2009 February | The Audio Perv - Part 3
Archive for February, 2009
25 Feb
2009

The following is Frank Krolicki from the Chicago Rock Music Examiner‘s opinion on possible bands that may be playing this year’s Lollapalooza Festival August 7th-9th. I’ll give you my opinion at the end of it.

    No Doubt – The newly reformed, Anaheim-bred pop/alternative/ska favorites recently announced plans of a summer tour that will kick off in May and find them “playing outdoor amphitheaters and arenas throughout the summer.” Sounds like the perfect scenario for a Lolla slot, and given the fest’s track record of booking 90s rock chart-toppers as headlining acts, it would make a lot of sense.

    Jane’s Addiction – The band that headlined the original Lollapalooza is back playing together again, with a few smaller gigs already under their belts, a show scheduled at the Sasquatch Music Festival in late May and confirmation that they will support Nine Inch Nails on their farewell tour. It’s only logical that the original Lolla headliners will do so again.

    Depeche Mode – The highly influential synth-pop act announced a worldwide tour to support their twelfth LP, “Sounds of the Universe,” and a Chicago gig is missing from the announced dates, with a gap in the schedule that would coincide perfectly with Lolla. Put two and two together and a slot at the fest seems like a good possibility.

    Green Day – The band is releasing a new record, “21st Century Breakdown,” in May, and considering their popularity with both the 90s crowd who got into them via “Dookie” and the youngsters who are better versed in “American Idiot,” a Green Day slot would be huge. According to greenday.com news of a world tour to support the record is coming soon, and an appearance at the festival would definitely not be a shocker.

    Coldplay – There are two reasons they are prime candidates for Lolla this year. One, they are one of the world’s biggest bands and have yet to play the fest. Two, there’s no Chicago gig on their current tour schedule, and an opening on August 8 that would make an appearance possible.

    Blink 182 – Visit the pop-punkers’ site and you’ll find a message that reads, “To put it simply, we’re back. We mean, really back. Picking up where we left off and then some. In the studio writing and recording a new album. Preparing to tour the world yet again. Friendships reformed. 17 years deep in our legacy. Summer 2009. Thanks and get ready…” As with No Doubt and Jane’s Addiction, this reunion would lend itself perfectly to a set at Lolla.

    Kaiser Chiefs – The Chiefs are a pretty sure bet, considering they recently mentioned a Lolla gig in their recent fan newsletter.

    The Raveonettes – Sune Rose Wagner of the Danish duo also mentioned a Lolla gig, according to this blog. If this post was actually up on the band’s MySpace site, though, it has since disappeared.

No Doubt: I think that it it sorta doesn’t make sense for them. They’ll be too busy on their own tour.
Jane’s Addiction: A LOCK
Depeche Mode: Maybe. They definitely do have about a week open during that time period without any shows from NY to Cali.
Green Day: If they play as part of any festival, it might be a few dates on Warped Tour.
Coldplay: No way. They’re playing NC and then FL that weekend.
Blink 182: Would they even fit in? Probably not.
Kaiser Chiefs: Yes
Raveonettes: They need the exposure, yes.

25 Feb
2009

Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Manic Street Preachers, The Ting Tings, The Specials, and Lily Allen have been added for the T in the Park Festival July 10-12 in Scotland. Here’s the current confirmed lineup below:

Kings Of Leon
The Killers
Blur
Snow Patrol
Razorlight
Elbow
Keane
Franz Ferdinand
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
The Specials
Bloc Party
James
Paolo Nutini
The Script
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Lily Allen
Manic Street Preachers
The Ting Tings
Katy Perry
Maximo Park
Pendulum
Seasick Steve
James Morrison
Peter Doherty
White Lies
Jason Mraz
Squeeze
Mogwai
The Mars Volta
Bjorn Again
Felix Da Housecat
Dave Clarke
Airborne Toxic Event
Slam
The Gaslight Anthem
Beardyman
Simian Mobile Disco
Claude Von Stroke
Silicone Soul
Hockey

Tickets go on sale on Friday February 27.

24 Feb
2009

Oasis have been announced as headliners for the Main Stage at the Melt! Festival in Ferropolis, Germany on July 17-19. The rest of the lineup is below:

Lineup
Aphex Twin + Hecker
A Critical Mass (feat. Henrik Schwarz, Âme, Dixon Live)
Matias Aguayo
Baddies
Kasper Bjørke
Bloc Party
Bodi Bill
Bonaparte
Boy8Bit
Caribou
Digitalism
Diplo
Jochen Distelmeyer
DJ Phono
The Dodos
Ellen Allien
The Faint
Filthy Dukes
Foals
Sascha Funke
Jazzanova Live!
Paul Kalkbrenner
Markus Kavka
Kiki
Klaxons
Mediengruppe Telekommander
Mikroboy
Hudson Mohawke
MSTRKRFT
Mujava
The New Wine
Oasis
Pilooski
Simian Mobile Disco
Luke Slater
Super 700
Tobias Thomas
Trentemøller
The Whitest Boy Alive
WhoMadeWho
James Yuill
Zander VT

Source

24 Feb
2009

Use code: “Perfect” for all shows. You can also use “HEKEANE” for the NY show starting at 10AM on February 25th.

