Bookmarks: Internet stuff - Darren Hayman

Darren Hayman - late of Hefner and currently of Darren Hayman - talks at length to I Taught Myself How To Grow Old. The piece is augmented by some glorious mp3 action, but even without the music, it's a lovely way to spend your time:

Crikey. Well every creative decision I make is both subconscious and conscious. Themes tend to reveal themselves through an automatic style of writing and those themes are revised through re-writes and then start to be themes that an album can be based around. These days I guess I more consciously choose directions and album themes but then it would have been more about what spilled out.

Beth Jeans Houghton and Stornaway: Joint tour

The next Twisted Folk tour has been announced. It's coming in February 2010, and it's going to be a spot of this:



... and a dash of this:



That's Stornaway and Beth Jeans Houghton.

This is where:

Mon 8 Feb EXETER PHOENIX ARTS CENTRE
Tue 9 Feb READING SOUTH ST
Wed 10 Feb BRIGHTON KOMEDIA
Thu 11 Feb LONDON RICH MIX
Sat 13 Feb NORWICH ARTS CENTRE
Sun 14 Feb GATESHEAD THE SAGE
Mon 15 Feb LEEDS BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB
Tue 16 Feb MANCHESTER BAND ON THE WALL
Wed 17 Feb BIRMINGHAM GLEE CLUB

Polka News Network: Wurstfest

The Grammy academy has tried to wipe polka off the face of American popular music. But you know what? Given the choice between seeing the Grammys and attending New Braunfels Wurstfest. There's pickles, there's sausage... and, of course, there's polka:

Joyce Bohuslav and Ed Volick of the Polka Lovers Klub of America take a spin around the dance floor at Wurstfest in New Braunfels on Sunday, the final day for the annual “Salute to Sausage.”

It's your choice, America: another prize for Bono, or a salute to sausage?

Downloadable: Melissa Auf Der Maur

First fruits de Der Maur, in the form of a free download sailing out ahead of MADM's Out Of Our Minds album.

It's one of those widgets again:

Drummerobit: Jerry Fuchs

Former !!! drummer Jerry Fuchs has suffered a fatal accident in Williamsburg.

Besides the Google-defying !!!, Fuchs drummed for Holy Ghost, Turing Machine, Juan MacLean and Maserati. And he drummed his ass off for them. More into solidity of sound than the rhetorical flourish, Fuchs made the insanely difficult look incredibly easy.

Born in 1974, Fuchs studied graphic design at the University Of Georgia. Alongside drumming, he also did freelance writing and design work.

Fuchs died after attempting to jump from a broken lift. He'd been attending a charity event raising money for women in India, reports the New York Post. He was 34 years old.

UPDATE: I've just received the following statements:

Juan MacLean
Jerry Fuchs was one of my best and most loyal friends. In other situations it might seem trite or misguided to mention someone's music career in light of such a tragic death, but the truth is that music was an integral part of our relationship. Jerry was with me from the beginning of The Juan MacLean. The band allowed us to travel the world doing something we loved more than anything, and we constantly reminded ourselves how lucky we were, pushing each other to appreciate the life we were living when things got tough.

It is not hyperbole to say that Jerry was the absolute best at what he did. He was a legendary drummer. Other drummers revered him and fans were astounded by his playing. He was always the best part of any band of his which he was a member. And in light of all that, he was relentlessly humble to the point of self-deprecation. He exuded qualities that are are rare in the circles he travelled. He was disarmingly sincere and valued honesty above all else.

I have never played with anyone as great as Jerry. I would be hard pressed to name a more supportive and loyal friend. I hope his family finds some bit of solace in the fact that Jerry touched the lives of so many all across the world, as evidenced by the outpouring of support and condolences come flooding in.

Jonathan Galkin - DFA
Today was a really bad day, Jerry, and I could have used one of those big sweaty hugs you gave after a show, when you were genuinely excited and surprised to see me. “Galkin, what the fuck are YOU doing here?!”, you would exclaim, as if i didn’t ever attend the live shows from bands on my own label. You were truly one of a kind, and whether you knew it or not, people wanted to be in the same room as you, or near the same room as you, because maybe just maybe, some of that radiant joy and in-the-moment spirit you exuded would rub off on them. You didn’t take it all with you, because there are a lot of people today who are going to feel mighty responsible to carry and spread that joy with them for the rest of the time they have here. And who knows now how long that might be. You were a really good drummer, some might say the best we had, but you were a greater friend. I love you and miss you, Jerry.

