Rich Bradley: The Blog

Ken Salazar
Junior Senator from Colorado
Party: Democratic
Assumed Office: 2005
Age: 53
Pros: It has been very nice to see Colorado turning blue over the past few years; first Hispanic Senator since 1977 (along with Mel Martinez).
Cons: Big Lieberman backer for some bizarre reason, and there’s just about nobody on this planet I like less than Joe right now. What does CT law say about traitorous Senators, anyway? Can’t we Gray Davis the guy?

Bernie Sanders
Junior Senator from Vermont
Party: Independent (Democratic Socialist)
Assumed Office: 2007
Age: 66
Pros: Thanks to the great, pot-infused state of Vermont, we have a socialist Brooklyn Jew Senator.
Cons: If only he were also black and gay and blind and a dwarf who doesn’t speak any English. But don’t worry, the way things are in Vermont I fully expect to see that in the next six years.

Chuck Schumer
Senior Senator from New York
Party: Democratic
Assumed Office: 1999
Age: 57
Pros: High-ranking, dependably liberal establishment Dem who knows how to get himself on TV.
Cons: From yesterday’s WaPo: “‘Wait until Schumer stops talking,’ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested to [DNC Chairman Howard] Dean. ‘That’ll be a long wait,’ Dean replied. Then began the meeting.” Just in case you didn’t get that: the guy doesn’t shut up.

Jeff Sessions
Junior Senator from Alabama
Party: Republican
Assumed Office: 1997
Age: 61
Pros: Like Peel Sessions, except with less good music and more cutting down forests and torturing brown people.
Cons: CQ Press: “According to sworn statements by Justice Department lawyers, Sessions called the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union ‘un-American’ and ‘communist-inspired’ and said they ‘force civil rights down the throats of people.’ He also reportedly said of the Ku Klux Klan, ‘I used to think they’re OK,’ until learning that some Klan members were ‘pot smokers.’” But look, folks, his name is Jefferson and he’s from Alabama, what do you want?

Richard Shelby
Senior Senator from Alabama
Party: Republican
Assumed Office: 1987
Age: 74
Pros: Now here’s the more moderate Alabama Senator: an anti-environmentalist, classified information-leaking abortion opponent… but he opposed Robert Bork in 1987! And that is more than enough to make Dick look like Bernie Sanders next to Jeff Sessions.
Cons: One of the last courageous defenders of Big Tobacco.

Gordon Smith
Junior Senator from Oregon
Party: Republican
Assumed Office: 1997
Age: 56
Pros: Decent chance of being ousted this year by Democrat Jeff Merkley, in what would have to be a particularly painful Republican loss.
Cons: Supported racist buffoon Trent Lott in his doomed quest to not get tossed as Senate Republican leader; has that horrible, creepy Mormon hair thing going.

Olympia Snowe
Senior Senator from Maine
Party: Republican
Assumed Office: 1995
Age: 61
Pros: Highest approval rating of any Senator in her home state, because the Republicans voters like best don’t actually vote Republican.
Cons: Despite her rather awesome record on abortion rights and gay rights, Snowe is weirdly nutty on certain things, including flag burning; are we really still worried about people burning a fucking flag? Also, useless on Iraq, where being a true “moderate” might have meant something.

Arlen Specter
Senior Senator from Pennsylvania
Party: Republican
Assumed Office: 1981
Age: 78
Pros: Has balanced his work with his cancer battle quite heroically in his advanced age; historically was pretty reasonable on key issues, much to his party’s dismay.
Cons: Can somebody let Arlen know the Senate really doesn’t need to be involved in fucking Spygate? I mean, sorry the Eagles suck, Senator, but Christ. The Superbowl is over, the Patriots lost, I think it’s time we come together as a nation and move on.

Debbie Stabenow
Junior Senator from Michigan
Party: Democratic
Assumed Office: 2001
Age: 58
Pros: Chairperson of the Democratic Steering Committee; so far she seems to be steering quite well, at least compared to whoever the last guy was, who must have steered about as well as a four year old playing Mario Kart.
Cons: Michigan Dem husband and executive VP of radio debacle Air America Tom Athans recently caught in a prostitution sting. And really, there is just no excuse for that when your wife is this hot.

