The Vanguard

Top 25 Albums of the Decade Part IV

2010-01-31T14:52:00.000-08:00

Top 25 Albums of the Decade: Part IV

Funk, Ego, and the decades best Rock.

5. The Arcade Fire – Funeral – Funeral is audio biography of every awkward, lingering, fearful, hopeful, and unresolved emotion of a generation that grew up increasingly digital and detached. The opening chords of Wake Up – are every bit as powerful and articulate of their generations unique emotional collective as Kurt Cobain’s brooding Smells Like Teen Spirit. Where Nevermind showed the angstful children of Reagans’ America struggling to find what trickled down, Wake Up is the choiring sound of a generation who grew up social networking, struggling to get degrees – not grow up, and trying desperately to hold on to the emotions they hardly felt before their lives and friends became Myspace pages.
The Canadian band (named after “Not an actual event, but one I took to be true.” according to the band) formed in tragedy. Funerals name isn’t cryptic; the band was losing family members.
William Butlers hallowing voice fights gigantic chords and arrangements including a music class worth of instruments. Sounding like all the best parts of Ziggy Stardust – without the space sci-fi theme – Funeral ended up being more about life than death.
Key Tracks: Wake Up, Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Crown of Love.

6. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – It was rejected by AOL Time-Warner. Producers called it a career killer. The Internet buzzed about it. It was set to be released on September 11^th; then mysteriously delayed. With all the myth, circumstance, and hype surrounding the album it would seem the only way for Jeff Tweedy to live up to the hype was for him to pull a Prometheus.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot wasn’t fire. But it’s almost as good.

Wilco hadn’t been the most advanced band. Tweedy channeled the greats (Dylan, Young, Lennon) with enough pop savvy and folk honesty to matter; but they were just another good band. Foxtrot changed that.

Wilco stretches simple chord progressions and folk melodies tirelessly over 6 minutes, (I am Trying to Break your Heart) layered with a clutter of charming Pink Floyd style clatter. Tweedy’s quiet tortured-soul acoustics find new depth with the subtle and constant drums and bright keys on Radio Cure. And, the bands ever improving guitar licks on I’m the Man who Love you.

We at the Vanguard also respect the way Wilco handled their material. The very reason for our list is to demonstrate examples of good media; albums about, and controlled by, the people who made them. Yankee didn’t have a single, was streamed free online for awhile before release, and even when it was rejected by labels, Wilco didn’t let it change their art.

And as for it being a career killer, it’s their best selling album to date, and made it to 13^th on the billboard charts – pretty good for an album with no radio friendly tunes.

Key Tracks: Radio Cure, I am Trying to Break Your Heart, Jesus Etc.

7. OutKast –Stankonia – Not Really hip-hop, rock, pop, or funk, but some kind of cool-breathing Chimera of a group. Outkast played their mad-scientist mix to perfection, putting most other bands who specialized in one of its many flavors to shame. No one pushed the beats better than Bombs over Baghdad (B.O.B) and still flaunted pop like Mrs. Jackson on the same disc. And that was in a decade dominated by pop hooks and beats – that has to mean something…Although not on the album, they also had the best song of the decade with the merit-of- divorce anthem: Hey Ya!

Key Tracks: B.O.B, Mrs. Jackson, So Fresh So Clean.

8. Kayne West –College Dropout – It may seem a strange comparison, but in a lot of ways Kayne West is like Rivers Cuomo. In the early 1990’s Rock was mostly a merchant of downers (Soundgarden, STP, Alive in Chains), but Cuomo sounded more like Buddy Holly – who dropped his amp. He was singing about D&D, falling in love with lesbians, pen pals...nerdy shit.

Kayne made an album about his salvation (Jesus Walks), the dilemma of modern college life (All Falls Down), and how consuming the rap formula can be (Breathe in Breathe out) in an era where hip hop primary function was making girls dance…nerdy shit – for hip-hop.

