Yearly Archives: 2004

Yes, I love The Cinema Eye. And yes, you will too. And yes, they’re about to go on tour.

3/12/04 – Wilkes-Barre, PA @ Caf? Metropolis
3/14/04 – Nashville, TN @ The Red Rose (*)
3/15/04 – Memphis, TN @ 656 Madison Warehouse (*)
3/16/04 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Conservatory (*)
3/17/04 – Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves (*)
3/18/04 – Austin, TX @ Tower Records Instore

3/19/04 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s (outdoor) – Cold Crush/Sound Virus/Vice Records Day Party With Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Stills, Mae, Red Light sting

3/20/04 – Baton Rouge, LA @ The Furnace (*)
3/21/04 – New Orleans, LA @ Tulane University (Mcallister)(*)
3/22/04 – Pensacola, FL @ End of the Line Caf? (*)
2/23/04 – Birmingham, AL @ Cave 9 (tentative as of 2/24) (*)
3/24/04 – Orlando, FL @ Ballar & Corum (*)
3/25/04 – Tampa, FL @ Orpheum (*)
3/26/04 – Miami, FL @ 305 Fest (@ The Alley, Miami) (*)
3/27/04 – Gainesville, FL @ Wayward Council (*)
3/28/04 – Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn (MJQ) (*)
3/29/04 – Myrtle Beach, SC @ The Limelight (*)
3/30/04 – Summerville, SC @ All Books Coffee Shop (*)
3/31/04 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings Barcade

April
4/01/04 – Winston-Salem, NC @ PS211 (*)
4/02/04 – Harrisonburg, VA @ Macrock Festival
4/03/04 – Harrisonburg, VA, Macrock Festival (*)
4/04/04 – Washington, DC @ Caf? Mawonaj (*)
4/05/04 – Purchase, NY @ SUNY, Purchase (*)
4/06/04 – Altoona, PA @ Arrandale Elks Lodge (*)

(*)= shows with An Albatross

A bunch of outtakes and b-sides from Sufjan Stevens’ critically acclaimed “Michigan” album can be found here. They rule. Other bands will feel bad that Sufjan’s outtakes sound a lot better than their original material.

[via largehearted boy, who always represents with the mp3 links]

For all three of you who care about the lady’s music and the 102,034 boys that have been drooling over her since they hit their own alt-rock adolescence:

Melissa Auf Der Maur has settled on her surname as the title for her debut solo album, slated for a May 18 release via Capitol. The set was produced by the former Hole/Smashing Pumpkins guitarist and Chris Goss (Kyuss, Queens Of The Stone Age)…

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…Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme and the group’s recently exited guitarist Nick Oliveri and singer Mark Lanegan contributed to the sessions for the album. Also taking part were Fu Manchu’s Brant Bjork, Hole’s Eric Erlandson, Auf Der Maur’s former Smashing Pumpkins bandmate James Iha and Zwan/A Perfect Circle’s Paz Lenchantin, among others. (source)

With such a stellar supporting cast one would think this album must rock…unfortunately it’s a big ol’ steretypical alt-rock yawn. Too bad.

Nobody broke the message boards. Nobody hacked into them and unleashed the Courtney Love virus. We simply had a particularly active month with a large amount of new people signing up for accounts and posting messages and because of this we were exceeding the amount of bandwidth that we pay for. We’re allowed a certain amount of bandwidth every month and when a new month starts, that bandwidth starts back at 0. So, in other words, the message board will be back up and running at full steam on March 1. While you’ve got some time to kill, why not take a look around the rest of the Donewaiting site? Boardies, see ya next week.

How many wars are we gonna have to fight at once?

Clear Channel Radio has suspended the broadcast of Viacom’s Howard Stern show, consistent with its Responsible Broadcasting Initiative announced earlier today. After assessing the content of yesterday’s Howard Stern show, Clear Channel worked with local market managers to take swift and decisive action.

“Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content and Howard Stern’s show blew right through it,” said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. “It was vulgar, offensive, and insulting, not just to women and African Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency. We will not air Howard Stern on Clear Channel stations until we are assured that his show will conform to acceptable standards of responsible broadcasting,” Hogan said.

Cities this will hit: Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida; Rochester, New York; Louisville, Kentucky; San Diego, and Pittsburgh.

Can I just say that I fucking love that the government is helping me out with making decisions in my life? I’m glad they know what’s best for me. Thanks, government.

[credz sports frog]

The Who’s first new songs since the 1982 album “It’s Hard” will be included on an upcoming best-of collection.

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Due March 30 via Geffen, “Then and Now! 1964-2004” will feature the new tracks “Real Good Looking Boy” and “Old Red Wine,” alongside 18 of the legendary British rock act’s familiar hits.

In November, guitarist Pete Townshend wrote on his official Web site that he and vocalist Roger Daltrey recorded “Real Good Looking Boy” with assistance from drummer Zak Starkey, keyboardist John “Rabbit” Bundrick, bassist Greg Lake and Townshend’s brother Simon. No details are known about “Old Red Wine.” (source)

While I am curious to hear the new songs (though I was pretty sure two of the tunes off Pete’s Iron Man soundtrack were Who cuts, so Billboard doesn’t quite have its facts right) do we really need another Who greatest-hits set? I mean, isn’t that like three discs in the last three years. We know the godfathers of punk need the dough, just listen to any given commercial on television today, but c’mon!

After turning the main page grey for a day, our reds and oranges look like a rainbow of love.

Did you hear about the Puddle of Mudd singer who was arrested for spitting on a fan and throwing some bottles?

Believing that “the record industry has become a huge drag on creativity”, music activist group Downhill Battle organized Grey Tuesday (Feb 24) and urged Web sites to turn grey and/or host MP3 versions of The Grey Album. I’m not hosting any of the MP3 files (you can find the files on these sites), but I have turned the site grey for the day to show my support for more permissive copyright laws. Instead of locking creativity up, I say set it free and see what happens. (source)

The Pixies on tour. The La’s reunited. And now Sebadoh have announced tourdates. I can’t wait for a Pavement reunion that will be the final signal for the Apocolypse.

Sebadoh dates:

April 19: St. Louis (Duck Room)
April 20: Chicago (Abbey Pub)
April 21: Detroit (Magic Stick)
April 22: Hamilton, Ontario (Underground)
April 23: Toronto (Horsehoe Tavern)
April 24: Montreal (El Salon)
April 25: Cambridge, Mass. (T.T. the Bear’s)
April 27: Hoboken, N.J. (Maxwell’s)
April 28: Brooklyn, N.Y. (North Six)
April 30: Northampton, Mass. (Greene Hall)
May 2: Philadelphia (Khyber)
May 3: Baltimore (Ottobar)
May 4: Carrboro, N.C. (Cat’s Cradle)
May 5: Athens, Ga. (40 Watt Club)
May 6: Atlanta (Echo Lounge)
May 7: Birmingham, Ala. (the Nick)
May 8: Nashville (Exit-In)

Downhill Battle nicely summed up the battle for The Grey Album. I’m going to reprint it here, I’m sure they won’t mind:

WHEN EMI WENT after Danger Mouse last week, they didn’t stop there. At least one of the websites that’s been publicly hosting mp3s of the Grey Album also received a cease and desist letter from EMI, which demanded that they take down the album, which they did (how could they afford the court case?). The letter is now posted on their site, waxy.org. Fortunately, the Grey Album is still being publicly hosted by the good folks at Illegal Art. If you haven’t heard it yet, you can (and should) download the mp3s right here.

The Grey Album is only one of thousands of legitimate and valuable efforts that have been stifled by the current system (not to mention the ones that were never even attempted because of the legal climate). For the best discussions of the artistic and intellectual reasons why sampling should be legalized, check out this article by Negativland and this flash presentation by Lawrence Lessig. But what’s happened in the past week is also important: the details of the Grey Album case demonstrate that nothing short of a clear legal codification of the right to sample will solve the current problem.