Brian Long - Yes Know Management
Jerry cast an incredible glow on every situation he entered into. It was an honor to work with him. His drumming skills were truly a gift which he used to connect with many people. This is what musicians are put on earth to do. Jerry embodied this to the fullest. He will be missed but remembered with a smile and a laugh.

Alex Kapranos: Wish I was Sid

Ah, the follies of youth - apparently Alex Kapranos was so desperate to emulate Sid Vicious, he was hoping he was going to die an early death:

"I wanted to be like Buddy Holly or Sid Vicious or Rupert Brooke and have achieved everything I was going to do and done it all by the time I was 21 and then die glamorously. Unfortunately, it didn't happen like that."

... so, instead, I did the next best thing and stabbed someone to death and spent time lying about in a pool of my own shit and misery.

Arctic Monkeys records available in Oxfam

No, not just CDs that have already had their guts ripped to a harddrive; they're releasing a 10 inch single, Cornerstone, and making it available only in Oxfam shops.

Just fifty of them, apparently; the ones described as "the top 50 stores" - might have been an even nicer gesture if the record could be shared with some of the smaller stores, too, rather than just the ones that already popular. But that's a minor gripe.

This is what you'll be getting:

Danish anti-pirate group dump lawsuits

Antipiratgruppen, a Danish intellectual property protection group, have decided that it's not worth taking people to court for using unlicensed files because, erm, they can't actually prove anything against them:

“It requires very strong and concrete evidence to have these people convicted. We simply could not lift the burden of proof,” said Antipiratgruppen lawyer Mary Fredenslund when explaining the decision to Politiken.

In just a year, four cases against alleged pirates have come before the High Court in Denmark and the overall result for the copyright holders has been negative. Three of the defendants were acquitted due to insufficient evidence, and in the one case where a file-sharer was convicted, the defendant had confessed.

There's something about Fredenslund's statement which suggests she's a bit disappointed that, in order to convict someone of something, you have to prove they've done something. Pesky old fundamental principles of natural justice, eh?

Amazing Radio complains about BBC 'nicking concept'

One of the things the BBC has always been good at is supporting new music. John Peel and David Jensen, yes, and the Evening Session, yes, but also across local stations with programmes like On The Wire, Turn It Up and Raw Talent.

It comes as something of a surprise to see Amazing Radio, the DAB new acts network, seems to think that playing unsigned music is (a) an idea it came up with and (b) an idea the BBC have pinched from them:

Paul Campbell, the chief executive of parent company Amazing Media Group, has written to the BBC Trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, complaining that the corporation's rival service, based around the BBC Introducing website, is an unnecessary copycat of a product already provided by the market that has been massively expanded and now threatens to kill his business plans.

"It is an outrage that the BBC should use public funding to copy our concept and, by default, seek to put us out of business. This is to all intents and purposes a direct copy of our privately funded concept," said Campbell, a former BBC executive, in the letter to Lyons.

Hang about - "it is an outrage" in an angry, half-arsed letter? Is Paul Campbell ripping off Mr Cul-De-Sac from the BBC's Mark Steel Solution? Are we going to get a press release later today that goes "why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why... haven't finished it, but it's coming along nicely, don't you think?"

Seriously, though: The hyperbrand of BBC new music talent stuff under Introducing (something I'm not fond of as it wiped a lot of the quirkiness from nations and regions music programming) was born in June 2007. Amazing went on air in, erm, June 2009. What time-travelling wizardry does Campbell think the BBC owns?

Besides, it's not like "only playing music from new artists" is a concept that's so novel you could protect it. And there are so many new artists swishing about with bright eyes and GarageBand produced demos, surely everyone can wet their beaks?

The real problem, you'd have to suggest, is that the audience for pure-play new-acts-only radio stations is quite small. I was accused of being neophile the other week, but my iTunes play count doesn't have everything stuck on one. You need to mix the new with the familiar if you want to build a wide, regular audience.

Campbell seems worried that the best acts would have their heads turned and only go on the BBC (as if a band at the whoring-after-fans stage would ever be after an exclusive relationship.

