I had been hearing about them for a few days here and there but Scott Andrew's endorsement finally got me to download the Beatallica albums. They're pretty hilarious and fun and well worth checking out. They do a fantastic job of the Metallica/Beatles crossover thing. Great free Internet stuff.

How I stopped buying CDs and started loving music, a pretty down to earth weblog entry about Jeffrey Veen's experiences with downloading music. Here is the end:

Could it be possible that we may not need the labels? That maybe music fans and artists can find their own ways of connecting with each other? And maybe, instead of a few hundred millionaires, we might have thousands and thousands of musicians making a decent living? Could that be possible?

There are a lot of really interesting replies as well, if you're into that sort of thing.

I tried to start a Songfight! suicide pact tonight based on the sales of ex-American Idol William Hung's debut CD Inspiration (ie. too many sales we all die) but nobody was man enough.

1 person recommended So You've Ruined Your Life instead of Inspiration (includes Bonus DVD)

Today I got to wondering what was up with Al Jourgensen, the man behind many of my favorite bands as a teenager such as Ministry, the Revolting Cocks and Lard. I did a search for some interviews and found some fun and interesting stuff. Like this email interview where he replies to everything in all in caps. Some clips:

R: You and Paul (Barker) recorded almost all of the music on the new album without the help of many other guest musicians. Was this a conscious effort, to strip down the music and not muddy it with guest musicians, or was it just something that happened?

A: WE JUST DIDN'T WANT TO SHARE OUR DELI TRAY WITH ANYONE ELSE THIS TIME. DAMN, THOSE BBQ CHICKEN WINGS ARE TASTY.

R: What is the most important thing you've learned by working in the music industry?

A: DON'T DRINK WINE WITHOUT A CORK!!!!!!!!!

R: In what ways would you say Ministry has grown and changed since its beginning?

A: WE STARTED OUT BOYS, AND BECAME MARINES

There's a more serious one over on KNAC.com:

KNAC.COM: Do you think rock and roll is even dangerous anymore? Can it be? JOURGENSEN: I see people getting sick of it. Like I said, I was proud to be an American that day in San Fransisco. In Chicago and places like that where people stick up for themselves, I see a relevant punk rock movement coming on.

KNAC.COM: A real one? JOURGENSEN: Yeah, I?m talking about a movement that will utilize the Internet, and instead of garage bands, you will have Internet bands. When people realize that the Internet is not just a home shopping club, I think there will be a lot more people doing things for themselves.

I've been kinda out of the loop for a while because the Internet has been filled with lies, so here is some possibly totally old news: Metafilter had the best discussion on the anniversary of Kurt Cobain's suicide, in that it seems to cover every possible reaction pretty neatly. What's interesting to me is how most people who are vocal one way or another about the subject tend to be reacting more to his style and image more than the actual music.

Bob Dylan appears in a television commercial for Victoria's Secret. Various people are shocked and upset about this, feeling he has betrayed his public image. I read an interview with Dylan in a book called Songwriters on Songwriting a month or two ago and he was a total weirdo space cadet and I don't seem to be able to take anything he does seriously.

Prince signs with Sony. Selling out twice is the new selling out once.

Paul Anka swearing at his band. "Don't make a fucking maniac out of me!" is my new slogan and if I ever have a band, I will say it to them often.

Some random emails from the weekend have gone missing. You may want to re-send. Did the interview chat thing on halfliferadio.com last week. It was fun and also interesting.

Got my MPD-16 drum pad thing on Friday and it didn't come with a USB cable. I will be exchanging it later this week for a unit that actually comes with all its parts.

My dog of the last 10+ years (named Penny) was put down today due to cancer and general sufferin'. It is a drag but it is also okay.

Here's a Slate article on Why pop songwriting's not what it used to be via Songfight.net. It's basically a big jab at Jessica Simpson's new song sucking (I haven't heard it, so I don't know), but the article has a lot of interesting chronology of the changes the singer/songwriter label has gone through. I think I noticed the blurring of the singer/songwriter lines first with Avril Lavigne a while ago. I was reading about The Matrix, the production company that wrote her debut hits yet they were still billing Avril as having written her own songs.

Really I'm not sure if it makes too much of a difference. It kinda makes it less impressive to be a singer/songwriter these days I guess as even 16 year old girls from Napanee can do it and sell millions. But worrying about whether entertainment is legit or not always seems like kind of a waste of energy to me. Everyone acts terrified of getting tricked, but then they really enjoy it when it works and they don't notice it happening.

