If the Arctic Monkeys and James Morrison can’t get any traction in the USofA, why must we be subjected to lowest common denominator Posh Spice?

We just don’t get those English acts where style trumps talent. Where if you crack the insides of a celebrity you get crack, or air. I’d say you can see right through Posh Spice except for the fact that she’s so damn skinny you don’t have to. You can see quite clearly on either side of her.

Now who says the Spice Girls are entitled to a return engagement? Certainly not the public, not over here on this side of the pond. They were one hit wonders, no different from Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. Do you really think late teens and early twentysomethings have so much nostalgia for their prepubescent years that they’ll pony up a hundred bucks to see five women lip-synch to recorded background tracks? Can you say "of the moment"? That’s what the Spice Girls were. Even their one big hit, "Wannabe", gets no airplay today, because it wasn’t that good a song. What next, a New Kids On The Block reunion?

But the mainstream media needs a story. Something to run up the flagpole.

You’d think that with all the hatred directed at Paris Hilton, even on MTV, that the media would wake up and realize we’ve got contempt for these vapid no-talents. But that isn’t the case. In yesterday’s L.A. "Times" there was a whole damn section devoted to Posh Spice.

Which is positively startling if you’ve been following the strange saga of the newspaper that wanted to be America’s #2. I’m waiting for the day they bill me for the L.A. "Times" and nothing arrives on the doorstep. They joined the Opinion and Book Review sections into one. Kind of like "Fader". You flip one over, and voila, you’ve got the other! In mini-tabloid form. Just to make sure you don’t get too much intelligence with your Sunday morning cup of coffee.

And the magazine? That’s now down to once a month.

But they’ve got a whole new photography section. Didn’t anybody at the L.A. "Times" get the memo? That "Life" has died for the final time? And even "Life" had more words than this section.

And do you really think people reading the paper want to see this shit? Isn’t this for Web-surfers, over at TMZ.com?

But it’s not only the L.A. "Times". Which might be forgiven because Posh’s husband is coming to play soccer in L.A. But what’s NBC’s excuse? Why does Posh get a full hour on TV? They won’t report casualty numbers from Iraq, but this blonde-bimbo wannabe, she gets full traction.

And what is a Posh Spice?

Her real name was Victoria. Victoria ________? Oh, never mind. We’ve forgotten her original last name. She’s now a Beckham. Like that guy who was in that cute movie, that broke Keira Knightley’s career. But pro soccer don’t mean shit over here, and even the mighty Man U shipped Beckham off to Spain, saying he was over the hill.

We got Pele when he could barely play. Now we’re gonna get a pretty boy past his prime and this is going to blow up professional soccer? Isn’t this like saying all those classic rock acts touring arenas and sheds are going to save the record business? There’s a market for has-beens, but if you’re growing something from scratch, you need new talent.

Well, is soccer growing from scratch here in the U.S?

Don’t tell Phil Anschutz this. This force of will is trying to stuff the sport down our throats. Mmm…isn’t it interesting that the L.A. "Times" took a dive when they had a for profit section on Staples Center, where Anschutz’s teams play? Who’s zoomin’ who here? Who’s really in control?

The media has become like the government. Corporations rule.

Who said Posh Spice was important? A woman with baseball-sized boobs glued to her chest, who looks like she hasn’t eaten during this century, she’s the new role model for young American girls? Why isn’t NOW or maybe even Rosie O’Donnell out there protesting this travesty of hype?

Probably because nobody’s really paying attention. Only the media that needs a story to sell to its advertisers. The public doesn’t care.

Do me a favor L.A. "Times". Next time, just print a picture of a hanger, that’s all Posh Spice is. She’s even dumber than most models.

Uneducated, created by the knife and sporting an unending desire to be famous, she trumps everybody with an education, everybody who believes you make the best of what you’re born with, who believes that who you are is more important than what you look like?

The media is so out of touch with the American public it isn’t funny. It’s no different than their support of the Administration in the run-up to the war. They want to be in bed with the rich, they want to go to parties with Posh Spice, or her handlers/sponsors. They want some of the overflow of fame, just like Judith Miller cherished her White House access.

The media used to be independent. Forging its own stories. Coming up with its own stars. Maybe they’re complicit in this Posh Spice hype because no one’s working at the papers anymore. Or most of the media. They’ve laid off most of the worker bees in the hunt for profits, to satiate Wall Street, and all that remain are out of touch millionaires, who think what their brethren fat cats tell them is happening truly is.

But it’s not.

The mainstream media has lost touch with the public. And that’s why it’s in such trouble.

If you want the edgy stories, you’ve got to go to the Web.

And if you want to know what’s truly happening, you’ve got to have friends, and surf the Internet. But, these executives and "reporters" are more in touch with Bloomberg than Facebook. They don’t know that the public now rules. That people don’t like being dictated to. That they’re rejecting the faux stories being rammed down their throats.

Posh Spice doesn’t really have to die. But the stories about her do. She’s just another sports star’s wife. No more, no less. Squeegee her off the public radar PLEASE!

They say the most beautiful song ever written is "Waterloo Sunset". I don’t agree. I believe it’s Split Enz’s "Message To My Girl".

I love the story of Terry and Julie. But when Neil Finn sings that "there’s nothing quite as real as a touch of your sweet hand" he encapsulates the secret desire of this lonely rock and roll fan. We listened to the records because we loved them, but what we wanted even more was someone sitting next to us, with their eyes closed, body touching ours, as the music swirled around in the dark. Rock fans are lonely. They go to the show to feel that they belong. Listening to "Message To My Girl" I feel that I belong.

"Message To My Girl" is one of the few good tracks on "Conflicting Emotions", Split Enz’s last album.

They’d been on Chrysalis. But the band didn’t break through until they signed with A&M, and released "True Colours". It was 1980, when KROQ was still free-form, before it became the "ROQ of the 80s". When if a band from New Zealand with little traction released an infectious record the station would play it, without checking with a consultant or doing callout research first.

I treasure all those days at the Whisky. Not only Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, but Split Enz. If you’d heard "True Colours" you had to go. Because the album contained not only the classic opening track, "I Got You", but three consecutive songs on the second side that are the essence of rock and roll, because they embody all the alienation, all the loneliness of being a fan.

And they performed "Nobody Takes Me Seriously", "Missing Person" and "Poor Boy" that night. But that was when it was still Tim Finn’s band. Neil was not an equal, but a junior partner. But it turned out that Neil had a knack for commerciality, for composing catchy radio tracks, and he soon came to dominate. Not that Split Enz ever got any bigger. They seemed to peak with the laser-etched "True Colours". But I didn’t think twice before buying their records. I needed them.

And when the band broke up, Neil formed a new group, Crowded House. Which had a monster hit a while after the debut was released, with "Don’t Dream It’s Over". But there’s a song on that album that takes the essence of the Split Enz experience and goes further, "Hole In The River". It’s dark without letting its mood sink the song. It’s for we lonely rockers, with more questions than answers. But then Crowded House’s humor eclipsed its touching realism, and I lost interest, they weren’t going in the right direction, I reverted to listening to my Split Enz records.

And I’m a dyed-in-the-wool fan. I went to see "Coca-Cola Kid" because Tim Finn was in it. But each subsequent Finn record… It had the feel, the essence, but not the magic.

Now the magic is back.

Neil has reformed the band. Crowded House that is. Sans the drummer who took his own life. They were the Live Earth headliner Down Under. Not that anybody but a fan would know in the U.S. Over here, they’re a theatre act at best. But to see the band play to tens of thousands, enraptured, in a way only spectacle rivets people over here, raised my pulse. Yes, there’s was the first video I dialed up on MSN. Watch the audience sing along with the band on "Take The Weather With You". You’ll scratch your head, wondering about this alternative universe, where a band not based on looks, that doesn’t dance, makes it purely on music that’s not Top Forty pop, is a cultural institution.

But if you dial back a few numbers, you’ll find the performance of a new song, "Silent House". Which captures the magic of Neil Finn every bit as much as his twenty five year old material.
Better yet, dial up the band’s MySpace page:

The Official Crowded House MySpace

Skip the first three numbers, go straight to the last, the one played the least, "Silent House".

What did we love about Led Zeppelin? THE ETHEREAL QUALITY! Like the music was made in another world, separate from ours, where we not only wanted to visit, but live. Where everybody got along, where you were accepted for who you were.

