Comments for Rocknerd

Comment on Nobody cares about your copyright. by Tor

Tor — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:32:54 +0000

@Crosbie Fitch
What’s the problem with reconciling them you mean?

Constantly ramping up the copyright term will create generations of copyright abolitionists. By restoring the balance there is at least a chance that copyright supporters can present credible reasons why to respect copyright law. Besides, by making the public domain more extensive it would be possible for people to legally access works that are still of interest. Today we lock up works for five generations. Surely that’s unreasonable.

Some people would rather let “perfect” be the enemy of the good and say that piracy has to go away before the copyright term can be reduced. That doesn’t make sense to me and seems quite short-sighted.

Comment on Nobody cares about your copyright. by Phil Sandifer

Phil Sandifer — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:12:40 +0000

It’s generally been my understanding that the most effective means to combat piracy is to offer a legal bullshit-free alternative, with “bullshit-free” typically meaning convenient and affordable. Apple made major strides in cutting down music piracy just by making it actually easier to pay 99 cents and get the track than it was to hunt it down on Limewire or Kazaa or whatnot. Netflix and Hulu made similarly useful strides.

Would a fourteen-year term be a part of that? Probably not for most users, but I think it would probably affect the share of users who are ideologically pirates or high volume pirates at least somewhat.

Comment on Nobody cares about your copyright. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:01:30 +0000

Yep, that's the one. I recalled it saying 14, not 15. The "fourteen-year-term" meme is popular with Anglosphere copyright activists because that's what it was originally in the US and the UK.

Comment on Nobody cares about your copyright. by Sage Ross

Sage Ross — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:54:21 +0000

I think this is the study: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1436186

Comment on Nobody cares about your copyright. by Crosbie Fitch

Crosbie Fitch — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:39:13 +0000

I’m just suggesting you reconcile a term of 14yrs with your observations.

You still seem to be of the mind that copyright incentivises creation, vs profits publishing corporations. Beware of copyright’s pretext vs motivation for its enactment.

Comment on Nobody cares about your copyright. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:29:41 +0000

Um, that isn't even close to logically what I wrote there and leads me to question whether you did a Burroughsian cut-up in the process of reading it. I do, however, think that a term on that order is (a) a plausible thing to happen (b) has actual support from economists as enough of a term to serve as an economic incentive to creation (I can't find the study, but here's an editorial) (c) is 100% more likely to be respected even in principle than the present outrageous bullshit.

Comment on Nobody cares about your copyright. by Crosbie Fitch

Crosbie Fitch — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:25:06 +0000

So, you think 61% of 15-25 year olds will stop sharing if copyright only lasts 14 years?

Don’t lose sight of principle in pursuit of palatable compromise.

Comment on Precisely why 24/192 downloads are audiophoolery. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:20:17 +0000

Indeed. And if you hear something, there’s reasons why and a mechanism of mathematics, physics, biology and cognitive psychology behind you hearing it. Argument from personal testimony is of interest, since the point of music is subjective experience – but subjective experience is not a magical irreducible phenomenon, but the result of mathematics, biology, etc. Saying “I don’t understand it, therefore it could happen this way” is being wrong and stupid. e.g. Machina Dynamica has many testimonies from happy customers, but that doesn’t make what they push anything other than ludicrous bullshit.

Comment on Precisely why 24/192 downloads are audiophoolery. by Rich

Rich — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:07:14 +0000

I just believe what I hear. The maths and the digits are the means, but the music is the end and that’s what matters right?

Comment on Precisely why 24/192 downloads are audiophoolery. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Tue, 08 May 2012 06:38:06 +0000

Your post is word salad and argument from authority (with added conspiracy theory) that is in sad contradiction of mathematics. c.f. The maths came first, and digital audio from that; if you don't believe in the maths, you don't believe in digital audio either.

