If you are a Van Halen fan you will appreciate the video below. I stumbled across this on YouTube. This is what it is all about. Eddie REALLY lays it down. Enjoy.

I was sifting through my feed reader today and found a post that I know a fellow music junky like you would enjoy. One of my favorite blogs, Copyblogger, breaks down the whole issue of whether the events outlined in the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic” are in fact ironic.

You may or may not have an opinion on the issue but you need to check the post out. It is an entertaining read and it is a great example of how a crafty artist can get a ton of extra mileage out of a piece of work. Go read “Did Alanis Morissette Get Irony Right?” now.

This almost pains me to discuss American Idol because I think the show is a tad bit cheesy. However this is the Musicgoat and there were some good music moments on last nights show.

First, I want to give it up 17 year old sweetheart Jordin. She really brought it and performed with a ton of emotion over the past few nights and you know as well as I do that that is the ticket in music. Every song seem to be in parallel with what she was experiencing. She has a bright future. Oh and is Ryan Seacrest that short or is Jordin just that tall? Find funny seeing them stand next to each other.

Blake on the other hand seemed to be a little out of his element. I almost felt bad that he had to sing the final song. It just wasn’t him. It would be like having Justin Timberlake sing a bad Celine Dion song. They should have let him arrange it ala “You Give Love A Bad Name.” He may have improved the tune and had a fighting chance.

Speaking of the song “This is My Now.” Is it just me or does every American Idol finale song sound the same, sterile. Maybe if it was stripped down and intimate with o lot less orchestra.

Chris Daughtry closed the first show and showed everyone that he is the true idol from last years show. He is everywhere, and outside of a few Ford commercials, I haven’t heard anything from the people that finished in front of him. Things always seem to find a way of correcting themselves if you let them.

Joe Perry and Kelly Clarkson doing a Beatles song. Anything is possible. Wonder if he was able to have a few drinks with her after the show (wink, wink).

One last thing, I don’t care what anyone says about Simon. The guys is a genius and his honesty is refreshing. I would love to have the guy critique my gigs.

I came across this on Digg.com this morning and thought I would pass it along. Evidently Motley Crue have either a ton of time on there hands, a bone to pick with Paris Hilton or both. They have started a petition to counter a petition that is attempting to keep Paris Hilton out of jail for her drinking and driving.

Even though I agree with them that she should do her time, it is sort of odd that they would be so vocal on something like this. Other than their 20 years of balls to the wall partying and near death experiences, a wasted Vince Neil was driving a car that ended the life a guy named Razzle from the band Hanoi Rocks.

Anyway, here is the article. Go check it out for yourself. Motley Crue: Throw Paris Hilton in Jail.

I just wanted to give you the latest on the whole SaveNetRadio campaign. I received another letter from Tim Westergren of Pandora. As you will see below, things are looking up.

Hi, it’s Tim again,

I wanted to thank you again for your extraordinary support in the fight to save Internet radio and Pandora. Thanks to the overwhelming number of calls you made, letters you faxed, and emails you sent, the Internet Radio Equality Act is fast gaining momentum in the House of Representatives (74 sponsors and growing). It’s nothing short of remarkable for this to happen in such a brief period of time – almost unprecedented.

Last Friday a Senate version of the bill was introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sam Brownback (R-KS): www.savenetradio.org/071510-wyden.pdf. This is a promising development, but we need your help again. I know we’re asking a lot, but the stakes couldn’t be higher and the fight is not over.

Please call the offices of your Senators and ask them to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act, S. 1353.

Senator Amy Klobuchar: (202) 224-3244
Senator Norm Coleman: (202) 224-5641

Visit www.savenetradio.org to keep up on our fight to save Internet radio. There are some powerful testimonials there from musicians who have found their audience through Internet radio.

We are deeply moved by your support. Thank you.
-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

It is very exciting that this is working so well. Make some calls and cross your fingers.

