New U2 album delayed till 2009

   

Scratch the new U2 album off your Christmas list. Singer Bono says the album, which had been anticipated for release this fall, will now arrive sometime in 2009. But he says there’s good reason for the delay.

“We’ve hit a rich songwriting vein and we don’t want to stop,” Bono says on the band’s website. “It gets a bit dark down here but looks like we’ve found diamonds not coal. I thought a while back we might have the album wrapped by now, but why come up above ground now if there’s more priceless stuff to be found?”

The group has been at work since last year in recording studios in Dublin, Morocco and France, working on the follow-up to 2004’s “How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb,” which won a Grammy for album of the year. They’ve piled up 50 or 60 tracks and they’re still at it, according to the website post.
      
“When we set out on this record it was Larry [Mullen Jr., the band’s drummer] who came up with the plan not to have a plan,” Bono says. “He put up this idea that wouldn’t it be great just to make music for its own sake, not for the purpose of a live show or on album but just to see what we’re capable of.”

In other words, how to dismantle a fall release schedule?

— Randy Lewis

Photo by Getty Images

On the eve of this year's F Yeah Fest, the L.A. Weekly has a really thorough rundown of an alleged altercation between fest founder Sean Carlson (in the background of this photo, with fest co-organizer Keith Morris) and the security detail working the Hollywood Bowl at Monday's Radiohead show. In short, Carlson alleges that promoter Phil Hoelting, videographer Michael Reich and he were passing out F Yeah Fest fliers outside the Bowl when Reich videotaped the Bowl's security contractors roughly detaining a concertgoer. Carlson said the security officers then chased them down Highland Avenue through traffic in pursuit of the tape, which was confiscated by the guards.

Beck is keeping it all in the family next month, when his father, arranger-conductor David Campbell, will lead the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings as they accompany the "Devil's Haircut" singer live on stage.  The Sept. 20th engagement at the Hollywood Bowl, which is sold out, marks the first time the two music-minded men have performed on stage together. 

Campbell's work has earned him multiple Grammy awards, and a pair of Oscars.  His arrangements appear on records from artists such as Neil Diamond, the Rolling Stones and (not surprisingly) Beck. 
Speaking of Beck, the fresh-from-the Outside Lands festival performer announced an intimate gig at San Francisco's Independent in an email blast yesterday to fans. The gig is already sold out, according to the SF Weekly. 

- Charlie Amter

Photo by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times

   

After rapper Jay-Z opens the renovated Hollywood Palladium on Oct. 15, the 68-year-old venue will rejoin the Southern California concert scene with an inaugural lineup heavy on alt-rock and hard-rock music, with splashes of hip-hop, reggaeton and rock en español.

Gym Class Heroes and the Roots will team up for an Oct. 17 show, followed by Flogging Molly (Oct. 25 -- pictured), the Kooks (Oct. 28), Rise Against (Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and 2), Dragonforce (Nov. 7) and La Fabrika del Reggaeton (Nov. 8).

Bookings continue with Mudvayne (Nov. 11), OneRepublic (Nov. 15), Alejandra Guzmán (Nov. 21), Of Montreal (Nov. 22) and Slightly Stoopid (Dec. 6). Tickets for the Rise Against shows are on sale now, Jay-Z tickets will be available Sept. 5 and the other shows go on sale Sept. 13 at Live Nation’s web site.

— Randy Lewis

Andre Romelle Young Jr., the son of hip-hop legend Dr. Dre of N.W.A, was found dead Saturday morning in his Woodland Hills bedroom, MTV News and the LA Weekly are reporting. He was 20.

An autopsy was conducted on Young's body Monday, but a cause of death has not yet been determined, pending the results of a toxicology report, a representative for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office told MTV News. The coroner's rep confirmed that an Andre Romelle Young Jr. passed away Saturday, but was uncertain if he was Dre's son; Dre's rep confirmed that information Tuesday (August 26).

Young was discovered in his bed at around 10:30 a.m. Saturday by his mother, who attempted to rouse him, the coroner's spokesperson said. Young was unresponsive, so she called paramedics, who responded to the scene. After their efforts to revive him failed, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the coroner's spokesperson, Young had spent the previous evening with friends. His mother told police that he'd returned home Saturday at around 5:30 a.m., and that she'd heard him in his bedroom. Police said they did not suspect foul play. - MTV

The pioneering producer and rapper from South L.A. issued a statement today through a spokesperson. "Dr. Dre is mourning the loss of his son Andre Young Jr. Please respect his family's grief and privacy at this time."

Dre is currently working on his third solo album, "The Detox." Longtime collaborator Snoop Dogg recently told Rolling Stone that the album, the first since 1999's "2001," is nearly finished and is simply awaiting  Dre's decision on which tracks would make the cut. N.W.A's groundbreaking album, "Straight Outta Compton," which Dre produced and rapped on, came out 20 years ago this month.

Update: Young Jr. was the subject of a paternity dispute 18 years ago when his mother, Jenita Porter,  sought $5,000-a-month in child support from Dre.

-- Tony Pierce

Photo: Dr. Dre by Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Tensions surrounding the 28th annual Sunset Junction Festival in Silver Lake have escalated dramatically this week, with area businesses referring to themselves as “angry villagers” and the Junction’s organizer, Michael McKinley, saying that the business owners  “all want to make bank” and that they’re cranky because they never got “strawberry ice cream as kids.”

Less than 24 hours before the start of the festival, which is expected to draw as many as 50,000 people, the dozens of businesses lining Sunset Boulevard between Edgecliffe Drive and Sanborn Avenue are still unsure who will be within the official boundaries of the festival, which is organized each year by the non-profit Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance with headquarters at Tsunami coffee shop.

Those boundaries determine the flow of foot traffic to area businesses, as well as which employees and residents need to pay entry fees.

It’s been a good week, to say the least, for the teen-hearththrob Jonas Brothers. Not only have Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas succeeded at entering the national sales chart at No. 1 with their new album “A Little Bit Longer,” they logged the third biggest sales week of the year by selling 525,000 copies during its first week of release.

You'd be hard-pressed to find one dance music fan who doesn't swear by Toronto's Deadmau5 (pronounced Deadmouse).  Born Joel Zimmerman, the electro/house purveyor announced today that he would release his first physical compact disc release, "Random Album Title" (out digitally Sept. 2 and in stores Nov. 4) and tour in support of the Ultra Records disc this fall. 

His Los Angeles date?  Oct. 31 at the Shrine Auditorium as part of a yet-to-be-officially-announced full lineup at a forthcoming HARD haunted mansion. We caught up with Zimmerman via phone on the Spanish resort Island of Ibiza, where he is scheduled to play Amnesia tomorrow. 

