LimeWire Linked to Identity Theft

The Denver District Attorney issued a security warning to users of LimeWire after discovering the file-swapping software was linked to dozens of cases of identity theft. Read more at Aversion...

My Morning Jacket To Release Live DVD

My Morning Jacket will be releasing their first DVD this November and it accompanies their recent live album Okonokos.

The concert was filmed at the Fillmore venue in San Francisco and "involves a storyline involving a killer bear".

The DVD was directed by Sam Erickson and the lighting at the actual gig was designed by Marc Brickman who has worked with Pink Floyd.

My Morning Jacket release the Okonokos DVD on November 20th, while the double CD audio version is available now. Read Entire Article From Angry Ape...

Malcolm Middleton Signs To Full Time Hobby

Malcolm Middleton has signed to the Full Time Hobby label and will be releasing his first album for them in 2007.

Speaking about Middleton's music, the label who have released music by the likes of Tunng and Viva Voce, have said:

Read this article at Angry Ape

Razorlight Rallies Against Pollution

Razorlight's front man Johnny Borrell's had it with carbon emissions.

The singer's joined Friends of the Earth's efforts to push the British government to curb carbon emissions. Borrell's ecological sense was sparked after watching Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, according to the band's website, and he's ready to use his music to educate and inspire fans to action.

Readd all of Aversion's article

Red Shag Carpet rolls out the love for Edmonton

Telemarketers and home-maintenance sales reps-ya gotta hate 'em. Many a tasty meal has been disrupted by a call from some creep yearning to collect the dust mites from my rugs. So when the phone rings and a cheery voice announces that "It's Ted from Red Shag Carpet," I'm seconds away from a surly response and enthusiastic receiver slam-down. Then I realize that it's just Edmonton alt-rocker Ted Ani dialling in for our prearranged phone interview. Read The Entire Interview...

Black Angels set their sights on George W. Bush's war machine

As more than one left-leaning political pundit has pointed out, America's done a righteous botch-job of positioning itself in the post-9/11 world. In the days and weeks that followed the World Trade Center attack, the United States had the sympathy of almost every country on the planet. Then came the invasion of Iraq. Thanks to George W. Bush's war on terror, the USA isn't winning any global popularity contests today.

The last time America found itself fighting an extended war on foreign soil, every card-carrying Democrat in the country ended up taking to the streets in protest. Things have clearly changed since Vietnam. Apart from that drunken lard-ass who owns Fat Wreck Chords, the only entertainers you hear bitching about Iraq are Al Franken and Neil Young, along with the ever-insufferable Jon Stewart. Because Austin's Black Angels don't shy away from the subject on their often-mesmerizing debut Passover, that's enough to make the quintet stand out from the MySpace hordes. Must Read This Entire Article...

Sonic Youth Cull Rarities for Album

Sonic Youth will raid its massive back catalog for a rarities collection due out later this year.

The band's The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities is tipped for a Dec. 12 release by Geffen, according to Billboard. The collection, which follows up this year's Rather Ripped (Geffen) (read Aversion's review), will complete Sonic Youth's contract with the label.

Aversion

Primus Release - They Can't All Be Zingers!

Primus' first ever retrospective CD, a 16 song selection "They Can't All Be Zingers" spans the band's career from 1990 to 2003, featuring all of Primus' original modern rock hits.

The DVD "Blame it on the Fish" documents the band's 2003 reunion tour and contains live performance footage, interview segments, candid behind the scenes shots and intense visual imagery in addition to an abundance of extras.
Indie News Live

The Datsuns On Tour

The Datsuns are on tour this week and they'll be playing live into the first week of November.

The band have 11 shows planned, starting tonight in Edinburgh and ending in London on November 7th.

As previously posted, The Datsuns release new single Waiting For Your Time To Come on November 6th, including their cover version of T. Rex's Life's A Gas. More Here...

