They must be getting a mighty big check. And a bunch of TV promotion.

Is there a shortage of AC/DC music online? Are people waiting with bated breath for the band’s material to show up on iTunes? Is it like the unavailability of the Dave Clark 5 in the CD era?

No. You can easily find each and every AC/DC track you want P2P. It’s simple. Like it is with any legendary band.

And I don’t know if I should tell you this, but YOU DON’T HAVE TO STEAL THEM AS AN ALBUM! You can take just the tracks you want. A few, or all.

And what’s so bad about people taking a few? Do you think everybody played these albums from start to finish once they got CD players? When they could easily program tracks using a remote?

God, the music business is like the Administration, living in a parallel universe that doesn’t reflect reality.

As for buying via Verizon… Why in the hell would I want to do that? And I’m ON Verizon. They charge too much. And even if they lowered the price, I can still get it for free.

How fucked up is it that we’ve got an industry creating barriers when its success is based on BREAKING DOWN those barriers. AC/DC’s music should be available everywhere people want to buy it, in any way they want to. God, you can even customize cars more.

Then again, the auto manufacturers are smart. They sell BUCKETS of options. You want the heated seats, you’ve got to buy a cold weather package, with heated windshield wipers. Want bigger wheels, you’ve got to get the sport package, which includes other performance-enhancing options. And, this grouping, it makes the price LOWER than it would be if you purchased the options individually.

Where’s the online enticement? The DRM? The same aliquot cost per track as the CD? Why should anybody buy online?

Oh, that’s the dirty little secret of the music business. They don’t want people to buy online. They want them to buy CDs.

Won’t you buy a CD? Send my kid, and his kids and their kids, to college? I’ve got a lifestyle I’m trying to keep up. You’re screwing with me by stealing the music. Tower Records went out of business and you have to drive further to a nonexistent outlet? That’s a small effort for a lifetime of entertainment.

Well, AC/DC is a lifetime of entertainment. But most of what the labels sell today is not.

I don’t know who to blame here. The label, the manager or the band itself.

The more people who own your music, the way they want to acquire it, the more people who want to see you live, at a higher price and buy merch.

AC/DC is part of the holy trinity. Along with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. These are the bands the teenagers want to see.

And how did they find out about them? FILE-TRADING!

AC/DC’s Highly-Anticipated Back Catalog Debuts on V CAST Music From Verizon Wireless; Group’s Full-Album Digital Downloads Available for First Time

This blows my mind.
I just received the following e-mail:

Sharon Lord:

I couldn’t get enough of that song.

Did you see the video?

I loved it because it had the whole Guns’nRoses guitar, he’s got Steven Tyler’s moves…the video is so 80’s MTV and he sings it like a rock star…he gives it everything. It just worked.

I’m sure you have a better source of video than this, but this is a link to the video if you haven’t seen it…

Yahoo Music Videos H

It’s one with the 4 stars next to it

Have a good night!

So I fire up my browser, find the link and start watching the video… It’s the exact same girl who dumped Eric on "Entourage", Emmanuelle Chriqui!

Once upon a time, you would have said "Duh!" Back in ’82 or ’83, when we were all glued to MTV. When every record exec had the station playing in his office throughout the day. Back when we were all in it together.

But we haven’t had that spirit here since 1989. Or 1990. Not since "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Sometime in the nineties, we all tuned out. It just took Napster for the labels to realize it.

Our culture is now extremely diverse. Each person charting his own course. Based on recommendations from friends and links. We’re all explorers, not unlike the voyagers of yore, sailing off to new territories. We’re the masters of our own domain.

So, I’d never seen the video for "Lips Of An Angel". I didn’t have to. That’s so last century. Major media thinks we’re paying attention. But think of all the people who rejected the overhype of the underrated Simpsons movie. We’re geared for disappointment, we’re just hanging back, at the endless buffet, waiting for something worth partaking in.