Comment on Precisely why 24/192 downloads are audiophoolery. by Rich

Rich — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:07:00 +0000

I find it quite funny that this has been appearing virally wherever you look lately. Which brings me to believe that whoever made the first posting has something to lose by high resolution downloads becoming the norm… Hmm, let me see, yes, these are the people who brought us Ogg Vorbis, i.e. a LOSSY CODEC. So what happens if everyone moves away from using lossy CODECS? All of a sudden ‘conflict of interest’ seems like a likely response.
The bit about 192KHz causing intermodulation distortion is utter trash. So this doesn’t happen at 44.1? 882? 96KHz? Of course it does, and an order of magnitude worse. The fact is that the further you push the inter mod up the frequency spectrum, the less it affects the bits you can hear.
A couple of questions… If 192 is such a waste of time, why are all the studios recording at this resolution? Why invest in new equipment if there was nothing to be gained? Answer – because it DOES make a difference.
Barry Diament – A VERY well renowned mastering engineer and one of the few mastering engineers that point blank refuses to enter the loudness war has been quoted as saying ‘Only 192KHz sounds to me like what went into the mics’. Now who are you going to take notice of, the guy from Xiph (who, if you read all of the article is not an engineer, but is quoting from many other sources and likely to be putting 2 and 2 together to make 4000) or a well renowned mastering engineer who has more experience with this stuff than the vast majority of us, and nothing to gain/lose by endorsing one format over another.
The proof at the end of the day is in the pudding however, and having heard some of the same masters in 16/44, 24/96 and 24/192, I can vouch for the fact that 24/192 is a bigger jump from 24/96 than 24/96 is from 16/44.
Finally, what’s the big deal anyway? If the studios are recording at this resolution and storage space and bandwidth is so cheap these days, even if you can’t hear the difference, isn’t it better to have what came out of the recordings rather than something that’s been reduced in size for no apparent reason?

Comment on A Converse in a humanoid face, forever. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:04:18 +0000

I was there when WAM was fucking set up. (Well, the second board.) What the fuck.

Comment on So you think you have good ears. by Mat (The Laughing Bard)

Mat (The Laughing Bard) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:28:04 +0000

I really didn’t think it was very hard! It’s odd to imagine this being difficult (and I’m known to have poor musical ears, despite being a musician).

Comment on A Converse in a humanoid face, forever. by Mat (The Laughing Bard)

Mat (The Laughing Bard) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:26:50 +0000

Those damn hipsters! How dare they oppress the majority!

Comment on What on earth is up with rocknerd.org? by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:31:30 +0000

See update.

Comment on What on earth is up with rocknerd.org? by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 10:10:03 +0000

But it's such fun! But, eh. Grovelling through a database dump? Not so fun. Eminently avoidable. And possibly something I should do for the benefit of others trying to move stuff from Slash to WordPress.

Comment on What on earth is up with rocknerd.org? by redcountess

redcountess — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 01:32:14 +0000

Tried emailing whomever@rocknerd.org to see if you get a response? I do think trying to untangle the database dump is more worthy than poking sticks at the woo merchants with rationalwiki though ;-)

Comment on Now this is just silly. by baljemmett

baljemmett — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:35:03 +0000

Well, it was still an easier listen than the preview tracks from Lulu…

Comment on Pump up the zining. Old-skool. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:50:41 +0000

“Back in my day, ‘FTW’ only ever meant ‘fuck the world.’”

I’d still like the good writing about music, even if the necessity driving it is gone. Not that I can be bothered producing any myself. “YouTube. Here.”

Comment on Pump up the zining. Old-skool. by Ms .45

Ms .45 — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:42:27 +0000

Or to put it another way – for years I DIDN’T listen to Dave Lang’s recommendations. Now my 16Gb iPhone is bloated with them.

