Also check out this hotter than hot interview with my Super Furry homies Bunf and Guto from this year's Glastonbury Festival. In gorgeous Quickime no less! Bunf actually gives props to other bands! Usually, I'll name a band and he'll say "they're shite" no matter who it is. And he doesn't even have sunglasses on. Strange days indeed.
Lastly, our Super Furry Roundup comes to a close with news of their next UK single.
Another day at the US Open is about to get underway...in case you were wondering:
Daniela Hantuchova won yesterday:
and Ashley Harkelroad lost:
Capriati and Agassi in the night matches tonight and I will be there!!
NOTES OF INTEREST FROM THE INTERWEB > The NY Times votes for the USTA to ditch the babe watch and focus on the tennis. This may not be a bad idea(wait, did I just say that?) as Daniela Hantuchova almost had a meltdown in her match yesterday. Her opponent started playing a slowed down/moon ball/Tracy Austin type game which frustrated her to no end. She started crying and yelling at the linesmen. Some people aren't ready for prime time yet. But hey, she won.
> Here are some other girls that like sports. How you doin'? All of you...[link from Whatevs]
> Larry Bird let everyone know who is in charge of the Indiana Pacers when he sacked Isiah Thomas yesterday. Isiah, don't let the door hit you on the way out. Thomas should have known he was finished after the Celtics beat the Pacers in 6 games in the playoffs last year. This really wasn't a big surprise as ex-Bird assistant(and former Coach of the Year) Rick Carlisle was on the open market. Better to fire Isiah now and get Carlisle in place as soon as possible. Training camp is one month away. J O'Neal is not a happy camper right now.
> Go Red Sox, go. Four games back from the Evil Empire.
> Man, I was all set to go off on MTV's new show, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, about Nick Lachey's marriage to Jessica Simpson, but Slate and Gothamist beat me to it. Jessica Simpson, doing her best to reinforce the spolied celebrity and smoking-hot-babe-that-is-utterly-stupid stereotype, just can't seem to handle living on her own.
Some sample dialogue from the show for you:
"I didn't really have this upkeep thing," she says, amazed at how dirty skillets can get and the fact that flowers fester. Laundry bewilders her, too; she tends to toss clothes and towels over a balcony outside her bedroom onto the floor of the foyer. "Somebody's always picked up after me," she says.
"I need a maid, but Nick won't let me hire one because he wants to trust them. He wants to interview them and do all that thing first. Do you even know if there's, like, maids for like celebrities?"
> Yesterday, I found out some information that has shaken me to my very core. It appears Danny Ainge is not the genius I've made him out to be. If we was how could he let the Lakers, the Celtics arch rivals no less, sign basketball god Koko Archibong? It appears that Koko is the REAL Ultimate Power in basketball. Some facts about this amazing player:
1. Koko is a mammal.
2. Koko is the ILLEST basketball player ever.
3. The purpose of Koko is to throw down pimp-ass dunks.
There you have it. I'm convinced. Also, in case you were wondering why everyone is so obsessed with Koko, I have the answer for you:
"Koko is the ultimate paradox. On the one hand Koko can dunk and hit mad treys, but on the other he is like a completely nice guy and hasn't raped anyone, not even once."
I stayed up all night over that one....
> I heard last night that gas is going up 19 cents tomorrow. But hey, what's 19 cents a gallon when President Bush wants "several tens of billions'' of dollars in the next year to rebuild Iraq. I mean, that's totally fine with me because everything is so fucking perfect here at home that the President can take a the month of August off for a vacation. It's not like several states lost power for a prolonged period of time because of our nations outdated and deregulated power grid. Oh, wait...
In case you were wondering "The Bush administration has refused to publicly project how much the U.S. occupation of Iraq will cost," but estimates are "$50 billion to $100 billion over the next three years." I forget, did the President throw out these numbers when he was giving all those speaches saying we had to go to war with Iraq over those WMD's they haven't found yet? I wonder how much good that money could do here at home...
> Hey, more good news! The nations deficit is projected to be $480 billion in 2004, which has been billed as a record. Didn't we have a surplus when he took over?
- But don't worry, Bush is determined to do his part for big business, environment be damned. The Bush administration relaxed its clean-air rules to allow thousands of industrial plants to make upgrades without installing pollution controls. I mean, we all drive SUV's, so what's a little more pollution, right?
