Courtesy of NME — Frances Bean Cobain sings as part of a “gang” on Dresden Dolls side-project
Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s daughter Frances Bean is to make her singing debut on a track also featuring My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, Andrew WK, and Weird Al Yankovic.
Seventeen-year-old Cobain sings on “My Space,” which will appear on the eponymous debut album by Evelyn Evelyn, who are made up of Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer and Seattle musician Jason Webley.
Other acts on the track include Tegan & Sara, ex-Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay, Margaret Cho, Eugene Mirman, and various members of Mindless Self-Indulgence, reports Twentyfourbit.com.
The album Evelyn Evelyn is due to be released on March 30.
In December, Courtney Love lost custody of Frances Bean Cobain.
Saturday, January 23, 2010 - by Shawn Oliver It’s sort of hard to believe that all the hype from CES is already over and done with. Larger companies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to introduce and showcase new products at the show, and now all anyone wants to talk about in the tech world is Apple. Must be nice to be Steve Jobs (or an investor). The company that gave the world the iPod and iPhone is planning a media event on the 27th of this month, and while the world tends to believe a tablet or slate of some sort is planned, there has been no definite proof of that to this point.
We really have no idea what’s next from Apple; we just know that it’ll be something to unleash one’s creative side according to a tagline in the invite. According to an inside source close to the going-ons involved in all of this, a new tablet of some sort may not be the only thing on deck for next Wednesday though. We have been led to believe by an inside source that AT&T will lose their iPhone exclusivity on the same day, though it’s not yet clear what other carrier (or carriers) will be stepping in to also carry the phone. For anyone who has followed the saga, you may notice that you haven’t seen AT&T fighting to extend their original exclusive agreement of late. In fact, they have spent most of their time fighting Verizon’s negative ad campaign.
This may not be all that surprising. Inside of AT&T, we are hearing that the iPhone is causing more trouble than ever before. On some level, having the iPhone is hurting AT&T’s image. Because they are the only company to carry it, and it’s such a data hog, it’s largely to blame for AT&T’s network troubles. We don’t remember hearing about AT&T’s “horrible network” before the iPhone–do you? The iPhone itself doesn’t really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very well, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail whenever the 3G bands aren’t optimal and the phone attempts to step down to EDGE. It seems that AT&T is tired of taking the heat for this, and at this point, they may be smart to just let another carrier take some of those customers who are most inclined to complain.
We also heard that when AT&T loses their grip on the iPhone, they’ll be introducing a bunch of other new smartphones with new platforms in order to “compensate.” At CES, it was announced that new Windows Mobile, Android and webOS-based phones were destined to land on AT&T, but few details were provided as to when. Now, it seems the puzzle pieces are beginning to slot together. It’s possible that AT&T recently went searching for deals with other phone makers in order to proactively bolster its smartphone lineup for when this day-of-doom would come. AT&T has gained a huge amount of subscribers from being the only operator with the iPhone, and if it loses that advantage, it’ll need some other cutting-edge, high-brow phones to keep people’s attention.
One big happy family soon?
It’s hard to say what’ll happen if a carrier like Verizon gets the iPhone. Will existing iPhone users on AT&T run in droves to switch, regardless of the early termination fee? Will existing AT&T iPhone users stick with their plan? Maybe Apple will simply see a new influx of iPhone users, as customers who were always wary of AT&T finally make the jump now that the phone is a on a network with better perceived quality? We still have to take all of this as rumor for now, but we have very good reason to believe that we’ll see AT&T quietly (or perhaps not so quietly) lose its grip on the iPhone come Wednesday. What happens after that is anyone’s guess, but we would expect the overall iPhone market share in the US to surge quite significantly if it’s made available on a CDMA carrier.
Ever-Shifting Release Date Prompts Lil’ Wayne Leak…
Only the details are different, but another big-name release is now leaking. Lil’ Wayne’s upcoming Rebirth, recently pushed to early February, is now an easy grab online. Billboard blames Amazon for accidentally shipping pre-orders way ahead of schedule, based on an earlier in-store of December 21st. That may be true, though constantly-shifting release dates meant that lots of pre-release product was floating around, the ingredients for a near-certain leak.
Either way, Wayne label Motown Universal is faced with a very difficult set of choices. A shift back into December is probably impossible at this stage, though the long stretch into February almost guarantees that fans will jump online to get a free copy. That could soften the sales tally, though Wayne has stared down leaks before. Despite a pre-release leak in mid-2008, Tha Carter III scored first-week sales of more than one million, and 3.3 million to date.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, Marshall has sold a combined 32.2 million albums in the 2000’s. Men lie, women lie— well, you know the rest. Read ‘em in weep haters.
