Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Nerd News in Brief

After taking a couple of days off to recover from the ridiculous amount of time and effort it took to bring the Nerdcore Top 10 to fruition, I am back at 100%.

Okay, truthfully I'm never at 100%. My optimal function is 45%. Maybe 50%.

But that is neither here nor there; the important thing is that I'm back with the Nerd News in Brief.

  • The best part of waking up: Beefy has secretly replaced the coffee his fans usually drink with rich tasting Folgers Crystals… Maybe he didn't, but he did replace the regular array of studio tracks in his MySpace player with a collection of 5 live cuts from his gig at El Corazon. Check ‘em out.
  • And my man Queequeg: The poor, unfortunate bastards amongst you who (like me) missed the first leg of the MC Lars/MC Frontalot tour should rejoice, for the fine folks at Live105 recorded a few videos from the recent Cafe Du Nord show in San Fran. Check out MC Lars performing “White Kids Aren't Hyphy” and “Ahab.” Lars also requests that you continue to take a crack at remixing the former over at jamglue.com for a chance to win prizes. Sweet, glorious prizes!
  • With that in mind: Church has done some recent digging on the subject of collaborative music sites, and came across this Wired article. It's contains a pretty nice primer and tons of links.
  • The man never sleeps!: Church also hipped me to the 215 free Wu-Tang tracks available for download from Wu-Tang Corp. Bitrates vary, but the mixtape material alone is definitely worth a listen. Bring th' muthafuckin' ruckus!
  • Everything Gets the Kick: The Tenth and final episode of Internet sensation The New Adventures of Captain S is scheduled for release on May 11th. In the meantime, why not check out all the madness that has occurred thus far? You might even learn a little something.
  • Guess who's back?: At long last, Ultraklystron has his Web site back in operation! After… well… a damn long time, karlrolson.com is once again online. Why not head over and check out some samples from Karl's Romance Language release? That question was rhetorical.
  • In case you missed it: Enerbrat, that connoisseur of fine mixtapes, recently turned the community on to the Motherboard E-Compilation. There's no viable reason not to download this.
  • Somehow I missed it: In semi-related news, how did I not know there was a Halifax hip hop crew called Alpha Flight ? I bow my head in shame. I stand ignorant in the faces of Jesse Dangerously and Snowbird.
  • A Fire Sale, of sorts: Year 200x are drastically cutting prices on a fine selection of band merchandise. This sale is CRAAAAAAAAAAAA-ZY, but will it be crazy enough to finance their trip to Pennsylvania for Video Armageddon 3? I sure as shit hope so. Right now you can score a Mega Man T-shirt for $10 (includes shipping), and with that purchase you get a free sticker and a free copy of their demo CD.
  • The SoundExchange and the Fury: I'm sure by now you've heard this, but it bears repeating: Internet radio is currently facing an astronomical hike in royalty fees. On May 15 th , the Copyright Royalty Board will change the basis of royalty rates from a percentage of revenue to a per-song, per-listener fee that is estimated to force up expenditures between 300 and 1200 percent! As a result, many Internet radio stations will cease operation. This isn't simply a blow for Internet radio, but also to the scores of independent artists who use this mechanism to reach new fans. Seems unfair, huh? Well, call your congressman. Write a letter. Make some noise.
  • And lastly: All this “09 F9” stuff has gotten totally fuckin' crazy! I'm completely cereal.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. Yesterday was insane. Following the geek-back to the AACS' inexplicably sudden flury of DMCA takedown notices was weirdly intoxicating. At least for me. Everyone else tended to look at me like I had three heads. I guess spouting industry acronyms and hexidecimal pairs isn't the way to impress anyone.

Wasn't there something about a law to pre-empt the Royalty Board's punitive fee hike? Is that still in play?

I gave Captain S a try a while back, but it didn't take. I'll have to give it another go. Is there a reference that I'm missing, perhaps?

Unknown said...

Dude, how could you miss IllGill's numerical masterpiece?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZG4vRjin80

And for people wanting more from the Front/Lars/OR tour, nwnerdcore.com is putting up more videos from it every day.

NOW LET US ALL DESPAIR IN THE END OF DC 52!!

Z. said...

I actually appreciated your play-by-play, Church. It’s been a busy last couple o’ weeks, and I was still going full-tilt when all that shit went down. I think you’re talking about the Internet Radio Equality Act. I’m not sure what the status of that bill is.

Love that Gill track! And I’ll keep checking out NWNC for more of those Lars/Front vids.

Church said...

mc, that's great! He just should have tagged it with the number.

OT: Hey, look! I've got a google/blogger thingy.

Geof said...

You know, this whole Internet radio thing is representative of pretty much the only thing about America I genuinely despise.

"Oh shit, people are having fun on the Internet and we can't make money off this! Let's legislatively assrape them! Never mind that an overwhelming majority of the Internet isn't even in our territory, and large swathes aren't even from our hemisphere, let's ruin their shit too!"

Fuck America for ruining my fun when I can't even have any say in the proceedings. It's times like this I hate being an English-speaking foreigner inside the tubes.

Z. said...

I feel you, Geof. I reckon you, of all people, are in need of the kind of free, English-language entertainment that things like Net radio and podcasts provide.