Journal TPFH's Journal: Alternatives to RIAA Music 6
OK, this is something I've been meaning to write about for quite some time. Music is probably my favorite thing to talk about. My favorite thing in the physical realm of reality. In lots of discussions about how EV1L the RIAA is the question comes up about boycotting the RIAA, which leads to the question about bands/groups/projects that are good, and not giving money to the RIAA, and that's what I would like to talk about here.
I was planning to start this off by singing the praises of emusic.com. However, I just received an email yesterday saying that they are being taken over by another company, and that effective October 30 they will no longer be supporting unlimited downloads for $9.95 a month. They will be limiting downloads to 40 a month, which I think is extremely limited considering that some albums have over 40 tracks. And now I feel stupid because it has been weeks since I've downloaded anything from them while I've been checking out the Fasttrack network, And not actually finding anywhere near as much stuff as I've already downloaded on emusic.com. I haven't even finished downloading the collection of Duke Ellington yet.
So, while I might mention that stuff is available on emusic.com, unless something changes I am no longer recommending that people join them, unless they think 40 tracks a month is enough. (Yea, I know it is a lot for just 9.95 but I don't care anymore.) Oh, one last complaint about emusic.com is that they have shut down their forums. If I see a forum about this situation that is up and running I'll post a link in this Jornal.
There, I'm done complaining.
Oh, also note there are Search Engines to see if a particular Artist/Album is RIAA Free.
Now, I guess I'll start off with Tzadic records, the record company for John Zorn which I have mentioned a few times recently. It is Avant Garde music, which can mean lots of things. Some of it is very listener friendly, some is not. Actually, most of my purchases have been towards the more listener friendly stuff, even though what first attracted me to Zorn was hearing some of his noise projects on a local radio show called A Different Nature. I've been particularly interested in the Radical Jewish Culture series of music. (My mom is Jewish but I was raised Christian so I still have a lot to learn about my Jewish heritage. I've found that I like Jewish Music a lot, even if a lot of what I currently own is towards the Avant Garde. Some of my purchases include Masada, Steven Bernstein, Erik Friedlander, and Jenny Scheinman.
Next, I would like to talk about Soleilmoon Records Which is the distributer for my favorite project The Legendary Pink Dots. I should mention that if you haven't figured it out yet, my favorite music tends to be Gothic/Industrial and Experimental, and thats what Soleilmoon has. Randy Greif is another "musician" I like on Soleilmoon. His music is mostly ambient or ambient noise. He has a 5 CD set of Alice in Wonderland that I think is quite interesting. Note that Soleilmoon has lots of mp3s with the entire song, so you can listen to stuff before you buy.
Continuing on the gothic/industrial theme, I would like to talk about World Serpent Distribution. Their artist include Coil, Nurse with Wound, Current 93 and Sol Invictus. Coil is one of the projects that formed from members of Throbbing Gristle. They have a wide variety of sound from Noise to Ambient to Techno-Industrial to just plain weird stuff. Nurse with Wound also has a variety of sound but is a little more predictable based on when the album was recorded. Their earlier material is more noise, while their later stuff is more listener friendly with lots of ambient, trance, and stuff with a discernable rhythm and even melody once and a while. Current 93's music also tends to fit into two catagories: Scarry noise, and Gothic Folk Music, although they have some stuff with just Piano, Violin and Vocals that could be mistaken for classical music.
I don't have a whole lot of Sol Invictus but I think that all of their stuff fits into the Gothic Folk music catagory. I should mention that I got to see them perform live in Portland a few years ago.
Oh, and I just realized I didn't say anything about The Legendary Pink Dots, some of which is sort of Gothic-Folk, but mostly in the lyrics. There is a definate evolution of their music over time. The quality of their Synth and Sampling has improved a lot over time. Their earlier stuff has lots of violin, and at some point their violinist went to Italy and they picked up Niels Van Hoorn who plays the full range of saxaphone, clarinet, and an electronic box with a reed on it. They are one of the best live performers I've seen, and Niels is very impressive, sometimes playing two saxaphones at the same time (and with skill too).
