Forgotten Lyrics

If it weren’t for the fact that I am notorious for forgetting the words, I’d make fun of him.

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Michael Jackson Dead at 50

Michael Jackson died yesterday, reportedly of cardiac arrest. An autopsy is scheduled for today. Read more.

RANDY RHOADS: Trailer For Long-Awaited Documentary

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Midgets vs. Mascots

I just caught the trailer for one of the most politically incorrect movies of the year! Straight from their website: “Sincere congrats on making the most offensive comedy I’ve seen… awesome!”

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Visit http://www.midgetsvsmascots.com/ for more information. I hope to see this on DVD very soon!

The RIAA, ISPs, File Sharers & Slumping Music Sales

I recently read an article on FoxNews.com about the RIAA pushing ISPs to cut off Internet access to their customers if they are accused of “illegal” file sharing three times. Note that I wrote accused of illegal file sharing, not proven to have illegally shared files. Scary.

Article link: http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,510283,00.html

Since the days when Napster changed the way music is distributed online, the music industry has been trying its damnedest to un-ring that bell. Sorry folks, Pandora’s Box has been opened and you can no longer keep that much of a stranglehold on music. The music industry has never been about the music. It’s always been about controlling how that music was marketed and distributed and those days are long gone. Instead of adapting to this new frontier in the late 1990s and continuing to earn revenue, they chose to ignore the Internet distribution model and tried to sue Napster out of business. That only lead to the birth of other file sharing services such as Lime Wire, Gnutella, Bear Share, and many others.

The music industry response to the many different file sharing services was to start suing individuals for obscenely large amounts of money for the relatively few songs found on individual hard drives. Most people can’t afford the legal services required to go up against such a huge entity (which is exactly what they counted on) so they would settle out of court for amounts much less than the original number bust still grossly disproportional to the cost of a physical CD. Nice way to generate revenue when CD sales slump. That lasted longer than it should have. An individual finally fought the case instead of settling so they are now changing strategies again to try and maintain their outdated business model. This is where the ISPs come in. ISPs in most markets stand to lose customers if they cut them off so it is my hope that they will tell the RIAA where to go and how to get there. Common sense would dictate that since most markets have competition that this would be a no-brainer but we can already see where common sense has lead this issue.

I am of the opinion that music sales are down for two reasons. (1) The price of a CD is not proportional to the costs associated with its production. The music industry promised when CDs were first introduced that the cost would go down once they “recovered their costs” from introducing the format. When people started replacing their entire 8-track/record/cassette collections, it was a windfall that the industry expected to last forever. It had to taper off at some point. They still haven’t adjusted that model. (2) People in general are not interested in “cookie-cutter” type of music. When was the last time an act got discovered and got the publicity they used to? Now, the industry prefers to churn out acts that fit a specific mold designed to generate as much revenue as it quickly can. You seldom see new acts last more than one or two albums before they’re written off by the industry.

OK, I’ve said my piece. Feel free to debate and provide feedback in the comments below. I expect that you will be civil with your comments.

Disclaimer: (1) I am not telling you that I think it’s OK for you to download music without paying for it. It costs real money to write, record and distribute music. That’s worth something. (2) There are those who will never pay for music now that it’s so readily available online. There’s nothing you can do or say that will change their position.

Van Halen – Pretty Woman

Today, I roll out a new feature on this site called What were they thinking? and its primary purpose is to show some of the greatest WTF moments in music video history. For my first first video, I present to you Van Halen’s cover of Pretty Woman.

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If you’ve found a music video on YouTube that you’d like to nominate, send an email to edi!!!tor@kickacts.com (remove the !!!) with a comment about your thoughts on the video. You can choose to be anonymous if you like, or we will give you full credit for your submission.

Let’s Give It To The Bankers

Here’s a humorous video about the current financial situation.

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Please visit the Uke Jackson website for more of his music and a free download of this song.

Comments From An Iraq War Veteran

Editor’s note: This interview is anonymous at the request of the interviewee.

First off, the staff here at Kick Acts deeply appreciates all members and branches of the military and your commitment to our security. It’s men and women like you protect this great nation that make us very proud. We salute you.

1.  What was your first impression of Iraq?

After all the training we went through, some of us that hadn’t been there before were real nervous at first.

