So I was listening to a station on Pandora. This band comes on and starts sining, “Mydo Kawa.” I was thinking to myself, “These guys sound white enough, but that’s surely some oriental language.” Turns out its the Steve Miller Band and he’s singing “My Dark Hour.” Enunciate! Or move to Canada, learn to enunciate and then sing your silly songs. Mydo Kawa!
In what can only be described as either insane or completely normal for insane people the Major music labels of America, AKA:” The people who would sue your grandma if they found out she had MP3′s on her computer – even if she didn’t know how they got on there,” are suing the Russian MP3 sharing site AllOfMP3.com for 1.65 trillion dollars. In case that sounds like a lot of money, you’d be wrong. Because in Russian Rubles it would be 43.378995 trillion rubles. OK, that’s the same amount of a lot of money.
Yearly music sales for the major labels is only $40 billion worldwide or roughly one fortieth of the sought reimbursement. Granted that the attorneys in this case, if their pipe dreams come true, will get a large chunk of that. So maybe a handful of attorneys join the world’s wealthiest billionaires, displacing Bill Gates as most hated human being because everyone else is jealous, or maybe this silly site is going to disappear, the Russians will not pay a ruble, and the RIAA will go about suing grandmas, teenagers, and complaining that music sales keep dropping because of the Internet. Surely no one could possibly be buying less music because they don’t want another Britney Spears album, they never wanted a Paris Hilton album, and they also did not want another new album for the asking price of $18.00 a disc. Oh, and nobody even whispered in dark rooms or in back alleys that they wanted a Kevin Federline album.
I of course keep knocking out number one hits like there’s no tomorrow. Like this.
Kraft cheese is now selling ‘Crumbles’ which would be crumbled cheese. And their advertisement offended my sense. They just took the song ‘Unbelievable’ by EMF from 1990 and turned it into “Crumbelievable.” Wow, that’s crummy advertising. It is also really, really amazing to me that EMF would license that song. Sure, they’re hurting for money, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Especially with such cheesey covers.
If you like U2, and I know you do, then you may have some thoughts on this.* I just listened to the Coverville episode that was a U2 cover story. Some of the covers are good, but the last one really grabbed me the most [When Love Came to Town featuring Herby Hancock, Joss Stone and Johnny Lang]. Anyway, I found that almost all of the covers lacked the passion that Bono puts into the vocal parts. When you get accustomed to certain sounds, songs or bands some covers really come up short. But this got me to thinking – I know, I try not to think too much, but I had to this morning.
When U2 eventually stops making music (I’m referring to death, not the reunion tours, the senior home tours and the depends sponsored tours that the Rolling Stones have done) more bands will do covers and the next generation of fans will be born. Bands will do U2 covers to new listeners, those listeners will then get turned onto the original band and it will be a new sound, even though it may be decades old. Or, because they don’t know the original song will they later not like the U2 version?
In the end I think what will impact people most is the fact that Bono looks like he’s Robin William’s brother.
*I also know you like rice cakes with butter and salt on them. Yup, I know my readers really, really well.
Red Umbrella is a band that I stumbled upon through the Dallas/Ft. Worth based Spin 180 podcast. If you have ever been drawn to the fantasticly unique voice of David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) then you must check this band out. Their music is just brilliantly catchy, creative and did I mention creative? There are 80′s pop sounds, infectious grooves and modern rock sensibilities. All in one band. It is their first album, but if they keep going like this I hope it isn’t their last!
I want to buy their album on iTunes but I have been unable to get it yet, though their site says it is available there. I assume Sony will be getting it up soon. There are three tracks that you can listen to on their site which should warm you up :)