Ticketmaster + Live Nation = Monopoly?
The Atlantic
Ticket distributor Ticketmaster and concert promoter Live Nation have been hoping to merge. Britain’s antitrust regulator objected today in a preliminary ruling. It believes the merger would severely limit competition and hurt consumers. I think it’s right, and its decision is something of a no-brainer.Let’s break it down. Imagine you want to go see a concert. Since Live Nation has, by far, the strongest influence in the concert space, you will probably be going to one they promoted or produced. So to buy those tickets? Well, you probably have to go through Ticketmaster, since it has vast control over concert ticket distribution.
How cornered would they have the market? According to this CNN Money article from back in February about the proposed merger, their combined market share would be close to 80%. If that isn’t a threshold for antitrust regulation, then I’m not sure what is.
It makes sense business-wise for them, but as a frequent concert attender I am concerned about prices sky-rocketing.
CD Review: Paranoid Cocoon
Band: Cotton Jones (Formerly of Page France)
Release: 2009
Label: Suicide Squeeze
1. “Up A Tree (Went This Heart I Have)” – 9.6
2. “Gotta Cheer Up” – 9.7
3. “Some Strange Rain” – 9.5
4. “Gone The Bells” – 9.6
5. “Photo Summerlude” – 9.3
6. “By Morning Light” – 9.2
7. “Cotton & Velvet” – 8.9
8. “Little Ashtray in the Sun” – 8.7
9. “Blood Red Sentimental Blues” – 8.7
10. “I Am The Changer” – 9.3
Comments: What we all loved as Page France died as Page France in 2008. Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw, the two main pieces of the PF puzzle, decided to do a thang by themselves called Cotton Jones. Cotton Jones is a bit jazzier/bluesier and less deep lyrically than Page France. I get this sort of Doors vibe with tracks on here being predominately vocal-centric and mellow. As a really big Page France devotee back in my day, I don’t sense a lot of lasting appeal to these songs like I did with Hello, Dear Wind (2005), for example. So why I have given them such high ratings? They have a good amount of now appeal. Beautifully written, beautifully sung. Versatile, too. Jazz, blues, folk, country, rock…Michael and Whitney can do ’em all no problem. Admittedly, things get a bit boring (“done before”) toward the end.
Grade:9.3
Upcoming Album Releases!
Upcoming Releases!
Lupe Fiasco – Lasers – December 15, 2009
In The Queue For Review!
Devendra Banhart – What Will We Be – October 27, 2009
Stellastarr – Civilized – July 7, 2009
The Raveonettes – In and Out of Control – October 6, 2009
Muse – The Resistance – September 14, 2009
Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum – June 6, 2009
Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand – January 26, 2009
CD Review: Help