Kayne’s ego is something stratospheric, but it protects him. It takes a lot of confidence to allude to Happy Gilmore.in your hit about finding the son of god. It’s that humor, and quirky ego, that made Kayne the first producer turn rapper – that didn’t suck.

Key Tracks: Jesus Walks, All Falls Down, Breathe in Breathe Out.

9. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells – If The White Stripes sounds like they rock too hard for a two person bad – it’s cause their not. Don’t believe Jack White isn’t conjuring the spirit of Jimmy Page, Bob Dylan, or whatever dead delta blues men he can when he plays.

“Feel in Love With a Girl” made them mainstream, but Jack’s Guitar (Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground), his holler of a voice (The Citizen Kane Tribute The Union), and his charm (We’re Going to be Friends.) made them the best American band of the decade.

Key Tracks: Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground, Fell in Love with a Girl, Hotel Yorba.

Editorial: Comcast Aplogizes for P2P policy.

2010-01-31T14:12:00.000-08:00

Our Stance on Comcast's "Sorry"

Comcast’s CEO – Brian Roberts – admitted their illegal monitoring and throttling of p2p sites was: “A mistake.” Roberts pointed at during an address on Capitol Hill last week that Comcast changed their policy without government intervention. However, the apology and the policy change did come after threats from free media advocacy groups.

We at the Vanguard don’t accept Roberts apology. For years Comcast as cut connections, or dropped the bandwidth speed to p2p users – and denied it. Now that a Democratic congress supports net neutrally reform, and consumers groups are starting to gain leverage, they apologize.

(An assessment from The Vanguards staff, not a news story.)

Mother of Four has File Sharing Fine Cut

2010-01-27T00:49:00.000-08:00

Had to pay up to $192,000,000 for 24 songs

The inflation rate from 2006 to 2009 was 6.48%, but for Jammie Thomas it was 872.72%. Thomas uploaded some Green Day and Aerosmith tracks to Kazza in 2005.A year later the RIAA sent the mother of four a cease-and-desist letter with a settlement offer. She refused, and was sued for “unauthorized” file sharing to the tune of $9,250 a song (that’s $220,000.)

    4 years after her original case, she got a retrial. It didn’t go any better and she was forced to pay the staggering sum of 1.92 million. Songs are 99¢ on iTunes.
    But Thomas’s case came in three acts. Thomas filed a motion railing against the court’s decision. Thomas claimed her ruling was unconstitutional (1.92m being disproportionate) and the evidence used against her was inadmissible do to wiretapping violations.
   The motion called for a retrial with suppressed evidence, a reduction in damages to $18,000, or just outright removal of statuary damages. Thomas final won- mostly.
    On January, 25, 2010 a Minnesota Judge adjusted the fine to a more realistic $54,000. A fine she still doesn’t intend to pay. "It's easier for me to wrap my brain around $54,000 than $1.92 million," Thomas told a local Minnesota radio show. "Obviously, I still won't be able to come up with 54 grand to pay this off. But that's a decision that I, right at this moment, I still don't have to make."

Axis and Allies, Jan 18, 2010.

2010-01-19T00:35:00.000-08:00

Allies

1. Google – The undisputed king of the virtual world has begun it’s stare down with one of the emerging powers of the real world: China. For sometime China has demanded Google censor search results on topics such as Thiamin Square. Google has complied.

However, after China’s recent assault on the email accounts of Human Rights advocates in the country, Google has flexed its moral muscle and revoked its services.

Although it is unlikely that China will back down – at least not quickly or easily – Google’s actions are a bold first step. Other major sites, such as eBay, have had similar spats with China. In those cases however, the companies simply outsourced their services, instead of denying them.

The Vanguard applauds Google’s strength in being the first major company to stand up to China’s Human Rights violations as well as being a proponent of an uncensored internet.

2. Alan Ellies - The Internets second largest file proliferating site – Oink – had its lead engineer acquitted on Thursday by a unanimous jury. Alan Ellies is the first person to be prosecuted in the UK for filling sharing. His case marks a new precedent for the digital movement in the UK, and may result in the death of the Digital Economy Bill currently being debated in Parliament.

