running out. Therefore, Congress has opted to give webcasters more time to find a proper royalty rate. Without the bill’s update, webcasters could face potentially bankrupting royalty rates. Once the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 is signed by President Obama, it will give webcasters an additional 30 days to negotiate reasonable royalty rates through 2010.
Affected webcasters include non-NPR noncommercial webcasters, religious webcasters, small “Pure Play” webcasters, and large webcasters associated with Digital Media Association. Digital Media Association represents Internet radio stations such as Pandora, Slacker, and Live365.com.
Jonathan Potter, Executive Director of the Digital Media Association, issued a statement following the Senate’s approval that commended Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Sam Brownback “for quickly pushing this bill through the Senate and on to President Obama’s desk for his signature.”
Potter also said, “Hopefully, as Congress continues to focus more broadly on sound recording performance rights legislation, more comprehensive legislation will soon level the regulatory playing field for all forms of digital radio.” Webcasters hope to reach royalty agreements similar to those of satellite and cable radio.
by Ben Benson
