So the Calgary Underground Film Festival starts today, and in my relatively biased opinion (I’m on the board, but I’m not the guy who picks the movies), it’s definitely one of the best things you can spend your time on this week. The programming team has yet again put together an incredibly solid line-up, and thanks to them, Calgary’s going to be the first Canadian audience to see some of this year’s best movies.

But, if you haven’t had the time to peruse the whole 28-film line-up, hers’ a handy list of what I’m most excited about. And I’ll make a similar offer to what one of our programmers did on Facebook — if you’re looking for a more personal recommendation, hit me up on Twitter @peterhemminger, and I’ll see what I can do.

Top Priorities

Act of Killing
Errol Morris and Werner Herzog are the executive producers of this one, and that alone should have you thinking it’ll be one of the more interesting documentaries to come out this year. But then, the premise. The filmmakers found people who would be considered war criminals if they hadn’t won–instead they’re cultural heroes of a weird and awful sort. After talking to them for a while, they realized that these mass murderers were, to some extent at least, inspired by Hollywood movies. So, they get them to re-enact their atrocities in the style of the movies that they were already emulating. It sounds like an impossibly odd blend of whimsy and bleakness that I can’t stand the thought of missing it.

Upstream Color
This one probably doesn’t need much in the way of a push, but here it is anyway: The writer and director of Primer, a super-low-budget sci-fi flick that also happens to be one of the more interesting time-travel movies ever made, waited nine years to follow that one up. Upstream Color is the result, and when the AV Club saw it at Sundance, their reviewer called it “one of the most transcendent experiences of my moviegoing life.” I honestly don’t need more than that to get me into this one.

Frances HA
I’ve never really gotten into Noah Baumbach, for whatever reason. But I do think that Greta Gerwig is impossibly charming, and the trailer for this one looks like it’ll strike a nice balance between Wes Anderson and Woody Allen, which seems like a pretty sweet spot to me.

The Final Member
It’s a documentary on a penis museum in Iceland. When it played SXSW, they fed the audience bull testicles. And my buddy Mark Teo called it “possibly the finest movie I’ve ever seen.” Sold.

Sightseers
Ben Wheatley’s Kill List had a reputation on the festival circuit for leaving audiences with the “Kill List stare” — looking at the screen slack-jawed, trying to wrap your head around what you were watching. It nailed the original Wicker Man creepy-for-reasons-but-I-don’t-know-why vibe, and I told myself I’d definitely watch whatever else that guy did. Now he’s done a pitch black comedy set in rural England, where a couple of vacationers go on a cathartic murder-spree. And it’s produced by Edgar Wright (director of Scott Pilgrim, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), which is another very good sign.

Also, These

Berberian Sound Studio
A tribute to Italian horror movies that’s set in a studio where they’re making an Italian horror movie. Killer soundtrack, too.

The History of Future Folk
Admittedly, this looks pretty twee. But that’s hardly a bad thing. A bluegrass folk musical about aliens who came to destroy Earth but discovered music instead and now play club shows in New York.

“Life, Love, Lyrics and Lobsters”
The annual shorts package. It has a cartoon by Pendleton Ward, who made Adventure Time and is therefore one of the greatest men alive.

The Lords of Salem
Rob Zombie has made one amazing movie, Devil’s Rejects. Seriously, it’s unimpeachable. He’s also made some terrible movies, like House of 1000 Corpses. But I still want to give him the benefit of the doubt, and a movie about evil rock ‘n’ roll and witchcraft seems like a pretty perfect fit.

Mine went something like this: “I interviewed songwriters about how they use other people’s work in their creative process—quoting other lyrics and melodies, taking inspiration from movies, that sort of thing—and I’m tying that into copyright law and creativity theory.” It still sounds a little dry, which is natural for a 100-page paper, but it sounded at least interesting enough that quite a few people have asked if they can read it. And while I don’t expect them to actually follow through on that, I figured this blog is as good a place as any to give people the option.

So, there’s a link to it at the bottom of this post. But if you’re curious and don’t feel like reading the entire thing (a wholly reasonable position, I’d say), here’s the gist of it:

We don’t really know what creativity is

At its core, copyright policy is about legislating creativity. It says that once someone expresses an idea in a certain way, no one else should be able to use that same expression without getting permission from the person who did it first. There are exceptions, but in general, what it’s doing is giving people a temporary (but pretty darned long) monopoly on the fruits of their creative labour.

That policy makes total sense if creativity is about individuals coming up with wholly original ideas, but a lot of theories of creativity say that’s not the case. Instead they say that it’s a much messier situation, one that’s more about the recombining of ideas that are already out there. Creativity, in some views, isn’t about individuals, although individuals do play a role. It’s about the relationship between the individual, all the work that’s already been created, and the people who’s opinions on creativity we hold to be valid.

Let me put that a little differently. The idea is, if you want to know whether, say, a painting is creative, you can’t just look at the painting in isolation. It might be a perfect copy of another painting, and even though you might say that’s an impressive technical feat, you probably wouldn’t think it’s as creative as the original painting. So creativity isn’t in the thing itself. There’s context involved.

There’s also the whole notion of memetics, which says that creativity isn’t something we do at all, but that ideas are sort of alive in their own right, and that they’re sort of using humans to reproduce. Basically, evolution only needs three conditions: you need a thing that can replicate, the ability for it to mutate, and selection pressures. If you’ve ever had a song stuck in your head that you feel compelled to hum, or have had a thought keep popping into your head despite doing your best not to think about it, you know that some ideas just seem to compel you to share them. That’s replication. If you’ve ever misremembered a melody, well, that’s mutation. And if you’ve heard a sort-of-interesting story but completely forgot it before telling someone else, well, there’s your selection pressure.

The idea behind memetics is that what humans are really good at is imitation, and as soon as we got good enough at imitating other people, and animals, and nature in general, we made a situation where individual ideas (memes, basically) could start reproducing and evolving.

Which is all neat, but… so what, right?

Well, the theory of creativity that’s underneath copyright law, that the best way to promote creativity is to make it harder to re-use work that other people have done, doesn’t seem to fit with how a lot of scholars think creativity actually works. That doesn’t mean that it’s wrong, but it does mean that we should maybe be questioning some of the assumptions behind the copyright system, and finding ways to figure out if they actually make sense.

Talking to artists will help us figure it out

And here’s where my contribution comes in. It seems obvious to me that, if you want to know how creativity works, one of the best ways to get a sense of it is to talk to people who engage in creative work on a regular basis. For some reason, though, that’s not really happening. It’s hard to find any studies that try to figure out how much of creativity involves “borrowing” from other works in one way or another—pretty much the only book I’ve found on the subject looks specifically at digital sampling, which is very interesting and worthwhile but completely overlooks all the other ways that you can reuse elements of other works.

