Eric R. Danton | Sound Check

If you haven't already found a leaked version online of Kanye's West's new album, "808's & Heartbreak," you can hear it in its entirely today through Monday on the Chicago rapper's MySpace page.

It's West's fourth album, and he expands beyond spoken-word rhymes here. He sings most of these songs in a voice altered by AutoTune, a pitch-correcting device that gives his voice an detached robotic feel at odds with the intimate, personal subjects he's singing about.

The Courant's review runs Tuesday, Nov. 25.

(Photo by W. VanDerper)

Arizona Sen. John McCain was gracious in defeat when he conceded to President-elect Obama on Election Night, but he's not all about bygones.

The Republican presidential nominee is fighting back against classic rocker Jackson Browne, who sued the McCain campaign and the Ohio Republican party earlier this year for copyright infringement for what Browne said was unauthorized use of a snippet from his song "Running on Empty" in TV ads.

Attorneys for McCain have filed two motions in U.S. District Court in California. The first seeks dismissal of Browne's suit, claiming fair use of the song based on four factors described here. Further, McCain, claims, his campaign's use of the song was probably a boon to Browne:

Given the political, non-commercial, public interest and transformative nature of the use of a long-ago published Song, the miniscule amount used and the lack of any effect on the market for the Song (other than perhaps to increase sales of the Song), these claims are barred by the fair use doctrine. (Emphasis in original, which you can find here.)

The second motion is of a sort used to seek monetary damages from a plaintiff for filing a lawsuit intended to chill free speech.

So not only does McCain insist that use of Browne's song served a greater public good, he says the singer is attempting to curtail his freedom of speech.

Browne's lawyer responds in a statement:

This case has nothing to do with selling records. Jackson Browne sued Senator McCain and his party because they failed to obtain permission to use Jackson's famous song and voice in their commercial. Copyrights for songs, like books and movies, are expressly protected by the United States Constitution. In their response to the Complaint, Senator McCain and his party contend that it is 'fair' for a candidate to incorporate the artistry of musicians, actors and writers into their campaigns without permission or compensation, with the ultimate result that these artists become unwitting endorsers of the candidate. Musicians, actors, record companies and movie studios should all be concerned by this direct assault on their constitutional and creative rights. Artists have the right to be paid for their work.

Clearly this case has fascinating implications for intellectual property rights. But it doesn't do much to dispel the image of McCain as a cranky old man looking for a dog to kick.

It's the record that Axl Rose has spent 14 years and some $14 million completing, the album that many (if not most) music fans thought would probably never actually come out. It's "Chinese Democracy," which anti-hipster hipster Chuck Klosterman likened to the sudden appearance of a unicorn in the review he wrote for The Onion's AV Club.

"Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all?" Klosterman asks. "Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom?"

Decide for yourself: Axl is streaming the record on the Guns N' Roses MySpace page between now and the release date, which is Sunday. The Courant's review runs next Tuesday, Nov. 25.

Economists are worried about deflation, The New York Times reports today, citing fears that declining prices would prolong the economic crisis, or even cause it to deepen into a depression.

Lynyrd Skynyrd apparently does not share their concern. What's left of the iconic Southern rock band is getting $85 a ticket to perform at Mohegan Sun Jan. 3. That's the top ticket price for Chris Brown Dec. 27, too. And high-end tickets are going for $87.25 to see Busta Rhymes, T.I. and T-Pain perform Dec. 5 in Hartford at this year's Jingle Jam, sponsored by WZMX-FM (aka Hot 93.7).

The concert industry has had a pretty good year so far, despite mounting economic uncertainty. Behemoth concert promoter Live Nation reported gigantic third-quarter gains earlier this month, with profit more than tripling over the same period last year from $41.6 million to $139.9 million, according to industry trade publication Pollstar.

It's a happy Thanksgiving indeed for The Sword: The Austin metal band lives the dream by going on tour with Metallica and, on Tuesday, Nov. 25, releases a limited-edition CD comprising both "Gods of the Earth" and "Age of Winters." That's a lot of metal.

The closest dates with Metallica are Jan. 17 in Boston or Jan. 31-Feb. 1 in Newark, though The Sword headlines Metallica off-date club shows Jan. 21 in Burlington, Vt., and Jan. 30 at Bowery Ballroom in New York.

Download
How Heavy This Axe mp3

Would have posted this yesterday, but there was trouble with the links. At any rate, Jeff Valin, Rachel Lutzker and I spent yesterday's Sound Check segment talking about new albums by Dido and Beyonce/Sasha Fierce.

Next week: I'm on vacation, but we taped a spot about Kanye West and the Killers.

Sometimes even bands that make great albums need to be experienced in concert.

Take Reckless Kelly. You could spend all your free time listening to the Austin quintet's very good albums and it still wouldn't quite prepare you for the power of the country-rock band's live show.

With a mix of older songs, tunes from its latest, "Bulletproof," and a couple of well-chosen covers, the band blew through its set Tuesday at Toad's Place in New Haven, leading off a show that also featured the Reverend Horton Heat and Nashville Pussy (probably nsfw).

She certainly takes her time between albums: Dido's unhurried approach has resulted in just three studio releases since 1999. The upside is, they're subtle pop records with a sophistication that few of her peers can match.

That's definitely true of her latest, "Safe Trip Home" (RCA). It's a lush, but understated record that delves even deeper emotionally than usual as Dido sings movingly of the death of her father on "Grafton Street" and muses over a breakup on lead track "Don't Believe in Love."

She played many of the instruments on these songs, which range from simple and quiet to more involved and, well, still fairly quiet. Dido sings in murmuring tones, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar on "The Before the Day" and piano on "Look No Further." Collaborators including Rollo Armstrong (her brother), Brian Eno and producer Jon Brion, who's every bit as meticulous as Dido, help flesh out some of the songs with texture from strings, muted horns, ambient synthesizers and, on "Never Want to Say It's Love," a rubbery bassline. 

It's a lovely collection, deeply felt, skillfully made and without artifice. In other words, "Safe Trip Home" is worth the wait.

(I chatted with Dido about the album recently when she was in town for an Acoustic Cafe performance hosted by WTIC-FM, 96.5. Here is the complete interview, parts of which aired this morning on Fox 61.)  

 

Not only does he display excellent comic timing on late-night variety shows, Justin Timberlake has a soft spot for charitable causes, too.

The singer debuts a new single, "Follow My Lead," on his MySpace page to raise money for Shriners Hospitals for Children. The song is a live cut from Timberlake's "Justin and Friends" tour, and is available for purchase on MySpace via Amazon.

Rap is a genre that emphasizes what's new and what's fresh, often to the point of stifling originality in the rush to have the next big hit. So it's refreshing to hear a group with influences that extend further back than Jay-Z or Biggie.

The Cool Kids are once such act, referencing old Run-D.M.C., Eric B. & Rakim and the Beastie Boys on their EP, "The Bake Sale," which is the subject of our latest podcast. Régine Labossière and I loved it. Stephen Busemeyer, to no one's surprise, did not. (The duo also has a new song, "2k Pennies," available here for free.)

Previous podcasts are available here or via the iTunes music store (search on "Hartford Courant"). As always, comments are welcome.

Download
Podcast -- Cool Kids

(Photo by Clayton Hauck)