When you download, what are you supporting? (If you’re not registered at Nytimes you might want to consider it, it’s a great free service, but if you can’t be bothered with registering, maybe you can try bugmenot).

Grokster and the Information Exchange

The legal battles over file-sharing are usually construed as a fight over intellectual property rights, plain and simple. On one side are copyright owners, including songwriters and artists as well as the major recording companies and movie studios. On the other side, a handful of advocacy groups and a legion of file-sharers bent on nothing more than outright theft of copyrighted music and movies. The short title of a recent appeals decision says it all: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. Grokster. But the broader issue is the distribution of information. Software like Grokster creates a network of independent Internet users who can access one another’s computer files without going through a central server. (Napster maintained a central server, which made it legally liable in very different ways.) Grokster can certainly be used to swap music illegally. But it can also be used to exchange electronic copies of books already in the public domain, transcripts of Congressional hearings or any number of other legitimate types of information. Much like a VCR that does not distinguish between a pirated tape and one legally acquired, the technology does not care what is shared. It is impossible to strike down software like Grokster for its use in illegal file-sharing without also destroying its capacity for legal and socially beneficial activities.

This distinction lies at the heart of a recent Ninth Circuit appeals court decision, which upheld a ruling in favor of Grokster and against an army of corporate copyright owners. This decision does not make illegal file-sharing legal. But it implicitly raises a question central to most copyright battles. Is society better served by restricting or even prohibiting new technologies to protect the rights of copyright owners or is there a greater good in the widest possible exchange of information? The resolution lies somewhere in the middle. Finding it, as the court acknowledges, is properly left to Congress.

These are thorny issues indeed. Freedom of information is at the root of American democracy, and yet every day we see that freedom being compromised, controlled and limited. The Grokster decision is a ruling in favor of keeping our bets open about which technologies will turn out to serve our freedoms best.

The show last night was great. Sean Lennon and Vincent Gallo sung and played beautifully at the Rothko, a venue in the Lower East Side. Lukas Haas’ younger brother backed them up well on the drums. Sorry, no audio or pictures, I had my tape recorder and digital cam ready to go but when I got to the line I noticed they weren’t letting people in with any equipment, even people with cameraphones were not being let in (although it seems some people were able to sneak in stuff, check out the pics at alarming news). They played mostly songs from Gallo’s When album that was released through Warp Records. They also played some of Lennon’s work and they did a beautiful cover of King Crimson’s Moonchild. The place was fire-hazardly packed and you were pretty much stuck in the same spot throughout the set. It lasted for a little over an hour. Gallo’s new film Brown Bunny is being released this weekend in the United States and I heard he was on Howard Stern this morning, must have been interesting.

If you didn’t know, Vincent Gallo was poppin in Graffiti Rock back in the day and releasing 12inches under “Prince Vince.” His music is well regarded by musicians like Rick Rubin, thats why you can see Gallo walking around in Jay-Z’s video for 99 problems. He’s also into films, motorcycle racing, audiophilia, steel work, sincerity and girls. He seems like a fun guy.

Head over to Babygrande for 3 sample tracks from JMT’s new album; they probably made the voiceovers extra corny this time to help “persuade” people to actually buy the single:

Before the Great Collapse
On the Eve of War featuring Gza (Julio Chavez Mix)
On The Eve Of War featuring Gza (Meldrick Taylor Mix)

Monster Island Czar Tommy Gunn/Megalon’s full length is available over at UGHH….or shipping soon anyway. Peace to Day by Day, the hardest working label in hip hop music. They hooked up with Atoms Family backbone Cryptic One a while back and finally released his album (which is one my favorites this year…). And if you didn’t know, Day by Day also runs a rock label and serves as a distributor for magazines TABLIST and Cool’Eh. I wonder if Grimm is hiring….

Here’s a lost and found ‘freestyle’ session with Tommy Gunn and Trife - another legendary long island spitter, going back and forth (circa 1999) . For those of you who aren’t familiar with Trife (no not this Trife…) check this old Pete Rock 12″ featuring trife and rock marciano of the U.N. (Carson Daly’s 456 Enterainment recently released the U.N. album). Trife has been tearing up mcs in Queens, Long Island and beyond since the early 90s battling or sharing stages, mics, and cipher-time with the best of them. Semi-recently he recorded a crazy 3 or 4 verses, one-take-jake style, over a moog-ed out DJ Signify beat but don’t expect that to ever surface. Be on the look out for possible Trife appearances on future GRANDGOOD projects.

