Basslines and Protest Signs is Brett Callwood’s new column looking at the intersection of music and politics. This week examines the rise of Riot Grrrl.
What better way to kick off a weekend than with new music? Featuring new tracks from Tegan and Sara, The Dangerous Summer, Taylor Swift, and more.
After all the work entailed by the simultaneous release of the analog-sounding I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and the electronica-tinged Digital Ash in a Digital Urn a little more than two years ago, Bright Eyes mastermind Conor Oberst says he wised up. “I think we had enough of the double record last time,” he laughed. “It was pretty hectic, and the tour that followed, to promote both albums, ended up being a lot on us. We’re trying to be a little smarter this time around. The idea was definitely to make one strong album that made sense.” That album, Cassadaga,… Read more »
New York – The upcoming Nirvana box set, “With the Lights Out,” features 18 previously unreleased audio tracks and four video clips from the archives of venerable indie label Sub Pop, to which the Kurt Cobain-led band was signed early in its career. Included are three Leadbelly covers recorded in August 1989 at Seattle’s Reciprocal Studios, with assistance from Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan and then-Trees drummer Mark Pickerel. Cobain had designs on forming a group around these players, to be named Jury or Lithium, but it never materialized. “When Lanegan was in the studio recording… Read more »
Just a month after opening its doors, the Apple iTunes store is looking to expand. With content already available from all five major labels, the online music service is reaching out to independent labels in hopes of offering the broadest, deepest catalog of downloadable music. Apple has invited hundreds of indie label representatives to a private presentation on Thursday at the computer giant’s Cupertino, California, campus to discuss hopping onboard and adding their content to the more than 200,000 songs already available through the service. “The plan was to go out of the gate with the five major labels, but… Read more »
Throughout their upcoming tour, Pearl Jam will give fans who pre-order recordings of their shows access to unmastered MP3s of the concerts just hours after the music’s over. As a sequel to the 2000 series of 72 double-disc (well, one was triple-disc) “official bootleg” albums chronicling their world tour, Pearl Jam will sweeten the pot with the Web promotion, in addition to the promise of delivering the limited-edition CDs within seven to 10 business days. Fans who pre-order CDs of a show can access the unmastered MP3s a few hours after that night’s performance via three sites – www.pearljam.com, www.tenclub.net… Read more »
More than a decade after the height of the Seattle rock explosion, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains are long gone and Mudhoney have become a cult band. Pearl Jam are the last man standing. And despite their best efforts to maintain a low profile, their Riot Act debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling more than 165,000 copies. No one could be more surprised than guitarist Mike McCready. “I’m amazed that people are even still wanting to listen to us,” he said. “With all the other music out there and the shifting times, I’m surprised that… Read more »
Imagine a ruthlessly efficient army of robots running wild through the nation’s record stores, removing every bit of major label product from the shelves, from Britney to Bob Dylan – but leaving behind CDs from independent labels. Since March, that unlikely scenario has taken place, more or less, on the free but legally precarious online music bazaar that is Napster. A court injunction stemming from the major labels’ copyright infringement suit against Napster has forced it to block access to copyrighted songs – but labels have the burden of naming the songs in question. And many small and mid-size indie… Read more »
