The U.S. Supreme Court today denied certiorari (i.e. declined review) in two important FCC-related cases pending before it.  First, following the Court's recent decision in the Fox indecency case, which we described here, the Court not surprisingly refused to review the Third Circuit's decision vacating the $550,000 FCC fine for the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" in the 2004 Super Bowl shown on CBS. 

In the Fox case, the Supreme Court found that the FCC had not provided advance notice that it would prosecute cases of "fleeting" indecency.  That decision essentially predetermined that the Supreme Court would deny review of the Super Bowl incident.  While denying cert., however, Chief Justice Roberts issued an unusual separate opinion, noting that fleeting indecent images may have a more lasting impression than indecent words.  Nevertheless, he noted that going forward, braodcasters are on notice that fleeting indecent words and images are both now subject to FCC sanctions.

 

In the second FCC-related Supreme  Court action today, the Court also refused to hear the appeals of the Third Circuit's 2011 Prometheus opinion, affirming most of the FCC's 2008 multiple ownership Order.   The Third Circuit's decision and underlying FCC rules at issue are described here. 

In denying cert., the Supreme Court refused to reconsider the Third Circuit's decision to leave the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule in place.  This particular aspect of the Prometheus case had been appealed by multiple media companies, including the Tribune Company and Media General.  Many have noted that the rule may well outlast the existence of the daily newspaper, but absent an FCC decision upheld on appeal, the cross-ownership prohibition remains in place, except where otherwise grandfathered.

It certainly has been an interesting week for Supreme Court actions in both media-related decisions and otherwise.  (You may have heard that there was some health care related decision this week as well.)  From an FCC perspective, it will be interesting to see what the Commission does now with respect to both indecency and multiple ownership in view of the recent Supreme Court decisions....not to mention an upcoming election in November.

As you know by now, last week the U.S. Supreme Court found the FCC's enforcement of its indecency policy unconstitutional in FCC v. Fox.  As Bob Corn-Revere and Ronnie London described in our Advisory , this case concerned the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards shows televised by Fox as well as a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue televised by ABC.  While the Supreme Court did NOT address the First Amendment issue of whether the FCC can constitutionally prohibit fleeting expletives and momentary nudity, it did find that the FCC's enforcement of those policies with regard to these particular shows violated due process, because the networks had no advance notice of them.

As we noted more than a year ago, there are approximately 300 TV station renewal applications from the last renewal cycle still pending due to indecency complaints filed against them.  It is unclear how many of them relate to these particular shows, but to the extent any renewal applications have been held up due to complaints against these shows only, it should only be a matter of time before those renewal applications are granted.

Unfortunately, there are still many renewal applications pending due to indecency complaints regarding other shows and networks.  For example, the 2004 CBS Janet Jackson Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" case remains on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (DWT represents CBS in that case.)  That case concerns "fleeting images," similar to the "momentary nudity" at issue in the NYPD Blue show.  Accordingly, there is a fair chance that the Supreme Court may decline to review that case, which the Third Circuit Court of Appeals had overturned on similar grounds---lack of advance notice.

Although the Supreme Court remanded the Fox and ABC cases back to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals "for further proceedings consistent with the principles set forth in this opinion," it is difficult to see how the Second Circuit could do anything other than reverse the FCC decisions in these cases.  Of course, the FCC may well wait for finality before acting on the renewal applications held up by these shows, but it is fair to say that it is just a matter of time now....possibly even before the FCC acts on the current round of renewal applications!

Superpower-strength electronica from Christian Vogel, West Norwood Casette Library's jazzy UK house, TEED's long-player debut, progressive techno for the summer, and more fill out this week’s On Rotation segment, which compiles our expert team of merchandisers’ and editors’ favorite picks of the week.

Read more on Beatportal

The mnml ssgs mix series comes to a close with a 26-minute excursion from site favourite Donato Dozzy, simply described by the man himself as "voodoo forever."

They're opening shows for Blitzen Trapper and will have Curtains For You opening some of their own headlining shows.

The new Moonface video for the song 'Faraway Lightning,' off of the album With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery. | VIDEO

Welcome to our June edition of Discover The Undiscovered; we’re excited to introduce Wolf Ram Heart.

Photo by Courtney Galyk

Wolf Ram Heart is an American pop group whose members are split between the Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio and the urban metropolis of Columbus. This is a band bent on marrying art with popular music. Retro-futuristic best defines their sound that straddles neo-psychedelia and dark art synthesizer pop. The music is an all encompassing hybrid of pop's faded echoing sensibilities, molded... into a modern space, and created in a sound that allows these hauntings to occur and transform.

