Modzelewski: 1100 words on me and 700 on music news? In a music news column? Bit of overkill there, ain’t it? I’m all for protesting. This country was constructed by protesters. But the decision has been made. Get over yourselves. Now, they’re all out there to take advantage of a situation to make Bush look bad. And it’s not going to work. You have to wait till AFTER the war to make him look bad.
And now, we have Iraqis butchering POWs and fake surrendering… but they’re the good guys. We have to remember that. We just don’t understand them. Diplomacy would have worked… honest.
Had a moment of feeling old this week. Went to my old college to visit my roommate’s brother who is a senior this year and he had a party. Conveniently, the house I used to live in at Siena was ALSO having a party, so I decided to stop in and see what the joint looked like. They installed a cage for chicks to dance in. Let me tell you… I approve, and approve hardcore. However, being a three year past graduate made me feel very, very old this week. One more party to go to at that place before the last person I know graduates…and I don’t even know if I want to go to it. Fuckin aging.
Mailbag
Michael D: “Linkin Park was really the first to fuse Hardcore and HipHop into one fluid CD where the two styles didn’t get in the way of each other… [me, last week]”
Um, ever hear of Faith No More? Quit giving some second rate band credit for any kind of first. Even fricking Limp Bizkit does it better than Linkin Park. My god…
Believe it or not, chuckles, I have heard of Faith No More, but I don’t put them in the hip-hop + rock fusion. If I did that, then I have to put the Chili Peppers in there too… and I’m not willing to do that, either.
And, if you noticed, I said “where the two styles don’t get in the way of each other.†LP can have rap and metal in the same song and it sounds right. LB can’t pull it off. They’re either songs like N 2gether Now or songs that are metal music with Fred trying to rap. LP has two singers with similar beats and BOTH sound right inside the context of the same song. THAT is doing it right.
Ian: Whilst reading your column today a thought sprung to mind. You criticise celebrities for using thier fame to publicly express thier political views however you do the same thing as they do on a much smaller scale by using a forum that you have available to you to
express publically your political opinions and beliefs. Whilst I feel that some famous people are incredibly annoying when they harp on about politics (and I’m Irish so I have to deal with Bono) and that the Dixie Chicks should be publically hung, drawn and quartered for their cynical pandering to their fans surely if someone uses a platform that they have available to them to and believe in something strongly then they should not be critiscised for doing so. Martin Sheen does it and so do you.
A fair question and I should clarify. I have no problem with INFORMED celebrities making statements or voicing their opinions. What I do have a problem with is celebrities who have no idea what goes on in the world voicing their opinions to impress big directors/music producers. Tom Morello from Rage knows what the hell is going on in the world. I am totally turned off by his politics, but he’s informed. Bono has a pretty good idea of the world’s problems and even gets his hands in some of them, so when he talks, I can listen. Movie stars who are pro-Democrat and anti-Bush because directors (read: Spielberg) is, make me sick. Folks on MTV who aren’t named Norris or Loder making political statements, make me sick… and they shouldn’t be running their mouth if they don’t know what they’re talking about. Me, I have a decent idea about what’s going on. Eric S over on wrestling is possibly one of the most informed people I’ve ever read. I may not agree with him all the time, but I respect him (now, even though I had a knee-jerk reaction to his first column for the site). Making uninformed statements to get cheap pops and so people like you, I don’t respect.
Spent the entire weekend moving and still don’t have a computer at home, so I have to try to stealth this column at work, so lets get to rollin.
Academy Award winning Composer… Eminem
Hurts, don’t it.
Eminem conquered the last set of awards he needed to this year. To add to his, thusfar, terrific year, he added an Academy Award on Sunday for “Best Movie Theme song†for Lose Yourself. Can’t say I blame them here… it’s still one of my favorite songs of 2002. It speaks to people, if they’ll take the minute to listen and not pigeonhole it as rap. Of course, I do still think that Em is overrated, but no more so then his new protégé, 50 cent.
Oversensitivity in Action
Well, at least it’s not ONLY the US that gets oversensitive about silly things. A memo was circulated through MTV Europe’s offices last week about certain videos not to play during this time of world crisis. A copy was posted on Blabbermouth.
