From The New York Times:
Willie Mitchell, who shaped the elegant yet gritty sound of Al Green, Ann Peebles and other stars of soul music as the house producer at Hi Records in the 1960s and ’70s, died Tuesday in Memphis, where he lived. He was 81. The cause was cardiac arrest, his son Lawrence said.
RIP: Vic Chesnutt
• Vic Chesnutt: http://vicchesnutt.com/home
• Constellation Records: http://cstrecords.com
• Donations: http://kristinhersh.cashmusic.org/vic
Torrent Provider Mininova Loses Court Battle, Deletes All Copyright Infringing Torrents
The idea of a "legal" torrent website sounds ridiculous. There, I said it. I mean, WHAT would be the point. Forcing a torrent website to go legal is a teeny little stab at the internet and all of its bounty, but let's face it: tackling one downloading service is like a particuarly hellish game of Whack-a-Mole. Or like plucking gray hairs. Or... you get the idea. But yes, you heard it right here: Dutch torrent provider Mininova has removed all of its torrents save for the few that had been uploaded through its content distribution service, making them officially a legal service.
Mininova's drastic decision resulted in their legal battle with Dutch anti-piracy program BREIN, who needless to say, won. Up until this point, Mininova was the web's largest torrent website, but in court BREIN made it more than clear that they wanted Mininova to start filtering their torrents to protect artists' copyrighted material. After the case went to court in June, the judge ruled in BREIN's favor, stating that the owners of Mininova were not themselves guilty of copyright infringement, but that they should remove torrents containing copyrighted material within three months or be fined five million Euros.
But like Wilco's digital strategist Ken Waagner says in Greg Kot's book Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, "The record industry suing file sharers is like the railroad industry trying to shoot down airplanes." And I think it's time for a resounding chorus of "enough said."
Sic Alps have been a pretty busy band these last couple years, releasing a double-LP comp on Drag City, a 7-inch on Slumberland, an LP on Siltbreeze, and 7-inches on Woodsist and Important. The prolificacy doesn't end with the physical releases, as they've been touring the U.S. and Europe constantly. So is it in any way doubtful that they are doing two tours in the next two months? No way!! West Coast only though, so yeah, too bad for us Midwesterners, East Coasters, and Southerners (and the rest of the world). Even worse for all of us non-West Coasters is the fact that they'll be hitting the road with none other than the Magik Markers and Sonic Youth.
Starting on December 9, the Alps and the Markers will destroy San Jose and then work their way north until they get to Olympia, WA on December 19. Then, in the year 2010, a.k.a. next year, they will hit the road with Sonic Youth, starting on January 4 in Tucson, AZ and ending things off in San Francisco on January 10. In fact, San Fran and LA will be getting a double dose of Sic Alps since they will be hitting them up on both tours, adding insult to injury.
Sic Alps and Magik Markers tour:
12.09.09 - San Jose, CA - The Blank Club
12.10.09 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place
12.11.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell *
12.12.09 - Oakland, CA - The Continental Club $
12.13.09 - San Francisco, CA - The Hemlock
12.15.09 - Sacramento, CA - The Hub
12.16.09 - Portland, OR - Eagles Lounge ^
12.17.09 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
12.18.09 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre ~
12.19.09 - Olympia, WA - Northern
* Foot Village
$ Gowns
^ Eat Skull
~ Shearing Pinx
Sic Alps and Sonic Youth:
01.04.10 - Tucson, AZ - The Rialto Theatre
01.05.10 - Phoenix, AZ - The Marquee Theatre
01.07.10 - San Diego, CA - The House of Blues
01.08.10 - Pomona, CA - The Fox Theatre
01.09.10 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
01.10.10 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
"We shout at the same bits of the news." - Stanley Donwood on Thom Yorke