A spokesman for the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) said of the verdict, “It’s hugely disappointing. The Defendant made nearly £200,000 by exploiting other people’s work without permission. The case shows that artist and music companies need better protection”
   We disagree. The BPI is essentially a coalition of the four major recording companies (Warner Music, EMI, Sony, and Universal), the same companies who have already been accused of price fixing this week, and do not have a good track record for paying their artist a fair percentage of record and ticket sales.
   If the people who’s culture produce the art do not have fair access to the media it produces, The Vanguard will continue to support the Robin Hooding of that media.

3. Sam Raimi - When Sony tried to wrestle director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 1-3) into a 2011 release date for 4, he walked. Raimi hated the screenplay and wanted the villain to be the Vulture (played by John Malkovich.) We applaud Raimi for sticking with his Spider-man 4, not Sony’s. So thanks Raimi, we didn’t need this again:

Axis

1. The RIAA - The Recording Industry of America is trying to pressure the FCC to lax its stance on net neutrally and allow for policing of file-sharing sites. If the FCC acts on the comments made by the RIAA, they may change the rules on how they govern ISP and their network traffic. An exert of the RIAA’s comments:

   “Peer-to-peer file-sharing services -- a favorite means of unlawfully stealing copyrighted material -- represent a huge portion of the traffic on the Internet today. Based on recent estimates, peer-to-peer file-sharing applications represent over 20% of the total bytes that traverse the Internet and 17% of the bandwidth used during peak hours. Moreover, in an average month, the top 1% of subscribers account for 25% of total Internet traffic, and 40% of the upstream traffic; over 46% of top subscribers' traffic comes from file-sharing applications. So too in the mobile context, where, by recent estimates, peer-to-peer file-sharing is the "single largest factor leading to cell congestion," taking up 21% of bandwidth on the average cell and 42% in the top 5% of cells. Put bluntly, huge amounts of the Internet's bandwidth are tied up in unlawful traffic. Piracy wastes scarce network resources and crowds out legitimate uses of the network. It costs more to bring broadband to additional areas because of this inflated bandwidth usage. As we, along with our partners launch music services depending on higher bandwidth, we have a particularly strong interest in ensuring an Internet in which media applications -- which, unlike file-sharing applications, have a low tolerance for network delay - can function smoothly and without the network congestion caused by piracy-inflated traffic.”
Even if the FCC dose compromise its net neutrally ethics, the A.D.C appeals court may determine they lack the authority to implement such regulation. This is due to the Comcast case - discussed last Axis and Allies - where Comcast was forced to settle a claim they regulated use of Bittorrent.

2.The BPI -  As mentioned earlier, there is a bill in British Parliament designed by the media oligarchy to police file-sharing. The bill has cross party support – simply meaning the purse strings of the BPI are non-partisan.
Aside from out obvious complaints, the bill does more than simply limit P2P files sharing. The process of regulating these sites would be in the hands of the record labels, and film studios themselves. They would even have the power to force internet providers to cut off service to its members at their discretion.
   As the bill is written, the burden of proof is on the accused; Pretty backwards.
The kicker: the prices of the regulation will be paid for by the people, with a £2 per month fee!

3.   Bono The U2 front man doesn’t like it that you downloaded your copy of Joshua Tree for your special edition U2 iPod. We think that is kinda lame, so here you go Bono.
   He claims it isn't about his bottom line, he is sticking up for the little guy. That idea is getting harder to protect however with more and more bands using filesharing as a way to make a name for themselves. We think it worked out OK for The Arctic Monkeys.

Top 25 Albums of the Decade part III

2010-01-17T17:51:00.000-08:00

Top 25 Albums of the Decade part III

A few albums get a helping hand from the net,

and the first hip-hop on our list.

10. The Moldy Peaches – The Moldy Peaches – Adam Green and Kimya Dawson can’t really play or sing, and they write lyrics like “Whose pussy hole needs filling.” They wear baggy clothes, look like they probably smell, and have hair they may have literally stole from the 60’s. But from their basement in Port Townsend, Washington they channel their awkwardness childhood-latching souls more honest and raw than anyone.

Their self titled second album was released cryptically on September 11, 2001 containing the track “NYC’s like a Graveyard.” A song about the fakeness and filth of the city.

The heads of the Anti-Folk totem pole, The Moldy Peaches, have the peccaries identify of being the leading act in a play about anti-social art. Although they have since split up, they have been summoned from their cold northern basements by Juno and its use of the cutesy duet “Anyone Else but You” to play a few gigs now and then.

Key Tracks: Anyone Else But You, Lucky Number Nine, Steak for Chicken

11. Jay Z - The Black Album – Hip Hop dominated the Billboards and iTunes for most of the decade, but that doesn’t mean a lot of it is worth a damn. Jay Z however, doesn’t know how to make any other kind, and he deviled on her constant boosting as the world’s pound-for-pound greatest with what he claimed would be his last Studio Album (something that has become a theme.)

With an army of producers that would rival the JLA in raw power (Timbaland, Rick Rubin, even Kayne West, and even Eminem) the Black Album not only prove proof positive Jay Z lordship, it shaped the genera for the remainder of the decade.

In what would be the first of his Farwell tours Jay-z took on and demolished everyone from critics to the police – while reminding them all: he was from the streets before he was King.

Key Tracks: 99 Problems, December 4^th, Encore

12. M.I.A – Kala- MIA mixes her bright beats, with dark themes to make an album so dense and powerful that even rock nerds had to take notice. The Album, named after her mother, is about motherly struggles; how to you provide for your family. But MIA doesn’t keep it there, she expands the metaphor to topics like immigration (Paper Planes), and how easy it is to buy AK-47’s in Liberia (the Pixies inspired and sampled: 20 Dollar.)

Although her music is far from the shallow club fair that was common this decade, it holds up pretty well if you feel like dancing to songs about problems in the Third World.

Key Tracks: Paper Planes, 20 Dollar, Jimmy

13. Danger Mouse – The Gray Album – Some things are great apart, but don’t mix well (like cheese and chocolate.) For the most part (looking at you Fred Durst), Rap and Rock were one of them. However, Danger Mouse (aka Brian Joseph Burton aka Coolest Person Alive) developed a new method to the mad synthesizes of MC’s and Rock Riffs.

Sampling from The Beatles’ The White Album and Jay Z’s Black Album, Danger Mouse conjured up something we didn’t even know we were missing out on.

Aside from the masterful mixing, the Gray Album also prompted a discussion, and even some civil disobedience, about the legality of sampling music. The Gray Album is the father of the re-volution, and his inspired thousands to post their mixs on Youtube.

Key Tracks: 99 Problems, What More Can I Say, December 4th

14. The Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I am, I am – The Arctic Monkeys could have become maintains of the British super-hip rock scene on the strength of their savvy guitar licks, charming and precise vocals and Alex Turners candied lyrics.

But, The Monkeys got lucky. After handing out some burnt CD’s of their EP, fans started networking. The bands fan run Myspace generated an army of fans. Big enough so that when they final did sign to a label, their first LP outsold the likes of Oasis and The Beatles.

The albums unlikely story isn’t the only reason why Whatever People Say takes the 14^th spot however. Alex Turner turns running away from the cops, the club scene, and prostitution into poetry.

They also rock.

Key Tracks: I Bet that you Look Good on the Dance Floor, Riot Van, When the Sun Goes Down

Time Warner, Sony, EMI, and more Accused of Price Fixing.

2010-01-17T13:28:00.000-08:00

70¢ Floor for Digital Downloads?

By Yams

All of the four major record labels: Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and EMI Music North America, are being accused of price fixing. The price: 70 cents a song. Resulting in a 90cent price range for songs on major carriers such as iTunes.

The industry responded that music bought on traditional CD’s or tapes cost about 70 cents per song as well.