Zimmerman talks about what tracks will make his debut disc (around eight of which are previously unreleased and won’t be released all the way up until this winter), his upcoming Puma/Beatport sponsored 50+ city tour, forthcoming material from his side-project BSOD and even his Halloween costume he may debut in L.A. this year at Hard plus more after the jump...

In a victory for the estate of the late Jim Morrison, the California Supreme Court has slammed the Doors shut.

The court denied a petition by two of the surviving members of the Doors, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, to review a lower court’s decision that blocked them from touring under the name of the band that rose to fame on the Sunset Strip in the 1960s and recorded dark hits such as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman,” "People Are Strange" and “Riders on the Storm.”

Manzarek and Krieger had toured with others musicians under the name the Doors of the 21st Century and had advertised their shows with images of Morrison, the decadent rock icon who died in 1971. The use of the name led to joint legal action by the Morrison family, the family of Pamela Courson (Morrison’s common-law wife, who died in 1974) and the third surviving Doors member, drummer John Densmore.

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

F Yeah Fest's Sean Carlson talks about his alleged Hollywood Bowl scuffle with security

On the eve of this year's F Yeah Fest, the L.A. Weekly has a really thorough rundown of an alleged altercation between fest founder Sean Carlson (in the background of this photo, with fest co-organizer Keith Morris) and the security detail working the Hollywood Bowl at Monday's Radiohead show. In short, Carlson alleges that promoter Phil Hoelting, videographer Michael Reich and he were passing out F Yeah Fest fliers outside the Bowl when Reich videotaped the Bowl's security contractors roughly detaining a concertgoer. Carlson said the security officers then chased them down Highland Avenue through traffic in pursuit of the tape, which was confiscated by the guards.

Beck is keeping it all in the family next month, when his father, arranger-conductor David Campbell, will lead the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings as they accompany the "Devil's Haircut" singer live on stage.  The Sept. 20th engagement at the Hollywood Bowl, which is sold out, marks the first time the two music-minded men have performed on stage together. 

Campbell's work has earned him multiple Grammy awards, and a pair of Oscars.  His arrangements appear on records from artists such as Neil Diamond, the Rolling Stones and (not surprisingly) Beck. 
Speaking of Beck, the fresh-from-the Outside Lands festival performer announced an intimate gig at San Francisco's Independent in an email blast yesterday to fans. The gig is already sold out, according to the SF Weekly. 

- Charlie Amter

Photo by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times

   

After rapper Jay-Z opens the renovated Hollywood Palladium on Oct. 15, the 68-year-old venue will rejoin the Southern California concert scene with an inaugural lineup heavy on alt-rock and hard-rock music, with splashes of hip-hop, reggaeton and rock en español.

Gym Class Heroes and the Roots will team up for an Oct. 17 show, followed by Flogging Molly (Oct. 25 -- pictured), the Kooks (Oct. 28), Rise Against (Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and 2), Dragonforce (Nov. 7) and La Fabrika del Reggaeton (Nov. 8).

Bookings continue with Mudvayne (Nov. 11), OneRepublic (Nov. 15), Alejandra Guzmán (Nov. 21), Of Montreal (Nov. 22) and Slightly Stoopid (Dec. 6). Tickets for the Rise Against shows are on sale now, Jay-Z tickets will be available Sept. 5 and the other shows go on sale Sept. 13 at Live Nation’s web site.

— Randy Lewis

Andre Romelle Young Jr., the son of hip-hop legend Dr. Dre of N.W.A, was found dead Saturday morning in his Woodland Hills bedroom, MTV News and the LA Weekly are reporting. He was 20.

An autopsy was conducted on Young's body Monday, but a cause of death has not yet been determined, pending the results of a toxicology report, a representative for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office told MTV News. The coroner's rep confirmed that an Andre Romelle Young Jr. passed away Saturday, but was uncertain if he was Dre's son; Dre's rep confirmed that information Tuesday (August 26).

Young was discovered in his bed at around 10:30 a.m. Saturday by his mother, who attempted to rouse him, the coroner's spokesperson said. Young was unresponsive, so she called paramedics, who responded to the scene. After their efforts to revive him failed, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the coroner's spokesperson, Young had spent the previous evening with friends. His mother told police that he'd returned home Saturday at around 5:30 a.m., and that she'd heard him in his bedroom. Police said they did not suspect foul play. - MTV

The pioneering producer and rapper from South L.A. issued a statement today through a spokesperson. "Dr. Dre is mourning the loss of his son Andre Young Jr. Please respect his family's grief and privacy at this time."

Dre is currently working on his third solo album, "The Detox." Longtime collaborator Snoop Dogg recently told Rolling Stone that the album, the first since 1999's "2001," is nearly finished and is simply awaiting  Dre's decision on which tracks would make the cut. N.W.A's groundbreaking album, "Straight Outta Compton," which Dre produced and rapped on, came out 20 years ago this month.

Update: Young Jr. was the subject of a paternity dispute 18 years ago when his mother, Jenita Porter,  sought $5,000-a-month in child support from Dre.

-- Tony Pierce

Photo: Dr. Dre by Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Tensions surrounding the 28th annual Sunset Junction Festival in Silver Lake have escalated dramatically this week, with area businesses referring to themselves as “angry villagers” and the Junction’s organizer, Michael McKinley, saying that the business owners  “all want to make bank” and that they’re cranky because they never got “strawberry ice cream as kids.”

Less than 24 hours before the start of the festival, which is expected to draw as many as 50,000 people, the dozens of businesses lining Sunset Boulevard between Edgecliffe Drive and Sanborn Avenue are still unsure who will be within the official boundaries of the festival, which is organized each year by the non-profit Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance with headquarters at Tsunami coffee shop.

Those boundaries determine the flow of foot traffic to area businesses, as well as which employees and residents need to pay entry fees.

It’s been a good week, to say the least, for the teen-hearththrob Jonas Brothers. Not only have Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas succeeded at entering the national sales chart at No. 1 with their new album “A Little Bit Longer,” they logged the third biggest sales week of the year by selling 525,000 copies during its first week of release.

You'd be hard-pressed to find one dance music fan who doesn't swear by Toronto's Deadmau5 (pronounced Deadmouse).  Born Joel Zimmerman, the electro/house purveyor announced today that he would release his first physical compact disc release, "Random Album Title" (out digitally Sept. 2 and in stores Nov. 4) and tour in support of the Ultra Records disc this fall. 

