Apparently Hollywood has fallen back in love with the musical film, but will they ever cast people known for their singing abilities?

News has come out this weekend that a new version of Damn Yankees is moving forward with Todd Graff directing.  This is the first big budget film for Mr. Graff, 50, and is a rather large gamble for a film studio.  While he has directed some smaller budget films to critical praise, gambling what is assumed to be tens of millions on this updated version of the 1955 Broadway musical seems a rather large risk for any studio.

There have been several films in the past few years that have revived the musical film, but while a few of them have gone on to financial success, not all of them have fared as well.  Here is a breakdown of five of the most notable musical films in order of release, and how each has done at the box office: (data from Box Office Mojo)

As you can see, when they hit, they hit well, but one mis-step and it’s a huge loss for a studio.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Damn Yankees tells the story of a middle-aged baseball fan who is tired of seeing his team lose to the New York Yankees.  He makes a Faustian pact with the Devil to make him into a young star ball player to take his team to the World Series.  Along the way, the Devil tries to tempt him with assistance of his top seductress, Lola, to break his contract which would allow him to collect the fan’s soul early.

The musical started on Broadway in 1955, received a film treatment in 1958, a television production in 1967 and a Broadway revival in 1994.  The new film is to have Jake Gyllenhaal in the role of the fan, and Jim Carrey as the Devil.  Lola has yet to be cast.

And that brings me back to my opening thought: Why do they keep casting people not known for their singing abilities?  You firing up a big budget film with a director who has not proven himself with a large budget, two actors that — while capable actors — are not known to be singers.  This production seems to have a lot of strikes against it before it even starts pre-production.

I hope I am proven wrong, but this is sounding a lot more like another Nine than another Mamma Mia!.

It’s official: Bono is a complete tool.

In the past U2 has allowed its manager, Paul McGuinness, to be the mouthpiece any time the band wanted to make pointed comments about the evils of file sharing.  He has never measured his words and even likened ISPs to shoplifters.  However, over the weekend, U2 front man Bono decided to finally speak for himself in an editorial he wrote for The New York Times.

Caution! The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files. The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of “24” in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free.

A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us — and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business.

We’re the post office, they tell us; who knows what’s in the brown-paper packages? But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content. Perhaps movie moguls will succeed where musicians and their moguls have failed so far, and rally America to defend the most creative economy in the world, where music, film, TV and video games help to account for nearly 4 percent of gross domestic product. Note to self: Don’t get over-rewarded rock stars on this bully pulpit, or famous actors; find the next Cole Porter, if he/she hasn’t already left to write jingles.

Where do I even begin with how wrong he’s gotten this whole thing?

The fight to stop child pornography online is a very different creature than fighting copyright infringement that uses completely different technology.  Most file sharing is done via peer-to-peer software across what are known as BitTorrent services.  (I explained in-depth how the technology works in a past article, so you can go there if you want to read the full description.)  Most child pornography is traded in private message boards and not across open networks such as BitTorrent so that the parties involved can keep a closer eye on who is involved in the file trading.

In other words, Bono is comparing apples and oranges when it comes to technology and the manners in which those people can be hunted down and stopped.  As for the example he cites in China, again, apples and oranges.  His complete lack of understanding of the fundamentals of how file sharing is done is atrocious for a man who is putting himself out there at the forefront of the fight.  If you’re going to speak publicly on such matters, you might want to at least have a basic understanding of the subject at hand.

Note to self: Don’t get over-rewarded rock stars on this bully pulpit, or famous actors; find the next Cole Porter, if he/she hasn’t already left to write jingles.

I quoted this part again because the whole self-deprecating aspect of this was just so heavy-handed and an obvious attempt at trying to deflect any criticism of his saying all of this as to make it laughable.

Big rock stars have not had much luck taking on music piracy, just ask Lars Ulrich of Metallica how it worked out for him and his band.  They were some of the biggest critics of Napster back in the day, and it took them years to recover from the backlash of music fans that couldn’t stand the idea of one of the richest musicians in the world telling them how sharing music with one another was wrong.  Yeah, it didn’t work out too well for them, and it won’t work too well for you either, Bono.

