What the . . .

We went to sleep and just woke up to find out that its a new year!

Merry Christmas; Happy New Year!

Best albums of the year were: M.I.A., The Perishers, Sea Wolf (thanks Singer), Arcade Fire, Interpol, Editors, Bat For Lashes, Blonde Redhead, Low, The Thermals, and of course, Sigur Rós & Radiohead. It was a good year for music.

So whats on the horizon?

Outside of Portishead and Morrissey—We'll see.

What the hell is going on?

We've been away for a few weeks and have way too many things to post. So, here's a overview of the many things we would have posted had we been around to do so.

• Led Zeppelin release another "new" compilation and sell out tickets to a one off reunion show.

• Morrissey cancels his last date of his tour in Florida, signs a new record deal and announces new tour dates in France and the UK. A new album will be out next year.

• Radiohead confirm that they will tour in 2008

• My Bloody Valentine schedule reunion tour and release a digital EP.

• Quite Riot lead singer Kevin DuBrow was found dead in his Las Vegas apartment.

Many more things happening, including a Sigur Rós Heima screening in Salt Lake City, that will be posted soon.

Radiohead webcast shows band preparing for tour

Several youtube postings from last week's webcast are fueling the likelihood that Radiohead is close to announcing their upcoming tour.

Check out the videos below:





And our favorite from the session—a Smiths cover:

Sigur Rós release Heima

We at The BGLC have had several Memorable Music Moments over the years. Now, when we say Memorable Music Moment, we are specifically talking about the first time we listened to something knowing that it had changed us forever.

A few examples:

X - Under The Big Black Sun (1982)
Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain (1983)
Cocteau Twins - Sunburst and Snowblind (1983)
The Smiths - What Difference Does It Make? (1984)
Bryan Ferry - Boys and Girls (1985)
David Sylvian - Secrets of the Beehive (1985)
Love And Rockets - Express (1985)
Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - Volume One (1986)
All About Eve - Martha's Harbour (1988)
Low - Long Division (1995)

We can remember the first time we heard each of the above recordings. What's more, we remember details, seasons, locations, relationships and circumstances of those moments as well. If we were to play any of these albums today, we can seemingly go back in time and be (in our minds, of course) back to that place and time. Hopefully you have had this experience as well.

While a majority of music over the past decade or more has been a horrible cornucopia of suck, there has been one beam of hope that has produced several Memorable Music Moments for The BGLC over the last 7 years.

Of course we are speaking of Sigur Rós.

In October of 2000 we heard Flugufrelsarinn off of Ágætis byrjun for the first time on Nic Harcourt's Morning Becomes Eclectic.

We could not believe what we were hearing and immediately ordered the album online from their Icelandic label.

The band has built a large following over the years by opening for Radiohead, appearing on the Vanilla Sky soundtrack, picking up awards by the arm loads and dazzling audiences with their impressive live appearances.

As if the music and live performances weren't enough to fill your head with magical aural and visual bliss, Sigur Rós will up the ante this month with their first film release, Heima.

While many music critics will categorize the film simply as a "documentary", Heima is a rare opportunity to see and hear these amazing artists not only preform live, but do so shrouded by the back drop of the dramatic landscapes of Iceland.

Filmed during their travels and tour of Iceland from July 24th through August 4th of 2006, Heima captures a tour that "was free to all-comers and went largely unannounced. Playing in deserted fish factories, outsider art follies, far-flung community halls, sylvan fields, darkened caves and the hoofprint of Odin’s horse, Sleipnir (The huge horseshoe canyon at Ásbyrgi was, according to legend, formed by the hoofprint of this mythical beast), the band reached an entirely new spectrum of the Icelandic population; young and old, ardent and merely quizzical, entirely by word-of-mouth."

Falling somewhere between the visual beauty of Ron Fricke's Baraka and the captured magic of Dead Can Dance in Toward the Within, Heima gives the viewer a look into a band (and a nation) that is widely misunderstood and have yet to receive their proper respect.

One could argue as well that the Icelandic Tourist Board should be paying royalties to the band for the future boost in visitors that will soon be landing in Reykjavik entirely due to this film.

If you haven't heard of Sigur Rós, this is the perfect opportunity to familiarize yourself with your next favorite band. If you have heard of them, then make sure that you get out and buy this film to share it with someone—and create your own Memorable Music Moment.

The film, Heima will be released on DVD on November 20 in the US. In addition to the film, a double CD, of studio versions of previously unreleased songs and acoustic studio versions of songs already released, titled Hvarf-Heim will be available on November 6.

