1120
Well, it’s been fun.
Next week will mark the return of your regularly scheduled blogger, the inimitable George Lang. In the meantime, though, thank you, Jorge, for the chance to blog again — and for the chance to gain halcyon memories that will last a lifetime.
See you in the funny papers, gang — and I don’t mean Zig-Zags.
Over and out,
Chase McInerney
1. Isobel Campbell, “Willow’s Song.”
2. The Brunettes, “Her Hairagami Set.” The Brunettes’ third album, “Structure & Cosmetics,” will be out shortly for all you members of the twee-house set. Love this New Zealand duo — “Her Hairagami Set” is nice, but the balance of the disc is filled with slightly better gorgeousness. This will be the “Future of Rock ‘n’ Roll” for this week.
3. Dead Kennedys, “I Fought the Law.”
4. Lavender Diamond, “Dance Until It’s Tomorrow.”
5. Ween, “Freedom of ‘76.” A white soul classic from “Chocolate and Cheese,” featuring Gener’s flawless falsetto. The video looks like an expensive Steven Bochco production — yes, those were the days when Elektra still had governing principles and actually promoted their bands.
6. Lindsey Buckingham, “It Was You.”
7. Rogue Wave, “10:1.”
8. Peter Bjorn and John, “Me & Julio Down By the Schoolyard.”
9. Mark Ronson featuring Lily Allen, “Oh My God.” Lily gets her Jessica Rabbit on during this Kaiser Chiefs cover.
10. The Rosebuds, “Get Up Get Out.”
Check this leaked clip of not only Cate Blanchett as mid-’60s-period Bob Dylan, but David Cross as Alan Ginsberg.
1. Pink Floyd, “Arnold Layne.” Last night, at the home of a Staticblog reader, we were discussing the relative merits of a Pink Floyd reunion, and our host, Kev, said that it isn’t truly necessary: Roger Waters had all the bases covered when he saw him in Vegas recently. Even had a David Gilmour soundalike. Of course, a true reunion is impossible now, no matter how relations between the Waters/Gilmour camps sour or improve. This video shows the late Syd Barrett in all his pre-meltdown glory.
2. Patrick Watson, “Luscious Life.”
3. Wilco, “Impossible Germany.”
4. Kings of Leon, “On Call.” The Followill boys slicked it up on “Because of the Times,” dispensed with some of their “Strokes on Capricorn Records/Allman Brothers at CBGB” vibe and aimed for the arenas. I don’t mind it when it’s done right, and they did it.
5. A Band of Bees, “Listening Man.”
6. Thee Hydrogen Terrors, “Sissy Bar.”
7. LCD Soundsystem, “Watch the Tapes.”
8. Barenaked Ladies, “Fight the Power.”
9. Dizzee Rascal, “Fix Up, Look Sharp.” This samples a semi-obscure piece of strutting monster truck blather from 1980 called “The Big Beat” by Billy Squier. Oddly enough, “The Big Beat” supplied many of the early Queens rappers with their backing tracks when they were still plugging into streetlights. But for anyone to use it in this day and age took guts, and ends up being both catchy and stupid/funny.
10. The Flaming Lips, “It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big, I Am So Small… Do I Stand a Chance?”
Wah.
On July 2, Tommy Dunbar, the former guitarist for the ’70s Bay Area power-pop band The Rubinoos, filed a lawsuit against Avril Lavigne in federal district court. Dunbar’s lawsuit alleges that Lavigne’s recent hit, “Girlfriend,” bears legally actionable similarity to the Rubinoos’ 1978 song, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.” Whether it meets standards for plagiarism is completely up for grabs, since the courts have affirmed cases that were far less airtight than “‘Boyfriend v. ‘Girlfriend.’”
Just to do a side-by-side comparison, I created a “‘Boyfriend v. ‘Girlfriend’” playlist in iTunes, copied the songs several times and played these two annoying and annoyingly similar tracks until I craved the sweet relief of a hard-drive failure. I am not a copyright lawyer, but I would play one on TV if given the opportunity. Plus, I’ve been obsessed with pop plagiarism since the case of “Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music,” which determined that George Harrison had subconsciously lifted the melody to “My Sweet Lord” from The Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine.”
I also personally enjoyed it when Huey Lewis raked Ray Parker Jr. over the coals for his appropriation of “I Want a New Drug” for the “Ghostbusters” theme. Given how irredeemably lame both songs are, it is hard to see how anybody really wins in that case. It is one thing to steal something brilliant, but co-opting “I Want a New Drug” for “Ghostbusters” is a little like trading in a Ford Pinto to buy an AMC Pacer.
