MUSICRADAR: Despite published reports indicating otherwise, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham have abandoned plans to record and tour together. MusicRadar spoke exclusively with Peter Mensch, Jimmy Page’s manager, who stated categorically, “Led Zeppelin are over! If you didn’t see them in 2007 [when they played a one-off reunion at London’s O2 Arena], you missed them. It’s done. I can’t be any clearer than that. Mensch confirmed that last fall, when singer Robert Plant made it known he was continuing his partnership with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss and had no intention of returning to Led Zeppelin, replacement vocalists […]
UNCOOL: Obama Puts Record Company Pitbulls In Charge Of Copyright And File Sharing Regulation
CNET: As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama won applause from legal adversaries of the recording industry. Stanford law professor Larry Lessig, the doyen of the “free culture” movement, endorsed the Illinois senator, as did Google CEO Eric Schmidt and even the Pirate Party. That was then. As president-elect, one of Obama’s first tech-related decisions has been to select the Recording Industry Association of America’s favorite lawyer to be the third in command at the Justice Department. And Obama’s pick as deputy attorney general, the second most senior position, is the lawyer who oversaw the defense of the Copyright Term Extension […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Although the Bush administration has stated that the interrogations techniques used at Guantanamo Bay came from the bottom up, British lawyer Philippe Sands disagrees. In his 2008 book, Torture Team, Sands argues that the harsh interrogation policy that emerged after Sept. 11 came from high-ranking government officials and top military figures. Sands warned in a June 2008 Fresh Air interview that the impact of the Bush administration’s conduct would be felt internationally: “The terrible tragedy of these memos and that dark period is that they have migrated into the hands of people who now say, ‘Well, Americans do […]
ALMOST FAMOUS: Adventures In Rock Criticism
EDITOR’S NOTE: Recently, Magnet asked me to do one of those Behind The Music-style navel-gazers about some of the cover stories I wrote for the magazine back in the day, with all the behind-the-scenes sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll dirt and gossip that could not be printed in a family indie-rock magazine back in the less-permissive 20th Century. The hard copy came out around Christmas, and last week they posted it to their new-and-improved web site/blog/thingee. I have included this ginormous photo of me, suitable for framing or dartboard-use, which they assured me was going to be the cover. […]
RIP: Stooges Guitarist Ron Asheton Dead At 60
NME: Ron Asheton, the guitarist and bassist with The Stooges, has been found dead today (January 6). He was 60. Asheton was found at his home in Ann Arbor this morning, according to police. A cause of death is yet to be confirmed, although initial reports suggest that Asheton died of a heart attack. Detective Sgt Jim Stephenson told local paper Ann Arbor News that foul play is not suspected. He added that Asheton‘s body was found on a living-room sofa, and that he appeared to have been dead for at least several days. Autopsy and toxicology results are pending. […]
HEAR YE: Minty Fresh Beats Jaydiohead
Selected tracks now playing on Phawker Radio! Complete download HERE. Yes the pun is painful — Jay-Z + Radiohead = Jaydiohead, DUH! — and at this late date, the mash-up is best left to the pros — people like Girl Talk and, well, pretty much just Girl Talk. With the last coupla years having seen a deluge of fuck-and-run digital smashmouth, patience for the mash-up to mature as an art form is running thin. Pitchfork has already dismissed this with one of their patented I-didn’t-really-listen-to-it-but-this-vague-dis-should-cover-my-ass kiss-offs, but we beg to differ. Granted, we haven’t actually made it to the end […]
DIRE MAN: Nutter Shutters Seven Fire Companies
Philadelphia Fire Department, circa 1913 [photo courtesy of PhillyHistory.Org] DAILY NEWS: Seven Fire Department companies were closed and 130 firefighters reassigned to other parts of the city yesterday as part of Mayor Nutter’s budget cuts. Nutter announced plans in November to eliminate five engine and two ladder companies to deal with a more than $1 billion hole in the budget over the next five years. MORE FIREFIGHTER HOURLY: Having visited fire departments all around the country, having ridden with very busy companies, I can say with a straight face that Philly faces some of the toughest conditions this side of […]
MY SPY: Obama Taps Ex-Clinton White House Chief Of Staff Leon Panetta To Lead Central Intelligence Agency
NEW YORK TIMES: President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization that Mr. Obama criticized during the campaign for using interrogation methods he decried as torture, Democratic officials said Monday. Mr. Panetta has a reputation in Washington as a competent manager with strong background in budget issues, but has little hands-on intelligence experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take control of the agency most directly responsible for hunting senior Al Qaeda leaders around the globe, but one that has been […]
REWIND 2008: The Year In Music We Loved
DEMOCRACY IS MESSY: Phawker Best of 2008 staff meeting. [Photo by PAUL PUGILESE, Copyright 2008] ***OUR FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2008*** (In No Particular Order) BON IVER For Emma, Forever Ago Classic story: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy goes to cabin in the Wisconsin woods and, over the course of three months of complete isolation and living on nothing but venison and Leinenkugels, records confessional folk/rock masterpiece with the hope of catching the ear of the girl he lost, and catches the ear of the world instead. This is pretty much the story of Bon Iver — AKA Justin […]
THERE WILL BE BLOOD: They Might Be Giants
[Photo by SUSAN ANDERSON] BY DAVE ALLEN It might sound like an insult to call a band’s sound cartoonish, but in the case of They Might Be Giants, it’s really not. I first encountered their music on the FOX cartoon show Tiny Toon Adventures in a kind of music video where the character Plucky Duck acts out the song “Particle Man,” getting pummeled by a variety of heavily-muscled of the professional wrestler-meets-comic book superhero type. The band’s wry, funny lyrics mesh with the arch musical sensibilities of the two core members, John Flansburgh and John Linnell — organ, accordion and […]
CLUSTER & ENO: Ho Renomo
WARNING: Extremely beautiful. WIKIPEDIA: Anna Pavlovna Pavlova (Russian: ????? ????????? ????????) (12 February 1881 [O.S. 31 January]–23 January 1931) was a Russian ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the most famous classical ballet dancers in history and was most noted as a Principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognised for the creation of the role The Dying Swan and with her own company, would become the first ballerina to tour ballet around the world.
SIGH: Zooey Deschanel Engaged To Ben Gibbard
[Image via INDIE ROCK OLYMPIC SKETCHES] PEOPLE: Zooey Deschanel [pictured, left] is ready to walk down the aisle, PEOPLE has learned. The actress and singer, 28, and Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard [drawn, above], 32, who is also in the indie band the Postal Service, got engaged before the holidays, a source confirms. Deschanel, currently starring in Yes Man opposite Jim Carrey, also released her first album, Volume One, in March with her band She & Him. Her rep was not available for comment. MORE CELEBRITY BUZZ: There has been some confusion over who, exactly, has won the […]