Bob Dylan News That Didn't Go Anywhere

Bob Dylan will release ‘Bob Dylan In Concert: Brandeis University 1963’ on April 12 through Columbia Records.

According to a post today on Dylan’s site, the May 10, 1963 recording of the then relatively unknown 21-year-old musician was only found recently in the archives of Rolling Stone co-founder Ralph J. Gleason where it sat on a shelf for over four decades. “It had been forgotten, until it was found last year in the clearing of the house after my mother died,” Gleason’s son Toby said of Dylan’s performance at the Brandeis First Annual Folk Festival. “It’s a seven inch reel-to-reel that sounds like it was taped from the mixing desk.”

The album – culled from two concerts that evening and performed just two weeks before The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan would be issued – was previously available but only on a limited basis. The seven tracks include an incomplete version of ‘Honey, Just Allow Me On More Chance,’ ‘Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues,’ ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream,’ ‘Ballad Of Hollis Brown,’ ‘Masters Of War,’ ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’ and ‘Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues.’

The album will also feature liner notes by noted Dylan expert and scholar Michael Gray who wrote The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia and Song & Dance Man: The Art Of Bob Dylan.

Dylan – who performed at the Grammy Awards last Sunday evening alongside the Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons – will play in Singapore on April 15 prior to commencing an eight-date trek of Australia and New Zealand on April 17. The singer’s last proper studio album was Together Through Life in 2009.

Thoughts and Musings and Rants and Thoughts

The Arcade Fire wins album of the year at the Grammys yet nobody knows them. A funny thing (one of several funny things) was them introducing themselves to the press backstage after winning. However the funniest item had to be a site with pages and pages of Tweets from people who did not know them or hear of them, including Dog The Bounty Hunter and Rosie O'Donnell among others.

Justin Bieber was 0 fer at the show also, which resulted in several of his fans taking to the winner's site and posting less than kind remarks. How dare somebody who can sing, writing their own songs without relying and 211 co-writers and play an instrument deserve anything over Justin? I mean really.

Performances of the Grammys were less than memorable except for perhaps one or two, notably Mr. Jagger paying homage to Solomon Burke at the ripe age of 67. And still delivering the goods as he has all this time.

And now listening to the Cowboy Junkies new album entitled Demons, which can be accessed here for great aural pleasure. Culled from the work of the late Vic Chesnutt who decided to off himself a while back, Cowboy Junkies -- and especially the fine, no, stellar pipes of Margo Timmins -- nail this material effortlessly. Definitely a keeper.

Will post again soon, busy you know.....

Junos Who Knows

The Juno nominations came out this week and what we do know is that Nickelback (pictured here with lead singer Chad Kroeger's corset obviously on backwards) was not nominated for anything, so it can't be all bad. Neil Young is scheduled to appear, Justin Bieber is slated to appear, Drake will rap minus his cohorts back on Degrassi Street and both the Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene are slated to perform.

But like the Grammys, the organizers are still a little bit behind the times. For example the best new artist category has two nominees who have been around a while including Caribou who is currently working on his fourth studio album. Or basically three more albums that a best new artist should not have in their catalogue.

A few other snafus are apparent in terms of artists being nominated for artist or group of the year yet their album not up for album of the year, but regardless, the 40th anniversary should be fairly decent, even if it is held at the cavernous Air Canada Centre.

There is a bright side in that a number of artists playing the Grammys or appearing are homegrown talent. So the glass is half full, isn't it?

MONA.....oh Mona.....

These four guys are known collectively as MONA, they are from Nashville, they are been dubbed rather wrongly as Princes Of Leon. They are not. If Gaslight Anthem and Scottish band MONA had a baby band, this would be them. They have yet to release their full-length album but already they've been featured in NME, have got and caught the ear of BBC's Later With Jools Holland programme and are slowly but surely receiving a buzz.

Four songs on YouTube so far, including the glorious one-two punch of Listen To Your Love and the foot-stomping Teenager. And they are also making their way to Toronto as part of Dave Bookman's New Music Night on Tuesday, April 19. Long may the buzz continue, for it is quite warranted. The first great thing to come from Nashville since country music was actually country music, not 3:32 radio friendly sh-t which took 9 co-writers to come up with.

