Yearly Archives: 2004

“Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy canceled a European promotional trip for the band’s new album last week to check himself into a Chicago rehab clinic.

Tweedy has had a long history of migraines, and has unsuccessfully battled them with prescription painkillers. In response to the rehab stint, Wilco’s Nonesuch label has postponed release of the band’s fifth album, “A Ghost is Born,” by two weeks, to June 22.” (full story)

Kurt Cobain died ten years ago today. I was a junior in high school, and I remember hearing the news. I was really upset about it. I wore the same In Utero Nirvana t-shirt to school for an entire week (I think I washed it at least once). I still can’t listen to Nirvana’s music without feeling a little ping of sadness.

The weekend of the death me and my friend Richie were hanging out at the Pilgrim Diner in Jersey after working at KB Toys, talking about it. Processing it. This waitress gave us a religious lesson telling us how he was a bad person, blah blah blah. I hated that woman.

Fast forward ten years later and you have Courtney Love pretty much falling apart in public. She’s her own person, but sometimes I think to myself, “Can’t you get your shit together? At least for your daughter? For Kurt’s memory? For yourself?”

iTunes Digital Rights Management holding you down? Don’t worry, kids, playFair will decode and recode your AAC files without the DRM.

[credz waxy]

Everybody has Darkness fever. Everybody. From the New York Times:

Jay Harren, the music director for 99X (WNNX 99.7-FM) in Atlanta, which is sponsoring a Darkness concert there on Thursday, said the 650 seats sold out in five minutes. The station moved it to a 2,500-seat theater. That sold out in nine minutes. “The music is kitschy and campy,” Mr. Harren said. “But if you strip away what they do live and take away the catsuits, in the end, they write really good, catchy pop songs.” (full story)

Rmemeber when Nirvana was the first band that came to mind when you thought of Sub Pop? Not anymore!

“Make Up the Breakdown,” the 2002 debut by Canadian rock unit Hot Hot Heat, has sold 224,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan. “Give Up,” the early-2003 release by electro-pop duo the Postal Service, has moved 211,000 copies. And “Chutes Too Narrow,” the 2003 sophomore album by Albuquerque, N.M., band the Shins, has sold 144,000 units. (full story)

This is a Good Thing.

Wilco fans are downloading their new album like crazy lunatics (ahem). To show that these fans are generally good people, they’ve gone and set up a website where you can donate money to Doctors Without Boarders as a sort of sign of good will towards the band.

According to the site, the goal represents “a show of thanks to the band for its continuing generosity and trust?on behalf of the fans of Wilco, and of real, original music everywhere.”

At this moment, they’ve raised $1,766. Time for me to throw a few bucks into the pot.

[credz tiny mix tapes]

Paul writes a review about the new Muse album here and then a donewaiting.com discussion quickly broke out about the comparisons to Radiohead. Pretty good discussion going on. There seems to be one consensus though: everyone likes the new album.

Our coverage of ATP 2004 continues:

Dawn breaks and with it the promise of another day of obscurantism. Each day is curated by a different band and so each feels markedly different. Today is governed by Tortoise, so we?re expecting 12 hours of non-threatening mildly dancey instrumental funk. From Chicago. Joy oh joy. (full review)

Greg talks about Elliott in this interview about the Twilight Singers:

But when I bought a bar in Los Angeles, I was bartending and co-managing it when we first opened. If I was bartending on a Monday night and there wasn?t a lot of people there, that?s when Elliott would come in. We remembered each other from Portland and still had a lot of friends and music in common. I?m not going to tell you we were best buddies because that wouldn?t be the truth. But for about a year, he would stay after the bar closed and we?d listen to the Beatles and the Hollies on the jukebox, and I?d be able to pick out everything he was stealing. Beautiful man, though. (full interview)

From Billboard.com:

The Pixies will make every show from their upcoming 15-date North American tour available for sale immediately after the performance, Billboard.com can reveal. The group will be touring with a recording truck from DiscLive that will press a limited run of 1,000 CDs per show (2,000 for the May 1 performance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif.). The double-CD sets will sell for $25 at the venue or $22 if they’re pre-ordered through DiscLive’s Web site. (full story)