OnSmash has a 20-minute preview of the Wu-Tang Clan’s new album, 8 Diagrams, consisting almost entirely of interviews with group members. You hear a little bit of music, but mainly it’s Method Man giggling about nudity on European TV, Raekwon side-stepping issues of depression, RZA talking about collaborating with other producers, and most everyone dealing (or not dealing) awkwardly with the absence of Ol’ Dirty Bastard. (Ghostface is conspicuously absent, although later in the video they explain that he does appear on three tracks; Masta Killa also seems to have skipped out.) It’s fairly interesting, but just the fact that they’re making another album is notable: While the touring market for old rap acts is extremely lucrative, no more so than for the Wu, in terms of records, no rap act has made a successful comeback.
In what has to be some sort of music-blogging feat, the 600-or-so-album catalog of the Residents gets distilled into an MP3-laden “Idiot’s Guide To The Residents” over at jefitoblog. More »
The social-networking site Facebook removed a music-sharing application from its site last night, citing copyright concerns. More »
Apple announced that it had sold three billion songs through the iTunes store today, but Eminem’s businesspeople were right there to spoil the party: Eight Mile Style, the company that publishes Eminem’s music, and Martin Affiliated, Em’s copyright manager, have filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging that the company has engaged in millions of dollars worth of copyright infringement by “illegally” selling Eminem songs via the iTunes Store. Apparently Eminem’s people have told Apple that the iTunes Store isn’t authorized to sell Eminem tracks and to pull the tracks from the store’s e-shelves, but Apple has refused, since its retail agreement is with Universal Music Group and not the artist directly:
A few songs from the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, who passed away yesterday at age 94. [The… More »
It’s long, but you should really read this article by a former Victory Records employee about the numerous sins of the label and its owner, Tony Brummel. (Edit: It’s been taken down, but the Google cache is here.) If you doubt that every part of the record industry, especially independent labels, is a giant sleazepit, this will give you very specific evidence that you are wrong. Everything in it certainly rings true with this writer’s experience of music-biz honchos and their continual need to work out their genitalia issues through their underlings (fun thought experiment: try and think of three labels run by women! How horrible it is that the biz is dying!).
MTV’s standards for Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” seem to shift each time the song is played: Kingston’s performing live on TRL right now, and “suicidal” is coming out of my speakers, untouched by any censor’s hand. Also, uh, it’s quite obvious that dude is a more than a bit pitch-challenged. More »
The Hiro Ballroom in New York, site of many mildly depressing free shows that bloggers flock to like Catholics to a shame party, is among the 26 venues being sued by ASCAP for copyright infringement. Other venues on ASCAP’s hit list include familiar names like the Sanctuary in Atlanta, Nuno’s in Austin, and, uh, the Holiday Inn Southfield in Southfield, Mich. Given that the Tommy Page-playing bar in Tucson got hit for $210 million, Hiro’s bill is likely to involve words like “bazillion.”
Breaking: At least one person out there thought that Ann Coulter’s Flock Of Seagulls/Rage Against The Machine joke that came after Zach De La Rocha’s Coachella proclamation that the Bush Administration should be tried for war crimes was “a good quip.” More »
