Monday, December 21, 2009

For real: Mukilteo High teacher wins country-music contest

On the way back from a trip to California, Chance McKinney began composing a country song in his head. He was afraid he'd forget it, so when he boarded the plane, he hid under a blanket and recorded the song onto his phone — without being caught by the flight attendants.

Four years later, that song landed McKinney the grand prize in CMT's Music City Madness contest.

The 38-year-old math teacher at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo submitted his original song, "Be Real," just two minutes before this year's contest deadline Oct. 5.

"You talk about procrastinating — holy smokes," the Montana native laughed. "I didn't put it off to the very last minute, I put it off to the last two minutes."

Contest results were announced Tuesday, and when McKinney checked the CMT Web site and saw he'd won, it sent his class into an uproar.

McKinney has been pursuing music for the past 12 years. After college, he sang bass for a Motown group, then joined local country band Nathan Chance for several years, opening for big-name country acts such as Rascal Flatts and Kenny Chesney.

"I would've had no idea that 'Be Real' would touch this many people in this many different ways," he said. "Everybody has a little piece of the song that they are. I've been getting e-mails from all over the nation. I'm sitting there going, 'I'm a high-school math teacher!'"

In CMT's contest, entrants moved forward in the competition based on how many votes they received online. When students learned McKinney had entered, they spread the word to at least 28 different states and five countries.

One of the students in McKinney's advance-placement statistics class, Najin Kwak, came up with a T-shirt to promote his song. The front of the shirt features a photo of McKinney, while the back makes a jab at "Twilight." The design shows three options: Team Edward, Team Jacob, and Team Chance. Team Chance is the winner.

Kwak said she sold 94 shirts, and is making a second run for people who still want them.

"A bunch of kids I know were like, 'I don't know if I should vote for him because I want him for my teacher next year!'" she said.

McKinney's plans for next year might be determined by what happens next with CMT. As grand-prize winner, he'll go to Nashville in late January to record a few songs in a Studio 330 session, which will air on CMT.com, and possibly the CMT network. He'll also audition with Valory Music, which holds Reba McEntire's contract.

"To be honest, I think the audition has already taken place," McKinney said, referring to the response the song has gotten. "The opportunity will only be what I make of it."

Rockers Def Leppard Developing Cartoon Series

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British metal veterans Def Leppard are getting animated about their career.

The group has entered a wide-ranging deal with music publishing company Primary Wave, which is developing various marketing and branding opportunities.

Among them is a cartoon TV show, said Primary Wave CEO Larry Mestel. The project is still in the early stages, and has not been pitched to the networks, but it will depict the five members of the group in a fictional, adventurous setting, he said.

Primary Wave is also developing what Mestel called "unusual" videogame and cell phone applications.

Additionally, the company will administer Def Leppard's music publishing, a task previously performed by Sony/ATV. The copyrights will continue to be owned by the songs' various composers.

D

The group is now a free agent after fulfilling its contract with Universal Music. Its last album, "Songs from the Sparkle Lounge," debuted at No. 5 on the U.S. pop chart in May 2008 -- its best start since "Adrenalize" opened at No. 1 in 1992. In the U.K., it debuted at No. 10, its best showing for a studio album since "Slang" reached No. 6 in 1996.

Whidbey Island Life

Window on Whidbey: Pink flamingos + music in the mist

Pink Flamingos in Langley
Des Rock of Useless Bay Coffee in Langley was greeted by these colorful birds one morning. A donor to Whidbey Island Center for the Arts "paid" to have them planted in front of the Second Street coffee house. The only way to get rid of them would be to pay WICA more $$. But Des likes them so much that, well ... they're staying for awhile. Photos by Sue Frause.

Subito at Useless Bay Coffee Company
Outside pink flamingos, inside music by Subito. The island trio is Frances Kenny, Dyanne Harshman and William Dolde. They play folk, jazz and classical standards; a warm greeting on a Sunday morning in Langley.

Anne MidgetteClassical Music

Best

1. "Hindemith: Das Marienleben." Soile Isokoski, soprano; Marita Viitasalo, piano [Ondine].Hindemith's cycle on Rilke poems, a highlight of his career, may never have sounded better. Even in the composer's more muted revision of the youthful original, Isokoski shines.

2. "Bernstein: Mass." Jubilant Sykes; Marin Alsop: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra [Naxos, 2 CDs]. One of Marin Alsop's happiest artistic achievements at the BSO has been the revival of "Mass" documented in this release.

3. "Shostakovich: The Nose." Valery Gergiev: Mariinsky Soloists, Orchestra and Chorus [Mariinsky, 2 CDs]. The Mariinsky launched its in-house record label with Gergiev's stellar account of Shostakovich's early comic opera.

4. "Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues." Jenny Lin, piano [Hänssler Classic, 2 CDs]. A superb performance of superb and oddly underappreciated works.

5. "Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion." Paul Hillier: Theatre of Voices [Harmonia Mundi]. Spare, lovely, quirky, this Pulitzer Prize-winning vocal work has stood up well to repeated hearings.