New Matador band: Love of Diagrams

Matador Records, like Sub Pop and Merge, rarely gets things wrong. So when the label announces it has signed a new act, chances are we're looking at a winner. Aussies Love of Diagrams are the newest members to the Matador fold. The band is a cute little hipster trio consisting of two girls-Monika Fikerle on drums and Antoni Selbach on bass-and a dude, guitarist Luke Horton. Matador describes their sound as "teaming late 70s/early 80s noise, punk, and pop art" and "love-at-first-listen familiarity and a voice all their own with such panache." Expect their Matador debut to drop early next year.

Prefix

Thermals - interview

At the risk of delving too far into the hyperbolic, over the past half-decade, the concept of spinning a new version of the perennial dystopian tale seems almost redundant. Whichever side you happen to land on in the great, American political debate, its tough to deny that the world has seem been seemingly teetering on the edge of mushroom clouds or hellfire for the past five or so years. Surely telling the tale of pre-apocalypse is just a manner of extending things to their logical end.

"I hesitate to call it a concept record," Thermals singer/guitarist Hutch Harris says of The Body, The Blood, The Machine. "It's not like the record that Green Day put out a couple of years ago. I've never made a record like that, where there was a story from song to song that all tied together. We didn't set out to do that. I think if we would have, it wouldn't have turned out as good." More Here...

This Et Al Reveal Track Listing For Debut Album Baby Machine

Hotly tipped Leeds indie band This Et Al have revealed the track listing for their debut album and they'll also be releasing a limited edition version of it.

The 11 track album is named Baby Machine and a full proper release date will be announced in due course. More Here...

iTunes Protection Code Cracked

iTunes has suffered a blow today after the code that prevents music downloaded from their online store being played on any portable MP3 player other than their own iPod, has been cracked.

Hacker Jon Lech Johansen claims to have "reverse engineered" the iTunes FairPlay system. Speaking about the situation, Johansen says that he plans to license the code to other manufacturers of portable MP3 players via his own company, DoubleTwist.

Speaking on behalf of DoubleTwist, managing director Monique Farantzos has said: "There's a certain amount of trouble that Apple can give us, but not enough to stop this." More Here...

Tha Assassination DVD - change of plans

As mentioned in our previous post, The Assassination will be releasing a DVD featuring performances from around the Vancouver B.C. area. Plans have changed slightly. The DVD will still be released, but Worn Records and The Assassination have decided to wait until the E.P. they are currently recording is complete, and release them together as a package. This will ensure better value, and more content! We have also been shooting video during the recording of the still untitled e.p., and may include a bonus video documentary from the sessions with the DVD. We are still hopefull to have this entire package ready for release before the end of 2006.

The Datsuns Release T Rex Cover Version

The Datsons release a single next month and it includes a cover of a T. Rex track.

The band will be making their own Waiting For Your Time To Come song available as a download only single on November 6th and their cover of T Rex's Life's A Gas appears as a bonus b-side.

Waiting For Your Time To Come is taken from this Summer's Smoke & Mirrors album.

Track Listing:

1. Waiting For Your Time To Come
2. Life's A Gas
3. Pity Pity Please

Angry Ape

James Toth presents: The Indie Band Life-O-Meter

James Toth, better known as Wooden Wand in some circles, seems a little bitter about his lot in life these days, or maybe he's just coping with the stress of touring in his own special way. After the jump, is a quiz created by Toth while driving "between the flatlands of the Midwest and the dramatic landscape of the Rocky Mountains," to help bands figure out how long they can expect to last. Toth is currently nearing the end of a US tour, and I would suggest he needs a nice long break once it's over. More Here...

Runaways Drummer West Dies

The Runaways' drummer Sandy West died Saturday (Oct. 21).


West, who helped launch the band's career in 1975 and played with it until it dissolved in 1979, passed away after a prolonged battle with lung cancer. She was 46. The Runaways were the first all-female band to play no-frills rock'n'roll and make significant impact on the mainstream. The band, which grew up parallel to the early punk scene is best known for the hit "Cherry Bomb." Runaways guitarists Joan Jett and Lita Ford would find success in the '80s as solo artists. More Here...