Comment on Pump up the zining. Old-skool. by Ms .45

Ms .45 — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:41:08 +0000

No you don’t. The great superiority of the Internet is that you can click the MP3 or Flash embed and hear for yourself whether this is your stairway to heaven (or heaving), without the intervention of some sneering hipster who desperately doesn’t want you to know that this time last year he was listening to Kings of Leon. Unmediated consumption FTW! (in the sense of both “for the win” and “fuck the world”)

Comment on The past: delete, not notable. by It’s like textfiles.com for Australian indie music | Infotropism

It’s like textfiles.com for Australian indie music | Infotropism — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:13:00 +0000

[...] have websites, and bands that would otherwise pass Wikipedia’s notability guidelines often don’t have articles because it’s so hard to find sources/citations. Only a handful of hobbyist websites and [...]

Comment on Royal Mail issues Classic Album Covers stamp set. by Peg Wright

Peg Wright — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:02:12 +0000

Thank you for that helpful article I will boomark this. A great read. Adios

Comment on The past: delete, not notable. by Skud

Skud — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:59:07 +0000

Presumably it’s in a lot of libraries. I was looking forward to spending some hot summer days sitting in the airconditioned State Library of Victoria when I get back, working on Wikipedia stuff, so this might be a good candidate for that.

Comment on The past: delete, not notable. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:57:39 +0000

Huh. I got to it before. I think I had to do some scurvy tricks to get to the other letters, and wrote a shonky shell script to scrape most of it. The URLs are of the form http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=NNNN, where N goes from 1 to 1086, with gaps. It’d be nice to have the actual book, of course …

Comment on The past: delete, not notable. by Skud

Skud — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:53:20 +0000

Hmm, the archived version seems to be mostly inaccessible due to darknet issues — navigation to any letter other than A is via web form, which the archive doesn’t know how to crawl. Or am I missing something?

Comment on The past: delete, not notable. by Skud

Skud — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:49:04 +0000

I don’t feel lucky, but I do feel oddly tempted. /o\

Comment on UbuWeb is your finest cultural value. by TenshiKurai9

TenshiKurai9 — Sun, 01 May 2011 02:32:33 +0000

Time and money means I don’t put-up my own UbuWeb.

Comment on 40 Sad Portraits Of Closed Record Stores. by redcountess

redcountess — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:24:56 +0000

There is still good corruption available in Melbourne, while the owners of Missing Link want to sell up and move on, they want the shop to continue, and there’s still Polyester and Greville Records, not to mention Heartland. And for the Metal Kiddies there is Realm Of Kaos, Plutos in Frankston and Hellmart.

I totally failed to visit any of them for Record Store Day yesterday though.

Comment on 40 Sad Portraits Of Closed Record Stores. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:43:26 +0000

*sob* These are so sad! Dada Records in Perth (which is, thankfully, still extant, and I spent $75 there when I visited last year) was ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL in corrupting me as a youth. Where do the kids go these days for corruption above and beyond the ambient corruption quotient?

Comment on Leftfield, Melbourne, March 18, 2011 by kluntz

kluntz — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:50:43 +0000

This came across as an ego trip for Barnes, desparate to prove that it was he who
is wholly responsible for Leftfield – absolute bollocks mate.
What is he thinking ?
A bit sad if you ask me,
a least Daley is and has been trying to do something new -

http://soundcloud.com/paul-daley-leftfield

Comment on Leftfield, Melbourne, March 18, 2011 by Lev Lafayette

Lev Lafayette — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:43:02 +0000

You’re quite right; Daley wasn’t present and I think we can make an educated guess on the reasons. There was a substantial collection of backing singers and performers however.

Comment on Leftfield, Melbourne, March 18, 2011 by kluntz

kluntz — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:05:18 +0000

They were a duo – it takes two to tango

Comment on Leftfield, Melbourne, March 18, 2011 by kluntz

kluntz — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:03:10 +0000

sorry – i meant to say not involved !

Comment on Leftfield, Melbourne, March 18, 2011 by kluntz

kluntz — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:02:14 +0000

You failed to mention that original member Paul Daley
was involved – it would have been better if he had !

