Dub dot dash

Fat Freddy's Drop chart watch
Caught the C4 doco on FFD "Fat Freddy's Drop: Tale of a True Story" (more nice work from Nick D) and Mu talked about the interest they'd got from major labels here to release their album. He said they'd decided to go the independent route, as that way they'd learn more about the business for themselves rather than passing it off to someone else. He also let slip that Atlantic Records in the US had shown serious interest in them, and Mu admitted he was tempted for a second, as he mentioned that a lot of records in his collection that had come out on Atlantic. This offer eventually fell to the wayside.

The doco also demonstrated their extended family approach to being in a band, focussing on shared communal meals cooked by the band's secret weapon, keyboardist (and incredible chef) Iain Gordon, aka Dobie Blaze. General consensus among the FFD boys was that his best dish ever was his paua wontons. There's even a new vid for FFD floating round called Shuck, which is basically a cooking demonstration by Iain while on tour in Europe - it's somewhere in Greece, then changes location to FFD's studio on the Wellie coast for another cookup. Hungry yet?
Go here to the Fat Freddys site and under Mad Feats, look for 'Dobie Blaze Cooks' and you can download one of his recipes...

C4 are giving the doco a second screening tonight (Wednesday) at 10.30pm.

FFD chart watch - this week they bounce back to #10 (up from #12 last week), just ahead of Dave Dobbyn and Mariah Carey. Shihad drop from #35 to #39. Both bands have been touring NZ for the last few weeks.
Speaking of local acts, P-Money's latest album Magic City has just hit the stores on double vinyl (with full colour cover art- wickedness, FMR), and there's also an instrumental version of the album on vinyl too.


Sony admits to paying radio stations to play their artists,
pays out $10 million fine, doesn't blink
"I am shocked and appalled" says Bob Mould, reacting to this article. This kind of thing is widely known, but just in case you think a song gets on the radio because it's good, then you really need to stop sniffing marker pens. Another example here; "In one instance, a Sony BMG executive contemplated a plot to promote Killer Mike's "A.D.I.D.A.S" by sending deejays one Adidas sneaker. Deejays would receive the other sneaker after playing the single ten times." Imagine playing Run DMC like that.

"Please be advised that in this week's Jennifer Lopez Top 40 Spin Increase of 236 we bought 63 spins at a cost of $3,600." "Please be advised that in this week's Good Charlotte Top 40 Spin Increase of 61 we bought approximately 250 spins at a cost of $17K …"

"Take Jennifer Lopez's awful record, "Get Right," with its shrill horn and lifted rap. It's now clear that was a "bought" sensation when it was released last winter. So, too, were her previous "hits" "I'm Glad" and "I'm Real," according to the memos. ... It's no surprise. There isn't a person alive who could hum any of those 'songs' now. Not even J-Lo herself." Hang on, that Get Right tune is based on a James Brown and the JBs sample that is pretty damn hot. Still, it is J-Lo. Gimme the JBs any day.

From a Sony internal memo on Sept. 8, 2004: "Two weeks ago it cost us over 4000.00 to get Franz [Ferdinand] on WKSE." The Glasgow Daily Record drops the bombshell on their hometown heroes... "Last year, a Buffalo-based DJ added their single Take Me Out to a station playlist - and was rewarded with an extravagant trip to Miami for four."

And still more..." Another, from an Epic employee to a Clear Channel programmer looked like this: "WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON WKSS THIS WEEK?!!? Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen." And of course, Clear Channel are a little worried...

Coolfer notes that a $10m payout is "not so bad. Springsteen wants $10 million per album for five albums."

The closest example we have is Crowded House. When they were pushing their debut album in the States, there was a boycott by the record companies of radio pluggers over there, so they were able to do a super-cheap deal with a radio plugger to push 'Don't dream it's over' to US radio, as they (the radio pluggers) were desperate for work. That song was a hit because someone paid for it to be on radio, not purely because it was a great song (which it is, of course - can't diss Uncle Neil). You can read more on this in Chris Bourke's excellent book 'Something So Strong'.

ADDED: Okay, best headline on this... The Denver Post with "Payola may explain Celine Dion".
Original Sony documents can be viewed here (PDF format). Runs to 59 pages.
Coolfere has more coverage - 'Least Shocking Shocker: Record Label Paid Off Radio Stations'... "How soon people forget. In 1998 the entire country -- especially the puritans in the print media -- were aghast when it was reported Interscope had paid Portland's KUFO radio station to play Limp Bizkit's "Counterfeit." The label and station were forthcoming about the arrangement. The station was given $5,000 for 50 spins and each spin was preceded with the message, "The song you are about to hear is sponsored by Flip/Interscope."
It was public then and it was still public last week. Labels buy off radio stations. In this moment of warm fuzzies let's all be aware of the fact that labels will continue to do what they can to influence radio spins. Always and forever. Spitzer's clean-up won't change that. It will, we all hope, return some integrity to radio..."

And another local angle - do you know if this practise happens in New Zealand? Any record company spies out there? Please leave an anonymous tip in comments.