I Must Take Issue With The Wikipedia Entry For 'Weird Al' Yankovic
Topic: music
"...To start: Your entry for "Weird Al" is laughably brief, and fails to account for the grand impact and scope of his career. How can you justify a "Weird Al" biography of only a paltry 850 words?

"Particularly galling to this author is the fact that Madonna and U2 were given articles two and three times the length of the Weird One's. Yes, those artists may have sold more records than "Weird Al," but surely the Wikipedia community is not one to confuse net profits with artistic merit. Nevertheless, while we are on the loathsome subject of money, I might point out that nowhere in the article is it mentioned that Yankovic has earned no less than four gold and four platinum records."

(read more here.)

The new Oasis album.
Topic: music
---------------------------------------------------
FROM: Bill Machon
DATE: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 00:03:34 -0500
TO: Lenny Flatley
SUBJECT: dude... new Oasis album...

http://tinyurl.com/3vcue
---------------------------------------------------

Posted by mediafaction at 12:56 PM EST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Eminem: Mosh
Topic: music


Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's tryina tell us something,
Maybe this is god just sayin' we're responsible
For this monster, this coward,
That we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head noddin'
How could we allow something like this
without pumping our fists
Now this is our final hour

...Let the president answer a higher anarchy
Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go, fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil
No more psychological warfare, to trick us to thinking that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country, we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes its all lies
The stars and stripes, they've been swiped, washed out and wiped
And replaced with his own face, Mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you know why,
Cause I told you to fight.

(complete lyrics here. review / video here)

Tape From California
Topic: music
Tape From California
Artist: Phil Ochs | Genre: Folk | Time: 46:55

Critic's Review
3 / 5

William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

On his fourth album, Pleasures of the Harbor, Phil Ochs broke from both his topical songwriting style and his acoustic folk music approach for an album of long, poetic songs set to elaborate, eclectic arrangements. For its follow-up, Tape From California, he combined his earlier and more recent styles, addressing such issues as war and union organizing along with more discursive efforts, and including a few more complicated arrangements mixed in with simple guitar accompaniments. There were some directly political efforts, but in the more poetic songs, Phil Ochs seemed to be painting a portrait of a desperate, debased society and his own sense of personal decline. For example, the marathon "When in Rome" conflated images from slavery, the Nuremberg trials, and ancient Rome to compile a compendium of evil and decadence through the centuries, clearly implying that the present day was another such era. Phil Ochs imbued his lyrics with his characteristic sense of irony, and the arrangements by producer Larry Marks, Bob Thompson, and Ian Freebairn-Smith complemented the songs wittily. But released in the middle of 1968, the most tumultuous year of the tumultuous '60s, Tape From California was often hard to listen to, because it was such a frighteningly accurate portrait of its times, eerily mirroring the point at which passionate argument over the direction of the country spilled over into violence and a widespread sense of absurdity.

(mp3.com more here.)

Howard Stern on the new protest music...
Topic: music
"Music is so much a part of what I do. I'm about rock'n'roll," Stern tells Billboard Radio Monitor. "With what's going on in this country and the war in Iraq, music is more important than ever. I think there is going to be a rebirth of protest music. [My stations] will also represent music..."

read more here.

Brian Wilson completes Smile album after nearly fourty years!
Topic: music
The end result is a great album, albeit one more lighthearted than its myth would suggest. The music I hear is like round pegs in square holes; it's just as insular and manic-compassionate as "In My Room" or "God Only Knows", but filtered through an amiable resolve. It sounds pleasant and assured, lacking the vulnerable, shy wave of hope drenching the old Beach Boys records. Yet, Wilson's voice sounds great. It's a bit lower, and his inflections have lost some subtlety over the years, but it still carries the weight of those angelic melodies (and when it can't, his band helps him out).

Pitchfork Media review here.

More On Music and Production.
Topic: music
Before the age of the home studio (and the blurring of lines between 'producer' and 'artist') it was a rare thing for a producer to be seen as an artist in their own right. But there have been a few producers that have reputations as big as that of the bands they work with.

"Martin Hannett was the finest and most influential producer of his time. Although many of the groups he worked with have gone down in "musical history", there is little, if any, information for those who seek to know more, or even for those who would like an accurate discography of his production work. We intend this site to be both a celebration and a catalogue of his work, belonging to all those who admire his genius."

Brian Wilson will forever be known as a Beach Boy (if not the Beach Boy). His brilliance as a songwriter is braided with his brilliance as a producer and arranger.

Joe Meek: "An independent producer who launched his own record label... and literally built his own (recording studio), in the modest flat he rented above a leather goods store in north London. It was there, surrounded by boxes, wires and other assorted electronic gismos whose functions, it seemed, were known only to him, that Meek worked his alchemy, turning base beat groups into solid gold." (from Wall of Pain by Dave Thompson).

"(Phil) Spector called his singles "little symphonies for the kids," but they were closer to opera -- full of romantic Sturm und Drang and more than occasional dips into absolute madness. The Wall was the sound of young love distilled into the three-minute opus -- beautiful and horrible and sweet and suffocating."