Thursday, October 03, 2002

• Snoop Dogg Is Cut From Muppet Movie
  What a shock. The good folks at the Muppets say it was because of time constraints, but conspiracy theorists (and those with a lick of common sense) suspect that Snoop's gnagsta-rap past and forays into pornography may have something to do with it.
  
  
• MTV Stages Seattle/Cape Town Gigs for AIDS Day
  On Dec. 1, MTV will stage and broadcast concerts in Cape Town, South Africa and Seattle, Washigton to mark World AIDS Day. Alicia Keys will play in Cape town, while the dynamic duo of Missy Elliott and Dave Matthews (together at last!) will perform in Seattle. Alica Keys' performance wil actually take place on Nov. 23, while Missy & Dave will actually perform on Nov. 7. The performances will then be edited into a show that will be broadcast without commercials.
  
  
• Jewel's Illegal Downloading Dilemma
  "It's really convenient, and I think people need to figure out how to either monitor it and make money off the Internet, or other, more productive things--figure out software to help control it..."I shouldn't say this, but I think it's silly to spend money on an ad campaign because kids are going to do what's convenient, and it's the wave of the future.
  
  
• Dylan Finalizes 'Rolling Thunder' Bootleg Tracklist
  Continuing his "give-the-bootleggers-what-they-want" series of live-and-rarities releases, Bob Dylan has finalized a track listing for Bootleg Series, Vol. 5 -- Bob Dylan Live 1975: the Rolling Thunder Revue album, which captures Dylan and an expanded band of collaborators during performances in Boston, Cambridge and Worcester, Mass., and Montreal in the months prior to the release of Dylan's Desire album. The CDs will feature 21 songs (including "Just Like a Woman," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "It Ain't Me Babe"), while an accompanying DVD will add the bonus songs "Tangled up in Blue" and "Isis" from Dylan's "Renaldo & Clara" film, which was completed in the same period. The entire set was mixed by Michael Brauer, and the songs from the DVD were remixed in 5.1 surround sound.
  
  
• Interview with Pat Smear
  If you're a Nirvana fan, you should check out this interview with later-day guitarist Pat Smear. Not a whole lot is revealed that wasn't know before, but it always is interesting to get an insider's perspective.
  

posted by Randy on 11:27 AM | permanent link to this entry

Wednesday, October 02, 2002

Happy Rocktober Everyone!!!!

DJ MC Hesher News: My next gig will be at "3: Art, DJ & Live Music" @ Club Galia in San Francisco on Oct. 8, 2002. I'll be spinning funk, soul & hip-hop from 6 - 8 pm, between bands and then from 11- Midnight. Come on out if you can!

• Music Labels' Latest Anti-Piracy Trick: Free Tunes
  For one week beginning Thursday, music fans in Europe will be able to download, stream or burn onto their hard drives a selection of tracks from 6,000 artists including ColdPlay, Dido and Elvis Presley. Consumers who register on one of the six participating sites, including www.msn.co.uk, www.tiscali.co.uk and www.hmv.co.uk, will get $7.90 worth of digital music to sample or burn. Afer that, it will cost ya'. Were geting so close to a downlaoding music servie that works, it is important to support these baby steps while keeping up the pressure to do better. If you can, take advantge of the offer and get your tunes!
  
  
• Bill To Delay Net Radio Fees Pulled
  The bad news is that The House of Representatives canceled a vote on Tuesday that would have postponed royalty payments for Internet radio broadcasts. The presumably good news is that both sides wanted the bill puleld because they a re close to striking a bargain of their own without getting congress involved. A lobbyist for a performing artists' union said the deal could set a separate rate structure for smaller mom-and-pop Webcasters, or could cover large players like Clear Channel Communications as well. This L.A. Times article better explains the stakes involved and where the parties currently stand.
  
  
• DataPlay Poised To Close Doors
  DataPlay, a company attempting to replace CDs as the music format of choice, has missed its announced release date and appears unlikely to survive. The company had raised $119 million in three rounds of funding since May 1999-- all for nothing, it seems. That's a lot of money for vapor ware. Basically, it seems that IPod and larger hard drive MP3 player killed 'em-- DataPlaydiscs only hold 500 MB of music, while you can get 5, 10 and 20 Gigs worth of music with newer MP3 Players. Sure, Datpaly offered pics and videos and stuff-- but you needed their special equipment to play the discs.
  
  
• Robbie Williams Signs $125 Million EMI Deal
  Someone at EMI-- or I guess a lot of someones-- is on crack. I highly highly doubt Robbie Williams will make that much money (and more) back for them. They are seriously out of their minds.
  
  
• Filter Singer Checks Into Rehab
  Get well soon, Richard Patrick! No word on what he's addicted to, though.
  
  
• Drowning Pool Decides To Carry On, Will Search For A New Singer
  Good for them for getting on with their lives and their passion for music. That's the official Rocktober.com stance.
  
  
• Lawmakers Pressure Music Biz on Lyrics
  What? There's an election coming up? All ready? Geeze, time flies. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) chairman/CEO Hilary Rosen took the time to take another shot at file sharing-- this time claiming that it underminds the indutry's Parental Advisory program.
  