The other issue is if you talk to small bands  – their interviews are all over the Web — they like file sharing.  Getting to be a known band in this day and age without major label support is next to impossible.  File sharing has provided them with a grassroots way to promote their work, and, in turn, get people to come to their shows and buy t-shirts.  This is where the real money is made for any act as the royalties paid on music are tiny at best, hence why t-shirts cost $25 at shows when it costs them only a dollar or two to produce them.  (note: I’ve been involved in t-shirt manufacturing … trust me on the cost …)

I spoke recently about how Bono is an idiot after the U2 concert was shown on YouTube.  Basically this man can’t open his mouth any more without sticking his foot in up to his ankle.  His inflated sense of self-importance has reached a point of sickening.  Whether it’s about how “green” his band is, or how he has no understanding about the evil technology he has chosen to attack, this guy really should just shut up before he makes himself look like an even bigger fool.

It appears things are still rough for some of the shows on the Great White Way.

Last Jan. I wrote up how nine Broadway shows were going dark, well come this Jan., at least three more will join them as well as gossip of as many as six more.  The three confirmed shows are:

• Superior Donuts
• Bye Bye Birdie
• Wishful Drinking

The rumored others include:

• Ragtime
• Burn the Floor
• Hair
• Memphis
• God of Carnage
• Fela!

All of this is interesting as other shows are breaking records.  Super popular Wicked set a record for the Rialto Theater last week by grossing $2,092,745, breaking the previous record which was set just this past Thanksgiving by the same show.  The Lion King set a record of $1,714,566 for the Minskoff Theater the same week.

Variety goes on to say:

Big-name tourist-attracting tuners — including old fave “The Phantom of the Opera” ($1,248,943) and up-and-down offering “Shrek the Musical” ($1,055,261) — were generally the productions to post major bumps. The recently opened revival of “A Little Night Music” ($985,662), fueled by the star power of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury, once again logged excellent biz while “In the Heights” ($895,479) saw receipts leap up by a whopping 53%.

Even with the records, year-vs.-year, the tallies were down:  $24.3 million this year as opposed to $27.2 million last year.

As you look over all these numbers and stats, though, a pattern emerges: Known properties and names are drawing the crowds.  As I stated in the post from last year, ticket prices have surged to north of $200 per ticket on some shows, so people are only willing to shell that out on shows they know will be good, or actors and actresses they love.  No one is experimenting with their Broadway viewings because you simply can’t afford to.  Sure Hair is a known show, but not this production of it, and the same could be said about Ragtime.  Just because a revival of a show is supposed to stick close to the original, it doesn’t mean it will be as good.  Wicked has gone through numerous cast changes, but it is still the same production as the first day, it’s a known quantity.

So, how can Broadway reverse this?  Sadly I think we will see more licensed properties coming in.  More Disney movies getting turned in to stage productions make sense because they are family friendly, but with that happening, how will the next great show ever be discovered?

Broadway has to bring those ticket prices down to cement its future, otherwise it will begin to look like one giant rehashing of licensed properties.

UPDATE 12/29: The press firm for God of Carnage has reached out to me and said:

I just saw your piece on shows closing.  It lists God of Carnage among some other shows that you say may close.  This could not be farther from the truth.  I don’t know where you got this information; perhaps you miss-quoted Perez Hilton who mentioned several shows that were doing WELL after a sentence about other shows closing.  Can you please take God of Carnage off this list?   God of Carnage is one of the top-grossing plays on Broadway.

My source for this information was Showbiz 411, which listed this information as gossip, and as I did also.  I would never use Perez Hilton as a primary source on anything.  The list stands as it was originally printed, but I have no problem including their quote on the status of the show.

What in the world is wrong with the Westboro Baptist Church?

Last Christmas we had this “church” telling us Santa is Satanic and a pedophile, this year they’re planning to protest a Lady Gaga concert.  You can read the “press release” below.

I mean, sure I’m tired of hearing Lady Gaga everywhere I go, but I don’t feel the urge to protest her. Oh, wait, that isn’t why they’re protesting her? My bad.

