HOT: The National Beefs with Karl Rove
On the new Sleep Well Beast, Indie Rock stars The National “sample” a quote from Karl Rove, the political strategist who helped George W. Bush swindle his way to the presidency twice. On the track “Walk It Back,” singer Lisa Hannigan recites a head-spinning 2004 quote about defeating the message of the “reality-based community” by “creating other new realities” that was originally attributed to an unnamed Bush advisor (widely assumed to be Rove) and resurfaced in the wake of Tump’s “alternative facts” governing style. Rove responded to a reporter’s request for comment with a review: “Starts with a Euro Tech Pop thing and transition into a more peppy tune that’s easier to dance to… Suspect it won’t make Casey Kasem’s Top 40.” The National responded via Twitter with a succinct “Fuck you, Karl.”
WARM: “Overcome” Overcomes Copyright
The same lawyers who successfully argued for the public-domain status of “Happy Birthday to You” have now done the same for “We Shall Overcome.” Though it originated with an old African-American spiritual, the Civil Rights anthem was granted copyrights in the early ’60s for Pete Seeger’s rendition. The lawyers allege that when the song was originally registered, it was unclear “who wrote what.” The judge agreed and ruled that the song’s first verse was no longer under any publishers’ control.
COLD: Rare Wu-Tang for Sale Again
Rich dick/convicted felon Martin Shkreli has put the sole copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin up for sale on eBay. Shkreli, who made some of his fortune and infamy upselling pharmaceuticals for profit, bought the album in 2015 for $2 million; the auction price was just over $1 million as we went to press. Shkreli appears to be selling the album because he’s mad at Ghostface Killah (who described him as “the man with the 12-year-old body”) and at the world in general for failing the see his “purpose of putting a serious value behind music.”
