Ticketmaster Tries to Pull a Fast One on Canada/Leonard Cohen, Fails
By Kat Gardiner on Mar 3 2009
Last week, as part of a recent settlement with New Jersey regarding its Great Leader Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen, Ticketmaster said it would stop redirecting visitors to its solely-owned resale site, TicketsNow, before tickets went on sale to the general public (TMT News). Because, you know, it's kind of a little bit unethical. Fast forward to now. Looks like the company is doing just that with tickets to see The Patron Saint of Canada Leonard Cohen. Ontario's Attorney General Chris Bentley won't have it and says his office is now looking into a whole slew of entertainment and sporting events that Ticketmaster is in charge of. In layman's terms: you screw with The Kinky Jew/Monk, you screw with Canada, eh?
"Sometimes it's a matter [in] large corporations like that of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Is that understandable? Yes. Is that excusable? No. Do they need to correct it? Absolutely. We're not happy and I think fans are justifiably very unhappy," Copps Coliseum chief executive officer, Duncan Gillespie said. "The reality is that somebody will pay $1,000 for a Cohen ticket, but he [The Good St. Cohen] wants to keep it at reasonable prices for people, so this undermines [his intensions] totally."
Tickets with a face value of $99 to $250 were being sold on TicketsNow.com for between $568 to $856, plus a service charge ranging from $85 to $128 per ticket. Ticketmaster took a break from cackling and rolling in the money of the Great White North to insist that it hasn't done anything wrong whatsoever. It then let out a high-pitched shriek, morphed into a Jabberwocky, and flew off into the night.
Ticketmaster has already been hit with four Canadian lawsuits. The latest represents Canucks in Manitoba going all the way back to February of '07. It was initiated by a woman who tried to purchase Carrie Underwood tickets in an attempt to see the subtle differences in vocal inflection between the recorded and live versions of such hits as "Jesus Take the Wheel." She tried to buy tickets on the Ticketmaster website, but kept being redirected to TicketsNow where she thought she purchased four tickets at $57 a pop. Later, the credit card was charged $917.75 including "service" and a "delivery charges." After seeing the bill (and I can only assume after actually listening to Carrie Underwood), she tried to cancel the order, but was denied. Cohen wept.
Nachtmystium Booted from Toyota-Sponsored Event for Alleged Ties to Nazism; Say What You Want about the Tenets of National Socialism, At Least It’s an Ethos
By Mangoon on Mar 2 2009
In a shocking turn of events, the Illinois psychedelic black metal band Nachtmystium have been banned from playing the Toyota Scion Rock Fest in Atlanta this past Saturday due to alleged ties to Nazism. Although the group has released material on Unholy Records, a label known to promote and adhere to Neo-Nazism, they claim the relation was business-oriented only and that Nachtmystium in no way espouse or condone the ideologies or practices of Nazism. In fact, in a press release put out by band leader Blake Judd, the group claims to be totally apolitical and consider themselves to be more like "hippies" than your average leather-clad metal dudes. Judd also stated he would be filing legal proceedings against those who slander or libel the band and cause them lost opportunities.
While Toyota hasn't made any public statements regarding the debacle, we can all sleep easily tonight knowing that corporate entities like IBM, Coca-Cola, Bayer, Volkswagen, Chase Bank, and Ford have never funded Nazism or have been affiliated with National Socialism or fascism in any way. Cough.
Fog’s Andrew Broder Releases Four Five Experimental Albums Online
By Kid Midnight on Mar 2 2009
With Andrew Broder’s formerly main music outlet Fog on hiatus, the hip-hop/indie rock/electronic musician needs something to do. So what did he decide to do? Why, make music and release it exclusively online, of course!
Mr. Broder has released an astonishing five albums in roughly just as many weeks, and he’s perfectly okay if you go ahead and download ’em (sorry, there's no website to link to). However, he does hope that you leave a lil’ sumthin’ sumthin’ in the way of a donation, so he can still eat and continue to release his “audio-diary of-sorts” for awhile.
"The material on these records is improvised, layered music for guitar and turntables," says Broder. "It is a process and style I have been developing over the last couple of years, and it is a big departure from Fog's music."
Below are some links that bring you to the albums, as well as Broder’s preferred tracklisting for each one. And, hey, if you got no cash, don’t worry. Broder says it is okay if you can’t pay -- just tell everyone you know if you like it, and make THEM pay!
I Must Fix All the Problems:
1. I Must Fix
2. All the Problems
Experts, Specialists:
1. Distance
2. Toughen
3. Wet Match
Raw Bulb:
1. Gas Leak
2. One Hundred Dollars
3. Stop Making Plans
4. Vacuum
We Had to Eat the Owl:
1. No Argument Here
2. Lasting
3. Revel
4. Pay the Man
5. All Automatic
6. Until it Bleeds
Suture:
1. Reliance
2. Placate
3. Goodbye Tom
4. Bats
5. Places No One Else Is
6. Reasons Not to Go
7. Much
8. By Force
If you would like to donate, PayPal Broder some money to thefog@visi.com.
British Sea Power Go Back to their Roots with a New Soundtrack Set for May 5
By Brom on Mar 2 2009
The Decline of British Sea Power, British Sea Power’s debut album, was one of the strongest records of 2003. It wasn’t just the brilliant, distortion-heavy rock songs or the quirky use of Gregorian chanting, but the way they had made something truly evocative of Great Britain, both in terms of historical musical trends and the way they captured something of the British spirit in their tales of decay, the ocean, and past military adventures. Which is why it’s been such a shame to see them descend into stereotypical stadium rock and U2-esque anthems with their two most recent releases, Open Season and Do You Like Rock Music?
However, British Sea Power seem to be going back to that redolent, erstwhile style. On May 5, Rough Trade will be releasing a DVD of 1934’s Man of Aran, featuring new music written by British Sea Power that will not only soundtrack the film, but will also be included separately on CD. Check out this clip. I think it demonstrates what BSP do best: capturing a sense of mood, time, and place with modern instrumentation. According to BSP guitarist Noble:
It’s a wonderful film. The images vary between huge drama and a brilliant kind of ridiculousness -- check out the amazing foot-wide bobbled berets that the fishermen wear. It’s a great look, like a 1930s Irish version of Jack White or Kraftwerk. It’s a film that’s also relevant to the current era – a time when the idea of living a simpler life is in the air. The film shows something I'd like to think I could do, but know I never will.
The band will perform the soundtrack live to the film April 23 at London's BFI Southbank.
RIP: Lyman Woodard, Detroit Jazz Musician
By Shane Mack on Mar 2 2009
From the Detroit Free Press (via The Daily Swarm):
“Don’t Stop the Groove” wasn’t just the title of one of organist Lyman Woodard’s best records. It was the immutable truth at the core of his being, the philosophy that transformed his live performances into four-alarm parties.Woodard, who died Tuesday at Owosso Memorial Hospital at age 66, was a stalwart on the local jazz scene for decades. But he really hit his stride in the 1970s, when his band, the Lyman Woodard Organization, took up residence at Cobb’s Corner, a Cass Corridor nightspot that became a leading showcase for jazz in Detroit. Mixing a grits ’n’ gravy, bluesy approach to jazz with R&B, soul, funk and even a bit of disco, Woodard created a charismatic brew, with booty-shaking rhythmic grooves supporting natty horns and enough improvisation to give the music an edge of spontaneity.
