Fuzzy Lion

Remember back in September 2004 when The Strokes said that it could be “five years” before their next album? Well, unfortunately, it looks like they were lying.

If you turned on the news yesterday or today, you most likely heard
about the guy who sprayed Tom Cruise in the face with water during a
bogus interview for some British television show where pranks are
pulled on celebrities.

Here
is a video of Tom actually getting hosed in the face with the water.
It’s quite amusing, even though I feel sorry for the guy. Sure,
Scientology is weird as hell and people think this engagement is bogus,
but I can’t hate on Tom Cruise. He’s a great actor and seems like a
genuinely nice guy. Even though he did break the heart of one of my
Hollywood dream girls Nicole Kidman, I still can’t help but wish
nothing but good things for the guy.

And for the record, I think
that his engagement with Joey Potter…I mean…Katie Holmes is 100%
legit. Tom Cruise is an “A List” actor that doesn’t need to resort to
paltry publicity stunts like this. Hell, if Ashton Kutcher’s romance is
real, I think Tom’s is a safe bet too.

Wow, looks like I jumped the gun when I declared Napster to be the dumbest company in the music industry. It appears that title should be held by Sony BMG, who’s new Copy Protected CD scheme is so bad that I was left checking to see if this article was published on April 1.

Apparently,
the copy protection is being geared to stop rabid CD burning by only
allowing you to make three copies of the disc. The songs can be
transferred to a digital music player, but will not work on the iPod, since Apple won’t use Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management program.

As
if not supporting the worlds most popular portable music player wasn’t
dumb enough, this copy protection only works on computers running
Windows, so anyone with a Mac can burn their little hearts out!

Perhaps
the oddest of all is that anyone who visits a website to complain about
the lack of iPod support will receive an email from Sony BMG detailing
a “back door” workaround on the copyright protection.

Wow. Is it
wrong of me to ask what the hell the point of this is? Is Sony BMG
really THAT STUPID to think that CD Burning is where the problem lies?

What
is going on with these major labels?! They have lost touch with their
audience that it’s absolutely pathetic. Why they want to punish someone
who actually purchases a CD by giving them this huge headache just to
get the songs on their iPod is beyond me.

Another thing I am
constantly amazed at is how the iPod is BY FAR the most popular mp3
player, yet nobody wants to support it! Do they expect everyone to sell
their iPods for an inferior player so they can listen to the music that
they’ve already paid for?

There are many people who claim this
is the worst time for the music industry, but I couldn’t disagree more.
I look at these asinine decisions and shit music being thrust upon us
by the major labels and can’t help but laugh. They have shot themselves
in the foot so many times that there’s nothing left to stand on. The
only ones that will survive are those that realize that digital music
is here to stay and embrace it.

Napster has to be the stupidist company in the music business today.
Not only is their overpriced “Napster To Go” a complete rip-off
(Yahoo!’s service is currently half the price), but now they’ve
announced that are teaming up with Swedish phone manufacturer Ericsson
to create a deal that will develop the first digital music service for
cell phones.

Napster was great five years ago, when everything
was free! Sure, downloading of music without paying for it was/is
illegal, but that’s not the point here.

What is
the point is that people don’t want to pay $15.00 to rent songs right
now, and they sure as hell don’t want to replace their iPods with cell
phones. What happens when you have exhausted all of your battery life
listening to an album that you have no juice left to make an important
phone call? Or if you’re on an airplane and want to listen to music,
but have to keep your phone turned off?

I wish Napster would
just go away. It’s a tainted brand. It was great when I was in college
and could download songs and albums I never would’ve bought in a
million years. Not because I’m a cheap bastard that doesn’t support
“the arts,” but because I was a poor college kid who didn’t have $15.00
to spend on The Breakfast Club soundtrack, but really wanted to listen
to Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me).”

We here at Fuzzy Lion are obsessed with the NBC One-Hit-Wonder show “Hit Me Baby One More Time.”

We’ve compiled our list of bands we’d love to see make an appearance, and would love to hear yours.

Fuzzy Lion’s “Hit Me Baby One More Time” Request List

• A-Ha - “Take On Me”
• Fine Young Cannibals - “She Drives Me Crazy”
• Devinyls - “I Touch Myself”
• Bel Biv DeVoe - “Poison”
• Young MC - “Bust a Move”
• Chris de Burgh - “Lady In Red”
• Crowded House - “Don’t Dream It’s Over”
• Was Not Was - “Walk the Dinosaur”
• Night Ranger - “Sister Christian”
• 4 Non Blondes - “What’s Up?”
• The Proclaimers - “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”

So what do you do when one crappy act (50 Cent) drops off the Live 8 Philly show? Add another crappy act to replace it! That’s what the organizers did today when they added Linkin Park to the already awful lineup that we in the U.S. will be subjected to.

In case you forgot (or blocked it out), some of those slated to perform the American set are: Destiny’s Child, Jay-Z, Kaiser Chiefs, Keith Urban, Maroon 5, P Diddy, and Rob Thomas. Will Smith will be the host.

If you missed either of the two NIN
shows at Hammerstein a short while ago, you’ll have a second chance to
see Trent Reznor and Co. as they’ve announced a Fall Tour that will see
them play Madison Square Garden on November 3.

Queens of the Stone Age will be the support act.

The rest of the tour dates can be found here.

If you’ve ever wondered where your favorite band got their name, AmIRight.com might have your answer.

You can stream Billy Corgan’s soon-to-be-released solo album in its entirety here. Enjoy.You can stream Billy Corgan’s soon-to-be-released solo album in its entirety here. Enjoy.

Sigur Rós will be embarking on a world tour this summer and making
stops in the US mainland starting September 6th in Atlanta. (They will
be in Honolulu on August 8, which is coincidentally enough, my
birthday, so if you’re strapped for present ideas, a trip to Hawaii to
see Sigur Rós would be an idea!) They will be hitting the Beacon
Theater in NYC for two nights: September 12 and 13.

The complete tour schedule can be found here.