Manic Street Preachers Cover Art Banned In UK Supermarkets

The new Manic Street Preachers album, Journal For Plague Lovers, is being shipped to UK supermarkets without cover artwork, because the portrait by Jenny Saville is considered “inappropriate”. The band is annoyed at the setback, and singer James Dean Bradfield called the situation “utterly bizarre”. He told BBC 6 Music that:

“It is her brushwork. If you’re familiar with her work, there’s a lot of ochres and browns and reds and browns, and perhaps people are looking for us to be more provocative than we are being.”

Is “inappropriate” an unfair description? Let’s take a look at some of Saville’s other paintings: Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Music For Search Engines: SearchMe, Wolfram Alpha

Searchme is the new search engine that lets you share information instantly on Twitter and Facebook. It organizes your search into an animation that bring up each page and present s text associated with the page. You then have the option to share the page, zoom in to read it and click through to the original URL address. Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

U.S. Congress Votes Radio Performance Royalty Fees

The Performance Royalties Act and the Webcaster Settlement Act were debated today by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. The Performance Rights Act, supported by Billy Corgan, would impose a “performance tax” on broadcast radio stations, which traditionally don’t pay artists and labels. In fact, some say that major labels have paid stations in exchange for airplay in the past. The Committee voted 21 to 9 to send the Act to full House for a vote.

The Webcaster Settlement Act would lower royalty rates for Internet radio services. Jonathan Potter, Executive Director of the Digital Media Association said that the Act will make sure “Internet radio royalties are determined using the same fairness-based balancing test that has always been the standard for setting cable and satellite radio royalties.” Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

Stream Wilco (The Album) For Free!

Wilco are streaming Wilco (The Album) for free at Wilcoworld. The album won’t be out on Nonesuch until June 30, but you can stream one huge track of Wilco’s newest release in low 128k or high 256k quality. Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Primavera Sound Festival 09 Schedule Released

Excitement is hard to contain for the upcoming Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain from May 28-30. The schedule has been released, and tickets are on sale right now. The schedule is ridiculous, with simultaneous shows of must-see bands spread out across no less than six stages. A quick look at the lineup immediately presents some difficult decisions. Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

French Assembly Passes Three Strikes Bill

Today (12 May), French Parliament approved a bill that will cut Internet connections of repeat file sharers after “three strikes”. The legislation passed by a vote of 296 to 233 and goes before the French Senate Wednesday, where it is expected to pass. If adopted, warning messages from HADOPI should be sent to file sharing Internet users as early as this fall. The first disconnections will begin in 2010. Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Headbanger Hero: Moshpit Amp, Metal Head Orgasmatron

From the creators of the Painstation comes the newest addition to the upcoming surge of Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles, MoshPit: Metal Head Orgasmatron. The Moshpit amp detects your headbanging movements and converts them into guitars, bass, drums and vocals. The //////////fur//// website explains:

“As you mosh on, you can change the individual volume levels of the four instruments through your headbanging style and intensity. You can see how far you have pushed the level of each instrument on the four MoshMeters.”

And those MoshMeters go up to eleven. Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Venetian Snares Releases Horsey Noises EP

Venetian Snares has a new EP entitled Horsey Noises which is available at the Bleep digital store right now, and will have its physical release on CD and 12” vinyl on Planet Mu Records starting June 1. You can listen to free streams of the tracks on the Planet Mu Website. Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

Rock Band: Pearl Jam Set For Next Year

As if all four new Guitar Heroes weren’t enough, now Rock Band is looking to keep pace with the newest project Pearl Jam Live Rock Band. The Escapist reports that Pearl Jam is working with video game developer Harmonix, MTV Games and online music service Rhapsody to produce a game that features live concert tracks chosen by fans themselves. Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

Spotify Adds Another 120,000 Tracks

Spotify has added 11,280 albums and singles to their catalogue, to a total of 127,578 new songs available, after signing a deal with indie digital distributor Zebralution. For a full listing of the additions check out these Google Docs: sorted by artist and by label. According to the Spotify blog:

"Today’s update is most likely the biggest update we’ve had since we launched last year."

New releases include The Spinning Top by Graham Coxon, She’s In Control from Chromeo, and material from Bill Evans, Café Sputnik and Kutiman. I especially appreciated the addition of the classic Allotria Jazz Band and the Balkan/ska Amsterdam Klezmer Band. Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...