Myspace.com Sponsors NIN Tour

Looks like the social networking website Myspace is going to sponsor Nine Inch Nails' fall tour.

The sponsorship announcement is one component of MySpace's ongoing integrated marketing efforts for Nine Inch Nails' latest album (With_Teeth). MySpace hosted the exclusive world premiere of (With_Teeth) before retail distribution and generated more than 500,000 MySpace user streams in one week (April 26 - May 3). The album debuted at the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 charts and was the most successful launch week in NIN history. MySpace also provides a forum for NIN fans to interact with the music through online ACID remixes of the NIN single, "Only." Users are invited to upload personalized mixes of the track and vote for their favorite version at www.myspace.com/ninremixes. More than 1,200 user versions of the song have been created to date.

For the curious, the Musical Justice myspace page is here. As of now, Trent Reznor only has 101, 440 more 'friends' than me...

In stores on 9/27

New CDs hit the stores tomorrow from these past & present Musical Justice artists:

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Jacksonville City Nights
Big Star - In Space
Sheryl Crow - Wildflower
The Ike Reilly Assassination - Junkie Faithful
Alanis Morissette - Music in High Places: Live in the Navajo Nation
Supergrass - Road to Rouen
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
Neil Young - Prairie Wind

Overall, I'd give this week's releases a "B".

Bloodshot Turns 11, Spawns Another Bastard Child

Due to hit the streets on October 25th from Bloodshot Records...

"This 42-track, 2-disc celebration compilation includes a heaping serving of only NEW and PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACKS from your favorite Bloodshot artists and Bloodshot alumni. There's something here for everyone, including foot stomping, freewheeling, I-think-you-just-saved-my-soul tracks from Scott H. Biram, Bobby Bare Jr., The Waco Brothers, Graham Parker, and Split Lip Rayfield, and heart-wrenching deal breakers from Sally Timms and The Deadstring Brothers, just to name a few.

We arm-wrestled. We bribed. We batted our eyes. We even shoveled pricey whiskey shots down the throats of a few folks who we've long admired from afar, just to bring you the best in only previously unreleased tracks from special guest appearances by top-notch acts including My Morning Jacket, Richard Buckner, Sixteen Horsepower, Milton Mapes, Blanche, Crooked Fingers, The Court and Spark, Nine Pound Hammer, Yayhoos, Cordero, Graham Lindsey, and a glorious mess of others.

Hey, listen folks -- don't even think about calling this compilation a
retrospective -- we're forward thinking and looking forward!"

Disk 1
Blood Sweat & Murder (Scott H. Biram)
De-Railed (Sixteen Horsepower)
Glass of Wine (Paul Burch & Ralph Stanley)
Close Your House Down (Cordero)
Ocean Size (Bobby Bare Jr.)
Behind That Locked Door (My Morning Jacket)
The Plan (Matt Mays & El Torpedo)
Little White Pills (The Meat Purveyors)
A Living Hell (The Bottle Rockets)
Do You Want To Go Somewhere? (Richard Buckner)
Lonesome Roads (Carla Bozulich)
Sputnik 57 (Minus 5)
I'm Yer Huckleberry (Nine Pound Hammer)
No Way Out But Down (Graham Lindsey)
Tumbling Tumbleweeds (Sally Timms)
Harridan of Yore (Graham Parker & The Figgs)
Where Are All Of My Friends? (Deadstring Brothers)
Chicken Road (Kelly Hogan & The Wooden Leg)
Shake A Tail Feather (Andre Williams & The Sadies
Tearin' My Hair Out (99 Tales)
Love Train (The Yayhoos)

Disk 2
Two Way Action (Nora O'Connor)
Ship to Spain (Crooked Fingers)
I'd Be Lonesome (Old 97s)
How Many Biscuits Can You Eat? (Split Lip Rayfield)
I Want to Destroy You (Dollar Store)
Cold Company (Mary Lou Lord)
Now I Know (Milton Mapes)
Magnificent Seven (Jon Rauhouse)
Call of the Wreckin' Ball (John Doe w/Jim and Jennie and The Pinetops)
Got Just What I Want (Devil in a Woodpile)
Josephine (Puerto Muerto)
Juke Joint Jumping (Wayne Hancock & Hank III)
Red Head (Blanche)
The Lost Soul (The Handsome Family)
Tell Me (Catfish Haven)
People Who Died (Porter Hall TN)
Berliners (The Court and Spark)
How Long (Have You Been Gone)? (Rex Hobart and The Misery Boys)
How Can I Be So Thirsty Today? (Petty Booka w/ The Meat Purveyors)
Burn the Flag (The Starkweathers)
I Fought the Law (Waco Brothers)

