Moby, the bald purveyor of computer music who is Amy Winehouse's anti-drug, will not stop speaking out on or against any and all things. Now, he is reassuring the gay community that, although he didn't have the luck to be born gay, he does hope that his kids will be [Advocate]. What does the hairless downtown master of background tunes like so much about the gays? "They have nice homes, bars, and restaurants." Ok then!
Researchers have figured out how to play back a rare audio recording from 1860 of what they insist is a person "singing" a "song," though it sounds suspiciously like someone abusing a pigeon. The discovery predates Thomas Edison's phonograph by almost twenty years, and it was produced by "a little-known Frenchman," so there's one more entry to the list of things Edison didn't invent that you were lied to about as a child. The Times piece on the discovery is by Jody Rosen, music critic for Slate—which could maybe possibly be a hint as to who will replace critic Kelefa Sanneh now that he's jumped ship to the New Yorker. (We've embedded the "Phonautograph Recording" after the jump. It's not very good.)
NYT reporter Mike Nizza was toiling away on the LA Times' fraudulent Tupac story beat yesterday, explaining to racist elderly Times readers what went wrong, and who all these hip hop people are. Then, like a ray of sunlight piercing the clouds over Shaolin, a reader made a joke about Wu-Tang in the comments. Mike was all over it! It really brightened up his day, we think, to know that somebody else out there is available to discuss how cool it is that Raekwon dropped that "I grew up on the crime side, the New York Times side" lyric on "C.R.E.A.M." Unlike the dorks in the Times cafeteria who don't appreciate it at all. Somebody rescue this man! Click to enlarge the key exchange of internet musical acknowledgments.
Good god, ScarJo is not the only one. Zooey Deschanel, the HIP young "Almost Famous" actress (ha), has just released an album with M. Ward under the name "She & Him." Distressingly, it has already been called "one of the flat-out best pop records of the year" [VSL]. What shall we expect next, a Juliette Lewis duet with Joshua Redman for "best jazz combo of the year?" Chloe Sevigny teaming up with Smuckers to create the "best jam of the year?" It's all very disconcerting. Of course, no pop album will ever surpass Zooey's most famous musical work: her duets with Will Ferrell in "Elf." Stay in your lane, Hollywood! Highlight clips of her elfish singing, which we can only hope will thwart her musical ambitions, below.
Uncut magazine in the UK got an advance listen to the new and unnecessary Scarlett Johansson album of Tom Waits cover songs, "Anywhere I Lay My Head." According to the scattered preview, ScarJo sounds at various times like Marianne Faithfull, Liz Frazer, Marilyn Monroe, and Joy Division [Uncut]. So there's that. They do point out the asinine spectacle of 24-year-old ScarJo crooning "I Don't Want To Grow Up." You're not, yet, so stop singing about it! The question about this album remains: why must it exist? Certainly not because the blonde it-girl actress is poised to improve on the music of Waits, America's coolest living man. Could it be...the promo photos? It must be the promo photos. After the jump, the plump-lipped ScarJo's recently released contemplative pictures for the album—she enjoys sitting and gazing into the distance, you'll see—along with some of Tom Waits, for comparison's sake.
How come I can't get past the sneaky feeling that Common is a tool? The feel-good, conscious-style Chicago rapper makes truly fresh music, he reps causes like animal rights, and he's an Obama supporter. He's even speaking out with a message of love to defend Obama's controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright [BV Buzz]! I can get with that. So what's the problem? Oh! I know what it is. He rhymed in a fucking GAP ad. Then there was that fucking Lincoln Navigator ad. And the fucking Smirnoff ads. And now he's going to be a gunslinging tough guy in a fucking Keanu Reeves movie? Yes, I think I've put my finger on it. I never really liked his stupid outfits either, honestly. But then again, I'm a hater. Trailer for Street Kings—with Common blasting away like a tool—after the jump.
Moby, the purposely bald and nerdy musician frequently seen wandering the Lower East Side in search of commercials to score, is warning his brethren in the music industry about the dangers of drugs. "I look at Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse, I wonder what they're going to be capable of when they're 30, in terms of cognitive and emotional abilities. Drugs burn you out," says the diminutive drum programmer, who knows too much about teabags. "You feel bulletproof if you're selling records and making money and everyone wants to sleep with you, but then things start to go wrong." In other news, somebody once wanted to sleep with Moby. [ohnotheydidnt]
"The musicians who posted their work on Bebo.com are no different from investors in a start-up enterprise. Their investment is the content provided for free while the site has no liquid assets. Now that the business has reaped huge benefits, surely they deserve a dividend." [NY Times] (Photo AP/Cheryl Gerber)
Lil Wayne is the tattooed, drugged-out New Orleans rapper who, for some reason, causes spasms of hero worship among white internet rap critics. The extent of the enthusiasm for him has always been a total mystery to me, but it's almost comical watching rap nerds try to outdo each other with their verbose online praise for Wayne, who would certainly rather be drinking vast quantities of Robitussin and liquor than reading their bullshit. Anyways, he got booed off the stage at his recent concert in London, and then showered with bottles on his way out, for good measure. Guess the crowd didn't read all the right blogs before they went to the show. After the jump, two recent examples of internerd Wayne worship, and the video of his ill-fated exit in London. I must admit I find this highly enjoyable.
