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We’ve probably been here before, but what the heck.
Taylor Sheridan has plenty of shows cooking and shooting despite all the chaos with “Yellowstone.”
Now he’s a got a new series called “Landman” (terrible title) based on a Texas Monthly project called “Boomtown” (better title).
“Landman” sounds more like “Dallas” than any of Sheridan’s other projects. Set in West Texas, the official release describes “Landman” as “an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.”
The stars are Jon Hamm, Billy Bob Thorton, Demi Moore, and Ali Larter. Hamm will play Monty Miller (like JR Ewing maybe), “a titan of the Texas oil industry who has a long personal and professional relationship with Tommy Norris [Cliff Barnes?], played by Thornton.” The series is already filming in Fort Worth, Texas. It will be shown Paramount Plus. Hamm is coming off a hit run as a lawman on “Fargo,” so he’ll be more cowboy hat than ad man.
Let’s hope it has some of the humor “Dallas,” sorely missing from Sheridan’s other shows.
Kanye West finished at number 1 this week because of streaming. Otherwise, his “Vultures” was number 2. And now, sales have stopped by and large because his distributor has pulled the album.
West’s total sales were 152K sold in total, with just 16K in downloads (there are no CDs). Usher sold 91,375 copies of his”Coming Home.” Of that 54,000 were actual downloaded albums our purchased CDs. Technically he was number 1. Usher can’t be too happy about “Vultures” upstaging his album release and Super Bowl show.
As I wrote earlier, West’s request to upload “Vultures” was turned down by his distributor. Downtown/FUGA Music. He apparently waited until Saturday and went around them. The result is that Downtown/FUGA removed the album almost all platforms.
The result of getting pulled and starting 24 hours late: sales were down for the first week at least 55% from his previous release, “Donda.”
The one platform where you find most of the album is Spotify. So they’ve either ignored the takedown notice, or West has found a distributor who was willing to work with Spotify.
But with Apple, Amazon, iTunes and almost everyone else gone, West faces two issues. One is that he’s invisible in the retail market except for his own website. The other is that if he’s left with streaming on Spotify, the number 135K copies sold translates to very little revenue.
The Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards were held last week at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The SCL Awards are always an eclectic, quirky night. What sets this unique event a step above the others is the music, the band that plays are some of the best musicians in the business.
Two-time Oscar Nominee and Grammy Winner Siedah Garrett hosted the evening. The night started with a tribute to Henry Mancini’s score from the TV series “Peter Gunn.” Speaking of the iconic Mancini, The Hollywood Bowl is opening their upcoming 2024 season with a 100th birthday celebration of the 20-time Grammy-winning composer and frequent conductor at the Hollywood Bowl.
Martin Scorsese and the late Robbie Robertson received The Spirit Of Collaboration Award. Marty (who explained he was on the road with “Killers Of The Flower Moon”) poignantly talked about their deep, longtime friendship with Robertson via video. “Robbie and me go back to when we first formed a bond and a friendship in 1976. We worked together, inspired each other. It went beyond music, we got to know each other well, a real love there. Out of that came these scores. I miss him greatly.”
Other notables at the event were writers and composers including Diane Warren, Billie Eilish & Finneas, Lenny Kravitz, Laura Karpman, Michael Abels, Mark McKenzie , Simon Franglen, John Powell, Lesley Barber, Gregg Field and Monica Mancini, Paul Antonelli and many more.
Martin Scorsese’s Acceptance Speech:
5thSCL AWARDS 2024 (Winners Highlighted in Red)
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A STUDIO FILM:
Anthony Willis SALTBURN
Joe Hisaishi THE BOY AND THE HERON
Ludwig Göransson OPPENHEIMER
Laura Karpman AMERICAN FICTION
Robbie Robertson KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN INDEPENDENT FILM:
Jon Batiste AMERICAN SYMPHONY
John Powell STILL: A MICHAEL J. FOX MOVIE
Daniel Pemberton FERRARI
Mica Levi THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Fabrizio Mancinelli MUSHKA
& Richard M. Sherman
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR A DRAMA OR DOCUMENTARY:
Olivia Rodrigo/Dan Nigro, “Can’t Catch Me Now,” THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES
Jon Batiste/Dan Wilson, “It Never Went Away,” AMERICAN SYMPHONY
Lenny Kravitz, “Road to Freedom,” RUSTIN
Nicholas Britell/Taura Stinson, “Slip Away,” CARMEN
Sharon Farber/Noah Benshea, “Better Times,” JACOB THE BAKER
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR A COMEDY OR MUSICAL:
Billie Eilish O’Connell/Finneas O’Connell, “What Was I Made For?,” BARBIE
Mark Ronson/Andrew Wyatt, “I’m Just Ken,” BARBIE
Diane Warren, “The Fire Inside,” FLAMIN’ HOT
Heather McIntosh/Allyson Newman/Taura Stinson, “All About Me,” THE L WORD: GENERATION Q
Jack Black/John Spiker/Eric Osmond/Michael Jelenic/Aaron Horvath, “Peaches,” SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION
Nicholas Britell SUCCESSION
Natalie Holt LOKI
Martin Phipps THE CROWN
Carlos Rafael Rivera LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY
Gustavo Santaolalla THE LAST OF US
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL TITLE SEQUENCE FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION
Chanda Dancy LAWMEN: BASS REEVES
Nainita Desai THE DEEPEST BREATH
Kevin Kiner AHSOKA
Atli Örvarsson SILO
Carlos Rafael Rivera LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Stephen Barton, Gordy Haab STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR
Winifred Phillips SECRETS OF SKEIFA ISLAND
Pinar Toprak AVATAR: FRONTIERS OF PANDORA
Austin Wintory STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL
Judge Engoron has ruled in Donald Trump’s fraud and overvaluation trial.
