Somebody please tell me Tom Morello is kidding. The Rage Against the Machine guitarist seems to honestly think that, by reuniting for a single concert -- Coachella -- he and his Rage cohorts can bring the Bush administration to its knees.
"Is it coincidence," Morello pondered in an MTV News interview, "that in the seven years that Rage Against the Machine has been away that the country has slid into right-wing purgatory? I think not. It occurred to all of us that the times were right to see if we can knock the Bush administration out in one fell swoop, and we hope to do that job well."
Listen, I wish we lived in a world where all it took was a single rock concert to send the Bushies back to Texas with their tales between their legs, but it ain't gonna happen. Especially when the most articulate musical manifesto your band ever managed was, "F*ck you, I won't do what you tell me."
If you thought Garden State was, like, totally the awesomest movie ever, you might not be surprised to learn that the new album from The Shins -- the band that Natalie Portman promised would change Zach Braff's life -- sold 118,000 copies of their new album last week to debut at #2 on the Billboard charts. The only thing that might surprise you is the news that pop-rap act Pretty Ricky kept them from the #1 spot, outselling them by about 14,000 units.
But consider this: before Wincing the Night Away bumrushed the Soundscan system, the highest-charting release from The Shins' label, Sub Pop, was The Afghan Whigs'Black Love, which peaked at #79 in 1996. So yeah, for Sub Pop and other indie labels like it, this is -- to paraphrase Anchorman -- kind of a big deal.
For fans of indie rock, it's kind of a big deal, too. Pitchfork posted the story this morning, proudly (and maybe a bit wishfully) declaring, "Daughtry, Akon, Dreamgirls admit defeat, pack up and go home." Paste Magazine proclaims, "The band is not only changing the lives of indie kids everywhere (again), but they're probably also changing the future of their record label." And even USA Today wrote, "Finally, some people like them besides critics, record-store clerks and indie-pop fanatics."
And here's the kicker -- Wincing the Night Away might turn out to be kind of a big deal for the record industry as a whole. Of the 118,000 copies it sold, 36,000 -- nearly one in three -- was sold digitally. In the brave new world of online music, bands like The Shins might actually have a chance to reach as many listeners as the Pretty Rickys* of the world.
(*In case you were wondering...Pretty Ricky's Late Night Special only managed to rack up 3,300 digital sales.)
A lot of hip-hop artists have written rhymes about Iraq, but no one delivers them with as much authority as Timz, an Iraqi-American from San Diego. His new track "Iraq" and its accompanying video are pretty powerful stuff. This guy could become a huge star, or a huge magnet for anti-Arab hatred -- or, most likely, both. Either way, this is one of the gutsiest raps I've heard in a long time -- and it has a cool Middle Eastern-flavored beat, too.
Here's the video, which is up now on YouTube and on Timz's MySpace page.
Boy, did I underestimate the OK Go phenomenon when I blogged about it here back in September. Not only have they now sold more than 200,000 copies of their latest album Oh No -- more than twice what I predicted -- but they got over 200 submissions for their "OK Go Dances With You(Tube)" contest, in which they asked fans to recreate their first, pre-treadmill dance video, "A Million Ways." Even I, curmudgeon that I am, have to admit that many of the winning entries are pretty great. You can view all the best fan-generated videos on OK Go's website, but here's my personal favorite:
So far in 2007, album sales suck. As reported yesterday in Billboard, sales are down 16% compared to 2006, and the number one album in the country, the Dreamgirls soundtrack, has set back-to-back records for the worst selling number one album in Soundscan history.
So what's behind the slump? Lack of new product, mostly; the only new releases to sell more than 10,000 copies in either of the last two weeks have been Carly Simon'sInto White (a collection of covers), a new Elvis Presley compilation (cuz we really needed one of those), and the latest Disney TV movie soundtrack, Jump In! (starring Corbin Bleu from High School Musical, of course). Other than that... well, let's see. Crunk Hits, Vol. 3, anyone? Virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma, perhaps? C'mon, people -- will nothing get you off the couch and into the record store?!
The good news in all of this is that digital sales doubled last year and have already accounted for 11% of all album sales in 2007. So there's hope for the album in an online world, after all. The bad news is that there aren't many would-be blockbusters on the horizon -- Norah Jones, Fall Out Boy, maybe Bloc Party -- and they don't bust blocks like they used to. This time last year, Eminem's Curtain Call moved 76,000 units, six weeks after its release; this year, Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape only managed 28,000 in its sixth week. Maybe that's not a fair comparison, since Curtain Call was a greatest-hits collection and The Sweet Escape was... well, I actually like Gwen Stefani, so let's not talk about what The Sweet Escape was. Point is, sales are slow all over. Can Norah and FOB save the day? We'll see.
Well you might ask. Koopa is the music world's latest Internet success story -- the first band to crack Britain's Top 40 singles chart entirely through download sales. Their song, "Blag, Steal & Borrow," entered the chart over the weekend at number 31, thanks to changes in UK chart policy that now count all digital sales, even for songs that have never been physically released.
Koopa are being touted as the first unsigned band ever to hit the pop charts, which is a little misleading -- they've been at this for quite a while, according to the band's official bio, and even were given some studio time by EMI Records, although they "decided to go back to their original formula" and record future songs, like "Blag, Steal & Borrow," on their own. Also, you might remember a New York singer-songwriter named Lisa Loeb who topped the U.S. singles charts in 1994 with a song called "Stay," while she was still unsigned. The whole "unsigned" thing kind of misses the point. What's important here is that Koopa hasn't spent a dime on packaging, manufacturing, or distribution. "Blag, Steal & Borrow" is entirely an Internet phenomenon.
