Say Anything 2.0

In your digital eyes. You can't ever go back, Lloyd Dobler. (Link via Urlesque)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Breakfast Hawks
Requiem For A Day Off
If He Gets Up, We'll All Get Up. It'll Be Anarchy!

Come as You Are: Nevermind The Parodies

Remember the baby chasing the dollar bill on the cover of Nirvana's seminal album, Nevermind? Yup, that's Spencer Elden, all of 17 now and likely chasing more than a buck for recreating this photo. Happily, this time he wore a bathing suit.


Of course this got me thinking, as I'm wont to do, about parodies of the album cover I've seen here and there, which are are now conveniently located below:


The most famous version was of a baby version of Bart Simpson chasing the almighty Krusty buck, for the November, 2002 cover of Rolling Stone. It's rare to get official parodies.


Of course the King of Parody is the other exception to the rule. "Weird Al" Yankovic's Off The Deep End, which featured Smells Like Nirvana:

Were so loud and incoherent
Boy, this oughta bug your parents
Yeah

You know you've had an impact when "Weird Al" spoofs both your hit song and your album art.


A nice take on a Van Gogh self-portrait and a comment on how much money everyone has made on the back of his art following his death. Shades of Courtney Love. Found on one of Worth 1000's brilliant photoshop contests.


A mashup of Jaws and Nirvana. Cute. Again, from the archives of Worth 1000.


Millions of users at a buck a download? I think Apple found their Nirvana with the iPod. From Flickr user axb500.


Just another way those bastards killed Kenny. From a South Park fan art page, in case you couldn't tell.


I think I mostly amused by the Neverfind band name. Yet another from the whizzes at Worth 1000.


And lastly, what roundup of parodies would be complete without a Lego entry? From a collection of Lego album cover parodies. Is there anything minifigs can't do?

Previously on Popped Culture...
Suddenly Last Supper
Popaganda: The Pop Culture Revolution
Would You Like Fries With That?
Find Waldo, Yet Again
Pillow Talk: 25 Strange Throw Pillows

The Customer is Always Wrong

I bought some music the other day and I felt like a chump. I could have downloaded it, with ease, for free, but I didn’t. I could have bought it for less online, but I didn’t. I purchased the full price, CD version and people looked at me like I was crazy.

Why not get it free? It’s out there at the click of a button. You can get the single, the album, or the entire discography in a zip file, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. If the variety store at the end of the street had bags of chips sitting out that I could take whenever I wanted I wouldn’t do it, and I really, really love chips. (Mmmm, salt and vinegar) Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Now I’m no saint – I’ve got my share of illegal downloads. I sample bands I’ve never heard of to find out if I’d like them, but if I get more than a few songs I go get the album. I’ve also picked up some music that I already own, but not in a digital format.

So why not pick it up from an authorized digital retailer like iTunes or Puretracks? The short answer is DRM: Digital Rights Management or Digital Restrictions Management if you’re not so hot on the technology. Count me in the latter group. When you buy music on the web, you are essentially renting the tunes. There are restrictions on copying, where they can be played and how often they can be shared. Compare that to the CD, which I can play wherever, copy as many times as I like and is still even after a hard drive meltdown. Sure, you can find ways around the DRM, but then you’re right back at the filching music conundrum.

And who does DRM restrict? Anybody who wants to get the music for free can – it only penalizes those who actually decide to pay. But now there is an unlikely ally who also doesn’t think much of DRM either – Apple CEO Steve Jobs, whose company is the creator of the almighty iPod and dominates the legal download market. Last week Jobs called on the major labels to drop DRM altogether.

"Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat,” wrote Jobs. “If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store."

Will the labels heed the call? Not any time soon. Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman called Job’s suggestion “completely without logic or merit” while EMI is mulling over the idea. Dropping DRM won’t solve all the industries ills, but it will at least be a step towards treating music fans like criminals. Then they can get to work on a perpetual content license so I don’t have to keep buying music that I’ve already bought a couple of times.

Sing, Sing A Song…

It’s been a bad year for music. Well, for me at least. I was looking at my iTunes and I only have half a dozen albums recorded in 2006 and we are already halfway through August. This is appalling.