So I decided that my project should at least start to fill in that gap. Time and resources being what they are, I only talked to seven people in three cities, all songwriters in Western Canada who all could broadly fit into the “indie rock” category, but only because that category is pretty broad and meaningless. In Calgary, it was Matt Masters, who writes and plays old-school country, Tom Bagley (aka Jackson Phibes), an illustrator who has a long history in the horror-punk scene in Colour Me Psycho and Forbidden Dimension, and who has been branching out into folk and murder ballads in the Agnostic Phibes Rhythm and Blood Conspiracy, and Foon Yap, who plays violin for Calgary’s Woodpigeon and has a couple of excellent solo projects as well. In Vancouver, it was Lee Hutzulak of the eerie, atmospheric Dixie’s Death Pool, and Dan Mangan, whose folk-influenced rock has been nominated for the Polaris Prize. And in Winnipeg, it was Doug McLean of power-poppish outfit The Paperbacks (and formerly The Bonaduces), and John K. Samson of The Weakerthans, one of the most prominent bands in the Canadian indie landscape.

It’s not the most diverse group, but when you’re talking to a handful of people, even if you made it as diverse a group as possible, it’s not going to be very generalizable, so I tried not to worry about that. The goal wasn’t to figure out definitively how creativity works in songwriting. It was just to show that talking to artists can provide insights that add to the discussion around copyright and creativity, and that we should be doing it more often.

Everybody borrows

To repeat what I just said, none of my findings are meant to be conclusive statements about How Creativity Really Works. But there were a couple of things that kept coming up that seem worth sharing, and if it turns out that they do represent a wider view, show some problems in the way copyright works right now.

First, creative borrowing is very, very common. Everyone I talked to had either quoted another work in their lyrics, or quoted something musically—a guitar lick, a chord progression, a vocal melody, a drum part. They do it consciously and unconsciously, and generally see it as an entirely normal part of the creative process. There are differences in how much borrowing they thought was appropriate, what sort of sources they were interested in borrowing from, and whether it was important to credit their sources, but it was present in all seven songwriters’ work.

If you factor in less direct types of borrowing—allusions, for example, or borrowing “the feel” of another song—it’s even more common. The way Dan Mangan put it was that

If you’re a person who creates things, then whatever you’re barfing into the world is going to be comprised of whatever you’ve eaten.

Or as Doug McLean said,

It’s extremely common for people to pick out bits of melody and use them for their own. I think that’s probably the basis of popular music in general. But I think that periodically people get hung up on originality or those kinds of things as being one of the top three most important things about making music, whereas I don’t think it’s even in the top 10.

Second, the borrowing comes from a huge variety of sources. In a previous project, I talked to a dancer who “lifted” all of the movement from a film from the 1950s and built a new story around the same physical gestures. I’d never thought of movement as something that could be quoted, but then that’s exactly what made that project interesting.

In my interviews here, I found that songwriters have many ways of using other works in their creative process without it being obvious in the finished product. The songwriters borrowed phrases from technical writing and titles from unproduced films, included lyrical allusions to films and musical references to other songs. They re-used song structures, unconsciously borrowed melodies, transposed chord changes and imitated vocal phrasings. They tried to capture particular atmospheres or energy, borrowed rhythms and lifted melodies from the public domain. They even found ways to take inspiration from visual art, philosophy, film and political rhetoric, with none of this borrowing striking the songwriters as at all unusual.

Some of those uses are clearly allowed under current laws, but a lot of them aren’t, necessarily. But if it turns out that’s just how creativity works, it seems counter-productive to write laws that are designed to make that sort of borrowing more difficult.

Third, and maybe most tellingly, I found that pretty well no-one I talked to really knew how copyright law worked, because they didn’t feel it was relevant. Copyright was seen more as an economic tool that applied to people working on a much larger scale than them. This one is really important, because one of the major historical arguments behind copyright is that it exists to provide an incentive to create—that without copyright laws, putting massive amounts of time and effort into creative endeavours wouldn’t be worthwhile, and culture would stagnate.

But, if the people who are actually creating works don’t particularly know about copyright and don’t see it as a factor in what they do, that points to a major disconnect between the theory and reality. There are almost definitely works out there that would not have been created if copyright wasn’t there to make them profitable, but there are also works that would exist if we had never come up with the notion of intellectual property rights. Which means that it’s a question about balance—making sure that we’re restricting as few freedoms as possible while still making sure that we’re not depriving the world of potentially incredible new works.

The whole point

Here, I’m just going to straight-up quote the last paragraph of my thesis, because it sums up the argument I’ve spent a bit over a year working on:

If we hope to improve our understanding of the creative process in order to better understand how to legislate creativity, then speaking to artists about these practices is essential. Further study with larger, more disparate groups of musicians—songwriters working in a wider variety of genres, from broader geographical locations, of different backgrounds and different economic standings—can only enrich our understanding. Whether the goal is a more accurate theoretical foundation, more practical policy or even just further fodder for philosophical discussion, artists’ own views and voices must take on a more central role in the conversation.

I honestly think this is hugely important. Right now, we’re legislating based on ideas about creativity that are hundreds of years old. They might be true, but they also might not. It may turn out that the approach we have to copyright law right now is the best way to promote the creation of new culture, and to make the world a more vibrant place. But it might turn out that it’s actually counter-productive, that we’re stifling more creativity than we’re encouraging, and are keeping valuable new ideas from spreading. The only way to figure that out is to have a better understanding of creativity, and talking to artists seems like a pretty intuitive way to build that understanding.

The thesis goes into a lot more detail on all of this. There’s a brief history of copyright law that tries to explain why it showed up in the first place, and a slightly more thorough rundown of creativity theory. If you just want to know what the songwriters think, you can skip to the last three chapters and ignore the rest. If you’re just looking to skim, chapters 4 and 5 are by far the most interesting, I’d say, and have the most quotes. Or, y’know, don’t read it at all. It’s a 100 page academic paper, and even though I tried to make it as readable as I could, that’s not going to appeal to everyone. In any case, if you’re curious, here it is:
(The feature image on the main page is Brandon Bird’s Two Warriors Emerge from the Sky, speaking of artists who make fantastic use of creative borrowing…)

People enjoying and interacting with Caitlind Brown & Wayne Garrett’s Cloud at Nuit Blanche

The words we use are important. As someone who has been on both sides of the editor/writer relationship, I know how passionate people can get about individual word choices, how substituting one verb can entirely change the meaning of a paragraph and alter the perception of an entire piece.

The same holds for any conversation. Every time you start a conversation (or a discussion, or a debate…), the way you initially frame the topic has an effect on everything that follows, whether you intend it or not. And even if that effect is tiny at first, it grows every time you return to that conversation.

How often have we talked about getting more people to support the arts? By we, I mean people in the media, or people who work in the arts sector, or people who pay taxes and wonder whether that money is actually helping to make a better world. The answer is somewhere between “a whole lot” and “oh man, so, so many times.” Which is good. It’s a discussion worth having. But, I’m pretty sure we’ve been using the wrong verb. (And maybe the wrong noun, but I’ll save that one for another time. In short, “the arts” is a vague and kind of intimidating word.)

There are so many good verbs we could be using with art. Making art. Discussing art. Attending. Enjoying. Experiencing. Thinking about. Engaging with. Watching. Listening. Even just recognizing the art that we walk by every day. The whole reason we talk about “supporting” the arts is that artistic experiences enrich people’s lives; they broaden perspectives, provide entertainment and social interaction. That’s what gets us excited about art. That’s why we put so much time into making sure that arts experiences happen—all those great verbs.

