Picked up the new 3 Doors Down CD this week. Strong effort. If you liked the first CD, give it a grab. If you hated the first CD, it’s more of the same, so don’t pick it up.
President Bush… Michigan… the guy just doesn’t seem to do anything wrong.
The weigh in was completed yesterday. I have dropped all the way down to 234. 3 pounds in two weeks. Off to a smashing start. And no, I’m not being a dick… 1 or 2 pounds a week for the first 5 weeks was the plan. Tried to kick up the time spent on high-resistance on the Elliptical today… damn near puked. I think the machine is out to get me.
Also, why is it IBM executives find it necessary to watch the news when working out? There is one TV in my little gym and when I get there late, they are ALWAYS watching MSNBC or something. Does life get so boring in your 40s that all that exists is the news… and it’s the same goddam news stories, over and over again. It’s so goddam boring. Anyone who watches the news in the gym should be punched.
More Recording Industry Nonsense
A top music executive announced on Saturday that it is high time for ISP to start paying up for the access they give their users to online file-sharing sites. Since the music industry have failed to shut down the sites, because of overseas hosting, lack of a central server, and their abject fear of prosecuting single users, they have one more target… Service Providers.
For those non-techies out there, an ISP is an Internet Service Provider… it’s your AOL or your Roadrunner, or whatever you use to get to this here 411 site.
Hitlery (thanks Eric) Rosen sez: We will hold ISP’s more accountable because, let’s face it, they know there’s a lot of demand for broadband simply because of the availability of [file-sharing].
Rosen suggests one possible option is imposing a fee on ISPs that could be passed onto their customers that frequent these sites… which ISPs immediately turned around and said it would be impossible to enforce.
There’s two reasons broadband providers will fight this all the way to court:
1) As soon as they impose a “file-sharing†cost to their bill, people will be off their service faster than you can say “download.â€
2) As soon as they admit they can and ARE monitoring the sites you are visiting, how long you’re there, and what you are doing, people will be off their service faster than you can say “bestiality midget porn.â€
If the gestappo that is the music industry presses this to court, I have to think they will lose. ISPs will argue that they are no more responsible for their user’s actions than a gun manufacturer is if their weapon is used to kill someone. They are offering a service, and it’s not their business what goes on under that service.
Which, eventually will leave the RIAA with no other options than trying to sue individual users… which ALSO means they’d have to 1) get personal info from the service itself or 2) get personal info from the ISP… both if which is and SHOULD BE privileged info. The PR nightmare that will ensue when the RIAA starts trying to sue Joe Commoner that makes $35,000/year for their online song-swapping will be fun to watch… especially since anyone who knows what their doing will be burning CDs and typing “Format C:\†quicker than you can say “Fuck you, Hitlery.â€
[Daniels Note: Do not try typing Format C:\ just to see what it will do]
A very good satire piece can be found here based on this article. Should we sue people who make roads if we get robbed? Basically, roads facilitate get-aways… as do cars… so every time a person is robbed on the road, then the road-builder and the car manufactueres are responsible.
I found an Open Letter To Pirates I actually started to comment on this before I realized it was also (and I hope it is) a satire, but it’s worth a read.
Fear the Recording Industry, Folks. They are right and you are wrong.
And Now Micro$oft is on their side
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an anti-Microsoft nut. Granted, I think their business practices stink, and their OS stability kinda sucks, but I hold no ill will toward anything they’ve done. They marked the best, they were first, and they strangle the market. Nevermind that Linux or Unix servers can be on for a year (The Red Hat server here at work just passed it’s 1 year anniversary of being on) but they managed to convince people it was “normal†to have to reboot once a day and browser crashes and blue screens were just a part of life.
Regardless, they have joined the recording industry with their own fray into the anti-piracy/anti-copying fight.
