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Stories and comments across the archive that link to allmusic.com.

Comments · 276

  1. Say it with music! by Jay+Carlson · · Score: 5, Funny · on Greene's Grammy Speech Debunked
    I was daydreaming in a meeting the other day. Somehow, the complaints about the length of the show and the finger-pointing sermon collided. So I had this vision:

    Rosen and Valenti's corporate masters suggest that because it's a music show, next year's rant should be a musical number. They've even got the rights lined up for the appropriate song, with a few modifications.

    A band launches into the Squirrel Nut Zippers song "Hell"; the two mouthpieces bound onto stage, dressed in tuxes, carrying canes. They sing:

    (Cue swing/calypso music)

    Hell
    Innnn the afterlife
    You could be headed for the serious strife
    Now you make the scene all day
    But tomorrow there'll be hell to pay [...]
    Oh, the D and the M and the C and the A,
    And the S and the S and the S-C-A
    Lose your net, lose your games
    Then get fitted for a suit of flames!
    (The committee in charge of coming up with this was delighted by how little they had to change, but they couldn't quite figure out how to change "suit" to "lawsuit" and still have it sound right.)
  2. fgp by trollercoaster · · Score: -1 · on The Rise And Fall of Ion Storm

    first GOAT post.

  3. In Other News by Satai · · Score: 1, Offtopic · on MS Chief Security Officer to work for White House

    This is fairly reminiscient of other stupid crossover attempts by "artists" speaking outside their medium.

  4. Compare to Albini's "The Problem With Music" by no_such_user · · Score: 5, Funny · on Money in the Music Business
    Compare this to Steve Albini's somewhat infamous "The Problem With Music" article which appeared in print a few years ago. Here are links to it: (note that these are links to the same article -- pick one at random)

    http://www.mp3.com/news/222.html
    http://www.musicalevolution.8k.com/albini.htm
    http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
    http://www.ram.org/ramblings/philosophy/fmp/albini .html
    http://www.musicianassist.com/archive/article/ART/ a-1098-1.htm

  5. Re:Lame Names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Buses and Interconnects: The Next Generation

    It's already here.

  6. Re:Enterprise Theme song... by paranoid.android · · Score: 1 · on Farscape Signs for 2 More Years

    Because it was originally sung by Rod Stewart .

  7. not just feasible, inevitable... by smirkleton · · Score: 2 · on How Feasible is a Cash-Less Society?
    That we are even speculating about the feasibility of a cashless society should suggest to many of you that we live in very unusual times, but I suspect it is largely unremarkable. The very idea of a global cashless society has been, for students of apocalyptic prophecy, one of the truly unfathomable predictions in the whole of the Bible.

    Two thousand years ago, the last living Apostle of Christ, John, sat in permanent exile on the Island of Patmos, and was given a glimpse of the future of human history, which he committed to writing. It is our last book of the New Testament, called simply "Revelation".
    "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." (Revelation 13:16--18)

    At the time this was written, around AD 100, the "technological feasibility" of the prediction was simply inconceivable. Ironically, we are forced by the passage of time to instead consider the feasibility of predictive prophecy. And just as no one could imagine a worldwide cashless economy in AD 100, few can imagine that a prophetic vision of that economy could possibly be divinely inspired, now that we live in the enlightened year of AD 2001.

    We now see ourselves living in an age where we are asking feasibility questions about a cashless society. But for the most part, we aren't asking those questions in the context of prophetic expectation. Only a whacko would, right?

    The concepts of the "Mark of the Beast" and the Antichrist are well-known to most of us, but mostly as a pop-culture punchline. They were once concepts which inspired nothing short of terror in their consideration. They are now simply formulas leveraged for b-grade Hollywood horror films or are the basis for corny, "dangerous" deathmetal songs. As symbols and portents, they have been drained of their intrinsic terror and are now like Sartre's "Flies", which only have the power to torment those stupid enough to believe in their potency.