You've been told, and they follow a line of The National, Hourly Radio (alright, they are no more, but still), Marah, Kathleen Edwards, Kirsten Jones and Glasvegas as acts you should keep an eye and ear out for.

Long Live The Wedge

If you remember anything about MuchMusic in the earlier days, you recall that it was basically the exception to see anything non-musical or non-music video on the tube. But over time, that slowly changed to the point where if you were to try and find a music video or anything music related on MuchMusic, you would gather more information from a Telemundo Weather Forecast of Sable Island.

It got to the point in recent years where shows like The New Music -- one of the staples of music journalism for much of the '80s and '90s -- was tossed aside and other shows were put to the backburner, including The Wedge, the only hour of music which did not feature pre-packaged pop and radio-friendly rock but a bevy of new, foreign (often British) and alternative rock acts. The show was a weekend staple up until last year, when the great braintrust at MuchMusic pushed it back to the prime time hour of I believe 3 am or 4 am Eastern. In a word they wanted it dead.

Well, all that has changed, and for the better. Now The Wedge has had a great deal of life put back into it thanks to the lead singer of F--ked Up Damien. Although his initial claim to fame was smashing beer cans into his forehead, which resulted in cuts and an excessive amount of scar tissue, the host seems to know what he's talking about. And even better is the fact that the show is live. The episode this week featured him cruising around Toronto en route to a concert and an interview with the support act. At the same time videos were shown of indie and alternative acts a lot of eyes and ears never laid, er, eyes and ears on.

While his reporting skills and television tact leaves a bit to be desired, you can't deny the fact that this is a guy who likes music that is sadly getting harder and harder to find. But at least there is some hope for MuchMusic thanks to this change or wake up call. Long may it air.....

Glee Filled King Sized Hate

Ah, the stuff of legend....

A few weeks ago the creators of that silly musical show Glee -- the one everyone seems to enjoy because they do what I deem to be shite versions of what are generally considered pop staples -- asked Southern rock band Kings Of Leon if they could rework or revamp some of their material for a future episode.

The Brothers and Cousin Followill at the time declined, saying they would not allow that to happen as they had never seen the show. It was not a rude response and there was no sarcasm involved, for the Kings Of Leon don't spend every waking hour glued to a television screen Tivo-ing Glee between tour stops. However, this appears to have been an obvious affront and sin as the creator of Glee, Ryan Murphy, told Hollywood Reporter that the band were assholes and told the group to basically go perform an act of self-love on themselves.

Word of the reply got back to the band, who proceeded to reply via Twitter in what I thought was a humorous way, especially when somebody is calling you an asshole. The post, which has since been removed, basically told Murphy to go get a manicure, wear a bra and calm down.

Murphy -- obviously somebody who can dole out criticism but cannot be one to take it -- has since replied saying the band is homophobic and the band has apologized if anybody took offence by it.

I take offence at the fact that a popular television series which will be off the air in five years (or less) believes they rule the roost and can tell or bully an artist into doing what they want. If the artist wants to do it, then that is their choice. If they don't want to do it, then calling somebody out because of it probably goes to show that Murphy might just be more of said a-hole than the four members of Kings Of Leon can ever aspire to be.

Murphy also was quoted as saying Guns N Roses/Slash's Snakepit/Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash was stupid, as he too turned the television show down by saying Glee was basically a poor man's version of Grease, and to him Grease was not the greatest.

Hopefully these artists are the first of many.....

Pazz and Jop 2010 Results

The Village Voice released or added up the total number of votes for its annual Pazz and Jop (which is Jazz and Pop) poll for 2010. Voting concluded on Christmas even but the tabulations took weeks to do, which is usually the case when you have somewhere between 1500 and 1600 music critics deciding what makes one album in their eyes shine above others.

The voting is rather simple, that is if you have a degree in quick addition. Ten albums are selected, unless you think there were less than ten worthy of your list in which case you can have nine, eight or fewer I believe. A total of 100 points are doled out to use for the 10 albums, no album can have more than 30 points and no album can have fewer than five points. So trying to do the poll on one take and not come up with 112, 106 or 103 is genius.

Anyway this year Kanye West ended up with a whopping 3250 points, or nearly double the amount than the runner-up LCD Soundsystem received. Basically the album has been either widely praised or critics have decided they don't want to look like fools so they will follow all the other critic lists and put that one on top.