Q&A - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

Q&A - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Oct 24, 2006

No matter how many super-hip alt-country side projects you hear coming from punk rockers this year, you won't hear one like Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' latest.

The pop-punk covers band slaps on the cowboy hats and goes for a ride in the country on its latest, Love their Country (Fat) (read Aversion's review). The Gimmes, which collects members of NOFX, The Foo Fighters, Lagwagon and Swingin' Utters, hits on a slew of new and classic country songs, finding an affinity for the music that was absent in its previous jaunt through R&B. Where the Gimmes were best known for tongue-in-cheek humor, this time around, there seems to be some genuine appreciation of the music going on. What gives?

Aversion's Interview

Vancouver indie label Mint Records celebrates 15 years without major funding

VANCOUVER (CP) - Bill Baker and Randy Iwata still do most of their own grunt work - designing art work, stuffing merchandise into reused envelopes and promoting bands and projects - without much worry whether their indie label Mint Records will produce a hit.

But after 15 years, almost 100 musical releases, a DVD and a punk-rock calendar, Mint has done just that.

The do-it-yourself operation is arguably one of Canada's largest 100 per cent independent rock record labels. Read More...

Mint Records

Lawyers Halt Beatles' Cornish Translation

A folk act's plans to record covers of Beatles' songs sung in Cornish is deader than John Lennon.

The United Kingdom's Skwardya hoped to translate the lyrics of several Beatles songs into Cornish, a nearly dead language, and put them to tape. After a small flurry of media attention in the United Kingdom, however, Harrisongs and Northern Songs, the publishers of The Beatles' tunes, put the brakes on the idea.

"We have checked with the copyright owners at Sony. They tell us nothing is approved," the act said in a statement.

Aversion News

Mogwai Zidane Soundtrack Track Listing Revealed

The track listing for Mogwai's new Zidane soundtrack album has emerged today.

The Scots post rockers released a 10" this week featuring the tracks Black Spider and Half Time. Both of these will appear on the new long-player in addition to eight more new tracks, recorded especially for the project.

More Here...

Keane To Release New Format Single

Keane will be making an alternative format available for their next release.

1,500 copies of forthcoming single Nothing In My Way will be released as a USB Memory stick, which will be exclusively available at HMV stores.

Released on October 30th, these sticks will come complete with both the audio and video version of the single, as well as three screen savers and a link to a special page on the band's website.

Read More...

Guided By Voices

Tribute Night Indie-rock fans face an embarrassment of riches on Saturday (October 14), but for a few of us the choice between Yo La Tengo, Ladytron, Sufjan Stevens, and Califone is an easy one. We'll be downstairs at the ANZA Club singing along with SK Robot at its annual Guided by Voices tribute night. For the fourth year in a row, vocalist/GBV fan Kevin Perley joins the local act for a set of covers from the late great Dayton, Ohio band. Then, the mike is open for anyone brave or drunk enough to try their vocal prowess on a number of GBV shoulda-been-hits like "Glad Girls", "Teenage FBI", and "Chasing Heather Crazy". Sure, there are other great bands playing that night, but the ANZA promises the most sheer fun and lunacy, not to mention guaranteed public humiliation.

Georgia Strait

Subhumans roar back from the dark side

Historically speaking, the Subhumans are arguably eclipsed only by D.O.A. as the most important act in Canuck punk rock. And if they hadn't imploded in 1982, there's a good chance they would have challenged for the all-time heavyweight crown.

Looking back, their legacy is an unassailable one. With "Fuck You" and "Slave to My Dick" off their self-titled debut EP in 1979, the Subhumans produced two timeless anthems in North American punk. Politically charged should-have-been singles like "Firing Squad" and "Urban Guerrillas" proved that singer Brian "Wimpy Roy" Goble, bassist Gerry "Useless" Hannah, guitarist Mike Graham, and then-drummer Jim Imagawa understood the power of politics just as much as they did profanity. And 1983's posthumous No Wishes, No Prayers confirmed that sometimes the good die far too young.

