Hola, mi amigos y amigas! Michaelangelo here, and I’m filling in for Jeff after kicking the shit out of everyone in last week’s Second Annual Inside Pulse Battle Royale, with a little help from The D, The I, The D, The D, The Y, The D, The I, The D, It’s DIDDY! This week’s Swindle Sheet is brought to you by Bacardi, the national drink of my homeland Puerto Rico and a main contributor to my current state of inebriation. So let’s get to it while I can still type, shall we?
Dramatis Personae
Fellow member of LOS CINCOS ENFUEGOS El Camino Negro, aka Open Mike Eagle, tackles Kanye’s comments from the Hurricane Katrina telethon.
KDP shows how rock n roll can get you the hook-up.
gloomchen provides a look back at some of her early work. OK, she mailed one in this week, but the chick’s entitled, seeing as how she cranked out 917 CD reviews for you this week.
Mathan drops some knowledge on Kanye’s new album.
Michael Chadwick delves into the sonically interesting world of Noise Punk.
Kanye West is the topic du jour this week, with no less than three reviews of his new album. Check out what Botter, Warren, and Aaron think of it.
We did review other CD’s this week. Check out reviews for Wednesday 13, OK Go, Our Lady Peace, Kurupt, Gorillaz, stellastar*, Meshuggah, James LaBrie, Cold, and Leaves’ Eyes.
That’s a lotta CD’s.
News to Use
From mtv.com:
Is it possible two people could have had the same idea for what would eventually become a box-office-busting film franchise? Not according to James Davis.
The Montgomery, Alabama, filmmaker filed a lawsuit against O’Shea Jackson  better known as rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube  and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures on Wednesday, alleging breach of contract and copyright infringement. The suit claims that the entire premise behind 2002’s Barbershop  the hit comedy about a day in the life of a barbershop on Chicago’s South Side  was lifted from a script he’d written years before the Cube flick made its way to the big screen.
According to court records, Davis’ script, called “The Shop,” was based on the time he’d spent at a barbershop in Atlanta; he claims to hold a copyright on the screenplay, and is seeking $100 million in damages. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, additionally lists State Street Pictures, Cube’s Cube Vision Production, and the film’s writers and producers as defendants.
Barbershop, which also starred Eve and Cedric the Entertainer, grossed an estimated $77 million worldwide and spawned two sequels: 2004’s “Barbershop 2: Back in Business” and this year’s “Beauty Shop,” starring Queen Latifah, Kevin Bacon, Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari. Those two films took in a collective $102 million in estimated global box-office receipts. The movies have also inspired a TV series, Showtime’s “Barbershop.”
Eric Goodman, a California copyright attorney, told The Associated Press that it was doubtful that MGM would have willfully engaged in copyright infringement, and added that Davis would have a tough time proving in court that the scribes behind the Barbershop screenplay obtained a copy of his script and drew from it for their own treatment.
From the AP:
A judge Thursday dismissed the criminal case against an award-winning sound engineer who was accused of stealing master recordings of the late Ray Charles valued at $8 million, officials said.
Superior Court Judge Samuel Mayerson ruled during a preliminary hearing that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a trial against Terry Howard, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. Howard had been charged with grand theft by embezzlement and receiving stolen property.
Howard, 48, worked with Charles for two decades and won three Grammys for his work on Charles’ last album, “Genius Loves Company.”
Howard had the right to work on Charles’ recording at his own home studio and no one ever asked him to return anything, said defense attorney Steven Cron.
“There was no showing that he ever intended to profit by selling anything belonging to Ray Charles,” Cron said. “He had worked on these materials and because he wasn’t very organized at the time, failed to return them.”
Howard has had a contentious relationship with Joe Adams, head of Ray Charles Enterprises, and the police were called when it was learned after Charles’ death that tapes were missing, Cron said.
“No one ever called or wrote Terry Howard and said, ‘We think you might have some tapes that belong to Ray Charles,'” Cron said. “They just went to police and two days later they served a search warrant and it all went out of control.”
