People In Planes are having a pretty good year so far. The five piece rock unit (Gareth Jones on vocals, Peter Roberts on guitar, Ian Russel on keys, Kris Blight on bass & John Maloney behind the kit) from Wales, UK have just released their second LP, Beyond The Horizon, to critical acclaim and rapidly widening audiences. Through raw talent and determination, these guys have come to possess the right kind of sound, style and blistering, brooding rock delivery that’s currently winning over American crowds as the band tours the country over the next two months with revived rock heroes the Toadies.

We tracked down PIP singer Gareth Jones to talk a bit about Neil Young, the addictive qualities of American politics and the sputtering state of the music industry today.

Evolution eats through sanctity with no regard for legacy. It’s an undeniable fact that applies just as much to music as it does to outdated social sedative mythologies- just ask vinyl. After the clunky, short-lived 8-track brought a new portability to the listening experience, cassettes came along, and as a format they were a damn sight more convenient, in both size and playback versatility, than the alternative.

While they certainly didn’t push to any new heights of artistic potential from the source, cassettes blew open the doors of listener involvement. As tape decks, Walkmen and boomboxes popped up everywhere in the eighties, the mixtape was also born, and quickly rose to fame.

A few hours ago, I put up a review of the new Cold War Kids record, Loyalty To Loyalty. It was a glowing endorsement of one of the best records this year, with fond remembrances of seeing them live. I talked about a few tracks. I quoted some lyrics. And I streamed my favorite song on the album, Every Valley Is Not A Lake, to give a taste of the goodness to curious readers.

The problem is, the record doesn’t come out for another week. Sure, it’s leaked all over the internet in the past couple days, but evidently, Downtown Records believes that Antiquiet’s enthusiastic endorsement is going to damage their marketing plan in a way that widespread downloading can’t- drop their numbers, skew their charts and graphs, flip the wrong switches. We received an urgent cease and desist email shortly after the piece went up:

IMMEDIATELY REMOVE ALL LINKS, REFERENCES, ARTWORK, DOWNLOADS, VIDEOS AND MP3 FILES ASSOCIATED WITH COLD WAR KIDS “LOYALTY TO LOYALTY”
NOTICE OF INFRINGEMENT AND DECLARATION
DOWNTOWN RECORDS

Every single day I check the music news, and seriously every single fucking day, there’s something new about Metallica. We mocked Mission: Metallica and their overblown, over-hyped marketing bullshit, and I for one am pretty sick of hearing about them. But I have to admit, they’re getting it right for a change. They’re staying on the radar by serving substance, not just ads. They’re keeping it coming, giving it all away. They’re engaging the fans head-on.

There are three (and only three) simple truths, beyond which things get complicated: Fans consume art ruthlessly. Corporations make money ruthlessly. Artists make art ruthlessly.

Everything beyond these three truths can be picked apart and debated as the game evolves. But anyone who forgets any of these three truths is a fool, and anyone who fights them is asking for a Darwinian lightning bolt to wipe their useless genes off the planet. Today’s Metallica news brought one such waste of DNA to my attention: Per Sundin, President of Universal Music Sweden.

I don’t know why I even bothered to watch the VMAs. I suppose, by default, they managed to win a controlling share of my vague, morbid curiosity last night.

Rihanna sucked, and so did Pink. I only remember them because their tits almost came out. Even master show-stopper Kanye West’s closing performance was underwhelming, and Kid Rock, who blew the fucking roof off the 1999 VMAs with Run DMC and Aerosmith, was indeed only maybe memorable. And that’s largely thanks to Lil’ Wayne.