So, you’re in a band that just plowed a few grand into retrofitting your tour van to run on vegetable oil, requested all-recycled paper plates on your rider and decided to telecommute to your appearance on Conan to avoid emissions-heavy plane rides. You can now ply your new double-vinyl LP masterpiece with environmental impunity, right? Fail! Vinyl LPs are made with PVC plastic, which is packed with dioxin, phthalates, lead and other fun ingredients that can cause cancer, birth defects and respiratory problems, among a whole host of ailments. They’re also nigh impossible to recycle and, like all plastic, take centuries upon centuries to biodegrade.

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English magazine Total Guitar has released a list of the worst cover songs of all time. Readers of the magazine’s top choice? Céline Dion’s dreadful take on AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long.” The song was never officially released by Dion, but You Tube has given the version (performed in Las Vegas in 2002 for a VH-1 special) a second life online.

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Whether it’s the Grammys, Oscars or Bravo’s new entree into handing out coveted paperweights, awards culture is typically a slow-moving, conservative beast. Too often, the least controversial choice wins. Why do we keep watching? Well, there are all those pretty dresses and occasionally there’s a Dickensian twist or flitter of progressive thinking.

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Most 28-year-old fellows have a hard time standing upright or maintaining consciousness during vacations to Mexico with their buddies. But leave it to Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst to return from his sun worship with another gosh darn album in his quiver. The album “Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band,” his first venture under his legal name since his teenage years, is out on Merge Records this August (a break from longtime home Saddle Creek), and Oberst’s website is streaming two new songs from it. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlan, a mountain village apparently famed for alien encounters and its history in Aztec animism. The record features a gang of Saddle Creek affiliates who sound like they’re having a blast playing tequila-addled blues-punk numbers they probably wrote before breakfast each day – ”Souled Out!!!” has somebody audibly asking what part comes next in the bridge. Oberst has been on quite a magick kick in recent years, so here’s hoping that this jaunt brought some needed R&R, and from the looks of the album art, it did. The band plays the Troubadour on Aug. 5; get in line early.

– August Brown

Photo of Conor Oberst courtesy of Butch Walker 

I’m probably alone among my music-dork peers in not minding MTV’s wholesale seppuku on the altar of Lauren Conrad (”The Hills” is pretty much one giant block of big-budget music videos all featuring the same characters anyhow). So Pete Wentz’s Friday night MTV show (premiering tonight at 8), the unfortunately-titled “FN MTV,” will be an interesting experiment to see whether the video-block format still has any traction on television in an age of on-demand YouTubing.

One can surely expect scads of FBR/Decaydance material, and an early lineup suggests a weird amount of top 40 staples from Flo Rida and Pussycat Dolls. But recent goofy good ideas like Fall Out Boy’s collaboration with John Mayer on “Beat It” for “Guitar Hero” suggest it’ll have some adventurousness and good-humored celebrity self-awareness.

An early hint of what the show will offer comes from news of its theme song: a new cut from Toronto techno dudes MSTRKRFT from their forthcoming second album. It features N.O.R.E. cackling about his party habits over sort-of-dated filter synths, but it’s an apt choice for a show that will probably consist of Wentz goofing off and spinning choice dance-pop fromage.

The track “Bounce” is up for download at RCRD LBL now; enjoy before you little sister ruins it for you once the show airs.

– August Brown

MSTRKRFT photo: Last Gang Records

While most rappers’ eyes might glaze over at the prospect of sitting through an entire day’s worth of PowerPoint presentations at a technology convention, Houston’s Chamillionaire is all about digital delivery these days.

“I just started going to these conferences about a month ago. Now I went and did like four of them,” the “Ridin’ ” rapper said Tuesday at the On Hollywood convention at the Sofitel Hotel. He has also participated in panels for the more established confabs like Digital Hollywood over the past few months, winning over tech types at every turn.

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) spoke at the panel “Breaking Away From the Music Label and on to the Internet” on Tuesday morning, but ended up staying all day at the often deadly dull conference, taking in several PowerPoint demos from Silicon Valley chief executives, perhaps already predisposed to liking the rapper thanks to “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “White and Nerdy,” a parody of Chamillionaire’s chart-topping hit.

“A lot of people don’t understand how import this stuff is — it’s like gold to us because this is the future and building a fan base and keeping them in a home that’s your own, like your own website or social network, is crucial,” he said.

And while several high-profile rap stars are passionate about the business side of their careers (see Diddy, 50 Cent, etc.), precious few seem as interested as Chamillionaire, who even passed on watching the NBA finals late Tuesday to talk shop with web developers and business development reps from several start-ups.
“It’s crazy,” he said with a laugh. “All my boys are calling me [about the Lakers game], my Blackberry is buzzing, but I gotta know what’s going on with this stuff here.”

The Grammy-nominated rapper arguably owes a large swath of his fan base to technology, as “Ridin’ ” (aka, “Ridin’ Dirty”) remains one of the top-selling ringtones of all time. Although he claims more than 4 million now own the tone, Nielsen RingScan says 520,000 were sold since it first started the chart in late 2006. To be fair, the song was released before Nielsen started their chart, and Chamillionaire may be talking worldwide sales.

