RIP: Dennis Hopper

Actor/director and one of the key members of the late '60s and '70s so-called "new Hollywood", Dennis Hopper died on May 29th at his home in Los Angeles. He announced, via publicist, being diagnosed with prostate cancer in October of last year.

Hopper's vast list of screen credits include Rebel Without A Cause [1955], Easy Rider [1969](which he also co-wrote and directed), Blue Velvet [1986], and Speed [1994], as well as directing the Sean Penn-Robert Duvall vehicle Colors [1988], but on a personal level his most memorable roles were in Apocalypse Now [1979], Rumble Fish [1983] (both directed by Francis Ford Coppola) and Hoosiers [1986], which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Also of note was his directorial turn in The Hot Spot [1990], a small, interesting film starring Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, and a young Jennifer Connolly, which also features music by Miles Davis and John Lee Hooker. Critic Roger Ebert called the update of old school B-movie yarns, "a superior work in an old tradition".

Earlier this year, a frail-looking Hopper made his final public appearance when he was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in recognition of his lengthy carreer. He was 74 years old.

DoJ Looking into Apple's iTunes Possible Antitrust Violations

When you control almost 70% of the online music market and, allegedly, are not above strong-arm tactics against your competitors, you know the US Dept. of Justice is gonna knock on your door eventually.

NYT:

SAN FRANCISCO — The Justice Department is examining Apple’s tactics in the market for digital music, and its staff members have talked to major music labels and Internet music companies, according to several people briefed on the conversations.

The antitrust inquiry is in the early stages, these people say, and the conversations have revolved broadly around the dynamics of selling music online.

But people briefed on the inquiries also said investigators had asked in particular about recent allegations that Apple used its dominant market position to persuade music labels to refuse to give the online retailer Amazon.com exclusive access to music about to be released.

All these people spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the delicacy of the matter. Representatives from Apple and Amazon declined to comment. Gina Talamona, a deputy director at the Justice Department, also declined to comment.

Happy Birthday

The Modfather, aka Paul Weller of The Jam, Style Council and a solo artist for almost twenty years now, turns 52 today, May 25th.

We're quite partial to Weller's first couple of albums; here's a smattering:

"Uh Huh, Oh Yeh" from the Paul Weller album [London-1992];




"Sunflower" from Wild Wood [Go!/London-1993];




And of a more recent vintage, "He's the Keeper" from Heliopolis [Island-2000]

Mer de Noms Turns 10

A Perfect Circle is one of those bands that nobody realized was needed until it happened. A grand claim, perhaps, but there's little question that the addicting combination of Maynard James Keenan's aching voice and Billy Howerdel's accomplished songs and production skills made for one of 2000's best splashes in whatever was left of "modern rock."

- Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Yeah.

Exactly 10 years ago today the band released their debut album Mer de Noms [Interscope], the de facto answer to the musical question What if The Cure went metal? (Truth be told, Deftones may have gone to that well first.)

A platinum seller and one of the bright lights of the otherwise boy band/nü-metal landscape of the late '90s/early 2000s, Mer de Noms is full of anthemic, haunting, yet bone-crunching tunes that greatly reward with repeated listening. It had been a couple of years since we'd heard it and decided to revisit the album for this post. Surprise, surprise: the power and majesty that drew us in a decade ago has not faded one bit. Maynard, Billy, Paz Lechantin, Josh Freese: you did well. Thanks.

Two favorites of ours: first single "Judith" (we could not embed its trés cool video clip, but do check it out); and "Orestes".

Nick Drake and Volkswagen: A Bittersweet Anniversary

A current AT&T ad has been on our minds lately. It's the one featuring iconic British singer/songwriter Nick Drake's "From the Morning", the closing track from his much beloved and final album Pink Moon [Island-1972]. Two years after that album's release, at the age of 26, Drake died either accidentally or on purpose of an overdose of antidepressants. And while he was no pop star during his lifetime, he'd been largely forgotten in the years immediately following his demise.

From the mid '80s and throughout the '90s, the likes of R.E.M. and Robert Smith of The Cure--as well as the efforts of legendary producer Joe Boyd--brought Drake's name back into the fold, along with a series of reissues and documentaries. But it was ten years ago that his music was finally exposed to the millions of people Drake had wanted, in his own way, to reach.

In 2000, a quarter century after Drake's passing, Volkswagen licensed the title track from Pink Moon for a US television ad campaign. Sales of his catalog rose dramatically after this exposure, with Pink Moon in particular selling more copies in the days following the airing of the ad than it had while Drake was alive. He's since been rediscovered by a whole new generation of listeners, thanks in no small part to this particular ad and the subsequent inclusion of his songs in numerous films, among them, Serendipity, The Royal Tennenbaums, and Garden State.