Band: Thee Oh Sees
Release: April 28, 2009
Label: In The Red Records
1. “Enemy Destruct” – 9.4
2. “Ruby Go Home” – 8.9
3. “Meat Step Lively” – 9.2
4. “A Flag In The Court” – 8.3
5. “The Turn Around” – 7.5
6. “Can You See?” – 8.6
7. “Rainbow” – 9.4
8. “Go Meet The Seed” – 9.3
9. “I Can’t Get No” – 8.9
10. “Soda St. #1” – 8.6
11. “Destroyed Fortress Reappers” – 9.2
12. “Peanut Butter Oven” – 9.0
Comments: Pursuing a recommendation from No Bunny drummer Billy, I decided to give this esteemed album a listen. Reminds me to some degree of the kind of rock that good old Chuck Berry was spitting out in his day, though this is dirtier and more prone to experiment. So I can see why this band has been influential to the emerging “coaster” garage scene that includes No Bunny and company. But at a few points throughout, I feel like there are too many layers of different instruments that distort the main rhythm and vocals, making the listening experience a sort of pain in the ass. At a few points, I hear a simplicity reminiscent of Jay Reatard lyrically and musically. It’s the kind of garage-y music that I can’t call awesome, but that I can give a pretty decent amount of respect to. A band I probably won’t make an exaggerated effort to go see, but might if they are playing alongside another good band.
Grade: 8.9
Top Tracks
These are my favorites from my (modern) favorites.
Black Lips:
Black Lips (2003):
Throw It Away, Freakout, Ain’t No Deal, I’ve Got A Knife, Fad, Sweet Kin, Everybody Loves a Cocksucker
We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made the Flowers Grow (2004):
Nothing At All/100 New Fears, Notown Blues, Ghetto Cross, Jumpin Around
Let It Bloom (2005):
Sea of Blashemy, Feeling Gay, Empassant,
Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo (2007):
The entire album!
Good Bad Not Evil (2007):
I Saw A Ghost (Lean), O Katrina, Veni Vidi Vici, Navajo, Lock and Key How Do You Tell A Child That Someone Has Died, Bad Kids
200 Million Thousand (2009):
Take My Heart, Drugs, Starting Over, Let It Grow, Trapped In a Basement, Short Fuse, I’ll Be With You, Big Black Baby Jesus of Today, Old Man, The Drop I Hold
Jay Reatard:
Blood Visions (2006):
Blood Visions, It’s So Easy, My Shadow, My Family, Death Is Forming, Nightmares, Fading All Away, Turning Blue, Puppet Man, Waiting For Something
Singles ’06-’07 (2008):
Night of Broken Glass, Hammer I Miss You, I Know a Place
Matador Singles ’08 (2008):
See/Saw, Screaming Hand, Painted Shut, An Ugly Death, Always Wanting More, Trapped Here, DOA, No Time, You Were Sleeping, I’m Watching You
Watch Me Fall (2009):
It Ain’t Gonna Save Me, Rotten Mind, Faking It
King Khan & BBQ Show:
The King Khan & BBQ Show (2004):
Waddlin’ Around, Fish Fight, Get Down, Hold Me Tight, Love You So, Pig Pig, Shake Real Low
What’s For Dinner? (2006):
Treat Me Like a Dog, I’ll Never Belong, Dock It #8, Into the Snow, Why Don’t You Lie?, Too Much In Love, What’s For Dinner?, Zombies
Invisible Girl (2009):
Invisible Girl
No Age:
Weirdo Rippers (2007):
Neck Escaper, Everybody’s Down
Nouns (2008):
Brain Burner, Eraser, Here Should Be My Home, Ripped Knees, Sleeper Hold, Teen Creeps
Losing Feeling EP (2009):
You’re A Target, Genie
King Khan & The Shrines:
Spread Your Love… Like Peanut Butter! (2001):
Took My Lady to Dinner
Three Hairs and You’re Mine (2002):
Fool Like Me, Live Fast Die Strong, Tell Me, Crackin Up, Shivers Down My Spine,
Mr. Supernatural (2004):
Destroyer
What Is? (2007):
(How Can I Keep You) Outta Harm’s Way, I Wanna Be a Girl, Welfare Bread, Land of the Freak, No Regrets
and “Torture” and “Sweet Tooth” whihc are on the Supreme Genius compilation, but I don’t know where they originate
Animmal Collective:
Here Comes the Indian (2003):
Hey Light
Sung Tongs (2004):
Who Could Win a Rabbit
Grass (single) (2005):
Grass, Fickle Cycle
Feels (2005):
Did You See the Words, Grass, The Purple Bottle, Flesh Canoe, Banshee Beat
Strawberry Jam (2007):
Peacebone, Unsolved Mysteries, Chores, For Reverend Green, Fireworks, Derek
Merriweather Post Pavillion (2009):
My Girls, Summertime Clothes, Lion In a Coma, Brothersport
Arcade Fire:
Funeral (2005):
Rebellion (Lies)
Neon Bible (2007):
Black Mirror, Keep the Car Running, Neon Bible, Intervention, Black Wave/Bad Vibrations, Ocean of Noise, The Well and the Lighthouse, No Cars Go, My Body Is a Cage
The Almighty Defenders:
The Almighty Defenders (2009):
All My Loving, The Ghost With the Most, Bow Down and Die, Cone of Light, Over the Horizon, She Came Before Me
The Nightwatchman:
One Man Revolution (2007):
California’s Dark, One Man Revolution, Let Freedom Ring, The Road I Must Travel, Battle Hymns, Maximum Firepower, Union Song, No One Left, Dark Clouds Above
The Fabled City (2008):
Whatever It Takes
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (2009):
Contender, Come Saturday, Everything With You, Young Adult Friction, This Love Is Fucking Right!, Stay Alive, A Teenage In Love, Hey Paul
Arctic Monkeys:
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006)
The View From the Afternoon, I Bet That You Look Good On the Dancefloor, Fake Tales of San Francisco, Dancing Shoes, Riot Van, Mardy Bum
Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007):
Fluorescent Adolescent
Head Automatica:
Decadence (2004):
At the Speed of a Yellow Bullet, Brooklyn Is Burning, Beating Heart Baby, Please, Please, Please (Young Hollywood), King Caesar, The Razor, Dance Party Plus, I Shot William H. Macy
Popaganda (2006):
Graduation Day, Laughing At You
Editors:
The Back Room (2005):
Munich, All Sparks, Bullets, Distance
An End Has a Start (2007):
Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors, An End Has a Start, The Racing Rats
And “Dust In the Sunlight,” not sure where this appears
Deerhunter:
Rainwater Cassette Exchange (2009):
Entire EP
MewithoutYou:
Brother, Sister (2006):
Messes of Men, The Drynes and the Rain, Yellow Spider, A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains, Orange Spider, In a Sweater Poorly Knit
Stange Boys:
The Strange Boys and Girls Club (2009):
Woe Is You and Me, Should’ve Shot Paul, MLKs, No Way For a Slave to Behave, Most Things, Then
Wavves:
Wavves (2008):
Lover
Wavvves (2009):
So Bored, No Hope Kids, California Goths, Summer Goth
Immortal Technique:
Revolutionary Volume 1 (2001):
Dance With the Devil
Revolutionary Volume 2 (2003):
The Cause of Death, Freedom of Speech
and “Bin Laden” (Remix)
Chris
I Wanna Hate This…
Thom Yorke’s “Hearing Damage”
Sounds good!
Question of the Week
This is a new segment for KLYAM and like others of its kind (e.g. Songs of the week) I will attempt to post as often as I can, but I am not actually guaranteeing that it will appear as frequently as the title implies. Anyway, here’s the question:
Is violence ever an effective means to achieve social/political goals? When is it justified? When is it not justified? Where does one draw the lines? Are there any lines? Examples for/against?