Opponents however claim that the costs of distributing music online are significantly less, and that the price is not reflective of that.

30 cases concerning the legality of the 70 price range are being consolidated in to one law suit. The 2nd Superior Court (in NYC) has agreed to hear the case. The court will hear arguments on the profit structure of digital downloads before ruling on the specifics of each case.

The complaint began over said record labels' unwillingness to work with eMusic, the second largest online music provider- behind iTunes. eMusic provides music at a whole sale price of 25 cents; The latest law suit has since prompted Warner Music Group and Sony BMG to sign deals with eMusic.

Some analyst predict the case could force the industry to create “fair” prices as a de facto settlement.

Magazine Providers Working on “Hulu” Site.

2010-01-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

Major Publications to go Online.
In a joint venture between several major providers, a new site featuring a “Huluesque” digital magazine selection is set to launch. Featuring the content and support of Time Inc., News Corp, Nast, and more the site set will allow users to brose digital versions of publications such as Time, Sports Illustrated, and People.

The site will work in a similar way to ITunes, in that it will allow subscribers the ability to buy in bundles or individually from a digital store; although, the pricing and other specific information is not yet known.

Spearheaded by Time Inc, this site is in an attempt to gain leverage in the digital market. By bring together a mass of publishers Time Inc and its partners may be able to dictate what sources can accesses a wide Varity of publications.
Publications in digital forum are nothing new. PDF version of magazines and novels, have been on the internet for years. Amazon heavily promotes its Kindle, an electronic reading device where users can purchase digital copies of books, magazines, and newspapers from their library. Apple is also heavily rumored to be working on a new digital “tablet.”
There is some concern over the effect the joint venture and the site might have over the control and distribution of these publications. Although it is unlikely Time Inc will be able to monopolize content do to digital privatization.

Top 25 Albums of the Decade part II

2010-01-15T15:56:00.000-08:00

Top 25 Albums of the Decade. Part II.

The next Five, in our list of the Decades Best.

15. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots – The Flaming lips are the musical version of Wizard of Oz; they brought color to 00’s Rock n Roll. Not only did they bring the fun back to rock With stage props like giant foam hands, alien masks, and New Year’s amounts of confetti, The Flaming Lips crafted a new breed of arena rock.

Aside from their performance, The Flaming Lips also put together one of the decade most beautiful ballads. “Do you Realize” is an all time classic, with big chords, spacey ambiance, and charming vocals.

Also…the album has a song about a girl who uses karate to fight evil robots…Awesome!

Key Tracks: Do you Realize, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots 1, Fight Test.

16. Elliot Smith -Figure 8 – For as long as there is depression and guitars the two will never be an album that balances despair and pretty better than Figure 8. Elliot Smith learn his melodies from John Lennon, buy his plight is all his own. However, there is something indelible optimistic in Smiths songs. For all the pain and uncertainly that Smith crafts in his songs, it’s hard to fret, when you know even in the darkness of his life something as beautiful as his art was still alive.

Smith’s tragic suicide is still haunting, as his posthumous works continue to come out, but Figure 8 give us something wonderful to remember him by.

Key Tracks: Stupidity Tries, Easy Way Out, Son of Sam

17. Beck – Sea Change – If there is one formulaic way to quantify the value of art it is to see how the artist work alters, when his life is in flux. Inspired by the loss of his long time girl friend, Sea Change is a venture from Becks traditional ironic and bizarre style. It’s not small task for an artist who became famous for lyrics like “Dog food stalls, with the beefcake pantyhose” to managed an album full of deep long melodies.

Although Beck is at his best when he is flexing is bizarre style, his ability to make a heartbreak album as honest and beautiful as Sea Change make it one of the decades best.

Key Track: Lost Cause, Paper Tiger, The Golden Age

18. Radiohead – In Rainbows – Since the Beatles invented the idea of interalbummetamorphosis only one other band has been able to pull the trick off; and they did it twice. Not only dose In Rainbows exhibit the second major change for Radiohead, it also challenges one of Rock n’ Rolls maintains: distortion.

