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The Fiery Furnaces are on Thrill Jockey
In the early nineties, Bettina Richards left her lucrative job as a major label scout, so she could start her own label-Thrill Jockey.
It took her years to be in a position where she could leave her second-hand jobs behind, but eventually she did it.
Richards also explains why some artists stay with the label for many years.
The Fiery Furnaces-Ex Guru mp3 from Widow City
Led Zeppelin is just one of the bands to have protection lifted
Warner will no longer have copy protection on their MP3's, offering DRM (Digital Rights Management) free downloads soon.
This offers a lot more flexibility, letting the consumer use the tracks in several different capacities, repeatedly, including CD burning, and filesharing.
This leaves Sony BMG as the lone holdout. Stay tuned.
Rivers Cuomo tells Billboard that his latest record, "Alone-The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo," hopefully won't be the last of archived material.
He says he would like to put out at least one more rarities album, and is working with his record company on how to go forward.
Also, look for the new Weezer record in April or May, which is almost finished.
Doing anything on New Years Eve?
In case you aren't in the partying mood this year, or in the mood for Carson Daly, Radiohead is offering up another webcast for you to check out.
Expect another cover, possibly from Siouxsie and the Banshees, as well as a performance of In Rainbows in it's entirety.
Get more info at Current.com
Tonight is the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys finally gets his medal.
In an interview before the ceremony, he discussed his favorite version of "God Only Knows," the "Beatle rivalry" how there will be no more Beach Boys and more.
I was kind of hoping for a new Grinderman record, but the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album "DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!," which we apparently have to have in all caps, will be released by Mute on March 3rd. The title track will come out on February 18th, and the boys have came up with the funny teaser below.
Merle Haggard made the list a few times
...and we're back.
I hope you guys had a great Holiday, and got everything you wanted.
For all you Alt-Country/Americana/Country fans, the Edmonton Journal have concocted the Top 100 Country Hurtin' Songs of All Time.
To my disappointment, they have omitted the likes of Wilco on gone straight country, but a good list if you're a fan. It would be one hell of a collection.
As part of their weekly cover series, Ruby Isle continues snagging the #1 song of the week on elbo.ws, offering it up as a free download.
Mark had this to say about the song-
“Gila is a reverb laden, wurlitzer drum box driven 5 minute tragedy served on a platter of farfisa chords. It’s heavenly, if you get the fuzzies from minor keys like I do. The lyricist seems to harbor some pretty severe resentment."
Get funky bitch.
Ruby Isle-Gila mp3 (Beach House Cover) more here
There's not enough Americana talk around here these days, so I thought I would point you in the direction of Popmatters list of the Top 10 Americana Albums of the Year.
#1 is an interesting choice....someone who is in a whole other category typically, but thanks to her backing band, somehow qualified.
Seeing the much under appreciated Legendary Shack Shakers record Swampblood hit #5 brought a smile to my face. Of course, Josh Ritter at #2 is always good too.
The cynical frontman for the band Cake, John McCrea (2nd from left) spoke recently about how he wants to see Columbia Records plummet, how he enjoys being on an indie label, and how he expects to have a new Cake album by summer.
A long, long time ago, you'd wait for the band to release the album, you were excited about the album, you opened the album, you sat down and played one side of it, looked at the liner notes and just consumed it slowly," he says.
"I don't think the current relationship to music is as satisfying — it's just having the (expletive) song as your ringtone. Do I sound a little bit bitter? I don't mean to. I just think it's really interesting."
Also Cake has provided an interesting twist at their shows-giving away small trees — avocado, palm, spruce and apple—to fans who promise to plant and care for them, as McCrea is an environmentalist.
