Kudos go out to Sub Pop Records and its commitment to alternatives to fossil fuels. Earlier this year, the label purchased enough wind-powered Green Tags to be 100-percent Green-e Renewable Energy certified, and it debuted the first-ever "green" album with Kelley Stoltz's Below the Branches. Green Tags financially support the generation of power from renewable sources, and are meant to offset a business' or household's consumption of fossil fuels.
Arguments from Kermit the Frog aside, the Barenaked Ladies showed that it's actually easy to be green, joining with the eco-friendly folks at Reverb for the band's 29-city American tour. Hauled by a biodiesel-fueled caravan and featuring organic fare backstage, the tour sold merchandise from recycled sources and T-shirts that were printed on organic cotton with soy-based inks. The band also led the charge for embracing a wide variety of technological formats and charting your own destiny with an artist-owned label, Desperation Records. In the first week of its release, Barenaked Ladies Are Me came close to bringing in a million dollars of sales spread over physical CDs, digital distribution, USB flash drives, and ringtones. In February comes the release of Barenaked Ladies Are Me: Deluxe Edition featuring Umixit software and a collection of tracks reworked by fans using the remix program. With iTunes on track to sell its 100 millionth MP3 download earlier this month, the band plans to write a song about the person who makes that transaction, with the track to be bundled with other digital-only rarities next month.
Also receiving my fan-friendly thumbs-up for the year are The Black Crowes, who, overwhelmed by the response to their "Get Tall in the Rockies" contest, awarded every fan who entered the competition a pair of tickets to any show on this past summer's tour.
Speaking of ringtones, I've got a big belch of "bleah" for Billboard magazine's debut of the Hot MasterTones sales chart, further praising music's demise into just another jingle ready for demographic studies by Madison Avenue.
Another digitized downer? How about Duran Duran clutching at cool by creating an online world presence in Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com), complete with "in world" live concerts and "doing things ordinary pop stars can only dream about in the real world."
More reasons to snooze? Kiss opened the world's first Kiss Coffeehouse in sophisticated Myrtle Beach - complete with Demon Dark Roast and French Kiss Vanilla - and the estate of Jerry Garcia started selling five blends of tea under names such as Spirit of the Sage, Shady Grown, and Magic Herb Blend. Unless each recipe came directly from Garcia's handwritten deathbed journals, and is prepared under strict hippie law in an Amsterdam commune, it smells like a pig in a poke to me.
More musicians received their very own likeness in a collectible toy "action figure" in 2006, from My Chemical Romance to Gwar, but Ghostface Killah is soon to invade Barbie's Dream House in a $500, nine-inch-tall talking figurine, promising a 14-karat gold chain, robe, chalice, and mix tape. The real-life Ghostface has committed to hang for a day with one lucky purchaser of his limited-edition likeness.
One nifty artist novelty debuted this year with a unique, personal connection, using guitar strings played by a variety of stars to create funky silver bracelets called the Relix Band. Four charities benefit from the efforts of Relix magazine and the Wear Your Music campaign, which offers a statement of authenticity from a long list of participants, including Elvis Costello, Keith Richards, Peter Frampton, Warren Haynes, Trey Anastasio, Carlos Santana, and Ben Harper.
As much as I respect the Boy Scouts and their honorable merit-badge pursuits, I'm torn over a new patch that scouts can earn by researching only one side of the debate over downloading, file sharing, and the Digital Rights Management of music. Pairing more than 50,000 scouts in the Los Angeles area with the Motion Picture Association of America, the "Respect Copyrights" patch sounds like a great idea - researching file-sharing networks and how they shouldn't be used to obtain copyright-controlled material. But the merit badge should include explorations of legitimate artistic uses of copyrighted material - such as mash-ups and remixes - as well as an understanding of the difference between a creator's rights and corporate exploitation. One specific element of the program has the lads walking hand-in-hand with "the man" - suggesting that scouts detect illegal music on their parents' personal computers by running software such as the MPAA Parent File Scan.
Television Alert:
The Late Show with David Letterman warms up to the Cold War Kids on Thursday and Darlene Love on Friday; Late Night with Conan O'Brien boasts Sean Lennon this evening overnight and Cheap Trick on Tuesday overnight; The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson presents Hinder on Thursday overnight, and Twisted Sister on Friday overnight - sure to spread holiday cheer from its new Christmas CD; Last Call with Carson Daly hosts the Goo Goo Dolls on Friday overnight; and Jimmy Kimmel Live features OK Go this evening overnight, Gnarls Barkley on Thursday overnight, Lady Sovereign on Monday overnight, and Rock Star Supernova on Tuesday overnight.
New Releases Coming Tuesday, December 26:
... and like the winds, young grasshopper, are subject to change.
Davie Allan & The Arrows - Cycle-Delic Sounds (Sundazed) groovy motorcycle mayhem in this vinyl LP issue
Good Charlotte - Fast Future Generation (Daylight/Epic) DVD featuring live and documentary footage from last year's tour of Japan
Matisyahu - No Place to Be (Epic) CD or DVD featuring two cover versions of The Police hit "Message in a Bottle," with two monster icons of dub - Bill Laswell and Sly & Robbie - taking turns in the producer's seat
Switchfoot - Oh Gravity! (Sparrow/Columbia) featuring production by Steve Lillywhite
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (Epic Legacy)
various artists - The Family Values Tour 2006
(Firm) CD and DVD starring the Deftones and Korn