Although Radiohead doesn’t abounded the machines that helped them revolutionize rock forever with Kid A, In Rainbows features a stripped down guitar section. Often lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, famous for otherworldly leads is playing naked without his army of pedals. The distortion free Guitars and Yorke’s more hopeful lyrics and humming vocals syncopate into an album as colorful, dark, and unclear as the album cover.

In Rainbows not only stripped the fuzz and crack of modern guitar from the progression of rock, it also change the way we receive it. In an effort we at The Vanguard applaud, Radiohead put the album online where fans could buy the album for whatever price they wished.

Key Tracks: The Reckoner, 15 Steps, Jigsaw Falling into Place

19. Cold Play – A Rush of Blood to the Head – It is easy to overlook Coldplay’s achievements. Their greatest album seemed like it came standard in Jettas, preloaded into iPods, and on auto repeat at Starbucks. But aside from the yuppies gushing, there is some real material to A Rush of Blood.

Coldplay sounds like U2 and Radiohead. Their lyrics don’t revolutionize, and their style isn’t pressing. But still they are a great band. The secret to Coldplay’s quality is Chris Martins embrace of his idols. Coldplay’s art is collage, and there were no better examples of that craft in this decade than A Rush of Blood…well maybe one.

Key Tracks: Clocks, The Scientist, Green Eyes

Top 25 Albums of the Decade

2010-01-15T15:10:00.000-08:00

The Top 25 Albums of the Decade

A list of the most important and enduring albums of the decade.

Updated, with 5 new albums every other day, until the final album is reveled. check back for updates, and PLEASE leave your input we love to hear from you.

20. Bright Eyes -I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning - Coner polishes his sound, and let's his acoustic folk blues shine into the bedrooms of disenfranchised teens and twenty-somethings around America.

Key tracks: First Day of My Life, Lua, Ode to Joy.

21. Modest Mouse -Good News for People Who like Bad News - Modest Mouse scored their first hit with this adventurous album. It wasn't the success however that made Good News great; it was the awkward combinations of instruments with Isaac Brock Jackal and Hyde voice that made it this veteran bands masterpiece.

Key Tracks: Ocean Breaths Salty, Float on, Black Cadillac’s

22.Ryan Adams- HeartBreaker – Country Music has been idel in its faux front-porch persona and twang since Johnny Cash passed away. Ryan Adams tore asunder the country clichés like Nirvana did to rock in the early 90’s. Heartbreak is a pulp-fiction style adrenal shot to the predictable heart of country music and we love it.

Key Tracks: To be Young, Come Pike Me Up, Oh My Sweet Carolina

23. Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism – Although the album was hijacked by TV teen Dramas, and became more of an iPod accessory than an album, Death Cab’s Transatlanticism is more powerful and enduring than anything they have ever released .

Key Tracks: We looked Like Giants, Lack of Color, The Sound of Settling

24. The Shins- Chutes Too Narrow – The band didn’t actually change anyone’s life as Natalie Portman promised, but their take on The Smiths with a touch of Simon and Garfunkel style is pretty hip.

Key Tracks: Kissing the Lipless, Pink Bullets, Saint Simon

25. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Alec Ounsworth howl of a voice is controversial. Their song structure is brave; snarling “they are child stars” for way over a minute isn’t very radio friendly. They are a divisive band, but there big chord sound, almost-dance rhythms, and unique lyrical style helped usher in upstarted like The MGMT.

Key Tracks: Is This Love, Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Love, My Yellow Country Skin.

Axis and Allies Jan 03, 2010

2010-01-15T03:45:00.001-08:00

Allies

1. The Vatican - In likely to be their only inclusion on this list, The Vatican receive are praise for the playlist they released on MySpace earlier this week. The playlist, titled simply The Vatican’s Playlist, features a mix of classical, contemporary world music, and – the reason we include it – rock ‘n roll and hip-hop.