Comment on Why movies right now suck more than music. by Ms .45

Ms .45 — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:26:45 +0000

My reasoning, and it is quite half-arsed, is that 10BA movies were intended to LOSE money, Springtime for Hitler stylee – I have a dim hope that this might enable creative freedom. In practice, it tends to enable boobies.

Comment on Why movies right now suck more than music. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:05:41 +0000

10BA does strike me as deserving consideration as a worse cure than the disease.

Comment on Why movies right now suck more than music. by Ms .45

Ms .45 — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:57:00 +0000

10BA! 10BA!

Comment on Rock festival sausagefest stats. by Damien

Damien — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:54:04 +0000

Reminds me of the JJJ Hottest 100…were there any female musicians in it this year? I wouldn’t know, since I gave-up on the Hottest 100 for rigging it to have _no_ female artists the previous year.
This sorry state is hardly representative of the range of bands, nor is it representative of the fans, or their desire for truly alternative music.
Given the close links between JJJ and the BDO, I can’t help but think this overt sexism is more than a coincidence.

Comment on Rock festival sausagefest stats. by redcountess

redcountess — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 12:47:40 +0000

It was very similar at Soundwave, only female I was aware of was Laura Pleasants in Kylesa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylesa), very different from the days when the Breeders and Hole were the order of the day.

Comment on When you stream, you’re streaming with piracy! by David Gerard

David Gerard — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:01:38 +0000

I think so!

Comment on When you stream, you’re streaming with piracy! by LooseChanj

LooseChanj — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:49:34 +0000

Did I get this link from you?

Comment on The source of the disease. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:10:45 +0000

I must point out that I’ve been a John Robb/Membranes fan since “Spike Milligan’s Tape Recorder” in 1985. I have a couple of decades of the highest of respect for him and read Louder Than War avidly. But I think he’s wrong on this one.

Comment on The source of the disease. by Lucy Cage

Lucy Cage — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:35:06 +0000

Good stuff; thanks for the interesting links. It’s a shame that so many people (especially, to my mild surprise, old punks and previously clued-up technoheads) are willing to call in repressive forces and curtail freedom of information in order to try to remedy a incurable situation. It’s a question, as you point out, of poor Fluffy getting his head round the whole world being out there. And of finding new ways to make a living that don’t involve the selling of infinitely copiable digital files.

Comment on The source of the disease. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 20:05:10 +0000

@Henry – you haven’t set out your plan. Please detail your plan, in a manner that’s in any way plausible. Do you even have one?

My love of the major labels is of course obvious.

Comment on The source of the disease. by Henry Cromb

Henry Cromb — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 20:02:54 +0000

I think John robb is right.
His attitude is spot on and he is protecting the musicians and not the corporate companies who run the Internet. You, sir, sound like the kind of lackey who supports these big companies and their squeezing of the poor musicians. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Its not about a Chinese style firewall to protect the music industry but its about the corporate interests of google, still if you are happy supporting the new boss remember it’s still the same as the old boss.

Comment on The source of the disease. by Crosbie Fitch

Crosbie Fitch — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:06:30 +0000

David, like most artists I am having to confront the reality that I’m going to have to give a chunk of my work away as a loss leader in order that it acts as an ambassador for my art and skills, i.e. to attract further commission.

I am going to ‘open source’ the http://ContingencyMarket.com back-end and the http://1p2U.com MediaWiki extension that demonstrates it (albeit both being incomplete).

I don’t think it is enough to berate those brainwashed by the publishing corporations. Those who understand how to exchange intellectual work for money (without the unethical artifice of an ineffective 18th century privilege) are going to have to lead the way. The doomed incumbents will not lend a hand to bang in the last nails of their own coffiin.

Comment on How to lose four hundred kilograms. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:34:30 +0000

That’s the other thing – before sending the stuff to Australia, ripping it for cultural preservation. But if I put too many barriers in the way of doing something I’ll do nothing. AAAAAAAAAA

Comment on How to lose four hundred kilograms. by mark

mark — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:31:24 +0000

It would be great to see the impossible-to-get indie stuff ripped and put online, if your conscience would allow. I would never have heard of Clag or The Particles but for 80s/90s Melbournians taking this step.

