Sony Settling Copy-Protection Class Action

And as the ongoing (and, gotta admit, really really enjoyable) saga of Sony's copy protection/spyware debacle continues, there has been an announcement that Sony is settling the consumer class action, with terms including replacement cd's, free downloads, and $7.50 per user. Of course, they still have to deal with at least one state Attorney General, plus ongoing problems with other cd's flawed by a different (but apparently equally destructive) spyware...

...And in other (but far more disturbing) news, the Department of Justice has responded to the news reports that the Bush Administration has been illegally spying on U.S. citizens by... yes, investigating the source of the leak.

Enjoy the new year... another year under the most corrupt and evil administration in U.S. history. Hurrah.

Best Song Of 2005??

Been trying to get an early start on my annual mix of the year's best songs -- I usually wait until January or February, allowing a few year-end purchases based on other critics' year-end best-of lists, but for better or worse I already bought more than enough new discs this year to fill an 80-minute cdr (with a few left on the cutting-room floor). I'll post the final list once I've culled it down (and I still do have a couple of those year-end purchases coming in). But it's already become evident that the stand-out track has to be...

...the New Pornographers' "The Bleeding Heart Show." Yes, I realize that just a few weeks ago I dissed the album (Twin Cinema) as just a bit too abrasive and busy for my taste; "Bleeding Heart" is no less busy, a mini-suite with three distinct sections, but unlike much of the album it gradually builds, climaxing in what is undeniably the finest 60-seconds of music all year, if not all decade. Sure, I'm a sucker for 3-chord power pop, layered harmony vocals, and choruses that go "hey la, hey la." But this one in particular just rips the heart out of my chest, stamps on it with spiked heels, and leaves it bleeding on the floor. If I wasn't already willing to sacrifice my soul to Neko Case, this one pretty much does the trick.

And, yes, it kinda reminds me of barely-remembered 80s hit "Life In A Northern Town" by Dream Academy... but damn if that wasn't one fine chorus as well. (You can deny it all you want, but you loved it, too.)

And no less easy a choice is the clear runner up as song of the year... My Morning Jacket's terrific "Off The Record" from their superb Z album. Like "The Bleeding Heart Show," this is also something of a 3-part mini-opus: starts off with a surf guitar ripped from "Hawaii Five-0," followed by a great 70's-styled classic rock radio boot-stomper, capped off with a brief jam that sounds like it was lifted from a Pink Floyd concert circa-1971 (i.e. think "Echoes"). Totally killer all around.

The rest of the mix won't quite be up to those high standards. Lots of decent pop tracks from otherwise so-so indie pop albums (Teenage Fanclub, the reconstituted Big Star, Oranger, Orange Peels, Ben Folds), a few quieter moments (Kingsbury Manx, Matt Pond PA), and assorted odds & ends (Son Volt, Of Montreal, etc.). More to come...

'Tis The Season To Be Nasty

Bit of a rehash here, but recently participated in an online forum discussion of musical hate lists. Now, personally, I don't see much point in proclaiming my "hatred" for particular music acts... if I'm not interested, I can just ignore it, so why sweat it? And what does it mean to "hate" an artist -- should I hate Celine Dion for being an annoying hack? The Eagles for being dull and crassly commercial? R.E.M. and the Rolling Stones for daring to tarnish the legend of their early albums by continuing to release increasingly irrelevant music? Mike Love for apparently being a complete dick? The Black-Eyed Peas for "My Humps"? (Actually, that last one is undeniably worthy of utter revulsion.)