His Los Angeles date?  Oct. 31 at the Shrine Auditorium as part of a yet-to-be-officially-announced full lineup at a forthcoming HARD haunted mansion. We caught up with Zimmerman via phone on the Spanish resort Island of Ibiza, where he is scheduled to play Amnesia tomorrow. 

Zimmerman talks about what tracks will make his debut disc (around eight of which are previously unreleased and won’t be released all the way up until this winter), his upcoming Puma/Beatport sponsored 50+ city tour, forthcoming material from his side-project BSOD and even his Halloween costume he may debut in L.A. this year at Hard plus more after the jump...

In a victory for the estate of the late Jim Morrison, the California Supreme Court has slammed the Doors shut.

The court denied a petition by two of the surviving members of the Doors, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, to review a lower court’s decision that blocked them from touring under the name of the band that rose to fame on the Sunset Strip in the 1960s and recorded dark hits such as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman,” "People Are Strange" and “Riders on the Storm.”

Manzarek and Krieger had toured with others musicians under the name the Doors of the 21st Century and had advertised their shows with images of Morrison, the decadent rock icon who died in 1971. The use of the name led to joint legal action by the Morrison family, the family of Pamela Courson (Morrison’s common-law wife, who died in 1974) and the third surviving Doors member, drummer John Densmore.

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Keeping it all in the family: Beck, father share stage for first time at Hollywood Bowl engagement next month

Beck is keeping it all in the family next month, when his father, arranger-conductor David Campbell, will lead the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings as they accompany the "Devil's Haircut" singer live on stage.  The Sept. 20th engagement at the Hollywood Bowl, which is sold out, marks the first time the two music-minded men have performed on stage together. 

Campbell's work has earned him multiple Grammy awards, and a pair of Oscars.  His arrangements appear on records from artists such as Neil Diamond, the Rolling Stones and (not surprisingly) Beck. 
Speaking of Beck, the fresh-from-the Outside Lands festival performer announced an intimate gig at San Francisco's Independent in an email blast yesterday to fans. The gig is already sold out, according to the SF Weekly. 

- Charlie Amter

Photo by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times

   

After rapper Jay-Z opens the renovated Hollywood Palladium on Oct. 15, the 68-year-old venue will rejoin the Southern California concert scene with an inaugural lineup heavy on alt-rock and hard-rock music, with splashes of hip-hop, reggaeton and rock en español.

Gym Class Heroes and the Roots will team up for an Oct. 17 show, followed by Flogging Molly (Oct. 25 -- pictured), the Kooks (Oct. 28), Rise Against (Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and 2), Dragonforce (Nov. 7) and La Fabrika del Reggaeton (Nov. 8).

Bookings continue with Mudvayne (Nov. 11), OneRepublic (Nov. 15), Alejandra Guzmán (Nov. 21), Of Montreal (Nov. 22) and Slightly Stoopid (Dec. 6). Tickets for the Rise Against shows are on sale now, Jay-Z tickets will be available Sept. 5 and the other shows go on sale Sept. 13 at Live Nation’s web site.

— Randy Lewis

Andre Romelle Young Jr., the son of hip-hop legend Dr. Dre of N.W.A, was found dead Saturday morning in his Woodland Hills bedroom, MTV News and the LA Weekly are reporting. He was 20.

An autopsy was conducted on Young's body Monday, but a cause of death has not yet been determined, pending the results of a toxicology report, a representative for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office told MTV News. The coroner's rep confirmed that an Andre Romelle Young Jr. passed away Saturday, but was uncertain if he was Dre's son; Dre's rep confirmed that information Tuesday (August 26).

Young was discovered in his bed at around 10:30 a.m. Saturday by his mother, who attempted to rouse him, the coroner's spokesperson said. Young was unresponsive, so she called paramedics, who responded to the scene. After their efforts to revive him failed, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the coroner's spokesperson, Young had spent the previous evening with friends. His mother told police that he'd returned home Saturday at around 5:30 a.m., and that she'd heard him in his bedroom. Police said they did not suspect foul play. - MTV

The pioneering producer and rapper from South L.A. issued a statement today through a spokesperson. "Dr. Dre is mourning the loss of his son Andre Young Jr. Please respect his family's grief and privacy at this time."

Dre is currently working on his third solo album, "The Detox." Longtime collaborator Snoop Dogg recently told Rolling Stone that the album, the first since 1999's "2001," is nearly finished and is simply awaiting  Dre's decision on which tracks would make the cut. N.W.A's groundbreaking album, "Straight Outta Compton," which Dre produced and rapped on, came out 20 years ago this month.

Update: Young Jr. was the subject of a paternity dispute 18 years ago when his mother, Jenita Porter,  sought $5,000-a-month in child support from Dre.

-- Tony Pierce

Photo: Dr. Dre by Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Tensions surrounding the 28th annual Sunset Junction Festival in Silver Lake have escalated dramatically this week, with area businesses referring to themselves as “angry villagers” and the Junction’s organizer, Michael McKinley, saying that the business owners  “all want to make bank” and that they’re cranky because they never got “strawberry ice cream as kids.”

Less than 24 hours before the start of the festival, which is expected to draw as many as 50,000 people, the dozens of businesses lining Sunset Boulevard between Edgecliffe Drive and Sanborn Avenue are still unsure who will be within the official boundaries of the festival, which is organized each year by the non-profit Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance with headquarters at Tsunami coffee shop.

Those boundaries determine the flow of foot traffic to area businesses, as well as which employees and residents need to pay entry fees.

It’s been a good week, to say the least, for the teen-hearththrob Jonas Brothers. Not only have Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas succeeded at entering the national sales chart at No. 1 with their new album “A Little Bit Longer,” they logged the third biggest sales week of the year by selling 525,000 copies during its first week of release.

You'd be hard-pressed to find one dance music fan who doesn't swear by Toronto's Deadmau5 (pronounced Deadmouse).  Born Joel Zimmerman, the electro/house purveyor announced today that he would release his first physical compact disc release, "Random Album Title" (out digitally Sept. 2 and in stores Nov. 4) and tour in support of the Ultra Records disc this fall. 

His Los Angeles date?  Oct. 31 at the Shrine Auditorium as part of a yet-to-be-officially-announced full lineup at a forthcoming HARD haunted mansion. We caught up with Zimmerman via phone on the Spanish resort Island of Ibiza, where he is scheduled to play Amnesia tomorrow. 

Zimmerman talks about what tracks will make his debut disc (around eight of which are previously unreleased and won’t be released all the way up until this winter), his upcoming Puma/Beatport sponsored 50+ city tour, forthcoming material from his side-project BSOD and even his Halloween costume he may debut in L.A. this year at Hard plus more after the jump...