And then we turn around and ask people to support events. To support the community. We’re replacing all of those exciting, passion-generating words with an obligation. A chore. A duty. Support the arts. Eat your vegetables. It’s not going to be fun, but it’ll make you a better person.

That’s bad enough—no one responds well to having an obligation pushed on them—but it’s also a distancing word choice. If people are supporting the arts, they aren’t a part of the arts, and audiences are absolutely part of the arts. When you’re asking for their support, though, it implies that they’re helping you do something, rather than taking part in something themselves. It makes it an issue of charity, with someone else subsidizing an artist’s ability to do crazy artist things and not have to join the real world.

Basically, what I’m saying is that we don’t want people to support the arts. We want people to have their minds blown and their worldviews shaken; we want them to have the kinds of experiences that only art can provide. If they’re doing that, they won’t have to even think about the fact that they’re giving their support—it’ll just happen.

And it’s not like that’s something that artists don’t already know—the whole reason the support discussion comes up is that people are doing everything they can to provide those experiences, and they’re frustrated. So, absolutely, there will be times when “support” is the right word. Just… a little less often is all.

L.V. Johnson – Don’t Cha Mess With My Money My Honey or My Woman

Various – John Legend – Who Did That To You – Django Unchained Soundtrack ( Republic )
Blood Sweat & Tears – Go Down Gamblin – Blood Sweat & Tears 4
Edwin Starr – Twenty-Five Miles

Inez & Charlie Foxx – Tightrope
Rufus Thomas – Do the Funky Penguin (Part 1)
Marvin Gaye – You

Garnet Mimms & the Enchanters – Cry Baby
The Astors – Daddy Didn’t Tell Me
The Impressions – Sister Love – The Never Ending Impressions

Ted Taylor – Somebody’s Always Trying
Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin – Stone Rollin’‘
Freak Motif** – The Heist – La Casa Blanca ( Self-Released )
Gemini Brass – You Don’t Love Me – Calypsoul 70

Georgie Fame – Do Re Mi - 20 Beat Classics
Axcents – Hold It Mary – LA Grind Volume 2
Little Richard – Do the Jerk – The Wild & Frantic…
Eddie Floyd – Big Bird

Beyuz & Emil – Masquerade Two – Daily Habits
Elaquent* – Wish Your Were Here – Parallel EP ( Urbnet )
RJD2 – Mic Control – In Rare Form
The Coup – The Gods of Science – Sorry To Bother You ( Anti- )
Sadat X – Plan of Attack – Love, Hell Or Right ( 682 )

Jocelyn & Lisa** – Preach – Weary Warrior ( Self-Released )
Gizmo – Lift Me Up – Red Balloon ( Revive )
Open Mike Eagle – Art Rap Party – Unapologetic Art Rap ( )

The Hood Internet – Our Finest China (el_der remix) – FEAT remixes ( MishkaNYC )
Big Boi – Apple of my Eye – Vicious Lies And Dangerous Rumors ( Def Jam )
Mos Def – Casa Bey – The Ecstatic

Ghostface Killah – The Champ – Fishscale
Lozen* – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – Tragedy & Triumph Mixtape ( Urbnet )
Diverse – Ain’t Right – One A.M.
Errors – Hemlock – New Relics ( Rock Action )

*Canadian **Local

A Very So Good Christmas
Truth be told, I’ve never much cared for Christmas music. But that’s mostly because I never put any effort into it. I heartily endorse any of the ones below for your festivities next year. Especially the Quad City DJs track, which is actually the greatest. Here’s what you heard.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – It’s Christmas Time – Motown Christmas ( Motown )

The Supremes – Just a Lonely Christmas – Motown Christmas ( Motown )
Staple Singers – Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas – ( Stax )
Clarence Carter – Back Door Santa – ( Stax )
Otis Redding – Merry Christmas Baby – The Original Soul Christmas

Isaac Hayes – The Mistletoe and Me – ( Stax )
Marvin Gaye – I Want to Come Home for Christmas – Motown Christmas ( Motown )
Solomon Burke – Presents for Christmas – The Original Soul Christmas
Jimmy Smith – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Christmas ’64

Sinistrio – The Grinch – Modern Xmas ( Chronograph )
Cix Bits – Season’s Greetings – ( Stax )
Redtenbacher’s Funkestra – Deck the Halls – A Very Funky Christmas ( Wooden Hat )
James Brown – Soulful Christmas – Funky Christmas

Darlene Love – Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) – A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Specter ( )
The Emotions – What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas – ( Stax )
Carla Thomas – All I Want For Christmas is You – ( Stax )
Albert King – Santa Claus Wants some Loving – ( Stax )
Free Design – Close Your Mouth (It’s Christmas) – Peanut Butter Wolf Presents: Badd Santa ( Stone’s Throw )
Louis Armstrong – ‘Zat You Santa Claus (The Heavy Remix) – Verve Remixed Christmas ( Verve )

The Soul Saints Orchestra – Santa’s Got a Bag of Soul – Peanut Butter Wolf Presents: Badd Santa ( Stone’s Throw )
Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra – Little Drummer Boy – A Very Ping Pong Christmas
The Crystals – Santa Claus is Coming to Town – A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spectre
The Jackson 5 – Christmas Won’t Be the Same This Year – Motown Christmas ( Motown )
Joe Tex – I’ll Make Every Day Christmas (For My Woman) – The Original Soul Christmas

Spyder D – Geto Santa – Christmas Rap
Run DMC – Christmas in Hollis – Christmas Rap
Kanye West – Christmas in Harlem

69 Boys & Quad City DJs – What I Want for Christmas – Peanut Butter Wolf Presents: Badd Santa ( Stone’s Throw )
Ludacris – Ludacrismas – Fred Claus Soundtrack
Various** – Carol of the Bells – The Calgary Christmas Groove ( Self-Released )

Nina Simone – Chilly Winds (Fink Remix) – Verve Remixed Christmas ( Verve )
The Ronettes – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Specter

So Good’s Post-New-Year’s Hangover Daze
Since I figured everyone was nursing hangovers, or at least should have been, this was all about keeping things smooth. Ridiculously, cheesily, ear-pleasingly smooth. Don’t worry — I got that all out of my system now.