1. The Beatles, 1, 11,499,000 units sold
2. ‘NSYNC, No Strings Attached, 11,112,000 units sold
3. Norah Jones, Come Away With Me, 10, 546,000 units sold 4. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, 10,204,000 units sold
5. Eminem, The Eminem Show, 9,799,000 units sold
6. Usher, Confessions, 9,712,000 units sold
7. Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory, 9,663,000 units sold
8. Creed, Human Clay, 9,491,000 units sold
9. Britney Spears, Oops! … I Did It Again, 9,185,000 units sold
10. Nelly, Country Grammar, 8,461,000 units sold
Snoop is having a big album release party with Travis Barker on December 8th in Los Angeles called “Decade” – celebrating 10 years of Barker’s Stars and Straps company and Snoop’s 10th studio album release, Malice In Wonderland.
We – on behalf of the Cashmere Agency – are offering 2 pairs of tickets to your readers to attend the party as well. How to win? If you reside in the Southern California area, simply put your name and legitimate email address in the c-section below (put your email in the slot where it’s required only). We’ll randomly pick two people before the day is out to win. It’s that simple.
2008 was the year of free streaming music. When MySpace Music entered the fray a little over a year ago, it seemed like the music labels had finally relented, and were willing to experiment with free streaming music to users. The future looked bright.
2009 is the year of reckoning. The European launch of Spotify, which offers users free streaming music on demand, was an affirmation of the trend. Soon Spotify would launch in the U.S., too, the company said.
Things are changing.
Spotify is now saying that they must delay their U.S. launch. They don’t want to launch here with a paid-only model, and the big labels are signaling that they won’t have it. From the NYTimes last month, quoting Sony Music: “We like Spotify as our partner in Europe, but we would like them to move more toward a paid subscription environment.”
And that isn’t the only bad news. MySpace Music is “almost certainly” going to severely restrict free streaming to users, say multiple sources, and move to a paid model. “They are spending $20 million/month on streaming royalties, and that just isn’t sustainable,” said one source with knowledge of MySpace’s relationships with the labels. Other sources have said that MySpace’s royalty payments are much lower, but don’t deny that the service is a cash hole.
MySpace won’t comment on this story, but they have a deadline to all this. The Google search deal is up next year, and $300 million/year in revenue will evaporate. Changes need to happen soon. The last payment of $75 million is due on June 20, 2010.
“‘You know what, Jimmy? Fuck you. Take that beat and shove it up Timbaland’s ass.’”
You don’t talk to Jimmy Iovine that way!
What kind of crazy, fucked up world do we live in where the pop stars are the goody-goodies, the ass-kissers who made our eyes roll in high school as they obeyed all the rules and respected their elders. It’s like Eddie Haskell has come back to haunt us! You don’t want to piss off the big bad record company, your career will be ruined!
Or will it?
I’ve met some of the rock stars of yore, and they’re not like you and me. They don’t believe in rules. And they don’t take orders. They do it their way. With contempt for society, the norm, what everybody says they should do.
I mean if you’re working all day on the assembly line, do you really want to go see someone who tells you to never miss a day at the plant and to never talk back to your boss? Is this the release you desire?
Or you’ve got Lady GaGa, who thinks rock and roll is a fashion show. When done right, it doesn’t matter what you wear on stage, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. The music speaks for you.
But the music hasn’t come first, we haven’t had a rule-breaker since Kurt Cobain. Sure, Kurt had a way with a melody, but the reason he became an icon and still is was his refusal to play it any way but his own. To call out posers. To have no tolerance for b.s. Hey GaGa! Why don’t you check out the sweater Kurt wore on MTV “Unplugged”! With enough talent, you can dress like a nerd!
Kurt complained of being abused in school. Of getting no respect. He was everything we wanted to be. Honest. And rich.
Now the focus is only on rich. Used to be you used your talent to get to the bucks. Now, talent is a diversion, the machine will provide that for you. We’ve got songwriters and producers, stylists, we can turn you into someone…just like everyone else. A two-dimensional character made for the brain dead medium known as terrestrial radio. Once upon a time we respected radio, lived to listen. Imagine that!