Okay, I get it, they’re going after her “fashion sense”!  No?  Close?

So, they say she is teaching “rebellion.”  What, she’s buying her fans X-Wings and they’re going after the Death Star?  Again, no?  Man, I’m horrible at this game!

Okay, okay … they’re desperately seeking even more media attention for their crazy religious antics by going after a currently popular singer?  YAY!  I think I got it this time!

I was looking at the church schedule for protests (I refuse to link to them as it only helps them and their domain name is offensive … find it for yourselves), and the list is just filled with nonsensical rantings.  Not to mention the protest of the Lady Gaga concert is their third protest of the day.  Here is the description of the protest, it varies somewhat from the press release above: (formatting by them, enjoy)

Lady Gaga Concert at Fox Theatre 527 N. Grand Blvd. — Press Release: http://tiny.cc/LGSTL — “Lady” Gaga has no qualms about displaying her filth for all the world to see, using the platform given to her by God to teach rebellion against Him. She loudly and proudly proclaims her fornication and “sexual relations with women,” saying that she wants to “free” and “liberate” her young fans. Gag! She glories in her shame, encourages everyone she can get her hands on to do the same, and pretends that God is just great to go along with her plan. She wasn’t lying, however, when she said, “This is for God and the gays,” during the MTV VMA’s. What she meant by that was: “In your face, God! You can call gays abominable, but here I stand, Best New Artist, and I say gays are great!” There’s nothing new about the antics of this silly girl; she got here late! Like the many whores who came before her, “Lady of the night” Gaga thinks she can change God by teaching you to hate Him and “liberating” you from His standards. And like those whores, she will not escape the destruction that awaits her for her hatred and deceit. “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.” Jer. 8:12. And to all those that would follow the example of this treacherous tart, know that God’s curses abide on the disobedient. That includes this warning from God: “And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.” Lev. 26:27-30. Catch that? Because you won’t obey, God will cause you to eat your children, He’ll cast your dead bodies on those of your idols, and He’ll abhor you. Obeying God is your only recourse at this hour. But because you heed the words of stupid rebels like Lady Gaga INSTEAD of the God who created you, this generation is doomed.

It’s fine that Fred Phelps, the head of the church, is a nut job, but how in the world does he find enough followers to actually listen to him?

The thing is, I don’t even care that much for Lady Gaga’s pop music, but I kinda wanna go to this St. Louis concert now … thanks, Westboro Baptist Church!

UPDATE: THIS WAS A HOAX … I am beyond angry at people and these damned death hoaxes.

Chuck Biscuits, one of the biggest drummers in the hard core/punk scene, has passed away from throat cancer.

Chuck Biscuits had a long career in music before passing away this past Saturday at 44-years-old from throat cancer.  The Inquisitr is where I learned of this, which pointed me to JG2 Land, the only place that seems to have any form of official confirmation of Mr. Biscuit’s passing.

Drummers are one of those musicians that have a tendency to get overshadowed by the lead singers and guitarists as they are hidden behind they are hidden behind their drum kits and difficult to see, but if you ever heard or saw Chuck Biscuits play, you remembered him.  He had an intensity in his sound and style that was impossible to not notice.  I had a chance to see him in Jan. 1993 when he was till playing with the band Danzig.  I remember the month specifically because it just happened to be the day Superman #75, the infamous Death of Superman, comic came out, and I was getting dirty looks from all of the employees for taking off for a concert … too bad, perk of being the boss.

All that aside, he was a sonic force to be reckoned with, and seeing him pound the skins live was a treat as you weren’t sure he was playing drums or beating some rabid to animal to death with sticks.

I also had the opportunity to meet him in person once at San Diego Comic Con when he was hanging out in Glenn Danzig’s booth (Danzig has set up at the con over the years to sell his collection of original comic book art), and Mr. Biscuits couldn’t have been a nicer fellow, and surprisingly soft spoken.

Besides playing with Danzig, he also played with D.O.A., Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Samhain (Glenn Danzig’s band that later morphed into Danzig), Run-D.M.C. and Social Distortion.  His contributions to the hard core and punk music scenes can never be spoken of highly enough, and he will truly be missed.