This seems to sum up how little Campbell actually cares about the bands:

Campbell claimed that the flow through of acts from BBC Introducing has on occasion gone as far as appearances on Jools Holland's BBC2 show.

A scheme that allows bands not being supported by major labels to appear in front of the largest music TV audience? How devious these BBC people are! This must be stopped right away.

Gordon in the morning: Liam's trousers drop

Mr Smart goes to the Pretty Green launch, and who is the last man standing punting his overpriced clothes to?

I was shocked to see This Morning's seemingly-sweet host HOLLY WILLOUGHBY chatting to Liam's missus NICOLE APPLETON and on a tear-up with KASABIAN and RICHARD ASHCROFT.

Another surprise guest was Sugababe HEIDI RANGE, there with her bloke DAVE BERRY.

It's probably slightly more surprising that Ashcroft was there than Range, isn't it? This is a man flogging trousers off the back of his name - that's much more This Morning than XFM.

Liam spent most of the night chatting to MILES KANE from THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS. There's talk he's trying to persuade Miles to form a band with him.

Let's hope that's just the fevered imagination of Gordon running hot, and not based in any trufax. The last thing we need is people starting to form semisupergroups from other band's less-interesting members.

And, remember, this is a tribute, not a ghoulish cash-in:

BOYZONE will release a tribute single to STEPHEN GATELY next year featuring him singing lead vocals.

Bandmate RONAN KEATING revealed plans to cleverly remix the song - which the lads wrote with MIKA - so it showcases Stephen's voice.

It just sounds rather like a cash-in when Keating starts saying things like this:

It's going to be the biggest song of next year, I promise.

That's 2010 ruined by the sound of cash registers ringing mawkishly, then.

Le Prince Miiaou weekend: Hawaiian Tree

And a final slice of Le Prince Miiaou, as she performs for Le Cargo's Acoustic Sessions:



[Part of Le Prince Miiaou weekend]

MySpace: In the money to in the doldrums to in trouble

News International announced pretty good profit figures this week, based mainly on the take from the Ice Age cartoon. To be fair, the company relying on making money out of dinosaurs is nothing new, and it's attempts to evolve are so far generating more duck-billed platypuses than leopards.

The latest rumblings from MySpace aren't encouraging: as traffic to the site falls, the money flowing back from Google is scaling down in proportion. Indeed, the public's diminishing affection for broken page layouts and clashing backgrounds is going to cost NI $100million, reports Hypebot:

We’re still losing traffic,” admitted Chase Carey, chief operating officer of News Corp. “It’s a business in transition.”

Ah, now there's a euphemism. "I'm terribly sorry, Mrs. Smith, your husband is in transition. Indeed, he might not still be transitioning by the end of the night."

MySpace is throwing its hopes on music as its rescue pod. But it's not entirely clear that there's much music-related stuff they can add that they don't already have.

QTrax: Another little fib?

The team at QTrax continue to delight with what can only be a prankster's approach to business. The world has been watching for a couple of years as they send out releases announcing something or other, only for a clarification to follow in a few days that reveals that, actually, the deals with the major labels they said they had weren't in place, or it's taking a little longer to get the music on the system than they expected, or it's simply not possible to download the actual Tina Turner to dance round your living room.

This week, they proudly revealed they'd done a brilliant deal with Baidu:

Qtrax (www.qtrax.com) announced today that Baidu, China's leading Internet search engine, has agreed to direct music related search inquiries from its Entertainment Portal, and Qian Qian Music Online sites to Qtrax's independent, free and legal download service, wherever Qtrax has the queried artist or song in its catalogue.

Allan Klepfisz, President and CEO of Qtrax, commented: "We are very pleased with Baidu's decision. As the dominant search engine in China, Baidu will provide us with substantial traffic from its music and entertainment portals. We, in turn, will provide the visitors they send to our independent free and legal site, a superior music discovery and download experience. In the coming weeks, we will progressively launch in each of nine Asia-Pacific countries and begin to divert and monetize traffic - for the benefit of artists and copyright holders - that previously found its way to non-licensed sites. We believe our offering, including information about the artists, is vastly superior to these unauthorized sites."

Wow. That's quite something.

