Q: When is REM Not REM?

Answer:  When we're speaking of an Italian disco band.

When the REM from Athens, Georgia, was first getting together, there were at least six other bands around the world using that name.  But when no one challenged Stipe and Co, they were the defacto winners.

This Italo-disco band (stumbled upon by Yves on YouTube) must have been one of the losers.

A Contemplation on David Bowie's Comeback

Bowie was once again denied a #1 album in America, this time by Bon Jovi.  At least he ended up with his ninth #1 in the UK.  

Danny Eccleston of Mojo has this long read look at the Bowie's return.  It also helps explain why so many people are excited about his comeback.

“Let’s remember for a minute that David Bowie is an absolute God,” confided my interview subject, emphasising his measured opinion with an intense, disconcerting glare, six inches from my face. High praise from anyone, you might say – excessive even, what with the intimation of immortality, omniscience, omnipotence and all that. But positively astronomical from the mouth of Bob Geldof – not one for dishing out compliments of any sort, unless offset by a bouquet of less obviously felicitous epithets, liberally peppered with the words beginning with ‘f’ and ‘c’.

Last year I sat with Geldof for an interview with MOJO magazine to talk about this and that – a brand new Geldof album, some grim, emotional stuff about Paula and her aftermath – but in a way this most animated of men was if anything most animated when venturing off-piste to hymn his ultimate hero.

‘Remember when Bowie launched Band Aid pre-Top Of The Pops,’ recalled Geldof, shaking his head in wonder. ‘He wore this lame T-shirt, Feed The World, looked like a doofus. But he’s the sweetest man. You just never think about David Bowie like that.’

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Win a Rare Vinyl Test Pressing from The Strokes

Vinyl test pressings are amongst the most valuable of all in the world of collectible records.  In fact, the most valuable piece of vinyl on the planet is a test pressing made by a Liverpool band called The Quarrymen, the price of which is $200,000 +++.

There are other test pressings that trade for big dollars from the Velvet Underground, Depeche Mode and David Bowie.  Rarely does something like this come up for sale, let alone for a giveaway.

The Strokes have elected to give away a test pressing of their new album, Comedown Machine.  If all goes well, this puppy should be worth some good dollars--in about 30 years.

Sitting Through a Rihanna Concert

Frequent contributor Juliette Jagger has all kinds of assignments for this year's Canadian Music Week. One of them was going to the Air Canada Centre to see Rihanna.

I spent last night sitting about 500 meters away from Rihanna in some very legit seating at the Air Canada Center, to catch her Diamonds World Tour as it stopped through Toronto and officially kicked off this year’s Canadian Music Week festivities.

I’d consider myself to be a fan of Rihanna’s music. I don’t own a single one of her records, but I think that she is an incredibly well crafted pop package with a bona fide edge and I dig that. She possesses a certain kind of sex appeal that her counterparts lack, and the girl’s put out 7 albums in 7 years, every single one of which was a hit.

I hate to so obviously pick on a pop star for not singing live or using backing tracks to fill out their sound, because when you’re putting on a production of that magnitude those things have their place, but I was still relatively surprised at how little Rihanna actually sang during last night’s performance. I don’t know if my expectations of the second best selling female singles artist of all time are simply too high, or if it just depends upon ones level of fandom, but after hitting the stage nearly an hour late, there seemed to be something so exhausting about the whole thing right from the get go.

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Good News! Rock is No Longer "Criminal" in Kosovo

If you'v gone to school in Kosovo anytime over the last eight years, you will have encountered a paragraph in a high school textbook on citizenship that states the following:

[R]ock music, pornography, violence on television — all not good acts — have been proven to be totally criminal.

Today, the Ministry of Education has ordered teachers to disregard the part about rock and move on.  In subsequent editions of the textbook, "criminal" will become "commercial."

Read the full story at The Independent.