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For posterity: Then named Godspeed You Black Emperor!, they were in Ardmore, Oklahoma in March, 2003, and got hassled at a gas station, not while eating pancakes at IHOP. They had just finished playing a (great) show at Ridglea Theater in Dallas with Bardo Pond, and were en route to St. Louis.

Wikipedia has a concise summary, and notes that the ordeal was also mentioned in Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country?

Andrew Keen is a fucking idiot.

Much like Chris Cornell, who can only speak in Audioslave lyrics, Andrew Keen can only speak in non-sequiturs.

Want some proof?

Search YouTube for "The Truth According To Wikipedia". It's 50 minutes, but well worth watching, if only to learn that there are people as stupid as Andrew Keen.

Actually, stealing a car is a felony -- except, evidently, in Seattle, where it is a "gross misdemeanor". One's life is much more likely to be ruined by such a conviction, than by "financial destruction of a future" -- which is a waaaay too pessimistic a term for $10-20K.

This is what I mean when I talk about "financial destruction".

when i read the summary, i immediately thought of when godspeed you! black emperor was stopped, for suspected terrorism. i also thought of the recent article discussed here about unconstitutional searches and harassment due to government database "errors".

errors indeed...

i've felt for a while that it's time to physically throw our leaders out of the capital building, white house, etc. clearly, they don't care what any of us thinks or wants. but as long as they play the emotional-voting game (religion, psuedo-morality, fear, and so on) they won't be voted out.

does that mean i'm a terrorist? or does this mean that i believe in the ideas that the country was founded on, that people truly are equal, and that *they* (should) work for and represent *us*.......

our "founding fathers" were all terrorists. (at least as far as the british were concerned.) i'm fairly certain (100%) that they'd be executed if they lived now.

Will PointDev get to hold Sony responsible for theorhetical lost sales in the same way the RIAA charges thousands of dollars per pirated song? I wonder what a 92000% markup on PointDev's software is?

These sites are essential to maintaining my indie cred. They aren't 100% RIAA-free, but they do skew quite heavily toward the independent side. Pitchfork is the biggest of these and IMO the best music publication in existence.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/
http://cokemachineglow.com/
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/

Pitchfork Media is reporting that the album is coming out as a regular CD, too.

Actually, they'll be selling a regular CD too, you'll just have to wait for it.

Also, the second CD in the discbox will have multimedia content on it, and the box includes an artwork booklet, a lyric booklet, and it's encased in a hardcover book with a slipcase. It's more an expensive objet d'art with music than just "the next Radiohead album."

I'm with you on the sound issue, but the record companies screwed up the high-resolution (SACD, DVD-Audio) media rollouts with crushing DRM, costly hardware/software, and not always fixing the volume problem in those environments. (That said, I buy them whenever I can, but they're getting harder and harder to find nowadays.)

Actually, they'll be selling a regular CD too, you'll just have to wait for it.

Actually, they'll be selling a regular CD too, you'll just have to wait for it.

Pitchforkmedia has some pretty good reviews of "indy rock: bands:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/

Yes it's more than a bit college radio d.j. emo pretentious but they also find some real gems among the dreck like Devendra Banhart.

There are a couple of good web sites for world music if you are into that sort of thing, I can't remember the URLs. And some the music blogs preview up and coming bands and allow you to listen to samples of the music, You can even subscribe to RSS feeds.

Thanks for the recommendation. Khonnor sounds pretty sweet (from the 30 second samples at least!)

Electronica and (non-vocal) post-rock are both sort of coming back into the limelight thanks to the internet, for the simple reason that their audiences are somewhat smaller than for mainstream music. Pink Floyd sort of played around with the genre way back, but it wasn't until the past few years that bands like Mogwai, Amon Tobin, Boards of Candada, Explosions in the Sky, or 65daysofstatic really found the sort of fanbase to establish themselves.

If you want to poke around and look for music that suits your tastes, I highly recommend Last.FM, which is a gigantic music recommendation engine that is pretty good at finding stuff that matches your tastes. Likewise, (although on a more limited scope), Pandora is great to find new music.

Pitchfork Media is often regarded as being the bible for independent music. Be warned, however, that they're extremely pretentious, and somewhat persnickety when it comes to their reviews. They've completely panned some of my favorite albums. However, an album that gets an extremely favorable review on Pitchfork is something that is definitely worth checking out. (Also be warned of a inexplicably huge pro-Radiohead bias)

Stereogum is also another great blog for keeping track of the indie scene.

