Attention rich people! World’s largest independent publisher Bug Music for sale
By Liz Louche on Jun 4 2010
So, you’re a major label, and you’ve got this huge pile of money sitting around. Something in the ballpark of, oh, $300 million. Now this is where it gets difficult: you want to use the money for good… or at least for rock ‘n’ roll. If this describes you (and really, who reading TMT right now doesn’t see a little bit of himself/herself in the above scenario?), you’re in luck, because publisher Bug Music is currently for sale.
The first round of bids has seen the likes of Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony/ATV Music, and a partnered KKR and BMG stepping up to the plate. The next round of bidding takes place on June 18, so now is probably the best time to sell off that private island you bought in the Caribbean in order to raise funds.
In an interview with The New York Post, Lisbeth Barron, a Berenson & Company banker with music industry access, stated that , “Typical music publisher multiples currently range from 8 to 10 times net publisher’s share for quality assets.” Bug, however, is asking for 12 times net. (Their annual revenue is estimated at $70 million.)
So what makes Bug so special? Well, the company is the largest indie publisher in the world, with copyrights to over 250,000 songs. So, next time you hear “What a Wonderful World” in a commercial for cold medicine or that shitty Kings of Leon song “Use Somebody,” just know this: Bug Music owns publishing rights to them, but those rights could be yours.
• Bug Music: http://www.bugmusic.com
DOOM to release live LP, Expektoration, but is it really DOOM behind that mask?
By Kid Midnight on Jun 4 2010
Whenever DOOM performs, there’s a lot of hubbub about “who’s wearing the DOOM mask,” ever since it was discovered that a dude was just wearing the mask and lip-syncing. But fuck all that shit: DOOM is great live, and it takes a lot more than a mask and mouthing words to be DOOM. I mean, even Doctor Doom had Doom-Bots for those days when he just wanted to relax — nobody sees anything wrong with that, right? Okay, yeah, Reed Richards has a problem, but he’s a nerd.
Anyway, DOOM looks to dispel any and all negative thoughts about his live performances by releasing Expektoration on September 14 through Gold Dust, the label that also released Doom’s Unexpected Guests (TMT Review). The live disc highlights some of DOOM’s greatest songs, such as “Kon Karne,” “Accordion,” “Hey,” “Rhymes Like Dimes,” “Change the Beat,” and an appearance by King Geedorah on “The Fine Print,” as well as plenty of help from Big Benn Klingon.
The disc is broken into two acts and is seperated by a “Star Trek”-themed intermission. Act One focuses mainly on new works MM…Food and Doom’s 2004 collaboration with Madlib, Madvillainy. Act Two takes a blast to the past by shifting its focus to DOOM’s 1999 debut album Operation: Doomsday. Listen closely and not only can you hear the sound of audience members reciting lyrics, but you can also hear every music nerd ejaculating at the chance to hear “Doomsday” live. Trust me, I was there, and my pants are still sticky.
• DOOM: www.metalfacedoom.com
• Expektoration: www.mfdoom-expektoration.com
• Gold Dust: www.golddust-media.com
Dan Deacon presents whacked-out film at Incubate Festival
By Harold Shueberg on Jun 4 2010
In September, Dan Deacon will be making the quantum leap from sound wizard/frontiersman/crowd dictator/spazoid/manipulator to an entirely new medium of spastic freakishness. Instead of controlling your bodily and aural functions, he will instead be attempting to manipulate your perception of, you know, visual shit. Yep, prior to the Incubate Festival, which will take place September 12-19, Deacon will be making things happen with main man Jimmy Joe Roche by shooting a film in a farm outside of festival local Tilburg, Netherlands.
According to PR peeples, the film is conceptualized around “explorations of culture and the body — and the ways that dreams can inspire and torture us — dreams weaving fluidly in and out of reality.” Wow. After viewing this thing, chances are Deacon will be the one doing the torturing… of dreams, that is. The shooting involves a large cast of members that stage a series of what Roche and Deacon refer to as “happenings,” with spoken word in both Dutch and English and a supposed abundance of improv motion(?). This whole mess will be screening prior to Deacon’s live performance at the festival. It’s sure to be a doozy.
