Day For Night

Because Supply and Demand is the Problem...

…with the music industry (oh lord), itunes has been forced by the major labels to change their model and raise prices. The big wig execs see growth in download sales coming from itunes and figure now is the perfect time to stand by their outdated ideas, to try and squeeze every penny out of an approach even if it risks systemic failure. Seems to me the best thing major labels can do is let some of their dinosaurs go; maybe those people can find new jobs at AIG.

By Keith on Mar 28, 2009

Mmm...Not So Much...

By Kali on Mar 11, 2009

Bono's Joyless Division

For a long time I use to argue with my brother that while Bono hasn’t written decent music in ages and has the world’s worst Jesus complex, he as one person has done a lot of good in this world. I guess I started thinking differently about this when his project (RED) spread across the world. Completely against my ethical beliefs, he ushered in a campaign that’s soul purpose was to encourage people to buy shit that they don’t need in the name of fighting AIDS. By my logic, if this is the only way for both individuals and corporations to take some action of social responsibility, then we are truly screwed. Solving world issues shouldn’t be as simple as making purchases on your credit card, unaware of the very campaign that one just contributed to.

U2 have played the super bowl. They’ve marketed their own version of an ipod. There may even be a Bono action figure; U2 is now first and foremost an industry. They have generated gobs of money. In fact, Bono is literally the richest man in Ireland. This all strikes me as hugely contradictory coming from the guy that I once saw walk out on a stage in a silver suite with a matching cowboy hat preach like a Southern Baptist in great parody. Throughout the Zoo Station show, he swaggered with game-show host appeal condemning the “big brother-like” video images of our nation’s president, George Bush Sr. I can recall him pretending to prank call the President, ordering a pizza to the White House. Many early fans of U2 considered this zeal to represent the beginning of the end. Earnings would demonstrate that it was the beginning of one of the most profitable rock acts of all times. Despite their ostentatious image, I thought the band avoided creative repetition and boredom as they continued to make very different sounding albums, all the way through their album appropriately named Pop.

Then what ensued was just poop; the band chose to market diet advertising-friendly shadows of their earlier work. This move turned a fortune into an empire. What I had failed to realize as a young teen was that even when he seemed to be mocking everything wrong in the world, it was all a show that was obviously about the cult of his personality. Last year, I read several reports about how U2 had hidden many millions of dollars of earnings in Dutch banks, thereby averting their due taxes. I can’t hate him for caring about world issues related to poverty, violence, and health. But I am absolutely sickened by his destruction of the Joy Division classic Love Will Tear Us Apart. The band performed the song while sharing the stage with the Arcade Fire. Not knowing the lyrics is one thing but he is painfully off key to boot. 

By Keith on Feb 16, 2009

A Knife to the Heart

Karin from The Knife has an album coming out from her side project Fever Ray. The first single, If I Had A Heart is rather hypnotic and the strange video is pretty mesmerizing too.

By Keith on Jan 07, 2009

Sadly, our show at BAM with School of Seven Bells has been cancelled. We are hoping that we will be able to reschedule a performance with them later in the year. For those of you who are not acquainted with SVIIB, it is the newest project of Benjamin Curtis from Secret Machines and the Deheza sisters of On! Air! Library!. To put SVIIB’s sound in a visual context, their airy harmonies are equal parts Solaris sci-fi and Koyaanisqatsi spirtual experience. Check out this performance of SVIIB performing White Elephant Coat.

(photo by Timothy Saccenti for Flaunt)

By Keith on Jan 03, 2009

Right Wing Still Full of Red-Baiters; Nutjobs

The golden rule in conservative politics is, when confronted with an opinion, a political philosophy, or school of thinking that you don’t like, just call it “commie” and call it a day. Continuing this illustrious tradition are a host of Republican politicos and hangers-on: John McCain and Sarah Palin have tacitly called for a return to the good ol’ days of McCarthyism; total nutjob Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) is essentially attempting to single-handedly resurrect HUAC; and Republican mascot (and tax evader) Joe the “Plumber” has been dropping words he doesn’t really understand—like “Socialist”—on the ears of anyone who will listen. Ironically, the people most offended by all these cheap political stunts? Real, live Socialists:

John Bachtell, the Illinois organizer for Communist Party USA, sees attempts by Sen. John McCain’s campaign to label Obama a socialist as both offensive to socialists and a desperate ploy to tap into fears of voters who haven’t forgotten their Cold War rhetoric.

“Red baiting is really the last refuge of scoundrels,” Bachtell said. “It has nothing to do with the issues that are confronting the American people right now. It’s just a big diversion.”

As if you didn’t already know that. Anyway, for more, have a look at this Chicago Tribune article, which attempts to explain Socialism to the sorts of people who see pinkos behind every rock and Socialists lurking around every corner.

By Kali on Oct 21, 2008

I Cannot Support This

I just found out that the Ting Tings have released a cover version of Altered Images’ Happy Birthday, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why. The original is one of my favorite songs of all time, and has been ever since I first heard it tucked in the background of a scene in Sixteen Candles, a movie I watched literally hundreds of times on cable—and then later on a well-worn VHS tape—as a kid and which led me to the false conclusion that high school would be fun. Clare Grogan sounds like a pouty pixie, lending the whole song an adorable quirkiness, while the jangly guitars ring like bells and bounce from note to note. Frankly, Happy Birthday is not a song that ever, ever needed a remake—especially one that replaces the song’s original oddness with such unmitigated normalcy (why would you want to cover a song solely to make it sound less unique?). So, I’m posting the original here; you can look up the Ting Ting’s version—for comparative purposes, I suppose—on your own.

By Kali on Oct 01, 2008

Why Notions of Authenticity in Fashion Are Just Dumb

According to the judges on Project Runway, this outfit is Punk.*

Everytime I see this picture, I laugh really hard, and then a little part of me dies…**

*Actually, they called it “authentically punk.” Really.
**…And Jerry Nolan spins in his grave.

By Kali on Sep 29, 2008

For Realsies?

So John McCain wants to “suspend” his campaign to head back to Washington and (get this) fix the economy. Really? Really? I’m sure I’ll get an angry email from him in which he calls me a “cunt” (Cindy and Sarah take so much abuse from that man) after I post this, but I cannot censor myself right now. The truth is, John, this move would seem totally genius if it wasn’t already so f’ing played out. What—do you think we’re all morons who haven’t already experienced eight years of this Rovian bullshit? I know that metaphorically walking and chewing gum at the same time makes you worry you’re going to fall down and break your hip (and at your age, granted, that is a valid concern), but this just makes you seem weak. And unable to compete. And unprepared to lead. You’re going to have to do better, John. This just isn’t going to cut it.

I leave you with this.

Love,
Kali

P.S. Can with the POW shit already. We got it first eleventy billion times.

By Kali on Sep 24, 2008