Tag: Music

NBC to Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Go Away

Trish

Does it never end? Now NBC is reportedly refusing to run ads for the documentary about the Dixie Chicks, “Shut Up and Sing.” Before we go on, view the trailer.

Looks good, right? I wish it were released a couple of weeks ago and in wide release instead of only heading to New York and L.A. theaters this weekend, but still.

The company distributing a new documentary about the Dixie Chicks has blasted the NBC and CW networks for allegedly refusing to accept a commercial spot for the film, which opens in four theaters Friday.

In a press release issued late Thursday, the Weinstein Co. said NBC rejected a spot for “Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing,” because the spot included material that “disparages President Bush.”

So who doesn’t? The point is, why is NBC refusing to comment on this?

The Weinstein Co. distributed a document from CW that referred to “concerns (that) we do not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot.”

…According to a source, the spot has been cleared for broadcast on CBS, MTV and on local NBC, CW, ABC and Fox affiliates in New York and Los Angeles, as well as on local cable systems, including local spots on Fox News and CNN.

Yeah, no appropriate programming. The network that gave us Must See TV, Saturday Night Live, and The West Wing finds an ad for a documentary about censorship and blacklisting “inappropriate” for its viewers.

There is also a blog associated with the film, called Shut Up and Post. PR readers need to go there and participate because it looks like it’s getting overrun with trolls. Check it out, and leave a note for our side.

The Bushwhackers: He Swapped the Bottle for the Bible

Trish

Tired of being tired of Bush? Go to the Bushwhackers’ site and watch the video for their song, “He Swapped the Bottle for the Bible.”

Their sound is traditional country, but don’t look for songs from their CD, “Beatin’ Round the Bush” to be played on your local Hot Country format station

The Bushwhackers’ sound is traditional country, but don’t look for songs from their CD, “Beatin’ Round the Bush,” to be played on your local Hot Country format station. Not with lyrics like these:

He swapped the bottle for the bible
Now he might be liable
To blow us all to bits…won’t that be nice?
He swapped the bottle for the bible
He’s as stubborn as a child,
How did we make this crazy mistake twice?

…A few more years, we won’t have to see his silly grin.
We’d be so much better off if he was three sheets to the wind.

Other songs on the CD include “Buckshot Dick,” “The Daughters Love To Drink,” and “Never Saw No Weapons.”

The group’s leader, Richard Levy, a former Herman’s Hermit, lives in my own hometown of St. Augustine, Fla.

Star-Spangled Banditos Stole Our Anthem

Buck Banks

Bombs a-bursting: A British record producer has done something that is inspiring outrage among true American patriots — he translated the “Star-Spangled Banner” into Spanish. The renamed “Nuestro Himno,” or “Our Hymn,” was produced by Adam Kidron, and debuts today, featuring artists such as Wyclef Jean, hip-hop star Pitbull and Puerto Rican singers Carlos Ponce and Olga Tanon.

The song will appear on an album, “Somos Americanos,” that will sell for $10, with $1 of each sale going to support the National Capital Immigration Coalition, a Washington group.

Excuse me, but far worse things have happened to our national anthem — like Whitney Houston’s version, for instance.

Jessica Simpson Opts to Avoid GOP Taint

Jon Ponder

During the Republican Convention in 2004, the GOP scrounged around the entertainment business to come up with celebrities they could trot out. Among the names on the list were Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson (with an average IQ lower even than their Dear Leader’s). None of these luminaries showed up for the convention, or at least that’s my recollection, but now one of them — the famously soon-to-be divorced star of “Newlyweds,” Jessica Simpson — has decided not to attend a GOP fundraiser, even though she will be in Washington on the night of the event:

oncerned about politicizing her favorite charity, singer-actress Jessica Simpson on Wednesday turned down a invitation to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush, a snub that left Republicans dismayed.

The apparent final word that Simpson would be a no-show at a major Republican fund-raiser with Bush and congressional leaders on Thursday night came after a day of conflicting reports from her camp and organizers of the event.

The blond star of the film “The Dukes of Hazzard” still plans to visit Washington on Thursday to lobby members of Congress on behalf of Operation Smile, a non-profit venture offering free plastic surgery for disadvantaged children overseas with facial deformities.

People close to Simpson said she declined a request to appear that same evening at the gala fund-raiser of the National Republican Congressional Committee — even after she was offered some private face time with Bush — because Operation Smile is a non-partisan group.

“It just feels wrong,” one Simpson insider told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that the actress keeps her political views private. “She would love to meet the president and talk about Operation Smile … but she can’t do it at a fund-raiser for the Republican Party.”

NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said he was surprised at Simpson’s position.

“It’s never been a problem for Bono,” he said, referring to the U2 rock star who has met regularly with political leaders of all stripes to promote various causes, including Third World debt relief. “I find it hard to believe she would pass up an opportunity to lobby the president on behalf of Operation Smile.”

Maybe she’s not as dumb as she appears.

Nashville Didn’t Kick the Chicks — Can You Say “Texas?”

Trish

Fellow PR editor Jon posted today on the three-year anniversary of the defamation of the Dixie Chicks. Jon wonders, “if the Bush worshippers in the Nashville music establishment treat the unofficial king and queen of country the same way they treated the Dixie Chicks.”

Jon asks an excellent question, but there’s one problem: you go have to a lot further south than Nashville to find the guys who dropkicked the Chicks.

