I am quite disappointed at the moment. If I were in a comic strip, I'd have that inverted triangle of thick black scribbles in my thought balloon.
I was thinking about the RIAA and how terrible and litigious it is, and that the only truly indie music released nowadays is only the stuff that hasn't been touched by the RIAA. Their ridiculous war against file sharing systems smacks, to me at least, of the Church of $cientology's war against USENET in 1994-95. They're just going about it all wrong, bumbling and lurching forward, ham-fistedly attempting to squash anything that disagrees with them, like a villain in a Hannah-Barbera cartoon.
A few days ago, I came across this, which pops up a window and lets you know if the recording you're thinking about buying is affiliated in any way with the RIAA. So I decided to run a few CDs at amazon.com through it, just to see. I checked a few Cranes and Ani DiFranco CDs, and, to my horrific dismay, found that both are affiliated with the RIAA. I was thoroughly nonplussed. How am I supposed to boycott the RIAA if my favourite bands are members, even if only by their distribution deals? (As is the case with both Righteous Babe (Ani's label) and Instinct Records (Cranes)).
I need to work out a way to buy CDs only from Canada and the UK. The shipping would be awful, no doubt. It's not like I buy CDs all that often, anyway, it's just that... I don't know. I dispise the RIAA for being such greedy pricks and refusing to listen to reason, just like their net.kook predecessors, and I am very hesitant to put even more money into their pockets. But, there's a new Cranes live album out as of last month, and I don't have it yet... Talk about a moral dilemma, eh?
And generally my generation
wouldn't be caught dead working for The Man
and generally I agree with them
trouble is you gotta have yourself an alternate plan
Ani DiFranco, "Not a Pretty Girl"