Georgia Strait Article

Stills Play Short Tour

The Stills will head down into America for five shows later this fall.

The Canadian act revealed a handful of Northeastern shows in late November and early December. The act's touring to support its latest, Without Feathers (Vice)

More Here...

Rapper Fabolous Shot By Gunman

Rapper Fabolous was shot yesterday on October 17th in New York.

According to reports, Fabolous was shot in the thigh and is currently in stable condition and being treated for his wound in hospital.

Apparently, a gunman approached the MC and three other people and began shooting. The four of them jumped inside a vehicle and drove off.

Reports also suggest that the car was then stopped by police, who found two loaded guns. They have since been arrested.

Angry Ape

Borat brings hilarity in many mediums

You are really out of the pop cultural loop if you don't know that the Borat movie is hitting theaters November 3rd. But did you also know it will be accompanied by a soundtrack chock full of Borat's own zany musical stylings? Well now you know, and as G.I. Joe used to say, knowing is half the battle. The soundtrack will sport what will most likely be the longest album title this year: Borat: Stereophonic Musical Listenings That Have Been Origin in Moving Film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Phew! Enough colons in that sentence for you?

More Here...

Universal Music Group Sues Video Sites

Just because Universal Music Group's down with YouTube licensing, it doesn't mean the label group's ready to give its music videos away for free.

The label group filed suit against two second-tier video posting sites, Bolt and Grouper. The latter site's owned by Sony Pictures. The lawsuit alleges copyright infringement and seeks $150,000 for each violation. Universal's lawyers estimate more than 100,000 violations on the sites.

More Here...

We Are Scientists Ready Oddities Set

We Are Scientists are getting set to unload their crap on fans with an oddballs collection.

The act's Crap Attack CD/DVD package rounds up a series of B-sides and remixes and a DVD full of live recordings and music videos. The collection, which the band dubbed "our most unedited expulsion to date," follows up this year's With Love and Squalor (Virgin)
More Here...

The Shins Reveal Third Album Details

The Shins release their new album early next year and the band have revealed the songs that make up the longplayer. More Here...

Ramones Songs Reworked for Kids

Because there is nothing like recreating classic punk rock rebellion to make it nursery-safe, The Ramones catalog is retooled to be kid-friendly on an upcoming album. More Here...

CMW 2007 OPENS NOMINATIONS FOR INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS: THE INDIES

Canadian Music Week (CMW) is calling all independent recording artists to apply for The Indies - the 2007 Independent Music Awards. The event will kick off the CMW 07 festivities held in Toronto on Wednesday, March 7, 2007. Applications are due on November 15th of this year. More Here...

A Good Indie Resource...

Lots of good information for independent bands, label, and promoters. Check it out:

Indie 911

R.I.P. CBGB

It was the final last call at CBGB last night.

The legendary New York rock club closed its doors yesterday (Oct. 15), after Patti Smith played the venues final show. Smith, a veteran of the original CBGB scene that featured bands such as The Ramones, Blondie and Television during their formative years, closed the club down after it lost a protracted legal battle with its landlord over back and future rent.

More Here...

The Hold Steady To Release Chips Ahoy! Single

Over in the US, The Hold Steady recently released their new album Boys And Girls In America. Now the band are set release a new limited edition 7" single in the UK next month.

The band will lift Chips Ahoy! as their new release, which Vagrant will be putting out on 13th November. The album will then be available in the UK on January 15th.

Angry Ape

The Potential Goodness that is Bluetooth

You may know Bluetooth as the technology responsible for making people look like they are having one-sided conversations with a Star Trek headset. Bluetooth is not just for phone convos though - devices with A2DP support allow stereo transmission. Wireless headphones, people - we are in the 21st century, it is about time we started acting like it. With AVRCP (Audio / Video Remote Control Profile, and that is the last time I spell that out) you can have wireless headphones with stop, play, fast forward, reverse, and volume control, so you can skip around tracks without even taking your player out of your pocket.