The National's High Violet, which I put down as the top album, ended up in eighth spot and Vampire Weekend's Contra, another top ten I had, was fifth.

Part of the fun of the process is not so much the ones on top but perhaps the boost that some could get from being on the list, regardless of whether one, two or three critics decided that an album was worth the repeated listens or annoying/aggravating friends and co-workers into demanding or pleading them to listen to "this" because "this" is good or the next best thing to come along.

This is quite evident when one scrolls down below the rankings around 160, with some albums being mentioned at best maybe by three critics and on average two. A horde of albums have one mention, which is great because it means the following: the hacks are still listening to albums that they are paid and not paid to listen to, they still believe there is quality out there and get some sense of satisfaction finding something brilliant after tossing one mound of mediocre pre-packaged fluff on the CD player or online stream source after another.

The list originally was placed from 1 to 1800 but in recent days has been changed so that they have ties for albums with the same amount of points. So albums that were ranked in the top 700 are now tied for say 155th, which is the way it should be.

Fortunately last year it was a case of paring down the list, unlike other sub-par years where building it up to 10 could be a chore. Hopefully 2011 is more of the former......

Guy Fletcher Still Speaks

Dire Straits member Guy Fletcher took to his site again and stated his stance fully and clearly I suppose on the Money For Nothing situation, sounding (as much as one can sound in a text setting) as if he was a bit peeved that various media outlets were looking at his posts on his own message board and using them in different articles.

While I agree with his stance regarding his opposition to how the song was deemed to be derogatory, if he had such a problem with outlets using his message posts then perhaps he shouldn't have made them. That or maybe have a message board where one has to register first to gain access to the forum.

Seems a bit odd that in this day and age somebody whose site was not hacked or whose message board was not corrupted in some way would once again talk about how the media took his rather curt responses and place them in news reports. Nor were any of the quotes taken out of context as, well, it's usually quite hard to take five and six word phrases out of context.

Shorty yes, but that's all I got today.......

Coachella Young Fella.....

Coachella announced the lineup for its 12th annual festival where thousands go to sunny California only to make a wrong turn and char their skin in a desert for three days. But unlike some recent festivals, this one has the makings of a good one.

Of the three evenings/days of artists, the second and third are quite good, with night two having the following for starters: Arcade Fire, Suede, Elbow, Broken Social Scene, Swell Season, Gogol Bordello and New Pornographers for starters. Night three contains The Strokes, Duran Duran, The National, PJ Harvey and Jimmy Eat World. And also a reunion of Death From Above 1979, a band who had two members, both of which could not stand each other at the end of their implosion. Proof yet again that when it comes to money, reunion is never far from a broken band's lips.

There are plenty of Canadian acts, some which are already mentioned and others: Rural Alberta Advantage, Crystal Castles, Chromeo and even The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie, who is low on the bill and just below an act with the lovely name of Joy Orbison.

A three day VIP pass will put you back $700 while a non-VIP pass for all three days will put you back about $280. Considering some of these acts -- although not playing full sets -- would easily put you back $50 or $60, it might end up being a bit of a deal.

Biggest disappointment: no Pulp, a band which I would have assumed would have been definitely on the radar of Coachella. Perhaps this means they will see their way across the big puddle to land at Osheaga in Montreal.

I can hope and wish can't I? Yes, yes I can......

If Money For Nothing, Then Here Are Others

Above is what one person saw in Saudi Arabia as the album cover to Mariah Carey's hits compilation (hits being a relative term). The one on the left shows her own legs, the one on the right shows her with some galatical sheen pants which not only glow in the dark, but would make great skidoo pants too.

Anyway, if the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council decide to root out the f word as they did with Dire Straits, here are some 24 other tunes which should immediately be removed from the airwaves.

