Music on TV

[RGMike]

The Decemberists will be performing on Colbert tonite.

[ggould]

been watching on Palladia HD channel, and it's pretty darned impressive, if you go for that sort of thing.  Lots of cool stuff: last live performance of the late Richard Wright (couldn't help but feel sad during "Time" lyrics); glass harmonica intro to "Shine on You Crazy Diamond"; lots of great arching guitar solos for us guitar geeks; Phil Manzanera, Dick Parry, Guy Pratt; Polish symphony; Astronomy Dominie, and so on.  Martha said it all tends to sound the same, and I imagine it does!

[Lightnin' Rod]

been watching on Palladia HD channel, and it's pretty darned impressive, if you go for that sort of thing.  Lots of cool stuff: last live performance of the late Richard Wright (couldn't help but feel sad during "Time" lyrics); glass harmonica intro to "Shine on You Crazy Diamond"; lots of great arching guitar solos for us guitar geeks; Phil Manzanera, Dick Parry, Guy Pratt; Polish symphony; Astronomy Dominie, and so on.  Martha said it all tends to sound the same, and I imagine it does!

I watched a bit of that Saturday -- maybe 10 or 15 minutes.  Pretty cool, but I came in during a non-Pink Floyd section, so it lacked accessibility.  Nice soaring guitar, though.

[RGMike]

I didn't think funny "We Are The World" parodies were still possible but kudos to 30 Rock for pulling one off.  Elvis C. Mary J, Sheryl Crow, Cyndi Lauper and Michael McDonald (among many) spoofed themselves admirably.  Find it at NBC.com or Hulu.

[RGMike]

Green Day will be performing on Colbert tonite.

[Tinka Cat]

Green Day will be performing on Colbert tonite.

there were on SNL last week.  saw the first song.  whatevs.

[RGMike]

Green Day will be performing on Colbert tonite.

there were on SNL last week.  saw the first song.  whatevs.

speaking of guys with mascara and painted fingernails.  Actually, Adam Lambert might be perfect for the stage version of American Idiot at Berkeley Rep this fall.

[Tinka Cat]

Green Day will be performing on Colbert tonite.

there were on SNL last week.  saw the first song.  whatevs.

speaking of guys with mascara and painted fingernails.  Actually, Adam Lambert might be perfect for the stage version of American Idiot at Berkeley Rep this fall.

oh snap!

he is pretty with all that guyliner

[Tinka Cat]

Green Day will be performing on Colbert tonite.

there were on SNL last week.  saw the first song.  whatevs.

speaking of guys with mascara and painted fingernails.  Actually, Adam Lambert might be perfect for the stage version of American Idiot at Berkeley Rep this fall.

oh snap!

he is pretty with all that guyliner

Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/21/entertainment/e043414D72.DTL

[RGMike]

Green Day will be performing on Colbert tonite.

there were on SNL last week.  saw the first song.  whatevs.

speaking of guys with mascara and painted fingernails.  Actually, Adam Lambert might be perfect for the stage version of American Idiot at Berkeley Rep this fall.

oh snap!

he is pretty with all that guyliner

Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/21/entertainment/e043414D72.DTL

Right on! and take that, Bruce!

BTW, I finally found Dave Marsh's long-awaited rationalization, er, comment on the Springsteen/Wal-mart thing. he's basically using the "everybody else is doing it" defense.

In the past three months, Bruce Springsteen has been bashed for releasing a Greatest Hits album (with no new music) exclusively for WalMart, playing the Super Bowl halftime program, and for the way that Ticketmaster scalped his tickets.