Comment on Headcleaner. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:52:39 +0000

I tried all the links on the download page just now, and every one leads to downloading a file called “whitehouse.zip”, which is the archive of mp3s. Requiring you to download something claiming to be a codec sounds like you had something malwareish on your PC, after if not before.

Comment on Headcleaner. by Ames

Ames — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:47:00 +0000

I tried to download. It wanted me to download a codec. I downloaded it. It still wouldn’t let me download it.

Comment on Andrew Crossley is a reprehensible individual. by Martina Dotson

Martina Dotson — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 07:25:18 +0000

Extract from a website regards the new power of the Information Commissioner. it may be worth contacting the IC tomorrrow if you feel that your personal details have been compromised as a result of this disgraceful lapse in security. Data Protection Penalties 2010 will see a much more hostile regulatory environment around data protection and privacy! The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has been given new statutory powers which see – with effect from 6 April 2010 – the introduction of new penalties, unlike any seen before, for breaches of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998. The ICO has also been granted new statutory powers to audit government departments. The data protection regime in the UK has never looked so intimidating! What penalties are available to the ICO? * Fines of up to £500,000 for serious contraventions of the DPA; * 25 Monetary Penalty Notices (MPNs) are expected to be issued each year by the ICO; * Prison Sentences for deliberate or negligent customer data leaks by individuals within an organisation may also become available; * DPA compliance costs are set to rise accordingly, for UK organisations. The new statutory powers the ICO has just gained gives them the power to audit government departments without consent, thanks to the passing of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.

Comment on Laura MacFarlane, Hong Kong In The Sixties, Hissing At Swans – Betsey Trotswood, Tue 7 Dec 2010 by acb

acb — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 02:44:38 +0000

I’m glad you enjoyed the gig; it was a great one. Anyway, II’ll probably organise more gigs in the future (depending on finding good bands to put on, of course).

Comment on 79 Revisited with Mindroom and Embrace The Ashes @ the Noise Bar, 2010-11-26 by Mark

Mark — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 01:33:22 +0000

Hey guys mark *drummer* from embrace the ashes here, cheers for the review :d much appriciated by the boys :D

Comment on Andrew Crossley is a reprehensible individual. by Johnson

Johnson — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:56:03 +0000

I too have received a leter dated middle of November 2010 from Mr. Crossley. interestingly I genuinely did not download or upload “the Work” and nor do I use Bit Torrent. I have sent a slightly modified template letter of denial and have inferred the next letter to him will be a copy of the first reply. Thereafter I will not enter into any correspondence but I will copy as a minimum the SRA, ICO, Which, Lord Lucas and my MP any further correspondence he sends me. My current ISP who were clearly complicit in all of this will be dumped just as soon as I can sort out my domain transfer.
I hope to god this lo life gets what he deserves and that in particular the Ministry of Sound suffer for their significant part in all of this. Shame on all of them and the disrepute this brings upon the law.

Comment on Andrew Crossley is a reprehensible individual. by Alex

Alex — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:36:07 +0000

I recieved a letter from these jokers yesterday, accusing me of sharing some file I don’t even have. I have basically sent them a letter back telling them to 1)prove it, and 2) ram it up their arse.

Comment on Andrew Crossley is a reprehensible individual. by Lev Lafayette

Lev Lafayette — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:55:03 +0000

Couldn’t happen to a nicer person :)

Broadbandgenie has a good summary here:

http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/news/20100925-acslaw-hit-by-email-leak

Comment on Andrew Crossley is a reprehensible individual. by Rebalance

Rebalance — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 08:36:50 +0000

Data Protection Penalties
2010 will see a much more hostile regulatory environment around data protection and privacy!