In a victory for the estate of the late Jim Morrison, the California Supreme Court has slammed the Doors shut.

The court denied a petition by two of the surviving members of the Doors, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, to review a lower court’s decision that blocked them from touring under the name of the band that rose to fame on the Sunset Strip in the 1960s and recorded dark hits such as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman,” "People Are Strange" and “Riders on the Storm.”

Manzarek and Krieger had toured with others musicians under the name the Doors of the 21st Century and had advertised their shows with images of Morrison, the decadent rock icon who died in 1971. The use of the name led to joint legal action by the Morrison family, the family of Pamela Courson (Morrison’s common-law wife, who died in 1974) and the third surviving Doors member, drummer John Densmore.

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Expanded Hollywood Palladium lineup unveiled

   

After rapper Jay-Z opens the renovated Hollywood Palladium on Oct. 15, the 68-year-old venue will rejoin the Southern California concert scene with an inaugural lineup heavy on alt-rock and hard-rock music, with splashes of hip-hop, reggaeton and rock en español.

Gym Class Heroes and the Roots will team up for an Oct. 17 show, followed by Flogging Molly (Oct. 25 -- pictured), the Kooks (Oct. 28), Rise Against (Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and 2), Dragonforce (Nov. 7) and La Fabrika del Reggaeton (Nov. 8).

Bookings continue with Mudvayne (Nov. 11), OneRepublic (Nov. 15), Alejandra Guzmán (Nov. 21), Of Montreal (Nov. 22) and Slightly Stoopid (Dec. 6). Tickets for the Rise Against shows are on sale now, Jay-Z tickets will be available Sept. 5 and the other shows go on sale Sept. 13 at Live Nation’s web site.

— Randy Lewis

Andre Romelle Young Jr., the son of hip-hop legend Dr. Dre of N.W.A, was found dead Saturday morning in his Woodland Hills bedroom, MTV News and the LA Weekly are reporting. He was 20.

An autopsy was conducted on Young's body Monday, but a cause of death has not yet been determined, pending the results of a toxicology report, a representative for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office told MTV News. The coroner's rep confirmed that an Andre Romelle Young Jr. passed away Saturday, but was uncertain if he was Dre's son; Dre's rep confirmed that information Tuesday (August 26).

Young was discovered in his bed at around 10:30 a.m. Saturday by his mother, who attempted to rouse him, the coroner's spokesperson said. Young was unresponsive, so she called paramedics, who responded to the scene. After their efforts to revive him failed, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the coroner's spokesperson, Young had spent the previous evening with friends. His mother told police that he'd returned home Saturday at around 5:30 a.m., and that she'd heard him in his bedroom. Police said they did not suspect foul play. - MTV

The pioneering producer and rapper from South L.A. issued a statement today through a spokesperson. "Dr. Dre is mourning the loss of his son Andre Young Jr. Please respect his family's grief and privacy at this time."

Dre is currently working on his third solo album, "The Detox." Longtime collaborator Snoop Dogg recently told Rolling Stone that the album, the first since 1999's "2001," is nearly finished and is simply awaiting  Dre's decision on which tracks would make the cut. N.W.A's groundbreaking album, "Straight Outta Compton," which Dre produced and rapped on, came out 20 years ago this month.

Update: Young Jr. was the subject of a paternity dispute 18 years ago when his mother, Jenita Porter,  sought $5,000-a-month in child support from Dre.

-- Tony Pierce

Photo: Dr. Dre by Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Tensions surrounding the 28th annual Sunset Junction Festival in Silver Lake have escalated dramatically this week, with area businesses referring to themselves as “angry villagers” and the Junction’s organizer, Michael McKinley, saying that the business owners  “all want to make bank” and that they’re cranky because they never got “strawberry ice cream as kids.”

Less than 24 hours before the start of the festival, which is expected to draw as many as 50,000 people, the dozens of businesses lining Sunset Boulevard between Edgecliffe Drive and Sanborn Avenue are still unsure who will be within the official boundaries of the festival, which is organized each year by the non-profit Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance with headquarters at Tsunami coffee shop.

Those boundaries determine the flow of foot traffic to area businesses, as well as which employees and residents need to pay entry fees.

It’s been a good week, to say the least, for the teen-hearththrob Jonas Brothers. Not only have Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas succeeded at entering the national sales chart at No. 1 with their new album “A Little Bit Longer,” they logged the third biggest sales week of the year by selling 525,000 copies during its first week of release.

You'd be hard-pressed to find one dance music fan who doesn't swear by Toronto's Deadmau5 (pronounced Deadmouse).  Born Joel Zimmerman, the electro/house purveyor announced today that he would release his first physical compact disc release, "Random Album Title" (out digitally Sept. 2 and in stores Nov. 4) and tour in support of the Ultra Records disc this fall. 

His Los Angeles date?  Oct. 31 at the Shrine Auditorium as part of a yet-to-be-officially-announced full lineup at a forthcoming HARD haunted mansion. We caught up with Zimmerman via phone on the Spanish resort Island of Ibiza, where he is scheduled to play Amnesia tomorrow. 

Zimmerman talks about what tracks will make his debut disc (around eight of which are previously unreleased and won’t be released all the way up until this winter), his upcoming Puma/Beatport sponsored 50+ city tour, forthcoming material from his side-project BSOD and even his Halloween costume he may debut in L.A. this year at Hard plus more after the jump...

In a victory for the estate of the late Jim Morrison, the California Supreme Court has slammed the Doors shut.

The court denied a petition by two of the surviving members of the Doors, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, to review a lower court’s decision that blocked them from touring under the name of the band that rose to fame on the Sunset Strip in the 1960s and recorded dark hits such as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman,” "People Are Strange" and “Riders on the Storm.”

Manzarek and Krieger had toured with others musicians under the name the Doors of the 21st Century and had advertised their shows with images of Morrison, the decadent rock icon who died in 1971. The use of the name led to joint legal action by the Morrison family, the family of Pamela Courson (Morrison’s common-law wife, who died in 1974) and the third surviving Doors member, drummer John Densmore.

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Andre Romelle Young Jr., Dr. Dre's son, found dead

Andre Romelle Young Jr., the son of hip-hop legend Dr. Dre of N.W.A, was found dead Saturday morning in his Woodland Hills bedroom, MTV News and the LA Weekly are reporting. He was 20.

