Two hundred fifty riffs are shredding across America. Buh-chuncka buh-chuncka bah, bah, bah! On beery back streets and dilapidated staircases you might meet them, comparing tattoos and trading tales about the old days. Bome, deh bi da bome! Where do the lost riffs roam? Kirk Hammett wants to know.
Wedding receptions: Everyone's drunk or hooking up or trying to get someone drunk so they can hook up with them, and no one is paying any attention to the wedding band.
Some dads read to their infant children before bed; others turn on a soothing TV show and let the kid doze off in front of the glow. Still others perform an acoustic cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" while their baby sings along until it tuckers itself out.
With the Republican presidential primary still bitterly contested between the four remaining candidates, every last endorsement counts — especially the crucial support of the Big Four of thrash metal: Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax. Megadeth's Dave Mustaine has come out in support of Rick Santorum.
With the coming of Diddy's Labor Day White Party, the ancient druidic event that marks the end of the summer season, so too comes another ancient tradition: The Fall Music Preview. What delightful sounds can we expect to be emanating from stereos over the next few months?
During a Sydney performance of "Seek and Destroy," Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett is kicking balloons around the stage. He winds up, swings his foot, and—uh oh. Was that a child that just went flying?
Everyone knows that audio quality has gone down the tubes since people stopped listening to vinyl records. Fans are hating the metal band's new album, reports the WSJ. They're "complaining that 'Death Magnetic' has a thin, brittle sound that's the result of the band's attempts in the studio to make it as loud as possible." See, everyone's trying to make their music sound louder so that it sounds better on iPods. The result is that details get erased and it all sounds like crap.
Metallica and its label, Atlantic Records, have changed their tune — instead of heavy legal metal, it's more light copyright jazz. The band, which for many years playd for their RIAA puppet masters by speaking out against illegal file sharing, has now embraced the promotional power of fans infringing on music publishing rights held by the songwriters by performing classic Metallica tunes on YouTube. The clips chosen by the band and their marketing minions for the new MetallicaTV channel are not clearly fair use, since as cute as an eight year old faithfully reproducing the guitar solo from opus "One" is, note-for-note re-recordings are not typically considered satire or commentary. Ironically enough, the band is giving in where it probably should have taken a stand in the first place.Traditionally, bands playing covers of songs written by other bands had to pay a royalty to music publisher organizations like ASCAP and BMI. The irony is that under traditional recording contracts, bands didn't make much from album sales, but touring and (to a lesser degree) publishing rights. So toeing the record industry party line on illegal file sharing, while giving in to the abuse of the band's publishing and public performance rights, actually makes the least economic sense for musicians in terms of the old music business.
Lars Ulrich, Metallica's Internet-hating drummer, explained to a Bay Area radio station that he's glad the band's new album got leaked all over the world. A copy of the album was bought in a French record store and quickly uploaded to the Internet. The band's new stance is a big jump from 2000, when they sued Napster for distributing their music without permission. Since then Metallica has worked out ways of selling their music online by themselves, finally relenting to iTunes sales in 2006. If you still have a taste for Metallica, head on over to your favorite torrent site. Lars said it's okay.
