List your favorite record from every year you’ve been alive.

You can do it based purely on hindsight, or you can do it by listing the answer you would’ve given in that year (assuming you were aware of pop music at the time).

1977: Exodus - Bob Marley and the Wailers
1978: Van Halen - Van Halen
1979: The Wall - Pink Floyd
1980: Back in Black - AC/DC
1981: Too Fast For Love - Motley Crue
1982: Thriller - Michael Jackson
1983: Kill ‘em All - Metallica
1984: Dead Can Dance - Dead Can Dance
1985: No Jacket Required - Phil Collins / Songs From the Big Chair - Tears For Fears (tie)
1986: Raising Hell - Run DMC
1987: Appetite for Destruction - Guns n’ Roses
1988: …And Justice for All - Metallica
1989: The Real Thing - Faith No More
1990: Scumdogs of the Universe - GWAR
1991: Nevermind - Nirvana
1992: The Chronic - Dr. Dre
1993: Undertow - Tool
1994: Selected Ambient Works Vol. II - Aphex Twin
1995: Disco Volante - Mr. Bungle
1996: Aenima - Tool / Richard d. James - Aphex Twin (tie)
1997: The Lonesome Crowded West - Modest Mouse
1998: Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come
1999: Fantomas - Fantomas
2000: R - Queens of the Stone Age
2001: Psychopharmacology - Firewater
2002: Songs for the Deaf - Queens of the Stone Age
2003: De-loused in the Comatorium - The Mars Volta
2004: Peace, Love and Death Metal - The Eagles of Death Metal
2005: Speak for Yourself - Imogen Heap
2006: Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple
2007: Make Sure They See My Face - Kenna
2008: The Golden Hour - Firewater

Damn, that took forever. And it made me realize how out of the loop I’ve been for the past few years.  It’s a little hard to pick a favorite album when you only got three new albums in a single year.

If you want to make your own list, you might find these links helpful: Village Voice Critics’ Poll 1971-2007 and Wikipedia’s List of Years in Music

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Every once in a while I come across a new band and they immediately become my favorite band.  It’s becoming increasingly rare these days, but it does still happen.  This week, it finally happened again and it’s pretty safe to say that there’s no way you’ve ever heard of them.

How do I know this? I’m glad you asked. Because I’ve never heard of them either. No one has.

They’re so obscure they might not actually exist.  I don’t know their name or where they’re from (if anywhere).  I don’t know if they play Nordic black metal or indie-electro-ragtime. In fact, if I had to guess (and I do) I’d say they’ve probably invented a totally new genre. And I’d be right.

So you’re probably wondering if I’m about set the blog-o-sphere on fire by posting a link to the next mp3 sensation that will be on every hipster’s iPod and, of course, the next Volkswagen commercial.

Well, I’m not. That would be so 2007. And besides, once I actually hear what this band sounds like I’m pretty sure I’ll hate it.  Just the fact that anyone finds out anything about them at all will be so lame that I’ll probably claim to have never liked them in the first place, unless they turn out to have some “early stuff” that I could possibly not have heard.

I can’t wait to publish this post.  I’m definitely getting in on the ground floor with these guys. No one will dare claim to have not heard of them before I did. Not even the band members themselves.  Because you know what? I haven’t even told you the best thing about this band:

I have it on good advice that all the members of the band have brain conditions similar to the main character in the movie Momento, and that even they haven’t heard of their own band. They don’t know what their own music sounds like, what the songs are called, or if they’ve even recorded any of it. They might not even know how to play their instruments. If they even have instruments. If they even exist at all.

I’m pretty sure they do exist though.  I mean, why wouldn’t they?  Now is the perfect time for a band like this to come along and totally change things.  Like Nirvana did in the early 90s. And after that, Puddle of Mudd. And of course, going all the way back to Dokken, the band that (mostly) started it all (after Phil Collins paved the way).

To sum up: I’m awesome (obviously) and you totally wish you’ve heard of my new favorite band.  Unfortunately for you, once you’ve heard of them, they’ll suck and you’ll still be lame.

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Over the weekend (or today, I’m not sure) NIN released a brand new album called The Slip through thir website. To get it all you have to do is fill out your name and a valid email address. In return you get links to download the album in several formats, including MP3, FLAC and even WAV. It’s being released under a Creative Commons license, which means you are also free to share it with whoever you want as well as remix and rerelease your own versions of the songs (provided you aren’t charging for them).

It’s nice to see a successful artist giving back to his fan base like this. If we had NIN money we’d probably do the same thing. Unfortunately we only have Sinch money (which is on the same level as “gas money” or “lunch money”), so we’re gonna have to charge you for our new album. With your help we can one day make NIN money and you’ll all be first in line for all the cool free stuff we’ll be giving away.

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Steve Vai Shreds

Slash Shreds

Eddie Van Halen Shreds

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1. We have the right to be compensated for the use of our creative works, and share in the revenues that they generate.
2. We have the right to license our works and control the ways in which they are used.
3. We have the right to withhold permission for uses of our works on artistic, economic or philosophical grounds.
4. We have the right to protect our creative works to the fullest extent of the law from all forms of piracy, theft and unauthorized use, which deprive us of our right to earn a living based on our creativity.
5. We have the right to choose when and where our creative works may be used for free.
6. We have the right to develop, document and distribute our works through new media channels - while retaining the right to a share in all associated profits.
7. We have the right to choose the organizations we want to represent us and to join our voices together to protect our rights and negotiate for the value of our music.
8. We have the right to earn compensation from all types of “performances,” including direct, live renditions as well as indirect recordings, broadcasts, digital streams and more.
9. We have the right to decline participation in business models that require us to relinquish all or part of our creative rights - or which do not respect our right to be compensated for our work.
10. We have the right to advocate for strong laws protecting our creative works, and demand that our government vigorously uphold and protect our rights.

