Indymedia Gets Servers Back

As a follow-up to the seizure of Indymedia’s servers by the FBI:

Inital victory- FBI return seized servers

Mayler, 13.10.2004 18:26

 http://www.ucimc.org/feature/display/20923/index.php

Global Indymedia Servers Returned After Indymedia Goes to Court!

by Sascha Meinrath

Email: sascha (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified!) 13 Oct 2004

In a huge initial victory for Indymedia, the two servers recently seized by the FBI were returned this morning to Rackspace (the hosting service where the servers were first taken from). Indymedia is now weighing additional legal options after this illegal seizure of its servers.

Content from  http://jebba.blagblagblag.org/

***

From Rackspace:

I know that you have gone through more than I can possibly understand. I was just told that the court order is being complied with and your servers in London will be online at 5pm GMT.

I will pass along anymore information that becomes available and that I am allowed to.

Again, I do not have the words to understand nor express the feelings and emotions you have endured since this began.

Regards,

Jason Carter

Business Development Consultant

jcarter (at) rackspace.com

****

From Jeff:

I also spoke to rackspace (Jacques) on the phone waaaaay too early this morning. ;)

So rackpace is ready to power the boxes up now. We are in a brief holding pattern before we have them flip the switch. We will treat the boxes as compromised (cracked/hacked) servers.

It is believed that the original data is on the drive, but we haven’t been able to verify this yet. That is a loooooooooooooooooooooong process.

Rackspace did say that the drives were the originals (so the gov’t probably cloned them).

This reeks of classic intimidation tactics from the US government. Seize someone’s servers, with no reason given, no proper channels being followed just to see how long you can get away with it. Then buckle as soon as an official legal challenge is made.

It’s all a bit too mysterious, isn’t it?

Still, we must bow down and do EVERYTHING the US government and its rogue agencies like the FBI and CIA demand. If we don’t, the evil terrorists out there might… er… take away our democracy and freedom of speech?

Yes.

Bless Playlist 11/10/2004

Coheed And Cambria – A Favor House Atlantic
Jedi Mind Tricks – Walk With Me
Atom – He110
The Lucksmiths – Camera-Shy
Cougars – Flatbush
Mos Def, Diverse, Prefuse 73 – Wylin Out (RJD2 Remix)
Ove-Naxx – Wabisabi Violence
Pretty Girls Make Graves – Speakers Push The Air
Pizzicato Five – Twiggy Twiggy
The GC5 – White Flag
Jurassic 5 – The Influence
Cosigner – Sorry
Computor Rockers – Galaxy Defenders
Lynn Taitt & The Comets – Storm Waming
Minus The Bear – Spritz!!! Spritz!!!
De La Soul – Eye Know [The Know It All Mix]
At The Drive In – Rolodex Propoganda
Squarepusher – My Red Hot Car
Plans And Apologies – Eggbound Mutebone
Masta Ace – Conflict Ft. Guru
Eight Miles High – Latein
Maritime – Some One Has To Die
I’m Not A Gun – Champion
Blues Explosion – Damage
The Roots – Don’t Say Nuthin’
Hecate – Ripe Mango
Deerhoof – Milkman
The Guild League – Jet Set … Go!
Toog – Le Judgement
Boards Of Canada – Telephasic Workshop
Jon Brion – Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotle
Sleater Kinney – The Drama You’ve Been Craving
Stephen Malkmus – The Hook
Hangar 18 – Rumors Of War
Hot Snakes – Kreative Kontrol
Boz Scaggs – What Can I Say
Dresden Dolls – Girl Anachronism
Dub Tractor – E47
A Tribe Called Quest – Excursions
The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
Say Hi To Your Mom – The Showdown In Goattown
The Plastic Constellations – East Cleveland
Consonant – Blissful
Jose Gonzalez – Lovestain
Neutral Milk Hotel – The King Of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1

FBI Kills Free Speech

On Thursday morning, US authorities issued a federal order to Rackspace ordering them to hand over Indymedia web servers to the requesting agency. Rackspace, which provides hosting services for more that 20 Indymedia sites at its London facility, complied and turned over the requested servers, effectively removing those sites from the internet.

Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia, the reasons for this action are still unknown to Indymedia. Talking to Indymedia volunteers, Rackspace stated that “they cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order.” ISPs have received gag orders in similar situations which prevent them from updating the concerned parties on what is happening.

It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that is outside the US jurisdiction can be seized by US authorities.
(Source and full story: UK Indymedia)

This is another sinister development in the way that Bush’s “War On Terror” is becoming a “war on anyone who dares to oppose me.” How is it possible for the bloody FBI to start censoring media across the world, without having to declare any specific reason or go through the due legal process in each country?

And if you’re reading this thinking, “Maybe there was some terrorist connection, maybe it’s only right those servers were seized?” then the fascist mindset Bush and Blair are promoting has taken root in your mind and they’ve won.

We have the right to free speech. We have the right to criticise anything we want. Why do we have those rights? Because ordinary people fought and died for those freedoms in many wars. Those rights weren’t handed down as benevolent gifts from the high tables of Kings, Queens and Fuhrers, we fought for them against every flavour of tyranny imaginable. Now those same rights are being whittled away in the phony war on terrorism and if anyone dares ask why, they’re labelled a supporter of terrorism. Much as anyone who dared to criticise Stalin’s regime was labelled ‘counter-revolutionary’ and conveniently disappeared by agents of his secret police. FBI = KGB.

This attack on our sovereignty and free press is yet another reason to march next Sunday in London. Against Bush, against Blair, for peace and for our rights.

Team America – world police?

Political Spam

The below turned up in my inbox a few minutes ago, allegedly from President Bush. Obviously a fake since it’s far too grammatically correct. This is the first political spam I’ve ever got. It makes a nice change from simultaneous offers to increase both my breast and penis size but it’s still spam.

By the way, I have no idea how much of the following is truth or lies: take it all with a huge skipload of salt. Some of the statements are obviously true but that doesn’t mean all of them are.

I’d also add that while it’s all very well to laugh at Bush and protest about US foreign policy, it’s a waste of time and resources if you’re British. Let the American people handle Bush and the PNAC Nazis. We’ve got our own monsters to deal with.

PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN 2004

GEORGE W. BUSH
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20520

EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

Law Enforcement:
I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pleaded guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver’s license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been “lost” and is not available.

Military:
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.

College:
I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.

I began my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas in 1975.
I bought an oil company, but couldn’t find any oil in Texas.
The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.

With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS:

I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America.

I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida, and my father’s appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:

I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of *over one billion dollars per week*.

I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.

In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.

I’m proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My “poorest millionaire,” Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

I set the record for most campaign fundraising trips by a U.S. President.

I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

One of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History, Enron.

My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.

I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history.

I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.

I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.

I’ve broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspector’s access to U.S. “prisoners of war” detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).

I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.

I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.

I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, preemptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community. I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families — in wartime.

In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.

I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.

I am supporting development of a nuclear “Tactical Bunker Buster,” a WMD.

I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.

During the Iraq War and Occupation thousands of American troops were injured and killed. I did not have the time to attend any of the funerals for our fallen soldiers but I did have the time to attend more than 43 fundraising events of the Republican party.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father’s library, sealed and unavailable for public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

Ministers “Sorry” For Mass Murder

Now we finally know what we had long suspected. When US and British forces invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein had no chemical weapons; he had no biological weapons; he had no nuclear weapons. In fact, he had no banned weapons at all. That is the considered judgement of the Iraq Survey Group, set up by President Bush to prove his case for removing the Iraqi dictator, and released in Washington last night.

The ISG report proves precisely the opposite. The much-maligned international regime of weapons containment had functioned exactly as it was supposed to. After his failed effort to annex Kuwait, Saddam Hussein was progressively disarmed.
(Source:The Independent)

Given the above, just how much sense does what’s below make?

