Sonic Slang

Keith Richards Penning Memoirs

In what could prove to be the most scintillating rock memoir in recent memory (assuming he remembers enough), the bidding war over Keith Richards' self-penned life story has been sold to Little, Brown and Company in anticipation of a 2010 release.  The Stones guitarist will receive $7.3 million for whatever two or three nuggets are still rolling around upstairs, but to be fair, it's safe to assume he'll have at least a flashback or two before the release date, and that should make for one trippy epilogue. 

Score The Sopranos Finale

Though the cut-to-black treatment our favorite goombas received in The Sopranos' final moments wasn't our favorite way to see Tony and co. go out, we actually dug the choice of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" for the show's musical swan song.  But apparently some of you indie kids weren't feeling , so Stereogum brought us a nifty little tool for re-scoring the ending.

Just head over here, enter the URL of any mp3 you like, and click "play it!"

We tested it out with Ryan Adam's "Halloweenhead" (mostly because we had it handy, but the ominous church bell opening followed by "Here comes that shit again" actually was kind of cool...).

If you stumble on a winner, let us know!

UPDATE - Some other picks from the SS archives:

-The ominous ending (Tony gets gunned down) - I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness: "According to Plan"

-The super mega happy ending (Tony and the family go to Disneyworld) - Belle and Sebastian: "Another Sunner Day"

Pop Songs 07 Hearts R.E.M.

Once upon a time, recent Hall of Fame inductee R.E.M. first helped nudged a young, wide-eyed SS towards bands and artists outside of top 40 pop and rock, and opened our eyes to a larger, deeper musical world.  Pioneers in the "college" music scene who are now regularly credited with kick-starting the alternative rock movement, Stipe and co.'s spotty recent work has done little to diminish R.E.M's significance in our eyes, and we still anticipate each new release like Christmas eve for an eight year old. 

At any rate, we're far too musically ADD for a project like this, but hat's off to this R.E.M. fanatic, and welcome Pop Songs 07 to the SS blog roll. 

Today's post - "Get Up" off of 1988's Green.

Yahoo Music Offers Lyric Database

Yahoo Music is attempting to navigate the tricky waters of online lyric databases, and the reviews thus far are begrudgingly positive.  Despite the occasional goofs, the 400,000 song vault is generally a step up from the other low-rent sources on the web.  (For another solid option, try MyLyricsCentral.com)

The database is licensed by Gracenote, who is allegedly mulling a similar arrangement with Apple.  Lyrics on your iPod?  Now THAT might be something worth getting excited about. 

Neat Stuff: Slacker and imeem

Are you one of the unlucky bastards that missed the snow day and actually trudged into work?  Well reward your dedication with a little wasted time this morning by checking out our two current obsessions: the appropriately-titled Slacker web player, and the imeem community.

Streaming tunes from all genres and eras plus SXSW radio on the former, and discover new music, blogs, photos and music on the latter!  Pass that project off to the interns.