Free music

A couple of months ago I came across a blog called Antiquiet, which was hosting 9 leaked songs from the upcoming Guns n Roses album "Chinese Democracy". I ended up going back to this blog quite a bit - the music reviews are well written, and I've been turned onto a few new bands through it. Anyway, the GNR leak was minor news when it happened, but became even bigger a few weeks ago, when the FBI arrested the website's owner at gunpoint at his house at just before 7am, and charged him with copyright violation. The whole thing seems a bit over the top (even the Judge in the case questioned why they didn't just send him a summons for his court appearance) but I guess someone is trying to make a point about stealing music.

The thing is though, it's not a one way street. Sometimes bands steal from us too. The way I see it, Metallica owe me $20 that I wasted on their last album, "St Anger". More, if you consider the time I spent listening to it.

It was therefore with a very clear conscience that I downloaded their new CD, "Death Magnetic" last week (also, Lars is a wanker, which makes the decision even easier). I was curious to see how they recovered from the disaster that was St Anger. And it seems like what they've done is pretended that album never existed. In fact, the CD sounds like a return to their eighties sound, with little to do with the mid-tempo stuff they released last decade. There's 10 songs on a 74 minute CD, so they're back to epic seven and eight minute long songs; with some pretty frenetic drumming and guitar riffs. I read a review online where the author wondered how these forty-something musicians were going to pull this stuff off live night after night, and made a good point. It's funny, these guys have been around 25 years or so now, and this is probably as heavy as anything they've ever done, it's not something you'd really expect.

I'm not a huge Metallica fan, but I will listen to this when I want to hear something fast and heavy.

Another CD I came across in the last week was the new EP from The Gutter Twins, "Adorata". I found it at another music blog, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, which doesn't even bother to offer reviews or editorial - they just post links to downloads of full albums. Seems that's a policy that might land them in trouble one day.

I did feel a twinge of guilt downloading this though. Mainly because I think Mark Lanegan is a genius, and doesn't get the recognition he deserves. If I could give him the money for this directly (and have him look me in the eye and promise not to spend it on heroin) I would. Unfortunately I can't, and I know if I purchase it on itunes I'm mainly giving money to Apple, so I'm keeping my cash.

This EP is a follow up to their full-length album "Saturnalia" which came out earlier this year, and includes six covers and two new songs. I actually had no idea the thing was out until I came across it, which is weird these days, where usually I'll know about a release from my favourite artists weeks, or even months before it comes out. I've been listening to this quite a bit the last week, and an early favourite is their cover of Jose Gonazles' "Down the Line", as well as their original "Spanish Doors".

Finally, I've also been enjoying the new Verve album "Forth". A month or two before it came out I kind of rediscovered Richard Ashcroft's solo album "Alone with Everybody", and this is quite different, much more psychadelic and layered, but still really good.