The Zombies – This Will Be Our Year – Odyssey and Oracle ( )

Al Green – Write You a Letter – I Can’t Stop
The O’Jays – Use Ta Be My Girl – The Sound of Philadelphia
Aloe Blacc – Good Things – Good Things
Francoise Hardy – Le Temps de L’amour – The Yeh-Yeh Girl from Paris

Serge Gainsbourg – Pamela Popo – Vu de l’exterieur
Les Masques & Le Trio Camera – Il Faut Tenir – Sexopolis
Seu Jorge & Almaz – Rock With You – Seu Jorge And Almaz

The RH Factor – How I Know – Hard Groove
Tim Maia – Over Again – World Psychadelic Classics 4: Nobody Can Live Forever ( Luaka Bop )
Sugar Pie Desanto – Slip-In Mules (No High Heel Sneakers)
Wilson Pickett – You Left the Water Running – The Wicked Pickett
Sandra Phillips – I Wish I Had Known – Okeh: A Northern Soul Obsession ( Okeh )

The Crystals – Heartbreaker
Big Julien – Crescendo
Koop – Baby – Waltz for Koop – Alternate Takes
Maylee Todd*  – Summer Sounds
Naytronix – In the Summer – Dirty Glow ( Plug Research )

Tame Impala – Apocalypse Dreams – Lonerism ( Modular )
Sinewave*  – Star Tripping – Unity Gain
How To Dress Well – Struggle – Total Loss ( Acephale )
Slakah the Beatchild*  – Illusions – Something Forever

Sinistrio**  – Sneak Attack – Ride the Dragon
Ariane Moffat* – Hotel Amour – MA Remixes ( Audiogram )
Rhye – The Fall – The Fall ( Republic )
Pogo – Go Out and Love Someone
Tanlines – Abby – Mixed Emotions

*Canadian  **Local

I’m not generally a fan of Christmas music, but since I have a radio show on Christmas Day this year, I’m diving in head-first. Turns out, some of it is pretty alright, and I’m posting a few of the better-but-not-appropriate-for-my-show ones here.

This one’s a slight cop-out, since it’s been a favourite of mine for years. Rumour has it that Billy Joel is on piano for this version, which only makes things that much better. Worth it for the various egg-nog-based beverages alone, but even more worth it for the rest of it. Steve Martin, you’re a hell of a guy.

As always, YouTube and Bandcamp links are sporadically scattered throughout.

December 11:

Lee Moses - Time and Place - Time and Place
Black Nasty - Black Nasty Boogie (Part 6)
The Tangeers - What’s the Use of Me Trying
Majestics - Riding By
Various - Caroline Smith & the Goodnight Sleeps – Cry Baby Cry - Minnesota Beatle Project Vol. 4 ( Vega Productions )
Sister Gertrude Morgan - Take The Lord Along With U
Lukid - Bless My Heart - Lonely At The Top ( Ninja Tune )
The Heavy - Love Like That
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Inspiration Information
Bob Marley - Teenager in Love
The Inversions - I Can’t Stand These Lonely Nights - ( Daptone )
K’Naan*  - What’s Hardcore?
Kinky - The Headphonist
Marvin Gaye - I Want You
Classic Funk - Hard Times
The Supremes - Nathan Jones
Beat The Grid - Blues - Blues & Why? ( Self-released )
Kid Koala*  - Shanky Panky - Some of my Best Friends Are DJs ( Ninja Tune )
The Herbaliser - What You Asked For - There Were Seven ( Dept. H )
D-Sisive*  - November - Jonestown 3: The Dream is Over
Freak Motif ‘s Fantastic Live Performance, Oh Man**
Menahan Street Band - Keep Coming Back - The Crossing ( Daptone )
Nga Juana* - Falling Down - Section One ( Self-Released )
Talib Kweli - In the Mood

December 18th:

Sly and the Family Stone - Luv ‘N Haight - There’s a Riot Goin’ On
Isaac Hayes - Hyperbolicsyllablecsesquedalymistic - Hot Buttered Soul ( Stax )
Albert King - Crosscut Saw - ( Stax )
Tim Maia - Ela Partiu - World Psychadelic Classics 4: Nobody Can Live Forever ( Luaka Bop )
Exciting Mrs. Brown - April Orchestra - La Guepe Vol. 2 — Deep Inside the French Library Music
Freak Motif** - The Heist - La Casa Blanca ( Self-Released )
Hot Sauce - Stop Doggin’ Me - ( Stax )
Katie Love - How Can You Mistreat the One You Love - ( Stax )
Tony Toni Tone - Leavin’ - Sons of Soul
Robert Glasper Experiment - Afro Blu - Black Radio Recovered The Remix EP ( Blue Note )
Kid Koala and Money Mark*  - Carpel Tunnel Syndrome - Ninja Cuts FunkungFusion ( Ninja Tune )
Deep Puddle Dynamics - D. Mothers of Invention - Anticon Label Sampler: 1999-2004 ( Anticon )
Shabazz Palaces - Recollections of the Wraith - Black Up ( Sub Pop )
D’Angelo - She’s Always in my Hair - Controversy ( Strut )
The Roots - Don’t Feel Right - Game Theory ( Def Jam )
Shad*  - The Old Prince Still Lives at Home - The Old Prince ( Black Box )
Open Mike Eagle - Helicopter - Unapologetic Art Rap ( )
A Tribe Called Quest - Rock Rock Y’all - The Love Movement ( Jive )
Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Straighten it Out - ( Elektra )
Quakers - I Like To Dance (Instrumental) - Quakers ( Stone’s Throw )
Sabo Forte & Hesamiam** - Thunderclap - Prime Watson ( Self-Released )
Main Attrakionz - Rainy Days - Bossalinis & Folliyones ( Young One )
J Dilla - Love - The Shining ( )
The Coup - The Gods of Science - Sorry To Bother You ( Anti- )
RJD2 - Junior - Magnificent City Instrumentals
E-Dubble - Down - Reset ( Self-Released )
D-Sisive*  - November - Jonestown 3: The Dream is Over ( mixtape )
King Geedorah - Next Levels - You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts ( Ninja Tune )
Jel - Nice Last - Anticon Label Sampler: 1999-2004 ( Anticon )

*Canadian **Local

I’m not generally a fan of Christmas music. But since I’ve decided to do a Christmas episode for next week’s So Good Soul Revue, I’ve been trying to find some that I can actually like. And since some of them wouldn’t make any sense on my show, I’ll be posting them here instead.
Here’s the first one. Harvey Danger is one of those one-hit wonders who actually recorded a lot of great music outside of their (great but overplayed) hit. Still, even as one of their biggest defenders over the last decade, I had no idea that they had anything remotely Christmas-y under their belt.
And, as someone who goes to the movies on Christmas day, I now feel slightly guilty. But only slightly.

“File-sharing: You don’t mind it when it’s some musician’s song or a designer’s game. When it’s your shitty instagram photos it all changes, eh?”

“Mad about instagram? Imagine you’d spent 100s of hours & 1000s of dollars on your cat photos… you now know what it’s like to be a musician”

There’ve been some tweets floating around comparing the Instagram TOS kerfuffle with file-sharing. Now, I’m not saying people who’ve had their materials pirated aren’t allowed to be upset. I just think it’s a really terrible comparison, and it’ll be kind of frustrating if it gains traction.

Let’s ignore the implication that everything on Instagram is worthless, required no effort, and barely qualifies as creative expression (partly because I’ve posted on something similar before and partly because ugh) and focus on the actual issue. The concern that Instagram users have, overblown as it may be, is that images that they uploaded for the purpose of sharing can now be used for commercial purposes, without their permission. They wanted their shitty cat photos to be shared with as many people as possible–file sharing is literally the purpose of a site like Instagram. So saying to Instagram users “how do you like file-sharing now” is a little weird. They like it. It’s what they want to do.