An autopsy was conducted on Young's body Monday, but a cause of death has not yet been determined, pending the results of a toxicology report, a representative for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office told MTV News. The coroner's rep confirmed that an Andre Romelle Young Jr. passed away Saturday, but was uncertain if he was Dre's son; Dre's rep confirmed that information Tuesday (August 26).

Young was discovered in his bed at around 10:30 a.m. Saturday by his mother, who attempted to rouse him, the coroner's spokesperson said. Young was unresponsive, so she called paramedics, who responded to the scene. After their efforts to revive him failed, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the coroner's spokesperson, Young had spent the previous evening with friends. His mother told police that he'd returned home Saturday at around 5:30 a.m., and that she'd heard him in his bedroom. Police said they did not suspect foul play. - MTV

The pioneering producer and rapper from South L.A. issued a statement today through a spokesperson. "Dr. Dre is mourning the loss of his son Andre Young Jr. Please respect his family's grief and privacy at this time."

Dre is currently working on his third solo album, "The Detox." Longtime collaborator Snoop Dogg recently told Rolling Stone that the album, the first since 1999's "2001," is nearly finished and is simply awaiting  Dre's decision on which tracks would make the cut. N.W.A's groundbreaking album, "Straight Outta Compton," which Dre produced and rapped on, came out 20 years ago this month.

Update: Young Jr. was the subject of a paternity dispute 18 years ago when his mother, Jenita Porter,  sought $5,000-a-month in child support from Dre.

-- Tony Pierce

Photo: Dr. Dre by Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Tensions surrounding the 28th annual Sunset Junction Festival in Silver Lake have escalated dramatically this week, with area businesses referring to themselves as “angry villagers” and the Junction’s organizer, Michael McKinley, saying that the business owners  “all want to make bank” and that they’re cranky because they never got “strawberry ice cream as kids.”

Less than 24 hours before the start of the festival, which is expected to draw as many as 50,000 people, the dozens of businesses lining Sunset Boulevard between Edgecliffe Drive and Sanborn Avenue are still unsure who will be within the official boundaries of the festival, which is organized each year by the non-profit Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance with headquarters at Tsunami coffee shop.

Those boundaries determine the flow of foot traffic to area businesses, as well as which employees and residents need to pay entry fees.

It’s been a good week, to say the least, for the teen-hearththrob Jonas Brothers. Not only have Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas succeeded at entering the national sales chart at No. 1 with their new album “A Little Bit Longer,” they logged the third biggest sales week of the year by selling 525,000 copies during its first week of release.

You'd be hard-pressed to find one dance music fan who doesn't swear by Toronto's Deadmau5 (pronounced Deadmouse).  Born Joel Zimmerman, the electro/house purveyor announced today that he would release his first physical compact disc release, "Random Album Title" (out digitally Sept. 2 and in stores Nov. 4) and tour in support of the Ultra Records disc this fall. 

His Los Angeles date?  Oct. 31 at the Shrine Auditorium as part of a yet-to-be-officially-announced full lineup at a forthcoming HARD haunted mansion. We caught up with Zimmerman via phone on the Spanish resort Island of Ibiza, where he is scheduled to play Amnesia tomorrow. 

Zimmerman talks about what tracks will make his debut disc (around eight of which are previously unreleased and won’t be released all the way up until this winter), his upcoming Puma/Beatport sponsored 50+ city tour, forthcoming material from his side-project BSOD and even his Halloween costume he may debut in L.A. this year at Hard plus more after the jump...

In a victory for the estate of the late Jim Morrison, the California Supreme Court has slammed the Doors shut.

The court denied a petition by two of the surviving members of the Doors, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, to review a lower court’s decision that blocked them from touring under the name of the band that rose to fame on the Sunset Strip in the 1960s and recorded dark hits such as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman,” "People Are Strange" and “Riders on the Storm.”

Manzarek and Krieger had toured with others musicians under the name the Doors of the 21st Century and had advertised their shows with images of Morrison, the decadent rock icon who died in 1971. The use of the name led to joint legal action by the Morrison family, the family of Pamela Courson (Morrison’s common-law wife, who died in 1974) and the third surviving Doors member, drummer John Densmore.

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Malfunction at the Junction?

Tensions surrounding the 28th annual Sunset Junction Festival in Silver Lake have escalated dramatically this week, with area businesses referring to themselves as “angry villagers” and the Junction’s organizer, Michael McKinley, saying that the business owners  “all want to make bank” and that they’re cranky because they never got “strawberry ice cream as kids.”

Less than 24 hours before the start of the festival, which is expected to draw as many as 50,000 people, the dozens of businesses lining Sunset Boulevard between Edgecliffe Drive and Sanborn Avenue are still unsure who will be within the official boundaries of the festival, which is organized each year by the non-profit Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance with headquarters at Tsunami coffee shop.

Those boundaries determine the flow of foot traffic to area businesses, as well as which employees and residents need to pay entry fees.

It’s been a good week, to say the least, for the teen-hearththrob Jonas Brothers. Not only have Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas succeeded at entering the national sales chart at No. 1 with their new album “A Little Bit Longer,” they logged the third biggest sales week of the year by selling 525,000 copies during its first week of release.

You'd be hard-pressed to find one dance music fan who doesn't swear by Toronto's Deadmau5 (pronounced Deadmouse).  Born Joel Zimmerman, the electro/house purveyor announced today that he would release his first physical compact disc release, "Random Album Title" (out digitally Sept. 2 and in stores Nov. 4) and tour in support of the Ultra Records disc this fall. 

His Los Angeles date?  Oct. 31 at the Shrine Auditorium as part of a yet-to-be-officially-announced full lineup at a forthcoming HARD haunted mansion. We caught up with Zimmerman via phone on the Spanish resort Island of Ibiza, where he is scheduled to play Amnesia tomorrow. 

Zimmerman talks about what tracks will make his debut disc (around eight of which are previously unreleased and won’t be released all the way up until this winter), his upcoming Puma/Beatport sponsored 50+ city tour, forthcoming material from his side-project BSOD and even his Halloween costume he may debut in L.A. this year at Hard plus more after the jump...

In a victory for the estate of the late Jim Morrison, the California Supreme Court has slammed the Doors shut.

The court denied a petition by two of the surviving members of the Doors, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, to review a lower court’s decision that blocked them from touring under the name of the band that rose to fame on the Sunset Strip in the 1960s and recorded dark hits such as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman,” "People Are Strange" and “Riders on the Storm.”

Manzarek and Krieger had toured with others musicians under the name the Doors of the 21st Century and had advertised their shows with images of Morrison, the decadent rock icon who died in 1971. The use of the name led to joint legal action by the Morrison family, the family of Pamela Courson (Morrison’s common-law wife, who died in 1974) and the third surviving Doors member, drummer John Densmore.

