Idolator: pink floyd

"Marmite Artists" Make Everyone Pucker Their Lips And Get In The Mood For A Row

Maura Johnston — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:15:00 EDT

Supermarket shelves in other parts of the world (and at certain specialty shops in the US) contain a food product called Marmite, which is basically a bread spread made out of yeast extract. I personally tried it when I was 16, after an Australian pen pal sent me a few packets, and my Cool Ranch and Domino's-trained palate found it absolutely repellent; I haven't tried it since, because the thought of doing so makes me shiver. But apparently it's pretty divisive in the UK, to the point that the product name is actually being used by some music-biz insiders to describe certain artists who have a love-'em-or-hate-'em appeal. The musical omnivores at Popjustice explain: "the phrase describes the sort of band or artist which divides opinion as strongly as the disgusting/delicious yeasty food product Marmite. It is not a phrase used to describe how good or bad something is—there's no value judgment involved." Popjustice says that Alphabeat, the Scissor Sisters, and Bob Dylan are all "Marmite artists"—although a shitty band being pushed by a publicist to no avail is not, so don't try it next time, publicists. Confused yet? Well, in keeping with our English-class form, the term is used in context after the jump!

Radio Person 1: "Right then, shall we playlist this new Alphabeat single?"
Radio Person 2: "I fucking hate Alphabeat."
Radio Person 1: "I fucking love Alphabeat."
Radio Person 2: "Yeah they're a classic Marmite band. I suppose a lot of people do fucking love them so even though I do not like them myself I fully understand why they deserve a place on our radio station."
Radio Person 1: "Oh hang on, the new Snow Patrol single's arrived."
Radio Person 2: "Let's just play that then."

So, after describing the whole "marmite" ideal to Dan, we got down to business. What other artists are officially yeasty to a point of being utterly unpalatable to some, yet beloved by others?

danielgibson77: wait, there are people who don't like alphabeat?
mauraatidolator: i KNOW!
mauraatidolator: but who else could qualify for this distinction? who is so divisive that they rend internet message boards in two?
danielgibson77: my morning jacket?
mauraatidolator: hmmm.
mauraatidolator: no, they're just shitty.
danielgibson77: people like them, maura
mauraatidolator: well they're wrong.
mauraatidolator: vampire weekend!
danielgibson77: i think the same shitty argument could be made

See, the Popjustice folks say that "there's no value judgment involved," but I dunno, it feels like that could never, ever be the case, if only because the people on the "nay" side may never be convinced that the bands are not just 100% intractably awful. However, after doing some research—which mainly involves looking at the comment threads on past Idolator posts—I think I've come up with a handful of Officially Marmite Artists:

Pink Floyd.
Fall Out Boy. (Whose new Elvis Costello-aided single is quite good, btw. Oh noes, here come even more fights!)
Oasis. (Paging Jay-Z!)

And maybe The Doors? Those posts a few months back sure got a lot of attention. Anyway, add your own!

Marmite Music: A study [Popjustice]

Toppling 'The Wall': The Farce Of Double-Counting In The RIAA's All-Time Platinum List

Chris Molanphy — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Reading the New York Times obituary of Pink Floyd's Richard Wright yesterday, I came upon a statistic that the newspaper ran unquestioningly that ticked me off, as it always does when I see similar statements in print:

Pink Floyd’s 1979 album, “The Wall,” eventually sold 23 million copies in the United States.

No, it didn't, I grumbled to myself. It's a double-album—by RIAA math, that means it sold about 11.5 million. SNARL!

There are many things wrong with the Recording Industry Association of America’s system for certifying albums gold, platinum, multiplatinum, and (now) diamond. There’s the counting of records shipped, not sold; I’ve seen discs certified platinum that have actually SoundScanned fewer than 700,000 copies. On the other side of the ledger, there are discs that are under-certified because of the RIAA’s outmoded system requiring labels to request certification—short-changing dozens of classic Motown artists, for example.

But nothing in the RIAA metals methodology sticks in my craw more than double-counting. It’s the biggest scam in record-industry self-tallying, and the main reason it’s infuriating is the very example cited above: journalists and music fans the world over use the RIAA’s certs as their yardstick for all-time album sales. It’s basically a total distortion of rock history.

When you buy one copy of a double album, you give that album two sales toward its RIAA total. Buy a five-disc box set, and your sale is multiplied by five. So while, say, Houses of the Holy had to sell one million copies in 1973 to go platinum, the four-disc Led Zeppelin box set had to sell just 250,000 in 1990 to get the same certification.