What they don’t want is someone else making money off of their work without their permission.

What these musicians are presumably more concerned about is piracy–people downloading songs that are made for commercial purposes without paying for them. But this is more like if Bandcamp started saying, hey, if your songs are available for free on our site, we’re going to start licensing them to movies and commercials without telling you. Again, that’s not the same as some dude downloading your song for his personal use without paying anything. In this case, you’ve already said it’s OK for that dude to download it without paying. You just don’t want Bandcamp making money off a song that wasn’t supposed to be sold in the first place.

And I do think that distinction matters, especially when you’re putting it in terms of file sharing. Because there are huge amounts of culture being created and distributed explicitly because people want them shared, completely separately from any economic motivations, and I think it’s kind of neat that people want to keep that from becoming commercialized (even if that’s a super naive way of looking at social media). If you’re trying to sell music and it’s getting pirated, that sucks. But it’s not the same thing as what’s happening here.

The above video was a request that I couldn’t get to, I’m assuming from a Community fan. Hopefully enjoying it unironically, but who can say.

The spotlight this week was on soul covers of Beatles tunes, a topic that popped into my head thanks to the great new remaster of the Grey Album, but the actual show started on a very mellow note — the Via Lactea Caboose ended with Michael Bolton, so I decided to keep the lite jamz going with Fantastic Four’s thoroughly wonderful “Give Me All the Love You Got.” There’s some solid soul gems in there, but I’m regretting not throwing in a bit of Das Racist to commemorate their breakup. So it goes.

Next week, Freak Motif in the studio and plenty more good tunes.

The setlist (with YouTube and/or download links):

Fantastic Four – Give Me All The Love You Got

Sugar Pie Desanto – Mr. and Mrs.
Rufus Thomas – Walking the Dog
Johnnie Taylor – Take Care of Your Homework (Love that opening scream)
Sly & the Family Stone – Into My Own Thing

Shorty Long – Devil With the Blue Dress

Little Richard – I Don’t Want to Discuss It
Larry Williams & Johnny Watson – A Quitter Never Wins
John Craig – I Don’t Wanna Do It
Freak Motif** – The Explorer – La Casa Blanca ( Self-Released )
Joanna Borromeo** – Outside – Kaleidoscope ( Self-Released )
zz Ward – Put the Gun Down – Til The Casket Drops ( Hollywood )

The Who – Hall of the Mountain King  (By request)

Aretha Franklin – Eleanor Rigby
Lee Moses – Daytripper
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles – And I Love Her
The Supremes – Come Together
Earth, Wind and Fire – Got to Get You Into My Life

Wu Tang Clan & The Beatles – C.R.E.A.M.
Miles Jones* – Scorpio – The Jones Act Part III ( Urbnet )

Jel – Zen Approach
Why?*  – Kevin’s Cancer – Mumps, etc. ( Anticon )
Various* – NiLLA – Vintage 2.0 – Everybody Dance Now Songs From Hamilton 7 ( CFMU )

Sabo Forte & Hesamiam** – Gravy Train – Prime Watson ( Self-Released )
The Coup – Magic Clap – Sorry To Bother You ( Anti- )
Outkast – Bowtie – Speakerboxx

C2C – Because of You – Tetra ( ON And ON )
Radio Radio*  – Nine Piece Luggage Set

Busdriver – Take This Step With Me and Never Come Back – Arguments with Dreams
Etienne De Crecy – Ash Sync – Essentials ( Pixadelic )

*Canadian **Calgarian

Photo via the Calgary Herald, used without permission, but hopefully they won’t mind too much

This is sort-of an addendum to the film piece I wrote in Fast Forward the other week. When I wrote that, the state of the Globe was very much up in the air–in fact, I had it on good word that they were about to announce their closure–but fortunately they’ve worked out a way to keep the theatre open, albeit without Landmark’s support.

That change is bound to provide some challenges–I’m sure the buying power of a national chain is at least some help when the Globe is booking its films–but hopefully that doesn’t provide too many obstacles. At least the lack of the Landmark branding isn’t going to hurt the public perception of the theatre, given how many Calgarians didn’t even realize it was a part of a chain. I have never heard anyone refer to the theatre as anything but The Globe, so on that front, people might not even notice the change.

But here’s the thing: They should notice it, and the theatre should make sure that they notice it. This is now an absolutely ideal time for The Globe to try to get more buy-in from the public, and I don’t mean that in some guilt-inducing “look how close Calgary came to losing yet another theatre” way. I know that the folks behind the scenes at the Globe are eager to work with local film fests and groups to provide the best experience possible (and that they’ve already been pushing at the boundaries of what Landmark allows to help accommodate things like CUFF’s liquor licence); now’s the time to really embrace that community spirit.

In my view, the first step should be a major sprucing up of the theatre. It’s a great space, but there’s only so much you can do when you’re running on a shoestring and I’m sure the owners wouldn’t disagree that it’s gotten a little worse for wear over the years. That’s where the community involvement comes in: putting a campaign up on Indiegogo or the new InvestYYC platform would be a fantastic way to both raise some money to make that revamp possible and to create awareness that The Globe is now more of a Calgary theatre than ever. Make sure to give people a reason to invest, too–I saw an Indiegogo campaign for a Vancouver restaurant recently where all the money pledged gets you gift cards for an equivalent amount once the restaurant opens. That might be excessive, but saying that a $50 donation gets you two movie tickets in addition to whatever other incentives they come up with would make sure that people come in to see where their money went.

The other thing I’d love to see the Globe move towards is embracing more of a repertory model. It’s something that the Plaza has been trying over the years (and events there like the recent Jurassic Park Beach Party definitely bode well, although I unfortunately missed it), but with two screens, it’s less risky of a move. You can book the first-run art-house movie you wanted to and still throw on a Douglas Sirk melodrama for the classic cinephiles. It’ll take a while to find the balance–and it may turn out I’m totally wrong, and that’s not what the public wants at all–but taking the time to figure out what people in Calgary actually want their theatre to be is going to be a major part of making The Globe work as a truly indie theatre.

If I were them, I’d be keeping a close eye on the experiments that have been going on within the film community. The Calgary Underground Film Fest (which, full disclosure, I’m on the board of) has had some great success lately pairing meals with movies in more offbeat venues, with cannibal movies and extra-meaty menu items at the Oak Tree in Kensington, and more recently a sushi-horror double feature at Costellos, and it’s always trying to find ways to deliver new film experiences. The Cinematheque has been trying out different venues, with a recent screening at the Glenbow. The Plaza’s been doing more event screenings. GIRAF has its Log Drivers Waltz. Each one of those (and plenty more events, too) have lessons to teach about what gets people interested, what works, and what doesn’t.

Honestly, I’m excited to see what the Globe does now that there’s no leash. I’m sure they have ideas, and I’m also sure that others in the community have their own thoughts. But if this switch is handled right, it really could be great for Calgary’s film scene.

Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Seven Days is Too Long

Chris Clark – Love’s Gone Bad
Menahan Street Band – Lights Out – The Crossing ( Daptone )
The Emotions – Love’s Gone Bad
Wayne McGhie & The Sounds of Joy*  – Take A Letter Maria

Albert King – Flat Tire
Larry Graham & Graham Central Station – Raise Up (ft. Prince) – Raise Up ( Moosicus )
Daniel Janin – The Little Green Man Walk

John Craig – Doing My Own Thing
Erykah Badu – Soldier
Rhye – The Fall – The Fall ( Republic )
Massive Attack – Safe From Harm

Jay-Z – Takeover (Unplugged live with the Roots)
KRS-One – Sound of da Police
Eric Burden and the Animals – Inside Looking Out

The Coup – Strange Arithmetic – Sorry To Bother You ( Anti- )
Sabo Forte** – Anyway We Can Now – Prime Watson ( Self-Released )
Miles Jones* – Scorpio – The Jones Act Part III ( Urbnet )

Heems – Cowabunga Gnarly – Wild Water Kingdom ( Mixtape )
Diverse – Explosive (ft. Lyrics Born)
RJD2 – Bus Stop Bitties

The Herbalizer – The Lost Boy – There Were Seven ( Dept. H )
Bonobo – Sun Will Rise (ft. Speech Debelle)

Rainy Milo – This Thing of Ours – Limey ( Self-Released )
Elaquent – So Far So Good
Tru-Paz* – Black Widow – Tru To The Game Without A Pause ( Urbnet )

*Canadian **Local

Exciting day on the show today — the first time I’ve had official guests in the studio, and it was New York synth-pop duo Tanlines (who are playing tonight at Commonwealth as part of their one-year anniversary party that’s going all week, and you should go check it out. Calgary’s Gold is opening. It’ll be good). They talked a bit about their new video (coming soon), their view of Canadian sports on TV, and Nate Silver’s drunken tweets — pretty normal band stuff, in other words.

Outside of that, the show started with a nod to the German travelogue that ended off Nathan’s show, went through a few food-oriented songs and ended with another visit to Kid Koala’s 12-Bit Blues, easily the Kid’s most listenable solo album in recent memory. No links this time (I’m in a bit of a rush), but you folks know how to use Google. I’m sure you’ll manage. Rainy Milo and Rhye in particular are worth tracking down, and should have some free EPs online, so do have a look around.

Heidi Bruhl – Berlin

The Bar-Kays – Soul Finger
The Earthworms – Mo’ Taters
Binky Griptite with the Sugarman Three – A Lover Like Me
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – How Long Do I Have To Wait For You

People’s Choice – Do It Any Way You Wanna
D’Angelo – Chicken Grease
Robert Glasper Experiment – Afro Blue – Black Radio Recovered The Remix EP ( Blue Note )

Aloe Blacc – Bailar… Scene 1
The Hood Internet + Various – Our Finest China – Feat ( Deacon )
Rainy Milo – Don’t Regret Me – Limey ( Self-Released )

Rhye – 3 Days – The Fall ( Republic )
Why? – Waterlines – Mumps, etc. ( Anticon )
Main Attrakionz – On Tour – Bossalinis & Folliyones ( Young One )

Main Attrakionz – Sex in the City – Bossalinis & Folliyones ( Young One )
Various* – NiLLA – Vintage 2.0 – Everybody Dance Now Songs From Hamilton 7 ( CFMU )
The Herbalizer – A Sad State of Affairs – There Were Seven ( Dept. H )
Background Noise Crew – Alone Too Long – Everybody Does This, Vol. 2 ( Background Noise Crew )

Tanlines – Not the Same - Mixed Emotions (True Panther)
Tanlines – Abby - Mixed Emotions (True Panther)
Tanlines – Brothers - Mixed Emotions (True Panther)

The Chemical Brothers – The Golden Path
Jel – Sweet Cream In It – Soft Money

Kid Koala* – 8 Bit Blues – 12 Bit Blues ( Ninja Tune )

* Canadian  ** Local

Oh, and:

Bonus video: Trust me, it’s better than it really should be

I’ve been on an intellectual consistency kick for the last little while, because that’s just the sort of wild and crazy fellow I am. Especially since the US election a couple of days ago, where it looked like Obama might not win the popular vote, which had me wondering how many folks who preached about the importance of the popular vote during the Bush administration would hold the same line when it was their candidate’s legitimacy being questioned. It’s easy to argue something when it helps your guy, and much harder to hold on to that belief when it’ll hurt you.

So here’s a test case: Imagine a president–a Republican president–who brings the US into what many feel is an illegal war of aggression. He uses this war to amass unprecedented power into the executive branch, and to pass legislation that may be unconstitutional under the auspices of war measures, reaching into areas that were technically the domain of the individual states. Knowing that once the war ends his legislation likely won’t hold up to judicial scrutiny, he attempts to modify the constitution. To get the necessary votes in congress, he’s been bribing Democrats with cushy government jobs once their terms end, while also falsely claiming that the amendment is necessary to put an end to the war. He knows it isn’t, though, because he’s aware of a sincere offer for peace negotiations, but is intentionally delaying those talks in order to get his amendment through.

Again, he is intentionally prolonging a war for his own political ends. The question is, how much does it matter what those ends are? Are those tactics inherently wrong, or are they just political tools that sometimes have to be used?

Because, at least in Spielberg’s new Lincoln biopic, those are exactly the tactics the great emancipator uses to get the 13th amendment to pass. It’s hard to think of a more positive end than the abolition of slavery, and it’s easy to buy into the argument that the practice would have continued for decades at the very least if Lincoln hadn’t been, well, flexible when it came to the democratic process. But delaying the end of the war by even a few days when it was killing, on average, 3,000 Americans every week is essentially allowing a 9/11-level death toll for the sake of politics. Is that justifiable?

It’s been a long while since I read Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, but if I’m remembering correctly, her argument is essentially that governments will take advantage of extreme situations such as wars and natural disasters to push through extreme measures that they know would never pass in peace time, relying on the people’s fears to keep them from realizing the extent of what’s going on. Spielberg’s film establishes early on that this is exactly what’s happening, with Lincoln’s secretary of state interviewing an ordinary citizen who only supports the end of slavery because her president has told her that it is necessary to end the war. It follows Klein’s method to a tee.

Those methods are easiest to criticize when they bring about results are obviously negative–concentrating wealth and power, dismantling civil liberties–but the real test of one’s beliefs comes when those same methods are used for what seems like a positive end. Very few people believe their goals are evil, after all. So how willing are you to say that the ends justify the means?

PS – If you’re wondering how the movie is, it’s a bit dry in parts and heavy on exposition, particularly in the opening sequences, but Daniel Day-Lewis is fantastic and Tommy Lee Jones is even better–expect an Oscar nomination for Day-Lewis and probably a win for Jones. It’s thoughtful, beautifully shot and builds to a satisfying climax, and it’s interesting seeing Lincoln as a lanky nerd prone to tangential stories and weird references that clearly irritate his advisers. So, entirely worth seeing. But if you’re looking for excitement this weekend, I’m guessing Skyfall gives more bang for your buck.

