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Well, that's it, I'm off to Crete for a week holidays ! I will be staying in the charming little town of 
Paleikastro, one of the best windsurfing spots in Europe. Au programme: windsurfing lessons with my friends Hannes and Davina, of Freak, the funkiest surf school in the whole Mediterranean.
Not to forget sunbathing, reading, playing guitar on the beach around the BBQ and generally chilling out.
See you in a bit !
4 months since the beginning of this blog and here we are, up to Post #100 !
To celebrate the occasion, I
have added a few goodies to my playlist:
- "Cette bonne vieille chose", a funky rarity by Sinclair
- "Higher ground", the super groovy Stevie Wonder cover from the RHCP
- "Harder to breathe", the opening track of Marron 5's last album
- an absolute blues masterpiece "Since I've been loving you "by Led Zep
- and last but not least, the track that sends my energy levels soaring every morning, "Like broken glass" by Bloc Party (and I must say, what a f.... incredible drummer Matt Tong is) !
See you around and in the meantime, enjoy ...
For those of you who already know the French band Phoenix, no need to remind them that their 4th
album "It's never been like that" is coming out. And for this occasion, the band and their record company, EMI France, have show some creativity in using the net.
First, anybody pre-ordering the album on iTunes between the 25/4 and 15/5 received a mini-mp3 album of 4 live tracks. In addition, EMI are publishing what they call a DigHitBook, a 40-pages book sold around 25€ about the band, its history, its universe ... but no CD ! Instead, a specific code is included allowing the album to be downloaded from iTunes.
And quite clever, the DigHitBook will not be available from Fnac and other major music retailers; only 2000 will be sold through the hypest high-street stores such as Colette in Paris.
I guess if it turns out to be successful, other artists will follow. In any case, an interesting way to bring more warmth and substance to the mp3 format.
Coolfer reports on the fact that Starbucks are taking out the CD-burning kiosks (so-called Media Bars)
installed in several outlets.
The point seems to be that burning CD is has-been in the age of IPODs and that the concept would have a better chance to work if consumers could upload tracks directly onto their portable players.
Let me have a decaff' latte while I ponder on this ...
The humanitarian group Christian Aid made public Monday a report estimating the impact of global 
warming in 2000-2020. For Africa alone, a total of 182 million people could die from droughts, floods or other global warming related unnatural disasters.
This can be put in parallel with the situation in south-east UK: with rain levels at their lowest since 1933, the country is facing the prospect of its worst drought for the last 100 years. Monday, the government took drastic measures to limit the use of water.
The UN sponsored Climate Change conference is underway in Bonn: they will be busy ...
For those who don't know him yet, Brad is the brain behind Brad Sucks, the self-entitled "one man band
with no fans". Brad has to be a hero for all of us DIY musicians: he wrote, recorded, mixed, mastered and produced his first album "I don't know what I'm doing" (whose professional manufacturing was funded by fans).
But more impressively he created a huge following on the net: he has been one the first to make the source files for his songs freely available and as a result, there are litterally hundreds of remixes for his songs and even a pretty active Bradsucks forum on his site.
Click here to read Brad's interview on garagespin.
Hats off to the sucker !
Music Business Marketing pointed out indie band Jim's Big Ego which came up with a way to generate 
word of mouth for their (to my taste rather average) music - see here. It is not very clear how the whole thing came together, if there is any attempt to really seed the "Asshole" video with a larger audience or if bush-bashing is indeed an effective way to create a buzz (considering how popular a sport it has become on the net).
Still, I like the idea of doing a flash video in support for a "cause" and this is something I've had in the back of my head with for some months.
More on this in the future ...
Vanity Fair published a "green issue" in May, featuring George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Robert F. Kennedy 
Jr and Al Gore. It included a long piece by the former VP himself adressed to "Toxic Texan" George W. Bush and titled "The moment of truth".
I really encourage everybody to have a read through - the full text is available on Al Gore's site here.
Radiohead singer Thom Yorke has a solo album coming next July: the Eraser. In typical fashion, it
was announced on his blog with a cryptical web link. Here is the track listing: Analyse / The clock / Black swan / Skip divided / Atoms for peace / And it rained all night / Harrowdown hill / Cymbal rush.
Thom said: "The elements have been kicking round now for a few years and needed to be finished and I have been itching to do something like this for ages. It was fun and quick to do."
Click here to register on theeraser.net and get more info on the project.
A few weeks ago, French magazine "Les Inrockuptibles" published a list of 50 essential blogs. Obviously 
such a list can only scratch the surface at the tip of the blogosphere iceberg (I read that there was 25 million blogs in June 2005, with 70000 new blogs ceated everyday !) but some of the pages are well worth a visit.
Here is my own shortlist of the shortlist:
BACK TO IRAQ - Christopher Allbritton reporting indepently from the Middle-East
MY OLD KENTUCKY - tons of tracks from the next big things
SAID THE GRAMOPHONE - daily blog inspired by great music
SOUL SIDES - DJ Oliver Wang on every black music
BROOKLYN VEGAN - VIP access to every concert in NYC
COOLFER - insider's blog on the music industry
404 BRAIN NOT FOUND - great news coverage ... but in French
GORILLA vs BEAR and STEREOGUM - more new music and mp3s.
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