Many new CDs that are coming out, come out with a new proprietary layer in the CD that prevents them from being played on CDs. Basically, they put garbage data tracks on the outskirts of the CDs. A computer, by default, tries to read the non-music portion of the CD before the music portion, so it confuses the computer (and probably crashes it). Of course, it’s beside the point that this also confuses some NORMAL playback devices too… and I wouldn’t swear to it, but I’m pretty sure you can configure a CD-ROM to read the music first, but that’s neither here nor there. Also, some folks found out last year that covering the garbage tracks with a well placed sharpie completely confounds the protections. Techie’s rule… they own your life.
Anyway, Microsoft has now introduced the Windows Media Data Session Toolkit. The idea is to have different layers on one cd, a music layer and a data layer. I’m not going to pretend to understand it, because I’ve only read one article, but it basically is another way to try to prevent you from LEGALLY making a copy of a CD YOU bought. For the uninformed… COPYING a CD you own is not illegal… and all this proprietary software preventing you from doing so should bother you.
Of course, the Recording Industry is now taking anti-piracy advice from a corporation who has yet to successfully stop the piracy of their own system. And, as with anything Microsoft, the technology will not be perfect and will be easily exploitable. As soon as the Microsoft moniker is on something, Linux nuts will have it cracked within a week.
However, as I said, this is all counter to the fact that it actually isn’t Illegal for you to take a bunch of CDs that you own, extract songs, and burn them onto another CD. Much like it’s not illegal to record something off the television for personal use. But, because you have the option of copying CDs to your hard drive, and then making a playlist… which you MIGHT put online for others to listen to, they want to stop you… even though you may never have swapped a file once in your life. You MIGHT. That’s why it’s wrong folks, and that’s why, if you let it, it will affect you every day for the rest of your lives.
Full Super Bowl Line Up
I’ve seen a lot of various reports of who’s playing at the SuperBowl, so I thought I’d give a line up of who is actually there and what they are doing. Because, as you all know, it wouldn’t be the bowl without garbage entertainment like Ja Rule and Ashanti!
Night Before: Eve and the Goo Goo Dolls. These two performers won’t actually be performing on the show… they are presenting a concert the night before. So, while we won’t get the thousandth rendition of Name or Iris, we also won’t get the millionth rendition of Let Me Blow Ya Mind. Drat, I’ll miss that.
Pre Game: Celine Dion, STYX, Carlos Santana, Michelle Branch, Beyoncee Knowles. Celine is singing “America the Beautiful.†Santana, Michelle Branch, and Beyoncee are singing The Game of Love… and STYX is doing… something. Performing Show me the Way maybe? Also involved in the Post game show is Bon Jovi, and DJ Skribble (who?) will be keeping folks entertained outside the building.
National Anthem: The Dixie Chicks. Eh, who the blue f*ck cares? In the Dixie Chicks, I mean, not the National Anthem.
The Coin Toss: The 1972 Miami Dolphin Hall of Famers. I often wonder if anyone will do this again… then again, people thought McGuire’s record was unbreakable, too. For those of y’all who don’t know, the 1972 Dolphins had an undefeated season from Game 1 all the way to the Superbowl.
Halftime: Shania Twain and No Doubt. Just when you thought Gwen couldn’t whore herself out anymore to people outside the Ska Genre, she goes and hits up country, too. Thank GOD I’m not a No Doubt fan. It’s funny when you watch the new video and you just SEE the guys from the band thinking about how much they suck now. It’s sad.
For details check out Superbowl.com.
Lennon/Jagger Duet Found?
Yes, says Tom Fisher, a record collector from London. He bought an unmarked record from another collector and, upon listening, he was convinced it was Jagger on lyrics singing an old blues song with John Lennon. An auction house says Lennon is part of the backup band.