1. Scissor Sisters -- Step Aside For The Man (f word in the lyrics)
2. Lilly Allen -- f word Hag
3. Pogues -- Fairytale Of New York (you scumbag you maggot you cheap lousy f word)
4. Korn -- f word
5. Dire Straits -- Money For Nothing (oops, that one was done already, wasn't it?)
6. Mindless Self Indulgence -- f word
7. Me'shell Ndegeocello -- Leviticus f word
8. Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) -- Rural f word
9. Gil Scott-Heron -- The Subject Was f word
10. Brian Jonestown Massacre -- Automatic f word For The People
11. Jewel -- Pieces Of You (f word in the lyrics)
12. Eminem -- Quitter (f word in the lyrics)
13. Orgy -- f word
14. Marilyn Manson -- Better Of Two Evils (f word in the lyrics)
15. Pansy Division -- c word sucking f word
16. Broken Social Scene -- I'm Still Your f word
17. Leon Russell -- Don't You Wish You Had A f word
18. Tori Amos -- Taxi Ride (f word in the lyrics)
19. Steppenwolf -- f word
20. Placebo -- Slackerbitch (f word in the lyrics)
21. Crystal Castles -- Black f word
22. Xiu Xiu -- f word Patrol
23. Belle And Sebastian -- Rhoda (f word in the lyrics)
24. Patty Griffin -- Tony (f word in the lyrics)

This does not include many hip-hop or rap songs, in which case I would need a lot more bandwith and perhaps two or three typists to assist me. As it stands now, Dire Straits is not alone in using the word, but they just happen to be the ones being selected as the poster boys for it.

Which makes one wonder, Dire Straits also has a song called Les Boys, the lyrics being: "Les boys do cabaret/Les boys are glad to be gay...." Surely this has to be the next song on the list to be censored, doesn't it?

The World Is Theirs Again

Like a watch or a clock, at least twice a year NME tends to state that the next big British band is great. One of the rare times this was true was when they found Glasvegas, who will be putting out a new album later this year entitled Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\ which is close to being 77 days from release.

The band's first single The World Is Yours was released yesterday online through a British newspaper site before being placed on the band's official site yesterday. A video can be seen which really -- like most videos -- doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. But regardless it still possess that huge, beefy, bombastic, theatrical rock that seemed to make their first go around so enjoyable and indeed refreshing.

Now with a new female drummer -- one who stands who is replacing the old female drummer who stood also when playing -- Glasvegas should be hitting North America sometime soon, most likely a larger club gig than their impressive Mod Club show here almost two years ago now. (Which I got to meet the actual Geraldine after the show, the gal who was a social worker who the song Geraldine is (you guessed it) named after.) The only other Toronto area date took place much later in the year when they were the support act for Kings Of Leon at Hamilton's Copps Coliseum.

It could be (should be) an early favorite for many year-end lists, but this is easy to say now being only 17 days in. It's unknown how that extra horoscope sign will influence the quality of the album. If it's half as good as the first go around then many people will be extremely pleased.

Dire Straits Indeed

Who knew that 25 years after the fact, there is still a lot of mileage coming from the Dire Straits hit "Money For Nothing." Earlier this week the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that the song contained a derogatory word and should be removed from the airwaves. This after a complaint was received by a FM radio station in Newfoundland which objected to the word "faggot" being used three times in the song.

The song has had two different versions on the radio, one being the unabridged version that is found on the original studio album and then another one which is shorter and "cleaner", that is to say the f-word has been removed and replaced.

Knopfler has said little on the situation but Guy Fletcher said his piece on his own site yesterday which was less than kind of the ruling and those who made the ruling. Now two Canadian radio stations -- one in Halifax and another in Edmonton -- are going to protest by playing the song in its original version repeatedly for an hour on Friday evening.

Knopfler has occasionally replaced the word with "mama," "trucker" and "queenie" in concert, including the fabulous 1990 Knebworth concert (which I still have somewhere on cassette!). But for this song to NOW be a bone of contention seems to be rather strange.

Osheaga 2011? One Can Hope....Or Fear

Having gone to this Montreal festival last year and staying for one day I hope to return to this festival this year, provided the lineup is as good as last year's one day lineup (The National, Keane, Arcade Fire, Jimmy Cliff, etc.). The two-day event usually gets the big acts, but those acts might not appeal to everyone.

So, without further ado, here are a few acts that I would not want to headline or be near the 2011 Osheaga lineup: System Of A Down and Soundgarden. Mainly because both acts have been away for a while now and a reunion of sorts would not do anything pour moi. Basically an oldies set from bands that have not really been missed by many.