    Vexingly, the Christian would counter that the symbols HAVE to be drained of their horror and emptied of biblical context before the world is ultimately confronted with them in the actual- otherwise, they would not succeed in being adopted by the masses... That this very thread itself is contributing in a tiny but necessary way to the further proliferation of the idea of a global cashless society, softening our resistance, removing it from its original prophetic context.

    The non-believer is forced to laugh at the solipsism, the circular reasoning of the silly Christian who can not escape the bonds of dogma and should not be allow to infect others with their contagious Cassandra complex. So some old Jew-for-Jesus on an island made a lucky guess- is that any reason to become a paranoid, jabbering bible-thumper?

    Slashdot frequently touches on subjects that avail themselves, directly or indirectly, to the mentioning of biblical prophecy. But given the scientific disposition of many on /., it is considered intellectually suicidal to pose the question of how advances in science/technology might relate to prophetic events foretold thousands of years ago. Not so long ago, Slashdot had a post called "Barcode Tatoo(sic) as Permanent ID - Arrgh". It cited, disturbingly, that a Houstonian inventor had received a patent (#5,878,155) for "Method for verifying human identity during electronic sale transactions" . Many made mention of the fact that all UPC barcodes contain, according to the UPC standard, three 6s. The thread saw some mentioning prophecy, some mocking prophecy, and most of us on either side of the religion fence feeling a strange sense of disquiet. Because we sense our world moving towards a fearful destination, whether or not God is involved or interested.

    I would normally in closing offer a specific conclusion, but it seems only proper in this instance to instead simply ask a question. If a cashless society ultimately comes about, and if mankind is ultimately required to subject their very person to some physical alteration (be they barcode tattoos or microchip implants or what have you) in order to participate in the system, who would resist it? On what basis would anyone who didn't believe in prophecy, Antichrists, Hell or God, even resist?
  8. Re:What about PONG . by MOMOCROME · · Score: 2 · on Arcade Games Officially Over The Hill
    that reminds me of one of my favorite Frank Black albums Teenager of the Year , the opening track of which was titled 'Whatever Happened to Pong?' Great stuff.

  9. Good Thing.... by The-Bus · · Score: 2 · on Payola: Another Brick in the Wall
    ...I don't listen to radio. I've been blatantly anti-radio for the past five years or so, only playing the occasional college station or Philly's 95.7 Jammin' Gold (funk and r&b hits from the 60's and 70's). What passes for "music" these days on big market stations like (again, in Philly) Y100 (100.3) or Q102 (102.1) is absolutely deplorable. The only "new" music station I like is WHFS in Washington DC and Baltimore, although I haven't heard them in the past 3 years so it's possible they've changed.

    Yes, I may feel a bit out of touch ("What? You haven't heard the new Staind song?") but it pays off in the end. Less ads clouding my time, more good music. Hunting for new music is something I do out of word of mouth or trial through MP3. Had it been for radio, I would not have found out about Badly Drawn Boy or Grandaddy.

    The way I see it, for those people who truly enojy music, radio is but a small stepping stone in the path to enlightenment (not to say I am "enlightened"). It comes early, and is very optional.

    So, what can you do? Get mp3s by new artists to listen to, listen to college/community radio, loan CDs from your local library, ask your friends what they listen to and likewise, share your music with everyone else. Radio is lazy and creatively broke, and has been for a long time.

  10. Good Thing.... by The-Bus · · Score: 2 · on Payola: Another Brick in the Wall
    ...I don't listen to radio. I've been blatantly anti-radio for the past five years or so, only playing the occasional college station or Philly's 95.7 Jammin' Gold (funk and r&b hits from the 60's and 70's). What passes for "music" these days on big market stations like (again, in Philly) Y100 (100.3) or Q102 (102.1) is absolutely deplorable. The only "new" music station I like is WHFS in Washington DC and Baltimore, although I haven't heard them in the past 3 years so it's possible they've changed.

    Yes, I may feel a bit out of touch ("What? You haven't heard the new Staind song?") but it pays off in the end. Less ads clouding my time, more good music. Hunting for new music is something I do out of word of mouth or trial through MP3. Had it been for radio, I would not have found out about Badly Drawn Boy or Grandaddy.

