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So…the Grammys were last night. I saw the Police reunite, but got bored after that. So unfortunately, I waited until this morning to hear how the supposed biggest night in music went last night.

Well, it didn’t go so well for the good guys. I was hoping John Mayer would’ve taken down a few more awards, especially away from The Dixie Chicks. Actually, I wish anyone would’ve taken some awards away from the Dixie Chicks. Ugh..But besides the Dixie Chicks, the not too terrible Red hot Chile Peppers took down alot of awards.

Besides John Mayer, I was really hoping Imogen Heap would’ve gotten best new Artist, but Carrie Underwood took that down. Also, Death Cab For Cutie, Keane, Coldplay, Thom Yorke, and Eminem’s Shake That (guilty obsession) lost in their respective categories. Shux.

But below is a large list of winners from the night. Read the rest of this entry »

Sufjan has recently reviewed a live performance of fellow Asthmatic Kitty artist My Brightest Diamond. Yes, Sufjan actually wrote this review himself. As I’m sure I’ve expressed before, Sufjan Stevens can do whatever he wants.

Let me warn you, his surprisingly entertaining essay on the My Brightest Diamond Performance does get a bit long at five well developed paragraphs. But if you’re a big Sufjan fan, you’ll only gain more appreciation for who he is after reading it.

Enough of my ramblings, It can be found in full here.

Not too long ago, Sufjan Stevens and My Brightest Diamond made the news together when it was announced they’ll both be playing at the Music Now Festival. The Music Now Festival is looking pretty salty this year as it’s hosting several indie artists I am fond of.

Among the ranks include Sufjan Stevens, My Brightest Diamond, Sigur Rós Protégés Amiina, David Cossin, Clogs, Pedro Soler, and Irena and Vojtech Havel.

The Shins’ new album Wincing the Night Away grabbed the number two spot on billboard’s top 200 albums. This is unheard of for most indie albums, especially albums from indie rock artists like The Shins.

The Shins‘ new album has been highly anticipated, and it has definitely lived up to expectations. The entire indie music scene seems to be taken aback by this massive debut for the indie rock outfit. Subpop Records‘, the Shins’ label, previous highest album ranking on Billboard was #79. Yeah, this is a big deal for the label as well.

Their leading single Phantom Limb, which has been all over the internet before the album release, has found its way into the top 20 of Billboard’s Modern Rock chart as well.

So am I surprised of the Shins massive debut? Yes and no. Yes, because it just never seems to happen. Indie music doesn’t seem to be allowed to grab the top rankings. I was expecting Billboard to lie about the rankings before they would actually put an indie artist at the top like they have.

But then on the other hand, I can’t be surprised because The Shins are down right good. Their sound definitely has mainstream potential similar to what Death Cab For Cutie had as well, so I can understand how the mainstream has embraced them. DCFC got some playtime and headed over to Dreamworks, and The Shins will probably find themselves in a similar position now. Let’s just hope that The Shins will not follow DCFC’s lead, and that they’ll stay with Subpop.

Big Four label EMI Group is still in the news with their announcement made last week. Capitol Records has crawled into bed with Virgin Records in the first restructuring announcement from the struggling EMI. These two sub-labels persay will form into the one, new Capitol Music Group.

The new, bigger, better, Capitol Music Group will be lead by former Virgin Records CEO Jason Flom. That will leave Capitol’s former CEO in the dust with a large severance package.

Music Execs say that the move will help the groups to “be better equipped than ever to promote and nurture artistic talent blah blah.” But don’t expect to see the disappearance of the Virgin Brand, as the two groups will both continue to put out their own separate albums.

The merger is pretty much a business move to lower costs in the marketing, IT, and finance divisions of the company, since the groups will keep their same ole distinct identities. Capital Music Group will also continue to operate two offices, as Virgin is focused on the East Coast in New York, and Capitol is deeply rooted in the west in Los Angeles.

So what I take from all this mumbo jumbo is that the consumer will not notice any change in the music put out by Virgin and Capitol Records. All this seems to be is a corporate cost cutting scheme that the EMI Group’s bottom line seems to be in dire need of. Don’t expect any Timbaland - Coldplay collaborations developing from this merger…at least I hope not..

Wilco announced they are scheduled to release their new album, Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch Records), May 15. They currently have over 18 tracks recorded, but the definite track list is not set.

Sky Blue Sky will be the anticipated follow up to a Ghost is born which undeniably turned some heads with its release all the way back in 2004.

For future news regarding the album, fans are suppose to check out their page here at wilcoworld.net. They are also looking to get some music up from the new album online “soonish.” Rad.

Just stay tuned with Independent Music Blog, and I’ll do my best to keep you up to date on the new Wilco album Sky Blue Sky, as it’s one I’ll definitely be checking out.

Technorati Tags: wilco

Yesterday it was reported on Reuters that a lot of independent music labels joined together to make an agency that will work on new licensing deals. The new licensing deals are to be targeted with the new web 2.0 media companies like YouTube and Myspace.

The agency is called Merlin, and is said to be “the fifth major” (or maybe fourth) label in the industry. The agency feels like the independent music labels have been shit on too much already by media companies who fail to license music that they use. The quote of a Merlin official sums it up well:

“[Merlin is addressing the] growing assumption that, for emerging media, only the four majors need to be licensed, with the rest free to air.”

I think initially, Merlin will be a great thing for the indie music scene, because it will put some licensing monies back into the pockets of the indie music labels (which is good). As long as Merlin doesn’t get the mentality like a big label (which I’m sure they won’t) this is going to be great for the indie music scene.

Technorati Tags: Merlin