Monday, October 29, 2007

Let's Get Digital!


Insound, purveyors of all things 'indie' and 'pitchfork', have teamed up with CMJ, the massive music and film festival in NYC, to bring you an mp3 compilation of some of the fine acts that have played there this year, and best of all, it's free!

Acts include Crystal Castles, British Sea Power, HEALTH, and We Are Wolves.

Check out the rest of the acts, and download the album from Insound

update: The CMJ compilations are coming thick and fast! If that wasn't enough for you, grab the even bigger free compilation from my favourite (legal) source for mp3s, eMusic.

Hooray for free music!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Universal, EMI, Warner to sell singles on USB drives

In the latest move by record labels desperate to convince themselves they're up-to-date with what the kids deem cool, and at the same time try and prevent the death of the single, three big record labels have announced that from as early as October 29, they will start releasing singles on USB drives at £4.99 - for now it seems the format is being trialled in the UK, with the rest of the world to follow if the model proves successful.

According to Brian Rose, the commercial director for the UK division of Universal Music, where the USB singles will be trialled, the drives are "aimed at the younger, 12- to 24-year-olds, who no longer believe that the CD is as cool as it used to be".

While this claim may have some validity, this seems an odd move to make. Given that to play the music, you need a computer, a large portion of their target audience would already have an iPod or some other portable device, and a large percentage of those people, if they did want a single, would be able to buy it from iTunes for £0.99. So what's the sweetener?

Apparently, the USB drive will have 'bonus content' on them, which I assume will include a ringtone and wallpaper - I realise the ringtone market is highly lucrative, but what kid is going to want to have a drawer full of low-capacity USB drives sitting around?

I just hope the record labels have a recycling plan for when everyone has copied the music off their USBsingle.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Bruce Springsteen and Arcade Fire

At a recent gig in Canada, Bruce Springsteen joined Arcade Fire on stage to perform 'Keep the Car Running'. Don't believe me? Observe:

Monday, October 08, 2007

Interview: Midnight Juggernauts

It’s been a long time coming, but Melbourne band Midnight Juggernauts have finally released their debut album, Dystopia, and it’s been making waves amongst critics and listeners alike. Nobodymove! spoke with Andy Juggernaut about the band's new album, the rise of iTunes, and their own record label, ‘Siberia’.

Nobodymove!: While more and more new albums – especially ‘dance’ albums – seem to be just a collection of singles, Dystopia is an album that is really ‘an album’, with a beginning, middle and end.

Andy Juggernaut: It was important to us…to make a proper album that you listen to; [an album’s] like a journey. We spent a lot of time with the tracklisting, trying to have something that flows and goes through different types of styles, emotions, and it’s something we placed a lot of emphasis on – making sure it wasn’t just a collection of songs, and something you’d want to sit at home and listen to, rather than just out at a club.

NM: People who’ve seen you live in the past would associate your sound with music you dance to, yet you’ve included some tracks there that are a little more down-tempo. Had you been writing much music in that style over the years?

AJ: We’d never played that style live, and while we’d worked on little things in demos, it was stuff that was never going to happen until we started working on the album…The thing about an album is you get that opportunity to experiment more. While our last EP [Shadows] boosted us a lot, it was very dance-oriented. They were very quick tracks, and we got a couple of singles out of it…but with the album, you do get the chance to try out different things, and with tracks like ‘Dystopia’ and ‘Aurora’, you don’t have to worry about everything being a single, and you have the opportunity to experiment.

NM: The album’s been a long time in the making for you. Was it difficult to choose what made the album, given you had years of ideas to work with?

AJ: We had a lot of tracks we wrote in the lead up, and there was some hard decisions as to what tracks we left off, but in the end, we went with the songs that went best together – it was important that the tracks worked together as an album. [Recording the album] was an organic process, and in some ways it ended up different to what we thought it was going to be beforehand, because when we got into the studio environment, and had the studio at our disposal, we came out with this. We’re really happy with it, as it represents what we did at that time. Our next record is going to be very different, and we’ll probably always be like that.

NM: Given the music industry is going through some dramatic changes, with power shifting from labels, and online retailers like iTunes becoming how people receive their music, releasing an album seems to have become a very different process. How did the band deal with all this?