According to collectors and Yahoo!, it was recorded during Lennon’s so-called “Lost Weekend,” an 18-month period he spent in 1974-75 estranged from wife Yoko Ono when he made few recordings of his own, but dabbled occasionally with such rocker friends as Elton John and David Bowie
Personally, I’ll believe it when it’s confirmed. The collector admits there’s no lyrical (John Singing, that is) proof of Lennon’s voice in the song. Guess what? If I play Imagine on a $50 used guitar, it can sound like Lennon… cuz the Beatles didn’t exactly play the most difficult guitar riffs in the world. But, if it does prove to be real, expect it to fetch a huge amount of money at auction.
Ginger Spice’s New Offering
Yep, they’re putting out ANOTHER album from Geri Halliwell.
They are safe… I will download NOTHING from that album.
New Stuff
The Deftones are promising a new album in May. IE: They are promising another 10 track CD with 2 good songs. Stay tuned.
Staind has an actual release date for the follow-up to Break The Cycle which shed them of the heavy-metal genre and showed off some of Aaron Lewis’s song-writing skills. Unfortunately, it also showed them as not a kick-ass metal band and more a softer chick band In fairness, I think Lewis just writes what’s in his head, and doesn’t try to live up to anyone’s expectations. Then again, I can’t tell how much of Aaron Lewis is a gimmick and how much of it is for real. Look for it on 5/6/03.
Then again, I’ve had Lewis pegged as the next major music star to commit suicide since early last year.
Coming out this week
Not a goddam thing of interest. A new release by R. Kelly. Yeah, that’ll tear up the Billboard.
Tour News
Avril Levine will be sure to sellout the major venues across North America. Click Here to see if she will grace YOU with her presence.
While Tori Amos will be lucky to sell out a 2000 seat theater in Albany. Justice in the world? I think not. Click Here for Tori’s dates.
Tori hasn’t been nearly as angry since she had a kid. I personally have to disagree with 411’s review of Tori’s new CD, as I thought it was just fine. Different, but fine.
Just When I Started To Get Into Him
The Dave Matthews Band has issued a decree banning all audio and video streams from any Internet sites, taking down massive servers that have been hosting their stuff for all to listen to.
The funny thing is, I had found a DMB concert site about a month ago and was finally, after 10 years of resistance, starting to dig on his stuff a little bit… primarily Grey Street, The Stone, Two Step, and a couple others got my attention. I also had a lot of respect for a band who realized “f*ck, we’re selling 1.5 MILLION tickets a year and more CDs than we even know we made, let them listen to streaming shows.†Alas, no… the band and their management requested they all be shut down.
So, very soon, look for the folks who were smart and actually saved shows to their hard drive start to sell them on Ebay for $20/copy.
The spin the band is putting on the site is “any method of trading that doesn’t involve personal fan interaction defeats the spirit and goal of the taping policy and is not authorized.†Almost immediately, archive.org took down their extensive list of shows for streaming listening or downloading.
Well, they lost one burgeoning fan. Not a big deal in a world where they sell out football stadiums, but one, nonetheless.
Welcome to the world of corporate music, Dave… they were waitin for ya.
In Other Reading
Biscuiti Waxes Philisophical on Maurice Gibb.
Rhett Walker discovers what I did after an anti-Nirvana spiel. Most people who read the site have taste and realize how blown out of proportion the band is… which means 97% of the world’s munchkins still go to Rolling Stone or Billboard. He discussess KISS. Thank God for the rock columnists.
Cody and I have broken each other in. The pic this week is of J’Lo looking for Ben’s balls. God knows she must hide them somewhere.
New Reviews of The Vines and Dave Edmunds.
And a quick note to all 411music columnists… when you’re doing your own links… don’t put in “ “. If you’re wondering what’s screwing your links up, that’s the culprit. Friendly advice from your neighborhood web dude.
In Closing
Pretty weak week as releases go… I wouldn’t recommend anything. Then again, if anyone important in the recording industry is reading this, they can feel free to send me free shit and I will review it and plug it for you… if it’s worth it. Yes, this is me whoring myself out to the highest bidder, but isn’t that what the Recording Industry is all about?
I think it is.
The Loop of 5 and I’ll be back next week.