Angry Ape

Hellcat Signs Static Thought

Hellcat Records announced it will release the first album from Static Thought.

The teenage punks are led by the 17-year-old Eric Urbach, son of Minimal's John Urbach. The elder Urbach even lent his skills to the band, producing the album, which was recorded in the Urbachs' basement studio. The effort, In the Trenches, is tipped to veer away from pop-punk sounds to concentrate on streetwise punk. More Here...

Sugarcult Plays Virtual Concert

Sugarcult will play a real-life tour for a virtual-world audience.

The band announced it will play a "concert" in the Second Life world, a virtual universe where users create avatars and settings and interact with one another. The show, which is scheduled for tomorrow (Oct. 14), will feature digitized likenesses of the band members rocking out to streamed audio. The concert is a fund-raising effort for STAND UP Against Poverty, a nonprofit that works to eradicate world poverty.

Aversion

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Love Their Country

I said posse! The Gimmes roll into town for a 12-song shootout with Country & Western. These Blue-State bandits are gonna show Kenny Chesney how it is really done.



Fat Wreck Chords

Google bunts into double play with music recommendation service

They usually hit it out of the park, but Google does have some occasional bad at-bats. Their Google Talk service has failed to upend other IM apps, but that wont stop them from data mining entertainment. If you use Google Talk and share your listening preferences, you will be weighed into a Google Music Trends service. Apparently you will be the sort that likes Panic! At the Disco, James Blunt, Evanescence, and... Nickelback in the 11 spot. The Black Eyed Peas take up 11 out of 20 spots on the hip-hop singles list. I wish I were joking. It is just getting started but early results are frightening. More here...

Joey Ramone Biopic in the Works?

Johnny Ramone may soon join Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Buddy Holly as rockers whose lives were adapted into movies.

Talks have started to get a movie that centers around the Ramones' lanky lead singer, according to Variety magazine. The film, which has yet to be titled, will be based upon a biography of Ramone written by his brother, Mickey Leigh and Punk magazine founder Legs McNeil.

www.aversion.com/news

Phil Spector Murder Trial Delayed ... Again

Phil Spector's day in court is coming, but don't hold your breath to see it happen anytime soon.

After a half dozen delays, the trial of the famed music producer was bumped back yet again, as Judge Larry P. Fiddler granted the defense's motion to delay the start of the trial. This time around, it's to give more time for forensic testing. Spector, the producer behind bands such as The Ronettes and The Ramones, stands accused of killing actress Lana Clarkson in his Los Angeles mansion in February 2003. He contends she committed suicide.

http://www.aversion.com/news

New digital radios will allow instant downloads

Digital radio listeners will be able to download catchy tunes from the wireless as soon as they hear them, following a tie-up between UBC Media and Virgin. UBC, the digital radio company, said it intended to announce details of a commercial launch for a downloads service towards the end of next month. More here...

VW Guitar

Slash helps promote the new Volkswagen gimmick, get a free guitar with every VW.

Technorati Tags: volkswagen, guitar, slash

The Assassination - New DVD!!!

Next week The Assassination and 308 Productions in concert with a few video bootleggers, will put the finishing touches on the first DVD release from Worn Records. This DVD tentatively entitled "2006 Terror", will feature performances from 3 of the bands shows in and around Vancouver B.C., and 2 songs that aired on Television for The Revolution Series back in May. Although the video and audio quality is not top notch, these bootlegs were shot for the most part with digital cameras. Price and release date will be announced next week along with the cover art.

In related news, The Assassination is heading into the studio this coming weekend to begin recording for their upcoming E.P.. This E.P. will feature 3 new songs, 1 left over track from the "Find Your Way Out" album, a cover, and a live cut.

Alkaline Trio Starts Writing New Album

The Alkaline Trio's slowly making progress on its next album.