Roy Ayers is performing in Queensbridge tomorrow! Check this event listing over at Shredded Melody.

A popular jazz vibraphonist and vocalist, Ayers reached commercial popularity during the mid-’70s and early ’80s, crossing over into the mainstream charts. He is also celebrated as an important influence on the latter decade’s acid-jazz movement. Ayers had numerous hits on the R&B charts with several albums and singles during this period, including the Top 20 disco-influenced R&B hit ‘Running Away’ and the song ‘Everybody Loves The Sunshine’ which remains a perennial club favorite into the new millennium. He also produced and recorded the soundtrack for the now legendary film ‘Coffy’ starring Pam Grier.also performing: ERIC ROBERSON - Artist and storyteller, Eric Roberson is a singer’s singer. He writes from the heart and sings from the soul. He understands the duality of not only creating music, but also performing it for everyone to identify with, giving a voice to human emotion - namely love.

Someone sent me this new track that was posted over at thick. We’re all glad Ra is still doing it and Nature Sounds gets props for standing behind this man. According to Nature Sounds the new album will be titled Die, Rugged Man, Die! and features Masta Killa, Saigon, Jean Grae, Killah Priest, Ayatollah and J-Zone. Y’all remember Crustified Dibbs? Go here for an almost complete discography.

So dj’s will now have the ability to manipulate video footage with the same techniques they’ve developed to manipulate audio on the turntable. Pioneer has just released this dvd-audio/dvd-video turntable which is basically the cdj1000 outfitted for dvds. Although many people haven’t even converted to cd-tables yet you can’t help but imagine the DMC’s in 2020 taking place at an Imax theatre with some 18 year old wiz kid juggling clips from the original M-E-T-H-O-D Man video. The demo video available through the product page shows off some of the things you can do. Peace to Gizmodo.

As a follow-up to our ESP post, Manson’s LP was called Lie and was produced by Phil Kaufman, one of the Beach Boys. It is being released as catalog # ESPCD2003. Just in case, don’t think ESP is trying to help Manson get cake from the pop-infamy of murder, all royalties are paid to the son of one of the victims, who obtained a judgment against Manson. And don’t think we’re making this audio available because we plan on joining his cult either, as Stollman says, the music is historically significant:

Charles Manson - Eyes Of A Dreamer

It seems like Bernard Stollman has decided to try digital distro. If you’re not familiar with the logo, ESP-DISK is responsible for dozens upon dozens of highly sought-after records from the 60s and 70s including lps from jazz legends like Sun-Ra and Albert Ayler and even work from the Fugs before they became pop stars. Stollman has made the entire catalogue availabe online which might be a surprise to some people since Stollman is a passionate advocate of high quality sound recordings like DVD-audio and ESP’s own proprietary techonology, sonature. I wonder if the Charles Manson/Beach Boys record he tried to reissue will be available (see excerpt below)? I doubt it, but maybe we’ll put up some streaming audio later…..

“Charles Manson had been convicted of complicity in the massacre in Beverly Hills. I believed that the media treatment of the case was intended by our government to discredit the hippie movement and in that manner counteract the growing antiwar climate in the United States. I came across an LP on Awareness Records by Manson, produced by one of the Beach Boys, and I was impressed by his songs and delivery. Phil Kaufman, road manager for Etta James and Emmylou Harris, is the author of an autobiography, Road Mangler Deluxe, in which he describes how he met Manson while both were in prison. Manson asked him to put the record out. Kaufman released it, and then freaked because his house had been surrounded by Manson followers with knives. So he brought it to me at my invitation, and ESP reissued it. Our distributors and dealers then refused to handle it. ESP folded in 1974, paid off its creditors, and the record masters were placed in safe deposit boxes, where they remained for 17 years. I got married and moved to the Catskills. In 1980, I became an assistant attorney general of the state of New York, where I stayed for the next 10 years…”