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt has apologised for the use of inaccurate intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq.

Appearing on BBC One’s Question Time, Ms Hewitt said she was speaking on behalf of the entire Cabinet.

“All of us who were involved in making an incredibly difficult decision are very sorry and do apologise for the fact that that information was wrong.”

But she added: “I don’t think we were wrong to go in.”
(Source: BBC News)

So, they weren’t wrong to produce this? :

1

or this? :

ali

Remember this? :

Hanan MatrudHanan Matrud

The Army has paid out £390 to the family of an eight-year-old Iraqi girl who was killed after being hit by a bullet fired by a British soldier, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Hanan Saleh Matrud died in an alleyway near her home in northern Basra after a British soldier with the King’s Regiment opened fire nearby. The ricocheting bullet left a deep wound across her stomach, and she later died in hospital.

The soldiers claim they fired a warning shot in the air after being targeted by “heavy stone-throwing” by mobs. Local eyewitnesses dispute the claim, and allege that only children were in the streets.

(Source: The Independent)

I don’t know if Hewitt has children herself but how would she feel if, say, North Korea invaded Britain on some phony pretext, shot her eight-year-old and then didn’t even apologise or acknowledge any evil on their part? Would she be smiling at her North Korean liberators or would she be out in the streets, lobbing as many missiles and bombs at the hated occupiers as a mother could lift? This may sound like an insane scenario on my part but what the US and UK are now claiming is that they have the right to pre-emptively attack anyone they feel may be a threat. Blair now doesn’t even care that there were no WMDs, just as long as Hussein may have been planning to build some in some future. He feels that gives him the right to bomb civilian areas flat, massacreing tens of thousands.

So… if it’s okay for the US and UK to carry out that kind of attack, why can’t North Korea invade China or India or even Britain on the grounds that those countries possess nuclear weapons?

Let’s put this in an everyday context, shall we?

I’m walking along Sadler Gate in Derby. I see a bloke, he’s looks a bit shifty, I’ve seen him hit some people in fights outside nightclubs. Actually, it wasn’t him, it was a mate of his. But they’re all the same, aren’t they? So, I pull out a knife and gouge his eyes out. Then I disembowel him. As I’m pulling his wriggling, steaming intestines out of his body, I’m also nicking his wallet cos I know he always carries loads of cash and I fancy buying some stuff.

All the while I’m cutting up his guts, I’m shouting, “STOP THREATENING ME! STOP THREATENING ME! YOU’RE EITHER WITH ME OR YOU’RE AGAINST ME! THIS IS A WAR ON SHIFTY LOOKING BLOKES!” He dies quite horribly and I praise myself for my civilised liberation of his guts and award myself several high honours and a pay rise.

When the police come, I say it was self defence, on the grounds that I’d heard he had a knife and didn’t like Asians. The cops tell me he had no knife. I reply, “Ahhh, but he was planning to buy one in the future. So I haven’t done anything wrong, I totally stand by my actions. Yes, the rumours I’d heard about him having a knife were wrong but would you rather I let him live?”

Just how fucking evil can our government get before our press exposes them for the monsters they are? Child killers, mass murderers, enthusiastic supporters of cluster bombs, the gift that keeps on killing long after a war is over.

These are the people in charge of Britain now. Men and women who took part in the illegal invasion of a non-aggressor nation, a war crime.

The New Labour leadership are pure scum, human filth. They all deserve nothing less than 10,000 life sentences each, as a small reminder of the lives they have taken.

But I guess since they wear nice suits and smile pleasantly for their tame TV media, they’ll get away with it.

==================

I just got this email in response to the above rant:

Jyoti,
I just read over your commentary on “Ministers ‘Sorry’ For Mass Murder” and I could not agree [more] with your explanation and the way you put it into perspective. It’s like I have stated on various occasions.

Although I can honestly say I love my country and it’s people, I can not speak the same for the people running it. First of all you will never see a minority who had a C average in school even managing a liquor store but the anglo student with a C average just happens to be running the country. I have absolutely no respect for our president and his decisions have done nothing but dig us deeper and deeper into a hole since he took office.