Who are you? The guy who dons the fancy duds and puts up a front and tries to swim in the morass of the corporation or the person with more questions than answers, who listens to music that gets him through?

I’m betting you’re the latter. I’m betting if we were stranded in a hut far from civilization your airs would fall away, you’d stand there naked, warts and all, desirous of connecting.

We’re all little children. We cover up so as not to be abused. It’s such a big job keeping up appearances. But if we don’t, will we be able to get ahead, will we be able to keep our heads above water?

We doubt it. That’s why we have faith in artists. They’re playing the game for us. The true game of life. Where you sacrifice artifice, are a raw nerve-ending, your true self, subject to degradation as well as adulation.

"Silent House" begins like a lone boat on a lake in the dark. Afloat, but unsure where it is going. And when Neil Finn comes in singing, he sounds like a lost soul, almost dead, yet still alive.

Eventually the drums roll in, there are further textures, the track bobs up and down in the waves. Then comes the power. The explosive guitars.

How did we get here? How can we be this old and still feel so clueless? Are we going to die without achieving our dreams? Are we even going to be able to keep our equilibrium as the losses mount? How are we going to cope?

I don’t know.

But when I hear a record as good as "Silent House", I can get through another day.

 I love the Internet.

From: Luke Lewis
Subject: Re: Road Map For The Blues

Check out Joe Ely records to find more Hancock songs._
Find "Dirty Water" by Buddy and Julie Miller. It will blow you away.

Remember that first Robbie Robertson album? With "Broken Arrow"?

Robbie can’t sing for shit, but oh the VIBE of that album. Like the Band, but one step removed. This Buddy and Julie Miller track was recorded in the same mindspace as that first Robbie Robertson solo record. Well, if Robbie left the U.S. for some island "Survivor" was filmed on, living in the detritus after the contestants and TV crew left. With no hope of economic success, only playing because it FELT GOOD!

Or maybe you’ve stumbled into a bar in some far out neck of the woods, and as you were quaffing your beer, you noticed that your toe was tapping, that the band on stage…they weren’t playing what was on the radio, but the sound entered your body and TOOK YOU AWAY! To a place where none of the bullshit of life mattered.

Do you revel in your 10,000 square foot house and German automobile? Then, "Dirty Water" isn’t for you. It’s not even for you if you ASPIRE to those things. "Dirty Water" isn’t about the pop chart, but music, making the players and the listeners feel good. When the musicianship matters more than the money, you get something like "Dirty Water".

Luke Lewis doesn’t e-mail me every day. He doesn’t try to push stuff down my throat. This record isn’t even on his label. He’s e-mailing me as a FAN! And someone who’s the head of Nashville’s most credible label, the man who’s turned Lost Highway into a brand akin to David Geffen’s Asylum of the seventies, where you can buy the discs on the record company name alone, he gets my ATTENTION!

So I fired up my P2P program. Found the track and downloaded it. And was positively stunned as it started to play.

Oh, let’s say the album was on Lost Highway. Luke could have mailed it, but when I got it would I still be in the mood? Funny about music, it’s all about the mood. Ever look at your collection and find NOTHING you want to hear? Then you know what I’m talking about.

Or I could get in my car and drive to the store and buy it. But what store would actually possess it? In an era where Wal-Mart doesn’t even carry every Beatle album, what are the odds the stores that exist near me will carry THIS?

Or, I could order it from Amazon. That’d be even FURTHER delayed gratification.

Or, I could buy the track from iTunes. Let me check, can you get "Dirty Water" on iTunes?

Yup, it’s there. Is it worth a buck? Sure. But if you think I’m gonna pay FIRST and decide LATER you must be living in the nineties.

That’s how the business used to be. You heard one track on the radio, and then bought the album to find out, most of the time, it just wasn’t that good. But then along came the Internet, and you could hear everything FIRST!

The labels cried foul. That’s not how you do it. You must buy shrink-wrapped product, you don’t know what’s in the goody bag until AFTER you pay.

WRONG!

And the labels still haven’t recovered. Thirty second samples? Think that would convince you to buy "Stairway To Heaven"?

