Rocknerd

Just spell my name right.

9 August, 200829 April, 2017 Your rights 2

The general public just refuse to see copying as morally wrong if it’s not for money. But attribution is another matter. (Look at the

The power of a nation lies in its youth.

7 August, 20087 August, 2008 Writing 0

Fiction about rock’n’roll is usually dire. I think John Hawkes-Reed has nailed it, though.

Rewind before return.

6 August, 2008 Audio 0

While you’re saving up for your cable.

Newspaper taxis appear on the shore, waiting to take you away.

5 August, 20085 August, 2008 Media 0

Magazines and newspapers are a zombie technology. But Esquire is trying to work past that. I give it three hours after hitting the stands

Fairy gold.

4 August, 20084 August, 2008 Industry 0

Yahoo is reimbursing its fairy gold victims, but people have finally noticed that just the same applies to iTunes. Apple are already messing about

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Poochie.

3 August, 200829 March, 2017 Film 0

In the MPAA’s consumer assault, consider the shiny 5¼” disk the Maginot Line. DVD sales are slipping for the first time since 1997. And

The alcohol loves you whilst turning you blue.

2 August, 200825 October, 2012 Rocknerd 5

Lots more old Party Fears scans up, courtesy Nick Potter, who decided I was being a slackarse and so got on with it himself.

Shake the disease.

1 August, 20084 September, 2016 Your rights 1

If you keep doing obnoxious things to lots and lots of people, they may start talking. And then you discover some of them are

Declare the pennies on your eyes.

31 July, 20084 September, 2016 Your rights 0

ACTA is the “everything and a pony” Christmas wish list of the media companies. Everything down to the Internet becomes illegal. Such treaties rely

Warm leatherette.

30 July, 2008 Audio 0

From 1956: the lost work of genius of car stereo. You can tell it’s genius from its independent rediscovery (check the video).

Rewired for sound.

29 July, 200830 July, 2008 mp3 2

Of course, the real alternative to the iPod is a cheap Chinese MP3 player labeled “MP4” (a blatant lie you wish the MPEG LA

Welcome to the antisocial.

28 July, 20089 July, 2013 mp3 0

The Edsel of music players, its very name signifying miserable failure, has broken the heart of even its greatest fan.

But I said no, no, no … well, maybe just one.

27 July, 2008 Drugs 1

It’s time to clean up your act when even Keith Richards suggests you may be overdoing it.

Fool me six times, shame on my parents.

26 July, 200826 December, 2016 mp3, Your rights 2

Yahoo! Music is shutting down, and its DRM servers with it. All four of you who bought a track there are losing it shortly.

A good heart these days is hard to buy.

25 July, 20081 August, 2008 Your rights 1

The BPI’s latest wheeze is a deal with six large British ISPs (BT, Virgin Media, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, Tiscali and Sky) to send “hundreds

Nixon. Four more years!

24 July, 200824 July, 2008 Film 2

Going by the trailer, the Watchmen movie might not actually suck. The costumes are right, the scenes are right … the sculpture on Mars

Baby Grace (a horrid cassette).

23 July, 200813 January, 2023 Audio 1

The cassette: not quite dead!

Slave to the Economist.

21 July, 200821 July, 2008 Industry 1

“I love The Economist. It’s like a really rational guy on crack.” They finally read The Pirate’s Dilemma (think of pirates as researching new

This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.

19 July, 200820 July, 2008 Rocknerd 0

If you’re on LiveJournal, there’s now a Rocknerd syndicated feed. I’m also making regular summary posts to aus.music. I’m also trying out the Subscribe2

Ich habe der fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n auf der Autobahn blues.

18 July, 200820 May, 2017 Esoterica 2

A pile of tapes by Delia Derbyshire — that’s Miss Blind Lemon Radiophonic Workshop herself — have shown up retrieved from her attic. Proper

The only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been nailed there.

17 July, 200824 August, 2016 Industry 0

It’s hard to convince someone they’re being sold snake oil if they think their income depends on it: “I made a list of the

Jamendo is not a complete waste of your ears.

16 July, 200830 August, 2016 mp3 0

As slushpiles go, the stuff on Jamendo is surprisingly not an excretory avalanche of hopelessly stunted clueless ambition devoid of talent. In the bleepy

That’s it, the Internet’s over. You can all go home now.

13 July, 200813 July, 2008 mp3 4

There’s cultural preservation, and then there’s the K-Tel blog. “A place for those K-Tel style classics.”

Join us now and free the samples.

12 July, 200812 July, 2008 Musician 0

Andrew C. Bulhak buys a drum machine program. He uses it for years. He discovers his stuff is stuck inside it and he can’t

You can’t hide your lose forever.

8 July, 200826 August, 2016 Film, Industry 2

You can fool much of the press quite a bit of the time, but the markets don’t care if you run baby-mulching machines —

That’s what I’d like to know. Who listens to the radio.

4 July, 200820 May, 2017 Media, Television 0

The median live broadcast viewer age for the five US networks is over 50. Fox News clocks in with a median over 65. If

Your premier domain monetization value.

2 July, 20082 July, 2008 Rocknerd 0

The old rocknerd.org domain is now in the hands of a domain squatter. Looks like you’re now reading the real remaining Rocknerd. Hi, Ben!

Phoenix hairpins.

1 July, 2008 Goth 0

For those who enjoyed The Thing On The Doorstep, I give to you: Phoenix Hairpins, Capa Nostra Syndicate, Ghosts In The House, Habit Of

zZz is playing: Grip.

30 June, 200830 April, 2017 Film 0

A brilliant single-take music video, for “Grip” by Dutch band zZz. High-quality MPEG4 also available.

86 year old great-grandmother hoists the Jolly Roger.

29 June, 200830 April, 2017 Your rights 0

“In short, I turned a 86 year old Marlboro-smoking, Chrysler Sebring Convertable-driving, Pinochle-playing, Maroon-Five listening Great Grandmother into a music pirate. An enthusiastic one