Morning Music Notes – You Copied Me, So Pay Me A BILLION Dollars Please

Reading Festival Wrap Up

The twin Bank holiday festivals of Reading and Leeds wrapped up last night, with more excitement than when my Dad gets released from prison. The Foo Fighters closed out the festival in Reading last night, home of the classic 1992 Nirvana set, which was Nirvana’s last ever English appearance. Dave Grohl noted that “It’s the last show of the tour and it’s the last show for a long time” (via NME).

Grohl also dedicated These Days to former Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Kurt Cobain. Grohl was in a dedication mood, bringing out his daughters Violet and Harper, and dedicated Walk and Monkey Wrench, respectively, to them. If Grohl really loved his daughters, he would’ve picked Everlong and This Is A Call. Some dad. The set also saw the crowd sing Happy Birthday to Dave’s mom, as they did at Reading 1992, as well as a Foo Fighters cover of Pink Floyd’s In The Flesh?

Saturday headliners, Kasabian, were also in a covering mood, doing their versions of The Beatles’ She Loves You, Fatboy Slim’s Praise You and The Korgis’ Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime (via NME).

The surprise opening band on Saturday morning were none other than Green Day. The California trio’s not-so-surprise appearance ended up being at 11am at Reading. The band didn’t play Dookie in full as rumoured, but did have a massive crowd turn out to the smallish tent. Access to the stage had to be sealed off due to the sheer number of people, and fans ended up watching them on the screens on the main stage. The band played two new songs – Oh Love, as well as Stay the Night. Check out some BBC-captured footage of Stay the Night, off of ¡Uno!, below. Is it just me, or does Billie Joe Armstrong sound like a monster truck announcer when he tries to get the crowd excited?

Green Day – Stay The Night (Live at Reading 2012)

Two Members of Pussy Riot Sneak Out of Russia

The best thing about wearing a mask in a band is no one knows who you are. That might be great for keeping anonymity from crazy fans, but it’s also great for avoiding the authorities when your fellow band mates are jailed – a common problem in rock and roll. Three of the five Pussy Riot members were jailed for 2 years for their so-called blasphemous punk prayer, but luckily, two of the members were never identified. Sucks to be the 3 who were! Better news (for the 2) are that they have escaped Russia to avoid prosecution (via Hollywood Reporter). Hopefully they can help bring this ridiculous restriction on freedom of speech to light and get their band mates released.

In related news, chess master Garry Kasparov lost to me in chess! has been cleared of charges related to his protests at the Pussy Riot trial. Kasparov was talking to journalists when he was grabbed by police, and allegedly bit an officer’s finger (via Guardian). Um, checkmate? The vocal critic of Russian president Vladmir Putin could still face charges for biting the officer’s finger. His pent up anger is unrelated to Pussy Riot, but stems from losing at chess to a computer.

Samsung Owes Apple A BILLION DOLLARS!

While not as epic as Kasparov-Deep Blue battle, the fight between tech companies Apple and Samsung has come to a close. After much jury confusion, it was ruled that Samsung owes Apple $1,049,343,540 in damages for copyright infringement (via Tech Crunch). Patents such as “tap to zoom”, amongst others, were deemed to have been copied by Samsung for their mobile phones. This decision might negatively impact creativity and diversity in the phone market, with Apple grabbing and suing for infringement on somewhat trivial matters. It’s like the Queen suing for people waving like she does. Samsung is likely to appeal the matter, so this will be drawn out for many more years.

LL Cool J Burglar Might Be in Prison for 38 Years

You would think that breaking into LL Cool J’s house and getting your nose and jaw broken by the rapper would be punishment enough. But no, “lawyers” disagree. Note: this is the third story in a row about lawyers – I’d better be careful what I write. Anyway, because of California’s “Three Strikes” law, the 56 year old robber, Jonathan Kirby, could be sentenced to a massive 38 years in prison (via MTV). This sort of makes the 21 years of prison given to Anders Behring Breivik for the 77 people killed in Norway seem a little tame by comparison, no?

NSFW. Watch! The Flaming Lips featuring Amanda Palmer – The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face

The Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer sure has a thing for nudity. The million dollar Kickstarter campaign champion now starts in a re-recording and re-shooting of the Flaming Lips video for The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face. This is because the Flaming Lips released the also nudity-filled video with Erykah Badu without full consulting her, leading to an array of the best kinds of arguments around – Internet arguments. Amanda Palmer now takes over the role of singer and naked female in the video. Maybe someone can raise some Kickstarter money for some razor blades for Palmer – the hairy armpit look isn’t for me.

The arty, NSFW video has a nice song behind it though, lead by Palmer’s elegant singing and the often subtle sounds by the Lips. Check it out below, ideally not at work.

The Flaming Lips featuring Amanda Palmer – The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face