A Solid Call 2.0

Farewell Bob Edwards : It came during a stupid pledge drive on KPBS, so I wasn't even listening all week. Weak sauce from NPR.

Addiction Indulged : Keeping up with new music can be addicting. But, why? What is it about kniowing good bands before anyone else does? Why is it thrilling to hear a band on the radio that you knew about 6 months previously? I mean, it's never been that humanity has prized knowledge as much as it has prized ability. I thought maybe it was just me, but almost everyone likes to name drop bands that they were into before they got big. I guess thousands of years ago, if you knew that ferocious lions liked to spend the spring time un a certain ravine, you had an advantage over your clueless rivals... and foresight was thus afforded a certain prestige and value. Or, something.

All I know is that I recently got a DVR (like a TiVo but from the cable company directly) and now I am all a-flutter that I can tape MTV's Advance Warning show and CNN's Music Room. MTV you might expect to have a good new music show, so this is expected, byt CNN's show is shockingly in touch with what's coming down the pipe. I mean, the Music Room's theme song is a Photek remix of Zero 7. Wow. I just learned from AW that Butterfly Boucher is pronounced "Boo-chur", not "Boo-shay". By the way, she's hotter on tape than in pics.

Anyway... I have Coachella this weekend, so I'll get plenty of new music rush firsthand. Cheers!

Russian Music Site Is Cheap, Legit? : Russian site AllOfMP3.com offers cyrillic text, goofy grammar and supposedly legit MP3 downloads priced not per song, but by the megabyte. Still not much more compelling than Spain's Weblisten which everyone seems to ignore. I heard about AllOfMP3.com in Hits.

Orbital Decay : I don't know if anyone noticed, but Orbital are calling it quits after 15 years. Their track "Halcyon+On+On+On" from '92 really changed my musical landscape, really showing me how chillout can affect my whole psyche. I'll drink to them tonight...

Tiësto's Powerful Drama :
The "Love Comes Again" video tells the timeless story of a supermodel Lonneke Engel and her stubble-hot model boyfriend going out for happy times at Club Space in Miami. The sweet & innocent waif catches a solitary & creepy BT staring at her in full drunken leer, so like any hot girl at a club, she gives him an encouraging come-hither smile. But, trouble befalls our heroine as her boyfriend starts talking to… another woman?! He says he'll be back in a minute, but where could he be going?? Poor lost supermodel has to walk slo-mo through the dancers to find him, pausing momentarily to flirt with Tiësto who's observing it all from the DJ booth. Well, surprise! Our special girl finds her boyfriend dot-dot-dot dancing with his new girl. This homewrecking jezebel sends daggers of contempt through candy eyes, and crushing emotional pain is poignantly evident on our sexy protagonist's face when her delicious lip curls to hold back gurgling sobs. Her world upside-down, she flees to the Miami streets and the inevitable rain that begins, forcing her to relive all the tender moments she had shared with her now-treacherous beau. But, what's this? Thoughtful stalker BT runs out to find his dreamgirl in distress. And, he has an umbrella! Love does, indeed, come again.

You can watch it from the BBC here. Or, if their servers are busy, Tiësto's site has it as well.

Headphone Review : Wired's digital music diva Leander Kahney dropped a real-world review of 3 "canal phones" -- headdphones that actually go in your ear canal, providing amazing sound. These are NOT "ear buds." Wired News: How It Sounds Is All in Your Head. She review the Stymotics ER-6. I have used the higher end ER-4S for 3 years now and am completely married to them. Fantastic sound and man, have they taken a beating but they continue to survive.

Frou Frou Video : Joel Peisseg volunteered to do a video for Frou Frou's "Dumbing Down of Love" and bang: It won best music video at the artsy RESfest last year. That video is now on line at his site. (Quicktime). Note: Launch it via the red graphic on his home page. He's not all that into usability.

Shrek 2: Frou Frou : Wow, check out the Shrek 2 Soundtrack on Dreamworks. Notable highlights include: 1) A new Frou Frou track (remake of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero"). 2) Butterfly Boucher and David Bowie doing "Changes" 3) Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas doing "Livin' La Vida Loca"

Ummm. Ack!

Who's Overpaid?  : Forbes' 2004 review of CEO compensation had this poll on who's overpaid. Whoever put the poll together seperated "pop stars" from "rap artists". I found the distinction highly curious, considering lawyers were not on the list. What's up, Forbes?

FYI : Reminder: For tomorrow's meeting.

Jeb Bush's State Hangs Pirates : Florida makes operating a pirate radio station a 3rd degree felony. So much for the airwaves being owned by the people. They cloaked it in some nonsense about pirate stations interfering with emrgency broadcasts. It makes me want to puke. Then I got to this great quote. "'They regulate the radio business for a reason,' said Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa. 'In the old days, they didn't just hang the captain of the pirate ship. They hang the whole crew.'" Crist was talking about charging the jocks who work at the stations in addition to the owners of the equipment.

