Local Rhythms – Music Rising

The spectacle of U2 and Green Day joining forces to mark the return of NFL action to the Superdome a year after Hurricane Katrina, was an inspiring display of solidarity in support of one of the capitals of American music.
It also showed just how enmeshed rock music and sports have become; it’s hard [...]

Paul Westerberg & Lemonheads – Simple Songs Are Hard

Alice Cooper once observed that writing simple songs is hard work. Two long-time practicioners of the craft are back on the scene with new albums. The Lemonheads and Paul Westerberg attempt to prove that axiom. One is successful, the other less so.
The Paul Westerberg-fronted Replacements were indie-pop darlings through much of the [...]

Today’s Free Download – The Who

I literally stumbled on to this one in the course of trying to figure out why my DVD-Audio of “Tommy” lacked a vocal track. Never did puzzle that one out, but in Googling for answers I found a British fan site with some cool stuff. The guy who runs it is a big [...]

Local Rhythms – Greed Bites Babs

Adapted from an earlier post, from the September 21 2006 Claremont Eagle Times
Ticketmaster, king of the concert cartel and ruiner of live music worldwide, is now in the innocuously named “secondary” market. Meaning that they’ve started carving off their best seats and marking them up ahead of ticket Mafia rackets like StubHub.
They even host a [...]

Elton John – The Captain and the Kid

For six years starting in 1969, Elton John released no fewer than nine albums of original material. His latest, “The Captain and the Kid,” is an autobiographical echo of those heady times, a follow-up to the most successful record of he and lyricist Bernie Taupin’s run, “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy,” which [...]

Chris Smither – Leave the Light On

For much of his career, Chris Smither’s had a reputation as a musician’s musician, a polite euphemism for toiling in relative, if comfortable, obscurity. He’s best known for giving Bonnie Raitt “Love Me Like a Man.”
That may not change with his latest, and it’s a shame. “Leave the Light On” is packed with [...]

YouTube/Cingular Deal – That’s More Like It

As I’ve written elsewhere, the YouTube/Warner Music deal will likely the cause the reverse of its intended purpose. On the other hand, the buzz-rich, cash-poor web site looks poised to leverage their cool factor with YouTube Underground, the battle of the bands announced earlier today.
YouTube’s strength is viral; marginally talented, attention-starved kids, weaned on [...]

Today’s Free Download – Cat Power

Note: There’s been a lot of traffic to this post lately … Matador took down the link to the song mentioned in this article.  Apologies.
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In her hands, “Satisfaction” bears no resemblence to the original, but that’s Cat Power’s charm, after all. It’s as if the classic rock chestnut was a prewar row house. [...]

The Warner/YouTube Deal

At first glance, the deal announced Monday between Warner Music Group and YouTube is a step in the right direction. It’s definitely better than UMG’s threats to take copyright violators to court, but just barely so.
The terms of the agreement provide YouTube with ad revenue, and give WMG a way to screen music used [...]

Rock Legend Gives iTunes Music Store Black Eye

Al Kooper isn’t merely a key figure in the history of rock, he’s also an astutely vociferous critic of the online music business. Recently, he weighed in at The Lefsetz Letter on the iTunes Music Store’s sorry state of affairs. Apple duly responded to Kooper’s complaints about format locking, nonexistent customer service and [...]