Bryan Ferry’s Handsomeness Pulls Jonny Greenwood and Flea into Its Orbit and Compels Them to Appear on Its Upcoming Record

By Jon Lorenz on Dec 8 2009

Many singer-songwriters go through different stages throughout their careers due to mood changes or focus shifts: Daniel Johnston stopped writing songs about Laura; Bill Callahan changed his voice, changed his name, and changed his name again; and Cat Power (as well as the previous mentioned artists) got slicker recordings, slicker backup musicians, and started heading away from her sad and lonely songs. As a fan of the earlier, lonelier, lo-fi recordings from all three of these artists, I am a wee bit happy to announce that Chan Marshall is sad again.

Chan Marshall recently told the Courier-Mail that she has been working on a new record and said, "It's just me this time... I don't know if I should push all these [new] songs away and actually try to write and record it with the band. I don't know what to do. But I'm at a point where my heart tells me, ‘Chan, you haven't played piano or guitar for four or five years,’ and I do have guilt about that. People ask me, ‘When are you going to play by yourself?’ I have problems with strange yearnings and guilt." Elsewhere, she said, "I'm also frightened because some of them are sad again and I feel really nervous about that."

I say bring on the sadness!! Let it all out, Chan!!

At the end of the year, Cat Power will be heading over to Australia to do a short tour. Maybe she'll try and do the solo thing again and see how that goes. Here ya go, Australian fans:
12.30.09 - Phillip Island, Australia - Pyramid Rock Festival
12.31.09 - Brisbane, Australia - Powerhouse
01.02.10 - Gold Coast, Australia - Coolangatta Hotel
01.05.10 - Adelaide, Australia - Governor Hindmarsh Hotel
01.06.10 - Perth, Australia - The Astor Theatre
01.08.10 - Wollongong, Australia - Waves
01.09.10 - Newcastle, Australia - Panthers
01.10.10 - Sydney, Australia - Days Like This Festival

By Nat Towsen on Dec 7 2009

Apple Inc., a 33-year-old computer software and consumer electronics corporation, has agreed to purchase Lala, a four-year old music-distribution start-up. Presently, Lala offers a service that allows users to either download a song, or pay a small fraction of the download price to stream the song an unlimited number of times. Users can also upload their preexisting music collection to Lala's server to later stream from any device with an internet connection. Although Lala's user base seems to be satisfied with the service, the company has failed to achieve mainstream success, leaving their financial prospects in a dubious state.

Apple Inc., whose success in recent years has been defined by their paired domination of the digital music distribution and digital music player markets, is obviously monitoring the success of mobile music streaming services like Pandora for iPhone. Cloud computing, while an alarmingly accurate fulfillment of the dystopian fictions of our upbringings, seems to be the direction in which media-access is developing. A major fear about cloud-based storage, that data could be lost should the host go bankrupt, would be easily abetted by the financial stability and public reputation of a corporation like Apple.

The success of the iPod over the numerous challengers that have sprung up throughout the years has been largely dependent on its exclusive compatibility with iTunes. Now, facing serious competition in the mobile device market from Android-based phones, especially the new Droid, Apple might be looking for a new, innovative music service to pair exclusively with the iPhone. While the buyout does not allow Apple to acquire Lala's streaming licenses, it does allow them to acquire a team of engineers with several years experience with cloud-based music streaming, jump-starting the process toward a new service.

In late October, Google announced that it would partner with Lala and iLike to create a Google Search-based online music service. With Apple and Google butting heads of late, it would seem that Lala's involvement in the project is likely to be quickly phased out. Of course, this does raise an interesting question: Did Apple buy the ambling startup as a tactical attempt to prevent Google from taking a lead in the music distribution market? Did Apple rescue Lala just to watch it die? And, once Lala was dead, would all of the other Teletubbies demand to watch it die again? (That's the joke from the headline!)