Monday, July 16, 2007

The Money Shot: 7.16.07

Today's headlines...


10 Surprisingly Good Tribute Albums (AV Club)
The Money Shot: 2. Take Me Home: A Tribute To John Denver

Some of the best tribute albums—like Friends And Lovers: Songs Of Bread, and this homage to John Denver—prompt a reappraisal of the entire career of a not-so-respected act. Remade with the slow, droning approach of the likes of Low, The Innocence Mission, Will Oldham, and project-organizer Mark Kozelek, the songs of feather-soft country-rocker Denver become hauntingly, surprisingly melancholy. Denver's winding melodies, stripped of saccharine '70s arrangements, are as ethereal and stung as anything by Red House Painters, and Kozelek's emphasis on lesser-known songs like "Around And Around" and "I'm Sorry" helps make the case for Denver as a songwriter first and a pop star second.


20 you should know: Rock and Pop: These songs laid foundation for what genre has become (Columbus Dispatch)
MS: Superstition , Stevie Wonder (1972): For a paper-thin version of what Wonder does, listen to a Justin Timberlake album. For a decent impersonation of what Wonder does, check out the Red Hot Chili Peppers' take on Higher Ground. For the real deal, check out Superstition, one of the nastiest (in the best sense of the word) rock songs ever recorded.


Ash to abandon albums for singles (BBC News)
MS: "When you're tied to the album format, you find yourself waiting six months between finishing a record and releasing it," said Wheeler.

"By leaving this behind, we can record a track and release it the next day if we feel like it.

"We're the first band to do this, but I very much doubt we'll be the last."

Vinyl Words Farewell To The Record Shop (The Independent)
MS: Nowadays, I confess, I'm an Amazon addict of several years' standing, all the way down to my one-click button finger. I'm sorry, but it's so quick, so easy. It literally takes seconds, from the moment the thought occurs that you can't live without the latest White Stripes or Mud's 1974 debut album Mud Rock, to that one simple click. I can hear something on the radio and a highly paid operative can be taking it off a shelf in some godforsaken warehouse somewhere before the track's finished, or so I fondly imagine.


PopMatters Picks: Say It Loud! 65 Great Protest Songs - Part 1: Beethoven to Phil Ochs (1824-1965) (PopMatters)
MS: With “This Machine Kills Fascists” scrawled across his acoustic guitar in big black letters, Woody Guthrie brilliantly captured the experience of 20th-century America in his songs. Whether he sang about union organizers, migrant workers, or war, Guthrie was inspired by the plight of the people around him, and his example paved the way for the likes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Guthrie was inspired to write “This Land Is Your Land” while hitch-hiking his way cross-country to New York City in the winter of 1940. The song was his response to Irving Berlin’s patriotic “God Bless America” and Katie Smith’s popular version of the song that monopolized the radio at the time. Sick of the gross disparity between the message of that song and the reality of the poverty and depression he witnessed on his travels, Guthrie penned this original anti-anthem to directly comment on the hypocrisy of class inequality and private property laws of the time.


Unknowns' Commercial Tune (L.A. Times)
MS: Indie bands making deals with advertisers might once have been accused of "selling out" by fans, but a younger generation of artists used to music videos and MTV don't see any downside, said Tricia Halloran, director of music supervision at HUM, a Santa Monica-based company that places or creates music for commercials and TV shows. Music fans who have grown up with MTV are accustomed to seeing songs paired with visual images, she said.


Video Kills The Radio Star (Again) (Forbes)
MS: So how did TV become the new radio, turning music supervisors like Patsavas and Edelman into tastemakers for a nation?

Radio can blame itself. While radio exposure remains essential for recording artists to notch platinum-plus sales, much of the FM dial remains mired in the nostalgia of classic rock and "Jack" programming formats or conservative playlists of new releases by mostly proven hitmakers. Those seeking musical discovery look elsewhere.

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