Travis's lame ol' blog

Inspired by Gizmodo's RIAA boycott, I decided to check out some RIAA-free music on Amazon. To be honest, I didn't realize how many artists/albums I liked were in the Top 100 (aside from the ones below: Röyksopp, Andrea Bocelli, Skinny Puppy). I haven't spent this much money on music since AllOfMp3 took credit cards. Here's what I ended up getting:

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

I've been a fan of Dangermouse since the Grey Album. The song Crazy has been stuck in my head for awhile and at $9.99, this one's pretty much a no-brainer.

Battlestar Galactica: Season One

A great show and a great soundtrack. A must for all sci-fi geeks.

Battlestar Galactica: Season Two

See above. I'm eagerly awaiting season 3's release.

Tropicália: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound

I'm not much of a jazz fan, aside from the Charlie Brown music, but I love obscure stuff like this. Since I heard it sampled in a Ghostface track, I haven't been able to get Alfômega - Caetano Veloso out of my head. I discovered this one thanks to the hype machine. (thanks Jon!) At $19.99 it's kinda pricey, I was hoping it was a 2-disc set or something, but it does come with a pretty thick little booklet with more than you wanted to know about Brazilian music.

I highly recommend riaaradar.com's bookmarklet.

Are you boycotting the RIAA this month? If so, what independent music did you buy?

Pure crap - Anthony Daniels (C3PO)

If it weren't for The Hype Machine, I'd have no idea that this album existed. Featuring such tracks as "R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and "What Can You Get A Wookie For Christmas When He Already Has A Comb?", how could you go wrong? You can preview 2 full tracks at Orangejello Lemonjello. Aside from the ridiculous gouging from the sellers on Amazon, it's available for just $1.22USD on GoMusic.ru, which I'm assuming is as illegal as AllOfMp3.com ($1.47USD).

I've been using AudioScrobbler for a little while now. It's a neat way to get stats on the music that you listen to and find out about similar artists and stuff like that. They have all kinds of plugins too (Media Player, Winamp, XBox Media Center(!!) etc.).

I saw this Beneficial dude in Dave's IM profile and I thought it'd be a joke or crappy or something, but Welcome to the ROC is pretty sweet. It's nice to hear rap about a city I can relate to.

We not know from caviar, bring steak
But ain't no chef that can touch Tahou's and his Garbage Plates
Rochester, NY

Legendary rapper Russell Jones AKA Ol' Dirty Bastard AKA ODB AKA Osirus AKA Joe Bannanas [sic] AKA Dirt Dog AKA Unique Ason AKA Big Baby Jesus AKA Dirt McGuirt died at the age of 35 on Saturday. Coincedentally today would've been his 36th birthday. In the past he'd been arrested for stealing $50 sneakers, making terrorist threats, driving with a suspended license, failure to pay child support (he had 13 children), and many drug-related charges. He had miraculously survived getting shot in the past, attempted to sabotage the Grammy's, and he once saved a 4 year old girl who was pinned underneath a car. Aside from his many kids (and baby's mommas), he is survived by his wife of 13 years Icelene Jones. More info on Google News, MTV had the best write-up.

... please try to catch me if you can."

Flash Flash Revolution ranks right up there with Kevin the Spaced Penguin as far as browser-game addiction goes. Only FFR has music that will get stuck in your head.

These feeds should be useful to anyone looking to

steal make backup copies of their existing stuff. There are other feeds on the site but these are probably the most useful:

• Anime torrent RSS
• Applications torrent RSS
• Comics torrent RSS
• Games torrent RSS
• Mac torrent RSS
• Miscellaneous torrent RSS
• Movies torrent RSS
• International Movies torrent RSS
• Music torrent RSS
• Television torrent RSS

Will Ferrell (& co.) - Afternoon Delight (I think you'll need winamp for this one)

Ern found a sweet music site - the formats supported are ridiculous. The price is a $0.01/MB, so for $25 you can buy 2.5GB of music, AND it'll be in the format of your choice. w00t!
[EDIT] - bad math :-P

8bit - They can't rap, but you can't deny the catchyness of some of their tracks.

Bowie liked The Grey Album so much that he's offering a new sports car to the best mashup of any 2 of his songs. It'll be interesting to see what mixes spring out of this lazy creativity. Maybe I should fire up the copy of Acid I installed back when I took computer music @ RIT and give it a whirl.