The Weathermen or Weather Underground as they became were proponents of using violence to end the aggressive war in Vietnam.

David Dellinger, a committed pacifist, peacefully protested the war in Vietnam using active non-violence: civil disobedience, demonstrations, etc. This is a mugshot of him; he was imprisoned for refusing to serve in World War II.
Pleaseee Comment!
Chris
EP Reviews: Teabag Party 7″ and Animal Party 7″

Band: King Khan & BBQ Show
Title: Teabag Party 7″
Label: Crypt
Release: 2008
1. “Teabag Party” – 9.6 – A straight up ancient garage-comedy sucker with lyrics like “Well I’m gonna put my balls/
on top of your head/then you gonna wish oh/wish you were dead. ” Imagine a Fish Fight, but with Teabags.
2. “Larry Is A Gay Blade” – 9.8 – Hahahahahahahaha! A hiliarious 12 seconder in the tune of “Learn My Language.”
3. “Teenage Foetus” – 9.7 – From my perspective this song rings true about the ills of the abortion industry. “Teenage foetus, you can’t beat us,” shows how the fetus is left powerless in an abortion situation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure KK and BBQ didn’t think of it this way when they made it, but it’s up for interpretation I’m sure.
4. “What’s Yours Is Mine” – 9.5 – Pretty fuckin’ sweet doo-wop, but not really high high class.
5. “Gangbang Gordon” – 9.9 – Hahhahahahahahahaha shit! Guess what song(s) this sounds like? Here’s the lyrics: “1..2..3 Gonna Gangbang Gordon, We’re Gonna Eat His Organs! We’re Gonna Fuckin’ Gangbang Gordon, We’re Gonna Eat His Organs! Dip-pa-dap-da-pa-dip…” Hahaha!
———————

Band: King Khan & BBQ Show
Title: Animal Party 7″
Label: Fat Possum
Release: 2008
1. “Animal Party” – 9.2 – Funny, but not too awesome. A really solid rhythm and very inviting. “Open the door/come on in/let the Animal Party begin!”
2. “God Of Raisins” – 9.3 – Gospel gone wrong, but not musically wrong.