I Only Wanted The New NIN Album
Yesterday saw the release of Ghosts I-IV from NIN.
Not only was this release not really publicised but it was also following in a similar track of Radio head and their In Rainbows album. Not quite a ‘pay what you feel’ option but some seriously price reduced DRM free chunage.
Being quite a closet NIN fan I wanted to download this, but I decided to go with the free 9 track starter pack and if impressed I would payz my wayz and invest further.
But due to the popularity of the event my download was bumming out all over the place. I must have tried 30 times and not got further than 700kb of the 82mb download. Frustrated I turned to the only service I knew could help; sure enough Twitter came through.
Turns out that Trent had released an official copy of the album and it was on The Pirate Bay. So a torrent file later I’m enjoying the new NIN album. But it got me thinking, I’ve just downloaded music from a p2p service, will the feds be knock my door down tonight?
With all the talk in the news of British ISP’s planning on cutting down and banning offenders of sharing music and files via peer sharing, where does this all end?
Of course p2p software uses certain ports which is where your ISP is looking, plus your excessively high bandwidth! I opened up those ports and joined the millions of users out there sharing files; legal or otherwise. Yet there was nothing illegal about my actions. I was following a free download, by the artist themselves, to a known torrent tracking website to download music in the most frowned upon manor. How will this all turn out? How will ISP’s know what is legal p2p sharing versus the illegal side?
Envy & Other Sins
On Friday the guvonour decided to take the afternoon off, can’t argue with that he is the boss. But when he said he was heading down to the big smoke to watch his son I was intrigued.
Turns out his son is a member of an unsigned British group called Envy & Other Sins and is taking part in a competition on C4/T4 for a chance for a record contract.
I have not followed the competition, probably because it is shown on T4 on a Sunday; some where between Friends re-runs and Hollyoaks, television I find a bit, well bllleehhh. So I’m normally out or doing something else.
But the idea is that unsigned bands compete against each other for a chance to get signed and get noticed. Now don’t get this confused with another Pop Factor style of garbage, it is only for acts that are currently trying to break into the industry and already have a back catalogue of material and passion to make it. Not a one night stand solo artist that takes 12 months to put a half assed album together; my heart is fecking bleeding!
Envy & Other Sins are still in the competition along with three others, todays show will see them perform a cover of their choice along side The Hoosiers, after that the judges (Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley, Blur’s Bassist Alex James and the head of A & M Records Simon Gavin) will pick two to go through to the public vote.
After hearing all about this I googled the group and found their website, on there you can find a few samples which put a lot of current acts to shame, pre-order the first single and find a little bit about the band. Really impressed, good luck with the competition.
Delusions of grandure
I just can not stand reality shows; Big Bother, I’m a Celebrity and anything else like that just makes my skin crawl. The only thing worse than those shows are the talent show; X Idol, Pop Factor, Britain’s Next Drama Queen. They are all just excuses for 15 minutes of fame.
Lucy on the other hand loves them, so much so that Saturday evening we had to watch another round of qualifying for X Factor. It started off with me eating a lovely spread of Cannelloni and salad but after a few minutes I just could not stomach food; that is how awful some of these acts are, they stopped me eating; which is a tall order!
Anyway food aside I sat there watching it, sinking in my seat at every off key note wondering what actually passes for entertainment these days. Then something happened which made me stop and think.
The young Whitney hopeful contested the judges decision and claimed she was better than anything before.
Now I heard her singing it was pretty poor, ok not as bad as some that had failed before her but it was no where near good enough to be anything more than a mediocre karaoke singer.
Not content with the four ‘No’ decisions her father decided that it was time for his intervention. So he stepped in to make them see sense.
Simon Cowell is not the person I would chose as a Friday night drinking partner but you have to respect him for making millions in the music trade. Yep he has signed some crap and forced some questionable acts onto our screens but he is the one that will step into his Maybach and jet off to his villa. He must know something about what is successful.
We would all wish our family and friends the best of luck (if they actually stood a chance) but wearing those rose tinted glasses to the point of blocking out reality will not help. You are just building a bigger fall.
If you have TRUE talent it will shine through and you will get to where you want to be, there is no need for ‘another’ chance. Before you say ‘this is all I’ve ever wanted’ think just how many people before you said that, be orginial try a different angle. But above all just do it the old fashioned way; blood sweat and studio time, no one from these shows has really made it or made an impact.
No Commentswell done son
I’ve just been checking on the progress of the ctrl.alt.delete band’s website and have been impressed. depsite the fact that he would never admit it this is gravy2012’s first step into the world of the big triple w.
it all started one rather over cast afternoon when I got a phone call from gravy to explain that his friends who set up ctrl.alt.delete a few years back were now hitting it big down in London and so wanted some web presence. after a quick chat gravy and band member dan popped round for a 101 on web sites. I’m no web designer or web guru but I managed to create a small site in a few hours, whilst gravy sat watching taking notes. since then he has taken over control and what you see now is 100% home grown gravy granules! I’m impressed, you have learnt well my young padawan. now just keep the client happy and teach me how to mig weld.
They Did It Again!
Last night i took another trip to the countries capital to see CTRL.ALT.DELETE at The Windmill in Brixton. We managed to make it in time to see almost all of the set (missed half of the first song due to train breakdowns, god damn public transport!!) which is an improvement on our last appearance! I must say i was suitably impressed by the performance, showing true signs of composure and professionalism. Unfortunately, i did not take my camera this time so i have no photos to provide for this gig, but if anyone who went has some pictures, please e-mail them to seanchamberlin@mac.com and i will put them on my web space. The band played some great tracks which i found myself singing along to at some points (’bones’!) and it showed they could write and compose the tracks, as well as perform them live with a high level of quality.
A quick mention to the other supporting act, Die Munch Machine, who played an interesting set (nice vocals!) and the headlining act, Roland Shanks who played a great set.