  
• Napster Founder Fanning Takes Life Story To MTV
  The cable network has hired filmmaker Alex Winter ("Fever") to write and direct a small-screen biopic for MTV Original Movies that will dramatize Shawn Fanning's life. The deal with MTV gives the network exclusive rights to Fanning's life story. The Napster founder and former chief technology officer is collaborating with Winter on the screenplay, and he also plans to executive produce the telepic along with its soundtrack, which will be released through his forthcoming, yet-unnamed record label, sources said. No word yet on who may star-- Fanning may even play himself. For more on what Fanning is up to these days and how is is feeling about the music industry and file trading, peep this Wall Street Journal interview.
  
  
• New Bills Aiim To Protect Consumers' Use Of Digital Media
  Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, plans today to introduce the ``Digital Choice and Freedom Act,'' Silicon Valley's response to a host of Hollywood-backed bills tilted in favor of copyright holders. Lofgren's bill would ensure consumers can copy CDs, DVDs and other digital works for personal use, just as they now do with TV shows and audio tapes. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., plans to introduce similar legislation Thursday. Please contact your representatives and let them know that these bills need their support.
  

posted by Randy on 12:23 PM | permanent link to this entry

Tuesday, October 01, 2002

Happy Rocktober Everyone!!!!

DJ MC Hesher News: My next gig will be at "3: Art, DJ & Live Music" @ Club Galia in San Francisco on Oct. 8, 2002. I'll be spinning funk, soul & hip-hop from 6 - 8 pm, between bands and then from 11- Midnight. Come on out if you can!


• Young Band, Derailed Dream
  Lord knows why this story was important enough for The New York Times, but it still is a pretty interesting read. Linkin Park sound-a-likes Dry Cell, under the A&R at Warner Bros. by Jeff Blue, who "discovered" Linkin Park, was dropped from the label...for sounding too much like Linkin Park. Well, that and the usual pain-in-the-ass-personality-conflicts that seem to plauge rock bands and the labels that fund them. Also, involving family in your career is never a good idea. Business is business. Family is family. The two don't mix.
  
  
• Cos. to Settle CD Price-Fixing Suit
  Five of the largest U.S. distributors of pre-recorded music CDs and three large retailers agreed to pay millions of dollars in cash and free CDs as part of an agreement on price-fixing allegations. This may look like a huge settlemeant, but what it actually rquals is consumers may get coupons for a bit off the purchase of their next CD and your local library will be well stocked with crappy CDs that the labels can't otherwise give away. Still, it's good to see the labels getting what they had coming to them. This Billboard story best describes the terms of the settlement
  
  
• Stars' Home Movies to See Daylight
  Bob Dylan fans may want to click on over to 1966tourhomemovies.com to order a video tape/DVD of color "home movies" taken by drummer Mickey Jones during Dylan's 1966 world tour. All never-before-seen stuff.
  
  
• Mann, Barenaked Ladies To Rock 'West Wing'
  Aimee Mann and Barenaked Ladies will appear on the Oc.2 episode of "The West Wing." The episode will revolve around a Rock The Vote concert. Why are notorious Canadians like the Barenaked Ladies playing a Rock The Vote concert? Maybe on "The West Wing" Canada has become the 51st state.
  
  
• 20 Questions With MTV'S Iann Robinson
  He seems like a nice guy with his metal heart in the right place (Iron Maiden over Judas Priest everytime, you sukkas!), but he just disses too many people in this interview to be able to keep his job on MTV. Look for a retraction or a firing Real Soon Now.
  
  
• Radio Killed The Radio Star
  Sad Salon report from the September convention of the National Association of Broadcasters in Seattle. Radio sucks, they don't realize it and even if they did they wouldn't want to do anything to change it. *Sigh*
  

posted by Randy on 11:30 AM | permanent link to this entry

Monday, September 30, 2002

• Liquid Audio Unloads Its Download Technology
  Infamous ignore-market-forces-and-hope-for-the-best internet audio company Liquid Audio is selling their Digital Rights Management technology to Microsoft for $7 million in cash, which now opens the door for their proposed merger with Alliance Entertainment-- the good people behind the All Music Guide.
  
  
• Police: Tritt's Life Threatened
  So, in the course of trying to have his ex-wife killed (or her legs broken), Parley Drew Hardman asked a hitman (who was wearing a wire) if he could also knock-off Travis Tritt. Apparently, Travis had done a friend of Hardman wrong sometime in the past. The hitman said it would cost $20,00 to come up with the cash, and Hardman said he'd need a couple months to come up with the money. Now that he's facing some serious charges, it might take him a little bit longer than that.
  
  
• Joan Jett Rocks Afghanistan
  Don' Ask, Don't Tell, Rock Hard. Joan Jett performed last week for U.S. troops in Bagram and Kandahar, Afghanistan. And she closed with "Everyday People," at that.
  
  
• Prince Suing Internet Site
  Prince is doing the right thing by going after bootleggers-- except in this case the web site he's after only privided links to to other sites with bootlegged stuff on it. Ooops.
  
  
• Phil Collins To Give Up Touring
  Apparently he's lost a lot of hearing in his left ear, which makes playing live rock n' roll a painful experience. As a former huge Genesis fan (old school, sukka!), I am saddened to hear this, but as sone one who hates his career after No Jacket Required (and even that one is kind of iffy) I am glad to se Collins getting off the road.
  

posted by Randy on 11:45 AM | permanent link to this entry