It was no surprise to me that there were no weapons of mass destruction. The only real weapons of mass destruction I have always believed to be the lies used to lure the support of people. Since taking office Bush cut education funding to levels that are pretty much historically low yet he vowed no child will be left behind in his address to educational issues.

What angers me the most is that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and numerous other members of his cabinet have all pledged to be part of a Project For A New American Century. Now in case you are not aware among it’s core goals states that USA should fight and win decisively win MULTIPLE SIMULTANEOUS major theatre wars.

(What kind of a new century are they going for?)

All I could think of is how long before this man decides he wants congress to back a plan for genocide. He seems to be going toward that direction. His politics and MANY other countries involved in this are just ridiculous. And what is worst after all the people who lost their lives in this war which should not have happened, President Bush has not attended the funeral of a single U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. Yet he staged a thanksgiving visit to the troops who by the way the ones shown in the video were preselcted based on their affiliation with the republican party at approximately a little after 2am and just arrived took pictures carved a FAKE turkey and then hopping on a plane back to the US.

oh the man just irritates me. Because of his decisions we are barely now getting support back from the UN where at one point we only had two allies after he chose to go against recommendation and launch a war based on little more than, well nothing really.

well anyways I just wanted to let you know that I read your statement and the way you put it in perspective and I am completely 100% agreeing with you. It’s all about politics. It’s sad.
Joalby Phoenix

I posted this email because I want to reinforce: Bush is not America. He may pretend to be but there are millions upon millions of peace-loving Americans who are horrified by the actions of their government and every day they protest and organise against it. They are far braver to do this in the current right-wing, gung-ho US climate than we are in Europe.

In the UK, I’ve often seen antiwar feeling slide into racist anti-Americanism which I detest. The conflicts of the world aren’t about races or even religions, they’re about leaders manipulating their populations with fear and terror. Terrorism in a literal sense. Ordinary people, whether they’re American or Iraqi, Irish or British, Palestinian or Israeli don’t want bloodshed. They want to live in peace with their neighbours. But powermongers know that by inflaming divisions, they can rule with fear. Just look at India pre-British rule and the amount of Muslim versus Hindu friction compared to when the Brits had stirred it all up pre-partition. It serves the interests of Blair and his war criminal cohorts for UK antiwar activists to become anti-American. If we act like morons and blame the Iraq invasion purely on Bush or “the USA” then that lets Butcher Blair off the hook very nicely.

Finally, since when did Bush own America? Since when is there only one way of being an American? In a country as racially, culturally and politically diverse as the USA, are we to believe that unless you agree with this PNAC puppet, you aren’t a true American?

Internationalism, not nationalism.

What You Should Be Doing Sunday Week

“For Ken’s sake and for the sake of everyone in Iraq I ask you to make your feelings known to our government, to protest and to join the demonstration on 17 October. The more people raise their voices, the safer we will all be.”

- Paul Bigley, brother of British hostage Ken Bigley.

Yes

Full details at Stop The War

Bless Playlist 4/10/2004


De La Soul – I’m not worthy to kiss the hem of their garments

Tonight’s top new tune was De La Soul’s ‘He Comes’ which is taken from their stonkin’ brand new album The Grind Date (released today!). What can I say about De La Soul? From first hearing their stuff in 1988/89, I was hooked. I remember getting the 12″ of ‘Eye Know’ and marvelling at the sample layering, Otis Redding over Steely Dan over this, over that. It’s the sheer musicality of De La’s juxtapositions an re-contexutalisations that makes them one of the best hip hop groups ever but also one of the best pop groups of the last twenty years. They never fail to deliver, every album contains new gems, whether it’s the happy-clappy ‘Saturday’ or the sombrely beautiful ‘Breakadawn’ up to this year’s ‘He Comes.’ Fucking geniuses!