Before then, don’t forget to get your tickets to Whartscape (TMT News)!
• Dan Deacon: http://www.myspace.com/dandeacon
Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson to bring Music For Dogs to Sydney Opera House, later to bring Hotel For Dogs to their own house.
By Nat Towsen on Jun 4 2010
In what many are calling “the biggest dick move since Metal Machine Music,” Lou Reed and wife/partner Laurie Anderson will bring a concert for dogs to the otherwise famously dog-free Sydney Opera House. Part of Vivid Live, a festival Reed and Anderson are curating this year, the concert will consist of extremely high frequencies that dogs have been proven to enjoy, or at least notice. According to Anderson, “You can just about hear [the music] sometimes.”
Music For Dogs was allegedly inspired by the couple’s rat terrier, who “…likes things with a lot of smoothness but with beats in them. Things with voices and lots of complicated high-end stuff. Chk-chk-chk-chk-chk…that kind of stuff.” In short, their dog likes Daft Punk. Well, fuck you, dog. I liked Daft Punk first, and I can understand the lyrics. Daft Punk’s lyrics don’t matter? Fine. I can see color. Suck on that, dog.
The June 5 concert will be presented at the northern boardwalk of the Opera House. Dogs are literally welcome to attend. They are even encouraged by Anderson to start “a little mosh pit if they feel like it,” an idea that seemed a lot less cute when Michael Vick encouraged it. The dog music/human intermission will last 20 minutes, which is stupid, because dogs have no capacity for measuring time.
Just kidding, I think this whole thing is great!
• Lou Reed: http://www.loureed.com
• Laurie Anderson: http://www.laurieanderson.com
• Vivid Live: http://vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com
[Photo: wallyg]
Pixies time-travel us all back to 1990 so that they can launch a website and announce more Doolittle dates
By Nobodaddy on Jun 3 2010
Ladies and gentlemen, it is a very dark day indeed. I don’t relish having to report the following news to you, but it is my duty as a card-carrying member of the Academy of Outstanding Music Journalists to keep the little people informed. So here it is: The Pixies have finally sold out. They’re not cool anymore. It’s over. They are officially… on The Internet.
Yes folks, I am as disappointed as you are. After 20+ years of keeping it real — i.e. faithfully toiling in obscurity and touring year-in and year-out for no money and little adulation — Frank and Kim and those other two guys have finally pulled a U2 on us and gotten their band sponsored by the World Wide Web. Who knows what the internet is paying them for a stunt like this, but I say, here and now, that if The Pixies have enough cash on-hand to blow it on such a frivolous commodity as their own personal, private, la-de-da website, then they’re nothing but a bunch of corporate shills and Faberge Egg-polishing sellouts! TMT will have nothing to do with a band that is so cavalier, so condescending, so maddeningly ego-maniacal that it sees fit to promote its own hype with a sickeningly self-aggrandizing web page. This will not stand!
Therefore, I am asking all true fans of indie rock music to please BOYCOTT the following fall Pixies US dates, which are once again in support of the 20th Anniversary of the band’s breakthrough 1989 LP Doolittle. What’s that you’re saying? You missed the Doolittle tour last year, and you’d “really like to catch one of these upcoming shows because all of the tracks on that record are awesome”?Wrong. All of the tracks on that record WERE awesome. Death to The Pixies.
Official TMT Pixies Doolittle Boycott Tour:
09.07.10 - Philadelphia, PA - Tower Theatre
09.10.10 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
09.13.10 - Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre
09.17.10 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre
09.18.10 - Tulsa, OK - Brady Theatre
09.19.10 - Dallas, TX - Verizon Theatre
09.20.10 - Houston, TX - Verizon Wireless Theatre
09.22.10 - Austin, TX - Austin Music Hall
09.24.10 - Mesa, AZ - Mesa Amphitheatre
09.25.10 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
09.26.10 - San Diego, CA - RIMAC Arena
• New official Pixies Website: http://www.pixiesmusic.com
• 4AD: http://www.4ad.com/pixies/
• Tiny Mix Tapes: http://www.tinymixtapes.com
