I GOTTA (BAD) FEELING

Out of the frying pan? Earlier this month singer/songwriter Kelis, former wife of Nas, announced a new recording contract with Interscope via Will I Am Music. Famous for her 2003 single, “Milkshake,” she was reportedly dropped by Jive Records in late 2007. Having also secured nearly $44,000 in monthly support from Nas for their son, Kelis would have been looking forward to 2010.

But a week is a long time in music. Will I Am Music might be one of “corporate entities” which have been “suspended” by the Franchise Tax Board in Los Angeles for failing to file tax returns. The Black Eyed Peas themselves are not named in court documents but it hasn’t been hard to join the dots after the group’s business manager Sean Michael Larkin was accused of failure to file ANY federal and state tax returns for the group.

 This is all according to the legal filing by Helen Yu, an attorney for several members of the group. Yu was responding to a lawsuit filed last week by Larkin, who accused her of attempting to destroy his reputation as part of a $US 5 million defamation claim.

Suddenly, after an incredible history-making year, the Black Eyed Peas’ career has become awfully messy and complicated.

I DREAMED A DREAM TOO

OK I’ll admit it. I come from that Sixties era of music when popular music was more than just entertainment. It was – or could be if you wanted it to be – a cultural thing. Art even. The voice, or soundtrack of a generation, music made while building a better world than the one our parents handed over in the aftermath of World War II.

But we lied. We lied to ourselves, and we let the next generation – our children – down. We didn’t build a better world. We didn’t end wars or poverty. We stopped dreaming about what was “out there” and instead of investing in space programs we made more weapons and more atmosphere-polluting products. We sold our principles out to the almighty dollar.

 When we look back on the music of the 2000s, there’s a lot to be enjoyed, creativity to be admired, but culturally not a lot to be proud of. Rap music has undeniably been the soundtrack to violence and chauvinism. Pop music has contributed significantly to the sexualisation of children. I’m not looking back at the past with rose-coloured glasses. I’m looking at the present with sadness .

I want to hear music that inspires thought. I want to follow music “stars” who are decent human beings and use music to express that. I know it’s there, but we’ve shoved that aside for the few to indulge in while the majority applauds gaudy mindlessness – music NOT to think to. Maybe that’s it. Music STILL expresses its time.

ANOTHER HOT CHILI MOMENT

According to reports guitarist John Frusciante has quit Red Hot Chili Peppers again, to concentrate on his solo career. His comings and goings from the band correspond to pivotal moments in RHCP’s turbulent but surprisingly long career.

He came into the band when the band fell apart following the release of their third album. Success seemed worlds away and then-guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a drug overdose. Everyone was afraid that singer Anthony Kiedis was heading the same way. Drummer Jack Irons chose that moment to go elsewhere. Keidis was motivated to go into rehab and when he emerged he and bassist Flea set about reassembling their band. They auditioned more than 30 potential drummers but the choice of a new guitarist was easy. John Frusciante was a fan of the band and a Slovak devotee.

Two more albums along the band hit the big big time in 1992 with ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’. At the height of their new superstardom John Frusciante left them mid tour – they were headed for Australia – because he found fame and success difficult to cope with. While Red Hot Chili Peppers limped on with a succession of replacement guitarists Frusciante sank deeper into his depression and addiction and gave up music altogether. Kiedis was mad at him. Flea kept in touch.

In early 1998 Red Hot Chili Peppers was at the crossroads again. They’d managed just one more album. Flea was frustrated by the band’s inactivity and was thinking of recorded a solo album. He told Anthony Keidis the only way the band could return would be with John Frusciante back in the ranks. It took a year, but the result was ‘Californication’, a return to form and fame.

For ten years – and two more studio albums – all has been quiet, remarkable when you consider that nine musicians have left RHCP over the course of time, for one reason or another. Now, when the band has again been in an extended hiatus but promising to deliver another album in 2010, John Frusciante has stepped away again. While the band has been inactive Frusciante has been VERY active, recording and releasing five solo albums in one single year period. When he says he wants to concentrate on his solo career this time we can believe him.