Lacuna Coul Video : Here's the Lacuna Coil video for "Heaven's a Lie". Even if they were around before Evanescence, they will get full-body rejection for the perception that they are trying to rip off Evanescence. Game over for Lacuna Coil?

BT set for June 1? : Barnes & Noble.com has the next BT release for June 1. I've written about Music from and Inspired by the Film Monster before.

Solid Song of the Week: Spymob : Sorry, kids. I'm late with the Solid Song of the Week. Not following through on regularity is a swell way to avoid building a loyal readership, so let this be a lesson to us all.

There's a great story behind the band Spymob -- and MTV tells it much better than I could ever hope to, so go read their fine piece.

The track "It Gets Me Going" from Sitting Around Keeping Score (Musicmatch link) is my pick for the week. There are quite a few tracks from this excellent album, but that's the easy single. I have a feeling that some people will intensely dislike this guy's forays into falsetto, but I dig it. "I Still Live At Home" is a musical paean to Hall & Oates with sublime storytelling humor. "National Holidays" is much more sober, lyrically -- but melodically it sticks in my head like an evil gummy worm.

Not likely to ever be a hit, it's going to be a cult fave nonetheless. At some point, someone will have to explain to me why people react so negatively to power pop. Are harmonies and melody too intimidating? Do people find musicianship and songcraft pretentious in this day and age? Who knows?

The Spymob official site isn't popular enough to show up on Google yet, but it's easily and unironically found at spymob.com. I hope you enjoy this.

Wired News: Music Magic Found in the Shuffle : The world is cathcing up with me. I have long loved the experience of listening to music on shuffle. Long before online music, my 60-CD changer was often on full shuffle, and now it's almost exclusively how I listen to my portable player or my home library. In this article, Wired reports that I am not alone.

I am a little disappointed that author Leander Kahney didn't get into the issue of playing repeats in "shuffle" mode. Do shufflers prefer the chance to hear a song repeated, or would they prefer hearing every song at least once before cycling back through? I would rather hear no repeats, but I have run into people who disagree with me. Of course, I seem to get repeats more than statistically probable. Just my bad luck, I guess.

There is also the computational difficulty in generating a truly random number to waste time thinking about.

On second thought, since nobody else is really addressing this issue, I conclude that I am still ahead of the curve. Ha-haaa!

Don't Worry : Hey, hey: It's the crazy new Radiohead.com. And, I do mean crazy! It's brand new --- check it out if you have the time. It's... bananas.

What's That Song? Your Cellphone Knows : AT&T have released a service that will automatically identify music over the phone for a buck a pop. Daily Wireless gives a quick review where the service identified 4 out of 5 songs but choked on a Mozart piece. (doh!) Looks like it's only availablefor AT&T customers? That's a shame. The article says it's part of MusicPhone's "Music ID technology." Oddly, I could not find any info on ATT's or MusicPhone's site. I suspect that Gracenote's MusicID is involved. If not, Gracenote really needs to start suing somebody with a quickness.

BK on RS. : If you're down with the kid, check this RollingStone.com acoustic video for Ben Kweller "The Rules", a former SSOTW.

Mass Production : It's kind of funny to see Google expose meta-tags for Web sites. Example: A Google Search for Lil Flip shows that Lil Flip's Sony site was copied from Modest Mouse's site on the same label.

Fun with Tommy Lee & Blabbermouth : First, we saw this strange announcement on Blabbermouth:

TOMMY LEE Announces DJ/Drum Solo Tour Dates - Apr. 13, 2004

Former MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee has lined up two solo dates in Southern California at the end of April. According to Tommy, "I'm doing something I've been waiting forever to do... I'm DJing/drumming all my fave and original electronic music!! Acid house, electro tech stuff... It's bananas!!!" Confirmed dates are as follows:

Apr. 23 - West Hollywood, CA @ The Key Club (info) Apr. 24 - San Diego, CA @ 4th & B (info)

Also appearing at both dates will be MIX MASTER MIKE and PLANET B. A Las Vegas show will be announced soon along with dates in Europe at "all the festivals and crazy raves," says Tommy.

Bananas, indeed! Then, hilarity ensued.

The Streets Party @ Whistlestop : From the M-Theory newsletter:

Thurs. May 13th from 9:30-midnight @ Whistlestop Bar: UK rap sensation, The Streets, listening party & pre-order sale! Check out the new album and when you pre-order it, get a ltd edition single right then and there! 21+.

I'll be there.

Bamboozled! : Did EMI jack Soundscan numbers with scam scans? "Avatar has taken the deposition of a former EMI executive who acknowledged the practice." Hmm, OK Go sales did seem awfully high... (P.S. Someone has set up an LA Times account under "anonymous" with the same password.)

