Matthew Ryan’s one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters and he’s got a great album coming out on April 1st called Matthew Ryan vs. The Silver State that any Springsteen and Steve Earle fans would do well to check out (or really just anybody who likes heart felt class conscious singer/songwriters). Anyway Matthew recently digitally “re-released” two albums of demo recordings he had formerly been selling on his website a few years ago. Translation: he allowed downloads to be re-posted on a blog and directed his fans to it via his MySpace page so the man must be cool with it. Both the albums are available for free download and well worth checking out, they’re def. rougher than his proper albums but the spark of creative genius is still plenty evident. You can grab them here
Expect a proper MR feature down the road once the album hits stores and his band hits the road. In the meantime also check out the stunning songs streaming on his MySpace page
Good Times, Bad Times
Ramble On
Black Dog
In My Time Of Dying For Your Life (first time EVER played live) Trampled Under Foot
Nobody’s Fault But Mine
No Quarter
Since I’ve Been Loving You
Dazed & Confused
Stairway To Heaven
The Song Remains The Same
Misty Mountain Hop
Kashmir
We haven’t even gotten into the first throes of December yet, but it’s time for the year-end lists to start rolling in. On a national level, I was thrilled to see Romantica included at #58 on Paste Magazine’s top 100 albums of 2007. Check out the full list here.
I was surprised at how indie rock-dominated Paste’s list was. If it’s truly a list of the best albums of 2007, do you think there was a conscious decision to disclude genres like hip hop (come on, no Common or Kanye [edit: oops, Kanye was on there], who would seemingly rank high?), jazz, and electronic (with the exception of indie-kid favorite M.I.A.)?
Or are we supposed to believe that the indie rockers are truly making the best albums right now?
I am wondering if this is a trend we will continue to see as the year-end lists start popping up everywhere.
In an extraordinary, but not unfamiliar move, the rock legend Prince is using an army of lawyers to launch attacks on his own fans.
Several of the largest web communities dedicated to the artist have received notices to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince’s likeness.
It is our opinion that these threats are not made in an attempt to enforce valid copyright as Prince alleges in his threats, rather we believe they are attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince. We strongly believe that such actions are in violation of the freedom of speech and should not be allowed. Prince claims that fansites are not allowed to present any artwork with Prince’s likeness, to the extreme that he has demanded removal of fan’s own photographs of their Prince inspired tattoos and their vehicles displaying Prince inspired license plates.
Prince’s representatives have requested that the fansites provide them with “substantive details of the means by which you [the fansites] propose to compensate our clients [Paisley Park Enterprises, NPG Records and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG)] for damages…”
The owners of the three largest fansites supporting Prince: www.housequake.com, www.princefams.com and www.prince.org have come together to fight back to what amounts to an injustice to the fansites and the very fans who have supported Prince’s career, many since the very beginning nearly thirty years ago.
It is their hope that Prince will reconsider his position and allow these fansites to continue their existence without constant threats from Prince and his attorneys. Should this not be possible, the fansites are fully prepared to defend their position in the proper court of law, as well as fully prosecute any claims to which they are justly entitled.
The owners of housequake.com, princefams.com and prince.org acknowledge that, while Prince is entitled to control of his copyrights, it should be within the law. The law clearly provides for displaying of images of a celebrity’s likeness for newsworthy events or matters that are considered to be public interest. All three websites feel that the photographs and/or likeness displayed on their websites clearly fall within the public interest category. Additionally, the use of photographs is legal based on the fair use doctrine, i.e. the displaying of album cover art, or the collage headers created by website members using a variety of different photographs.
