Everyone was busy finding out that Britney lost custody of her two sons yesterday. That must suck. Just another example of America eating its young, devouring the product to spite the progeny. Should Viacom be thanked? Les Monves and his team of super villain ‘big business’ acolytes help manipulate another stars destruction. Oh well. Federline seems like a pillar of the community, let him raise the boys to the relative dissapproval of the decency and families-first police.
That is unimportant though in the grand scheme of things, that news item and what the NY Times is reporting that Black Water staged a cover-up, allegedly paying off families of victims killed in the debacle (and possible other episodes). Private security is market-speak for ‘mercenary’ and as long as folks have a firm understanding that these guys get paid way more than volunteer soldiers, they should still be held accountable for fuck-ups as colossal as allegedly killing 8 Iraqi civilians on Sept. 16th.
Swimming through all the news I heard that Radiohead announced their plans to release their latest record, In Rainbows. This is culturally significant because Radiohead is the greatest rock group of my generation and I don’t care if you disagree. Actually it is significant because the band is releasing their 7th studio album online for “whatever you feel like paying,” which is hilarious and a huge sign that the billion dollar music industry had better start paying attention. They are also releasing a ‘Discbox,’ containing two LP’s, one with the entire In Rainbows and another, second LP with ‘extra songs,’ plus a bunch of art and a booklet. Sort of like what they did for Kid A with the CD release but about 100 times better because not only do you get vinyl, you get access to it all in MP3 format – and it’s not Kid A. How about that? So I bought it. I got sucked in. I bit the lure and swallowed the hook. Good job Thom and Co., now we’ll have to see if we can sync it up to Lightyears or maybe Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards with a bong load or two [like PinkOz!!!]. Its a gift that’ll be good enough for me and my wife, who is also a huge Radiohead fan.
This was the best news I have heard all week. Now I have something to look forward to. Black Water, Britney, Illegal Foreign Occupation of a sovereign country, Darfur, Monk Protests in Myanmar – all that shit just slides to the back for a few brief minutes. I’ll let you know how the vinyl is as soon as I get my hands on it. In the meantime I’ll report on how the MP3’s sound as soon as I get access on Oct. 10th.
Who needs record labels?
UPDATE: Check out the Review!
A Coat of Red Paint In Hell 