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Creation to release pre-publication of Sotos' latest

Creation Books recently announced that it would be releasing a special version of Predicate, the upcoming book from author Peter Sotos, months in advance of its official release date. Due out in October, this pre-publication edition of 500 copies only comes with a free copy of the new book Waitress, which will never be available in stores and can only be obtained by pre-ordering through the publisher's website.
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Alga Marghen Reissues Milk From Cheltenham LP

Italian label Alga Marghen has just reissued Milk From Cheltenham's 1983 LP Triptych of Poisoners on CD.  The album was originally available in a limited pressing of 300 copies on the legendary and highly collectable It's War Boys label.  This release marks the beginning of an extensive reissue campaign of the It's War Boys back catalog, which also includes rare cassette and LP releases by Amos and Sara, Nancy Sesay and the Melodaires, Vic Serf, The Ululators, The Fear Merchants and Narky Brillans.  All of these bands are basically the same personnel - Lepke Buchwater and L. Voag/Xentos Fray Bentos from The Homosexuals, Die Trip Computer Die and a myriad other esoteric and hard-to-find underground bands.  Fans of the Homosexuals/DTCD/It's War Boys project, in all of its incarnations, include Steven Stapleton, who named his record label United Dairies in honor of the band name Milk From Cheltenham.
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Peter Sotos (ex-Whitehouse) to release new book

New York based Void Books is now taking pre-orders for Comfort and Critique, the latest book from former Whitehouse collaborator Peter Sotos. The website describes it as an "unsettling" recounting of "the abduction and murder of 8-year-old Sarah Payne, a crime that stunned England and spawned an aftermath of reactionary outcry and violent protest." Limited to a mere 325 copies, the book includes over 100 photos. To mark this release, a reading will be held on July 20 at The Accompanied Library in New York City (RSVP required).
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boy in static wants to share something

Alex Chen, a Boston-based musician who records as Boy In Static passed this along to share with us this week: www.bellyfull.tv — a Flash feature for his song "Bellyfull." His debut album Newborn is out now on the Notwist's Alien Transistor label.
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UNION CHAPEL TO CLOSE ITS DOORS

The London-based Union Chapel has been home to a number of amazing concerts, some of which many brainwashed fans probably own documents of. Unfortunately, the management has announced its closure at the end of January 2005.
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marc almond injured in a bike accident

The BBC has reported that Marc Almond's condition is still "critical but stable." They also report that he had emergency surgery and is recovering in intensive care. Almond was reported to be riding on the back seat of the motorcycle during the collision with a car near St. Paul's Cathedral. A policeman reported earlier that Almond has suffered severe head injuries. Almond, a long time friend of a number of Brainwashed bands, has appeared on records by Coil and Psychic TV, but is best known worldwide as singer for Soft Cell. We will update this news if we have an update on his condition. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family and we hope he makes a full recovery.
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jandek played sunday night

This could possibly be one of the weirdest occurances ever. After 25 years and 37 albums, Jandek has finally performed in public. For images and some links, see the best Jandek site at tisue.net/jandek. Perhaps this might have something to do with his last album, titled The End Of It All. David Keenan, author of England's Hidden Reverse, who had a role in organizing the Instal.04 festvial reports the following:
    I didn't get to speak to him, no one did except my friend Barry Esson who curated the fest and Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson who played with him. He never once said he was Jandek, just a rep of Corwood Industries. Said to Alex afterwards that the live show was the first time he had ever felt truly alive. Smiled on stage once. Looked very emaciated. Apparently in rehearsal he told the group he had three types of songs and he would signal by the way he played guitar what type each one was, either Blues, Ballad or Brutal(!). He had been in Glasgow for a week, flew over on his own money so that he was under no obligation to play if he didn't feel like it. The venue was emptied while he practiced and no one was allowed to announce he was playing or he would pull the show. I knew he was thinking about doing it for a while and finally over the last few days realised it was happening but was unable to tell anyone. Heather and I have about 70 pics of him in all. The concert was filmed, with Jandek having the option of releasing it as a DVD on Corwood. Everyone here is still in a daze, can't believe it happened, the concert was everything you could've hoped from a Jandek show, crazy heavy Velvets spiked blues guitar, Richard playing Holger-Czukay style bass throbs, Alex playing heavy and free and that fucking voice sounded like it was straight from the void, set of blasted blues, Haino said afterwards "Jandek *is* the blues." Jandek looked like he was realy enjoying it and pulled a few good shapes too, never said one thing though, took his time packing his guitar but no one approached him and he left the venue as abruptly as he had arrived. All the songs were of heartbreak and abandon, few funny lines too, like when he suddenly exploded "I made the decision to get real wild!" and everyone began screaming. Apparently he loved the screams, looks likely that he will play live again and the next time he will announce it. Anyway, still trying to piece it all together. Who could've thunk it?
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JETGROOVE ALERT