Here are some bands which might be headliners, depending on whether they are on the road or can stray from the lucrative European festivals (easy routing, shorter sets, short travel time between locations, mondo appearance fees usually): Coldplay, The Cure, The Strokes, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Three of the four bands are expected to have new albums out this year while The Cure don't have anything on the horizon aside from a few select dates. Expect at least one if not all three of the others to be on the bill for Bonnaroo or Coachella or both.

Here are some band which I would definitely lap up seeing them in concert: Pulp and Elbow. Both are British bands, one which hasn't toured North America since 1999 I believe and the other who spordically hits their funny elbow in the US and Canada when a new album comes out. Both would be worthy of inclusion, with Pulp most likely being a headliner one of the two nights.

Some other bands which could possibly be part of Osheaga? Well, Beastie Boys might be in the fold, Prince is a longshot but you never know. Neil Young might be in the cards, The Dears as they are from Montreal and putting out a new album this year. Those you would not expect obviously are those which have played last year, especially Stars and Metric. Otherwise, expect a bit more speculation in the coming weeks and months before an official announcement is made.

Osheaga this year is in late July, much like last years which began the last day of July and concluded the first day of August.

Hopefully the weather and lineup is as agreeable as last year.

Social Distortion Promotion Notion

This is the logo/emblem associated with Social Distortion, a fine punk rock outfit led by Mike Ness. The group will be releasing a new studio album shortly but decided to have a bit of promotional fun with the pre-release.

According to their site, and cited on Punknews.org the band is currently streaming the entire album for free. The goal is that they will decrease the retail price of the album by $1 on Amazon.com for every 100,000 streams that are calculated. It doesn't have to be the entire stream of the album but rather individual song streams. At last count last evening the tally was around 37,000 and change.

The idea is capped off at 500,000 streams, the idea being that if they achieve that goal the price of the album will be $7.99 at Amazon, which is not a bad deal. The promotion ends I believe on January 18, which is less than a week away.

Having listened to the album in its entirety (while watching a stream of my beloved Flyers dispel the evil Sabres of Buffalopolis), it sounds quite good, not quite as powerful or urgent as Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell but far better than some of the recent material. A real keeper is the deliberate pace of Bakersfield which veers past some five glorious minutes. Opening with a brief but strong instrumental and closing with a gospel-tinged number is also interesting.

In an age where many will stream the album and then wait a few days or hours for the songs to be individually posted on YouTube, this promotional idea isn't all that bad. It might be something more bands could take advantage of. Better this than releasing an album only to re-release it with additional tracks a few months later, which has been done and will sadly be done again.

Yes But You Can't Play With Two Arms!

There are tribute bands for a wide variety of '80s hair metal bands, but it appears that a Texas tribute group named Pyromania have taken the cake recently. The group, which takes its name from a Def Leppard album, is obviously a Def Leppard tribute act. But they have decided to one-up (or one-arm) their competition but placing an ad looking for a drummer.

Now an advert for a drummer isn't out of the ordinary, but the latest ad Pyromania put out requires the drummer to be one-armed. This is of course to ape Def Leppard's drummer Rick Allen (pictured above) who lost his left arm in a car accident some time ago but has since revamped his drum kit to make his legs do the work that his arm once did. There's no word on whether Pyromania require the same limb to be gone or will hack the appendage off themselves with a literal axe.

Earlier today, metal website Blabbermouth.net announced that they indeed found a one-arm bandit for the group, putting a voice message on their phone number, adding that "the position has been filled."

But the story hasn't ended there. It seems a California tribute act, which also calls itself Pyromania, has posted on their website bad-mouthing and distancing themselves from the Texas-based Pyromania, stating it was in bad taste that such an audition was posted in the first place.

It's still unknown why a band decided that NOW was the time to find a one-armed drummer a la Rick Allen. The accident took place in 1984. I'm not sure if the members of Texas-based Pyromania have a computer or access to the internet, but they might have realized that this was not a news event nearly 27 years after the fact.

What could possibly be next? A Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute act which requests that two or three members are killed in a plane crash? A Great White tribute act which requests that hundreds of fans die in a horrific fire as a means of paying tribute?

Who's with me here? Raise your....oh, nevermind....

