| CMU Daily - on the inside Wednesday 10th May |
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In today's CMU Daily:
- HMV confirm profits slide
- British Music Rights criticise digital companies over indifference to piracy
- Take That sign new album deal with Polydor
- Big Weekend organisers warning over bogus back stage pass auction
- Moyles for celebrity X-Factor
- Album review: The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
- Baked Bean opera wins award
- Bowie to curate new festival
- Nelly Furtado on her direction
- Editors cover REM and Talking Heads
- Album review: Men Women & Children -Men Women & Children
- The Bees announce tour
- Pipettes album, tour
- APOF download, tour
- Album review: The Fever - In The City Of Sleep
- Kapranos publishes food book
- Madonna is a crap mother
- Britney pregnant again, official
- Coxon, Pursey jump on World Cup bandwagon
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TOP BIT>>
Archie Bronson Outfit, British Sea Power, Buck 65, Clearlake, The Electric Soft Parade, Get Cape - Wear Cape - Fly, Good Shoes, Jeremy Warmsley, Joana And The Wolf, Kid Harpoon, Eighteenth Day Of May, HolyFuck, Ladyfuzz, Les Incompetents, Martha Wainwright, Low Frequency In Stereo, Metric, Misty's Big Adventure, Mystery Jets, 65 Days Of Static, Tapes n' Tapes, The Audreys, The Cooper Temple Clause , The Crimea, The Fratellis, The Pipettes and Zillionaire. What, you may ask, do all these bands have in common? Well, they are the bands that CMU recommends you try and catch whilst you're at The Great Escape in Brighton next week. And if you want to know more about why, go to http://www.thebeatsbar.co.uk and click on the link marked, surprisingly enough, 'The Great Escape', and we'll tell you. See you there!
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ON AIR>>
TODAY ON TOTALROCK
Damien and Chloe talk to Kitie Hudson ('Metal Lunchbox', noon to 3pm). Diamond Dave is a busy 'Loveable Irish Rogue'. Tongith he talks to veteran grungesters Mudhoney and also to Sheffield art rockers The Long Blondes (6-9pm). In the first instalment of a two-part interview, Doc Holliday mainman Bruce Brookshire clambers into the tub with Jerry Ewing ('Fatman In The Bath Tub', 11pm to midnight). Listen live at http://www.totalrock.com
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CMU SUPPORTS>>
THE GREAT ESCAPE: You know the deal by now - three great days in Brighton offering an unrivalled programme of one to one interviews with leading industry figures, including Michael Eavis, ie Music's Tim Clark and David Enthoven and, just added, EMI CEO Tony Wadsworth, plus more great gigs and showcases than you can possibly imagine including The Futureheads, British Sea Power, The Kooks, The Bees, The Feeling, The Cribs and Martha Wainwright. It all takes place 18-20 May - full details at http://www.escapegreat.com - plus if you work for an independent or grass roots media or music company, or in the college space, email [email protected] and we'll tell you how you can get a full delegates pass for the very special rate of £175.
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RIGHT NOW IN THE CMU BEATS BAR>>
Beats in Brighton
The Brighton Festival is under way, and you can check out CMU's preview of the Great Escape, plus reviews of other music events taking place at the Festival this year courtesy of our sister title ThreeWeeks in Brighton, all online later on today at http://www.thebeatsbar.co.uk
MySpace Of The Day: Los Albertos
As you may know (how could you fail not to know; you read the item above this one, right?) CMU's sister publication ThreeWeeks is covering the Brighton Festival at the moment. And it's via our involvement in the events happening in Brighton this month that I came into contact with these guys. There is, I sense, something of a following for the band in what I believe is their hometown of Brighton right now, and we sent a reviewer to see them play and he thought they were fabulous. I therefore made a point of visiting their MySpace to acquaint myself with their quirky, saxy sound, one which I can well imagine works brilliantly live. And so should you; acquaint yourself, that is. Four tracks, and a host of tour dates for your diary.
http://www.myspace.com/losalbertos
Read more about our MySpace of the Day right now at http://www.thebeatsbar.co.uk
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26 days and counting until the release of the year... it's very exciting. Though possibly not quite as exciting as we might initially have implied.