    The way I see it, for those people who truly enojy music, radio is but a small stepping stone in the path to enlightenment (not to say I am "enlightened"). It comes early, and is very optional.

    So, what can you do? Get mp3s by new artists to listen to, listen to college/community radio, loan CDs from your local library, ask your friends what they listen to and likewise, share your music with everyone else. Radio is lazy and creatively broke, and has been for a long time.

  11. Legos should do right by the Maori... by smirkleton · · Score: 2 · on Who Owns Your Culture?

    ...by building gigantic Lego casinoes on their reservations in New Zealand which only the Maori are allowed to own and operate.

    In seriousness, however, one wonders whether the motivation for "protecting their culture" derives from a sense that to merchandize the Maori traditions / icons / language / etc. actually cheapens the traditions (et al), or that only they, the Maori, should be allowed to merchandise and profit from their culture?

    I suspect it is the latter. I visited New Zealand for my honeymoon, and certainly saw a lot of signs that they were comfortable profiting from the "curiousity trade" around their culture. I don't say this cynically or dismissively- they were quite gracious to tourists and more than hospitable. One is left to assume that at this point, their culture itself is one of the only things with which they are able to generate an economic return. They can choose to remain a part of the Maori tribal community, and generate decent livings by simply preserving their culture and allowing tourists to 1) pay to be a part of a giant Maori banquet 2) buy various handmade Maori crafts 3) etc... OR they can leave and join the New Zealand community (which many do) and get jobs in the service sector (cab drivers, hotel workers, retail, etc...)

    Whatever the case, there may be a bright side to this whole thing. It would seem that perhaps there is a chance that this might ultimately result in a ban on Styx's 1978 album "Pieces of Eight", which featured the stone-faces of Easter Island prominently on the cover, and included a hokey-mystical-pseudo-prog-rock instrumental called "Aku Aku" at the end. In any case, it gratuitiously uses Maori symbols and words, to no coherent end. I find great joy in the hope that perhaps this Maori legal wrangling might ultimately result in the removal of this album from circulation, most particularly because it contains Dennis DeYoung's cornball classic of self-affirmation "I'm Okay". THAT deserves to be banned.

    Then again, maybe banning that album wouldn't be such a good idea, since it might result in an INCREASE in the sales for "Kilroy Was Here", a concept album about a future in which albums are banned and rockers forced underground.

    Clearly, there is a lot riding on the outcome of this issue. Don't let it end. I'm begging you. Don't let it end this way-hey-hayyyyyyy.

  12. Legos should do right by the Maori... by smirkleton · · Score: 2 · on Who Owns Your Culture?

    ...by building gigantic Lego casinoes on their reservations in New Zealand which only the Maori are allowed to own and operate.

    In seriousness, however, one wonders whether the motivation for "protecting their culture" derives from a sense that to merchandize the Maori traditions / icons / language / etc. actually cheapens the traditions (et al), or that only they, the Maori, should be allowed to merchandise and profit from their culture?

    I suspect it is the latter. I visited New Zealand for my honeymoon, and certainly saw a lot of signs that they were comfortable profiting from the "curiousity trade" around their culture. I don't say this cynically or dismissively- they were quite gracious to tourists and more than hospitable. One is left to assume that at this point, their culture itself is one of the only things with which they are able to generate an economic return. They can choose to remain a part of the Maori tribal community, and generate decent livings by simply preserving their culture and allowing tourists to 1) pay to be a part of a giant Maori banquet 2) buy various handmade Maori crafts 3) etc... OR they can leave and join the New Zealand community (which many do) and get jobs in the service sector (cab drivers, hotel workers, retail, etc...)

    Whatever the case, there may be a bright side to this whole thing. It would seem that perhaps there is a chance that this might ultimately result in a ban on Styx's 1978 album "Pieces of Eight", which featured the stone-faces of Easter Island prominently on the cover, and included a hokey-mystical-pseudo-prog-rock instrumental called "Aku Aku" at the end. In any case, it gratuitiously uses Maori symbols and words, to no coherent end. I find great joy in the hope that perhaps this Maori legal wrangling might ultimately result in the removal of this album from circulation, most particularly because it contains Dennis DeYoung's cornball classic of self-affirmation "I'm Okay". THAT deserves to be banned.

    Then again, maybe banning that album wouldn't be such a good idea, since it might result in an INCREASE in the sales for "Kilroy Was Here", a concept album about a future in which albums are banned and rockers forced underground.

    Clearly, there is a lot riding on the outcome of this issue. Don't let it end. I'm begging you. Don't let it end this way-hey-hayyyyyyy.

  13. Discovering music that radio ignores by Mumble01 · · Score: 1 · on Napster Spurs CD Sales; Gets Sued Again Anyway

    After scanning a list of albums released in one particular genre during a given week (Releases on Jun 05 2001), I have come to the sad conclusion that American radio is too homogenized, corporate and rigidly programmed to play between 50-75% of what's out there. It is often literally impossible to sample or be exposed to "new" music (new to me, anyway) simply because most of it never receives a single airing.

    Thankfully, a few adventurous radio stations like KPIG and XPN exist in college towns and smaller markets and they continue to play little known artists (admittedly within their format) and anything that strikes their fancy. And I'm grateful that many of these last remaining outposts of musical education allow me to broaden my horizons by streaming their signal over the web.

    Services like Napster allow piracy, of course, but most people enter and leave that greedy stage of their lives fairly quickly because they eventually have better things to do. Napster's more useful and subtle killer feature is the ability to sample any song before buying it. Why didn't the music industry give consumers the ability to do this years ago? I've seen some pilot systems but nothing that caught on in most shops I visited over the years.

    Therefore, Napster helps introduce prospective music buyers to bands they have only heard about by word of mouth or while visiting a friend with different musical tastes. "What's this band Dead Can Dance all about? How should I know? They never get much airplay on the radio."

    For example, one of my favorite guitarists Johnny A. covered the song "Memphis" during a show a few weeks ago and since then I haven't been able to get it out of my head. The song was a bit before my time so I asked my father who made it famous and he told me Lonnie Mack. Seeing a shrinkwrapped CD in a music store didn't do much for me so I signed onto Napster and downloaded the song. "Hey, this is great!" I thought to myself after listening to the MP3 file, and after returning to the store I'm now the proud owner of "Memphis Wham".

    There's a sale the music industry would have never made if it weren't for my ability to try before I buy. So these lawsuits are yet another example of modern culture's tendency to be penny wise and pound foolish.

  14. Microsoft Windows Media Player by jark · · Score: 3 · on Gracenote Reponds Regarding Roxio Lawsuit

    Windows Media Player will obtain CD artist and track title information, just as most other similar software will do. Reading over the feature list for WMP7, the use of CDDB is not mentioned at all. Even ZDNet noted this in a review of WMP7. Seems that Microsoft didnt want to pay Gracenote either and has chosen to use AMG, though I am sure that Microsoft did pay a license fee of some sort. Regardless, it sure is interesting how Gracenote seems to have let Microsoft slide and chosen not to even attempt to tackle a lawsuit against them for not using their service yet they are pissed at Roxio. Nice of them to be convenient with their choices of who is infringing and who is not.

    Guess they figure that Microsoft has too much money to invest in lawyers, as compared to Roxio, and therefore they would probably risk too much in litigating against the big boys in Redmond.

  15. Collaborative filtering? by dave-fu · · Score: 2 · on Open-Source "Ratings & Recommendations" Software?

    Heard the buzwords, tried the systems... at the end of the day, I'm consistently unimpressed. The best that I've seen is All Music which finds stylisticaly similar albums and does a more or less good job.
    P.S.: the age of mana from VCs is long since over. Here's where I'd recommend you come up with something smarter than "we're running headlong up against Amazon with a recommendation system that we found somewhere on the internet" for your business plan if you're at all serious about this.

