No, DMCA is not a band but it is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it is a law in the United States that makes it easier for record labels to take down mp3s on blogs, amongst other copyright and internet issues. It was passed into law in 1998 by President Clinton, but I did not really know what it meant for music blogs until last week.

How it works is this: the DMCA gives copyright owners such as artists and labels, the right to serve what is known as a ‘takedown’ notice to ISPs and web hosting companies when a copyrighted work is being distributed on the internet, such as blogs. If the ISP/host chose to comply with this takedown notice by removing public access to the copyrighted content on their server, they will be exempt from future law suits from the copyright owner (eg. labels) relevant to this content. The person who puts up the content (eg. blogger) then get sa notice from the ISP/host informing that the content has been removed and that he/she can serve a counter-claim notice to the ISP/host challenging the takedown. The copyright owner then has 14 days to reply with a law suit to take the matter to court. If there is no law suit then the ISP/host can restore access to the copyrighted content.

Two weeks ago I received an email from my web hosting company Dreamhost informing me that they have received a takedown notice from the RIAA for this file: http://whothehell.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/pnauladyhawkemiamihorrorfalke.mp3

It’s from the Miami Horror and Fred Falke remix of PNAU’s new single Embrace (featuring Ladyhawke) post. What’s funny about the whole business is that I was given the file by the copyright owner, the label who commissioned this remix etcetc records who isn’t even registered with RIAA. They reconfirmed that they still want me to blog an mp3 of the track as it is part of their promotional strategy for the single servicing. So they emailed to Dreamhost asking the file to be put back up. Dreamhost replied by saying that we have to serve them a counter-claim, following the DMCA’s guidelines, and recommended that we get a lawyer to do it. They refused to do anything more, even checking if the original takedown notice was issued by a genuine claimant of the copyright material. Now I’ve been with Dreamhost for over 10 years and they’ve always been very good to me so I know they weren’t just being silly. Around the same time, Aleks Discodust emailed me saying that he too was with Dreamhost and that he had received the same notice, and wanted to check with me if that track was indeed still cleared to blog.

A quick search on the internet revealed that the DMCA has indeed many flaws, and there are sites that are dedicated to repealing this Act and even a site on takedown notices clearinghouse tracking the effects of the legislation and other similar law. One of the sites has example of how to write a counter takedown notice, so I did a simple cut and paste, filled in the details and sent it back not to Dreamhost but to antipiracy@riaa.com, letting them know that they are in no position to serve this notice in the first place because they don’t even represent the copyright owner of the song. And then I waited, to see if I’m going to be sued for blogging an mp3 I was given permission to. A few days passed, and then I received an email forward from Dreamhost, the RIAA has rescinded their notice and the file has been put back up online. It is now available again. whothehell.net 1, RIAA 0.

My post is just one of the many examples how this law is being misused. It’s true that the mp3, being hosted with Dreamhost a US company, fall under US court of law jurisdiction. But hosting companies are so fearful of being sued by labels, movie studios and huge bands like Metallica and U2 that as soon as they received a takedown notice they restrict access to the disputed file without even doing background checks to the validity of the notices.

Until now I have no idea which member RIAA, which label, served the notice. Pnau, Miami Horror and Fred Falke (as far as I know) isn’t signed to a US label. Ladyhawke is signed to Island/Universal, but this work isn’t hers, it’s Pnau’s. Perhaps someone in Island just googled ‘Ladyhawke’ and served notice to everyone that was hosting the file. But this recording was done before she signed to Island anyway. I have heard that there were no performance agreement with the song between Pnau and Ladyhawke, and as a condition Pnau isn’t allowed to advertise the song with Ladyhawke’s name or image in the press or videos. But that doesn’t stop bloggers like me attaching her name on it. No one told me not to mention her name in writing, and most bloggers spend a lot of time and money maintaining their websites purely for the love of the music, and they genuinely think by doing so help promote the artists’ work. So I don’t think I should be penalised for my support of the local music scene, if the whole Ladyhawke/Pnau agreement was indeed the reason the file got taken down.