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HMV CONFIRM PROFITS SLIDE
The HMV Group yesterday said it expected its profits for the financial year that ended 29 Apr 2006 to be down a neat £36 million on the previous year. Two months ahead of the scheduled release of the music retailer's financials for 2005/6, the company said it expected its profits to be in the "middle range of analysts expectations", which is somewhere between £93 million and £103 million. In the last financial year HMV profits were £129.3 million.
HMV's Canadian and Asia-Pacific businesses actually performed well in 2005/6 (so well done them), but it is no secret, of course, that its UK division has struggled to compete with the cost-cutting supermarkets and etailers - the former stealing chart release trade, the latter back catalogue sales. As previously reported, the financial impact of the growing competition in the UK music retail space was confirmed back in January when HMV CEO Alan Giles announced he would leave he company at the end of the year.
However, the company is pursuing a number of strategies to try and win back business, including a new pricing structure which is being piloted in six UK stores. HMV referred to the pilot in yesterday's report, adding that results of the pilot had been "encouraging".
Nevertheless, the investment community remains cautious about the music retail space, and therefore about HMV's future. Billboard quote London-based analyst Richard Ratner as saying he was cutting his estimates regarding HMV's potential profits for 2006/7 in light of the latest financial announcement. He says: "The business is still very cash-generative, but we're cutting our [profit] estimate back from £104 million to £90 million. It's a very tricky, highly-competitive market."
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BRITISH MUSIC RIGHTS CRITICISE DIGITAL COMPANIES OVER INDIFFERENCE TO PIRACY
British Music Rights, the lobbying group established to represent the interests of UK songwriters and publishers in the digital age (mainly by never returning my phone calls - are they in anyway related to the Mayor Of London's office?), yesterday published a report that called on companies who provide digital services or hardware to play a more proactive role in combating the illegal distribution of music online. As a result of the report, Music Business Forum, yet another UK music industry trade body, has written to key digital companies and trade associations asking them to do more to "encourage legitimate music use and discourage unauthorised use".
From what I can see there's not much in the report that hasn't been said before, though it probably needs saying again. The report points out how valuable music has been to many web, mobile and hardware companies in helping them drive sales of their own products and services, but says those companies "appear indifferent as to whether consumers' access to music is legitimate or not". The implication is that these companies depend on the music business to drive sales of their own products, and therefore they should be helping the music industry protect its copyrights online.
Commenting on the report, BMR Chief Executive Emma Pike told reporters: "Internet Service Providers, mobile companies and hardware providers, almost without exception, use access to music as a key selling point of their products or services - yet they do little to promote legal use of music over illegal use. It is time for digital platforms to demonstrate greater respect for the creative community without whom they would have no content to fuel demand for their services."
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TAKE THAT SIGN NEW ALBUM DEAL WITH POLYDOR
Take That (sans Robbie of course) have announced that they have signed a brand new recording deal with Universal division Polydor, and that they will release a studio album of new material this autumn, more than ten years since their original split 1996. The band are, of course, currently on their hugely successful 32-date reunion tour.
Mark Owen says: "We've been completely amazed by the reaction to the tour, the audiences have been incredible. It's great for us all to be writing together for the first time. We really want to make a great record, the best record we've ever made."
Lucian Grainge, of Universal Music Group, said: "I like hit songs performed by real artists. From what the band have played me, there's no way anyone will be disappointed with what the future holds for them."
Polydor co-president David Joseph added: "Now Take That are back it's clear how far ahead they have always been in terms of the quality of their songs, performance and sheer charisma. When we met them it quickly became clear their best songs and albums are yet to come."
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BIG WEEKEND ORGANISERS WARNING OVER BOGUS BACK STAGE PASS AUCTION
Organisers of Radio 1's Big Weekend, due to take place in Dundee this weekend, are warning that ticket touts are trying to sell invalid backstage passes via - surprise, surprise - eBay.
Both standard tickets and a back stage pass for the Big Weekend are up for auction on the website. The former, which were given away free to listeners, are going for over £100, while bids for the back stage pass have exceeded £7000, though there is some doubt over whether those are real bids.
Organisers of the event said that they discouraged the buying of tickets via auction websites, though they admitted there was little they could do to stop people from selling on tickets in this way. The back stage pass, however, has been invalidated and the seller alerted to that fact, so if anyone does buy it they may well be disappointed when they arrive at the venue.
Commenting on the ticket auctions, a Radio 1 spokesman told reporters yesterday: "Obviously Radio 1 is totally against people profiting from what is a free music event. Unfortunately with all major ticketed events there is the chance that people will auction tickets off."
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MOYLES FOR CELEBRITY X-FACTOR
Talking of Radio 1, Chris Moyles has announced on his breakfast show that he is planning to take part in that previously announced Celebrity X-Factor show, and as the BBC are now reporting on it, I can only presume that he's serious. He told Radio 1 listeners: "I am going to do it. I think it's pretty much all signed, sealed and delivered."
Moyles went on to say that he was looking forward to taking on Simon Cowell, but claimed that he would not be taking the competition too seriously, adding that he is hoping to be voted off on the first night as, quote: "you still get the same money".
Celebrity X-Factor is to run for eight consecutive nights on ITV1 commencing 29 Jun, and will follow the same format as the proles' version, with each of the three categories - under 25s, over 25s and groups - each being championed by one of the three judges - Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and the aforementioned Cowell. The producers say they will not confirm contestants names until next week.
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ALBUM REVIEW: The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers (Beggars/XL Recordings)
'Broken Boy Soldiers', the debut LP from The Raconteurs, is an album many in-the-know indie types have been waiting to pour effusive praise onto for months. Album opener and debut single 'Steady As She Goes' (a double A-side with 'Store Bought Bones', also present) emphasises why people ought to get excited about Jack White's new band (not a side-project, we're told), by providing an enthralling mix of White's distinctive heavy riffage and Brendan Benson's often childlike yet endearing lyrics (only he could get away with the line 'I've got a rabbit it likes to hop' - that's on 'Intimate Secretary', fyi). 'Hands' and 'Level' follow the same path, merging melodies and fuzzy guitars to create a tantalising Benson-White Stripes hybrid. The rest of the album however sees Benson and White ceasing to compromise and move into their own territory. Uplifting acoustic number 'Yellow Sun' wouldn't sound out of place on a Benson solo album if it weren't for White wailing along in the background and spoiling the proceedings. By contrast 'Broken Boy Soldier' features terrifying witch-like screeching vocals from White: haunting, but totally out of place alongside songs that make you want to slow dance with your loved one in your bedroom like they do in the OC. White's presence means that heaps of people will buy this album and rightly so because there isn't a weak track on it. But with such conflicting styles evident in the mix, proof that The Raconteurs is a long-term project is lacking. TL
Release Date: 15 May
Press Contact: Beggars IH [all]
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BAKED BEAN OPERA WINS AWARD
An opera set in a baked bean factory has won an award from the Royal Philharmonic Society at a ceremony at London's Dorchester hotel. Alban Berg's Wozzeck, which was staged by Welsh National Opera was praised for "musical and dramatic excellence" at the awards event, which honours achievement in the field of live classical music.
Other winners on the night included conductor Marin Alsop who won the BBC Radio 3 Listener's Award and American soprano Joyce DiDonato, who was awarded Best Singer for her performance of Rosina in the Barber Of Seville.
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BOWIE TO CURATE NEW FESTIVAL
According to last week's reports, David Bowie was planning to quit the music industry for a year, however, that's apparently not going to stop him curating and performing at a brand new music festival in New York. The legendary singer is reportedly to decide on the line up for the first High Line Festival, set to take place in May 2007. Oh, well, I suppose one could make an argument for that being a year from now. But he'll have to do the curaty bit during the coming year, won't he?
Whatever, speaking about the festival, he said: "I've been particularly excited about seeking out emerging artists and giving them a place in a festival that will also feature some very well-known names."
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NELLY FURTADO ON HER DIRECTION
Nelly Furtado has told Billboard that her new album will see a new direction in her music - and it's away from pop, apparently. The singer, who worked on much of the upcoming long player, 'Loose', with hip-hop producer Timbaland, said: "For a long time I kind of denied my R&B and hip-hop roots. All that rap and R&B I listened to as a kid made an impression on me; I used to write R&B songs in my bedroom that sounded like Mariah Carey songs. Now I'm tapping into that again, and I'm like, 'Wow, I didn't know I could go back there'. It feels so good."
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EDITORS COVER REM AND TALKING HEADS
The new Editors single, 'Blood', out on 19 Jun, is to be accompanied by two cover versions. The track will firstly come out on a limited edition 10" vinyl which will feature a reworking of Talking Heads' 'Road To Nowhere' on the B-side. It will also be released on an enhanced CD comprising a mix of 'Camera' by Paul Oakenfold, the video for 'Blood' and the second cover - Editors' version of REM's 'Orange Crush', which we played on the CMU Radio Show recently, if I remember rightly, it appearing on Q magazine's rather wonderful cover versions CD, which is on the cover of this month's edition.
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ALBUM REVIEW: Men Women & Children - Men Women & Children (Warner/Reprise)
Once upon a time, guitarist Todd Weinstock and vocalist Daryl Palumbo were integral parts of Glassjaw. After a while, Palumbo formed side project Head Automatica; a disco-punk fusion. And now, Todd Weinstock's done the same. Except his band's called Men Women & Children. And they're bigger, bolder and have actually made it across the pond on full tours. This self titled effort is slick, and finely polished, thanks to the production dream team involved: Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, The Faint), Josh Abraham (Weezer, Velvet Revolver) and the Jason Lader/Raine Maida combination. Album opener and debut single Dance In My Blood sets the tone for the CD with the lyrics "you don't need a reason/to get out on the dance floor/we can get it on and on/all night long". The lyrics are far from sophisticated, and sometimes are downright odd ("We're monkey monkee men, and we'll eat all your friends in Monkey Monkee Men"), but this is a fun album, not to be taken seriously or dissected for hidden meanings (at least we don't think they're primate cannibals). Standout tracks 'Who Found Mister Fabulous?' and 'Photosynthesis' are sure fire hits, guaranteed to tempt even the most angst ridden teen onto to the dance floor, and keep them there all night. Men Women & Children is an over the top, flamboyant dance party soundtrack, and a relentless stampede of a CD. Think disco-punk-funk. Think falsetto vocals and glitzy disco balls. Think gayer than the Scissor Sisters. You've got Men Women & Children. RM
Release Date: 8 May
Press Contact: Wild [CP, CR] Warner IH [RP, RR, NP, NR]
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THE BEES ANNOUNCE TOUR
The Bees have announced a series of tour dates. Currently in the throes of recording their third album, 'Octopus', the band are expected to air new songs at the live gigs, set to take place this summer. Band member Aaron Fletcher says: "We're really excited to get back out there again. We're particularly excited about the Scottish dates, we've always loved playing up there, the crowds are amazing."
