​Vice recently ran a funny little blog post which aimed to "prove" that hot-topic rapper/singer Nicki Minaj's voice on record is simply Jay-Z's sped up. The argument is not very convincing, but this slowed-down video for "Super Bass" is pretty great, and it's pretty fun to imagine Jay starting off a verse "This one is for the boys in the polos." Also, fake Jay-Z can really sing. Watch/listen:

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​Some of these tweets are from Wilco's Jeff Tweedy (Playing tonight at the Paramount Theater) and some are from someone who tweets as "Not Jeff Tweedy". Can you tell which is which?

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Yesterday, I wrote about Neil Young's quip that "Internet is the new radio" and that piracy is how "music gets around." Of course, Neil gets all the attention for making such a statement. Ah, the power of celebrity! Meanwhile, plenty of folks have been grumbling about this same thing for years, namely Bob Lefsetz, an industry analyst and all-around shit-stirrer. As an addendum to my post from yesterday, here is an excerpt from a blog rant Lefsetz wrote yesterday illustrating the power of discovery online, the access to free music, and how the Internet allows more artists to get paid than ever before, not just the mega-stars. Preach on, Brother Bob...

(M)ore people are recording than ever before and it's easier to hear their music and more ways to pay them if people like it.

I heard this Kila track, "Electric Landlady", on Sirius XM's Spectrum last night. Now Sirius XM is a service that not only charges listeners, but pays copyright holders and performers. That's all good. But without Spotify, without YouTube, that track would have gone into the ether, I probably never would have heard it again.

I'd never heard of the act, never mind the track, but I liked it.

I typed the title on my hand-set, sent myself an e-mail and just checked out the cut on Spotify, then looked up the band on Wikipedia.

It was all news to me.

And it ain't exactly rock and roll, but I like it. And I've played "Electric Landlady" five times already on Spotify.

Today, it's easy to spread the word. Sure, there's more information than ever, but with so many people listening, a certain amount rises up. Maybe not to the top, but to the point where the creators can get paid. Maybe not as much as in yesteryear, but in the old days those stars were the only ones getting paid. Now the wealth is shared.

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​The Seattle vs. Portland debate is one that never gets old, and is a constant source of regional insecurities. When Portlandia's Carrie Brownstein offered up her explanation of the difference between Portland and, well, everywhere else, she opened the wound back up.

Two of the comments from "Lothar," in particular, struck a chord with me.

Think peanut butter. Seattle is corporate creamy and smooth (think Jif), while Portland is super chunky organic. They're both peanut butter ... one's just a lot more funky (and chunky!).

To stretch the peanut butter metaphor, Seattle's label would list all the preservatives, while Portland's label would have an 800 number to call if you find a severed finger ... with a zen prayer to say before disposing of it.

Not only is Jif a staple of my diet, but I curse the Costco brass every time I walk by the aisle and see that Skippy is now the spread du jour. It's just not the same.

​Due to a technical error, Reverb Monthly's Kindle subscribers were originally sent the December issue's content inside the issue labeled "Jan. 1." The error was caught quickly, and Amazon tells us that subscribers saw a pop-up message alerting them to the need to re-download the current issue. Some subscribers did not receive that message.

If your January issue is the "Year In Music" issue, you need to re-download the issue (the current issue's cover is pictured here). To do that, follow these simple steps:
-- Delete the January issue from you Kindle
-- Go to your Kindle account at Amazon.com (from your PC) and look under "subscription settings." You'll see Reverb Monthly among your other periodicals.
-- Click on "Actions," and select "Deliver Past Issue To My Kindle"
-- Select the January issue, and hit "Deliver." It'll be there in moments.

This shouldn't happen again. Thank you all for your patience!

For those of you Kindle users who have yet to subscribe to Reverb Monthly -- SW's new music mag -- you can check it out over here.

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Early this month, the absurdly talented comedian Louis C.K. made a leap into DIY-land and made a healthy wad of cash. The much-publicized move consisted of C.K. self-producing his latest comedy special and selling it for $5 directly to fans through his website. Apparently, the whole effort set the comic back about $250,000 to produce, but as of last week, the special had been download 175,000 times...that's over half a million dollars that went straight into C.K.'s pocket. Many praised C.K.'s move as a middle-finger to "The Man" for its sidestep of corporate entities like HBO, Comedy Central, and network television. In many ways, it was the comedy equivalent of Radiohead's "pay what you want" stunt for In Rainbows back in 2007, and Nine Inch Nails, who not only offered The Slip for free, but encouraged fans to 'remix it, share it with your friends, post it to your blog, give it to strangers, etc."

But the above acts have one big thing in common--they are already famous and wealthy and didn't need anyone's help, having already had years of assistance from corporate interests, from EMI Records to the FX cable channel. And that, strangely enough, seems to be a major advantage in going DIY these days.

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So, uhh...like, I just watched last Thursday's episode of Beavis and Butthead, and the boys are, uhh, watching the video for that Avi Buffalo song (below)...

Here is what they had to say...

Butthead: I think this is music for people who've, like, never had anything bad happen to them.

Beavis: Oh yeah...like, they've never had ad-ver-sity (heh-heh-hmm)

Butthead: They decided to rebel against their parents by making even softer rock.

Beavis: Yeah, y'know, like, don't express yourself too much, c'mon.

Butthead: These guys were like 'That music in the elevators is too balls-out for us.'

It's moments like this that make me so glad Beavis & Butthead are back! Thank you, Mike Judge, for summing up every feeling I've had about present-day "indie rock" but couldn't put into words.

SBTRKT

​As we've long since determined, bands didn't give up the atrocious masked trend in 2010. And though things have slowed down considerably, Reverb darling Erin Thompson was kind enough to remind me that SBTRKT is not only coming through town this week, but keeping the mask alive.

Side note. I was -- and remain -- a huge fan of Pearly Gate Music's self-titled debut. And I think my affection for the record caused me to overlook the fact that PGM's Zach Tillman sports a mask on the cover of the record. Nobody's perfect.

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wallpapersdll.com

That's pretty metal, I guess

​Certainly we've all felt yesterday's loss of Steve Jobs, the late chairman and former CEO of the Apple company, and while I was really hoping to find either a hard-rock video tribute to Jobs to post, or unearth some instant where he had been caught doing some heavy-metal karaoke, the "metal+apple" query I sent out on Google this morning left me with a slick metallic apple picture (left), a video of a German soft-rockers Metal Apple (below), and reactions from the Twitter accounts of metal personalities past and present (after the jump), so I guess that'll have to do. This one's for you, Stevie!

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