Public Enemy Look for Album Funding; Good Investment If They Make Another It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Bad Investment if Flavor Flav Has too Much to Do with It

By Matt Lundy on

The minstrel show better known as Flavor Flav clearly hasn’t cashed in enough on those VH1 royalties to fund a new Public Enemy album. Or maybe there’s just a political angle to the group’s latest move.

A couple years removed from their last full-length album, with its masturbatory title How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?, Public Enemy has teamed up with Amsterdam-based SellaBand to solicit fans and investors for album funding. The NME reports that the seminal rap group is looking to raise $250,000 in $25 increments, with contributing fans receiving a pro ratio share of 33.3% of all net revenues from album sales. To date, they've raised over $37,000 (or 14%) of their monetary goal.

On the Public Enemy web site, Chuck D says “SellaBand's financial engine model goes about restructuring the music business in reverse. It starts with fans first, then the artists create from there. The music business is built on searching for fans and this is a brand new way for acts to create a new album with fans first, already on board.”

At this point there’s no further information about the upcoming album.

El Perro Del Mar Tours with Peter Bjorn and John, Refutes Claims That Love Is in Fact Pop

By Liz Louche on 10-15-2009

Fall is here, and with it comes -- for those of us in North America -- our annual shipment of Scandinavian indie pop singers. Perhaps this assertion cannot be scientifically qualified, although once I do remember writing a story about Lykke Li coming to the States on tour during the cold months or something. Now El Perro Del Mar will join these elite ranks, and, as luck would have it, Peter Bjorn & John are ALSO embarking on an autumnal U.S. tour. So many Swedes!

Okay, so maybe they’re going on tour together and I can’t really use them as two different examples, but frankly I don’t think that one little comment can ruin the integrity of this story. This story has as much integrity as Glenn Beck.

By the way, the Swedish songstress behind El Perro Del Mar has a new album called Love Is Not Pop coming out October 20 in the United States. It’s been around for awhile in Europe, and can also be ordered via The Control Group website before the official release date.

Speaking of dates:
10.20.09 - New York, NY - Other Music (in-store)
11.07.09 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club (2 shows)
11.08.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Theater of Living Arts *
11.09.09 - New York, NY - Joe's Pub
11.10.09 - New York, NY - Terminal 5 *
11.11.09 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Theatre *
11.12.09 - Chicago, IL - Metro *
11.13.09 - St. Louis, MO - Gargoyle Club *
11.14.09 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues *
11.15.09 - Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa *
11.17.09 - Tuscon, AZ - Rialto Theater *
11.18.09 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues *
11.19.09 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
11.20.09 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
11.21.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Club Nokia
11.23.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Hotel Café

* Peter Bjorn & John

Atlas Sound Announces Logos Bonus Disc

By E. Nagurney on 10-15-2009

Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Way back in the summer of 2008, a little record called Deerhunter’s Microcastle (aka TMT’s 2008 album of the year, in case you forgot) leaked months before its October release. As a response to the leak, the band put together a bonus disc called Weird Era Cont. Of course, old Weird Era Cont. ended up leaking too, but it was still pretty great.

Now, history is repeating itself. Sort of. Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox’s solo project, Atlas Sound, is putting out a new record called Logos next Tuesday, October 20 via Kranky (4AD in the UK). Unsurpisingly, since this is the internet in 2009, Logos leaked some time ago. Although Cox hasn’t cooked up anything quite as seemingly grand as Weird Era Cont., the man has put together a limited-edition bonus disc containing alternate versions of Logos tracks, along with three unreleased songs. Said disc can be received by purchasing Logos through the Rough Trade store.

Logos bonus disc tracklist:

1. Ruben (Traditional)
2. Criminals (Electronic Version)
3. Kid Klimax (Acoustic Version)
4. Reminder (Previously Unreleased)
5. I Know I Will Escape (Previously Unreleased)
6. Nightwork (Previously Unreleased)

Brian Wilson Plans to Finish George Gershwin’s Incomplete Compositions

By Rachel B on 10-14-2009

Well, this piece of news doesn't get more American than baseball, hot dogs, and indecent health care (but we promise not to go there). According to recent developments, Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson is getting the green light to start reworking the incomplete compositions of 20th-century music legend George Gershwin.

Gershwin, who was born in Brooklyn and died in 1937, was one of the American music greats, penning such universally recognizable tunes as "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Irving Berlin" with his brother Ira. Wilson will reportedly receive access to the full Gershwin collection, which is currently controlled by Todd Gershwin, George's great-nephew.

After reinterpreting Gershwin's compositions, Wilson will place the results in an album to be released via the Walt Disney Records imprint Disney Pearl. Wilson has praised Gershwin's work, saying "He had a gift for melody that nobody has ever equaled, yet his music is timeless and always accessible. This is the most spiritual project I've ever worked on."

Todd Gershwin also sounds mightily pleased with Wilson's project. But really, who wouldn't be? "The Gershwin families are delighted that the legendary musician Brian Wilson has chosen to record a collection of George and Ira Gershwin songs for his next project. In every generation, American music has been pushed forward by visionaries, from the Gershwin brothers to Brian Wilson. This latest interpretation will be a new opportunity to discover the magic of Gershwin music," commented Todd. No word yet as to the album's release date.

Matt Groening to Curate ATP Festival Again, Still Looks Like One of Those Weird Old Guys You See at Shows

By Matt Lundy on 10-14-2009

Matt Groening might be one of popular culture’s oddest tastemakers. The 55-year-old creator of The Simpsons devotes screen time to fart jokes and Michael Chabon, crusty billionaires and Sonic Youth. So it comes as no surprise that Groening has added the curator tag to his long list of accomplishments. Back in 2003, he put together the ATP/Pacific bill, which featured Built to Spill, Daniel Johnston, and Cat Power, among a slew of others, jamming out in Los Angeles. Clearly the guy has some taste.

Well, next year’s UK edition of the ATP festival – which has already slated Pavement to curate one weekend – has brought back Groening for more curating fun. He’ll choose the bands for the festival’s first weekend, which takes place May 7-9, 2010, at Butlins in Minehead, UK. No lineup has been announced yet, but based on Groening’s history of taste-making, you’ll want to snatch up tickets when they go on sale October 16.

Keep your eyes locked on the ATP website for lineup announcements. And if the concert blows – which I highly doubt – the concert location features a wave pool, fencing, and something known as “crazy golf.”

RIP: Brendan Mullen, founder of punk rock club Masque

By Shane Mack on 10-14-2009

From the LA Times:

Brendan Mullen, founder of the Masque punk rock club in Hollywood that helped launch the vibrantly anarchic music scene on the West Coast in the late 1970s, died Monday after suffering a massive stroke over the weekend. He was 60.

Mullen died at Ventura County Medical Center, said his companion of 16 years, Kateri Butler. The couple had been traveling through Santa Barbara and Ventura celebrating his 60th birthday, which was Friday.

"The doctors are completely perplexed," Butler said. "They can't figure out why he had a stroke -- he had none of the indicators, his cholesterol was perfect. One of the neurologists summed it up best when he said, ‘Sometimes, your number is just up.’"

- Brendan Mullen Wikipedia entry
- The Masque Wikipedia entry

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