music news (cont.) NEWS: BANDCAMP.COM REDUX Today we’re launching a brand new home page that’s focused on promoting all the incredible music on Bandcamp. The centerpiece is the Bandcamp Weekly show, hosted by Andrew Jervis. Andrew joins us from the renowned Ubiquity Records, where he headed up A&R for 14 years, and the Friday Night Session, which he hosted and produced at KUSF for the past 17. Every Tuesday he’ll bring you an hour’s worth of the best tunes on Bandcamp – exclusives, previews, recent faves, classics, and obscurities from around the world. We’re not only excited about the music Andrew will be playing, but also by the way we’re presenting it. Unlike my car stereo, which coyly revealed that I heard MACKLEM this morning, the weekly show displays the current track’s cover art, album name, related merch, artist name, bio image and location, and of course lets you buy or wishlist all the music on the spot. Each week we also highlight a gorgeous illustration of a featured artist, starting this week with Helado Negro, rendered by the talented Oliver Barrett. We’ve got a batch of our favorite illustrators lined up and can’t wait to share their work with you. Continuing with the editorial focus, you’ll see that we now have a regular feature (Andrew interviews R&B beat-making supremo Shlohmo this first week), a steady stream of all that is new & notable, and curated Bandcamp collections by special guests (courtesy of Bandcamp for Fans, and kicked off by eccentric Seattle MCs THEESatisfaction and Portland’s heavyrocking Red Fang). We’ve also moved Discover front-and-center and added wishlisting, staff picks, and the ability to slice by daily sales. Discover has driven more than 30,000 record sales in its previously somewhat obscure location, so it was high time we gave it front page placement. ### NEWS: SPECIAL ORDER: HAVE YOU BEEN DRINKING? The Tosspints whom recently routed through Canton via Buzzbin and East Grand Records are proud to announce they will begin promotion of the pre-sale for their new album “Have You Been Drinking?”. The album which will be their 3rd full length studio release since 2009 is scheduled to hit sales outlets in June, and will include 12 tracks including 10 all new original Tosspints songs and two traditional Irish songs re-tooled to fit their hard driving style. In addition to the album, as an incentive, they will be offering as exclusive content a free download of their own rendition of “Boys of County Hell” (The Pogues) available on a limited basis and not included after the pre-sale closes on May 24th. Those who do participate in the presale will also receive their album 1-2 weeks prior to the official release date, and special pricing on bundles of CD, LP and limited edition t-shirt. ### REVIEW:
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we all screwed...
Hello my friend, you are now the accused. If you are using Internet Service Providers like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, Cablevision or Time Warner, then you should seriously think again before downloading or sharing music, films or TV show files online illegally. They’re not having it anymore. By illegally, it would mean that you are either sharing the file without the consent of the owner of the file or you could be violating the copyright law in some way, as stated by the US government. And now the real son of a bitch is going to rear its ugly head. According to Billboard, a new anti-piracy program is going to be introduced into the internet market very soon. This program can track your activities that involve file sharing and accessing online content. If you commit an error that involves copyright infringement on any of the above mentioned ISPs, this new technology will be able to track it down in real time. The information is sourced from a blog post by the Center for Copyright Information. Moviemakers, artists and just anybody who owns content on the internet can access public peer-2-peer (P2P) networks, torrents, file sharing boxes, once the program is activated. Owners of the content can access these places to check if any of their files, be it movies, music or TV shows, are all available for free access on the internet an are being shared without permission, against the US copyright law. If they find any sort of illegal sharing of file being traced from your IP address, then your ISP will be notified. You will receive a “Copyright Alert” from your service provider. This alert will inform you that you have been accessing content illegally. You will also be advised on the legal ways to share or access online content. That doesn’t sound so bad right? Now, a new part of the program insists you are scolded and sent to the corner...of the internet. A virtual timeout will be bestowed upon you in the form of a download speed restriction as well as a redirection to a designated landing page for abusers. Don’t ignore and consider it as such a light issue. The first warning that your service provider gives you might just be a way to educate you of ethics to be followed on the internet. Your infringement might not let you lose your internet connection, get fined or face criminal charges. But the severity of your penalty will increase with the increasing number of warnings that you receive from them. The good news is you can only resolve this issue after contacting your ISP or by completing an education training program on online copyright issues. Imagine an in house con-college for internet pirates. No word on how long these training sessions are. We’d guess a series of videos where the fast forward doesn’t work, like those pesky ads on Youtube videos. The decision will totally be in your provider’s hand and the leniency or gravity of consequences will vary as per the provider. Yeah, and if you have ever had to call your ISP customer service for that clunky modem reset I’ll bet you can’t wait to try explaning this one. THE TOSSPINTS “HAVE YOU BEEN DRINKING?” Michigan-based The Tosspints probably wouldn’t mind being called a pub band. Their booze-soaked newest album “Have You Been Drinking?” carries such a bar room vibe that you can practically smell the sloshed beer and feel your gums where your front teeth got knocked out. The guys follow The Dropkick Muphys’ template of mixing manic punk, Irish trad music and a whole ton of whiskey. There are two old Irish songs amongst the original: an attempt to out-Pogue The Pogues on “The Boys From County Hell”, and a pretty crazy assault on traditional numbers like “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye” and “Come Out Ye Black and Tans”. These give you a good impression what these guys are like live, which is a slobbering drunken mess...in perfect tune.
Wonderful Downtown Canton
The original music shows that there’s a lot more to The Tosspints than getting drunk and screaming rebel songs. “Blood Or Whiskey” is a really old school punk number that owes a lot to songs by The Clash like “Death Or Glory”. The standout track is “Our Last Breath”, a nicely complex tune that rocks while having a rich seam of heartbreak running through it. Don Zuzula’s ability to turn on a dime and switch from shouting to an impassioned whisper is reminiscent of Robert Plant’s vocal, and that is never, ever a bad thing. Most Irish people will be happy to tell you that they’re the most manic depressive race on earth. They love to drink, they love to party, and yeah, sometimes they like to fight. But there’s always a kind of heartbreak and melancholy behind all that. Have You Been Drinking? does a neat job of taking that complex national character and turning it into a record. Submitted by Bernard O’Leary ###
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