For one thing, the Dixie Chicks are all women, not one of America’s favorite straight couples.

Leading the charge was Atlanta-based Cumulus Media — the second largest owner of radio stations in the country — which banned the Chicks, then held the first of many rallies across the country in Shreveport, La. (just across the Texas state line) in which bulldozers smashed Chicks CDs, posters, etc.

Jumping on the bandwagon and riding it from sea to sea was Clear Channel, mega mega owner of the airwaves, which held onto the issue — and the Dixie Chicks — with a death grip.

Clear Channel is also not based in Nashville, but in sunny San Antonio, which I should mention, is in Texas. SourceWatch.org has the 4-1-1 on Clear Channel.

“The vice chairman of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks… When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel’s chairman, Lowry Mays, was on its board. Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco placed much of the university’s endowment under the management of companies with strong Republican Party or Bush family ties. In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire.”

“In addition, Hicks steered a controversial scheme to use the University of Texas’ $13 billion endowment for private investment. Among the beneficiaries were the Carlyle Group, the arms investment firm tied to both George Bush Snr and the bin Laden family, and George W Bush’s controversial Harken Oil drilling project in Bahrain.”

[…]

First They Came for Cat Stevens

Pensito Editors

Apparently, there’s a thin line between whining and terrorizing. Singer Morrissey, who has in the past made no secret of his distaste for the British Royal Family, Tony Blair and George W. Bush, reports that he has been worked over by government officials:

The FBI and the Special Branch have investigated me and I’ve been interviewed and taped and so forth. They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government, and similarly in England. But it didn’t take them very long to realise that I’m not…
I don’t belong to any political groups, I don’t really say anything unless I’m asked directly and I don’t even demonstrate in public. I always assume that so-called authoritarian figures just assume that pop/rock music is slightly insane and an untouchable platform for the working classes to stand up and say something noticeable.
My view is that neither England or America are democratic societies. You can’t really speak your mind and if you do you’re investigated.

We are only half-laughing.

What’s Wrong With Rap Music?

Buck Banks

Rapping rap: In a guest commentary on The Black Commentator, Akweli Parker cuts loose on the current icons of rap music for their musical messages that glorify guns and drugs, and denigrate middle class values of hard work and achievement. Here are a couple of excerpts, but it’s worth reading the whole entertaining, insightful essay.

…. as we reflect on African Americans’ achievements this February during Black History Month, I find myself wondering just a bit more than usual, and a little more angrily than usual, What in the hell is going on with our music? It’s been hijacked by one-dimensional caricatures who stand to significantly retard, if not outright roll back, the progress African Americans have made in the past half-century.

……….

Yeah, I realize many of our brothers are born into poverty and despair, with seemingly few options besides “the trade” or other underground economy activities. But how do you explain immigrants of color who come to this country with less than nothing, and parlay it into the American Dream?

I have a theory: it’s that black peoples’ most visible role models are entertainers and athletes, admirable folks, but not the true bedrock of the upper middle class – that would be engineers, doctors, businesspeople and intellectuals.

Call me naive, but whatever happened to the quaint notion of conveying some type of pedagogic message in urban storytelling?

……….

Call me naive, but whatever happened to the quaint notion of conveying some type of pedagogic message in urban storytelling? MC’s like Grandmaster Flash, KRS-One, Public Enemy and Eric B. had it down. Somehow, they collectively managed to portray the gritty misery and violence of the streets, the sensuousness of black sexuality and that indispensable rap staple, shameless self-promotion, without promoting self-genocide.

………..

And so I make this simple plea: White people, since you are purportedly the largest purchasers of rap music – stop worshipping 50 and the nihilistic narcism of his music; same goes for other artistically devoid rap cartoons. Otherwise you’re encouraging them and setting back hard-working blacks. There are better rap acts more deserving of your money.

Kanye West Speaks Out Against Homophobia in HipHop

Jon Ponder

As a middle-aged gay Hiphop fan (oops – forgot to add white), it is heartening to learn that a top new artist has spoken out about the homophobia that is rampant in R&B and rap. Kanye West, whose first disk, “College Dropout,” was among the smartest and most original debuts in recent memory, is the first big star in Hiphop to have the guts to call homophobia for what it is: bigotry.

I saw the story in the LA Times this morning but start here at Pam’s House Blend:

Kanye West says “gay” has become an antonym to hip-hop — and that it needs to be stopped. [He says he came to terms with his own homophobia] when he learned one of his cousins was gay. “It was kind of like a turning point when I was like, `Yo, this is my cousin. I love him and I’ve been discriminating against gays.'”

West says hip-hop was always about “speaking your mind and about breaking down barriers, but everyone in hip-hop discriminates against gay people.” He adds that in slang, gay is “the opposite, the exact opposite word of hip-hop.” Kanye’s message: “Not just hip-hop, but America just discriminates. And I wanna just, to come on TV and just tell my rappers, just tell my friends, `Yo, stop it.'”

Pam adds:

Gay people, especially queer folks of color, need to come out. It’s the only way to effect change, and it’s the last thing the AmTaliban wants us to do — they want all of us back in the closet, tightly padlocked, in an “ex-gay” camp, or six feet under.

The MTV special “All Eyes on Kanye West” aired last night, but knowing MTV it’ll show again and again – so check it out.