Random Notes: Prince Edition

- Prince hates record labels. Remember when he changed his name to that unspeakable symbol? He claimed the record label essentially owned the name 'prince' and used it to make money. He hates record labels. So to release the three albums worth of new material this year without a record label, Prince devised a plan. Start a website. It's an odd choice considering that Prince seems to hate the internet, too. He's one of the only artists who has essentially no music on youtube. He once tried to sue one of his fansites for illegal use images and junk.

But I guess his hatred of record labels trumps his hatred of the internet. He launched MPLSound.com a few months ago, featuring four new songs, but it was quickly pulled down. His new site, lotusflow3r.com, launched this week. For now, it features three new songs, including a rockin' version of the classic 'Crimson and Clover'

I wrote last month about my lack of interest in my old favorites new music. But Prince has a few things going for him. 1. His inadvertent viral marketing has the web buzzing. 2. The music is good. It seems that he's fine tuned his sound, with more guitar. 3. He's from Minneapolis, and is proud of it. The website features our skyline, and he has a song called MPLSound. Represent.

- Speaking of represent, how cool are these tee-shirts?


- Question: Is there any better movie-album-song trifecta than Purple Rain? Great movie, great album, great song.

- We've posted Prince doing While My Guitar Gently Weeps, his 1985 Purple Rain performance at the AMA's, and his awesome side project, The Family, whose song we used as the 'o8 Twins rally soundtrack.

But make sure you check out his SNL performance before they find it and remove it.

- I can imagine Prince as a mime. What shade of red would you describe his beret?


I can also imagine Prince as a television weatherman.