6. "A/Rhythmia." Alarm Will Sound [Nonesuch].Rhythm and its uncertainties are the focus of this powerhouse chamber ensemble's cover album of six centuries of music.

7. "Salonen: Helix; Piano Concerto; Dichotomie."Yefim Bronfman; Esa-Pekka Salonen: Los Angeles Philharmonic [Deutsche Grammophon]. As the Finnish composer-conductor concluded his tenure in Los Angeles, this recording demonstrated the offbeat appeal of his recent and already much-played piano concerto with the soloist for whom it was written.

8. "Mahler: Symphony No. 1, 'Titan.' " Manfred Honeck: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra [Exton]. In his first season as music director in 2008-09, Honeck brought a new vitality to the Pittsburgh Symphony, as documented in this vibrant account of Mahler's First.

9. "In C, Remixed." Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble [Innova, 2 CDs]. This recording, a fine sophomore effort from the GVSU ensemble, brings a new twist by having Terry Riley's hypnotic, repetitive piece reimagined by other composers, from DJ Spooky to Nico Muhly.

10. "Beethoven Past & Present." David Hardy, cello, Lambert Orkis, piano [Dorian, 4 CDs]. Beethoven's complete oeuvre for piano and cello is presented here twice: once on period instruments, once on modern ones. The strong performances (by two NSO principals) afford new levels of insight.

Worst

CD: Paul Potts: "Passione" [Sony].The conjunction of let's-find-talent-"Idol"-style reality shows and crossover, Il Divo-style "pop-era" has yielded "Britain's Got Talent" winner Potts, whose sophomore album included an unlistenable rendition of Puccini's "E lucevan le stelle."

Performance: Carole Farley: Recital: "La Voix Humaine," Library of Congress. The worst performance of the year in Washington was certainly Farley's alarmingly ill-sung and ill-conceived caricature of French vocal music.

EMI's future may depend on Christmas music sales

The company is hoping sales will help lift the earnings-to-net-debt ratio in its recorded music business above the minimum threshold at which its bank can declare a loan default and seize control. However, the early indications are not promising, with the company losing ground in the UK. EMI's share of the album market reportedly slipped to 13.3pc from 13.4pc last year and 15.5pc in 2007.

EMI can fall back on a cash injection from a pot of money supplied by its private equity owner Terra Firma if albums sales drop short. Terra Firma's money is held by Maltby Capital, the acquisition vehicle used to buy EMI.

The real test for EMI and Terra Firma will come in March, when the money in that pot is likely to be out of reach.The company has already used the Maltby Capital fund twice. In May, £28m was paid in, and last year a £16m injection was made. A further payment to the recorded music business could boost its earnings ratio to a level in line with the banking covenants.

The music company and Terra Firma, run by Guy Hands, are pushing to refinance the loans from Citi, but the bank has ruled out such a move.

EMI paid £150m of interest in the six months to the end of September 2008, since when the rate has gone up.

After Citi rejected a proposal to waive £1bn of debt earlier this month, Terra Firma brought legal action against the bank , accusing it of misleading the private equity firm into thinking there was a rival bidder, and causing it to overpay for EMI back in 2007.

PSHS music teacher named as finalist as Texas’ best AP teacher

Dr. Terry Eder, the music theory teacher at Plano Senior High School, has been named a finalist for the O’Donnell Texas AP Teacher Award and is eligible to receive a $30,000 cash prize if chosen. The winning teacher will be announced on Jan. 7 at the Westin Riverwalk Hotel in San Antonio.


Presented annually by the Communities Foundation of Texas, the O’Donnell Texas AP Teacher Award recognizes one AP teacher in a Texas public high school for remarkable contributions to their students and school, as well as to the teaching profession. Nominations for the award may be submitted by a teacher, administrator, AP student or parent of an AP student. The cash award is believed to be the largest individual prize offered to a public school educator in the United States.

“I was wowed, extremely humbled and highly honored to be recognized as a finalist for this award,” Eder said. “Especially since it’s named after the O’Donnells, who have helped more students take more challenging and rigorous courses in the fine arts.”

Eder is a choral conductor and music teacher with more than 30 years of experience at both the college and secondary levels. He currently serves as the music theory teacher at Plano Senior High School, where he teaches beginning and Advanced Placement music theory.

During his time at PSHS, Eder developed a one-day workshop on Vertical Teams in Music Theory for the College Board and has written an article on strategies for dealing with the sight singing portion of the AP exam. He is currently a member of the College Board AP Music Theory Development Committee.

Nominated by a colleague from Texas Christian University, Eder said he was surprised to have heard he was selected as one of the six semi-finalists.

As part of the application process, Eder submitted his resume and some letters written by former students.

“I get one or two [letters] every year from my students, saying how much of an impact I was on their education,” he said. “Some go on to pursue careers in music, while others don’t, but in my class they all gain knowledge that can be used in all facets of life.”

Through the years, the letters have helped Eder form his philosophy on teaching and served as an inspiration for the essay part of the application.