> Yay Earthlink! They are suing some spammers in Alabama and Vancouver. Now if you could just lower my monthly DSL bill.
> Today, I will leave you with the Liz Phair digital desk calendar. [link from Whatevs via Stereogum]
Remember, I used to fly like Peter Pan, all the children flew when I touched their hands.
Good people, faithful readers of ILB, I take care in what I post here for you to read. I try to be somewhat knowledgeable in any topic I write about or rant against. I believe that it is important to be informed so that I may pass this knowledge onto you. One of the things I hate is when uninformed people make judgments on shit they obviously have no knowledge about(and if I am ever in the wrong, PLEASE point it out to me). I am a fairly easy going sort of guy. But when someone sent me this link, I fucking lost it. How stupid can people be?
I have worked in the music industry for over 7 years. I have been on both sides of the coin: fighting for the producers that were my clients, thereby taking away things from the bands they were working with as well as being on the bands side while everyone reaches in their pocket and takes their cut, leaving the band with nothing. The music industry is in real trouble right now because they are using antiquated theories, promotional ideas and distribution channels while signing the next "mallternative" punk band or whatever to cram down peoples throats. I am currently unemployed due to the state of the industry and have decided, with clear conscience, to get out while I can. At every job interview I go to I tell people that the industry will have to be blown up and rebuilt before real change can be made. One real change that has recently been put into place has been Apple's iTunes Music Store. We all know how I feel about Apple, but that is not the issue here. Stupid people writing about areas in which they have no knowledge is the task of the day, so let's straighten them out shall we? My comments are in BOLD:
1) It's too expensive
Let's start simple: the iTunes Music Store is not a good value for customers. Bullshit. If it wasn’t, people wouldn’t use it (see Buymusic.com for example)Apple says many users are buying whole "albums" for $8-$12 each. That's less than the $16 store price much less, but used CDs at Amazon or ebay cost $5, CD’s on eBay may cost $5 but they might be scratched and people will charge you $5 just to ship the damn thing and those come with liner notes. CD’s you burn from a friend do not. If you don't care about liner notes, you can burn the CD from a friend for 25 cents and send the musician a buck. What makes you think the musician you send your dollar to will share this money with other royalty holding musicians on said CD/song? If 4 people in a band write a song or record, what makes you think this money will be split 4 ways? What if the band didn’t write the song, just perform it? It happens more than you think. Then you are sending them money for no reason. If you want to put money directly into a bands pocket, buy a ticket to a show, go see them and then buy a t shirt. That is how most bands eat each day, from merch money In both cases, you end up with a real CD, and you can always use iTunes to rip it onto your computer or mp3 player. And you don't have to deal with restrictions on how you use it.
2) AAC is lossy.
iTunes AAC files don't sound as good as CDs. AAC is a "lossy" compression format: it shrinks the sound file by throwing away subtle nuance and texture that a computer program thinks you won't be able to hear. The thing is, you can hear it. You might not notice listening to your iPod on the subway, but if you get home, lie back on the couch, and listen to your new iTunes album on a real stereo, it won't have the same nuance, punch, and presence that a CD has. A burned copy of a real CD will always sound better than a burned iTunes album. So don’t buy anything from the iTunes store. Go away.
3) "But I don't really care about compression"
Then you're in good company: lots of people just want to hear the songs they like and don't mind listening to compressed music. The majority of those people (the sensible ones) choose peer to peer filesharing programs like Kazaa or Acquisition to get their mp3s. Downloads are fast, there's a bigger selection, and peer to peer sharing doesn't prop up the music industry. Plus it's free. Yes, you also unknowingly get the privilege of downloading viruses and spyware with your mislabeled and incomplete downloads(if it is even the artist or song that you think you are downloading) from the above listed programs. And you have no idea what BitRate it was encoded with.
4) Apple and the Labels Get a Lot.
