“Gone Faded” from Soft is out now

RadioZoom has played music from Soft a few times, and I keep thinking about how I should toss them into regular rotation on my personal playlists every time I hear them. What can I say? I get lazy with adding new music some times.

“Gone Faded” dropped on October 23rd, and I was able to get some of the new music via their mailing list. I’ll be cranking that into an RZ episode soon (I promise), but check out this promo vid they posted on YouTube. If you want another preview of some Soft goodness, go to this link because that’s the track that will be finding its way onto RadioZoom soon, Rebecca approved.

Matthew Good, “Hospital Music” available now

Today is the day for the official release of Hospital Music, the fourth solo album from Matthew Good, the eleventh, overall release of his nearly fifteen year career as a musician.

The album is available for purchase in music stores all across Canada. In the U.S., you can purchase Hospital Music through iTunes, CDs will be on sale at a late date.

The first single from this album, Born Losers, has been playing on Canadian radio for about a month now. Being that yours truly is working for some radio sations in Vancouver now, I can report that the single has received a lot of spin, not to mention that his show here has been sold out for the last few weeks.

Additionally, Matt has put a call out to fans to develop their own concept for the video to this single. Submissions have been coming in via YouTube, and it’s been impressive to see what people have come up with. The version I have on this post is one of the latest ones, and it’s the one that has impressed me the most so far. Plus this gives you a chance to check out the single for yourself in case you haven’t heard it yet(I’m looking at you, America!).

If you dig that single, you’re going to dig the rest of the album for sure. Dare I say it, there are a lot of musicians that talk about what music is and should be, and for the first time in a long time, this album really feels like Good is walking the walk.

Matthew Good, “Hospital Music” streaming and album release

June 29, 2007: Rebecca is rocking a live blog from a private performance by Matt in Las Vegas. Check it out here.

Matthew Good, last night in his old home (Aug. 2006) Getting the note from his website, Matthew Good is now streaming his entire new album, “Hospital Music”, on his website and on iTunes. You can purchase your own copy on July 31st, but singles and the full record will be available via the iTunes Music Store slightly sooner in the states than the hard copy release.

Additionally, Rebecca has just started her journey to Las Vegas to catch a private performance by Matt. I just saw her off on the first leg, and she will be live blogging the whole event in a bit of a whirlwind tour. A very nice follow up to her first live blogging adventure, all because of the same guy.

It would be poor of me to not mention this new album, and I should really have posted more about this than I have. In fact, I’ve talked about it more on RadioZoom, but that’s a different sphere altogether than my blogging efforts.

A lot of Vancouver is synonymous with Matt for me. He was the first rock show I saw here, and I got to meet him for the first time in August of 2006 at the little show he gave for a select group of fans on the last night he lived on the cusp of the west end. We’ve hung out since then, he’s chastised our preference of wine, and we come to a lot of the same conclusions on political issues. The only thing on that last point is that he is generally much smarter than me. I know the overall concept that fuels my opinion, but the guy is so, incredibly informed that I can only nod my head in agreement.

Matthew Good, November 2005 at the Commodore BallroomI reviewed “Beautiful Midnight” during my days at KRUI, picking that album out of the pile for the only reason that I had a fascination with the Canadian music scene that was a completely different world than the mainstream of America. That was my introduction, and Rebecca taught me a lot more. I’m still getting more and more familiar with his library every single time it comes up in my library.

On this new album, however, I was actually there when parts of it were being made. I’ve even been able to sit through a private listening of it while Benji fell asleep on Rebecca’s lap. Every single time, there is something that amazes me, and I haven’t had that feeling about an album for a long time. Call it what you will, but listening to the stream of it right now, I know what it is that I’m talking about. That’s all that really matters.

I want to do some sort of music review of this album. The sad fact is, one, I’m not very good at those sorts of things. Second, I hate music reviews. I like what I like based on a matter of personal preference, and you should, too. I will say, however, brilliant. That’s the only word I can think of while I listen to this.

The clever marketing of Nine Inch Nails

Let’s really date myself, ok? I was talking just yesterday with Rebecca that I was one of “those kids” in high school. One of those folks who would sketch the Nine Inch Nails logo in my notebook as study hall would tick along. Was I a social outcast in the midst of a goth phase during my adolescence years? Nope. I just dug the tunes, and that hasn’t changed a whole lot today, minus the notebook doodles.

Nine Inch NailsWhen I think about it now, my mind starts to contemplate the marketing genius that Trent Reznor[wiki] conjured up when he formed this music project, and this is outside of the realms of creating music. He’s not afraid to say that the reason that he created the whole “NIN” branding is because it is just that. Instead of needing a name for recognition, he has garnered a symbol.

Of course he’s not the only guy to do this. Off the top of my head, Prince did the same thing. It was a little later in his career that this happened, but that squiggly, male/female thing will be forever branded with him and his fans. Other bands do this from time to time, mostly as a branding for their album. I’m sure that someone else can chime is with examples of both of these methods.

