Hype Machine's Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008

Photo Credit: Dries Buytaert.

At this point I think we've all read enough "tops from 2008" lists compiled by magazine editors and weirdo individual music bloggers. Well how about a master list compiling the tops from all those weirdo music bloggers? And how about that list containing the top 50 artists, 50 albums, and 50 songs? And how about all that music (songs and albums) completely streamable? Here it is: http://hypem.com/zeitgeist/2008/.

Best of 2008

Flatlander got his list destroyed by the RIAA. Let me see if I can sidestep big brother a bit and get my favorites out to you. These aren't strictly releases from the previous year, but do represent my 9 heavy listens in the year of 08.

Angus & Julia Stone - A Book Like This

The Beast

Sera Cahoone - Only as the Day is Long

Only as the Day is Long

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Heard them Stirring

Delta Spirit - Ode to Sunshine

Trashcan

Miracle Fortress - Five Roses

Hold Your Secrets in Your Heart

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Flume

Wye Oak - If Children

If Children Were Wolves

Plants & Animals - Parc Avenue

Feedback in the Field

The Dodos - Visiter

Fools

RIAA Update

Alright. I've had time to stew and think about this. Thanks to everyone who has sent emails, written comments and left voicemails about this. Your support is very kind and folks have made a lot of good points about supporting independent label artists.

Here's what I'm thinking...I hate backing down to small town bully cops who tell you to cross the road for no good reason and this crap from the RIAA feels like the same thing. If I change what we do here, then I'm eating a bit of a shit sandwich from them.

Plus, I strongly believe that it's important for a fan to be able to listen to a song a few times, in the comfortable setting of their choice (car, couch, etc.), to determine if they like a song. Streaming it while you're sitting at your computer just doesn't always cut it. It gives you a quick sense of an artist but to get to the point of deciding to buy an album, I need to hear a song a few times. Therefore, I still want to make an mp3 file of the song available to readers.

Conversely, a lawsuit from the RIAA would destroy our family budget. I can't take that risk for my family's sake. And watching our posts being deleted is frustrating.

Therefore, here is what we are going to do: when we post about a band on F45, we'll post a streaming cut of the song. However, we'll also email the file of the song out to whoever is on the False 45th mailing list. If you want to be on the mailing list, send an email to false45th@gmail.com with just "Mailing List" in the subject line. I'll use those emails to create a distribution list and the mp3 files will arrive from the false45th email account.

One note about this, if you sign up for the mailing list, please use an email service that can receive large files. Gmail can handle up to 20MB per email and that is what I'll be using to send stuff. More commonly, there will be one or two songs in the email with each song being 4-5MB. So, just be sure your email account can receive such files. If it bounces back, I'm not going to make extra efforts to zip the files or split up the email. This needs to be simple to work.

Once again, thanks to everyone's kind words of support. Here is an example email we received from a band I had never heard of before called Black Bone Child:

Hello false 45th,

I am in an independent rock band from Austin TX named Black Bone Child. In an attempt to give our young band a little push in the new year, I have been contacting blogs to get some reviews and exposure. I came across your page through hype machine. I always try to read a little bit about the blog before I send them a message requesting a review. I read your recent posting about RIAA. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! "Has the whole world gone crazy?!!!!" If it wasn't for blogs like yours, a lot of artists would not even be on the map. Us musicians NEED you guys and I don't think that your hard work is not rewarded nearly enough. I wanted to personally thank you for that posting. As a musician who deals with this stupid type of shit on a daily basis its nice to know that I'm not the only one who thinks it's ridiculous. We recently had interest from Capitol Records and got jerked around pretty hard. RIAA is the same type of animal. It seems to me that the biggest problem is that the people who are "attempting" to run the business are not fans of music. Music is a widget to them. Music is not a shiny plastic disc, it's an emotion, it's a feeling, it's a lifestyle. Anyone who doesn't understand that needs to go back to wherever it was that they came from. Thanks again. Please do not give up. We all need to stick together. Don't let them get to you. Your friend through music.

Donny James
Black Bone Child

20 Years ago in Germany

Best of 2008 & RIAA

Fuck this. I spent a bunch of time putting together my post on the best albums of the year along with a link so readers could sample a song from the album. And what happens? The RIAA gets Blogger to delete the post. What the hell? I'm just trying to promote the artists. Screw this. I'm thinking of dumping this whole crappy blog. This is the third or fourth time recently that this has happened. I'm starting to feel that it's a waste of my time to try to help promote music. The RIAA seems to be against such promotion. So, why should I bother?

Here's the email I received:

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog infringes upon the copyrights of others. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.

The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. We are in the process of removing from our servers the links that allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others. If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. See http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=254 for more information about the DMCA, and see http://www.google.com/dmca.html for the process that Blogger requires in order to make a DMCA complaint.

Blogger can reinstate these posts upon receipt of a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and 3) of the DMCA. For more information about the requirements of a counter notification and a link to a sample counter notification, see http://www.google.com/dmca.html#counter.

Please note that repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account. If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain your own legal counsel. If you have any other questions about this notification, please let us know.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

Affected URLs:

http://false45th.blogspot.com/2009/01/best-of-2008-flatlander.html
http://false45th.blogspot.com/2009/01/best-of-2008-flatlander.html

Best of 2008

The last few years we've asked other music lovers in the VT music scene to send in their favorites of the past year. Unfortunately, Nov & Dec wound up being two busy months and we weren't able to pull it together. So, in it's place, we're going to toss out what albums we fell in love with this year.

If any readers want to put together their own list and send it in, we'll gladly post it. Send your lists to False45th@gmail.com.

The Jazz Guys Cover Kanye West's "Robocop"

Catchy as hell from The Jazz Guys. I wish I had heard this last month when I was picking cover songs for December's record club.

The Jazz Guys | Robocop (Kanye West cover)

Quite a Chotchke

That interesting depiction of...ummm...life can be yours for just $2,699.99 at Overstock.com.

Geez, I can't imagine why the original manufacturer would be overstocked with them.