For Your Listening Pleasure
Collider – We’re Collider, You’re Fucked
As many of you already know, I’m a big Collider fan. Well, my opinion of the band ain’t nothin’ compared to how big a fan my brother is. In fact, he and his girlfriend have attended many a Collider show together… Let me just stop there. I said “girlfriend”, didn’t I? I meant he and his fiancée. That’s right, please join me in congratulating Chris and Jen on their engagement!
He asked her to marry him last weekend at a taping for a new Collider live CD. Damn, he loves that band. And they love each other. And I couldn’t be happier for them…
News to You
I came across this while scouring the news, and it was just too good to be true. With credit to Billboard.com, I have to reprint this in its entirety to do it justice:
U.K. Judge: ‘Shizzle My Nizzle’ Not Offensive
Edited By Jonathan Cohen. June 06, 2003, 4:00 PM ET
To the ears of a High Court judge, it is hardly surprising if rap music sounds like Greek, but one member of the bench went one step further yesterday (June 5). He ruled that the lyrics to an English rap record were “for practical purposes a foreign language.” He also pondered the need for “expert drug dealers” to be called into court in similar cases to explain rap lyrics.
Mr. Justice Lewison made the ruling in a legal battle over a remix of the Ant’ill Mob’s 2001 garage hit “Burnin’.” The writer of the original track, Andrew Alcee, claimed that rap lyrics laid over it in the remix by the Heartless Crew constituted “derogatory treatment” of his copyright because they contained references to violence and drugs.
“This,” the judge said, “led to the faintly surreal experience of three gentlemen in horsehair wigs examining the meaning of such phrases as ‘mish mish man’ and ‘shizzle my nizzle’.”
Dismissing the claim, the judge said he was unable to be sure whether the words complained of in the rap were actually references to violence and drugs, despite extensive research that included consulting an urban dictionary on the Internet.
The judge said that evidence on the phrases had been given by Richard Pascal, one of the bosses of Ant’ill Mob’s record company Confetti Records, but that he had to agree with objections from the defendant’s counsel Robert Howe that, in the circumstances, this evidence was not sufficient.
He explained: “Mr. Pascal did not himself claim to know what street meanings were to be attributed to the disputed phrases, but said that he had been told what they were by an unnamed informant conversant with the use of drugs.
“Mr. Howe submitted, correctly in my opinion, that the meaning of words in a foreign language could only be explained by experts. He also submitted, again correctly in my opinion, that the words of he rap, although in a form of English, were for practical purposes a foreign language.
“Thus he submitted that Mr. Pascal’s evidence, not being the evidence of an expert, was inadmissible. I think that he is right, although the occasions on which an expert drug dealer might be called to give evidence in the Chancery Division are likely to be rare.”
The judge also dismissed other claims made by Alcee and Confetti against Warner Music U.K. Ltd. over the use of the remix on the compilation “Crisp Biscuit.”
— Roger Pearson, London
You know what my favorite part of that was? Of course: “Crisp Biscuit”!
Awesome.
Readers Reminisce
I received a lot of feedback on last week’s column on concerts, and thought I’d share some with you. Besides, by the time you read this I’ll be in Vegas for a much needed vacation, so what better a time to have YOU write half my column for me?!
Danielle admits to being at the same New Kids/Tiffany show as me, back in the late 80s:
OK so there were 3 great aspects about my very first concert, which was also NKOTB/Tiffany/Tommy Paige (what song did he sing, anyway) at Westbury Music Fair:
1) FRONT ROW SEATS. now for a pre-teen girl seeing her first concert that consists of boys that decorate her walls, this is huge. and yes, i have pictures.
2) GOOD COMPANY. only four seats down from us sat a legend: the one & only soleil moon frye. punky brewster in the flesh. so not only were we watching our current dream boys, but the ultimate uber-icon was sitting just a few feet away & (gasp) she also likes NKOTB. way cool.
3) THE MICROPHONE SING. so as if we’re not all bubbliciously hopped-up enough, during “The Right Stuff” (the huge, break-out hit) Danny himself came running over to US & let us sing into the microphone. there is a chance we all passed out immediately after.
This concert experience was like the female equivalent of “Stand By Me”, a coming of age story that (even though i haven’t seen those girls in over 12 years) we will cherish the memory forever…
The female equivalent of Stand By Me? Does that mean that when you think back on that concert, you and everyone around you engage in projectile vomiting? Sheesh, I hope not.
Slicktheferret takes me to task, which has been happening quite a lot actually:
Dude, I dont [sic] know why your saying it is embarassing [sic] to see Def Leppard live. Unless they were particularly off that night, I have to say that I would rather see them live and rock out and have a good time than watch Eddie Vetter [sic] stare at his shoes all night and wine incoherently. Thats [sic] just me though. I like a lot of what you write but I have to disagree with you there.