Ted Stevens
Senior Senator from Alaska
Party: Republican
Assumed Office: 1968
Age: 84
Pros: “Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got… an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially. […] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.”
Cons: Senator Bridge-to-Nowhere has had a long and horrible career, perhaps wasting more tax dollars than any of his colleagues could ever dream of wasting. But this is it… 2008 is the year. Vote Begich, Alaska, and be redeemed.

Next time: THE THRILLING CONCLUSION! Almost a full year coming, it’s Know Your US Senators, part 10: Sununu through Wyden. Be there.

Update: Fixed the link problem plaguing this entry.

Just took a quick glance at Yahoo’s current major headlines and briefly thought I saw something that made me do a double-take. It didn’t say what I thought it said, but here are the two headlines, one right above the other, that my brain mashed together for a few seconds:

- Obama names Caroline Kennedy to help pick VP
- Japanese patient’s ‘tumor’ turns out to be 25-year-old towel

Emphasis mine.

Today the McCain v. Obama race is officially underway. Conventional wisdom throughout the media is saying this is Obama’s race to lose. Let’s see, from a polling perspective, how true or false that wisdom is today. And yes, this is basically just an update on my post from a few weeks ago looking at the electoral map. (Continued)

Essential reading at DailyKos regarding Joementum’s spectacularly dangerous and arrogant stupidity. Connecticut Democrats kicked him out of the party once, and it’s time now for Senate leadership to take similar action. We just can’t tolerate this kind of thing in an election year.

For all Democrats concerned about Barack Obama’s chances in November, I have some good news: the electoral map is in our favor this year. I know that goes against what every pundit and DLC member (and your own brain if you lived through 2000 and 2004) tells you, but it’s true. As long as Barack Obama can win the states that ought to be expected to go for any Democrat, his odds at winning the general are clearly better than McCain’s. Details below… (Continued)

Today is a key day to test the waters and see how McCain’s campaign will come out swinging against Barack Obama, now (finally) the media-ordained Democratic nominee for President. Predictably, McCain’s been out working the “my foreign policy experience versus yours” line. I think this is a huge winner for the Democrats, as we’ve now expected it should be since at least 2003. Obama ought to take advantage and respond from a position of strength; I would suggest using the phrase, “A Foreign Policy of Responsibility.” Nothing new, I know, but this point needs to be hammered again and again. We all know the last thing Obama needs is unsolicited speechwriting. But here’s a possible example to flesh out this idea:

John McCain likes to compare his foreign policy experience to mine. Obviously the issue of the next President’s foreign policy is going to be of the most serious importance to all Americans. The stakes associated with this issue are far too high for us to reduce the debate to “Candidate A has this much foreign policy experience while Candidate B has this much.” What really matters here is: what model of foreign policy will each of us bring to the White House? John McCain brings with him a good amount of experience in the policy of ill-conceived war, and the dangerously outdated model of “act now, think later.” I’ll be the first to admit he probably has more bullet points on his resume than I do under “The Bush-Cheney version of Foreign Policy.” What I will bring to Washington is a new foreign policy, adapted to the realities of the post-September 11th and post-Iraq War world. A foreign policy of diplomacy, and dealing with terrorism as a global problem that concerns all civilized societies; a policy of strength and true homeland security, putting the safety of all Americans before political and ideological vendettas; a policy of leadership by example, to remind the rest of the world why the United States of America is to be admired, not feared. And don’t think I’ll be going it alone when I get to the Oval Office. I will be bringing with me some of the greatest minds in foreign policy, and I am not too proud to tell you I will consult with experts regardless of their political affilation when making the kinds of decisions that affect Americans at home and our brave troops overseas. Make no mistake — I will act swiftly and directly to counter any threat to our great nation. But I do not subscribe to the Bush-Cheney model of going it alone now and dealing with whatever consequences occur as a result later. I fear John McCain’s foreign policy will be a continuation of that Bush-Cheney model. Mine will be a foreign policy of responsibility.