But what of Red Hot Chili Peppers themselves? In the past comings and goings have tended to re-energize the band, a kick in the pants when they happened to need it. A replacement has been named, even though Frusciante’s departure is not yet official. What will this new development bring? Death, slow death or revival?

PLOT BOYLER

Susan Boyle’s ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ is number one around the world, not for one remarkable week, but now for a number two or three weeks, depending on the territory, and we’re looking at more than an accidental phenomenon. Is Boyle, or her album SO special, uniquely so, or is there a bigger issue at play?

It’s not a “great” record. This record that might once have been described a ”guilty pleasure” is a very visible ground breaker. For what? Obviously I can’t question every one of the people who have rushed out to but this album but there ARE several assumptions I can safely make. . I’d hazard to guess that the people buying this record are NOT the people who buy music regularly. This is an impulse buy, I’d say by people who don’t habitually buy music. Susan Boyle’s sales have been generated, not at the expense of others.

What this confirms is that the rest of the music being made to sustain the music industry doesn’t have mass appeal. The media which is presenting the music of “now” isn’t getting us excited and motivated to the same degree as Susan Boyle has excited from beyond the traditional voices of influence. We’re not being interested in the same degree as interested has been created by other means for this industry “misfit”. Somewhere down line line we’ve lost our “passion”, not for music but for the people who make it. We’re interested in Susan Boyle NOT necessarily her music.

 These days people who DO have a passion for music are less inclined to share it. Lovingly dumped on your iPod you’re less inclined to play your discoveries to someone else. There’s less chance of someone overhearing and asking ‘What’s that?’ – the ways music traditionally used to create a wave of increasing popularity.

I’d be interested to know the breakdown between Boyle’s physical and digital sales – physical predominantly would be my guess. Does this tell us that there’s music and people who might be interested in consuming music out there that just aren’t being catered for? Has the music industry lost the plot?

ALBUM: I’M NOT DEAD (YET)

Making end of the year/end of the decade lists of the “best” album released continues in traditional fashion – but is it a tradition that, like the year, like the decade, is in its final days? . Aren’t we being told that in the digital age the “album” as we know it is dead?  So presumably in time to come very soon we won’t be making those lists any more or at least those lists in the future will be meaningless.

Flying in the face of the album’s death notice is events like Bruce Springsteen’s decision to perform his ‘Born To Run’ album in its entirety during the year, and another significant trend in music commerce – the rapidly growing popularity of vinyl. Rolling Stone magazine has anointed Green Day as the artist of the decade. Guess what them there? A “concept” album, ‘American Idiot’.

We’re presenting a confusing picture aren’t we?

Fact is, the album isn’t dead, but it’s the music industry itself which has maimed and crippled its future. The rot  started  way back with the introduction of the compact disc, when albums started being trapped in those small plastic cases and for the most part stopped being something you owned and treasured but “just” something that packaged what you listened to. The industry itself has taken the shine off the album. It did nothing to keep encouraging our love affair with albums.  I guess the record companies prefer a future where they offer us (and finance) a succession of tracks rather than a bundle of tracks. Admittedly it is the way we tend to load our iPods.

But the song-at-a-time philosophy flies in the face of everything we want and love in music. Maybe that’s why we’re at the same time starting to go out and see music live again more than we have been, because we actually want an “experience”. A song on its own, love it as we might, just isn’t enough. And when a band like the Decemberists “plan” an experience with a series of songs we remember just why the album is so vital to the enjoyment of music, why the album can’t die and shouldn’t be allowed to.

Bottom line, it’s the music industry itself which is giving the album a bad rap. The vast majority of albums sold are still physical copies and yet we’re told we’re buying a corpse.

AN AXL TO GRIND

As everyone compiles their lists of the most memorable music and music events of 2009 and the last decade, conspicuous by its absence is the Guns N’Roses album ‘Chinese Democracy’. Thirteen years in the making and waiting, the album was finally released at the end of 2008, the record company obviously expecting to make a major assault on 2009. They were more than disappointed. Last man standing Axl Rose refused to promote the album, perhaps expecting its release and content to be enough. It wasn’t.