Of course, don't let this be your only guide. Friends are a great way for finding new music, and occasionally you just stumble upon something relatively unknown, and yet extremely awesome.

just some of my experiences as a musician and engineer:

i bought a 12" powerbook with the motu traveler, and it was a rock solid set up. i recorded and mixed a few albums on it last summer, and it stood up, and this is with 20+ tracks and effects (including altiverb) -- although there were a few times i thought the laptop was gonna melt. these ppc chips run hot.

this is why i won't be going open source for a while -- when you're with clients, it's a problem if you say, "oh hold on, i have to recompile the kernel". macs, for production, are solid -- which is not surprise since it's one of their major demographics.

but as a musician, i get the sense that linux is there. it would be nice if there was something like reason for linux, but that is asking quite a lot. otherwise, the freedom and programming-friendly environment of linux is very conducive to music-making (assuming electronic-based music, of course).

on windows, soundforge is the greatest 2 track editor evar. (problem is, you can't let anyone touch the machine, just looking at a windows box will get you a few viruses) i havce yet to use a 2 track editor as responsive as souindforge. i use audacity now, and it sucks for editing. also, it wants to save project files, which is ridiculous for 2 track files. it would be nice to know of a stripped down 2 track editor that let you zoom in to a sample level and out immediately, allowed for fades, crossfades, and basic stuff like normalization -- support for audio units, and that's it. i spent so much time just editing mixes -- it's nice to have a program that just let's you do that quickly.

i will say this, i had a PII 266 about 8 years ago, runnin linux 2.2 kernel with a low-latency patch. i could get audio in and out of that box in 8ms -- it still amazes me (i was using csound). i think this is where linux could shine, as real-time effects boxes -- you can strip all the other stuff away.

anyway, more and more i'm thinking of putting together a linux workstation, especially after reading about blender yesterday. i wonder how video is on linux?

mr c

his could be related to the fact that most music on the market today is not worth the plastic it's pressed on?...see a trend here?

Yes, the trend is you have shitty taste in music. Try reading Pitchforkmedia, Cokemachineglow or MetaCritic and purchasing some of their recommendations. You may strike out a couple times but once you find out what kind of stuff you like, you'll be able to cross-reference it on Amazon and Allmusic and discover more stuff. You'll be amazed at how much incredible stuff is out there.

You responded selectively, ignoring how he uses download. Let's focus on the essence:

just to try out an artist.

There ya go. There is no current try-before-you-buy except Top40 rotations on pop stations, and they play only singles from a fixed rotation. DJs are a thing of the past, so how does one get exposed to new material?

I do it via eMusic - for a reasonable price, I get n downloads per month, plus free stuff every day. All of it in MP3 format with no DRM. And there's no shortage of indie music freely available on the web - Salon's Audiofile is good for a daily fix, and Insound and Pitchfork have huge amounts of stuff up for grabs. Just the tip of the iceberg.

If there's something from a major label that I want, I either buy it or copy it from an actual, real-world friend who bought it, which IMO is fair use.

Some people talk about the internet, but we've always had a problem with [it], because it will always essentially be exclusive one way or the other. To assume that this technology is worldwide is kind of bollocks, y'know? It's not there in the same way. So, I mean, I also personally am one of these luddites. I want physically to have things. I want 12"s, and anyway, iTunes never has what I want.

Some time ago, Pitchfork did 100 Awesome Music Videos, with one of their criteria being that the videos be available on YouTube. Those videos occasionally get yanked, as I discovered when I started doing something similar every Friday. I wouldn't mind if YouTube could present those legally.

Hey, glad you liked that Datarock song. :-) I discovered them through Annie's DJ-Kicks compilation, if you care to check that out too.

Pitchfork is an interesting beast.

For one, their writing style is over the top to the point of insanity. We get it. You aced Creative Writing in college. Good job!

On the other hand, their tastes in music are, in my opinion, a pretty good reflection of the college demographic. A weird anomaly, however, is that their scoring system is entirely arbitrary -- at times it's subtractive, with one bad song causing the album to lose several points, and at times, it's additive, with albums getting 9/10 ratings for one or two good songs with the rest being garbage. Artists generally take their ratings with a huge grain of salt.

Generally speaking, most of the music I like that gets reviewed by them scores somewhere between 7-9 out of 10. Anything above a 9 is too weird for my tastes.