And I can’t wholly recommend "Entourage". The entourage is despicable. Unless you consider them to be a cartoon. But supposedly it’s based on Marky Mark’s life. If this male-bonding, wreaking havoc upon women and society, is the desirable way of life, I want no part.

Still, there’s Eric. The only reasonable character in the posse.

And, having graduated to Vince’s manager, he connects with the agency’s progeny, Malcolm McDowell’s daughter Sloan.

Has there been a Sloan since "Ferris Bueller"?

And this one is just as cool. She doesn’t encroach upon Eric’s lifestyle, she lets him be him. Until he wants to go on location for the better part of a year. Relationship or career. Always a balance, always a question. Which side do you come down on? Without someone to share, it doesn’t mean much. But, if you’re seething on the inside because you’ve forgone your dream, your relationship is not gonna be too good.

Eric picks the movie business.

He doesn’t forget Sloan, as long as he doesn’t see her he’s o.k. But Sunday night, he ran into her by the pool, looking as inviting as ever. What do you say? How do you act? How do you explain the babe by your side? When Eric says he’s babysitting Vince’s friend’s friend, does that make him more appealing to Sloan, or does she see him as a loser?

He did the wrong thing breaking it off. He can’t function. All he can do is think about her. He picks up the phone, but she doesn’t recognize his voice. He gets past the awkward moment and opens his heart. And after the quietude, she says those words we dread hearing. She’s met someone else.

And HBO isn’t network. This is not a soap opera. Sloan’s not coming back. She’s deep history, like that girl you had that moment with in high school you didn’t double down on.

And other than Ari’s shenanigans, Eric’s emotional roller coaster was the highlight of the show. It stuck with me.

And then I’m watching this fucking Hinder video.

The lead singer is pained. As he picks up the receiver to talk to his old girlfriend…

Honey why you calling me so late?
It’s kinda hard to talk right now
Honey why are you crying? Is everything okay?
I gotta whisper ’cause I can’t be too loud

His girl’s in the corner of the room. She’s lithe and blonde, a rock star trophy. But he’s not connected to her now. He’s in the vortex, between her and who came before.

And the video switches from abode to studio. Where the new babe is still by his side.

It’s funny that you’re calling me tonight
And, yes, I’ve dreamt of you too
And does he know you’re talking to me
Will it start a fight
No I don’t think she has a clue

And suddenly they’re driving up PCH. Her brown skin is shining in the sun, he’s got those sunglasses on. He’s with her. Sloan.

Is Universal next?

Dow Jones sold out to Rupert Murdoch because it didn’t have an adequate plan for the future. No way to compete with the behemoths on the Web. Oh, they had a pay site, with little reach, in a world where YouTube goes from obscurity to ubiquity overnight. Where MySpace garners millions of views and instant profitability with a Google ad deal. All the brass at the "Journal" could do was turn out a damn fine newspaper, in an era when newspapers are dying.

It’s not a secret. Advertising is falling precipitously. Youngsters are getting their news online. In our lifetimes, there will be no physical paper delivered to the door. It’s as inefficient as shipping CDs to retail outlets and schlepping same around to listen to. We want our news all the time, with us, just like we want our music. A concept that the music industry is still wrestling with.

The "Wall Street Journal" was worth more to Murdoch than the Bancrofts. How long until Universal Music is worth more to a third party than Vivendi? Not long.

Oh, it would be great if Universal, which rules the business with an iron fist, figured out a way to monetize online delivery. But for now they’re just insisting on copy-protected tracks and refusing to authorize file trading. You had to buy the paper to read it, but now anybody can visit a Website. The potential audience for what Dow Jones offers is gargantuan. But oppressed by an antiquated vision, the stewards of the company just couldn’t adapt to this new paradigm. As their brethren at Universal have to.

