RIAA: Spies in My Window, Hoes In My Room
By Squeo on Jun 25 2007
The RIAA, fresh off its last lawsuit against the Lost Boys of Sudan, is finally tossing in the do-rag for Atlantic v. Andersen, the case against a disabled single mother from Oregon who lives with her nine-year-old daughter. Originally sued in 2005, Tanya Andersen was accused of downloading and sharing terminally phat beats through Kazaa, including Ludacris' anthem for all single mothers, "Hoes in My Room." Though Andersen denied the claim and further investigation dredged up no evidence, the RIAA charged forward for the next few years.
In October 2005, Andersen filed a countersuit, accusing the RIAA of fraud, racketeering, deception, and generally lambasting every other aspect of their pants-dropping agenda. An expert in forensics was called in by the RIAA to run tests on her lies, but the expert failed to find "any evidence whatsoever" that Andersen had even used file-sharing software, let alone sold her nine-year-old through Soulseek for a couple Quaaludes.
The case had been slowly coagulating until earlier this month, when both parties decided to dismiss it. The nice part of this story is that they dismissed the case with prejudice, which not only means that they both dislike Filipinos, but also that Andersen can now attempt to recover attorney fees. The RIAA's usual card-up-the-sleeve for a messy lawsuit is the ol' dismissal sans prejudice, which drops everything neatly, leaving the non-pirate destitute loaded with bills from the made-up lawsuit. With a dash of prejudice in the mix, Andersen could potentially win the attorneys' fee award, which is way better than getting into your high school's National Honor Society. She also plans on maintaining her counterclaim, buying chocolate milk at the store for her daughter and catching up on the last couple seasons of The Sopranos.
Holla to Andrew S for the tip!
Out of Print Hospital Productions Albums Re-Circulated, Nuclear Pig Shit Unfortunately Omitted, and Probably for Prudential Reasons
By Nutra on Jun 25 2007
If I'm not mistaken, Dominick Fernow (Prurient, Hospital Productions) and Megan Griffin (Nuclear Pig Shit) used to be quite the item — Providence, Rhode Island's noisiest couple, I'm sure. An analogy might help: John Olson (Wolf Eyes) and Tovah Olson (formerly, O'Rourke) are quite the item now (Dead Machines) and certainly no less noisy. I can't even fathom the patience necessary to persist in such a relationship, one that involves so many surface microphones, distortion pedals, and scraps of metal.
Sometimes, and such is life, the noise of a relationship builds to such an extreme that the coupling falls apart. In the case of Nuclear Pig Shit, a move to Madison, WI, it seems, separated ties to Prurient/Hospital Productions.
I hate to use a failed relationship — and sorry for putting it that way — but it will help me make a point about the noise idiom, or at least how the genre has been canonized up to this point.
On one extreme, we have the "masculine" (read: sexist), death-obsessed; and on the other, the "feminine" (read: spiritual), and life-affirming. Allow me to elaborate. There's the "Night Stalking the Unsilent Boneyard" of Burial Hex on the one hand, and the GHQ-ing of Marcia Bassett on the other. We have John Olson self-injuring himself onstage with a medieval mace, and the kneeling of the Vanishing Voice. These things come from similar origins, but end in very different places.
So, when Tovah skronks her shit or when Megan scrapes her shovel, we take notice — women in noise turn heads because they are seemingly an exception to the rule: we've seen the ol' 4-track-tape-into-the-looper into-the-homemade-distortion-pedal operated-by-a-black-clothing-clad-fatso before.
Okay, Okay, but with all of that said, Hospital Productions has unearthed some of the long sought-after releases of days yore — more so the heavy, masculine stuff, but still — many of which were made available at the recent No Fun Fest and are now back in some general sense of "circulation."
"Circulation" being very limited quantities, of course:
Prurient – "Lily of the Valley"/"Return of Happiness" 2x10 min. cassette
Prurient/FFH – Women in the War 30 min. cassette
Malkuth – Mutus Liber LP
The New Blockaders – Live at Anti-Fest one-sided LP
Akitsa – Gothie CD
Akitsa – Sang Nordique CD
Ahlzagailzehguh – Bypassing Time Passing LP
Air Conditioning/Vegas Martyrs/Coughs/The New Flesh – Tiger Tongue Pussy Cactus: Terminal Fanatsies for Malefic Youth LP
MB – Symphony for a Genocide CD
Beirut Announce New Album and Tour, Almost Daring You Not To Blog About It
By C. Schell on Jun 22 2007
Is Beirut the next Nirvana? Of course not. Christ, that has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Although both seem to have inspired more than a few imitators (you'll find Nirvana clones on radio stations and Beirut clones at house parties), Beirut haven't exactly gotten to meal storage-levels yet. In a way, since they are one of the newer the newer groups to inspire imitation, they kinda are the next Nirvana (stop throwing shit at me).... or at least the next At The Drive-In (stop it!). The point is that Beirut has defiantly risen to the level where others are trying to bite their style. So, what do they do next?
The info surrounding the group's upcoming second LP, coming out October 9, seems to point toward a new direction of sorts. The yet-to-be-titled album, the follow up to 2006's The Gulag Orkestar (Ba Da Bing!) was recorded in two separate sessions, one at The Arcade Fire's studio in Montreal and the other at the A Hawk & A Hacksaw practice space. While the first LP was done almost completely by Head of Band Zach Condon, this time the other seven members of the group (the, *cough* Orkestar), with extra orchestration and vocals from Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy, took part in the process.
Sound-wise, the album is said to be headed out of the Eastern bloc and toward more of a classic French pop (the group covers Jacques Brel on an upcoming UK single) sound. Somebody should write in a news story about how some group of writers should review a bunch of French Pop records for a whole month, making it seem like the newswriter came up with the pre-existing idea. Anyway, Beirut is taking eight people, two LPs, and one EP's worth of tunes -- and a lot of weed -- on tour this fall to promote the new record. Go to those shows and make sure to ask Condon what the hell a track zero is...
Title TBA tracklisting:
Tour dates:
09.23.07 - Princeton, NJ - Terrace F Club*
09.24.07 - New York, NY - Society for Ethical Culture (Wordless Music Series) *
09.26.07 - New York, NY - Delacorte Theater *
09.30.07 - Montreal, QU - La Salla Rosa *
10.02.07 - Toronto, ONT - Danforth Music Hall *
10.04.07 - Chicago, IL - Portage Theater *
10.08.07 - San Francisco, CA - Herbst Theater *
10.09.07 - San Francisco, CA - Herbst Theater *
10.10.07 - Los Angeles, CA - Avalon *
* Colleen