I have to extend a little more credit to what Trent Reznor is doing right now. Some would call him washed up, but say what you will. Every time I hear something new, I have the thought in my head that I used to listen to that when I was 16 and that seems soooo 1995 now. Then, I find that I actually like it. Am I afraid to admit that? Not really, and there are so many other things that I listen to that would probably throw you for a loop, not to mention if you even heard of them before. So, whatever.

Anyhow, it was this piece of news that prompted me to say anything about our conversation from yesterday.

Nine Inch Nails, who are proving themselves one of the most daring and forward-looking artists on a major label today, have released three tracks from their brand new album, Year Zero via BiTorrent, and more astoundingly, have done so via the controversial giant BitTorrent site, The Pirate Bay.

The Pirate Bay, a wildly popular BitTorrent site, has earned the scorn and more than one lawsuit from law enforcement worldwide, but has proven to be astoundingly successful. The planned leaking of music by a major label artist on a site which exists in – at best – a legal grey area is truly remarkable. In this case, Nine Inch Nails released full multi-track versions of three songs from the album for users to remix or listen to at extremely high sound quality. They are promising that the entire album will be available over the next few weeks. [punknews]

I like forward thinking, plain and simple. This also makes me more than likely to get my hands on a free copy of this new album. You can argue if that’s wrong, but if I tell you where you can download this as well, and then you like it, what’s the chances that you’ll check out more of their stuff or go to a show? Take that concept away from Nine Inch Nails and apply it to someone else that you are a fan of.

This is close to where I would like to see the music industry go, but there has to be some certainty to the formula. Harvey Danger has tried this, but I can’t be sure about it’s success. Their website is still up, so that’s a good sign.

Truly free music

Steve Jobs[wiki] has posed an open letter that calls for the end of DRM by the music industry. Crazy idea? No. Crazy to be hearing from Steve Jobs? Perhaps a little, but that’s because we’ve been subjected to DRM[wiki] controlled music being sold by Apple since iTunes first came about.

It’s that stuff that prevents you from copying a purchased song file a certain amount of times. For those who download their music illegally, this isn’t a problem, and that’s why they do it. You can copy and move that MP3 where you damn well please. If you are going to be restricted by buying the copyrighted version of what you can already get for free, you’re not going back once you’ve tasted the sweet, sweet candy.

On top of that news today, I find it incredibly fascinating that Ozzfest has made the following announcement.

That’s right, OZZY and SHARON OSBOURNE and tour producer LIVE NATION broke the news today at the Concert Industry Consortium in Los Angeles that their 12th annual hard rock spectacular–a 25-date extravaganza launching July 7 in Los Angeles–is pulling the plug on ticket prices and giving the power back to the fans calling this summer’s OZZFEST “FreeFest.” The other OZZFEST cities as of now are San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, St Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Hartford, Charlotte, Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Nashville. Note: a final confirmed list of cities and dates is forthcoming. [ozzfest]

That’s right, this sucker is going to be free. I’m not a huge fan of the Ozzfest, but this is pretty substantial. If you can get there, you get in for nothing. Actually, I see this being like one huge commercial all over the place with music intertwined, not to mention a ton of metal-heads. The food, water, booze, and merchandise will probably still be overpriced, but if you can survive without it, you get in for free? Great concept, but I feel like there is a catch in there somewhere. Very forward thinking though.

I like the idea of a trend starting. DRM-free music and free concert festivals. It’s not the light at the end of the tunnel just yet, but something is stirring.

T(I)NC to release a live jazz album

Are you as puzzled over reading that as I am? A politically-outspoken rock band fusing its material with the sounds of jazz? Have faith because I think that if anyone can pull it off, The (International) Noise Conspiracy are the ones to do it.

Alternative Tentacles has announced the release of Live at Oslo Jazz Festival, a special live recording featuring The (International) Noise Conspiracy in collaboration with noted jazz musicians Jonas Kullhammar and Sven-Erik Dahlberg.

The album was previously available only through Swedish jazz imprint Moserobie and includes tracks from Survival Sickness and A New Morning Changing Weather. The label describes the tracks as ” retaining the T(I)NC-ness of the original material” but with more dreamy arrangements. […]

The record is due out March 13, 2007. The band released their last studio record, Armed Love in North America in 2005. [punknews.org]

IMG_7768 It’s not that I think this is a bad idea at all. I am all for artists taking a chance to explore what else they can do musically, but this is insane. And I mean that in the completely good sense of the word. I’ve seen T(I)NC twice now, and the thought of setting their music to a complete jazz arrangement is enthralling.

Anyone who is familiar with their music wouldn’t be overly surprised. Sure, the whole band has punk and hardcore roots from the Swedish scene, but every album has had hints of a jazz influence. From the rhythms on the drums to the full out saxophone solo in the middle of a track, I can’t say that this is too far off the radar. Now I just want to get my hands on it. More so, this is a tour I wouldn’t mind seeing for myself, but I’m not sure North America would be up for it.