The last two albums I got were The Raconteurs' Broken Boy Soldiers and Johnny Cash’s American V: A Hundred Highways, with its heartbreaking version of “If You Could Read My Mind.” Both great albums, but I’m hardly overflowing the iPod.

There is one little ray of sunshine in all this – my friend Rob let me know about a new Sloan album coming out in September, so at least I’ll have seven albums by the end of the year. You can get a taste of the 30-track (!!) opus with the first single “Who Taught You to Live Like That” over on their MySpace page, which makes me very happy. Hey, who knew there was good stuff on MySpace pages?

Anyway, I can’t let this situation continue so I’m appealing to all my readers to tell me the best music they’ve heard this year, or at least summer. Albums would be best as I’ve never been one for singles, but I’ll take on all comers. So help me out everyone, don’t let this musical atrophication continue. I’ll be listening to Raffi and his ilk soon enough as it is.

P.S. - I'm doing a spot of guest editing over at Scandal Sheet this week. It's fun to be mean and gossipy.

Facing the Music

Even after two years of using iTunes to play all my music, I’m still fascinated by it. I think I’m obsessed with stats and I really have no idea why, but there it is.

With that said, I delved into my iTunes and took a look at what the top 10 most played songs were. It’s interesting, I have over 5,000 songs on my iPod but over a third of them remain unplayed while other’s filter up to the top. So I’m going to indulge in a little self-reflection as nothing else in pop culture amuses or annoys me all that much today.

1. E-Pro, Beck, Guero
Guero is best album Beck has put out. It’s a great blend of Odelay, Mutations and Sea Change and I couldn’t stop playing it last summer. I always worry that I’ll get stuck in a musical bubble (and I do have a lot of mid-90s music) so I’m pleased to see more than half of the top 10 is from this decade.

2. Dead Disco, Metric, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
This album grabbed both Gill and I from the moment we heard it and wouldn't let go. Since then we’ve given it to friends and insisted others pick it up. I’m happy to see I’ve got a fair amount of Canadian music in the mix – Metric is from Toronto for those who don't know. Who says CanCon rules don’t work?

3. Rebellion (Lies), The Arcade Fire, Funeral
Best Canadian band currently recording. I’d heard a lot about them but not really given them a shot until the unlikely moment when I had to watch the Much Music Video Awards for work last year and their performance stole the show, even though most of the audience didn’t appear to know what the hell was going on. Get this album and rejoice.

4. The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism, The New Pornographers, Mass Romantic
Another great Canadian (Vancouver) band and they are the masters of the power pop song. I expect some tracks from their latest, Twin Cinema, to land in the upper ranks of my play list eventually.

5. Monster Mash, Bobby 'Boris' Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers
We really didn’t have many Halloween decorations this year, just an un-carved pumpkin, so I downloaded Monster Mash, put it on loop on the laptop and dolled out candy to the neighbourhood rug rats.

6. Breakaway, Kelly Clarkson, Breakaway
Damn, Kelly Clarkson? Oh right, Gill and I share the iPod. I'm surprised there’s no Dixie Chicks in this list.

7. Molly's Chambers, Kings Of Leon, Youth & Young Manhood
I was introduced to Kings of Leon through a TV commercial for a car. Not sure which car, but I went and found the song, than the album. I guess ads do work, just not always the way marketers hope.

8. Spirit In The Sky, Norman Greenbaum, The Event Soundtrack
I wouldn’t have thought I listened to this often but it is on the summer party mix so maybe the amateur DJs at our last party dialed it up a lot. They were handing this soundtrack out after a screening of Thom Fitzgerald’s film at the Toronto Film Festival three years ago.

9. Girls & Boys, Blur, Parklife
A classic Blur song. Though never as big as Oasis, they were by far the better of the bands during the ‘90s British Invasion. Enough of the Gorillaz, Damon, bring back Blur!

10. 6'1", Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville
The whole album is Liz at her angriest and I love every moment of it. Just once I’d like to see a Canadian or American Idol hopeful take on one of her songs, but I know it will never happen.