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

bug snot  #
Friday, 20 Jun 2003 09:30AM
"Download. Burn. Share. Kick Ass." Argh. Oooh. Just checked out the Metallica Vaults thing you get access to when you spend your hard earned $22 on the new CD. After struggling through the rubbish registration required that assumed I was in the US and required me to enter my phone number and address, I finally got in. The concept is nice... I wholly approve of bands giving away their gigs online. All are 128kbps MP3, all appear to whole concerts (although they appear a little short), one from 94 (Black era), one from 94 (Load) and one from 98 (Reload). Each gig is spread over three pages with Next / Prev buttons and all are links which must be clicked popping up an annoying little window which then has the link to the MP3. User friend disaster. Anyway, Metallica don't record very well live because they don't play very well live...

Although if by "share" they're happy for these songs available in the vault to be Kaaza'd why hide them behind some lame rego and cd-key system? And why make them so damn annoying to download?

Watched the "live" DVD that comes with St. Anger too. Not all of it, a few songs. St. Anger sounds better live. James voice doesn't. It's funny though... they've finally put out an album they can play live and not sound shitter than.

It's a step in the right direction. New Powderfinger single available on mp3.wiredrecords.com for $2. Includes a b-side (there are three b-sides on the $5 real CD single) and a "multimedia package" which is bound to be as lame as that found on the CD. It seems that WiredRecords now allows (a limited number of) CD burns. Which is good. And the Regurgitator singles are now only $6, which is still too much but they're not really available anywhere except sweaty record-fairs so make you're own choise.

Rocknerd on the new Metallica album. "It's utter unmitigated donkeybollocks. End of story."

Bob Rock explains why the new Metallica album's production is complete crap (again @ Rocknerd, full article at MTV.

No other contemporary chart-topping rock album sounds remotely like Metallica's St. Anger. Never mind the whirlwind tempos, multiple rhythm changes and seven-minute songs. What's really unusual are the lo-fi tones and unconventional constructions.

"Technically, you'll hear cymbals go away and you'll hear bad edits. We wanted to disregard what everybody assumes records should be and throw out all the rules. I've spent 25 years learning how to do it the so-called right way. I didn't want to do that anymore."

I think this is why the album has an appeal to me. It's complete and utter rubbish when it's sold to you as a studio album. It's like finally a band has deliberately put out an album that is deliberately crap and we've all bought it. It's like po-moe art or something. If this were a bootleg studio recording leaked to the net would the fans have loved it assuming that later it would be turned into a proper studio album? No... most of the songs are still crap, but bits of them are good. Maybe someone should do a St. Anger cover album where they re-record all the songs properly and cut them down to 3 minutes and sing properly on them?


So good to fix (or work out how to fix) a bug 10 minutes after waking up while in the shower then have to remember the fix the whole way to work while in zombie mode. mmm zombie mode.

Blue-Ray DVDs are still on the way. One day.

I love the My Melbourne section of The Age website. Photos sent in by readers of Melbourne. These latest few are excellent. I sent my photo of the Melbourne lights at night but you can't see the CBD so I guess they don't like it. I don't think I said anything interesting about it either. Blah.

Alex took a photo of "The Safe", that chunk 'o art in the middle of a Melbourne back-alley (just down from Gaylord's Indian resturant, off Little Burke Street). There is more of this wacky back-alley art around but this is the most photogenic. I've heard people say it was a waste of money but the guy that invented this art could be out stabbing people in the head (or cutting off the heads of corpses) so I say go for it. (corpse link via acb, ain't he a happy fellow).