Monday, March 20, 2006

Randomly Running Thoughts

The Canadian Recording Industry Association ( CRIA) has released a 144 page study eh, showing consumer trends and actually suggests that home burned & ripped CD's are the number one source for new music in the Great White North. A similar study in 2004 found that Canadians are much more likely to download music via peer to peer networks than US citizens.

Surprisingly, the new CRIA funded phone survey found that the 33–45 year-old demographic has the largest proportion of downloaded files on their computers, with an average of 31% admitting their music comes from file-sharing, compared to 27% from their own ripped CDs. The new study also states that people 18-29 are the second largest purchasers of music, with 13 to 17 year olds buying the most CD's and DVD's, on average about 2 a month. For a more thorough analysis of the data see a survey of the survey by Michael Geist.


In further news of potential interest to Canadians and Canada-ophiles I suggest you study the works of the great prophets Bob & Doug McKenzie

and if that don't stop ya...note that Canada no longer has a monopoly on things Canadian. For example, note the curious name of Americana country rockers "Cross Canadian Ragweed" from Yukon Oklahoma ( Garth Brooks Hometown)...

Cross Canadian Ragweed - Juicy Fruit


Cross Canadian Ragweed - I Use To Love Her

or what about Philly via New England avant Chamber pop quintet Matt Pond PA who unashamedly went about flaunting a track called The Canadian Song on their Green Fury album...

Matt Pond PA - The Canadian Song

heck, Canadian references are creeping into every nook & cranny of the alt & indie scenes, from dancefloor ready workouts like Junior Boys own Manitoba remix onto the entire label "Secretly Canadian" , home of Lens Jenkman or Jens Lekman or whatever his freaking name is...

Jens Lekman - Maple Leaves

Junior Boys - Birthday ( Manitoba Mix)



If you keep clicking you may discover the always excellent work of longstanding American midwestern instituition The Evolution Control Committee or even try the many tentacled website of the well organized anti Canada activists known as The World Oligarchy movement ...

Evolution Control Committee - Boards of CanaDa-Di-Da-Di




World Oligarchy - No Canada

Bob & Doug McKenzie of The Great White North - Take Off You Hoser

Here's quite possibly one of the greatest experts on Canadian exports, science & recording industry matters, Mr. William Shatner...

William Shatner - I Am Canadian

William Shatner - It Was A Very Good Year

William Shatner - Rocketman

William Shatner - Elegy For The Brave

William Shatner - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Shatner, 75, just appeared on a History Channel documentary entitled modestly "How Willliam Shatner Changed The World" and on Wednesday , TV Land will broadcast the special
"Living in TV Land: William Shatner in Concert."

uh, don't miss it! Just one of the many things Canada's no doubt proud of...






A Chinese internet search engine company has attempted to reach a settlement with record labels that have had their copyrights infringed upon by the Baidu.com search network. In September of last year, seven Hong Kong-based record companies and a Chinese version of the RIAA, asked for compensation of CNY 1.67 million. The seven plaintiffs are Universal Music, Warner Music Hong Kong, EMI, Sony BMG, Go East Entertainment, Gold Label Entertainment, and Cineploly, with their representative organization being the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

Baidu has proposed sharing it's advertising revenue with the labels in exchange for copyright immunity, seeing that 30% of it's searches are related to .MP3 files. This solution may not please the record companies, as the released income of Baidu.com last year was no more than CNY 300 million, and the value at full market rate of downloaded material would far exceed that. For comparison purposes, Baidu.com's mp3 search has provided over a million free downloads and none of the major labels have expressed interest in the ad revenue plan as of yet. ( exchange rate $1 USD = CNY 8.04)




Meanwhile, Frank Quattrone, the high rolling dot com boom era stock broker who was convicted of various improprieties related to preferential IPO allocations has been granted a new trial by an appeals court in NY. Quattrone has already been banned from parcticing in his previous profession by The National Association of Securities Dealers for the remainder of his life. At issue in his appeal were jury instructions regarding his alleged obstruction of a Federal investigation into his activities. Quattrone's lawyers say the original judge made conflicting, biased & erroneous rulings, and that instructions given to the jury were faulty, and did not take into account whether Quattrone knew the documents he ordered detroyed were being sought by Federal investigators. Quattrone's now infamous emails instructed underlings to "clean-up those filesto thwart investigators while he pulled in 120 million a year at the peak of his gaming of the market. He was known for spinning hot IPO shares to top clients for favors, and accused by the NASD of pressuring analysts for favorable reports.


Sadly, what's missing from the news briefs , appeals & technical flaws that have plagued the process of his conviction since 2003 is much mention of the victims of his greed & malfeasance hat the manifested. Quattrone is emblematic of the sleaze that permeated the boardrooms & brokerages during the disgusting dot come boom of the late 1990's. In 2004 he was found guilty of obstructing a grand jury, obstructing federal regulators and witness tampering. CSFB has since paid approx 200 Million to settle the investigations into their activities at the time of Quattrones unbridled reign.

If ya ask me, Quattrone, whose Policy of Truth is way weak as he pimped IPO's of some of the biggest tech stocks through Credit Suisse First Boston belongs in prizzle for shizzle... Perhaps In Alcatraz y'all... Why he's free after all the Shame & Scandal he brought his family is beyond me...It's Madness Y'all...

Madness - Shame & Scandal

and so the scales of justice teeter in favor of the rich as usual, and we gotta stop punishing the poor in this country until the rich "white collar" m'frs pay their dues behind bars as well...!


Depeche Mode - Violated - Policy of Alcatraz Mash Up Remix

The New Pornographers - The Laws Have Changed

French Kicks - Trial Of The Century

The Hives - Main Offender


In completely unrelated news... annoint thyself with some DeerHoof

SF's wily undigestible noise mavens are starting to gain commercial traction, and are currently hitting Europa , and plan to be back in the US in time for Coachella...


mar 27 - London - The Scala
mar 30 - Nijmegen (Holland) - Doornroosje.
mar 31 - Kontich - Lintfabriek.
apr 01 - Bissegem - De Kreun.
apr 02 - Berlin - Magnet Club.
apr 03 - Stuttgart - Schocken.
apr 04 - Duedingen - Bad Bonn.
apr 05 - Paris - Instants Chavires.
apr 06 - Utrecht - Rumor Festival.
apr 07 - Koeln - Gebaeude 9. (w/ 31 Knots.)
apr 08 - Fernelmont - Rhaaa Lovely Festival.
apr 29 - Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

Deerhoof - Wrong Time Capsule

Deerhoof - Running Thoughts

Deerhoof - Rrrrrrright - Burmese Remix


And here's just a few tings from an upcoming whiteboy post-punker laptop rapper and self proclaimed member of the "iGeneration". Before heading out on a UK tour, the transplanted Californian to Brooklynite known as MC Lars plays The Mercury Lounge in NYC on Tuesday, the same day his new CD comes out... He's a Stanford Grad, has over 17,000 friends on MySpace, samples Iggy Pop and Supergrass, and must also have a real hella cute publicist, since he's getting hyped all over, and even featured in Rupert Murdoch's rag the NY Post... so why not here...maybe that cute publicist will look me up to!

MC Lars - iGeneration

MC Lars - Walmart Nation

MC Lars - Download This Song


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