Wolf Parade Announce Tour; I Get Closer to a Complete Set
By Kid Midnight on Sep 4 2008
I’m hoping that, by the end of the year, I will have accomplished a “complete set, mint” of all the news Spencer Krug feels fit to be in. In my personal quest to cover all Krug-related reports throughout the interweb and world as a whole, I have a couple brand new items for you! First off, Wolf Parade recently announced a quick little Euro-Trip throughout November and early December. Hopefully when they get back to North America, they’ll feel withdrawal from hamburgers and play throughout the States so I can see them live... so I can feel whole again. Here are the dates!
My second bit of news is a tad more on the personal side. While shopping at a “local” drug store, I observed Krug buying toothpaste and aspirin. I also scored a righteous interview:
Kid Midnight: Hey Spencer, can I call you Spencer? Wow! I love all your music! What’s going on?Spencer Krug: Stay away from me, I got the court order.
Kid Midnight: But... I... I love you...
Napster Looking for Buyer… Again
By Julbucket on Sep 4 2008
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Seekers of free/unrestricted digital music, Nostalgic People, Rich People, lend me your ears!
I come to bury the current Napster, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Napster... The noble Julbucket
Hath told you Napster was ambitious
For Julbucket is an honorable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Napster’s funeral...
In 1999, He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
He hath brought many record labels home to court
Whose lawsuits did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Napster seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Napster hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Julbucket says he was ambitious;
And Julbucket is an honorable man.
Help Julbucket buy Napster.
I Would Go Out Tonight, But I Haven’t Got a Management Company Anymore: Morrissey and ie:music no longer BFF
By Liz Louche on Sep 4 2008
Life is a process of giving and giving up, of growing and growing apart. As we get older, relationships change, and what may have seemed like the perfect partnership yesterday might seem, in some indiscernible way, to have gone irretrievably in the wrong direction tomorrow. Many of us learn these truths from teenage serial dramas such as Gossip Girl or Judy Blume novels. Others of us -- namely Tim Clark and David Enthoven of artist management firm ie: music -- learn when prized roster addition Morrissey departs from your company after only three months.
Yes, it's been a tough year for Morrissey. So if you see him, give him a hug and my cell phone number, so that we can meet up in a dimly-lit 15th-century pub and direct cutting but affectionate witticisms at one another into the wee morning hours. Because, as you may or may not know, Morrissey has not been having the best of luck lately. His most recent completed work, Years of Refusal, was slated for a fall release on Universal music, but was later pushed back to February 2, 2009 for "unspecified reasons." At this date, no North American label has agreed to release the project . To make matters worse, Warner Bros. -- Moz's former label -- announced this year the DVD release of Live at the Hollywood Bowl, which the former Smiths frontman decried to Billboard as being planned "without any consultation to me whatsoever, and in breach of their terms as laid out by themselves in an agreement made for the film between Warner and my ex-manager." And since, as they say, bad things come in threes, this story wouldn't be complete without a mention of how Years of Refusal producer Jerry Finn passed away last week.
Wow! What a cheery story this has been! My offer stands, Morrissey. You pick the place, I'll pick the absinthe, or red wine, or whatever it is I happen to imagine you drinking at the moment. And to any Minneapolis/St. Paul radio stations who happen to be reading this story, please play "This Handsome Devil" today while I am at work; it has been stuck in my head for a little over two weeks.
Mount Eerie Adds 61-Date Tour to Single Date in Idaho, Considers Combining Single Date and Tour into One Giant Mega-Sized Tour
By Mr P on Sep 3 2008
When not doodling or making music, Phil Elverum (a.k.a. Mount Eerie) is apparently booking tourdates. Beginning today, Elverum will head out on a gigantic tour that'll take him everywhere from the beautiful beaches of Idaho to the caves of Norway. As previously reported, Elverum will be touring with WHY? for part of the tour and later with Julie Doiron (picked to appeal to Hilary fans?), who will also perform with Dick Morello as Calm Down, It’s Monday for most of the dates. The Music Tapes, who inspired me to get all verbose a few weeks ago (TMT Review), will play a stripped-down show with him September 15 in Athens.
Capitalist that he is, Elverum is selling some of his new, COMMODIFIED tunes on the tour too, including his mini-album with Doiron and Fred Squire Lost Wisdom (in stores October 7) and Dawn (November 4). Don't like to go out? Spoiled, anti-social misanthrope like me? Thankfully, P.W. Elverum & Sun expects to implement a download store in the near future "where you can buy digital albums with extreme direct-ness, and featuring some rarities." It's kinda, like, shattering the glass ceiling into 18 million pieces or something. So inspiring. Things are changing. New politics. Hope, change, mavericks, blah blah blah.
Drawing by Phil Elverum, as part of [Fancy People Adventures for Arthur Magazine]
All the RIAA Wants for Christmas is Your Privacy
By Heidi Vanderslice on Sep 3 2008
The RIAA knows no Santa Claus. Instead, they look to the G8 summit for their holiday wishes, and should they get their way, it'll be like a stocking fulla coal for the rest of us. The RIAA has been jonesing for a little something called the Anti-Piracy Trade Agreement Wishlist (ACTA) for awhile now. Let's take a look at the juiciest pretty pleases, shall we?
Require internet service providers and other intermediaries to employ readily available measures to inhibit infringement in instances where both legitimate and illegitimate uses were facilitated by their services, including filtering out infringing materials…
This means that your ISP, whether it be Time Warner or Comcast or any other provider, would be able to compare the files you download to a fingerprint database of sorts that identifies "infringed" material. So, not only would the RIAA slap you with a lawsuit, but you'd also get into some shit with your internet service. Kind of like a SWAT team breaking down the door before the cops come in and haul you out.
Establish, adequately fund and provide training for a computer crimes investigatory unit.
That's right. The internet police. Specially trained cops whose purpose is to weed out pirates on the internet. Better make sure Madonna doesn't lose a single album sale before we worry about the country's ballooning crime rate, right? Totally. Not to mention that the RIAA has been incredibly vague about what this crime unit would actually do, and we all know that, in this sort of situation, carte blanche is never a good idea.
…in the absence of proof to the contrary, an Internet service provider shall be considered as knowing that the content it stores is infringing or illegal, and thus subject to liability for copyright infringement…
Here's the kicker: Even if ISPs help the RIAA take down their customers who download illegally, they themselves can STILL get screwed for not identifying the offenders quickly enough! I'm not quite sure what incentive the RIAA is willing to offer these ISPs other than "do it or we'll punch you in the face." We're reverted to schoolyard bully tactics. Awesome.
I could keep going, but quite frankly, the list speaks quite well for itself. Oh, and hey, RIAA? Just met your buddy over here. Yeah, he appears to be green and has a heart that's about two sizes too small...
