OK Go leaves EMI in a YouTube announcement, completes transition to band 2.0

By Mike McHugh on

OK Go leaves EMI in a YouTube announcement, completes transition to band 2.0

Over the last few years, OK Go have found more success as a YouTube sensation than as an actual band. And all the while, longtime label EMI has provided little help in forging the band’s brave new multimedia world. As singer Damian Kulash recently wrote in a New York Times op-ed, EMI attempted to increase its streaming royalties from YouTube by preventing users from embedding the label’s videos on other websites. Kulash claims the policy has hamstrung the viralability of the band’s latest opus “This Too Shall Pass” and subsequently hindered CD and digital sales.

As a result, OK Go have parted ways with EMI and will release all future material, including a re-release of their new album Of the Color of Blue Sky, on their own Paracadute Recordings label. True to form, Kulash announced the split via YouTube and thanked EMI for their years of service to the band. But one would imagine EMI needs more than gracious goodbyes to console themselves after the recent rash of bad news the label has faced.

Meanwhile, between starting a new label and constructing a gargantuan Rube Goldberg machine, OK Go also found the time to schedule a two-month tour starting in April. Feel free to check it out if, you know, watching bands outside of the internet is your thing.

04.13.10 - Salt Lake City, UT - The State Room
04.14.10 - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
04.16.10 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
04.17.10 - Chicago, IL - Metro
04.18.10 - St. Louis, MO - The Old Rock House
04.20.10 - Columbia, MO - Blue Note
04.21.10 - Indianapolis, IN - Earth House
04.22.10 - Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
04.23.10 - Toronto, Ontario - Mod Club
04.25.10 - Ithaca, NY - The Haunt
04.27.10 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
04.28.10 - New Haven, CT - Toad’s Place
04.30.10 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
05.02.10 - East Rutherford, NJ - Bamboozle
05.05.10 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
05.07.10 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
05.09.10 - Baltimore, MD - Ram’s Head Live
05.11.10 - Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theater
05.12.10 - Charlotte, NC - Visulite Theater
05.13.10 - Atlanta, GA - The Loft
05.14.10 - Tampa, FL - Crowbar
05.15.10 - Orlando, FL - Firestone Live
05.16.10 - Gulf Shores, AL - Hangout Festival
05.18.10 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
05.19.10 - Austin, TX - The Parish
05.21.10 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda
05.22.10 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
05.28.10 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre
05.29.10 - Quincy, WA - Sasquatch! Festival
06.11.10 - Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Festival

• OK Go: http://www.okgo.net

New! Neu! Now! Official release date set for Neu! vinyl box set

By Erika H on Mar 12 2010

It’s an old story. In 1971, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger broke from Kraftwerk and formed Neu!. In 2009, Kraftwerk released the long-awaited Catalogue box set (TMT report). And now on May 10, in keeping with the tradition of showing up Ralf Hütter, Neu! will release a vinyl box set of their own from Grönland Records.

So what’s in the box, Brad Pitt asks? No head involved (Paltrow’s or anyone else’s), just Neu!’s three studio albums (Neu! [1972], Neu! 2 [1973], Neu! ‘75), plus Neu! ‘86 and Neu ‘72. Previously unreleased, Neu! ‘86 includes recordings from 1985 and 1986 that were originally circulated as Neu! 4 by the late Klaus Dinger. This new version has been reworked by Michael Rother and freshened up by the addition of some of the duo’s newer studio recordings. Neu! ‘72 — also without official prior release — is an 18-minute live maxi-single (the ‘72 Live! in Düsseldorf album was another illegally released album courtesy of Dinger — via the Japanese label Captain Trip — in the mid-90s, further pissing Rother off).

In addition to the requisite vinyl, the box contains a sizable book (36 pages) with band photos by Anton Corbijn and Peter Lindbergh, a Neu! T-shirt, a Neu! logo stencil, and a download code for the whole set.

Huzzah for krautrock!

• Grönland Records: http://www.groenland.com

RIP: Johnny Alf, “Father of Bossa Nova”

By Shane Mack on Mar 12 2010

From The New York Times:

Johnny Alf, an influential Brazilian songwriter, pianist and singer whose delicately swinging music was a precursor to the bossa nova, died on March 4 in Santo André, Brazil, just outside São Paulo. He was 80 and lived in São Paulo.

