en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal The Last.fm journal for id552. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2006/03/21/env_i_got_a_response_from_nettwerk Tue, 21 Mar 2006 20:35:41 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2006/03/21/env_i_got_a_response_from_nettwerk If you're in my anti-RIAA group, then you'll know about nettwerk since I spammed you all about it (they're the canadian label that are fighting a legal case on behalf of a family that got sued for downloading music. Otherwise, you should check this thread out: http://www.last.fm/group/Music%2Bfans%2Band%2BMusicians%2Bagainst%2Bthe%2BRIAA/forum/19660/_/76038

Anyway, I got a response from nettwerk:

Hi Sam,

Thank you so much for your support of Nettwerk in our backing of the Gruebel family. Your message is very important to us, as it confirms that we are truly acting on behalf of music fans! It is our belief that the RIAA's litigation policy has no upside: it chases fans even further underground and undermines the importance of file sharers. More importantly - litigation is destructive and ruins lives.

We invite you to explore our website:www.savethemusicfan.com to further show your support and to share your thoughts on this matter.

Sincerely,

Christina, on behalf of The Nettwerk Music Group

--

Christina Stumpf
Nettwerk Music Group
1650 West 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6J 4R3
tel: 604.654.2929
fax: 604.654.1993
http://www.savethemusicfan.com

My message:

Hi. I'm a musician, and I've been appalled by the treatment of artists and fans alike by the RIAA. I started a group on a social music site whose purpose was to take part in online opposition of this behaviour.

I've seen some terrible things done by big labels, bands like Metallica, and by the RIAA over the last few years, and seeing your company take an ethical stand is a breath of life to myself and I'm sure to many others feeling appalled at these awful subpoenas and law suits.

I want to say thanks. That's all, and maybe help show you that real music fans, and musicians who love their favourite artists are here, and are watching what these companies do, and as you can imagine, it's good to see something positive.

--
Sincerely,
-Sam Chase

So they really were listening.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2006/02/25/enu_so_why_is_the_riaa_so_bad%2C_and_the_independent_scene_so_important%3F Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:13:41 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2006/02/25/enu_so_why_is_the_riaa_so_bad%2C_and_the_independent_scene_so_important%3F I posted this as a reply in my Music fans & Musicians against the RIAA thread, but I thought it might be good to post it here, since I get quite a bit of flak for running this group, and people who write to me complaining will at least see the title of what I write here.

It's not just the treatment of bands that worries me; it's more the way the music scene I know and love is being exploited and strangled by labels run by venture capitalists, who probably don't even pretend to know shit about music, or to care about it.

It's also the way that bands who come up with a genuinely new idea; or even a new interpretation of an old idea are screwed from the beginning, since the A&R man'd much rather sign Son Of Dork, and so, we lose all the new archetypes, who we trade for "Generic high-school band with punky attitude #34325".

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we burn away all the edges of music. It was Immortal Technique who said "There's no diversity, because we're all burning in the melting pot" when referring to race, but I think that applies here as well.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2006/01/15/ent_favourite_drummersbass_players_etc. Sun, 15 Jan 2006 22:31:25 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2006/01/15/ent_favourite_drummersbass_players_etc. This may be a shit idea, but I'm bored :)

The plan is that you list your favourite players of various instruments, to give a better idea of what makes people think that a musician has ability.

While I hate the idea of writing ground rules that exclude talented people, I think that people chosen should really be those who really excel at their instrument and do something new with it. For example, Clown may well be a very talented drummer, but all he does is use his technical proficiency to play extremely fast.

Another obvious point, is that the musician should do something a little different to others, eg: root note bass players really shouldn't be in here, and neither should drummers who just play solidly.

Also, pick 10 minimum. This should kill any fanboy factor that some may complain about, and it actually made me pick far more interesting musicians.