Used to be you told the label head which way the wind blew. Didn’t allow any input into your music. Hell, does the exec know how to play? And, if you fucked with the President enough, he might blackball you and harm your career, but those days are through. Now you can be completely independent, not beholden to anyone. Free to sell your CD at Target. Huh?
Explain it to me all day Eddie Vedder, but I just see it as expedient. Sure, you’re allowing the indie stores to play, but this has got nothing to do with the future, not even the present, but the past. Fans want the music instantly, online, now. Trent Reznor gives it away and you tie in with a retailer that focuses on fashion?
We respect outlaws. Not faux characters in scripts, like Sacha Baron Cohen sitting on Eminem’s lap at the MTV Movie Awards. And if you’re watching the VMAs for anything but shits and giggles, if you think that show has anything to do with music, you don’t know how hard you’ve got to kiss the butt of the MTV team to get on. What a marketing opportunity! Who can resist the exposure!
Trent called out Chris Cornell on Twitter, for his atrocious record with Timbaland.
If Peter Frampton can kill his career overnight, with one record made for the theoretical masses, doesn’t that prove anybody can do it? Hell, while we’re at it, blame the stylist for Billy Squier. Heroic rocker, blue collar king, dresses in pink and is never heard from again.
It’s truly a new era. The government might tell us to meet the new boss, same as the old boss, that Goldman Sachs can still rule, but do we have to continue to respect all the entertainment wankers who think they’re more talented than the creators they oversee?
Music used to be the foremost exponent of creativity. Because it was the cheapest to make and the easiest to distribute. But now music is moribund, even less hip than TV, singles are massaged, marketing campaigns are designed like a World War III invasion… We’ve only got one chance, we can’t blow it! How about putting out great music, that sells itself, for a long time? Believe me, an artist puts out something good and word will get out on the Internet, the same way everyone learned that Lenny Kravitz’s last opuses were crap and he’s been forced to tour “Let Love Rule” in clubs on the album’s twentieth anniversary to pay his bills.
Do we really have to fear Jimmy Iovine? Doug Morris? Lyor Cohen? Do they really get to be the final arbiters of taste?
Oh, don’t give me shit, I’m just a constant warning to take the other direction, to think for yourself, like all my heroes from the past.
They’re not making anymore heroes. Just product. And that’s sad.
You’ve got the tools to do it your way. So don’t complain, take the road less-traveled, experiment, demonstrate your greatness. Your hands are not tied, dazzle us!
Full “New Yorker” quote:
“By the early aughts, Reznor had grown frustrated with the way Nine Inch Nails records were being released and promoted by his label, Interscope Records. ‘The Internet has decimated their business, and they still don’t know how instant messaging works,’ he told me. He was also depressed by the pressure from the label’s head, Jimmy Iovine, to make his records more ‘urban.’ As Reznor saw it, ‘This is simply, How do we smooth off all the rough edges and make you just like what’s selling now?’ Iovine commissioned a number of hip-hop remixes of Nine Inch Nails songs, all of which Reznor rejected, and Reznor soon ended the relationship. ‘You know what, Jimmy? Fuck you. Take that beat and shove it up Timbaland’s ass.’”
…could we see a possible return of Howard the Duck?
BURBANK, Calif. & NEW YORK - (via-Business Wire/Reuters)
Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around
the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has agreed to acquire Marvel
Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:MVL) in a stock and cash transaction, the companies
announced today.
Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on
August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in
cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At
closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the
total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its
trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger
consideration.
Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction
value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.
“This transaction combines Marvel`s strong global brand and world-renowned
library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America,
Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney`s creative skills, unparalleled global
portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes
the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,”
said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney
Company. “Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing
these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring
this talent and these great assets to Disney.”
“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney`s unique portfolio of brands provides
significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Iger said.
“Disney is the perfect home for Marvel`s fantastic library of characters given
its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses,” said
Ike Perlmutter, Marvel`s Chief Executive Officer. “This is an unparalleled
opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties
by accessing Disney`s tremendous global organization and infrastructure around
the world.”
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than
5,000 Marvel characters. Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and
will work directly with Disney`s global lines of business to build and further
integrate Marvel`s properties.
The Boards of Directors of Disney and Marvel have each approved the transaction,
which is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements
Act, certain non-United States merger control regulations, effectiveness of a
registration statement with respect to Disney shares issued in the transaction
and other customary closing conditions. The agreement will require the approval
of Marvel shareholders. Marvel was advised on the transaction by BofA Merrill
Lynch.