  16. Steve Albini? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1 · on Searching for Pro-Napster Experts and Speakers?

    I remember watching a panel discussion on Chicago's WTTW not too long ago, and local independent producer Steve Albini (Pixies, Wedding Present, etc) took a very pro-music-sharing stance during that discussion. I imagin he'd be a very interesting speaker to listen to.

  17. Nerds, I swear... by Enoch+Root · · Score: 3 · on Quickies Knows Quickies. Quickies is Quickies.
    If you had made a Mouse on Mars reference instead, you would have been cool and hip on avant-garde techno culture. But noooo... You had to make it an Anime reference!

    --Enoch Root, both nerd and hip

  18. Re:This article is about 25 years out of date. by rfsayre · · Score: 1 · on Burning The Candle At Both Ends
    Actually, the PC can do what a Mac could do 10 years ago, what some rented analog gear could do 15 years ago, and what the punks started doing over 25 years ago.

    Actually, this is totally wrong. Price out some of the lower end Digidesign or MOTU cards/racks, then tell me how far that amount would have gotten you 25 years ago (adjusted for inflation, of course). The big difference is that your home recorded music can end up on CD sounding good rather than a self released cassette. Remember those?

    Since, the "near death" of Apple a couple years ago, most major third party hardware and software is available for both Windows and Mac OS, with the same functionality. And yes, you do need third party hardware, even on the Mac. To name a few of the major players: Steinberg, Emagic, Opcode, Sonic Foundry, etc.

    A short history on music production and distribution:
    blah, blah, blah

    This amusingly myopic regurgitation of dated rock critic wisdom is so terrible that I'll bring up only the worst points of it and then point you to some good resources so you can get a better handle on things.

    The major problem with your "history" is that it neglects to mention black people until Public Enemy and NWA. Don't forget that the black community has played a major role in the invention of every American music, from jazz to rap to techno. Furthermore, they've had their own distribution channels in the past, and still do today.

    While perhaps making for convenient comparisons to Britney, et al. , your explanation of the differences between AM/FM and 33/45 are grossly exagerated and, in some cases, incorrect. A lot of this has to do with the fact that you forgot black people, whose music is often more appropriately presented in a singles format.

    Perhaps you best check out these places:
    All Music
    The Mechanic's Guide to Putting Out Records, Cassettes and CDs
    Home Recording at About.com

  19. Re:Are Linux reviews fixed? No more than others. by cmpgn · · Score: 1 · on Are Linux Reviews Fixed?

    People prefer to read reviews that are positive, especially if they have recently purchased the item being reviewed. Nobody likes to rush home and then read that their newly purchased item should be reserved for dolts and fools.

    For instance, when I purchase a CD that I am unsure about (I haven't read any reviews, I'm buying on the artists name only), one of my first reactions is to head over to AllMusic to see how the cd stacks up. I know it's shirking my duty as an "individualist", but I find it reassuring when my purchase is reviewed favorably. It's a little ego trip that I indulge in. Consumers are looking for the same thing in their reviews.

  20. Anyone remember Sigue Sigue Sputnik? by uqbar · · Score: 1 · on Embedding Ads In MP3s?

    On Sigue Sigue Sputnik's album Flaunt they sold ads between each album cut.

  21. Re:it is new in the sense that you can stop it by bort13 · · Score: 1 · on AOL Class-Action Suit Over Pop-Up Ads

    I use the Proxomitron, which is an effective Windows-based filter, but it has difficulty with secure pages. Its license requires you to listen to some music, but is otherwise free.

  22. Re:we do create music by fReNeTiK · · Score: 1 · on More Napster Updates

    Well REM happens to be one of my favorite rock bands as well actually. I try really hard to not lock myself into one musical style, so you'll often find me listening to Ravel and Kraftwerk within the same half hour.