MP3: Betrayal of Hearts

---

Who are your main influences?
I (David James) have always had a fondness for word play, repeated words, repetitious passages, descriptions used out of place. It's drawn me lyrically to artists like Syd Barrett, Robert Pollard and Scott Walker.They would be my top three study books. Walls of sounds or that tipping point before it's just too much is where I like to breathe when I'm trying to sculpt something in sounds. People like Brian Wilson, Phil Spector or George Martin come to mind as producers I have admired and think about when I'm working. They are like ghosts and kings. In the end, I believe no one could ever match the eclecticism of The Beatles but I try. Finally there's the feeling you get when you see the two twins at the end of the hall at the Overlook Hotel. That always seems to do it for me.


How did you meet?
I met my future wife (bassist) Jessica Barnes through an obscenely boring ad on Craigslist. Looking for someone into Brian Eno and The Velvet Underground blah blah blah. She joined, seven months later we were married and then I made her buy a Rickenbacker and more tights. Rob Cave, another Craigslist acquisition, all ready married, credentials: classically trained pianist, current position in band: Rick-Wakemen-type character able to play four parts with two hands, obsessed with Duran Duran. Enter then Ryan Stolte-Sawa (violinist - multi instrumentalist). We asked her and her violin to join us onstage for a show and later tricked her into joining the band by making her come to a press shoot. She is Canadian so we are still trying to figure her out. Next there is Eric Buford  (The
Drummer) who I met when he was only in high school. Incidentally the same high school Kim and Kelley Deal of the Breeders came from. He was in a metal band called "Distorted Visions" and was always wearing Smashing Pumpkins shirts, it was the 90's. We've been in all kinds of bands together since then including a terrible Oasis tribute band called Onasis. Lastly I (David James) (writer - vocalist - producer) as a youth had many surgeries that left me in bed. Got so obsessed with The Beach Boys that I use to wear Hawaiian shirts in eighth grade and made people call me Brian.
Later I spent my early twenties trying to look like Damon Albarn but didn't change my name. I also use to play in a group that worked with Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran and I'm convinced that is the real reason Rob is still in the band.
 

Continue reading at FILTERmagazine.com

Welcome to our June edition of Discover The Undiscovered; we’re excited to introduce Wolf Ram Heart.

Photo by Courtney Galyk

Wolf Ram Heart is an American pop group whose members are split between the Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio and the urban metropolis of Columbus. This is a band bent on marrying art with popular music. Retro-futuristic best defines their sound that straddles neo-psychedelia and dark art synthesizer pop. The music is an all encompassing hybrid of pop's faded echoing sensibilities, molded... into a modern space, and created in a sound that allows these hauntings to occur and transform.

MP3: Betrayal of Hearts

---

Who are your main influences?
I (David James) have always had a fondness for word play, repeated words, repetitious passages, descriptions used out of place. It's drawn me lyrically to artists like Syd Barrett, Robert Pollard and Scott Walker.They would be my top three study books. Walls of sounds or that tipping point before it's just too much is where I like to breathe when I'm trying to sculpt something in sounds. People like Brian Wilson, Phil Spector or George Martin come to mind as producers I have admired and think about when I'm working. They are like ghosts and kings. In the end, I believe no one could ever match the eclecticism of The Beatles but I try. Finally there's the feeling you get when you see the two twins at the end of the hall at the Overlook Hotel. That always seems to do it for me.


How did you meet?
I met my future wife (bassist) Jessica Barnes through an obscenely boring ad on Craigslist. Looking for someone into Brian Eno and The Velvet Underground blah blah blah. She joined, seven months later we were married and then I made her buy a Rickenbacker and more tights. Rob Cave, another Craigslist acquisition, all ready married, credentials: classically trained pianist, current position in band: Rick-Wakemen-type character able to play four parts with two hands, obsessed with Duran Duran. Enter then Ryan Stolte-Sawa (violinist - multi instrumentalist). We asked her and her violin to join us onstage for a show and later tricked her into joining the band by making her come to a press shoot. She is Canadian so we are still trying to figure her out. Next there is Eric Buford  (The
Drummer) who I met when he was only in high school. Incidentally the same high school Kim and Kelley Deal of the Breeders came from. He was in a metal band called "Distorted Visions" and was always wearing Smashing Pumpkins shirts, it was the 90's. We've been in all kinds of bands together since then including a terrible Oasis tribute band called Onasis. Lastly I (David James) (writer - vocalist - producer) as a youth had many surgeries that left me in bed. Got so obsessed with The Beach Boys that I use to wear Hawaiian shirts in eighth grade and made people call me Brian.
Later I spent my early twenties trying to look like Damon Albarn but didn't change my name. I also use to play in a group that worked with Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran and I'm convinced that is the real reason Rob is still in the band.
 