“I’ve always been aware of what was goin’ on in the digital world and did a lot of underground marketing when it comes to that,” he says of the the song’s ringtone success.

“For me, it’s just, you know, this is where music is going. It’s a digital world. A lot of [record] companies, they have big budgets and a lot of employees but sometimes they be slow on the technology stuff, ya know? They don’t want to embrace the future; they want to stay stuck in their old ways.”

So what new tech offerings caught Seriki’s eye Monday at On Hollywood? BitGravity, the back-end technology platform based in Burlingame, Calif.; Seriki is pictured above talking with BitGravity Chief Executive Perry Wu. “It’s like a YouTube player that uploads content and video, but it’s like HD and it’s super, super clear … it’s crazy.”

Seriki says he would love to incorporate the new high-quality video on his website — the rapper owns his own domain. “Man, I have over half a million friends on MySpace and a lot on YouTube… when our new site comes out, we are taking them all over there.”

And despite the platinum-selling rapper’s high profile at the event, not every Silicon Valley hype master is “down” with Chamillionaire. One chief executive kept (embarrassingly) referring to the rapper as “Shamillionaire” from the main ballroom podium during his PowerPoint presentation, eliciting head shaking and smiles from Seriki and his crew.

Apparently, for Chamillionaire, there are still plenty of white (and nerdy) people to win over and educate via his music, starting at On Hollywood.

– Post and photo by Charlie Amter

The media may be keeping mum about the Bilderberg proceedings, but if your ticket got lost in the mail, there’s another meeting of the minds this Thursday — this one of those who make up punk rock’s shadow government. Guitar Center in Hollywood will host a round-table discussion on the state of the genre and the music business with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Epitaph Records head and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, the Vandals’ bassist and legal eagle Joe Escalante, ex-Blink 182′er Tom Delonge and many more. The lectures are at 6 p.m., completely free and open to the public, just don’t expect to corner Max Bemis in the hallway and ask what Molly’s up to these days, or to get a straight answer on the definitions of bro core.

– August Brown

Brett Gurewitz photo by Kirk McCoy/Los Angeles Times

The Hollywood Black Film Festival kicked off its ninth year last Tuesday with the world premiere of “2 Turntables and a Microphone,” a documentary chronicling the life and death of one of popular music’s most famous turntablists, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay was murdered October 30, 2002 in a Queens recording studio. The HBFF event, which was attended by members of rap group Onyx and Ice-T (along with wife Cocoa), featured a Q&A by the filmmakers, who sported thick gold chains and “Godfather” hats, in the style originated by the venerated DJ.

Stephon “Phonz” Watford, a younger cousin to Jam Master Jay, multi-tasked on the film, acting as co-producer, narrator and interviewer. He also participated in the Q&A segment.

One of the first questions from the audience addressed the absence of DMC in the movie, which featured reminisces by Hollis, Queens neighborhood pals, Russell Simmons, Joseph “Reverend Run” Simmons, music industry executives, as well as a laundry list of music talent, including Kid Rock.

The film sets up early on that while JMJ went from rugged Queens DJ to the height of world-wide music success, his connections to his neighborhood never faltered, possibly to his detriment. “I’ve seen people be over-loyal,” says a stoic 50 Cent in the movie. Fiddy relates a story of how JMJ, a mentor in Fiddy’s fledgling days, taught him song structure, specifically to write his choruses first and then his lyrics. And we all know the success of 50 Cent’s hooky raps.

I asked Watford after the show if the late ’90s murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls had overshadowed his cousin’s similarly tragic death. Watford answered like he hears that question a lot.

“Well, he wasn’t a rapper, so his voice is hardly heard. Biggie and Tupac are MCs. Jay was a DJ.”

But that was his point in making the film: “Now [Jam Master Jay’s] voice can be heard.”

Nearly a week later, director and producer Guy Logan described the festival response to “2 Turntables and a Microphone” as “overwhelming. People laughed, they cried … Reverend Run left midway through, it was so emotional for him.”

The film is slated for DVD release at the end of the year. Details on screenings in L.A. and New York will be coming soon.

– Camilo Smith

Photo of Joseph “Reverend Run” Simmons, left, and Don “Magic” Juan at the premiere by Matt Sayles/Associated Press; movie poster courtesy of the Hollywood Black Film Festival

Pharrell Williams’ latest proteges, Chester French, are playing a free acoustic show tonight at sneaker store Undefeated’s Silver Lake branch. Funny how the Harvard alums, who have a song titled “The Jimmy Choo’s,” chose a sneaker spot to celebrate the release of their debut album — but then again, some pairs at Undefeated do cost just as much as a Choo. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and we hear free drinks will be served.

– Enid Portuguez

Photo credit: Stefano Paltera/For The Times

Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.

Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.

Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?

“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”

When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”

“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”

Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.

— Richard Cromelin