I bet that you cold use a good laugh today and I figured this would help. I was rummaging around YouTube the other day and I stumbled on to this hilarious clip of Robin Williams talking about Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. Enjoy!

Taking a trip to the grocery store to get a few movies turned out to be an enlightening experience. Turns out that Steely Dan and I do not see eye to eye when it comes to choice of fine liquor.

Imagine this. There I am rolling down the road, iPod on mix and on pops “Hey Nineteen.” It sounds great; thumping base, silky smooth groove and great harmonies (what else would would you expect from Steely Dan?). Next thing ya know I started to listen to the lyrics, “…the Cuervo gold …the fine co–lum-bian, …let’s make tonight a wonderful thing.” Nice but, one word jumped out at me; Cuervo.

No offense Cuervo enthusiasts, but what in the hell is so wonderful about including this rough-tasting Tequila in an otherwise promising evening? Haven’t they heard of Don Julio?

Think about it. Julio tastes so good that you don’t have to bother with salt and lime. You get to spend a little more time with the fine Columbian and A LOT more time to work on the nineteen year old.

Lets try this again, “…Don Julio …the fine co–lum-bian, …let’s make tonight a wonderful thing.” Ahhh…perfect.

Yesterday in my post about Amazon.com offering DRM free downloads I barely touched on the issues surrounding DRM. Today I want to give you a more in-depth look at how complex and polarizing this issue is.

A few months ago, before starting the Musicgoat, I tripped over a great post on a blog entitled “The Mighty Dacs.” This post posed the question which would you rather steal: music or computers?. The author of the blog, Dacs, shared a post from Charlie Gillingham from the Counting Crows. He made his statements on CountingCrows.com and he provides an in depth look at the issues concerning DRM and the music industry, from a professional musicians perspective. Good read and very enlightening.

If you didn’t catch it, my thoughts are summed up pretty well in the statement I made in the comments that day (I am ckay44);

Great post. Being a huge music fan since the 80’s I’ve watched this whole thing develop over the years.

As a fan (consumer) I think it’s great the way things are working. Since this wide array music became readily available, I have been able to enjoy many types of music I may never have listened to if I had to spend $15. That enriches my life, helps the artist gain another fan and pretty much keeps it real all around.

As an artist it seems to me that we live in a time where, with a little know-how, it is easier than ever to get your music into the hands of millions of people. The people decide, not some record exec or consumer budget.

Everything will be fine. We are all better off. Stay positive!

I must have been feelin’ it that day because I can’t say it any better than that today.

Thanks to Dacs for sharing and inspiring.

Amazon.com announced today that they were going to be offering DRM free music downloads by the end of the year. Here is their press release. This is great news for you if you like owning your downloaded music.

There are already a few other sites like eMusic out there that offer DRM free music but their catalogs are limited to smaller independent labels. It is great to see a major online distributer like Amazon provide this service because there is a chance the some of the bigger labels could open up their catalogs to DRM free providers. This could put pressure on some of the other services out there like iTunes and Rhapsody to go DRM free.

If you are not familiar with the term DRM here’s a quick explanation. In a nutshell, it stands for Digital Rights Management. This technology is a way for record companies to keep you from sharing music with your friends or anyone else.

Currently if you download a song with DRM from iTunes, you can only play it on your iPod and you can only burn it 5 times. If you where to decide to remove iTunes from your computer one day, all the music, that you paid your hard earned money for, goes with it. You don’t own the music like you did with CD or cassette, fopr the most part you are just renting the music. DRM free music can be played on anything that plays mp3 and burned multiple times.

If you want a more thorough explanation of DRM, you can check out wikipedia’s breakdown of DRM.

In this post I am going to show you an example of how the power of the internet is moving us back in the direction of true democracy.

About a month ago I received the following letter from Pandora (one the many music sites I frequent to get my groove on). In this letter the founder, Tim Westergren, explained how big business is getting scared and is trying to limit your ability to enjoy and share (promote) your favorite tunes online. Check this out; Read the rest of this entry