Tonight’s top old tune was The Go-Betweens’ ‘Streets Of Your Town.’ I deliberately played this sublime indiepop classic after Belle and Sebastian because The Go Betweens invented and stretched some of the classic indie pop forms that people take for granted now. The opening summery chords were recently sampled by some crappy dance track. But they missed the point: as much as De La Soul, The Go Betweens always presented puzzles of juxtaposition and context. Listen to the song and then sing along with it and you’ll see what I mean. They’re hardly your run-of-the-mill schmindie lyrics.

An amazing, startling band, sadly widely unknown unless it’s by old indie trainspotters like me.

Watch the butcher shine his knives:

Marked Men – No Time
Like A Tim – Dolly Dots
One Man Army F. Majestik Legend – Behind The Music
Spoon – The Fitted Shirt
Tomahawk – God Hates A Coward
The Guild League – Jet Set … Go!
Locust – Saturated Love
Louis Logic – Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Neutral Milk Hotel – Holland, 1945
The Plastic Constellations – East Cleveland
Ove-Naxx – Wabisabi Violence
Tears For Fears – Head Over Heels
Lamb Of God – Purified
Penguin Cafe Orchestra – The Ecstasy Of Dancing Fleas
The Lucksmiths – Camera-Shy
Masta Ace – Conflict Ft. Guru
Erast Aka Nikakoi – Q4
John Carpenter – Halloween Theme
Slayer – Raining Blood
Architecture In Helsinki – The Owls Go
Plans And Apologies – Eggbound Mutebone
Atom – He110
De La Soul – He Comes Ft. Ghostface
Until The End – As Friends Fall
Belle And Sebastian – It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career
Go-Betweens – Streets Of Your Town
Sleater Kinney – Off With Your Head
Postal Service – Against All Odds
Shitmat – B & B
Le Tigre – Let’s Run
Of Montreal – My British Tour Diary
Red Animal War – Violet
Balkanto Vero – Balkanto Vero
Modest Mouse – Worms Vs. Birds
Depeche Mode – New Life
Push Button Objects – Fly
These Arms Are Snakes – Big News
Blossom Dearie – I Like London In The Rain
Anthony Rother – Freaks
The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
Maritime – We’ve Got To Get Out
DJ Format – We Know Something
SLF – Suspect Device
David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto – Bamboo Houses

The Song Not The Singer


Dave = good and skint

Yesterday, I had my mate Dave round from the jazz-prog ensemble Plans and Apologies. As he had a bit of spare time, I bunged him into my studio and we recorded one of his acoustic songs, ‘Powercut.’ The whole process, to finished CDR, took around 70 minutes. I listened to the track today and it sounds better than about 95% of the stuff in the charts, both in terms of songwriting and recording.

Now, I know recording an acoustic track is relatively uncomplicated compared to an entire band. I know that as the number of musicians involved increases, the time taken to record them also increases hugely (if you’re dealing with P and A, exponentially). I’ve recorded rock bands on four track, eight track and multitrack DAW systems. Even if they’re all sober and not fucked on drugs, it can be a hellishly intimate process. Getting the performances, getting the one great take down onto tape/disk. Dealing with the relationship between the inevitably tortured and misunderstood songwriter(s) and non-writing members. All that is why I don’t record bands commercially any more. Plus I think all musicians are cunts, myself included.

But…

Sometimes I hear something new and the shiteness of modern music slaps me in the face. I feel that recorded music has never had as high technical standards and as low musical worth. It sometimes seems that half the population is on some kind of music tech or recording course, all learning how to do a job that they’ll most probably never hold, since the number of pro studios is shrinking all the time. Having seen what’s taught on some of these courses, the content seems to be a primer in turd polishing. They’re forgetting the golden rule: garbage in, garbage out.

Everybody’s obsessed with the tech specs, with 24bit, 192KHz, pristine signal chains. With the newest, most esoteric synths, plugins, and gaudiest rack candy. Or they’ve become retro-snobs and won’t even look at a piece of gear unless it glows and crackles like a nuclear toaster when you switch it on. Two sides of the same coin, the fetishisation of the recording process. Song? What’s a song?