And it is all about money. And the value of record labels is not going up, rather down. Checked Warner’s stock price recently? How long until some financier grabs Universal at a fire sale price and uses its assets as a component in selling something else? If you’re Chevron Texaco, you don’t need to charge for music, you can just give it away as a premium with overpriced gasoline, you can use it to build market share. Or the next competitor to Google. Maybe MSN. How could it leverage Universal’s assets to compete with the search behemoth? Microsoft’s got the money. And it understands the landscape better than Doug Morris or Zach Horowitz. As for Jimmy Iovine, he’s just an employee, not an owner. A star reporter, not a man with game. His fortune is a pittance compared with that of the corporate titans. And money rules. Even Jimmy knows this.

It’s not only the "Wall Street Journal". The "Los Angeles Times" is a shadow of its former self, cutting sections seemingly every month. Even the vaunted "New York Times" has financial problems. There are rumblings in the financial community that the family has to give up control, before it’s too late.

Is it too late in music?

Warner has been cut to the bone. EMI has consolidated and is now being sold. Columbia is being rebuilt, seemingly from scratch. And what is the plan? To get more rights from the acts to make the numbers work, while offering less in return? It would be one thing if you got a better deal for giving up a piece of your road income, but that’s not the case. You’re just being raped by an industry in the throes of death.

The major labels made music free. Not the consumer. The major labels refused to license the original Napster. They sued their customers and new P2P operations to keep their business model. As Wal-Mart stocked fewer SKUs and indie retail shops kept going out of business. And got angry with Steve Jobs for coming up with a way to make some money online. They’re like the high school faculty, scolding the student population, which is soon going to graduate and inherit the earth.

We’ve got a music television network that doesn’t play music. We’ve got a consolidated radio world that sees the tunes as subsidiary to commercials. Satellite radio has been mismanaged, is too expensive and doesn’t work as well as an iPod. And the labels want to kill their saviors, like Web radio. Isn’t that an axiom of the business? People have to hear music in order to gain the desire to buy it?

There’s no way out of this without revolution. A complete rethinking of the way music is created, sold and marketed. The business props up the album, as if it’s sacrosanct, while teenagers only desire the good stuff, which they want to pick and choose. The transaction must reflect reality. A lot, easily acquired, for a little. Growing a larger pot overall. Make it even easier than P2P to get it. And have everybody own it. Where are those solutions?

Oh, blame the publishing companies.

But suddenly, the labels have become the publishing companies. That’s what supposedly makes Universal dominant. But it just makes it a better takeover target. Guaranteed, low overhead income.

Dow Jones’ value stagnated for years. To the point where its owners were ripe for a preemptive offer. Can you say Universal?

Just call Vivendi. You’ll find the lines are open.

This week’s episode of "Entourage" focused on Eric’s inability to fuck mindlessly, to do the dirty deed and move on.

Can you do this?

I can’t. I get emotionally attached. Hell, it’s hard for me to press myself upon someone if I don’t feel the connection. Maybe my father never led me, maybe I wasn’t a member of the right group in high school, but taking advantage of a woman…it’s just not what I do.

Then again, what about the girls who want to take advantage of me?

That’s equally uncomfortable. I run.

The literature tells us otherwise. That men follow their dicks anywhere and everywhere. They need to get laid constantly. The receptacle doesn’t matter.

But it does. Oh, you can block out the connection. You can live in ignorance. But when bodily fluids are exchanged your lives are changed forever. You share something that you can’t forget, however much you might want to. And it’s this accumulated baggage that causes one to lose one’s optimism. With more questions than answers, you get bogged down. Do you stay where you are, or jump ship believing there’s a better destination? Or where you were before, is that where you really should be?

We’d all like to go back. To those times of young love. We idealize the other person. If only we reconnected…what would happen? Would our lives work? Or would it be a disaster.

Honey why you calling me so late?

One of the best episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" dealt with the cut-off time. How late can you call?

In your twenties, any time is fine. People are looking for action, they don’t want to be left out. But as the years wear on, the hour of permissible connection gets earlier and earlier. Whether kids are involved or not.