Never mind the most basic illogic of this system: the length of a disc has changed in the conversion from vinyl to CD, for one thing; and you can’t buy just one disc of a set, so why should each disc be counted as if it’s an individual sale? Even the industry’s seemingly more reasonable rationale—that a more expensive set deserves a higher certification—doesn’t hold up, because the multiple-counting happens regardless of what you actually paid. For example, OutKast’s 2003 smash Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, priced by BMG and most retailers as a single-disc item, gets double-counted by the RIAA even though many people paid under $12 for both discs.

Garth Brooks famously milked the double-counting system a decade ago by putting out numerous low-priced multidisc releases—a $10 live set, boxes of his old albums remastered—in his (failed) quest to pad his career total and take first place on the all-time list of most-certified acts from the Beatles. (Who, to be fair, have also benefited mightily from double-counting—we’ll get to the White Album in a minute.)

In my writings over the years, when I’m covering something about an all-time best-selling album, I use my own revisionist version of the RIAA’s Top Sellers List to rank albums. (No editor has corrected me yet.) But I shouldn’t be alone on this. Let’s share the revisionism, shall we?

To help set a new standard for all music journalists—we at Idolator are nothing if not public-interest-minded—here’s the corrupt RIAA list (26 places, due to a tie), and below, what a proper Top 25 24 list would look like. Numbers on the left are platinum level. As you see, once you get past the eternal Top Three, there's a lot of shifting around.

THE RIAA-APPROVED, CORRUPT ALL-TIME LIST
29 Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975, The Eagles
27 Thriller, Michael Jackson
23 Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin
23 The Wall, Pink Floyd
22 Back in Black, AC/DC
21 Double Live, Garth Brooks
21 Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II, Billy Joel
20 Come on Over, Shania Twain
19 The Beatles (White Album)
19 Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
17 Boston
17 The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston (Soundtrack)
17 No Fences, Garth Brooks
16 Cracked Rear View, Hootie & the Blowfish
16 Greatest Hits, Elton John
16 Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette
16 Hotel California, The Eagles
16 1967–1970, The Beatles
16 Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin
15 1962–1966, The Beatles
15 Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen
15 Appetite for Destruction, Guns 'N Roses
15 Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd
15 Saturday Night Fever, The Bee Gees (Soundtrack)
15 Greatest Hits, Journey
15 Supernatural, Santana

THE REVISIONIST, SENSIBLE ALL-TIME LIST
29 Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975, The Eagles
27 Thriller, Michael Jackson
23 Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin
22 Back in Black, AC/DC
20 Come on Over, Shania Twain
19 Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
17 Boston
17 The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston (Soundtrack)
17 No Fences, Garth Brooks
16 Cracked Rear View, Hootie & the Blowfish
16 Greatest Hits, Elton John
16 Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette
16 Hotel California, The Eagles
~~16 Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin~~
15 Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen
15 Appetite for Destruction, Guns 'N Roses
15 Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd
15 Greatest Hits, Journey
15 Supernatural, Santana
14 Ropin' the Wind, Garth Brooks
14 ...Baby One More Time, Britney Spears
14 Greatest Hits, Simon & Garfunkel
14 Backstreet Boys
14 Metallica
14 Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf

Who loses in my system? Billy Joel, obviously—and double albums in general. Not a single double-disc would make my “real” Top 25, and only one would make a Top 50: The Wall, at 11.5 million copies, would rank 43rd in my system.

The Beatles are also losers—as a Fabs fan, I do find it a little depressing that all three of their titles drop out of the Top 25. But that is counteracted by my annoyance every time I read a lazy journalist claim that the White Album is “the Beatles’ all time best-selling album.” Much as I love that 9.5 million–selling, 19-times-platinum record, that’s a total perversion of history—any Beatles fan with half a brain knows it’s the 12 million–selling Abbey Road (which would rank 30th in my system in a 13-way tie).

On the plus side, the bottom rungs of my Top 25 round out the genres on the list to include more straight pop (Britney and Backstreet) alongside all the Boomer rock.

Of course, a real, true-to-life list would use SoundScan totals instead of platinum tallies to rank the top U.S. sellers. (At the very least, it would eliminate all those multiway ties between albums at the same certification level.) But that’s not going to happen, thanks to SoundScan being less than two decades old and the total lack of actual sales data for albums before the 1990s. And it would mean negating a system that’s more than four decades old. I don’t see anyone sending back their framed platinum records, no matter what change of heart the RIAA might have.

