Excellent Online

It's been a fairly rough and tumble week in the world of technology, and we've got three separate stories to report on:

First off, a judge this week issued an injunction blocking STREAMBOX from including technology on it's Ripper software that enables the user to save streaming audio files. RealAudio claimed it was a copyright violation, and that streaming audio files are not meant to be saved, and the judge agreed. Streambox is appealing.

The Associated Press is reporting today that TIME/WARNER and EMI RECORDS are to formally announce their merger as soon as this week. The long-rumoured merger will create the combined WARNER/EMI label. So what does it mean for fans like us? Well, the positive angle of the merger is that the new label will likely make gigantic strides towards Internet sales, as both Warner and EMI have been two of the most outspoken advocates of using the Internet as a sales tool. The bad side?

SHED 7's guitarist, Paul Banks has quit. He will be forming his own band while the rest of Shed 7 are looking for a replacement. Thanks for Keven Green for the update.

     We're not dead.

     That's always good.

     But is music? Well, admire the introductory brevity and take a gander at Yet Another Best o' Year List and decide for your "gee, a bit of an anti-climax, no?" selves. Yes, here we (let's-watch-Dean-add-unnecessary-adjectives) go...

     10. THE FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE - Utopia Parkway

Well, here it is, one last monument to a dead century - the 1999 Excellent Indie-UK Mailer poll results. The fourth annual Excellent poll featured more responses than ever before, thanks to the continued growth of the list and the success of the web site. A big shout out, then, to Ajay our web-slinging list administrator. Thanks to everyone for participating in 1999 and we'll see you all again next millennium.

Word on the rumour mill is that RADIOHEAD are planning yet another live webcast from their site (www.radiohead.co.uk) sometime in the near future, possibly as early as this week. Last month, Radiohead took to the 'Net in an unannounced surprise webcast where the band played and DJ'ed live for over an hour. Last we heard, Radiohead were publicly asking for demo tapes of unsigned bands to be sent to them -- it could mean that they'll play these tapes during the webcast.

Hrm... starting my first column of the New Millennium (tm) by eating my own words. Not a good start, but it'll have to be done.

"So it comes out like this, as 1998 being an obvious transitional year. A transition into what, I havnt the slightest idea." Me, January 1999

"We're not in a slump -- we've just opened the book to a blank page. It's not a low point in music evolution -- it's the Dawn of a New Age." Me again, August 1998.

Oops. My bad.

DJ SHADOW has assembled the score to a documentary on the homeless entitled, Dark Days. First-time director, Marc Singer, followed a group of homeless people for two years to make the film. It will debut this month at the Sundance Film Festival.

BELLE & SEBASTIAN will be releasing their first three EP's as a box set in March. The band is currently finishing up their new album which is expected to be released June/July.

The new IAN BROWN single, 'When Dolphins Were Monkeys' will have a cover of MICHAEL JACKSON's 'Billy Jean'. This came about via the Stone Roses Mailing List which organized the online petition. The single will be released on February 7th.