Mike Doughty "Song For The 10th Anniversary Of iTunes"

Here's a "I Looked At The Internet Today So You Don't Have To" feature (subtitled: "I Looked At Jesse Barnett's Facebook Feed Today So You Don't Have To").

It's hard to believe iTunes as been around for 10 years.

Why it seems like just yesterday that I was helping Barbara set up iTunes on her laptop.

She brings the moment up frequently.

I was talking about how easy it was to use, and how the 99 cent threshold made it really attractive to just go ahead and buy something.

She was excited, because during the Lunch Hour, she'd often have a very specific thought ("So-and-So just passed away?  I want to play this certain track"), but would realize that the song was something from her CD collection back at her house.  Or that she didn't know if she or the station owned it at all.

Now she had most any song she could imagine, right at her fingertips.

I said, "Pretty soon though, you'll find yourself saying, 'Oh, that CD is out in my car?  I'll just by the track I need on iTunes rather than walk out to the parking lot.'"

At the time, she laughed at the utter absurdity of the idea.

But it wasn't too much later that she admitted to the reality---that often it was easier to spend 99 cents, then search for the needle in the haystack that is our messy station.  And every time she buys something that she probably already has somewhere, she reminds me of that first conversation.

Who among us has not grabbed a song on iTunes as an impulse purchase?

For its 10th anniversary, Mike Doughty wrote this really fun song about drunken iTunes splurging . . .

Soul Coughing "Screenwriter's Blues"

For a good 15 years now, if asked, I'd name "Ruby Vroom" by Soul Coughing as one of my Top 5 All Time Favorite Albums.  It's a record I go back to regularly.

Maybe you've heard it, but wouldn't put it in your Top 5.  Or Top 25.  I get that.

Maybe you've heard it, but didn't like it at all.  I get that.

Maybe you even actively dislike it, and can't possibly see how anyone could like it.

I can even buy that position.

Unless your name is Mike Doughty.

But yes, Mike Doughty, the former lead singer of the now defunct band, hates the music of Soul Coughing.  And he's not shy about saying so.

In fact, he hates it so much that he's started a Pledge Music campaign, to raise money to re-record many of the songs from those Soul Coughing records, to put them in a more palatable form.

I am truly, legitimately confused about how to feel.  The creation that I love is hated by the creator.  And in doing so, it seems to cast doubt on my own personal taste


Hear the song on Youtube.

Beyonce "The Star Spangled Banner"

First, let me say that I don't really care if Beyonce was lip-syncing.

I understand why, in a situation like a live Inauguration, outdoors, with many, many variables, you might pre-record your vocals, to make sure the performance is not torpedoed by something.

Now I DO find it bothersome if an artist has pre-recorded their vocals, and the vocals have been altered/improved/sweetened.  But if the track was recorded earlier, then, in this kind of performance, who cares?

It kinda bugs me that people would make a big deal of this.  Like it or not, when the visual performance matters, there is usually lip-syncing.  Artists in TV appearances like The Superbowl, major concerts where the star is expected to dance complex routines, mediocre-but-attractive teen heartthrobs---they all lip-sync.  You might as well be surprised that the McRib does not come from some kind of magical boneless pig.

People who don't like President Obama get fired up that he uses a teleprompter.  Really?  The guy gives hundreds, if not thousands of speeches a year, and you think he's carrying that around in his head?  You don't even go to the grocery store without a list.

What's most annoying about this Beyonce "scandal" is that it is being reported mostly by people who don't know shit about what they are talking about.  Which, sadly, is how much of the day's news---even the important stuff---gets reported.

Why not listen to an expert?  My friend Jesse Barnett posted this link to Slate, where singer Mike Doughty (former of Soul Coughing) explains why its clear to him that Beyonce was definitely NOT lip-syncing.

Finally, a talking head who knows what he's talking about.


Hear the song on Youtube.