Butler vs. Coyne

This post was originally dated for March 5th, 2009.

Music has had a history of legendary rivals (see: Biggie and Tupac, Christina and Britney, Noel and Liam Gallagher, Fred Durst and Scott Stapp…actually, can I take that last one back?) throughout the decades, but my goodness, what has been happening lately? First there was the Rihanna – Chris Brown incident, and now according to recent Stereogum reports they aren’t the only ones who have more beef than a cattle farm (I’m sorry, but the opportunity to use that line only comes along once every so often). Apparently Kanye is a little annoyed with Thom Yorke of Radiohead, who apparently snubbed him backstage at the Grammy Awards. I know you are out there saying, “Oh, Kanye’s ticked off at someone? What else is new?” But according to Mr. West, Radiohead is one of the bands he idolizes and it hurts when you are ignored by your heroes (Isn’t that right Dave Monks? I just wanted to get a lousy picture with you, was that so much to ask? Okay, I’m done now.), so spare a bit of sympathy for the man. Radiohead also took a jab at frontman of The Cure, Robert Smith, who called their pay-what-you-can model for In Rainbows “an idiot plan”. Ouch, those are fighting words. Finally, courtesy of Rolling Stone comes comments from Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, who not only felt that Montreal’s darlings The Arcade Fire “really treat people like shit” but also went on to say that the band “have good tunes, but they’re pricks, so fuck ‘em.” I’m rather inclined to side with Win Butler and company on this one, however, you’re free to draw your own conclusions. People, where is the love? Can’t we just all hug it out and be friends?

When I heard that Hot Chip would be covering Joy Division’s “Transmission” for the recently released Warchild Heroes compilation, I was slightly skeptical that they could pull it off successfully. However after finally hearing it for the first time today I can say that their version is pretty faithful to the original, while still managing to give it a more danceable, electronic sheen that is distinctly Hot Chip. Now go out and buy the album, it’s for a good cause!!!

This news story came from Alan Cross’ radio show, and I thought I’d share it with you – the world’s most expensive iPhone. Created by Austrian jewelry designer Peter Aloisso, the phone is made from solid 18-carat yellow gold, white gold, and rose gold, is encrusted with a total of 138 brilliant cut diamonds of the best, and features a “home button” that carries a rare 6.6-carat diamond. What’s the price tag on this baby, you ask? How does a neat $2.5 million sound to you? If you absolutely must have what would be clearly an embarrassment of riches, you can check out the pictures and details at Aloisso’s website here.

Here are some updates on shows that we’ve recently mentioned…
Tickets for that massive club show (you know, the one featuring Crookers, MSTRKRFT, Steve Aoki, The Bloody Beetroots, Steve Angelo and the rest of the Dim Mak Records roster?) at The Guvernment on April 9th are now available through Ticketmaster for $30. This event is The Guvernment’s Easter party, the delightfully sinful-titled DECADENCE ’09, and sorry kids…its 19+ only. You can hear new songs from MSTRKRFT’s upcoming album Fist Of God (March 31st) on their MySpace page, including a nice collaboration with The Carps’ Jamal Tonge handling vocal duties. Opening for The Faint and Ladytron at the Phoenix on April 6th will be two New York groups, Brooklyn’s Telepathe and a DJ set by FIGO. The Weakerthans andConstantines have added a third show at the Phoenix on April 2nd, after the first two nights sold out in less than a few weeks of them being announced. Finally, it isn’t news about a show, but I think it’s pretty darn exciting: as a result of the album being recently leaked, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have moved the release date of It’s Blitz! ahead to April 6th. While the circumstances forcing them to do is unfortunate, that means we’ll have new YYYs that much sooner.

So lately, I’ve been a little disappointed that most of this news this site and myself pass on are from the “bigger” music blogs and sites: Pitchfork, Drowned In Sound, SPIN, Stereogum, EXCLAIM!, and the like. Now, there isn’t nothing anything necessary wrong with filtering the best news from these big guns – usually they jump on the big stories first, have the newest music videos and most buzz-worthy songs, and are usually the most up-to-date and accurate. I feel though there are plenty more blogs out there on the Internet that are plenty worthy of being mentioned and feature plenty of great, new artists that the so-called “taste-makers” manage to miss. So I am challenging myself as well as you loyal Singing Lamb readers to share their favourite online music sources by posting on the wall. I figured I’d kick things off, by featuring the music blog Herohill. This blog is based out of my neck of the woods (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and it shines on spotlight on East Coast music in particular, has a nicely-designed site layout, and most importantly, features solid writing sans pretentiousness.

If you’re a fan of drunken pub sing-alongs, the occasional mosh pit and really good punk bands, than do I have a show for you to check out this weekend. Boston’s Street Dogs will be playing at all-ages show at the Kathedral this Friday, and tickets will only set you back $13.50. If you are a fan of Flogging Molly, Bouncing Souls, Dropkick Murphies (Street Dogs’ Mike McColgan used to be the Murphies’ lead singer) or any other band that play fist-pumping, working-class punk and can probably kick your ass in a bar brawl, than I guarantee you’ll like the Warped Tour-mainstays Dogs. If you want to get a taste of what to expect from the band, here’s the music video for their song “You Alone”.

Cheers,
Max