The initiative is backed by a slew of labels, fans, and, of course, bands. Founding supporters include Ted Leo, Death Cab for Cutie, Calexico, the Donnas, the Wrens, Kathleen Hanna, Jimmy Tamborello, the Locust, Bob Mould, Boots Riley of the Coup, R.E.
M., Kronos Quartet, Rogue Wave, John Doe, and many, many more. New bands and labels are joining every day; right now, they re up to 256 bands and 59 labels.
Given the web s penchant for subjectivity, bias, and Which Laguna Beach Girl Are You? quizzes, the concept of net neutrality can be confounding. Here s a primer on what exactly the FMC is raging against: the big telecommunications interests would very much like to collect money from webhosts in exchange for higher bandwidth, making those sites that could afford it lightning fast and those who couldn t deathly slow.
Thus far the internet s been a real playing-field-leveler for folks on a shoestring budget (ahem); record sales notwithstanding, the web s allowed no reason why couldn t conceivably enjoy the same kind of online presence as . But with major-label money thrown into purchasing bandwidth, the tables would turn toward those with mad cash-- not unlike television and radio. Hence the uproar.
In a March 27 teleconference, Rep. Markey-- joined by loveable loudmouth , founder Derek Sivers, and FMC executive director/musician -- detailed Rock the Net s involvement in his own proposals. Markey, chair of the , is seeking to craft legislation that would keep this bandwidth-borne payola from becoming reality, and swears that help from Rock the Net and its cadre of conscientious artists will be invaluable.
Mr. Leo, taking the role of eloquent elder spokesman, chimed in that the ability for a musician in my position to actually reach people is entirely wrapped up in the concept of a network..
.in the past, of course, it was infinitely more difficult to do this..
.what we ve seen-- in really the last five years but even in the last decade-- has been an incredible flowering of independent music s ability to reach the people who are not just willing but interested to hear it. Leo pointed to the increased difficulty this kind of artist-centric networking would face were the telecom companies successful in their aims.
For additional information on Rock the Net s goals, artists and events-- and to find out how you can help-- check out the initiative s . Sign the , or be prepared to have to wait hours to get your favorite band s website to load.
Plus: Thermals, DJ Shadow, Explosions in the Sky, Vitalic, Justice, Digitalism, Notwist To a native English speaker, the idea of a smacks of as much joy as a Daughtry/Nickelback/Hinder triple-bill.
So imagine our surprise when we found out that not only is Dour a city in Belgium, but that Dour s festival-- now in its 19th year-- packs such shiny happy people as the Rapture, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and the Thermals.
Coming live and direct July 12-15, the Dour Festival is anything but; its sprawling roster and reasonably-priced parking are sure to slap a smile on any gloom-mongering fest-goer. Full-fest and individual day tickets are available now, there s onsite camping to be had, and you ll encounter delicious, fluffy waffles everywhere you turn.
C mon, get happy: the Rapture, Wu-Tang Clan, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Thermals, Autechre, DJ Shadow, Explosions in the Sky, Justice, Clark, Digitalism, SebastiAn, Venetian Snares, Converge, Vitalic, KRS-One, Mates of State, the Notwist, the Young Gods vs. D a lek, the Cinematic Orchestra, the Frames, Erase Errata, ADULT., Midlake, Wolf Eyes, the Congos, Erol Alkan, Tiefschwarz, Goldie, Stereo Total, Uffie Feadz, and .
In anticipation of the June 5 release of on , Pitchfork writer Matt LeMay s are offering their three most recent tour EPs as free, high-quality MP3 downloads for one week a piece at .
The Rude Reach and Do As I Tell You are both currently available, and Challenges You to a Game of Basketball is still to come. Unfortunately, you don t get the awesome plastic basketball game that came attached to the 3 CD version of the latter EP.
After the last EP goes offline, the band plans to post another Arms Down track to follow the 2x2 .
Get Him Eat Him are planning a full summer tour in support of the new album, and they currently have three dates scheduled. The first is in New York City on May 4.
Art Brut, Voxtrot, the Besnard Lakes, CSS, and Bonde do Role are just a few of the bands who will play Brighton, England s massive from May 17-19.
