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Metalstep: Korn go Dubstep, Kyla La Grange & other bands of the week

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Metalstep

Dubstep’s hard-edged North American producers have incorporated more aggressive guitar riffs into their sound and ’90s “nu-metal” embarrassment Korn are now making a dubstep album with obnoxious dubstep producer Skrillex. Try not to get sick in mouth.

Kyla La Grange

An English singer-songwriter (pictured) who has bubblin’ under for a while now, La Grange steps out into the light with the Fleetwood Mac-esque folk-rock of Been Better. It’s the sound of mid-90s AM radio updated for 2011.

James Franco’s new band

Yes, the actor James Franco. He’s teamed up with performance artist Kalup Linzy on a musical project called Kalup And Franco and guess what? It’s pretty good. Well, it’s better than his Oscars hosting performance. Boom! No seriously, it’s very indie R&B which is sooo hot right now.

Bon Iver covers Bonnie Rait

After he performed the song I Can’t Make You Love Me on Jimmy Fallon, Justin Vernon sat down at the piano in a studio and recorded a superior version complete with a detour into Raitt’s Nick Of Time.

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Lady Gaga’s fashion blog & other sites of the week

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Amen Fashion

Lady Gaga has got herself a Tumblr fashion blog.

amenfashion.tumblr.com

Dear Photograph

A photo site that places that great old photograph in its modern context to see how things have changed in its environment.

http://dearphotograph.com

GroopEase

Take the discount model forged by Groupon and apply that to music and you get GroopEase. Each day, a vetted independent band gets the “groop of the day” tag and as a member you get the opportunity to purchase their album at a discount if you like what you hear.

http://www.groopease.com

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A License to Geoblock

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Less than 24 hours after I extolled the virtues of the brilliant virtual chatroom DJ service Turntable.FM (and after a week of addiction) in this publication last Friday, the site was geoblocked for non-US users.

A victim of its own sudden success, the site’s licensing restraints do not cover any country outside of the US so sadly for the rest of us, real-world copyright law has interfered once again in the virtual world. Meanwhile, artists, labels and DJs in the US have cottoned on to the site’s brilliance. Diplo was playing unreleased Major Lazer songs to just three people at one point on Monday morning (after a frenzied party). How’s that for an exclusive start of the week pick-me-up?

Licensing issues will also affect the rollout of Apple’s iCloud and iMatch service in Europe which they announced last month will launch in the US in autumn. Industry rumblings suggest that due to licensing deals yet to be struck with the music labels, it’ll be some time in 2012 before it launches in Europe. Nevermind that the deal that Apple struck with US-based labels may not be a great one for musicians after all according to figures released. The 2012 projection is a reminder that these kinds of deals move very slowly. Copyright and licensing laws are an unwieldy geo-tagged beasts which hold many restrictions due to individual territory-based legislation.

There’s an applicable argument that suggests that copyright law is stifling creativity and innovation and therefore our entertainment choices. Certainly, it’s difficult for companies like Spotify or Turntable.FM to become global concerns because of such licensing restrictions.

Back home, a Copyright Review Committee has been setup by the Government with a view at identifying any barriers to such innovation. The main aim is to reform fair use in Irish law. According to TJ McIntyre, a law lecturer in UCD, copying music from a legally owned CD to an iPod is currently illegal in Irish law.

To that end, the committee will hold a public meeting on Monday July 4th in Trinity College and are seeking submissions from users of digital content and companies in the sphere on the economic effects of current copyright policy. More details and registration at bit.ly/irlmeet.

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