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CL Sound Bites: Leonard Cohen, The Beatles, Lily Allen vs. Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, and Michael Jackson

By Leilani Polk on Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 5:27 pm

The Beatles have hit the top of the charts once again with the fully remastered release of their entire catalog, selling more than 2.25 million units in North America, Japan and the UK in a mere five days. That's pretty damn impressive considering the albums have been available for more than four decades and were re-released amidst a market of rapidly declining CD sales. A random interesting stat from the release: "On the Pop Catalog chart, The Beatles achieved another new Billboard chart first for the most simultaneous titles in the top 50 (16), a record they previously set themselves with 12 titles in December 1995. The Beatles have nine of the chart’s top 10 titles, and all 14 re-mastered CDs are in the top 20, led by Abbey Road at number one and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at number two." (Check out Eric's dissection of Sgt. Pepper's and Revolver here).

Leonard Cohen (who performs in Tampa on Oct. 19) collapsed on stage at a show this past Friday in Valencia, Spain. The 74-year-old deep-voiced singer-songwriter had apparently been suffering from stomach cramps, and after the incident, was examined and released from the hospital with a food poisoning diagnosis. Because we live in the digital era and virtually everyone has a video camera at their disposal, there's actual footage of the fall. Check it out; Cohen takes a rest towards the end of "Bird on a Wire," then gracelessly faints in the last 15 seconds of the video.

And finally, more than 3,000 movie theaters across the country will show the new Kenny Ortega-helmed Michael Jackson documentary, This Is It, which is officially slotted to open for a two-week run on October 28 and will be preceded by special night-before "advance screenings" in about 2,000 locations on October 27. Look for details on the film event here on Daily Loaf; for now, here's the official trailer:

Some random news bites, a music video premiere and a trailer, all for your music consuming pleasure.

The debate on file-sharing continues in earnest, with UK artists Radiohead and Lily Allen taking opposite sides. From a September 10 article in the Times Online, about musicians speaking out against a British government proposal to cut illegal file-sharers' internet connections: "Every generation has a different method," said Radiohead guitarist and FAC Board of Directors member Ed O'Brien. "File sharing is like a sampler, like taping your mate's music." From a blog post on Lily Allen's Myspace page: "I think music piracy is having a dangerous effect on British music, but some really rich and successful artists like Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Ed O'Brien from Radiohead don't seem to think so. Last week in an article in the Times these guys from huge bands said file sharing music is fine. It probably is fine for them. They do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world. For new talent though, file sharing is a disaster as it's making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge."

Flaming Lips debuted a new video on Myspace for "I Can Be a Frog." The song is kind of slow and ambient for the Lips, and I can't figure out if the animal sounds are genius or an effing nuisance. Check it out:

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