September 21, 2007

Friday a Viable Day for Music News

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Johnny Rotten

  • John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, says some pretty silly stuff. In an interview yesterday on the UK’s Virgin Radio, the Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited frontman called Sting a “soggy old dead carcass,” said that Amy Winehouse doesn’t have “much going on in her head,” and that the music industry is “disgusting.” Actually, wait a minute, this stuff isn’t silly, these are just facts. Where’s the outlandish punk-rock spirit, Johnny? When did you become Tom Brokaw?

  • Jay-Z‘s new single, “Blue Magic,” gets played on the radio, ends up on the intertubes.

  • UK combo Keane follows Coldplay‘s lead in the “drum up interest in our new album by announcing it’s influenced by something incongruous that people actually like” sweepstakes, saying rapper Dr. Dre may influence their new album. Drummer Richard Hughes posted on the band’s website that “there’s a lot of interesting stuff coming out of America … I’ve been listening to people like Dr. Dre for a long time… we’re going to try and do something different.”

  • Possibly my most favoritest headline in the history of news reporting: “Nickelback In No Rush to Make New Album.” You guys just relax, preferrably in a country without recording studios.
    •

    WE CAME UP SHORT.

    We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

    That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

    So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

    Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

    And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

    payment methods

    WE CAME UP SHORT.

    We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

    That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

    So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

    Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

    And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

    payment methods

    We Recommend

    Latest

    Sign up for our free newsletter

    Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

    Get our award-winning magazine

    Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

    Subscribe

    Support our journalism

    Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

    Donate