“The students who have been a part of my classes have been successful and many have been inspired in their study of music and music literacy. It is my strong belief that through working, discovering, creating and by applying themselves in a serious way, almost every student has the potential for success and can reach an acceptable degree of achievement in the study of music,” Eder wrote in his application. “For that reason I want to give every student who chooses to learn about music a chance to succeed in an advanced curriculum by utilizing innovative and challenging methods of teaching and learning. I am a teacher who continually reviews, revises and works to refine the methods and strategies necessary for delivery of a rigorous and challenging curriculum — a curriculum that focuses on helping students develop into independent and lifelong learners.”

Eder was announced as a finalist last week after a board interview from the award committee. When asked his philosophy on teaching, he said, “What students gain in my AP Music Theory class is something that makes a complete person. In the world, we, as a society, need doctors, scientists and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based careers, but even they need fine arts to some degree.”

As a finalist for the O’Donnell Texas AP Teacher Award, Eder was selected for demonstrating a commitment to teaching and providing an exemplary model for leading students through AP curriculum. Approximately 80-85 percent of the music theory students that he has taught have received qualifying scores on the AP Music Theory exam over the past 12 years.

Eder came to Plano Senior High School from Newman Smith High School in Carrollton six years ago.

“When I came to Plano Senior, only 29 students were signed up for the course,” he said. “It has continually grown year after year, and 75 students are now enrolled. While I will not be so naive as to think that this increase has been only because of me and my teaching, I do believe that success breeds success. The students who have been a part of my classes have been successful and many have been inspired in their study of music and music literacy.”

The AP program offers high school students an opportunity to earn important credit hours at most of the nation’s colleges and universities. In just 20 years, AP classes have radically changed the educational landscape. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Texas, where participation in AP exams has outpaced the national average.

Morton H. Meyerson created the O’Donnell Texas AP Teacher Award to recognize teachers who inspire, challenge and prepare students through AP curriculums – and to honor the O’Donnell’s commitment to education. The O’Donnell award is funded by The Morton H. Meyerson Tzedakah Fund.

The award honors Peter and Edith O’Donnell, Dallas-based philanthropists who established the O’Donnell Foundation in 1957 to focus on improving education in Texas. The O’Donnells and their foundation have developed and funded model programs designed to strengthen math, engineering, science and arts education. Central to the success of all of their programs are teachers at all levels, from elementary to graduate school.

The O’Donnell Foundation created the Advanced Placement Incentive Program, which has led to an increased number of high school students, especially minorities, who pass college-level courses in mathematics, science and English. The incentive program is the model for Advanced Placement incentive programs used by the National Math and Science Initiative as well as by high schools in Texas. The O’Donnells currently serve on the board of Advanced Placement Strategies, Inc., a nonprofit organization they founded to manage and implement the AP incentive program in Texas schools.

“We could not be more pleased to collaborate with Mort Meyerson on the O’Donnell Texas AP Teacher Award,” said Brent Christopher, president and CEO of CFT. “This award recognizes those teachers going above and beyond every day. In addition to recognizing these wonderful teachers and the O’Donnells, it sheds light on the importance of the AP program. We look forward to recognizing many teachers from Texas for many years.”

In 2008, Robert Dennison, the Advanced Placement science teacher for the Houston Independent School District, received the inaugural O’Donnell Texas AP Teacher of the Year Award for his outstanding record in helping students master college-level work in high school.

Tis the Season: Gifts of Music

You remember Christmas 1969, New Year's 1970? That was forty years ago! No wonder my beard is white!

Enough of us old boomers don't know how to download that the record labels are pulling out the stops to keep us listening happily (and consuming profligately) on our way to the eternal Winter Wonderland.

Nothing says Christmas like Mick Jagger in a top hat. I will certainly be passing out a few copies of the 40th anniversary deluxe box set version of "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!," the classic Rolling Stones live album from their 1969 tour.

This was the greatest period for the Stones, right in the middle of their "Beggars Banquet"/"Let It Bleed"/"Sticky Fingers" heyday, and "Ya-Ya's" is their only essential live album. This re-issue includes five extra Stones songs, complete sets from opening acts B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner, and some fantastic DVD footage of Mick and Keith sitting on stools playing a short acoustic set . . . like a diabolical mockery of Simon and Garfunkel.

It's raw, it's ragged, it's the Rolling Stones. Our parents didn't get it, our kids don't get it, but if you're lucky you'll get it - for Christmas.And speaking of great concerts from the Nixon Administration . . .

"Amchitka" is a recording of a 1970 concert that helped fund Greenpeace. The album features full sets from Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Phil Ochs.

It's a really wonderful time capsule. The Sixties were turning into the Seventies and the protest music of Phil Ochs already sounded a little out of date. Mitchell and Taylor were ushering in the next wave of folk more concerned with the personal than the political.

"Fire and Rain " was a current hit at the time of this concert, and Taylor was clearly enjoying the spotlight. James and Joni were a couple at the time they duet on "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "The Circle Game" - but Joni was the star of the show. She introduced a couple of new songs that would later show up on "Blue," and there is a lost gem here, a song called "The Hunter," that never made it onto any of her albums.