*Bonus via Prefixmag: A not particularly political track from Das Racist’s Kool AD that’s very worth checking out.

Kudos to Kat Dornian, the music director at CJSW. I took a bit of a different approach this week and mostly stuck to albums on the official playlist she compiles for the station (which includes 100s of CDs in pretty much every genre), and almost everything I checked out was amazing. I ran a bit out of steam near the end, but other than that, I was really quite happy with this one. How To Dress Well still blows my mind, and I think Rhye was a perfect complement to it. Aside from that one, my favourite discovery was probably NiLLA off of Hamilton’s university radio compilation, but there’s a lot of gems here in general.

Johnnie Taylor – I Could Never Be President – The Complete Stax/Volt Singles  ( Stax )

The Coup – The Magic Clap – Sorry To Bother You ( Anti- )
K-Naan* – Waiting is a Drug – Country, God or the Girl ( A&M )
Cody Chestnutt – Under the Spell of the Handout – Landing On A Hundred ( Vibration Vineyard )

Nick Waterhouse – Some Place – Time’s All Gone ( Innovative Leisure )
Menahan Street Band – Sleight of Hand – The Crossing ( Daptone )
zz Ward – Cryin’ Wolf – Til The Casket Drops ( Hollywood )
Joanna Borromeo** – Move Mountains – Kaleidoscope ( Self-Released )

Robert Glasper Experiment – Black Radio – Black Radio Recovered The Remix EP ( Blue Note )
Various* – The Phorce – She’s Bad – Everybody Dance Now Songs From Hamilton 7 ( CFMU )
Why? – White English – Mumps, etc. ( Anticon )

Various* – NiLLA – Vintage 2.0 – Everybody Dance Now Songs From Hamilton 7 ( CFMU )
Rainy Milo – This Thing of Ours – Limey ( Self-Released ) (links to full album download)
Kendra Morris – Concrete Waves – Banshee ( Wax Poetic )

How To Dress Well – & It Was U – Total Loss ( Acephale )
Rhye – Shed Some Blood – The Fall ( Republic )
Sonreal & Richkidd* – Hometown – The Closers ( Black Box )

Main Attrakionz – Wings – Bossalinis & Folliyones ( Young One )
DJ Vadim – I’m Feeling U – Don’t Be Scared ( BBE )
Klassik – URNextMove – In The Making ( Self-Released )
Politic Live* – Wanty Wanty – Ellipsis ( Music For Mavericks )

The Souljazz Orchestra* – Kelen Ati Leen – Solidarity ( Strut )
Karthala 72 – Dans Le Couer du Feu – Diable Du Feu! ( Electric Cowbell )
Maceo Parker – Soul Power – Soul Classics ( Razor & Tie )

Bruce Springsteen – The E Street Shuffle – The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle ( Columbia )
Albert King – Playing on Me – The Complete Stax/Volt Singles ( Stax )

Bettye LaVette – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere – Thankful N’ Thoughtful ( Anti- )

A Halloween treat — the Addams Family getting down to the Human Beanz’s finest moment. Happy spook day.

I won’t lie — this episode was a whole lot of fun to put together. There’s a wealth of Halloween songs out there, and no excuse for falling back on the same one or two over and over.

By far the best find this week was the audio archive at vincentprice.org, which is where I grabbed all the amazing clips of Price reading incantations and whatnot. The “selling your soul to Satan” one still kind of creeps me out. Honestly though, any of these songs work for a Halloween party, so if you’re scrambling to put together a playlist for tomorrow, feel free to plunder away.

As for me, I’ll probably end up watching one or two of my favourite horror-ish movies or trying for some ridiculous board game action… Happy Halloween.

The Revels – Midnight Stroll

Vincent Price – To Cause a Witch to Die
James Brown and the Famous Flames – The Bells
The Verdicts – The Mummy’s Ball
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – Little Demon

Vincent Price – How to See Ghosts
Otis Redding – Trick or Treat
R. Dean Taylor – There’s a Ghost in My House
John Zacherie – Coolest Little Monster

Dusty Springfield – Spooky
Vincent Price – To Raise the Dead
Dr. John – I Walk on Guilded Splinters
Run Chico Run – Lifestyles of the Living Dead

Aural Exciters – Spooks in Space
Hot Blood – Soul Dracula
Outkast – Dracula’s Wedding

Yvonne Gage – Doin’ It In a Haunted House
Gnarls Barkley – The Boogie Monster

Vincent Price – To Become a Werewolf
The Herbalizer – March of the Dead Things (Night of the Necromantics) – There Were Seven ( Dept. H  )
Buck 65 – Zombie Delight
Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince – Nightmare on My Street

Vincent Price – Magic Candle
RJD2 – Weatherpeople (Instrumental)
Glass Candy – Halloween
Venetian Snares – Ongyilkos Vasarnap

Vincent Price – How to Make a Pact with the Devil
Gil Scott-Heron – Me and the Devil
Sanctums – Ghost Forest

Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit (Tricky Remix)
North American Halloween Preservation Society – Do They Know It’s Halloween

**Updated, see end of post

I try not to post too often on copyright issues, even though it’s something I read about pretty much constantly, but if you want to know why I’m genuinely worried about where ownership culture is taking us, here’s pretty much the best (read: worst) example I’ve seen in a long while.

First, a quick explanation of what I mean by “ownership culture,” because I want to be clear on something: I’m not one of those people who argues that there should be no such thing as intellectual property whatsoever, or that artists shouldn’t have some control over how their work gets used. But it’s a general truism that the more control people have, the more they want, and the more they assume they’re entitled to. So where we managed to get a couple century’s worth of practice out of the idea that things like books and music should eventually go into the public domain so that everyone can take advantage of things that at a certain point are part of a shared culture, that idea’s been pretty much destroyed, at least in practice. Nothing’s gone into the public domain in the U.S. since 1998, and nothing will until 2019 at the earliest, assuming nothing changes. That’s 21 years with nothing new in the public domain, and a few rulings actually took some stuff out, meaning the total works in the U.S. public domain has actually gone down.

Which is completely nuts.

Canada’s actually a little better — technically, I’m pretty sure Steamboat Willie is in the public domain here, but I dare someone to test that one — but the fact remains, the last three-quarters of a century have seen the major arts organizations arguing that they should get bigger and bigger slices of anything to do with the works they own. And at the same time, things like trademark and patent law are consistently being expanded into lawsuit-generating machines that generate income for lawyers and pretty much no one else.

Sorry, I’m prattling on a bit. Here’s the issue: The estate of William Faulkner has apparently filed suit against Sony Pictures because a Woody Allen movie quoted nine words from the author (via Techdirt). It was in Midnight in Paris, a pretty great movie that both indulges in and criticizes nostalgia for the headier days when Fitzgerald and Hemingway were holding court at Gertrude Stein’s, and at one point the main character says “The past is not dead! Actually, it’s not even past. You know who said that? Faulkner. And he was right. And I met him, too. I ran into him at a dinner party.”