The most important inclusion is that of Tupac 1998 posthumous hit Changes. The list also features other more contemporary styles from groups like Fleet of Foxes, and Muse. Old institutions respecting a diverse mix of media is the kind of thing that keeps us optimistic at the Vanguard.

2. MrChiCity3 - An active user and content provider, MrChiCity3 , has also become a activist for a more free and fair You Tube. The video we are praising him for was posted in mid November, and has since some 600,000 views. Naturally it has caused some controversy, so we encourage you to watch the video and make your own assessments.

(See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0bGs-hhenI )

3. Jon Hart -In a 2007 lawsuit Hart cited Comcast for sending “hidden messages to computers that are running file sharing applications, [which] appear, to the computers, are coming from other computers with which it is sharing files, telling it to stop communicating.” Simply, he claimed Comcast was monitoring its customer’s bandwidth, and when they were downloading too much data from another machine (like using a torrent client) they would send a signal to shut it down.
Comcast replied at the time with the following statement “Comcast dose not, has not, and will not block any Web Site or online applications, including peer-to-peer services.”
The case was settled, and there are some retribution to certain P2P users who may have had their rights violated by Comcast. For more information on this case and the settlement please see the official site: http://www.p2pcongestionsettlement.com/

Axis

1. Comcast/NBC -If there is a central antagonist in the fight for media clarity it is the media conglomerates. These dangerous people (legally they are, if referring to them as people seems strange to you it should) control not only the cable we use for communication, but also much of the media content we observe; and a theme park.
According to anonymous sources within the Comcast Corp's camp the cable provider is preparing to seize control GE’s NBC faction. This venture would give Comcast control over 27 Local TV stations, the NBC network, and GE’s Theme parks.There is some resistance however from groups like Free Press, and the Obama regulatory committee has spoken out against media conglomerates in the past.
The Vanguard opposes corporate media consolidation above all us. There is nothing worse for Mankind’s original resource than for it to flow from only a few sources.

2.You Tube -Two blows in one week for You Tube’s parent company Google. You Tube could have easily made the Ally list the last few years, but as the site has grown in size it’s masters have changed in demeanor. Recently You Tube has been removing parody videos from its site, and banning or suspending the posters.
This issue has risen mostly from the new phenomenon: remixing. The new artful remixing is the evolution of collage in the digital revolution. The craft is a process of sampling the work of other films, music, etc and rendering it to form a new work of art. Sometimes this process is as simple as redubbing, reediting, and reworking an episode of a TV show, or using very short clips of several songs to create an original work. It can be compared to the work of early hip-hop MC’s.
You Tube is targeting mostly users who post remixed content. They are doing so because of pressure from the owners of the content remixed. There is however no real legal precedent regarding US copyright laws and remixing. So You Tube is pulling the videos as a forum of compliance with other corporations, as they would protected in any future remixing case even if they left them up. They would be protected because even in the verdict was remixing violated copyright, the Epos facto clause would protect their actions.

3. Google - Although the web giant has a fairly has a good report card, Google Inc makes the Axis list this week for its decision to allow web publishers to delist stories from Google News. The company claims it is doing this to give its publishers more control over their content. This action not
only gives publishers the ability to delist their stories from Google news, but also control access to them threw means such as limiting views.
Many Paper-News organizations, such as Media News Group Inc, have supported this new system. Their reasoning is that Google is unfairly benefiting by the traffic their news stories generate. Although Google is complying to their complaints many in the Paper-News industry still think it isn’t doing enough to secure their interests.
We at the Vanguard understand the perspective of these Paper-News organizations; however any forum of delisting is fundamentally dangerous. The internet has become the bazaar of discourse and information for the industrialized world. Any action that removes information or discussion from that bazaar has implications not limited to the scope of the removed information. Google is wrong to allow the internet to fracture, even if their actions have some positive consequences.
PS: This is not a fact, but our assumption is that this move comes with pressure from News Corp in its attempt to usurp Google’s’ power.