No way to feel sorry for Bruce. He struck back against Ticketmaster on his website and manager Jon Landau was one of the few who dared speak about the practice of artists’ scalping their own tickets. The Super Bowl gig was at least an entertainment success, even if one didn’t agree that th four song progression  represented a journey through “the band’s story…my story…everybody’s story…the end of the story (but not yet),” as Springsteen described it. Even with
WalMart, Springsteen responded graciously. “We just dropped the ball on it.. given its [Wal-Mart's] labor history, it was something that if we'd thought about it a little longer, we'd have done something different. It was a mistake. Our batting average is usually very good, but we missed that one. Fans will call you on that stuff, as it should be.”

WalMart’s labor practices are repugnant. But so are, for instance, those of Target, which pays its entry-level employees just as badly and makes it even more difficult for them to acquire health care. WalMart is notoriously anti-union but Target also says it "simply doesn't believe that third-party representation would add anything for our customers, our employees or our shareholders.”

The fact is that there are no chains that welcome unions, treat their employees fairly, provide just health care or use U.S. labor where producing outside the U.S. saves money. This doesn’t mean that WalMart is unfairly singled out; it means that “hip” Target gets away with all kinds of inequity. So Springsteen is berated for the WalMart
deal, which involved an “exclusive” album, Essential Vol. 3, that held no new gems. Yet the exclusive deals of Bob Dylan, U2 and Prince with Target are ignored.

In fact, there’s been virtually no criticism of the Eagles, who gave their most recent album Long Road Out of Eden to WalMart as a one year exclusive. (They sold seven million copies.) Nor have we heard a peep about the deal Russell Simmons just struck to distribute his American Classic clothing line exclusively with WalMart. Yet both the Eagles and Simmons are music world activists, too.

We also can’t find any discussion of those who shop at WalMart because they must—because almost every other retailer in their community has been driven out of business. This is regarded as bad for small business, but rarely mentioned is the fact that it’s also an impossible situation for citizens.

What is needed is a program of opposition to all such employers— which includes many much smaller businesses—accompanied by a rise in union organizing, worker militance, and strong support in the media that proclaims itself on the workers’ side.  If there is to be a consumer boycott of WalMart, it needs to coalesce and make itself heard on a steady basis. The several unions involved in trying to organize at WalMart need to form a coalition instead of competing
against each other.

If there is to be a supplier boycott of WalMart—if Sony, which distributes Springsteen,  is to avoid doing business with the company that sells 15 percent of all records in the U.S.—then even harder work must be done.

Bruce Springsteen is a perfectionist artist with a perfectionist audience that made sure he got set straight PDQ on this matter. But that doesn’t mean erasing thirty years of credit for using his reputation and his music to help working people. It means facing up to the challenge of creating an environment that’s better for workers everywhere. Superstars won’t do that for us—we’ll do it for ourselves or it won’t get done.

Originally found here: https://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.artists.springsteen/browse_thread/thread/c461ae702af022c3/4ae4f807211225c3?lnk=raot

[RGMike]

Hey Hey, KOFY TV-20's Sunday "Retro Night" feature is offering 4 eps of The Monkees tomorrow from 8-10pm.

[RGMike]

Just caught the Daily Show replay from last nite, with Spinal Tap doing "(Funky) Sex Farm" from the new CD and then the classic "Gimme Some Money". And the interview, hilarious.  McKean said he's managing other acts: a rapper called Big Fat Black Guy, and a Jewish rapper named Nice Glass Tea.

[RGMike]

Gabba Gabba Hey! Just watched (on one of the Encore movie channels) a very entertaining concert doc, Too Tough to Die, built around a Johnny Ramone tribute concert that took place just a few days before his death in 2004. Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, Joan Jett, the RHCPs, X, Rancid and others doing Ramones songs. Had no idea he was close friends with Rob Zombie (!) or Lisa Marie Presley (!!).

[RGMike]

KCSM is showing that Stax/Volt Revue concert filmed in Norway (!) back in '67.  Otis!  Fantabulous!

[ggould]

KCSM is showing that Stax/Volt Revue concert filmed in Norway (!) back in '67.  Otis!  Fantabulous!

I watched the whole thing.  It was so simple, and so intense.