RE: Petra Haden, I forget if I or anyone else linked to this article in the Boston Globe a couple of weeks ago. [link]

Some wonderful quotes from Pete Townsend about her project:

"I was a little embarrassed to realize I was enjoying my own music so much, for in a way it was like hearing it for the first time," Townshend said in a lengthy e-mail interview. "What Petra does with her voice, which is not so easy to do, is challenge the entire rock framework: the traditions, the processes, the decor, the accessories, the entirety of the established dynamics of traditional pop-rock. 'I Can See For Miles' is powerful not for the restrained electric guitars and suppressed and distant thundering drums of Keith Moon but for the torturously sustained vocal harmonies that John Entwistle added over my fairly conventional four-part. Petra is the first analyst who heard the vocal harmonies as they were written and reproduced them properly. When she does depart from the original music she does it purely to bring a little piece of herself -- and when she appears she is so very welcome. I felt like I'd received something better than a Grammy."

What's the penalty for not buying a CD for one month? That may be where they plan to make most of their money.

Six whole dollars. All you have to do is keep a CD in your queue, and it gets shipped to you at the first of the month. You pay six dollars whether or not you have a CD in your queue.

Thanks for the link, Jon. I'm really loving the album. I'll probably have to get Petra's Imaginaryland now too.

Saw the video for Michele Shocked's "When I Grow Up" on The Alternative. I forgot how much I love that song, and the video is funny too. Apparently she's got three new albums coming out this year, one of which is Disney songs done western swing style.

Anyone here used yourmusic.com? Every CD is six bucks, with free shipping. The only catch seems to be you have to buy at least one CD a month, and the selection is a little wonky (they have all four major Massive Attack releases but have nothing by Interpol and are missing American Idiot ). Is there something sneaky I'm missing?

Yourmusic.com is an alternate marketing strategy for the BMG Music Club (the "12 CDs for the price of 1" people). They don't manage to get the rights to reproduce everything, which is the reason that the selection is wonky.

If they have things that you want you can do a little better on price by joining (and immediately quitting) BMG a few times a year.

I was in BMG for a year or two in college and really enjoyed it. The selection and prices were both fair.

Amazon apparently has some sort of CDNow club -- the number of things you have to buy is much less and I don't think that there is a regular selection. You get about 20% off of their regular prices though. (Or so I understood it when I read the rules. I haven't joined yet.)

A reunited Dinosaur Jr. (J./Lou/Murph) are doing a few shows in the UK and Japan [link] but they make their "debut" on CBS' Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Friday, April 15!

I felt like I'd received something better than a Grammy.

Wow. High praise from Pete T.

High praise from Pete T.

Your reading of Pete's reaction is clearly what he meant, but cynical bastard that I am, had I read "I felt like I'd received something better than a Grammy" out of its context I'd think he was damning it with faint praise.

I found the link to the Petra Haden interview.

Marianne Faithfull was on Fresh Air today. Interesting trivia: her great-(great?)-uncle was Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, author of Venus in Furs, whence the term masochism and the Velvet Underground song; her dancer mother used to see Brecht & Weill all the time when she danced in Berlin; and her father was a British spy.

Hayden, the new High Hat is great. I started reading Phil Nugent's Bush article, but when I realized (a) how absorbing it was & (b) how long it was I decided to print it out for the subway ride home. Looks like a lot of other good stuff, too. It was a long time coming, but I'm glad you kept at it.

Your reading of Pete's reaction is clearly what he meant, but cynical bastard that I am, had I read "I felt like I'd received something better than a Grammy" out of its context I'd think he was damning it with faint praise.

Yeah, I thought it was a funny thing to say, but figured that Pete meant it (and I meant my post to be as ambiguous as the 'compliment'). Which is kinda sad, really. Especially the part about me.

Thanks for the kind words about the High Hat! Nugent's a bad-ass writer. I've been trying to convince him to apply for Pop Matters' thematic columnist spot, which would be 77.4% more prestiguous than writing for the HH.

Interesting stuff about Marianne Faithfull, too.