Personally, I think the Yahoos' cover of "Love Train" might be the pick of the litter... :)

In stores on 9/20

Some of the new releases in stores tomorrow that you might hear on Musical Justice:

Cary Brothers - What It Takes EP
Echo & the Bunnymen - Siberia
Mojo Gurus - Shakin' in the Bar
Nada Surf - The Weight Is a Gift

Sorry to say it, but that's a pretty below-average lot. However, the week is redeemed by our top pick...

Old 97's - Alive & Wired (unlike the upcoming Wilco live CD, this one really covers the 97's entire history!)

Here's the track list.

Disc 1
1. Melt Show
2. New Kid
3. Barrier Reef
4. W. Tx Teardrops
5. Lonely Holiday
6. The Villain
7. King Of All Of The World
8. Salome
9. Rollerskate Skinny
10. The Other Shoe
11. Coahuila
12. Iron Road
13. Wish The Worst
14. Wont Be Home
15. Doreen

Disc 2
1. Jagged
2. Designs On You
3. Curtain Calls
4. Mama Tried
5. If My Heart Was A Car
6. 4 Leaf Clover
7. Stoned
8. Oppenheimer
9. Cant Get A Line
10. Cryin Drunk
11. Big Brown Eyes
12. Murder Or A Heart Attack
13. Smokers
14. Friends Forever
15. Niteclub
16. Time Bomb

Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm...

According to this Billboard article, Wilco's going to release their first live CD "Kicking Television -- Live in Chicago" on November 1st. Here's the expected track list:

Disc one:
"Misunderstood"
"Company in My Back"
"The Late Greats"
"Hell Is Chrome"
"Handshake Drugs"
"I Am Trying To Break Your Heart"
"Shot in the Arm"
"At Least That's What You Said"
"Wishful Thinking"
"Jesus, Etc."
"I'm the Man Who Loves You"
"Kicking Television"

Disc two:
"Via Chicago"
"Hummingbird"
"Muzzle of Bees"
"One by One"
"Airline to Heaven"
"Radio Cure"
"Ashes of American Flags"
"Heavy Metal Drummer"
"Poor Places"
"Spiders (Kidsmoke)"
"Comment"

While I'm sure this is going to be a great CD and looks like their recent work is well-represented, I'm more than a bit disappointed that Jeff Tweedy and the boys seem to be turning their back on their earlier works. If the track list is accurate, that's only one song ("Misunderstood") from the first two CDs. To be sure, the band has gotten much tighter and more accomplished musically with the personnel changes over the years, but there was a time when their early shows had an energy that was nearly on par with the likes of early Replacements or Springsteen shows.

Chumbawamba? WTF?

Hmmmm... the same record companies that are trying to stop you from illegal filesharing are using the data from those downloads to figure out what people want to hear. A company named BigChampagne is helping them do the research.

Here's the money shot...

"We actually got kind of cute about it and told them, 'Look, we have a theory about why your business is in decline now. We call it the Chumbawamba Factor.'" If you remember the song "Tubthumbing"-- the one that goes, "I get knocked down/ But I get up again"-- you may recall that the album, Tubthumping, and actually every other album that the one-time punk band ever recorded, sounded nothing like their big hit.

"Chumbawamba sold a lot of records, and every single one of them ended up in a milkcrate at a yard sale, six months after it was purchased. And what we told [the record labels] is, 'Look, you had a great long run of business essentially built on regrettable impulse buys,'" says Garland. "'That was a great business, make no mistake. You owed much of your success to that. But it engendered a lot of cumulative ill-will with the customer.'"

If it puts an end to "Tubthumping", can it be all bad?

Is this thing on?

Testing 1-2-3-4... hello? hello?