By David Nadelle on Oct 31 2007
The five best things about celebrating All Hallows Eve this year:
5. The remote chance of a Meat Loaf sighting.
4. Those delicious UNICEF pennies people give out!
3. Seeing asinine costumes like this. And this. And this. And this. Oh, and this. Sorry, one more.
2. Silber Records’ Halloween compilation, Silber Sounds of Halloween. We like to give some love to this Raleigh, NC label when we can, because we like the cut of their jib, we like their moxie, and we like their free downloadable compilations full of noise pop, tone drones, and sound massages. With 30 artists and 130 minutes of music, it beats the hell out of a mini Snickers any day. The following songs are yours for the downloading here.
1. Lycia - The Dreaming Body
2. Peter Aldrich featuring Jon Harman & David Williams - Dawn of the Dead
3. Bryce Eiman - Itaint
4. Glissade - Flares
5. The Undermasks - Have You Seen the Ghost of John?
6. Planet Cock - Haunted House Song
7. Rachel Goldstar - Amsterdam
8. Miss Massive Snowflake - Magic at the Beach
9. The Wades - Sídhe
10. Robin Crutchfield - WitchingAndWalking
11. Attrition - what shall i sing?
12. Sorry Welcome - (Holy Is) The Lamb Who Was Slain
13. Arbus - I Was a Cyborg from Outer Space
14. Tara Vanflower - The Three Witches
15. Remora - A Few Notes from a Grave
16. Paolo Messere/Kiddycar - You Save Me From Understanding More
17. The Elysium Facade - Insanitarium
18. Promute - Rise Up
19. Lauri des Marais - Halloween Ball
20. The Zanzibar Snails - spectres gaping maw
21. Ocean City Defender - Low Tide
22. Cam Butler - Does Your River Run Deep
23. Not Them - Halloween
24. Gorgons - November Eve
25. Small Life Form - What's Your Real Name?
26. Drats!!! - Experiment
27. Mars Field - Fear is a Man's Best Friend
28. Thisquietarmy - As the Creatures Unravel from Within/Vampyr
29. Port City Music - Night Terrors
30. Electric Bird Noise - Moments Like Last Night Make Me Wanna Believe
in Ghost
1. This year and every year... Vincent Price’s “rap” in M.J.’s “Thriller”:
Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y’awl’s neighborhood
And whosever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse’s shell
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the Thriller!
Boohahahahhhhahahahahahah!!!
Travis Morrison Tour Gets A Rating Of Zero Point – Oh Just Go See The Show Already
By The Friz on Oct 30 2007
When the fourth Google hit for your name is an article on how destroyed your solo career is (on account of near universally bad reviews for 2004’s Travistan), it might be kind of a downer. I mean, does Toni Morrison have to endure such scrutiny? Far from it.
But then, a comical barrage of poor reviews was probably the quickest way to turn a smug critical wunderkind into a scrappy industry underdog. A rebranding of the "former Dismemberment Plan lead singer" to an "uncertain, possible, sort of eccentric genius," who, after writing most of the just-released All Y’All in "early 2005," went through "some unsatisfactory attempts to record them" then "stopped working on it" to sing in church choirs and volunteer around D.C.
America loves an underdog. And it’s a great day when you can cast the critics as the bad guys and keep going. "Morrison fights against evil indie empire establishment" in big marquee lights. Great stuff. I don’t even care how the new record sounds; I’ve already bought the hype. Plus, his band’s called the ‘Hellfighters.’
Study Says Music Industry Up! Earth Will Soon Be Available in Only MP3 Or Vinyl Format.
By Valley Girl Magic on Oct 30 2007
Looks like the only part of the music industry that's really going the way of the dinosaur is CDs.
Well, like, duh.
Some duder named Chris Anderson compiled this fine little list of stats:
- Concerts and merchandise: UP (+4%)
- Digital tracks: UP (+46%)
- Ringtones: UP (+86% last year, but probably just single-digit percent this year)
- Licensing for commercials, TV shows, movies, and videogames: UP (Warner Music saw licensing grow by about $20 million over the past year)
- Even vinyl singles: UP (more than doubled in the UK)
I've decided that soon the world will completely exist on the internet, and cities will become ghost towns. Vinyl will live on, but only through mail-order, and those vinyl people already never leave their houses anyway.
I guess the fact that concert sales are up kind of contradicts that ghost-towns-with-rebel-vinyl-collectors idea.
But then again, they could just do that "playing a show" thing on a sound stage and stream it. It'll happen.
I also predict the continuing increase of music being written only for ads and various products, to the point that bands cease to write songs that lack some kind of product placement or marketing potential. Cuz you know, people just really want to buy stuff.
The Rolling Stones to Release Album on USB (Not Through Victoria’s Secret), Parents Call You to Help Them Figure Out How to Use “This USB gizmo”
By Josh Fenderman on Oct 30 2007
You finally taught them how to send an e-mail. You got them to stop saying "YourTube." Thanks to you, they know not to trust anyone who claims to be the heir to a small nation's fortune. You thought they were setup and ready to happily live out their years Googling squash recipes and online shopping for L.L. Bean vests that you'll never wear. But that would be too easy.
Just in time for a confusing Christmas morning, The Rolling Stones come along and release another greatest hits compilation on a damn USB memory stick.
Rolled Gold+, a re-release of the 1975 hits package Rolled Gold with 12 extra songs tacked on, will be released November 15. The USB release is already listed on Amazon.com UK with a November 5 release date, but has yet to appear for pre-order stateside.
So, if you don't have Forty Licks, Hot Rocks, More Hot Rocks, Singles Collection: The London Years, or any other Stones collection of any sort, and you want an album that you have to plug into your computer and download to an MP3 player to play, then the Rolled Gold+ USB release is exactly what you've been waiting for.
The 40-track album will also be released on CD, which may be a better gift idea for moms and dads who have just recently been weened off the hi-fi.
Has anyone heard these songs before?
Mike Patton Voices Bionic Commando Video Game, Mutilates Hitler’s Head
By Squeo on Oct 30 2007
No, that sound you're hearing isn't overproduced metal riffs segueing into light tropicalia led by a snarling wolverine. It's the sound of a man with a very important mission, a free-world-affecting mission: to destroy the Badds using only his wits, his brute strength, and his extendable bionic arm that could potentially be used in inappropriate ways. Originally released for NES, Bionic Commando is now in development for all the next-gen systems (N-Gage, Amiga CD-32, Atari Lynx), and the game's developers felt that the only person qualified to voice a man-machine hybrid was a real-life freak of nature: Mike Patton.
Patton is no stranger to the world of videogames (some say he hosts the best LAN parties), as his voice has been used this year alone in both The Darkness and Portal, the latter of which would be in our Eureka! section if only it were an album. Patton was available for further elaboration on his role in Bionic Commando, but there was too much mustard on my sandwich this afternoon, and I have instead opted to lie down for a few minutes. More details to come, as soon as I take a shower.