Babygrande has relaunched their site. Like they say in their update they’ve been busy dropping albums left and right, with the most recent release being Brand Nubian’s Fire In The Hole. The site is now loaded with more graphics and other media (which I can’t say is necessarily a good thing) and they have pics of Babygrande Films posted everywhere. In case you didn’t know Babygrande is partially (primarily?) funded by selling hollywood scripts. They, and when I say they I mean Chuck Wilson, is responsible for the script behind Tical’s “Soul Plane” and according to this press release (peep excerpt below) Chuck is getting ready to direct his first movie “Meet The Mo’Fockers” (not to be confused with Meet The Fockers). Anyway, keep an eye out for Babygrande, especially Jedi Mind Tricks next 12inch featuring the GZA. One more thing, Babygrande has some interesting numbers posted on their site, they actually made some soundscan scores available for the public, check it out.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Pedestrian. His responses exhibit an intense analysis and his viewpoint reminds me of Vincent Gallo’s seemingly constant and extreme sense of self-awareness. I remember seeing this interview posted on a board somewhere but I finally found the original source. You can read the whole thing at sonores.

“I’ve only grown more extravagently skeptical of the whole process of releasing music and its attendant constellation of compromises since the above quote was registered. Record stores are fucking boneyards. The formaldehyde sticks in your nostrils as you make a trail from genre to genre, glance at engraved release dates, and stuff what you can under your arm before leaving. Releasing music is the first step in assuring that a piece of music is contained and readied to be quickly forgotten. Promotional obits are written up in magazines and on websites. If you’re halfway lucky as an artist, you get to travel around and routinely re-live your album’s finer moments. The alternative isn’t necessarily to not release music, or to only do it in hand-numbered editions of 100, but to radically re-evaluate the context in which your music meets the world. Any productive artist in a consumer society, and especially musicians, whose form is more easily and passively digested than most others, needs to consciously and persistently intervene in the ways in which art is bought, sold, and used to sell other shit. This is the very process by which art is devitalized, desacralized, depoliticized, or in other words isolated from life as its truly lived.”

Xeni Jardin over at BoingBoing reports that Greg Hale Jones has passed away. I couldn’t find any more info about the circumstances but that’s not what is important. Besides winning countless awards his work was featured in major films and soundtracks, but he got his start doing the music for the original MTV logos and top twenty countdown. You can read his bio here but I would suggest checking out this track:

Boll Weevil (you will not be disappointed).

Note: Boll Weevils remind me of corny ass producers, eating well but ruining the game at the same time.

Luckily for hip hop, Andre Nickatina just re-launched his site.

On another note, as kanye west continues to take rap to new levels beyond anything imaginable (even beyond ced-gee), I recently rediscovered A Tribe Called Quest’s Beats Rhymes and Life tape that I havent thought of in about 8 summers . . . . I remember hating that whole Ummah sound but just like every other Tribe album, drums on this hit hard (who had doper drums on any album in 96?…or in 2004?) and Qtip + Phife spit classic rhymes. There’s no “I Lost My Wallet In El Segundo” but they opened up the album battling phony rappers on the train! Plus, that sketch where Qtip is all buggin’ out like “yoo im 22 years old, and i get craaazy high when i go to parties….I need something new” was great. Anyhow, this Tribe album is probably considered their worst by most people but it has the type of production people keep doing wrong in 2004. Warning: This album has Consequence rapping all over it which pretty much ruined it for me the day I bought it….but maybe the music he’s doing with Kanye West (am i the only one who likes how he raps better than his beats??) will be a step up.

Bringing you the kind of great music only available in low 7inch quantities, Ceschi and David Ramos of Anonymous Inc, Xololanxinco and Tommy V come together to form a great band going by the name Toca. This record also features superstars Awol, Busdriver and Circus. la2thebay or Access has copies if you’re interested.

What’s fifteen $G’s to a true audiophile? According to A Better Life Audio Group that’s about how much you need to enjoy the “ultimate in analogue record playback“. The vibration dampening cabinets and non-concave acrylic platter supposedly deliver dope sound. Even though I’ll probably stick with my 1200’s I wouldn’t mind having the opportunity to compare. Maybe SamAsh will get one for display? Look at this for more info on specs and funny audiophile vernacular. All praises due to BoingBoing for the links.

Never came across this mag but I thought it might be of interest. Want to find out what it’s about quick, take a look at this. By the way, anyone going to the Waxpoetics #9 release party at Table 50? 45 King will be spinning all night (sorry no link, join waxpoetics newsletter for more info)!