"Amchitka" makes the last 40 years melt away. Another great voice who emerged in 1970 is Jesse Winchester. Although Winchester never achieved the fame of Joni and James, he remains a songwriter's songwriter, revered by other musicians. His latest album is called "Love Filling Station," and it is delicate, powerful and moving. Jesse looks back on young romance with the wisdom of years and human folly with a patient chuckle.

Jesse Winchester is an American treasure, and this is perfect music for sitting in front of the fire on a cold night.

Finally, for those of you for whom money is not an object, back up the reindeer! "Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection." Forty years, fifty-two CDs!

Plus of course, a bonus DVD . . . just in case listening to 52 disks leaves you unsated.

Miles Davis was the greatest figure in post-War jazz. From "Kind of Blue" to "Sketches of Spain," "Bitches Brew" to "On the Corner," he created and abandoned styles like a musical Picasso. Those who came after him are still exploring the ramifications of his innovations. If you were moving to the North Pole and this collection were all the music you could take with you, it would be plenty.


A changing landscape in pop music

It was a year of triumphant comeback and poignant loss. Few stories dominated the world's interest the way Michael Jackson's death did in June.

The summer became an ongoing tribute to the late superstar, restoring much of the goodwill lost during his latter-day legal troubles and thrusting his music back into the center ring: In the five months following his death, U.S. fans purchased more than 7 million Jackson albums and 10.2 million of his tracks, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The loss of Jackson came as Detroit's Motown Records celebrated its 50th anniversary, a global tribute spoiled only by the lack of a big public party here.

It was a lively, bustling 2009. Eminem returned, Phish reunited, Oasis called it quits. We got our latest round of Beatlemania. Cobo Arena began an extended good-bye with a pair of shows from Kiss, while Comerica Park hosted the concert event of the summer with a two-night Kid Rock stand -- the biggest shows of his career.

Our culture's intense, Internet-fueled fascination with celebrity continued apace. Chris Brown overshadowed the Grammys when word emerged that he'd beaten his girlfriend, Rihanna, the previous night. Kanye West stole the spotlight from the MTV Video Music Awards, though a massive public outcry left him with an overdue lesson in humility.

His target, young Taylor Swift, quickly moved on in a year when she firmly staked a place in the mainstream and further erased the line between country and pop. To their credit, Britney Spears and a resurgent Whitney Houston seemed eager for a divorce from the tabloids and a reunion with their music.

And one saucy British lady delivered the year's best fairy tale in a voice that tugged hearts, leading Susan Boyle to the top of the charts.

In the long haul, we may most remember '09 as the year Lady Gaga made her surge to the front. The glam-pop dynamo closed out the year with a sizzling sophomore album, brandishing genuine star power and setting herself up to be the pop queen of 2010.

In some ways, the decade ended as it began, with several familiar figures -- Eminem, Britney, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, U2 -- in leading roles. But 2009 saw a dramatically transformed music industry, with album sales down at least 15% from 2008 -- and a whopping 50%-plus since the decade's start. The scramble for a new business model went on. It's striking to recall that in 2000, licensing songs for commercials was still fairly taboo for artists -- in 2009, it could be a badge of honorOnline, the retail action began to blossom beyond its Apple core, as Google and Facebook took notable strides to break the iTunes stronghold. The content industry even made some headway in its long, frustrated battle against digital piracy, with several of the big file-sharing hubs scaling back or even shuttering for good.

All told, 2009 was marked by the same trends that have loomed large the past several years. History will look back on the '00s as the era that transformed the way we interact with music. There was the array of choices that could feel as overwhelming as it was intoxicating. The demise of the old gatekeepers. The ability to burrow into ever-more specialized niches, and the erosion of music's role as common culture.

But the good stuff was out there. And even if you personally weren't moved by much, there's always reason to hope. As we put a cap on '09 and head into the 2010s, it's a sure bet that right now somewhere -- in some anonymous basement or bedroom or garage -- there's a musically inclined kid gearing up to change the world, or at least yours. Keep your ears peeled.

10 great albums from 2009

Animal Collective, "Merriweather Post Pavilion": The year's best indie-rock album tucked simple treasures beneath its deceptively complicated surface -- a gorgeous kaleidoscope of a record that even the most cynical music snobs couldn't help but get giddy about. In a year when indie often seemed to have devolved into the new adult soft rock, this Baltimore quartet stood out by putting an edge on the mellow.

Avett Brothers, "I and Love and You": A jam band for those who don't like jam bands, the Avett Brothers bring meaty rustic rock with lots of fixin's on an album with equal love for the Beatles and bluegrass. A decade in the trenches produced this elegantly sculpted masterwork.

Neko Case, "Middle Cyclone": One of rock's purest voices issues her best record to date, an album of dreamy, literate twang-pop that bends conventions even as it pays them tribute.

Mayer Hawthorne, "A Strange Arrangement": Hawthorne's autumn debut was payoff for a year of simmering buzz for the young Ann Arborite, who crafts retro '60s grooves and soul hooks with a cool, astute touch.

Patty Loveless, "Mountain Soul II": The country veteran quietly crafts another jewel with this moving collection of real-deal Appalachian music.

