Pay what you want for Girl Talk's newest album 'Feed the Animals'

Love it.

Hate it.

It's some of the most creative mash up I've ever heard.
I'm a couple days behind on this one, but I took a little time to give it a listen. Twisted, imaginative, frenetic, fast, it's Girl Talk, and for a "pay what you want" it's totally worth checking out.

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

any price grants the download of the entire album as high-quality 320kbps mp3s
$5 or more adds the options of FLAC files, plus a one-file seamless mix of the album
$10 or more includes all of the above + a packaged CD (when it becomes available)

That's not a bad deal ($5 for FLAC), and if you dig on mashups, I don't really think it gets much better...

Following up on Radiohead's experiment, and why Metallica SUCKS!

So I made a huge deal about Radiohead's last album being released on line. In Rainbows was a great work (which eerily lines up with OK Computer), but the band was pretty tight lipped about whether the digital download plan was a success.

A reader just sent in this BBC News article where U2's manager declares the experiment a failure:

The majority of fans who downloaded In Rainbows ignored the band's website and acquired it illegally by other means, Paul McGuinness told BBC 6 Music.

"Sixty to 70% of the people who downloaded the record stole it anyway, even though it was available for free."

U2's next album - due this year - would not follow the same approach, he added.

Ummm-Kay...
First off, I don't get how U2's manager gets to make this declaration. Even if the numbers are accurate, this perceived theft would probably have fallen in line with the number of people who would've downloaded the album for free any way. I know I had SERIOUS problems even accessing Radiohead's site the day the album went live.

Next the goodwill generated is completely incalculable. The spectacle of releasing a commercial work of this quality for free probably reached farther out than just Radiohead fans. I had quite a few friends who weren't Radiohead fans before, but enjoyed In Rainbows enough to check out their earlier work. I'm assuming there was a subtle "Napster effect" after In Rainbows release, with earlier albums experiencing a small sales bump.
Add that exposure to concert ticket sales, and sales of the hard copy of In Rainbows, and I think the download experiment has helped the band a lot more than some estimated loss of units sold could hurt it.
I found the last line of the BBC story telling:

The album went straight to number one in the UK and US when it became available on CD in January.

And speaking of "Napster effect" Metallica seems pretty resolute about continuing on their march to complete irrelevance.

Just after drumming up some buzz by embracing iTunes, and talking about trying their own NIN like download album release (making them the greatest flip-floppers of all time imho), they go and pull a stunt like this.
Ars is reporting on the bands inability to NOT piss off all of their fans who happen to use the web. First they invite music critics to review 6 tracks off their new album (I didn't even know there was another album in the works). Then they send the critics and bloggers off to write stories about those tracks. THEN the band's management threatens the bloggers who wrote reviews, and bullied them into taking those reviews down. Then the band makes an "official" statement on their website saying:

"Our response was 'WHY?!!! Why take down mostly positive reviews of the new material and prevent people from getting psyched about the next record... that makes no sense to us!'"

OK.

I stopped listening to Metallica after they embraced the litigious nature of the RIAA, and were brutally public about suing all of their fans. It was a sticky situation, and file sharing is stealing (not piracy though), but this was the wrong move to make. If they're played on the radio I change the station. The fact that they are considering following NIN and Radiohead, proves to me that their reputations (along with their album sales) have been damaged to the point where they need to eat some crow, make a magnanimous gesture. Great. Good for them.

This latest episode just shows that they still don't know what the crap they're doing with this whole intarweb thing.

I'll be adding them to my list of "no buy" along with Monster Cables and Creative sound cards...

Nine Inch Nails Offers Free Tour EP Download

WOOT!
I LOVE the free stuff!

Trent Reznor offers another free download: A 'Tour Sampler' featuring songs from bands performing on the upcoming Nine Inch Nails tour. Included are tracks from A Place To Bury Strangers, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Crystal Castles, Deerhunter, and Nine Inch Nails. Once again, 100% free, high quality MP3s, DRM-free.

read more | digg story

News Sound Bites - Napster, Sony, Golden Globes and More!

CorePlayer (a play anything media player Windows Mobile users have been using for a while) comes to the iPhone. Play any file, not just what Apple wants you to play!

Sony's plans for DRM-Free Music are retarded! I mean this in the truest sense of the word, as in "to retard progress".

In other DRM news, Napster is going DRM free, likely give up on subscription service?

NO GOLDEN GLOBES FOR YOU! ONE YEAR!!!

Your iPhone can now be used to help you figure out what that song on the radio is...

Sierra Entertainment touting Prototype as the first Video Game to feature 7.1 THX surround sound audio. Sounds good to me.

Odeo relaunching, to become relevant again?

MetaFilter users wax philosophical on the Death of High Fidelity (not the movie), and I agree.

Have you purchased your copy of Niggy Tardust yet? Why not?