Mariah = bad and fucking loaded

Then there’s the other devil, the dark side that swallows so many promising musicians. No, not drugs but the evil that is wankery. By which I mean totally soulless technical proficiency. If you want an example, just listen to any modern pop/r’n'b song in the charts. The singer won’t convey any real emotion, they’ll just warble up and down, showing off their ability to hit a series of pointless, emotionless notes. It’s the vocal equivalent of guitar fingertapping. Only poor artists cover up their lack of soul with flashy pyrotechnics. More to the point, I can easily program a sequencer to replicate fingertapping or autotune to replicate hyper-warbling. I can’t program a computer to play like Charlie or sing like Stevie.

You see, I’m not making some Tony Wilson-type argument that all musical technical ability is evil. I just believe that technique is there to serve an artist in their communication with the audience, not as an end in itself. Anything that doesn’t help a musician connect more effectively is a complete waste of time. And it smells of wee.

But open your ears and you’ll hear many records where the singer can sing in tune, in time and remember all the words. In fact, they can cover more octaves than the average bat. It’s all impeccably recorded and produced, they’ve spent hundreds of thousands on promotion and marketing and… and there’s nothing. No emotional resonance, no connection, none of the joy/sorrow that real music produces in the listener in that magical way.


Athletic Mic League = ace and not millionaires

Every week I spend hours downloading new music, scouring the net for songs that hit me and hurt me. They’re out there, the real artists, people like Athletic Mic League, The Dresden Dolls, Huoratron, Say Hi To Your Mom… well, I could go on and on. If you want more of an idea, look at my DJing pages.

It’s no surprise to me that a lot of those artists are on tiny labels, sometimes self-funded. With limited resources and limited equipment they make the most vibrant, powerful music around now, whether it’s hip hop or alt rock. Yeah, and some of them sing a wee bit out of tune at times. I don’t think Eric from Say Hi To Your Mom would be offended by me saying he isn’t technically as good a singer as Mariah Carey or Celine Dion. But I’d swap every record ever made by those hyper-hyped fake-soul divas just for one of his weary, Cohen-esque groans.

Emotion is everything. Emotion is the core of all great music, whatever genre. Not technique, not recording quality, not marketing, promotion or glossy videos. I would love to start a cultural revolution which overturns all the current obsessions with hi-fidelity and vapid, rapid notemongering.


A silky anteater. Nothing to do with this rant, I just think they’re cool.

I want to see people starting their own labels, realising they don’t need to wait for anyone else’s permission to express themselves. And, most crucially, realising that great sales do not automatically equate with great merit. We’ve absorbed too many capitalist shibboleths into the process of music making, they’re eating away at the art form from inside. We don’t need fat blokes making diabolical plans in cigar-smoke-choked boardrooms, we’ve internalised all their values ourselves.

As musicians, as recordists, we listen to our internal censors too much and the result is puddingy music. We’ve become afraid of the world, afraid of being out of tune or poorly recorded because we’re all subconsciously trying to compete with Jessica bastard Simpson. Slaving over every tiny fucking detail of every recording, unable to let go and release it into the world. I’ve known musicians for whom home recording has removed the financial constraint of studios but instead of liberating them, it means they work on the same song for years, till they’re bored with it and move on, never having released anything.


Logic 7 – I’ve just ordered the upgrade but will it make my music any better? Nope!

That’s why art thrives with limits. You’ve got 255 audio tracks, a hundred softsynths at your fingers, reverbs which can model the Mariana Trench to picolitre accuracy and yet Brian Wilson made better records bouncing tracks in mono. It takes genius to work with an infinite palette, most of us mere mortals would be better off starting off with the primaries. All the other shit just gets in the way of emotion, drains it out of us before we can even name it.

In these days of protest singers hopping out of their limos for a couple of hours to produce yet another album of Pro Tooled Punk, real emotion in music has become the rarest of gems. And the song is an endangered species.

