I totally fail to get the jokes in Spinal Tap, but looking at this history of various Deep-Purple-related bands, WHICH IS COMPLETELY SERIOUS, gives me a little of what they're parodying.

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9989 - In July, Ian Gillan quits the group citing "musical differences."

1990 - Deep Purple - now comprised of BLACKMORE, Glover, Lord, Paice, and former RAINBOW vocalist, Joe Lynn, Turner - would sign with RCA Records. The resulting album, Slaves & Masters, would be released in November.

1991 - Deep Purple will tour in support of Slaves & Masters, encompassing the United States, S.America, Europe, England, Japan, Greece, Israel, Hungary, and the Pacific Rim.

1992 - Upon RCA Record's request, Ian Gillan replaces Joe Lynn Turner prior to the band entering the studio again. The result is an album called The Battle Rages On, which is produced by Roger Glover and Tom Panunzio.

1993 - Deep Purple - now with Gillan at the helm - tours Europe. In the midst of the tour, BLACKMORE makes it known that he's not pleased with the performance of Gillan thus far, and plans to depart at the end of the European leg. The band would complete the tour in Japan with guitarist Joe Satriani. Once BLACKMORE returned to the States, he would begin recruiting musicians for the formation of RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW.

And then the drummer exploded...

Hec!!

Is it too late to ask for a video of Robyn!!!!????!!!

Because I would love one.

Somebody is trying to boycott college radio stations that play Skinny Puppy. Kind of makes me giggle.

Hmm. In my experience, at least, all you've got to do to boycott most college radio stations is move a couple of blocks away from it. Then you've got no choice.

"College radio in five words: 'Dead air... um... dead air.'" ~Strongbad

We're on that list and got an email from them about it. The consensus among the DJs was, well, we never played Skinny Puppy before, but maybe we should start!

Betsy, the original conception of Spinal Tap comes almost directly from the infamous Troggs Tapes. Where the British Band who did "Wild Thing" blathered on with stupid pretension and the engineer rolled tape. Christopher Guest and Michael McKean were in an improv group called The Credibility Gap and did albums in the early 70s and did similar rock stuff. And yeah, Deep Purple, is exactly the kind of band Spinal Tap is parodying. In the early 70s, the big three of Heavy Metal were Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.

Is it too late to ask for a video of Robyn!!!!????!!!

Nope. I'll make one for you. He talks a lot about his new album with Gillian Welch.

We're on that list and got an email from them about it. The consensus among the DJs was, well, we never played Skinny Puppy before, but maybe we should start!

You should also reply to them, if ONLY to raise the level of the response. I mean, seriously, folks, I think that's actually criminal abuse of punctuation.

The Scissors Sisters also do a great cover of "Comfortably Numb" as a dance tune, by the way

This was their first UK single. I was shatteringly disappointed to learn they weren't always like that.

We're starting to see the first devices that enable one to record off of satelite radio. THe RIAA is not fighting this as much as one might think.

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The RIAA is lobbying the FCC, which is expected to require that radio stations transition from analog to higher-quality digital broadcasting within the next few years, to mandate that broadcasts use technology to prevent content copying, similar to its ruling (.pdf) for digital television.

According to Sean Butson, media analyst with financial services company Legg Mason, the RIAA has financial motivations for selectively targeting traditional radio. "When songs get played on satellite radio, recording artists get paid more money than when they get played on terrestrial radio," Butson said. He said satellite radio stations pay 7 percent of revenues to recording artists and copyright holders, whereas radio broadcasters pay less than 1 percent.

eta: This is interesting too:

Frutkin said version 4.0 of the TimeTrax software, which will be available at the end of January, will enable listeners to scan satellite radio channels and record only songs by specific artists. Users will be able to type in "Bruce Springsteen," see the channels that would most likely play him, and then monitor the stations to record him, according to Frutkin.