THE INDIE ROCK BLOG
The Indie Rock Blog is a collection of Sugartune Artist News and entries from our friends at the Rock and Roll Report. If sweet, sugartunes are stirring in your soul, keep your soul stirred with a subscription to our news feed. 
Fufkin.Com has been one of my favourite music-related websites for awhile but it has been strangely quiet recently. Well that has now changed as there are a slew of new reviews posted as well as an update on the site plans for 2007.
What a relief!
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Not sure if I mentioned this before but the seriously cool Fufkin.Com has been updated for June/July 2006 with more great record reviews and other cool content.
Great site as always.
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Yes that’s right. After two years of work the wonderful Acid Archives of Underground Sounds 1965-1982 has finally hit the letter “Z” and has achieved version 1.0 status! If you haven’t checked out this site recently (or at all) you owe it to yourself to visit and explore this very cool rock and roll resource.
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Covering “psych, acid rock, garage and progressive music” Head Trips and Flashbacks is a pretty funky website that covers a lot of cool music, some you may be familiar with and a lot you may not. It also features the best use of an Eagles lyric that I’ve seen on the ‘Net. A very groovy music resource man.
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The March 2005 issue of Fufkin is out now and although I don’t have the time to list all the features it looks to be a cracker! Check it out this weekend.
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As I continue my re-aquaintence with progressive music and investigate the new bands that are out there, I have discovered some pretty cool progressive rock websites. One of these is Progressive World. Sites like this go to show that there is a lot of amazng stuff out there that you may not be aware of and sites like Progressive World are a good place to start if you want to see what’s up. I really enjoyed the A Day at the Indies series. Great stuff.
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If you are looking for a great rock and roll website that features amazing articles, a radio show and tons of links featuring all kinds of cool record labels, bands, radio shows, records stores and much more you have to check out Grunnen Rocks. A fantastic rock and roll resource.
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For all you mad Mods the wonderful Mod website The New Untouchables have updated their site. If you haven’t visited in awhile and want to know what cool mod events are coming up, this is the place to go.
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Apple has finally launched their iTunes music store in the UK, France and Germany but not with the support of the majority of European independent record labels according to Macworld UK. There is so much competition out there now and as the market leader in the U.S. you can expect an agreement to be hammered out shortly but it must sting a little bit when all the other competing services have the independent labels on board except for Apple.
UPDATE! The Guardian Online has more details on the lack of independent labels in Licensing Row Mars iTunes Launch. Keep in mind it was written before the official launch today. The BBC also has more details in Row over iTunes deal for indie rock labels.
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There is a really interesting article in Wired titled Apple Wants to Open Song Vaults which goes behind the scenes at Apple’s iTunes service and discusses a possible future direction for the current digital music download leader: the release of out of print music from both major and indie rock labels. A great economic argument that only a guy like Steve Jobs could probably pull off. Very cool idea.
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The Motley Fool has an interesting article posted called Sing a New Song that points out the reality of digital distribution of music today and how MP3.Com could have profited from music downloads instead of crashing and burning at the hands of CNET. A good read although I still don’t think that the CD is a dead medium for music distribution. It might end up with a similar fate to vinyl but it will always exist for those who eschew the complicated technical politics of downloading music and prefer the practical, physical qualities of a CD or DVD.
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That is the question that Stephen Van Esch grapples with in his article on Low End Mac (an absolutely indispensable site for all you Macheads out there). Sometimes just because something is popular doesn’t necessarily mean that it is good. Read the article and come to your own conclusions and let me know what you think!
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USA Today has a really cool article on the evolution of Magnatune and their take on using the Internet to sell records. I like their statement that they want to be the “Linux of the music world.” Very cool. Magnatune is actually featured in the latest issue of Linux Journal for all you geeks out there.
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Looking to have access to your iTunes from anywhere in the house? Check out the Allegro Media Server, which will stream your iTunes to audio devices located around the house. Time to dump the 8 track!
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So I installed my 120 day trial version of Windows XP Pro last night to check it out and evaluate whether I should buy it and use that instead of my usual Windows 98 SE. It installed fine and I must admit that things like the automatic setting of my screen resolution and the quick and painless Internet set up impressed me. I was less impressed with the “Simpsons” style colour scheme used as the GUI and I will probably revert to the crappy Windows 98 default colour scheme if I stick with XP. The one thing that amazed me was what happened when I checked out the Windows updates site to see what patches I needed to apply to a product on a CD that was released in 2002. There were 43 critical patches required to update this particular version of XP! Holy cow! I always keep my system up to date in both Microsoft issued patches and virus definitions but it was still mind boggling none the less. I didn’t bother installing the patches and will probably wait until the weekend as I suspect it will take awhile. Over all the user experience is quite good and very helpful and straight forward. I will be installing a version of Linux on the same system and evaluate that to see how difficult a Windows to Linux migration would be. I’m currently in the planning stages of a new website/project (it will deal with space or the environment, still not sure yet but not rock and roll so stay tuned) and I am hoping to go all Linux on that to keep all my options open so I’ll let you know how that goes. I think that The Rock and Roll Report is pretty much stuck with Windows since I need to easily access sites with Windows Media files but I have no such requirements for the new site so this will give me the opportunity to dive head first into the world of open source. Should be alternately fun and frustrating but isn’t that the way with all computer related endeavors?
