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05 Apr 2009 10:43

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Music: Metallica gets honored for being cool 25 years ago

The band was one of the headline acts of yesterday’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony; Run-DMC were cooler. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Mar 2009 10:53

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Music, Tech: Speaking of Google, they’re giving away free tunes in China

  • 1.1 million tracks are available at the launch of the service, which is decent, but no iTunes source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Mar 2009 10:40

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Music: The Dresden Dolls’ Palmer does theater, Neutral Milk Hotel-style

  • It’s an original play about music and the Holocaust written by insanely talented drama students with musical accompaniment by me. My high school theater director, Steven Bogart, is one of my biggest artistic mentors and I’ve been trying to get back there since I left.
  • Amanda Palmer • The piano-smashing half of Brechtian punk cabaret popsters The Dresden Dolls, on her latest project – going back to her alma mater, Lexington High School in Massacheusetts, to compose the music for a play based on one of our favorite albums, Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.” If you’ve never heard it, you should – it’s an amazing, colorful and bizarre artistic interpretation of the life and death of Anne Frank, and a bold choice for a high school play. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Mar 2009 09:59

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Music, Politics: We’re going to use this post to rail against Billy Corgan

  • Smashing suckage Hi, guys. We’re ShortFormBlog. You may know us from such posts as this one and that one. Anyway, we’re here to talk about a serious problem we’ve noticed lately – Billy Corgan’s ruining the legacy of his band, The Smashing Pumpkins. It started slowly. Then it became more obvious. Now, it’s just too much and we think Billy should stop ruining our positive memories of watching his band on MTV. source
  • Smashing suckage Hi, guys. We’re ShortFormBlog. You may know us from such posts as this one and that one. Anyway, we’re here to talk about a serious problem we’ve noticed lately – Billy Corgan’s ruining the legacy of his band, The Smashing Pumpkins. It started slowly. Then it became more obvious. Now, it’s just too much and we think Billy should stop ruining our positive memories of watching his band on MTV.
  • Lame things he did Earlier this month, Billy Corgan made his opinions known on two fronts that have the potential to hurt fans. Know the RIAA-supported Performance Rights Act, which would give Corgan money every time “Landslide” plays? He testified to Congress about it. Know that heavily-criticized Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger that’s on the table? He wrote a letter to Congress supporting it. source
  • Smashing suckage Hi, guys. We’re ShortFormBlog. You may know us from such posts as this one and that one. Anyway, we’re here to talk about a serious problem we’ve noticed lately – Billy Corgan’s ruining the legacy of his band, The Smashing Pumpkins. It started slowly. Then it became more obvious. Now, it’s just too much and we think Billy should stop ruining our positive memories of watching his band on MTV.
  • Lame things he did Earlier this month, Billy Corgan made his opinions known on two fronts that have the potential to hurt fans. Know the RIAA-supported Performance Rights Act, which would give Corgan money every time “Landslide” plays? He testified to Congress about it. Know that heavily-criticized Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger that’s on the table? He wrote a letter to Congress supporting it.
  • The final final straw Recently, Jimmy Chamberlain – the only other member of the band still left from the legacy era, Tinted Windows notwithstanding – left Smashing Pumpkins due to a desire not to “cash the check,” as he put it. (Is he uncomfortable with selling out his band’s legacy?) Now, the band is going to have an open call for drummers. Limp Bizkit did something like this, and we know they suck. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 8 Comments • Permalink

30 Mar 2009 10:35

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Music: Uh, why is Green Day making an “American Idiot” play?

  • It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s what I love about it. When people see it, it’s going to be my wildest dream.
  • Billie Joe Armstrong • On making “American Idiot,” Green Day’s most popular and ambitious album, into a play. It’ll initially show at a theater in Berkeley, Calif. starting in September with the goal of going bigger places in the long run. Wake us up when September ends. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Mar 2009 02:45

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Music: Why is Animal Collective so strange? They don’t know how to play.

  • At this point we’re so beyond being able to communicate with each other that way, that we just kind of developed our own language in terms of music-making. And that’s why it’s not important to us.
  • Dave Portner (a.k.a. Avey Tare) • In an interview with Pitchfork talking about their unique approach to making music, which, as most of you know, critics and a capella groups really like. They’re even making inroads into the mainstream. Good for them! • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Mar 2009 14:17

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Music: Hip-hop mashed up with Sufan Stevens’ “Illinois”? Color us intrigued.

Producer Tor managed to find a way to make the hip-hop remix album interesting again. Good for him! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

27 Mar 2009 11:40

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Music: T.I. can’t give you whatever you like; he’s going to jail

  • 366 days in jail for the rap superstar, due to weapons charges source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Mar 2009 09:48

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Music: The Decemberists suffer a Pitchfork raspberry for “Hazards of Love”

  • 5.7 they said it’s too overblown & theatrical, not catchy enough source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Mar 2009 16:46

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Music: So, why did VH1 take “Behind the Music” off the air, anyway?

  • It felt like the time is right. There’s all sorts of new artists on the scene who have emerged and have these great stories. And there’s other artists that we always wanted to do the first time around.
  • Jeff Olde • VH1 executive VP of Original Programming, on the return of everyone’s favorite way to laze around on the couch on a Saturday afternoon. That’s right, the ultimate rock-documentary series “Behind the Music” is coming back, fresh with new shows on Scott Weiland and Lil Wayne, among others. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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