Black Sabbath Holding L.A. Press Conference on 11/11/11 (Rolling Stone)

From TheDaily.com: Wilco Our musical mathematician breaks down what makes up performers BY @DISCOGRAPHIES MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011 15% Volvo-esque stability, reliability and mid-tempo choogling [View Image] 15% Moody, semi-evocative lyrics about ... uh ... well ... you know ... stuff [Jeff Tweedy: “I grunt and make noises and sounds that I think sound like what lyrics would sound like if I had any, and then I go and listen to them over and over and over and over again until it sounds like words, and then I write them down.”] [MIKE: can you italicize “stuff”?] 15% Jagged tempo shifts, guitar squalls and sudden bursts of static-y weirdness [Jeff Tweedy: “The band itself overall is populated with pretty major Rush fans.”] 14% Hatred of being labeled “dad rock” [Glenn Kotche: “Being a dad twice over now, that phrase makes no sense ... I understand the term means complacent, middle-aged and you have a house and a luxury car, but man, being a dad? I drink 10 times more than I did before.”] 12% Social media awareness [Jeff Tweedy: “I have no doubt that the second this record becomes available there’s somebody sitting in a basement at their computer with the word ‘meh’ already typed up, waiting to post a review.”] 11% An informed fanbase [Jeff Tweedy: “We were waiting for some food one time at a bar ... and this guy turned around and he recognized me, and he said, “Hey, man. I really wish your records would start selling.”] 9% #humblebrag [Jeff Tweedy: “There are gaping holes in my knowledge of literature, and at the same time I’m a big fan of Robert Walser, a semi-obscure German short-story writer.”] 5% Social democracy [Jeff Tweedy: [“You know, I don’t think Kanye West probably hangs out with his [road] crew too much.”] 3% “ ‘M’ is for the million things she...” [Jeff Tweedy: “My mom told me something that I struggled with my whole life: ‘You’re born alone and you die alone. So you should get used to being alone.’ And that’s just terrible advice.”] 1% Archopyrophobia [Jeff Tweedy: “[Our worst show ever was] the first time we played the Sasquatch festival. We went on after Arcade Fire, who were just becoming huge at the time ... it was like having your ass handed to you by, like, Cirque du Soleil.”]

How was that? I love their video for "Romance", especially the part where they knock the Arcade Fire album off of the Now Playing stand in the record store.

Chris Knight, who was accompanied by his guitarist Chris Clark, at the Berkeley Café in Raleigh last night. Great show and he even debuted some new songs that sounded wonderful but most of the audience talked (and not softly) throughout the course of the entire show which proved to be a major distraction. I can understand talking between songs, which doesn't bother me in the least but when folks continue to carry on a conversation when someone is performing (particularly acoustically, as Chris was last night), that's just plain rude. People also love to sing along to his songs which doesn't really bother me but when he would perform a new, or less familiar song, that seemed to be an excuse to up the chatter quotient simply because no one knew the words the songs.

I guess the upside to iTunes is that it took a pretty messy situation (ie, filesharing sites such as Napster) and harnessed them into a more user friendly application. I haven't used Spotify yet but from what I understand, it also isn't exactly rewarding when it comes to song royalties. In regards to what Townshend said about iTunes, people tend to see headlines like "Pete Townshend Calls Apple A Digital Vampire" and have an immediate knee-jerk reaction to it without ever actually reading the article (or in the is case, also watching the video). It's also peculiar how Jimmy Page expressed similar thoughts on licensing Zep's music to iTunes and is also paranoid about allowing Zeppelin's music to be used for Guitar Hero and similar games.

I think that if he was actually up to no good, that would have come out in the proceedings.

Townshend has some pretty interesting things to say about the future of the Who in this new interview he did with Rolling Stone. I realize most everyone is focusing on his comments about iTunes but there's more to this interview than that. There's also a video accompanying the article that is well worth watching.

On the subject of "We All Go Back To Where We Belong", former No Depression magazine co-editor and co-founder Peter Blackstock shares his thoughts on in it in this entry from his That Magnificent Ghost blog. Yesterday, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills made the rounds on the BBC doing interviews with Simon Mayo for his radio program and putting in an appearance on the television program Newsnight. To listen to the radio interview, click here. To watch the Newsnight segment, click here.