Axis and Allies - Dec 29, 2009

2010-01-15T03:39:00.001-08:00

Allies

1. Piratebay - Already one of our favorite sites, TPB gives people the power to control their own media again; without it being treated like a commodity. This week PB tops the allies list with its addition of magnets. This new feature allows users to download torrents directly to their client software. This enables TPB to function even if the many torrent sharing sites like TPB go down. “Now that the decentralized system for finding peers is so well developed, TPB has decided that there is no need to run a tracker anymore, so it will remain down! It’s the end of an era, but the era is no longer up2date. We have put a server in a museum already, and now the tracking can be put there as well.” According to TPB blog.

2. Oren Peil (Paranormal activity) -Although the film is more shock then awe, it isn’t the substance of the film by the way it became successful that lands it the second spot on our list. The film was able become the most successful film of all time (grossing 106,407,695$, for it’s 15,000$ budget) without using traditional advertising styles. The films intrigue was mostly spread through a word of mouth campaign where
the director asked people to call their cinemas as part of a viral strategy.We list him as the second ally this week for bypassing Hollywood’s traditional models.

3. Black Cab Sessions -Conceived by Jono Stevens, Black Cab Sessions, has become one of the most organic sites of the digital age. The site features a series of short performances by (mostly) independent singer/songwriters and poets. The artists enter a charming black cab, and cruse around Britain as a small camera crew shoot their craft. Notable participants include Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon, and My Morning Jacket.They make our list at number 3 for being one of the most sincere sights on the web, and providing a unique venue for some amazing talent. Check out the site out here.

Axis

1. Summit Entertainment -Their film (New Moon) was rushed to theaters, sacrificing any quality it may have had, to capitalize on the hype. New Moon is now the all time fastest grossing film, and it does not deserve it.

It makes our top spot not only for its poor quality, but mainly because of its productions. Film should not be rushed for capital gain, and directors and actors should be allowed the time to capture on film what they need to.

2. News Corp -The second-largest media conglomerate is also the second Axies this week. It seems that News Corp is considering delisting itself from Google, and prioritizing Microsoft’s new browser Bing. We have a problem with this because what News Corp is essentially doing is starting a process where the internet will be divided into teams of corporations. This is a problem because it could make searching the internet much more difficult as some information would not be available on certain browsers, and the corporations would start to gain more control over cyber space as they are able to brand it. We at the Vanguard feel that the internet, and the freedom it can give people, is a very powerful tool for media proliferation, and that News Corp is looking to blunt it.

3. Harmonix – MTV – Viacom - In the early 90’s there was a counter culture movement in the American mid-west. The spearhead of that movement was Kurt Cobain, and the song that catalyzed the movement: Smells Like Teen Spirit. Now, Viacom is letting you play that culture changing cold-water-to-your-face symbol, in your room alone, with a plastic guitar, pretending to be a CG Cobian. Viva la revolution, indeed.

The Vanguards Charter - What We Are About.

2010-01-15T03:33:00.001-08:00

Like a child finally outgrowing its parents, the mainstream media producers have become awkward with hormones, ugly with zits, and nihilistically rebellious. The Arts it so carelessly stole as it fled from our control is now made by committee. They are made in rooms far above the earth in sky scratching buildings in L.A and New York, and so carefully pieced together with market research. They are hardly different then 30 second TV spots. Films, albums, novels, and the like are often more advertisements then an articulation of anything human. They burst with cliché’, inhuman sex, gun fire, and worst of all: fabrication. The Vanguard isn’t holy water or medicine, but we will try to be. Our goal is to filter out the toxic and fake nature of the modern media, point it out, and throw it away.

To support these ideals we will update you with information on what we call Free Media and Media Prolifration.

Free Media is content created without the overbearing influence of the media merchant. Whenever a director doesn't back down from corporate pressure to change his film, every time an album makes it threw the gauntlet of producers without being mawed we will cover it.

Our other cause is that of Media Proliferation. Control over the the media our culture makes it not the sole property of Sony, Time Warner, or any other combination of initials. Art is ours, and we should have the right to share it.