Sanchezbrothers.com, they got some hella good rhymes. "I'm hittin switches in my Escort LT... not hydraulics, just wipers and defrost..." (from Jon)

After downloading 2 more torrents of Jay-Z remixes this morning, i decided to visit the artists' links to see WTF the deal is. There is actually a site devoted solely to remixing Jay-Z's Black Album. I still think that the Grey Album is the best so far (Beatles - White Album mash up), but I'm eager to find something better. I've just started listening to the Weezer mash-up and the Metallica and Pavement are downloading now. The funny part is that I never cared all that much for the original Black album.

[Update]: the Metallica one is a horrible piece of garbage, the cadences of the songs barely match up. I don't understand why it keeps showing up on suprnova. The Weezer one is decent, the cadences and moods of each song seem to mostly match up well. The LO2 (Blackfish) is OK, it's better than the Metallica one at least. The Pavement one is probably my second favorite overall (to the Grey Album), it might be because I read the dude's site who did it - he is a University Music Professor working on his PhD.

Now this dude knows how to play Super Mario Bros[wmv].

The Reg says file sharers are not guilty of copyright infringement under Canadian law. "I cannot see a real difference between a library that places a photocopy machine in a room full of copyrighted material and a computer user that places a personal copy on a shared directory linked to a P2P service," said the Canadian judge. This is just another reason to move to Canada. They have free health care, cuban cigars, their president isn't a miserable failure, US currency is worth more over there, they have the better side of Niagara Falls, they use the metric system, the list could go on and on. Maybe when the fast ferry gets here I'll commute (not for $80/day though).

Nigerian rappers- yes they are really named after the 419ers. I listened to a few of the MP3s on the site I was surprised - and strangely disappointed - that the songs weren't sung in all caps, and the lyrics didn't mention any dead relatives who had millions of dollars they need to transfer into a US account.

"How come they didn't found BIG and 2Pacs murderer but they arrest OJ the next day?! Nicole Simpson can't rap!" - Dave Chappelle

I might bid just to get track #12: Request-A-Song.com "BoR - Vol.1" Autographed CD. You can get the mp3/lyrics here.

$5/mo for unlimited music downloads?, yeah, i'd pay it.

I just grabbed DJ Danger Mouse + Jay-Z - The Grey Album off of Suprnova this morning. It's pretty sweet, if you like hiphop. If it isn't put out by the RIAA, I just might buy it...

it'll make you a fungi

iPod's unreplaceable battery lasts only 18 months and costs $255(+shipping) to repair

this is my united states of whatever! "then i'm throwing dice in the alley, and officer leroy comes up, and he's like 'hey i thought i told you' - and i'm like - 'yeah, whatever!'"

the next GZA!

Some of the best pranks ever on this site.

this is fucking awesome

FREAKY! OUTTIE! FREAKY! OUTTIE! FREAKY! OUTTIE! FREAKY! OUTTIE!

If you like downloading movies/music and don't want to be arrested by the RIAA then go here and grab PeerGuardian.

Stealth Disco! (QT req.)

the RIAA makes me want to vomit with rage. I can understand them wanting to sue major music pirates (no i don't mean the record labels), but suing a 12 year old girl? wtf?

Universal's CD price cut comedy gets five stars

move your feet (how can you go wrong with a drunken squirrel and atari-style graphics?)

Wesley Willis, Schizophrenic Street Singer, Dies (Rock over London, Rock on Chicago)

the girl on the right is hysterical! (ASF)

inner loop style

ODB the Playboy photographer!

chicks, tools, tekno (quicktime)

are you neglecting your primal desires?

yeah lick my ass, bitch

this is a great article on why you shouldn't buy cds

over 21? over 18 and got $8? www.blissfridays.com, i'm told they have good techno.

check out the break-dancing orange shirt guy.

This pdf was a full page ad in Rolling Stone.

RIP Jam Master Jay

http://diesel.ath.cx/mp3/

braincloud.net - braindance / intelligent dance music

just hearing fragments of old video games that i used to play brings out some kind of inner childhood fury from the depths of my subconscious.

Only after disaster can we be resurrected.
It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.
Nothing is static, everything is evolving...
everything is falling apart. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else.
We are all part of the same compost heap.
We are the all singing, all dancing crap of the world.
You are not your bank account,
you are not the clothes you wear,
you are not the contents of your wallet,
you are not your bowel cancer,
you are not your grande latte,
you are not the car you drive,
you are not your fucking khakis.
You have to give up,
you have to realize that someday you will die.
Until you know that,
you are useless.
I say, let me never be complete.
I say, let me never be content.
I say, deliver me from Swedish furniture.
I say, deliver me from clever art.
I say, deliver me from clear skin and perfect teeth.
I say, you have to give up.
I say, evolve and let the chips fall where they may.
This is your life, good to the last drop.
This is your life, it doesn't get any better than this.
This is your life, and its ending one minute at a time...