    There are times when I'm looking for a particular atmosphere, "spacy" is the only way I can describe it, and the best music to create this is electronica. May I suggest this excellent mix album by Sasha and John Digweed, or any work by the mythic Future Sound Of London (any geek simply has to love a band who names one of it's albums ISDN!)...

    ... Jean Michel Jarre, Banco de Gaia, Earth Nation, Aphex Twin, Yello, etc.

    BTW, when I talk about music with my younger brothers, I often feel like an old schumck as well. They're all into Drum&Bass or Big Beats, while I still enjoy classic 170bpm hardtrance alot. Lucky for me, there seems to be some sort of revival going on right now, whith guys like Mauro Picotto having some success.

    I sometimes try to imagine how ridiculous I will look like in 20 years (I'm in my early twenties) when I'll still want to go to raves. This annoys me to no end, then again, fuck it.

  23. Re:we do create music by fReNeTiK · · Score: 1 · on More Napster Updates

    Well REM happens to be one of my favorite rock bands as well actually. I try really hard to not lock myself into one musical style, so you'll often find me listening to Ravel and Kraftwerk within the same half hour.

    There are times when I'm looking for a particular atmosphere, "spacy" is the only way I can describe it, and the best music to create this is electronica. May I suggest this excellent mix album by Sasha and John Digweed, or any work by the mythic Future Sound Of London (any geek simply has to love a band who names one of it's albums ISDN!)...

    ... Jean Michel Jarre, Banco de Gaia, Earth Nation, Aphex Twin, Yello, etc.

    BTW, when I talk about music with my younger brothers, I often feel like an old schumck as well. They're all into Drum&Bass or Big Beats, while I still enjoy classic 170bpm hardtrance alot. Lucky for me, there seems to be some sort of revival going on right now, whith guys like Mauro Picotto having some success.

    I sometimes try to imagine how ridiculous I will look like in 20 years (I'm in my early twenties) when I'll still want to go to raves. This annoys me to no end, then again, fuck it.

  24. Music IS collaborative. music IS open source by shellac · · Score: 1 · on Open Source Leaders Speak About Napster
    From the article:
    The fact that programmers associated with free software would take such a strong antipiracy position may surprise some people, who assume that Linux and the like are somehow vaguely socialist. But rather than believing that proprietary, for-profit software should not exist, most open-source advocates are more pragmatic. They believe their software works better than the traditional kind "because more people can collaborate towards its development," says Matt Welsh, a researcher in the computer science department at the University of California, Berkeley, and a long-time Linux user. "But there's nothing collaborative about music or most other forms of content that copyright law is designed to protect."

    This guy obviously has no understanding of music. Maybe he owns some Bon Jovi and an Ace of Bass CD??? Music is collaborative and constantly evolving. You can ask any artist this. If i sit down on my computer and write an electronic music track, I am drawing from all the music I have listened to in the past. Music always has ideas from other older artists. How many bands have been influenced by Nirvana, how many draw from Lou Reed and Velvet Underground? Despite their recent actions, even early Metallica I'm sure inspires many groups today. Just go to allmusic.com and look up your favorite artics and see who their roots and influences are for yourself.

    Napster makes music from around the world more easily accessible, and lets people discover new musical ideas. This helps music that people make morph and evolve, and keeps it interesting, avoiding stagnation. At least in that respect, napster is doing everyone a very open-source style service. I guess Linus and everyone else in this article missed that point. I respect these people, so that makes me unhappy. :(

    -ali

  25. Re: All Music Guide... Found! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on CDNow Merges with Columbia House

    Unless it's somebody else using the All Music Guide name, you'll find them now at http://www.allmusic.com/.
    BTW, it's run by All Music Marketing, part of (among other things) A[lliance] E[ntertainment] C[orp] One Stop Group, a major national distributor of CDs to independent record stores.

  26. "Where do you want to go" history by YeOldeGnurd · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft demands http://linux.de removes slogan
    The Gospel band Hope had a song "Where Do You Want to Go" in 1973.

    Doesn't that precede Microsoft's use of the term by more than 2 decades?

    Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity