Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
My latest musical endeavor, a band called You Dirty Rats, has been coming together quite nicely. Have a listen and let me know what you think.
I got another mention in the Media Post News regarding my Star Wars On a Banjo video being taken down by YouTube due to a complain filed by the Warner Music Group.
“Larry Lessig is not alone,” said Corynne McSherry, an attorney with the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Unfortunately, this is one of many, many, many examples where obvious fair uses get taken down.”
In case you were wondering, I never did file the complaint to get my video back online. I first contacted the EFF because I had seen an article that they were willing to help people whose content had been taken down.
They didn’t take my case, but referred me to a page of information about what the ramifications might be should I choose to make the claim to YouTube. In short, I would be opening myself up to getting sued directly by Warner Music Group. Since they have many more lawyers and much more money than I do, I opted out of that plan.
It’s a shame, really, that something that fell squarely under the “parody” and “fair use” clauses got yanked off the Internet forever, and that there is no recourse for the little guys such as myself. All I ever did was play the Star Wars them on a banjo, which you would think WMG would like because of the millions of views and propogation of the Star Wars legend. It was free publicity in a very postivie way for WMG.
The second of my two bands, Garbage Bear, had our debut performance the other night here in Asheville, NC. The awesome folks at the Grey Eagle shot some video and put a couple of clips on YouTube (thanks Jeff!).
We had a great time opening for The Trainwreks last night at The Garage last night. We only got asked to turn down once, and the only thing running through the PA was the kick drum and the vocals (hehehe).
Thanks to our ever-present fan Don, we have had a sting of great pictures from each performance in and around Asheville. Here are a couple from the Stella Blue gig a few weeks ago:
We pretty much rocked the house at Flipside in Boone, NC last night. Flipside is a pizza-pub right across the street from the new sports stadium at Appalachian State, and there were tons of summer session college kids crawling all over the place in search of beer and hooking up. Luckily, The Whappers were there to help facilitate. And we rocked their Polo shirts and tube tops off, Asheville style.
The best part of the evening was rocking out on my new set of Tama Superstars. These suckers are LOUD. 24 inch bass drum, the shallow style rack tom, a 16 inch floor tom, and an 18 inch floor tom. WOW is all I can say.
And, by the way, my older set is up for sale.
We will be back at Flipside on June 19. Look for us this coming weekend in Asheville at Stella’s!