Our thoughts on SOPA and PIPA
January 18, 2012 Entertainment, Misc, Music, Productions, Reviews 2 Comments
Do me a favor today; go to www.wikipedia.com and look up who the all time leading scorer is in the ACC, or better yet how many songs on Adele’s 21 album have gone platinum in the UK; wait a minute, that’s right- you can’t.
Even if you know that Tyler Hansbrough has been the all time leading scorer since 2009 and that 14 of Adele’s tracks went platinum in the UK, it doesn’t take away the fact that a very open and free educational source like Wikipedia is protesting the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Internet Protocol Act (PIPA) by simulating what would happen if these acts were passed into full blown legislation.
These pieces of legislation are meant to curb online piracy and squelch and protect us from “rogue sites” which seek to hurt us. Rogue sites like “The Pirate Bay” and other online shareware. I know these guys aren’t providing the legal alternatives to things, but they have a legal right to exist and be accessible to US residents. I don’t condone piracy at all, heck as a independent music company and label, piracy is the quickest path to irrelevance for a music company; we don’t have the huge catalog our larger mainstream brothers do. So, if an an album goes viral; we can’t recoup the loss.
Google's graphic timeline of objection to SOPA and PIPA
Even with this, it still doesn’t condone such drastic measures as limiting our access to free information, the services of alternative competition and legal media. Creating a framework of censorship the United States has never seen will ultimately end up censoring each of us as American people. There is no way around that. I’m not into scare tactics, guilt trips, or emotional pleas, but these bills, if passed, will do more harm than good. The reason they are so overwhelmingly scary is because they give full enforcement and prosecuting power to the Justice Department. This means, not just getting fined and charged with hosting or interacting, this means jail time for little things too. Again, I don’t condone piracy, I think it is the scourge of the info super highway, but in legal speak, the chilling effect this will have on free thinking and network interaction as a whole and the ability for the idea of censorship to be introduced into American lexicon, is disheartening. I hate the gross things that are online, but I hate being told how I have to interact with the web, far more.
Please do more reading (CBS News, Google,etc) and then contact your states representatives and ask them to vote against the SOPA and PIPA. I, too, agree and believe that piracy needs to end but I believe there are better ways and other people who need to be involved to make this happen.
Thank you,
Michael Anthony Betts II
Director of Business Affairs, Lucas Gambit, LLC
Hadwynn and Aftermath on sale today!!
January 10, 2012 Music Leave a comment
Its a big day here at LG Headquarters. Today Lucas Gambit Records released new records from two of our artists, Hadwynn and Aftermath. We’ve been anxiously awaiting these two releases because we believe that once you hear them, you’ll love them as much as we do. Both bands bring passion and creativity in their own way and both bands are very, very good. This is just the beginning for both as Hadwynn will be hitting the road soon on their “Monuments Tour” and Aftermath will be performing an intimate and exclusive release show for “She’s Better Than Dreams”. Also be on the lookout for Hadwynn’s first radio single to hit the airwaves soon as. (more on that next week).
Today though, celebrate these two great releases with us. And make it a point to run over to iTunes and buy both albums. It will be money well spent and will go a long way in helping both bands develop as a career recording artists.
Buy “She’s Better Than Dreams” on iTunes
Want a physical copy of “Monuments”? You’re in luck, they are available at the Lucas Gambit Store with an immediate digital download.
Happy listening!!
Lucas Gambit
The Civil Wars “Barton Hallow” (an album review)
December 15, 2011 Reviews Leave a comment
By Michael Betts, II
4.8 Stars ( A must have!)
Kin to the baby that would be Grace Potter, Adele, and Nickel Creek’s, The Civil Wars’ Barton Hallow, beckons the listener into musical confusion, dealing with desired love… lost. The arrangements and haunting bell tones are reminiscent of a tranquil discomfort which creates the wide definition of tone and genre variation. Fearless, tender, and seductive, The Civil Wars’ Barton Hallow is the inner personal companionship struggle, finally heard.
Click to purchase album
Immediately the folk takes over. Its simple, yet driving chord choice conveys the elegance The Civil Wars embodies. Joy Williams and John Paul White’s uncanny ability to represent feelings is so genuine and very tangible. The use of finger plucking mandolin and guitar to present the emotional rollercoaster of butterflies and nervousness in I’ve Got This Friend is so present, but subsides as we get lost in the misdirect of feelings. The whole record asks many of the questions that relationships are often afraid to ask — or articuluate — for fear of conceding a fear of commitment or heartbreak.
A vocal marriage made in heaven, Joy Williams and John Paul White eschew their industry experience and venture into uncharted territory — showcasing talent which has now earned them the ears of The Recording Academy and two Grammy nominations.
Barton Hallow is the debut full length album from The Civil Wars. Free from expectations, Williams and White push the envelope, divulging the vast needs of the human condition, for not only trust, but trusted intimacy. The record’s summation is a reflection of a pursuit of love, an acknowledgement of true love, a severing of commitment, recognition of continual sentiment and a thought of revisiting what was, at a later date. They even use The Jackson 5’s I Want You Back to reengage this dance of relationship again.
As evidenced by their sudden success, I believe the world embraces the indie spirit of The Civil Wars and the artistic freedom that provides them. I look forward to seeing them further develop the symmetry that birthed such a lush and thematically challenging album.
Aftermath’s “She’s Better Than Dreams” (album review)
December 6, 2011 Reviews Leave a comment
Available 01/10/12
Reviewed by: Michael Betts, II
(4.7 Stars, A must have!)
Hearing this record I am immediately transported to a 90’s conversion of present day. Aftermath’s “She’s Better Than Dreams” confronts a nostalgic Hootie and the Blowfish sentiment and fuses it with Coldplay’s depth and dense soundstage all wrapped in Lifehouse’s lyrical invention.
This album conjures the emotions from the position of a man who is learning how to articulate his feelings for a woman who is more than just the love of his life. She is his heartbeat. We can hear him swimming through his simple feelings of just wanting her to notice to realizing the complexities of things he just didn’t say to her. The elaborate soundscape draws us, the listener, making us a fly on the wall of his inner turmoil and we begin to wrestle with his decisions wanting, longing even, for a happy resolution; praying they will end up together in the end.
Jonathan Edward’s vocals caress the meaning of each lyric, allowing the audience to be lulled into the conflict of realizing how wonderful this woman is, who doesn’t seem to see him, at least not the way he sees her. The extensive play with various beat patterns rocks the listener from the reality of his lonesome state to the dream of her being near him. The piano break downs present a soundtrack to the montage of romantic images that assuage the mind, ultimately making tangible his bleeding heart.
Although this album doesn’t provide a resolution it doesn’t have to. As a matter of fact it ends musically non-resolved, thus placing the choice to go forward in the relationship in her hands.
The story of this romance is given to us, the audience, to finish; whether in thought or in reality, giving words to men everywhere that have been looking for the perfect way to say “I like you.”
I honestly like this album for its simple complexity of subject and the use of musical variance to underscore its lyrical significance, and I look forward to more substantial music like this from Aftermath in the future.
Checkout Jonathan’s take on the album:
You can see this and more at: http://www.wearetheaftermath.com/
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