The Archives

Feeling Cornered...
Learn Your Craft
02.22.10
by Lit Hardway

Two 18-year-old guitarists walk into a dingy diner. Their tight jeans and fitted coats concluded a complete rockstar look. The taller of the two announces that he just can’t continue playing guitar till he gets a new rig. The other replies that he won’t touch his strings till they’re wound into a new axe. What’s wrong with this picture? Everything! Me thinks the impostors doth protest too much! Does it take a brand new three thousand dollar digital camera to take a good rock photo? Does a talented drummer require a kit born of exotic wood and hand crafted precious cymbals to keep a perfect soulful beat? Digital evolution has brought us to an impasse ‘tween creative musical minds and the “Rockband revolution”. Somewhere along the way, possibly around the birth of MySpace or the spawn of the almighty Facebook, new musicians have been able to “look” more and more professional with less and less work. But does any of it sound good? Like any machine gun plan, not all efforts can be a miss. It seems however that a staggering amount of new musicians equate the price and quality of their gear with their prowess as… well… musicians. What happened to the love of being able to make music? Now, expensive hardware, complicated digital systems and robotic tuning are adorning the tools of mediocre “musicians”. Learn to play that perfect chord with your imperfect guitar. Keep that pulsating groove going strong with your warped bass. Whatever you do, don’t let shiny finishes, slick knobs and LED lights rule you before you’ve learned your craft. Remember, a great pool player can win on a slanted table, using a bent cue.
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Feeling Cornered...
Texting at the Rock Show
02.15.10
by Lit Hardway

We possess all the technological communication prowess one race can handle, and yet we find nothing better to do with it than text, tweet and Facebook? And one of the most irritating consequences to rear its ugly head thanks to these social networking advances is texting at the rock show. Standing at the back of a venue watching half of a 2000 person crowd spend most of the show looking down while texting, talking to a friend beside them while texting, or of course tweeting every single little occurrence throughout the night. “OMG—@ show and totally stepped in gum”, “LOL—This totally weird guy just tried to talk to me”, “HAHAHA—OMG I didn’t think she would show up here”… FUCKIN’ TWEET!!! Are you kidding me?! Are the plaster headed hipster idiots of today really so full of shit they can pay $25 for a show, stand with their back to the stage, texting and talking over the music for the better part of 2 hours? Extra, extra… This just in… If I’m talking about you, you should know you’re fuckin’ ridiculous. Why are you here?! Came to the show just so no one could say they were there and you weren’t? Needed to fit in so badly you thought you’d piss away $30 to text and act like a popped collar douche bag for a night? Well congratulations dumbass, you’ve succeeded in pissing me and many other people off. Its 2010, we all text, we’re all busy, but maybe at a show keep it to a medium. Would it be so hard to pretend there’s a band playing their hearts out for your benefit?
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Bits & Pieces
Rage Against The Machine Announce First Details of UK ‘Victory’ Gig
02.11.10
Los Angeles rap-rockers Rage Against the Machine have announced the first details of the free concert they are planning in the UK to thank UK fans for sending them to the much coveted ‘Christmas Number One’ spot in the charts. As previously reported, British couple Jon and Tracy Morter started a Facebook group urging the public to buy copies of the 1992 Rage song Killing in the Name instead of the manufactured pop of Simon Cowell’s winning X Factor single. In the end, Killing in the Name beat the Cowell sponsored single by about 50,000 sales, with the band promising to repay the British public’s support with a free show. This show is now set to happen at London’s Finsbury Park on Sunday June 6th, 2010 with tickets to be issued by lottery. In a poke at Simon Cowell, the show is to be dubbed The Rage Factor, and fans can enter the lottery for tickets at theragefactor.co.uk. (more…)
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Bits & Pieces
Save the Date and Dress in Black for Johnny Cash
02.05.10
February 26th would have seen Johnny Cash, the legendary man in black, turn 78. As we previously reported, this date will also mark the release date of the final installment in the American Recordings series, American VI: Ain’t No Grave. To mark the occasion, Cash’s fans are being encouraged to wear black and post photos of themselves doing so on a special Facebook group to win a copy of the Unearthed boxset.
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Bits & Pieces
OK Go Appeal to Fans in Order Get Round Label’s Restrictive Video Content Deal
02.02.10
OK Go, the band that brought us such memorable hits have appealed to their fans to help them get around a deal that their label EMI made (along with the three other beleaguered and cash-thirsty majors) with Google back in 2006. The deal, renewed in 2009, means that bands’ video clips posted solely on YouTube and MySpace cannot subsequently be posted elsewhere, with the four majors receiving at least 50% of ad revenue coming from the streaming of those clips. Now, as we all know, the nature of way music is consumed changes at staggering speed, and it is well known that bands (and especially their labels) benefit from the reposting of videos on blogs and social media sites such as Facebook. As such, fans of OK Go were recently dismayed to find that their re-posting of the band’s videos on their Facebook walls and blogs were removed, and wrote angrily to the band to protest. So what solution have the chaps in OK Go suggested? Well, in the true anarchic spirit of rock ‘n roll, the band have chosen to thumb their noses at their employers, and encouraged their fans to re-post the videos anyway. (more…)
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Bits & Pieces
Billy Bragg Set to Withhold Tax in Protest at Excessive Bank Bonuses
01.19.10
English folk singer and seasoned political activist Billy Bragg has written a letter to British chancellor Alistair Darling, published in The Guardian, stating his intention to withhold his tax for the year should Darling not take steps to curb the bonuses set to be paid by the Royal Bank of Scotland to its staff. Bonuses are estimated to be in the realm of £1.5 Billion, after the bank last year posted what amounted to the worst losses in British financial history. The Bard of Barking, a veteran of the 1980s Red Wedge campaign, expressed that he was “no longer prepared to fund the excessive bonuses of RBS investment bankers,” informing Darling in no uncertain terms that “Unless he acts to limit them to £25,000, I shall be withholding my tax payment on January 31.” He is hoping that many of his fellow countrymen may also feel the same way, and a Facebook group, NoBonus4RBS has been established so that anyone wishing to express their support for his campaign can do so. Bragg will be aiming to emulate the exploits of British couple Jon and Tracy Mortimer, who in a feat of Facebook people-power, managed to persuade the British record buying public to snub Simon Cowell’s The X-Factor single and send L.A. rap-rockers Rage Against The Machine’s Killing in the Name to the UK’s venerated Christmas number one spot.
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Bits & Pieces
Dan Deacon Update: Facebook Post Explains Painful Ordeal
11.16.09
As previously reported, after cancelling a few shows due to back pain, which was later revealed to be acute sciatica, Dan Deacon has cancelled the remainder of his US tour. A few statements from his manager clued fans in to the situation, and now Deacon has posted a message on Facebook, explaining things a little further. “about a week ago i started to feel a rather uncomfortable pain in the back of my left leg. at first it was only present when i was sitting but as time went on it started to get more and more painful when standing and eventually it hurt at all times, even when laying down. on wednesday evening the pain had come to a peak and it was impossible to bear and it was frightening, since i had no idea why this was happening.” He goes on to say, “i bit the bullet and went to the ER, not knowing where else to go. they gave me some pain killers which helped to bring down the level of the throb. it was a bummer way to end a really awesome tour. everything was going really well and it was one of the most fun tours i had been on. i’m sure my back/leg will be back to normal soon after getting it properly checked out, working it out and getting some much needed rest. hopefully the 5 shows will be rescheduled ASAP.” Plans to reschedule the cancelled dates are in the works, but details are not yet known. The official cancelled dates are as follows: Troy, NY Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (November 13), Worcester, MA Clark University (November 14), Ithaca, NY Ithaca College (November 15), Purchase, NY SUNY Purchase (November 16), Baltimore, MD The Ottobar (November 18).
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Bits & Pieces
Foo Fighters To Play Facebook Show?
10.29.09
All Foo fans alert! Foo Fighters are slated to play a show live on Facebook! That’s right kiddies, the rock heroes will be performing at the Studio 606 complex in California, while having the whole sorted affair broadcast live on Facebook. The show in question will air at 2am (GMT) on Saturday October 31st, Halloween for those of you living under a rock, and for any further details visit the band’s Facebook page. Make sure to also keep an eye out for FF’s Greatest Hits which is set to drop on November 2nd.
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Bits & Pieces
Movie About Facebook to Star Justin Timberlake
09.23.09
Kevin Spacey likes this.