Apple says iTunes is "better than free" because it's "fair to artists and record companies." That's simply not true. Again, bullshit. First of all, Apple gets 3 times as much money as musicians from each sale. Why shouldn’t they? It’s their servers, bandwidth and promotional dollar. Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold, a huge amount considering how little they have to do. You really have no idea what you are talking about, do you? Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract. This may be so but it has absolutely nothing to do with Apple. Every recording artist on a major label signs a contract with the label and they, with help from their lawyer(who takes up to 5% of their income BTW), agree to terms with the label with regards to royalties. If the artist has a bad royalty rate(as most of them do), go bitch to the artist’s lawyer, not Apple. Many artists don’t see 50 cents from a CD sale, if they are getting 8 cents a song, that is a better rate for them! Many of them will never even see this paltry share because they have to pay for producers and recording costs, both of which can be enormous. MOST bands will never see this share. They will never see a penny from record sales either. Maybe they shouldn’t be spending $300,000 making a record and $500,000 on the first video from the album. This would reduce the amount they have to recoup. The White Stripes are a perfect example here. Elephant cost $5,000 to record. They made that back in their first week sales Until the musician "recoups" these costs, when you buy an iTunes song, the label gives them nothing. Again, this is standard in each and every recording contract for each and every artist on a major label today. How is this Apple’s fault?
5) Nothing changed
So why does iTunes give artists such a raw deal? Because it's the exact same deal that artists have always gotten from the big five record companies. True, and if the Big 5 didn’t agree to any of these terms with Apple or even want to have their songs available for paid downloading, there would be no iTunes Music Store. Period. End of story. Apple didn’t hold any of the cards in this negotiation, the Big 5 did. Despite huge new efficiencies created by internet distribution --no CDs to make, no distributors to store and ship them, no CD stores to build and run-- artists receive the same pathetic cut. Again, this is an issue for the labels and the bands’ lawyers, not Apple That is the disaster of iTunes. No, that is the music industry in a nutshell. Instead of using this new medium to empower musicians and their fans, it helps the record industry cartel perpetuate the exploitation. This is because they are all run by 60 year olds who don’t know what the internet is and they are afraid of it because it is stealing their money. So they want to destroy it, not harness it’s power. Apple might say it's not their fault: after all, they didn't write the unfair record contracts. EXACTLY. But when Apple supports and profits from an obviously unfair system, while telling customers that it's "fair to artists", they are just as guilty. There has to be a proven alternate option for artists(preferably in favor of the artists) in order to change the system. Apple is laying this groundwork right now. A system like this should have been put in place by the Big 5 (and not necessarily with Apple) 5 years ago. Then Napster never would have been an issue. But they didn’t and now, here we are.
In closing, you have the right sentiment here, but are going after the wrong people. How about Sony? They make CD burners that come in their own Sony brand computers. They also manufacture CD's for their music labels(Columbia, Epic, etc.) that are copy protected and won't play in their own computers.
Remember when the CD was introduced and they said prices would come down because of it? Been to Virgin Megastore lately? It's not happening.
Well....I just finished Hey Nostradamus! It was very entertaining and a great read but overall, I thought Coupland's last book, All Families Are Psychotic, was more satisfying. There are many questions left unanswered at the end of Hey Nostradamus! that I would have like to have tied out, but again, it's a great book with some surprise twists thrown in for good measure. Basically it is the story of a "Columbine-type"(it's very unfortunate that this is now a term in our societies' lexicon) massacre at a Northern Vancouver high school from 4 different characters point of view. Two, Jason and Cheryl, were directly involved in the event, while the other two, Heather and Reg, were not but were still affected by it very much. Religion and the afterlife is discussed thoroughly.
I should note that I am a bit biased in my love for All Families Are Psychotic as it was a genuine return to form by Coupland after his two previous stinkers, Miss Wyoming and Girlfriend in a Coma.
Today I am startng on Diary. Hey, ever wonder what Chucky P does to answer all of his fan mail? I thought so...well, read on. [thanks emily]
NOTES OF INTEREST FROM THE INTERWEB: - We'll start with the US Open today because I am going out there tomorrow.
First of all, Jelena Dokic, how you doin?
-Today's NY Post examines some other Anna K-clones, and wisely, none of them want to be compared to her. They actually want to, you know, win some matches. Anna was still in effect last night as she announced she will be working for TV Sponsor USA as an entertainment reporter. Do I hear a second career calling her? Hey, it's better than the other options.
- On the Men's side of the draw, Roddick won, Agassi cruised and Michael Chang played in and lost his last career match. Ever. Ummmmm...Does anyone care? I don't. Chang was washed up at 18. Anna K should take note.
Everyone is ready to hand the title to Roddick, but don't count Andre out yet. Losing in the final last year to Sampras had to hurt and he will be on a mission this year. He wiped the court with former #2 player in the world Alex Corretja yesterday. FYI, Andre is the oldest #1 seed in the open era. That's unreal. I remember when he had long hair and acid wash shorts and took Ivan lendl to 4 sets in the early 90's.