This is a warning about a new website that was lauched earlier this week called Jetgroove.com

The site is an MP3 sales site, something like iTunes, only concentrating mainly in electronic music. They appear to have a catalogue of thousands of titles available from labels big & small. They claim that "all our music content is properly licensed".

However, according to posts that are flying around on many music mailing lists, none of the artists and labels who are listed on the site have ever heard of them before the site launch. And when you try to buy anything on the site, nothing seems to actually be available - every title I selected went into a "Not Yet Available" section in my shopping cart.

Several labels who have contacted Jetgroove.com have received back a form letter which is quoted below. The gist of it is that they launched this site with nothing actually available for download, and somehow intended to get permission to sell releases after the fact. It's a very strange way of doing business, and quite frankly, it reflects badly on all of the artists and labels who are listed on their site.

I strongly ancourage EVERYONE to spread the word about this far and wide. If you are an artist or run a label, check to see if any of your titles are listed, and if so, send them a complaint and request that your titles be removed. If you are just a listener, contact them to complain about their misleading and shady business practices. Hopefully, we can cause them enough grief that they will either change their business model to one that is more upfront and honest, or they will just disappear completely.

- Greg Clow

response letter from Jetgroove:

    Dear Sirs and Madams,

    My name is Ulukman Mamytov and I am the attorney for jetgroove.com.

    I bring you apologies from JetGroove for making you worry about your copyrights infringements and your music repertoire being presented on our website. I want to assure you that jetgroove.com having started a new Online Music Download Service pursues the objective of making your music more wellknown and accessible and ONLY BY LEGAL MEANS.

    That means we DO NOT SELL any of your music without obtaining a proper permission (License) from you or other respective rightholders. You can easily check this by trying to purchase any of you music. Everything that you choose to put in your cart will have status: "Not Available For Purchase Yet". It could only be put "ON HOLD". And we do not change that status untill the contract is signed and your permission is granted. In this case all of your music will be given "Allowed for Selling" status and people who have it in their shopping carts will be able to buy it.

    The experince of showing your music on our website without distributing aimed to draw your attention to us, with further goal to make contacts with you on friendly terms with a perspective of mutually beneficial partnership. We're glad to inform you that your music is getting popular indeed through our website and we can let you know at any time how many of your tracks were put on hold and which ones.

    However, we deeply understand your concerns and would like to assure you, if you find our relationships impossible, we will IMMEDIATELY delete all of your music from our music collection.

    Hope you'll find our offer to make your music more popular through us rather reasonable and we can start that mutually beneficial partnership.

    Very Truly Yours,

    Ulukman Mamytov
    Jetgroove LLP
    Legal Department
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Staalplaat leaves Amsterdam

After two decades of operating in Amsterdam, Staalplaat is moving. On the July 19th, the store and office will now be moved to the Torstr. 72 10119 in Berlin. For store hours, new mailing address and phone number, check their website at staaplaat.com.
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swimming with the foetus

The Venture Brothers cartoon series, which is scored by Jim Thirlwell of Foetus, will be premiering on the Cartoon Network in the USA on August 7th, on the night-time Adult Swim block. The show will also playing on August 8th, and every weekend thereafter. Check your local listings.
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lpd goes public against wsd

Edward Ka-Spel of Legendary Pink Dots writes:
    "It is with regret that the Legendary Pink Dots and Edward Ka-Spel feel that is now necessary to make it public that we have severed all ties with World Serpent Distribution.

    WSD last accounted to the band over a year ago , and made one partial payment under duress last August. While we appreciate that everybody involved in 'independent' music is experiencing difficulties in a financially unstable climate, WSD's failure to answer even the politest question is simply unforgivable.

