One time guitar-pop favourites Hot Hot Heat are set to release their third record on September 10th. Titled Happiness LTD, the album was written while the band toured the world in support of their previous album, 2005’s Elevator.
North Carolina’s Sanctity have announced their first ever headline tour of the UK. Arriving in late October, the thrashers will be fresh from touring with Machine Head in the US, and look set to capitalise on the success of their previous UK tour with Trivium.
Led Zeppelin legend Robert Plant has collaborated with bluegrass star Alison Krauss to release an album titled Raising Sand. Due for release in October, the record will comprise blues, R&B, country and folk songs originally recorded by the likes of Tom Waits, Gene Clark, Little Milton Campbell, Mel Tillis, Townes Van Zandt, Doc Watson, and Phil and Don Everly.
Bristol’s Fortune Drive have joined forces with gHOSTBOY, the graffiti artist widely hailed as the next Banksy, for the cover art of their debut album, A Modern Question. One of the new wave of guitar bands coming out of Bristol, Fortune Drive is fronted by Bobby Anderson, son of Carleen Anderson of the Brand New Heavies. He also had the distinction of being given his first guitar by none other than Paul Weller.
Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser is set to visit the Guitar Institute in Kilburn later this month to give students an exclusive clinic as part of the school’s Metal Hammer Weekender, described as “the ultimate metal workout, building up the skills needed to tackle the most demanding elements of this style.”
The recent decision of New Order and Joy Division bassist Peter Hook to use a live radio show as a platform for announcing the demise of New Order continues to ripple through the music industry. While Hooky was adamant that the band was finished, his band-mates, singer Bernard Sumner and drummer Stephen Morris, declared that they had no idea what he was talking about.
You might have thought that the launch of iTunes, seven years ago, might have seen off the big ‘downloading is killing music’ debate, but no. The papers are still full of it. Recently it’s formed the background to the troubles of EMI. The new regime at the record label might be good, might be bad – quite frankly I can’t tell from the press coverage whether Guy Hands and Terra Firma, the private equity company that now owns EMI, are a new broom sweeping clean or a wrecking crew intent on demolition – but the subtext to most of the coverage is that were it not for downloading, not of this need have happened.
If the argument were simply that illegal file sharing is wrong, the majors and the press commentators might truly be on terra firma. No-one can rely justify denying copyright holders a reasonable reward for their labours, and that applies not only to writers and performers but equally to the agents, managers, promoters, producers – yes, and the record companies and publishers – who are involved in getting the ‘product’ to market. But downloading per se? There they’re on shaky ground. Surely downloading is just an alternative delivery method?
What has actually happened and what really pisses the record companies off is that the ‘package’ that came in with the hi-fidelity LP has reached the end of its shelf life. It had a good innings, but even back in its pre-CD heyday people were fed up with being short changed. How many albums have even a majority of great tracks? Most have a handful of good cuts and a bunch of makeweights.
Unsurprisingly, as soon as the public was given real choice it elected to pick out (and pay for) the nuggets and leave the dross. The real loser in this whole game is the major labels’ business model, which is in reality little more than an invitation to pay over the odds for the jewel case and minimal sleeve information that a CD comes with.
But the success of iPods and mp3 players isn’t the best demonstration of how downloading has failed to kill music. ‘Music’ doesn’t only apply to records. The live scene is vibrant – because it offers something you can’t replicate. It isn’t even just the ‘I was there’ moments that those lucky enough to get tickets for Led Zeppelin’s O2 gig can dine out on – every live gig offers the possibility of a unique atmosphere and real musical excitement.
Which, I guess, is what hooked you on wanting to play music, and is part of the reason you’re on this site reading this blog. And if you’re a subscriber, you’ll know that the Lick Library package, unlike the moribund ‘buy these three great tracks and get a pile of dross free’ CD model, gives you unlimited access to pure nuggets. And of course, the supreme irony is that the downloads available on this site will go a long way to helping you to play your part in keeping music both live and alive.