2. Is it anything like we see over here on TV in the United States?

I dont think it is. All these newscasters that say they’re there really aren’t. They’re standing in front of a green screen and talking shit.

3. Do you think the U.S. news media is/was biased or non-biased of its coverage of the war?

From what I saw, they were on both sides but they are all pissed and think we are they for the wrong reasons. The thing is that they only get part of the story cause it is OPSEC (operational secturity) and if they know they could put us in more danger than what we are already in.

4. How did it affect the morale of you and your fellow soldiers?

I think it let a lot of us more or less know how valuable life really is and not to take anything for granted.

5. How important was it to get care packages or did you receive any at all?

When anybody got care packages, it was a lot like Christmas because we would get what we wanted and what we needed and everyone shared. We were like a bunch of kids.

6. What did you do to let off some of the steam when you weren’t on duty?

I would blow of my steam by going to the gym.

7. What was the scariest moment you experienced over there?

The scariest moment for me was when the lead truck and second truck took a blast from an IED. I was in the back and didn’t have very good communication with any of the trucks in the front and didn’t really know for sure that everyone was alright.

8. Would you like to address the anti-war people here in the United States that said the war was a waste of time and unwinnable?

In some points they are right. We are not going to stop those dumbass people from fighting each other because it’s all they know how to do. I mean, they’ve been at war for thousand of years and we are not going to stop them. The main reason we’re there is to show them that they can’t bring that shit into our home and we will put a stop to it, one way or another.

9. Do you think our commander in chief did a good job?

I think he made a big decision and stood behind it the whole time he was in office. We haven’t had really any more problems on the home front since we went over there, other than the economy.

10. Here’s where you get to answer a question we didn’t ask. We call this section of the interview “Shout It Out Loud” where you get to say whatever you want.

If I was single, I would go back in a heart beat. I can’t say it’s fun but you get to do stuff that you can’t really do here every day. I’m all for staying there as long as we need. If we pull out now I think it could be a bad thing for America. I was in Iraq for a year and it was in a lot better shape when we left than whe we got there. I can’t say a whole lot about the Afganistan war other than it’s gonna be a long time before we get everyone out of there, if ever.

Download An Album, Go To Prison?

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are pursuing a 6-month prison term for a Los Angeles man who pleaded guilty in December to one misdemeanor count of uploading pre-release Guns N’ Roses tracks, according to court documents.

Read the full article here.

I’ve been following these articles about digital rights management (or as I prefer to call it, digital restriction management) and “illegal downloading” and all the other garbage that the music industry is regurgitating in an effort to maintain their cartel. The article linked above takes the cake.

While the guy that leaked the Chinese Democracy album does deserve some form of punishment, I think 6 months in prison is an over the top bully tactic for both the government and the recording industry, especially considering the “crime” he committed is considered a misdemeanor. It seems to me that a fine of a couple hundred dollars is a bit more reasonable than prison time. Hell, you’d be better off going to Best Buy and stealing it from there. The punishment for getting caught would be much less severe and you wouldn’t have the stigma of having been in prison on your record.

Times are changing and the music cartel doesn’t want to evolve. What scares them most is that with digital distribution, music consumers can pick and choose the songs they want as opposed to being force fed the filler music you find on most releases. I’ve found that the people I know that purchase music on iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, etc. actually spend more money because since they’re picking only the songs they want, they’re buying more songs. The phrase “you can’t see the forest for the trees” rings true here.

The bottom line is that the Internet has changed the way the music industry operates, whether they like it or not and it would be in their best interest to find a way to use some form of digital distribution to their advantage.

Nikki Sixx – You’re A Douche

On February 2, 2009, at a concert in San Diego, CA, Nikki Sixx pulled his usual “pitch his bottle of water to the crowd” routine while he was talking to the crowd. Seconds after he pitched the bottle, someone pitched it right back on stage. Nikki unleashed a verbal assault on the girl who threw it back. Check it out:

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Why is it OK for him to throw the bottle out there but when someone returns the favor, he turns in to a cry baby? Judging by the way he was holding out his bass, it looked to me like he was wanting a roadie to grab it so he could jump out into the crowd. Maybe not, but that was my perception. Anyway, Nikki Sixx, now I think you’re a douche. Way to treat your fans. You’ve put a huge stain on the image of one of my all time favorite bands. You should have just stuck with playing your bass and collecting your ticket sales.