So, I listened, then I listened some more before slamming the headphones on my desk and reaching the following conclusion: On its face, the only prominent similarity in “‘Boyfriend v. ‘Girlfriend’” comes during the choruses for the two songs. Rubinoos singer Jon Rubin sings “Hey (hey) you (you), I wanna be your boyfriend,” while Lavigne sings “Hey (hey) you (you) I don’t like your girlfriend.” They also feature the same handclapping rhythm, but I doubt that any judge would seriously have stadium pep-rally clapping entered into evidence.
Beyond that single repeated line, the melodies bear little similarity. One is a stomping mall-punk anthem, while the other is a power-pop relic that would have sounded great on the “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” sound track. But that one similarity might just be enough.Consider the case of “Three Boys Music v. Michael Bolton,” which is analyzed extensively by Columbia Law School’s Music Plagiarism Project. This was the court battle in which The Isley Brothers brought suit against fake soul provider Michael Bolton for appropriating the Isleys’ “Love Is a Wonderful Thing” for his 1991 hit, “Love Is a Wonderful Thing.”
Columbia Law School features a side-by-side comparison between the two songs. There is a slight similarity in how both titles are sung, but as much as I don’t want to side with Bolton on anything, the tracks’ only commonality comes during the title refrain. Despite this, the Isleys won, and the case was upheld on appeal.It’s entirely possible that Lavigne has never heard The Rubinoos song. Until a few years ago, she professed to have not heard of David Bowie and seemed incapable of pronouncing his name correctly.
On the other hand, her co-writer on “Girlfriend,” Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, spent a decade as the guitarist for the “Saturday Night Live” band. That guy knows rock music, but again, we’re talking about a 30-year-old song released on an independent label by a band that is mildly semifamous for sounding a lot like The Raspberries. But as her Canadian label head told Billboard, artists carry coverage for these kind of things. “Avril has insurance that covers off cq these sort of suits that are so prevalent in this business,” Terry McBride, chief executive officer of Nett-werk Music Group, told the magazine.
In that case, I suppose Lavigne can splurge. Aging power-pop guys should iron their skinny ties for future court dates.
1. Marissa Nadler, “Cortez the Killer.”
2. The Postmarks, “Weather the Weather.”
3. The Radio Dept., “The Worst Taste in Music.” A tasteful Scandinavian throwback to dreamy, mid-period New Order circa “Low-Life.” Fans of Stars should download “Pet Grief” immediately or yesterday.
4. Grizzly Bear, “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”
5. Paul Weller, “Wildwood.”
6. A3, “Woke Up This Morning.” I’m one of the few people domestically who actually owns A3’s “Exile on Coldharbour Lane,” and believe it or not, the theme to “The Sopranos” is not a complete lock on being the best song from this band. “Ain’t Goin’ to Goa” (links to someone’s vacation pictures with A3 accompaniment) was a great song about avoiding the neo-hippie tourist destination in India, and was played a lot in the days of the original Spy.
7. Sparks, “Perfume.”
8. The Go! Team, “Junior Kickstart.”
9. Evangelicals, “My Headache.”
10. Santa Maria, “Every Time.” More Swedes, featuring Maria Eriksson of the Concretes, whose vocals are a dead ringer for Sasha Bell of The Essex Green/Ladybug Transistor. Not the same former member of the Concretes featured on Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks” (that was Victoria Bergsman).
Vanity Fair has a great, in-depth piece on Sly Stone featuring the first interview with the man in a couple of decades. He’s playing the Montreaux Jazz Festival this year and a few other European dates before allegedly going into the studio to record his first new music in over 21 years.
Among the many great songs he wrote and recorded before his decline and eventual seclusion, I consider “Hot Fun in the Summertime” one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded — a deceptively complicated piece of music that combined doo-wop, funk, swing, jazz and classic pop music, and yeah, you’ve heard it, but listen to all the chord and stylistic changes in the song and it will blow your mind several times over. For a relatively smooth song, that’s saying something.
Read the whole thing here.
Welcome to Blog.newsok.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
Any way you don’t want it
First came its revival on MTV’s “Laguna Beach” a couple of years ago, then the song was chosen to abruptly end the most revered television drama of our time. For a relic from the days when giant beetle-shaped warships were considered perfectly fine album art material, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” suddenly has disproportionately huge cultural cache.
So this morning, Staticblog received a press release from the last remaining Journey-men, saying that the second guy they have hired to sing their arena-rock castrato arias since Steve Perry jumped scarab, Jeff Scott Soto, and the band have “just decided to go our separate ways, no pun intended,” according to lead guitarist/Catskills comedian Neal Schon.
Now, if millions of people just listened to your song on “The Sopranos,” wouldn’t it make sense, in these reunion-mad times, to collect your old soprano and go out on tour? You just know that “Journey Featuring Steve Perry” is going to happen at a casino near you, and we only have David Chase to blame.
Now, what’s the proper way to express gastric distress in print? Blurg?
