heavyharmonies

??? I never said the sound quality might be reduced, just the manufacturing quality. The ones I've seen in the last 1-2 years have gotten considerably better than 8-10 years ago. Some of the older discs were wafer-thin and the bottoms of the discs were cloudy. Only time will tell how these hold up over the long haul, comparatively speaking. Anyone else remember how you used to be able to feel a tangible difference between Japanese discs of the 1980s and 1990s versus their U.S. and U.K. counterparts? The Japanese discs were thicker, heavier, and made of a higher grade material. Back then it felt like you were buying something superior. -Dan

I don't think anyone would argue the fact that the actual band receives less. But correct me if I am wrong or misinformed ... MOST of the time a buyer uses ebay the artist is making nothing whether the CDs are Russian or not. In many cases (unless a CD is OOP) people prefer ebay over a record store or ordering directly from a band if they can save a dollar or two. I'm not saying it is right or wrong but most people would prefer to save that money rather then put it in the pocket of a band or record company. Am I total misinformed or off base with this notion? If you're talking about USED discs, you're correct. But if you're talking about new product, those discs still have to come from somewhere, whether in market or out of market. The artist's cut is taken farther up the chain, prior to wholesale distribution. -Dan

My question to the band: Their response: Seems pretty clear to me.

They're legit, although some can be of reduced quality with respect to the disc manufacturing (swirling color, thinner disc), the artwork printing, and the jewel case. Russian labels pay lower royalties due to economic conditions with the (supposed) limitation that those discs are sold only within the Russian republics. With the worldwide reach of eBay though, nothing prevents people from selling those discs anywhere. It unfortunately undercuts those playing by the rules, and ultimately the bands receive less than if people bought from the labels that actually have license to sell in the buyer's country. It's a bit underhanded though, when you have eBay sellers in the U.S. and the U.K. importing those Russian discs in bulk and selling them outside of Russia. Not much anyone can do about it though. There's no enforcement, either by eBay or anyone else, so it's a buyer's market. -Dan

You're entitled to your opinion... no matter how wrong it is. -Dan

Nope. Pressed silver discs. I asked just to make sure. -Dan

Given the recent controversy about a member here trying to gouge people for their CDs, I told the band that the best way to counter this was to cut the legs out from under this person by publicly offering them directly from the band: Australia: $20 AUS - shipping included Worldwide: $25 AUS - shipping included Message the band through their myspace account to arrange purchase: http://www.myspace.com/mrscary100

Given the recent controversy about a member here trying to gouge people for their CDs, I told the band that the best way to counter this was to cut the legs out from under this person by publicly offering them directly from the band: Australia: $20 AUS - shipping included Worldwide: $25 AUS - shipping included Message the band through myspace to arrange purchase: http://www.myspace.com/mrscary100

Actually, it's a little simpler than that. I'm running into bandwidth issues at the moment with the board, and the hosting company is being a pain in the butt as far as upgrading (I'm looking at tripling my costs if I want to retain all the old posts on the board, as opposed to archiving stuff before 2008 or so). I really want to keep all the old posts, but right now I'm running out of bandwidth before I run out of month. So for now I'm locking the board down to keep anonymous guests and spiders and bots from crawling all over the board, until I can get this sorted out. *grumble* -Dan

