From nin.com/tr

Posted on [05_13_2007]

As the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more. A couple of examples that quickly come to mind:

* The ABSURD retail pricing of Year Zero in Australia. Shame on you, UMG. Year Zero is selling for $34.99 Australian dollars ($29.10 US). No wonder people steal music. Avril Lavigne’s record in the same store was $21.99 ($18.21 US).
By the way, when I asked a label rep about this his response was: “It’s because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out - you know, true fans. It’s the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy.”
So… I guess as a reward for being a “true fan” you get ripped off.

* The dreaded EURO Maxi-single. Nothing but a consumer rip-off that I’ve been talked into my whole career. No more.

The point is, I am trying my best to make sure the music and items NIN puts in the marketplace have value, substance and are worth you considering purchasing. I am not allowing Capital G to be repackaged into several configurations that result in you getting ripped off.

We are planning a full-length remix collection of substance that will be announced soon.

This guy is a fucking genius.

First: the latest NIN CD was created using thermochromism technology. After playing it once, the colour (that’s right there’s a u in colour) changes. Watch for yourself.

Second: translate the binary on the back and it reveals the location to a secret website with an additional NIN track and some thoroughly entertaining media/stories.

Third: he releases 3 songs in multi-track GarageBand/Logic format, allowing for musicians/computer audio nerds around the world to play. I’ve never even heard of another major artist doing something like that.

Fourth: he actually uploaded tracks from his own CD to the notorious (for having vast quantities of ‘illegal’ material) bittorrent site, The Pirate Bay. I think that move alone has made him the #1 most hated man @ the RIAA headquarters.

Talk about bucking trends… My level of respect for the guy has skyrocketed in the last few weeks.

Note to the cynics: Yes, this certainly could all be chalked up to a very unique marketing campaign. Yes, record labels will also profit from this move (as many people are buying his latest CD to simply support the four things I outlined above). But if other ‘major’ artists follow in his footsteps, it’s ultimately us as consumers who win.

Genius.

First up - tomorrow (1/23/07) WNCW is re-broadcasting the Pre-Jam night from the 18th Annual X-Mas Jam.

From WNCW:

Warren Haynes Pre-Jam Re-Broadcast:

Join us as we re-air the Pre-Jam featuring Taj Mahal, Marty Stuart, Gov’t Mule, Branford Marsalis and more….Tuesday night at 9:00 p.m.

Next - I thought I’d post some older Mule this week, and in the spirit of less-talk-more-music, here it is:

Govt Mule
09/10/94
New York, NY
Wetlands

Gov’t Mule - Sin’s A Good Man’s Brother
Gov’t Mule - Politician
Gov’t Mule - Look On Yonder Wall*
Gov’t Mule - Born Under A Bad Sign*

* = with Hook Herrera on harmonica and Larry McCray on guitar

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A nice first post over at Turn Up The Good brings us new Pearl Jam.

mirror of:

Pearl Jam - Love Reign O’er Me

Can you guess the artist and album based on a section of the cover art? I got 16 (without cheating), how many did you get?

Rock Album Cover Art Quiz

Is it possible I am actually finished writing and recording a new nine inch nails record? Apparently so. We begin mixing in January!

Juggling fifteen all-new tracks around. Testing sequences. No leftovers from “with teeth”. Highly conceptual. Quite noisy. Fucking cool.

via nin.com

One of my guilty-TV-pleasures is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Last week during the Christmas Episode, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews led a group of New Orleans musicians (Hurricane Katrina survivors) in “O Holy Night”. NBC and The Tipitina’s Foundation have put up the MP3 - and it’s actually really, really good.

In truth I’d never call listening to new music a waste of time, but you know what I mean..

Thanks to the following:

Update:

I almost forgot (short term memory issues anyone?) - fellow Vancouverite (and pothead, and Hip-fan) Uncle Weed has a very cool podcast of the Tragically Hip at an exclusive show at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom. Which I very much wanted to attend, but getting Hip tickets in Canada is akin to getting Springsteen tickets in New Jersey.