Is playing someone else's song at your political function a copyright violation?

We'll find out sooner rather than later, it seems. John McCain might be at the forefront of that sonic conundrum, the way he keeps grifting tunes without approval. He's already been sued by Jackson Browne for doing just that.

This time around, he's angered the ax legend that made hammering cool.

The bad news? The tune is "Right Now," from Van Halen's Sammy Hagar era, arguably the band's worst. You decide.

Evidently, McCain's campaign blared the track during a speech in Ohio, at which point the band complained that he should've chosen Twisted Sister instead.

"Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given," a Van Halen representative told TMZ.

Continue reading "McCain Offends Van Halen, Sucks at Music" »

What can $8 buy you these days? Two gallons of gas? A ticket to see The Love Guru? In a word, hardly anything. Might as well spend it at the F Yeah Festival's Scavenger Hunt in Los Angeles on Sunday. The prizes are just too good to pass up.

According to the press release, here are some of the demands from last year's list:

• Everyone on the team gets cornrows and extended fingernails. Must be real cornrows.
• One person on the team getting a flat top with their name shaved into the back of their head.
• Life-size cutout of Ezy-E.
• Photograph of team member kissing a stranger on the lips. 50 extra points if they are a senior citizen.

Good times! The prizes this year are also strangely awesome.

Continue reading "The F Yeah Fest's Scavenger Hunt Rules" »

"I think the best is yet to come in my true humble opinion," Michael Jackson told ABC on Friday, his 50th birthday. But is it? It's hard to imagine the superstar outgrowing his past, good and bad, especially from the remote confines of Bahrain, where he settled before recently returning to America. That is, if he ever decided to make anything new at all.

And why would he? He's still getting rich off his own fumes.

Continue reading "Michael Jackson Turns 50, Can't Turn Back the Clock" »

Remember when Jay-Z covered the Oasis song "Wonderwall" at Glastonbury as a means of retaliation/tribute after Noel Gallagher made statements in the press to the effect that a hip hop act should not headline the rock-oriented Glastonbury? The controversy resulted in an entire mash-up album combining Jay-Z's rapping with Oasis songs.

As it turns out, many others have chiseled their names onto Oasis's "Wonderwall." Roni Brunn from Brand Records assembled an Opentape mix consisting of 17 versions of the song including covers by Thom Yorke and The Posies, Cat Power, Metallica (comedic style), Pavement and a particularly rousing live rendition from The Beastie Boys. The mix also contains a few mash-ups of the song, with The Jackson Five LCD Soundsystem, Green Day and, of course, Jay-Z.

A karaoke version of the song caps off this Opentape compilation so you can easily record your own version. It's all very worthwhile, especially on a Friday.

See Also:

• Life After Muxtape: Where Do We Go Now?
• Video: Jay-Z Mocks Oasis at Glastonbury
• Jay-Z And Oasis United by Unauthorized Mash-Up
• RIAA Issues Knock Muxtape Offline

Following on the heels of the Christian Dance Dance Revolution knock-off Dance Praise comes Guitar Praise: Solid Rock, also from the company Digital Praise, whose motto is "glorifying god through interactive media."

The game comes with a wireless guitar controller and a CD-ROM to let Christian shredders rock along to 50 religious tracks including dc Talk's "Jesus Freak," Bride's "Same Ol' Sinner" and Spur 58's "Sleepwalkers."

According to the game's description, "onscreen lyrics reflect Christian values (so that) vocalists can sing their hearts out as their friends play the guitar." As with Guitar Hero, players unlock new guitars and sounds as they progress through the game.

Guitar Praise ($100), slated for a mid-September release, will be playable on Macs or PCs, and two guitars (additional one costs $70) can be connected simultaneously for tandem jams on guitar and bass.

If your parents won't let you have Guitar Hero on religious grounds, one assumes this could be the answer.