Continue reading at FILTERmagazine.com

As he prepares to release his debut artist album on Uncanny Valley, the Dresden house producer invites Slices into his studio, offering an insight into his production process.

Ahead of the next edition of the highly regarded Welsh festival, Steevio chats to Juno Plus about his fascination with modular synthesis and the upcoming debut of Freerotation Tenerife.

For the last of WIP's Off Sonar Weekend parties, Sunday, June 17 boasts one crazy-good lineup to wrap up a week of late-night revelry in Barcelona. Deniz Kurtel, Konrad Black, Art Department, Nitin, Russ Yallop, Tone Of Arc, Louie Fresco, Miguel Puente, Luca C, Brigante, Ali Love, and some special guests will all get things moving until late the next morning for Social Experiment, No. 19's party, which goes down at Almogavers 86, Barcelona, from 11:30 p.m. until 6:00 a.m.

Read more on Beatportal

Being futuristic – really looking forward to music – has perhaps become less fashionable in some circles. Don’t tell that to people like UK-born Sam Barker, artist and co-founder of collective/label/party Leisure System. Sam is curating music tools and artists with the same electic passion, the same exploration of new sounds rather than comfy, tested nostalgia.

Leisure System, the party, heads to SONAR this week and is atop our list of off-SONAR events, the stuff away from the badges and spotlights. Known for their Berghain residency, Leisure System might make you assume a narrowly Berlin-friendly sound, but the party has hosted everyone from Flying Lotus to Autechre, Venetian Snares to 808 State to Jimmy Edgar and on from there. It’s also a label, and like a lot of the better-liked labels these days, it’s sparing with its release schedule. So that’s reason to pay special notice to Like an Animal.

The EP’s three-track triptych takes each cut to a different world, if each nonetheless orbits the same sun. The titular “Like an Animal,” featuring regular collaborator and Berghain stablemate nd_baumecker (Andreas Baumecker) and whispered vocals by Anete Kirvelaite , is the logical centerpiece. It’s particularly nice to hear a track that’s formally adventurous, beginning with the soft-shoe tapdance of sequenced machines before building to a thicker, rhythmic brew. At full tilt, unabashed, sharp synth sounds slice across crisp, dry rhythms and heavy bass, present and focused as if tuned to the infamously-cavernous walls of Berghain’s former power station.

If “Like an Animal” is dry, “I Feel” is flooded with warm pads, a hot bath with shuffling breakbeats. For our stream, we present the third panel here, “Hot Lover.” It’s half-step music for robots with soul.

The entire, meticulous record gets mastering treatment from Pole (Stefan Betke), one of the most in-demand engineers of the moment, who treats those timbres with the sensitivity they deserve – enough so that even this stream I think can translate.

Sam Barker isn’t standing still. With Andreas Baumecker, he’s working on the continuation of their collaboration, which we hope to catch in greater detail later this year. (An interview, therefore, is best left until that has time to simmer.) The combination is a promising one – having seen nd_baumecker at Rome’s LPM festival, he continues to impress in any setting.

I dropped by their studio – freshly outfitted with some new modular gear – to see what they were up to. Working away in Logic as canvas, they were combining analog and digital ingredients. An iPad running Animoog was looping away behaving for all the world like just another analog sound source. Have a look, and have fun gear-spotting. (Maybe this will be the new system: we let you try to spot the gear, then identify it after the thought. To the winner, we offer, um, the thrill of winning?)

More:
http://www.voltek.info (Sam’s homepage)
https://www.facebook.com/barker.baumecker

http://www.leisuresystem.net/
http://www.facebook.com/leisuresystem
http://soundcloud.com/leisuresystem

Gallery: Studio Visit with nd_Baumecker + Barker

The frantic new video from the Perc Trax man should probably carry an epilepsy warning; "A New Brutality" is the lead cut from his forthcoming EP of the same name.

The frantic new video from the Perc Trax man should probably carry an epilepsy warning; "A New Brutality" is the lead cut from his forthcoming EP of the same name.