Canadian band, Simple Plan, has announced that they will be playing four dates of the 2015 Vans Warped Tour. Fans can catch the quintet on the tour in Holmdel on July 19, Scranton on July 21, Detroit on July 24, and Chicago on July 25. General tickets can be purchased here.
The New Yorker has ran a fascinating story about Bennie Glover, a (former) CD factory worker whose job involved packaging albums from some of the biggest artists in the world. Glover was considered the top leaker from the early, influential music/piracy group RNS—then called “the most pervasive and infamous Internet piracy group in history”—which leaked more than 20,000 albums.
Glover, who worked at the massive Kings Mountain compact disk manufacturing plant in North Carolina, was held responsible for leaking albums from around 2,000 artists, ranging from Blink-182 to Jay-Z to Fall Out Boy. Starting in the mid-‘90s, Glover’s leaking came at a time when the music industry was in a period of pure extravagance: CDs cost around $2 to manufacture and were selling for $18. Basically, major record labels had license to print money.
If you downloaded music during the Napster era, there’s pretty a solid chance some of it came from this guy. He served three months in jail. "RNS’s final leak, released on January 19, 2007, was Fall Out Boy’s 'Infinity on High,' sourced from inside the plant by Glover," TNY reports.
Here are some interesting points from the story:
A look at the subculture of early music pirates:
"Also, he could share files. Online, pirated media files were known as “warez,” from “software,” and were distributed through a subculture dating back to at least 1980, which called itself the Warez Scene. The Scene was organized in loosely affiliated digital crews, which raced one another to be the first to put new material on the IRC channel. Software was often available on the same day that it was officially released. Sometimes it was even possible, by hacking company servers, or through an employee, to pirate a piece of software before it was available in stores."
Inside Glover’s head when he started leaking:
"At work, Glover manufactured CDs for mass consumption. At home, he had spent more than two thousand dollars on burners and other hardware to produce them individually. His livelihood depended on continued demand for the product. But Glover had to wonder: if the MP3 could reproduce Tupac at one-eleventh the bandwidth, and if Tupac could then be distributed, free, on the Internet, what the hell was the point of a compact disk?"
Some of what he leaked:
"By 2002, the duffelbag held more than five hundred disks, including nearly every major release to have come through the Kings Mountain plant. Glover leaked Lil Wayne’s “500 Degreez” and Jay Z’s “The Blueprint.” He leaked Queens of the Stone Age’s “Rated R” and 3 Doors Down’s “Away from the Sun.” He leaked Björk. He leaked Ashanti. He leaked Ja Rule. He leaked Nelly. He leaked Blink-182’s “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.”
As part of our Song Spotlight special, And The Crowd Goes WHOA! is going to feature a review of a specific track from a band's record. This week, due to the recent release of All Time Low's new album, "Future Hearts," we are going to feature a review of "Missing You" in our Song Spotlight special.
"Missing You" is All Time Low's acoustic, upbeat song with meaningfully deep lyrics on Future Hearts. The deep lyrics tend to be a theme on the entire record, but adding in simply the acoustic guitar and a little bit of percussion allows those lyrics to stand out and hit home.
The first verse starts "I've heard that you've been self-medicating in the quiet of your room, the sweet suburban tomb. And if you need a friend, I'll help you stitch up your wounds." This line really embodies All Time Low's relationship with their fans; Many times on Twitter, Alex, Jack, Zack, or Rian will respond to their fans who come to them with their problems (such as cutting, drugs, etc.) and they are a friend to them.
"Hold on tight, this ride is a wild one," starts the chorus. The words reminded me of an older teenager sitting down with their younger self and setting the reminder that life is a roller coaster, but if you just hold on tight enough, everything's going to be just fine. "Don't lose your fight, kid. It only takes a little push to pull on through," has the same connotation as the first half of the chorus; giving the advice to hang in there because things will improve.
The second first is a repeat of part of the first verse: "I heard that you've been having some trouble finding your place in the world/I know how much that hurts. But if you need a friend, then please just say the word." It goes back to the meaning of the first verse: the band always being a friend to their fans when they need one.
The bridge is, to me, the most meaningful part of the whole song: "Grit your teeth, pull your hair, paint the walls black and scream, **** the world 'cause it's my life. I'm gonna take it back and never for a second blame yourself." The feeling that the bridge gives me is one of being sixteen again, and being lost and scared as you face the rest of your life and trying to figure everything out.
Although Future Hearts is a killer album and all of the tracks are absolutely fantastic, "Missing You" most deserves Song Spotlight because it's a song that currently, and in the future, will mean so much to All Time Low fans.
Canadian pop punk band Marianas Trench have announced a new trek to the US on their "The Legend Continues" Summer Tour.
The tour starts in Minneapolis on June 26 and winds up in New York on July 8.
Dates for the tour are below, and we'll keep you updated on new information as it comes out!
June 26--Minneapolis, MN--Varsity Theater
June 27--Chicago, IL--House of Blues
June 28--Detroit, MI--St. Andrews Hall
July 1--Lewiston, NY--Artpark
July 2--Philadelphia, PA--Theatre of Living Arts
July 3--Boston, MA--House of Blues
July 5--Asbury Park, NJ--The Stone Pony
July 7--Baltimore, MD--Baltimore Sound Stage
July 8--New York, NY--Irving Plaza
Phil Rudd has pleaded guilty on charges of threatening to kill and drug possession.
After initially pleading not guilty to the charges of attempting to arrange the murders of two men, as well as possession of drugs (methamphetamine and cannabis) and threatening to kill, the 60-year-old’s trial was scheduled to start this morning. But, the drummer changed his plea to guilty, and now remains on bail – scheduled to appear for sentencing in June.
According to the BBC, the court heard that Phil Rudd had asked for former employees to be “taken out”, after the release of his solo album, Head Job, “did not go well”. He reportedly offered $200,000 ($153,000; £100,000), a car, a bike or a house as a form of payment to the associate for carrying out his request.
The former AC/DC man then called his victim and threatened to “come over and kill you”, which left them “genuinely very fearful for his safety”.
Phil Rudd faces up to seven years in prison for the charges if he’s convicted.
Kerrang.com will continue to bring you updates on the situation – check back for more information as it becomes available.
First off, thank you. Thank you for always being there. For speaking your mind. For following what you believe. For allowing me to grow. For granting me the opportunity to live my dream. Words simply can’t express my full appreciation and gratitude for you.
As I begin what feels like a new chapter of my life, I’m filled with immense excitement and a fresh sense of hope. I’ve seen this band through every phase, every change, every hardship. And yet my appreciation and love grows with every breath.
So I lift my arms in praise of your greatness. YOU are great. YOU are beautiful. YOU are talented, and smart, and kind, and loving, and generous, and simply amazing.
And you make me want to scream “HALLELUJAH!” from the top of my lungs with every bit of fervor and strength I possess. And I invite you to join me as you have over and over again.