Trouble is, Baidu - oh, yes - have said there isn't actually any such deal:

But comments from a Baidu representative on Wednesday did not seem to confirm that it would direct any users to Qtrax. "The partnership with Qtrax regards text-based information, such as singer backgrounds; it has nothing to do with the music itself," the Baidu representative said via e-mail.

No links to Qtrax appear to be showing up yet in Baidu's music search section or on its entertainment portal.

In other news, the villagers decided that next time QTrax yells that there's a wolf in the field, they might just not bother going to investigate.

[Story via Hypebot]

Le Prince Miiaou weekend: Live at Chantier des francos

The lighting isn't great, but it's worth peering into the darkness:

by

[Part of Le Prince Miiaou weekend]

Gordon Brown finally finds someone to kick

It's taken a while for Gordon Brown to find a target he can safely pick on - someone who wouldn't be able to shoot back "well, at least I'm better off than you, matey" - but he's managed it.

He's having a go at Jedward, who are apparently in the current run of The X Factor:

Gordon Brown doesn't rate X Factor's Grimes twins. The PM told a Manchester radio station: "I don't think they're very good."

To laughter, he then asked the audience: "Does anyone want John and Edward to win X Factor?"

Meanwhile, Jedward appear on tonight's The Westminster Hour on BBC Radio 4, pointing out that they've still got a chance of winning their popular vote.

Woot-ton: JLS can't take the attention

The non-stories underlining how utterly fantastic JLS are seem to have started to dry up in the Sun, so they're now punting them to the next tier down. A breathless Dan Wootton pants off:

Band studs MARVIN HUMES and ASTON MERRYGOLD are being forced to flee their luxury pad in London after being hounded with saucy propositions from female fans.

My insider revealed: "Aston and Marvin love living together but they're considering moving for security reasons."

The odd woman is stood in the street saying "lick my privates", and that's a security issue? Really?

Perhaps they should stop using Lynx. I'm given to understand this is a side-effect of that.

Le Prince Miiaou weekend: Football Team

More beautiful stuff from Maud-Elisa Mandeau. She describes this as "a do-it-yourself" video, which means as well as being as gorgeous as a creamy kitten, it's also punk as hell:


[Part of Le Prince Miiaou weekend]

This week just gone

New Thrill! Alongside my actual Twittering at @norock, you can now have stuff from No Rock And Roll Fun itself flung automatically into your Twitter stream more-or-less as it happens. Follow @xrrf. Go on.

The most-read stories in October were:

1. R Kelly sex video. Yes, still.
2. RIP: Taylor Mitchell
3. Glastonbury Tickets updates
4. McFly (remember them?) try full frontal nudity
5. NME Awards 2009<
6. RIP: Stephen Gately
7. Lily Allen swaps her clothes under the sea
8. Eric Clapton needs surgery
9. Susan Boyle launches an album for gifting
10. RIP: Greg Ladanyi

As markets readied for Christmas, there was an outpouring of interesting new stuff


The Hidden Cameras - Origin: Orphan


download Origin: Orphan



Nouvelle Vague - Bande A Part



Deer Tick - Born On Flag Day


download Born On Flag Day



Luke Haines - 21st Century Man


download 21st Century Man



Brett Anderson - Slow Attack


download Slow Attack



Thea Gilmore - Strange Communion


download Strange Communion



I Am Kloot - B


download I Am Kloot Peel Sessions



Skunk Anansie - Smashes And Trashes


download Smashes And Trashes



Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young


download Phrazes For The Young



Jackie DeShannon - You Won't Forget Me


download Put A Little Love In Your Heart



Queenadreena - Djin


download Djin

Mozzer: Bottled off in Liverpool

Another truncated Morrissey show tonight, in Liverpool. He got hit by a drink thrown from the crowd, marched off the stage and refused to come back on.

You can see his point. But not everyone can:

Around 10 minutes later a member of the crew announced that the singer had been hit on the head by what was described as a bottle and the concert would not continue.

The announcement was greeted by boos from the packed Arena.

Embed and breakfast man: Le Prince Miiaou

A smattering of Francophone awkward-guitar-pop for this weekend, as I dip cautiously into webpages I can only translate if they touch on French I learned at school. And, frankly, there's not much about a boy called Xavier falling into the river here.