I leave you with the Danzig video for “Am I Demon” as it has some nice shots of Mr. Biscuits doing what he did best …

Seriously, Bono, lead singer of the mega-popular band U2, really just needs to shut up.

Last night I tuned in to the live U2 concert on YouTube with some trepidation.  See, I used to be a major fan of U2 up through the late 1980’s.  I loved their first five albums, and I really enjoyed their concert film, Rattle & Hum to the point I have seen it numerous times, something I have never done with any other movie of the type.

When their next album came out, Achtung Baby, I was not sold on the new musical direction of the band, and I was even less sold on Bono’s increasingly holier-than-thou attitude he was taking with world events such as hunger, poverty, world peace and eventually climate change.  It seemed that no matter what the cause du jour was, Bono felt his opinion on the matter somehow mattered as he was, after all, the lead singer of one of the biggest rock bands in history.

I continually tried to ignore Bono’s antics and pay attention to their music, but I was growing less and less happy with the band with each passing album.  After the latest album, No Line On The Horizon, I gave up as I found it pretty much impossible to listen to.

All this being said, I decided to check out the concert that was being shown for free on YouTube tonight, and I lasted exactly two songs before I turned it off.

I was struck almost immediately by a multitude of things that felt hypocritical for a band that has been annoying in their “save their world” attitudes.  When they launched the 360° world tour, a lot was made of the insanely large stage they were using, and the fact it took a multitude of semi trucks to transport it.  When the tour began in England, the criticism over the carbon footprint of the tour was almost instantaneous, and U2 guitarist The Edge found himself having to defend the band to the media, and also stressing that they had plans in place to offset their carbon footprint for the amount of materials they were transporting between shows.

Fine, but what about all of the other problems?

• The Sunday night show at the Rose Bowl was able to accommodate an extra 30,000 attendees due to the way the stage was set up, bringing attendance into the range of 90,000 people at the stadium.  Did their carbon credits include the number of vehicles used to get that many concert goers to the show?  The amount of water used in stadium bathrooms?
• While being escorted to the stage by numerous people, I noticed that there were spray painted markers on the ground telling the band where to stop and when.  (because the people walking with them wasn’t enough?) Was that eco-friendly spray paint?  was it going to be removed in some way so as not to wash into the sewer system?
• I know Google offsets their carbon emissions for their servers, but was U2 doing anything about the amount of energy being used by the people watching at home on their computers?

Okay, so even I thought I was probably being a bit overly harsh, and I decided to tune back in and give it another try.  As I watched Bono walking around on the outer section of the stage that extended through the crowd, he laid on the floor to sing, and as the song came to an end, the camera went to cut away, but just as it did I saw a stage hand pass a plastic water bottle to him … a plastic water bottle?  Okay, yeah, I gave them a second chance, and they blew it.

Honestly, I am not this concerned about the environmental issues, I do my part, but I don’t condemn others for their choices.  However, when you have been as insanely preachy as this man and his band have been, then you do have a different set of standards for them.  Apparently Bono will champion all of these causes all day long … until it comes time for him to fatten his already considerable wallet.

If this had been any other band up there on that stage I wouldn’t have paid one bit of attention to any of the things I have brought up in this post.  But when your frontman is one of the most holier-than-thou busy bodies in the world lecturing everyone in ear shot about how they should support this, do that, live this way, well, then you bring it on yourself.

After several years of trying, I finally got to see Southern Culture on the Skids in concert. Was it worth the wait? Read on.

By pure chance I checked the Southern Culture on the Skids web site a few weeks back, and much to my surprise they were performing in Columbia, MO on Friday the 25th. The weird part was they were playing at something called ROOTS ’N BLUES ’N BBQ FESTIVAL in downtown Columbia. Er … okay, whatever, tickets were only $10.

Well, they were only $10 if you lived in Columbia and could pick them up.  Ordering two (my father went with me after hearing “BBQ” in the name) via Ticketmaster online ran me $34 after fees.  Love ya, Ticketmaster!