- Man, I was so distracted on my Diary quest from yesterday I missed new columns from The Sports Guy AND TMQB. Unacceptable. It'll never happen again.
- Moving on to b-ball news, The US squeaked one out against Argentina. It was a close game throughout. The quest for the Gold Medal won't be a cakewalk. T-Mac is hurt and probably done for the tournament. That hurts the team a bit. They need a big 2 guard(Paul fucking Pierce anyone?) not AI or Ray Allen. Kobe also comes to mind, but he was busy kissin' and grabbin'.
- In other news, fallen UNC golden boy Joeseph Forte is done with the Seattle Supersonics. Serves you right you little punk ass bitch. The Celtics wasted a draft pick on you when they could have drafted Tony Parker. But I'm not bitter. Yes I am...Go to hell Carolina.
- The Jets signed former Rams back up QB Jamie Martin yesterday to back up brittle Vinny Testeverde for the upcoming season. The Jet's assesment of their new signing? "He has had flashes of competence." Awesome! Good for him.
- Pitchfork posted details of the new Ted Leo EP that's coming on October 7th that we've known about for ages.
- Wonder why this SoBig virus isn't going away anytime soon? Easy. It's making someone rich. Apple Rulez.
- Lastly...Is there anyone in America that has an ounce of sympathy for that big douchebag from Everyone Loves Raymond? For those that don't know, he held up production of CBS highest rated show(which I have never even seen once) because he wasn't happy with his salary of $150,000 per episode. CBS offered him $300,000 per episode and he turned it down! What an assclown. The shitty thing is, he finally got his way!! ARGH!! I'm so sick of rich, overpaid sitcom stars whining about how they deserve more money when they are on a hit show. Take your syndication rights and shove it up your......
But I digress.
Remember, a crack on the head is what you get for not asking, and a crack on the head is what you get for asking.
Barnes and Noble can go to hell. I went to three of them today searching for a copy of Chucky P's Diary and none of them had a single copy in stock. So on the way home from the subway, I decide to detour down 7th Avenue and lo and behold, there it was in the window of The Community Bookstore, the hood's mom and pop book joint. They had 2 copies left and one of them is now mine. I am already 1/3 of the way through Coupland's Hey Nostradamus! so I am going to be a big bookworm for the next few days. Damn, I love it! My two favorite authors release new books so close to each other. Rock!
Tonight will consist of some serious reading, a few beers, and some TV viewing inthe form of the Andy Roddick v. Tim Henman match at the US Open. Life is good my friends.
Even more so now that www.informationleafblower.com is up and running. Adjust your bookmarks if you feel the need.
NOTES OF INTEREST FROM THE INTERWEB: - Go Red Sox, go. Winners of five straight. Now lay off Pedro and let him do his thang.
- Lamar Odom is a Miami Heat. How stupid does that sound? What a lame team name....Hey Clips, my boy Corey Maggette is gonna break out this year. No worries.
- UNC preview from DBR. Can't wait for November.
- Woo Hoo!! Julie Foudy and Shannon Macmillan both made the Woman's World Cup team roster. Hotness. Literally.
That is all for today. Andre Agassi is wailing on Alex Corretja and I'm missing it. Tennis geek out.
Today I will leave you with the first sentence from Hey Nostradamus:
"I believe what seperates humanity from everything else in the world - spaghetti, binder paper, deep-sea creatures, edelweiss and Mount McKinley - is that humanity alone has the capacity at any given moment to commit all possible sins."
The Park Slope Barnes and Noble is soooooo lame. I was there at 10 AM so I could purchse this:
but they didn't have it in stock. WTF? I have to go into Manhattan later today for physical therapy and will try my luck again on the Upper West Side.
Also, I would like to send my eternal gratitude to Stereogum for putting up the new Outkast song "Hey Ya." It's actually just an Andre 3000 song but damn it's so fresh and so clean. I sincerely think when you have the "Who Is The Best Band In The World?" debate that the "Two Dope Boys In A Cadillac" have to be included. They are on some outer space shit. Other than the Roots, who else is pushing hip hop forward? Let us not, however, bring up that Scooby Doo song....
