we are recommending you some nice, but longer reads about music, again
it’s a weekend, you have more time, so just go
read and think
and let us know what you think about the recommended subjects
this week you can read and think about these:

OMD [Guardian]
How to lose 3 million fans in one easy step
With just one album, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark more or less destroyed their career. And they weren’t the only ones: the early 1980s were littered with commercial suicides. Bob Stanley finds out how it all went wrong 

Are wacky bands a rock’n'roll sin? [Guardian]
I don’t know about you, but I’m quite partial to a bit of black humour, bad taste, or elegantly crafted pun
Fresh from conquering the DVD market, Flight Of The Conchords – the comedy partnership of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, "formerly New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo" – have announced they’re due to release their self-titled debut album on Warner Bros/Sub Pop. In doing so, they enter somewhat more troublesome waters.

Celebrity junkies
UN attacks celebrity drug use
It looks like one of the most popular subject nowadays and if you think about the everyday appearances of Amy, Peter Doherty or even Britney you just can’t say that this issue is not everywhere. Let’s have see few articles
[BBC] [CNN] [Guardian] [Yahoo]

weird lists about this issue
Top 10 Celebrity Drug Users (living)
Top 20 Celebrity Drug Confessions

They think it’s all over for the NME [TimesOnline]
With the demise of any real rock underground, plus fierce competition from online rivals, the magazine must adapt or die
Last week’s biggest-ever New Musical Express awards show at London’s O2 Arena should have been a triumph for Britain’s longest-serving rock weekly. It was, says the Editor, Conor McNicholas, “one of the greatest nights on my life” watching Klaxons, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs and Manic Street Preachers play to 15,000 indie/rock fans.

But there were glum faces and dark mutterings among the assembled media insiders. One key reason for this gloom was the magazine’s circulation figures for the second half of 2007. Averaging around 64,000 per issue, they are the lowest ever, and a steep decline on previous years.

+ bonus video of the shortest reunion of the music history

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this is the third volume of the APC’s new weekly series
recommending you some nice, but longer reads about music
it’s a weekend, you have more time, so just go
read and think
and let us know what you think about the recommended subjects
this week you can read and think about these:

Girl Power [FemaleFirst]
The rise of British Girl Power
Despite Britain arguably producing some of the world’s best bands, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Oasis, outstanding female artists have never really been the nation’s forte. Until now.

There’s a new wave of female talent coming through and these girls are really something to shout about.

Mike Oldfield’s back in control [TimesOnline]
Mike Oldfield regains control of Tubular Bells
At 19, Mike Oldfield achieved huge success with Tubular Bells – and has lived with the consequences for 35 years

Doo-wop [TimesOnline]
Authors celebrate golden age of doo-wop
The doo-woppers of 1950s America may be gone but their sound is not forgotten

A&R conference [Wired]
How Will Recording Artists Be Discovered in the Digital Age?
Maria Egan-Cohen, A&R, Columbia Records:

- If a MySpace band has more friends than comments, chances are their page is being gamed.  If an artist is gaming their page, though, it indicates that they have ambition. -

+ a Hot Chip interview by the MTV after the jump

posted by AudioPorn Central

Continue reading »

this is the second volume of our new weekly series
recommending you some nice, but longer reads about music
it’s a weekend, you have more time, so just go
read and think
and let us know what you think about the recommended subjects
this week you can read and think about these:

RIAA [Wired]
RIAA Training Video Leaked onto Torrent Sites
The RIAA apparently produced a new video, already available on a variety of torrent tracker sites, in conjunction with the National District Attorneys Association with the goal of instructing U.S. prosecutors on how to deal with music piracy cases.  According to early reports, the video, called In Trial, also provides instructions on how to get an RIAA investigator qualified as a court expert.

Indiepop [TimesOnline]
Pop bands shun major labels to go indie
As the music industry implodes, we introduce the rising young pop bands taking a leaf out of the indie rulebook

Men VS Women [Guardian]
Women and men do not listen to music differently
They might react emotionally to different things – but the theory put forward by Lesley Douglas, co-ordinator of the BBC’s popular music coverage, is patronising bunkum

Old Nick [Guardian]
Nick Cave interview
He has been spitting hellfire and damnation for years, but now that he has turned 50, is Nick Cave finally mellowing? Of course not, he tells Simon Hattenstone 

this is a new weekly series here at the APC
from now on we will recommend you some nice, but longer reads about music
it’s a weekend, you have more time, so just go
read and think
and let us know what you think about the recommended subjects
this week you can read and think about these:

sampling [Guardian]
When did sampling became so non-threatening?
Starting out as the working-class black answer to punk, sampling is now the stomping ground of white internet nerds

paparazzi photos as art form [Reuters]
LA gallery portrays paparazzi photos as art form
Paparazzi are getting a lot of bad press these days, so it takes some chutzpah to launch a photography exhibit called "Paparazzi as an Art Form" in the heart of celebrityville.

Cocaine-And-Vodka Fueled ’90s Music Industry [TimesOnline]
‘Til death did we party: the music business in the heady Nineties
Flying around the world on a diet of vodka and cocaine while being wildly overpaid does not make for well-adjusted people

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