As many people know, Prince covered Radiohead’s hit song “Creep” at this years Coachella Festival. Now, controversy has emerged regarding the use of the song on YouTube.

“After word spread that Prince covered Radiohead’s “Creep” at the Coachella festival, the tens of thousands who couldn’t be there ran to YouTube for a peek. Everyone was quickly denied — even Radiohead.

All videos of Prince’s unique rendition of Radiohead’s early hit were quickly taken down, leaving only a message that his label, NPG Records, had removed the clips, claiming a copyright violation. But the posted videos were shot by fans and, obviously, the song isn’t Prince’s.”

Radiohead themselves, particularly Thom Yorke have been made aware of the current situation and were interviwed regarding it.

“Thom Yorke said he heard about Prince’s performance from a text message and thought it was “hilarious.” Yorke laughed when his bandmate, guitarist Ed O’Brien, said the blocking had prevented even him from seeing Prince’s version of their song.

“Really? He’s blocked it?” asked Yorke, who figured it was their song to block or not. “Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment.” Yorke added, “Well, tell him to unblock it. It’s our … song.”

“YouTube prohibits the posting of copyrighted material. If the site receives a complaint from a copyright owner, it will in most cases remove the video(s). Whether the same could be done for a company not holding a copyright is less clear, but Yorke’s argument would seem to bear some credence according to YouTube’s policies. YouTube, which is owned by Google, declined to comment.”

This has seemed to spark a new debate in digital copyright laws and rules, as it is an interesting twist of artist vs. artist as opposed to the usual band/artists vs. fan situation. I personally think as the writers of the song Radiohead should have the final say, either way it’s all kind of ridiculous.

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(*Photo of Thom Yorke with Jazzmaster courtesy of abc.com).

Radiohead, who played a show at Bristow, VA’s Nissan Pavilion on May 11 have drawn criticism from fans for deciding to play in heavy rain and flooding conditions.

The Washington DC area has been experiencing abnormally heavy rain and flooding in the past week.

“The D.C. market was faced with monsoon-like conditions around the show, with an estimated four inches of rain and flooding forcing road closures and maddening traffic conditions. Apparently a significant number of fans — hundreds or thousands, depending on who is estimating — were extremely late or unable to get into the show for a variety of reasons.

As such, many fans have taken to the Internet to vent their dissatisfaction, with neither the venue, the promoter nor the band being spared. One area blogger offers this headline: “Radiohead @ Nissan: You Both Suck.”

“Nissan Pavilion owner/operator Live Nation has offered fans that were turned away tickets to an Aug. 12 show at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J. (near Philadelphia), or tickets to a show of their choice at Nissan Pavilion (subject to availability).

Adding fuel to the fire is Radiohead’s self-stated intention of making its summer tour as environmentally friendly as possible. According to one fan post, “One-third of the concert-goers that night were driving around in circles, burning fossil fuels all the while. This is your save the Earth tour … and yet you play in the middle of nowhere with no public transportation leading there. You owe us!”

I have to admit, if indeed thousands of people were turned away, the show should’ve been post-poned.  Someone in the bands management should have had the foresight to realize the weather conditions would not allow people to get to the show easily or at all. Also, since the venue is outdoors it could be dangerous playing music in those kind of conditions, with power adapters and guitar cables outside and exposed.

Furthermore,  it seems like Radiohead has good intentions with their attempt to make up for the carbon footprint they’re putting on the earth. The problem is most likely that the bands booking agency/agents choose the venues with little regard for this or anything else besides tour-routing convenience, perhaps the band should try to step in and take control of that more, especially if they really are attempting to reduce carbon emissions.

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So I haven’t posted in a few days. Some interesting news has been reported in the past couple days, namely this years annual Lollapalooza lineup. In case you haven’t heard, a few years ago Lollapalooza changed from a touring festival to an annual one held in Chicago’s Grant Park. It takes place from August 1-3 this year.

The lineup this year looks pretty good to me, and features a lot of alternative, guitar bands.  Here are a sampling of the bands playing this year that I’d like to see…

Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, The Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley, Broken Social Scene, Cat Power, Explosions In The Sky, Battles, The Black Keys and a rare festival appearance from Witchcraft.

Just based on those bands alone I’d be up for going. The early bird tickets have sold out, but at $195, the current ticket prices are dramatically less then Coachella at almost $300. Lollapalooza ticket prices also have no service charges. Although the lineup looks good, I have to see if a trip to Chicago at the beginning of August will work out for me.

It’s another Day, and with another day comes the news that, (sarcasm)…Jack Johnson has been announced as the headliner for another music festival!! Yeahhhh!!! The music festival in question is the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Radiohead and Tom Petty are also headlining.

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