So we headed down, and after having to drive all over God’s green Earth due to the number of streets blocked off for the event, we finally got there and experienced some of the most lackluster BBQ ever.  I mean, not only was it insanely over priced ($6 for a pulled chicken sandwich that had some of the saddest chicken I’d even seen), it just wasn’t even that tasty.  Whatever, I was there for the music.

SCOTS, as they are known, were playing at a stage on 7th & Locust, but they were the second band to go on, so first I had to suffer through something called The Wilders that were … well … horrible.  Musically they were tight, but they played the twangiest, ear twisting kind of country that was enough for me to contemplate putting a gun to my head.  And their audience banter was just painful.  I wandered off a lot during this set.

Anyway, finally SCOTS got on stage, and while I have been listening to their albums for some years, and fully expected to enjoy the show, but I was pleasantry surprised it was even better than I expected.

Recorded albums do not do this band justice on just how tight their playing is.  Rick Miller, guitarist and lead singer, is just a sick guitar player.  His ability to change up styles, tempos and everything else is some of the finest guitar playing I have ever witnessed.  Mary Huff raises the bar for bass players keeping pace with Mr. Miller at all times, and also deserves credit for bring more credit to her instrument, one that I feel never gets enough attention.  Dave Hartman, the percussionist, plays the entire show standing up, something I have never seen a drummer do before, and gets more mileage out of just a few drums than most players get out of a full kit.  Tim Barnes is on rhythm guitar, and, well, I just couldn’t hear him in the mix well enough to be certain, but he sure seems to play well.

The sad thing is, this band has been around since 1983, has released 10 studio albums (with an 11th on the way in December of January), 1 live album and 3 EPs, and I know a goodly number of you have never heard of them.  Considering some of the tripe released these days, it is heartbreaking to see a band this good be so unrecognized.  I spoke very briefly with Mr. Miller prior to the show (more on that later, I hope) while he and Mr. Hartman were setting up their own equipment.  Yes, you read that right, 23 years and they are setting up their own equipment and doing sound check with no roadies.  You have completely untalented people like Brittany Spears going out there with insanely huge productions, tractor trailers loaded with equipment, armies of roadies, and these hard working talented folks are setting up their own show.  Something is very unbalanced here.

If you ever get a chance to see them, do go, they are worth every penny, and they are highly entertaining.  Just watch out for flying pieces of fried chicken…

Check out my photos from the show, and some YouTube clips of them from various shows below.

Here they are playing Mojo Box

This one is a combination of House of Bamboo and The Wet Spot

It would seem that the music industry has decided that the public school systems are the perfect methods to distribute their anti-music propaganda.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has had a little known program that is free to schools called “Music Rules!“.  It appears the program has been around since 2006, but it has recently been announced that the program has been updated, and new materials are available for teachers, students and their parents.

The potential hand outs are written to educate students all about why “songlifting” (like Ars Technica, this is a new term that we’ve never seen make the rounds before) is wrong, respecting intellectual property, how downloading music is like stealing from everyone in the music industry and a bunch of other one-sided arguments.  Long story short, the RIAA is trying to convince teachers to turn into propaganda streaming machines for them that will teach children how downloading music for free is bad, Bad, BAD!

Did you notice in that last sentence I said “free” instead of “illegal”?  That was done on purpose.  One of the stated points in the documentation from the program says:

taking music without paying for it is illegal and unfair to others

Well, there’s a little problem with this as it is painting a very black-and-white picture of the situation. It is true that the majority of “free” music is illegal, but there have been some very notable exceptions to that idea such as Radiohead’s In Rainbows experiment where people could download the album for free if they chose to do so.  There have also been free music experiments from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and several others, so it is impossible to say “taking music without paying for it is illegal and unfair to others.”

So, just one little aspect of this whole lesson plan can be picked apart that quickly as being full of holes, do you even really need to question that the rest of this system may be full of holes in logic and bias?

I decided to take this one step further and called my 88-year-old maternal grandmother who is a retired teacher.  Her classes were troubled kids in inner city Phoenix, AZ, so it is doubtful this sort of program would have ever crossed her mind at all, but she could as least give me some perspective on how she would have felt giving these sort of handouts that were so clearly corporate propaganda.  Well, her answer was pretty simple: “I wouldn’t have.”

