No Muxtape Monday

As a select few of you may have noticed (go ahead, call yourself an “insider,” it’ll make you feel special…which you are) there was no Muxtape Monday yesterday. While it would have been normally correct to assume that I just plum forgot, this time I actually did remember, produced an entire playlist to upload, only to find out that Muxtape is having trouble with the RIAA.

Bastards.

Not that this particularly surprises me, since the RIAA is full of backwards-thinking pinheads, trying to squeeze water out of the ossified rock that the record industry has become in this digital age. I say let the bulk of the money go to the people making the music, fuck the suits selling you the pre-fab rock and roll poseurs. If you really want to support bands that you enjoy, go to their shows and buy their merch. Butts in the seats and posters on walls are a much more immediate indicator for a band that people appreciate what they’re creating.

In any case, as soon as Muxtape resolves their conflict, I will be posting a brand-spanking new batch of tunes for your enjoyment.

On the no-longer-available music front, fans of Paul Westerberg got a pleasant surprise a month ago when a online-exclusive album called 49:00 popped up for sale on Amazon and Tunecore for the low low price of $.49. It was a single-track album, a mish-mash of gems, toss-offs and teasers that ended up sounding like a someone channel-surfing through some of the best radio stations ever imagined. It also offered up a great look inside the ADD-addled brain of one of the best songwriters of the past 30 years, starting with full songs and then quickly devolving into half-songs before it ends up with snippets of covers at the very end.

Since I downloaded 49:00 as soon as it was available and never looked back, I was shocked to read that it had been taken down and was no longer available. Rumors and speculation have been swirling, as much as they can for a musician that has been largely forgotten by the mainstream. The general assumption is some sort of copyright issue, due to the myriad of covers that Paul offers snippets of near the end of 49:00. All of the clips are incredibly short, the only one longer than 10 seconds is the Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You,” which Paul has covered throughout his career, most notably with The Replacements.

But the denouement of this story is perhaps the most odd. Right after 49:00 was pulled from download, another Paul Westerberg track, 5:05, appeared in it’s place. This time, you can choose between a $.99 price point and a $5.05 price point. The funny part about this is that the actual run-time of 49:00 was only 43:55. Add 5:05 to that and you get, you guessed it, 49:00. This bonus track, or whatever you want to call it, seems to have been written with the expressed intent of blasting the powers that be for forcing the recall of 49:00, as evidenced by the chorus; “If they wanna sue me / can’t see through me / they’ve got a law suit / I’ve got a swim suit / all the girls and guys / enjoy the 5:05.” It also starts off

Hilter = Record Industry?

with a not-so-subtle jab at “The Man” in the form of a sped-up clip of Adolf Hitler speaking.

Cheeky fucker, that Paul.

The music blog, Aquarium Drunkard, has a nice little review of the whole mess, complete with some more speculation on the ins and outs of the whole issue, as well as some insight into the equally odd, super-short clip of The Beatles “Oh, Darling” at the very end of 5:05.

Maybe, once Muxtape gets back up and running (fingers crossed) I’ll cut up 49:00 and post some of the tracks for everyone to enjoy.