The Week in Rock
Instead of cleaning up her act, as promised after the umpteenth time of being shuffled into court, Courtney Love has proceeded to go delinquent on about $340,000 in legal fees. Seattle law firm Hendricks and Lewis helped wrangle Love an alleged $7 million in advances for Nirvana greatest hits repackaging that stunk up people’s CD players back in 2002, and the collection of Cobain’s scribbley journals that were also released. On top of that, the firm is trying to claim all of Love’s papers that they have in their possession, which includes some of those very same journals. Now the law group is serving Courtney up a nice lawsuit to procure the fees and papers, since when presented with the bill, the rocker reportedly claimed to just not have the money. Hey, that’s a great idea! Maybe next time PSU sends me a bill, I can just tell them I don’t have any money!
A new take on the Beastie Boys is coming up, and the footage will be provided by fans. The project started when MCA (Adam Yauch) decided that the best concert footage would be obtained by turning 50 fans loose with handheld Hi8’s and splicing the film together with a soundboard recording. And he’s probably right, because out of the 50 of them someone is bound to know something about filming a live concert, right? I thought so too. In any case, MCA turned the film over to his production company, Oscilliscope Laboratories, for finishing. Titled “Awesome: I F***in’ Shot That,” the Beasties’ project is aimed for a screening at Sundance, where it will be appearing alongside the New York Dolls documentary, among others. While it may not make such a great impression on the art-house types that tend to dominate the festival, it ought to be a hit with anyone who can appreciate the magic of shaky pictures, bad angles, and extended shots of the back of people’s heads. Me? I can’t wait.
ck White of the White Stripes has confirmed rumors that he has indeed penned a song for soft drink giant Coca-Cola. Instead of using an existing song, White wisely decided to write a brand new number to avoid having one of his existing hits reduced to a commercial jingle. "I’ve been offered the opportunity to write a song in a way which interests me as a songwriter. I certainly wouldn’t want a song that I’d already written to be used on a commercial. That seems strange,” the singer told England’s New Musical Express in a backstage interview. "But to be asked to write something particular along one theme of love in a worldwide form that I’m not really used to appealed to me. I’ve written a song and I wrote it really quickly and it’s an interesting commercial that’s been made. I was inspired by the commercial." White had previously rejected ad offers from other major companies such as the Gap and many found it hard to believe that he would lend his music to the purpose of selling product. However, his desire to make an artistic statement with the commercial, using it to reach a large audience, will likely do nothing to stem the tide of criticism that is sure to follow.