MAY
8 – Oakland, CA – The Fox Theater – BUY TICKETS
9 – Los Angeles, CA – The Hollywood Palladium – BUY TICKETS
12 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kingsbury Hall – BUY TICKETS
13 – Denver, CO – The Ogden Theater – BUY TICKETS
15 – Minneapolis, MN – Myth – BUY TICKETS
16 – Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom – BUY TICKETS
19 – Washington, DC – Constitution Hall – BUY TICKETS
20 – Philadelphia, PA – Tower Theater – BUY TICKETS
21 – Boston, MA – Bank of America Pavilion – BUY TICKETS
23 – Toronto, ON – The Sound Academy – BUY TICKETS
24 – Cleveland, OH – Tower City Amphitheater – BUY TICKETS
27 – New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall – BUY TICKETS

24 Feb
2009

Lately, it seems like the best articles about the music biz come from Wired. Anyways, Edgar Bronfman is pissed off.. yet again. Is it because he just became a grandfather? Nope, it’s because all of those music video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have made over $2.3 billion and he’s gotten very little of that cut. At a time when the music industry’s tanking, Edgar recognizes that something has to be done.

“The amount being paid to the music industry, even though [these] games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small,” Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman told analysts last summer. The money Warner receives for the use of its songs is “paltry,” he said, and if the gamemakers don’t pony up more cash, “we will not license to those games.” In response, Rock Band publisher MTV Games is now boycotting Warner artists, according to a source close to the negotiations.

Good job Edgar, now we can’t play Sugar Ray on any future Rock Bands!

So what will happen? The article mentions how Edgar has already blocked the game people from covering songs from Warner’s catalog. This is worse than WMG pulling all their music off of Youtube.

We should all recognize though that the labels are at these video game companies’s knees. Steve Schnur, the music guy at EA who helped Madden become a franchise, gets thousands of demos a week and has people begging to be in one of his games.

According to the article, Aerosmith has made more money with their GH game than with any other album in their history. But how can the labels make some dough off of all of this?

The labels ought to push for more such titles and integrate them into their promotional strategies. They might not maximize profit on the licensing, but who cares? With more entries to come in the play-along genre, and networked hardware to play them on, the games themselves could even become an online music retail channel to rival iTunes. Or what about a game for turntable artists? Labels could provide the stem tracks for songs (in which each instrument’s recording is isolated) and let players mix their own versions. Users could vote for their favorites through online services like Xbox Live, and Warner could sell the winning mixes back to customers using the very platform on which they were created. Call it Wii-Mix.

Or you can just buy the company like Universal did with Activision. Sigh Edgar, don’t **** this one up too.
Source

24 Feb
2009

Tinted Windows, the poppiest name for a supergroup ever, will have their new self-titled album out on April 21st (S-Curve). It’s made up of Taylor Hanson (Hanson-singer), Adam Schlesinger (Ivy and Fountains of Wayne-bass), Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick-drums) and James Iha (ex-Smashing Pumpkins-guitar). Apparently, Taylor and Adam have been friends for a long time and they pulled Iha into this collaboration a few years ago.

Adam says” “Even though it seems really sudden to everybody else, we’ve been working on making this happen for a while.”

re: The three of them writing before finding a drummer
“We kept trying to brainstorm who could play like Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick.”
“But then it just seemed obvious we should at least try Bun E. Carlos.”

After sending Carlos some demos, he hopped on. Carlos and Adam were already somewhat familiar with each other as their bands had played a few shows together.

Though it took a while to even get a month of the band recording together at the same time, they were able to crack out a fine album of power-pop.

“For me personally as a writer, this was much more straight-forward musically and lyrically. Lyrically, these aren’t meant to be not ironic, not trying to be clever. They’re just pop songs,” Schlesinger says. “When I write a song, I’m always thinking about who’s going to be singing it. We have Taylor with this incredible voice so I had the idea of doing something with a lot of energy. It’s a shame that when people think of Hanson, they think of Taylor as a teenage. But he’s a grown man, and he’s capable of doing so much.”

The band should be playing some club shows in the spring. They’re already confirmed to be playing SXSW and Bamboozle.

Enough talking, let’s listen to some of this here. Wow, that’s not bad at all.