Heima trailer

Radiohead's In Rainbows - Live

Well, its been a few weeks since Radiohead stunned us all with the "pay what you want" release of In Rainbows. If you are like us, you've been playing it quite frequently. Maybe too frequently?

To give the album tracks a fresh feel, maybe you'd like to hear them played live?

Thanks to The Rawking Refuses To Stop, you have the opportunity to do just that.

The fine folks at the Los Angeles-based MP3 and pop culture blog have collected live versions of the songs featured on In Rainbows and the soon to be released bonus disc in one zip file (see blog post for Oct 2, 2007).

If downloading a live version of In Rainbows makes you feel naughty, you can always go back to the official site and pay a fee directly to the artist to ease your troubled conscience.

Has CNN been checking into The Bruce Grobbelaar Leisure Centre?

Three days after our post entitled The RIAA, Jammie Thomas & Radiohead, CNN (yeah, the news agency) posted this article in their "entertainment" section.

Entitled "Are record labels dead?", the article touches on a few items that seem almost TOO coincidental to the points made in our posting.

We're not claiming that we are the only people out there writing on how record labels are evil or how bands like Radiohead can put them in the poor house, but this article has got us thinking that we need to do some mulling over our Analytics a little more closely.

In Rainbows: Worth it's weight in Platinum!

According to Pitchfork, Radiohead's In Rainbows had over 1.2 Million downloads on it's first day of release. While actual sales figures have yet to be released (if they'll be released at all) we feel its safe to say that they have a hit CD on their hands . . . again.

A full review of the album is currently in the works. Until then, we can let you know that the album "Kicks A"!

If you haven't gotten it yet, stop reading this and go here and get on it—Chop Chop!

All hail Pitchfork!

There are a lot of items and topics that we at The BGL centre intend on discussing in the future: Favorite albums, favorite live shows, how we were introduced to a song/artist, where our blog name comes from, opinions, reviews and news.
Basically—we intend on discussing everything music.

If its not clear as of yet, this is a music based blog.

Today, we want to pay hommage to the best music news site on the internet: Pitchfork.

They are, without question, THE source for music news, reviews and interviews online (and offline too).

TOP 5 REASONS WHY PITCHFORK RULES:

5. They are fast! Not sure how everything is set up, but they get the word out almost as it happens.

4. They know their stuff. Seriously—it doesn't matter the genre, they seem "un-stumpable".

3. They are witty. Everything always comes together really well and usually comes with a giggle or two.

2. They cut to the chase. Never any fillers; it's all meat.

1. They always have access to the right people when it matters most.
Example: On the day of the most talked about album release of the year, they offer up info on an interview with Jonny Greenwood about In Rainbows . . . that happened today.

So, here's to you Pitchfork! Because you continue to rock, we salute you.
(Yeah, okay. We'll keep working on our summary statements.)

www.pitchforkmedia.com

The RIAA, Jammie Thomas & Radiohead

Last week The Recording Industry Association of America (or RIAA) won a "key victory" in its fight against copyrighted song sharing.
Jammie Thomas, a 30-yr-old Brainnard, Minnesota mother of 2, was ordered to pay $222,000 ($9,250 for each of the 24 songs focused on in the case) in damages to the six record companies named in the suit.
The suit claimed Thomas had broken copyright laws by sharing music on the peer-to-peer site Kazaa.

We were a little surprised as we read more about this decision. Could you imagine being in this woman's place? What really got our goat was this quote from Richard Gabriel, the lead attorney for the music companies.

"This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not OK."

Let's read that again.

"This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not OK."

First off; "our recordings"?
We're sorry Dick, we weren't aware that your clients actually MADE the music your suing over . . . Oh, wait. Oh, we see what you mean. THEY OWN the music. Sorry; our mistake. We just assumed that when you said "our recordings" that you meant that they were the actual recordings made by the people you represent and . . . yeah—our fault . . . we just . . . you know . . . I mean, you did say "our recordings".

So, Mr. Gabriel, you feel it's "OK" to go after single individuals and pursue fines that probably equal 5-8 years of income for said individual? What kind of message does that send?

We'll get to "sending messages" in just a minute.

Now, we're not saying that Jammie Thomas is innocent. We suppose it's possible that her network connection could have been hacked. But that's not really the point.

This is the point: THE RIAA IS WRONG.

We know we live in a capitalist environment, but the music industry has had it wrong for so long that they are blinded by their own greed. They don't even recognize it.

They don't care about the artists!
They don't care about the music!
And if there was any doubt—this case surely proves that they don't care about their customers!

The RIAA has been sticking it to us for decades.