    Plans are already underway for the reissue of Chemical Playschool Volumes 8/9 ,with the other two titles on the World Serpent roster to follow later this year.

    In the meantime we do request distributors, shops and individuals not to buy our titles directly from WSD."
music from he
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the party's over for EFA

The worldwide independent music community was dealt a blow with the announcement of the collapse of German-based manufacturer/distributor EFA. In a letter sent out to various effected labels and individuals, EFA stated they were forced to file for bankruptcy. The 22 year old company claims that this comes after numerous attempts to have tried to prevent this, including, as they state: "downsizing our staff, restructuring all distribution methods and channels, negotiating with third parties, particularly with several groups of possible investors, yet - sadly - to no avail."

This could possibly be a much more powerful blow to the business than previous collapses of other once large independent label distributors like Cargo, Rough Trade, Bayside, and Dutch East. EFA has a small amount of in-house labels, including Clearspot, but the bulk of their business is through a large amount of European labels they manufacture and export worldwide as well as North American and British labels they import and distribute throughout Europe. Some of the past and present labels include Accession, Anticon, Chicks On Speed, Cold Meat Industry, Constellation, Crammed, Crippled Dick Hot Wax, Dischord, Force Inc./Force Tracks, Gramavision, Impact, Ipecac, italic, ITN, Kitty-Yo, Klangbad, Metropolis, Mille Plateaux, Ongaku, On-U Sound, Payola, Plug Research, Quatermass, Rephlex, ReR, Ritornell, Saddle Creek, Sähkö, Scape, Shifty Disco, Shitkatapult, Southern, Southern Lord, SubRosa, Thirsty Ear, Thrill Jockey,Touch, Touch & Go, Transient, and Tresor. Pick up a German pressed CD in your collection, see if it has EFA printed on it. If it does, chances are that release's entire income is controlled by EFA.

Repercussions have not begun to surface yet but don't be surprised to see the closing of some of these labels while others scramble to get their stock back before auction time and find other distirbutors. More information about EFA including their history, roster, business statement, and ethos can be found online at their website, www.efa-medien.de.

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Crouton announces irr.app.(ext.) release

Crouton Music says:

    Crouton is ridiculously excited to announce this CD release from irr. app. (ext.).? Dust Pincher Appliances was originally released in 1998 in a shorter, alternate form, via a now impossible to find 10" vinyl on Something Weird Records, Iceland.? This CD edition on Crouton reveals different versions of the original recordings, as well as three tracks not present on the 10" edition.? Some might say that anything graphic artist, sound artist, and writer Matt Waldron produces is peculiar, and his work as irr. app. (ext.) is no exception.? Each minute of these startlingly Dadaist compositions reveals unexpected surprises.? The instrumentation, who knows?? A bit of everything really, except the standard ones.? However, the style is not a mess, but rather an obsessively scrutinized audio story, aural painting, or sound experience, which is quite devastating to take in.??

Why do we care? Maybe we're working on a web site for him.

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Exploding Hearts

We are sad to report that three members of Exploding Hearts died on Sunday morning in a car accident. The power-pop band from Portland were on their way home from a San Francisco show. Mike Brady, who reviewed their album on Dirtnap adds:

    "I got a chance to meet them this past May when they came to Boston. They were really nice guys and seemed to be really enjoying playing and hanging out with everybody. I really dug their record, and it will definitely be in my top ten this year."

Our deepest sympathies to friends and family of Matthew Fitzgerald, Adam Cox, and Jeremy Gage.

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FCC MEDIA CONSOLIDATION RULING ON MONDAY

It has been estimated that most newspapers in the USA are now owned by just 14 companies, seven companies own most of broadcasting and cable television; and four (YES, FOUR!) companies control 90 percent of radio. It seems that it's not enough that this small a number of people control what people watch, hear, and read in every market in the USA. Imagine that number shrinking due to consolidations, buyouts, and mergers. Picture a world like George Orwell's 1984 with only one company. A move which will ease up what little restrictions on the media can only move us one step forward to that. Moveon.org has the following to report:

    This Monday (June 2nd), FCC Chair Michael Powell will hold his vote on media consolidation. There's nothing special about that date—it's totally arbitrary. The vote will conclude a process which has shown deliberate disregard for the views and opinions of the American people. Powell has refused to even release the actual language of the rule change—it won't be known until after the vote. And he's only held a single meeting to hear the views of the public. Even when a bipartisan group of Senators requested that he give Congress some time to discuss the impact of this change, Powell brushed them off.

