OiNK Users Arrested; We Ex-OiNK Users Should Probably Start Going Through The Name-Changing Paperwork Now
By Scout Leader Kyle on Jun 2 2008
File-sharing utopia and invite-only torrent site OiNK.cd was shutdown by the Cleveland and Dutch police back in 2007. Since then, no users, not even the site's owner, have been charged.
Until now, that is.
The go-to torrent news blog TorrentFreak reports that Cleveland, UK police recently arrested six OiNK users for, according to their sources, “Conspiracy to Defraud the Music Industry.” This essentially means the accused OiNK members were apparently arrested for sharing advance/pre-release albums with ties to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an affiliate of the RIAA. (The IFPI mostly parties with the major labels, but judging by its extensive list of member sites, the group also expands its protection to indies.)
The British Phonographic Industry provided the following statement (via The Register):
The BPI and IFPI worked with the police in order to close down the OiNK tracker site last October. The illegal online distribution of music, particularly pre-release, is hugely damaging, and as OiNK was the biggest source for pre-releases at the time we moved to shut it down. We provided the information to assist this investigation, but this is now a police matter and we are unable to comment further at this stage.
At this point, it's unclear if more arrests are expected and why British police are involved in this particular investigation but not other file-sharing incidents.
Anyway, if you don't see any news stories from me for more than two weeks from today, then you can safely assume that I've either (a) gotten fed up with Mr P's bullshit or (b) have been caught and incarcerated.
I'm all for option A.
Adventure Signs to Carpark, To Release Debut in September
By Mango Starr on Jun 2 2008
Wham City extraordinarily extraordinaire Benny Boeldt is Adventure, and Adventure is his debut album, set for release September 16 on Carpark. But does that mean Adventure is Benny? Does it mean that Benny himself is an album? Does it mean the release date is really Carpark, and that the record label is Benny's moniker? C'mon press release, tell me something good:
His ultra-melodic synth compositions pull from his earliest exposure to the 8-bit soundtracks of the Sega Genesis video game catalog. But it's not just retro video game music. Mix in the kitschy Moogy sound of Hot Butter's "Popcorn", the saturated disco-theatrics of late seventies electro-pop acts like Sparks and Yellow Magic Orchestra, and a penchant for Eastern European diminished scales and you've come pretty close to Adventure's accelerated baroque sound.
Adventure's tracklisting:
Adventure's tracklisting without line breaks: 1. Loredo 2. Poison Diamonds 3. Civilization 4. Hyper Glow 5. Travel Kid 6. Iron Stallion 7. Battle Cat 8. Wild Wild Ride 9. Ultra Zone 10. Crypt Castle Cult 11. Jurassic Park City
Finally, Adventure has a couple dates in June (at New York's Cake Shop on June 4 and at Talking Head in Baltimore the next day), but is planning on tagging along the Wham City Round Robin tour this October with Dan Deacon, Ponytail, Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez, and others. They all have new albums coming out too, as we've reported here and there. More dates too with Dan Deacon and Video Hippos!
[Photo: Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez]
Liz Phair Confirms Exile in Guyville Tourdates For San Francisco and Chicago
By Annapocalypse on Jun 2 2008
Remember a few weeks ago when TMT reported that ’90s goddess Liz Phair was going to be performing her classic album, Exile In Guyville, in its entirety? (TMT News) Well, it turns out that the Hiro Ballroom in New York City isn’t the only lucky venue that’s being graced with Phair’s presence, as she just announced last week that dates have been added in Chicago and San Francisco.
All of this exciting news is of course due to the fact that Exile In Guyville is being reissued June 24 on CD, vinyl, and in digital format from ATO Records. The special reissue package will include three never-before-released songs from the original recording sessions: “Ant in Alaska,” with Phair simply accompanying herself on guitar, “Say You,” which features Phair and a full band, and an untitled instrumental with Phair on guitar.
She has also just completed a new, 80-minute DVD, Guyville Redux, for the reissue. The DVD examines the male-dominated indie rock scene in early-’90s Chicago, including interviews with Gerard Cosloy and Chris Lombardi of Matador Records, engineer Steve Albini, Ira Glass of NPR’s “This American Life,” and John Cusack among others!
So what are those dates again?
The Pogues to Release New Box Set, My One Friend Who Likes The Pogues to Get Excited (Read: Drunk)
By Nobodaddy on Jun 2 2008
Good news, violent people! The band that has made you feel for years that being an unstable alcoholic, jovial party-goer, pensive stoic, and blubbering spiritualist are all reconcilable (and acceptable) ways to behave is finally consecrating your questionable obsession with caricature-music with that classic symbol of a tenured band-turned-obstinate social symbol: the lumbering 5CD Box Set.
This particular badge of stubborn permanence, Just Look Them In the Eye and Say... Poguemahone, will be released by Warner/Rhino June 2 in the UK and Northern Ireland and June 17 across the pond (June 3 for the import though, apparently) and is comprised of, you guessed it, previously-unreleased material and hard-to-find rarities.
Compiled by The Pogues themselves with track-by-track annotations from Phil Chevron, Just Look Them in the Eye promises to bludgeon its listeners with a hefty 109 tracks from 1983 demos (pre-dating their first recordings for Stiff Records) through to live recordings from 2001 when The Pogues reconvened, after disbanding in 1996, for their very punctual money-grab. As an illimitable Pogues fan, you'll revel in a treasure-trove of material that this monumental band never saw fit to release in the first place, including rehearsal recordings, B-sides, outtakes, rare mixes, and BBC sessions spanning their entire career, plus recordings with Steve Earle, Joe Strummer, and, duh, Kirsty MacColl.
But wait! There's more: You'll also get unreleased soundtrack recordings from Sid and Nancy, rarities from the films Garbo and Straight To Hell (yeah, remember those?), alternate versions of songs you already own like "Fairytale Of New York" and "Rainy Night In Soho," and a heaping helping of live recordings. Still not enough, huh?? Well, how's about if they smother some never-before-released covers on top of that hot heap of tracks, like The Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe In Magic," Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction," and The Faces' "Maggie May?" The deal can't get any sweeter than that. Just think how much drinking and dart-throwing you could get done while these discs play out! The Pogues rule.
See the complete tracklist, in all of its relevant glory, here.
Summer dates w/ beer gardens:
