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| Our friends at Music Video Distributors have released a lot of cool stuff over the past year, but nothing like the upcoming three-DVD set Don’t Forget The Motor City. Scheduled for March 18, 2008 release, the collection features 100 classic videos rescued from the vaults of Hitsville, USA! The Motown label had its roots in the dirty R&B and funky soul of the Motor City, and label founder Berry Gordy Jr had an undeniable ear for talent.... |
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| Maybe the Reverend is just getting old and cranky, but I
find myself agreeing with music biz gadfly Bob Lefsetz more and more
frequently. In this modern Internet world, Lefsetz has become better known for
his blog “The Lefsetz Letter” than he is for his work as an entertainment
attorney and recording industry consultant. Although Lefsetz has been known to
fly off on an illogical tangent every now and then (then again, who am I to be
throwing stones, eh?), he nevertheless brings an educated perspective to his
analysis and, unlike many industry insiders of a certain vintage, Lefsetz isn’t
scared to death by new ideas.... |
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| Well, folks, we’ve stumbled headfirst into a new year, and
much like the famed swallows returning to Capistrano, or the assurance of
crappy blockbuster movies come Memorial Day, there is much wailing and gnashing
of teeth from the corporate music world at 2007’s end-of-year sales stats.
Although the Reaper had Edgar Bronfman and Warner Music on speed-dial
throughout much of the year, and a few anti-RIAA jokers have instigated various
major label underground deadpools – with surprisingly heavy betting taking
place – the more positive-minded among us still feel that there’s a way out for
the music biz. Still, considering the cold, hard reality behind last year’s
sales.... |
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| As we reported back in October, our friends at Music Video
Distributors worked out a deal with the legendary punk club CBGB to release
performances from the club’s audio vault. A lot of incredible performers
appeared on the CBGB stage over the club’s 33-year lifespan, and thanks to MVD
Audio we’ll get to hear some of this music as part of the CBGB OMFUG Masters Series (The Bowery Collection). First on the slate, with a March 18 street date, are performance CDs from NYC garage rockers the Mooney Suzuki, ska legends the Toasters and hardcore punk cult band Terror.... |
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| A member of seminal early-70s pub-rock pioneers Brinsley Schwarz, Nick Lowe earned a reputation as a snappy songwriter with a skill for turning a phrase. That band’s roots-rock sound never caught on far beyond the streets of London and Camden Town, however, and Brinsley Schwarz broke up in 1975 after recording five now highly-collectible albums. After working in the studio as a producer for Graham Parker, Wreckless Eric and the Damned, Lowe launched his solo career in 1978 with the release of Jesus Of Cool, a whip-smart collection of pop-rock gems that welded contagious melodies with Lowe’s often-demented lyrical tales.... |
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Over the past 20 years, Rochester NY radio deejay Brother Wease, a/k/a Alan Levin, has become a regional institution. Holding the reigns on the madness that is the morning show on WCMF-FM, the daily “Radio Free Wease” broadcast offers up your typical “shock jock” fare, but with a very important twist – whereas radio entertainers like Howard Stern are largely persona, playing shallow, mostly fictional characters for the benefit of their listeners, Brother Wease is a character, a 100% straight-shooting wiseguy that walks it like he talks it…even if he sometimes puts his foot in his mouth and has to pay the price. |
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You may have overlooked this latest boneheaded record biz
move while slogging nog and waiting under the mistletoe over the holidays, but
the latest bright idea from the industry braintrust is this: a digital download
album card. Yup, it’s not quite a compact disc, yet not really a mp3, but rather a
gift card that will allow the recipient to download a copy of a classic album
in DRM-free mp3 format ... |
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| Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of discussion, both positive and
negative, over a legal brief filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the case of Atlantic Recording
Corporation v. Pamela and Jeffery Howell. The brief was brought to light by attorney Ray Beckman, one of the few brave souls still tilting at the
RIAA’s windmills (the EFF being another). Beckman says that this brief shows that the RIAA, and therefore the record industry, believes that ripping your
legally-purchased CDs onto your computer in mp3 format is an illegal act.... |
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| The crop of nominees for next year’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is, to say the least, rather dodgy. The list includes disco queen Donna Summer, hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaata,
rappers the Beastie Boys and funksters Chic…none of which are deserving of
taking up space in the “rock” hall. Leonard Cohen is a critic’s darling and a
fascinatingly literary songwriter, but his somber material and droning vocals
skew closer to folk than rock for this edifice. As for Madonna, well… |
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| When I was a kid, I discovered Creem magazine at the tender age of 14 years. My family had just moved to Tennessee from Pennsylvania and I was feeling like somewhat of a loner. While in PA, I had neighborhood kids to play ball with, shoot model rockets towards the windows of kids we didn’t like, and drink the small, airplane-sized bottles of booze that my old man collected on his travels and stored in a big box underneath his workbench in the basement. ... |
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