Midweek Music News Roundup 10.07.09: The Art of Separating Artists From...The Art

Posted by Lucas Wesley on 10.07.2009

Method Man arrested, Jay Reatard's band quits, Jay-Z wants Liam Gallagher, the Daniel Johnston video game, Joey Ramone's brother and Stewart Copeland hit the books (movies?), Fatboy Slim and Rufus Wainwright prep albums, Paul McCartney gets live and a look at the concept of separating artists personal lives from their works. All that and more, summed up in the Midweek Music News Roundup!

If you haven't noticed, I try to say a few important things at the front. Well, maybe important isn't the right word, but relevant, maybe interesting. I have nothing this week. So I'm going to do something I haven't done in a while. The mighty pimping of ourselves.

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Let's do it to it, Lars.



- Miss Paul McCartney's big shows at Citi Field and still regret it all these months later? Well, regret no more. Good Evening New York City is out November 17, and is a live album documenting his shows there. The most deluxe of deluxe editions will also feature his performance from the top of the Ed Sullivan Theater, from his recent appearance on Letterman. All in all, a good way to hear him live if you can't do it in person.

- Fatboy Slim has a new project lined up: a concept album about Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines. Tentatively titled Here Lies Love, it will also feature David Byrne, Martha Wainwright, Santigold, Tori Amos and Cyndi Lauper. No word on whether or not the music videos will be choreographed by Christopher Walken, but we can only hope.

- Stewart Copeland, drummer of The Police, is soon to release an autobiography. The book will be called "Strange Things Happen: A Life With the Police, Polo and Pygmies." However, Copeland is hoping to make the book more interesting by leaving out all details he thought were either insignificant or already covered in his film Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out or Sting or Andy's books. So who knows what to expect. Those interested in that last bit of Police details can look forward to it sometime in the near future.

- Pitchfork counted down their list of the 100 greatest albums of the decade (so far) over the past week. The winner was Kid A by Radiohead. This is about as surprising as hearing someone say Jimi Hendrix is their favorite guitarist.



- You wouldn't know it from how often I report on him, but Rufus Wainwright is a busy man. After releasing two albums in 2007, one studio and one live, he released another live album this year. During this time, he also was stated to have been doing extensive work writing his own opera. And now he's working on yet another studio album, his first since Release The Stars. According to Wainwright, the album will be very sparse for him, primarily if not exclusively featuring only piano and voice. Since those are the two things he's best at, this is pretty great news.

- It seems every week I talk about a rumored rock biopic. Next up, Joey Ramone. Based on his brother's awesomely titled book, "I Slept With Joey Ramone," Fox Searchlight is hoping to get the rights. I think it could be pretty cool, but only if the soundtrack was 50/50 rare punk and girl groups.

- Well, that'd odd. Indie legend and personal favorite of mine, Daniel Johnston, just got a little more mainstream. Announced last week, but not made aware to me until this weekend, Danny has achieved something that, as far as I'm aware of, no other musician has achieved. His collective works have been turned into an iPhone app. Appropriately titled "Hi, How Are You," the app is a toon-shaded 3D puzzle game. Based on the video/trailer/thing, Jeremiah the Innocent (that frog thing, for those not in the know) will be the shape shifting main character, through a cutesy world where "Favorite Darling Girl" is the theme song. The main plot is that Jeremiah is cursed by Satan, somehow enslaving his true love. Innocence battling Satan for true love? Oh yeah, that's all Dan. Throughout the game, you can unlock achievements based on Daniel's art work. Someone with an iPhone who understands how apps work can give more information on how to buy it and play it.

- 50 Cent recently referred to the now canceled "Fame Kills" tour as "The Gay Tour." Lady Gaga responded by calling it sad that people in the music business are homophobic. And it is sad, but it's kind of obvious. Next thing you know 50 will duet will Elton John just to appease...someone who cares. I say "someone who cares" because, let's face it, the real sad part of the story is that 50 is STILL trying to siphon Kanye's fame by mocking him. The 90's are over and rap feuds aren't going to sell records anymore, especially when one party is above it. And when Kanye West is the party that's "above it," what you're doing is really low and petty and sad, Curt.



