Montana Jones

Music

By now I am sure you have heard all about the Sony anti-consumer dust up.

Lets just put on the record that I am against Sony on this one. I believe that DRM is bad, suing your own customers is bad, trying to profit off the control of culture is bad. I have believed this for many years. I have been part of the boycott for many years. The last time I bought a music CD from a retailer was just after Metallica presented a list of 30,000 of their own fans to Napster with intent to do them legal harm. I thought that was pretty arrogant. Metallica could not even remember there was once a time when they did not have 30,000 fans and they thought very little of passing lawsuits on to the very people that made them into rockstars. On that occasion I went to my local music store, picked out a Metallica CD, purposefully put it back on the shelf and bought another artists disk. It was a gift for someone else. That was the last CD purchase I have ever made at a retail store.

I have purchased music since then. Each time at a live show where the band had some CD's for sale. That is why I have The Clumsy Lovers and The Drive By Truckers in my collection. The disks are much less expensive, usually only $10 bucks, and because they only cost about $3.00 each for the band to manufacture I know that the artist is getting much more money per disk than if I bought from a store. It's a musical win win. As an added bonus I get a chance to flirt with the lead singers girlfriend while buying the CD.

Being the music junkie I am Montana has pretty much cramped my style. There are a few bands around but for the most part they play classic rock or country cover songs. Gimmie a break. I need some new music in my diet. The radio stations here all play the same tired classic rock crap. I wouldn't have any new music at all if not for the internet. Anyone interested in my tirade about why I pirate music?

This is where we get back to Sony. Thanks to all the publicity of Sony's fuck up I have stumbled across some new music. I found the list of artists that Sony thinks the world should not hear. I did some illegal downloading. Van Zant, the country band that sort of started this snowball rolling is not all that good. About as cliché ridden a country artist as I could imagine. But buried down on that list I found a gem. My Morning Jacket. The best guitar rock band I have found since The Drive By Truckers. It revitalizes me. It gives me hope for music in this world. I have downloaded a whole bunch or their songs and I just can't stop listening. My fondest wish right now is that they will tour through Montana so that I can give them some of my money. Sadly I don't think they will. Montana is a cultural backwater after all. Sorry about that MMJ, I want to give you some money for this fine music I am listening to. I want to buy a ticket to a show, or buy a CD from the lead singers girlfriend. Unfortunately you got caught up in this DRM shitstorm so you won't be getting any of my money through corporate channels. I'm not about to give up my boycott, don't matter how good you are. If you ever want to make an extra ten bucks please tour through Montana. I'll fork up a little cash.

Posted by: Montana Jones / 7:18 AM