As you’ve probably heard already from a) your co-worker, b) your
grandma, c) your five-year-old niece, or d) anyone you’ve come to contact with
in the past twenty-four hours, the Spice Girls are, in fact, reuniting. Which seems to have launched an odd spiral
effect, wherein any band that Top 40 stations pounded into our heads in the
mid-90’s will now attempt to reunite.
Case in point: Gavin Rossdale hinted recently that Bush may reunite. We
admit it, “Glycerine” may have touched us on some level as emotionally confused
middle schoolers, but we don’t want to go back there. And now for the even worse news: Robert Plant shot
down all hopes for a Led Zeppelin reunion.
But don't swear off the music industry just yet, vent your frustrations on Guitar Hero - or better yet, Airguitar Pro (soon to be released in Japan, no word on the U.S. date yet), which is basically involves the same plastic guitar/video game controller-hybrid, minus a few parts. But doesn't that make it, um, NOT air guitar?
And finally, if you see Danzig or Kraftwerk on your daily Starbucks trip, tell them that SoundExchange owes them some money. And they aren't the only ones. According to SF Weekly, "The IRS of digital performance royalties, SoundExchange, claims it
can't find thousands of often-popular artists to pay them their money.
The deadline to contact them passes on June 30 for unclaimed royalties
at least three years old; SoundExchange could pocket up to an average
of $360 from thousands of the lowest-paid musicians in the world." Read on here.
--Caitlin E. Curran