I'm going to need to watch Into the Wild again. The disc was damaged (one of the downsides of renting) so I missed the entire segment with Vince Vaughan as well as another chunk of the movie when my DVD player was "skipping over damaged area". As much as I enjoyed the movie, I'm in no real hurry to watch it again because of the dire subject matter. On the upside, I did enjoy it enough that I would like to own a copy someday so when I get around to purchasing it, I'll watch it again. As for the soundtrack, I'm a pretty big Pearl Jam fan so it's a wonder I don't already own it. In regards to the latest Pirates movie, I can't say I ever felt bored by it. I also think having Keith Richards in it is a nice touch, especially since Johnny Depp has always said he based his character on a cross between Keith and Pepé Le Pew. So far, Keith's appearances in the movies have been relegated to cameo status so it doesn't really bother me. Plus, I think he's only been in two of them so far. Nothing about that really gets under my skin at all, I think he fits in perfectly. Yeah, didn't know what I was getting into with Tuxedo but not every movie you rent is going to be a winner.

Not exactly sure what I was thinking when I rented this or if I was even thinking at all. It has a few laughs but nothing worthy of redeeming the entire movie. I was a bit hesitant to rent this one because of all the poor reviews I read about it last summer, not just from critics but from fans. After having watched it, I have to wonder what it was about it that they hated so much. Personally, I loved it and found it to be among the better entries in the Pirates series.

Everyone (particularly Townshend's detractors) love to leave out the part where he was exonerated of those charges. From his recent comments about iTunes, it's obvious he hasn't stayed off of the internet, nor should he feel compelled to. To read more on his remarks regarding iTunes, you can do so here. There's also a video segment which you can watch at that link. Having watched it myself, I wouldn't say he wasn't a "gentleman" (English or otherwise) but he definitely speaks his mind.

I don't always agree with everything he says but if he wasn't so outspoken he wouldn't be Pete Townshend.

Remember how Zeppelin held out for so long when it came to licensing their music to iTunes? It was for many of the same reasons. There's lots of people out these days that feel entitled to music and feel they shouldn't have to pay for it. That has to be frustrating for any musician, including Pete Townshend. Jimmy Page has expressed some very similar thoughts. It's a very different game out there now, particularly for folks like Townshend and Page who have seen music media go from reel-to-reel, vinyl, 8-tracks, cassettes, compact discs to downloads during their respective careers. No one has really figured it out yet but if you're interested in reading them, Bono has some pretty interesting comments about that (as well as the future of U2) he recently shared with The Irish Times.

I heard a short piece about that on NPR yesterday. I can't find an archived version of the segment on their site at the moment but as I recall, the commentator said Townshend made pretty much the same remarks in regards to signing to a record label back in the 60's.

Tough one, especially since I'm a fan of #'s 2-4. I realize that doesn't help any but I do empathise with you. Tomorrow night Chuck Prophet w/ Heather McEntire of Mount Moriah are playing at the Casbah in Durham. The next night Chris Knight is doing an acoustic show (accompanied by Chris Clark on guitar) at the Berkeley Cafe in Raleigh. Even though I've never seen Chuck Prophet before and I love Mount Moriah, I'm probably going to opt for the Chris Knight show. I've only seen him once but that's been several years ago now.

I haven't been in a big hurry to see this movie because, even though I didn't know for sure, I had an inkling as to how it ends. Well, that inkling turned out to be true and makes for some very difficult viewing but it turned out to be very well worth it.

I guess it depends on whether you look at the glass as half empty or as half full because that thread is full of plenty of very favorable comments about The Clash. Funny that you chose to zero in on the negative...

The four limited edition versions of Some Girls on colored vinyl:

My introduction to "mumblecore", which I'd never heard of before seeing this movie.

There's already a thread for The Clash here.

Breaking news: Pop music ("shitty" and otherwise) has been around for a very long time and wasn't just invented.

Two takes on John Prine's "Sam Stone": http://youtu.be/XCRN-5yU1pQ

Thanks for that. It's a reminder of just how much I miss the Week In Rock. I used to tape segments off of there pretty regularly. Hopefully someday I can upload some of them to the YouTubes.