Prosecutors will review whether or not they will refile charges against Howard, Robison said.
Howard no longer works for Ray Charles Enterprises and is freelancing, Cron said. Howard previously has worked with singers Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones and the group Fleetwood Mac.
Charles died in June 2004 at his Beverly Hills home of acute liver disease at age 73. His life was chronicled last year in the biopic “Ray,” which lead to a best actor Oscar for Jamie Foxx.
From SOHH.com:
Kanye West’s first week sales are expected to reach the 900,000 mark following the super producer’s off-the-cuff rant about the president during MSNBC’s recent Concert for Hurricane Relief.
Last Thursday, early reports indicated that West’s Late Registration was poised to scan between 800,000 to 850,000 units in its first week. But today, reports show that Late Registration is headed towards 900,000 units sold, after Kanye’s scathing remarks about the president were broadcasted to millions during the MSNBC telethon and later re-broadcasted across the internet and news media.
Kanye’s sales spike is being attributed to support for the Chicago rapper/producer after his comments during MSNBC’s Concert for Hurricane Relief last Friday. During an impromptu rant with Austin Power’s Mike Myers at his side, West went off his prepared statements and sharply criticized the media for calling Black people ‘looters’ and condemned the president’s failure to respond to the Katrina Crisis.
“I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family it says they’re looting. You see a white family it says they are looking for food,” Kanye stated in reference to Yahoo! and other media outlets showing photos of Black people captioned as “looters” while white people seemed to “find” food from grocery stores.
A shocked Myers continued following the teleprompter, when West exclaimed, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.”
Despite some criticism, many people including Al Sharpton, David Banner, and several others in the Hip-Hop community, have expressed their support for West’s statements, saying it represent the views of many frustrated Americans. Internet chatrooms and bulletin boards have been ablaze with discussions on the comments, with many calling him a ‘hero’ and vowing to purchase his album in an expression of support.
Quick Bits
Fats Domino, who had been missing for days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, was saved last week by a rescue boat. The 77-year-old legendary R&B singer was apparently picked up by a rescue boat on Monday [August 29], brought to the Superdome, and put on a bus to an evacuee triage center at Louisiana State University’s basketball arena, according to E! News. On Thursday [September 1], his daughter, Karen Domino White, identified her father in a photo taken by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which showed Domino being helped out of a boat by rescue workers. (vibe.com)
Bo Bice will rejoin the American Idols Live! tour when it plays its Hurricane Katrina benefit show on Sunday in Syracuse, New York. The rocker will perform the song he was inspired to write after the hurricane hit called “We Can’t Change This World.” Bice left the tour after having emergency intestinal surgery on August 18th. (rollingstone.com)
Although his bitter legal battles with Fantasy Records are the stuff of music business legend, John Fogerty has signed a new deal with the label. Fantasy, which issued the entire recorded output of the Fogerty-led Creedence Clearwater Revival in the late 1960s and early ’70s, was purchased in November 2004 by the Concord Music Group. In celebration of the reunion, Fantasy will on Nov. 1 issue the first Fogerty career retrospective, “The Long Road Home.” A live DVD, to be recorded Thursday (Sept. 15) at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theater, will be released early next year. A new solo studio album and other projects are also in development. (billboard.com)
The Most Ridiculous Item of the Week
In an interview with Rolling Stone, former Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch says he will be the Christian Eminem. Says Welch, “At first, I thought I would just fade away and find myself for a few years. But then I felt like He told me, “Go out and use every trick you used with Korn. And not everyone is going to like what you’re saying — especially a lot of church people.” I’ll probably be, like, the Christian Eminem when the album comes out. My music is melodic and intense and euphoric. A lot of people think I’m going to be all soft, like, “Laaaa!” — but a lot of Christians might think I’m straight from the devil with this music.” In the interview, Welch also says he solicits advice from Jesus on which groceries to buy when he’s in the supermarket. You can read the full interview here.
Outro
Well, that does it for me. Jeff will be back next week from wherever the f*ck he went on vacation this year. See you kids later.
