“End the Need for Benefit Concerts”
Universal health care strengthens business; who would know better than two music industry vets who know what it’s like to be real entrepreneurs?
Via Chicago Tribune

“Shakira’s Stats Don’t Lie: Facebook/Ustream Music Video Debut Is A Hit”
Half a million views via a (mostly) artist-controlled content channel. MTV, stick with Heidi Montag, you’re finished.
Via Techcrunch

“Soundtrack for Philippe Starck iPhone Application”
Taking audio wallpaper to a new, ridiculous level. Are this, and programs like it, really necessary?
Via Designboom

It’s been years since the annoyingly smug iPod-as-radio-station Jack FM foisted itself upon the airwaves, so I’m somewhat surprised that something like Jelli hasn’t come along earlier. Adding a much-needed and long-overdue social media spin to radio, Jelli allows users to interact online and help choose and shape the playlist. While I’m incredibly skeptical that a generation of Pandora-loving smart phone users want to trade total control and a much broader, deeper selection of music for a small role in choosing a terrestrial radio playlist, the company has been making numerous inroads and business deals since it launched this past summer. Rock 105 in San Francisco has had a Sunday night Jelli show since June, Australian broadcaster Austereo will launch shows in major cities and Triton Radio Networks just signed a syndication deal and will seek to expand Jelli into more cities. The idea is, if you have a browser, you can take over a radio station.

CEO and co-founder Mike Dougherty told me the idea was born out of reinventing a ubiquitous device that we all have. There are a lot of great personalized music consumption devices and services out there, he says, so Jelli was designed to stand apart.

“We think we can bring a more social experience to the table,” says Dougherty. “The metaphor is similar to a social jukebox. Everyone is picking the next song before it plays. We can create a social stream — people can not only listen to it online, but it can take over a radio station.”

Dougherty and his partner, Jateem Parekh, who worked on the Amazon Kindle project, want to bring younger listeners back to radio. Users can create their own social profile pages and vote for tracks — ranked based on their real-time rock meter scores — to determine what gets played. There is no traditional DJ or any filtering, minus the catalog of songs made available by each station. Users also get video game-esque tokens such as “bombs” and “rockets” that can help push songs to the top of the list or even get them pulled mid-play, if the response is negative enough. The new beta phase has three colored streams/stations, so users can program each for a bit more variety.

What do you think? Will Jelli help revitalize the radio landscape?

“Tom Waits to Release Live Album”
A whole disc of stage banter from Tom Waits… that alone will place it in my top fall releases.
Via Pitchfork

“The Absent Second: An Explanation”
What’s bad about copyright? How about companies collecting royalties on Woody Guthrie tracks he freely adapted from traditional folk music?
Via Free Music Archive

“Anka Given Credit for Jackson Song”
How can you screw up the posthumous releases of the world’s biggest music star?
Via New York Times

“Musician Changes Tone of Impoverished Village”
A real, inspiring tale of a musician making a difference in his neighborhood by really getting involved, not just wearing a colored T-shirt.
Via New York Times

“Bon Jovi, Don Was Team Up For Iranian Solidarity Song”
Iran, we hear your pleas. We are humbled and inspired by your protests. We send you the guy who wrote “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Sarcasm aside, dude can sing in Farsi?
Via Billboard

“Genachowski Approved as FCC Chairman”
Being the President’s law school classmate has its advantages. Still, it’s positive to see an appointee in favor of net neutrality.
Via Wired

“Spin The Bottle At The Roxy Gets Children On Their Feet and Dancing”
Sometimes it’s puzzling that we as a society want to protect kids, then allow a club night for teens selling Cobrasnake merchandise run by Cisco Adler’s younger siblings to flourish on the Sunset Strip. I’m all for more under-age shows–or should I say, I’m all for good under-age shows.
Via L.A. Times

“Six Songs Used to Torture and Intimidate”
How messed up – or is it depressing — that the Boss was used to torture inmates and detainees at Guantanamo Bay?
Mental Floss via Daily Swarm

“Will The Browser & Mobile Apps Replace the iPod?”
Media futurist Gerd Leonhard believes the iPod’s days are numbered and will be replaced with… iPhones. Damn you, Apple.
Via Hypebot

“Punk Institution Receives City Money for New Building”
ABC No Rio received grants from New York City politicians to keep its doors open. Sort of wish this headline was dated last summer.
Via New York Times

The Eurovision song contest has a fairly long history of inflaming national passions, but Georgia’s entry into this year’s contest, a covert diss of Putin, brings a bit more geopolitical tension to the dance floor, according to this New York Times article.

“We don’t wanna put in / the negative mood / is killin’ the groove,” goes the offending chorus from the song “We Don’t Wanna Put In” by Stephane and 3G.

If the group and song make it into the finals, which will be in Moscow for the first time, it’ll be interesting to see how Russia’s media deals with the situation. Plus, if they happen to win, Georgia will win the right to host next year’s event. Russia chooses its artists next Saturday.

“Last Saturday, in Chennai, the band entertained the crowd with what stateside fans would consider a typically raucous Black Lips show, replete with intra-band lip locking, and Cole de-pantsing, mooning the crowd, and attempting to play his six-string with, well, his privates.”

Here is the band’s explanation of the incident and here’s a video of parts of the offending concert (smartly utilized as a promotional vehicle). While I can’t really claim much first-hand experience with the country, it’s culture or the situation, and definitely feel for anyone threatened with foreign jail time whose passports get stolen, I think it’s pretty shitty on the band’s part. I’m all for promoting cross-cultural understanding and exposing people to new music, and support artistic freedom, no matter how dip-shit stupid or grossly offensive the artist happens to be.  But come on, it isn’t like these guys are making some super brave statement and fighting the power. They mooned the crowd in a conservative part of the country and got dealt with, while not accordingly, at least in a somewhat predictable response. It’s much more a stunt than a statement.

National Geographic recently ran a feature about the country’s struggle to balance environmentalism with economic growth.

Click here to view the embedded video.
Björk, “Nattura”