Note: The following posts were imported from my previous blogs.

Tree  #
Monday, 21 Apr 2003 10:43PM
Ooo, new T3 trailer is perty. And apparently Matrix 2 + 3 will be released to IMax. BIG and perty.

"Charges laid in MP3 case" (via Slashdot)... except the article never mentions MP3s only that "Police said the alleged piracy concerned music, album covers and music videos from Universal Music, Sony, Warner, BMG, EMI and Festival Mushroom Records"

Sounds to me like they were running organised piracy (selling) of CDrs with covers etc. ie. they should be caught and jailed.

Oops... more info here (smh). Three students running a website for people to trade MP3 and WMA files of albums etc.

Madonna put fake versions of her latest album on P2P networks to stop piracy. So someone hacked madonna.com and put the whole album up in MP3 on her official site. Suck. (via boingboing)

I thought my dad was the coolest dad in the world (he is!) but he never built me THIS! A treehouse in the shape of a giant Mech! (via boingboing.net)

Mech treehouse: Mech treehouse from http://www.wizkidsgames.com/mwdarkage/mw_article.asp?cid=36984&frame=news- (via boingboing)

EMI to sell their music online. You can burn the music to CD. Something fishy going on here. I do like the sound of these quotes though...

Under the EMI deal, consumers will be able to make permanent copies of songs and transfer them to recordable CDs, portable music players and their computer hard drives. Consumers can also purchase singles online once they hit radio airwaves.

However, EMI said more than 90 percent of its live catalog, including Lenny Kravitz, Janet Jackson and Coldplay, had signed up to the European deals.

If "live catalog" means live music I'm interested. If it means "the chunks of our catalog that we currently have on sale" then blah. I note they don't say how much. And how much of this will be backcatalog and b-sides and live tracks?

Back from my holiday in the mountains. Saw some fantastic sunsets. Will post photos if they look any good. Hungry...

Damn... it's almost May. At the end of June I'll be off the project I'm on now and into uncertainty. Could even be out of a job. Might actually have to get around to learning this .NET thing everyone's raving about. Or just get these damn demos done and get on with getting famous.

Accidently threw out my copies of Faith No More's videos "Another Body Murdered" and "Ricochet" in a frenzy of VHS destruction a few months ago. I was sure I'd kept them around somewhere but no... lucky for the internet. If only they'd put the bloody things on the "Who Cares A Lot" video collection with all the rest but I can see why they'd leave off Another Body if only to not have to pay Boo Yaa Tribe royalties AND whoever owns the rights to the shite movie it's on the soundtrack to (Judgement Night).

I have until the 28th off from work.


Apocalyptica - Reflections (a review of sorts)  #
Monday, 21 Apr 2003 12:17PM
Apocalyptica started as a Metallica cover band, their first album title says it all; "plays metallica by four cellos". It's raw. Just four cellos and barely any production. Covering Metallica favourites from Enter Sandman to Master Of Puppets they became cult favourites throughout Europe.

They branched out into other bands (Faith No More, Sepultura) on their second album, as well as debuting their first original track, Harmageddon. A little more production, some effects pedals and some overdubbing, Inquisition Symphony was much more polished.

The third album, "Cult", was the last album to shake off the cover tag, with only three covers (Metallica's Until It Sleeps and Fight Fire With Fire and the classic, Hall Of The Mountain King). It was also the album they tried out teaming up with vocalists with vocal mixed made of Path and Hope. Excellent production, added percussion (but very minimal), fantastic melodies and excellent metal riffs. "Cult" was the album I stopped seeing them as a novelty and started admiring the real band.

Then one of them left. From four to three...

The latest album, Reflections, includes Dave Lombardo, drummer from Slayer and Fantomas. On the first listen the drums are really distracting. One of the things I loved about this band was the different sounds they pulled out of their instruments and the fact that just four cellos managed to make a full sounding song without the need for drums... on Reflections in order to mix the drums in nicely, a lot of the interesting sound textures of the cellos have been mixed out.

If you didn't listen very hard you could almost think that Reflections was just drums, electric guitar and violin.

Which isn't so bad. At first I thought I liked "Cult" more than the new album, but on listening back to it, it now just sounds like "Reflections" without the drums. It sounds empty. Reflections continutes the tradition of excellent melodies and awesome riffs... but it's like they've jumped into a different zone. Before it was cool that they pulled excellent songs out of so few... now it sounds like they're missing something. The songs begin to sound like movie soundtracks, like something from "Kull the Conqueror", as only heavy "guitar" riffs and violin solos can sound.

Overall it's their best album but they're moving into dangerous territory. The band plans another vocal mix single in May.

And I'd never really noticed just how darn goth they are...


Meanwhile, this posted on the Ipecac (Mike Patton's latest record label) website about filesharing.

Can we drop the whole file sharing issue? As a label we do not support most of these sites for the fact that they ignore the artists, which we don't think is very cool. They do not care if an artist would like something removed or if a file is fake. The concept of file sharing is very cool. That is why we have a trading area on our site. Diehard fans can swap cool, rare music. As long as the artist is not getting exploited, we are all for it! As a matter of fact the releases that get leaked before they are released are always the bigger releases and it is a good sign that demand is high, not to mention it is good publicity. A percent of people will download and not buy, but that is a fact of life, and if we were not able to deal with that we should not be in this business. We always try to have nice packaging anyway. Another percent of people like to wait for the release day and don't want to hear about it til they get their hands on it. As always, if you don't like the fact that we are deleting links and discussion about downloading MIT GAS, instead of whining about censorship and annoying everyone, express your disdain by leaving our website. There might be a better place for you. Hell, start your own anti-ipecac site!!! Those of you that want it in advance can find it, those that don't can wait. In the meantime look for an album preview in the archives section!

Ooooh. MIT GAS is out there is it? I think I like their attitude.


Free  #
Monday, 21 Apr 2003 11:52AM
Would radio ever have gotten as popular as it is (was) without it being completely free (ignoring the cost of the radio)? Would TV ever have gotten as huge as it is now without it being completely free (ignoring the cost of the TV)? How popular would the internet be if it was free (say, wireless provided by advertising) from the beginning (ie. no connection fees)?

I had a dream last night that the Photos of Being were doing a gig tonight. Molly Meldrum was on some try-hard video show on the TV announcing the gig. As far as I know PoB are still doing their EP...