Friday, February 9, 2007

Down South


South by southwest brings about its 20th birthday this year. For those who aren’t in the know its one of the biggest industry festivals in the world, held in Texas, where many of the worlds most talented acts come to perform for and meet with international industry professionals showcased on over 50 stages in Austin. Many Australian bands use the festival to try and further their international careers and hope for foreign distribution with a major. And as always there is no shortage of Australian artists chomping at the bit.

Sarah Blasko, Macromantics, Dallas Crane, Evermore, I heart Hiroshima, The Panda Band, Wolf and Cub, You Am I and even local favourites The Presets will all be among the Aussie contingent showcasing their material between March 14-18 and while none of us will actually be able to get there (despite how freaking awesome it would be.. wbdf review of SxSW) it will certainly be interesting to find out how our local talent went.
For a full list of international acts, just click here

In other industry news the gloves are off in the war between Apple and the record companies in the US as the boys from Apple demand that the RC’s negate digital rights for songs sold on iTunes. Whether this has anything to do with the fact that in Europe Apple is under attack from companies and foreign government asking that they make iTunes compatible with other devices is under debate – with claims that Apple are making most of their profit off the fact that you need an iPod to listen to their music, and the fact that most people, once obtaining an iPod are more likely to go and download the MP3s off a p2p program anyway. I know I do. I’m tending to side against Apple on this one. Working on compatibility issues would make the online music market a lot more universally accessible and would perhaps stem the rut of free illegal downloads… (maybe not for me though)



Last but not least if you’ve not been paying attention, very much like myself you may not have heard the new single from Silverchair. I have – and I know what you’re all asking – what do YOU think Javid? I think this – the song is essentially homosexual. While people might love the beauty of it, I certainly hope the album has a lot more to offer. But with that in mind you have to give them credit for always supplying the unexpected. I know I just said its gay but at the same time it’s still interesting, and Johns’ voice is back at its resounding best. Make up your own mind by clicking below.

Hear 'Straight Lines' here

6 comments:

Pix said...

javid i must say i do enjoy the new silverchair track, but i think ive convinced myself to like it bcoz its silverchair.

even though i like it, i 100% agree, it is totally gay. boooooyssss!

I Drive The Bandwagon said...

Athritis crippled Daniel Johns' balls, but if you listen closely you can hear him squeezing em back out (particularly in those crotch grabbing "wa-ah-lkin" moments). The song has more potential with every listen i think.

Peter said...

i think the song is great. i heard it live at homebake and couldn't wait to hear it again. Interestingly though, before they played the song, Johns got one half of the crowd to shout 'ho' and the other 'mo'....and when he said the song was called 'straight lines', i thought he said 'straight lies'.....there definitely is alot of gay surrounding this song.

Javid van der Piepers said...

straight lines.. bisexual.. i get it. interesting context.

why did daniel johns have to become such a damn homo? he used to be a representaion of teen angst in australia. he was our answer to cobain. then again maybe cobain was headed the same way and couldnt handle it.. i smell insane crackpot theory!

Pix said...

booooooooyyyyysssss

Anonymous said...

i think a topic that javid discussed with the most importance is steve jobs' and therefore apple's stance on drm. For someone like jobs who has made a killing and resurrected his company though vertical integration relying on drm, to come out and say that speaks volumes. drm is restrictive and in the long run will hurt the industry that it is trying to save. bravo steve