Ai Weiwei is the most famous chinese artist alive, if not the most known alive chinese person period. And chinese authorities cannot quite make up their minds if he's a danger for them or a useful windown to the West as proof there's some freedom in China (well, the CIA did the same with Jackson Pollock*** in the sixties to proove there was total freedom in the West so why not...). This said, they did come to sort of a conclusion last year as they took him into secret custody for 81 days..... You see, Ai Weiwei is one of the stars in modern art and while his name rings good for China, even if he would say bad things about it, the Chinese authorities think that what happens in China stays in China, or so they hope. But AI Weiwei will never stop.

Son of a famous poet who suffered a great deal during the Anti-Rightist Movement, AI Weiwei is a man of many talents and a strong voice for reforms in China. His art is being shown in the biggest art galleries all over the world and there's something rather Warholian about him and his art as he, like our ol' pal Andy, sees himself as a brand. But there's more to Ai than an astute communication person, he's very vocal about...

Most of you won't know who the hell Ginger Baker is, and to be honest I had to look it up for a few more details as most of his celebrity comes from having been the drummer in Cream, one of Britain's most celebrated super bands ever, back in the sixties, more than 50 years ago. He was only second to Keith Moon, original drummer of The Who, as far as wild behaviour was concerned, and introduced to rock music two items some love to hate: the double bass drum and the impossibly long drum solos...

He was also a noticable drug casuality and his attitude was, and still is as you can judge by the video trailer of a documentary on his life, erratic and rather violent. This said, he's also one of the first european musician to have an interest in high-life, that nigerian style of music, and did bring Fela Anikulapo Kuti, then known as Fela Ransome Kuti, to the attention of the world. Later on, he did participate in various bands like Hawkwind, the grand-father of heavy-metal, and PIL, yes the Public Image band fronted by John Lydon, ex-Sex Pistols singer.

One may enjoy his music or not, but Ginger Baker displays in one minute more personality and attitude than hundreds...

In some ways, Red Bull is the 2.0 Coca-Cola but contrary to the american beverage, the austrian company is putting its money where its mouth is and has been deeply, and cleverly, involved with the cultural aspects of youth culture for decades.

Besides investing money in Formula One, soccer teams and motorcycle racing, Red Bull has developped for the last 20 year very strong connections with music/culture and it's astounding to realize how knowledgeable they actually are. This is still brand content marketing, sure, but with real flair, attitude and initiative.

Red Bull Music Academy will be 15 years old in 2013 and it has been visiting cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Toronto but also Melbourne, Cape Town and Sao Paulo. They mix together panels and musicians, artists as diverse as Cosey Fanni Tutti (from electronic music pioneer band Throbbing Gristle) , famous producers Andy Weatherall, Mike Ronson or Macy Gray and create events and plateforms that go a long way from being simple concerts with 20 meters square logo of the company above a stage and some band boringly performing its catalogue of songs. It's all done in good taste and with a very striking...

Sometimes, a song is just good enough and it's better not to reach out too much to discover more about the artist. You're getting caught by the sounds and the melody, and maybe the video hits the right chord but sometimes, it's only skin deep: there's nothing behind the song...Or worst: the band is hollow and vain and all they wanted was those 5 minutes of fame.

And sometimes, the song touches you, and the story behind the artist or the band just makes it shines specially and the deeper you go, the more interesting the artist is. Baloji is that. And more.

Born in Congo but raised in Belgium, Baloji ("sorcerer" in Tschiluba language) was a slam artist in a band called Starflam and he could have stay that way, rhyming the nights away with his rich and witty lines, but he decided hip hop wasn't somehow enough. A letter from his mum which he hadn't seen or heard of for the last 15 years after he ran from home, led him to undertake a journey back to his roots, back to Congo but also back to Ostend where he could feel common vibes with Marvin Gaye, another man in exile who took cover in the belgian city-by-the-sea. And an album was born from the incredibly emotive...

It's not that long ago that Myspace was the absolute place-to-be and no band could do without having a Myspace page. Then, in 2008, numbers began to fall and Facebook took over as primary social network. What happened ? Where is Tom ?

Launched in 2003, Myspace quickly became an indispensable tool in every band's promokit and it was even neck-to-neck with Google as the most visited US website in 2006. Bands and fans were coming in flocks and Myspace was flooded with zillions of profiles and everyone was Tom's friend.

The company was acquired in 2005 by News Corp, a Rupert Murdoch's company for 580 millions $ . They had huge ideas to make this profitable, and initiated a deal with Google for online ads, making their purse heavier but also making the user experience slower and filled with even more ads here and there. Then, contrary to Facebook, they kept the door closed to outside developers, where Facebook open themselves up (and everyone remembers how free games and apps on Facebook really made it go up and up and up). Then, for no reasons at all, people started to migrate from Myspace to Facebook, and Myspace has not been able to cut that flow.