Manchester Orchestra, "Mean Everything to Nothing":The young Atlanta band issues a magnum opus well beyond its years, an intense, emotionally rich album that puts thick guitar muscle behind its melodic howl.

Mastodon, "Crack the Skye": As pleasurable on headphones as it is cranked up in the car, Mastodon's sublimely executed hard rock feast is artful and cathartic. Don't let the hipster kudos fool you: This is heavy metal for the real heads.

Maxwell, "BLACKsummersnight": Talk about comebacks. The New York master craftsman reemerged from an eight-year hiatus with a reliably nuanced album of sensual bedroom soul.

Phoenix, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix": This French quartet's fourth album is like listening to sunshine. It's an infectious blast of sly pop, with just enough stylized Euro trimming to make it vaguely exotic.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "It's Blitz!": The Yeah Yeah Yeahs find the right spot between angst and release on this sleek, dazzling album of electro-pop.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

The best and worst of 2009: Pop music

1. Maxwell, "BLACKsummers'night" Maxwell's R&B masterstroke (pictured at right) topped charts with a poise that evoked past, present and futures unknown. And while the neo-soulman's falsetto can bend time, heartbreak remains inescapable

2. jj, "jj no. 2" From Gaga to Glambert, eccentrics ruled 2009. So it only makes se nse that the year's best debut came from crypto-genius Swedes who sound like Enya covering Lil Wayne at Lilith Fair 2015. Right?

3. Animal Collective, "Merriweather Post Pavilion" A hallucinogenic formlessness has always throbbed at Animal Collective's gooey center, but the band's glorious new album flickered and quaked toward something resembling pop.

4. DJ Quik & Kurupt, "BlaQKout" These left coast rap vets didn't rest on their laurels so much as mutate them into a new g-funk dialect. The masses ignored it, but let's hope Dr. Dre won't.

5. Paramore, "Brand New Eyes" Having survived the teenage wasteland that is Warped Tour, Paramore tackled young adulthood with a snarl that made the pre-fab angst of its peers feel like kid stuff.

6. Brad Paisley, "American Saturday Night" Hopeless romantic. Unbridled optimist. Caring dad. Carefree dude. With his strongest album yet, country's leading man felt like a natural in every role.

7. Phoenix, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" Dormez-vous, America? After running a sleeper campaign for rock-band-of-the-decade, these fabulous Frenchmen finally dropped an album that stateside eardrums couldn't ignore.

8. Wale, "Attention Deficit" The Washington rapper's long-anticipated treatise on beats, rhymes and life in the DMV was totally worth the wait.

9. Aventura, "The Last" Melding traditional Dominican bachata with prickly sweet pop hooks, this Bronx foursome may have invented a new kind of sugar high.

10. Jon Hassell, "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street" With his 15th studio album, the esteemed jazz trumpeter evaporated Miles Davis's cosmic slop into a resplendent sonic mist.

Worst

1. Jay-Z, "The Blueprint 3" "BP3" still leaves me cold. Doesn't the greatest rapper who ever lived have better things to do than shake his cane at the Auto-Tune generation?

2. Grizzly Bear, "Veckatimest" The only thing more exhausting than listening to the hosannas heaped on this band is listening to this band. Masterfully sung, but suffocatingly pretty.

3. Chris Cornell, "Scream" Forgive me for hoping the decade's chief pop architect (producer Timbaland) and the most under-utilized larynx in rock (Cornell) might actually make something awesome.

The New Sound of Music

I don’t know how many people read this column regularly (four, perhaps?) but ever since Download Central began a little over a year back, I’ve heard one common response: “Why do you write about bands that we’ve never heard of?” This has become such a refrain that I’ve often felt a twinge of self-doubt. Am I really writing about completely obscure bands that no one knows or cares about? If that was indeed true, what was the point of writing the column?

Topping the NPR list of 50 best albums of 2009, as picked by listeners, was Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest

LISTENERS’ CHOICE: Topping the NPR list of 50 best albums of 2009, as picked by listeners, was Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest

But that is the point of Download Central. To unearth great new music that one could nudge other people towards them. The internet has made it easy to discover a treasure trove of bands and simple to share music that you enjoy with other people. And Download Central aims to do just that… so that great new musicians who’re not in the mainstream (and, therefore, not in the music stores here) can be discovered by others. But what if people thought these were obscure people making unheard of music? Wouldn’t that defeat the very objective of Download Central?

So last week, with a hint of the blues, I was mulling the future of this column, when suddenly the light shone brilliant and bright. I was reading the All Songs Considered blog at NPR (a great source of new and indie music for me), which had just posted the ballot results for the 50 best albums of 2009 as picked by listeners and I realised that not only had I heard and liked at least 20 of the top 25 but I’d also mentioned them all in Download Central over the past year.

Topping the NPR list was Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest, followed in the second spot by Animal Collective’sMerriweather Post Pavilion. Then there was Middle Cyclone by Neko Case, who’s also a member of the

Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion was second in the NPR list

A YEAR TO DISCOVER: Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion was second in the NPR list

Canadian band, The New Pornographers, and Andrew Bird whose album Noble Beast wowed the indie scene this year. And, of course, The Decemberists’Hazards of Love, Wilco’s Wilco (The Album), Bon Iver’sBlood Bank’ and The Avett Brothers’ I And Love And You… all albums and bands, you will notice, that have found mention in these columns through the year, sometimes more than once. So, some people out there are listening to the music that I am too. Hmm… makes me feel good!

