Today’s Music News: Andrew WK and Michele Bachmann share a chat—sort of
by Staff
September 17, 2014
Representative Michele Bachmann appeared on Pivot TV's talk show TakePart Live on Monday night to clear up some misunderstandings about the Tea Party, to comment on the ISIS situation, and to address the issue of marriage equality. Also at the table with her? Rocker and legendary party animal Andrew WK, who's serving as a co-host of the show all week. Though Andrew WK sat at the table with Bachmann and the show's two regular hosts for the duration of Bachmann's interview, during the conversation he said only two words: when Bachmann clarified that by "no whine," she didn't mean "no wine" and lifted her coffee mug to illustrate, Andrew WK murmured, "Sweet wine." (Bachmann later lifted her mug again when saying that ISIS isn't interested in "sitting down and having a little brewski" to talk it out with world leaders.) See part of the interview here.
"In a way, you guys had it so lucky in the Sixties," Jack White says he told Bob Dylan. "All these recording techniques that had never been tried before, the Civil Rights movement was coming to a head, the Vietnam War. The whole world was changing… There was so much to sing about. It was like shooting fish in a barrel." White related the conversation during an interview with Dan Rather. (Rolling Stone)
Patti Smith is still fighting that fight: at Chicago's Riot Fest this weekend, she wowed the crowd with an impassioned speech about the need to fight against governments and corporations. "People," she cried, "you can change the f---ing world."
As the NFL becomes embroiled in the issue of domestic violence, it angered Rihanna by pulling her weekly musical opening to Thursday Night Football last week. The league said the change was made to accommodate a discussion of domestic violence, but Rihanna believed the decision was related to her experience as a victim of domestic violence in an altercation with Chris Brown and directed an expletive-laden tweet at the league for "penalizing me." The NFL and CBS have now pulled the opening permanently, saying "we will be moving in a different direction" moving forward. (Consequence of Sound)
With rumors spreading that fewer than 5% of iTunes users downloaded the U2 album provided to them for free, Apple has released an official number: 33 million users have accessed the album, it says—which is closer to seven percent of the world's half-billion iTunes users. Meanwhile, UK music retailers are irate. In a statement, the industry's trade association complained that not only could brick-and-mortar retailers not sell the new album (which is available for free, and only via iTunes), the surprise nature of the announcement meant that they were understocked with U2's back catalog. Apple's move, said the retailers, "reduces music to spam." (Billboard)
In her first non-cameo late-night TV guest spot in over a half-century, Barbra Streisand was given a whole episode of The Tonight Show on Monday night. See her sing a medley with Jimmy Fallon:
Meanwhile, Conan O'Brien will celebrate the release of George Harrison's forthcoming reissues by dedicating a whole week to the late Beatle. Among the guests next week on Conan will be Beck, Norah Jones, and Harrison's son Dhani Harrison. (Billboard)
For a Dec. 6 benefit concert in Florida, Phil Collins will play his first concert in four years. (Billboard)
Just as Dayton's became the Target Corporation when its discount store spin-off turned into the company's flagship, radio giant Clear Channel has now renamed itself iHeartMedia after the iHeartRadio app it launched in 2008. The New York Times sees the move as an embrace of the digital operations of a company that is by far the largest owner and operator of American radio stations.
A weird 1980 interview has emerged in which Michael Jackson makes interviewer John Pidgeon filter questions through Michael's then-13-year-old sister Janet. (Rolling Stone) Here's the interview, illustrated by PBS Digital Studios:
