While Radiohead revealed no real information about their donation-based album, Trent Reznor and Saul Williams have put together a detailed post-mortem of their free downloading experiment. To date, the album has “sold” 28,322 copies of 154,449 people who downloaded the record, so 18% of those downloading choose to pay. Compare this to Saul’s last label-released album which sold 33,000 copies.

Trent notes:

Not one cent was spent on marketing this record. The only marketing was Saul and myself talking as loudly as we could to anybody that would listen. I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence.

Is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I’m not sure what I was expecting but that percentage – primarily from fans – seems disheartening. But… Saul’s music in in more people’s iPods than ever before and people are interested in him. He’ll be touring throughout the year and we will continue to get the word out however we can.

With the lower profile of Saul Williams versus Radiohead, his experience is perhaps closer to the experience most artists would have.
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After a period of inactivity, Slick Shoes have posted an update on their current status and upcoming plans:

Slick Shoes is back together with original members Ryan Kepke, Jackson Mould, Joe Nixon, and Jeremiah Brown. We also added guitarist Jordan Mould . Although we will not be touring extensively we will be playing shows and hope to record a new record in the near future. Don’t forget to tell your friends.

The band released their last record, Far From Nowhere in 2003.
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As with everything broadcast in any video format, the live performances from New Years Eve have surfaced online via Youtube. The first includes Paramore‘s performance of “Crushcrushcrush” which you can find here.

The second is from Angels and Airwaves who performed “Everything’s Magic” and you can find that one here.
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In a recent Distorted Magazine interview both Roger Miret of Agnostic Front and Zoli Teglas Ignite discussed how much the downloading trend is impacting negatively on the whole punk scene.

Not only is the impact being felt from a industry and commercial aspect, but both frontmen are finding that the messages they convey in their music is being lost as nobody is reading the lyrics that come with the CDs.

Zoli said:

They’re just downloading the music, so they’re not reading the lyrics and they don’t really know what the songs are about. With a CD you’ve got the booklet that contains so much information about what you are supporting. That is just one of the downsides of downloading, you miss out on all the extra’s that come along with a CD.

You can check out the entire interview here.
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Seminal rock band R.E.M. have announced some details surrounding their upcoming, 14th album, titled Accelerate. In a recent Billboard.com article the band elaborated on the sound of the new material, hinting at a return to their college-rock sound of the 1980’s and early 90’s:

It’s not like we’re going to pretend these are ballads. These are rockers.

The band’s early material, including the albums Green, Murmur and Document, are considered to be influential to many of today’s punk groups. Accelerate will hit stores April 1st.
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San Francisco’s Two Gallants will be making their network TV debut tonight on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. The duo will probably be performing the track “Despite What You’ve Been Told” from their September 2007 self-titled album. The show will air tonight at Midnight EST, 11pm CST.
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Asian Man have posted new music from three of their upcoming releases. Lemuria has a new song from TGet Better which is due out February 26, 2008, Mike Hale (ex-Gunmoll) has music from his acoustic debut. That record is titled Broken With No Hope and is also due out February 26, 2008.

Finally, a track from the recently unveiled Tribute to the Queers performed by Toys That Kill, “Goodbye California” can be streamed.

You can find all three songs on myspace page.

On a related note, Hale fans should also check out “Leatherface Fan” on his myspace page for a tribute to Leatherface, Jawbreaker and more.
Source Continue reading New songs from Lemuria, Mike Hale, Queers tribute →

Though largely rumoured for some time, Hopesfall have formally announced their break up. The band suffered drastic lineup changes last summer and it looks like it never got back on track. They explained:

[Hopesfall] has broken up and we have all moved on to other things in our lives. Why the break up? Well it’s a long story. To long for myspace but i will say this. I hate Trustkill and it’s owner. Hahahaha. He’s not the reason we broke up but i (we) do hate him.

Anyway we have posted some new songs. one song that [Trustkill] took off the record with out asking us or even telling us. So you can download “Saskatchewan” if you’d like. We have a brand new song that we might post on here very soon. It’s with out vocals but we like it a lot! It’s a nice little gem.

You can find the songs on their myspace page.
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Currently labeless, Seattle-based hardcore act Sinking Ships has posted a new song online.

You can check out the track, “Left of the Middle,” on MySpace.

The band released Ten in October through their former label Revelation Records.
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Later this month, Henry Rollins will be releasing his new DVD. The film is titled Live in the Conversation Pit and is due out January 15, 2008.

Rollins explained the project:

I made my 26th trip to Australia for some talking shows. The first three dates were in Sydney. We rolled film on the performances and some post-show interviews as well. This DVD is what made the final cut. I always have a great time in this beautiful country and have recorded live albums here both with the band and on my own, but this is the first DVD effort. I hope you like it.

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Ska-punk act the Heatskores have split up after nine years together. The band played their final show on December 29th, 2007 at the Kathedral in their hometown of Toronto.

The band self-released three full lengths with their fourth, titled Smile… Tomorrow Will be Worse, released via Pink Skull Records. The group also played more than 400 shows across Canada, sharing the stage bands like Leftover Crack, the Dwarves, Against All Authoirty, the Slackers, D.O.A, the Forgotten Rebels and many others.
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Teenage Bottlerocket have posted a second song from their upcoming album Warning Device. You can check out “On My Own” via the band’s MySpace page. The album hits stores on January 8th via Red Scare and is already available via digital download stores.

The band will celebrate the release of the new LP with a January 25th show in Chicago with labelmates the Copyrights. The shindig goes down at Reggie’s Rock Club.
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Toronto hardcore comedians Brutal Knights have announced tour dates for the next few months. The band will play a small handful of Canadian dates before hopping the border and working their way to and from SXSW in Austin, TX this March.

While not buying sushi with their welfare money the band has been supporting their recent Deranged Records full length Feast of Shame.
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