Could this be some form of industrial sabotage? It would be very easy for other labels to serve takedown notices of rival label’s artists, and as a result derailing any promotional blogging campaign. It just seems to give not only copyright owners but anyone that the ISPs/host deemed legimate to takedown just about any mp3s.

All speculations aside, I hope by posting this I’ll bring more attention to this legislation. Have any other bloggers received a similar DMCA notice?

Sam and Hannah - ‘Who’s Bitten You?’ (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Something I stole from the Triple J Unearthed site, Sam and Hannah are two 17 years olds from the ACT who play peppy pop music that’s part Moldy Peaches, part Pony Up; there’s an anti-folk vibe without the alienating vocals. The harmonies are really gorgeous and although the simple instrumentation of piano and glockenspiel don’t do much, this rough (what sounds like a) home recording is charming and endearing. I’m keen to hear more from these kids.

http://www.myspace.com/hannahsam888

The Drones - ‘The Minotaur’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

These guys are too good, sometimes. ‘The Minotaur’ is the long-awaited new tune from Melbourne’s The Drones, and the first song with new guitarist Dan Luscombe. It’s from their forthcoming record Havilah which’ll be out in September so for now enjoy The Drones with devil horns. This one’s so evil… I just love the last 20 seconds of this song!

http://www.myspace.com/thdronesthedrones

The full video…

http://www.walkingonadream.com

www.myspace.com/diediedienz

British India - ‘I Said I’m Sorry’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I’ve never got British India. Are they a hard rock band, or an indie band? Their popularity seems to have exploded, despite the fact they’ve never released anything that’s actually worthy of such grand acclaim. I guess there’s something to say for a catchy chorus. ‘I Said I’m Sorry’ is OK, but there’s nothing all that exciting about this song. Sure, they’re aping the Clash in the chorus, but aside from that the song is just one big plateau.

http://www.myspace.com/britishindia

She’s 16, but they’re selling her as one sexy vixen, which - let’s admit - she is. ’Don’t Want to Go to Bed’ might sound like an innocent title, but listen to the lyrics…

http://www.myspace.com/gabriellacilmi

I wish I have the actual video to post but this looks pretty cool..

www.myspace.com/wearetzu

Megan Washington - ‘Clementine’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

So following from yesterday, Megan Washington is a Melbourne based Jazz-ish singer songwriter who has done backup vocals for Old Man River. A friend tipped me off about her months ago but I didn’t bother checking her out until I actually met her in a restaurant in Collingwood, she’s a real animated gal. Out of her songs on myspace Clementine stands out the most, and it does show just how promising of a vocalist Megan is. She’s in New York for the next two months doing shows and such so check her out if you’re around.

www.myspace.com/meganwashington

Re-recorded and reshot version of the video for the upcoming album.

The Bamboos ft Megan Washington - King Of The Rodeo (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I saw The Bamboos at Meredith Festival two years ago, I’ve seen the name plenty of time around Melbourne’s streetpress, posters and flyers. I’ve never really paid much attention to their music when I should be really because they are every bit the great funk band that everyone keeps talking about, perennial local Melbourne favourites. The Bamboos are about to release their fifth album Side-Stepper and the first song that surfaced features the vocal talents of jazz singer Megan Washington. This song is of course a cover of Kings of Leon’s hit, brilliantly reinterpreted into a funk number with jazzy vocals. Awesome. The drumming in this is just amazing to listen to. This will be in my year end top ten lists.

www.myspace.com/thebamboos

www.thebamboos.com

A bit silly to ask the question who this guy is but might as well post this video here.

www.myspace.com/sparkadia

Hot Little Hands - Scene of the Crime

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A Melbourne based indie rock crew that has been so quiet I thought they gave up. Turns out they’re just getting ready to be released on Rubber Records.

www.myspace.com/hotlittlehands

So several weeks have past since my last post about Australian music fever spreading through the UK this summer and much has happened since my last post.

