Archive for October, 2008

It’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone…

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

You may not have noticed, but several posts on The Pop Cop have been disappearing in the middle of the night without warning.

We first realised something was amiss when we received an email from Lindsay from The Next Big Thing. He had remembered reading our Glasvegas album review and was intending to link to it from his own site, only to be left scratching his head when it was nowhere to be found.

We’ve since republished it (we keep back-up copies of everything) but, perhaps naively, our initial thought was that some Glasvegas hater had somehow infiltrated our Blogger account and started deleting posts. So we emailed Google Support to ask if they could shed any light on the matter. Silence.

It was only when we read about an almost identical incident last week on the Edinburgh-based blog 17 Secondsthat things became clearer. Their tale was even more extreme. They had done an exclusive and lengthy interview with Glasvegas singer James Allan back in January and had posted a few of the band’s demos at the bottom of the piece. However, a full nine months later the original post was removed, with 17 Seconds receiving a takedown notification from Blogger (Google) which read:

“Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog infringes upon the copyrights of others. The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. We are in the process of removing from our servers the links that allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others. If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. Please note that repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account.”

But what makes this development so incredulous is that these were mp3s that the band themselves had actively circulated on the internet, as guitarist Rab Allan himself confirmed in an interview with Twisted Ear: “We put all our early demos up online for people, as we wanted them to know the words to the songs before they were coming to the gigs.”

Now that the band are signed to major label Columbia, though, staff there are seeking out blogs which have written about Glasvegas and sending legal letters to Google to force them to delete the posts if they contain mp3s of the band’s songs (as The Pop Cop album review originally did) – even if they are just demos.

Bearing in mind that the majority of music bloggers are genuine fans who spend hours of their own time promoting artists for no financial reward, it’s disgusting behaviour that borders on bullying and it has convinced us to boycott writing about Columbia artists ever again, which frankly is no great loss since Glasvegas are one of the few credible ones on their roster.

The whole row has been discussed on other Scottish blogs such as Song, By Toad and The Vinyl Villain and from reading the feedback there it’s clear that many people don’t think Glasvegas themselves are immune from blame. In fact, we can tell you that the band have been made personally aware of the situation but have chosen not to comment on it.

While we’d be amazed if Glasvegas don’t abhor their employers’ campaign to target decent folk who have been championing them for months, we do have some sympathy for the band as they’re in an impossible position. After all, it’s always said that you shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Ultimately, though, they are the ones who will end up the biggest losers of all when the blogging community turns its back on them.

4 The Shins – Gone For Good (alternate version)

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Live review: Noah And The Whale @ The Arches, Glasgow

Monday, October 27th, 2008

2008 has definitely seen something of a folk-rock revival, with London newcomers NOAH AND THE WHALE by far its biggest winners.

But top-10 band or not, playing a Saturday night in Glasgow’s scenester mecca The Arches isn’t for the faint of heart, and it soon becomes clear that fresh-faced singer Charlie Fink – who is 22 going on 12 – doesn’t have the force of personality needed to hold the room’s attention, with many of the punters rudely chatting throughout an admittedly unwise mid-set run of slow numbers.

Even Charlie’s attempt to add a bit of audience participation to 2 Bodies 1 Heart (“You can do better than those Edinburgh bastards”) seems terribly contrived and straight from the ‘major label band on tour’ handbook.

But fair play to Noah And The Whale, they’ve sure got the songs to get them out of trouble as they raise their game and the tempo with an irresistible double-whammy of Jocasta and Rocks And Daggers.

And, of course, everyone goes nuts for 5 Years Time – none more so than one particularly exuberant fan. The young lad jumps onto the stage, dances next to Charlie while miming along then nabs bassist Matt Urby’s hat and pops it on his own head. With the crowd lapping up his antics, the guy shows no intention of leaving the stage anytime soon until two security guys eventually appear to huckle him out the back.

Bizarrely, Charlie makes absolutely no mention of the incident when he addresses the audience at the end of the song (probably not in that handbook) – maybe he was just relieved he didn’t suffer the same fate as Noel Gallagher.

But with the crowd back on their side, the band wisely decide to keep the momentum going by playing through their scheduled encore break and even the risky move of closing the gig with a new song – the instantly likeable First Days Of Spring – pays off in some style.

4 Noah And The Whale – Beating
4 Noah And The Whale – Red Alert

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Inconvenient truths

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

The Pop Cop finally got round to watching An Inconvenient Truth (aka Global Warming For Dummies) and Al Gore does a mighty fine job in convincing us that a watery grave awaits if we keep leaving the TV on standby mode.

And on the subject of inconvenient truths, here’s one of our own. As much as we love namedropping the hottest indie bands with their trendy trainers and ruffled hairdos, we’ve inescapably found ourselves succumbing to two of the least cool songs ever made.

To all intents and purposes THE SCRIPT want to be Ireland very own Maroon 5 and their signature tune The Man Who Can’t Be Moved is quite simply a radio-straddling schmaltzfest of utter, utter perfection. What’s the point in even listening to The Script’s album when you’ve just heard The Song That Can’t Be Bettered.

Until, that is, you stick on You Make It Real by JAMES MORRISON. Sick-bucket sentiments, almost certainly written with the sole intention of persuading courting couples to adopt it as “their” song, it even has a string section fercryinoutloud… yet it’s three minutes and 31 seconds of irresistible lighters-aloft genius.

What does this mean? Should we get our ears checked out? Or are we just revealing what most folk are too embarrassed to admit in public? Are there any songs you want to own up to liking? Let us know your thoughts below…

4 The Script – The Man Who Can’t Be Moved
b November 22, Barrowland, Glasgow (sold out)

4 James Morrison – You Make It Real
b November 23, The Picture House, Edinburgh (sold out)
b March 23, Carling Academy, Glasgow (tickets)

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