UK anti-piracy bill passed by upper chamber; bill might be rushed through to avoid scrutiny
Yesterday, March 16, the British Parliament's Upper Chamber passed an anti-piracy bill. Known as the Digital Economy Bill, the legislation imposes a three-strikes system on online pirates with possible suspension of internet access for persistent offenders. The House of Lords (kind of like the Senate, except members get appointed rather than elected) managed to scrap an unpopular clause in the bill that would have given "government ministers wide-ranging powers to amend copyright law to deal with any future piracy threat from new technology."
The bill will now go to the House of Commons (the actual elected bit!) for their final consideration. However, the government is considering whether to introduce a clause that "could result in Web sites with any copyright-infringing material being blocked." This drew howls of protest from Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.
The problem for the British government is that it only has a few weeks before it will need to call a general election. During this time, Parliament is dissolved and any bills that are going through Parliament are abolished. Consequently, the government is desperate to get its Digital Economy Bill enacted before it has to call the election. This means it is considering ways of avoiding as much parliamentary (read: democratic) scrutiny as possible to get the pirate-bashing bill through. Sigh.
Michael Jackson, former Simpsons voice actor, lands $250 million recording deal
Michael Jackson, best known as the voice of Leon Kompowski on TV's The Simpsons, has finally parlayed his limited success as a voice actor into a full-blown relationship with the American Recording Industry. According to his estate, the recently deceased Jackson also dabbled in music from time to time, recording what he himself often referred to as "hypnogogic pop" songs straight to VHS tape (VHS tape being the most hi-fi technology available at the time) in his home studio just outside of Tecumseh, Oklahoma. Luckily for Jackson and his family, this strain of hazy-sounding glo-fi pop-rock has just come into fashion, allowing the actor's family to score an unprecedented contract with Sony Music Entertainment potentially worth up to $250 million, the biggest recording deal in history! (Not bad for a man who had to turn to brick-laying in the late 90s after a fizzled voice-over career and disastrous first marriage to Annie Wood, host of the wildly popular TV game show Bzzz!.)
The record-setting recording deal stipulates that ten projects based around Jackson's washed-out, beach-party tracks will be released over the next seven years. The two-cassette album that accompanied his early independent film foray This Is It is the first of the ten, and various business moguls and industry insiders that I most assuredly interviewed for this story have speculated that the other nine projects may include an album of never-before-released Jackson recordings (to come out November 2010), a DVD compilation of his homemade music videos, and even a re-release of his first-ever scripted acting gig, 1979’s Off The Wall, a low-budget buddy comedy that co-starred Charles Nelson Reilly. Sony has even been granted access to Jackson’s entire back catalog, which means we could be hearing many of his soon-to-be-classic songs in movies, TV commercials, TubroGraphx-16 video games, ice-dancing routines, and more! Wow. Only in America, people. Only in America...
• Michael Jackson: http://www.michaeljackson.com
Talibam! tour Europe... maybe
The avant-jazz spazzers known as Talibam! are getting way outta control. On top of this so-called European tour I'm informing you of, the band has a whole slew of upcoming cross-continental tours and releases. So much in fact, that I'm not quite sure what is factual and what is not. Seriously, according to the band, they have somewhere around a dozen releases scheduled for production within the next few months, about four European tours, some sort of multimedia theatrical holiday event titled Talibam's Holiday Spectacular, and a whole mish-mosh of random nuggets of randomness. According to the band:
RELEASES 2010: The Peeesseye and Talibam! collaborative album has been released on Invada records from Bristol England (CD) and on Smeraldina-Rima (2xLP with gatefold). A Talibam! 7" vinyl with 2 pumpin' hot singles will soon be available. A Talibam! / NE TRAVAILLEZ JAMAIS split 7" vinyl will soon be available from a diy label in the south of Italy called Musica per ORgani Cald. We are also working on a multi-media holiday theatrical event entitled Talibam!'s Holiday Spectacular, a reggae album in collaberation with multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Wilms entitled "The Sanifarian Equipage", a collaborative album with trombonist Sam Kulik entitled "Talibam! Goes To Bed With Sam Kulik And Wakes Up And Discovers Atlantis", a collaborative album with woodwinder Jon Irabagon entitled "Talibam! Hard Vibe Trio", a rap album entitled "Puff Up The Volume", a collaborative record of unknown content entitled "Spermarang", a country album, a duo album about zombie's entitled "Corpse Riot", a collaborative space-cake album entitled "Oops, I Took Peyote...", and many other gems.