Great Escape will feature over 150 artists at 20 venues across the city, rocking you by night, and chatting to the people by day in special interview sessions.
Among the other artists slated to descend on Brighton: Annuals, British Sea Power, 120 Days, Dan Le Sac vs.
Scroobius Pip, Future of the Left, Loney, Dear, the Rakes, the Magic Numbers, Good Shoes, Priestess, Elvis Perkins, Nouvelle Vague, Archie Bronson Outfit, Les Breastfeeders, Hello Saferide, Land of Talk, Micah P. Hinson, Help She Can t Swim, Noisettes, James Yorkston, iLiKETRAiNS, and a band called (seriously) DANANANANAYROYD.
For the festival s full lineup, visit the Great Escape website .
I say don't you know / You say you don't know / I say, take me out aren t bashful about their love of baseball; this reporter has personally witnessed at least a couple boozy soliloquies from Mr. Craig Finn pitching woo towards his treasured Twinkies. (As have most people who have seen the band live, probably.
) But one suspects no one in the Hold Steady organization ever expected they d have a night at the ballpark quite as massive as Monday s, when the boys punchdrunk pre-recorded riff on Take Me Out to the Ballgame thundered through speakers at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. That s some shit right there.
According to MTV.com, the band apparently has a fan in Twins musical director Kevin Dutcher, who, having already pegged Massive Nights for last night s Twins home opener, implored Finn and company to take on Take Me Out to the Ballgame. In typical nonchalant, dude-ish fashion, he agreed, telling MTV, the Hold Steady, we re all sort of sports guys.
.. we re more likely to be drinking beer and eating wings and watching baseball rather than collecting some obscure 7-inch.
Bro s got your number, Meloy.
Finn also told MTV, I think a lot of the players choose their own music, and generally speaking, baseball players don t have the coolest music taste. I think You can watch Finn-- King of Beers in hand, per usual-- moan his way through Take Me Out to the Ballgame via MTV (see link below).
In other Hold Steady news, they re , , , and probably down for some more tallboys.
The folks of clearly aren t fond of humility (although puns are apparently fair game). Still, if they haven t schemed up the finest European megashow weekend of the summer, they ll have their hand in an awfully big cookie jar fulla lies.
Their three-day, eight-stage festival, curated by BBC Radio 1 s , will unroll September 7-9 at Newport, England s Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight. Will Bestival live up to its vainglorious name? Only time will tell, friends.
Willing to take em at their word? Pack your boogie-shoes, as the emphasis at Bestival seems to be on all things danceable; sporting a DJ list as long as your arm and trumpeting tail-transporting headliners Beastie Boys and the Chemical Brothers, Bestival wants you to get down. There s some fine rock bands, too, and a whole bunch of reggae, and the way-awesome Plastic Little, and, well, maybe this will be the Bestival after all.
After their mainstage evening performance, Beastie Boys are slated to play a Sunday-afternoon instrumental set in the fest s Big Top tent, which, I guess, is . Full weekend tickets are available now, although the festival will not-- as they have in previous years-- be issuing single-day admissions.
Bestival highlights: Beastie Boys, Chemical Brothers, Robyn, Bonde do Role, the Gossip, Figurines, Fujiya Miyagi, Electrelane, the Orb, Plastic Little, the Rumble Strips, Tunng, the Maccabees, Billy Bragg, Horace Andy, Gregory Isaacs, Fields, Bat for Lashes, and Simian Mobile Disco, plus DJs Carl Craig, Erol Alkan, Luke Vibert, James Lavelle, and more.
Scope the complete lineup . Cloud Cult Tour, Let Us in on Meaning of 8 Way back in October, that Craig Minowa and his twinkly Twin Cities sect would issue their sixth album, , sometime this spring. If the chirping of blue birds and all that melted snow lining your trouser-bottoms weren t enough of a tip off, spring has sprung.
That means Meaning of 8 will finally reveal itself April 10, this coming Tuesday.
The band will reach out to their cult following for a month on the road, starting on release day in Columbus, Ohio. Then in June, they ll perform in a tent during a marathon in Duluth, Minnesota.
A marathon!
