Music Snitch

It seems so odd to me that Nirvana released their album, ‘Bleach’, almost twenty years ago (head scratch). Well, in support of the albums’ anniversary, Sub Pop Records is releasing a reworked version of ‘Bleach’ on November 3rd.

Sub Pop Records: This expanded CD/double-LP will include a never-before-released live performance, special packaging and the first run of the double-LP will be on 180g white vinyl (the first run of the original LP was also on white vinyl). Both formats will be available for pre-order here at subpop.com leading up to this edition’s release.

Originally recorded over three sessions with producer Jack Endino at Seattle’s Reciprocal Recording Studios in December 1988 and January 1989, Bleach was released in June of ‘89. This 20th Anniversary Edition has been re-mastered from the original tapes at Sterling Sound in a session overseen by producer Jack Endino.

This edition will include an unreleased live recording of a complete February 9th, 1990 show at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon. The show features performances of “Love Buzz,” “About a Girl” and a cover of The Vaselines’ song “Molly’s Lips” and has been re-mixed from the original tapes by Endino (complete track listing below). A 52-page CD /16-page LP booklet which includes candid photos of the band not previously released to the public will also be included in this deluxe edition.

Take A Listen: About A Girl (remastered) from Nirvana

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Download: About A Girl (Right click on link and select “Save Target As” in IE or “Save Link As” in Firefox)

Sub Pop – Website

Although this was announced about a month ago, I just heard that Pela, a band that I am fond of, has decided to part ways…bummer.

Note from Pela: It is with great sadness that we write you today. Pela’s collective journey has come to an end. Over the past 2 years we’ve faced tremendous obstacles. We recorded an album twice, had a falling out/legal battle with our old label, fired 2 managers, had a big record deal fall through, and Billy had a hand injury followed by a foot injury.

We’ve worked tirelessly to get our music out of ourselves and into your ears. We worked endlessly to make the music and our live show the best we could. At the end of the day we had to start dealing with some realizations.

We will never be able to thank you enough for your support. For those of you that drove and flew hours just to see a show, we thank you. For those of you who wrote us and gave us the opportunity to get to know you, we thank you. For those of you who told us to keep soldiering on, we thank you. Words can’t really describe how we’re feeling about this difficult decision, but we want you to know that it’s the healthiest decision we could make.

Your lovely faces are etched into our memories. Looking at the Crowd Project videos says it all. Please keep in touch, we’ll promise to do the same.

xoxo- Nate, Billy, Tom, and Eric

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke debuted new material with an all-star backing band at an intimate venue in Los Angeles this past weekend.

The frontman rolled out several tunes with the new band (yet to be named), which featured Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, REM collaborator Joey Waronker, Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Mauro Refosco, and producer Nigel Godrich. Tickets for the last-minute “secret” gig at the Echoplex were at a premium, selling out in a matter of minutes and reportedly being scalped online for as much as $3,000. Continue Reading (NME)

Speech Debelle for her album, “Speech Therapy.”

PS: I was personally rooting for Florence and the Machine as well as  Kasabian.

Noel Gallagher provided fans with details of his seemingly sudden departure from Oasis this past weekend on Oasisinet.com.

“Dearly beloved, it is with a heavy heart and a sad face that I say this to you this morning” :

“As of last Friday, August 28, I have been forced to leave the Manchester rock ‘n’ roll pop group Oasis. The details are not important and of too great a number to list. But I feel you have the right to know that the level of verbal and violent intimidation towards me, my family, friends and comrades has become intolerable. And the lack of support and understanding from my management and bandmates has left me with no other option than to get me cape and seek pastures new.

“I would like firstly to offer my apologies to them kids in Paris who’d paid money and waited all day to see us only to be let down AGAIN by the band. Apologies are probably not enough, I know, but I’m afraid it’s all I’ve got. While I’m on the subject, I’d like to say [sorry] to the good people of V Festival that experienced the same thing. Again, I can only apologize – although I don’t know why, it was nothing to do with me. I was match-fit and ready to be brilliant. Alas, other people in the group weren’t up to it.