AJ: iTunes have been great for us, as we’ve been playing the game of singles, and bonus tracks with [online purchased] singles, but I’d be really sad if the actual album died, because it’s a very different experience when you have a full album – you can listen to it from start to finish…sometimes songs don’t quite make sense unless listened to in context.
Things like blogs and song downloads are the way things are going, and record labels are accordingly trying to change how they sell music; record sales are going down as a result, and now they want all sorts of things that create revenue, like merchandise, and pieces of tour money, which is something that was unheard of before. While downloading will continue, hopefully the album never dies…you just have to think of creative ways to get people to buy them. I’ve always been interested in the actual artwork of the album, so we spent a lot of time with our artwork, wanting to make something we really liked and would want to buy ourselves.

NM: For the release of Dystopia, you did it through the band’s label ‘Siberia’. How did the decision to form your own label come about, and has it work out for you?

AJ: Having our own label afforded us a lot more freedom. It was never something we set out to do, but each time the possibility of signing has come up, we’ve thought it may be better if we did it ourselves, if we had a good grasp of where we wanted to take the band, and how we wanted to do things… that’s why we stayed independent. On our last EP, the label was more or less a stamp, but with this album, it has been functioning a lot more like a label, so there’s been a lot more work associated with all the press, and everything that comes with releasing an album – the extra work at times can be stressful, but is ultimately rewarding, because we do have the freedom to make the decisions and do what we want, and we’re not having to answer to anybody, which is great. At a time like this – we were really busy, and spent a lot of time overseas, while there was a lot of stuff that needed to be done back here to promote the album, and we had to constantly approve or disapprove things – it was good to know we’re doing it ourselves, and we own our music. Maybe one day, we can put other artists out on the label.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Big Day Out 2008 Line-Up Revealed!

Big Day Out, while being seen by many as the preeminent Australian music festival, has in the past few years been quite underwhelming in the bands it delivers. Thank god the first announcement hints at the next Big Day Out to be the first one to be excited about in years:

International acts this year are:
Rage Against The Machine, Björk, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Dizzee Rascal, Battles, Billy Bragg, Cut Off Your Hands.

Local acts:
Grinspoon, Hilltop Hoods, Paul Kelly, Sarah Blasko, Faker, Midnight Juggernauts, Something With Numbers.

Melbourne tickets will be on sale October 12 from Ticketmaster, and Missing Link, Polyester et al for $125.

Make sure to get your ticket before all the Rage Against The Machine fans who missed out on their solo show snap them up.

Full info at www.bigdayout.com

Monday, October 01, 2007

Kanye West wants YOU!

...to know he has a sense of humour.

Here he is on SNL recently, taking part in a sketch where he recreates his hissy-fits at the Europe MTV awards, where he argued on stage with the winners of 'best video', and more recently at the MTV VMAs, where he failed to bag any wins.

NEW RADIOHEAD!!!

I don't think there were enough exclamation marks there in that title. If you haven't already heard the news, here's the deal:

from Dead Air Space (Radiohead's official site)

Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days;

We've called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.
Jonny

Sure enough, head over to In Rainbows, and there is the full deal about the new album. In what could be the most exciting move ever by such a large band, the album is available for pre-order exclusively from the site in two ways:

First, there's the download option - you'll be able to download the album when it is released on October 10, and the coolest part is that YOU specify how much you want to pay for it!

Second, there's the 'discbox' option, that will appeal to radiohead die-hards everywhere (myself included). It will be shipped on December 3rd, and also includes a download of the album, as well as In Rainbows on CD, and on 2 x 12" Heavyweight Vinyl, a second bonus CD with new songs, digital photographs and artwork. The discbox also contains artwork and lyrics booklets, all encased in a hardback book and slipcase, all for the sum of £40 (approx. A$92), which includes shipping.

The tracklisting of discbox is:

CD 1 AND VINYL
15 STEP
BODYSNATCHERS
NUDE
WEIRD FISHES/ARPEGGI
ALL I NEED
FAUST ARP
RECKONER
HOUSE OF CARDS
JIGSAW FALLING INTO PLACE
VIDEOTAPE

CD 2
MK 1
DOWN IS THE NEW UP
GO SLOWLY
MK 2
LAST FLOWERS
UP ON THE LADDER
BANGERS AND MASH
4 MINUTE WARNING

And here's what it will look like: