Seedy CD's
Last night at the listening party organized to comb through the basic tracks just recorded by the Anchormen, Dave coined a new phrase to describe the watered-down white-boy funk coming out of the Berklee School of Music: B-Funk. B-Funk is short for Berklee-Funk but also indicates that it's of a lesser grade. Berklee has long been the home of an entire crew of people studying, practicing, performing, and promoting stilted, watered-down music. We can thank Berklee in part for fusion and smooth jazz. As well as, perhaps, Scientology's hold on many musicians active in those subgenres.

Now it seems that the school's reach into the music industry is getting even longer. A senior practicum called Heavy Rotation is one of only three college-level courses in the US that exposes students to every aspect of record company operations and breeds a bunch of A&R types and publicists. Just what the music industry needs more of.

Now the class's homegrown label has partnered with Epic Records to release a joint CD next week -- the first CD released by a major label and a college label, supposedly. "The album is a genuinely eclectic collection," says Joan Anderman in the Globe, including folk-rock, dance-pop, heavy metal, and trip-hop.

And, I'm sure, B-Funk.