Kelly Clarkson Demos Leak; Chaos Ensues

Last week Luis at PMA got his hands on what were allegedly some demo tracks from the in-progress Kelly Clarkson album (not being written by Clarkson, sadly; looks like Clive Davis won out). 4 tracks, the origin of which is anywhere from being in Clarkson's personal collection to semi-official releases, found their way into Luis's hands and subsequently onto PMA, starting a full-blown comment war between the blog, the hardcore "crazy Clarkson" fans, and everyone else who felt like typing something out. The site ultimately took them down, but not before a militant commenter uploaded them himself and passed out the link.

I'm rather torn on this story. My respect for record labels is in a constant decline, so if these belong to the record label and got leaked, tough shit on them. The conspiracy theorist in me tends to believe that record labels intentionally leak some of this stuff because they know that the bloggers are right about it generating (usually) positive hype. So that explains why I generally don't have much issue picking up on leaks, especially if i know I'll be buying the music upon its release.

But many sites (including PMA and Billboard) are reporting that these demos were snagged from Clarkson herself, the work of some hacker. That's a whole new ballgame. Now we ARE looking at a story where someone stole directly from an artist; not from a multimillion dollar label that claims to be looking out for said artist. That's not much different from someone taking a saved blog post from my hard drive and claiming it as their own. For that reason, I'm NOT posting the Clarkson demos. I will admit to having them on my hard drive, mostly out of sheer curiosity. I also plan to delete them upon hearing them. Turns out that Aben Eubanks, a friend and colleague of Clarkson has asked for their removal, but the label itself has said nothing. Given the war that went on over My December, I can't say I'm surprised.

I may or may not post my opinions of the demos after I hear them. That's to come later this week. Just thought this was a story that needed to be posted.

4 New Kelly Clarkson Demos [PMA]
To Do List: Talk About Kelly Clarkson... [PMA]
Clarkson Hopes Fans 'Like' Leaked Demos [Billboard]

==TJ==

Does this make Radiohead and NIN the Tom Glavine and Mariano Rivera of Music?

Thanks to anyone who listened on Tuesday. It was sort of a disorganized show, seeings how I was training people in the midst of doing a show. A few mixups and glitches (sorry to anyone listening during the nasty feedback), and of course the ongoing technical issues were a pain, but hopefully by next week a large majority of that will be settled.

I also ended up sitting in on the Alex, Helen, and Amanda show after they had some trouble, and let's just say, if you aren't listening to their show...you should be. Even if you aren't a fan of Top 40 stuff, just listen in for the ridiculous antics. Alex, Helen, and Amanda are on Tuesdays from 7-9 at radio.arcadia.edu. I'm admittedly not a fan of all of their stuff, but just being in the studio with them is a trip in and of itself. MP3s of some stuff they play is below.

So after much publicity and blogging, Radiohead's In Rainbows made its way onto the hard drives of fans all over the world today. I'm listening through it as I type this, and it's more or less what I expected. Weird, borderline trippy music with schizophrenic (and sometimes nonexistent) melodies that ultimately makes for OK ambient noise. A final rating to come later, but even though I'm not thrilled with it after one listen, I know I'm gonna end up playing through it a few more times. Most of what I've read about it so far seems pretty split; longtime fans seem to love the album, casual fans and others are rather indifferent. I'll let you know where I stand later.

In other stick-it-to-the-man news, Nine Inch Nails posted a message on their website in which Trent Reznor joyfully declares himself a free agent in the music world:

"Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the
following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have
been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the
business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very
different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a
direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.
Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
Exciting times, indeed."

Before we all get ornery and get ready to mark the time of death of the record label as we know it, let's remember that Radiohead and NIN have never been known for being the darlings of the recording industry. Anyone else remember the conniption that the RIAA had prior to the release of Year Zero? When bands like Fall Out Boy or Kelly Clarkson go free agent, then I'll call it.

One more thing; Dashboard Confessional frontman Chris Carrabba has been passing the time on his solo tour by blogging about his experiences on the road. Blog topics range from stories of fans he meets (good to know I'm not the only over-18 male who loves Dashboard) to lists of things he loves and hates at the moment (apparently Chris is a fan of Heroes and Battlestar Galactica). The blog is on his myspace page, and will probably go for the length of his solo tour. On another note, I ruckused The Shade of Poison Trees and made it through The Wire Tapes, the covers album I mentioned earlier. I didn't know too many of the originals, but Dashboard redoes tracks like "El Scorcho" and Regina Spektor's "Better" incredibly well. More in-depth reviews later, and definitely expect this stuff to be on the radio show next week.

That's all for now. Enjoy the MP3s, and I'll be back soon.

Timbaland - The Way I Are (As heard on Alex, Helen, and Amanda)
Fall Out Boy - The Take Over, The Break's Over (As heard on Alex, Helen, and Amanda)
Kanye West- Stronger (As heard on Alex, Helen, and Amanda)
Nine Inch Nails - Capital G
Dashboard Confessional - Better (Regina Spektor cover)

Buying music may be good karma, but Thom Yorke and Trent Reznor don't care so much...the choice is yours.

==TJ==

My December Gets a Cold Shoulder

I know I'm WAY late with this, but I was waiting to get back on my own computer because I owe you guys MP3s. But without further stalling, yet another take on the much-anticipated new album from Kelly Clarkson, My December.

At this point I think just about everyone knows about the whole Clarkson-Clive Davis war of words, and more recently the firing of Clarkson's manager and the cancellation of her tour, all as a result of her insistence on writing the album herself.

I hate to say it, but Clive Davis might not have been too far off base. Most of the tracks on My December sound a little bit tired, almost as if Clarkson was just trying to emulate some formula for a hit single like "Since U Been Gone". Nothing on the album is inherently bad, it just falls well short of being the home-run shot fans are used to hearing. Tracks like the balls-to-the-wall "Never Again" and the more melancholy "Haunted" do indicate that Kelly Clarkson is not completely inept at songwriting. In fact, I think that if Clive Davis and RCA spent as much time trying to work with Clarkson to hone her writing ability and make her stuff better as they did trying to scrap the entire project, My December could have been the best Clarkson release to date. Tracks like the bland "Be Still" and "Judas" may not help her case, but despite what RCA wants you to believe, My December would be excellent were it Kelly Clarkson's debut album...which in a sense it is. Too bad we know that with help she's capable of better.

**1/2

Kelly Clarkson - Haunted

==TJ==