Controversy of the Year: War on Downloading
This is the year things got personal. The Recording Industry
By Greg Milner 12.22.03 4:00 AM
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Wyclef Jean: My Life In Music
You may know Wyclef Jean as the leader of the Fugees, who combined
By Greg Milner 12.02.03 4:00 AM
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The Strokes, 'Room On Fire' (RCA)
On their second album, the Strokes don't fix what ain't broke.
By Greg Milner 11.21.03 4:00 AM
Only their hairdressers and Backstage Pass know for sure, but this is how I bet it went down: One night, early in the sessions for their second album, the Strokes retired to singer Julian Casablancas' apartment to listen to some rough mixes. The mood was festive, and the Old Milwaukee was flowing, but once Julian hit play, the lads knew something was amiss.
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Ted Leo/The Pharmacists, 'Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead' (Lookout!)
By Greg Milner 11.21.03 4:00 AM
"But mine eyes have seen the glory of the fields of flowers and fa-fa-factory floors," Ted Leo sings on "The High Party." If you heard a near-subliminal reference to Elvis Costello's "Let Them All Talk" ("Have we come this fa-fa-far to find a soul cliche?"), then this odds-and-sods EP is for you.
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Cost In Translation
Last summer, Universal Music Group -- the largest of the five
corporations that produce most of the music we hear -- made
headlines by cutting the list price of its labels’ CDs by
about 30 percent. Universal CDs now retail for between $10 and $13,
which should pressure other labels to follow suit. Universal
officials said the decision was in part an attempt to stem the tide
of illegal downloading. But is slashing the price of an album
enough to entice a typical downloader away from Kazaa?
“There’s no question that a third to half of the
decline in album sales is directly attributable to
downloading,” says Russ Crupnick, vice president of the NPD
Group, a marketing-information firm. “When we ask consumers
why they’re buying less music, price is at the top of the
list every single time.”
By Greg Milner; Spin Staff 11.18.03 4:00 AM
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Iggy Pop: My Life in Music
All you really need to know about the way music affected a young
Iggy Pop is that he had the same reaction to both Link Wray and
John Coltrane: "What the fuck is this?" He's been inspiring the
same response in rock fans for more than three decades, first with
late-'60s/early-'70s punk legends the Stooges and later with his
influential solo albums. During a break in the recording of his
latest, Skull Ring, the indomitable Ig called from his Miami
Beach home raring to talk records: "Can I just take a deep breath
and start going?"
By Greg Milner; Spin Staff 11.03.03 4:00 AM
All you really need to know about the way music affected a young
Iggy Pop is that he had the same reaction to both Link Wray and
John Coltrane: "What the fuck is this?" He's been inspiring the
same response in rock fans for more than three decades, first with
late-'60s/early-'70s punk legends the Stooges and later with his
influential solo albums. During a break in the recording of his
latest, Skull Ring, the indomitable Ig called from his Miami
Beach home raring to talk records: "Can I just take a deep breath
and start going?"
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