Ever since Radiohead released In Rainbows in a pay-what-you-want format, bands and record labels have sought out new ways to use the Internet to their advantage. Often times, this occurs in the form of PR agencies emailing bloggers links to “exclusive” MP3s, which then become recycled throughout the blogosphere. Then there are the Nine Inch … [Read more…]
The past few years, one word has come up constantly in conversation about today’s pop music: Balkanization. Be it another teeny-indie scene given the tag “glo-fi,” or another subset of Brooklyn bands revisiting the aural atmosphere of ’60s garage pop, the message remains loud and clear: As micro-scenes develop within pockets of our society, our … [Read more…]
A lot has been said about the musicians who have joined The National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, but none of them are quite as deliriously out-of-touch-and-context with what Keep America Safe‘s director Debra Burlingame told The Washington Times [via TwentyFourBit]: “It’s almost laughable to think that heavy metal bands like Nine Inch Nails and Rage … [Read more…]
The behind-the-scenes (or rather, behind-my-thoughts) on the Boston PhoenixĂ‚Â piece I did on scrunk and Warped Tour is still to come, but consider this a little preview. A lots been said online since the piece went on the net about scrunk/crunkcore and its impact on Warped Tour, which isn’t to say that my article caused these … [Read more…]
The Jealous Sound have confirmed a rumor I tracked down a little while ago: they are in fact touring with Sunny Day Real Estate and sharing bass players, one Nate Mendel. Whoa, is Mendel trying to one-up his bandmate Dave Grohl on the how-many-bands-can-I-perform-in-at-one-time? So far, Mendel’s got Foo Fighters, SDRE, and The Jealous Sound… … [Read more…]
Nine Inch Nails/A Perfect Circle drummer Josh Freese may have grabbed headlines for his unusual promotional tool for promoting and covering the costs for his new album, Since 1972. For a certain price, you could get anything from a digital download of the album ($7) straight to a weekend with the man himself, mini golf … [Read more…]
In honor of free slurpee day, I’ve decided to do a (rather brief) post on free music. Since Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want, online release of In Rainbows last October, the idea of artists offering their albums for free has been at the forefront of almost any article relating to popularly consumed music. It could be a simple … [Read more…]