Dear all
In the light of the outbreak of war in Iraq in the last 12 hours, our recommendations for the scheduling and content of videos and programmes are as follows:
1. Video recommendations
Obviously, there will be heightened public sensitivity to representations of war, soldiers, bombing, destruction of buildings and public unrest at home. The ITC Programme Code requires us not to broadcast material which offends against good taste or is offensive to public feeling. We therefore recommend that videos featuring the following are not shown at the moment:
war
soldiers
war planes
bombs
missiles
riots and social unrest
executions
other obviously sensitive material
Examples include:
System of a Down “Boom!” – anti-war video containing facts and figures about, amongst other things, the projected casualties in the war in Iraq.
How about we just kill Serj and Co. No one will miss them in six months. Eh, actually we can just let them do it themselves.
Aerosmith “Don’t want to miss a thing” – contains footage from the film “Armageddon”.
The movie Armageddon? Yeesh, we really did come from the Brits.
Manic Street Preachers “So Why So Sad” – contains footage of soldiers being killed and man throwing a hand grenade.
Passengers/U2 “Miss Sarajevo” – contains missiles, guns and buildings being blown up.
Bon Jovi “This ain’t a love song” – contains war scenes and victims in distress.
Iggy Pop “Corruption” – contains wars, riots, guns and captions “we love guns” and “we love rifles”.
Paul Hardcastle “19” – contains war footage.
Radiohead “Lucky” – contains war footage including injured children.
Billy Idol “Hot in the City” – contains an atomic explosion.
Armand van Helden “Koochy” – contains an atomic explosion and ships being blown up.
Trick Daddy “Thug Holiday” – contains soldiers being killed at war.
Interesting… no Rage Against the Machine videos. Oh, that’s right, Rage just hates America.
Furthermore, videos with words such as “bomb”, “missile”, “war” or other sensitive words in the artist or song title should not be shown at the moment.
Examples include:
Outkast “B.O.B (Bombs over Baghdad)” – song title may offend.
Radiohead “Invasion” – song title may offend.
Megadeth “Holy Wars” – song title may offend.
Song may offend, actually.
Gavin Friday “You, Me and World War Three” – song title may offend.
B-52s videos.
The WHOLE B-52s? Damn.
Also, please note that some evergreen tapes contain sensitive videos e.g. until recently, the MTV2 evergreen contained the Outkast “B.O.B. (Bombs over Baghdad)”. We therefore recommend that music programmers ensure that inappropriate songs are removed from the evergreen tape for the duration the war.
Please note that this is not a definitive list of videos. Please use the ITC video restrictions database to check each song before broadcast. If you are aware of any other videos featuring the above images, titled with the above words or which may be unsuitable for broadcast in the light of the outbreak of war, we recommend that these are pulled from your schedules.
2. Programme recommendations
Under the ITC’s rules, we have two main obligations regarding programmes:
(a) Not to broadcast material which offends against good taste or is offensive to public feeling.
For example, no programme should contain:
(i) images of war, bombs, missiles, etc that are likely to be seen as insensitive or offensive at this time (see above for further guidance).
(ii) jokes about the war, about bombing Iraqis, about the American, Iraqi or UK troops.
(iii) comments about the war that are likely to be seen as insensitive or offensive.
Play Nice, people. It’s not a good time to look like fools.
Furthermore, the content of each long-form show should be considered before scheduling. Scripts for presenters and news pieces must also be treated with great sensitivity.
(b) To ensure that our programmes treat the issue of war in Iraq with “due accuracy” and “due impartiality”.
Therefore, we need to ensure that any programme which deals with issue of war in Iraq:
(i) deals fairly with each opposing view. It cannot be one-sided. Both sides of the argument need to be dealt with, and dealt with fairly.
(ii) does not give the view of MTV or the views of MTV presenters.
(iii) does not give facts, or opinions based on facts, that are incorrect e.g. an anti-war argument that states the war is bad because 50 million Iraqis will die (the official estimates are much lower than that), a pro-war argument that states Saddam Hussein should be toppled because he is going to invade Israel (there is no evidence of this). You need to ensure that any facts included in your programmes are accurate, and verified by an official source e.g. an Amnesty International report, a UN report, Reuters news service.
Present a unified front… and if you’re not going to, do so respectfully. You Brits got it right. Of course, your version of MTV plays videos, So I gotta respect that, too.
MTV Sucks, Volume 25
Kelly Osborune recently went on record saying how much MTV sucks. She was pushed over the edge when MTV decided against putting her video for Come Dig me Out Into heavy rotation. Of course, it’s probably because the video and song sucks, although I haven’t heard it… but I’m just going with odds here.