And they've seriously got to kick their radiohead addiction.

[My music is] definitely not public domain. I have a publisher and I make money from the publishing of the songs. That's a big part of an income, so I'm not going to pretend that I'm that socialistic about my music. But I'm not so possessive about it that I would sue anyone who misused it. If someone were to sample my work, I would have a hard time seeking payment for that. I don't even have a problem with people illegally downloading that stuff.[emphasis mine]

[My music is] definitely not public domain. I have a publisher and I make money from the publishing of the songs. That's a big part of an income, so I'm not going to pretend that I'm that socialistic about my music. But I'm not so possessive about it that I would sue anyone who misused it. If someone were to sample my work, I would have a hard time seeking payment for that. I don't even have a problem with people illegally downloading that stuff.[emphasis mine]

M.I.A. and Diplo's "Piracy Funds Terrorism" came out in 2004. I imagine they could probably sue you for IP violation if you pass this law.

There sort of has been one, just (mostly) outside of Germany. If you're into the old Kraut stuff check out Stereolab and the more recent work of Boredoms. Liars also recorded their most recent album in Germany, and it definitly sounds Faust-influenced.

Not to worry, the "educational video" Hells Bells is coming out on DVD. A sequel was apparently made, too. Now an entire new generation can learn of the evils of rock and roll music. Too bad most kids are too smart to take that nonsense seriously.

There's still fantastic music being made, just not on major labels.
I recommend these websites:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/
http://tinymixtapes.com/
http://www.epitonic.com/
And to a lesser degree, http://www.allmusic.com/.

If you can't find new music you like, you aren't trying hard enough!

Sounds like the name of a Boards of Canada album.

...OK Go can use all the help they can get

Sorry, but at least in terms of music, I trust certain critics (who probably don't pay for the music they review) a lot more than my friends. Having good taste in music and the ability to understand the artists' influences and what makes their music interesting and relevant matters a lot more to me than whether or not they paid to hear it. I'd much prefer taking my chances buying an album pitchfork puts on their best new music list that I've never heard of than buying something a friend recommends. The same probably goes for movies, but I'm not a big movie buff.

But music and movies are much more subjective things. With cars, people have much more concrete ideas about how they should operate. If something rattles, nobody's going to say "oh, I like the rattle". No. It's something wrong with the car. However, if they're getting the car for free, they're much more likely to overlook something minor like that.

The cars in the movies now may be faster, but real life is still the place to get good music and free sex.

Artists make all of their money off of touring and merchandise sales. Some get screwed though and have shitty contracts where the label gets a percent of merchandise sales. Being an artist is not easy

so why don't they skip the record contracts, rent some equipment and record their music at home, distribute it for free over the internet as advertising for their live shows? Does there need to be some central web repository for free music? What's to stop an artist from making music with garageband and putting it on iTunes, and getting pitchfork to review it? maybe even mainstream media? They might even be able to generate enough publicity to fill arenas.

I think Apple should make the iTunes client work with any mp3 player, and maybe offer mp3 versions over iTunes. It would totally take over as everyone's media client, and the iPod still totally owns the competition. Everyone knows that, and it doesn't need exclusive iTunes compatibility to make it everyone's most desired portable music device. They are holding eachother back.

What would be totally awesome, but would never happen, would be if Apple did that and began producing concerts and marketing artists. That would seriously be encroaching on their trademark agreement w/Apple Corps, and would be totally redefining Apple's role as a business, but still... it would be cool, and they would totally destroy. With podcasts and streaming radio. Maybe they should equip the iPod with WiFi.

Ooh- and they could connect it to threadless (or start their own version) to do the artists' t-shirts.

Check this out for maximum Chumbawumba Factor: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/features/weekly/05-0 8-22-the-chumbawamba-factor.shtml I assume the title came from this story?

Pitchfork
Insound
Epitonic

One of the cool things that Pitchfork has been able to do is translate their on-line success into off-line events as well. We attended the Intonation Music Festival a few weeks ago and it was great. It's encouraging to see other entrepreneurs start with a reasonable investment on the web instead of going broke the traditional way.

The internet has definitely leveled the playing field for the small guy.

The Advantage

http://www.shitkatapult.com/

http://www.areal-records.com/

http://www.mego.at/

http://www.kompakt-net.de/

etc.,etc.,....

