Rowan's blog

Scotty - otherwise known as "Barbara Streisand on acid"

My mate Scott is in an unknown, unsigned, very cool band called Zetland. I'm going to one of their gigs next Wednesday night. I'd misplaced the address of the gig so looked to see if they had a website... They do - and it rocks!

The bio's are utterly hilarious. Click on the any of the guys pics. (Scott's the dude with dark hair & glasses). Their archives & unofficial bios are worth a look too. Go to Zetland's site.

George Michael's giving his music away for free

"George Michael has declared that he is going to give his music away for free on the Internet.

Speaking yesterday on the Jo Whiley show on BBC Radio 1, the pop star also announced that he will never make another album. He says he doesn't like the fame, and certainly doesn't need the cash.

Fans will be given the option to donate money to selected charities in exchange for downloading the tracks."
(Lucy Sherriff for The Register)

Amazing! Sony Music must be having a 'Freeek!' :)

Read the whole article here.

The state of the music industry

Finally! A solid story on the state of the music industry and how consumers are dictating they want music. Produced by CBC, you can read it as an article (4 sections) or download and watch it from this page.

'Grey Album' goes Gold (in one day)!

The music industry likes to think it's in control. Yet people are proving they have the power, time & time again.

DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album, a mix compiled from Jay-Z's Black Album and The Beatles' White Album started showing up all over the Net, as well as offline.

EMI quickly shouted 'Cease and Desist!' Outraged by that, DownhillBattle promoted a 'Grey Tuesday' on 24th Feb, encouraging sites to make the album available for one day. It's success floored a lot of people, especially EMI.

"We are certain that the Grey Album was the number one album in the country yesterday (by a lot)," says DHB.

"Danger Mouse' moved more units than Norah Jones and Kanye West, and the Grey Album easily went gold in a day (over 100,000 copies).

Read p2pnet.net article here.

Rock on

Mum bought me Dido's CD for Xmas & this morning I lay in bed & savoured the lyrics. I suddenly realized that in the last year or so I've got really into seeing bands live.

I've seen; Jack Johnson, Powderfinger, Something for Kate, The Waifs, The Black Eyed Peas, Machine Gun Fellatio, The Atari's, Grinspoon, The Vandals, Ex-Savage Garden Darryn Hayes (sung one of Delta's songs to her at the Australian Record Industry Awards), John Farnham, Amiel, Candice Alley, Spod, Peaches, Regurgitator, and many more.

Oh, I almost forgot my mates!! Scotty is the drummer for 'Zetland' - if you're in Sydney look out for them in street press & go support their gigs. Also worth checking out Yolanda Thomas, funky chick with a loads of soul.

I also sometimes trawl the internet searching for tracks that I like. I support independant bands & artists who are using p2p to reach global audiences (much easier & more immediately lucrative than trying to get a record deal). I've listed some tracks that I quite like on the left. You can search for & download these tracks using Kazaa.