October 2, 2007

Tuesday’s a Bruising Music News Day

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Common

  • Artists expressing solidarity with the so-called “Jena 6” include Common (above), Mos Def, MC Lyte, Talib Kweli and Pharoahe Monch. The rappers joined the call for a classroom walk-out yesterday in support of the six black students charged with second-degree murder after a fight stemming from a racial conflict at Jena High School in Louisiana. See Mother Jones‘ coverage of, well, having mixed feelings over the whole Jena thing here.

  • Radiohead‘s Web site slows to a crawl after fans start pre-orders of the band’s new album, In Rainbows. Guitarist Jonny Greenwood wrote a kind-of apology on the site, saying it was “busier than they expected,” I guess referring to the rest of the band, but not himself, is he pulling an “I-told-you-so” here? Incidentally, the Billboard story refers to the magazine’s “Buzz” chart that measures, er, blog popularity. I didn’t know they had a chart for that. More “High School Musical” posts coming right up.

  • The Police were honored with the Order of Arts and Letters at a ceremony in Paris on Monday. French Culture Minister Christine Albanel presented the high honor to the band, saying she expressed “France’s full admiration and recognition.” Sting, replying in French, said “we are very happy to be among your knights.” That’s right, he replied in French. Gotta love that guy.

  • Ugh. In the saddest development yet in a pretty sad story, Britney Spears has lost custody of her kids in a hearing Monday. Kevin Federline will take care of Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, “until further order of the court.” Is this even music-related in any way?

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    WE CAME UP SHORT.

    We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

    That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

    So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

    Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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