[music] Guardian Unlimited profiles Tim Westwood. A profile? It’s a turkey-shoot! ‘To the half million British fans who listen to his weekend shows on Radio 1, he is, quite simply, Westwood: the face of hip-hop. The white face of hip-hop. Straight outta Lowestoft, son of Bill, the late Bishop of Peterborough. No, make that the white, faintly wrinkled face of hip-hop, complete with transatlantic intonation and studied lexicon of mad skills and hot goddamn beats. Better yet, the white, faintly wrinkled, public-school-educated face of hip-hop, in his bright red van with his name painted on the side.’

[pop] Guardian Unlimited has an amusing interview with Jason Donovan… ‘Then, around 1994 when he was 26, he began to go bald. For most men it’s a blow. For Donovan it was a disaster, and his reaction was extreme. But let him tell it: “I’d just finished starring in Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and I suddenly noticed I was losing my hair. If you’re blond-haired and blue-eyed, you think it’s the death of your desirability. You don’t see the big picture and think you might be Sean Connery in 40 years. All I had was the Jason Donovan look, and I thought, fuck. That was a major thing for me, and it started me on drugs.”‘

[music] I Hate Music on Radiohead’s Kid A: ‘Some of you readers may have noticed that Radiohead have got a new record coming out. Goodness knows how, there’s barely been a mention of it on the web or in the music press after all. Oh, wait, excuse me while I utter a weak consumptive laugh and spit bloody bile into a handkerchief. Judging by the ever-growing shitstorm of expectations and expectorations around Kid Arse, you’d have thought a second moon had been seen in the sky and Thom Yorke, pinch-faced poster boy for self-pitying prigs the world over, had been the first man to walk on it.’

[eminem] Netnotes asks: Who is Eminem? ‘6. He still faces legal action from his grandmother (for sampling his dead uncle’s voice) and has only just settled with his wife, Kim, who demanded custody of their child and $10m for a song in which he fantasises about killing her.’

[manics] Manic Street Preachers – In Their Own Words ‘To be universal, you’ve got to stain the consciousness of the people. You’ve got to dig out a truth that everybody knows, but they don’t want to hear, then tell it in a manner that’s so articulate and so aesthetically indignant, so beautiful, that they’ve got to accept it back in their lives again.’

[music] Radiohead are interviewed in The Observer… ”The middle-class thing has never been relevant,’ he spits. ‘We live in Oxford, and in Oxford we’re fucking lower class. The place is full of the most obnoxious, self-indulgent, self-righteous oiks on the fucking planet, and for us to be called middle class… well, no, actually. Be around on May Day when they all reel out of the pubs at five in the morning puking up and going “haw haw haw” and trying to hassle your girlfriend…”

[mp3 gnutella] From the Nullsoft Website: ‘”we didn’t get into this ‘space’ cuz we’re internet gold seeking cockos. we’re legitimate nihilistic media terrorists as history will no doubt canonize us.” -Rob Lord, June 9, 2000′ [via Salon Article On Gnutella]

[manics] Steve Lamacq reports on “the most disturbing” moment in 90’s pop — when Richey Edwards from the Manic Street Preachers cut ‘4 REAL’ into his arm with a razor…. ‘Nottingham Forest were playing and bassist Nicky Wire and singer James Dean Bradfield spent their pre-gig downtime in the hotel bar watching the match on TV. James was wearing a ludicrously long shiny mac. During the 15-minute drive to the venue, he sat at the back of the bus and refused to be drawn into conversation. I remember thinking: “Well, this is a good start. He hates me and I don’t like his coat.”‘

[music] Ever wondered what was the No. 1 in the UK on the day you were born? Mine was: “The number 1 on the 31st March 1970 was Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon And Garfunkel.” [via Bloglet]

[McCartney] Guardian Unlimited interviews Paul McCartney. “It was summed up one morning when we were doing the White Album. I was working all day and till three in the morning and we’d worked late right through the weekend. I was coming into work and there was a guy watering his garden. It was a sunny morning and he just looked at me and smiled, ‘Good morning !’ and I said, ‘Good morning,’ and I just stopped and said, ‘Shit, who’s got it right here?'”

[mp3 tech] Frequently asked question on the Winamp forum… How do I burn an audio CD from my MP3’s?

[madonna] Enough! Julie Burchill has a right dig at Madonna in todays Guardian Unlimited. ‘In the annals of bad records, this one has legs – it is very conceivably worse than the Birdie Song, Aga Doo and the last Phil Collins combined. Some books, songs and films really do make you believe that the chief ape in “Planet of” was right when he maintained that human beings were lower than chimps: Music is one of them. Give 1,000 chimps access to recording equipment for 100 years and they would not, could not, produce anything as boring as this castrated, truncated funk. Who in the name of God could summon up the motivation to walk into a record shop, enunciate the words, “Please can I have Music by Madonna?” and put their hand into their pocket? Beats me.’

[britney] Elizabeth Wurtzel talks about Britney Spears in GuardianUnlimited. ‘The signifier and the signified have gone their separate ways, as is always the case in current semiotic thinking. Men with long hair might vote for Tory MPs, guys with earrings – I mean in both ears – are usually not gay, Princess Zara has a tongue stud, Prince William wears an Eton vest meant to look like something out of Austin Powers, and a ring in the nose is a passing teenage fad that has nothing to do with worshipping Kali or Vishnu. There are hippie capitalists, there are millionaire computer programmers in Silicon Valley with purple hair. And so it has been for quite a while now. What, in this day and age, is really subversive?’

[profile] newsUnlimited profiles The Coors. ‘Brother Jim seems more reserved than his sisters. In the words of a recent pop magazine profile, he exudes “the stoical air of a guy used to waiting his turn in the bathroom”.’

