Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Money Shot: Chinese Pop Sucks, QOTSA Disses iPhones, and The Who (& Smashing Pumpkins) Sell Out (Again!)

The latest headlines...

The Sound, Not of Music, but of Control (NY Times)
MS: “What prevails here is worse than garbage,” he said. “Because China emphasizes stability and harmony, the greatest utility of these pop songs is that they aren’t dangerous to the system. If people could hear underground music, it would make them feel the problems in their lives and want to change things.”


Who’s Bucks: The Who Launch For-Fee Subscription Site (Harp)
MS: Now, if you’re like most folks, you might be saying to yourself, “Hmm… fifty bucks is a lot to blow just to be able to access a band website… that doesn’t sound like much of a bargain.” If you look closely at the subscription offer, not only is it making you pay for content you previously might have gotten for free (access to Townsend’s blogs, for example, or fan message boards), it’s also making a heavy pitch for you to buy merch (you get a 25% discount if you’re a subscriber; you get advance ticket info—big whoop).


Guest List by Josh Homme (Pitchfork)
MS: Best Purchase of the Past Year - Shit, I don't know. I guess the best thing I didn't buy is an iPhone. My mother's got one, but I don't want my computer to be in my phone, too. What if it gets a virus or some shit? It's cool, I don't need an iPhone, I'm good. It's sort of like neon lights underneath your car-- until everyone has to, I'm not doing it.


Pumpkins Prep Another Best Buy-Only Zeitgeist (Pitchfork)
MS: Why, when you already have the regular edition, the Target edition, the iTunes edition, and the original Best Buy edition, might you actually consider possibly wanting this artifact too? Well, it has a few bonus tracks-- one from the first Best Buy Zeitgeist ("Death From Above"), one from the iTunes Zeitgeist ("Stellar"), and one that appears nowhere else ("Ma Belle"). It also comes with a DVD sporting the full-length documentary Inside the Zeitgeist. And, um, somebody put the cover art in Photoshop and desaturated it. (They're calling this a "metallic silver color scheme"; it's a "scheme" all right.)


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