As promised LOVEBOX, THE single festival event that emulates Londonism like no other summertime party was held over two days in Victoria Park, East London. Unfortunately I only made it to the Sunday (Saturday I saw My Bloody Valentine-ha ha, still boasting!) but saw three Australian bands, all exceptional! Howling Bells showcased their new material (the record should be a stunner!) to a highly responsive crowd just before Operator Please pleased a jam-packed smaller stage. It was good to see a different breed of audience at the Operator Please show, as most times I’ve seen them they’ve pleased a NME demographic (17-24 year old indie-pop kids) with the crowd notably older but no less enthusiastic. Looking forward to hearing record number two. Finally, I saw PNAU in a smaller Boiler room-like stage. It’s kind of bizarre that in the Australian conscious PNAU have been plucking strings for almost ten years but they remain relatively unknown in the UK. I haven’t seen them in ages and their live show was quite the spectacle (Nick Littlemore was clearly F**KED!) but omitted certain rock star qualities, and they had massive multi coloured ballons flying all over the venue. Eventually they invited Amandah from Operator Please to the stage to perform ‘Baby’ that went down better than any JUSTICE record.

Word on the vine’ is that they were poached by Elton John’s management, and happily accepted the music moguls advances, making them hot contenders for a MEGA UK deal. Watch this space.

Next is Die!Die!Die! who were invited along with a whole stack of ‘so hot right now’ acts to play an in store gig at Rough Trade East (this is the uber-chic East London Rough Trade record store franchise frequented by many a hipster and music fan) as a means of celebrating it’s first birthday. Their gig was on Saturday and had an awesome turnout. These gigs work on the premises of first come first served and quite often have a ridiculous line out the front of the store hours before. I managed to get in and watch the kiwi bad boys rip apart the interior with their new set of bold-pop, and ace to see them as vicious as ever… (Certain music A&R forecasters have been speaking of a punk/metal revival, a new interest in heavier rock in the UK following the bust of the indie bubble).. So keep watch these next few months and hat’s off to Die!Die!Die! And finally a shout out and a bit of credit where it’s due to PHDj or to everyone’s favourite indie DJ and friend Martin! Joining the Sparkadia tour bus for their Summer Festival jaunt, he took some time out from the tour and played a few club nights. I only got to see him at work briefly at Club NME in the wee hours of Saturday morning, but this in itself is quite massive. It’s the biggest indie night in London and held at a historic UK live music venue, and for an Australian DJ to be invited to play is MASSIVE and a credit to Martin who mixed better than any UK indie DJ and was without a doubt tuned into the latest dance floor favourites in th UK. I was WOWED! And for the first time, missed Purple Sneakers..

Stay out of trouble.

Tasha

Lior - ‘I’ll Forget You ft. Sia’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I was just cleaning up my inbox and came across this song, how I wish I heard it earlier. Singer-songwriter Lior duets with whothehell.net’s favouriate Sia and yet somehow I haven’t heard it till now. Of course, who could forget that Lior had an evergreen hit a few years ago with This Old Love, deservedly one of the most popular wedding songs around.

Lior - ‘This Old Love’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

www.myspace.com/lior

www.myspace.com/nickhugginsmusic

Sandrine - ‘Where Do We Go’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Does anyone remember this girl? A few years ago she had a minor hit called ‘Trigger’, but her album went nowhere. In the aftermath of the SonyBMG merger she was one of the roster cull casualties and Sandrine quietly disappeared from the scene. Well turns out she left for the United States to try her luck there, and luck is what she got. One of her songs got picked up in a French TV advertisement and it went up in the local charts. Nettwerk label and management, one of the biggest indie music companies in the world, then signed her up. Now she’s based in New York, living it up it seems.

