Rock Music

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Causers Of This is out now via Carpark Records – definitely pick up a copy, it’s so solid.

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Fan video, directed by Nasty Millionaire, for the second track off of Small Black’s self-titled debut EP. Pick up a copy here.

It’s been ten years since D’Angelo bothered the world with anything as useful as a new record, but he’s been keeping himself busy.

Unfortunately, by – allegedly – propositioning undercover cops. He offered one of them $40 for a blow job; to make matters worse, he had something over ten thousand dollars in his SUV. So he’s not only seedy, but he’s also mean.

The New York Post reports that he’s been charged with solicitation.

Having spent the last couple of years threatening ISPs without any real results, the BPI are now switching tactics, trying to persuade ISPs that the future lays with charging customers extra for always-on music:

British music industry trade body the BPI estimates that the UK’s major ISPs – BT, Virgin Media, BSkyB, O2, Orange and TalkTalk – could make between £100m and £200m a year between them by 2013 by bundling legal download services with the broadband packages they already offer.

But hang on a minute – I’ve already got broadband. And I’m quite happy with Spotify, We7, iTunes and the other existing music services to provide my audio needs. Why would I give even more money to BT to expand my access to music by precisely no tunes?

“Pay extra every month, and get absolutely nothing extra in return.”

Has anyone at the BPI ever actually run a business? Or met a person?

Still, how does the BPI expect this to work?

The report, produced by research firm Ovum for the BPI, based its revenue projection range on the basis of low (6,000 consumer sign-ups a month), medium (12,000) and high (24,000) levels of uptake of new legal download services over the next three years.

That sounds kind of hopeful.

The report reckons that the big ISPs could save as much as £20m a year by reducing churn – the proportion of customers cancelling their subscriptions – by offering such value-added services as legal downloads.

Except what drives churn is not the geegaws added to the service – remember when BT thought that people would love them forever if they got a spiffy Yahoo-provided log-in page? What causes churn is quality of connection – something that ISPs have little way of improving without actual investment – and price.

Adding music to the offering either means you’ve got to put the price up – “sign up for a more expensive service” – or, more likely, that the ISP will have to swallow the costs.

So, it’s not just that the BPI wants ISPs to pay for policing record label copyright; they now want labels to be subsidised directly from ISP pockets.

And if adding music is so important to making an attractive package for broadband subscribers, each of the major ISPs would have to offer tracks, thereby meaning nobody would have an advantage, and all the communications companies will be shovelling cash to labels for absolutely nothing.

Ovum’s report doesn’t appear to explain why Playlouder’s music-and-connectivity package was a flop; nor how Nokia’s Comes With Music was so shunned by a market apparently keen to hand over millions of pounds for a web connection with tunes in it.

“Lisztomania” has been involved in some cool things since Phoenix released it, first there was the great dancing video done on the rooftops of Brooklyn and now a slew of 5^th graders from a New York City public school contribute their own rendition. Thanks to a tweet from Bryant of Part-Time Music, I spent the duration of “Lisztomania” watching some soulful students from PS22 rock out the tune with great facial and hand expressions to boot! Talented kids and a passionate teacher can sure put one big smile on your face.

Yours truly has had a very busy weekend and is just now getting around to posting this video of Kingsbury Manx from their show at Slim’s on Friday. Sad to say, this was my first time ever seeing the band, and I’m glad I got a chance to catch part of the show. This video is of their first song, “Indian Isle”. Other songs from the show have already made their way onto Youtube, and apparently some other folks at the show were shooting a documentary, so be on the lookout for that.

Kingsbury Manx – “Indian Isle” from Mann’s World on Vimeo.

In a bid to try and persuade a dubious public that killing off a radio station makes perfect sense, Tim Davie did a blog post. He came to bury 6Music, not praise it:

“Clearly we didn’t arrive lightly at the decision to recommend the closure of 6 Music: it is distinctive, much-loved and I too am passionate about its output.”

In fact, it’s hard to imagine that it’s done anything wrong. You know, people say to me, Tim, you’d have to be insane to kill off such a brilliantly-conceived network. But… uh, I got reasons. Sure, I got reasons.

I believe the best way for us to provide that kind of programming is by looking at other ways to find it a bigger audience.

You know, Tim, you’re right. If there’s a coherent body of programming, what better way to grow the audience for it by smashing it into pieces, and scattering it around rather than having it all in one place.

