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| My stimulus package? |
The general consensus up until now has been that if you want to listen to music, you have to pay for it. For decades, this took place in forking out to buy records produced by a record label, and then some bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails came along with the daft idea that you could pay whatever you liked, or even nothing at all! But just when you thought that the race to the bottom couldn't go any further, American band Officer Roseland have come up with either the most brilliant or the stupidest idea ever, and decided they'll pay you to download their latest album, "My Stimulus Package".
Of course, the first reaction upon hearing this (well, my first reaction, anyway) was to figure that the music itself must be absolute rubbish if they had to go and pay people to listen to it. But then again, given in the past few months we've already been treated to music so dire as "iSouljaBoyTellem" and "For(n)ever", I figure how could this be any worse? Of course, Halo-17 will be here with a review of "My Stimulus Package", just as soon as our cheques clear.
The Grates' grand adventure
Australia is a great country with a great music scene, but obviously there's a limit to just how much you can actually do here. Brisbane pop-pop-rockers The Grates appear to have hit that limit, after in the past year scoring an impressive three spots in Triple J's Hottest 100, wowing audiences at the Big Day Out (and with frontwoman Patience Hodgson in costume, no less), and selling a stack of albums. So, it would appear that the only thing left to do is go to America to make it big, which is just what they'll be attempting to do very shortly.
Before they go though, Patience and the crew will be bouncing around on stages across Australia in one big final tour, supported by Children Collide. You can catch them at the following venues:
1 May - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane
6 May - ANU Bar, Canberra
8 May - The Forum, Sydney
10 May - HQ, Adelaide
12 May - Capitol, Perth
14 May - University, Hobart
15 May - The Forum, Melbourne
No more mud at AVICA
Perhaps stung by our editor's criticism of the sodden, muddy conditions at the Gold Coast edition of last year's V Festival, organisers have taken the unusual step of announcing that 2009's event will not be held in knee-deep sewerage this year.
The festival, which this year will feature The Killers, Snow Patrol and the Kaiser Chefs, among others, will be moved to higher ground this year, "in preparation for any wet weather". Virgin's press release goes on to assure prospective attendees that "We've learned from that experience, and agreed that quintessential UK festival mud- bath is not what we're all about and we don't want it to happen again," and that "We have placed pumps onsite to remove any excess water." Sounds great! Shame it didn't happen last time! (if only because I had to hear Craig complaining about it for far too long).
- Lauren Harding-Healy (1 comments)