They gave listening and user data to their new parent company, CBS, who then shared it with the RIAA.
This has given me pause for thought about whether I should continue to pay for a subscription with LastFM, if they treat their users' data with such casual contempt.
I posted about Bat for Lashes some time ago now. They aren't exactly my usual musical fare, and I do tend to think that Natasha Khan is a little like a talented version of Lilly Allen. However, I do like some of their stuff, and rate this new video for the track, Daniel, taken from their second album.
I'd read a lot of encouraging reviews of The Prodigy's new album, and had been really looking forward to hearing a sample of what they'd come up with. And the showcase track from their new album is...
..slightly disappointing. I mean, it's okay - I've certainly danced to worse. But it doesn't even come up to par with the good tracks from their last effort (my favorite of which was Hot Ride); which taken as a whole wasn't that great.
If this represents the best of their new material, then I think that The Prodigy may well be continuing their slow inexorable decline into mediocrity.
I'm addicted to LCD Soundsystem at the moment; particularly the track Someone Great. There's a quite a visually striking video for it over on YouTube, which is unfortunately non-embeddable at the moment, but there's a link to it here.
As I don't have the tracks on mp3 at the moment I'm just listening to them on YouTube. Repeatedly. I haven't seen any of their stuff in music stores here in the UK, so I'm assuming they're pretty much an American phenomenon.
Of course, having said that they're largely unknown in the UK, I've totally ignored Tribulations - which is annoying familiar. I'd bet money it was used as an advertising jingle for some awful product, and that's why it seems so familiar to me..
I didn't really have any interest in Katy Perry until I accidentally saw her perform Hot N Cold on a TV show over in the UK. I had heard bits of I Kissed A Girl on the radio, and didn't really rate it at all. However, I liked Hot N Cold's acerbic lyrics, catchy refrain and, ultimately, I loved the bouncy energy she put into her performance. If you've not heard this song yet, I've linked to the video below; it's far better than her last single:
I don't know how Katy is being perceived in the rest of the world, but much to my horror the press here in the UK have been decidedly bitchy about the poor lass. They've slated everything from her dress sense (which I quite like), to her gigs, to the music she puts out.
I would have thought that anything different from the usual identi-kit blond singer-songwriters coming out of the 'States would be a welcome development, but apparently not.
At the moment, I'm not sure why she's so disliked; although unsurprisingly the nasty little nipple-dicked public schoolboys that comprise NME have dissed her music; which only gets her extra brownie points in my book.
As I was growing up, during the '80s, there was a palpable sense of inevitable doom in the air. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States were high, and any conflict that led to nuclear war was likely to result in death for all of us living in Western Europe.
The sense of impending conflict was brought home to me by the fact that my family was living in West Germany at the time due to my fathers post in the Army. Even for families, army life is different to civilian life, and our presence there was a constant reminder the things could kick off at short notice.
Unsurprisingly, such circumstances can really colour a boys outlook on life; and although my outlook was usually cheerful, in my reading I developed a fascination with dystopian views of the future. Looking back, this was actually quite pragmatic of me - as far as I was concerned, the Russians were going to get us at some point, and my reading seemed to focus on what the world would be like afterward, which tacitly meant that I thought there would be an afterward in the first place..
Comics such as "2000 AD" provided an outlet for these thoughts, filled as they were with series' and short stories set in nuclear-ravaged landscapes, where life was tough and the characters tougher. I read a lot of the short stories over and over again, and still have several almost committed completely to memory. One such story was "Shock", about a military robot brought back to life, which then engages in a killing spree. Imagine my surprise when, years later, I found that "Shock" had been adapted into a budget Science Fiction/Horror film called Hardware.
Now, I love "Hardware", and would recommend watching it. It is, at the very least, original, interesting, and occasionally thought provoking; portraying as it does a bleak, stark, dystopian future in which humanity is on it's last legs. An Orange wash pervades in the lighting throughout the film, giving everything a dry, hot and polluted feel to it.
However, I'm the first to admit that "Hardware" is never going to win the award for best screenplay. It's one of the many slightly bad films that I love to love for my own peculiar reasons. In criticizing it, many people miss the point; they forget the atmosphere the film was conceived in; and they forget that, even for a budget effort, it's probably on par with the first "Terminator" film.
I'm going to post the somewhat cheesy '80s trailer now..
I love that they put the ringing endorsement from "Us" magazine - 3 and a 1/2 stars - into the trailer...
Hardware has a number of cameos from famous faces in the music industry. Including "Lemmy" from Motorhead, who features as a cab driver, Iggy Pop as a radio host, and Carl McCoy of Fields of the Nephilim as a nomad and scavenger featured at the start of the film. You'll not be surprised to learn that one of the reasons I love the film is for it's soundtrack, which includes the following great tracks.
Order of Death by Public Image Ltd. This is used during the films' only sex scene, which as a teenager I used to think was the hottest thing ever. The video for the track below uses various sequences from "Hardware".
I'd never seen the video for this track before; but now I have, I just had to post it. Pro-Test by Skinny Puppy.
I think this is very much a Marmite video - you either love it or hate it; although, there are a few people who have commented that they like the whole video apart from the end... personally, I think they're being a little humourless - the end is surely the best bit....
Wow. It's been ages since my last journal. I have lots of excuses for this, including birthdays, weddings and workload, but I wasn't expecting to leave a whole months gap...
Anyway, I thought I'd introduce you to a song I've fallen in love with. Beautiful track, and decent lyrics, City Noise by Scarling. The video for it is quite simple, minimalist even, but I think it fits the song perfectly..
Here's the video.
Another crowded dance floor
another empty glass
another failed hello
it's your alibi
another splendid lie
it's the bruises that you can't show
It's another lonely sunset
another starless sky
the nervousness inside
it's the final kiss from a lover's fist
it's the reason why you can't cry
It's a violent reaction
the mixtape in your heart
the answer you should know
how we complicate, a simple mistake
it's the face you make when I go
And we tried to change
the city noise made us strange
so we plugged our ears and learned to fight
we set the stage but we could not engage so we cut all ties by candlelight
Another deep depression
the calm before the storm
the shaking in your head
how you sacrificed - how you paid the price
all the words you wish you had said
It's the rawest of emotions
drinking to forget - names written in the snow
it's the anxious feel - purging your last meal
it's the secret that you can't know
And we tried to change
the city noise made us strange
so we plugged our ears and learned to fight
we set the stage but we could not engage so we cut all ties by candlelight
This is one of the TED talks, by Benjamin Zander, a British conductor, on Classical Music. I highly recommend watching it, for several reasons; he's a compelling speaker who catches your attention immediately, and that is rare; he also made me laugh out loud at several points; and reminded me why I liked classical music in the first place.
My favorite quote is "Have you ever thought that maybe the reason classical music sends you to sleep isn't because of you, but because of us?". The talks is full of interesting insights, and I'm going to send this on to a couple of friends who play music..