Currently, only one in five adults have heard of it and less than one in 50 listens each week.

Tim: it’s a specialist station. This is a pathetic justification for taking the station away, isn’t it?

Davie, you’ll recall, has a background in marketing and Pepsi; not a disqualification for being in charge of the BBC radio portfolio, but clearly something of a handicap when it comes to assessing the cultural value of a network. A man whose sole recourse is to polling data and sales figures will always see this as being about brand, and not about art.

Yes, we could invest heavily in marketing to try to address this, but my preference is to ensure that money is focussed on unique, high quality radio, not supporting a large number of services.

So, effectively, you’re admitting that 6Music has been underpromoted, and yet still gets 2% of the nation listening to it. For a specialist service.

And for that, it must be punished.

While we are re-focussing on fewer networks, we will consider how the range of music played on Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3 should adjust to ensure we continue to offer a diverse spectrum of new and UK music as part of our stronger focus on originality and distinctiveness.

But are 1,2 or 3 currently broken and need this sort of fixing? If Radio 2 really did need an injection of perfection from 6Music, wouldn’t it make more sense to kill off Radio 2 instead? And why should Radio 1’s audience suddenly lose some of their programming to make space for scraps from the axed network?

I also believe it is essential that, as we re-invest the money currently spent on 6 Music, we protect some of its precious programming by redeploying it elsewhere in BBC Radio and consider how we can also do justice to its legacy in areas like new music development.

So… let’s get this straight: you’re claiming that the money being taken by saving 6Music is going to be spent on making 6Music programmes elsewhere?

You know, I might believe you more if you actually gave some indication what programming you consider to be “precious” on 6Music. A name, a presenter, a musical style? If you want support for your plans, why can’t you tell us what these plans are?

At the moment, you have the air of a man about to knock down a building saying “of course, we’ll drag the survivors out.”

Nobody can see any room on Radio 1 or Radio 2 for 6Music programmes to be placed in any great numbers; lobbing, say, The FreakZone onto Radio 2 at 3am on Thursdays isn’t really going to build its audience any. Nobody can imagine what your brilliant plan for these unnamed “precious” programmes is.

While Davie’s 6Music plot is murky, his idea for the future of the Asian Network is insulting:

The Asian Network has offered a distinctive national service to British Asian audiences since it moved onto a digital platform in 2002. But the increasing plurality and diversity of British Asian audiences are stretching the coherence and relevance of this service, its audience reach is in decline and its cost per listener is high. While the quality of much of its programming is very high, changes in its strategy have led to an inconsistent listening experience and the national station has been less successful at replicating the sense of community which was fundamental to the growth of the original local Asian service. So we have proposed closing the Asian Network as a national service and will be exploring a number of options for redeploying its investment, including replacing it with a network of part-time local services. We believe this would offer listeners a better service – Asian Networks where they’re most relevant – closer to audiences and with a mixture of locally tailored and syndicated programmes.

One of the great things about radio is the power to make people feel connected. And given that there are British Asian families in every town and county of Britain, having a national service makes sense. Davie seems to be suggesting that the only British Asians he wants to serve are those who live in places with high proportions of British Asians in the population. But isn’t the value of the Asian Network in offering connection and virtual community to those who live in areas where they don’t have a large physical community to connect with? Shouldn’t the Asian Network have more value for a town with, say, no Bangladeshi community centre than one that does?

Either there’s a need for radio output reflecting the British Asian experience, or there isn’t. Davie’s plans suggest even he believes there is such a need. So why design it in a way that cuts off the very people who need it the most?

Can you imagine a crazy world in which Meg Matthews had no job?

Actually, yes, because she’s not really ever had a job, has she? So the stretch for BBC One’s Famous, Rich And Jobless isn’t so very great.

The programme is one of those well-meaning but fundamentally flawed programmes which take rich people and ask them to play at being poor for a few days. It’s like saying “close your eyes to find out what being blind is like”; a programme which told some of the long-term unemployed that there’s going to be car coming at the end of the week to take them off to a life of never having to worry about cash again. I’m sure even the second generation unemployed could mumble to sort of platitudes that Meg and co will come up with.

In fact, Meg has given the Sunday Mirror a preview of what those platitudes will be:

“This was one of the most challenging things I have ever done and made me realise a lot about life,” said Meg, 43, who is now an interior designer and engaged to art professor Peter Siddell, 49. “I know I am privileged. I can give my daughter a good upbringing and I don’t have the worries a lot of people have.