See Also:

• Warner Threatens To Pull Music from Guitar Hero, Rock Band
• 'Guitar Hero' For Real Guitars
• Activision Confirms Guitar Hero: Metallica
• Guitar Hero Is a Gateway Drug

(via B3ta)

When a Northern California judge Howard R. Lloyd handed down a decision on Wednesday in favor of the video sharing site Veoh, after it had been accused by IO Group of hosting ten of that company's pornographic movies without permission, he may have provided mix sharing sites like Muxtape with a blueprint for legality.

"The key to Veoh's victory was its scrupulous attention to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) safe harbors," writes EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann. "Veoh responded to compliant DMCA takedown notices on a same-day basis, it notified users of its policies against copyright infringement, it registered a Copyright Agent with the Copyright Office, it terminated users who were repeat infringers and blocked new registrations from the same email addresses (and) it used hashes to stop the same infringing videos from being uploaded by other users. These efforts actually go beyond the requirements of the DMCA safe harbors and made it clear that Veoh was serious about responding to copyright infringement notices."

Continue reading "EFF: Veoh Decision Could Save Muxtape and Friends" »

"America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts," Ronald Reagan said in 1984. "It rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about."

And so began a famous popcultural feud over the contextual fate of Bruce Springsteen's seminal Born in the USA, the album and the anthem. Springsteen never meant for it to become a rallying cry for Reagan's reelection, yet he didn't allow Walter Mondale to earn his endorsement either.

The song was, as anyone who could scan a lyric sheet could tell, about the Vietnam War.

But now, according to an Associated Press' analysis, it is about Barack Obama. The nominee has been endorsed by Springsteen, and used the song to close out Denver's Democratic National Convention on Thursday. Pwnd!

But seriously, this ought to be a reminder, especially to those who feel that music and politics should never mix, that the real world has been doing it for thousands of years.

SEE ALSO:

• Barack Obama's Victory Soundtrack
• Can Obama Turn D.C. Into Chocolate City? Ask the Other Black Presidents
• Dave Stewart's 'American Prayer': Worst Obama Song Yet?
• WTF? Toby Keith, Democrat, Likes Obama
• Obama Fan Madonna Gets Sticky, Sweet, Political
• First Paris, Now This: Jackson Browne Sues John McCain
• East Coast Avengers Call For Bill O'Reilly's Head
• Lily Allen's 'Guess Who, Batman' Draws Bush Comparisons
• Barack Obama Doesn't Want to Work on Maggie's Farm No More
• Does Government Owe Royalties on Torture Music?
• Phil Spector, Obama Fan
• Ludacris' 'Obama Is Here' Song Invites, Ignites Controversy
• Video: Apples In Stereo Hawk Product, Obama, Rock
• Q&A: Amber Lee Ettinger (a.k.a. Obama Girl)

"America, we are better than these last eight years," Barack Obama explained Thursday night, on the 45th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech. "We are a better country than this."

True that. George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic thought so decades ago, and dedicated an entire album to it called Chocolate City. The title track called for Muhammad Ali as President, and Aretha Franklin as his First Lady. But it's looking like Barack and Michelle Obama are going to have to do.

Not bad for second place.

Black presidents have been powerful pop cultural presences for awhile now. Dave Chappelle, pictured above, once took a crack at it on his Comedy Central show. The 1972 film The Man, scripted by Twilight Zone's Rod Serling, put James Earle Jones into the White House. The same happened to Richard Pryor in a hilarious skit from The Richard Pryor Show. More recently, Nas' Untitled featured a song called "Black President," which included samples from Obama's speeches.

But all that artistic license might soon have some historical evidence to back it up.

Continue reading "Can Obama Turn D.C. Into Chocolate City? Ask the Other Black Presidents" »

Security guards at a Radiohead show on Monday night at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles (right) apparently beat up videographers in plain view of policemen who pretended to see nothing.

What, did they think they were in Denver?

From the LA Weekly's account, we pick up the action as security guards attempt to confiscate a video of them choking another concertgoer.