    Chairman Powell still has the power to delay the rule change and allow time to have a democratic debate about its consequences. Please call him today and ask him to allow a real public debate on an issue of such massive importance.

    You can reach Powell's office at:
    (202) 418-1000

    Once you've made your call, please let us know at:
    http://moveon.org/fcccall.html

    Our momentum is clearly building: our advertising campaign with Common Cause and Free Press has received a great deal of media attention. Powell was personally quizzed about our Murdoch TV ad on CNBC on Wednesday. A front page article in the Washington Post highlighted our petition and advertisements as important pieces of the groundswell of concern on this issue. Articles in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and even the Guardian in the UK discussed the ads. (Links to some of the articles are below.) Hundreds of thousands of comments have been delivered to the FCC, and we've been told that Powell's aides are "stunned" by the amount of anti-consolidation mail they've received. Together, we have put the FCC Chair on the defensive.

    Even if Powell doesn't reschedule the rule change vote, getting thousands of calls into his office will send a strong message that the public is watching him. Powell doesn't appreciate this kind of pressure: in a recent interview, he said that "I think we're one of the most heavily lobbied federal institutions in the government, probably second only to the United States Congress. I don't, by the way, think that's a particularly good thing." We need to remind him that public involvement in decision making is what democracy is all about.

    Call FCC Chair Michael Powell now at:
    (202) 418-100

    It's not too late to do this process right.

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claim your money

Are you living in the USA? Have you bought a CD between the years of 1995 and 2000? Then you can get your share of the settlement agreed to by the record companies and distributors who were involved in illegal price-fixing practices. Answer a few questions and submit some information at www.musiccdsettlement.com and you can expect anywhere from $5 to $20 for your share. Have the major records issued a public apology yet? Maybe not, but this is a step in the right direction. Remember, this is only open to residents of the USA.
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MIA ZAPATA MURDER SUSPECT IN CUSTODY

Almost ten years ago, the body of singer Mia Zapata was found on a street curb in Seattle, WA. She had been strangled with her own sweatshirt tie, as well as sexually assaulted, and was laid out in a Christ pose, carefully placed. Zapata was the singer of the Gits, a punk band on the brink of stardom following the signings of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana. Her death and the circumstances surrounding it inspired the creation of Home Alive, a non-profit self defense initiative to teach men and women self defense for free so that, unlike Mia, they could "make it home alive." Until now, there were no leads in her case, with private investigators and a feature on Unsolved Mysteries turning up little. This week, police in Miami, FL, arrested a man who was living in Seattle at the time of the murder, and whose DNA profile matches the one left at the scene of the crime. Jesus C. Mezquia, a transient who has lived on both coasts, was charged with first-degree murder. It is likely he will be extradited to Washington for trial. For more information, see the following articles:

For information on Home Alive, as well as the two benefit CDs they've released, go here:

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international noise awareness day

Brainwashed.com would like to announce we support Inernational Noise Awareness Day. In honor of the event, which passed by us on Wednesday, we would like to make more people Aware of International Noise. We encourage the sharing of music like England's Whitehouse and African Woman Noise - both with a few selections on Susan Lawly, also Germans like Genocide Organ and Sutcliffe Jugend, or Japan's Merzbow or Masonna. So, take a few minutes out of your day and make some people Aware of International Noise: including your friends, neighbors, parents or various people on the streets as you drive by slowly blasting something like "Econobondage" very loud. Thank you.
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have a sad day

Harvey Ball, inventor of that little yellow smiley face died this past Wednesday after a short illness. The Worcester, Massachusetts man invented the face for the internal use by an insurance agency in Massachusetts back in 1963 for a mere $45. Unfortunately he never registered a trademark on the design, popularized in the late 1960s and early 1970s by gracing millions upon millions of buttons. He will be missed but his legacy lives on. :-(
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RRROBERY

A robbery took place at the performance space known as Voix in Lowell, MA, directly above RRRecords.
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