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Jonas Bros. hit No. 1

It’s been a good week, to say the least, for the teen-hearththrob Jonas Brothers. Not only have Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas succeeded at entering the national sales chart at No. 1 with their new album “A Little Bit Longer,” they logged the third biggest sales week of the year by selling 525,000 copies during its first week of release.

You'd be hard-pressed to find one dance music fan who doesn't swear by Toronto's Deadmau5 (pronounced Deadmouse).  Born Joel Zimmerman, the electro/house purveyor announced today that he would release his first physical compact disc release, "Random Album Title" (out digitally Sept. 2 and in stores Nov. 4) and tour in support of the Ultra Records disc this fall. 

His Los Angeles date?  Oct. 31 at the Shrine Auditorium as part of a yet-to-be-officially-announced full lineup at a forthcoming HARD haunted mansion. We caught up with Zimmerman via phone on the Spanish resort Island of Ibiza, where he is scheduled to play Amnesia tomorrow. 

Zimmerman talks about what tracks will make his debut disc (around eight of which are previously unreleased and won’t be released all the way up until this winter), his upcoming Puma/Beatport sponsored 50+ city tour, forthcoming material from his side-project BSOD and even his Halloween costume he may debut in L.A. this year at Hard plus more after the jump...

In a victory for the estate of the late Jim Morrison, the California Supreme Court has slammed the Doors shut.

The court denied a petition by two of the surviving members of the Doors, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, to review a lower court’s decision that blocked them from touring under the name of the band that rose to fame on the Sunset Strip in the 1960s and recorded dark hits such as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman,” "People Are Strange" and “Riders on the Storm.”

Manzarek and Krieger had toured with others musicians under the name the Doors of the 21st Century and had advertised their shows with images of Morrison, the decadent rock icon who died in 1971. The use of the name led to joint legal action by the Morrison family, the family of Pamela Courson (Morrison’s common-law wife, who died in 1974) and the third surviving Doors member, drummer John Densmore.

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Scared yet? Deadmau5 finally releases full-length, hits L.A. on Halloween

You'd be hard-pressed to find one dance music fan who doesn't swear by Toronto's Deadmau5 (pronounced Deadmouse).  Born Joel Zimmerman, the electro/house purveyor announced today that he would release his first physical compact disc release, "Random Album Title" (out digitally Sept. 2 and in stores Nov. 4) and tour in support of the Ultra Records disc this fall. 

His Los Angeles date?  Oct. 31 at the Shrine Auditorium as part of a yet-to-be-officially-announced full lineup at a forthcoming HARD haunted mansion. We caught up with Zimmerman via phone on the Spanish resort Island of Ibiza, where he is scheduled to play Amnesia tomorrow. 

Zimmerman talks about what tracks will make his debut disc (around eight of which are previously unreleased and won’t be released all the way up until this winter), his upcoming Puma/Beatport sponsored 50+ city tour, forthcoming material from his side-project BSOD and even his Halloween costume he may debut in L.A. this year at Hard plus more after the jump...

In a victory for the estate of the late Jim Morrison, the California Supreme Court has slammed the Doors shut.

The court denied a petition by two of the surviving members of the Doors, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, to review a lower court’s decision that blocked them from touring under the name of the band that rose to fame on the Sunset Strip in the 1960s and recorded dark hits such as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman,” "People Are Strange" and “Riders on the Storm.”

Manzarek and Krieger had toured with others musicians under the name the Doors of the 21st Century and had advertised their shows with images of Morrison, the decadent rock icon who died in 1971. The use of the name led to joint legal action by the Morrison family, the family of Pamela Courson (Morrison’s common-law wife, who died in 1974) and the third surviving Doors member, drummer John Densmore.

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

The Doors slammed shut by California Supreme Court

In a victory for the estate of the late Jim Morrison, the California Supreme Court has slammed the Doors shut.

The court denied a petition by two of the surviving members of the Doors, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, to review a lower court’s decision that blocked them from touring under the name of the band that rose to fame on the Sunset Strip in the 1960s and recorded dark hits such as “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman,” "People Are Strange" and “Riders on the Storm.”

Manzarek and Krieger had toured with others musicians under the name the Doors of the 21st Century and had advertised their shows with images of Morrison, the decadent rock icon who died in 1971. The use of the name led to joint legal action by the Morrison family, the family of Pamela Courson (Morrison’s common-law wife, who died in 1974) and the third surviving Doors member, drummer John Densmore.

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Big air: Hot Lixx Hulahan takes air guitar title (again) in SF

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

So, this is what Burial looks like

The camera-shy U.K. dubstep producer Burial is probably the single most unlikely victim in human history of a tabloid-unmasking campaign, courtesy of the British fish wrap the Sun, which opined ridiculously that it might be an Aphex Twin or Fatboy Slim side project. The U.K. paper the Independent put some fuel on the fire by dropping Burial's real name in a February article about the Elliott School in south London, which Burial attended. So as the producer prepares to possibly appear at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony (his fantastic album "Untrue" is hotly tipped for a win), he decided to put the kibosh on the reclusiveness thing and make his public debut.

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Gear thief makes a lifelong enemy of the Stooges

If I were to come up with a list of people whom I'd feel comfortable stealing a truck's worth of irreplaceable musical instruments from, the Stooges would not be on it. I can imagine Iggy Pop coming in through my air vents, unhinging his jaw and consuming my innards like that one yellow-eyed "X-Files" villain. And Mike Watt would probably just whale on me in a parking lot somewhere. Nonetheless, some cowardly soul in Montreal decided to disembark with the Stooges' entire tour truck worth of gear this morning, including Watt's classic Gibson bass. Full list of lost equipment after the jump from the e-mail that's being forwarded around, and how you can help ensure they have the gear to try and make a better album than "The Weirdness" in the future.

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Yelle ruins Heaven 17 tune; lead singer of English band doesn't mind

I always thought the opening riff of Heaven 17’s fantastic early 1980s track “Let Me Go” would make a smart sample for a techno or hip-hop act. Leave it to French electro temptress Yelle (née Julie Budet) to ruin my fantasy of the perfect meshing of Heaven 17’s signature track with contemporary beats. Her just-released video for “Ce Jeu” is about as uninspired as the song (which has been out now for a while).

But not everyone agrees with me. Curious what the man who sang the sampled track thought of Yelle resurrecting the famed bass line, I e-mailed a few questions to Heaven 17 frontman Glenn Gregory over the weekend. His response to the track and more Heaven 17 news (including possible forthcoming U.S. tour dates) after the jump.