They were running after him saying, "That's the guy with the camera," recalls another witness. Dawes watched as Reich made his way through the Highland traffic, get hit by a car, recover and continue to run away from his pursuers... "(Reich) figured, there's no way that the security guards are just going to assault this random dude in front of a cop." He was wrong.

Then it gets really interesting. They try to play "keep away" with the tape for a while as guards tackle them, throw them into walls and on the floor, and smash their heads into the ground. When they pleaded with law enforcement on the scene, one officer said that they "give event staff leeway."

The full account has to be read to be believed.

Photo of Hollywood Bowl following Monday's Radiohead show: Shalawesome

See Also:

• Democratic Convention: Live Audio of Denver Police
• Rage Against the Machine Crashes DNC Party
• Moby On McCain, Cocaine and Hookers

If you thought you had it bad, just wait until you see the new low to which rapper/producer Diddy has been driven by booming gas prices: leaving his private jet at home and flying commercial.

I was ready to pounce on this as a demonstration of how out of touch Combs is with ordinary Americans (although at least he probably knows how many houses he has).

But watching the video, it's abundantly clear that he's just trying to be funny, and besides, it's not like the guy is running for office -- not that those details have prevented folks from blowing their gaskets all over the internet.

"Attention all media and hate bloggers," reads a note on the video's YouTube page. "This blog is just me making a joke about gas prices. Loosen up."

Agreed. Don't hate the player, hate the fame.

Love them or hate them, Biggie Smalls' "Hypnotize" and Rihanna's "Umbrella" have lodged themselves firmly in whatever remains of our culture's common ground. The idea of a skinny white Englishman combining them into a cover song doesn't seem particularly thrilling -- on the surface, that is.

Take a listen to Dan Black's "HYPNTZ," in which Black sings Biggie's lyrics from "Hypnotize" over the beat from Rihanna's ubiquitous "Umbrella" and bits of audio from Jack Nitzsche's score for the movie Starman. His heartfelt presentation evades the usual ironic "indie guy covers rap hit" shtick by seeming actually to care about what he's singing. You can hear the homage, but also the sound of something new and potentially "hott" in the parlance of our times.

"I knew what kind of music I wanted make," said Black in a statement, "but at first I found it hard to get these conflicting desires to blend well outside of my head. I'd been making these weird remix/mashups for my occasional Djing, so I thought, I'll take the method I've been using for that but use it for song writing instead. The very first thing I tried was HYPNTZ."

To my ear, it's a keeper (as always, your mileage may vary).

Dan Black - "HYPNTZ":

Black resides in Paris, and has yet to be signed. However, his publicist says that label interest has been accruing steadily as word spreads about the song. "At this point he's basically giving everything away," she said, adding that we can expect another new track from Black in a couple weeks.

(Photo courtesy of Dan Black)

The feds may have their hooks into him, but Guns N' Roses leaker Kevin Cogill's real headache is still the band. Chances of him getting any jail time are slim, but Guns N' Roses could bankrupt him -- if they want to.

"There's a specific law, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, that deals specifically with pre-release material -- the rationale being that (leaking this material) prevents the owner of the copyright from getting the first release," says entertainment lawyer Howard Rubin, a partner at Goetz & Fitzpatrick in New York. "The first release is always the one that's going to get the most profit for the person who owns the copyright. To take that first opportunity from someone is more serious, and is usually pursued criminally to try to prevent that (from happening again)."

Cogill could face both criminal charges from the federal government and a civil copyright infringement suit from the Guns N' Roses camp. The criminal charges, which have already been filed, could cost Cogill $250,000 and up to three years in jail. Civil charges brought by Guns N' Roses could prove more costly, even in the absence of any actual damage to the band. Statutory damages for releasing the material with intent or malice are up to $150,000 per song, for a total that could exceed $1.3 million.

