Recording industry group’s strange Barenaked bedfellows

Have the Barenaked Ladies and the Recording Industry Association of America buried the hatchet? It sure seems so after Friday night’s RIAA holiday party at Platinum Nightclub, which starred none other than the whimsical Canadian pop-rock band themselves.

Earlier this year, the band, along with other Canadian artists, formed the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, partly in opposition to the RIAA and its resistance to file-sharing among fans. The band has also released a spate of new tracks on its Web site that fans can easily share and even remix themselves.

One source who is well connected in the entertainment industry said he was “shocked” that the Barenaked Ladies were the choice to play the party. “They’re very pro-[file] sharing,” he said, adding that the band’s manager “has no love for the RIAA.”

Multiple calls and e-mails to RIAA representatives regarding how the fences were mended went unreturned, but the band sure was having fun with it.

“They made a lot of jokes about it,” one partygoer said. “In particular, a woman was holding up her cell phone, and when asked by the band why, she said it was her sister. They laughed and told her to hit record and get it on Limewire as fast as possible.” Limewire is one of the many file-sharing services that gives RIAA fits.

“They also did a rap about the party, including the chorus ‘Christmas is coming soon, but it’s Hanukkah today, and we’re rocking out for the R-I-double-A.’

They also made a crack about ‘a three-beer limit imposed by Zune’ — a reference to the music player’s rules on how many devices you can copy a song on to.”

It might do the RIAA good to make nice with the Ladies (who are all men, by the way), given their evident popularity. Sources say the event drew about 1,600 RSVPs, many of whom packed themselves in like sardines. Several would-be showgoers simply gave up standing shoulder to shoulder and made for one of the many neighborhood bars.

Business book benefits Boehner

Sometimes in life and business, outgoing employees are tempted to recommend a replacement with fewer qualifications than themselves, if only to make their work look better in retrospect and make the organization long for the golden days of their leadership.

Capitol Hill is no exception. But Kevin Madden, the former spokesman for soon-to-be-ex-Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who recently left to join Mitt Romney’s potential 2008 presidential run, tried a different approach when nominating his replacement in Boehner’s office. And a book on business leadership proved especially helpful.

In late November, Madden was far along in his reading of Jim Collins’ “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don’t.” The book explores why great organizations succeed and how they sustain their success. Madden was particularly struck by a passage from the “Level 5 Leadership” chapter that encourages individuals to suggest a replacement who is at least as qualified, if not superior, to themselves.

Madden saw that “equal-if-not-better” replacement in Brian Kennedy, communications director for the House Resources Committee. “Brian Kennedy is a true professional who will be a great asset to Mr. Boehner, the leadership office and their mission,” Madden told Yeas & Nays. “Boehnerland is in great hands.”

Hagel’s able to babble

On Wednesday night, Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., were honored by the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign for being “two champions of the International Affairs Budget.”

But Hagel pained the campaign by delivering remarks so long they became the butt of the evening’s jokes.

Hagel droned on and on for about 25 minutes, which probably wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the fact that the audience had to wait until he wrapped up for their dinners to be served. The audience grew hungry and tired of the long-winded speech and when Hagel finally said “As I wrap this up,” one audience member mumbled, “Oh God, thank you.”

The only one who benefited from Hagel’s longevity, however, was Sarbanes, who used the occasion to poke fun at Hagel.

Sarbanes got the biggest laugh and applause of the evening when he opened with, “Because I came late, I only caught the tail end of Hagel’s opening remarks.”

Chelsea’s ex finds success in Nashville

Both Chelsea Clinton and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sure know how to pick the overachiever out of the crowd.

Jeremy Kane, who wrote speeches for the senator and dated Chelsea when the two attended Stanford together, has just received official approval for the charter school he’s founding in Nashville, Tenn. He’s only 27.

In an e-mail to supporters last week, Kane wrote that thanks to the unanimous vote of the Metro Nashville School Board, the LEAD Academy “is no longer a dream. It’s now a school! One that will open with 200 students in just over seven months and still needs a building, teachers, books, desks.”

Kane is now married to Tracy Dry Kane, a law student at Vanderbilt whom he met in Washington.

He’s “arguably doing more good for the world than Kerry himself right now,” said our source.

Media Mix

D.C. United’s Bobby Boswell was named the 2006 Defender of the Year in Major League Soccer. The 23-year-old Texas native now is looking forward to another tryout with the U.S. National Team. We caught up with him via e-mail in Guam, where he was teaching soccer to kids on the U.S. military base as part of a two-week tour.

Q: What book are you reading right now?

“Life: The Odds: And How to Improve Them,” by Gregory Baer

Q: What's the first Web site you check in the morning?

Peruse.com (though he notes that Katherine Kennedy, who owns the site, “is paying me to say that”)

Q: What’s the last movie you saw?

“Reservoir Dogs”

Q: What’s your favorite TV show?

“Guts,” I was a contestant when I was 12

Q: What are you listening to right now?

Citizen Cope

Oops

Friday’s Yeas & Nays column stated that Red Cross Chair Bonnie McElveen-Hunter danced at the White House Summit on Malaria. It actually was her mother, Madeline McElveen, who got up and danced during the performance of vocalist Yvonne Chaka Chaka.