Brainwashed - Deep Thoughts

25 January 2006

Windy Weber

Deep Thoughts

We have Comcast cable at our house, and you can watch music videos with On Demand. A few months ago I saw Antony & The Johnsons "Hope There's Someone," and enjoyed it, so this weekend when I noticed it was on the list of videos again, I put it on,...

05 January 2006

Staff

Deep Thoughts

The returns are in, and, according to this article from Reuters, the music industry has hit an eight year low for sales. Among corporate labels, there is much fretting and wringing of hands. Reuters, however, fail to recognize the non-major label music industry, who don't seem to be pissing and moaning. Major labels are a dying breed due to their own avarice, and nobody's gonna cry when they die.

21 November 2005

Gary Suarez

Deep Thoughts

Recently brought to my attention by a Brainwashed colleague, the online-based "PLUG Independent Music Awards" touts itself as representing a "community coming together to recognize its own." Yet, judging by the choices on the ballot, the "plug" of its namesake apparently serves instead as a tool to keep both the organizers' and participants' heads securely buried within their own assholes.

10 November 2005

Staff

Deep Thoughts

Our kindergarten teachers always told us how we should be sharing, but the RIAA would have you believe otherwise. Looking at any recent major label release, the packaging is pretty much destroyed now with big blocks of text, an FBI symbol and a warning. Unfortunately, monster megalith Sony BMG isn't out to warn the consumer or provide any information that they're illegally loading "malware" (malicious software) onto unsuspecting machines.

03 October 2005

Gary Suarez

Deep Thoughts

A recent piece from The Nation offers some compelling questions that the so-called "Katrina Commission" should aim to answer. Unfortunately, the unsurprisingly Republican-helmed congressional investigation will almost certainly leave many of the concerns expressed unanswered as politics-as-usual trumps justice.

26 September 2005

Gary Suarez

Deep Thoughts

FUN FACT #86: Did you know? ... If your name is on the "No Fly" list, you're fucked!

16 September 2005

Staff

Deep Thoughts

We all know by now how the major labels fuck all their artists over and fuck all their customers over but now they're trying to fuck over their promotional outlets!

18 August 2005

Gary Suarez

Deep Thoughts

Did you know that there was a Golden Girls spin-off in the early nineties called The Golden Palace? Broadcast on CBS, it starred three of the original elderly gals (Betty White, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty), with vital supporting roles filled by Cheech Marin and Don Cheadle, the latter best known for his Academy Award nominated role in Hotel Rwanda.

18 August 2005

Jon Whitney with Jonathan Dean

Deep Thoughts

Nekesa Mumbi Moody has just published an article on how "Best Of" albums are not so great these days. But have they -ever- been? She identifies who's doing it all wrong but bands and labels are often confronted with the task of "how to do it right." Here's a helpful guideline to anybody faced with making a compilation.

31 July 2005

Staff

Deep Thoughts

This past week, Sony BMG agreed to pay $10 million in fines over their illegal Payola practice. Payola is as old as the recording industry itself and is basically another way big business labels fuck everything up for the rest of us.

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