Tuesday’s Bemusing Music News Day

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  • The Kinks’ Dave Davies is denying rumors that the band may reunite; his brother and ex-bandmate Ray had told the press that the band members were considering “getting back together.” Dave told NME that he and Ray “haven’t even spoken in over 6 months… a tour hasn’t even been discussed.” Dave suffered a stroke four years ago but has continued a solo career.

  • Rappers Lupe Fiasco and Rhymefest are exchanging a war of words over support for Barack Obama, and of course it’s all on their MySpace blogs. Fiasco told hip-hop news site SOHH.com that Obama “doesn’t impress me” because of “his agendas the bombing of Iran and all that stuff.” When confronted by Fest, Fiasco expressed cynicism about the democratic process: “I have no faith in it.”

  • The former Jamaica Broadcasting Corp seems to have lost a “massive collection” of 1970s music, including original recordings by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh as well as videos of historic concerts and events. The archive was apparently stolen, with a former program manager for the JBC calling the theft a “national disgrace.”

  • Eminem was in the hospital over the holidays due to complications from pneumonia. Huh?
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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.

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