Drummer Derek Grant revealed that the band had started writing its next album, and plans to head into the studio in February to lay the songs to tape. The still-untitled album is tentatively planned for a spring release, and will follow up last year's Crimson. (Vagrant) Read More...

Tower Records meets its maker

Death, thy name is the Great American Group.

Tower Records fate was decided in a two-day auction recently. Trans World, a large music retailer fell short by half a million to Great American Group, a company devoted to your liquidating needs. Tower stores will be melted down for scrap, but not before clear out sales empty the shelves, so look out for discounts. Read More...

YouTube Is Bought By Google

Google have purchased the video hosting site YouTube in a deal worth £883 million.

The deal also comes the day after both YouTube and Google signed deals with record companies, with the aim of sharing music videos online legally. Read More...

Boy Kill Boy Release Charity Single For War Child

Boy Kill Boy are to release a new single next month and it's in aid of charity.

The popular indie band will lift Shoot Me Down from their acclaimed debut album Civilian on November 13th, with some of the royalties being donated to War Child.
Read More Here...

Universal Music, Sony BMG License YouTube Music Videos

Universal Music Group and Sony BMG have now embraced YouTube, a move that follows a ground-breaking deal with Warner Music Group. The Universal and Sony BMG deals involve similar terms, and grant the labels the ability to filter unauthorized content. The deal also shares revenue on viewed content. The deal also allows users to incorporate Sony BMG and Universal sound recordings in uploaded content, a structure that will empower hairbrush karaoke stars everywhere. CBS also finalized a deal with YouTube, making it the first television network to structure an amicable accord.Read More...

Ted Leo Tours, Stays Super

Ted Leo is one swell guy. When the dude's not in the studio, he's out on tour making the earth a more listenable place. Certainly not one to rest on his laurels, however, Ted's announced yet another extensive North American tour for this fall, as well as news that his yet-untitled Touch And Go debut LP will emerge in March 2007.Read More...

New Pornographers Tour Canada

The New Pornographers will launch a tour next week, but they're not even going to mess with pesky border crossings and customs agents.Read More...

www.thenewpornographers.com

Merge's Brokedown Forced to Change Name

Thanks to the musclepower of trademark law and cease-and-desist letters, Merge Records' The Brokedown has a new name. More..

The Broken West

Interviews: The Sound of Animals Fighting

They wear masks to conceal their identity. Theirs is a brand of art rock with progressive rock overtures spun in that is unlike anything you've ever heard of before. And while many of the members go by such monikers as Nightingale, Walrus, Lynx, Swan, and Raven, there are...Read More...

http://www.thesoundofanimalsfighting.com/

Increase Your Odds Of Getting Signed

Most artists dream about getting signed to a recording agreement, yet few know anything about the record company personnel responsible for discovering new talent, what these people look for in an artist, and where and when they look to find it. You might just find that the first step to getting a record deal is to take a do it yourself approach to your career. A discussion on A&R can easily take up hundreds of pages, but here is a brief overview.Read More...

Robot Musician?

"A new robot named Haile (pronounced hi-lee), which 'listens' to what musicians are playing and play along with them, has been developed at the University of Georgia."

Slashdot | The First Robotic Musician

technorati tags:robot, musician

Indie Band/ Music Promotion at Mp3 Musicgrams

Munch Music, MP3Musicgrams.com, Delta, B.C. - September 13, 2006, MP3Musicgrams.coms free Indie Band and Artist music promotion service for sharing online music is now available for sign-ups by artists and fans. The new interactive and viral musicgrams were created for new artists to be able to spread their music around in a new format. Users can upload or download an MP3 audio file, image and add in a personal message to send to online music fans, friends and industry. Once uploaded, fans can get involved and help spread the word on new artists...Read More

A music store with a twist - Kaboomtune.com

LOS ANGELES, California (September 25, 2006) The forces behind Kaboom Tune would like to introduce an exciting new concept integrating an online music store, music marketing, and a battle of the bands contest. Kaboom Tune will feature one album each day, offering independent artists label-like exposure......

Read more...