Merge to Jizz Out Volcano Suns' First Two Albums on CD for the First Time

By Mango Starr on

No, not The Ruby Suns and, no, not Joe Versus the Volcano (a 1990 film starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, and Lloyd Bridges -- fucking great movie). I'm talking about Volcano Suns, a Boston group founded in 1983 by Mission of Burma's drummer Peter Prescott. Likened to groups like Hüsker Dü (Hüsker who?), Volcano Suns released six albums from 1985-1991 with a revolving cast of musicians.

Their first two albums, The Bright Orange Years and All Night Lotus Party, were originally released on Homestead Records, but Merge Records will do the band the honor of jizzing all over the albums January 27, 2009, just how the band always imagined. This will mark the first time the albums see release on CD, and this ain't no shitty vinyl rip using one of those shitty USB turntables either. Both discs will be remastered by Bob Weston, world-famous musician/engineer who at one point played bass for Volcano Suns.

Bonus tracks are expected, but here are the original tracklistings to get you in the mood.

The Bright Orange Years original tracklist:

I really want to watch Joe Versus the Volcano again.

Web-Friendly Musical Scores to Hit Internet, Provide Adequate Short-Term Politico-Economic Distraction to the Truly Poor and Nerdy

By Nobodaddy on 10-08-2008

Attention band geeks, comp majors, and idealistic grade school music teachers with ’70s hairstyles everywhere! Get ready to flip-on the 4th movement of Beethoven’s 9th and rejoice! NoteFlight, a flash-based service for composing, editing and sharing musical scores online -- which is also, I might add, free to use if you sign up for the beta version -- is here to spruce up that lonely ivory tower of yours. No Faustian pact with the devil required!

Once you've registered for that free account, you can truly let your questionably-legitimate esotericism run (relatively) wild! Shame and embarrass the tiresome, life-ruining work of those great, consumptive Romantic composers by dragging notes onto a music staff to create scores, playing them with your computer's keyboard, editing the notes with the click of a mouse, and sharing them with others within the site's database using a simple URL! You can even embed a finished score right onto your cloyingly doting ‘Rachmaninoff Rules!’ fansite if you’d like. Then, wherever fellow geeks, er, devotees encounter your score, they'll be able to play it back as if they were on the main site, even if they don't have an account. This video does an every-good-boy-does-fine kinda job of explaining the site's basic features. All you have to do is sign up, bone up, and wham-bam! You’ll be shitting-out hits like Shubert shit-out lieder.

"Making music is not a solitary pursuit -- nearly everyone who works with music eventually wants to share it," stated NoteFlight founder and presumably fruitless comp. student Joe Berkovitz. "As both software creators and musicians, our team knows how painful it is to share notated music online today. That's because most musical applications treat the Internet as an afterthought: they’re geared to saving your music on your hard disk, not to sharing your music with other people." Software creators and musicians?? Man, these guys probably know how painful a lot of things are!

But seriously folks, NoteFlight plans to launch a paid version of the service eventually, although certain features will always be free to use. Apparently, if you sign up for the beta, you get grandfathered in and won't have to pay later to register. Which is good, because if you’re excited by this product, odds are you’re poor as hell.

NEW TELEFON TEL AVIV ALBUM NEWS + TRACKLISTING + TOURDATES + MYSPACE LINK + BAND PAGE LINK = THIS NEWS STORY

By Scout Leader Kyle on 10-08-2008

- NEW TELEFON TEL AVIV ALBUM NEWS:

New Orleans electronica ambient magic duo Telefon Tel Aviv are back after five years, and they have a new album called Immolate. Which is totally rad! They're releasing the album January 20 on Bpitch. Yes!

- TRACKLISTING:

- MYSPACE LINK:

http://www.myspace.com/telefontelaviv

- BAND PAGE LINK:

http://www.telefontelaviv.com

Herman Dune Have Already Played Their Canadian Dates; America To See You Soon

By Trillian on 10-08-2008

Apologies for the weak pun, and apologies to those Canucks who rely on a U.S.-based internet music zine for their tour news, because you have indeed missed some Herman Dune shows. Perhaps you should keep more of an eye out, so then next time you won't miss out on the sassy musical stylings of David-Ivar and Neman Herman Düne again. I don't know, maybe you were worried about the polar bears or your igloo melting and failed to notice that France's premier anti-folk band are hitting up North America in support of their upcoming album, Next Year In Zion. It certainly isn't my fault.

Nothing to regret for those of us in God's chosen country! All U.S. dates are with lovely and talented Texan Jolie Holland (we won't talk about her involvement with The Be Good Tanyas). And, as for all you Canucks, you've lucked out: some Canadian dates have just been added to the tour.

Next Year In Zion will be released in the States October 21. Here's the tracklisting:

Clinic Collaborate with Animator Clemens Habicht as Planetarium of the Soul on Upcoming Tour

By Mango Starr on 10-07-2008

Ade Blackburn and his cronies in Clinic are once again setting their sights on YOUR money with a relatively short European stint in November. But this ain't no typical stint. This tour will see Clinic collaborating with animator Clemens Habicht as Planetarium of the Soul, which is being dubbed as "live music and animation bleeding together in a contemporary vortex of psychedelic sight and sound." Sounds uh-mazin'!

Clinic's latest, Do It! (TMT Review -- it got , FYI), was released earlier this year on Domino, and the album's third single, "Tomorrow," will be unveiled November 24, just as the Planetarium of the Soul tour wraps up. The single will include a DFA remix, some new music, and a video by Wiz.

Most importantly, however, Clinic opened for Radiohead back in the day. Yep.

Planetarium of the Soul tourdates (all dates with Threatmantics):

DiMA & NARM Stand Up for Fair Use of 30-Second Song Samples; Find Inspiration After Watching Erin Brockovich on TBS

By David Nadelle on 10-07-2008

Market instability, oil price lunacy, hearing 30 seconds of 30 Seconds to Mars... it doesn't take much to get some organizations in a huff over what they believe to be their bucks. Music's publishing bodyrollaz like ASCAP and BMI are always trying to get paid in the name of protecting their musical charges, but it looks like they may be in for a fight when it comes to screwing royalties from those intent on using 30-second music clips. In an amicus brief filed jointly by DiMA (Digital Media Association) and NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) last month, the two groups asked a federal court to apply "fair use" with regard to the use of 30-second song samples on the internet.

"DiMA supports fair compensation for copyright owners," states DiMA Executive Director of Jonathan Potter. "DiMA members pay tens of millions of dollars in royalties to songwriters and publishers for online music sales. But the performing rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI and SESAC) who represent songwriters and publishers demand additional payment for the preview clips that facilitate these online sales."

The legal action stems from an ASCAP vs. AT&T case, which has the telephone/DSL/wireless giant fighting for its right to use 30-second ringtone and ring-back-tone song previews. Amicus briefs contain pertinent but unsolicited information filed by "friends of the court" in order to get judges to consider broader legal implications and third-party ramifications when making their decisions. In this instance, DiMA and NARM would like a federal district court, in deciding the AT&T case, to consider protection and fair use for internet retailers that use 30-second song preview clips. If the courts decide on the side of ASCAP, then it may mean a double payday for publishing houses and songwriters in the future.

Lay back and let Potter further seduce you with his amicus brief impetuses:

Internet retailers sell an extraordinary percentage of all recorded music. The iTunes Store is America’s largest music retailer, and Amazon.com, Best Buy and other DiMA members use 30-second clips to sell both CDs and digital downloads. If ASCAP succeeds in pressing its demand for a new payment for these previews, Internet music retailers would be disadvantaged simply because they are selling online, and songwriters and music publishers would be getting a royalty for the preview on top of the appropriate and well-deserved royalty that is paid when the music itself is sold.

The joint filers hope the federal court will see the possible benefits of protected use of these 30-second clips. Essentially this is free promotion for the artists, songwriters, and publishers themselves and could only help to sell their products in the long run. But the law is an unpredictable, prickly beast. For instance, a court found O.J. Simpson guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping last week. That guy's never done anything wrong!

Be careful the next time you fart... an ASCAP stooge may request royalties on behalf of someone like Daughtry or something.

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