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I saw one of my favourite bands, Cultura Profética, play last night at S.O.B.’s. Cultura is a puertorrican reggae band who’ve been around for years, and are old friends who I hadn’t seen in some years as well (they don’t play out in NYC too often, unfortunately, although they keep a rather busy touring schedule throughout Latin America). They are consummate musicians, and truly thrive on live performances—in the ten years I’ve been seeing them play live, I’ve never seen the same show twice: always new arrangements, always good improvisation jams. The show was quite good, although hardly as good as other shows I’ve seen them play. This may or may not have had a lot to do with S.O.B.’s atrocious sound system. It seems that they’re also working on a new album—they played two or three works-in-progress, which is always nice to hear. It was great to see many familiar faces again, and enjoy a nice night out with some good music.

Here they are, doing a cover of Bob’s “Is This Love”, from their annual Bob Marley tribute show in PR. Enjoy.

Yeah, those stinkin’ pirates are really hurting the entertainment industry. Killing profit margins, destroying lives—oh, wait: the movie industry raked in a record-setting $9.78 billion in 2008? The best-selling album mp3 album on Amazon this year was composed of music that could also be had for free, legally, under a Creative Commons license? Madness! Madness, I tell you!

The Pirate’s Dilemma has a spot-on analysis, as usual. Of particular interest to me is Mason’s likening of vinyl records (whose sales apparently doubled this past year) to books: “Records are like books – they are souvenirs of ideas.” Indeed. But that still means a smaller, more selective audience, looking for a high-quality product produced in smaller numbers with collectors in mind, versus the cheap, mass market (no pun intended) alternative.

Mason continues by calling attention to the plight of the college yearbook: “The yearbook business, for example, has evaporated thanks to social networks”. I hadn’t really thought about that, but it makes perfect sense, and not necessarily only for the reason that The Economist states. Aside from the archival capacity of sites like Facebook and MySpace to keep the same mementos previously housed between the covers of a yearbook (pictures, etc.), the fact that social networks keep people connected despite the separation that comes after graduation makes the need for a commemorative tome practically nil. I don’t need memories of Susie Jenkins; Susie’s still in my life—I see her status updates every day, for better or for worse.

Well, it seems Metallica really is playing a different tune these days. According to the BBC:

Speaking on San Francisco radio station Live 105, Lars Ulrich said: “If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days.”

“It’s 2008 and it’s part of how it is these days,” the musician added

Interesting. Lovely. So a quick check of Xtorrent and–yep, there it is. I wonder if it really is the oh-so-awaited return to form that’s worth buying?

[EDIT: Well, it's good on first listen! Back to form. Yes indeed.]

Here, have a video. This is Aterciopelados, one of Colombian rock’s first and best, and one of my favorite bands, ever. The song is ‘Complemento’, from their latest album, entitled Oye (‘listen’). Enjoy.

I used to be a big, big fan of Metallica when I was in high school. I still enjoy their music on occasion. But then two things happened, and they happened more or less at the same time: they started to suck —anything after the Black Album is trash, and the Black Album itself is already a departure from classic Metallica, really— and Lars Ulrich produced his now-infamous list of file sharers who were ‘ripping him off’ by illegally downloading Metallica tracks on the original Napster.

The fact that four middle-aged, rock millionaires going through mid-life crises were essentially shaking down Shawn Fanning and co., crying about their ‘lost profits’ like some stupid corporate lapdogs was just too much. Ulrich’s ridiculous stance on file-sharing was even more absurd, considering that anyone even vaguely familiar with the band’s early days knows that Metallica first made their name by word of mouth. Back in the ’80s, when they were poor and metal, they actually encouraged people to make and distribute bootleg tapes of their material. Now that they were rich and washed-out, well, I guess they must look after their profits, no? Cliff Burton must be rolling over in his grave, dammit.

So, done and done. I destroyed my Metallica CDs, downloaded their discography illegally, and forgot about the whole thing.

Cut to a few months ago. Wired posts an article about how ‘Metallica Repents, Sort Of’. It turns out that the Metalli-windbags, after having had less-than-stellar studio outings since the ’90s, and after seeing the likes of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails pursue successful online distribution strategies, have decided to follow suit, and release their new studio album online. Sort of. They set up a website called ‘Mission Metallica’ (no link love for these jerks), where they have been posting ancilliary material such as in-studio and live performance videos, photos, etc. However, what they won’t be doing is posting their album. On top of that, you have to sign up on the site to be part of their so-called community. Meh.

Upon reading this, I was slightly intrigued, but upon reflection, and upon remembering that Metallica has sucked musically for the last decade or so, I said to myself “Too little, too late,” and moved on.

Now this. It seems that Metallica has had early reviews of their new album pulled from internet sites, even though the reviews stem from a listening party that they themselves set up in London, at which no one was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The kicker? The reviews were apparently (and surprisingly, at least to me) good, and heralded the album as a ‘return to form’.

Idiots. Call me when the abum drops, so that I can go download it illegally and then immediately delete it from my drive, unplayed.

This very short article on news.com posits that one of the reasons that Apple is so reluctant to include the Flash Player in the iPhone is because of fear that Pandora, the amazing user-customizable internet radio station based on the Music Genome Project, could cut into its iTunes sales. While a little far-fetched, it’s worth reading nonetheless. 

Oh, and if you haven’t done so already, do yourself a favour and check out Pandora. Yes, it’s so good, I’ve linked to it twice.