It’s always good when a skim of blogs and newspaper sites reveal a common topic, and today has been a bumper harvest, so here’s a few links to some rather interesting points of view:

First up there’s this article in the Guardian by composer John Woolrich about ignoring musical categories. One sentence sticks out beautifully:

“Many people are hungry for anything that sounds a bit different, uses sound in a new way and sets itself apart from the naked consumerism of commercial pop.”

Common sense to some, maybe, but it’s always good to see it written about with such enthusiasm, especially from one who probably has very little interest in the week-to-week changes of fashion and taste that usually blight newspaper music journalism.

Onto the permanently outspoken Victor Stone at Virtual Turntable, who, not content with having just completed an excellent five part series debunking many myths and giving many splendid pointers about music composition, now picks up the ongoing discussion about the pros and cons of signing the “big record deal”, initially in response to an article on Brad Sucks, which itself was a comment on an Ask Metafilter thread, and then carries it back to his own site, the better to state his case.

(If you’re digging through this and are interested, or have never read them, don’t fail to check out Steve Albini’s “The Problem With Music” and both of Courtney Love’s speeches (one, two) that are referenced within the above links – although now both a few years old, these articles eloquently target the perpetual problems that still exist in the ol’ Music Biz – Eye-peeling reading for the uninitiated, indeed).

And finally move on to the February 3rd entry in David Byrne’s always interesting diary (there’s no date direct link – move to a proper blog format, David, please ;), wherein he ruminates about the current stateside success of The Arcade Fire, wonders how they’ll do in their soon-come major label ping-pong game, and ends up relating a discussion with his young daughter about the idea behind “intelllectual property”.

Phew. For one day’s skimming, that’s a mighty potent, and highly inspiring bunch of opinions and attitudes.

No further comment from me needed, I think.

(aka “Get your hands offa my ass”)

This cracks me up. I expect a mass riot any day now Stateside as East and West coasts start battling over the phrase “All the ladies in the house go…”

PS Thanks to all for feedback on the XFM Show. We’ve been slack on getting the new hosting sorted, but as people seem to be wanting it, I might just stick the whole thing up as a torrent for now anyway – watch this space.

(addendum)

Now, bizarrely, (maybe, maybe not) I have a Google DeskBar, which I love (much more than the clunky toolbar), but having that handy little slot in your system tray means that I’ve developed a major tendency to cut and paste phrases into it just to see what pops up.

(Yeah, I know, you’re thinking, “So he hasn’t sorted out their hosting, but he’ll sit there all night sticking random phrases into Google? Priorities, my man, priorities…”)

Anyway, was impressed to find that sticking “Whose ass is it anyway?” into my googleslot brings up this delightfully wordy article from four years back, wherein a rather deluded advertising guy bemoans the downhill spiral of quality in his industry, in a world where:

“popular culture has become a vague miasma of insincerity constructed from a sarcastic vibe”

Are you going to tell him, or shall I?

…but by golly, it feels like an old year right now, doesn’t it?

First up, a belated happy new year to you all, and as we said on the site, thanks to all who came and frugged 2005 into existance at the All Time Top 100 Blow out – a damn fine party to be sure…

Secondly, I’ll extend the new year’s honours that we gave to our mailing list (along with a little xmas present – see what you’re missing out on?), and give a loud and hearty thanks to everyone that has listened to, talked about, blogged about, emailed comments about, given the finger to Disney on behalf of, hosted, mirrored, written about etc… anything that we’ve done this past year.

(And double thanks to anyone who stuck us in their end-of-year charts – we’re honoured)

We could blather on about it and single people out for praise, but we want to keep this short. You know who you are, anyway, and it’s all really really appreciated, maaaan.

Next up, the reason for our recent quietness is that we’ve been a little hive of industry, and have been locked away polishing off 60 minutes of new stuff for an exclusive radio mix for James Hyman’s “The Rinse” show on XFM here in swinging Londonengland..

The show will air on Sunday 23rd January at 1am GMT – You can listen on their website, so if you fancy a spot of new New Year sounds direct from Kleptonia, please tune in – we’d love to have you along…

(Also following our mix at 2am is an hour mix set from the legendary Jazzy Jeff – an honour to be warming up for the man, to be sure)

That’s about it for now, I think…

Now it might be old web hat to some of you, but discovering the recent growth in word-of-mouth marketing agencies is a little trippy to me.

(There was apparently an article about this in last Sunday’s New York Times, but I can’t find it online – if anyone knows where it is, please leave a link in the comments. Ta.)

For the uninitiated, have a look at Bzzagent, which pretty much sums up the deal. Okay, loads of people have set up street teams and stuff like that, ways to help bands and suchlike get some (usually much needed) free ground support, but the idea that people are now setting up agencies where you sign up and when something they think you might like comes along they give it to you in return for you going round and showing your friends how cool it is is setting a pretty dangerous precident, don’tcha think?

Now, I’m not a fan of guerilla advertising in any form whatsoever (wow, Eric, you surprise us). I’m firmly in the Bill Hicks camp on that one. (“Anyone here who works in advertising? Go home and shoot yourself. No really, I mean that. Go home and do it.”)

So, Bzzagent’s site states “You only join campaigns for products you like”, and Womma’s site rails against people already trying to discredit their system online by pointing out that “We have long maintained that ‘seeding’ has a corrosive effect on the integrity of the web…”, but this all leaves a hella bad taste in the mouth. Especially coming from marketing companies (like, duh, it’s their job to convince you, maan). There are already enough people posting fake reviews, dummy blogs etc… without stuff like this to contend with. And to make matters worse, Bzzagent seem to be directing themselves at a reasonably huge and rather vulnerable group of people: people who want to be way cool, but somehow, because of whatever insecurity they suffer from, don’t think that they are.