Hung News : William Hung's Sales Figures Are Nothing To Laugh At says MTV News. Fred Fox, a marketing VP at Trans World Entertainment, sez "I mean, you listen to the album, and I don't profess to being an A&R guy, but I gotta tell you, it doesn't move me." Ha-haaa! Really though, at least someone is actually trying to understand why this novelty is selling. Sales figures will be final real soon and my 37K is looking pretty close... Update: Hung came in at 39.5K! Boom!

Aussie Invasion Tour : I saw the Aussie Invasion Tour last night -- you know, the one with The Living End, Jet and The Vines. They played in that order, but I think The Living End stole the show. They kick out a huge sound for any band, let alone a three-piece. I also think they're into musicianship, which is refreshing. Jet were great as well, better than expected. They chanel AC/DC and even Van Halen at times. They rocked hard, but weren't all that dynamic on stage. I have always considered the Vines to be a touch over-rated, and they neglected to change my opinion last night. Their albums have been pretty good, but not that great and their live set is sometimes painful to endure, for the yelping and wailing. All in all, though, good times.

Exclusive BT : iTunes is featuring some exclusive BT release called The Technology EP. (Sorry, Steve) Looks mostly like some bonus remixes by some decent names -- Tiesto, Dylan Rhymes, Compufonic. Still no word on when the Monster Soundtrack will be coming out.

Solid Song of the Week : "The Rules" by Ben Kweller -- from his new album On My Way is the Solid Song of the Week. It's not really a "great" song, I'll admit -- but I find myself inadvertantly shouting the chorus "Show me all the rules, girl. I just wanna get 'em wrong!" -- even when I am not listening to the song, so there is some deep level of catchiness somewhere in there, so it gets SSOTW honors.

Notes From the Road : I stumbled across some amusing writing on Slate: A weeklong journal from an indie musician on tour:Dan Crane. I noted it because of this hilarious outtake: "Late Thursday afternoon my band, Les Sans Culottes, rolls into Oakland to drop off gear at the Stork Club. Nearby, we spot a billboard promoting San Diego tourism. Based on our recent experience playing there, we are not really sold on their terribly inventive tagline: Mellow. Dramatic. San Diego." I should probably check out some previous entries.

Showtime: Tribute a Rockumentary : Darlingos points out this potentially hilarious Rockumentary about tribute bands coming up on Showtime. "This offbeat documentary delves into the strange but passionate subculture of tribute bands for such musical acts as KISS, Judas Priest, The Monkees and Queen, presenting a view - by turns hilarious and insightful - of genuinely ambitious musicians who go to extraordinary lengths to live out their rock dreams and mimic their superstar idols."

What's Happening : DJ Gary-O passed me this link for Godskitchen Global Gathering 2004. Looks like a pretty amazing party in July at an airfield in the UK. I'd like to go.

!!! Music : The new album from cult-fave indie-dance-jam-rockers !!! will be called Louden Up and it's out June 8th in the US. (a day earlier in R.O.W.). "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Gets Krazee!"

5.1 MP3 : If you have a (free) registration at the New York Times site, you can read about 5.1 Surround sound version of the MP3 format. Excerpt: "The Fraunhofer Institute, the German research center that led the effort to create the MP3 digital music format, recently announced a new version called MP3 Surround that adds the extra audio channels needed for 5.1 sound without appreciably increasing file size. According to Jürgen Herre of the institute, MP3 Surround files can also play in conventional stereo mode on two-channel devices." Good ol' Fraunhofer. There's also mention of Dolby Headphone, the kooky algorithm that simulates 5.1 in regular headphones.

New From the Moz : Loyal contributor Jason R has another gem: "This site has some cool fully downloadable and free live bootlegs of Morrissey's new material and a couple of older songs as well. It's a nice sneak peak at his upcoming album."

http://www.vivahate.org/music.php?lan=en

I need to check out the new Morrissey album. I've really been loving the compilation of his old school influences Under the Influence. Suggested track: Jimmy Radcliffe "(There Goes) The Forgotten Man" - a great Burt Bacharach tune.

A Solid Announcement : A Solid Call 2.0 is back at http://www.asolidcall.com (and also at http://www.solidcall.com) - much easier to remember. (Note: old bookmarks for http://asolidcall.blogspot.com/ also still work.) Big news for the site!

Kylie + The Hives : It's just not fair. Europe already gets better radio stations and cooler CD releases. Now, I have to find that this commercial was shown before R-rated movies there as well? I mean, Kylie Minogue in a commercial featuring "Main Offender" by the Hives? I can scarcely believe something this amazing actually exists.

The link is to a 17MB Zip file containing an MPG. Click on "Télécharger Agent Provocateur " (It may take a few seconds for the download to start after a pop-up comes up. Don't panic.) But, for God's sake DO NOT view this at work. I mean it. You'd get fired if you get caught, but how could you even work after seeing it? You couldn't. Save this for some quiet time in the privacy of your own home -- but don't forget, because this is definitely worth it. My God. Unbelievable. Kylie #&$@% Minogue!