Okay, okay, I take it back. It wasn’t embarrassing seeing Def Leppard live. It was actually inspirational, ya know, with the one-armed drummer and all, and it was fun to re-live some of the favorite songs from my childhood. That’s the thing, though, I saw them in 1994! I can’t believe I’m admitting this. Other than the fact that they were well past their prime, and that Joe Elliott was wearing cut-off jean shorts that were “1970s NBA short”, it was a very enriching experience.
The next email, from Matthew F. Cockerham is a bit longer than the others, but I had no choice but to include it in its entirety:
There’s no better way to experience a band then to find a small local band that plays plenty in the area and to see them every week (or if possible, many times a week) and just experience the band’s shows on a continual basis.
In the last few years, I have seen the band “Agents of Good Roots” more than fifty times, most of those coming in the span of one year. For those of you not familiar with their work, they are basically the same as Dave Matthews Band with balls, and more musical talent.
But most of my fond experiences of the first half of college can be traced to trying to find some tiny frat house or club in a small city in Virginia or Maryland, and going to see Agents. I saw them as many times as four consecutive days. I have seen shows on four consecutive days in four consecutive cities. I have traveled 5 hours each way to see one show. I have seen dangerous car wrecks, strippers, and even battled through protestors to see this band.
I made many friends during this time, all as obsessed over the band as me, I also got to know the band quite well. I’ve sold merchandise for the band, done lights, and they’ve even enlisted me as a “roadie” for one night to sneak me into a show that was only open to people 21+.
Although the band has been on hiatus for the last couple of years, I still go to see various permutations of solo projects like seeing the drummer play jazz in Richmond, but the group of friends I made has completely grown apart, and I don’t think I will ever be able to experience a band like that again.
There’s absolutely nothing like seeing a band play at its “home base”, as I mentioned last week. If you’re lucky enough to catch the Rebirth Brass Band at New Orleans’ Maple Leaf, any New York punk at CBGB, etc., etc., you owe it to yourself to get there. Finding a “scene” these days is tough enough — especially on or near a college campus — but being at a live show for a local band, with an audience filled with “regulars” is a worthy experience. Scroll back up to “For Your Listening Pleasure” if you need any more proof: you may end up seeing a marriage proposal there.
I love hearing from Roosariffic, who appreciates the art of stage antics:
One of the best shows I’ve ever been to was the They Might Be Giants show in Knoxville, TN in September 1999, at the old Bijou Theater. If Weird Al is not your thing, TMBG just might be. They had enough daffy diversions to keep the concert amusing, such as a teddy bear shooting confetti from its mouth, to John Flansburgh banging on a HUGE bass drum during “Whistling In The Dark,” to John Linnell waxing poetic on what TMBG’s Behind The Music would be like. (“I would be in the hospital with a seizure from all the concert lights, while Flans would burn down the concert hall in protest. It’d be fun to watch.”) The documentary Gigantic shows a TMBG show in full, but they’re definitely a band you have to see live at least once.
Eric (EccLefty) chimed in with some thoughts on his concert experiences, including some cool experiences with punk quintet Avail…
And to close things up for the week, alanisjannstephenfan either loves me or hates me, but I can’t really tell from this email. I’ll let you read for yourself:
grr…
You spelled Morissette. I expect you to apologize and point out to all your readers that Morissette is spelt with ONE R, TWO S, and TWO T.
Well no, don’t bother apologizing as long as you’re aware of the correct spelling :). I take it personally sometimes and since you didn’t give her the greatest word I thought I’d mention it to you. As long as you don’t mispell [sic] it perpetually or else I will email you time and time again. Ask my friends. They learned how to spell Morissette pretty quickly once I cracked down on them.
thankyou for your time and your perpetually great column.
Thank YOU for the compliment, and I hereby officially apologize for misspelling Alanis’ surname (and I added it to Spellchecker, since it kept trying to get me to change “Morissette” to “moistest”). BUT, that’s only on one condition: YOU must apologize for misspelling the word “misspell” first. Fair is fair.
Fun With Spellchecker!
“Punky Brewster” or “Pounce Bruiser”? Well, I’m not sure about the bruising part, but most boys my age would have loved to pounce on young Soleil right about the time she was guest-starring on “The Wonder Years” as Mimi Detweiler…
Wish me luck in Vegas, enjoy your week, and click here to congratulate or otherwise harass my brother…
peace. love. moe.
– Matt
Till My Head Falls Off can be found weekly on 411 Music (old columns are archived in the pull-down menu below). Already hit everything on 411? You can find more from Matthew Michaels at moodspins and 1-42.