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Scars on Broadway catch the 9:25 at Union Station

If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Hot Property: Beck puts house on market

How does such an idiosyncratic singer live in such an everyday mansion? Maybe that's why Beck wants to sell the Hancock Park-area Mediterranean he's owned since November. Some houses just aren't a good fit.

Listing price? $9 million.

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

The Times, they are a-changing

In case you haven't heard, the L.A. Times is going through more hard times lately. This music blog took a big hit, losing several of our regular contributors, including Casey Dolan, Liam Gowing, Jason Gelt, Camilo Smith and Kevin Bronson. We also lost Richard Cromelin, a long-time staff writer who wrote lovely pieces recently on Steve Wynn and "Mamma Mia!"

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

China’s music markets are forbidden cities to some singers

Just as the world media is beginning to dip a toe into the busy Chinese underground music scene, the New York Times has this unsettling story of how in anticipation of the Olympics, the government in Beijing has passed new laws forbidding foreign entertainers who have run afowl of their censorship policies. The vague but fairly sinister new rules ban from China "Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty" and also artists who "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.”

It's hard to say exactly who or what qualifies as advocating "superstition" or "fuedalism" in song, but after the government's severe frowning over Bjork's Tibet-amended edition of "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai concert this year, that topic is presumably off-limits for foreigners. It'll be interesting to see how or if these rules will affect homegrown acts, as these new laws apparently also apply to performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories governed by China but who enjoy a greater degree of political and cultural autonomy.

It's hard to imagine how China can continue to ramp up its economy while keeping such draconian rules about who can entertain its growing concert-going classes, so after the Olympics are over, wait and see if these new rules indicate a larger grab at media and entertainment control by Beijing.

-August Brown

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Buzz Bands: Under the Influence of Giants gets a new start in Silver Lake

Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

American Apparel sample sale ‘08: come for the unitards, stay for “Secret French musical guest”

As anyone who attended last year's American Apparel sample-sale blowout at their downtown factory (guilty!) knows, few things will pry pan-ethnic art school dropouts from their weekend hangovers like the promise of $1 terrycloth headbands. This year's installment on July 27 is upping the ante with the promise of a "Secret French musical guest," and the obvious list of suspects -- Justice, Yelle, the Ed Banger crew, heck, maybe Daft Punk -- is making the feverish speculative rounds.

Silly hipsters. Of course the correct answer is Sebastien Tellier, who not only has the sample sale date blocked off on his tour schedule as "AA Show" in Los Angeles, but Tellier debuted his new album "Sexuality" on American Apparel shelves before it ever hit music stores. Expect deep, deep discounts on Sexual Sportswear of all stripes at the sale, that is, if any of you kids even wear clothes these days.

--August Brown

Dov Charney photo by Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Peanut Butter Wolf to again humiliate iPod DJs

Last year, the local Stones Throw impresario and DJ extraordinaire Peanut Butter Wolf taught a master class in turntabling with his 777 tour of Los Angeles. Over seven nights and seven venues, he spun sets of seven different genres of music without touching any medium besides delicious hot vinyl or repeating a song in any set. This year, he's upping the degree of difficulty by making it an 888 tour with genre nights such as Early House, '70s Disco and movie music. The full schedule is below, and let it be known that, like A-Trak or Aaron LaCrate, Peanut Butter Wolf is a rare DJ who's scads of fun as a performer as well as a party-starter. Any night is well worth the trip.

(Update! We were sent some wrong information about the sets: turns out PBW will be playing videos and spinning with Serato, the beloved DJ software program. Looks like even the most avid vinyl advocates hate lugging those crates around town. Genre nights also updated after the jump.)

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Jeezy and McCain: Gimme a hug

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Nas goes “Fox” hunting with new track

Nas' latest offering, "Sly Fox," off of his anticipated disc ("Untitled," dropping July 15), is making the rounds on ye olde internets in a big way today (following leaks of songs such as "Black President" in weeks past). The scathing, guitar-driven song takes direct aim at Fox News and the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, with lyrics including: "Only Fox that I loved was the red one/only black man that Fox loved is in jail or a dead one."

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

When is a TV theme song a political weapon?

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Never say he didn’t give his all: Kanye’s Bonnaroo riposte

Well, now we all know better than to make our feelings about Kanye's lateness be known by expressing our feelings over multiple Port-O-Let walls! After Kanye West's Bonnaroo set last week started almost two hours late (partially attributable to Pearl Jam playing long), the Bonnaroo crowd began anti-Kanye chants and sprayed graffiti to the same effect around the festival grounds. Now, Kanye offers his take on events at his blog, and be forewarned: he's "Typing so ... hard I might break my Mac book Air!!!!!!!!"

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Vinyl nerds, you’re killing the Earth

So, you're in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They're also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

U.K. mag gets under the covers with Céline Dion

English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine's top choice? Céline Dion's dreadful take on AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Emmys give knuckle bump to will.i.am; more videos on the way

Whether it's the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo's new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there's a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Conor Oberst makes records even on his Mexican vacations

 

Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album "Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band," his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst's website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they're having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day -- "Souled Out!!!" has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here's hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

-- August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Pete Wentz and MSTRKRFT aim to save the ‘M’ in MTV

I'm probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV's wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad ("The Hills" is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz's Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled "FN MTV," will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy's collaboration with John Mayer on "Beat It" for "Guitar Hero" suggest it'll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it's an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track "Bounce" is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

-- August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Chamillionaire rides clean inside tech scene

While most rappers' eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day's worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

"I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them," the "Ridin’ " rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel "Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet" on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's chart-topping hit.

"A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial," he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
"It’s crazy," he said with a laugh. "All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here."

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as "Ridin' " (aka, "Ridin' Dirty") remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

"I’ve always been aware of what was goin' on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that," he says of the the song's ringtone success.

"For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways."

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. "It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy."

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website -- the rapper owns his own domain. "Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube... when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there."

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is "down" with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as "Shamillionaire" from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

-- Post and photo by Charlie Amter

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

A punk rock round table and Warped Tour tell-all

 

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there's another meeting of the minds this Thursday -- this one of those who make up punk rock's shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals' bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182'er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don't expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly's up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

-- August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

‘2 Turntables and a Microphone’ premiere at HBFF

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of "2 Turntables and a Microphone," a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music's most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and "Godfather" hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. "I've seen people be over-loyal," says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy's fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent's hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late '90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin's similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

"Well, he wasn't a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ."