In 2011...

I'm unsure if Steve Jobs knew back then that Itunes, and the sales of music thru internet portals, would seriously indent albums sales and take away from the music business one of its bigger money making object: the album.

Back in the days, if you liked a song that wasn't a single, you had no choice: you had to buy the album. Nowadays, this is no longer the case: you can just buy on a song-per-song basis and hard facts are there to prove it as people are more into buying a couple of songs from an album that letting it go and get the entire thingie. This album being no longer the anker around which bands or artists would make entire marketing/promo campaigns, some have decide on the contrary to use the time between their releases as a teaseing period that would be magnified and used to its full potential to prepare fans/superfans to the release of new material.

Emily White, who manages artists thru her Whitemsith Entertainement company, has a great blog entry about this subject and focus on two different exemples: Bear In Heaven and Imogen Heap.

Bear In Heaven, who's last album received the Best New Music Award from Pitfork Media, has decided de stream...

Forget about X-Factor, The Voice or any programs about cooking, pimping up your car, your house, your sex life or your looks, here comes the latest in TV brainwashing: the Apocalypse is near and everyone should be prepared !

Recently launched in the US, two shows have a go at FEAR, you know, that thing that makes you an easy target for anything unrationnal and a great and laughable bait for below-the-belt populism politics, advertising for SUV weighting easily more than 2.000 kgs, free publicity for "the right to defend yourself" and generally making humans look even more selfish and self-centered they already are most of the time when it' s not Christmas.

In these shows displaying how low people can go when it's about that primal need and urge to defend their family, what's better than a little bit of producers-induced paranoia ? And why just a little bit, why not going for the full dosis ? You will see family, husbands, wives and children all defending their turf and right to exist, no matter what comes at them. These shows are guaranteed to change for ever the look you'll have at your fellow neighbours or the files at the supermarkets: you will hate them cos...

Another great exemple of crowdfunding: the investors of "Iron Sky", a sci-fi movie where nazis would have flown to the dark side of the moon in 1944 only to come back and invade us now, were 1 million Euros short.

Instead of doing more rounds for "normal" finances, they decide to let it happen with money send by the movie/sci fi internet community and got their budget wrapped up easily. It has to be said that they were already known within the science-fiction crowd as they had done "Star Wreck" a few years ago and they were coming with a great idea that was fun to play around: imagine, as The Quietus puts it, " Starship Troopers meets Mars Attacks but with an extra twist of trashy John Waters humour". That says it all and is in our book a sure hit at good taste in bad taste land. Music wise, the obvious band to participate was Laibach, a serbo-croatian band who has played with IIIrd reich imagery and rhymes for decades and who can put pedal to the metal when needed.

What becale cult the very same minute the idea came out to the scenarist while having a sauna, did i forgot to tell you guys it's a finnish movie ?, will be in all good movie theaters in the...

Frank Tovey, an english musician signed on Mute Records, has passed away ten years ago and an exhibition in New York celebrates at the moment the work of that unique musician/performer.

Frank came from a performance background and his live shows were raw, strong, unique and festive in a strange way: it wasn't rare he ended up the concert covered in feathers or even physically hurt as he had more than a tendency to immerge himself in his shows and, in a way not unlike Iggy Pop's, his body was at time merely a tool to display emotions and intense involvement. He therefore often ended up bruised and battered, but the crowd loved it. He was a pionneer as he successfully mixed together electronic music, performance, punkish attitude, slick humour and great songs (to name a few: Back To Nature, Ricky's Hand, Lady Shave and Collapsing New People).

Mute Records has released a few years ago a great documentary (directed by his daughter, Morgan) about his life and one can see why this man was so unique: music often see performers that act and pose and reflects while Frank got into his own skin and lived the moment. He was a music performance at its best. Nothing...

Tim Burton, the man who goes filming with all his friends, wife, music composer, monteur, Sisters Of Mercy record collection, dog trainer et all, got fired from Disney in 1984, days after they released his short film "Frankenweenie", on the sole excuse that it was too scary for kids and Disney was an all-family entertainement company. What did they expect from a frankly gothic moviemaker like Tim Burton who's first movie was "Vincent", a six minute black and white stop motion movie about a boy fantasizing he was bloody Vincent Price ?

The talented man, who after all did gems like "Edward Scissorhands", "Beetljuice" and "Mars Attack", must feel like Karma does well as Disney has resign him (for two movies, the first one being the terrible terrible and it's not a typo if I repeat terrible "Alice In Wonderland") will release in october a 3D full feature remake of the movie that saw them fired him. It surely must feel good to have this gentle revenge on The Establishment. It's just a shame Disney doesn't seem to know how to work well and creatively with Burton as their latest co-work, "Alice In Wonderland", is nothing but a giant druggy nothing.

In Burton's version of...