Q101: Now Shuffling For Relevance By Tangoing With The White Stripes

So remember that White Stripes versus alternative-rock cesspool Q101 battle about the Chicago based station playing a leaked version of the now newly-released Icky Thump a week in advance?

The Chicago Reader (Chicago Reader= Chicago as City Pages=Minneapolis) had an article about the dust-up and what the aftermath of the confrontation says about the way music is now being consumed, in the age of the iPod, and how terristrial radio is getting lost in the shuffle. Spike, the music director from Q101, openly admits that radio is being made irrelevent by the internet.

It's a very interesting read, and you can see the article for yourself here. In addition, P4K has a review of the album on its website right now. Expect an MFR review of the album in the next few days.

(Jonathan Graef)

Jack White Gets Pissed at Chicago DJ Over Leaked "Icky Thump"

Download: The White Stripes - "Icky Thump"

I don't really listen to a lot of terristrial radio, let alone terristrial radio that plays a lot of mainstream-alternative music, but I saw this on Idolator and it caught my eye. One of the DJ's at Chicago radio station Q101 got a leaked copy of "Icky Thump," the new record from The White Stripes. The DJ played the record in its entirety on the air. Apparently, Jack White got wind of all this and was none too happy about it. Long story short, White called up the station and the DJ to complain, and told the DJ that she was "ruin(ing) the music industry."

Electra, the DJ in question, tells all about the encounter on her blog.

Now, if I were Jack White, I'd probably be unhappy that someone had played a leaked, poor quality, version of my record on the radio. That said, is it really constructive to yell at people about it? Doesn't yelling at someone about how they're ruining the music industry make White sound like the rock music equivalent of Bill O'Reilly?

(Jonathan Graef)