Drums
Neil Peart - Tom Sawyer
John Bonham - Achilles Last Stand
Charlie Watts - Everything he ever did was perfect
Danny Carey - Parabola
Mike Portnoy - Home
Peter Wichers - Nerve
Brad Wilk - Take The Power Back
Tim Alexander
Nicko McBrain
Abe Cunningham Digital Bath
Keith Moon! - My Generation
Nick Mason Comfortably Numb

Bass
Bootsy Collins!
John Entwistle
John Entwistle again
John Entwistle...
Tim Commerford Take The Power Back
Flea
Jaco
John Paul Jones
Scott Reeder Whitewater
Les Claypool
Steve Harris!
Will Cooper, Cam Frasier, and Oli Chase ^^

Guitar
Hands down, my favourite guitarists ever are: Jimi Hendrix, Jiimy Page, Stevie Ray, and Tom Morello.
////
Now metal guys + others
Cheesemaster Jeff Wielandt! ('Zakk Wylde') - Bark At The Moon
John Petrucci - A dizzying talent, but with almost no soul :s Home
Michael Ammot - Fucking good. Enough said, I think. Burning Bridges
Jesper Stromblad & Bjorn Gellote
Dimebag (RIP)
Adrian Smith & Dave Murray - Hallowed Be Thy Name
Tony Iommi
Johnny Marr
Mikael Åkerfeldt

Vocals
Chris Cornell - Like A Stone
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Blackwater Park
Maynard James Keenan (although he can be pretty annoying)
Matt Bellamy (if you disagree, try to sing a song by him the way he does. I know this is a bit of an obtrusive choice.)
Chino Moreno
Prince

Rap
Chuck D
Koleko
Snoop Dogg
Jurassic 5
Nas]]> http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/12/30/ens_disarmonia_mundi Fri, 30 Dec 2005 20:36:08 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/12/30/ens_disarmonia_mundi Disarmonia Mundi are an Italian melodic death metal band, fronted by Bjorn Strid from Soilwork. If you are a fan of Natural Born Chaos, or in particular, Figure Number Five, then I think you'd enjoy these guys.

Disarmonia Mundi are a small band, on the titan of an independent label that is Century Media. They need the support, so if you download and sample this album, as I'd recommend that you do, then be sure to by it if you enjoy it.

The album I bought recently (Fragments Of D-Generation) itself is a good piece of work, and certainly stands without Bjorn Strid's reputation. I'm a lousy critic, so just check it out and see what you think. After all, you have to react from the gut anyway :)]]> http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/12/27/enr_opeth Tue, 27 Dec 2005 00:23:09 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/12/27/enr_opeth I've always had a lot of respect for the ability of Opeth, but it is a recent development that I've started to really enjoy their music. I want to buy a couple of albums. I'd love any advice that an Opeth fan with a similar taste in music to me -- at least as far as metal is concerned -- could give (see my charts).

If this helps at all, I've heard:

Blackwater Park
Windowpane
In My Time of Need
Death Whispered a Lullaby
Closure
Hope Leaves
To Rid the Disease
Ending Credits
Weakness
Black Rose Immortal
Karma
Circle of the Tyrants

My favourites are probably Blackwater Park (pure metal perfection), Hope Leaves and To Rid the Disease. Thanks in advance anybody who replies :)]]> http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/12/13/enq_come_clarity Tue, 13 Dec 2005 00:12:55 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/12/13/enq_come_clarity EDIT: For those that have no background knowledge on this album, I'd suggest this. It is a good bit of info on the topic.


So I got hold of a promo of this album. My feelings are mixed, to say the least. To put this into context, I'll put the albums in order based on the ones I enjoyed most, best to worst:

1)Colony (8/10 Mainly for Zombie, Inc. and the fantastic production)
2)Whoracle (9/10Far better than Colony, but muddy and with a bit too much of the smash-crash-smash-crash)
3)The Jester Race / Black-Ash Inheritance(9/10 A thing of beauty, yet a bit ugly at times)
4)Clayman (7.5/10)(Amazing songs and production, yet samey and without chemistry between tracks)(
5)Reroute To Remain (7/10 Not as bad as many say, despite its nu-metal turns and over chugging guitars)
6)Soundtrack to Your Escape (3/10 )

The guitars are, at least to an extent, back. Bjorn and Jesper are at least during solos, approaching their old standards, even if they do all seem to be melody -> harmonised version -> Screeching AH harmonic with Zakk Wylde Vibrato -> Fast scale run -> Done.

