From my old pal Wag, this meme:

(I note the American slant - we don't have prom here and so on - but still fun)

If your life were a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...

( Cut for length and the meme-allergic. )

One of the great bands of our time calls it a day:

' The Montreal post-rock innovators have called it a day, but not for the reasons of 'musical differences' cited by many retiring bands.

Instead, founder Efrin Menuck declared that the band had become untenable due to "an existential freakout" relating to the Iraq war.

Menuck told Drownedinsound: "The last American tour that Godspeed did was in the run up to the current war in Iraq. For what Godspeed did, it was very difficult for us to work out a way to communicate directly with the audience about what was going on."

He continued: "We could talk to people after the shows, or we could make announcements from the stage, but so much what Godspeed was, was one-way communication, and I had an existential freakout about that, that those tactics aren't valid anymore.

"People didn't need a rock band pointing in the direction of (how the world was at that point). Maybe what they needed is some clumsy words, a presentation that was a little more human."

But Menuck hinted that personal issues between the members also played a part in the decision to split: "On a personal level I now find (Godspeed) to be inappropriate. There's a complicated back story. I reached a point whereby I was no longer willing to contribute to the steering of the ship; it was like, 'Okay now, someone else point the direction, I love you all, but I need to ride shotgun for a while'. I think that bands do have a short shelf life." '

Some of my readers may recall me pimping the Saul Williams (Trent Reznor produced) download album Niggy Tardust a while back. The deal was this - free or pay $5 for better quality mp3/FLAK lossless version.

Trent just released the data from this little experiment (which Radiohead, so far, have not for In rainbows):

"Saul's previous record was released in 2004 and has sold 33,897 copies.

As of 1/2/08,
154,449 people chose to download Saul's new record.
28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning:
18.3% chose to pay.

Of those paying,

3220 chose 192kbps MP3
19,764 chose 320kbps MP3
5338 chose FLAC

Keep in mind not one cent was spent on marketing this record. The only marketing was Saul and myself talking as loudly as we could to anybody that would listen.
If 33,897 people went out and bought Saul's last record 3 years ago (when more people bought CDs) and over 150K - five times as many - sought out this new record, that's great - right?
I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence. If that assumption is correct - that most of the people that chose to download Saul's record came from his or my own fan-base - is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I'm not sure what I was expecting but that percentage - primarily from fans - seems disheartening."

I know that I d/loaded the free version, as I'd never heard Saul's work - and immediately after finishing listening to it, went back and paid my $5. I'm not the only one, according to the comments thread
By way of comparison:
When Radiohead did the In Rainbows pay-what-you-want deal, I paid $7. I would have paid more for Tardust - and I like In Rainbows.)

Seems even more likely - even if the stats are right and less than one-in-five paid - that the next NIN release will come out in a similar way. Then it gets interesting.

The RIAA has told a court that ripping your CDs to MP3 format is "unauthorized" and illegal, in a brief filed with the Arizona US District Court where Atlantic Records is suing Jeffrey and Pamela Howell. This is the opposite of what they said last court case...

More, of course, on Slashdot and the usual suspects.

The White Stripes - Conquest.

'Embedding disabled by request', YouTube sez - click here for the viddy, my droogs.

Contains bullfighting scenes and implicit bestiality. And Meg smirking in that adorable way she does.

First, the Zombeatles with 'A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead'



And then Send More Paramedics give us their rendition of 'Nothing Tastes Like This'



Want more? Google 'zombiecore'!

"NiggyTardust"

Or rather, "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!" by Saul Williams, produced by Trent Reznor.

Only available as download - either free and medium quality (192Kbps) mp3, or $5 for either 320Kbps mp3 or FLAC lossless audio. If this is the kind of set-up Trent will be using for the next NIN album, I'll be happy.

It's an excellent album, mixing intelligent, literate rap and serious rocking... and Trent covering 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', which is fun. And you really can't beat the price.

Another fine big woman celebration - in the form of a Romanian RnB track from the rather lovely Miss Platinum.

Here's the video - watch for the cameo from the number 23...

My lovely and gravid ex lucybond found this while seeking music to pacify her foetus.

It's They Might Be Giants, plus Texan head-banging accordion player Corn Mo, covering one of my favourite (and still one of the oddest) pop hits of the 70s - Hocus Pocus by the Dutch band Focus. This pleases me inordinately.

I'm sure most of you have heard about 'In Rainbows', the new Radiohead album only available online, either as a £40 box set limited edition thingy or as a *pay what you want* MP3 download.
Here's my review of the latter - copy of a comment to www.warrenellis.com:

I liked it - but I was a fan anyway.

Standout tracks for me were ‘Bodysnatchers’, ‘All I Need’ and ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’ - though there wasn’t a track that grabbed me in the same way as ‘Exit Line…’, ‘Street Spirit’, ‘National Anthem’ or ‘Pyramid Song’. (I also couldn’t spot an obvious single on there… though that’s not always a bad thing.) Overall it was a good mix of pre- and post-OK Computer flavours.

As for the distro technique…
I didn’t have any trouble signing up yesterday (though I thought it odd that the form insisted on a mobile phone number rather than a landline). Got the download link this morning, pulled the zip file in two minutes.
I think this ‘tip-jar’ model (though hardly original to Radiohead) will go far.

It’ll be interesting to see what a recently-fired-by-his-label Trent Reznor does for the next NIN release…

Oh - and I paid a fiver.

Amusing, troubling... and extra points for the UK-to-US translation!

' The UK-based Performing Rights Society—a group that collects royalties for publishers, songwriters, and composers—has accused a car repair chain named Kwik-Fit of copyright infringement because mechanics were regularly found to play their radios loud enough for others to overhear the music.

The PRS claims that it has logged over 250 incidents of Kwik-Fit employees audibly playing music since 2005. "The key point to note, it was said, was that the findings on each occasion were the same with music audibly 'blaring' from employee's radios in such circumstances that the defenders' [Kwik-Fit] local and central management could not have failed to be aware of what was going on," the judge in the case, Lord Emslie, told the BBC. "The allegations are of a widespread and consistent picture emerging over many years whereby routine copyright infringement in the workplace was, or inferentially must have been, known to and 'authorised' or 'permitted' by local and central management."

The PRS insists that the fact that the music can be heard by others amounts to a "performance" of the music in public—something that is not allowed unless the business has the proper licenses to do so. Such a license would cost Kwik-Fit roughly £30,000 per year, the PRS told The Scotsman in June. When multiplied by the number of years that the business has allegedly been violating copyrights, the PRS says that £200,000 would make a reasonable sum. '

Felt the need for a little industrial moment and found an old friend...

Ministry, "Jesus Built My Hot Rod".

After a funny but also annoying work matter (further deponend sayeth not, but I will say that the words 'quantity surveyor' have achieved a whole new layer of high-larity...) this was a treat to fin.

Via Boing Boing, here is the video for Barnes and Barnes's 'Fish Heads'.




Yeah.