‘Chinese Democracy’ isn’t a bad album. It wasn’t a huge disappointment. But it couldn’t live up to the hype that had built up over all those years. It needed Axl to take himself and his music from the shadows of the past into the bright lights of the present. He refused. We had a cursory listen and moved on … and discovered Kings Of Leon. When the Gunners first emerged in 1987 we thought that rock and roll was dead. Guns N’Roses changed that. Kings Of Leon have had a similar impact.

Axl Rose of course has notoriously always treated his career and fans with arrogance and distain. Fans who had been left waiting for hours until he felt like gracing the stage could not be all that surprised by his tardiness in releasing ‘Chinese Democracy’. But THAT long? Why didn’t we forget him? Axl Rose always has had this ability to generate news by not doing anything, keeping people guessing and waiting. He’s made an art of it.

Right now, a year after the album’s release Axl has finally gathered a Guns N’Roses together to play this music for the first time, starting in Taiwan today, then Korea and Japan before hitting American soil. The question is, will Axl actually go through with it? By the time you read this we may find out that he’s failed to take the stage in Taiwan. What is about to unfold? A monster awaking or heading for more hibernation?

THE WHITNEY CONSPIRACY

We all love a conspiracy theory, so why not contemplate one concerning the very noted Whitney Houston absence from the recent Grammy Award nominations. After all, Whitney’s ‘I Look At You’ was released specifically on the last day which allowed it to be eligible for the up-coming Grammys. Also, Whitney’s mentor Clive Davis holds a pre-Grammy party every year which has become one of the must-be-at events on the American music calendar. It was at last year’s Clive Davis party that Whitley’s orchestrated comeback was launched.

Clive Davis has a tempestuous relationship with the music industry. Famous for signing Janis Joplin, Santana and Billy Joel – yeah I know you’ve heard it a million times – and then discovering and overseeing Whitney Houston’s career, there’s been a not too secret campaign to push him out of the picture as being too old – he’s 77 now – but Clive keeps pulling rabbits out of the hat flying in the face of those who want him out of the way.

So, back to Whitney and the Grammys.

Clive Davis’ current contract runs out this month. He would have been a hero yet again if he’d successfully rehabilitated and reinvented his biggest star. Whitney’s comeback album is released to much fanfare (tick). It reaches No.1 (tick). January 10 sees the release of the 25th anniversary deluxe edition of the debut album (tick). Theoretically the Grammys would have been the crowning moment in what appears to be a well-hatched marketing strategy. But not one nomination. (Cross)

Has the American music industry finally found a way of stopping the “Clive Davis Factor”? Party poopers!

SPYHOLE TO SHAMBLES

Jennifer Lopez likes to surf the internet daily to see how much is known about her. Billy Joel’s daughter was rushed to hospital after an overdose of pills and her myspace blog gives us a good clue to what was going through her head at the time.

This is the world we, and our celebrity heroes, live in. We’re peeking through cyber keyholes and our prey is addicted to our attention or doesn’t realize just how much we can intrude where maybe we shouldn’t.

When Alexa Joel complained in her blog about her distaste for dating and inability to meet “a nice guy” she would not have imagined she was leaving for the world to see, an accidental suicide note. She didn’t die. She may not have actually wanted to end it all. We’re told that suicides often don’t. But she took too many tablets, was rushed to hospital, and her father who has kept in contact “by phone” assures us she’ll “be fine”.

Jennifer Lopez’ eye to the keyhole as we watch her is predictable. At the same time we know that she very carefully manipulates everything we see and hear of her. We know why “we” are in that relationship with Lopez. She’s a major recording artist and movie star. But where does the obsession with Babyshambles’ Pete Doherty come from?

He’s always in the news, earlier this month for singing the banned Nazi version of the German national anthem on stage, this weekend for damaging property in Paris. Sure he was in the reasonably-interesting Libertines, thrown out for burglaring his bandmate’s flat. He hasn’t made any decent music since, but through our keyhole we’ve watched his every move anyway as if he was still a star, as if he was still important. What we’ve seen is a man out of control, and maybe we’re encouraging him and we’ll keep doing it until it ends .. possibly badly. Then we’ll be to blame too, but we won’t stop to think about it, because we’ll be busy watching what else people are up to in the quest for fame and our attention.

