Morrissey‘s long awaited autobiography was finally released yesterday via Penguin Books following hiccups with his chosen publishers just days before the original release date last month. Supposedly a last minute content disagreement occurred between The Smiths’ frontman and his publisher, but who knows if this was just a publicity stunt to keep us all awake. Regardless, the book is sure to be fascinating as Mozzer’s big mouth finds it difficult to keep stuff in. Put it on your Christmas list.
I remember traveling from London to see this Fugazi show at the Metropolitan University on May 15th 1995. Today, the full recording made up of 37 tracks has been made available through Dischord’s Live Series. Download it from here now for $5 and send this to others you know from the area.
This year’s legal battle between Black Flag founder Greg Ginn and Keith Morris’ Flag band has finally come to an abrupt end with the courts ruling that Ginn does not have the rights to won the trademark on the band. Spin broke the news overnight with the following statement:
A judge found that: SST has no rights to the Black Flag copyright; Ginn has no special rights to any of the trademarks; neither Ginn nor the label gave a damn about copyrghts or trademarks until now; Rollins never quit Black Flag (!); fans are smart enough to know which band is which; and nobody tried to screw anybody over, so let’s all give it a rest.
Here’s what all of that looks like in legalese, via FLAG’s camp:
(1) the court found that SST had no rights in the trademarks;
(2) Ginn seemed to have no individual rights in the Black Flag trademarks;
(3) even if either had had any rights in those marks, they had abandoned those rights through a failure to police the mark for nearly 30 years;
(4) the defendants’ claim that the Black Flag assets were owned by a statutory partnership comprised of various former band members – even if these members only consisted of Henry and Ginn, based on (a) accepting Ginn’s argument that he never quit and given that there is no evidence or allegation that Henry ever quit – has merit;
(5) that even if the plaintiffs had some trademark claim in the marks, there was no likelihood of consumer confusion between Black Flag and Flag given the ample press coverage over the dispute; and
(6) the trademark application and registration that Henry and Keith made was done in good faith (e.g. not fraudulently) – and is thus not necessarily subject to cancellation – given that they understood their actions to have been done on the part of the Black Flag partnership (see No. 4, above).
It also looks like Black Flag’s original artist Ray Pettibon is backing Flag’s corner and has designed them a brand new t-shirt this week. This has a been a sad news story where money rules the roost once again. We hope we do not get to see any more of these cases in the future. Damaged indeed.
If you have not heard of Westboro Baptist Church they have a reputation for calling out everyone to get attention for themselves, but this time round US punk band Get Shot hit back at their xenophobic attacks by filming a sex scene on the lawn of their HQ in Kansas.
The video features bass player Laura Lush masturbating on the church lawn who says in a press release today that “The Phelps family and Westboro Baptist Church are ridiculous and do nothing except spread hate and cause controversy. As a bisexual woman and the bass player of a ridiculous punk band, I wanted to spread my legs and cause controversy.”
“There was a lot of traffic and we saw a few cops at a coffee shop a few blocks away. We barely had enough gas money and cocaine to make it to Denver for our next concert,” says band member JP Hunter. “Since we can’t afford bail, we had to cut it a little short before the cops got called. If someone will bail us out, we will bring a group of girls and a whole camera crew when we come back in a few months.”
Note that the video is obviously NSFW.
Celebrating the success and critical acclaim of his debut album 2, Mac Demarco announced today he is to embark on a world tour, October through December. The Montreal song smith and his band make the most pleasing surf tinged indie psych and there’s only one UK date on this tour so make sure you don’t miss out.
Dates:
10-28 London, England, UK – Scala
10-29 Antwerp, Belgium – Trix Bar
10-30 Caen, France – Nordik Impakt Festival
10-31 Paris, France – Pitchfork Paris Festival
11-01 Amsterdam, Netherlands – London Calling Festival at Paradiso
11-02 Reykjavik, Iceland – Iceland Airwaves Festival
11-08 Austin, TX, US – Fun Fun Fun Festival
11-21 Québec City, QC, Canada – Le Cercle
11-22 Chicoutimi, QC, Canada – Le Sous Bois
11-23 Montreal, QC, Canada – M for Montreal
11-24 Toronto, ON, Canada – The Hoxton
11-29 Beijing, China – MAO Livehouse
11-30 Shanghai, China – Yuyintang
12-01 Hong Kong, China – Clockenflap Festival
12-04 Taipei, Taiwan – The Wall
12-06 Bangkok, Thailand – Cosmic RCA
12-07 Singapore – Home Club
12-09 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The Bee
12-11 Melbourne, Australia – The Corner Hotel
12-12 Sydney, Australia – The Standard
12-14 Meredith, Victoria, Australia – Meredith Music Festival
12-18 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia – The Zoo
12-19 Perth, Western Australia, Australia – The Bakery
Today, indie slackers Scott and Charlene’s Wedding reveal the video for new single ‘Jackie Boy’.
This is the first official music video from their Any Port In A Storm album and features main man Craig Dermody with the gloves on in a full motion picture. Dressed in a full Rocky Balboa tracksuit, Dermody runs up those famous steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, pummeling sides of beef, bobbing and weaving his way about town on a boxing themed adventure. Click play and enjoy. To see Dermody with the gloves off, read our take on Any Port In A Storm here.
Canadian band Weed have released a brand new video for their scuzzy new track ‘Options‘ this weekend. This is lifted from their debut album “Deserve” coming out this week on Couple Skate Records, a record that has a wonderful slacker feel that we have played to death over the last couple of weeks. Hear the full thing here and look out for a review soon.
Seeing Buzz Osbourne leading a herd of kids towards an Ice Cream van before bursting into a cover of ‘Graveyard’ by the Butthole Surfers is quite an unexpected sight. But it happened in August in the middle of Chicago’s Humboldt Park. Why this Ice Cream meets noise collaboration occurred we are unsure But the Surfers’ own bassist Jeff Pinkus showed up for the party too in this rad new clip.
The Melvins are set to release a brand new album, Tres Cabrones, featuring original drummer Mike Dillard in November, keep your ear to the ground for updates.
Released on New York indie, What’s Your Rupture?, Tally All The Things That You Broke is the latest from Brooklyn’s finest four, Parquet Courts. A follow up EP to the debut album Light Up Gold, which we stumbled upon earlier this year, has been highly anticipated in Crossfire HQ and it doesn’t disappoint. Stream the five tracks below.
The Dismemberment Plan are headed across the pond this November to play one of their first UK shows since reforming. They’re at the Electric Ballroom on Tuesday 26th November, tickets are cheap and you can buy them