Author: Max Hammer

Over the last year or so, a popular spoof series loosely based on “Star Wars” protagonist villain Darth Vader’s less competent brother Chad, has caused a bit of a sensation on the Internet.

The indie cartoon series, “Chad Vader”, created by Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan of Madison, Wisconsin, has been viewed nearly 10 million times!! on YouTube alone since first appearing on the Internet.

The two men have made virtually no money from the millions of views of their series on YouTube, claiming to be significant contributors to the astronomical success of YouTube and its recent acquisition by Google for $1.4 billion dollars.

But now the force may be with the “Chad Vader” creators.

Last week YouTube announced it will share its advertising revenue with indie film makers like Yonda and Sloan.

The new revenue sharing could be a windfall for indie filmmakers, but YouTube is not disclosing the details of the plan and say it make not be launched for another year.

“We always wanted to make money doing these videos but we just thought that it was impossible,” Yonda said.

“I think anyone who’s an artist wants to be compensated for what they do,” Sloan said, “It would have been nice if YouTube would have announced revenue sharing 9 million hits ago for us.”

Nevertheless, Yonda said, their exposure is opening new doors, claiming the duo are “like this close to getting paid for doing a network series, a web series.”

As for future “Chad Vader” episodes, the sixth episode is set to be released on Feb. 16. There’s even a cameo from Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. Watch and listen to the guys comment on the upcoming episode and read letters from viewers about past episodes:

Some members of the many revolving members of Broken Social Scene took a break last fall from touring to work on other projects.

Now the fruits of their labor are all over the indie film scene of early 2007.

The projects include composing the score for the upcoming indie film The Tracey Fragments, which will debut at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival on February 8.

The film’s main character, Tracy Berkowitz (played by Ellen Page) searches for her brother who thinks he is a dog. The film is based on the acclaimed novel by Vancouver author Maureen Medved.

This is the band’s third score for the year. Their work has also appeared in Bruce McDonald’s film The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, on the Wicker Park soundtrack and for Clement Virgo’s film Lie With Me and the upcoming film Snow Cake, which is already receiving critical acclaim.

In addition, they scored the indie film Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling as an inner city teacher with a drug addiction.

Gosling, who joined Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake in the early 1990’s as Mouseketeers, is an Academy Award winner and has also appeared in movies like The Slaughter Rule, Murder by Numbers, Remember the Titans, The United States of Leland, The Notebook, and The Believer.


Other stuff to check out for BSS:

K.C. Accidental mp3
Lover’s Spit mp3
Compilation of tour videos over the past three years.
BSS official website

Video of BSS playing “7/4 Shoreline”

The hard rock band Mindless Self Indulgence has been asked by iTunes to change where the band is listed on the music service. Currently, The New York City electropunk band is listed under the genre ‘religious’.

The band said that their choice to list themselves under the religious genre has all to do with their “fan base and cult-like following,” claiming to have sold 180,000 CDs last year.

Apparently the religious tag has angered Christian organizations and has prompted them to file complaints with iTunes. The band’s last album “You’ll Rebel To Anything” hit #27 on the iTunes Christian/gospel charts, which probably sparked the complaints.

MSI’s singer, Jimmy Urine, was quoted as saying: “It was iTunes, not us, that interpreted ‘religious’ to mean Christian. What is offensive to some people is obviously inspirational to others. To our fans this IS inspirational music. I have no intention of changing the genre listing of this album.”

What do you think?

A long, but interesting article in Salon written by Courtney Love is the most in-depth look at the music industry I’ve read in a long time.

Love shows how musicians and bands really don’t make as much money as we all think they do, unless they hit it medium to really big.

In the article, Love also explores the new advantages that musicians have today. They can leave their labels behind thanks to all of the advances (and lower cost) of recording technology and distribution channels, most notably the Internet. (We are planning to publish a whole list of bands that have left big labels to create and distribute their music solo.)

[Update 2/1/07 1:20am: Love’s manager and American Idol’s executive producer Nigel Lythgoe say Courtney will not be a judge on American Idol and that Paula Abdul is not being replaced. The story below was written before that news.]

On a related note, there are rumors swirling around the blogs and the news shows that Courtney Love may be replacing Paula Abdul on American Idol. Wow, if you think about that, it may attract viewers who otherwise haven’t really watched the show but may with Courtney Love as a judge. Not just because she is the widow of Kurt Cobain, but also an accomplished musician herself.

But more than all of that, people will want to see how she judges and how she behaves. People will want to see if she may be on drugs like they have suggested Abdul is on (alcohol is a drug, right?).