Music Blog

Prof. Michael Geist talks about how file sharing doesn't hurt the music industry.

One of his favourite bands is Green Day, and he’s also a Springsteen fan.

A tribute to a less well known DIY musician, Wesley Willis.

Today, I will be highlighting one of my DIY favorites: Wesley Willis. Wesley died in 2003, but his music lives on. He was a Chicago street performer who created his own unique music.

Pearl Jam is working outside the system.

This is always good news to hear, Pearl Jam's single "World Wide Suicide" has done very well on the billboard charts. This is good for a plethora of reasons, the one I care about the most is the ability for bands such as Pearl Jam to distribute their material without a major label. Of course the need for music publishers will never disappear, but maybe we would get less Christina Aguilera's, Britney Spears, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, (Need I go on?) if bands can begin to sucessfully market themselves. Of course if alternative methods never emerge, no major distributors could hurt choice, but I'm certain that there will be new distribution channels on the internet to help get good names out in the world so we get have a litte more choice on who we want to listen to.

Show us the grill!

So we've all heard the song by Nelly or have seen some rappers with diamonds and gold in their mouths by now. So what exactly is the mythical grill?

Gotta love this description of Dangerous Muse.

This was a buzz for me. It’s not often I come across a band I take to so immediately but their musical style, the vocals, the look of the band all come together to make a coherent and genuinely different… something. It’s hard to define but these guys definitely have the talent and energy, judging from their website, to get wider recognition and fame. They deserve it. Think Pet Shop Boys put in a blender with Soft Cell, add a pinch of Scissor Sisters - only a pinch, these guys are a duo not an ensemble - and then, for good measure throw in some Human League, Ultravox, John Foxx and maybe, just maybe, a sprinking of another famous NY band, Sparks (anyone remember Beat the Clock?). I predict great things for these guys. And getting a ‘thank you’ email from one of them was kind of the icing on the musical cake.

Most people think of music theft as an online problem, but what happens if a song you write ends up on another group's album?

What I do know is that there are some Cleveland musicians who are feeling pretty cheated right now. I asked my brother why his band mates never sued, and he said it was because they didn't have the money or power to challenge a large record company like Universal. How frustrating has that got to be?