It seems that her contract (mind you this was the 1970’s and early 1980’s) clearly stated that she could never express an opinion in her class that would take any sort of position on this type of matter.  She said the way she would have handled illegal downloading would have been to wait for a student to mention it in front of her, and then she would have asked them how that made them feel.  Her students were the type that were well known for spray painting graffiti and other annoyances, so this was a type of discussion she had on a daily basis with at least one of them.

All that being said, she said she felt these “worksheets” provided by the RIAA would have been a clear violation of her contract, and even if they hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have had anything to do for them for feeling like a shill for corporations and that it also wasn’t what school is about.

And there my grandmother hit the nail on the head for summing up my feelings.  School is not about teaching you something quite this specific as “what is intellectual property”, and do you “vow” to never violate it.  This is not the sort of thing that students need to be taught in school, on federally funded time.  Recently some schools had issues with President Obama speaking to school children because they felt that his speech was going to be a political one that would try to educate children on the health care debate, and many people spoke out about school time being used in this manner.

Lets say this took off, which I highly doubt it will, where would this slippery slope stop?  What other corporate backed programs would worm their way into the curriculum of our schools?  My feeling is that no program of this type should be allowed in, and I question the teaching credentials of any teacher that would use this program.  Can’t think of a lesson plan and fall back to this thing?  ”Buh-bye, please leave your teaching certificate at the door.”

The RIAA is rotten to the core, and releasing something this slanted and bias (again I would point you to the “free music” bit), it just shows how off the wall they are.  Please, if you hear of any school using this thing, speak out against it because you may agree with this program, but will you with the next one?

Is there any sane person left in the music industry?

According to CNET, both the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) have gone to Apple over being paid performance fees for streaming radio audio, for music played in downloads of films and TV shows, and 30-second song samples.

If you are not familiar with “performance fees”, those are fees collected from any public performance of music.  If you hear music in a dance club, at a stadium, in restaurants and so on, they all have to pay a performance fee for that music being played to enhance a public place, or used as an attraction.  This includes music played over radios as I have discussed before, although the main part of that case was with the PRS in Scotland, but it is the same thing.  It basically boils down to that if anyone else can hear your music, that is considered a “performance”, and you have to pay for it.  (Remember, ASCAP also tried to prove that ringtones constituted a performance you should pay for)

So, Apple has told ASCAP and BMI they aren’t going to pay these fees, and while no specifics were given, I think we can pretty quickly figure out Apple’s thinking in each particular situation.

Fees for music played on the streaming radio stations in iTunes – Um … does ASCAP walk up to Sony and go, “Hey, your Walkman brand products have radio tuners in them, so you need to pay us a performance fee for those devices receiving those songs.”  No … they don’t.  The radio stations are responsible for paying the performance fee in this case, if Apple was forced to pay, then every company that has ever manufactured a radio would have to pay also, and that just makes no sense.  It would also be a case of … anyone? … anyone?  Yes -points to the picture above- double dipping.

Fees for music included in downloads of films and TV shows – The studios are responsible for paying these fees, that is why a show like WKRP in Cincinnati was released without the bulk of its original music due to licensing fees.  To expect Apple to pay this sort of fee would be like ASCAP walking in to Best Buy and going, “Yeah, you need to pay us a performance fee on the music contained in every DVD you sell.”  They’ve already received a fee from the studio, now they want one from the retailer to boot?  This would be yet another case of … double dipping.

Fees for 30-second song samples – Yes, according to ASCAP and BMI, that 30-second song sample you listen to before purchasing a song on iTunes constitutes a public performance.  Yeah, feel free to scratch your head like I did.  First off, it is being used as a promotional tool to help sell more of those songs, something the music industry benefits from.  Secondly, 30-seconds falls under “fair use”.  Either way you look at it, the music industry wants Apple to pay them for the right to help them, the music industry, sell more songs.  Yep … you guessed it … more double dipping.

Apple has said no to every aspect of this request, and now ASCAP and BMI are saying they will take it to congress.  Here’s hoping someone in congress has the guts to ask these two idiotic bodies, “what exactly are you smoking, and where can we get some?”