Cogill could end up owing even if he shows that his leak of the songs actually helped the Guns N' Roses' bottom line by generating press coverage for the band. The statutory damages do not take into account whether any actual damage was done -- only that the infringement was intentional or malicious, which Rubin says would be relatively easy for Guns N' Roses' lawyers to prove.

Continue reading "Guns N' Roses Leaker's Fate Rests in the Band's Hands" »

In a year stacked with smoking shred, Electric Aborigines remains largely unheralded. Which is a strange thing, given that Awesome Color is on the Ecstatic Peace label, lorded over by Sonic Youth ax master Thurston Moore. But unlike the band's lightweight label mates Be Your Own Pet, Awesome Color hasn't received tons of undeserved hype and are actually still together.

And this song is one reason why.

I reviewed Electric Aborigines for XLR8R months ago, but still haven't been able to get "Already Down" out of my head. Perhaps it is because it is pure riffage, bracing and rugged, and built to last. It has no designs on anything other than being one of the finest anthems of 2008. And that is good enough for me.

Continue reading "MP3: Awesome Color's 'Already Down' is Always On" »

While we're on the subject of cinema and sonics, take a peek at this creepy video from Holy Sons, the solo outfit for Om and Grails drummer Emil Amos, whose newest effort Decline of the West lands September 23. It mashes Mad Max, Road Warrior and several other genre films into a hallucinatory head trip that is over as soon as it begins.

Par for the course, considering that Holy Sons' other bands have made their names on stoner metal and rock. The song itself is a surreal thump, built from meditative guitar, bass, drum machines and morose vocals that descend into a chant about thankless lives and plotting enemies. It's instant spacetracking that might send you into a daydream, if only it were a bit longer. Like most good movies, it's over too soon.

Continue reading "Holy Sons' 'Feral Kid' Mashes Horror, Mad Max" »

Electronic musician and vegan Moby has been tapped by Blender to cover the Democratic national convention in Denver. His first post highlights one of the most bizarre endorsements ever, which we've heard a lot of people chattering about: Puerto Rican reggaeton star Daddy Yankee's vote of confidence for senator John McCain (pictured to the right as the reggaeton star via photo editing).

First, as Moby points out, McCain's policy on immigration wouldn't naturally lead one to believe that one of Latin music's brightest luminaries would come to his aid. However, Florida's Cuban community has shown lots of support for the Republican party over the years, so perhaps the association isn't as strange as it seems at first.

Moby's second point -- that Daddy Yankee's hit song "Gasolina" is about party girls, some professional, who love Bolivian marching powder -- holds a bit more water. Daddy Yankee apparently visited McCain campaign headquarters on August 2, and decided to endorse McCain after a meeting with the senator. It's hard to imagine what the 71-year old presidential hopeful and a guy who creates club anthems about cocaine had in common. The current resident of the White House seems a more likely ally.

McCain isn't the only candidate who could suffer from awkward endorsements supposedly made on his behalf. For instance, Dave Stewart's song in support of Barack Obama isn't doing the senator any favors, and if anything, seems more in the style of Hillary Clinton.

See Also:

• Dave Stewart's 'American Prayer': Worst Obama Song Yet?
• Obama Fan Madonna Gets Sticky, Sweet, Political
• First Paris, Now This: Jackson Browne Sues John McCain
• WTF? Toby Keith, Democrat, Likes Obama

Photo created by JeanPierreG

Charles Laughton's mind-boggling 1955 film Night of the Hunter has gone viral. Although it was deemed a failure upon its release, the passage of time has revealed its ingenuity and influence, and not just in film. Musicians have cited it at length, including Springsteen, The Clash, Murder City Devils, Chumbawumba, The Pogues and now Tussle, the San Francisco quartet whose recent effort Cream Cuts dropped last week.

But unlike the aforementioned, Tussle's hypnotic electronica seizes only on the title, rather than Robert Mitchum's villainous preacher, whose knuckles are infamously tattooed with "Love" and "Hate." It's a nod, rather than a bow, I suppose. There's isn't a sample to be found in the track. But any chance to rewind Laughton's film again is a chance worth taking.

Have a listen to Tussle's "Night of the Hunter" and tell us if it does anything for the Hunter fan in you. If you like what you hear, tell the band about it: Tussle is hitting the road on August 29 for an extensive fall tour.

Continue reading "MP3: Tussle's Mitchum-Less 'Night of the Hunter'" »

As US music fans brace for the beautiful sonic assault of the reunited British shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine, the band has quietly stocked its landmark albums Isn't Anything and Loveless in iTunes, Amazon and other digital music stores for the first time. Before Tuesday, only a handful of their songs appear to have been available for digital purchase.

But just because the band has dipped its proverbial toe in the digital waters doesn't mean we can expect a strategy on the level of that of Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, which have experimented with digital-only, free-to-download releases that could be downloaded for free.

My Bloody Valentine manager Vinita Joshi denied rumors about such a release in no certain terms, in an email sent to Wired.com last November:

Continue reading "My Bloody Valentine Classics for Sale Digitally (Plus New Video)" »

Are you a famous musician who desperately wants your music mashed up and re-presented to the public? It's simple: just kick off a tabloid-baiting feud against another rapper or rockstar, and remixers will crawl out of the woodwork to put both of you into the same song as means of forcible reconciliation.

Witness OJayZis: Jay-Z vs. Oasis, a collection of mash-ups by three Spaniards who comprise the Cookin' Soul collective. The ten-song album capitalizes on the recent war of words between Jay-Z with Oasis. It's done well, although The Gray Album, which mashed Jay-Z's Black Album with The Beatles' White Album, remains the gold standard to these ears. Plus, these new Jay-Z/Oasis tracks are streaked with an annoying sample that stamps them as the work of Cookin' Soul.

Here's how we got here. First, Noel Gallagher claimed Jay-Z shouldn't have been tapped to headline the rock-oriented Glastonbury Festival. The rapper responded by mocking the band during his performance at that festival with an out-of-tune version of Oasis' "Wonderwall" in which he mimed playing the guitar, followed that up with his hit song "99 Problems."

Continue reading "Jay-Z And Oasis United by Unauthorized Mash-Up" »

LimeWire, a popular file sharing application that offers users access to music, movie and other downloads via the decentralized gnutella network developed by Justin Frankel, the late Gene Kan and others, has more than doubled the size of its music store catalog by adding around 1.2 million tracks from music distributor The Orchard.

"This is a way to partner with artists and labels to provide a way to connect the artist and the fan, and just to be a contributor to a new and exciting music industry," said LimeWire CFO Jesse Rubenfeld. "We think there's interest in this product, and we've made a large investment to offer a quality program. We're excited about it."

While bit torrent clients and online music services generally offer a wider range of music than gnutella, New York-based LimeWire still appears to have a large user base, which it hopes will buy MP3s from the store when they're not downloading them for free.

Continue reading "LimeWire Doubles Down on DRM-Free Music Store" »

We have arrived at what looks like the final chapter of Chinese authorities' attempt to block a benefit album called Songs for Tibet from purchase from within its borders.

Chinese residents can once again purchase the album from iTunes, according to sources cited by Digital Music news, assuming they have an account in another country. (ITunes does not operate a localized version of the store there.)

A source in China will hopefully send over a screenshot of the album's availability in iTunes to confirm the report. If accurate, it represents a milestone in Chinese openness to unapproved opinion.

To recap, here's how the controversy appears to have played out:

1. The Art of Peace Foundation's Songs for Tibet benefit compilation (iTunes link) was the most popular rock album in the iTunes store during the first week of August, during the lead-up to the Olympic games in Beijing. Forty Olympic athletes downloaded the album "as an act of solidarity with Tibet," according to the Art of Peace foundation, which released the album.

2. China blocked access to the whole iTunes store.

Continue reading "Report: iTunes' Songs For Tibet Now Accessible from China" »