Friday: Hi, I’m Back, and It’s Music News Day

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  • Bay Area trio Green Day is finally ready to hit the studio to work on the follow-up to 2004’s American Idiot. The band released a statement on their website saying they wouldn’t be repeating any of the angry themes established on that decidedly political album, which makes sense because everything’s totally fine now.

  • Jay-Z may be splitting from his label Def Jam after allegedly demanding “big, big money” that Def Jam bigwigs found “excessive.” The rapper’s contract is set to expire at the end of the month, and the article helpfully points out that instead of working on his negotiating skills, he was celebrating his 38th birthday… in Paris. No wonder he needs more cash.

  • Brit combo Manic Street Preachers are accusing Radiohead of “demeaning” music by allowing fans to decide how much to pay for their new album, In Rainbows. This is a band right up there with Robbie Williams on the list of Bands Most Successful In Europe That Nobody In the US Has Ever Heard Of. Anyway, their bassist Nicky Wire spoke to UK newspaper the Daily Star, saying the free download phenomenon is “ruining” the music industry.

  • Can’t get enough of Benny, Bjorn, Anni and Agnetha? Well, starting in 2009 you’ll be able to take a chance (ahem!) on the Abba museum in Stockholm, a three-floor complex dedicated to the Swedish legends. The complex will include a room dedicated to the band’s fashions as well as a recreation of their recording studio. Hey, let’s watch an Abba video.

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    WE'LL BE BLUNT

    It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

    The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

    Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

    The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

    Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

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    Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

    If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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