On a more relevant (and less narcissistic) note, the list of 50 top albums, as chosen by NPR’s listeners, is an interesting retrospective of what happened during the year on the predominantly indie or non-mainstream popular music scene. I say ‘predominantly’ because there are some mainstream acts as well on the NPR list—I’ve linked to the entire list here (where you can also listen to all of these artists and, in some cases, even download their music, live or recorded).

I liked the NPR listener’s ballot list mainly because it helped jog my memory of the past 12 months. It’s only when you look back at all these albums and bands you realise what a wonderful musical year it has been. And I’m not only talking about indie music. Consider: Bob Dylan had a good album, Together Through Life, out this year (it made it to #35 on the listener’s list); U2 had No Line on The Horizon, which was, well, kind of okay (it made it to #27, though); and Pearl Jam had Backspacer (I wonder why it made it only to #29; should have been much higher).

But what the NPR poll results really made me do was to dig out all of those lovely, lovely albums of the year and listen to them again. Scottish band, Camera Obscura’s My Maudlin Career with Tracyanne Campbell’s exquisite voice became part of my commute time playlist as did Modest Mouse’s No One’s First, And You’re Next, a short, 8-song EP but one that shimmers and satisfies like rock music ought to.

Women singer-songwriters like Bat For Lashes Aka Natasha Khan, became stars of the Indie scene

Women singer-songwriters like Bat For Lashes Aka Natasha Khan, became stars of the indie scene

This year also saw a new project by Jack White, Dead Weather. On their debut album, Horehound, White, the guitarist, actually switches to the drums and the band is a kind of a supergroup. There was so much more this year, mainly from women singer-songwriters who’ve become stars of the indie scene. Besides Neko Case, who I’ve mentioned above, there was St. Vincent’s (aka Annie Clark) fantastic exploration of the inner anxieties of women in her album, Actor, Bat for Lashes’ (which is the stage name for Natasha Khan, the Anglo-Pakistani singer) Two Suns, an album that explores the singer and her alter ego, and the Soviet-born New Yorker, Regina Spektor’s anit-folk, quirky, Far.

Well, of course, Download Central has mentioned all of these and so many of the NPR listener’s top 50, through the year. Didn’t you know this column is all about obscure music?

This week’s reccos:

  1. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: The fifth album from French alt rock sensations, Phoenix. Grammy nominated. You can’t not listen to it.
  2. Spiritualized: English space rock band from the 1990s. This is a live concert from 1998 at Cane’s Bar & Grill in San Diego, while they toured with Radiohead.
  3. Cat Power: Two songs from the critically acclaimed minimalist American singer-songwriter–He War and Speak For Me.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a grainy black and white Web video, similar to footage from an in-store security camera, you can make out the muscular frame

I have reached the final installment of my take on the 15 greatest Christmas recordings of all time. These five selections should be very recognizable to all.

5. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” — Brenda Lee

If anybody was ever born to sing, it was Brenda Lee. At a very early age, she could take a note and absolutely nail it to the wall. When she recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in 1958, it is no surprise that the song became the biggest holiday hit ever by a female artist. Lee, who is the only female to be inducted in both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is an accurate definition of a true entertainer.

4. “The Christmas Song” — Nat King Cole

Although it is officially titled “The Christmas Song,” most listeners prefer to call it by the opening line “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.” Nat King Cole put his crooning touch to this classic in 1946. Written by Mel Torme and Bob Wells, this has long been a holiday favorite of many3. “Jingle Bell Rock” — Bobby Helms


Bobby Helms recorded “Jingle Bell Rock” in 1957, and it has been a popular song ever since. Known for the country hits “Fraulien” and “My Special Angel,” Helms put his near honk-tonk style to this peppy toe-tapper, and listeners loved it. Helms reached number six on the charts with “Jingle Bell Rock,” and it still garners a lot of airplay each December.

2. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” — Gene Autry

Kids everywhere have been singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” for nearly six decades. Recorded in 1949 by Gene Autry, this is a Christmas staple. For some time after his original recording, Autry’s version averaged selling about two million copies a year. Known as “The Singing Cowboy,” Autry seemed to do it all. He remains the only entertainer to have five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one each for radio, records, movie, television, and theatrical performances.

1. “White Christmas” — Bing Crosby

To be perfectly honest, there was never a doubt about what the top song on the list would be. In 1942, Bing Crosby sang “White Christmas” in the movie Holiday Inn. Five years later, he recorded it again because the original was worn out due to the tremendous amount of pressings. In 1954, he recorded “White Christmas” a third time for the movie by the same title.

Today, it is an absolute standard, and possibly, the only Christmas song that is ranked up there with the best pop recordings of all time. The inviting and easy listening lyrics are enough to please any listener, but when the well-written tune is combined with Crosby’s classic vocal touch, it is a masterpiece. Hearing Crosby sing “White Christmas” makes me wonder how you could not like this recording, because it is as timeless as any piece of music.

