The Pirate Bay Sold for $7.8 Million (Maybe)
By Jay on 06-30-2009
Earlier today, Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X announced in a press release that they are in the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay, the irreverent file-sharing giant whose recent "spectrial" resulted in guilty verdicts for all four co-founders. After several weeks of cat-and-mouse (including accusations from The Pirate Bay that the judge was biased due to an association with copyright lobbyists, a threat from co-founder Peter Sunde to sue Sweden for human rights violations only days ago, and the launch of The Video Bay, TPB's answer to YouTube), the controversial legal feud -- and, indeed, The Pirate Bay as we know it -- seems to be coming to an end.
What this means, exactly, is still very unclear, as ambiguous and somewhat contradictory statements come trickling in from Global Gaming Factory X and The Pirate Bay. Writes TPB in a recent blog post:
If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That's the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to. And -- you can now not only share files but shares with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That's awesome and will take the heat of [sic] us.
Meanwhile, CEO Hans Pandeya says that "[GGF] would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get
paid for content that is downloaded via the site."
Completion of the acquisition is expected for August 2009, "subject to GGF obtaining financing for" it.
More details are sure to be made available throughout the week. Stay tuned.
Dandy Warhols Tour Some States, Release 7-Year-Old LP
By Kat Gardiner on 06-30-2009
Well, he's finally done it. I like their tunes and all, but I think Courtney Taylor-Taylor of The Dandy Warhols has finally pissed off so many people that he is completely avoiding both coasts on his next tour. That's right, he's sticking to places like Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Sauget, Illinois -- places where there are still some bridges left to burn.
Their new CD, The Dandy Warhols are Sound, the "Director's Cut" of 2003's Welcome To The Monkey House, comes out July 14 on their own Beat the World Records. As describe on their website:
...late 2001 and into 2002 we recorded an album’s worth of tracks here in Portland and took those tracks to New York’s Electric Lady Studios to mix with famed mixing engineer Russell Elavedo, and the result of those mixing sessions was The Dandy Warhols Are Sound. We absolutely loved this record. However, Capitol, our label a the time, did not. They opted out of using our preferred mixes and remixed the record on their own to create Welcome To The Monkey House, a great album that we, and most of you, also love. [...] We had always intended to release this unheard gem on our own, but life and other records and tours and babies and crepes and red wine got in the way. Now finally, after almost seven years, on July 14, 2009 The Dandy Warhols will be proud to present to you The Dandy Warhols Are Sound.
Tourdates:
09.01.09 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue Theater
09.03.09 - Kansas City, MO - Beaumont Club
09.04.09 - Sauget, IL (St. Louis, MO) - Pop's
09.05.09 - Oklahoma City, OK - Diamond Ballroom
09.07.09 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
09.08.09 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theatre
09.09.09 - Austin, TX - Emo's
09.11.09 - Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theatre
09.12.09 - Aspen, CO - Belly Up Aspen
09.13.09 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater (Monolith Festival)
Rhino to Release 63-Song Party, People! Factory Records Digital Compilation Is Industrial Strength
By David Nadelle on 06-30-2009
In 1980, Factory Records released The Durutti Column's The Return of the Durutti Column album in the now infamous Guy Debord-inspired sandpaper record sleeve. Although that is an awesome and inspired situationist packaging notion -- protecting the record from and destroying other records around it -- there will be no problems with sleeve chafing when Rhino Records releases Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 on July 7 because it is a digital compilation. We should clarify; July 7 is the issue date for "other" DSPs, but the collection is already available now, exclusively on the mighty iTunes. While Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 has already seen the light of day as a concrete, handable, audio format (um, a CD box set), this is the first time many of these tracks have been available in digital download form, if that is any sort of consumer lure.
Anyway, with a song list as good as is printed below, we won't begrudge Rhino for taking the opportunity to give the people what they might not think they want, but what they most certainly need. Alongside the big-time names (Joy Division, New Order, James, Happy Mondays) are equally crucial works by a number of acts whose post-rock cachet grows every year (Crispy Ambulance, Section 25, Stockholm Monsters, and the aforementioned Durutti Column). The set comes with a digital booklet with liner notes by former NME journalist Paul Morley and a track-by-track analysis by Factory Records historian James Nice.