I jumped the gun about posting it a week or two ago, but the Flak magazine interview with me is now actually online. There is a longer director's cut of the interview available here. Who knows what crazy junk I'll have said in the past! I'm also supposed to be doing an interview on Half Life Radio of all places on Wednesday evening.

This study claims that music sharing isn't negatively effecting CD sales. Here's a big clip for those of you too lazy to read the article:

For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero," they wrote.

"We find that file sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales," the study's authors wrote. "While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing."

Unlikely that this is the final word on the subject, but still interesting.

After a year or two of wanting to get some sort of rhythm input device, I just ordered one of these suckers:

It's an MPD-16 and it's very hip-hop. If all goes according to plan I may have it by the weekend.

I should also mention that if any of you musicians are in the market for a Yamaha DD55 (the drum thing I was thinking about buying before I decided on the MPD16), there are tons of them on eBay. They seem to retail for about $200-$220 US and most auctions are going for $100-$120. Just so you know.

I was told today that my album I Don't Know What I'm Doing is an Editor's Pick on Netmusic.com and my track Sick as a Dog is in their top 10. That's pretty sweet. Direct link to the album is here if you wanna buy something. Songs seem to be 89 cents, not sure what format the downloads are.

Magnatune and I got some props on the Creative Commons blog. That's pretty boss. (Boss is a word I am trying to bring back into popular usage.) After a lot of initial difficulty I think I'm finally starting to get my head around what the purpose of the Creative Commons is and how it can benefit artists and business-folk. I have an idea for a Creative Commons-heavy Brad Sucks project but I'm still asking around to see if it's possible.

Wow, I have a lot of poetry to read now. Thanks to everyone who suggested and emailed me stuff. I'll have to ask about good pulpy sci-fi books later.

Does anybody out there read poetry? I did when I was a teenager to impress girls but now I'm wondering if there's anything out there that isn't junk. Please tell me who the good poets are so I can go read some. Note: I'm biased against poetry that uses language normal people don't use. ie. "Thine heart hath made mine whole" = groan city from the Brad section of the audience.

So far the neatest poet someone has suggested to me is e.e. cummings who is at least pretty nuts a lot of the time.

This article claims the Fraunhofer Institute (the folks who invented MP3s) have announced that they've figured out a way to create surround sound MP3s. They claim it'll work with existing players as well, which seems like the real trick. Very cool. (via Slashdot.)

What's cool is that other people are starting to do the radio digest thing much like Steven Garrity's Acts of Volition Radio (of which there is now session 8 online). There's now Mathcaddy Radio Sessions and LugRadio. Very cool to see it spreading! Steven's also made up a helpful FAQ about his Acts of Volition Radio, it has a lot of helpful information for anyone looking to start their own. That guy is just plain helpful.

Here's the Spin Symposium radio ad for your listening pleasure. I've been told it's been heard on CHOM FM in Montreal. Just remember: when you think extreme winter sports; think Brad Sucks.

Some other Brad Sucks related stuff: Apparently my song Making Me Nervous is going to be in a radio ad for the same event the TV ad is for. Not sure what stations it's running on, but I think it's cool to be sneaking onto radio in this manner.

Interview in Flak magazine - Here's an interview I did a month or two ago. I was kinda "in the zone" and rambly so here's hoping I make at least a bit of sense. At least I got to say "The arts are just fucked." Thanks to Adam for his time and patience. (Turns out this wasn't officially online yet, I'll replace the link when I get the word.)

My music's been being used on Binary Revolutions' HackRadio. They also feature a lot of other cool indie bands so I'm in good company.

Too Old To Rock, Too Young To Die describes the exploits of one Jef Hickey, roadie:

He's contracted gonorrhea (six times), crabs (four times), syphilis (three times) and herpes. For more than a decade and a half, with lab-rat consistency, Hickey carpet-bombed his cortex with enough pills to stock a hypochondriac's medicine cabinet.

Anyone who enjoys good crazy rock stories will probably get a kick out of it.

98.5 WNCX Classic Rock in Cleveland says:

We wanted to play "Darkside of the Moon" in it's entirety since it is the #1 album voted by YOU!! But we are unable to since the album contains the song "Money", which is deemed indecent by the U.S. Government since it contains the "S" word. Current pending legislation calls for a fine of $275,000 if we play that song.

This is getting pretty crazy. A couple of months ago I was thinking that the airwaves in general had gotten more liberal and permissive and suddenly it's like decades of progress is being undone. Glad the Internet is still full of swears.