www.myspace.com/sandrinetunes

www.myspace.com/sidekicknick

Grizzly Jim Lawrie - Wish I Was There

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Heartening as it is to find a new little music venue in Melbourne these days – so many are being closed down or turned into gourmet bars/pizza joints – any such elation is only fleeting. A new venue is all well and good: a shiny new PA, some decent-priced drinks and a few rather cool posters might do the trick for some (although no adornments could match the poor old Rob Roy’s signature Johnny Cash), but it all comes down to who you can get to perform. The Toff, Melbourne’s most successful new spot, has seen international artists of some credibility darken its doors, and punters have followed notwithstanding the exorbitant price of beer. However, just down the road from a moribund icon – the Tote – sits an old, ex-Nazi pub called the Birmingham, offering up a new place of respite, more in line with the traditional pub venues of yore. The Nazi-ness of the place now painted over (and well-and-truly laid to rest by The Hondas’ set: “Are you kinky for chinkies? We are the hippest Asian band from Tokyo,” Taka Honda is heard to announce), it welcomes some truly brilliant young artists onto the tiny, dark stage. From side projects by members of Melbourne’s favourite band, Little Red, to electro outfit Hercules in New York, and hot young rock bands Major Major and Damn Terran, there are plenty of reasons to hop on the tram and get the hell down to Fitzroy.

3 weeks in a row now, I’ve witnessed something great at the Birmi (it’s so cool, it deserves a nickname). For 3 weeks, every Wednesday, I’ve seen a young bloke – ex-drummer for bands such as Ropeburning, Durbeyfield, and current drummer for The Hondas and Flats and the Friendly Few – take the stage with only a guitar in hand and proceed to blow the audience away. Grizzly Jim Lawrie is his name, and his music is sublime. Standing alone on a stage can often be a chore for some, but he seems as comfortable as can be: a downbeat, down-right rye sense of humour fills the gaps between songs; songs about love, about death, anxiety and loss, they are as touching as any you’ll hear, but all encased in a demeanour that will get girls and guys alike swooning. It is in his lyrics that Grizzly urges the Tom Waits comparisons. With a bluesy swagger he delivers such cooler-than-cool lines as, in ‘Pay All My Debts From the Grave’:

“I’ll clean all your bones, turn coffins to thrones, get rid of that god-awful smell,
Be an escort in Heaven or a toy boy in hell, and by god I will do it well.
And when I get paid, I’ll get business cards made to pass round to all those deceased,
Saying “Jim’s new to town, but for penny or pound can assist in post humus relief.”

And all this is ignoring the man’s most profound asset… his voice. Some say it’s Muppet-like, others romantically think of Neil Young. Either way, it’s an idiosyncratic warble; not to Devendra Banhart extents, but subtle, beautiful and recognisable.

Do yourself a favour: ignore the current trends. Ignore for one night the desire to watch the same-old retro-rock bands at the Espy or The Corner or wherever the hell you usually go, and come down to the Birmi for a taste of music at its most grassy of roots. I did, and I found Grizzly Jim.

www.myspace.com/grizzlyjimlawrie

http://www.myspace.com/gabriellacilmi

The Seabellies - ‘Prairie’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Has anyone else noticed the resurrgence in piano accordian use? First Holly Throsby, then Baseball and now the Seabellies on their new single ‘Prairie’, continuing their trend for ‘08 of releasing only digital singles. This follows on from ‘Heart Heart Heart Out’ and finds them returning to their Canadian music influences, building a bombastic tune not alike that of Arcade Fire but compressing their multilayered sound into more standard song structure fare. It’s build nicely, there’s plenty of textured harmonies, but at the time of writing this, the song hasn’t grabbed me just yet - and I’m a fan of these guys. Maybe I just have to give it time.

http://www.myspace.com/theseabellies

Jessica Chapnik - ‘Sand’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Jessica Chapnik is a new name to me but she might be better known to the Australian public as Sam Tolhurst, a character from Home and Away. Argentinian born and Australian raised, she is a trained actress, but we’re interested in her for her music rep. She was a backing singer to Sarah Blasko when she met Ben Lee who ended up writing a whole album’s worth of songs for a soundtrack to the movie The Square and got Jessica to sing it. The songwriting is very Ben Lee, and I suspect if he was singing I wouldn’t bother listening to the CD, but Jessica’s voice gave the songs a new angle and feel to them. One to watch in the future.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Chapnik

www.squarethemovie.com/soundtrack.html

www.myspace.com/somethingwithnumbers

I saw the Grates for the first time in two years a few weeks ago in one of those secret shows, I thought I’d be over them but they’re still so fun to watch.