And when the phone rings close to midnight, you know it must be important. And that’s when they call. Not in the middle of the afternoon. Or dinner time. But when they’re home alone, thinking of you. And when you hear their voice on the end of the line, your heart skips a beat. You feel connected, so right, like you’re home, where you’re supposed to be.

Only she’s there.

And you’re here.

But girl you make it hard to be faithful
With the lips of an angel

I was hiking, long after midnight. And when I descended upon Will Rogers’ house, what came through my iPod headphones suddenly caught me off guard. This was not a conventional love song. There was some kind of twist.

Oh, I’d heard the song before. Was it by that TV band the Heights?

No, this was that power ballad, by that double platinum act, Hinder. A Nickelback clone painting by numbers. But this artwork…the numbers had gotten tossed around in the washing machine, the resulting image, it was something different.

Well, my girl’s in the next room
Sometimes I wish she was you
I guess we never really moved on
It’s really good to hear your voice say my name
It sounds so sweet
Coming from the lips of an angel
Hearing those words it makes me weak

The new girlfriend is sleeping in ignorant bliss. She believes her predecessor is history. Your ex may be in the rearview mirror, but that doesn’t mean you don’t take a look. And you know better than to pull the car into her driveway. But what if she pulls her automobile into yours?

That’s the way it happens. You’re minding your own business. And you stumble upon an unfamiliar name in your e-mail inbox. And before you relegate the missive to the trash, condemning it to the dustbin for eternity, quashing the spark, something inside tells you this might be real. So you click and read.

It’s her.

And now everybody’s findable. The Internet has seemingly ruined more relationships than it’s kindled.

Old wounds are opened. You fall right back into your routine. Unless you’re strong. Do you want to be this standoffish? You shared a bed. Your hopes and dreams. As well as disasters. She’s part of your family, can you turn your back?

It’s really good to hear your voice say my name
It sounds so sweet
Coming from the lips of an angel
Hearing those words it makes me weak

You don’t want to lead her on. But part of you wants to jump in. Your heart overrules your brain. But will this work out? And that dedicated girl back in the bed? Does she have someone too? Is it just a matter of time? Are we all just passing through? Can we count on anyone, anything?

Life is confusing. And the longer you live, the less you understand it. You’re looking for explanations. And anybody who gives you a morsel of insight, who makes you believe you’re not alone in your feelings, will get your money. It’s not about sheen, it’s not about the one night stand, it’s about open honesty.

And that essence, it’s in this derided Hinder song, "Lips Of An Angel".

But, as I said, that’s not where I discovered it. Rather, upon instruction of a country fan, I downloaded Jack Ingram’s cover. And sans the heaviness, the lyrics jumped out, the changes lost their sense of bludgeon. I realized the song was a classic.

All those doctored numbers Clive Davis creates. They’re of the moment. Because they fit the formula, but that’s all they are, formula. And great music has no formula. It’s like a lightning bolt, perfectly formed, instantly great.

Oh, I don’t have big hopes for Hinder. But "Lips Of An Angel" will live on. If it weren’t for the underlying message, it would be a wedding staple. Maybe this year it is. Because "Lips Of An Angel" bespeaks intimacy. And that’s what we’re all looking for, closeness. And when we finally find it, we’re not eager to give up on it.

The one night standers believe they’re winners. But they’re the losers. They’re covering up their basic human need. To feel a member of society. We’re highly evolved animals. We don’t only crave physical pleasure. The physical is just one element of the whole. A whole that’s hard to create, hard to keep in balance.

The big swinging dicks don’t even ask the questions. Their money and flash are supposed to be enough.

But they’re not. We know that.

Just like we know whenever we hear "Lips Of An Angel" we feel understood, part of something bigger, very complicated, known as life.

Jack Ingram – "Lips Of An Angel" is the last song in the player

and listen to the original Hinder take at: Hinder, but be sure to scroll down the page to stop the video on the lower left-hand side, so it doesn’t play over the music