But that was his point in making the film: "Now [Jam Master Jay's] voice can be heard."

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to "2 Turntables and a Microphone" as "overwhelming. People laughed, they cried ... Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him."

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

-- Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, left, and Don "Magic" Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Chester French goes acoustic tonight at Undefeated Silver Lake

Pharrell Williams' latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated's Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled "The Jimmy Choo's," chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album -- but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

-- Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Korn’s Davis ready to stretch with Britney’s old producer?

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

M.I.A. gets paid and tells at an MTV Movie Awards after-party

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Did Chromeo’s search for female drummer just get a little creepy?

Call us naive, but last week's call from Chromeo looking for a female drummer warmed our hearts a bit, as in "Coed rock out, sweet!" Turns out female drummers with cellulite need not apply. Soundboard got more info from Chromeo's representation about its search for a drummer on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and let's just say it's not exactly NOW-endorsed. But then again, what else can be expected from two dudes whose album cover looked like this?

Here's the ad, with strange wording (i.e., "the look of legs") preserved:

"Are you available to come to a casting call on June 3rd? We are casting 6 girls for their talent and the look of legs for this bit. The casting call would be to basically have you play a practice pad and let us take some Polaroid's. We are looking for someone that can play marching drum, as each gal will have a snare (only requirement for the casting call is you wear shorts or a short dress so we can photo your legs.) You would be performing with Chromeo on our outdoor stage on June 17th. We will also want to get your costume specs. It will also be good to have you on file for anything else we do here at Kimmel. My info is here below. Casting will be from 12:00 - 4pm, June 3rd."

So is this a little creepy or just par for the course? With our bellies still full of Mem Day bbq, do we care what Chromeo thinks about legs or anything else?

--Margaret Wappler

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th

Everclear’s Art Alexakis talks Guantanamo Bay

For a band that counts songs about abusive fathers and interracial relationships in its catalog, one might expect Everclear's Memorial Day gig at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to have more than a twinge of irony. We talked with the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, about the show, its political implications and Jesus Christ's party affiliation.

So, how does a band go about booking a show at Guantanamo Bay, of all places?

We've done a lot of booking for the military, we've played Japan, Korea, Guam and a bunch of bases in the States, and the guy who books that kind of stuff came to us with Guantanamo Bay. Usually, if that day’s open, it’s a no-brainer, but I took a day to think about the implications of this one. Not because of what other people would think, but for me. If you check online, I’ve been pretty vehemently anti this war, have been from the beginning. I marched, did the whole thing. But I've always been pro-troop. I feel for people who’ve made this commitment. That’s their job to do it and I respect and honor that.

Are they going to let you see any other parts of Cuba while you're there?

I asked them if I could go into Cuba, and they told me no. I get to go to the fence that separates it from the base. I would love to go. I want to go to Havana big time. It’s a moment out of time with all these '50s cars driving around. You know that when the Castro brothers die, its going to turn into Disneyland over there. I wanted to see Cuba, but I also wanted to go over there to get a pulse of the soldiers that were there about what happened [in the prison]: What their family’s viewpoint on being at Guantanamo is about, and are they proud to be there? Do they think they’re doing a good thing? Are they ashamed? They’re put there, and there isn’t much you can do about it in the armed forces. I've got a song I'm thinking about playing there for the first time, called "Jesus Was a Democrat."

Wow, really? What kind of ideas led up to that?

It’s actually a pretty flagrant challenge to the conservative view of Jesus. Even if you're not a Christian, if you read Jesus’ words in the Bible, there's nothing conservative about him. He was a full-on liberal. There's a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There's a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!

How do you think it'll go over in Guantanamo Bay, a place you cite in the song as imprisoning Jesus?

What happened in Guantanamo Bay, that was blood-chilling to me. It goes to show you that anyone can get caught up in it, anyone can be the bad guy. Any collection of people from any culture. It was sobering for a lot of people. It was sobering for me. I've got a daughter who’s 16, and I don’t think she’d ever go into the service, and I'd fight her if she did, but if she does, what's my perspective then?

I'm just trying to be compassionate and put myself in the other guy’s shoes. This song is pretty angry. I think we're in better place now than in '88, when I worked on the Dukakis campaign canvassing, but I was so pissed at Republicans, that conservatives co-opted the term "family values"; they made being a liberal a bad word. I’m an ACLU card-carrying liberal. I have no bones about it. I might be conservative on some things, but you're going to tell me that to have family values I have to glom on to your way of thinking? No way!

At least now I'm not alone. The great thing about [Barack] Obama, he’s unabashedly a liberal or a progressive. Isn’t that great? Even in the Clinton administration, no one was using the word "liberal," they were using the "moderate" word. Seems like in the last few elections, the right has pulled the left to the center, and now it seems like the left has pulled right center. [John] McCain started playing ball with the Bush administration, thinking he could ride his coattails if he got the call. Now, it's dragging him down.

You mentioned that you had some reservations about playing the Guantanamo Bay show. What were they?

This has nothing to do with other people's perceptions. It’s about me. My wife said that if you're going over there for the troops, that's the right reason; if you're going to see what it's all about, that's the right reason. I have an opportunity to go to a place that a lot of people don’t go to. There is controversy there, but it’s not like I'm going to go waterboard anybody. I'm going to look. I'm going to see what they're gonna show me. They're going to put a glossy face on it, but my main reason is to go get people's perspectives on what they thought that place was about.

Aside from whole torturing aspect, there's a history there and I love history. Whenever something's on TV about Cuba, I shush people. I'm fascinated by people living technologically out of time, and their perspectives. I think the revolution there got lost, but I'm fascinated by it and want to see how and why it went awry.

Do you think you'll get an accurate picture of the place from your time there?

I'm going to go and be positive. I can piss people off if I try to. I'm really good at it. I don’t want to do that. You get more out of people if they feel safe and secure instead of defensive. I want to ask them, “Were you here when that stuff was going down? Is it still going down?” I'm going to ask questions, and I can ask them good-naturedly. I want to get as much info as possible. I'd love to bring my teenage daughter. Some of these kids there are only two or three years older than my daughter. I meet kids that age every day at shows.

Do you ever wonder if young fans might think differently about Guantanamo Bay if a favorite band played there, that it can't be that bad if Everclear had a show there?

I thought of that, but of the letters I've been getting, I've only gotten four negative ones, and I think it's all from the same guy. He's comparing what we're doing to going to Auschwitz or Dachau, which I have serious issues with. I'm going to provide entertainment, which is seriously important to American kids in a place where, I th