Yeah... so regardless of all that, here's what I'm fairly certain is actually taking place:
The band will be touring Europe this month (March).
03.17.10 - Berne, Switzerland - Dampfzentrale w/ Shining
03.18.10 - Dornbirn, Austria - TIK
03.19.10 - Linz, Austria - Pkapu
03.20.10 - Freising, Germany - Lindenkeller w/ Attwenger
03.21.10 - Vienna, Austria - Rhiz
03.22.10 - TBA
03.24.10 - Dresden, Germany - Groove Station w/ Don Vito
03.25.10 - Poznan, Poland - Dragon
03.26.10 - Warsaw, Poland - Powiekszenie
03.27.10 - Krakow, Poland - PRE
03.28.10 - Wroclaw, Poland - OPT
• Talibam!: http://www.myspace.com/talibam
[Photo: Aurelio Laloni]
Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music comes back to vinyl to annoy a whole new generation of fans
Metal Machine Music is a truly interesting listen and, of course, a record with its fare share of controversy. Some people love it and credit it as the earliest roots of noise rock and industrial, while some people hate it and count it as the one, albeit massive, blemish on Lou Reed's musical career. However, a record like Metal Machine Music surely merits at least one listen so that the variety of opinions can be understood fully. And you might as well listen to it if you ever want to hear the majesty of "feedback forever."
Love it or hate it, Metal Machine Music is coming back to vinyl (and audio DVD and Blu-ray). The remastered album, which is actually the finally-back-in-print quadrophonic vinyl edition (which is just mumbo-jumbo to let you know that it sounds real fucking good) is set for release on April 19 (in the UK) but is available for purchase on Lou's personal website.
Oh! I almost forgot, if you live in Europe you can watch Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio throughout next month.
• Lou Reed: http://www.loureed.com
Björk and Michel Gondry collaborate on "scientific musical" (just what the world needs: another "scientific musical")
What happens when two incredible artists come together? Björk and Lars von Trier made Dancer in the Dark; Lars von Trier and Charlotte Gainsbourg made Antichrist; Charlotte Gainsbourg and Michel Gondry made The Science of Sleep; and Michel Gondry and Björk made over half a dozen amazing music videos. This latter collaboration is still apparently going too, as in a recent interview by The Playlist during SXSW, Gondry dropped a few details about a super-secret film project with Björk.
Michel Gondry seems to be spreading himself thin these days, between promotion for A Thorn in the Heart (debuting in early April in NY), post-production for The Green Hornet, work on the animated film Megalomania, development of Return of the Ice Kids, and hopefully imminent preparation for The We & the I... it's exhausting to keep up. This new collaboration with Björk is no less impressive than his ass-kicking list. "A sort of scientific musical," Gondry described it. "[It's a movie], but maybe more for museums. Like a 40 minute IMAX project in 3D."
According to Pitchfork, Björk's publicist could not officially confirm the venture, but the collaboration was also mentioned way back in February. Plus, the idea sounds just crazy enough to work... after all, The Knife's Darwin-inspired opera turned out all right.
James Blackshaw is releasing a new album this summer, and it is called All Is Falling
James Blackshaw, the 12-string guitar GOD, will have a new record out this June/July. Titled All Is Falling, the LP will be one long piece with eight movements. It'll be out on Young God. To help make the album, Blackshaw has enlisted Charlotte Glasson on violin and flute, Fran Bury on vocals, and Daniel Madav on the cello.
This is clearly the best news of the year. Forget all of those sanctimonious websites who told you Merriweather Post Pavilion was the best record of 2009. It was actually Blackshaw's The Glass Bead Game (TMT Review), which failed to even get into the top 50 of those same smug websites' 2009 year-end lists. The bastards!