Up Close And Down Sized

This is Janet Jackson wearing a very fine garment, although one must continue looking at it to see if it has been ironed. Regardless, Ms. Janet (if you're nasty) just announced her North American dates on her up close and personal tour, one which sees her do nothing but Number One hits.

Perhaps the biggest aspect of this tour is how small it really is. Jackson is only doing 35 dates total around the world for the tour, which is basically less than she might do on one North American leg of a previous tour. The tour has a lone Canadian stop in Toronto in early March, but the venue is not the Air Canada Centre. No, it is in fact the Sony Centre For The Performing Arts, a nice and acoustically friendly venue but one which has perhaps 1/5th the amount of seating as the arena.

Whether it's because Jackson wanted to go smaller this time around or the fact she was having a hard time selling out bigger venues is unclear. What is evident though is that the pricing for these venues will be a very shiny penny or a hefty piggy bank. When two recent tribute shows were going from $75 on the low end to just over $100 on the high end at the Sony Centre, one can only imagine that the cheap seats for this tour will start around $150 and go up from there.

With less in terms of a production, it means a bit more will go into the coffers of Janet Jackson. Perhaps she has finally realized that choreography isn't the end all and be all for a concert.

No word on whether a VIP pass comes with a flashing of a nipple. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The prices have been announced for the Toronto show, with the cheapest being a relatively surprising $70, the highest price tops off at $150. So, to sum up, it is rather affordable given an age where the Stones, Eagles or McCartney would easily charge you two to three times that amount.

Pain In The Pisser?

This is Robert Plant, looking just as confused as he does dazed. Fortunately thanks to some changes in work scheduling I can cover Mr. Plant's upcoming Toronto show with his Band of Joy. But a recent article (which will be published soon) in Rolling Stone has him yet again tossing more dirt on the post-2007 idea of his previous band reforming.

Plant is never one to be at a loss for words, but to describe a possible reformation or reunion tour with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones as "A pain in the pisser" is somewhat odd. How can you put both things in some semblance of pain comparison. Granted, there is still probably a four-alarm burn every time Mr. Plant goes to the lavatory, but to deem a sold-out world tour teeming with Zeppelin hits to be painful is a bit much.

Plant has always gone to the beat of his own drum, and this is no different, and he should be commended for taking such musical risks (and having them more often than not pay off). But a simple "no thank you" or "no comment" might have done more to extinguish any controversy surrounding the rampant speculation that followed the London 02 Arena date. A pain in the pisser is at best odd, at worst does little to fan any flames.

Regardless, I still get to see Mr. Plant, which is the third time I have seen him in concert, the first being a solo tour with his outfit Strange Sensation and the second time being with Alison Krauss, Buddy Miller and others during their brief but memorable project. Miller, Patty Griffin and others are reportedly on board as his band of joy, which should be, er, joyful.

Where Is Your Music Shelf?

With news that 60 HMV stores are closing in the UK, it is indeed another sad case of the stores where music nerds spent hours seeking cheap imports in a delete bin going down the tubes. In Toronto there is a HMV store, no Sam The Record Man, one Sunrise Records nearby, and a couple of used shops. Nothing more, and slowly becoming less.

Nielsen and Billboard released their 2010 state of the record report yesterday and it's another sobering round of data. Overall music sales are down almost three per cent while Total Album Sales are down 12.7 per cent. Digital album sales are up 13 per cent roughly but that doesn't mean sales have offset total album sales. Digital tracks are up one percent, internet album sales is down 1.6 per cent.

In terms of digital sales, the decade which has seen the biggest drop is the 2000s, with sales down 22 per cent over one year in terms of digital track sales. The 1980s is down 21 per cent and even the 1940s are down 12 per cent.

Other interesting tidbits include the fact that Rap is the lone genre which saw a growth in sales, albeit only 3 per cent. New Age is down 29 per cent, which is far from a bad thing. Soon John Tesh and Yanni will join forces for a huge tour, I can see it now.

Regarding where people in the US bought their music, mail order options was around four million in sales while chain stars made up 74 million. Independent music stores accounted for 26 million in sales, two million more than internet/online stores.

Selling Artists making the top ten were Taylor Swift, Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Justin Bieber, Glee Cast, Susan Boyle, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Zac Brown Band and The Beatles. So, a defunct band and a dead musician account for 1/5th of the list.