And I’ve SEEN Buddy and Julie Miller. I didn’t think they were THIS good. I wouldn’t lay down ANYTHING for their music without hearing it first.

But on P2P, it’s FREE!

Oh, I’d pay ten bucks a month for P2P, but the labels WON’T LET ME!

So, I downloaded this… And you know what, LUKE LEWIS IS RIGHT!

So, I fired up MySpace. There are four Buddy and Julie Miller tracks there. But not "Dirty Water". If you’re a savvy surfer like me, you too can steal it. But, if you’re afraid of the long arm of the law, you’re gonna live in the dark. Unless you plop down 99 cents. But I GUARANTEE YOU AT LEAST HALF MY AUDIENCE WON’T LOVE THIS TRACK! But if you DO!

You should be able to hear it in its entirety online. You should be able to acquire it at a cost that feels free, like cable TV. Who would this hurt? Certainly not Buddy and Julie Miller. Who knows, they could BLOW UP!

We’re living in a brand new world. Where it’s not about chosen hits, but GREAT MUSIC! If you’ve got friends, trusted filters, you’re now in nirvana. You’re uncovering stuff you had no idea EXISTED and it’s making your life so much RICHER!

Satellite radio is a filter. That’s its main attraction. That’s one of the main reasons I tune in. To hear new stuff.

Just now, pulling into my garage, the deejay on XM’s X Country said two people had birthdays today, Julie Miller and Butch Hancock.

Oh, what a wonderful world we live in. Acts that were completely underground, that had no traction, that had to keep their day jobs, are suddenly accessible, suddenly mean something. And then he spun this Butch Hancock tune "Road Map For The Blues". And it was GOOD!

My little sister went alt country before there was an alt country, back in the seventies, in D.C. She mentioned Butch Hancock, but I’d never really given him a good listen. He never quite flew on my radar. But here he was, this afternoon on XM, and his song sounded like late period Dylan, from the soundtrack of "Wonder Boys", you remember, "Things Have Changed", the last best thing Zimmy has done.

I rushed into my house to listen.

But Mr. Hancock only has one song on his MySpace page. And this isn’t the one. I just don’t get it. I hear this from the old guard constantly. Those who’ve eked out a living for decades, on the fringes. They don’t want to give a single thing away, because they rely on their recorded music income to SURVIVE!

Only one thing, they’re preaching to the choir at best. They’re not using the new technologies to spread the word.

EVERY act should have AT LEAST four songs on their MySpace page. Every act SHOULD HAVE a MySpace page. That’s the FIRST place people go to hear an act’s music. Some don’t even bother with Google, they just fire up the URL: www.myspace.com/ and after the slash put the name of the act. If you don’t find at least four songs by whatever act you’re interested in, you get frustrated. Unless you’re REALLY curious, you move on.

And move on I did. I Googled away.

Butch Hancock doesn’t have his own Webpage. Certainly not one at butchhancock.com. Oh, there’s a fan page, on ANGELFIRE! God, AngelFire STILL EXISTS?

And you can’t buy the track on iTunes.

And I didn’t find the album on a cursory search on CDBaby. (Although it is available on Amazon.)

In other words, THERE’S NOWHERE I CAN POINT YOU TO TO LISTEN TO ROAD MAP FOR THE BLUES!

And that’s what I want to do. That’s what WE ALL DO!

You hear about something, you tell people. That’s why ALL your music should be available for listening on the Web. You should stream YOUR COMPLETE ALBUM! Don’t think of it as losing sales, think of it as GAINING FANS! THE BEST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU IS THAT SOMEONE LISTENS TO ALL YOUR MUSIC! If someone downloads your music, assuming you make it available for downloading, and you should, if not the whole album, at least four tracks, so people can play them again and again on their iPods, they’re a FAN! They want to see you, they want to buy merch. They’ll come to the show and purchase the CD as a BADGE OF HONOR!

It’s all the old farts, who finally have a chance of breaking out of their niche, who refuse to utilize the new technologies. This is their CHANCE! They can finally get some TRACTION! Fans can spread the word, people can easily experience their wares. They can grow their careers. Of course, it works exactly the same if you’re just starting out. Obscurity is obscurity, however you got there.

Meanwhile, "Road Map For The Blues" is a really good song.

You’ll probably never hear it.