So what does this vanguard of virtual music sound like? Well, as you can tell from this lo-fi video the band shot, it sounds quite a bit like old blink-182. C'mon... you didn't really think the digital revolution would save us from bad music, did you?
Okay, I'm finally back to blogging after a long winter break -- and what better way to start the New Year than with a long, rambling list of foolhardy predictions for what 2007 holds in store? Check back here in 12 months and let's see how far off I was on some of these.
1. Album sales will continue to slide.
Okay, so this isn't that bold -- album sales have been sliding for years, and even though last year wasn't as dire as the year before (a 4.9% dip domestically, compared to something like 7% in 2005), there's no reason to think the trend won't continue. It's not that music is getting less popular -- it's just that the album format was a product of its time, and that time has passed. The album -- a 40-minute-plus collection of songs by the same artist -- is a cultural artifact that rose to prominence with the advent of the vinyl LP and, later, rock 'n' roll and early hip-hop culture. And yes, there have been many great ones, but it's not the best or most logical way for fans to collect music. The Internet is much more cost-effective -- even at 99 cents a download -- so the album's moment has passed. It won't disappear, but it will become like live theatre is today -- pricey, highly niche market, and steeped in nostalgia. Get used to it, kids.
2. Someone will sell three million paid downloads of a hit song.
Listen, if Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" can sell two million downloads (which it just did as of last week), it's only a matter of time before someone smashes through the three million mark. Let's all just hope it's not Britney Spears.
3. Hip-hop will bounce back.
Hip-hop began suffering from overexposure last year, as labels began frantically unloading first, second and third albums from every B-list rapper on their roster in an attempt to cash in on the genre's newfound mainstream acceptance. It didn't work, of course, but when the best you can muster is Yung Joc and Chingy, what do you expect? Overall sales didn't slide, but the lack of big blockbusters made hip-hop heads and industry insiders alike nervous. But like Public Enemy said, don't believe the hype -- hip-hop is still every bit as vital and evolving as rock was in its heyday, and there are enough forward-thinking producers out there kicking around on its fringes to make it more popular and relevant than ever. Look for "Hip-Hop is Back" headlines before year's end.
4. More small record labels will close up shop.
2007 has already logged its first casualty -- V2 Records, home of the White Stripes, which will continue to exist, more or less, in name only, with back catalog and gospel (?!) releases. Others will follow. In the industry's indie trenches, profit margins are razor-thin, and many of them are feeling the album sales slump just as badly as the majors.
5. The iPhone will be a monster.
Another one you might file under "Duh!" -- but a lot of people thought Apple waited too long to get into the phone/MP3 player niche. Instead, they arrived to the party fashionably late and looking sharper than anyone else in the room. People who went out and got the LG Chocolate are feeling some serious buyer's remorse right about now.
6. Chinese Democracy will finally come out... and flop.
Tracks from Axl's Folly leaked almost a year ago, so you know this damn thing is basically in the can -- the only reason it hasn't come out yet is because everyone's scared to death that it will tank. Which means, ipso facto, that it will tank. Guns 'N Roses can probably live forever as a touring band, but those fans who show up to the arena are looking for "Sweet Child O' Mine" and a few Axl tantrums -- not new music.
7. Baby boomer acts will rule the album charts.
While their kids stay glued to the computer, forty- and fiftysomething parents actually drag their asses down to Best Buy and Barnes & Noble and buy CDs occasionally. The result? Albums by old-timers like Barry Manilow, Tony Bennett, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and yes, even Bob Seger all sold like hotcakes, especially during that increasingly important, publicity-generating first week. Look for that trend to continue in 2007.
8. Lily Allen will be the hottest British export since fish 'n' chips.
This seems like another obvious prediction, except that people said the same thing about Internet phenom Sandi Thom and "midget rapper" Lady Sovereign, and they made nary a dent in the U.S. market -- except in terms of hype. Not even Corrine Bailey Rae made quite the James Blunt-sized splash everyone was expecting, though she's now quietly approaching platinum sales. But Allen's music is instantly and undeniably poptastic, with just a hint of a reggae lilt and some hip-hop attitude. She's this year's Gnarls Barkley -- smart, catchy, and soon to be inescapable.
9. The next big social networking site will be music-based.
There's nothing the iPod generation loves more than sharing music, and increasingly, the best way to do that is on a new generation of social networking sites that double as music recommendation engines and homes for music bloggers. I'm not dumb enough to predict which one will eventually blow up, but one of them will -- the frontrunners are MOG, Last.fm and the newly-launched Haystack. Or, eventually someone will get smart and launch one that's aimed at bored teenagers, who remain the Internet's greatest source of page views and ad revenue.
10. People will stop paying attention to Paris Hilton.
Okay, so this one is more of a wish than a prediction. But c'mon, people are going to get sick of her eventually, aren't they? Her vapid rich-girl shtick seems pretty well exhausted at this point. Even her namesake line of nightclubs is dumping her.
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Somebody please tell me Tom Morello is kidding. The 
A lot of hip-hop artists have written rhymes about Iraq, but no one delivers them with as much authority as Timz, an Iraqi-American from San Diego. His new track "Iraq" and its accompanying video are pretty powerful stuff. This guy could become a huge star, or a huge magnet for anti-Arab hatred -- or, most likely, both. Either way, this is one of the gutsiest raps I've heard in a long time -- and it has a cool Middle Eastern-flavored beat, too. 
Boy, did I underestimate the OK Go phenomenon when I 
So far in 2007, album sales suck. 
Well you might ask. Koopa is the music world's latest Internet success story -- the first band to crack Britain's Top 40 singles chart entirely through download sales. Their song, "Blag, Steal & Borrow," entered the chart over the weekend at number 31, thanks to changes in UK chart policy that now count all digital sales, even for songs that have never been physically released.