Thursday, April 14, 2011

Metric's sound appropriated for right-wing asswad - music fan is confused.

So I stumbled across an interesting bit of story today, via The Twitter.  Seems a fan by the name of Thomas Horn sent a letter to Metric (awesome band fronted by the gorgeous and talented yet perpetually sad/dull-eyed Emily Haines) to let them know that a riff from one of their songs was being co-opted by a radio station in Pittsburgh for use in the intro to right-wing extremist looney-tune Glenn Beck's radio program.

Turns out Emily and the boys didn't have a clue their tune was being used.  Aghast and all full of 'Why-I-a-Outrage' they contacted their publisher "with a mortified WTF?" who informed them that the station was covered under a blanket license which let's them use the music how they want, albeit in small doses.

Even so, the publisher contacted the radio station and asked them to pretty pretty please not to use Metric's music because they love all things fair and just and Beck is a douche.  This is how I imagined the conversation might go*:

Sad Emily Is Sad.  Source
"Hello,  Philadelphia 104.7, this is the legal department.  How may I help you?"
"Hi, I represent the band Metric.  We heard that you're using one of their songs to open for the Glenn Beck Insanity Hour, and we'd like you pretty pretty please to stop, thanks."
"Well, legally we're allowed to do what we want with it, in small doses.  It's blanket license."
"Yeah, I know, but I thought you could, you know, just stop anyway.  See.. we don't much care for Beck, being Beck and all.  The situation is making Emily all sad and dull-eyed, more so than usual."
"Ahh, I see.  Hmm. Since we're good guys, and secretly we all think Glenn's a douche as well, we'll take it off for you."
"Sweet thanks."

Clearly, I have no idea how entertainment law works.

So happily ever after.  Here's what bugs me:

Is it that, as pondered in Em's letter back to Thomas, that it seems that the teabag-assbag is trying to co-opt the lefties for his show.  Canadian Lefties, even?  (as my dear friend UncleJubb likes to refer to us... communists to the north).

No.

Throughout the correspondence, they refer to the use of Metric's song Rock Me Now, from the 2007 release, Grow Up and Blow Away.  But listen to the sample** of Beck's show provided with Thomas' letter. (I'll just mention here that I hate when people refer to Glenn Beck as Beck, because I always think people are referring to Beck Hansen and I want to fight them.  Because I LOVE Beck.  Hansen.)

Beck.  ❤  Source
Uhm.  Not so much.  Source
Creepin' crap, where was I?  Yeah.  Listen to the clip.

That's not "Rock Me Now", it's "Too Little, Too Late" off of 2007's other release Live It Out.  I should know, I played that riff non-stop when I first learned it.  How has nobody noticed this.. NOT EVEN THE BAND THEMSELVES?

I don't why this bothers me.  Maybe because I'm just anal-retentive in my desire for accurate music trivia.  Maybe it's because when I pointed the mistake out in a reply to the tweet on Metric's Twitter feed I was hoping for some kind of response like "Hey! Good ear!" or "Way to pay attention to detail!" or "Actually Buffy St. Marie smells like vanilla and cookies, if you're wondering."

But nothing.  *sigh*

At least I know I'm right.

*you may want to read the letters in the article for the actual legaleeze.
**Note:  Weird.  They've taken the sound clip out, for reasons unknown.  Well, take my word for it, it was not Rock Me Now.

8 comments:

  1. Nice job. I'm a new Metric fan. And a long-time Beck-hater. (Glen, not Hansen)

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  2. Glen IS a douche (right on, Oilfield Trash!) and what's with politicians just using music without permission?!

    Pearl

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  3. Yandie, first allow me to apologize for just now, for the first time, making it to your blog. You've been nicely commenting on mine as of late, and I haven't been able to return the favor. Until today.

    And now I forgot what else I was going to say.

    Oh yeah, fuck Glenn Beck.

    That is all.

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  4. It's on occasions like this where little moral victories are especially great...
    On a side note, I wonder what sad emily and aaron lewis' baby would be like? Prolly no smile wrinkles on that face.

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  5. How dare right wing people like music!!! OUTRAGE!!

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  6. Interesting.
    I'm a leftie, and I think Glenn Beck is a lying asshole... who clearly has never read Mother Night, because as Vonnegut tells us all: you are what you pretend to be.

    Of course, I sat through 10 minutes of his show once, and literally in that span he said a mere five sentences that weren't riddled with cliches. It was amazingly sad.

    I shop a lot at this place called Meijer (which is not unlike Walmart or Target) and I like to just walk over to the political books and flip them over so I don't have to look at Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, or Bill O'Reilly when I walk by. I'm sure it's a pain in the ass for some employee, but it amuses me.

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  7. In fairness, it wasn't Glenn Beck that used the music, it was the station.. but for nefarious purposes, obviously.

    Anon, way to miss the point. This post is not about Right-wingers not being allowed to like music, it's about using it without express permission, but more so, it's about WHY DOES NO ONE ELSE NOTICE THAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT THE WRONG DAMN SONG?

    So basically it's about me. ME, that's right Me. Because I need attention and I need to have my musical knowledge VALIDATED, DAMMIT.

    ReplyDelete

Engaging in discussion and/or general sucking up.. that's where it's at!

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