BAD BOY Vs BADDER GIRL

Chris Brown is under a court order to cease all communication with the ex-girlfriend Rihanna, whom he admits – and publically regrets – beating up. We’ve heard him voice his regrets on ‘Larry King Live’  and more recently on American interview program ‘20/20’. Technically is this a contravention of his court order? If it was ordinary  you or I would we be able to point our point of view in a public forum, where what we have to say – no matter how apologetic – will also reach the person we’re supposed to avoid? Can Rihanna avoid Chris Brown’s protestations?  Is she being harassed?

Complicating the issue even further is Chris Brown’s new album ‘Graffiti’  - another  reason for him to be doing interviews – containing songs which Brown openly admits as being about “the situation”. Does this compound the issue? Can Rehanna avoid hearing these songs if she wanted to avoid them or needed to avoid them?

We assume she’s getting on with her life, that she’d dealing with “it”. But what if she isn’t? What if Chris Brown’s so public so available pronouncements are adding the mental damage caused by the assault?

You can’t blame Chris Brown. He wants to be heard to say he’s sorry, because he’s truly sorry or became he needs to manage the damage to his career. As a creative person we also expect him to express what he’s thinking and feeling in his medium of choice, music.

It’s all messy, no matter what way you look at it.

While Chris Brown is clearly harmed by the aftermath, Rihanna seems to have come out of it rather well. She was always a bit of a flawless pop princess, despite calling her last album ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’. This has made her more “real”, although her latest album ‘R Rated’ maybe takes her more along the ‘”bad girl” than she should right night. One minute she’s championing women in bad relationships, next minute she’s pictured nude bound in gaffer tape.

The irony of course is that both artists have released new albums within a week of each other. It would have been part of a long-term strategy, to capture the lucrative Christmas market. Rihanna’s album so far has received a “soft”, careful reception. The acid test will be what fans have in store for Chris Brown.

GRAM SLAM

 Every year I struggle with what the Grammy Awards mean – no what they say, what they represent. It would be easier if we could just see them as what they really are – just one perspective – not THE TRUTH. But there’s so much hoohah about these particular awards. 7.15 million viewers watched the unveiling of the nominees the other day. The awards themselves attract some 20 million viewers around the world.

You HAVE to take the Grammys seriously don’t you? As an EVENT maybe.

Some perspective. Who are the two most significant recording artists of all time? Elvis Presley and the Beatles. You couldn’t possibly argue that contention. The Beatles boast a grand total of SEVEN Grammys, recognizing ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, ‘ Sgt Pepper’ and the Beatles Anthology. That’s it? Elvis? Three little Grammys, all for his gospel performances.

Apologists for the Grammys will say that’s yesterday, when the Grammy’s represented the music establishment, and the Grammys have got their act together since then. Maybe. That’s not the story you see when you explore the underbelly of music and the Grammys view of music. In the last twenty years three genres – don’t get me started on music genres – which have changed music’s boundaries are metal, dance and hiphop. The first metal Grammy (in 1989 for gawdsake) famously went to Jethro Tull! Over Metallica, who have shifted in Grammy lore from metal to plain rock this year.

The Grammys are like high school awards, so many categorise that everyone will find some happiness. Where metal and rock and confused and misunderstood and not REALLY taken seriously. Dance (not separately recognized until 1988!) is confused with pop. According to the Grammys rap came into existence in 2003. Hello! It’s not about music. It’s another fame fest, the biggest stars in the world falling over themselves to be seen there, to at very best make it onto the stage during the ceremony, as performers if not presenters and winners, but at least out there in the audience warming seats or being spotted by the cameras at the myriad of parties.

 The biggest industry buzz out of this year’s nominations? That Whitney Houston’s comeback album was ignored. THAT says everything you need to know about the Grammys.