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INDIE
NEWS BEAT *
What's Happening At South by Southwest Music Festival and Conference
GoGirlsMusic.com Prepares To Invade SXSW
The five "unofficial" showcase invasions that weekend will feature over 40 bands and performers in total. "We worked very hard to create a lineup that was stylistically exciting yet appealing to a diverse crowd," explains Madalyn Sklar, founder of GoGirlsMusic.com. "We fully expect to see an electrifying blend of industry people, musicians and the general public at our event," continues Sklar. Irish Acts Set to Thrill at SXSW Major breakthroughs in the US for The Thrills, Damien Rice (US Shortlist Music Prize 2003), The Frames and Gemma Hayes (UK Mercury Prize Nominee 2002) has firmly put Ireland in the spotlight as the source of some of the best international newcomers. To help raise the profile of the Irish artists attending The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) will present an Irish Showcase at Maggie Mae's on Austin's famous 6th Street, on Thursday 18th March. The showcase will feature some of Ireland's finest emerging songwriting and performing artists: Bellx1, Turn, Stars of the City, David Hopkins, Mixtwitch. "The last twelve months have been really exceptional for Irish artists internationally, and justifiably so given the current creative output and confidence levels amongst many of the acts coming through at the moment", stated Adrian Gaffney, Chief Executive IMRO, following the announcement of the Irish Showcase this week. B.P.I. Announces Stellar Lineup For SXSW 2004 British Showcase The third annual British Phonographic Industry (BPI) U.K. showcase at this year's South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, boasts its strongest lineup to date. The Thursday, March 18, bill at the Fox & Hound (401 Guadalupe in Austin) will feature The Cooper Temple Clause, Athlete, The Futureheads and Dogs Die In Hot Cars plus two unsigned acts, Thirteen Senses and Earth The Californian Love Dream. The main showcase will be preceded by a mid-afternoon acoustic showcase at Brush Square (East 5th Street and Neches, adjacent to Austin Convention Centre) hosted by BPI, BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music with performances from Jamie Cullum, Tom McRae and Aqualung. The annual British night at SXSW provides exposure for up-and-coming British talent at the industry convention. The event is hosted by the U.K. record industry group BPI, who partnered for 2004 with Phonographic Performance Ltd, British Underground, US booking agency Little Big Man Booking and UK promoters Metropolis, with support from U.K. Trade & Investment. New MyDoom Strain Targets Record Industry Group RIAA Global Hauri assigned a medium risk to a new, fast spreading variant of MyDoom, a.k.a. MyDoomf. The new variant of the MyDoom worm is spreading through e-mail attachments and P2P file-sharing networks it randomly changes senders' ("spoofs") names and modifies the registry of infected computers. The new worm is designed to perform a DoS attack, this time targeting the Recording Industry Association of America www.RIAA.com. MyDoom.f, a direct code copy of a previous MyDoom variant, shows up as a short message with an attached file that pretends to be a Zip archive. It is a destructive worm with its own SMTP engine and spreads via email by mailing itself to addresses found on the victim's machine. "Despite the recent wave of viruses, email users still like to trust emails they apparently receive from a friend or colleague. We recommend users taking the habit of writing very precise subject lines. That makes it easier to distinguish between virus mails and real mails and also avoids deleting good email," said Global Hauri's CEO, Mr. Eric Kwon. "Just make sure your antivirus solution is updated with the latest definitions and set to repair automatically, then this 'My.Doom' should not be a problem." MusicDish Network Unveils Major Site Update
"While we've been focused on getting our artists attention through our network of affiliate sites, we felt it was time to leverage more agressively the MusicDish brand name to make fans and industry members aware of the great music being created right here within the independent music community," said MusicDish founder & editor Eric de Fontenay. "The changes will also emphasize the unique platform we've created by better acting as a bridge between the music community and our over 200 affiliate members." The Robin Hood Of Unsigned Music IndieJukeBox.com readies to launch in March 2004 giving the unsigned music scene a shot in the arm. The company is out to prove that pay per play should mean the artist is getting paid and the music fans can enjoy new music without paying a fee. The sole purpose of IndieJukeBox.com is to give money back to the unsigned artist and place a value on their work. The target market covers unsigned artists/bands, fans of unsigned music and anyone else interested in hearing great music they probably won't hear on the radio or see on music television. After three years of planning the website is finally a reality and bands are lining up to be included because they don't spend a dime and the potential is they will make money every time their song gets played. Gritz Magazine Celebrates 5th Anniversary February marks the 5th anniversary of the founding of Gritz magazine. Gritz is the invention of musician/journalist Michael Buffalo Smith and started as an online music magazine in 1999. When the website grew by leaps and bounds, averaging 700,000-plus hit a month, it was decided to turn it into a print magazine three years later. The result is a nationally distributed print publication that is also sold in England and Germany. Over the years Gritz has expanded from a predominately southern rock magazine to also focus on other musical genres such as bluegrass, the blues, jam band, cowboy/western, and other forms of Americana music. Recent covers have featured Billy Joe Shaver, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bonnie Bramlett, and Del McCoury. The print version of Gritz got off to a big start with an extensive and exclusive interview with the legendary producer Tom Dowd. It was to be his last interview as Dowd died soon after. And, legendary musician Charlie Daniels writes a column in each edition. NCIAA Targets Indie Artist & Label Companies By Invitaition Only!