[profile] The Observer profiles John Peel. “As you might expect, Peel is as laid-back a father as a teenager could wish to not get on with, with mellow views on education (‘I always told them that passing exams and going to university was a good way of getting out of Stowmarket…’)”

[music] I have just seen Robbie Williams’ new video and I am feeling… disturbed. It’s not nice. But then again just about anything can disturb me at 2:30 in the morning… Here’s a BBC news report. “The video for Williams’ new single Rock DJ sees him apparently tearing chunks of skin and muscle from his body and throwing them to female onlookers to eat.”

[weblogs] Pearls asks: Who is the most repulsive woman in rock? “One of the great mysteries of the world is how Celine Dion manages to sing so loudly with that emaciated frame of hers. Now that same brittle vessel is carrying the seed of her 90-thousand-year-old manager/husband.”

[music] Yet another “Death of…” story, this time about CD’s and Cassette’s. ‘Although he sees a time when tangible media disappears altogether, he believes it won’t be for a long time yet. “CDs are a collectable item. People want all the artwork and sleeve notes so they can find out just who it was who played guitar on track three!”‘

[minogue] Minogue goes straight to Number 1…. demonstrates the power of PR, magazine covers and lucky, deformed, tiny ears!

[midi] Today’s theme is Dueling Banjo’s [from Deliverance]

[minogue] The Editor of GQ on Kylie’s bottom. “Kylie, I think, has come out of this rather well, at least as well as GQ. People are talking about her again, stills from her raunchy new video are being used liberally in the tabloids, and Radio 1 have even A-listed her single. So in a way we have been responsible for helping resuscitate the diminutive antipodean’s career. Which is nice.” Three Words: TINY DEFORMED EARS!

[weblogging] I Hate Music on Vindaloo by Fat Les. “I could use ‘Vindaloo’ as a springboard for any number of justified rants, but instead I’ll simply say this: FAT LES ARE A SMUG BUNCH OF MEDIA WHORES WHO SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN THE GROUCHO CLUB KISSING JONATHAN ROSS ON HIS HAIRY ARSE. And I’ll leave it at that.”

[music] The Observer takes a look at Eminem. “‘Listening to him is like watching somebody lose their head on Jerry Springer,’ says Harry Allen, self-proclaimed hip-hop activist and one-time member of Public Enemy. In recent years, Allen has testified on behalf of artists such as 2 Live Crew and Tupac Shakur in front of Senate Hearings on rap music. ‘Yes, he is coarse and violent. But he’s also indicative of white American suburban teenagers.'”

[minogue] Charlotte Raven on Kylie’s bottom. “Only clearing the net by a couple of inches, Kylie plainly hasn’t spent the day playing tennis. Her racket is loose in her left hand and the all-over-sheen of her body suggests that she’s spent longer being airbrushed in Photoshop than in the elements.”

[MP3] Napster endgame — The US Music Industry moves to close down Napster. Totally pointless, of course, the Net has moved on… check out Gnutella.

[music] newsUnlimited on the semi-breakup of Oasis. “What’s going on is that I’ve had a major disagreement with monkey boy, the singer[…]”

[music] newsUnlimited profiles the Dandy Warhols. “They put the ease into sleaze. Like the story of one of their label bosses who, Taylor says admiringly, ‘is a sleazy, sleazy man. He’s the coolest guy in corporate rock. If we had 10 of him at Capitol our worries would be over.'”

[music] Some crazy Ramones MIDI’s… I Wanna Be Sedated is particularly good listening! [via pearls that are his eyes]

[weird world] BBC News asks: Was Elvis Welsh? “According to Mr Breverton, his roots are in west Wales – the name Presley is related to Preseli – a hill range in Pembrokeshire. Supporting his theory is the legend of St Elvis of Muster who, it is said, baptised St David. Mr Breverton claims the family could well have had links with a nearby chapel dedicated to St Elvis – the only one known in Britain.”

[bbc] Perfect Day? Not if you’re working on a bank holiday!

[mp3] Lars from Metallica talks (at length) about Napster and MP3 on Slashdot.

[euro2000] Not So Soft has more links on Fat Les.

[sport] newsUnlimited profiles Fat Les — Damien Hirst, Keith Allen and Alex James — on their song for Euro 2000 “Jerusalem”. “He also relishes the thought that the fans at Euro 2000, whether they know it or not, will be led by the London Community Gospel Choir and the London Gay Male Voice Choir. ‘The idea of great big white fascist thugs singing along with this, going, “‘ang on – a choir of nonces? What’s this…?” I love that. What an amazing world we live in’.”

[mp3] Lars Urich and Chuck D talk about Napster. “It’s a parallel world, and a new paradigm is taking shape. You have to adapt to it. This goes beyond Chuck versus Lars. This is about the record industry versus the people. The people have got it on their side, and you’ve got to adapt.” – Chuck D [via Josh Blog]

[Mp3] More shit flies over MP3 / Napster — various links: You can PayLars if you feel guilty about downloading bootleg Metallica MP3’s of the net. Dr Dre warns Napster [interesting thread about this on Metafilter: Napster is nothing more than the new mix tape].

[Mp3] Metallica sues Napster: “it is sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is.” Guh?

[MP3] “Napster? Never heard of it mate” — UK reaction to Napster/MP3. It’s not an issue in the UK because nobody can afford to download MP3’s anyway. I reckon students are probably starting to get interested in it but you need free networking to make it fly like it is in the States — especially at American universities.

[tech] Useful article on which MP3 encoder is the best.

Media Nugget of the Day spotlights the Magnolia Soundtrack.

Fantastic interview with Richard Ashcroft of The Verve in News Unlimited.