Friday, April 19, 2002

Personal Stuff: Happy Birthday to my Mom! Congrats Uncle Craig and Aunt Scottie for bringing baby Esther into the world! My brother and his bride-to-be have set a date: June 1, 2003 in beautiful Malibu, California!

Okay, back to the pop culture: Michael Jackson has been engaging in some Enron-esque financial moves, borrowing money from one creditor to pay off another, all while using his huge trove of publishing rights (including songs by The Beatles and Sly & The Family Stone) as collateral. Read Jacko Pawned $2 Million Watch to Raise Dough; Banker Claims: 'I've Kept Him Alive' for the full story.
posted by Randy on 11:20 AM | permanent link to this entry

Thursday, April 18, 2002

FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell made some, uh, interesting comments about media consolidation when he spoke at Harvard the other day. According to this article in the Boston Globe, he acknowledged that a lot of people are alarmed by the effects of consolidation, but " I think to the average consumer this is too sublime a concept for a lot of them to be agitated by.'' Do you feel insulted? I sure did. So I dropped him and the other FCC commissoners a little note asking him to apoligize and pointing out that the reason most comsumers don't care about it is because Big Media isn't reporting on it. Check out the Contact The FCC Page and tell 'em how you feel.

posted by Randy on 12:05 PM | permanent link to this entry

The dust-up over the Nirvana legacy is getting messier. According to this article, Dave Grohl (now of Foo Fighters and Krist Novoselic (now of Sweet 75 and countless activist groups) want Courtney Love ordered to submit to a psychiatric examination. After citing her numerous strained relations with former band members and managers, the lawyer for Grohl and Novoselic is quoted as saying "We want to find out whether she is -- or is not -- currently competent to be a member of this L.L.C."
posted by Randy on 11:21 AM | permanent link to this entry

Tuesday, April 16, 2002

It's official-- David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar are touring together this summer. I was so hoping they would call it "The Sam & Dave Tour" or "The Sans Halen Tour," but alas they are calling it "Sammy Hagar & David Lee Roth Tour 2002: Song For Song, The Heavyweight Champs Of Rock 'N Roll." That's way too wordy for a tour name-- who'd they consult on that one, Fiona Apple? I like the idea of Dave back in the saddle, singing classics like "Unchained," "Panama," "Hot For Teacher" and "Running With The Devil," but I am a bit weary of seeing/hearing what Eddie Van Headache Guitar Center Preferred Customer they get to fill in for the real thing. As for Sammy-- I'd be happiest if he came out and played the following set:



1. "I Can't Drive 55"

2. "3 Lock Box"

3. "Right Now"

-----------------------

(encore)

4. "Finish What Ya Started"



That'd be about all I want to hear from the Red Rocker. If you feel I am missing out on some essential Sammy Hagar, hit up on the e-mail and let me know. I'm willing to consider other entries, but right now I think that set list is perfect. Please note that no matter how hard you lobby, "Mas Tequilia" will not make it on to My Dream Sammy Hagar Set List. The rest of his catalog is open to discussion.



The other awesome news story of the day: Reuters reports that Brit music rag NME has named The Smiths "the most important rock group of the last 50 years." That's pretty ballsy of them, but kudos for not going the obvious route with The Beatles and actually putting some thought into it. Nevermind that for 25 of those 50 years the most creative work has been done by hip-hop artists. If we overlook that, then I can see how Moz and the gang's relentless romantic sadness has been a direct influence on bands like Radiohead, Coldplay and Travis and an asthetic influence on the sad-sacks in the grunge and nu-metal scenes.



posted by Randy on 3:09 PM | permanent link to this entry

Monday, April 15, 2002

The Pop Studies Music Confrence at The Experience Music Project was pretty amazing. Okay, you had to be a hard-core rock-critic geek or a crazy academic to get the most out of it, but I fit the first category and I liked it a lot. Sure, some of the presentations were very heady, academic and dry but they were far outshined by people who were passionate about their work in exploring the study and analysis of music.

What was really excellent for me personally was meeting people like Ann Powers, Robert Christgau, Oliver Wang and Craig Marks (and countless others)-- writers and editors whom I've admired for a while and finally got to chat with. It was also nice to finally meet Chris Nelson, a guy who I worked with everday for a year and a half at SonicNet, yet never met in the flesh. I'm totally psyched to go again next year-- if they do it again. I hope they do.

I also gotta give a shout out to Kimbrew McCloud , who produced an excellent video about the effects of consolidation in the music biz called "Money For Nothing." I highly reccommend it-- you can see a preview and read about it here. Buy that shit and show it to all your friends and enemies.
posted by Randy on 1:23 PM | permanent link to this entry