What there is, though, is the work of Maud-Elisa Mandeau and that translates pretty well. Here's a taste, from her session for Liberation:

La Session live: le Prince Miiaou (2/2)
by liberation

Our tabloids slather over Kasabian; French papers run this sort of thing. If ever there was an argument for closer European integration, this could be it.

More Miiaou
Le Prince Miiaou on MySpace [Machine-translated into English]
Le Prince Miiaou on MySpace [French language version]
Le Prince Miiaou on LastFM

Buy
Le Prince Miiaou - Safety First - mp3 album

Further video to come...
Football Team
Live at Chanteir Des Francos
Hawaiian Tree

Splits: Aerosmith

Shortly after Brad Whitford told Classic Rock magazine that, perhaps, Steve Tyler might not be the only person who can sing songs comes apparent confirmation from Joe Perry that Tyler has quit.

I'm imagining he stormed out yelling "well, if having a singer who doesn't fall off the stage and crack his hip is so bloody important, you find one..."

Embed and breakfast man: Berlin-off

Given the discussion in the comments yesterday, here's a GDR-era video Berlin-off.

In the red corner, Eastbourne's The Mobiles doing Drowning In Berlin:



And in the other red corner, The Passions I'm In Love With A German Film Star - perhaps the sexiest song ever written about a roadie:



Buy
The Passions - Thirty Thousand Feet Over China
The Mobiles - The Best Of...

Downloadable: Sambassadeur

Sweden's mighty Labrador records offers up a glimpse of the new Sambassadeur: Download Days now.

Gordon in the morning: You are the ref

Normally, when Gordon tells us about all the things that he's been doing, it's accompanied by an awkward photo.

Not this time:

Yes, it turns out when he's laddishly hanging out with a footballer and kicking a football about and - heh - not being very good at it, Gordon is relaxed. Is he sure he's writing for the bit of the paper that he wants to be in?

It's all for a programme:

Coke Zero Presents: Wayne Rooney's Street Striker is unmissable telly.

Isn't it a bit arrogant to say that a programme that you're in is unmissable?

Dates with Cate

Coming soon: Two Cate Le Bon dates:

Monday 9 November – LONDON – The Social (£4)
Saturday 21 November – LONDON – The Borderline (with Nancy Elizabeth)

Apologies to those of us who don't live in London.

Spinner catch Miley Cyrus out in a lie

Faster than Channel 4 News' fact check, Spinner run a slide rule over Miley Cyrus:

"I've never heard a Jay-Z song. I don't listen to pop music, and it's not even my style of music." --Miley Cyrus

Really, asks Spinner:

[W]e quote from your new single 'Party in the U.S.A.,' "and the Jay-Z song was on/and the Jay-Z song was on."

Although, to be fair, maybe Miley doesn't listen to her own songs, either. If she had any sense.

Bunnymen tax gripe tour axe

Echo And The Bunnymen had been due to tour America this month.

But now they're not.

The IRS apparently wanted some money. They feel that there's been a few too many Bunnymen tours in a short period of time, and are demanding "a fee" (i.e. tax that isn't called a tax) and the Bunnymen won't cough up. The next tour will now be in April. The next tax year, then.

Downloadable: Pixies

In one of them swap-for-email deals, the Pixies are offering a free ep. You don't even have to go anywhere as there's a widget. Look:

New Year treat in Utah

What could persuade you to spend New Years Eve in Utah? How about Wainwrights Rufus, Loudon and Lucy playing together?

Park City Eccles Center gets the event. New Years Eve is when you'd expect it.

Morrissey is the greatest

It's always wise to approach any claims that X is the greatest at Y with extreme caution, especially when the 'X' in question is the subject of the a book by the person making the claims.

Still, you can at least see why Dr Gavin Hopps is coming from:

The launch of Dr Hopps' book, "Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart", will take place in Manchester.

The event will be held on Saturday at Blackwell's University bookshop in the city's Oxford Road.

Dr Hopps believes Morrissey's work is comparable not only to great writers but also to comedy greats such as Frankie Howerd and George Formby.

The book explores all the major subjects in the singer's writing - such as love, melancholy, monstrosity and alienation.

If you're starting to make grand claims, calling George Formby a comedy great is going to start to undermine you from the get-go. It's like suggesting that William Hague is every bit as witty as James Corden.

And the rather than one of the greatest? Jarvis Cocker might have a thing to say about that...