Kelly says: “MTV makes me sick to my stomach. Did you know they only play 35 videos a week? It’s so stupid. MTV used to be all about breaking new artists. Now, if you’re not in a rap group, if you’re not talking about ‘I f*cked the cutest girl in school’ or if you’re not singing about skateboarding, you can’t get played.”
You know, I don’t care for her, but she’s right. MTV hasn’t broke an innovative artist since Nirvana, and resist anything that isn’t bubblegum pop tooth and nail. For God’s Sake, they don’t even play Dave Matthews videos and they are the BIGGEST BAND IN THE FREAKIN WORLD. The main reason no music fans watch MTV is because they stopped playing music. If you play it, they will come.
Kelly may also be a bit bitter because her album has only sold 134,000 copies since November… but she says she doesn’t care. “I honestly don’t care if I sell any albums,” she claimed. “People don’t see me as an artist, they see me as a television star. And I don’t care. I don’t care if people take me serious as an artist.”
Well, that’s good… but we don’t take you seriously as a television star either.
New This Week
Meteora from Linkin Park finally comes out this week, and we can see if LP will fall to the Sophomore Curse. According to Lead Singer Chester Bennington, that will not be the case.
“It’s really soft, and it’s really heavy. We’ve got a 10-piece orchestra [conducted by Beck’s father]. We’ve got a Japanese pan flute. We’ve got live piano, acoustic guitars —— but somehow the songs still kick ass.”
Well, my fear is that the band has been hardcore party-line in the “This album will be very different†line of thought. What scares me, is “very different†is usually code for “very awful†so any time a band comes out with that, red flags immediately go up. Like, Life of Agony‘s third album was “very different†and it’s one of the worst albums I’ve ever heard. So, I’ll reserve my judgement on it until I Download Buy it.
In fairness, I probably will buy it, but I will definitely preview it first. Not only is it “very different†but it’s also a sophomore attempt and sounds like it has a lot of whacked out shit on it. Doesn’t instill huge amounts of confidence in me. Not to mention the fact it clocks in at 36 minutes… which means I can listen to the entire album on my way to work and still have some time in the car.
Chester also went into some detail on the lengths that the record company was going to protect the album before the release. Even Chester’s copy contained a special security code that can be traced back to him if the songs were leaked. The reporter who gave the interview wasn’t even allowed to listen to the CD.
Of course, then it comes out today and it’s all for naught, as people get home and rip them into their playlists.
One Heart by Celine Dion. Celine starts her 3 year stint as the headliner in one of Vegas’s Hotels this week. This CD must be noting it. Celine will sing five or six nights a week in a 3000 seat Casino hall for the next three years. While it might sound seedy, she’s making an insane amount of money to be exclusive.
Ringorama by Ringo Starr. A new album from the only Beatle no one cars about.
That’s What I Call Shit, Volume 12. The most irritating compilation continues with it’s 12th installment. The Token Rock songs on this installment are 3 Doors Down‘s When I’m Gone, Saliva‘s Always, and Chevelle‘s The Red. The rest is garbage… including B2K, JC and Justin from N’Sync with solo efforts, Nelly, and Nas.
Guns n Roses
Hey guess what, Axl is finishing up the vocals for Chinese Democracy. And then they’re going to TOUR to support the album.
If you buy that, I have some swampland for ye in Upstate NY.
In Other Reading
Cody has two columns on the main page because our non-reviewers decided to slack last week. This Week’s and Last Week’s.
Rhett Walker is pissed at 50 cent and Ticketbastard. Can’t blame him on either. Read him and become pissed off, too. Remember folks, Ticketbastard survives because we let it.
Biscuiti of the Matt shade has something to say about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame… and someday I’ll debate him on Nirvana. We’ll have to see how Grutman vs Daniels goes first, though.
McCann went to see the Chili Peppers.
Jodes Serner reviews Quid Pro Quo
Jeffrey Fernendez has DJ Krush.
Mitch Michaels has Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, who I’ve never been a big fan of. Nick Cave that is… Double M seems like a stand up dude.
In Closing
That’ll wrap it up for this week. I’m going to attempt to connive someone into driving three hours to see Live this weekend. If I manage it I’ll come in with Concert Review. Live always puts on a good show though and I’m sure I won’t be disappointed, regardless of the three hour drive.
Other than that, I’m gonna spend this week putting my brand new pad together. If you’re in the northeast enjoy the break from the winter. I’ll see you next week.