Nick Drake's wonderful, ethereal folk rock warrants every bit of recent exposure it's gotten and more. The fact that it all began with a car commercial just makes it a tad bittersweet. But we'll take it.

Lady GaGa and the Time 100: Magazine Needs a Dictionary

How did Lady GaGa make the Time 100 list? Sure, currently she may be one of the world's most popular artists, but influential? How exactly was that measured? Are there scores of artists copying her incredibly derivative music? Have we missed a rash of artists wearing birdcages on their heads? Maybe the folks that have been mesmerized by this amalgam of Carmen Miranda, early Madonna and Dale Bozzio, are so caught up in her bad performance art and empty tunes that they can't think straight. But Time magazine? Really?

Law & Order Getting Some Company: CBS Cancels Various Series

It looks like CBS is doing some hardcore spring cleaning: Cold Case, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, Miami Medical and Accidentally on Purpose are being canceled to make room for the upcoming fall lineup. We're kinda surprised the first four mentioned above are on the chopping block, since we were under the impression they were quite popular. Of course, dreck like Gary Unmarried and Accidentally on Purpose didn't deserve to be on television in the first place, so there's that.

Meanwhile, TJ Hooker and Magnum will be on the CBS schedule next fall. Actually, it'll be the debut of William Shatner's first-ever sitcom--supposedly based on the Facebook group and subsequent book, Shit My Dad Says--but Tom Selleck will be starring in some sort of police drama, so...

RIP: Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010)

Best known as an original member of hard rockers Rainbow, and for his stint in Black Sabbath and Heaven and Hell, as well as fronting his own band since the '80s, vocalist Ronnie James Dio passed away on May 16th, after a tough battle with stomach cancer.

A powerful and distinctive vocalist, Dio's music career spanned half a century. But it wasn't until the mid-1970s when he joined forces with former Deep Purple guitarist Richie Blackmore in Rainbow that he reached an international audience. In 1980 he replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath and recorded two albums with the band: Heaven and Hell [Warner Bros-1980] and Mob Rules [Warner Bros-1981]. Last year the band Heaven and Hell--in actuality the early '80s Dio-fronted version of Black Sabbath, so named to avoid confusion with the Ozzy Osbourne-led version of Sabbath--released the critically acclaimed album The Devil You Know [Rhino] and toured successfully behind it. Dates for the summer of 2010, alongside Iron Maiden, were recently canceled due to the severity of Dio's illness.

After a bit of confusion and misinformation regarding his passing, Dio's wife and manager Wendy made the official announcement via Dio's website and Facebook page. He was 67 years old.

Our favorite Dio moments were during his stint with Black Sabbath, particularly from The Mob Rules: "Voodoo" and the title track.

Jay-Z and Eminem Hit the Road Together

This past week, on the YES network, during a Yankees-Tigers game in Detroit, it was announced that Jigga and Mr. Mathers would perform together, at Detroit's Comerica Park on Sept 2nd and Yankee Stadium on Sept 13th. Each would headline the show in his respective hometown.

We are not fans of either MC—Eminem is a whiner who’s too full of himself; and as Brooklyn residents who greatly resent the Atlantic Yards-Barclays Center fiasco, Hova (a Nets part owner) is on our shit list—but we admit it’s fitting to see two of the biggest rappers of all-time perform at the greatest venue the birthplace of hip-hop has to offer. However, watching video of these two in the YES booth making the announcement and being interviewed, all we can say is we don’t ever recall a less eloquent pair of purported wordsmiths. Really.

Law and Order and the Real New York

Sadly, producer Dick Wolf's pride and joy was canceled on Friday. There have been quite a few obits for Law & Order since then, but one particular aspect of the show--which was so ingrained into the fabric of the show, we may have been taking it for granted all these years--was highlighted in this AP piece:

For two decades, until it was canceled Friday, NBC's "Law & Order" did something different. It showed the world not just one New York but hundreds.

We saw wealthy criminals who could afford to get away with their felonies. We saw immigrant communities, middle-class families and people of all stripes struggling, sometimes stumbling through their day. We saw Manhattan and the far boroughs. We saw New Yorkers who didn't care enough to report crimes and people who risked their lives to save strangers. Made in New York by people who lived there, "Law & Order" never trafficked in Gotham cliches.

Yeah.