Being songwriters, we obviously support this kind of thing. If you’d like to show your support (especially if you’re a songwriter yourself) you can add your signature here.

About ASCAP

We’ve been members of ASCAP for years now, both as writers and publishers of our music. They’re a Performance Rights Organization that collects roylaties on behalf of songwriters and publishers from places like radio stations and television channels that use their music.

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Muxtape is really simple website that allows you to create an online mix-tape with your own mp3s. You’re supposed to have “permission” to use the tracks that you upload but that doesn’t seem to be stopping anyone from uploading other people’s stuff. It’s definitely the easiest way I’ve ever seen to share music online with your friends.

I created a mix of some stuff I’ve been listening to lately. Check it out and post your own mix in the comments or the new forums.

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Are you the kind of Sinch fan that’s always pushing your friends to listen to our music? We hear that from a lot of people and we’re finally able to give a little bit back. So, now instead of just working for free you can actually make money by helping to sell our music!

We’re proud to announce the Sinch Affiliate Program!

That link will take you to the E-junkie Affiliate sign up page. Register for an account and you’ll get unique links you can use to send people our way. If they buy something, you’ll get credit to the tune of 10% of the selling price. That’s $0.99 for our full albums and $0.49 for our EPs. It also counts towards our new package deals, so for those you’ll make even more.

On top of the affiliate percentage, we’ll be keeping an eye on who’s helping out the most. I can’t say exactly what the benefits will be at this point, but we’ll definitely be taking care of anyone who sends a lot of people our way.

You can post your affiliate links on your own website, Myspace profile, Facebook page or any other place you can post stuff online (forums, etc). You can even just email the links directly to anyone you think might be interested.

So, get your account created and see what you can do. I’ll say right up front that we really appreciate anyone who takes the time to do this. I know our fans have been helping spread the word for years, so it’s about time we let you guys get something out of it.

Let us know if you have any questions or need help with anything.

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Up until now this whole Sinch thing has pretty much been a one-way street. We make music and you guys listen. We’ve received a few things from fans over the years: an acoustic version of a song here, a piece of artwork inspired by the band there… but we’ve always wanted more than that. So we finally got around to doing something about it and set up the Sinch Sound Share Project.

How it works is pretty simple:

1. We release packages of sounds/samples from our music on ccMixter.org
2. You download them
3. You use them in whatever way you want (as long as you’re not selling the result)
4. You upload the result to ccMixter
5. Everyone listens.
6. ???
7. Profit!

We’re really excited to see what everyone can come up with. Whether you know your way around Pro Tools or have never touched a piece of audio software in your life… give it a shot. You might be surprised.

To kick things off, our very own Mike the Bass Player did a remix of the first song we’ve released the sound files for, “Cutting All Ties” from the Subdivisions EP.

Listen to Mike’s remix here.

In classic Mike fashion, it’s not working how it’s supposed to but you can still get to the file with that link so you should be OK. It should be available on his ccMixter page, but for some reason it’s not. As you can see there are no uploads even though according to his profile, he “has 1 remix.” Classic.

Anyway, you can find all the downloads along with links to audio software on the Sound Share Project page.

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The internet tubes have been a-buzz for the past few days with the news that Radiohead’s forthcoming new album, In Rainbows, is available for pre-order directly from the band. They are not currently under contract with any major label, so you’re actually buying this album from the artists themselves. What’s more, the digital download version is available for the fan-friendly price of “whatever you feel like paying,” although there seems to be an upper limit of around $200. Those of you feeling super generous will have to just send them a check for the difference.

A few other artists have experimented with this flexible pricing approach, but none as high-profile as Radiohead. And while they’re still likely to sign with a label at some point, this is definitely an interesting step towards shortening the gap between major artists and their fans.

In a related story, Trent Reznor just announced Nine Inch Nails‘ departure from Universal/Interscope:

Hello everyone. I’ve waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed.

From NIN Hotline

Not much in the way of details, but I’m sure those announcements he mentioned will be very interesting. Can’t wait to see where this goes.

And on a more Sinch-related note, all of our future releases are likely to be available directly from us (in case you didn’t know that already). We’ve felt this is the way to go for a while now and it’s good to see some major artists going down a similar path.

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Amazon just launched the “public beta” of their new “Amazon MP3” digital download store.

This is pretty big news. Besides EMusic, all of the other digital stores are using some form of DRM, effectively locking out users of certain hardware and/or operating systems. iTunes sells some stuff in unprotected AAC format but it costs more and from what I have seen the selection is somewhat limited.

“Amazon MP3 is an all-MP3, DRM-free catalog of a la carte music from major labels and independent labels, playable on any device, in high-quality audio, at low prices,” said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music. “This new digital music service has already been through an extensive private beta, and today we’re excited to offer it to our customers as a fully functional public beta. We look forward to receiving feedback from our customers and using their input to refine the service.”

Link to article

Amazon claims to have 2,000,000 songs available and with most songs priced at $0.89 (10 cents less than iTunes and most others), I’m sure I’ll be buying a few albums, if only to test out the service.

Whether or not they can compete with iTunes, I think this is important in that (if people use it) it will be a great example of how giving people what they want (in this case, unprotected music files) can actually be a more successful business model than trying to have control over the content after it’s purchased. EMusic has been doing this for a while, and been quite successful, but they don’t sell a lot of major label stuff. The fact that a lot of the major labels are on board with Amazon is what makes this interesting.

If you want to see more stores selling mp3s and other unprotected formats, I would recommend giving some serious thought to supporting this new venture. The rest of the industry is no doubt keeping their eye on how this all goes down. And you now have the power to send them a message by only spending your money with companies that respect their customers instead of treating them like potential criminals.

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