Trying to think of the line from Swingers when Trent is all fucked up in the diner....is that it? I watched the first half of the movie last night before I passed out. I never get sick of seeing it. It's so money!
Well...I finally took the plunge, SoBig virus be damned. Sometime in the next 48 hours www.informationleafblower.com will officially be online. This is not quite as exciting as it sounds as right now I am just parking the domain name and redirecting traffic here, but eventually I hope to design a site that will be one quarter as cool as Whatevs dot org. But only time will tell.
This virus seems to be fucking a whole bunch of people up. I've seen quite a few sites pleading with their readers to download any and all patches/fixes because their inboxes are getting slammed. My condolences to all Windoze users. Unfortunately, it might get worse before it gets better. Be careful everyone.
Quite a relaxing day yesterday. Lots of napping and just hanging around the house, good weather be damned. I was *a tad* hungover from the night before.
Before I get on with it I want to plug some new blogs worth checking out:
The first is from my friend Glenn(of rainy Stephen Malkmus gig and Siren Fest fame) who joins the blogging fray with Coolfer.com. He's gonna focus on the "industry" side of the music industry, which is bascially lazy A & R folks and parties with free beer. Glamourous, no? Keep an eye out for his future column comparing soundscan numbers from all the pro athletes that have released CD's in the last few years.
The other is DJ Benny Blanco. He's still a newbie so be the one to say you were there first man! Word. Let's get on with it...
NOTES OF INTEREST FROM THE INTERWEB: - As a Dolphin fan, let me be the first to say "Muahhahahahhahahahhaha" to all the Jets fans. QB Chad Pennington severely fucked up his non throwing hand(nice pic!) over the weekend. Ha! Out at least 12 weeks is the estimate. Sucks to be you. This is the football gods extracting revenge for all those ridiculous columns that ran last year saying Hutchinson "Is the next Joe Montana." Please...
- MMQB thinks the NFL pre-season is too long.
- The US Open(aka my favorite NYC based sporting event) starts today. The mens field looks tough but if the seeds play out and we get a little help we may get an Agassi v. Roddick final. CBS must be praying for that because Lindsay Davenport is hurting and both the Williams sisters withdrew before the tournament(after CBS moved the Womens' Final to primetime to increase ratings). Sucks to be CBS.
- Dirk fucked up his ankle playing with the German National Team. Mark Cuban must be throwing shit out in Big D. Sucks to be Cuban.
- Popmatters compiled a list of the 100 best songs from the last 25 years and I had just settled in to pour through it when I saw that the La's masterpiece "There She Goes" was ranked #100...Shocked, I figured this list was not worth my time or the bandwidth it was taking up. If you think there are 99 better songs than that Lee Mavers classic, you are smoking crack.
- Salon.com must be desperate for readers so they decide to slam "Diary", the new novel by Chuck Palahniuk(released tomorrow!!!). Chucky P cult members ain't taking this injustice lying down and decide to fight back. The first rule about Salon.com is we do not read Salon.com.
- There will be a whole lot less headbuts given out in the future. Wesley Willis is dead. Rest in peace big guy.
- Blur(aka Damon's Inflated Ego) played a career spanning set at Reading over the weekend but still decided to play quite a few of the crappy songs from their so-so new album. But at least they played "My White Noise." That track is ace.
- Are new iMacs coming soon?
- The MTA loses $260,000 per year when cheaters bend their Metrocards and get free rides.
PS- They don't recycle old Metrocards because it only costs 7 cents to purchase new ones. Fucking LAME.
- The trailer for Matrix:Revloutions is available for download.
- Finally, save the date of September 18th. Gothamist and 601am are having another blogger-get-together/ happy hour.
Approaching 700 hits. Thanks everyone.
Remember, these things I do to make myself more attractive to you. Have I failed?
Skipped the Luna show last night.
Instead, a bunch of friends came over. We had dinner, played cards and drank heavily.
Right now I'm reading the latest issue of Q Magazine. It has a great Queens of the Stone Age article in it:
"Queens is the culmination of all of our experiences," he(frontman Josh Homme) says. We flirted with punk and metal, then I was in the Screaming Trees. But I could never join a scene. I love Kylie and Bjork too. The scene is, Be yourself. Even if you like the Queens, don't copy us. Don't. Get your own."
"We are all here for the same reason." adds (Nick) Oliveri more prosaically.
"Music, girls, cars, crystal meth."