I just slapped down my $5 for an FLAC copy, and I'm really enjoying it. Dark, edgy, I just really dig Reznor as a producer.

Saul Williams, a champion of DRM free content, brings a powerful performance to the table. At times vulnerable, at times invoking a raw, explosive energy that stabs you between the eyes, a Lenny Kravitz meets Jimmie Hendrix meets Seal...

on PCP...

The constant genre mashing can be a little exhausting, but in a good way. It's like the first time I heard Downward Spiral from beginning to end. I really felt like I had accomplished something. There are influences aplenty...

The cover of Bloody Sunday is a stand out single that really moved me, almost as much as when I heard the original. This track needs to be on the radio NOW. Another standout for me was the raw nakedness of No One Ever Does, a gorgeously simple/sweet ballad, amid the chaos/frenzy/hunger of the rest of the album.

There's just so much to hear in Reznor's mix, and in Williams' words, it's unlikely that I'll pull it off the ipod anytime soon.

Just like my posts on Radiohead's release of In Rainbows, this is another grand experiment. The album is being released for Free (MP3 @ 192Kbps) or for $5 (FLAC or 320Kbps MP3). So far the numbers are ... interesting? Out of 150,000 downloads almost 30,000 have paid for it. That's one in five, 20%. Is that success? No one really knows yet...

Ars Technica has a pretty good write up explaining the details behind the distribution, and Reznor himself offers up a fairly in depth look at the experiment so far.

You can download the album here.

In Rainbows...

It's been a shit day. Truly. At least I've finally gotten my hands on a copy of In Rainbows.

I'm kind of a casual fan of Radiohead. They find regular rotation on the iPod, but it's always an "oh right I should put them on" kind of reaction, never a first impulse kind of thing. That and they've never been a background noise kinda band for me. Like 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' or 'i robot' or 'Dark Side of the Moon' I put on Radiohead when I want to LISTEN to music. Unfortunately it seems like I get less and less time to just listen, so that chunk of my collection gets less and less play time. Prolly getting moldy...

So far this is a great Radiohead album. If you're not a fan, then it wont do anything for you, but if you are I'd say it's right up there with Kid A.
15 Step and Bodysnatchers lead off some great beat deconstruction, and showcase just how good this group is at creating mellow yet totally schizophrenic rhythms. I especially like the reaffirming tone of 15 Step. It feels like a re-dedication...
Nude's minstrel-like qualities are refreshing, intimate, and I was glad the piece didn't get too maudlin or sappy.
Can't say I'm loving Weird Fishes. It's plinky, light, and while it builds into a great run at the end, it feels like too long for too little...
I have to say that All I Need kinda took me by surprise. The dark plodding ring mod rhythm left me unprepared for the lyrical vulnerability. It's not quite Creep, but it's close...
Faust Arp is disgustingly gorgeous. I'm such a sucker for strings and acoustic guitar (like the second disc of 'In Your Honor').They always catch me right between the lungs...
Reckoner reminds me a little of the Beta Band. I love that! The kind of song that makes me wish it rained more in L.A. I'd say more, but I'm too busy closing my eyes...
House of Cards is kinda meh for me. It makes me want to fire up the Johnny Nash 'I Can see Clearly'. It's not a bad song, but it just doesn't go anywhere for me. One of the few times where mating their mellow and intimate tone to a fairly quick back beat just doesn't appeal...
Jigsaw Falling Into Place had me bobbing my head right from the get go. A little touch of Depeche Mode and the Violent Femmes.
Videotape is haunting and pretty and tragic. Blue Man Group's 'Exhibit 13' comes to mind...



So what is all this? What's the point? Is this as groundbreaking or revolutionary as OK Computer?
Yes and No.
I can't say the music is. I can get lost in OK Computer, and In Rainbows just doesn't open my eyes as much.
What is very exciting though is this is an extremely polished and competent work from a group on top of their game. This isn't after-thought music. This isn't a collection of random recordings or crappy B-Sides. This isn't an "experiment". It's real, a real album, and the way it's being distributed is earth-shaking.


It's a scary day for the record labels...


WOw, so if you read all that, then gawdblessya, cuz I really have no business reviewing music...

More Bands Following Radioheads Example

So of course there's the NIN announcement, but the Telegraph is reporting on even more groups wading in after Radiohead (you should actually be downloading their new album now instead of reading this, unless you're reading this while WAITING to download their new album). For me, this is probably the most exciting development in distribution since the original Napster debuted.

Oasis has already announced that its next single, Lord Don’t Slow Me
Down, will be available only to download for 99 pence. Meanwhile
rumours abound that Madness, a band with a loyal fanbase amongst
40-somethings, is considering giving away its next album for free.

MADNESS?!?!?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?
ONE STEP BEYOND?!?!?!
I'M SO THERE!!!


*ahem*

Labels are going to have to get savvy PDQ, or they'll be going away.

And right now, I can't really say they'd be missed...

READ THE REST @ TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

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