First, the artist.
It used to be a symbiotic relationship. The artist got the promotion that came with the elusive record contract; the record company got the money that came with promoting their label roster. Along the way, it started becoming a numbers game for the labels. The more bands signed, the more money coming in. But that wasn't enough for them. The labels started self-imposed "requirements" for bands. If they wanted the contract, then they had to agree to the labels terms (which could include everything from "sharing" publishing rights, reaching sales quotas in the labels favor before the artist is paid—which if the album doesn't sell leaves the artist with debt for everything, i.e. no risk to the label, and a ton of other possible bull crap). The industry has created an environment of insanity where if a release doesn't go gold, it MUST be a crappy album. So, does that sound like a group of people more interested in helping the artist or in filling their overstuffed pockets?

Next, the music.
We can barely type this because thinking about it makes us ill. Have you listened to music today? Now, obviously, we're talking about the kind of music that the RIAA is so worried about protecting . . . you know—the money makers. With VERY FEW exceptions, it's an embarrassment. The industry isn't concerned with craft. It's all about what sells. And they've taken care of that too. They make the decision for you. "What do you mean?" you might be thinking. It's simple. They buy off the the radio stations. It doesn't help that nearly all commercial radio is owned by a handful of large corporate entities. It just makes it easier to keep it organized for the labels. If a radio station wants to be the first to receive the next "hot" release then they agree to play that title and other artists that the label says they will play. If a promoter or station wants a band to play their market on their next tour, then they better make sure that album sales are up or their city will be skipped. The label decides what is played thereby influencing a buyer's listening choice and habits.
Then there's television. If you've seen 10 minutes of any season of American Idol, it's easy to see what a majority of people consider "music". It's just ridiculous.

Lastly, the customer.
Whether it's the price of CDs, digital rights managed files on iTunes or taking people to court—the record industry hates their customers. If the record companies would have dropped the price of CDs 15 years ago, they could have bypassed, or at least stalled, the peer-to-peer music sharing that has put them in panic mode. People started sharing music online because the technology was available to make it happen and because people were tired of paying $16.99 (before tax) for a CD from the Sam Goody at their local mall (see, The Musicland Group files for chapter 11 for a look at your future, RIAA). CD prices are grossly inflated. There is no reason, other than greed, to sell a top 100 CD for more than $10. CDs should be priced in the $5-$7 range overall. We understand that there are soft costs: recording, promoting, management, design and operational fees. However, add those to the hard costs of several grams of polycarbonate plastic and paper and they're still covering everything at $5 a pop.
Then, there's iTunes. A great idea from Apple that is totally stymied by the record companies. You get to preview music and then buy it from the comfort of your computer! It sounded great until you found out that the record companies have required Apple to "lock" the file to certain restricted use. You couldn't just copy the file from your desktop to your laptop. You could only burn that file a certain number of times. And, if you were on a network, you could "share" your playlist with your co-workers, but they couldn't listen to those files unless you "authorized" their computer as well. Yeah, that sounds like something we want to buy.

And now they want to take individual people to court.

Well, things are about to change.

Tomorrow is October 10, 2007. This is the day that Radiohead, one of the biggest names in music today, is releasing In Rainbows, their 7th album. The thing that makes this release different from their past multi-platinum albums is that they are releasing it without a label. That's right—this album is completely funded by the band.

But wait, there's more!

It's also only available through their own website. That's right, no iTunes or any RIAA controlled entity is involved.

But wait! That's not all!

Wait for it . . . wait for it . . .

"How much is this album?"
YOU, THE CUSTOMER, DECIDE.
How unbelievable is that?!
You read that correctly. You simply go to the site, put in the amount that you WANT to pay and the album is then available to you via digital download. If you choose, you can also buy the "DiscBox" set that includes another disc, vinyl versions of the album, and some other items that will be available in December but it does include the digital download now.


So, here is our proposal.

It didn't take long for genuine music fans to put together a donation site for Jammie Thomas. As of writing this, she's gotten over 4K in just over 3 days. Go to her site and give her a buck or two to help her appeal or pay for the fine that has been disgustingly imposed on her.
Come on—you know you've downloaded a song before without paying for it. If everyone who has done the same gives her a dollar, she'll have plenty to pay for her own case and help the next poor sucker out there that's on the RIAA's list.

Next, go to this site and buy the new Radiohead. Not only is it a great deal, but all the money is going where it belongs: to the artists.

You remember how the RIAA's head lawyer talked about "messages"? How's this for a message—

To the Collective RIAA,
When all of your "big named" artists that you've created and supported start to realize that they can take the money they got from you, and release their next CD on their own—you no longer will serve a purpose or have relevance in the future of music.

That sounds "OK" to us.