Thursday, November 1, 2007

What happened in October? LOTS.

So, what happened in October?

Too much shit to recall in a whim; an extraordinary amount of things of happened in October...we'll start from October 1st.

















October 1st - Radiohead ever so subtly announce their new album "In Rainbows" will be available for download on October 10th off their official website...but with no set price. Radiohead said "PAY WHAT YOU WANT FOR IT."

Indeed, everyone in interweb land went: "HOLY SHIT WTF!?!?!?!"

Blogs like Brooklyn Vegan, Idolator and The Daily Swarm praised them for a move that could've ultimately blown up in their face...without a label, Radiohead was taking a huge chance, but ultimately it paid off.

October 10th - In Rainbows is available for download for customers who paid and/or didn't pay. After a week of speculation, rumors were rampant that 1.2 million copies of the album were downloaded in the first week alone.

Holy shit, Radiohead. Congratulations. You could be changing the music industry forever. Keep it going, you limey bastards. I love thee.



October 20th/22nd - Justice invade Terminal 5, a new Bowery presents venue that used to be "Club Exit" on West 56th Street/11th Ave. The performance on the 20th was part of the CMJ Music Marathon (Oct. 16th-20) which was situated at many venues all over the city. Their openers on the 20th were Busy P (who is their label boss and manager, as well as a fellow artist on Ed Banger Records) and Midnight Juggernauts (an Australian indie/electro group). Midnight Juggernauts definitely caught some eyes and ears as at the second show on Monday, they were interview by music blog site IDOLATOR and magazine Blender. When Justice came on-stage, they shook Terminal 5's very fragile foundation. The show was a huge success and there were amazing moments from beginning to end. Spectacular stuff, man. The show I went to, the 22nd, was oversold.
















The venue holds about 3000-3200 at max capacity. I was front and center and I'm not tiny (as shown above!). I'm a big guy with a good-sized frame and I got tossed around like I was an anorexic teen model from South Carolina who didn't know where America was on the map. It was in some ways worse than a metal mosh-pit. I went to a free Korn event at South Street Seaport during the summer, where there were at least 3000 people outside in the blistering heat, and it wasn't as tough to manuever as it was at Justice, an electro-dance duo. Half an hour into their set, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to leave the front over the barricade, because it was getting insanely crammed and wild. This shit wasn't bananas, it was DANGEROUS. Funny thing is that I wasn't the only one who left the front during their set, from what I counted, 22 people left through the front in a 70-minute set.

70/22 = 1 person leaving roughly every 3.2 minutes = Wow, that's some crazy shit.

All in all, it was an insanely good show by Justice, with probably the best acapella crowd ever for their first big hit, "We Are Your Friends", the remix of the original Simian track. Watch in awe :)






Fuck yes, WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS. One of the greatest shows of the year, but also one of the craziest. Terminal 5 needs to institute an overcrowding policy if they don't want someone to die in their brand new venue. Be wary, Terminal 5, you could get your asses sued very soon if this continues.

October 26th - OiNK.cd, the invite-only music torrent haven, is shut down and the owner is arrested. He was out of jail the next day. OiNK apparently was shut down because of the number of pre-release leaks available for download to their members. The number of OiNK users is limited to 180,000 or so, with some users being musicians and artists themselves. The number of pre-released leaks was up to 60, and Interpol had shut it down and raided the 24-year-old owner's flat. This was all concocted to prevented the "digital freeloaders" from stealing new music. Many artists have spoken out about this in disapproval, saying OiNK was a safe haven and the "best record store" in the world.

October 31st - Trent Reznor, lead singer/songwriter of Nine Inch Nails, admitted he had an OiNK account, in an interview with NY Mag:

"Trent: I’ll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world’s greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn’t the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don’t feel cool when I go there. I’m tired of seeing John Mayer’s face pop up. I feel like I’m being hustled when I visit there, and I don’t think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc. Amazon has potential, but none of them get around the issue of pre-release leaks. And that’s what’s such a difficult puzzle at the moment. If your favorite band in the world has a leaked record out, do you listen to it or do you not listen to it? People on those boards, they’re grateful for the person that uploaded it — they’re the hero. They’re not stealing it because they’re going to make money off of it; they’re stealing it because they love the band. I’m not saying that I think OiNK is morally correct, but I do know that it existed because it filled a void of what people want."



Also, Daft Punk released this video, of the best concert I ever went to:



What a month, eh? My rant on OiNKgate will come up tomorrow. New musique for you.

Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT Remix)

Sebastian - Killing In The Name Of Sebastian (Rage Against The Machine Remix)

Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Alive 2007)


Music Sounds Better with y'all :)

-- Mitch

2 comments:

Unknown said...

sucks for oink, eh?

well, justice sounded brutal haha.

nice entry.

Kazza said...

I'm loving the choice in shirt for the show. Reminds me of a certain bassist.

I am now listening to Daft Punk constantly and it's all your fault. I'm supposed to be gearing up for Hank III but I'm hooked!!