- M-E-T-H-O-D Maaaan has been arrested. Apparently he owes a little bit of back taxes. We aren't talking Willie Nelson or Wesley Snipes levels, but he owes enough to get arrested. Maybe one day he and Willie can do some kind of charity single, singing about paying taxes. Call it "Crazy C.R.E.A.M." or something.

- Before today, I have never heard of an artists backing band quitting mid tour. Perhaps its because I'm so used to the band system, where the band may break up but never maintain the name that it seems so odd to me. But no matter. Jay Reatard, indie punk rock super star, recently got the pleasure of having his band quit. No tour dates have been canceled, though it's unclear how the tour will continue at this point.

- Daft Punk: movie stars. According to star Olivia Wilde, aka Thirteen, the group will appear in the upcoming Tron Legacy. I know nothing of modern films, but based simply on the title, it makes sense.

- Oh, Hooky. In what might be the weirdest way of getting your names in the headlines to promote a book, Peter Hook has revealed to forging Ian Curtis' signature a few times after his death. I have nothing against the act, because it really seems like a case of messing with people. You know, you want the band's autograph, but dude, one member's dead. But it seems like a random time to bring it up. Oh well.



- That block from Oasis said he can't play guitar, don't he know Jay-Z...would like to hang out with them? Okay, so Noel said it and he wants to work with Liam. He says so in response to the fact Snoop Dogg has expressed interest in signing Noel as a solo act post-Oasis breakup. Ultimately, I think Liam would be far more open to the idea than Noel, but time will tell us, I guess.

Star Power

Outside of music, I don't much follow the news. Surprisingly, when I say this, I'm not talking about politics or world news or anything of the sort, but rather entertainment news. However, I have taken to reading the New York Times during my radio show Thursday morning, since I need something to do during that time. In addition to this, as I walk through the student center, I see many television sets pointed to CNN. And because of his recent arrest, in the New York Times and on CNN, there has been a sudden influx of stories about Roman Polanski. We all know he had sex with a minor and fled the country. But all these years later, he's back in the news, and the question is becoming: can we separate the evils he's committed from the great art he's created? And for Polanski, I don't really have an answer. Not because I can't contrive one, but simply because I don' t know much of his works. I can name some films, but I haven't seen them. However, this is a question that has been equally applied to certain musicians over time. These are the people I will talk about today.

It would be cliche to start this whole thing with Michael Jackson, and with his death such discussion is over done. I'm sure I've gone there before, anyway. The main point Michael supplies is that personal life always effects the public perception of an artist, in life and in death. Of course, the way it effects public perception changes between life and death, but the point stands.



Moving on to a lesser known artist: South Park Mexican. I'm sure many of us don't know who he is. To my knowledge, he had but one moderate hit: You Know My Name. I admit, when I first heard this song not knowing who he was, I thought it was a hot track. In hindsight, I can't form an actual opinion on it. Shortly after hearing the song, I did slight amounts of research, and I learned that SPM as he's known is in prison for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl. His daughter was having a sleep over party and SPM decided to perform cunnilingus on one of her visitors. There is no way in which this isn't disgusting and deplorable. Does it effect the song at all? Obviously not, but it effects the creator in a way I can't fully comprehend.

Moving on to the supreme example, we have Charles Manson. We all know about the insane genius of artists like Brian Wilson, Roky Erickson and Daniel Johnston, but no musician is more insane than Charles Manson. His 1970 album, Lie: The Love and Terror Cult, released concurrently with his trail, stands as the ultimate example in separation of artist and creation. We all know that Charles Manson is one of the most reviled, evil killers in all of popular culture. Even referring to him as an aspect of popular culture sounds sickening, though I'm sure it makes fans of Natural Born Killers happy. But the fact is, he is a cultural pariah. And yet, listen to his album, and at times its almost...pretty. Some would even say it's impossible that a man like Manson made an album like Lie. The real Charles Manson album would be about hatred, evil, death, murder. Certainly not sweetly looking at your game, girl!