If you’re a reasonable person, you might think, hey, that’s a pretty valid use. It’s a paraphrase, it’s attributed, and it’s small enough that no one could possibly object. Odds are, a judge is gonna say the exact same thing if it makes it to court (it’s clearly fair use, and is way too small a portion of Faulkner’s work to pass the de minimis standard). But the fact remains that the Faulkner estate apparently thought that this use was entirely unacceptable, and filed a lawsuit. Because apparently we’re at a point where any sort of quotation, any sharing of ideas, even with attribution, even of a single sentence that’s been out there for more than half a century, is out of bounds unless you get permission and pay a fee.

There was a time when it was considered a sign of refinement to be able to quote from the literary greats. But the trend now seems to be towards locking down culture forever. To paraphrase Faulkner while I can, the past isn’t dead, but it might as well be — for as much as the public’s allowed to engage with it, it’s pretty much buried alive. We’re not there yet, but in this area at least, what’s a frivolous lawsuit one day seems to become standard practice not too far down the line. And that’s scary.

*Update
Apparently the Faulkner estate isn’t backing off — in fact, it’s doubling down. They’ve just filed suit against The Washington Post for running an attributed, single-sentence Faulkner quote in an ad last year (“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. — William Faulkner; the irony is almost unbelievable). Again, if the cases actually go to trial, there’s almost no chance of them winning. But cases like this rarely go to trial — settlements are the norm, because that’s usually cheaper than lawyer’s fees and avoids setting precedents. And if that proves profitable for the Faulkner estate, look for other estates and writers to quickly follow suit — and be careful about quoting anything less than a century old, I guess.

I haven’t listened all the way through the album yet, so this is presented largely without commentary, but the soundtrack to RZA’s new martial arts epic The Man with the Iron Firsts is sounding pretty phenomenal so far, and the whole thing is streaming via Bandcamp (see above). The movie itself looks halfway promising, written, directed by and starring the RZA in the culmination of a lifelong obsession with kung fu flicks. But while there’s a decent chance that it’ll end up more a curio than essential cinema, the soundtrack is sounding like one of 2012′s more essential hip hop releases.

The martial arts atmosphere is actually more subdued than it was back on 36 Chambers, say. But when you’ve got pretty much the whole Clan popping up, plus folks like Pharoahe Monch, Kool G Rap and Talib Kweli adding verses, RZA and Kanye producing a track together together, scorching soul from The Revelations, pure silk from Frank Dukes and BadBadNotGood and plus a classic Isaac Hayes-produced slow burn from Mable John for good measure, you don’t tend to complain.

H/T to Slate for this one.

1. The Black Keys / RZA – “The Baddest Man Alive” [produced by The Black Keys and The RZA]
2. Ghostface Killah / M.O.P. / Pharoahe Monch – “Black Out” [produced by Fizzy Womack]
3. Kanye West – “White Dress” [produced by Kanye West and The RZA]
4. The Revelations feat. Tre Williams – “I Forgot To Be Your Lover” [produced by Bob Perry]
5. Idol Warship [Talib Kweli / RES] – “Get Your Way” [produced by Frank Dukes and BadBadNotGood]
6. The Wu-Tang Clan / Kool G Rap – “Rivers of Blood” [produced by Frank Dukes and BadBadNotGood]
7. Method Man / Freddie Gibbs / Street Life – “Built For This” [produced by Frank Dukes]
8. Killa Sin – “The Archer” [produced by Frank Dukes]
9. RZA / Flatbush Zombies – “Just Blowin’ In The Wind” [produced by The RZA]
10. Pusha T / Raekwon / Joell Ortiz – “Tick, Tock” [produced by Frank Dukes and S-1]
11. Corrine Bailey Rae – “Chains” [produced by Steven James Brown and Corrine Bailey Rae]
12. Francis Yip – “Green Is The Mountain”
13. The Wu-Tang Clan – “Six Directions of Boxing” [produced by Frank Dukes]
14. Mable John – “Your Good Thing (Is About To Come To An End)” [produced by Isaac Hayes and David Porter]
15. Wiz Khalifa / Ghostface Killah / Boy Jones – “I Go Hard” [produced by The RZA]

A bit more all-over-the-place this week, going from classic blues to garagier modern goodies and a relatively downbeat last 45 minutes to suit the weather. The spotlight this week was on offbeat girl group pop, which is why Dolly Parton makes an appearance and why you might’ve heard the most disturbing single the Crystals ever recorded — the fact that Phil Spector recorded what’s basically an ode to spousal abuse is as creepy as it gets.

Favourite new tracks: The Hood Internet and BreakBot both have pretty great sounds going on (and man did Hood Internet ever collaborate with a heck of a lot of amazing people), but I’ve gotta give this one to locals Sanctums. Their latest is pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp, and you should really check it out.

Full playlist with a handful of links below (And PS – Check out my incentives for next week’s funding drive HERE, they’re pretty rad):

James Brown – Out of Sight – The 50th Anniversary Collection ( Utv Records )

William Bell – Eloise (Hang on In There) – The Complete Stax Singles ( Stax )
King Khan and the Shrines*  – Mr. Supernatural – Mr. Supernatural ( Hazelwood Records )

Nina Simone – Do I Move You – Sings the Blues ( RCA Victor )
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – Mama Don’t Like My Man – I Learned the Hard Way ( Daptone )
Joanna Borromeo** – Your Shoes – Kaleidoscope ( Self-Released )
Lynn Olagundoye**  – It’s Funny – Africa Violet ( Self-Released )

Menahan Street Band – Keep Coming Back – The Crossing ( Daptone )
Booker T. Jones – Get Behind the Mule – Potato Hole ( Anti )
Babe Ruth – The Mexican – First Base ( Capitol )

De La Soul – The Magic Number – Three Feet High and Rising ( Tommy Boy )
Maylee Todd*  – Aerobics in Space – Choose Your Own Adventure ( Do Right )
James Moody – Good Sense Humor Man – The World is a Ghetto ( Fuel 2000 )

Kid Koala* – 7 Bit Blues – 12 Bit Blues ( Ninja Tune )
Philly Moves* – I’m Tired – How To Drink Yourself Famous ( s/r )

Dolly Parton – Don’t Drop Out – One Kiss Can Lead to Another ( Rhino )
The Crystals – He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss) – The Best of the Crystals ( Abkco )
The Goodies – Sophisticated Boom Boom – One Kiss Can Lead to Another ( Rhino )

Sanctums**  – Truth Lifting Up Its Head Against Scandals – Truth Lifting Up Its Head Against Scandals ( s/r )
How To Dress Well – Running Back – Total Loss ( Acephale )

Das Racist – Commercial – Sit Down, Man ( mixtape )
The Hood Internet + Various – One For the Record Books – Feat ( Deacon )
Breakbot – Fantasy – By Your Side ( Because )

Tame Impala – Music to Walk Home By – Lonerism ( Modular )
New Build – The Third One – Yesterday Was Lived and Lost ( Lanark )
SonReal & Rich Kidd*  – Hometown – The Closers ( s/r )

Flying Lotus – See Thru To U – Until The Quiet Comes ( Warp )
Beast*  – Satan – Beast ( Pheremone )

*Canadian **Local