I guess this answers my previous question. Tack on a bunch of remixes of other people's songs to the Queer Eye theme song, and you get an over-glorified CD maxi single.

Kind of like that Alanis Morrissette song, "Uninvited", that was sold as a soundtrack to some Nicolas Cage move. (Sarcasm alert.)

Quote: "'As we have been able to introduce better taste and sensibilities in living to prime time television, we will be able to introduce great music to a new audience,' Scout executive director of creative services Rob Eric says in a statement."

Note to self: Write about how you should not trust gay men¹ with your music collection.

¹Or straight men working on a gay-themed television show.

That was the exclamation a friend of mine had when I sent her this little tidbit about Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen.

Apparently, dude's recorded five albums before, and on his latest one -- Dec. 5 drop! -- he works with Buckethead. It's being described as "experimental". Yeah -- what you said.

I wonder if Phil Spector is relieved Michael Jackson is upstaging him in the court of public opinion. I'm sure there are some great Law and Order episodes ready to rip these headlines. Oh. Wait.

Remember how MP3.com was supposed to stick it to the music industry establishment? Not any more.

CNet has acquired "certain assets" of MP3.com, and it's nuking all the content. I uploaded some Eponymous 4 files back when hosting your own MP3s was unfeasible. MP3.com hasn't mattered to me in, oh, three years?

About the only thing I really like about MP3.com was founder Michael Robertson. Call me a freak, but I think he's pretty damn hot.

The Chinese government doesn't think all-girl punk band Hang on the Box is an appropriate representation of Chinese culture. So the government denied the band members visas to travel. As a result, Hang on the Box had to cancel its dates on the New World Disorder Tour in the UK.

Although Hang on the Box writes songs with such titles as "For Some Stupid Cunt at BBS" and "Ass Hole, I'm Not Your Baby", the set they played at SXSW 2003, well, bored me. They're actually pretty tame in that Shonen Knife-Mummy the Peepshow way.

The December issue of ICE Magazine lists Dec. 8 as the release date for the soundtrack to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Excuse me. What fucking soundtrack?

Damn show has only three sequences of music it uses in every episode. What are they going to do? Put out some remixes?

And then there were three.

Sony and BMG merge. Then Warner and EMI.

Should I bother going into some tirade about how media consolidation is evil, blah blah blah? The major labels are beholden to their shareholders, and bottom lines are muy importante. How much business sense does it make to wait for artists to "develop"? Not much if today's climate is any indication.

Aw hell -- artist development was already an antiquated idea when I was barely out of grade school feeding the Duran Duran frenzy.

And further consolidation? Only makes that bottom line longer.

This merger might make good business sense to the labels, but it's going to do little -- if anything -- for music.

(Editor's note: entry expanded after Tim left his comment.)