There is no portion of this “request” that makes even an inkling of sense.  Every aspect of it deals with something the music industry already receives money for, or there is at least a precedent of “Why Apple, and why not any other way this same activity is conducted somewhere else?”  The answer is simple really: Everyone thinks Steve Jobs swims in a solid gold pool.

There is no denying that Apple has made a lot of money from music, and they deserve it for being innovators in content delivery, but that doesn’t mean the music industry is more deserving of more money from Apple than say a traditional retailer pays.

Someone just needs to smack these people up side their collective heads.

I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually watched the MTV Video Music Awards, but considering all of the hullabaloo over them this year as they aired, it was almost impossible not to watch them.

Taylor Swift won the award for Best Female Video, and as she went to give her acceptance speech she got part of the way through it when she was suddenly interrupted by Kanye West who basically said she was not deserving of the award.  Instead it seems that Mr. West felt that Beyoncé was more deserving of the award, although as it appears he was at least somewhat drunk, the reason isn’t entirely clear. Watch it for yourself, although be warned it is almost uncomfortable to see it actually happen.

Later in the broadcast Beyoncé won for Video of the Year, and while I have never been a fan of her music, I have to give her amazingly huge kudos for what she did during her acceptance speech to make it up to Taylor Swift when it wasn’t even something she was at fault for.

Mr. West? You could learn a lot from what Beyoncé did here.

Kanye West did later release an apology of sorts that … well, it is also not exactly coherent, but here it is:

I’M SOOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD’VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED! I LIKE THE LYRICS ABOUT BEING A CHEERLEADER AND SHE’S IN THE BLEACHERS! …………………… I’M IN THE WRONG FOR GOING ON STAGE AND TAKING AWAY FROM HER MOMENT!…………….. BEYONCE’S VIDEO WAS THE BEST OF THIS DECADE!!!! I’M SORRY TO MY FANS IF I LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!!! I’M SORRY TO MY FRIENDS AT MTV. I WILL APOLOGIZE TO TAYLOR 2MRW. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!!! EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I’M A FAN OF REAL POP CULTURE!!! NO DISRESPECT BUT WE WATCHIN’ THE SHOW AT THE CRIB RIGHT NOW CAUSE … WELL YOU KNOW!!!! I’M STILL HAPPY FOR TAYLOR!!!! BOOOYAAAWWWW!!!! YOU ARE VERY VERY TALENTED!!! I GAVE MY AWARDS TO OUTKAST WHEN THEY DESERVED IT OVER ME… THAT’S WHAT IT IS!!!!!!! I’M NOT CRAZY YALL, I’M JUST REAL. SORRY FOR THAT!!! I REALLY FEEL BAD FOR TAYLOR AND I’M SINCERELY SORRY!!! MUCH RESPECT!!!!!

The backlash against Kanye was pretty much instantaneous thanks to services like Twitter. My favorite quote had to come from singer Katy Perry who took to her account to say, “F*** U KANYE. IT’S LIKE U STEPPED 0N A KITTEN.”

For those who would like to know who won all of the wards, here is the complete list.

• Video of the Year – Beyonce, ‘Single Ladies
• Best New Artist – Lady Gaga, ‘Poker Face’
• Best Hip-Hop Video – Eminem, ‘We Made You’
• Best Male Video – T.I. featuring Rihanna, ‘Live Your Life’
• Best Pop Video – Britney Spears, ‘Womanizer’
• Best Rock Video –  Green Day, ‘21 Guns’
• Best Female Video – Taylor Swift, ‘You Belong With Me’
• Best Video (That Should Have Won a Moonman) – Beastie Boys, ‘Sabotage’
• Breakthrough Video – Matt and Kim, ‘Lessons Learned’
• Best Art Direction – Lady Gaga, ‘Paparazzi’
• Best Choreography – Beyonce, ‘Single Ladies’
• Best Cinematography – Green Day, ‘21 Guns’
• Best Direction – Green Day, ‘21 Guns’
• Best Editing – Beyonce, ‘Single Ladies’
• Best Special Effects – Lady Gaga, ‘Paparazzi’

It’s unfortunate that Mr. West felt the need to interrupt Ms. Swift for whatever his insane reason was. It’s sad to see someone that does actually have some talent act the fool every time you turn around.