Nonetheless, I hereby implore fellow music writers to use this list from here on. Not just because it conforms with, y’know, reality, but because it punishes the double album, one of rock’s worst inventions. Let’s face it—virtually all of them could stand to be cut down, anyway.

Pink Floyd-Themed Cruise To Suck Even More Money From Fans' Wallets

Maura Johnston — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:30:00 EDT

It was probably only a matter of time: Pink Floyd finally has a cruise in its honor. The Great Gig In The Sea, which will set sail next May, is guaranteed to be a rollicking time, despite having zero performances by any members of the band during its three-day duration. (The cover band Think Floyd USA, which will become the first tribute band to headline Milwaukee's Summerfest later this summer and claims that David Gilmour is totally a fan, will instead handle performance duties.) The Bahamas-bound jaunt will also have "Pink Floyd themed experiences," although it doesn't seem like a planetarium is on board, so I guess the whole light-show idea is out. Anyway, since I always seem to be getting into Floyd-related fights around here, I'm just going to say that I hope the cruise organizers have the presence of mind to stock the inevitable Texas Hold 'Em room with miniature inflatable pigs in lieu of chips. [Great Gig In The Sea via RS]

David Gilmour To Join Atom Heart Mother (You Heard Me) Tribute Concert

Anthony Miccio — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:30:00 EDT

An upcoming live performance of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother led by Ron Geesin, the orchestral arranger who worked on the album's legendarily bloated title track, will be joined on the opening song by none other than Floyd's David Gilmour himself. Gilmour has been quoted as saying "Some of it now, like Atom Heart Mother, strikes me as absolute crap, but I no longer want or have to play stuff I don't enjoy," but obviously time has changed the guitarist's feelings about the album, which was the band's first No. 1 album in the UK critically thought of as a disappointment following Ummagumma.

Those who have bought tickets for the Sunday evening Atom Heart Mother concert, being held at London's Cadogan Hall on June 15th, will have an added bonus to what already promises to be a very special event.

We've now had it confirmed by his manager that David Gilmour will be making a guest appearance at the show helmed by his old friend Ron Geesin. He'll be performing on the epic 1970 track, alongside the Italian band Mun Floyd, cellist Caroline Dale (who has worked with David before), the brass ensemble, and the 40-strong chorus Canticum, all of whom will be playing the piece in front of a rapt audience!

Yeah, "rapt." I remember one time me and some friends got "rapt" while listening to Galaxie 500's "Fourth Of July" on repeat and I went into a long description of how Dean Wareham knew what notes would sound most powerful to people who were "rapt" while listening to it. I hate to think of what I might have said if someone had put on side one of this masterpiece. Maybe "dude, I'm bored."

David Gilmour Guesting At Atom Heart Mother Concert [Brain Damage]
Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother [YouTube]

Roger Waters' post-Coachella littering spree, ...

Maura Johnston — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EDT

Roger Waters' post-Coachella littering spree, the final chapter: The deflated remains of his giant inflatable pig, which floated away after his festival-closing performance Sunday night, were found Monday morning by a jogger. Who—no, really!—was wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt when she found said "pulled pork." Said Floyd fan is eligible for lifetime passes to Coachella because of her findings, but she told Entertainment Weekly that she's "not really part of that crowd." [Hollywood Insider / Photo: AP]

Roger Waters: Littering For Obama

Maura Johnston — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:30:00 EDT

"Those who live near the Empire Polo Fields, where the Coachella Music and Arts Festival was held, woke up this morning to something that looked like snow, according to some residents. Thousands of small pro-Obama fliers littered the ground after they were dropped from a plane flying overhead last night during Roger Waters' set around 11:25 p.m., residents said." (Here is where I note that I'm posting this because when these fliers were being dropped—which was, I believe, about two hours earlier than this report says—I seriously thought that the plane doing the littering was either a) raining confetti on the crowd or b) engaging in anti-Floyd-fan chemical warfare.) [The Desert Sun via PopWatch / Photo: AP]

Roger Waters Somehow Finds A Way To Make Me Loathe Pink Floyd Even More

Maura Johnston — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EDT

I slogged through the first half of last night's main-stage-closing set by Roger Waters—which was billed as "Roger Waters Dark Side Of The Moon"—partially out of masochism, partially in the interest of sociological research, and partially because I didn't feel like dragging my ass over to the stuffed-to-capacity-all-weekend dance tent to see Modeselektor, who were the only other act playing for the first portion of Waters' set. While it was interesting in a "so this is who he lured out to the desert" sort of way, it was also infuriating, and at one point a friend said to me, "I can hear your eyes rolling back from here." But no portion of the evening filled me with more rage than the pre-show, which had as its visual an old-timey radio, a model airplane, and a tumbler of whiskey; every so often, a hand would reach into frame to change the station and/or refill the glass, and the stations that the hand hit on, for the most part, had a playlist that lulled the classic-rock fans in attendance into a state of self-righteousness: Bob Dylan, "Hound Dog," and "My Funny Valentine." There was also a "humorous" bit when the radio somehow was all-ABBA, all the time, and hand man couldn't escape from the tyranny of radio! ABBA! I mean, could you believe the nerve!