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has been given new statutory powers which see – with effect from 6 April 2010 – the introduction of new penalties, unlike any seen before, for breaches of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998. The ICO has also been granted new statutory powers to audit government departments.

The data protection regime in the UK has never looked so intimidating!
What penalties are available to the ICO?

* Fines of up to £500,000 for serious contraventions of the DPA;
* 25 Monetary Penalty Notices (MPNs) are expected to be issued each year by the ICO;
* Prison Sentences for deliberate or negligent customer data leaks by individuals within an organisation may also become available;
* DPA compliance costs are set to rise accordingly, for UK organisations.

The new statutory powers the ICO has just gained gives them the power to audit government departments without consent, thanks to the passing of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.

Comment on ACS Law is definitely not Davenport Lyons. Probably. by Simon James

Simon James — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 19:20:54 +0000

***TAKE NOTE***

ACS:Law has had a massive email leak which should put Andrew Crossley’s anti-P2P extortion scam to bed once and for all.

Read the following links:
http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-anti-…emails-100925/
http://www.slyck.com/story2058_ACSLa…The_Pirate_Bay
http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-gay-p…ed-men-100925/
http://acslaw.blogspot.com
http://beingthreatened.yolasite.com/

Spread the word!

Comment on Andrew Crossley is a reprehensible individual. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 17:33:56 +0000

I am given to understand (I haven’t looked at it myself) that the entire archive is a tissue of LOLs. I wonder if anyone will look it over properly and thoroughly bury the fucker’s career.

Comment on Andrew Crossley is a reprehensible individual. by the wub

the wub — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:38:19 +0000

There’s one great email from acslawsupervisor@googlemail.com to Crossley (Subject: Quantum of Damages Calculation) telling him that “establishing damages beyond the value of the gross profit of one copy of the work is problematic” and that “Barwinska might make nice headline reading but it has, in my opinion, about as much legal force as a Sun newspaper headline regarding the licentious behaviour of a D list celebrity.” Even their legal supervisor admits how dubious their claims are!

Also nice to see that Crossley has subscribed to updates from davidicke.com.

Comment on The dream world of Dion McGregor. by Matthew James

Matthew James — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:52:17 +0000

Here’s another link, if you want to download:

http://www.pentameonus.com/the-dream-world-of-dion-mcgregor-he-talks-in-his-sleep/

Comment on The dream world of Dion McGregor. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:19:23 +0000

It certainly was up two years ago! The whole site appears to be down.

Comment on The dream world of Dion McGregor. by Brian H

Brian H — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:19:03 +0000

The MP3 link has gone down, or maybe was never up.

Comment on Step right up! by jd webb

jd webb — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:03:52 +0000

This was cool to read, thanks.

Comment on Last song at the Tote. by redcountess

redcountess — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:25:06 +0000

I’m sure Tim Hemensley was there in spirit and was very very pissed in both the Aussie and American sense.

Comment on If bands were dates. by Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:10:01 +0000

Mayhem is the arsehole who sits in a club looking impressive, glowering and posing but hasn’t had much of anything to say for years.

Darkthrone is his mate who used to be a hip poser but is now just as at home at the local pub with the bogans as he is with his old mates.

Cradle Of Filth is the loud, popular dude who dresses like a poof and acts like a bogan that all the chicks love but you know yourself is a dud root. You hang around the bar in a group of all the other girls who know the same thing, sneering and gossiping. … See More

Leviathan is the weird looking guy who you’re not quite sure about but you find out, without any prompting from you friends, is actually great in bed.

Blut Aus Nord is the guy who you can see is into totally kinky shit but you don’t realise how kinky until you’re back at his place. You’ll have a great story for your mates afterwards.

Anaal Nathrakh is the really loud, out-of-control guy who gets arrested early in the evening but somehow manages to get back to the party with an amazing story that you don’t want to believe but for some reason do.

Electric Wizard the the cool, stoner dude everyone can’t help but dig but at the back of your mind you can’t help but think he’s starting to repeat himself just a bit too much.

And all the underground BM groups who just release limited tapes are the young kids who can’t get into the club and never get invited to the party so they hang around the park, drink cheap goon and imagine themselves having a better time than you.

Comment on So how was your haul? by David Gerard

David Gerard — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:29:31 +0000

@Yvonne – surprisingly good, actually. The cups are silicone rather than plastic or rubber, they fill the ear canal nicely.

Comment on So how was your haul? by Yvonne Kirk

Yvonne Kirk — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:44:30 +0000

My lovely husband (Gunzel412) bought my the camera of my dreams. He even traded in the old one for me.

Booo to the christian rock.. It would make me implode…in am “I’m melting kinda way”

Ishould get some Skull candy headphones… do they have a nice bass response??

**Hugs from Australia**

Comment on So how was your haul? by Juergen

Juergen — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:24:12 +0000

Not nearly as spectacular. A Kishon book, and a nice wristwatch (Traser Type 3 – plain-looking, but geeky if you look closer…)

Comment on Rage Against The Machine For Christmas No. 1 by redcountess

redcountess — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:18:08 +0000

Still worth a try though.

Comment on Rage Against The Machine For Christmas No. 1 by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:09:41 +0000

I believe this was tried with “Never Gonna Give You Up” last year and didn’t work then either.

Since (a) downloads were added to the UK charts (b) physical singles have all but dried up, leaving the chart entirely determined by downloads, the number of sales required is rather larger than it used to be.

Comment on Pet musical peeves. by redcountess

redcountess — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:32:32 +0000

People who assume that if one is into Heavy Metal one is an ignorant hick (although I admit I have done this on occasion myself).

So David, what metal do you have in the crates o’ doom? ;)

Comment on Pet musical peeves. by secretlondon

secretlondon — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:32:18 +0000

You’re a goth. You like goth music, that is music that has been given the subcultural seal of approval.

Comment on Pet musical peeves. by Wendsday

Wendsday — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:06:42 +0000

Commercial radio.

Comment on Pet musical peeves. by Barbarella

Barbarella — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:09:21 +0000

Talking about bands like Slayer, Slipknot etc. and people saying “I can´t stand them” when you *know* they have never even heard a track by those bands. That´s one of my worst peeves.

Comment on 20 years on, woman finally deciphers meaning of mix tape. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:38:00 +0000

Aww :-)

Comment on 20 years on, woman finally deciphers meaning of mix tape. by Ms .45

Ms .45 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:50:42 +0000

That’s not strictly true – when I changed jobs recently, one of my new co-workers, who had met me maybe once previously, instantly made me a mix cd to welcome me aboard. Sure, it was mostly mainstream schmaltz with a bit of Monty Python and Badly Drawn Boy, but I was so touched that someone would take the trouble to do that.

Comment on Anvil! The Story Of Anvil by Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:36:45 +0000

Well, they were OK (at least based on what I’ve heard in the movie). But sometimes even an act that’s just OK can still do something important. Still, I’ve never heard Anvil’s importance stated in quite such terms until now. Where was Lars Ulrich in 1986 when Anvil could’ve used his help?

Comment on Shut up ’n play yer Wangcaster. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:58:36 +0000

@Graham – ooh, that’s nice! Clever way to put a notch in theneck for high string-bending, too.

Comment on Shut up ’n play yer Wangcaster. by Graham

Graham — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:47:38 +0000

What? No mention of the Bender Distortocaster?

Comment on It’s not DRM, er, DCE, it’s DPP! Yeah. by Damien

Damien — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:48:39 +0000

I’ll believe it’s my “personal property” when I’m free to do what I want with it. Until then, DPP is a load of BS.

DPP, just another form of DRM, is a desperate move to prop-up a dying business model.