12 Jun: London Cargo
30 Jul: Manchester Night and Day Cafe
2 Aug: Inverness Raigmore
3 Aug: Fort William BA Club
4 Aug: Orkney Fusion
6 Aug: Forres The Loft
7 Aug: Aberdeen The Lemon Tree
10 Aug: Dundee Reading Room
11 Aug: Glasgow GUU
12 Aug: Shetland North Star
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PIPETTES ALBUM, TOUR
Newly appointed CMU favourites The Pipettes have announced that they will release their debut album 'We Are The Pipettes' on 17 Jul via Memphis Industries, preceded by a single, 'Pull Shapes', on 3 Jul. They're touring to coincide with those releases, dates as follows:
3 Jul: London, Cargo
4 Jul: Southampton, Joiners
5 Jul: Bournemouth, Opera House
6 Jul: Leicester, Charlotte
7 Jul: Stoke, Undergroun
8 Jul: Cotswolds, Stanway House
10 Jul: Manchester, Late Rooms
12 Jul: Glasgow, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
13 Jul: Aberdeen, Tunnels
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APOF DOWNLOAD, TOUR
Amusement Parks On Fire have released a free download track, 'Out Of Angeles', taken from their upcoming new album of the same name, due out on 3 Jul. The band are currently on a UK tour, remaining dates as follows:
10 May: Glasgow, King Tuts
12 May: Leeds, Cockpit
14 May: Bristol, Fleece
15 May: Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
16 May: London, ULU
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ALBUM REVIEW: The Fever - In the City of Sleep (Kemado Records)
'In The City Of Sleep' is the second full length release from New Yorkers The Fever, offering a whopping 16 tracks of obscure cabaret blues rock. Producer and engineer Steve Rivette (Beastie Boys, Dr John, Black Dice) has created a dirty raw album, completely at home in smoky mood-lit basement bars, presumably in New York; the official release comes complete with singer Geremy Jasper's artwork, which apparently matches The Fever's sound beautifully. 'Waiting For The Centipede' showcases this sound perfectly with um-pah keys, eerie whistling synth sounds and haunting choral vocals. First release, 'Redhead', is dose of dark indie complete with driving, string bending guitars. 'Hotel Fantom', meanwhile, demonstrates the bands' use of the organ as a rock instrument complimenting their bluesy guitar sound. Tracks such as 'Gypsy Cat/Down on Dog Street' have the unusualness of Zappa whereas 'Little Lamb & The Shiny Silver Bullets' would be better compared to McCartney's poetic simplicity. The album as a whole is a strong eclectic display of successful rock blues experimentation with the sound tracks such as 'Redhead' and 'Bye Bye Betty Blue' perhaps more commercially viable than the more epic themes like 'Pink Smoke'. AW
Release Date: 15 May
Press Contact: Stone Immaculate [all]
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KAPRANOS PUBLISHES FOOD BOOK
Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos is to publish a book later this year, a compilation of those previously reported food columns he's been writing for The Guardian in recent months. The book, entitled 'Sound Bites', and featuring new and previously unpublished material, is set to hit the shelves later in the year. It's to be illustrated by occasional keyboardist and second drummer Andrew Knowles, a graduate of the Glasgow School Of Art.
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MADONNA IS A CRAP MOTHER
She said it, not me. Well, according to reports, she did. Madonna was apparently being interviewed by fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi (no, not sure why, exactly) when she said: "It is a struggle to balance my career with my children. I'm always going: "Oh God, I'm a crap mother". I want to get home and put my kids to bed. And then sometimes, if I'm spending a lot of time with my children, I think: "Oh God, I just want to be an artist". And you know, it's hard."
She also explained that daughter Lourdes finds her mother's fame a little trying, saying: "Sometimes she doesn't want me to come to certain things because she knows everyone is going to pay attention to me and then they'll treat her differently. I took her to school on the first day last year, and all these kids were buzzing around. She came home that day and she was really irritated and kind of bummed out, like people were playing this contest - what would it be like to be Madonna's daughter?"
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BRITNEY PREGNANT AGAIN, OFFICIAL
According to reports, recent rumours that Britney Spears might be pregnant again have been confirmed by the singer's spokeswoman. Just eight months after the birth of son Sean Preston, Lesley Sloane Zelnik has apparently said: "She's pregnant". And that appears to be it, really.
It would seem that Spears was forced to announce the pregnancy after apparently letting it slip during a recorded interview with chat show host David Letterman on Tuesday, following several weeks of media and gossip blog speculation.
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COXON, PURSEY JUMP ON WORLD CUP BANDWAGON
Oh joy. Another World Cup song. Graham Coxon and Sham69's Jimmy Pursey have apparently recorded a reworked version of the punk band's 1978 hit 'Hurry Up Harry' as 'Hurry Up England'. Oh, see, and now I've got to feel a bit guilty for deriding the release of yet another football track because proceeds from the sale of the single will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust. So you'd all better go and buy a copy, now. To assuage my guilt.