Anyway, that little interlude made me wonder if our readers would be as dismayed by the fake radio offerings as Disembodied Hand Man was—so here's a poll.

I'm pretty sure that this is going to be lopsided in one direction, but hey, I may be wrong. The one good thing about Roger Waters' set, though? It made me appreciate the greatness of Black Mountain even more. Holy balls were they fantastic.

Coachella Lineup Announced: Prepare Yourself For The Anticlimax

Maura Johnston — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:36:51 EST

The long-awaited announcement regarding this year's Coachella Festival has finally taken place, and apparently the big name the organizers got this year was ... Roger Waters? Who will be recreating Dark Side Of The Moon on the festival's main stage? Yeah, really. (What was that I said about festivals being totally over in '08 again?) Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. PT; other names on the 125-act bill, via the Los Angeles Times' Soundboard blog and URB, after the jump. (For those of you who think that Roger Waters is a little too old for Coachella: Don't worry, Love and Rockets are on the bill, too!)

Raconteurs
The Verve
Jack Johnson
Kraftwerk
Portishead^*
Death Cab for Cutie
My Morning Jacket
Love and Rockets
Justice
M.I.A.
The Breeders
Rilo Kiley
Sasha & Digweed
Café Tacuba
Fatboy Slim
Spritualized
Tegan and Sara
Madness
The National
Animal Collective
Mum
Pendulum
Sharon Jones
Stars
Battles
Aesop Rock
Midnight Juggernauts
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Spank Rock
Minus the Bear
Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
Diplo
Adam Freeland
Santogold
Vampire Weekend
Dan Deacon
Hot Chip
Cold War Kids
Stephen Malkmus
Gogol Bordello
Chromeo
Metric
Danny Tenaglia
Booka Shade
Murs
Cool Kids
Sia
Les Savy Fav
Holy Fuck
Black Kids
Black Mountain
Man Man
I'm from Barcelona
Kid Sister
The Horrors
Austin TV
Shout Out Louds
Luckyiam
Autolux
Modeselektor
The Bees
Professor Murder
Cut Copy
Busy P
VHS or Beta

Coachella 2008 Lineup Announced [The Guide/latimes.com]
Kraftweerk, Roger Waters headline Coachella [URB]
[Poster via ONTD]

^* Please please please let them be playing other Stateside shows. Please.

As Heard On "The Sopranos": If You Missed It Last Night, For God's Sake, Don't Read This

Brian Raftery — Mon, 14 May 2007 10:15:35 EDT

So: Something tangentially music-related happened on The Sopranos last night. However, we do not want to give it away, as we are not that dickardly. So please, if you didn't see it, go and re-read that Pete Nice item again; and if you did catch it, meet us after the click-through...

...First, a question: Does anybody know what the sorta-new-wave instrumental music was playing during the sex scene between [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]?* ~~If so, drop us a line at tips@idolator.com.~~ * As for the show's other musical highlight—in which Christopher and Tony pop the soundtrack to The Departed into the car stereo and cue up the Roger Waters-Van Morrison version of "Comfortably Numb"—all we can say is that Roger and Mo-Mo will be getting fatter royalty checks than usual this quarter: The Departed disc is now sitting at No. 31 on the Amazon.com sales charts, and it's also at No. 41 on the iTunes album list. Expect it to climb even higher in the next week, as America mourns the loss of its favorite (fictional) smacked-out aspiring screenwriter.

* Thanks to the tipster who helped us out with this one: "Actually, it was a pretty neat trick of foreshadowing: The Pretenders 'The Adultress' is playing as [REDACTED] drives to the [REDACTED] condo to tell her [REDACTED]. No sex. Later scene: it's the instrumental track from the first Pretenders album, 'Space Invaders.' "

~~Roger Waters and Van Morrison - Comfortably Numb~~ [MP3, link expired]
~~The Pretenders - The Adultress~~ [MP3, link expired]
~~The Pretenders - Space Invaders~~ [MP3, link expired]