My point here is to frame this foreign policy debate right from the get-go, because McCain is eager to harp on this and there’s really no reason it should be anything but a huge winner for Obama. Take away the frame of the GOP as the “party of adults” by contrasting the Bush/McCain foreign policy with a responsible one (and also take advantage of the opportunity to improve the media-distorted popular image of Obama’s patriotism).

“We see too many ‘noble deaths’; we see the degradation - the epic little charges of cavalry. And thus for this our spirit becomes low, tough like a boar, unbreakable - we die to the sound of the trumpet, as surely as the bees pollinate, the ants build; as surely as the storms swaling low over the South China port and into the brothels, where the women stood up in smoke; all of life is lived in moments, and each one dies in return; who is to say that our death is anything but another regular link? The trumpet stops as the musician’s throat is pierced by an arrow.” — Casimir Hieronym, 2006

Budwesier has an Internet dot TV! Can you believe it? Now you can watch funny Internet clips that may or may not be vaguely associated with cheap beer!

Tip o’ the hat to marketing genius Bryan Fordney for getting the message out there! Bud.tv is the place to be! For no one! I don’t even really know what I’m looking at!!!!!

Chris Molanphy has confirmed it:

The results, in week one: the original song sold just under 13,000 copies, and each of the four stems sold between about 9,200 and 9,800 copies. (If you’re curious: the vocal stem sold best, then guitars, strings/effects, drums; as in life, bass pulls up the rear.) Total sales for all six pieces combined were just shy of 60,000.

Billboard had to make a policy decision for “Nude.” When the original iTunes sales were tallied by SoundScan, the original song plus each stem were logged and charted separately. But for Hot 100 purposes—in keeping with Billboard’s tendency to treat it as a “songs” chart, not a “tracks” chart—”Nude” is charting in one cumulative position, which makes it look bigger than it is. If the original song, sans stems, were to chart by itself, it would have made No. 96 on the digital sales chart and likely would have missed the Hot 100 entirely.

As a chart fan, there’s one way to look at this that’s a bit cynical, and one that’s more optimistic. You could look at this as chart pollution—since when is a bass loop a legitimate proxy for a hit single? It’s as if Radiohead is propping up a minor hit by finding a loophole through U.S. chart policy, not unlike the 2004 Prince album that was allowed to include free copies handed out at concerts in its Billboard tally, and charted much higher than it should have.

On the other hand, it’s pretty obvious this chart event wasn’t the intention of Radiohead’s multi-mix release strategy. And it’s undeniable that, as usual, they’re coming up with innovative ways to get fans excited about actually paying something for music.

So maybe this isn’t the investigative scoop of the century, but it remains an interesting case study in chart manipulation, intentional or accidental, in the iTunes era. I’m not so willing to concede that “it’s pretty obvious” TBD Records wasn’t shooting for exactly this result from the beginning — it is mighty clever, and it gives the label the ability to go back to Radiohead and say, “Look, we got you back on the US charts, use us again to distribute your next record.”

And really, beyond giving the label some bragging rights, “Nude” being a Top 40 hit is probably meaningless. I don’t imagine anyone racing to buy In Rainbows or tickets to a Radiohead concert because they saw “Nude” hit #37. It’s possible that the single gets some radio exposure out of the deal, but I predict it will still be roundly ignored.

Maybe it’s earned a spot on the next NOW compilation?

Last update about this:  After the Idolator story confirmed my original entry with some hard data, Pitchfork made the decision that this was newsworthy. And of course, once it hits the ‘fork, that’s enough to earn an explanation from the folks at Billboard themselves:

Contrary to online reports, the high Hot 100 debut this week by Radiohead’s “Nude” is not due to a “technicality,” nor a new Billboard charts policy decision.

The track opens this week at No. 37 on the Hot 100 after selling 60,000 digital downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That total represents combined sales for the original song and five different “stems,” which the band invited fans to download and use to create their own remixes. Remixes uploaded to Radioheadremix.com are available for fan voting through May 1.

The No. 37 debut was fueled entirely by these downloads, as the song is only being played on 3 of the 1,289 stations monitored by Nielsen BDS. It received just 6 plays during the April 4-April 10 tracking period.