After giving away their album to people too crass to support art and then encouraging saps to buy their free album, Radiohead has another crazy plan to drum free publicity for their music. The band is holding a contest to find an animator to create a video for the band. Radiohead is going to save the music industry; let's all buy their free music. [via Silicon Alley Insider]
Rap mogul Sean "Puff Diddy Daddy" Combs has denied yesterday's LA Times report that he had advance knowledge of a 1994 ambush on rival Tupac Shakur that left Tupac with five bullet wounds. Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond, the music manager that the Times named as the mastermind of the attack, also denied the charges. The Times is standing by its story so far. Below, Puffy's and Rosemond's statements—as well as (BONUS!) the lyrics to two verses of "Who Shot Ya?," the 1994 Biggie Smalls/ Puffy song that was widely believed to be an allusion to the Tupac shooting in question.
Attached, the full video for New York rapper Mysterious' "Pop Off." The fact that Spitzer-tryster and America's Escort Ashley Alexandra Dupre appears in the video is probably the best thing yet to happen to Mysterious' career. We've seen the making-of clips, here's the finished product. This scandal has produced so many potential hit songs! So click and watch the budget video ho who, it turned out, was a high-priced real ho work it.
When iPods first came out, you obviously had to replace the headphones so no one would think you were showing off that you had an iPod. But then everyone started doing that, so you went back to the white headphones to prove that you couldn't give a fuck if people knew what kind of mp3 player you had. Plus, you weren't going to get caught in the consumer cycle of buying unnecessary goods to validate your uniqueness. But now people are starting to catch on to that, so the only way out is to buy this new colossal mp3 player for $21.99. With 256 mb and a stunning quartz crystal display, it says, "I care about the music, not my image." [via The Triumph of Bullshit]
A brilliant way to get reporters' attention: Invite them to a strip club. On assignment, of course! Unlikely crunk crossover rap group Three Six Mafia is promoting its new single with a "Strip Club Tour," and the media is encouraged to attend. "Please reply to this email by 3PM today (3/12/08) if your site has correspondents in the following markets and you would like to cover them at the strip club," says the pitch. Reporters across the South and Midwest are stumbling over each other to find the relevant angle on this one. On a professional level. After the jump, a full tour schedule, and a video of 3-6-M's new single "I'd Rather" Set to a montage of Eliot Spitzer photos. This may prove to be the most successful music marketing strategy of all time.
The NYT's T Magazine has a handy graphic breaking down the fashion styles of indie rockers, and confirming once and for all that nobody should aspire to be an indie rocker. Each band profiled corresponds to a luxury brand. Doesn't that violate some sort of tenet of indie cred? PLUS they are all matched with smiley fashion slogans summing up their look, which just makes you realize that it is always an unwise decision for a band to agree to participate in a story in T Magazine. Below, a picture of each band and their supposed "look"; which is most preposterous? [I vote "Williamsburg prep"]
When we first saw this graph of the recording history of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", we thought, a) god almighty everyone needs to stop covering "Hallelujah", and b) everyone really needs to stop graphing songs. It was all worth it though for this Kottke guest-blogger post, which perfectly encapsulates the blinkered triumphalism of the boutique bloggers. You see, a half-dozen random bloggers were all pretty sure that their posts on this graph launched Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" cover to number one on iTunes—until their one friend who watches TV pointed out that an American Idol contestant sang it last week. [Kottke]
The great thing about the idea of "guerilla marketing" is that everything qualifies! Did you tell your friend a movie is good? Guerilla marketing. Put a sticker up? Guerilla marketing. Wear a certain kind of shoe? Total guerilla marketing. Now, it appears that the simple act of scrawling on posters on the street with a black marker qualifies as a sophisticated guerilla marketing campaign. The Black Lips probably paid thousands to an underground marketing firm so secret that you have to find its phone number written on the wall of the Alife bathroom to get this kind of street-level PR for their upcoming show. Or they just did it themselves when they were drunk one night. After the jump, photo evidence [via Copyranter] of this three-is-a-trend strategic marker-based promo campaign currently invading the streets of the East Village. (Ha, the "lips" thing is kinda clever though).
Gnarls Barkley, the somewhat experimental hip hop duo whose ability to walk the line between "catchy" and "crazy" has made them beloved among millions more fans than Cee-Lo ever could have dreamed of when he was in the far superior group Goodie Mob, has a new album due out on April 8. But now the damn thing has leaked to the internet. That's what they get for having so many more fans who just play on the computer all day! If you're so inclined, a link to the download of "The Odd Couple," and the first video, after the jump.