Charles Haymes is a writer from Beebe and a member of both the Country Music Association and the International Bluegrass Music Association.

Music labels bet Vevo.com is next MTV

50 Cent performs at the MTV Los Premios 09 awards in Los Angeles, California October 15, 2009 file photo. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a grainy black and white Web video, similar to footage from an in-store security camera, you can make out the muscular frame of rapper 50 Cent, smashing dozens of TV sets with a baseball bat.

ENTERTAINMENT | TECHNOLOGY | MUSIC | MEDIA

None too subtle in its message, the clip is part of a advertising blitz by Vivendi's Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, two music giants hoping that their new website, Vevo.com, will finally put to rest any idea that TV is a place for top flight videos.

Launched on Tuesday, Vevo offers music from both Universal and Sony, as well as EMI Music, and contains programing from CBS radio stations and Last.fm, both owned by CBS Corp. In all about 30,000 videos are available.

The idea is to create an MTV for the digital age, a music site where all the latest and archived videos can be found. It's a business model similar to that of Hulu, the popular TV and movie site.

Vevo's debut comes as music companies are losing revenue and profits at a rapid tick due to the combined impact of falling sales of CDs, online piracy and evolving methods fans discover new music.

Moreover, MTV Networks, owned by Viacom Inc, is no longer considered a major outlet for playing music videos, and while Google Inc's YouTube has been an important music discovery tool for the record companies, it has failed to attract premium advertising dollars.

But Vevo has landed just the sort of blue-chip brands that have shied away from YouTube and its the random user-generated clips. That's largely because of the high production value of the videos, and the top flight artists they feature.

Indeed, Vevo launched with the support of nearly 20 new advertising partnerships, including names like Colgate-Palmolive Co., MasterCard Inc., McDonald's Corp., and AT&T Inc.

These advertisers will pay a near premium rate of around $20 to $45 for every 1,000-page views, Vevo Chief Executive Rio Caraeff said in an interview.

"We're offering advertisers opportunities that they can't buy off the rack," said Caraeff, who has hired more than two dozen executives to sell ads.

CHANGING THEIR TUNE

Across the industry, music companies and their technology partners are increasingly banking on the idea that fans are prepared to either pay for access to a site or will tolerate targeted advertising in exchange for their favorite songs.

Owning music, either in a physical format or even as a digital file, is also no longer as important as it once was, the thinking goes.

One indication of this came last week when Apple Inc's iTunes Music Store bought Lala, a digital music service that streams songs on a variety of sites.

The move surprised many long-time Apple watchers because iTunes is easily the dominant online music retailer, controlling about 70 percent of the U.S. market.

Apple is also not known for buying technology companies, preferring instead to painstakingly develop its own software to seamlessly fit within the Apple ecosystem.

"Apple's music strategy is always primarily about delivering a differentiated, high-quality music experience on its devices," said Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research. "But social music and other streaming services have shifted the momentum of digital music away from downloads."

What has changed for iTunes is similar to the thinking behind Vevo: Modern music fans expect to have access to their songs on demand.

Services like Europe-based Spotify, News Corp's MySpace Music and YouTube have done well with fans because of the ease with which they can find their favorite songs.

The challenge is making the all-you-can-hear model work. Spotify delayed its launch in the United States till next year because it is still working out agreements with music publishers.

"It's like having your entire CD collection and that of all your friends with you wherever you are," said Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify. "That being said, music should be about choice - there will be some who will continue to prefer ownership over access for a time yet."

Sales of music video games plummet in 2009

DENVER (Billboard) – What a difference a year makes.

The music-game category raked in $1.4 billion in revenue last year, according to Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter, driven largely by sales of "Rock Band 2" and "Guitar Hero World Tour." By the time 2009 comes to a close, Pachter expects the category to make half that -- $700 million -- despite such high-profile releases this fall as "The Beatles: Rock Band," "Guitar Hero 5," "DJ Hero" and "Band Hero," not to mention "Guitar Hero: Van Halen," which is due Tuesday (December 22).

According to data from market analyst NPD Group, sales of these games haven't met expectations. The Beatles game, while selling a respectable 800,000 units of its various versions so far, missed the 1 million mark analysts expected in just the first month after its September 9 debut. "Guitar Hero 5" sold 500,000 units in its first month, compared with the 1.4 million "Guitar Hero III" moved two years ago in its first month.

"DJ Hero," the game that was meant to expand the category into the hip-hop genre, moved 123,000 units in the first few days after its late-October release, and analysts at Cowen & Co. slashed their sales forecast for the game from 1.6 million this year to 600,000.

So what happened to this once-promising category, which so many in the music industry looked to for much-needed revenue? According to Pachter, the answer is: Too many games with too much music in too short a time.

'TOO MUCH VALUE'

"(Game) publishers have probably done themselves a disservice by giving us way too much value for our money with each of these games," Pachter says. "You just get way too much content. The installed base has a lot of music, and they don't really need a lot more. It's sort of like buying more books when you have a stack of books left to read. You just don't."