According to Hot 100 director Silvio Pietroluongo, “Billboard abided by its long-standing remix policy in regards to “Nude.” For the purpose of our airplay, Hot 100 and Hot Digital Songs charts, Billboard merges remixes with the original version as long as the music and/or lyrics of the remix remain true to the original.”

So there you go: the stems are “remixes,” or close enough that the Billboard rules treat them that way. And how nuts is it that a song that got played a total of six times on radio stations around the country broke into the Top 40?

 PLEASE SEE THE UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

 Ah, the Billboard Hot 100. The most dependable list of overplayed, overproduced R&B and pop drivel you could ever ask for. If you ever find yourself thinking, “you know, current pop music isn’t really so bad” (and I don’t know why you would, but stay with me here), you need only click over to billboard.com to have your optimism quickly and mercilessly pummeled.

Today’s headline: “Mariah’s ‘Body’ Remains Atop Hot 100,” gleefully reminding us that she has moved past Elvis and now has the second-most #1 US hits ever (now only behind some old English band with a misspelled name). Reading on, more depressing (but unsurprising) news: “Madonna’s ‘4 Minutes’ holds at No. 3 after selling 217,000 digital downloads”; “Flo Rida’s ‘Low’ featuring T-Pain is No. 10 for a second week”; “The Hot 100’s top debut is Radiohead’s ‘Nude’ at No. 37″.

Wait a fucking minute.

No, that’s not a joke. Radiohead has their first Top 40 hit single since “Creep,” and that’s without getting any mainstream radio airplay or face time on MTV. There they are, just a few spots under the Jonas Brothers and a few above Taylor Swift. Congratulations to the Oxford boys and all, but seriously, what the fuck happened?

Clearly the main culprit is iTunes, which is now the biggest music retailer in the US and pretty much the only truly significant distributor of singles these days. But a bunch of web geeks all buying the “Nude” single on iTunes, months after the whole of In Rainbows was made available for free download by the band itself? Seems pretty unlikely, right?

A quick check of iTMS’ current top songs confirms my suspicion: Madonna, Mariah, Jordin Sparks, Chris Brown, et al. Four Taylor Siwft songs in the top 100, in fact, but no “Nude” — no Radiohead at all.

To figure out this puzzle you have to do a search on Radiohead. Bring up the page displaying all their available music on iTunes, and you’ll see In Rainbows, Nude (Single), Nude (Bass Stem) - Single, Nude (Drum Stem) - Single, Nude (String FX Etc. Stem) - Single, Nude (Guitar Stem) - Single, and Nude (Voice Stem) - Single. Under “Top Songs,” iTunes shows the five most popular downloads, and as you might have guessed it looks like a goddamn nudist colony.

Earlier this month, Radiohead’s label announced a contest in which you could remix “Nude” and post your track to radioheadremix.com (the prize: fleeting internet fame). You could purchase each of the “stems,” or individual instument tracks, from iTunes — for the full single price of a buck apiece. Now, there couldn’t possibly be enough people remixing Nude to account for a Top 40 hit, right? But what if each stem counts as a download for the single? That would explain why “Nude” doesn’t show up in iTMS’ chart — it’s not the quantity of people buying the song, it’s that each person who does is buying it five times. Then tack on however many downloads of the full track itself, and you’ve got yourself a hit!

I can’t prove this, of course, but it looks like Radiohead has cheated their way onto the Hot 100.

Does that make it any less sweet to see them on there, though?

Update: I want to put out a small fire before it starts. Wired has quoted me on this (very flattering for my modest blog), but they seem to have misunderstood my point about Nude showing up under “Top Songs” in iTunes. I am referring specifically to the Top Radiohead Songs on the artist page. The fact that all the stems dominate here shows that there is a level of popularity for each, but not enough to push them into the Top 100 songs on iTunes overall. This is why I draw the conclusion that the stems are being individually counted as single sales. I am NOT implying any kind of conspiracy on the part of Apple, Radiohead, or anyone else. I just think it’s kind of a tricky way to get a song charting, and not necessarily even a dishonest one.