Vinyl also includes a top ten list, with The Beatles Abbey Road selling 35,000 units and Arcade Fire's Suburbs selling 18,800 units. Elsewhere Radiohead, The National and Vampire Weekend ended up on Top Ten Vinyl Artists lists alongside The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan.

The most played Christmas song? Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree followed by Burl Ives' A Holly Jolly Christmas.

The top selling artist from 1991 until now? Garth Brooks with 68.5 million units sold, followed by The Beatles (62) and Mariah Carey (53.2).

So while there are a few bright spots in this information, the proof is all around: music shops closing, music retail outlets downsizing, labels at a loss for words and big box stores ensuring that CDs now become the pariah in their inventory/stock, left on the back rows if you can find them at all. And yet they still manage to sell CDs but ask around for a CD player? You have a better chance finding Jimmy Hoffa.

Besides B-Sides

They are often dreaded by critics, loved by hardcore fans and met apathetically by most, but with all this digital technology (did you hear about this iPod thingy? It's like an exilir of sound, cures carrying around CDs as well as the whooping measles!) comes a new outlet to release an old musical standard: the b-side.

Although it takes it's name from the vinyl single and often considered to be the lesser in terms of quality or popularity to side A, the b-side has made a bigger dent in music in recent years, mainly because bands can release them independently without much hassle, production costs or promotion.

British band Editors for example spent a few weeks culling through old cd-rs, cassettes and tapes to end up releasing nearly 40 b-sides under the You Are Fading title. Not to say everything on it will be great, but they are now available if fans want them.

Digital singles also now come with additional b-sides or interesting cover versions, some which have taken on a life of their own. This is in addition to bigger name acts having literally hundreds of b-sides and outtakes at their fingertips but at various ends of the spectrum in terms of releasing them: Bob Dylan eagerly tossing out everything and anything but the kitchen sink while somebody likes Springsteen writes 90 songs for a b-side, tosses those 90 away, becomes inspired by the last 32 of those 90, composes 32 more and then tosses all 128 out so he can cover Arlo Guthrie.

Regardless of where you stand, it can't hurt to have more material out there by good bands, even if they didn't quite measure up to what is deemed to be album material. Some of the best tracks don't quite fit into an album and are left on the floor. Need proof? Check the Promise from last year, that wasn't quite a bucket of elephant dung, sonically speaking....

Here's To You Mr. Venuti, You Flaming Violinist!

On this date back in 1934, Billboard decided that it was time for some sort of statistical analysis to determine who was on top of the "charts" each week. The longtime magazine, which is now a blog/internet/print/video/twitter/appealing to anything possible source of music news, had big band violinist Joe Venuti on top of what would be the Number One Pop Chart list.

Over the thousands of weeks, the charts have continued to evolve/devolve into various genres, with some albums staying on them so long people have literally been born and have died during their stay (Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon is a case in point).

There was also a time when it seemed to mean something, when being the top banana would result in some semblance of a career. But over time, the top of the charts is more these days a push by labels to get their rosters or some of the roster a bit of attention. It's been ages since Dylan has been on the top of the pop charts but he has managed to survive such an epic catastrophe as has Petty, Springsteen and the other long in the tooth-sters.

Now the pop charts change like a germophobe's underwear, and with much the same payoff in that there's nothing left to see. Katy Perry becomes Ke$ha who becomes Justin Bieber who becomes Paris Hilton who becomes Yeti the singing Slavic frisbee tosser.

I'm sure Mr. Venuti was a nice man, but perhaps if he saw what the charts had become, he might have done the Hendrix schtick and set his instrument ablaze.

We're Too Old, Too Damn Old?!?

No, this is not what they looked like last go around, but give it five or six more years and this is indeed what people might be invited to see. 2011 could (should?) mark the end of touring for The Rolling Stones, but there's a lot of speculation as to what or how they might go about hitting the road. One idea has them again chugging out an uber-sized football stadium/arenas tour with the usual warhorses dusted off for the 99th time.

Keith Richards has been reportedly hinting at doing something this year with the band and is eager to tour, but a French newspaper report late last month had drummer Charlie Watts saying the time had come to finally call it a day. An Ian Stewart tribute album from a British piano player set for a March release apparently has them covering a Bob Dylan tune but there's no other word that new material or studio work would be in the offing.

