videos

from Harvest Of Hope festival are up! On youtube, that is.

Clicky

Remember watch in high quality, and it's a playlist, so it'll play the next one automatically.

about...

Last.fm today. Reading around their blog, and came up with this. It's still a demo and has some bugs, but listening to your music by tags and not by artists is an awesome idea. I've been using it and I'm pretty happy with it, especially since it's my own library. Made me an electronic/psychedelic mixed with some Canadian music and female vocalists, and it's been fucking awesome. Deerhunter, Apostle of Hustle, Yeasayer, Frou Frou, Handsome Furs, etc. Playlists I couldn't come up with by myself.

Another one of Last.fm's blog posts here. Apparently Techcrunch, which is a retarded enough site by itself, posted some false (and rather malicious) rumors about Last.fm. I read about it, was disgusted, and visited the Techcrunch article, and was even more disgusted. The author seems bent on not retracting or apologizing for anything, despite the rumor being debunked just about everywhere, even by the RIAA. So yeah I don't think Techcrunch is a very reputable site, avoid it if you ever feel a need for news on the internet.

wow

Haven't posted in over a month. Just went to Harvest Of Hope fest last weekend, it was a blast. I have pictures up on fb if you're interested. I'll be uploading videos onto youtube sometime in high quality, hopefully.

Anyways I might have to switch back to iTunes, since the Songbird iPod add-on sorta died. Bleh.

where I need to be

on March 6, 7, 8:

Yep yep.

give me back my tag!

Don't tag something that isn't "indie" as indie. I was on Last.fm and saw that The Ting Tings were tagged "indie". First of all, they are associated with Sony BMG, clearly NOT an indie label. If you want to argue that their musical style is indie, it isn't. They're definitely more on the electronic side of things. If you want to tag it as indie because you think it's hip and you only listen to hip, indie music, then go to your music folder and immediately delete everything, stop being a sheeple, and decide for yourself what music is good and what isn't. Music is all about what it means to you, not what other people think.

Okay?

That got me wondering, what other artists on Last.fm could possibly be falsely labeled indie? Well apparently it's not hard to find.

Katy Perry (who can't sing, by the way) is tagged indie.











Lady GaGa (who I haven't listened to, but probably also can't sing) is tagged indie.






Fucking Britney Spears is tagged indie. Britney is probably the antithesis of indie music. She defines major label. SHE IS NOT INDIE.







If it goes that far then I'm saddened to assume that probably most artists on Last.fm are tagged indie by someone who hasn't a clue what indie is. None of these artists are indie by any definition of the word, so don't tag them as such! A band that is indie in terms of label and attitude is one to respect and cherish, because they will usually have better music, have a better fan base, and actually be sincere.

Much as I love The Ting Tings, I would never, ever consider calling them indie. The term indie has evolved in such a complicated way that it's hard to define what really *is* indie, but those artists clearly are not. So yeah, if I find you tagging shit as indie when you shouldn't be, I will sneak up in the darkest part of the night, slit your throat, and take back my tag.

mmm

Revisiting the Canadians. I've got to say I'm pretty impressed. When I first became interested in music, I started with Stars, and found awesome stuff like BSS and Metric. Then I sorta lost focus from Canada, and started exploring stuff in the US as well.

Dear lord Canada produces good music. The US has got to be full of stupids to think that Canada is backwards. Oh wait the US *IS* full of stupids. I think I'll end up in Canada eventually because the music is awesome and I loved Canada from what I saw of it.

Anyways I've listened to a few new bands recently. Of course, I ended up listening to a bunch of Stars again, go figure. I've now got >5000 plays recorded. New Stuff: Apostle of Hustle and Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton. Both are pretty closely connected with Broken Social Scene, since Andrew Whiteman and Emily Haines are at least part time members. The Emily Haines is mostly solo stuff which is much more toned down from Metric and involves a lot of piano, which is nice. I'm still in my initial listen to AoH, so I'll keep you guys updated. All I know is that it's pretty damn good.

dear lord

I love Amy Millan.
In my opinion she has the greatest female voice I have ever heard.
Also if you go to a show live you can tell that they basically don't process her voice at all; she just has such purity in her voice that my heart twinges every time I hear it.

Anyways listen to this. She comes in at the end.

finally...

Someone added a queue to Songbird.
one of the big features that was missing before.
Now all I want is better file and id3 tag management.
Also speed it up a bit, less memory and cpu usage, and we're golden.
Listening to Stars again.
And I set them as my desktop background.
:)

arrrrrr

I've been thinking about a touchy subject since reading this article: musical piracy. This is a very prevalent practice that many people engage in, though few would agree on record that they actually steal music.