Justin Timberlake is gearing up to play Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster and founding president of Facebook in a new movie The Social Network. Apart from the acting talents of Timberlake, the film is set to feature Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland & The Squid and The Whale), as well as the executive-producing skills of Kevin Spacey. The script, which is said to focus on the effects of Facebook’s quick success on those involved in its formation, was penned by The West Wing scribe Aaron Sorkin.
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Bits & Pieces
T-Pain’s Auto-Tune Comes To iPhone?!
09.05.09
So you you’ve been sitting there wondering, “Hey, how can I sound like T-Pain?” Oh, you haven’t? Well the boys at Smule thought you were as they’ve introduced the new iPhone app dubbed I Am T-Pain. T-Pain expressed to Rolling Stone that there’s two main things people recall when they hear his name, “I have top hats and there’s Auto-Tune”, and although T may be selling himself a little short, Auto-Tune definitely is one of his claims to fame. For $2.99 you too can croon with the buzzy swagger of Pain as the actual software used in studio has been harnessed and jammed into yet another useless iPhone application. Save your recording for your own enjoyment or post it to Facebook so your friends can share the Pain. In the words of the hip hop singer, “In two years people are gonna be performing onstage with the iPhone. ‘Cause I got so many ideas that we can just keep upgradin’, upgradin’, and upgradin’.” Wow… that’s good news?
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Bits & Pieces
Ladyhawke Plays Show For One To Fight For Skin
06.18.09
Announcing an upcoming show for one, Ladyhawke commits to a one-off charity gig to support the fight against skin cancer. That’s right folks, the New Zealand femme has decided to perform an individual event on August 26th 2009 for one single person and their chosen guest list in aid of the SunSmart Skindividual campaign. To get to be the lucky numero uno, simply visit the causes networking site Skindividual, where participants are encouraged to utilize other social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook or MySpace, to build a guest list of their own. The participant who comes up with the biggest list will be awarded the show for one, along with their guest list pals of course. “Your skin is a pretty major part of what makes us who we are, so it’s something we should take extra care in protecting – particularly since skin cancer’s a growing problem in the UK,” commented Ladyhawke.
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Concert Reviews
Katy Perry @ Metropolis – 03.31.09
04.06.09
With a band clad entirely in white, a stage adorned with gigantic fruit and a “Katy” cat staring down the crowd with glowing blue eyes, the Californian girl kisser Katy Perry made the Metropolis stage her trampoline, bouncing her way through songs that made the night’s patrons squeal, clap and sing. (more…)
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