Mario Speedwagon’s Under The Radar News Roundup: Wierd Records, Mark Kozelek, Napster, TorrentValley.com, and Thrill Jockey

This week we have anniversary parties, websites shutin’ it down, old dudes releasing solo records, Thrill Jockey signing another band who met in art school, and more!

- Wierd Records in New York is turning five years old. To celebrate, it's having an anniversary shindig at the Music Hall of Williamsburg November 21, 2008, featuring Blacklist, Xeno & Oaklander (I kind of wish it was Xenu, like that Scientologist bullshit,) and Led Er Est. Doors are at 8:30, jams start at 9:30, and it's $10.

- Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon and the Red House Painters is dropping his latest LP, The Finally LP, December 9, 2008 on Caldo Verde Records. Party.

- So, I totally forgot Napster existed, let alone that people still use it (same as Friendster... really?) Anyway, Miram Hall Patel -- the chick who ruled that peer-to-peer music sharing services “knowingly encorage[ed] and assist[ed]” the swapping of copyrighted music, therefore “destroying” the music industry -- decided we need to reform the policies of copyright licensing, royalties, and other shit by forming some music-industry-cheese-dick administration comprised of people with “competing interest” to set up new rules. Napster, really?

- TorrentValley.com has been “raided and shut down,” as reported by TorrentFreak. Oh well.

- Thrill Jockey continues to tear it up by signing Mountains. Mountains is a duo from Brooklyn-by-way-of-Chicago Art School and has been compared to “Brian Eno and Fennesz” (cool!) The group is preparing its third LP for a Thrill Jockey release of February 17, 2009.

Alright, I’m out, bitches.

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