So, no, didn't feel like going there. But I did manage to cobble together (on the fly, so it's probably incomplete and subject to revision) a Rock & Roll Hate List of a slightly different nature, and here it is:

1) Sony (and other corporate scum) who use "copy protection" and related insidious devices that restrict the listening rights of paying customers

2) Frat-boy assholes who attend concerts, presumably based solely on that one single they overheard at a party, then end up talking through the show, spilling beer on you, dancing obnoxiously, and just generally ruining the live music experience for everyone else there

3) Similarly, anyone else who talks during the quieter songs at concerts (or, even worse, makes cell phone calls, which is becoming increasingly prevalent and I swear to god one of these days I'm going to strangle one of these assholes), and idiot teenagers who insist on treating the floor as their own personal mosh pit

4) Ticketmaster

5) Every last goddamn member of the Bush Administration, past & present (which has nothing to do with music, but needs to be said)

6) Homophobic rappers, misogynist rappers, and anti-semitic rappers (and, of course, you can find this sort of thing outside rap, but it seems to be more prevalent there)

7) Whoever invented the tape strip used to seal the top of new cd jewel cases, which is impossible to remove and when you do tends to leave a sticky residue that makes the disc case all grungy

8) Any artist who releases a cd and follows it up several months later with an "expanded edition" that includes a couple remixes and/or live tracks and/or b-sides, rendering the already-overpriced cd you just bought earlier this year already obsolete (not to be confused with a legitimate reissue of a previously unreleased or badly-in-need-of-remastering classic that is appended with bonus tracks)

9) Any artist who releases a greatest hits collection or box set that commingles hits & rarities, thereby screwing serious fans who have to re-purchase the songs they already own to snag the rarities

10) Whoever decided that MTV, VH-1, and other "music" networks should stop showing videos and concerts music-related movies, and instead focus on inane reality shows and interminable spring break broadcasts

Review: Bruce Springsteen, Born To Run (30th Anniversary Edition)

Owner of one of the more neglected back-catalogs around (alongside the Beatles), Brooooce finally gets the reissue treatment for his legendary breakthrough album, 1975's timeless Born To Run. No need to talk more about the album itself (for my thoughts on Born To Run, you can see my Top 50 list). Suffice it to say it's an album that has definitely grown on me over the years. I've never been a huge Springsteen fan, and even today I don't listen to much beyond BTR and its follow-up, 1978's superb Darkness On The Edge Of Town, but it's hard to deny the classic status of this particular album. The remaster cleans up the sound a bit; it's not perfect, but it's a noticeable improvement on the original cd, which, like the rest of Bruce's catalog, doesn't sound a whole lot better than a hissy cassette. (Here's hoping they'll soon get around to remastering the rest of his classics, or at least Darkness, the River, and Greetings From Asbury Park, the only others I'd be likely to repurchase.)

The real reason to pick this up is for the DVD of a 1975 UK concert. The sound on the DVD is amazing -- if anything, a bit too clean, as the video itself is pretty raw and grainy, and the contrast between the sound & picture quality is a bit jarring at first. Still, it's a great document, and the first real chance (a few stray video clips aside) to see how the legend surrounding Springsteen's live shows grew so large so quickly.

In addition to the cd & the concert, you get a documentary DVD in which Bruce himself, plus several members of the E Street Band and manager Jon Landau, reminisce about the making of the album and the hype that grew out of its release. There are some fascinating bits -- most notably the parts showing how hard it was to actually record the damn thing -- and it's an interesting reminder of how Bruce changed from a third-tier journeyman rocker with a couple poorly-selling critical records into a guy who made the covers of Time and Newsweek the same week almost overnight. Unfortunately, it's a bit too self-congratulatory -- sure, it's a great album, and it was undeniably huge at the time, but it's not Pet Sounds, or Sgt. Pepper, or Bollocks, or Nevermind. Just an old-fashioned rock & roll record with some excellent performances and wonderful lyrics.

The biggest downside for me is the absence of bonus tracks on the cd. Yes, most of the outtakes from the era were included on the Tracks box set, but some demos or alternate mixes would have been appreciated, particularly for an album that went through so much work in the studio. It's especially upsetting when you watch the documentary and see them playing back some of the raw tracks to show how the album was constructed... with the master tapes still in such great shape, would it have killed them to let us hear a few? (But, hey, that's a quibble, and I'll have to settle for some of my bootlegs until they reconsider.)