This new relationship will level the playing field for Independent Labels and Artists by providing a valuable outlet to promote their music and achieve mainstream success. By putting the power of music back in the hands of the DJ's. What people don't realize is that there are really "two music industries". The first consist of mainstream artists who are plugged into those critical avenues of promotion such as, mainstream radio stations, MTV, BET, etc. - that often guarantees mainstream success. The second is based underground‹ which typically consist of independent recording artists, underground radio stations, clubs, etc. These artists tend to utilize grass roots methods such as street teams, mix-tapes, the Internet, or simply 'good ole' fashion" word of mouth to promote their music." Based on that premise, one can logically conclude that this dynamic essentially locks independent artists out, and subsequently prevents them from getting their music into those traditional avenues of promotion. For some independent artists, getting their music on the radio has proven to be an impossible task. However, together with the NCIAA our unique system will bridge the gap between the underground and the mainstream music industries, by providing a direct link between independent artists and those who are mainly responsible for getting music heard, the professional DJ. Bob Mayo Passes...Frampton Cancels Tour Bob Mayo passed away suddenly of a heart attack on February 23 at 4:00pm in Basel, Switzerland. Mayo, born in New York in 1951, was on tour with Peter Frampton who had just launched a concert tour of Europe. Bob Mayo's work is known and loved the world over for taste, style and presence as a professional keyboardist, guitarist, vocalist, producer, and songwriter with international acts. Mayo performed with several bands in the 1960s before meeting Frampton. They toured the U.S. and Canada, recording the shows that resulted in 1976 "Frampton Comes Alive!" Following a brief break from touring, during which time he focused primarily on session work, Mayo later toured with Foreigner, Aerosmith and Robert Plant. In the spring of 1988, Mayo hooked up with old friends Mark Rivera and Tom T-Bone Wolk, performing with Darryl Hall and John Oates. Bob rejoined with Peter Frampton in 1992 for what was meant to be an eight-week tour. This turned into seven months on the road and a renewed personal and professional relationship. "Frampton Comes Alive 2" was released in 1995 with the DVD and CD "Live in Detroit" following in 1999. Most recently Mayo played on Peter Frampton's new CD, "Now." Danger Mouse Responds To Controversial 'Grey Tuesday' Originally intended to be a musical experiment, Danger Mouse's Grey Album now seems placed in the middle of a brewing showdown between music activists and major music corporations. Danger Mouse's Grey Album uses the full vocal content of Jay-Z's Black Album, recorded over new beats and production created using the Beatles White Album as the sole source material. Danger Mouse explains that "all the music on the Grey Album can be traced back to the White Album. Every single kick, snare, and chord is taken from the original Beatles recording." The resulting record, being touted by music critics as one of the best remix records in the history of the genre, is a unique hybrid of work from one of hip-hop's fastest rising stars. Downhill Battle, a music activism group, has organized Grey Tuesday (greytuesday.org), as a "day of coordinated civil disobedience" to protest EMI's cease-and-desist order against the Grey Album as well as a broader protest against major labels attempt to "control what musicians can create by limiting their use of samples." Hundreds of websites are expected to participate.
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GoGirlsMusic.com,
the oldest and most popular website for women in music, will continue
their tradition of highlighting the best in independent women musicians
at its 4th Annual "Invasion of the GoGirls," taking place March
18-20 during the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival
and conference.
The
MusicDish Network unveiled a major update to the web music portal
reflecting its growth and evolution over the past months. The portal
will increasingly serve as a showcase for its artists as well as
other music-related programming, while providing webmasters and
owners with more web programming for them to publish on their sites.