Frontiers Records & WHITESNAKE Join Forces FRONTIERS RECORDS SIGNS THE LEGENDARY BAND FOR NEW ALBUM WORLD-WIDE NAPOLI, ITALY (February 19, 2010) - Frontiers Records is very proud to announce the signing of legendary rock band WHITESNAKE. David Coverdale and band are gearing up for their latest endeavour. WHITESNAKE has already started composing new material that promises to deliver one of the finest chapters in WHITESNAKE'S career. “We are off to a very good start, with the new songs taking positive shape. It feels good, fresh & exciting,” explains Coverdale. The next release already feels like a solid, natural progression to their last opus, the successful, critically acclaimed ‘Good To Be Bad’ album, awarded by the influential Classic Rock magazine as “Best Album of the Year” in 2008. “As always, we want to take it to the next level,” states’ Coverdale. “I feel that with the last album we achieved a strong WHITESNAKE ‘cocktail’ that comfortably embraced & mixed all the previous musical aspects & styles of the band’s history, while taking our identity a little further... all on one album..." Born in 1977, WHITESNAKE have been among the most influential representatives of the their genre, having produced numerous rock music classics such as ‘Here I Go Again’, ‘Is This Love’, ‘Still Of The Night’, ‘Fool For Your Loving’, ‘Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City’ or ‘Walking In The Shadows Of The Blues’. Coverdale said the production team for the new album will most likely be the infamous Brutal Brothers, or Los Bros Brutalos, who handled the recording of "Good To Be Bad”. “The new songs are in the very familiar and recognizable WHITESNAKE territory of soulful, bluesy, melodic power rock, with a couple of ballads thrown in for good measure... It can’t be a WHITESNAKE album without ballads, mate!” WHITESNAKE have conquered the love and respect of the audiences all over the world with their driving shows and music. The new album promises to follow in the steps of a great heritage of solid and timeless songs.

Much better than I expected, given the name of the band. I'm guessing that Shinedown fans will dig this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJj7tdomXuc

You mean outside of your using multiple fake names and addresses to get multiple CDs from the band so you can rip people off here at outrageous prices? The band has contacted me directly about this. I'm still in discussion with the other moderators on how best to handle this, but don't be surprised if you suddenly find yourself no longer a member here. What you are doing is beyond uncool. -Dan

Not bloody likely.

Well, heck, I'll give 'em a good home... -Dan

Did you even bother to watch the video I linked to? Nothing even remotely resembling rap there AT ALL. And as far as Disturbed is concerned, Indestructible is just a phenomenal metal album. Disturbed has gotten heavier with their more recent efforts. Seriously, you're missing some good stuff. -Dan

The other part of that equation is that while some of the smilies posted here are cool, others are... well... craptacular. So not every proposed smilie is going to pass the "Dan Test". -Dan

That I'm really, REALLY digging some of Linkin Park's material. I can do without their more rap-laden material, but it seems that recently they are becoming more of a modern melodic hard rock band. I just got done watching their Road to Revolution Blu-Ray, and it has some real melodic passages on it. What floored me though is the video below. If you have the bandwidth and the video processing, I definitely recommend selecting the 1080p version and watching it it full-screen. Both the video and the song are pretty damned awesome I have to admit!

Well the original wasn't a bad tune as far as 80s pop went (of course the style of the song was all the rage then, and I was a shitload younger), and I hadn't heard anything about a remake, so this came as a Godawful surprise. Putrid. *spit*

Watching the video debut on NBC of the remake of "We Are the World" and they turned into a fucking rap song (and I use the word "song" loosely). It's horrific. My ears may never be the same.

Added a few:

Just received my DVD today from Amazon UK. This concert has been begging for an official non-bootleg release for ages. I've not been shy in stating that I FAR prefer John Elefante-fronted Kansas to Steve Walsh at the helm. As such, I had high hopes for this disc. Unfortunately no mastering processing/remastering was done to the video, which is a shame as it is a very dark video. No audio setup, no bonus material. Just "Play All" or 2 screens where you can choose individual songs. That's it. Amazon UK link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...x_ya_oh_product Here is the review I just wrote for Amazon: So at the end of the day it's great to have it in "official" form, but I wish more effort had been done with it.

Not sure, they're all using assumed names. Ugh. That does it. 30-day ban for horribly good humor.

It's only UK... for now. All the other stupid shit that eBay has implemented has also started on non-U.S. eBay. Then when they see how much they can fuck the sellers there, they then apply it to the U.S. It's only a matter of time until it hits the U.S. Bastards.

Argh! Couldn't possibly be scheduled at a worse time. I'm already out of town for that weekend on a work-related trip. Not sure if I can get out of it. -Dan

Speaking of which, I've posted sound samples of all songs from the Crazy Lixx CD on the main site. http://www.heavyharmonies.com/cgi-bin/glam...on&Letter=A -Dan