Nonetheless, the chugging chords are still ample and superior to STYE and R2R. Peter Iwers (Bass) excells himself, surprisingly, and has finally given up root note almost entirely. Mr Svennson (Drums) is blasting away annoyingly most of the time, but shows some real ability that has not been seen before.

Sadly, some songs are just plain awful. It hurts me to say this, but they've actually gone a bit screamo in places. And as if this wasn't enough, they've unsurprisingly opted for faceless death metal in many situations where you would previously expected a powerful melody break, were you blissfully ignorant of their last two offerings.

But all is not lost: there is a clear and profound improvement on Come Clarity. Melodies are back and many songs feature tour de forces of melodic ideallism (see Pacing Death's Trail's intro theme, and solo.)

In fact, as you listen to the album an improvement becomes more visible. "Crawl Through Knives" has a intro riff which could contend with the best of their pit-igniting riffs. It is not alone, gladly.

There is definitely something here for those who liked STYE though, (see Versus Terminus for starters, then wind back and let the album roll), as well as at least meat for fans of the older In Flames. It is also clear that the band have been listening to their contempories, when they serve up the first part of the Arch Enemyesque Vanishing Light.

The final track is an enigma. It begins with piano triads in the style of someone as mainstream as Coldplay, accompanied by samples and odd keyboard instrumentation. The melody clearly began in a similar way to many of Whoracle's themes; the two guitar players sat down and played an improvised classical-style folk song on accoustic guitars, and then revised it to acheive a new effect. However, as it ends I find my self hoping my promo is damaged, since it just goes on for three minutes, hardly changing, before stopping abruptly.

Overall this album is an improvement, and I hope it represents a swing which will continue. It is evidence that they are still as good as they used to be, but are simply having a bit of a rethink which is either a mistake, or is having massive teething issues. It's worth listening to, even if I did make a lot of use of my Fast Forward/Skip button. I'd recommend this to any existing In Flames fan, but I think it's a bit esoteric for mainstream.

Time will tell, I guess.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/10/31/enp_check_out_younique Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:06:10 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/10/31/enp_check_out_younique Many people have downloaded one of Superior's songs entitled "Not with me" under the name As I Am. You may well have this file if it's 3:34 in duration; As I am is a lot longer.

Anyway, this band is almost entirely unheard of. Many will say it's because they are esoteric; they are sort of like Dream Theater JR. Nonetheless, if you are in to Dream Theater or any other uberprog-metal band, you won't go far wrong with these guys.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/09/29/eno_cabin_fever_media Thu, 29 Sep 2005 12:50:59 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/09/29/eno_cabin_fever_media http://www.cabinfevermedia.com/ is the website of Niklas Sundin of Dark Tranquillity's art studio. A lot of it is pretty damn cool, even if it does often resort to uberoverdone standard of blood splatters.

Check it out. It's worth it.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/09/27/enn_arch_enemy_-_the_doomsday_machine Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:04:08 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/09/27/enn_arch_enemy_-_the_doomsday_machine The new Arch Enemy albums is definitely worth checking out. It's far heavier than Anthems Of Rebellion, and more akin to Burning Bridges.

I won't ramble on as usual, but I'll just say that I think most metal lovers and Arch Enemy purists will be pleased with Doomsday Machine.

Nice art as well, please pm me if you know who the artist is, and on a side not, you should all check out cabinfevermedia.com; Nilas Sundin from Dark Tranquillity's art studio.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/09/27/enm_new_in_flames_album Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:58:33 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/09/27/enm_new_in_flames_album For anyone who doesn't know, all the songs have been recorded now, and all that remains is the box art etc. There is no release date, however.

It's called Come Clarity (previously Crawl Through Knives), and it's apparently back to their roots, without disregarding the progress they've made. But, I think most bands say that about most albums.

Fingers crossed it turns out better than Soundtrack to Your Escape, but the only clue there is is that Jesper has started Dimension Zero, who in terms of tone, sound very harsh compared to Colony or Clayman, and even harsher than Whoracle. You could read that as Jesper being frustrated with the lighter, more stoned melodic sound of pre-STYE In Flames, or that he simply is writing in a frenzy.]]>