There's so much good electronic music out there, it's silly to make such a statement. Not all of these labels will necessarily be your cup of tea, but these are the first five or so that popped in to my head without looking on the back of any CD's. Check out some record store sites like:

http://aquariusrecords.org/

http://forcedexposure.com/

or a site like http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/

for new music releases from several genres. It's all out there for the listening!

I will try to answer these questions with a minimum of pretentiousness.

That's the average over a time period. Usually I will only buy one or maybe two and then go on a stock-up spree where I get, for example, 3 or 4 Funkadelic albums, or more Keith Jarrett records, or trying to complete some singles from a specific band. I do almost no shopping at music-only chain stores (Tower, Sam Goody) or online (with the exception of import CD singles). I shop almost exclusively at a local record store and are more than happy to buy a CD or two on a whim during these stock-ups simply because it is being featured. Usually the clerks will have a small write-up "Linkin Park meets Winston Marsalis!" that seems to get my attention. Also, a lot of these CDs come from places that are either used-cd or deep-discount warehouses. We're talking average cost of a CD $6 or below. The other day I got Songs in the Key of X, Beautiful Stranger, White Town's Women in Technology, and about 5-6 other CDs for $1 each. I would say safely the price of each CD I buy is, on average, under $10.

The only "chain" music store I ever support is the Virgin Megastore on Times Square because their music selection is ridiculous. Not as expansive as Amoeba in LA, for example, or stocked with obscure titles like Kim's Video in NYC, but it does the trick.

Some other parent asked about which labels I support, and I don't really support specific labels. If I see something interesting, the artist being on Nonesuch or Astralwerks or Def Jux might get me off the fence into the "buy" side but I figure as I'm not supporting ClearChannel-approved entertainers, I'm ok.

As far as the parent, I honestly expanded by knowledge of music and my musical vocabulary about ten-fold once I hit college and downloaded gigabytes upon gigabytes of different music. I was introduced to George Benson, the Greyboy Allstars, MC Paul Barman, the Rolling Stones (i.e. not their classic-rock staples), etc. To this day, I still have friends approach me about good music they've heard, etc. Previously I've recommended sites like PopMatters, Pitchfork, and AMG for a good way to browse around and find out new artists.

Cheers.

I own a record store that carries everything from the beginning of recorded music and I can say without a doubt that the quantity of good music created TODAY is more than it has ever been in the past. The problem is that the overall amount of music is exponentially more now than it has been. We find ourselves deluged by an immense amount of shit and so it seems like there's fewer classic albums. Frankly, the average person doesn't have time to listen to everything and find the really good things. Most of the real music lovers who used to filter some of the crap and promote the real quality as A&Rs are long gone. What we really have is MBA's churning out marketable artists with no interest in the music.

There are some good web sites that take up the slack like Pitchfork but the best way to find something current (or old) is to go down to your local independent store and ask them. They're the only ones left who are actively filtering the bad stuff and sharing what they know.

True, we had great innovation in the past decades but it's been so for centuries! From Roman horn, to Baroque harpsichord, electric guitare, Hammond B3. And now we have fusion of all kind (rock-dance-funk: The Rapture, experimental-progressive-rock :Sonic Youth, etc...) Some artists offers denatured-poignant-folk (Devendra Benhard), some others are the Beatles of this era, pushing the limits, once again (Radiohead). We ARE in an innovative music world!

Shame on those who couldn't find the innovative artists. Statements like "today's music sucks" is just plain bullsh*t.

The internet is there not only for file swaping but also to discover new artists/bands.

ClearChannel has a program called Burn Live (the name was changed to "Instant Live"® after an unfortuante incident) that records most of the entire concert direct from the soundboards. Their deal with Worst^H^H^H^H^HBestBuy also has the CDs in those stores after the show.

Some people don't think Burn Live is all that, either. Note that ClearChannel is trying to lock out competition of their live CD burninating model by using the patent system.

There were some other Woody Guthrie songs remade recently too. I think the story is that these were unreleased songs of his that he had not written music to, so Woody's daughter hired Billy Bragg and Wilco to put music to them and sing them.
They are called Mermaid Avenue (samples, review) and Mermaid Avenue Volume II (samples, review)
They are both pretty good cds, especially volume 1.
I wonder what the copyright implications were one these, since they were unreleased. Does anyone know? Also, what was his daughter's opinion about the jibjab song?

