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New Music Industry Briefing For Monday July 24, 2006

– European and US regulators and weak markets have not been nice to record industry stocks in recent weeks:

  • Warner Music closed the week at $25.46 off a 52 week high of $32
  • EMI closed at 260 pounds off a 52 week high around 320 on the London Exchange
  • Sony ended the week at $41.00 after a 52 week high of $52.29
  • The more diverse Vivendi Universal close at $32.88 off from a 52 week high of $37.20

Analysts react to the announcement that Microsoft will challenge Apples iPod/iTunes under the Zune_logoZune moniker. "This is the only run at Apple that has a chance." (AFP) (original Zune announcement)

Madonna– A look at why Madonna gets no love from radio. (Kings Of A&R)

– How the unofficial mix tape market helps drive hip hop sales and marketing. (NY Times)

– Music blog Stereogum gets hacked…sort of… (Stereogum)

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  1. The initial groundwork of Los Angeles-based Bad Rabbit was constructed in
    the unlikeliest of locations and situations — at least for this unpretentious,
    friendship-based Southern California rock outfit. The place: a limousine. The event:
    a bachelor party with strippers dancing inside of the limo. Yet, what would’ve made
    for the ideal setting for the creation of a Sunset Strip glam-metal band in the ‘80s
    seemed like an absurdity to Bad Rabbit.
    “Doug [Forsdick, vocals, guitar] and I were talking about starting this band
    when we were at a friend’s bachelor party, in the limo, sitting between a bunch of
    strippers,” says bassist Jon Spence. “The strippers were really lame, so he and I
    started talking about music. They were just so idiotic that we ignored the whole
    thing.”
    While the rest of the party were entertained by the scantily clad females in the
    limo, Spence and Forsdick were quickly hatching plans and forming a musical
    friendship that’s now lasted the better part of four years.
    In fact, with the release of Bad Rabbit’s self-titled debut disc, the casual chat
    amongst friendly musicians has turned into an outstandingly fresh musical
    amalgamation of rock, dub, fusion, jazz and pop, metaphorically filed somewhere
    between albums by The Police, Queens of the Stone Age, John Frusciante, Elvis
    Costello and Miles Davis.
    Initially created by Berklee music school graduate Forsdick in 2002, Bad
    Rabbit began performing locally in the Santa Monica area, opting to cut its teeth at
    any local bar up and down Lincoln Blvd., rather than to wedge its way into the
    often fickle and crowded Los Angeles club scene.
    “When the band first started, Doug and I were just sick of being in bands. We
    just wanted to have some fun with it. We got really sick of the whole club scene
    and wanted to play music just to play music,” says Spence.
    Foregoing the big city grind felt good to Bad Rabbit, which shared bills with
    acts like legendary bassist Mike Watt. Yet, although the band knew what it wanted
    musically, it admittedly took some serious time to truly refine its sound.
    “We started off more like a reggae band,” says Spence of the band’s infancy.
    “But all of us worship The Police. Doug and Paul [Morris, drums] are into King
    Crimson and fusion, so certain times you’ll hear a weird jazz chord or something
    like that.”
    On stage, Bad Rabbit simply aim to please, but generally offer a unique twist to
    their standard fare. Though the quartet is schooled and inspired by improvisational
    -based genres, Spence quickly notes that improvisation isn’t a part of the band’s
    repertoire.
    “I don’t like bands that will play the same song live as it is on the record,” he
    says. “So we’ll do the bridge differently, or we have a saxophone player that comes
    up to play with us every once in a while. We just try to stay away from the jam band
    format, where they’ll stretch out a part for 20 minutes. We like to do our parts
    differently.”
    With a few years of stage experience and virtuoso musician Chris Thom added
    on guitar, Bad Rabbit decided to commit their unique tracks to disc. Armed with a
    borrowed drum set for Morris (who still doesn’t have own his own kit) and
    Forsdick’s background as a studio technician, the band didn’t have to look any
    further than its own studio location to get things in gear for tracking its most solid
    material.
    “He’s got a knack for getting the most out of the little of what we have,” says
    Spence of Forsdick. “The disc was basically recorded in a 200 square-foot room.”
    The results are rather astonishing — an incredibly varied mix of the
    aforementioned styles encapsulates Bad Rabbit’s musical vision within a tidy, tight
    seven-song offering.
    Launching with the twisting accented riffs of “Back 2 One,” Bad Rabbit’s debut
    quickly winds its way through the act’s trademark groove-oriented material.
    “Pulling Strings,” one of Bad Rabbit’s older songs, features thick, intricate guitar
    riffing, inspired by the guitar stylings of The Police’s Andy Sommers. “Blue Sky” is a
    combustible cocktail of melancholy vocals and a towering, spiraling melody. The
    dark, brooding “Easy To Tell” sports a steady eighth-note backing, breaking into
    gorgeous arpeggiated guitar chords in the choruses.
    With a recording wrapped and ready, Bad Rabbit is looking forward to
    building the act into an established entity, breaking into larger markets with a new
    confidence in tow. “We’ve kept it pretty mellow but now we’ve reignited the fire
    under our asses,” says Spence, who reiterates that he’s still trying to keep the
    project fun at the same time. “I don’t think any of us in the band have delusions of
    being huge rock stars, but we could definitely tour steadily and make this our
    living.”
    Of course, the initial friendship that created Bad Rabbit in the first is of the
    utmost importance — even if the act aims to pursue higher ventures.
    “Everybody in the band truly are friends,” says Spence. “Being in bands for a
    while, that’s a first for me. We actually look forward to going to practice. Now that
    the band has established solid friendships, sitting around talking in between beers,
    we’re just like, ‘Hey, let’s just play the game a little bit and see what happens.’”
    by-Waleed Rashidi
    – BAD RABBIT –
    Doug Forsdick – vocals, guitar
    Paul Morris – drums
    Jon Spence – bass
    Chris Thom – guitar

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