Nikka, Nikka, Nikka, Nikka!

Going to see this fonky lass October 4, 2008. Can't fucking wait. Vic and I saw her in early 2001, downtown San Jose, at the Usual. She and the band kicked solid ass!

This is a video of her first hit and a personal fave.



This is her newest, Stuck To You

RIAA isn't feeling the love.

Via Techlink

If you follow the various RIAA lawsuits against music fans over unauthorized file sharing, you certainly know the name Ray Beckerman, a lawyer in New York who not only has defended clients against the RIAA, but runs a wonderful resource, called Recording Industry vs. The People, that keeps people informed on various issues and cases related to the RIAA's campaign. We don't always agree with Beckerman, though we do side with him in the vast majority of cases. He is fighting an important fight, standing up for people that the recording industry has often unfairly bullied through the use of questionable legal tactics and flimsy evidence. Before Beckerman came along and took a very public stand, exposing the RIAA's playbook, there was almost no one in the legal community standing up to cry foul at the RIAA's actions.

Apparently, the RIAA has had enough of him, however, and has filed motions against him directly, asking that he be declared a "vexatious litigant" and demanding monetary sanctions. Specifically, the RIAA is claiming that Beckerman made false statements, sending the RIAA off on tangential efforts, while trying to block every effort by the RIAA to obtain the evidence it needed in the case. Plus, the RIAA's lawyers are not at all happy that Beckerman posted all of the motions he filed to his blog, claiming:

Finally, as this Court is aware, Defendant's counsel has maintained an anti-recording industry blog during the course of this case and has consistently posted virtually every one of his baseless motions on his blog seeking to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass Plaintiffs. Such vexatious conduct demeans the integrity of these judicial proceedings and warrants this imposition of sanctions.

While it's unclear how much truth there is to the false statements claims, complaining about the blog is simply ridiculous. From the beginning of the RIAA's legal campaign, its own executives have always insisted that the lawsuits were part of an educational and PR campaign to promote that downloading was illegal. On the whole, the entire filing has the feeling of sour grapes on the RIAA's lawyers' part. They don't like that they lost, and they hate the fact that Beckerman keeps exposing their tactics and flimsy evidence. Clearly, he's getting under their skin a bit. It was much easier suing music fans with questionable evidence when no one was standing up for them.

Slayer - Raining Blood

Heavy Fucking Metal!!!!

Slayer playing Raining Blood! This is classic thrash.

What to listen to next? Where do I begin? Where's all my money?

Today, there are so many ways one can listen to music that an obsessive like myself can go into convulsions just wondering how in hell I'm gonna listen to even half of this shit (even while my heart soars when considering the possibilities). I have a subscription to Napster which allows me to load just about anything from their massive database onto my mp3 player. I truly love this. I have a subscription to XM satellite radio which allows me to listen to stations organized categorically by music type, era, genre, etc. I truly love this (Beyond Jazz is worth the subscription price alone!). I use online services (free!) that match music to individual artists by style, meter, instrumentation, chord structure and what-have-you such as Pandora, Slacker and Last.fm. I truly love these. I patronize questionably legal Russian music sites that cater to frugal types such as myself by selling an amazing amount of music, new and old, for unbelievably low prices. I truly love these. I am very happy with the sheer volume of music available to me.

But it's not the same - not the same at all. It's too easy.

In the seventies, in my early teens, it sometimes took months to save for an album. It was an art to convince my mother that I couldn't live without the latest Zeppelin LP. Merely obtaining batteries so that I could share my music with friends via my cherished GE Loudmouth portable music generator was work! Believe you me, when you have to choose between Kiss Alive, Aerosmith's Toys In The Attic, and Zep's Physical Graffiti in 1975 because you only have enough for one album, you truly appreciate the moment when the the vinyl hits the turntable and the needle drops gently into the groove.

Frequenting a record store was (and is) a religious experience for music lovers such as myself. These stores are few and far between of late. My brother Garry and I made a pilgrimage to Tower Records every Christmas day for many years, since we'd both receive many Tower gift certificates, owing to our mutual love of minutely organized noise.

Ah, those were the days...

RIP: Pink Floyd's Richard Wright

By Eliot Van Buskirk

Pink Floyd founding member and keyboardist Richard Wright died on Monday following "a short struggle with cancer" at the age of 65, according to a note posted on the official Pink Floyd website.

"I really don't know what to say other than that he was such a lovely, gentle, genuine man and will be missed terribly by so many who loved him," read a note posted on the blog of bandmate David Gilmour, who joined Pink Floyd in 1968. "And that's a lot of people. Did he not get the loudest, longest round of applause at the end of every show (during his tour with Gilmour) in 2006?"

The self-taught pianist and keyboardist will be missed.