There were some other Woody Guthrie songs remade recently too. I think the story is that these were unreleased songs of his that he had not written music to, so Woody's daughter hired Billy Bragg and Wilco to put music to them and sing them.
They are called Mermaid Avenue (samples, review) and Mermaid Avenue Volume II (samples, review)
They are both pretty good cds, especially volume 1.
I wonder what the copyright implications were one these, since they were unreleased. Does anyone know? Also, what was his daughter's opinion about the jibjab song?

Listen to independent (usually college) radio. I spent my formative years listening to KXLU and KALX.

Listen to indie internet radio stations. A lot of people like KEXP; check the directories at shoutcast.com and icecast.org or your mp3's builtin directory (eg iTunes) (shameless plug - I run punk stream if you like punk)

Read indie newspapers, if available. L.A. Weekly if you're in Los Angeles, for example.

Read web sites that cover indie (pitchforkmedia.com is a start). Download stuff at random.

Go to music buying sites like audiolunchbox and magnatune, and listen to samples at random.

Ask friends for recommendations. Borrow stuff from them.

Hit alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.indie. Download stuff at random.

Go to indie record stores and buy stuff at random. I actually used to do this, buy something based on the cover art. Discovered some great stuff this way. And this was on a high school allowance.

All you need is a seed, and it can open up a whole new microgenre to explore.

Once you find something you like, research them. You'll often find information along the lines of "if you like X, you might like Y". Maybe a band member used to be in another band.

Look up that band's label's site. Often, indie labels have a common "sound" across their lineup, so you might like some of their label mates. Indie label sites usually have downloadable sample songs- download them.

And so on.

I do all these things. I take music seriously, it's a big part of my life. Sometimes it feels like work, to tell you the truth. But I'm driven by the idea that, no matter how much I like the music I've enjoyed in the past, there's something even more incredible out there.

I have a lot of CDs and I continue to buy a lot. But I also have a lot of downloaded music. I have a fairly clear conscience though. I genuinely feel that most indie bands wouldn't hold it against me that I downloaded their music to give it a listen, to see what they are about.

Does all the above sound like "too much effort"? Then, perhaps, music doesn't mean as much to you as me. That's cool.

Me- I'm not content to be fed stuff by commercial interests whose agenda run contrary to my search for interesting music. And I have the time and desire to invest in this pursuit. I can appreciate that others may not. Or maybe you're out in the sticks, with no broadband. In which case, I think you to resign yourself to a certain lifestyle, anyway.

That's why I don't live in the sticks :).

-h3

i'm sure they're must be other bands out there doing new stuff with strange old equipment... reply if you know any good ones!

Well, the new record finally dropped, so we can move on to your important question:

Is it too late to short their new album?

The strange thing is, that on the whole, the review is balanced, and seems to find its marks pretty well (shitty guitar playing -- check, lack of song structure -- check), and it even takes aim at obscuritan fans (and songwriters), and "cred-snipers".

So to sum up: good but flawed record, surprisingly good review, still shoulda sold at 10.0.

Many of the reviewers there have vastly different opinions of many artists, and many have the typical indie rock prick mindset of "the more obscure it is the better". And the 10 point and single decimal scale has always irked me. What the fuck is the difference between a 6.7 album and a 7.3 album?

Y'know, Pitchformula is a much more fitting name for Pitchfork. I find that pitchfork reviews aren't so good for any sort of consumer guidance or artistic criticism, but at least give a snapshot of whatever the consenus indie-rock orthodoxy is at the moment. And the oh-so-precious two significant digit ratings serve as a sort of indie-rock orthodoxy stock report.

For example, let's look at Wilco's last few records: Being There, a "a spinoff of a successful band" that with a score of 6.8, "[h]as its moments, but isn't strong"; Summerteeth, which shot right up to a 9.4 (ratings key: "Amazing"), the review getting bonus points for using the innane phrase "Elvis Costello-by-way-of-Phil Spector", and not mentioning already emerging record-label problems (although I can't help but think that those probably nudged the score up a bit); and then we get the much-ballyhooed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, with record-label troubles so severe that they couldn't go unmentioned in the review, and a perhaps not-uncoincidental 10.0 (ratings key: "Essential") rating. There's no review for A Ghost Is Born yet (although those with up-to-date versions of QuickTime can have a listen at that last link), but past market performance suggests that although the review will be good, you probably should have sold at Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's 10.0.