“I have never taken anything for granted, but now if I look in the mirror and think ‘does my bum look fat?’ I realise how shallow it seems.”

The unemployed, you see, are too busy being unemployed to give a hoot how they look. You’d never see someone living on benefits feeling like they might be out of shape. Caring about not being fat is a rich person’s privilege.

Meg says: “Unemployed people are not lazy, sitting round on their arses. Being jobless affects your self-esteem and you have to find a way to carry on.”

Having a woman who… what is it you do for a living again, Meg?… having a woman who does that pat you on your head. That’ll do wonders for your self-esteem.

If only all the unemployed could be kept as adoring pets for Meg Matthews, eh?

“I have been through the whole rehab thing, for depression,” she admits. “I can understand how some people who have not got a job can get drawn into that cycle. You find things to fill the void, be it drink or drugs. I had seven years with Brit Pop, seven years with Noel, the sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.

“When I hit 40 I went into a depression. I had the massive house, the Porsche, great clothes, but I didn’t have someone to hug. I’d give it all away to have that relationship.”

Mmm. You’d be surprised how many people living in Anfield have tried to the fill the void of only getting a few million in the divorce settlement by boozing, and then nipping off to rehab for an I Feel Sad holiday. Happened all the time.

Meg says her time on the show has made her change the way she lives. She has slashed her weekly supermarket bill, and adds: “We go round turning off lights and don’t waste water.”

Pssst… Meg, that’s meant to be your ‘it’s changed my life’ smugline for ‘Famous And Trapped On A Melting Glacier: Celebrities live the climate change life of a polar bear’.

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DEEP PURPLE

Concerto for what? Presenting five guys who made great noise together.

Arguably, the Mach II version of Deep Purple ranks with any band that emerged in the early 70s. Homer Simpson’s character may have opined that rock attained perfection in 1974, though by that point this version of Purple was no more, having already made their classic LPs (they would regroup with this lneup in the early 80s).

Made In japan, culled from a series of shows that they did at the Budokan and in Osaka in August of 1972, caught the group at a live peak. Each member brought a very distinct style of playing to the table, with Ritchie Blackmore as the main instigator of long improvisational flights that the others would willingly follow. Hearing Jon Lord and Blackmore try to outdo each other while trading solos is just one of many elements that made this incarnation so thrilling as a live act. Ian Gillan topped it all with a set of the most distinctive and powerful vocal cords in the business.

“Highway Star” would be nothing without Ian Paice bouncing that high hat and Roger Glover locked in perfectly with him.

Three solid studio efforts (In Rock, Fireball and Machine Head) plus a final middling disc (Who Do We Think We Are?) were the product of three years work and all still hold up extremely well.

All apologies to anyone who expected “Slow Walkin’ Walter”.

Deep Purple, without a net.

Oh, sure, Yoko Ono might have pocketed a bunch of cash for letting Citreon chop John Lennon into an advert. But Sean Lennon is keen to defend his mother – it’s not about the money at all:

Writing on micro-blogging site Twitter, Sean Lennon said the ad was “not for money” but was intended to keep his father “out there in the world”.

“Having just seen [the] ad I realize why people are mad,” he wrote. “But [the] intention was not financial.”

Yes. That’d be it. Given that it’s about a full ten minutes since The Beatles were all over the media with the computer game and the re-releases, it’s quite possible that people might have forgotten Lennon ever existed.

But… hang on: why would you need to make a car advert to promote Lennon?

[Lennon] defended his mother, saying she was merely “hoping to keep dad in [the] public consciousness”.

The ad, he said, meant “exposure to [the] young”. “Not many things as effective as TV,” he continued.

Yes. That’s what you think of when someone mentions John Lennon, isn’t it? “He’s that guy who was on the Ed Sullivan Show a while back, wasn’t he?”

Sean could say “look, my Dad loved money as much as anyone and Yoko’s just worked out that he’s reached a point where he’s more valuable as a cash-cow than a pretend hippie. If he hadn’t been shot, Lennon would be doing Nespresso adverts and writing start-up jingles for Microsoft.” Trying to pretend that flogging cars is simply a way of keeping a philosopher’s flame alive just makes everyone look silly as well as grubby.