So here goes: I steal music. Wow big surprise huh? I'm always talking about new music, I'm in college so I have limited funds, connect the dots if you will.

Okay so I guess that makes me a perfect target for prosecution. I've written it down. I'm serious about it. But don't just think of me as an IP address to track down and sue. Hear me out first.

First of all the music industry is bloated. It is dated. It is operating at a less than optimum level. Why? First of all because of the CD. CDs are much more expensive than they should be, and the format is quickly losing popularity. Digital is where it is at right now, and because the music industry does not want to invest in the switch to digital formats, they are besieged by people who would rather simply steal an album than pay at least $10 for a CD that they are going to rip anyways (which is of uncertain legality, so breaking the law may be involved either way).

There are many creative and new ways the music industry could make the switch to digital. While variable pricing options instituted by Radiohead and Girl Talk might not work for every artist and label, other methods are definitely feasible. Artists could utilize downloads by making users watch a few advertisements then offering the download, or by trading downloads for spreading the artist's popularity, such as by emailing info about them to friends. Increased popularity is probably more desirable for small indie bands than a few cents in royalties for music sales anyways. Or do something like Amie Street and price music based on its popularity. When it is unknown, prices are low. If the music is good and people like it, the price slowly rises until a set level.

However I am not advocating the destruction of physical albums. I often enjoy the packaging that comes with albums, such as liner notes, artwork, and bonus material. Also physical formats such as vinyls are often of higher quality than mp3s. So keep these formats, but the music industry simply has to adapt to the digital age or fall due to rampant piracy.

Another possibility for artists is to simply go indie. A little creativity can produce great ways to spread the music and also make money. Artists often do not get much money from album sales. Most of it comes from merchandise sales and from live shows, so capitalize on that by making your music known. I know that I would be delighted if a band challenged me to find a way to make them known.

So what about me? Am I just trying to justify my theft of music? Allow me to clarify myself. Yes, I do download music. However, a few scenarios now arise from here. I may dislike the album, and the music rusts away in my library. I do not upload music onto p2p sites for others, so nothing further happens to the files. I probably would not have bought the album anyways, so in the end no harm is really done. If I like the music I usually blog about it, so in a small way I spread word of artists. I will show friends youtube videos and tell them to listen to tracks on Last.fm, which is legal, so I am still not furthering the spread of piracy. Also I will go to live shows for bands I like and at every single show I have been to I have bought merchandise. This more than offsets the small loss an artist experiences when I find an album online.

Also, if I really enjoy an album, I will go out and buy a physical copy, first to show my support for the artist, and second because I like higher fidelity music that comes packaged with interesting material.

So in the end I really am not causing the destruction of quality music that the RIAA claims I am. I do try to do my part for an artist, however modest my part may be. But also I would not have bought a few hundred albums at $15 each to begin with. I buy albums that I really like, and that is how it should be. I shouldn't have to pay an exorbitant amount for an album that turns out not to my taste.

Another important point: I have yet to see an artist complain about sales due to piracy. Simple logic dictates that if an album is good some people at least will buy it. Some people will download it, but if you are the one offering downloads you can decide how it works. So who IS complaining? The RIAA is complaining, claiming to be working in the interest of artists. The RIAA tells the artists that downloads are evil, and the artists agree since the RIAA is supposed to be working for them. What the RIAA does NOT tell artists is that they have options.

So what has to happen? I like to try looking for a positive approach, so here is my view: the RIAA needs to embrace the digital age and if it is truly working in the interests of artists and labels it should stop thinking about its own profits and start the transition to digital sales. If that does not happen then we really need to ditch the RIAA and encourage the artists to start looking for alternative methods.

Also, go to shows. Most bands are on a whole new level live anyways. Buy a shirt or poster while you're at it, so you can remember how awesome the show was. This is where bands really make their money, with no middleman taking most of the profit. If you are sincerely trying to support a band then I don't think that downloading an album or two is an unfair trade.

Maybe some people don't share my views and steal music simply because they don't want to pay for it, but I feel that this is not the majority. Most of us do it because it is much more simple than buying it. This small distinction creates an opportunity to capitalize from the situation.

they call me quiet girl, but I'm a riot

Right after I post my "best of" lists I discover something really awesome. They were on the Last.fm Best Of 2008 lists, but I thought The Ting Tings were just another fad. Then I heard this track and totally changed my mind:



Anyways that's the track, and they have an awesome video here. Embedding is disabled or else I would totally have used that one.

Fuck this song is addictive. I'm going to add it to my list of favorites for 2008!

Also they were on NBC for the New Years celebration tonight, playing this track. Fuckin' A.