Oh, I might as well say that I would probably recommend all of the music at brainwashed.com and a lot of the sites I linked to have at least partial mp3s.
What next.... How about Invisible Records? I should mention that most of the catalog of Invisible is available on emusic.com. Probably the most famous Invisible project is Pigface. Pigface is the project of Martin Adkins, but people have performed in Pigface are a virtual Who's Who of Industrial music. Their first album was the best, but they are still interesting, and have good live performances. I remember their first album had a sticker on it with "subliminal messages" commanding the reader to steal the CD.
Some of my favorite artists/projects on Invisible are: Chris Connelly, Meg Lee Chin, Dead Voices on Air, Not Breathing, and Test Dept. This is getting kinda long so at this point I'm going to try to be more brief. (And we have comments too after all.)
Deep Listening is the project and record label of Pauline Oliveros. She is one of the pioneers of early electronic music. Her earlier material is more towards electronic noise, while in her more recent projects she plays accordian, but it is hard to tell that that is what you are listening to. They are ambient albums that are great for chilling out to or even going to sleep to, but still very interesting music, and much more listener friendly than the noise. Sanctuary and Crone Music are albums that I would recommend in particular.
And now for something completely different: Alternative Tentacles Records is the record label founded by Jello Biafra of The Dead Kennedys, one of the most notable Punk Rock bands with very clever satire. Unfortunately, Biafra was sued by his own ex-bandmates. The bastards claimed that he had no part in the writing of any of the Dead Kennedys' music and won the complete rights to every single Dead Kennedys' song. Until this changes download DK and wait for Jello to get the copyrights to his own music back. Alternative Tentacles has a lot of politically oriented Punk Rock and some music of other genres like The Beatnigs, members of which later formed The Disposable Heros of HipHoprisy and still later Spearhead, all of whom I would highly recommend.
While I find most rock, including punk rock, boring these days there is another band worth noting: No Means No our friends of the Great White North. Their music is very rhythm oriented and they are one of the best performers I've ever seen. Try to see them if you ever get the chance, even if you don't personally care for punk rock music.
Finally, I would like to talk about Chumbawamba. I'm pretty sure they are now signed to an RIAA Label, but the material from before they were famus is their best. In particular, the albums Anarchy, Shhhhhh! are their best IMnsHO. I also mention them because they put up a lot of mp3s on their official off-shore website, including most of the tracks from their illegal Jesus H Christ album. They are enthusiastically Pro-Mp3 and Pro-P2P, they have good music and they deserve our support even if they are on a major label. At the very least download their free mp3s.
(note: as I write this some of the links are not working. I've been having lots of connection problems so I wonder if there is a big internet problem right now, like viruses taking up all the bandwidth, or emusic.com customers panicking to download as much as possible before October 30. I might fix/add more links later, and would love to discuss stuff in comments.)
Soleilmoon Records? (Score:1)
Re:Soleilmoon Records? (Score:2)
I really have no idea. I don't even know what a Soleil Moon is. I imagine they were both named after the same thing. But I can tell you this: When my sister went to horseback riding camp many years ago Soleil Moon Frye was also a camper and she got aquainted with her. My sister said she was just starting to develop at that time and had a little trouble with um... bouncing up and down. At the time I thought that Punky Brewster was silly, and watched
Another possibility (Score:2)
Re:Another possibility (Score:2)
And yes, I always try to buy direct, especially at live shows. I even bought some Sonic Youth stuff at their show even though it was more expensive than in the
Update on Emusic.com (Score:2)
God is my Co-Pilot (Score:2)
A band that I really meant to talk about in this journal entry is the band God is my Co-Pilot [hise.org] (or GodCo for short). They are a noisey punk rock band from New York. They do a lot of creative stuff and are one of my favorite projects. Their main guitarist has a different way of playing the guitar, it sounds click, reminds me of the way The Minutemen played the guitar. They play a lot of punk versions of folk (Traditional, not 60s) music.
My favorite album is Mir Shlufn Nisht, which has to be