Music Bender

“The Future is Unwritten,” Julien Temple’s new film on the life and career of late Clash frontman Joe Strummer, will have its U.S. premiere in mid-January at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Taking its name from one of Strummer’s favorite phrases, the film includes interviews with such Strummer disciples as Bono, actors Johnny Depp and John Cusack, members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Clash, old friends and those who squatted with him in condemned buildings in London before the Clash took off.

Also featured is unseen footage of Strummer’s early life, as well as unearthed clips of the Clash and the Mescaleros, the band he fronted in the years prior to his 2002 death.

To be in cinemas in the US early summer, with DVD and soundtrack to follow after. Read more and Billboard.com.

• Brooks & Dunn dominate CMA Awards [LiveDaily.com]
• Snow Patrol Oxfam charity video [YouTube]
• Spears sex tape suit dismissed. Oh, and she popped up on Letterman.

Wow… Someone’s going to accuse Simmons and Co of selling out soon, if they keep this up.

Leave it to those Kiss dudes to be one of the first acts to jump on the Tooth Tunes bandwagon. These electronic toothbrushes play, in Kiss’ case, a full two minutes of “Rock & Roll All Night� so that you make sure to log in your prescribed brushing time. According to the Kiss site, “sound vibrations stream from the bristles through your teeth– so you can actually hear music inside your head! To increase the volume, simply increase your brushing pressure! The better you brush, the better the sound!� That’s actually awesome and we totally want one. Luckily we live in the state of New York, where this toothbrush is already available. Those of you who live anywhere else have to wait until 2007 to find these in your local drugstore.

Seeing this for the first time in many years, I’ve surprised by two things: 1. Lewis doesn’t look as old as I remember, and 2. it actually rocks pretty well!

It seems two of new media’s big boys are desperate to get their fingers into indie land, and not just the teeny pop crowd.

AOL, in the midst of shifting from an Internet service provider model to an advertising-driven business, aims to expand its audience at the margins by stretching beyond the pop crowd with new programing aimed at hipsters.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is trying to make inroads with its new Zune digital media player by winning over the same group of tastemakers that first embraced Apple Computer’s iPod.

As part of AOL’s indie strategy, the portal on October 26 launched a weekly Web-only video show called “The DL,” hosted by Sara Schaefer of the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade. It also plans to launch a revived version of its Spinner radio brand with special channels dedicated to indie music. Additionally, the company is already up and running with a new weekly podcast series called “The Interface,” which focuses on acts like Spoon.

Microsoft, on the other hand, is targeting the indie community with heavy promotional activity around music festivals like CMJ, which runs through November 4. CMJ is working with Microsoft to identify as many as 300 music-savvy students ages 18-22 to assist with on-campus and online promotions as well as feedback for the Zune, which is expected to hit stores November 14.

I don’t see either of them making much inroads, although I think Microsoft have a better chance; AOL still has too strong a stigma attached, while Microsoft at least have a certain coolness thanks to the Xbox - whether this helps them market the Zune or not is another matter.

Elton’s all a-tither as he accuses record label Universal of not promoting his latest LP, The Captain and The Kid, to his satisfaction.

Sez Elton:

“Nobody would know the album has been out since September.

“My record label isn’t doing anything to help. F— Universal. Please drop me. I’m 58 and I don’t care anymore.”

Poor boy.

Finally official:

Mega-selling pop trio Genesis is reuniting with Phil Collins for its first tour with him since the summer of 1992. An official announcement will be made Monday (Nov. 7) in London. Genesis hasn’t toured since 1998, during which Ray Wilson replaced Collins on lead vocals alongside principal members Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford.

As Music Bender reported back in October, original vocalist Peter Gabriel will not be taking part. Sniff

I saw this on Digg - if you do a search for ‘worst band in the world‘ on Google, guess who comes up #1? I can’t say I disagree.

Yo DJ, you teenage mutant ninja fool, spin that wheel! Happy Friday everyone!

Now admit it - y’all were closet Mutant Ninja Turtle fans, right?

• Timberlake in double win at MTV awards. [BBC]
• Rapper who killed producer for ‘disrespect’ jailed for 30 years. Good. {Guardian]
• Iron Maiden’s “Sheriff” leaves Sanctuary. This is actually big news, if you know Maiden’s history and organisation. [Yahoo]
• Shakira wins 4 Latin Grammies. Shake it, baby! [Yahoo]

Man, this is hilarious!

Rap star Kanye West was named Best Hip Hop artist, but still came off as a sore loser at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

West apparently was so disappointed at not winning for Best Video that he crashed the stage Thursday in Copenhagen when the award was being presented to Justice and Simian for “We Are Your Friends.”

In a tirade riddled with expletives, West said he should have won the prize for his video “Touch The Sky,” because it “cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons.”

“If I don’t win, the awards show loses credibility,” West said.

From Mercury News. Poor Kanye

I don’t think there is anyone who hasn’t heard, or at least heard of, a song by “Weird Al” Yankovic. He hit the bigtime, of course, with ‘Eat It’, but as his first single came out in 1979, and ‘Eat It’ wasn’t released until 1984, that’s like saying you really dig Van Halen, especially their early stuff with Hagar.

While the majority of Yankovic’s reputation has been built around the singles released from his albums - ‘Eat It’ (his biggest hit), ‘Like a Surgeon’, and especially ‘Fat’ - the spoofs that either didn’t light up the charts, or were never released as singles, are equally fine. Listen to his spoof of The Kinks’ ‘Lola’, ‘Yoda’, and you’ll see what I mean. Also, don’t miss the polka medleys he does (here is ‘Polka Power‘) - there are a number of homemade videos by fans, set to his polkas, on YouTube.com.

In celebration of “Weird Al”’s career, here I provide my personal favourite Yankovic videos, in chronological order no less.

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