Incidentally, though this is a Sony product (boo! hiss!), the cd lacks the evil copy protection program that has screwed purchasers of other Sony releases. So, while I hated giving any more money to Sony, at least it's not for a defective product.

Just In Time For Your Holiday Shopping...

Review: Wilco, Kicking Television (Live In Chicago)

Let's start with the bottom line: Wilco's Kicking Television (Live In Chicago) is a stellar live album. In an era when live cd's are becoming increasingly irrelevant (due in part to technological advances making it much easier for fans to make high quality tapes of concerts and distribute them online, as well as the increasing prevalence of concert DVD's), it's getting more and more rare to find a live release that is anything more than a superfluous contractual-fulfillment album. But Kicking Television is as vibrant and revelatory as the classic live albums of yore -- not exactly Live at Leeds, perhaps, but pretty great.

So what's the catch? Well, this album (recorded earlier this year) is Wilco Mach II. Gone are the days before frontman Jeff Tweedy fired guitarist Jay Bennett, when the shows were rough (but tight) and focused on their more upbeat tracks, peppered with oddball Led Zeppelin and Mott the Hoople covers and the occasional nod back to Tweedy's days in Uncle Tupelo. No, the post-2000 Wilco is a much slicker, well-oiled machine, but also a much tamer one. No covers here (save the somber gospel number at the end), no golden oldies, no surprises; almost everything comes from the last few albums, plus some songs written since 2004's A Ghost Is Born. And as I noted in reviewing that album -- a lot of their newer material can get kinda boring. As a result, parts of this 2-cd set really drag. I can't listen to, say, "Hummingbird," without my mind wandering, and thinking things like, gee, wouldn't it have been nice if they'd played "California Stars" instead? Or "Passenger Side"? Or "New Madrid"? Or... ok, you get the point. Plus that gospel closer is a real snoozer. And the title track, like the similar "I'm a Wheel" from Ghost, is yet another bland rave-up that blatantly rips off the Replacements -- not a bad band to rip off, mind you, but Tweedy has far better rave-ups in his back catalog to work with.

So why buy it? Well, the performance is great. The sound is great. And there are more than enough crowd-pleasers to outweigh the dead spots. Hell, "Misunderstood," "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart," and "Shot In The Arm" are alone worth the price of the package, and rockers like "I'm The Man Who Loves You" and "Heavy Metal Drummer" were made to be played in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Plus, some of the less memorable tracks from recent years really shine here. Take the extended drone of "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" -- yes, it was one of the stand-out tracks on Ghost, but sounded out of place, like it was misplaced from a Yo La Tengo album. But live, the thing is a turn-it-up-to-11-and-feel-your-face-melt stunner. So in other words, yes, you need this album.


Incidentally, I tried to think of other great official (non-bootleg) live albums. The Who's Live At Leeds, as noted above. But what else? Phish's Slip Stitch & Pass; The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads; Television Live At The Old Waldorf (now out-of-print limited release); Grateful Dead's Live/Dead or One From The Vault or a half dozen others; probably quite a few others, but not coming to mind at the moment.

The Music Never Stopped... Except Maybe For A Week or So

Looks like the Dead are revisiting their decision to clamp down on free downloading of their shows. Bending (apparently) to pressure from Deadheads, the band's management is (maybe?) reversing course and allowing fans to continue distribute live shows online, or at least audience recordings; it seems that sharing (online) soundboards is still going to be verboten.

It's getting hard to keep up, with the story changing minute by minute.

In any event, as I noted earlier, I think it's a bit of an overreaction by fans. However nice it is to have unlimited access to a band's live music vaults free of charge, the music does belong to the artist, and if they want to sell it to you, isn't that their right? I feel differently about (the vast majority of) other artists, who clamp down on taping live shows and trading their shows and DON'T make it available commercially. To their credit, the Dead have always allowed trading, and make much more of their archives available to fans (albeit for a price).