Pachter points to the disappointing sales of "The Beatles: Rock Band" as proof of this theory.

"There isn't a game that we would expect to have more widespread appeal than that," he says. "And yet with the installed base of music-game owners at around 20 million, it boggles the mind that only 800,000 bought 'Beatles: Rock Band.'"

But this doesn't mean the music-game category is a quickly fading fad with no future. No one expected the same level of record-breaking sales achieved in 2008, and Pachter expects the category will level off at about $500 million-$600 million per year, which he calls a "nice, healthy" genre on par with the "Call of Duty" action-game franchise. That doesn't take into account the revenue earned from in-game music sales, which "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" have yet to report.

Hand in hand with the decline of music-based game sales is a softening of the impact those games have on digital downloads.

A sampling of the songs included on soundtracks to "Guitar Hero 5," "Band Hero" and "DJ Hero" shows no significant increases in track sales as a result of their inclusion in each respective game, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.

The game with the most impact on sales was "Brutal Legend" -- which isn't a music simulation game but an action/adventure title with a strong heavy metal theme and soundtrack. But while songs from acts likeMotorhead and Judas Priest saw sales spikes as high as 700 percent, the volumes were too low to make much of a real impact -- in many cases from single-digit or double-digit weekly sales to low triple-digit sales.

To re-create the blockbuster sales of last year, the category needs a new innovation. One idea: Dahni Harrison -- the son of the Beatles' George Harrison, who worked closely on the development of "Beatles: Rock Band" -- told the Chicago Tribune he is working with Harmonix to create a version of "Rock Band" with new controllers that could actually help teach gamers to play guitar rather than just simulating the experience. Such new motion-capture devices as Microsoft's Project Natal may also play a role in evolving the gameplay.

Until these innovations come to fruition, though, the music and video-game industries will have to live with a music-game market that has fallen back to Earth.

Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America


Tn_book_cover
If you were expecting more...

Even though my original music censorship Web site has been quite popular over the years, I have decided to close it down. There is some basic information on the book below, which is still available used and in digital formats.


"Nuzum has the cultural critic's eye for the quietly fascinating."
--Associated Press

"A breezy and informative book, that should be read
by anyone interested in U.S. popular culture."
--Library Journal Review

"...a thoughtful, readable work."
--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

From the Book Cover

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Music Your Parents Never Wanted You To Hear

Believe it or not, music censorship in America did not begin with Tipper Gore's horrified reaction to her daughter's Prince album. The vilification of popular music by government and individuals has been going on for decades. Now, for the first time, Parental Advisory offers a thorough and complete chronicle of the music that has been challenged or suppressed -- by the people or the government -- in the United States.

From Dean Martin's "Wham, Bam, Thank you Ma'am" to Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar; from freedom fighters such as Frank Zappa and in-your-face rappers such a N.W.A. to crusaders such as Tipper Gore, this intelligent and entertaining book shows how censorship has crossed sexual, class, and ethnic lines, and how many see it as a de facto form of racism. With nearly one hundred fascinating photographs of musicians, record burning, and controversial cover art; illuminating sidebars; and a decade-by-decade timeline of important moments in censorship history, Parental Advisory is by turns frightening and hilarious -- but always revealing.

How To Purchase

Parental Advisory is out of print. Used copies are available anywhere used books accumulate. Both Barnes and Noble and Amazon sell both used and digital versions.

More writing on the subject

Since Parental Advisory's publication, I have written a large white paper on music censorship post 9/11. It is available, free, as a PDF here. I'm afraid most of my other articles/editorials on the subject are quite dated now, but you can find a few of them here.

Interview Requests or Questions for School Projects

Music censorship is a subject that is very important to me, yet I rarely work on the subject any longer. I have moved on to exploring other subjects. Therefore, I rarely do any speaking or interviews on the subject. Parental Advisory contains a wealth of information and analysis on the subject and I wish to keep my contributions as they are.

Since I receive so many requests, I do not do any interviews or answer questions for students researching school projects.

Errata

Following is a list of mistakes contained in the first edition of Parental Advisory.

15 The television host identified as Christina Paul Crouch is actually named Paul Crouch.

43 The band name “Megadeth” is spelled incorrectly.

71 & 229 The text misidentifies Moby Grape’s Skip Spence as the group’s drummer. While he was the drummer for Jefferson Airplane, he played guitar in Moby Grape.

78 & 245 The name of the Scorpions' album is Love at First Sting, not Love at First Bite.

112 The members of the group Body Count were all African-American. There were no white members as the text suggests.

157 & 240 References to the Rolling Stone’s record label are incorrect. The correct label was Rolling Stones/Atlantic.

220 The photo of Elvis Presley is from one of his 1956 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, not the 1957 appearance as the text indicates.

118 The case Burstyn v. Wilson occurred in 1952, not 1962.

141 & 228 While singing "Light My Fire"on the Ed Sullivan Show, Doors singer Jim Morrison did not sing facing the camera.

150 & 211 The song "The Mooche" does not have any lyrics as indicated in text. The song contains scatting, not sung words.

269 The first reference to the album Nasty As They Wanna Be contains the typo "Wanne."

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