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Well, I am finally retiring my circa 1996 PC for a brand new circa 2001 PC! Actually, it’s my wife’s old office PC that I have used a bit in the past but we bought it so now the headaches are all ours! The hard drive had crashed (literally crashed. It was making all kinds of weird tapping and knocking noises!) but this has been replaced (under warranty thank god) and a 512 MB RAM upgrade is in the works. What this means to The Rock and Roll Report is probably more important to me than you but 2 things stand out. I will finally be able to install an RSS News Reader program to track all the rock and roll blogs I like and hopefully make it easier to post their coordinates to my site. Also, I am going to be trying a program available that allows my PC to record Internet radio so I can play it back at a time more convenient to me. This will allow me to better review all of the cool rock and roll stations that I listen to but at a time when I can concentrate and enjoy them better and hopefully help me in putting together my Global Rock and Roll Radio Report that I posted about yesterday. I also have to decide if I should migrate from Windows 98 to Windows XP so any comments would be appreciated in this regard. I’ll let you know how all this geek stuff works out and recommend what I can. At the end of the day, my new PC should make things easier for me so that I can spend what little time I have available listening to, reading about and posting on all the cool rock and roll that’s out there. Of course, I never expected my hard drive to crash in the first place so I’m currently in “once bitten, twice shy” mode but hey, everybody tells me that technology will be our salvation and who am I to argue about it? I might even think they’re right. Now how to format that new hard drive? I think I’m supposed to shake it twice, spin it once and what the hell is this wire for?…..
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Here’s an interesting trick, use the very technology that the RIAA decries to actually compete in the incredibly competitive field of running a record label. That’s what Go-Kart Records does according to the article Independent Label Go-Kart Records Embraces MP3s [Sep. 25, 2003] There is no denying that CD sales are down so doing something, anything is better than sueing everybody in sight. With desperation comes ingenuity, let’s see if it works.
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Just a quick post to point out this story onYahoo! News - Simple Flaw in CD-Copy Protection System? that seems to suggest Windows users have an easy way to defeat one form of CD copy protection.
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According to RIAA could well be suing innocent victims, the R.I.A.A. might have bitten off more than it can chew (technologicaly speaking) when it commenced suing everybody in sight. They need the services of a P2P supergeek immediately! Send in your resumes (by mail only).
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Remember the days when you could buy pet food on the Internet, or watch a short movie for free online, or be inundated by a bunch of “dot com” commercials from companies you never heard of run by computer obsessed geeks barely out of university with no business knowledge but loads of stock options? That’s right I’m talking about Y2K when all things Internet related seemed so …..hyper. Well Coolfer has given me the heads up on an excellent article from the Atlantic Monthly written during that momentous year on the MP3 “phenomena.” Titled “The Heavenly Jukebox” this piece is most definitely the best introduction to the issues of technology, music and copyright that I have read and it is still relevant today. What should happen and what can happen are still evolving but as this article points out “Allowing the travails of a single industry — no matter how legitimate its concerns — to decide the architecture of that arena would be a folly that could take a long time to undo.” This to me is still the fundamental point. Allowing the recording industry to determine how technology evolves will erode the Internet to the point where not only will it be useless to the average music fan, it will also be useless as a legitimate forum for self expression and the dissemination of ideas. And that would be not only a sad thing but a potentially disastrous thing for all of us. Thanks Coolfer. Check out his site right now. Good stuff from someone who cares. And check out that pledge! We all thank you for that.
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Look, I have a legal background so this kind of stuff happens (Recording industry withdraws suit) but it’s funny none the less. The law and technology are never, ever in sync with each other. Did I say ever? Never.
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Check this out: Kazaa sues music, movie companies. “As The Record Spins” continues next week with the RIAA admiting that they slept with the Webcaster Alliance. Stay tuned.
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Check out the excellent music search engine MusicMoz the Open Music Project when you’re trying to track down some cool rock and roll info this weekend. And if you really want to help out, Music Moz is looking for editors and submissions to build this open database into the premiere music database site on the ‘Net. Check it out, and they are looking for an editor for the genre “Garage Rock” so apply now!
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Read this from the Register and laugh or shake your head: “The RIAA sees the face of evil, and it’s a 12-year-old girl”.
Later (Net troubles still ongoing. Managed to get this through!).
Creature
Moonshine Orchestra
The Snitches