However, if they were to tour, perhaps a scaled down version of the Licks tour might be in order, that is to say a three-night stand in select cities: one night in the stadium/arena and then two nights in a theatre setting where more of the older/obscure/blues material could be doled out to the diehards. Think of something like Shine A Light minus the guest appearances and it would definitely be a nice way to exit. That and perhaps capping the select cities to 15 or 20 would be best, thereby eliminating the need for them to play Balls Creek, Nova Scotia, one of the lone Maritime outposts they've yet to hit in recent years.

Granted, that would result in tickets starting somewhere around $400 or $500 for the worst seats and going up to the thousands perhaps for the prime seats. A 2200-seater like Massey Hall would probably generate the same sort of revenue as an arena show but not as much as the stadium.

Although I'm happy they decided to have another go around after Licks (mainly because I got to see them play at The Phoenix, one of 220 ticket holders for the preview club gig), that tour might have been the best way to say good bye. As it stands now, they should revert back to the elder blues material that first made them famous, something that their influences are still doing well into their 70s, 80s and 90s.

That or back to back nights of Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed performed in their entirety! Well, one can dream can't they?

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Lights

There has been much news about the U2-backed Spider-Man musical, something that looks great on paper or in the mind's eye but is working out as well as their PopWorld opening show where they were Spinal Tap-ishly stuck inside a large lemon. Here's a brief timeline of what has happened since day one:

April 2007: BBC reports U2 writing music for new Spider-Man theatre project directed by Julie Taymor (Lion King).
-- Feb 2009: Announcement is made that Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark will make debut Feb 18, 2010. However, numerous rewriters, tinkering and problems (ie: nobody in their right mind is going to put up money for this) causes them to push it back to December 2010 and eventually to 2011. The musical has become some $25M in debt and ballooning to a possible $52M budget.
During this time Bono and The Edge bring in concert promoter Michael Cohl (Stones, U2) to save the musical.
-- Alan Cumming and Evan Rachel Wood both drop out after originally being the main characters due to the delays.
-- During rehearsals two stunt doubles are injured, one breaking both of his wrists while other breaking his toe after injuring his foot previously.
-- At the first preview performance Natalie Mendoza suffers a concussion yet continues with another show against doctor's advice. She eventually leaves the show due to concussion symptoms.
-- On December 20th, Christopher Tierney (pictured above), an ensemble member of the cast, has a cable on his harness detach, causing him to plummet 20 feet into an orchestra pit and with severe injuries. The show is called off with critics asking if it's a sign the musical should be stopped.
-- On Dec 31, 2010, both Bono and The Edge appear on Carson Daly's lame New Year's Eve show confident that the show will go on. "If you're not going to do something revolutionary why bother?" Fan site atu2.com reports that by the time the show will officially open, eight hours of pre-production will have gone into each minute of the show.

Unless I'm mistaken, I've yet to see Bono or The Edge do any aerial stunts during any of their recent tours or for that matter any of their tours. The only thing they've done is walk around a heart-shaped track, and even then Bono managed to fall off that once. Perhaps if they were tied to a cable a la Gene Simmons of KISS, Paul Stanley of KISS, Pink (who had a horrible spill last summer in Europe thanks to a faulty harness) or numerous other acts, they might realize the risks involved. Playing your guitar on a reinforced stage is one thing, swinging from a harness or jetting high above a crowd is something totally different.

Regardless, hopefully there are no more injuries from this project, or the only remaining injuries are to the ego's of U2's core.

Oh and here's Pink's fall, not good.....

The first of 2011, resolution?

A new year and perhaps more blogging or more discipline when it comes to writing stuff that few people will read. Anyway more albums and tours on the way this year with REM, Glasvegas, Wilco (I would suspect) being the big ones to look for. Unless of course Nickelback are releasing something new, then I will go gaga over that. Oops, Lady Gaga is releasing a new album as well, so now that is the album I truly can't wait for. Okay, that was sarcasm. As was the Nickelback statement.

Here is the new single from REM, Discoverer (although you only hear Micheal Stipe singing Discover), very much Monster-era material, hopefully a precursor of what's to come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uMf-JxR5mQ