“In closing I would like to thank all the Oasis fans, all over the world. The last 18 years have been truly, truly amazing (and I hate that word, but today is the one time I’ll deem it appropriate). A dream come true. I take with me glorious memories.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a family and a football team to indulge. I’ll see you somewhere down the road. It’s been a fuckin’ pleasure.”

The 2009 Barclaycard Mercury Prize nominees were recently announced, and the winner will be announced on September 8th.

Mercury Prize Site: The 2009 Barclaycard Mercury Prize Albums of the Year represent exciting times in music from the UK and Ireland. As well as big name bands who’ve made an impact all over the world there are young, up and coming artists who make music that’s exciting, inventive and implicitly indigenous. The Albums of the Year also reflect the strong feminine presence in UK and Irish music, with many young, empowered women making an appearance with their debut records. There is also the marked return of the classic Rock band, with some of the biggest names on the circuit accounted for courtesy of bold, brave albums.

Mercury Music Prize Nominees:
Bat for Lashes: Two Suns
Florence and the Machine: Lungs
Friendly Fires: Friendly Fires
Glasvegas: Glasvegas
Kasabian: West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
La Roux: La Roux
Lisa Hannigan: Sea Sew
Led Bib: Sensible Shoes
Speech Debelle: Speech Therapy
Sweet Billy Pilgrim: Twice Born Men
The Horrors: Primary Colours
The Invisible: The Invisible

After complaining about the lack of ad revenues they receive from YouTube, Universal Music Group has struck a deal to create a new service to show off their music video library… with YouTube. The new site will be called Vevo and, according to Billboard.biz, the service “is designed as a central repository for all UMG video content initially — including music videos, interviews, concert footage and so on — and eventually to include that of the other major labels and independents.” So, essentially, YouTube is helping UMG create a competitor to their own service — a rock & roll ‘Tube.

The heart of YouTube’s feud with the record companies — and what drove Warner Music to ban their videos from the service — is ad money. As Billboard.biz reports, the record company was only receiving roughly $3-$8 of ad revenues per every 1,000-plus views of their videos, instead of the $25-$40 the labels think they should be getting. As their music video licensing deals with other sites (Yahoo, MTV Music, etc.) expire, UMG will make Vevo and YouTube the sole place to see UMG videos, and UMG and YouTube will split the ad revenue. Essentially, they’re doing away with the middle man, says UMG CEO Doug Morris.  Read Full Article….continue.

Big Music Will Surrender, But Not Until At Least 2011

From Tech Crunch: March 8th, 2009 – I had a surprisingly candid lunch conversation last week with a big music label executive, and a good part of our talk focused on the future of music. I asked the usual question: Why are you guys so damned clueless? Your business is disintegrating before your eyes, and all you do is go for short term cash gains (lawsuits, mafia-style collection rackets from venture backed music startups, etc.). The long term costs are horrendous – an entire generation or two of young music lovers feel no remorse at outright stealing music. Particularly since most online streaming is now free, it’s hard to understand why downloading or sharing songs should be a crime

His response: It’s all part of a master plan. The labels fully understand that recorded music, streamed or downloaded, is going to be free in the future (we’ve argued this relentlessly). CD sales continue to decline by 20% per year, and the only thing that’ll stop that trend is when those sales reach zero. Nothing will replace those revenues. They also understand that recorded music will largely be little more than marketing collateral, meaning that the Internet services being sued today for copyright infringement will be embraced in the future as ways to get the word out on hot new music. These services pay for the privilege today (either through high streaming rates or in court), but in the future they’ll be the ones getting paid by labels. Think radio payola at a whole new level, and there won’t be any more talk about social networks giving stock to labels and artists. Money will flow the other way, as it should.

By 2013 (maybe as early as 2011) it’ll make sense for the labels to finally reorganize their business models around the reality created by the Internet and person to person file sharing services. No longer will the labels be tied to revenue limited to sales of master recordings – by then most or all artists will be under 360 music contracts that give the labels a cut of virtually every revenue stream artists can tap into – fan sites, concerts, merchandise, endorsement deals, and everything else. (more…)