There s really only two reasons to have missed out on s neverending road trip at this point: you either don t hold with bouncy, spunky reggae-tinged pop, or you just aren t trying very hard.
Stragglers rejoice and nonbelievers take heed: though she s been rolling for roughly a year now, Lily shows no signs of slowing down, and the recently announced glut of late-spring U.
S. dates will offer yet another chance to get in on all the Smile -inducing public intoxication.
Lily s sticking close to the East Coast for the just-tipped shows, sandwiched between a slot at Coachella and one at Bonnaroo.
One suspects the gaping holes between a few of these dates could be caulked-up with more shows, but given all the recent references to recording on , she may very well just be thinking follow-up.
As we previously reported, Lily s got both her clothing line and on Dizzee Rascal s Maths English sewed up. She s also paired with fellow clubkid-turned-artist for one of his trademark batty-sounding covers, Kaiser Chiefs Oh My God, set to anchor his debut full-length Version, due April 16.
Lily and Ronson, in addition to their friend, DJ/producer , will DJ at the afterparty for her NYC show on April 11. It goes down at Love, 179 Macdougal at 8th.
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Andrew Bird Leaves Armchair for U.S., European Dates
Admit it, you looked up apocrypha in the dictionary, too Soon, -watchers o er the Atlantic will get a chance to cozy up to those whistlin lips and that silken bow hair.
Bird will wing across the pond for a paltry seven stops around Europe on the tail of his string of U.S. dates.
Only seven? Sounds to me like somebody hit #76 on the Billboard album chart and got to pony up vacation money.
Recent album title notwithstanding, Bird s no lazy boy; he just dropped the elegant , he s rolling around on a bus fueled by old french fry fat, and he s got some film thing going on.
Insert your own early bird catches the worm joke here, if you so desire.
today, this time leaving guitarist bereft and weeping. The culprits apparently broke a window at Krief s Montreal rehearsal space, which he shares with one Mike Nash, running off with pretty much everything save a few cords.
Krief s no doubt upset about the whole ordeal, but one loss Krief on his , is my White Fender Stratocaster. I cried for hours about losing it. It has extreme sentimental value, and I don t know how I ll go on with out it.
16 people (friends and family) pitched in to buy me I m on a serious hunt for that guitar, I m trying to gather some reward money, but I m pretty broke right now...
I can safely say that I ll have it back. The guitar is pictured above, and in detail below. Keep in mind, added Krief, that these people might change minor details on the guitar, but the serial number is listed below.
Indeed, check out the complete gear list with serial numbers just after the jump. If you have any leads whatsoever, please contact the man via his . a few shows lined up, which are still on as of the moment.
The Dears, meanwhile, play the TELUS Spin festival in Mont Tremblant, Quebec on April 7, and Mexico City s Polyforum Siqueiros on May 12.
As any member of the iGeneration knows, you never quite own a digital audio file and poof, your privilege is gone. Try to play it on another, retailers on your Pod-- if you didn t buy it from somewhere enlightened, that s just crazy talk.
bugger known as DRM, which stands for Digital Rights Management, which refers violations or personal freedom, depending on whom you ask. Apple s iTunes uses what s known as FairPlay (ha) DRM when coding its files, and the Well, no April Fools joke here-- DRM s stranglehold over at least one major label s digital tunes will soon come to an end. Sort of.
According to various reports, CEO Steve Mac Daddy Here s the rub, however: these files, higher in quality, will sport a fetching What s more, EMI will continue offering DRM-infected fare at the regular rate. Still, baby steps. Baby steps.
We think our customers are going to love this, said Jobs-- who has blamed DRM for stifling digital music sales-- at the press conference, and by the end of this year. We can probably expect that many, if not most, independent labels will gladly follow suit-- they re already selling their tunes DRM-free over at eMusic, Insound, Bleep, Rough Trade Digital, etc. Will they want to charge more for the privilege, like EMI?
We ll see. Do you have a news tip for us? Anything crazy happen at a show you attended recently?
Do you have inside info on the bands we cover? Is one of your favorite artists (that's not somebody you know personally) releasing a new record you'd like to see covered? You will remain completely anonymous, unless we are given your express permission to reveal your identity.
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