If you haven’t heard of Spotify yet, don’t worry, many others haven’t also. However, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t become a household name within the next few years.

Spotify is a fairly young music service that launched on Oct. 7, 2008 in Western Europe.  While it has been in its invitation only beta stage the service has stayed tied to Europe for licensing reasons, but a United States release is expected in the not too distant future.

So, why is this service a game changer?  Well, the answer is pretty simple in that with the licensing agreements the service has struck you can essentially pull up any song by any artist at any time and listen to it.  If you want a free account you will have to go through advertisements every so often, but if you have a paid account you don’t even see the ads and can enjoy endless musical selections of all your favorite performers.

Where Spotify is really set to change the game is with its just released iPhone & iPod Touch and Android applications.  The apps, just released today, is only for use by the paying customers, but one feature alone may be worth it.  I have embedded the demo video below for you to watch, but essentially you make a playlist of your favorite music, tell the Spotify app you want that playlist to be available while you have no 3G or Wi-Fi access (i.e. on an airplane), and it will save the music to your device memory so you can play all of the selected tracks while you aren’t near a connection.

Now mind you that you do not own these tracks, and they can’t be transferred off of your device, but who will ever need to buy music anymore when you can just have a monthly Spotify subscription and make a bunch of offline playlists?

While I have been a huge fan of services such as Pandora for ages, the problem is that I need to have some form of access to listen to it.  I also have no say in what songs come up on Pandora, but with Spotify I can have access to a basically limitless stream of music from just about any artist you can think of.  Once this hits the United States, you don’t think this is going to be the most talked about music service on every college and university campus?

Take a look at the video and I think you’ll quickly why this is such a huge game changer for the mobile music market, and quite possibly the music industry as a whole.

One of the greatest men in modern music has passed away: Les Paul is gone.

Mr. Paul was an accomplished guitar player who influenced not just the majority of today’s greatest guitarists, but also changed the face of the instrument itself.  In the 1930’s he experimented with guitar designs of his own, and in 1939 he built what was known as “The Log”: built form a 4″ x 4″ piece of wood with a guitar neck, bridge and pickups attached to it.  In the 1950’s, the Gibson guitar company approached him about polishing the design and the Les Paul guitar was born.

It was also during this time that he performed with his then wife Mary Ford and they sixteen top 10 hits between 1950 – 1954, including songs such as “How Hight The Moon”, “Viya Con Dios”, “I Wish I Had Never Seen Sunshine” and more.

Over the years I have owned many guitars (trust me, I have always had more equipment than talent in this particular field), and I have owned three different Les Pauls during that time.  While other guitars have come and gone in my life, I have always rotated around the Les Pauls.  My current model is a black Standard, and while I really don’t have time to play any more, that guitar will never be sold.  The feel, the sound … there is nothing like it, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything at this point.

One of my favorite stories about Mr. Paul was when at a music event, he got to hear Slash (formerly of Guns N’ Roses, now Velvet Revolver) play.  Slash was a die-hard fan of the Les Paul guitar model, so it was an honor for him to be included in such an event … until it was over.  Mr. Paul reportedly said to Slash, “You’ll be pretty good once you learn to play.”  The story goes that Slash locked himself in his house for months, doing nothing but practicing his skills.  If you listen to the guitar licks on Appetite for Destruction vs. Use Your Illusion I & II, you can hear the results, they are unmistakable.  While I have never heard this story confirmed, it sure is an interesting one.

Oddly enough, I just happened to find, and start following, Slash on Twitter yesterday, and it was an update from him that informed me that Mr. Paul had passed away.

My friend & mentor Les Paul died today at 94, he was one of the most stellar human beings I’ve ever known, rest in peace Les.

I couldn’t agree more, Slash. Rest in peace, Les Paul.

Although Les Paul and Mary Ford divorced in 1964, I leave you with two of my favorite songs by them.

“Viya Con Dios”

Probably their best known song, “How High The Moon”