Blackshaw is touring during March and May:
03.26.10 - London, UK - Cafe Oto
05.07.10 - Minehead, UK - All Tomorrow's Parties
05.10.10 - London, UK - The Barbican
05.12.10 - Cambridge, UK - The Junction
05.13.10 - Bristol, UK - St George's
05.14.10 - Oxford, UK - Holywell Music Room
05.15.10 - Manchester, UK - Band on the Wall
05.16.10 - Edinburgh, UK - Roxy Art House
• James Blackshaw: http://www.myspace.com/jamesblackshaw
• Young God: http://younggodrecords.com
Earth bring Karl Blau on tour, try out new material on West Coast tour with Wolves in the Throne Room
Earth, the drone-metal experimenters that presumably all of us at TMT love, have announced a week-and-a-half-long jaunt around the West Coast with labelmates Wolves in the Throne Room. The series of concerts will be opened by instrumental cellist Lori Goldston, who will actually perform again once Earth hits the stage. What's more, Earth have tapped the ever incorrigible Karl Blau (D+, The Microphones, Kelp!, etc.) to play bass with them. Blau will even get to reunite with lover-in-crime Phil Elverum at the group's final date in Olympia. Cute!
Speaking of cute, the tour will provide a chance for Earth to test new material that they've been finalizing for their full-length follow-up to 2008's adorable The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull (TMT Review). If all goes to plan, the new album will be "released on Southern Lord Recordings by early 2011" and may very well have a couple tracks that drone on and on and on for 20 minutes.
If you're curious, then you should know that Earth's lineup for the shows will be as follows:
Dylan Carlson - Guitar
Adrienne Davies - Drums
Karl Blau - Bass
Lori Goldston - Cello
Wow! I didn't know that Dylan Carlson was still playing with Earth! ...
TOURDATES!
04.14.10 - Eugene, OR - The Oak Street Speakeasy
04.15.10 - Eureka, CA - Noctrum
04.16.10 - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
04.16.10 - Santa Cruz, CA - Brookdale Lodge
04.17.10 - San Diego,CA - Ché Café
04.19.10 - Los Angeles, CA - The EchoPlex
04.22.10 - Portland, OR - Rotture
04.23.10 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
04.24.10 - Olympia, WA - Capital Theatre *
* Mount Eerie and Ô Paon
• Earth: http://www.myspace.com/earthofficial
• Wolves in the Throne Room: http://www.wittr.com
• Southern Lord: http://www.southernlord.com
Carpark Records signs Light Pollution, presumably in fear that all the good unsigned bands will be scooped post-SXSW
SXSW has become somewhat of a staple event for people who want to get signed (but most often end up coming home empty-handed). Labels know this too, so they'll either scout SXSW or snatch them up beforehand so they can show off their brand new signee to the industry fest that is SXSW. Case in point: Chicago's Light Pollution, who have recently signed to Carpark Records (home to Dan Deacon, Beach House, Toro Y Moi, and a bunch of other artists) just in time for SXSW. The group's debut full-length album, Apparitions, is due June 15 and will include "swirling analog synths, shimmering arpeggios, and washed out tape noiseembedded into combinations of 90's shoegaze, chillwave, and vocal psych-pop." You can check out what that sounds like at the Chocolate Grinder.
The group is currently on tour, and what do you know, they're playing a bunch of shows at SXSW, including one in which they'll join up with fellow Carpark artists for the SXSW Carpark/Paw Tracks showcase. Here are the dates:
03.16.10 - Denton, TX JnJ's
03.17.10 - SXSW No Words / Day Bow Bow @ Ghost Room
03.18.10 - SXSW Hype Machine's Lose Control @ Vice
03.18.10 - SXSW Two Syllable Acoustic Show @ Hideout Cafe
03.18.10 - SXSW Carpark / Paw Tracks @ Wave
03.19.10 - SXSW @ Justine's
03.19.10 - SXSW Consequence of Sound @ Republic Live
03.20.10 - SXSW In-store @ End of an Ear Records
03.20.10 - SXSW Fast Folks @ The Gas Pipe Smoke Shop
03.21.10 - Wichita, KS Rock Island Live
03.22.10 - Springfield, MO The Outland Ballroom
03.23.10 - Columbia, MO Mojo's
03.24.10 - St. Louis, MO Off Broadway
03.25.10 - Indianapolis, IN Local's Only (MOKB & Scion event, free show!)