When I say “free” above, I mean free as in free speech — I don’t mind paying money for good music and think artists deserve support.
And when I say “do what I want with it”, I mean make a back-up, play it on my PDA, keep a copy on my laptop, burn it to CD to play in the car, etc. It’s gotta work with and be transferable between existing digital devices. Oh, and not have it remotely tampered with or deleted on whim, as suckers with a Kindle recently discovered.

Comment on The good parts. by Ms .45

Ms .45 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:33:17 +0000

And what excellent choices of songparts they are. “GOOD Lord!”

Comment on The good parts. by shadowdaddy

shadowdaddy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:35:53 +0000

ya know, I look at these and I laugh and I laugh, and then I suddenly think, “ringtone.”

Comment on The social history of the MP3. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:28:15 +0000

The golden age of music is sixteen.

Comment on The social history of the MP3. by Bernard Langham

Bernard Langham — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:08:54 +0000

I expect the last 10 years is the first decade of pop music to be remembered by Eric Harvey.

Comment on Anvil! The Story Of Anvil by Gash

Gash — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:48:23 +0000

there is a reason they were forgotten unfortunately….

Comment on Kids think Guitar Hero controllers make music. by sandy

sandy — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:48:57 +0000

sorry, I’m old school (and old)….a guitar is, well, a guitar….not a game. bastardize all the things you want…but music? Really? This is where I draw the fuckin line. seriously, yo, get off the T.V. and go to a garage like we all did.

Comment on The discreet charm of the Grateful Dead. by sandy

sandy — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:43:39 +0000

yeah, i would also like to comment that, like hipsters, a deadhead never really admits to being a deadhead….and will be the first one to point out that they have a TRUE deadhead friend who doesn’t wear shoes…..lolol…at least in my experience.

Comment on Yak Shaving Day! by ahmed tahran

ahmed tahran — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:31:05 +0000

This is something we Macintosh users totally agree!

Comment on Artist’s shit. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:49:35 +0000

I saw the above can of Artist’s Shit at the Tate Modern. I laughed and laughed. Giggled for ages. Giggling now. It’s BRILLIANT and PERFECT. The photo doesn’t communicate its hilarity.

Comment on Artist’s shit. by Graham

Graham — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:19:30 +0000

I saw a pile of those poo-cans once. There was a Manzoni exhibition in the Serpentine Gallery about ’98 or ’99. The Magic Bases were fun too, as was Umberto Ecos’ certificate of authenticity. For some reason it all seemed much cleverer and funnier than the similar stuff that’s still being produced 45 years later.

I have a 7″ of The Laughing Gnome so I can play it at Goth clubs to people whi think they’ve got up to dance to “Let’s Dance”. You should try it. Nobody at all ever objects in the slightest.

Comment on Oh dear. by Nye

Nye — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:02:54 +0000

Well I tittered.

Comment on Slave to the Economist. by Krie

Krie — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:26:42 +0000

This is right here, in the present, not the future.

Comment on Oh dear what a pity never mind. by Evil Paul

Evil Paul — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:02:40 +0000

All of that pre-emphasis de-emphasis sciency talk is just their cover story. It was actually their first, primitive attempt at DRM using analog technology.

Comment on Oh dear what a pity never mind. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 03:13:59 +0000

Yes, it was! Such a pity they destroyed their good name.

Comment on Oh dear what a pity never mind. by secretlondon

secretlondon — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:31:22 +0000

The article says that it was actually a good thing – an international standard replacing lots of different ones.

Comment on Oh dear what a pity never mind. by David Gerard

David Gerard — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:24:03 +0000

RIAA equalization - as the industry body of the record companies, they were also the technical body administering this curve.

Comment on Oh dear what a pity never mind. by Secretlondon

Secretlondon — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:17:48 +0000

They were responsible for phono inputs? I presumed they were due to an electrical issue.

Comment on The dream world of Dion McGregor. by Prophet Matthew James

Prophet Matthew James — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:33:37 +0000

Yes, Dion is a hero of mine. He should be emulated; only if we can figure out how.