Queens of the Stone Age Bassist Faces SWAT Team

Here is a very interesting story out of Los Angeles:

Nothing like a stand off in the deserts of…Los Angeles. Okay that set up didn’t pan out like I thought I would but there was a stand off in L.A last night between S.W.A.T. and former Queens of the Stone Age/current Kyuss Lives! bassist, Nick Oliveri.

TMZ.com reports that police were called to Oliveri’s home by a neighbor who was reporting a disturbance between the bassist and his girlfriend. Upon arriving, Oliveri wouldn’t let cops into his home and wouldn’t let his girlfriend leave. So a S.W.A.T. team was called and a two-hour standoff took place until eventually Oliveri let the girl go and then gave himself up. When cops entered the house, they found a fully loaded high powered rifle.

The argument between Oliveri and his girl happened because she was coming to his place to move her stuff out. A day before, she told police that Oliveri had struck her during another argument.

The bassist was taken in on felony domestic violence and has since had his bail of $100,000 posted.

Nick Oliveri is actually an amazing bassist. He added crunchiness and effects to Queens of the Stone Age that were never really replaceable upon his departure. Nevertheless, he sounds like quite a difficult individual and his girlfriend is just another on the list - along with Josh Homme and others at Queens of the Stone Age - that had trouble dealing with him.

Cults reworking debut album as a Hip-Hop Mixtape

This is great. I love seeing outsiders give hip-hop the respect we deserve:

While it’s true that Cults’ rather plain debut could have done with a little livening up, Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion seem to be taking it to the extreme with plans to release a hip hop mixtape version of the album. As Brian recently told Spinner, they’re “changing all the songs up and getting up-and-coming rappers, guys like Freddie Gibbs and Lil B [to guest on them].”

“That’s going to be really exciting. We’re dealing with a lot of really bizarre managers and interesting personalities,” he added.

Santigold Releasing Sophomore Album This Fall

From Melophobe:

Santigold has kept herself out there with collaborations with Beastie Boys and Karen O., but it’s time for a new record. Three years after her self-titled debut dropped, she plans to put out her sophomore album as the leaves change and the weather cools. Billboard got a few details on her vision for the new material:

“I wanted it to feel dynamic and powerful,” stated Santigold. “I still have the songs that sound very electronic and clubby, but I have a couple ballads on this one-- my own type of ballads, where they just sound big, like the way some old Kate Bush or Peter Gabriel songs were… on this one song, we did a whole section that has a bottle used as the percussion, so there’s layers upon layers of Greg Kurstin playing a bottle and literally filling it with different layers of water, and stacking each note. Mixed with a marimba and taiko drums!”

Also anticipate collaborations with Dave Sitek, Switch, Nick Zinner, John Hill and Ricky Blaze on the yet-to-be-named release due ambiguously this fall.

Kenan Bell's Summer Solstice Mixtape

Kenan Bell is one hard working man. We've currently got him doing some brilliant stuff for the Blood Is One "We're On Everything" mixtape series. We're perfectionists, however, so while we tinker around you'll be able to stay in company with this rising star through his new Summer Solstice mixtape. Download it here.

The Recorded Music Industry's Decade Of Hell

I really have to respect people who decide to launch themselves into the music industry as there isn't even a real music industry anymore. There is more of a music related industry, in which clothing lines, concerts, endorsements and centerfolds make up for the revenue lost from selling music. The last decade has decimated the recording music industry:

Since 1999, when the file-sharing website Napster appeared, global sales of recorded music have collapsed from $27.3 billion to $15.9 billion. Yet according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, an industry body, the habit of buying music has persisted in some countries. Last year the Japanese and British spent the most on music, as a proportion of GDP. Spending held up fairly well in Sweden, chief redoubt of Spotify, a legal music-streaming service. It was much lower in Italy and Spain, where piracy is entrenched. The weakest markets were in emerging Asia. China, the world’s second-biggest economy, is not even in the top 20 for music sales. There, music is copied as enthusiastically as handbags.

It's a similar song to that being sang by journalists, writers and other creators of information and entertainment (though musicians haven't asked for subsidization or bailouts, interestingly) who have been  mind fucked by the arrival of the entertainment and its breaking up of monopolies of information. The old rules of the game are out the window and whatever will replace it is far from clearly defined.

The Drums - The New World

On a different pace, here is the song "The New World" by The Drums. The song is a benefit song for Japan so be sure to buy it.