Danger Mouse’s album is one of the most “respectful” and undeniably positive examples of sampling; it honors both the Beatles and Jay-Z. Yet the lawyers and bureaucrats at EMI have shown zero flexibility and not a glimmer of interest in the artistic significance of this work. And without a clearly defined right to sample, the five major record labels will continue to use copyright in a reactionary and narrowly self-interested manner that limits and erodes creativity. Their actions are also self-defeating: good new music is being created that people want to buy, but the major labels are so obsessed with hoarding their copyrights that they are literally turning customers away.

Open-source software advocates often argue that arbitrary regulation stifles innovation and slows progress. Translating these arguments into fields like art and culture is always a dubious venture, but in the case of sampling there’s a pretty clear parallel; there is no question that the music you hear on the radio would be more diverse and exciting if DJs and producers weren’t trussed up by arbitrary regulations that have nothing to do with music.

Here’s just how ridiculous the Danger Mouse situation is:
1. Jay-Z intentionally took the step of releasing an a cappella version of the Black Album, with the specific purpose of facilitating remixes. For him, it encourages people to reuse his vocals which ultimately raises the status of the album (and increases sales of the original). At this point, neither he nor his record label have tried to stop the Grey Album. EMI claims copyright on the White Album, meaning that the Grey Album is being shut down to provide some sort of abstract “protection” to a 35 year old recording.

2. There was no legal way for Danger Mouse to make this album. A small, independent DJ would never be granted permission to sample Beatles recordings. Since there is no compulsory license for samples, as there is for cover songs, sample rates must negotiated directly with the record label. This means that labels can not only demand exorbitant rates, but that they can simply refuse to allow a particular use, effectively censoring certain types of music (even someone like Jay-Z might not be able to secure Beatles samples, no matter how much he offers). Copyright was originally included in the US Constitution to “promote the progress of science and the useful arts”; the law uses temporary copyright monopolies as a tool to encourage more creativity and innovation. But the major record labels have twisted that purpose into a copyright regime that inhibits creativity and innovation– it’s become a failure in its own terms.

3. Even if EMI’s general economic rights were thought to trump the public’s interest in hearing new music, neither EMI nor the Beatles will suffer any economic damages from Danger Mouse’s use of the White Album. There is nothing about the Grey Album that would discourage someone from purchasing the White Album– in fact it is likely to encourage a new generation of music fans to do so. So why does EMI want to shut it down? Because they’re trying to protect a precedent, not just prevent this particular use. Their fear is that if they permit any unauthorized use, they’ll lose their ability to protect the copyright in other situations. This means that not only are corporations deciding that certain art isn’t allowed to be created, but they aren’t even taking this extreme step with any direct economic justification.

4. EMI isn’t just trying to shut down a musician who they believe is unfairly profiting from the White Album, they’re also trying to censor the album entirely by preventing the public from hearing it. As noted above, cease and desist letters are being sent to websites that are giving the album away freely. And while EMI can’t keep the Grey Album off of filesharing networks, their lawsuits against families have scared many people away from using peer-to-peer software. There is simply no justification for denying or attempting to deny the public the right to hear this music.

Again, these points are just to emphasize that even in the most generous circumstances, the major labels’ response to sampling serves no public or private interest. But the overarching need to establish musicians’ right to sample should be examined first and foremost from the perspective of music and culture. The Negativland article, Changing Copyright, is the best starting point and speaks from experience; Negativland (a band) has an interesting and storied history fighting the RIAA over fair use and sampling rights.

Copyright law is broken, plain and simple. We’ve seen that with how the RIAA are suing children because they have MP3s on their computer. We’ve seen grandparents being sued. I’ve almost lost my mind over it.

Donewaiting.com will not be hosting the mp3s, but you can download them on this site or one of the may sites listed here.