Treasure it wherever you find it.

Main Centre Morning

Main Centre - 4
I can’t remember the last time I’ve been in Derby city centre at 8.40 on a Saturday morning. I tend to avoid town on Saturdays as it gets way too busy and I start expecting passers-by to bite me. Or at least do that shrieking thing out of Bodysnatchers.

But I couldn’t miss the chance of catching Main Centre relatively deserted and with some fantastic early morning sunshine on it. I’m not sure of the exact date but I know that it’s all scheduled for demolition sometime in the next few months. Poor old Main Centre – it managed to survive an IRA bomb but it’s going to get crushed by the wheels of industry. Alright, I know it’s got a bit scummy the last few years but it’s nothing that a lick of paint and some trendy new shops couldn’t have cured.

Dunno where/when Wilko and Argos are going to move, they’re basically the last shops left.

I wonder what the new building will be like. Will it suddenly revitalise the area?

Click the pic for more!

Morning

As I’m typing this, it’s 6.41am. I’ve been up since around half three. I’ve already woken up my mrs. with my ungainly bumbling around so I thought I’d come downstairs and type some random shite up, on the pretext of it actually being profound observations about the world we live in and life in general.

It’s getting a bit light now. I often see this pre-dawn light as I’m prone to long nights arguing with bearded philosophers about logical positivism. Not really – I’m mostly disussing boobies with Daz. Sometimes, yes, he does have a beard.

The sky is now a kind of gorgeous blue, fading from the purple-y night like a blob of potassium permanganate on a school shirt. It’s actually the colour of this text. Which is hexadecimal 4557CD, in case you’re a curious web designer or base-16-loving mathematician. (I resent having to mis-spell the word colour in order to colour the preceding text but I guess that’s extremely petty regionalism on my part. Could be worse, my native tongue could be Xhosa or Cantonese. Then I’d have some real grounds for bitching about web-based cultural imperialism.)

Next door’s cat has just wandered by. He’s quite lovely and is now too old to trouble the local wildlife. He had a sniff at my wife’s herbs growing on the patio and then carried on with his morning constitutional. Probably got a lot of places he has to piss, as have we all.

The sky’s now far more multi-shaded, yellowish near the horizon going to a kind of greyish blue at the top, the blue of those free-range eggs you can get. Yes, blue eggs. They’re very tasty. The yolks are bright green.

It’s now 7.11 so I’ve been typing this rambling crap for half an hour. Surely my ability to witter on endlessly, making trite observations and recording the un-surprising and savagely mundane virtually guarantees me a job at a glossy Sunday magazine? I’d have to pose for the pic they put at the top of the column, perhaps wearing a bowtie and looking unbearably smug and middle class. I could do that, gizza job! (note cunning use of thirty/fortysomething cultural reference, essential in middle class comfort writing). The only problem is that I don’t have any kids yet and I haven’t been through a vicious and messy divorce so those avenues to bore readers rigid with are closed to me. But, as I’m rapidly approaching forty, I expect I’ll have some kind of mental breakdown soon and end up running off to Anglesea with a 17-year-old. It’s either that or do a Perrin and I’m not keen on pigfarming.

The sun’s looking beautiful as it edges over the horizon. I think I’ll go and try and get a snap of it.

Hmmm…that doesn’t do it justice since the brightness of the sun dominates everything. Hold on a mo, let me go and try it from a different angle…

Ooh, that’s a bit nicer. You can see the golden glow of the sun and the moon too.

There’s something glorious about late autumn mornings. On clear days like today, the light suffuses everything it touches – fences, flowers, streetlights, cats and yet it’s still crisp and cold. The air’s also very clear since the smog hasn’t had time to thicken and fuzzy-up the edges. I do feel a bit knackered but I’m glad I didn’t go back to sleep, you don’t get to see many shining mornings like this in life, you have to sneak up on them stealthily.

I bet Main Centre would look nice in this light. Time to go and take some pics!