Micky Green - ‘Oh!’ (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of pop music, I grew up on a diet of Top 40 radio so it’s impossible to shake off the habit. Paris based Micky Green in this category of easy light guilt free pop, something that I enjoy every now and then. Tall, blonde and stunning, 23 year old Michaela Gehrmann can easily be a fashion model…well as a matter of fact she is! She moved to France when she was 18 and are on the Ford and Vivien modelling agency books.

www.myspace.com/mickygreenmusic

www.myspace.com/winterpark

Mammal - ‘Smash the Pinata’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Mammal are moving further and further away from Ezekiel Ox’s former band Full Scale and finding a sound of their own, which sits somewhere in the middle of a triange of metal, funk and alt. rock. The typically loquacious Ox is again preaching to the masses, but he’s the ultimate frontman: his effusive personality and unbridled energy which is the key to Mammal’s blistering live shows is captured perfectly on their new tune, ‘Smash the Pinata’. It’s not as simplistically catchy as their other material, but it’s still got that stomping beat.

http://www.myspace.com/mammaltheband

www.myspace.com/martinmartiniandthebonepalaceorchestra

You Am I - ‘Dilettantes’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A gift courtesy of Andy Kent from the band, this is the brand new song from arguably one of Australia’s greatest rock bands, You Am I. ‘Dilettantes’ is the title track from the band’s forthcoming album, set for release in September. Gone is the dirty, garage rock sound that this band is so renowned for; in its place is a beautifully country-inflected tone, similar to what their iconic frontman Tim Rogers was doing with his solo material. A lush orchestration really lends this song a sense of melancholia, and it’s a fitting backdrop to Rogers’ always-engaging lyrics.

http://www.myspace.com/youamiofficial

The Single package will be available Sep and comes with remixes from Jence of Digitalism fame, Dave Spoon, Optimo, and CFCF.

www.myspace.com/thepresets

Ohana - ‘When Things Come Alive’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Australia’s most combustible band, Ohana, return with a brand new track off their forthcoming record. Once again sounding like a band on the edge of completely losing the plot, the Wollongong four piece play their noise-pop with aplomb, echoing alienation with music that pushes and pulls you with visceral energy and infectious rhythms. I can’t wait to hear their new album, and ‘When Things Comes Alive’ is a fantastic teaser track. It’s a wandering progressive number that bookends a My Disco-esque shoegaze mid-section with a frenetic beginning and end, tearing their guitars apart. I think I can hear the blood on the strings.

http://www.myspace.com/ohanamusic

Empire of The Sun - ‘Walking On A Dream’ (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

As promised a few weeks ago, here is the first original track from Empire of the Sun. I do believe we are the first blog or even media outlet to have this but I’ll stop short of claiming exclusivity since I can’t really confirm it. I haven’t got any bio, website or even a photo so there isn’t much to write except to repeat that this is a new collaboration between Luke Steele of The Sleepy Jackson and current electro favourites Pnau. A few weeks ago we posted a remix of this song by Sam La More - Nick Littlemore’s brother - which was reviewed by pitchforkmedia.com . Luke’s melodies are so distinctive and unconventional that it works so well on Pnau’s structured beats - great combo. Very much looking forward to the album.

http://www.walkingonadream.com

www.myspace.com/allindiaradio

Laura Jean - ‘Yellow Moon’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I’ve posted about Laura Jean before and her I’m a Rabbit, I’m a Fox song. This is her newie and it’s just as tender, moody and chilled. Recommended.

www.myspace.com/edenland