I Miss Johnny Cash
This video makes me feel a little bit better, though. Did you know that Shel Silverstein wrote this song?
My ode to Val’s Day…
One of my favorite songs, from a top 10 album (always) for me…
Lyrics below the fold…
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Fuck American Idol, Stairway to Stardom has real talent!
Stairway to Stardom was some kind of public access show in the 70s and 80s that has less rigorous standards than Star Search, Showtime at The Apollo, or any talent show on television. Youtube has many of their greatest hits. Here are some of my favorites. Go below the fold for more…
I Saw This And Liked It And So I Posted It
In honor of that special something.something moving to Canadia…
The Flashbulb Uploads Latest Album To Torrent Sites
I had mentioned in a previous comment to Big Jar that if he liked Aphex Twin, he should give The Flashbulb’s “Kirlian Selections” a chance… It’s an amazing album that is something I think most people should at least listen to once. Little did I know when I made that comment that The Flashbulb was just about to release his newest album directly to a major torrent site. If you were to “pirate” the latest album by The Flashbulb “Soundtrack To A Vacant Life” from one of the many torrent sites out there, it was most likely uploaded by the artist himself (Benn Jordan). In an html file inside the torrent you will find this message…
Hello listener…downloader…pirate…pseudo-criminal…
If you can read this, then you’ve more than likely downloaded this album from a peer to peer network or torrent.
You probably expect the rest of this message to tell you that you’re hurting musicians and breaking just about every copyright law in the book. Well, it won’t tell you that.
What I would like to tell you is that my record label understands that a large portion of people pirate music because it is easier than buying it. CDs scratch easily, most pay-per-download sites have poor quality and ****ty DRM protection, and vinyl is near impossible to find or ship without hassle.
In many cases I wonder why people buy CDs at all anymore. A few like the tangible artwork, some haven’t adapted to MP3s yet, but most do it because they have a profound love for music and want to support the artists making it. Kind of restores your faith in humanity for a moment eh?So, now what?
Like the album? About to go “support the artist” on iTunes?
Well, don’t.
Alphabasic is currently in a legal battle against Apple because NONE of our material (Sublight Records included) receives a dime of royalty from the vast amount of sales iTunes has generated using our material.Want to buy a CD just to show your support?
If you don’t particularly like CDs, don’t bother.
Retailers like Best Buy and Amazon spike the price so high that their cut is often 8 times higher than the artist’s. Besides, most CDs are made out of unrecyclable plastic and leave a nasty footprint in your environment.If you do particularly like CDs, buy them from the label (in our case, alphabasic.com). After manufacturing costs are recuperated, our artists usually receive over 90% of the actual money coming out of your wallet.
In addition, all of our physical products are made out of 100% recycled material.Want to show your support?
Go here and browse our library of lossless, DRM-free downloads.
Already have that?
Then feel free to donate whatever you want to your favorite artist. 100% will go directly to them.
Hell, you can even donate a penny just to thank the artist.If you really like ‘The Flashbulb - Soundtrack To A Vacant Life’ and want to show your support without it going to greedy retailers, distributors, and coked-up label reps, then click the button below.
[link to http://www.alphabasic.com/index2.htm ]
If you send us your mailing address, Alphabasic may occasionally send you various goodies (overstocks, stickers, even rare CDs) in appreciation and encouragement for your support.
Thanks for reading.
Who knows if my little business plan here will work to fund new releases, but even failure is better than the crappy label/distributor/retailer system musicians have suffered from for over 50 years.
We hope you enjoy the music as much as we do releasing it.
Finally, if you plan on sharing this release, please include this file. The only reason it is here is to show the listener where he can support his favorite artists!Benn Jordan
CEO - Alphabasic Records
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I would highly encourage everyone to find this album, download it, and if you like it, send the man a donation. Perhaps we can all encourage more artists to start supporting a system where a middleman (the RIAA and money grubbing record labels) are not needed.. If you needed a reason to stop buying shitty DRMed/poorly encoded Apple iTunes music, you heard it from Weird Al, now from another artist. DON’T BUY FROM ITUNES. Almost nothing gets to the artist.
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Peace..
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Badass Indian Music Video…
Just David Lee Roth
Not sure of the source on this one. It’s a vocal-only copy of Runnin’ With The Devil by Van Halen, and it’s fucking hilarious. By the crescendo near the end, i’m usually rolling around on the ground laughing. And what’s with the fun-house whistle? Enjoy.
Hyphy: The Next Generation of Hip-Hop
The streets of Oakland have given rise to an emerging hip-hop subculture called hyphy. Wikipedia defines the music as follows:
Hyphy music is distinguished by gritty, pounding rhythms and in this sense can be associated with the Bay Area as crunk music is to the South. An individual is said to “get hyphy” when they act or dance in an overstated, fast paced, and ridiculous manner. Those who consider themselves part of the Hyphy movement would describe this behavior as “getting stupid” or “going dumb.” In contrast to much of popular American culture where these phrases would be considered negative or even insulting, Hyphy is distinguished by taking this kind of behavior as a form of pride.
Cars are also a crucial component of Hyphy culture, as they are in other forms of hip-hop and street culture. Participants will often gather on street corners to show off their vehicles and their prowess behind the wheel (these gatherings are often called “sydeshows”). Activities include street racing, stationary maneuvers such as doughnuts, and “Ghost Riding the Whip.” Ghost riding, the most famous expression of Hyphy culture, occurs when a driver puts his or her car in neutral, opens the doors, and dances on the hood or alongside the car (usually, the driver recruits others to join in on the celebration.) For a more detailed explanation, please refer to the video below:
Here are some examples of ghost riding gone horribly wrong. If you want to ghost ride the whip, you should probably do it at speeds under five miles an hour:
The Hyphy dance style is one of the most distinct and intriguing aspects of the subgenre, as one can see in the video below:
Who runs this woman’s campaign?
I mean come on… This is too easy… Hillary’s official campaign song is “When The Lady Smiles” by Golden Earring from the year 1984…. Never heard of either of those two names or that year? Well, here’s the video for said song… The word “controversial” might come to mind… Let it… . . . Let it simmer…
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In other news, if you have a next-gen system (read not a Wii (even though it really is the most next-gen of all the next-gen systems, but we won’t get into that right now…)) and you aren’t playing “Burnout: Paradise” what in the world is wrong with you… It is graphically stunning, the crashes are the best I’ve ever seen in a video game, and the driving engine is superb… I’m hooked on it right now, despite some of the terrible music in the game… with one large exception… the title song… Can anyone guess it?
