So what do I really want?
Music news
So what's been happening while I've been sick?
"MP3.com" reports that the open source sound compression format people 'Ogg Vorbis' are still alive dispite being pointless. They're trying to create a format that sounds as good as MP3 without prohibitive licence fees. Haven't they heard of LAME (which now contains now licensed code)?
Bandname.com's news section points me to this article arguing that RIAA's internet revenue collection facility 'SoundExchange' could cause problems in the future. 'According to John Simson, SoundExchange's executive director, labels will not recoup the artists' webcast royalties against outstanding advances during a "trial" period of 3-5 years.' OK, then what? And add to that the %20 admin fee they're charging compared to a once off $10 for artists using ASCAP.
Pre_Shrunk
Played a set at Eltham Fruitbowl in Melbourne on Saturday. All I've heard about the gig is that 'it was good' and that they played the original version of 'Soundpimp' (ie. not the new 'dance' version). I missed it because I was on another planet with the flu monkies. They make nice soup.
Napster?
Does anyone else think it's strange that Napster is still up and running even though they've signed a deal with a major record company? Why havn't they done a Scour and shut down while they 'think about it'? Interesting...
Rage Against The Machine vs. Napster
RATM fans who downloaded the bands latest album of covers off Napster we apparently kicked off the service recently. RATM knew nothing of the kickings and are reported to have said if people want to listen to the album digitally, that's up them but obviously they're prefer you to buy the album. They're apparently looking into getting the people unbanned.
Unfortunately I can't find any reference to this on the net. I heard it on Triple J this morning.
Top 10 - Oils
I'm listening to Midnight Oil's "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1" at the moment. I heard the first half in the car on the way to work, and the second half on the way home. On the way to work I was positive it was going to be in the top 10, now I'm not so sure. The first half+ is brilliant, but it loses it a bit toward the end.
It isn't just the singles, "US Forces" and "Power and the Passion", it's the entire first 7 tracks that grabbed me. "Outside World" with it's strange Underworldian music, the awesome rocking "Only The Strong" straight into "Short Memory" followed by the crunching starting riff of "Read About It". "Scream In Blue" begins with one of the coolest random piano stab vs. guitar riff jams I've heard and then suddenly, at about 2mins 30, changes into a balard. I'd almost say it was deliberate to keep the song off the Top 40 radio stations. Follow that with the two huge singles "US Forces" and "Power and the Passion" and you may as well end the album there...
Except they don't. The very average "Maralinga" follows. It does nothing for me, I shudder from it. It is negatively charged, while I am positive.
This is almost saved by "Tin Legs and Tin Mines" but they just play it so much better these days, the mix/version on their latest live unplugged album 'The Real Thing' a huge improvement. The album ends on "Somebody's Trying To Tell Me Something" a great song with a catchy chorus, but it ends with a cheezy ringout of the last vocal note... it just grates on me...
But then the CD loops back to "Outside World" and I can almost forgive...
Almost.