The cause was prostate cancer, said his manager, Nelson Valencia.

Though he was not widely known outside Brazil and enjoyed mass popularity only intermittently in his homeland, Mr. Alf, born Alfredo José da Silva, is highly regarded among Brazilian musicians and musicologists. The writer Ruy Castro, the author of several authoritative books on Brazilian popular music, has called him “the true father of the bossa nova.”

Mr. Alf was a contemporary of Antônio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and others who would make the bossa nova a worldwide phenomenon, but he began his career earlier and spent the mid-1950s playing on what was known as Bottle Alley, a street in Copacabana full of bars and nightclubs. His younger admirers would sneak into those clubs to listen to him play and study his technique and improvisational style.

• Johnny Alf: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Alf

Government asks for public input on Anti-Piracy Plan, emails will go straight to Obama’s BlackBerry

By Deno on Mar 12 2010

Too rare is the opportunity for us average Janes and Joes to tell the government they’re doing it wrong. Now, courtesy of Obama’s copyright czar Victoria Espinel, you can write an angry letter and help save your favorite torrent tracker or file-sharing forum at the same time. Espinel and her office recently issued a request for public comments on the US anti-piracy agenda, officially titled the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act, or PRO-IP.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the czar isn’t giving us simple citizens carte blanche to say whatever we want. Comments must be formulated as responses to some carefully worded prompts about the “threats to public health and safety created by infringement” and the public’s “recommendations for improving… intellectual property enforcement.” The language in the request is at best leaning, and at worst loaded, so there might not seem to be a whole lot of room for disputing the fundamental necessity of copyright enforcement. That said, any input in the process is better than none, and TMT knows its readership possesses the intellectual acumen to turn crafty government lemons into politically critical lemonade.

Clearly Espinel’s attempt at transparent, participatory government is a bit of a mixed blessing. But it should provide some comfort to know that the DC-based digital rights advocacy organization Public Knowledge welcomed Espinel’s appointment late last year. Looks like we’ll have to wait and see whether any IP/copyright policies change in order to find out whether our voices (emails) have been heard (read). Just keep in mind, the deadline for comments on the PRO-IP act are due by 5 PM on March 24, so act fast.

Atari Teenage Riot decide to riot again

By Kid Midnight on Mar 12 2010

Alec Empire and his band of anti-facist, “anarchist” techno-heads are back after a 10-year hiatus, and they want to blow out your eardrums one last time. The band — known for other, better things than just its first single, the controversial “Hunting for Nazis” — has been inactive for the last 10 years after the death of longtime member, Crack.

That all changes on May 12, 2010 when the band returns to “active status” at the Electric Ballroom in London. Atari Teenage Riot will then return to “inactive status” because this show is what we call a “one-off.” To celebrate the one-day reunion, Atari Teenage Riot have recorded a new single, “Activate,” which will be released May 17 on ATR’s Digital Hardcore label. A free remix is available at The NME.

&bulll; Atari Teenage Riot: http://www.myspace.com/atr922000

Apples in Stereo’s Robert Schneider performs on Yo Gabba Gabba

By Annapocalypse on Mar 11 2010

On March 11, Robert Schneider from The Apples In Stereo will join the cast of Nickelodeon’s Yo Gabba Gabba to perform the song “We R Super Heroes” with special guests Mos Def, Biz Markie, and The Aquabats. However, if you need a fix of Schneider right this very second, you can catch him in this video with Apples In Stereo’s label-owner, actor Elijah Wood, in a short film the two made together entitled “Exploring The Universe.”

In other Apples In Stereo news, some peers of theirs have teamed up and covered Apples songs to be released as an exclusive 12-inch record entitled Future Vintage: Covers of The Apples In Stereo for Record Store Day on April 17, which is free when you purchase a copy of their new album, Travellers in Space and Time.

Future Vintage tracklisting:

Side A:
1. “Ruby” by Ted Leo
2. “Benefits of Lying (w/ Your Friend)” by Bad Veins
3. “The Rainbow” by Throw Me The Statue

Side B:
1. “Ruby” by The Generationals+
2. “Same Old Drag” by Maps and Atlases
3. “Strawberryfire” by Elf Power

• The Apples In Stereo: http://www.applesinstereo.com

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