For more, go to http://www.tintedwindowsmusic.com/.

Source

24 Feb
2009

A report from a study from Pittsburgh University shows that teenagers who listen to music with degrading sexual lyrics have sex over those who don’t listen. Over 700 teenagers were asked about their sex lives and music listening habits and those who regularly listened (classified as over 17.6 hours/week) to music with explicit and aggressive sexual phrases were twice as likely to be having sex. These phrases would show sex as a physical act more than out of love (Isn’t that what it really is? No? Oh wow)

The head researcher, Dr. Brian Primack, says that parents should talk to their kids about sex and these lyrics.
(Head editor of The Audio Perv says that parents are AFRAID to talk to their kids about sex and these lyrics, especially from rap songs)

I love this part from the article:

    Researchers refused to name which songs would fall into the degrading category, but cited phrases such as “I’m gonna beat that pussy up” as the kind of lyrics that were being used.

Some more awesome wisdom from Primack:

    “There certainly seems to be a link, but it is hard to say whether listening to music is directly contributing to having sex earlier.”
    “However, I think parents should consider this. It is tempting to say music is just ‘teenage stuff’.
    “I am not saying parents should try to ban such music, that is unlikely to help.
    “But they should be talking to their children about sex and putting these sorts of lyrics in context.”

Mind you, this is from the UK so maybe we shouldn’t be as concerned. Because them Brits like to get freaky. Ask Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Peaches Geldof, etc.

The best part about this post is that I get to use “teen sex” as a tag. I wonder how many people will click on it just because of that. I may be a perv but only when it comes to music haha.
Source

24 Feb
2009

Depeche Mode’s become the first act to join iTunes Music Season Pass. Though their album “Sounds of the Universe” doesn’t come out until April 21st, you can purchase a $19 subscription. What does this sub get you? An immediate download of the single “Precious” and a remixed version of “Oh Well”. This subscription will also allow fans to get the full digital album in addition to exclusive content (music and videos) up until the release date and afterward. If you want to hear the new single “Precious” without buying the pass, however, you can do so by clicking on the imeem player below:


Wrong – Depeche Mode

Tour Dates
July 2009
24 – Toronto, Ontario
25 – Montreal, Quebec
28 – Washington, DC
31 – Boston, MA

August 2009
1 – Atlantic City, NJ
3 – New York, NY
10 – Seattle, WA
12 – San Francisco, CA
14 – San Diego, CA
16, 17 – Los Angeles, CA
20 – Santa Barbara, CA
22 – Las Vegas, NV
23 – Phoenix, AZ
25 – Salt Lake City, UT
27 – Denver, CO
29 – Dallas, TX
30 – Houston, TX

September 2009
1 – Atlanta, GA
4 – Tampa, FL
5 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL

24 Feb
2009

So last week everyone was writing about how JD Fortune had been kicked out as lead singer of INXS. Today, news comes out from INXS that JD was full of it. A released group statement reads: “Not only are we shocked by the claims, even the place the supposed incident was to have taken place is a mystery.” Band rep CM Murphy (“creative director and global business strategist” aka dude who “manages” them while scoring them Aussie hookers and Foster’s beer) didn’t deny that Fortune was out of the band but said:

“The band have always stated to me that Fortune’s services could potentially be contracted again when INXS next tour.

“In fact, he was next on my list to call regarding a very big recording project I am putting together for INXS at present.”

“I guess I have no reason to call him now.”

I call complete BS from INXS’s camp. They might’ve called him for a few one-off shows but I think that they were done with him. And they’re probably done altogether except for some reissues. What do you think?

24 Feb
2009

The Bronx is touring across the country. Go see them because they’re awesome. If there was one reason to not like them, it’s because they’re booked by Marsha Vlasic, ultra bitch. I hope that she’s driving everyone nuts over at ICM. Anyways, get your tickets here.

March 2009
18 – Austin, TX – Red 7 (SXSW Performance)
19 – Austin, TX – The Wave
21 – Austin, TX – Waterloo Park
23 – Albuquerque, NM – Launch Pad
25 – San Diego, CA – Casbah
26 – Santa Ana, CA – Galaxy
27 – Las Vegas, NV – Wasted Space
29 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Shop
31 – Portland, OR – Dante’s

April 2009
1 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Richard’s on Richards
2 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon
5 – Los Angeles, CA – Bamboozle
8 – Boulder, CO – Club 156
9 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
10 – Kansas City, MO – Riot Room
11 – Iowa City, IA – Picador
12 – Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock
13 – Chicago, IL – Reggie’s
14 – Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
15 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
17 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
19 – West Chester, PA – The Note
20 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
21 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
22 – Hoboken, NJ – Maxwell’s
23 – Boston, MA – Middle East
24 – Providence, RI – Jerky’s