Writing – Rocknerd

Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: out July 24, pre-orders open!

27 June, 201728 June, 2017 Rocknerd, Writing 0

My book is scheduled! Sign up to give me your money!

Links: Closed Circuits compilation, Devo vs William S. Burroughs, Go-Betweens documentary.

22 June, 2017 Links, Post-Punk, Writing 0

More artistic pursuits today.

Links: Spotify payola, cheap Apple Music, bogus Disney takedowns, music journalism pt 2.

20 June, 2017 Links, mp3, Writing, Your rights 0

It’s a much more dot-com new economy payola. The Uber of payola.

Links: Music journalism still buggered, Alan Vega final album, Denuvo LOL.

14 June, 201714 June, 2017 Games, Links, Punk, Writing 0

More news during the tinnitus hiatus.

Links: AIR Studios Montserrat, Carl Bernstein the pop critic, net neutrality for musicians.

7 June, 2017 Links, Musician, Writing, Your rights 0

The net neutrality article is particularly important.

Ringo Starr is a dick.

1 June, 2017 Pop, Rock, Writing 10

“But thanks julian lennon for stopping me from becoming a supervillain hellbent on destroying the entire nation of britain for good.”

Links: a critic turned artist, the soothing power of noise, Kim Dotcom outdone, Herman’s Hermits.

15 May, 201715 May, 2017 Links, Metal, mp3, Rock, Writing 0

A pretty chill selection on the joy of art. And some schadenfreude for Kim Dotcom.

The music industry’s sense of entitlement. How to get the money rolling again.

4 May, 20175 May, 2017 Industry, Opinion, Writing 0

Eamonn Forde opines at The Quietus that the reports of the record industry’s rebirth are greatly exaggerated.

You’d almost think there’d been some sort of horrifying plummet in people’s financial circumstances.

On “data-driven” discovered genres, artistic conversations and faces in clouds.

3 May, 20177 May, 2017 Opinion, Writing 0

I am sceptical of the “data-driven approach” to cultural discovery. It reifies statistical artifacts, filter bubbles and faces seen in clouds.

Links: Audible now DRM-free, the Great Vinyl Scam, no pirate website blocks in Mexico.

29 April, 201730 April, 2017 Links, Writing, Your rights 0

It’s not like people want the (literal) tons of old editions of these records on vinyl.

Musical user interfaces, copyright companies being themselves, the worst of Rolling Stone.

16 April, 201716 April, 2017 Links, Musician, Writing, Your rights 0

You need to see the ideas for music software interfaces.

Vortex zine #2 is up.

9 April, 2017 Indie, Writing 0

From the bowels of time, Vortex, Perth, December 1986.

Music journalism: still dead, thank goodness.

26 March, 20175 May, 2017 Opinion, Writing 5

“Can music journalism exist at all?” “Do Music Journalists Matter Anymore?” I mean, if you have to ask …

All these streams will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

20 March, 201721 March, 2017 mp3, Opinion, Record, Writing 1

There is no “cloud”, there’s just someone else’s computer. Will we find a listener who cares?

1986-87 Perth fanzine Vortex scanned and up on the Party Fears page.

11 March, 201712 March, 2017 Indie, Writing 1

From the bowels of time, we bring you Vortex magazine, Perth 1986-1987.

Links: World’s dumbest terrorist, procedural music, bogus DMCAs, the editorial dictator.

20 February, 201720 February, 2017 Drugs, Links, Musician, Writing, Your rights 0

“First he put the bomb under the ramp instead of the truck, and the other truck was the one with most of the stuff inside.”

Essays by Post(Graduate)Punk: Crass, Sisters of Mercy, Psychic TV.

4 February, 20174 February, 2017 Goth, Industrial, Post-Punk, Punk, Writing 0

Essays, pointers and rambling opinionation on UK punk and post-punk.

The political event of the day: the Ithaca Psychogeographic Liberation Front issues Articles of Secession.

20 January, 201721 January, 2017 Esoterica, Writing 1

We secede from irony. Sincerity will pervade even our lies, and especially our lies.

Links: Storytelling, the rump hi-res streaming consortium, the end of newspaper critics, Jim Bob.

15 January, 201718 January, 2017 Audio, Industry, Links, mp3, Television, Writing 0

Also, Wikipedia started sixteen years ago today.

I urge you to back “Monkee Music”, 2nd Edition, by Andrew Hickey. Hurry, hurry!

4 January, 20176 January, 2017 Pop, Writing 0

You should definitely put some money into this Kickstarter.

Links: Side-Line goes full Nazi, CDDB bought by Nielsen, 23 random Naked Lunch quotes.

26 December, 201626 December, 2016 Industrial, Industry, Links, Writing 0

Side-Line indulges a straight-up Nazi, Nielsen buys Gracenote metadata, random Burroughs readings from The Naked Lunch.

Links: Stoner metal, Stevie Wonder, Bill Drummond on punk.

21 December, 2016 Links, Punk, R'n'B, Rock, Writing 0

Essays on aesthetics.

Links: Bandcamp for New Zealand charts, EFF versus the music industry, the productivity of silence.

15 December, 201616 December, 2016 Industry, Links, Writing, Your rights 0

The important thing is to wear a fetching Skullcandy hat like the one up there.

Links: Spotify without SoundCloud, 808 classics, the Legendary Pink Dots, millennials.

10 December, 201611 December, 2016 Dance, Industrial, Industry, Links, mp3, R'n'B, Writing 0

Spotify rejects SoundCloud again, ten 808 greats, the Legendary Pink Dots and you awful millennials.

Links: Independent music earnings, Pakistan’s music industry, answering recruiters, Spray.

8 December, 2016 Dance, Industry, Links, Pop, Writing 0

How much money one musician actually makes striking out as an independent, the Pakistani music industry, responding to recruiters and Ricardo Autobahn and Spray.

Links: Jon Langford and the Sisters of Mercy, J. G. Ballard’s house, your headphones are listening.

28 November, 201629 November, 2016 Goth, Links, Post-Punk, Writing, Your rights 0

Jon Langford’s time as a part-time g*th, J. G. Ballard’s house is for sale again and your headphones can be used to spy on you.

Attack of the 50 foot blockchain!

26 November, 201627 November, 2016 Dance, Rocknerd, Writing 0

I have finished the raw first draft of the Bitcoin/blockchain book. Current word count 30,410 (or 35,546 if you include the footnotes). This was supposed to be a 15,000 word rant before lunchtime …

The time has come to listen to Ethernet cables.

25 November, 201617 May, 2017 Audio, Opinion, Writing 7

The sound with the Pearl becomes lighter and has less impact and detail compared to the Supra. Stereo image shrinks, but more obvious is a reduction in detail. Changing to Cinnamon with only one switch in my network produces a surprising result.