Donnie must pay $350 million to New York state. He’s also barred from doing business in New York for three years.
We are rid of him here, at last.
Trump will appeal but he’s very unappealing which is what he will be told.
Next up, criminal trial over Stormy Daniels and the $130,000 pay out. March 25th, which is always a day to celebrate the birthdays of Aretha Franklin and Elton John.
The tide has turned!
With the business gone, and the 21 Club closed, Trump is out of options here in New York. Trump Tower could be turned into a pinball arcade. Oh, the humanity!
On its second day of release, the Bob Marley movie “One Love” fell back to Earth.
After making over $14 million on Wednesday, the commotion has calmed down.
Thursday’s take was $3.85 million, bringing the total two days to a still very successful $17.9 million.
Tonight begins the crucial weekend push. Paramount could see a total of more than $30 million by Sunday night.
The movie’s release has been good Marley’s music, anyway. His greatest hits have risen right up the charts. Audience interest on Rotten Tomatoes is still high at 95% even though reviews are less than stellar.
Regardless, I will try and see “One Love” this weekend, just for the music, if nothing else!
Here’s the update on “Vultures 1,” Kanye West’s new album.
Kanye uploaded the album to all the streaming services through a service called FUGA, which is owned by Downtown Music here in New York. He did the upload on Saturday, when no one was paying attention. It seems like when Downtown/FUGA realized what happened, they pulled it off as many streaming services as possible.
West apparently did the upload on Saturday, after being rejected by FUGA on Friday. It seems he did it behind their backs, but they’re not commenting.
I’ve been directed to a statement they made earlier:
“Late last year, FUGA was presented with the opportunity to release Vultures 1. Exercising our judgment in the ordinary course of business, we declined to do so.”
“On Friday, February 9, 2024, a long-standing FUGA client delivered the album Vultures 1 through the platform’s automated processes, violating our service agreement. Therefore, FUGA is actively working with its DSP partners and the client to remove Vultures 1 from our systems.”
FUGA now tells me they’re totally out of this, and they’ve been informed there’s a new distributor.
Currently, “Vultures” is off of iTunes/Apple and Amazon. It still seems to be on Spotify, although one track is missing. That’s because the Donna Summer estate filed a take down notice over an unauthorized sample.
A couple of “Vultures” tracks are still on iTunes. That’s because Kanye uploaded them through a different service called Create Music from Los Angeles. It’s unclear if they will follow suit.
So the reason for all this does seem to be objections to West’s antisemitic statements, and maybe because the album is explicit and vulgar. Kudos to these people for exacting editorial control. But the removal has nothing to do with the streamers. It’s the distributor. The streamers — Apple, Amazon, etc — just want to make money. They have no moral imperative.
Big stars have labels that do the uploading. But without a label, West is left to these devices, using an indie distributor. Even when he was signed to DefJam he often uploaded material without telling anyone. But that was before he was revealed as an admirer of Hitler.
The family of Beach Boy Brian Wilson says that since the untimely death of his wife Melinda from cancer, Wilson will get new conservators.
A report says papers were filed because Wilson suffers from dementia. Just remember, no matter what, Brian Wilson has been a musical genius, one of the great composers in American history.
Brian and Melinda have five adopted children. Wilson, who made a great comeback after marrying Melinda, obviously requires quite a bit of help personally and in running his business. Luckily he has the resources to make it happen.
Wilson was left in poor physical, mental, and financial shape by his late former “adviser,” Dr. Eugene Landey. But he’s had a musical comeback over the years that demonstrates how well Melinda took care of him. Her death recently at age 77 was a shock.
The Wilson family — including singing daughters Carnie and Wendy — posted:
“Following the passing of Brian’s beloved wife Melinda, after careful consideration and consultation among Brian, his seven children, Gloria Ramos and Brian’s doctors (and consistent with family processes put in place by Brian and Melinda), we are confirming that longtime Wilson family representatives LeeAnn Hard and Jean Sievers will serve as Brian’s co-conservators of the person. This decision was made to ensure that there will be no extreme changes to the household and Brian and the children living at home will be taken care of and remain in the home where they are cared for by Gloria Ramos and the wonderful team at the house who have been in place for many years helping take care of the family. Brian will be able to enjoy all of his family and friends and continue to work on current projects as well as participate in any activities he chooses.”
On “This is Me…Now” Jennifer Lopez has a song so personal and intimate there are SEVEN credited writes. That would be “Dear Ben Pt. II,” a sequel to a song on “This is Me…Later” from 20 years ago.
Even Cyrano de Bergerac was a lone ghost writer. He didn’t have six companions.
There’s one song with SIXTEEN writers. Each one contributed a word. It’s called “Hearts and Flowers.” It was written at a conference table, with people zooming in!
Lopez has another song that relies heavily on Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett’s “Superstar.” She also has tracks based on the Justin Timberlake song “Cry Me a River,” and another on a Chris Isaak song. Even the sampled songs have groups of people — all needed for heavy lifting when they stole the original. It’s like an “Ocean’s 11” movie.
You wonder how this could be acceptable. Even more, how Ben Affleck and Matt Damon managed to get someone to cook up an original song for their Dunkin’ Donuts commercial. Maybe JLo should have paid attention to that.
The Lopez album drops at midnight with a zillion dollar short video she paid for. This is a disaster waiting to happen. We’ll listen for more later tonight. Meantime, here’s the title track, with the Timberlake sample, sung in they key of Ouch.
Indeed, vocal prowess is not the highlight here. JLo is neither a Jennifer Hudson nor a Mary J. Blige. Her voice is thin and shrill. You can imagine cats running up poles when the songs are played. I give her credit: she’s just singing, there’s no effort to fix it up and make it better. This is really her now: rich, comfortable as a celebrity, and won’t make apologies. That’s sort of cool.
Unfortunately the committee written songs are pretty bad. Most of them are ballads or mid tempo, and that doesn’t help. Lopez sounds a lot like she’s gulping for air trying to figure these things out. The songs feel like they’ve been composed by AI. “Make me a Jennifer Lopez song” you type into the program. And these are what you get.
The Kanye West album “Vultures” was removed from most digital platforms because of a take down notice from Donna Summer’s estate. It was just restored to iTunes and Spotify but without the song “Good Don’t Die.” (iTunes still has six other tracks they’ve de-listed.)
West says on Instagram that the album has been removed from all digital platforms and it should be ordered on his website. But all about but one song has been reloaded.
Summer’s estate complained that West used a sample of “Love to Love You Baby” without permission on “Good (Don’t Die),” which caused the trouble. Ozzy Osbourne, separately, threatened legal action over a sample of one of his songs.
Unfortunately this had nothing to do with objectionable lyrics. The platforms don’t care about that!
Keep refreshing…
EARLIER Yesterday, Kanye West’s “Vultures,” was number 2 on the iTunes Top 200.
Today, it’s gone.
The album has vanished from all the iTunes charts– singles, albums, rap albums.
Have sales simply stopped? Or has iTunes stopped offering it?
The album is full of vulgarities and features an antisemitic reference that is ugly, hateful, and repellent.
If Apple has decided not to distribute the album, more power to them. It would be incredible if someone in the music business executed some editorial authority. It would be a miracle!
Keep refreshing.
Usually, I add a YouTube link for a song from an album, but I can’t in this case because the material is so objectionable.
Beyonce has all top 5 spots on the iTunes top 100. Four of them are different versions of “Texas Hold ‘Em.” One is “16 Carriages.” They are each Beyonce’s advance singles from her “Act II” album, coming next month.
The Beehive is buzzing! They contacted each other on social media, and stuffed the iTunes ballot box. Very smart: they’ve learned from other fan bases how to get their star to the top!
Part of the drive was to keep Kanye West away from the top of the charts. It worked. Kanye’s record, “Carnival,” dropped off the chart completely after spending one day on it. No “Vultures” tracks are on the chart at all despite the bragging by its creator. (The album is top 5 on the albums charts.)
Some blog wrote yesterday that the country turn was a bad idea for Beyonce. Hmmmmm…