To be honest, I can't really talk about his music that much. Or at least I can't talk about it too definitely, from my honest opinions. The reality is I've never listened to the album. I just can't bring myself to do it. I know the proceeds go to his victim's families and I know I'm not supporting him per se, but I can't bring myself to do it. I don't know if this is a terribly bad thing or not, but it doesn't seem right as a fan of music or any art in general. But with someone like Manson, and someone like the aforementioned South Park Mexican, and even with Michael just a few months ago, it's impossible to talk about the music alone. Before long, someone is gonna say "well, yeah, but..." and then you have a new discussion. I'm sure the same thing is happening with Polanski, hence the debates about him every time a new film comes out or the story comes back into public knowledge. The fans all say you can't do this, you can't see the artist, you must only see the art. The detractors stand on the opposite side. And the reality is, there is no right nor wrong, neither argument holds any weight. So what do you do?



The reality is I have no idea. Ultimately, if the music is good or popular enough, like in the case of Michael, or more recently the Dixie Chicks* or Kanye West**, it will overpower the artist. Are we wrong to allow such evils of people we love? Perhaps, but maybe that's what we're supposed to do. As long as we've stopped them from being evil in the future, why can't we appreciate the good as we abscond the bad? I have no idea. And why is it that I can appreciate the Beach Boys' "Never Learn Not To Love," written by Manson, but can't appreciate his own "Cease To Exist?" These things make no sense to me. But I'm not out to answer questions, just to raise them and have you answer them personally. Maybe you can listen to Lie and think nothing of it. Maybe you're one of the people rallying for South Park Mexican's release so that he can make new music. I'm admittedly just standing here afraid to even try to listen to them further, knowing that they're bad people. But on some way, isn't everyone crazy enough to want to create art probably a bad person? Ah, let's leave this one to the masses, I'm spent.

*what the Dixie Chicks did was not nearly as evil as the acts of . I include them as an example of upsetting a fringe group as opposed to committing a universal evil. However, for a pop group, upsetting your target audience with an offhand comment can be just as terrible if not worse than actually doing some harm. Murders, child abuse, legal troubles - these don't effect the typical public audience on a personal level. Telling the Red States that George Bush is/was a bad President apparently did.

**despite what some people might tell you, cutting off Taylor Swift or merely being an asshole in general is also not as bad as mass murder or child abuse, though comparing the way people react to the two may cause a few surprises.

Farewell Song

The year was 1973. A lot of great music was released this year, some downright groundbreaking. Lou Reed, John Cale, George Harrison, Gram Parsons, Herbie Hancock, Frank Zappa, Faces, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, The Rolling Stones, The Stooges, Willie Nelson, Yoko Ono and Tom Waits all released lovely albums. However, while all or at least most of these people are luminaries of their genres, well known by everyone, the winner of the best song of the year honor this year is not quite so well known. I'm sure we all know about them, since we're all big music fans, but when you compare the best album of the year this year with some of these, it isn't quite as well known. However, it remains one of the all time greatest groups in rock, and a massively influential group to punk and later alternative and garage genres. The name of the group is the New York Dolls, and their finest song off of their finest album is "Trash."

The album of the year is as different from the New York Dolls as one could possibly be. I managed to hide his name from that big group up there, but those that know music don't need to be told about this music. A landmark in soul, pop and R&B, along with a little bit of rock thrown in to make it that important. Of course I speak of the Grammy Award winning, world famous Stevie Wonder and his album Innervisions. It was one of my first "favorite albums," and it remains amongst the upper echelon.

That about does it for this week, friend. Hope you enjoyed your stay and I hope you come back next week for another Midweek Music Roundup!