Many of the reviewers there have vastly different opinions of many artists, and many have the typical indie rock prick mindset of "the more obscure it is the better". And the 10 point and single decimal scale has always irked me. What the fuck is the difference between a 6.7 album and a 7.3 album?

Y'know, Pitchformula is a much more fitting name for Pitchfork. I find that pitchfork reviews aren't so good for any sort of consumer guidance or artistic criticism, but at least give a snapshot of whatever the consenus indie-rock orthodoxy is at the moment. And the oh-so-precious two significant digit ratings serve as a sort of indie-rock orthodoxy stock report.

For example, let's look at Wilco's last few records: Being There, a "a spinoff of a successful band" that with a score of 6.8, "[h]as its moments, but isn't strong"; Summerteeth, which shot right up to a 9.4 (ratings key: "Amazing"), the review getting bonus points for using the innane phrase "Elvis Costello-by-way-of-Phil Spector", and not mentioning already emerging record-label problems (although I can't help but think that those probably nudged the score up a bit); and then we get the much-ballyhooed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, with record-label troubles so severe that they couldn't go unmentioned in the review, and a perhaps not-uncoincidental 10.0 (ratings key: "Essential") rating. There's no review for A Ghost Is Born yet (although those with up-to-date versions of QuickTime can have a listen at that last link), but past market performance suggests that although the review will be good, you probably should have sold at Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's 10.0.

Many of the reviewers there have vastly different opinions of many artists, and many have the typical indie rock prick mindset of "the more obscure it is the better". And the 10 point and single decimal scale has always irked me. What the fuck is the difference between a 6.7 album and a 7.3 album?

Y'know, Pitchformula is a much more fitting name for Pitchfork. I find that pitchfork reviews aren't so good for any sort of consumer guidance or artistic criticism, but at least give a snapshot of whatever the consenus indie-rock orthodoxy is at the moment. And the oh-so-precious two significant digit ratings serve as a sort of indie-rock orthodoxy stock report.

For example, let's look at Wilco's last few records: Being There, a "a spinoff of a successful band" that with a score of 6.8, "[h]as its moments, but isn't strong"; Summerteeth, which shot right up to a 9.4 (ratings key: "Amazing"), the review getting bonus points for using the innane phrase "Elvis Costello-by-way-of-Phil Spector", and not mentioning already emerging record-label problems (although I can't help but think that those probably nudged the score up a bit); and then we get the much-ballyhooed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, with record-label troubles so severe that they couldn't go unmentioned in the review, and a perhaps not-uncoincidental 10.0 (ratings key: "Essential") rating. There's no review for A Ghost Is Born yet (although those with up-to-date versions of QuickTime can have a listen at that last link), but past market performance suggests that although the review will be good, you probably should have sold at Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's 10.0.

You just have to look a bit harder if you want to turn yourself on. (I won't link to audioscrobbler because they're having server problems atm and that would just be mean if I got modded up!). Most of my favourite music now is coming out of non-english speaking parts of the world - south america and the basque region are particularly juicy atm imho, and there's many more places producing great innovative music. speaking multiple languages is optional :) you just haven't heard any of it, most likely.. what i find incredible is if you go to these places you can buy "our" (usa/uk) music everywhere, and yet the most you get in a music store here is a pathetic little "world" section, that in no way reflects what the people there are actually listening to. why is this? are we (as a race of white caucasion middle class brits/americans) so close minded? what the %*^%& has gone wrong?! I was utterly bored with music until I discovered this. Seriously recommend others do the same. none of it would have been possible with free (in both senses) P2P networks. Right, i'm really tired and it took ages to write this but hope it inspires someone to go hunting.. listen to Cafe Tacuba, listen to Fermin Muguruza, heh well that's just where i started i dont' want to get into specific bands 'cos it's all a matter of taste but there's something for everyone with an open mind i swear :)

The reason music is dead is very simple. There is no innovation.

Music is not dead. What a stupid sound bite. Music will never die. Perhaps the way the Big 5 get it to us might change.. perhaps their pricing model might change.. perhaps the Big 5 will dissolve themselves in a fit of greed. But on thing is for sure.. as long as there are humans, there will be music.

And yes, there still is GOOD music out there, but the Big 5 is not hocking that kind of music. Indie labels are tho. If you don't like Big 5's music, then stop caring and stop complaining and go figure out what the hell you DO like.