Use Hearing Protection:
1. Joy Division - "Digital"
2. Cabaret Voltaire - "Baeder Meinhof"
3. Joy Division - "Glass" (2007 Remastered)*
4. OMD - "Electricity" (Remastered Original 7" version)*
5. Joy Division - "She's Lost Control"
6. The Distractions - "Time Goes By Slowly"*
7. Joy Division - "Transmission"
8. The Durutti Column - "Sketch For Summer"*
9. X-O-Dus - "English Black Boys"*
10. Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
11. Section 25 - "Girls Don't Count"
12. Crawling Chaos - "Sex Machine"
13. Joy Division - "As You Said"*
14. The Names - "Night Shift"
15. New Order - "Ceremony" (Original Version)
16. Minny Pops - "Dolphin's Spurt"
17. John Dowie - "It's Hard To Be An Egg"*
18. Crispy Ambulance - "Deaf"
19. Section 25 - "Dirty Disco"
20. New Order - "Everything's Gone Green"*
21. Tunnelvision - "Watching The Hydroplanes"
22. The Durutti Column - "Messidor"*
23. Royal Family And The Poor - "Art On 45"
24. Swamp Children - "Taste What's Rhythm"
25. New Order - "Temptation"
26. 52nd Street - "Cool As Ice"
27. New Order - "Blue Monday"
28. Cabaret Voltaire - "Yashar" (John Robie Remix)*
29. Quando Quango - "Love Tempo"
30. The Wake - "Talk About The Past"
31. New Order - "Confusion"
32. Marcel King - "Reach For Love"
33. Section 25 - "Looking from A Hilltop (Restructure)"
34. Stockholm Monsters - "All At Once"
35. Life - "Tell Me"*
36. The Durutti Column - "A Little Mercy"*
37. James - "Hymn From A Village"
38. Kalima - "Trickery"
39. Quando Quango - "Genius"*
40. Happy Mondays - "Freaky Dancin"*
41. Miaow - "When It All Comes Down"
42. The Railway Children - "Brighter"
43. New Order - "1963" (12" Version)*
44. The Durutti Column - "Otis"
45. Biting Tongues - "Compressor"
46. New Order - "True Faith"
47. Happy Mondays - "24 Hour Party People"
48. New Order - "Fine Time"
49. Happy Mondays - "W.F.L. (We Think About The Future)"
50. Revenge - "Seven Reasons"
51. Happy Mondays - "Hallelujah" (Club Mix)
52. Electronic - "Getting Away With It"
53. Happy Mondays - "Step On"
54. Northside - "Shall We Take A Trip"
55. New Order - "World In Motion"
56. Happy Mondays - "Kinky Afro"
57. The Durutti Column - "Home"
58. Electronic - "Get The Message"
59. Happy Mondays - "Loose Fit"
60. Northside - "Take 5"
61. Cath Carroll - "Moves Like You" (Remix)
62. The Other Two - "Tasty Fish"*
63. Happy Mondays - "Sunshine and Love" (Lionrock Remix)*
* previously unreleased digitally
Rhino to Release 63-Song Party, People! Factory Records Digital Compilation Is Industrial Strength
By Monocular Cognition on 06-30-2009
In 1980, Factory Records released The Durutti Column's The Return of the Durutti Column album in the now infamous Guy Debord-inspired sandpaper record sleeve. Although that is an awesome and inspired situationist packaging notion -- protecting the record from and destroying other records around it -- there will be no problems with sleeve chafing when Rhino Records releases Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 on July 7 because it is a digital compilation. We should clarify; July 7 is the issue date for "other" DSPs, but the collection is already available now, exclusively on the mighty iTunes. While Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 has already seen the light of day as a concrete, handable, audio format (um, a CD box set), this is the first time many of these tracks have been available in digital download form, if that is any sort of consumer lure.
Anyway, with a song list as good as is printed below, we won't begrudge Rhino for taking the opportunity to give the people what they might not think they want, but what they most certainly need. Alongside the big-time names (Joy Division, New Order, James, Happy Mondays) are equally crucial works by a number of acts whose post-rock cachet grows every year (Crispy Ambulance, Section 25, Stockholm Monsters, and the aforementioned Durutti Column). The set comes with a digital booklet with liner notes by former NME journalist Paul Morley and a track-by-track analysis by Factory Records historian James Nice.
Use Hearing Protection:
1. Joy Division - "Digital"
2. Cabaret Voltaire - "Baeder Meinhof"
3. Joy Division - "Glass" (2007 Remastered)*
4. OMD - "Electricity" (Remastered Original 7" version)*
5. Joy Division - "She's Lost Control"
6. The Distractions - "Time Goes By Slowly"*
7. Joy Division - "Transmission"
8. The Durutti Column - "Sketch For Summer"*
9. X-O-Dus - "English Black Boys"*
10. Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
11. Section 25 - "Girls Don't Count"
12. Crawling Chaos - "Sex Machine"
13. Joy Division - "As You Said"*
14. The Names - "Night Shift"
15. New Order - "Ceremony" (Original Version)
16. Minny Pops - "Dolphin's Spurt"
17. John Dowie - "It's Hard To Be An Egg"*
18. Crispy Ambulance - "Deaf"
19. Section 25 - "Dirty Disco"
20. New Order - "Everything's Gone Green"*
21. Tunnelvision - "Watching The Hydroplanes"
22. The Durutti Column - "Messidor"*
23. Royal Family And The Poor - "Art On 45"
24. Swamp Children - "Taste What's Rhythm"
25. New Order - "Temptation"
26. 52nd Street - "Cool As Ice"
27. New Order - "Blue Monday"
28. Cabaret Voltaire - "Yashar" (John Robie Remix)*
29. Quando Quango - "Love Tempo"
30. The Wake - "Talk About The Past"
31. New Order - "Confusion"
32. Marcel King - "Reach For Love"
33. Section 25 - "Looking from A Hilltop (Restructure)"
34. Stockholm Monsters - "All At Once"
35. Life - "Tell Me"*
36. The Durutti Column - "A Little Mercy"*
37. James - "Hymn From A Village"
38. Kalima - "Trickery"
39. Quando Quango - "Genius"*
40. Happy Mondays - "Freaky Dancin"*
41. Miaow - "When It All Comes Down"
42. The Railway Children - "Brighter"
43. New Order - "1963" (12" Version)*
44. The Durutti Column - "Otis"
45. Biting Tongues - "Compressor"
46. New Order - "True Faith"
47. Happy Mondays - "24 Hour Party People"
48. New Order - "Fine Time"
49. Happy Mondays - "W.F.L. (We Think About The Future)"
50. Revenge - "Seven Reasons"
51. Happy Mondays - "Hallelujah" (Club Mix)
52. Electronic - "Getting Away With It"
53. Happy Mondays - "Step On"
54. Northside - "Shall We Take A Trip"
55. New Order - "World In Motion"
56. Happy Mondays - "Kinky Afro"
57. The Durutti Column - "Home"
58. Electronic - "Get The Message"
59. Happy Mondays - "Loose Fit"
60. Northside - "Take 5"
61. Cath Carroll - "Moves Like You" (Remix)
62. The Other Two - "Tasty Fish"*
63. Happy Mondays - "Sunshine and Love" (Lionrock Remix)*
* previously unreleased digitally
Paul McCartney Gets Government Voucher to Exchange Gas-Guzzling, Acid-Laced Yellow Submarine for More Energy Efficient, Family Friendly, Hot Air Balloon Driven by a Frog
By Kat Gardiner on 06-30-2009
Sir Paul has announced that he is scoring a new children's film based on a book written by himself, Geoff Dunbar, and Philip Ardagh. The book and future animated feature, High in the Clouds, follows a group of lovably misfit and furry woodland creatures as they save the animal world through song. The original concept was born out of a song, "Tropical Island Hum," penned by the ex-Beatle and Linda, his charming, beautiful, dead wife who was born the voice of a flat-pitched child. Geoff Dunbar and McCartney have worked together in the past, with Dunbar directing and McCartney scoring the 1984 animated short Rupert and The Frog Song, most famous for The Frog Song itself, "We All Stand Together," which made it to #3 in the U.K. charts.
One quick disclaimer: if you are thinking that this is going to be a psychedelic trip into the second dimension, like that movie about a bright, underwater boat, think again. Despite the name of the film, the animals are not high (stoned) in the clouds, but rather high (up) in the clouds. In a hot air balloon. Children will look at you funny and parents will give you a death stare if you come into the theatre reeking of Northern Lights, Strawberry Cough, or whatever else your dealer sold you on, eyes all ablaze, laughing every time the little frog asks the little squirrel if he wants to get any higher.
The movie's set to be released on ex-New Line Cinema mogul Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne's new production company, Unique Features, and will be directed by The Lion King's Rob Minkoff, with script penned by Caroline Thompson of Edward Scissorhands fame.