03.26.10 - Chicago, IL Mopery Loft
03.31.10 - Columbus, Ohio Wexner Center &
04.01.10 - Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge *
04.08.10 - Minneapolis, MN Hexagon Bar
04.09.10 - Northfield, MN The Cave @ Carlton College
04.17.10 - Bloomington, IN WIUX Culture Shock #
04.26 - Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda's
04.28.10 - Washington, DC Black Cat Backstage !
04.30.10 - Brooklyn, NY Glasslands $
# Best Coast
% Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
& Deerhunter
* Woodhands
! Willowz
$ Memoryhouse
• Light Pollution: http://myspace.com/lightpollution
• Carpark: http://www.carparkrecords.com
[Photo: Coach House Sounds]
RIP: Lesley Duncan, singer/songwriter and Elton John/Pink Floyd collaborator
From NME:
Singer/songwriter and Elton John and Pink Floyd collaborator Lesley Duncan has died aged 66.
Duncan passed away on Friday (March 12) aged 66 after suffering from cerebrovascular disease.
As well as carving out her own career in the mid-'60s following a move from her native Stockton-On-Tees to London, Duncan performed vocals on Elton John's album 'Madman Across The Water', Pink Floyd's 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' and Ringo Starr's 'Goodnight Vienna'.
• Lesley Duncan: http://www.lesleyduncan.net
• Lesley Duncan (Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesley_Duncan
Woods to release new album At Echo Lake, neither of which are actually found in Brooklyn
Woodsist is dropping records like mad lately, and on May 11 its flagship band/founding members Woods are joining in by releasing their fifth studio album. Titled At Echo Lake, Woods expands on the already-expanded roster of last year's Songs of Shame (TMT Review) to flesh out a "diamond-sharp distillation of the turbulent power of their live shows."
Gonna' make you privvy to the tracklist here:
01. Blood Dries Darker
02. Pick Up
03. Suffering Season
04. Time Fading Lines
05. From the Horn
06. Death Rattles
07. Mornin' Time
08. I Was Gone
09. Get Back
10. Deep
11. Til the Sun Rips
Say... do you like MP3s? Here's a little ditty you might enjoy: "I Was Gone," which is also available on a newly released 7-inch of the same name.
Hey! They're also on tour. Most likely because of that little event in Texas.
03.16.10 - Lawrence, KS - Jackpot Music Hall ^
03.19.10 - Austin, TX - French Legation Museum (Other Music SXSW)
03.19.10 - Austin, TX - Cheer Up Charlie's a.k.a. Ms. Bea's (SXSW)
03.20.10 - Austin, TX - Red 7 (Woodsist Showcase SXSW)
03.22.10 - Nashville, TN - The End ^
03.23.10 - Bloomington, IN - The Bishop ^
03.24.10 - Cleveland, OH - The Spot at Case Western ^
03.25.10 - Pittsburgh, PA - University of Pittsburgh ^
03.26.10 - Haverford, PA - Haverford College ^
03.27.10 - Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel ^
03.28.10 - Durham, NC - Duke Coffeehouse ^
05.13.10 - New York, NY - Abrons Art Center / Joshua Light Festival *
^ Real Estate
# Happy Birthday and Wild Nothing
* MV + EE
• Woods: http://www.myspace.com/woodsfamilyband
• Woodsist: http://www.woodsist.com
![<p>Zola Jesus</p> - <p>Stridulum [EP]</p>](http://www.tinymixtapes.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/Album_Review_Content_Page_Art/zola_jesus-stridulum.jpg)
