…and, hello, Chauffeur, I’m looking in your direction…you’ll have a major laugh over this clip, where two old blokes you may or may not recognize by their faces (though you’ll certainly recognize their songs) see which of them can make the most money while playing their hits as they busk on a street corner in London.
Category: Alternative (Page 142 of 155)
File under ‘strange but true’: Johnny Marr has officially joined Modest Mouse.
Seems an odd fit, at best…but at least the members of Modest Mouse acknowledge how ridiculously blessed they are to have landed the famed former Smiths guitarist:
In an interview with “Rolling Stone,” Brock said Marr “made a cautious commitment to write and record with us, and then the tighter we got, he was like ‘OK, let’s tour too.'”
Modest Mouse, with newby Marr, will tour in support of their forthcoming album, “We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank,” which Marr helped write and record.
Brock told “Rolling Stone” that after the decision to have Marr tour with the Modest Mouse, “he was pretty much a member of the band—not pretty much. He’s a full blown member of the band. It’s really fuckin’ nice.”
Really fuckin’ nice. Still somewhat of an understatement (particularly since the phrase “lucky bastards” appears nowhere in that sentence)…but it’s a start.
Relating to the Spotlight Kid’s fine posting below, one should also be aware of a highly disturbing article which appeared on the always-fair-and-balanced Fox News website last week about the album. What’s worse is that there’s nothing in it that really surprises me…
Record Biz Crisis: Top 20 Misses 750K
By Roger Friedman
The top 20 pop albums sold fewer than a total of 750,000 CDs last week.
You read that correctly. The actual total was 738,211. The number includes 220,000 copies of a greatest hits singles collection from all the labels, “Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 22.” Without “Now 22,” regular releases came in around 500,000 copies.
This is a crisis that no one acknowledges in the record business. But consider that recently dismissed Sony execs Donnie Ienner and Michelle Anthony were making $2 million a year, and that their income is typical of upper echelon management in any record company. If the half million CD sold at full price — $15 — then they didn’t even pay for a small part of one salary.
Consider also the execs at radio conglomerates, who have tightened playlists so that few new records are played unless — as identified by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s findings — stations receive free trips, gadgets and other gifts as inducements. You might wonder how any of the companies on either side can afford to stay in business.
Consider that last Tuesday, “Now 22” was not the only new release. Sony/Epic issued a new CD by writer-producer Butch Walker, a performer whom this column has extolled over and over. Not only did no one from the company bother to send it here, this reporter only learned about it by accident — yesterday. Walker, who should have a following from his extensive touring — he produces and opens for Avril Lavigne. But he’s been ignored by his label and radio. What’s he supposed to do? The CD sold fewer than 15,535 copies — the minimum it would have taken to hit the top 50. And here’s an amazing statistic: four songs from the new album have been played a total of 200,000 times on Walker’s MySpace page. I doubt this is the work of one person who clicked the links that many times. Some group of people is interested in Butch Walker. They’re just not a group that his label or radio stations are interested in, apparently. If they were, there would be more of an investment in Walker’s career — and other countless talented artists like him — by the record companies. Instead, the record stores are empty, and customers are drifting toward other entertainment.
There isn’t a lot to look forward to right away in terms of new releases: Rapper DMX has a new album on Aug. 1, but his last one was three years ago. Rocker Tom Petty’s waited four years to put his new CD, and the last one wasn’t exactly a bestseller with fewer than 350,000 copies sold.
Yesterday’s crop of new releases has only one promising title, by Los Lonely Boys, whose previous album sold 2 million copies. All eyes will be on them to see if they can beat their last first week sales record: 4,000 copies. That shouldn’t be too hard. Or Music, a satellite label from Epic, sticks with their artists the way most labels do not.
…and Rivers gotta get the hell outta Weezer.
Okay, it’s not like he’s making a mad dash for the exit or anything, but in an interview with MTV, River Cuomo – the frontman and songwriter behind Weezer – said there’s been no discussion about the band returning to the studio “Really, for the moment, we are done,” he said. “And I’m not certain we’ll ever make a record again, unless it becomes really obvious to me that we need to do one.”
Perhaps it’s for the best. 2005’s Make Believe was alright – in particular, “This Is Such A Pity” made my list of Best Songs of the Year – but it was ultimately underwhelming and in no way the stick-to-your-ribs kind of tastiness the band provided with their self-titled “Green” and “Blue” albums. A rest might do Cuomo’s songwriting some good.
Ian Curtis, lead singer of seminal British band Joy Division, hung himself on the eve of the band’s first American tour, and, as history records, his bandmates went on to form New Order and live happily ever after (even if poor old Ian didn’t).
Now, however, the life of Curtis is coming to the silver screen – entitled “Control” – and what better person to create a dark mood than famed photographer / Depeche Mode video director Anton Corbijn? (Indeed, he’s the photographer of the above shot.) “If I only ever make one movie,” said Corbijn in a press release, “‘Control’ would have to be that. I simply feel that as Joy Division and Ian Curtis played a big part in my life, I cannot think of a better combination of subject and director.”
The film is based upon and expands on the 1995 book Touching From a Distance written by Curtis’ widow, Deborah, as a personal account of her life with the singer; she serves as a co-producer on the film as well, along with Factory Records founder Tony Wilson. Matt Greenhalgh wrote the script for “Control,” talking to those closest to Curtis, including Honore, who previously remained silent on her relationship with him. Ian will be played by Sam Riley, who has some experience playing alternative rock legends; he portrayed Fall frontman Mark E. Smith in “24 Hour Party People.”
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