As their Bzzagent of the month puts it on the front page of the site:

“I have no idea at times what is current or new. But with Bzz I have an edge almost. I can talk to my friends about some new cool things that I would not usually even venture out and even look at.”

(It’s the “almost” that gets me there)

Now, stuff like this has been going on for years behind the scenes – backhanders, payola, freebies, goodie bags, call it what you want – but to bring stuff like this out in the open I think will have serious consequences for many different kinds of community, not just online. How can you trust anyone at all? If someone tells me about some new music, even if it’s good, I want to believe that they’ve passed it on to me because they feel it, and they want to share it, not because once they’ve written up my reaction to it and passed it back to their agency (without my permission, hemhem), they’ll earn brownie points and gift vouchers.

As this article in the Concorde Monitor demonstrates, The Monitor received several reviews of books and printed them, only to later find out they’d been Bzzed. Even though the review author claims he genuinely liked the books, The Monitor knows they cannot print advertiser-backed content without stating where it comes from and who’s funding it. And that’s just one person who copped to it. What about all the others who haven’t?

“Word-of-mouth is the most credible and trusted form of advertising, especially in the internet age,” say Womma. Yeah, seems like a bit of fun, a way of getting freebies, maybe earning a little cash, getting to think you’re “cool” and still thinking you retain your integrity.

But if this is where it starts, where the hell is it going to end up? David Byrne (December 6 post) makes some typically elegant connections in his online diary that make for interesting reading, and shows that what was once a nightmarish future-scenario is edging nearer and nearer to reality.

How long before less scrupulous agencies spring-up? Or less scrupulous agents? How long before “Womma-free” banner ads start appearing in people’s blogs?

Considering pretty much everyone that has ever visited this site or downloaded any of our tracks has ended up doing it because of word-of mouth, like I said, it leaves a bad taste.

But, hey, when I have a bad taste in my mouth, I always reach for my Breathezee minty gel caps to keep my breath minty fresh. Why don’t you try some? I have some right here in my pocket. Go on… have one.

I’m sure you’ll like them.

Haven’t posted for a couple of weeks, but that doesn’t mean that the world has stopped, just nothing to add much to what’s being said elsewhere…

But seeing that Apple have decided to stomp on the sale of a “customised” iPod… well, what the hell can you say here… This is a regular iPod (okay, a limited edition U2 one), that someone has uploaded a few albums by another band, put a couple of stickers on the pod and the box, and then stuck up on Ebay.

(It doesn’t even include the “U2” single that caused Negativland such grief first time round)

But Apple say “No!” – we think this violates our intellectual property rights (where’s the proof – oh, no-one wants to take Apple to court? Surprise, surprise…). So Apple whinge to Ebay and they pull the auction with a day to go.

So what about things like this? Does this not violate these IP rights that are so important even more? (Look what they’ve done to that thing! And they’ve ripped-off your branding too. C’mon Apple – get those guys!!!)

Or, more importantly, is the endorsement deal that U2 have struck with Apple so damn important that no-one is allowed to take the piss out of it?

(and let’s face it, their new album is one of the most full-on ad campaigns I’ve seen any band rage for years – as LNR says, they really ARE still “The Hype”)

If this is indicitive of Apple’s attitude as they plunge head first into the music industry (“one law for us, one law for you”), there’s going to be some seriously choppy waters ahead, to say the least…

..and we thank you.

The last couple of days has seen a flurry of comment and debate sparked by yesterday’s incident. To the many of you who blogged, posted comments, emailed cunning methods of protest, debated the situation and above all, offered mirrors and posted links up, we doff our caps and thank you for your support.

It is very, very, very, much appreciated.

As people have been asking – no, we haven’t had any mail from Disney. But we’re approaching our mailbox with trepidation, to say the least.

No… not that one, although if you haven’t seen it yet, go check out the Grey Video… an excellent piece of work, made by as yet unknown hands.

The dangerous mouse in this case, sadly, is Disney, who, as owners of Hollywood Records, are the controllers of Queen’s catalogue in the USA. Disney have issued Waxy.org with a cease-and-desist order, due to their mirroring of our “Hip-Hopera”. They have been asked to remove all links to the 23 tracks by the 23rd November.

However, as Boing Boing and Waxy have both already pointed out, Waxy aren’t actually hosting the files themselves, just linking to them, which isn’t the same thing at all.

Naturally, this is unfortunate, if not wholly unexpected, news.

As usual, Popjustice speaks for us all…

Very sad to hear about the death of John Balance from Coil.

Impatient youths of the sun
Burning with many colours
Flick combs through hair in bathroom mirrors
Fucking with fusion and fashion
Dance in the beams of emerald lasers
Mating on suburban duvets
Come-splattered nuclear breeders
What a time that was…

“Theme from Blue”, Coil.

—

John Peel, Greg Shaw, Dave Godin, ODB, now John Balance… It seems like there’s a cull of maverick genius in process.

A couple of people have already jumped our gun and mentioned the now-eerie combination of source material in the track “Bite” from Hip-Hopera (link via the ever wonderful Waxy).

Suffice to say that rumours of us making a new version of the track with a Robbie Williams vocal and crossing our fingers really hard are as yet unfounded.

Sorry.