Popmaterialist / A blog about pop (music)

After Metallica revealed their “Revolutionary Pricing Tiers” for their Mission: Metallica experience the parallels between Microsoft and Metallica got scary.

Why am I calling Metallica the Microsoft of music. Well, firstly, both Microsoft and Metallica have had a troubled relationship with the internet. Recently for Microsoft, the Yahoo debacle has drawn attention to the company’s online failures. Historically, in 1995 Bill Gates all but ignored the internet when writing The Road Ahead. A year later in an ArtForum article R.U. Sirius (that’s a pen name, right?) wrote about Gates and the internet:

Among early hackers, Gates was famous for his militant stance against free software. His opponents in the hacker community pointed out the difficulty in charging money for something that was trivial to copy. Gates, of course, has become one of the richest men in the world doing just that. But his gorge rises every month as millions more log on.

In 2000 Metallica had become one of the richest bands in the world doing exactly the same thing. Except then Metallica’s gorge rose to the level that they felt they had to sue Napster and name the people/fans who had used the service to share their music. Today, that move is seen by many as the biggest strategic mistake the music industry could have made in terms of its business in the digital age. As to Metallica, the hit to their reputation is still being felt. If you need proof go read this latest post about Metallica on Listening Post.

So, historically it could be argued that both Metallica and Microsoft have failed to “get” the internet. But that’s not what finally made me wake up to the parallel. It was those Mission: Metallica’s “revolutionary pricing tiers” that Idolator reported. Haven”t we seen this approach somewhere before?

Mission: Metallica Pricing Tiers <—> Windows Vista
(more on Listening Post)
Free membership                  Windows Vista Starter
Digital Album                       Windows Vista Home Basic
CD Album                            Windows Vista Home Premium
Platinum membership          Windows Vista Business
(variable pricing)                  Windows Vista Enterprise
Mp3                                      Windows Vista Ultimate
Mp3 + CD
Mp3 + CD + Vinyl

Yep, Metallica sure ain’t no Radiohead or NIN - or Apple:

This blog can’t be about music alone. So, here’s something for ya.

I loved The Muppet Show as a kid. Thankfully, Youtube is full of all kinds of Muppet videos. I’ve picked out some of my favourite Muppet parodies / tributes. Some of these are disturbing, some are funny and some are just so cute.

Continue Reading »

No Eurovision song will ever beat My Lovely Horse (which wasn’t actually a Eurovision song but, well, you know…). They should just say this is the ultimate Song for Europe and be done with it. Forever.

Note: I wrote this post for another blog (that is now dead) sometime ago. Since the Eurovision Song Contest is being held today I thought I’d repost it here.

In 2006 Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest with Hard Rock Hallelujah. This year Finland brings heavy metal back with Teräsbetoni performing the song Missä miehet ratsastaa (Where the Men Ride). Therefore, the news that Teräsbetoni will be Finland’s entry this year is potentially fantastic but, at the same time, I don’t see them being able to do what Lordi did.

Why you ask? Because Lordi had the competition sewn up just by showing up. Lordi wasn’t competing against any other act. Lordi was a band that competed in hilarity with the Eurovision Song Contest itself. Heavy metal worked for Lordi in the Eurovision context because often times heavy metal in itself is ridiculous but is still performed with the kind of earnestness that the usual run-of-the-mill Eurovision fodder cannot reach. Lordi felt authentic and fun in the middle of the banality that is the Eurovision Song Contest. Yes, the Comedy Gods truly smiled on Finland that year.

Teräsbetoni does have the potential to duplicate what Lordi did but there are some serious problems. What they do have is the same heavy metal ridiculousness that Lordi had. Lyrics to Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah had terms like Rockoning and Arockalypse. Complete silliness. In the same vein Teräsbetoni’s song Missä miehet ratsastaa has lines like these (kindly translated by matahalt in the comments to the Youtube video you’ll find at the end of this post):

where the men are riding
there ain’t no place for sheep to dine-in

The lyrics + heavy metal + deadpan delivery = comic gold. That’s a winning formula. However, that’s not the formula Teräsbetoni is going to be following in the actual competition. They’ve made it clear that they will only be performing in Finnish and that, in my opinion, is going to hurt them. Europe will not be getting the full Teräsbetoni experience and therefore, I’m afraid, Europe will not be getting Teräsbetoni.

With Lordi the sense of fun was obvious; it was pure in-your-face silliness. With Teräsbetoni it’s harder to get in on the joke.

Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah (Oh, Youtube has done that “embedding disabled by request” thing. You’ll have to follow this link)

Teräsbetoni’s Missä miehet ratsastaa:

Since I seem to be posting about French New Wave directors on this Friday I thought it would be intellectually appropriate to post this meditation on the nature of loneliness and the related desire to reach out and touch the world with one’s body. The feelings of alienation expressed in this video both from other humans and from nature are palpable and the solutions offered ultimately hollow (the loon is not real).

Over the last weekend I sat down to watch Jean-Luc Godard’s 1968 film Sympathy for the Devil or One + One. It was filmed almost exactly 40 years ago and, in honour of its anniversary, I though it was about time I saw it.

I didn’t expect a masterpiece. The film has been denigrated ever since its release. Lately there have been some more forgiving reviews written by people for whom the film seems to functions as a reminder of the revolutionary period of the late 1960s they remember from their youth. But even they still seem to agree that there is really no rhyme nor reason to this film.

The film show us The Rolling Stones in the studio recording Sympathy for the Devil. Between the recording sessions Godard cuts in small political vignettes. There is a Black Power group reciting political philosophy and executing white virgins. There is a strange interview with “Eve Democracy.” There is a porn shop where the proprietor reads out loud from Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the customers pay for their porn with “heil Hitler” salutes (”Jackie!”).

All that sounds kind of interesting and even raunchy but it is all done in by Godard’s cold detachment from it all. His single camera pans around the scenes simply observing without any commitment. If the film has any meaning it is up to the audience to make it up. And I do mean make it up; Godard is not going to help you. His scenes do not relate in any conventional way; there is no continuity (except for the studio footage). Sure, the politics the characters recite are all revolutionary but that’s about all you can say.

Of course, this is all classic Godard: the politics, alienating the viewer by abandoning the typical narrative and utilizing long deep-focus shots for realism. There is a reason why Godard is considered the most intellectual of the New Wave directors. For some, including me, it also makes him the most pretentious. Give me Truffaut any day.

The reason why most people would want to pick up One + One even if they are not into Godard is, of course, to see The Rolling Stones record Sympathy for the Devil. But on that level alone One + One is the most useless rockumentary ever made. If ever as a child your parents took you to work with them, sat you down and told you to be quiet while they worked, you know the kind of boredom I am talking about here. The Stones start to play, they stop, reset, start again and on and on. All the while you are being led around the studio bored out of your mind by Godard’s long, cold camera pans. All you pray for is that dad finally gets the job done and you can go home.

A telling sign of how disinterested Godard was in the music being created is that he did not even want to include the finished song in the movie. That was the producer’s decision. Just as it was the producer’s decision to name the film Sympathy for the Devil to emphasise The Stones’ involvement. Not to mention that what sounds like the most interesting incident that took place during the recording process (the studio caught fire) was completely left out of the film.

Those facts underline the point that at its heart One + One is not a rock documentary. The Rolling Stones are in it but that is all. The film is through and through pure Godard - for better or worse, depending on your taste.

Verdict: Oh, God. Daaaad, can we go home now?

I was going to write a post about how in the olden days you had to buy advertising space to peddle your new record.

Instead, I decide to admire the synergy.

Death Cab For Cutie Take Over Stereogum

As a 33-year-old with a good-for-nothing minor in political science I should probably scuff at politics at the music video level. Having said that, I like this new alternate Coldplay video for Violet Hill. Talk about undermining political image building. The highpoint… well, I can’t pick.

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And if you want to talk about the issues you would most certainly want to be keeping it funky. The Flight of the Conchods have a new video. Alas, it’s not Think About It but, still. Ladies of the World:

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Finally, what the…? winemouse

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Leonard Cohen Sleeveface

Originally uploaded by Husky

I’m not. And please don’t call me Shirley.

I must have been the last one to be clued in on this. Thank you Popped Culture. These people even have websites and groups. Blows. My. Mind.

Sites:

www.sleeveface.com

Damn Cool Pics

Flickr groups:

i am… a record cover

LP portraits

Update 2008/05/16:

Also, Gawker.

What is a chiptune? According to Wikipedia it’s:

music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of using sample-based synthesis.

Got it? Never mind, just think back to the kind of music video games had back in the eighties (if you’re old enough).

8bitcollective.com is an “open chiptune-related media repository….” I posted earlier about the awesome My Bloody Valentine cover by Unicorn Dream Attack. There are more great ones to be found. Go explore for yourself.

Links:
8bitcollective.com
(I especially liked this one by Joedouken.)
Also try www.micromusic.net