Your iPod is a Nazi.

Macworld Daily News

Monday - June 12, 2006

Inside Apple's iPod factories
By Macworld staff

Apple's iPods are made by mainly female workers who earn as little as £27 per month, according to a report in the Mail on Sunday yesterday. The report, 'iPod City', isn't available online. It offers photographs taken from inside the factories that make Apple music players, situated in China and owned by Foxconn.

The Mail visited some of these factories and spoke with staff there. It reports that Foxconn's Longhua plant houses 200,000 workers, remarking: "This iPod City has a population bigger than Newcastle's." The report claims Longhua's workers live in dormitories that house 100 people, and that visitors from the outside world are not permitted. Workers toil for 15-hours a day to make the iconic music player, the report claims. They earn £27 per month. The report reveals that the iPod nano is made in a five-storey factory (E3) that is secured by police officers.

Another factory in Suzhou, Shanghai, makes iPod shuffles. The workers are housed outside the plant, and earn £54 per month - but they must pay for their accommodation and food, "which takes up half their salaries", the report observes.

A security guard told the Mail reporters that the iPod shuffle production lines are staffed by women workers because "they are more honest than male workers".

The report also explains that the nano contains 400 parts, and that its flash memory is the most expensive component. The report looks at several salient components of the nano, and describes the product as a reflecting the global way business works today. This is because the iPod nano contains parts developed by technology companies from across the planet.

Apple is just one of thousands of companies that now use Chinese facilities to manufacture its products, the report observes. Low wages, long hours and China's industrial secrecy make the country attractive to business, particularly as increased competition and consumer expectations force companies to deliver products at attractive prices.

You can comment on this story in the Macworld UK Forum.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=14915

Metal Bands Needed for Sunday Shows in Terryville! (What Weapons Bring War)

What Weapons Bring War has just recently begun hosting a Sunday night Metal showcase at the New England Sports Bar in Terryville (23 Main St., Terryville; right next to Bristol). The shows will all be 21+. If your crew is looking for a Sunday gig (or if you like metal and want to catch some good tunes at a small/laid-back bar on a Sunday night... you lush), then drop WWBW a line.

http://www.myspace.com/whatweaponsbringwar

Frontline Fridays @ The Oxbow Cafe

For all you drum 'n bass/electronic heads, this just in from Miz-Eyesis:

The Second Installment of Frontline Fridays with Performances from: Oneself, Drumbelinah + Elijah Divine and the Might Ikari... Oh and for all you dj's out there, Open turntables from 9-10... 18 to come, 21+ to drink... Don't miss it!!!

7/21
9:00 pm
The Oxbow Cafe
Hartford

Missing Fifths update & Guitar Center Spin-Off News

Last year's Band Slam winners for Best Hip Hop, the Missing Fifths, wrote in last month with an update.

"Its been a long time, and alot has changed with the Missing Fifths. Jason just returned from 3 months in Africa, Erin graduated college (after 8 long years), and Abu is married, with a beautiful baby daughter. Needless to say we've been enjoying our hiatus. Though there's one thing we weren't able to acccomplish, and that's staying off this years Grand Band Slam ballot.

In other news, DJ Syruz has unanimously won the first round of Guitar Center's Spin-Off 2006, yesterday. The District Finals will take place at the Manchester, CT Guitar Center, on Tuesday June 20th, with the winners advancing to the Regionals in NYC."

However, Syruz lost last week's District Finals at the hands of DJ EmmAre, who is advancing to the Regional Finals in NYC on July 19th.

Quark news

Local indie psych-rockers Quark have been laying low for a while -- partially because bassist Pat Lamothe has had his hands full with his other band, Kiss Kiss. John Cipriano (keys) wrote in with an update:

"We're in the studio right nowrecording a demo/ep of sorts, and it's coming along pretty nicely. We'll probablybe done with it by the 20th. It's pretty exciting... I moved my rhodes and my piano down to Shelton (Dan Franko's doing it, if you know him, I hope I spelled his name right). Plus we've got some friends of ours to play violin, cello, and trumpet.

"I was very sad to hear that Jackie McLean passed, especially since I went to the Hartt School for a while. It was nice that you mentioned him. I was also a big Silent Groove fan... all things must pass, I suppose. I sort of wish I'd stayed on in Hartford, the variety of music is pretty amazing (although I don't need to tell *you* that)."

I'm really looking forward to the e.p. -- check out their website for updates. If you're new to Quark, you can check out their tunes on their website, too.

DISGUSTING

amount of new Flickr uploads and updates.

Sweetheart Mountain @ Jitters, Southington 3/25/06
Wrenchintheworks, Ed Gein, Animosity @ Wallingford American Legion 8/24/05
Eula @ Lily Pad Lounge (Toad's Place Upstairs), New Haven 4/19/05
Sugarfist @ Michael Angelo's Pizza 1/29/05
...and more!

Now that I have a pro account (THANKS, ROB!) I can post unlimited photo sets. Which means almost all my concerts are organized into nice neat little sets that give the names of bands, show date, location, etc.

I'm working on posting every band picture I've ever taken that's worth posting.

This shit is so future. Go check it out. Musicians: as always, you're completely welcome to use my photos on your website or Myspace -- just list me (Dan Barry) as the photo credit.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/localcommotionct/

More updates soon. I've been collecting some good music news from around the state.

Chiane's Open Mic WANTS YOU!

Diane (the "-iane" half of Chiane's) told me that she's looking for new performers to come to her open mic night. She's also soliciting demos/recordings for her Friday night performance slots -- she's booking well in advance, and wants to have a variety of acts.

Musicians, try your hand! Especially if you're from the Hartford area and want to make a break into the Torrington/NW Corner scene... Or if you just plain don't have a regular gig on Thursday nights.

The lowdown:
Chiane's is at 77 Main St. in Torrington, literally across from the Warner Theatre (which has an un-missable marquee). It's about 45 minutes from the I-84 ramp in Farmington. You just go up Rt. 4 through Unionville, and turn left onto 118. That's literally all there is to it -- you just keep going and it puts you in downtown T-town.

You can reach Diane at (860) 489-0707. Send her a demo CD or a link to your MySpace if you want a shot at a Friday night headlining spot -- or come by on a Thursday (open mic night) to perform and introduce yourself.

---

Late June Schedule @ Chiane's:

June 16 Space People (Young kids, good and funny)
June 23 Jesse Meade
June 30 Jarrod Cattey (Young Jazz Trio)

Get there around 7 or 8. BYOB. No cover but bring a few bucks for the performers and a snack.

If I Had Eyes Release KICKASS Video

Want to see what I saw that fateful night at The Oxbow? Check this shit out. It was recorded the same night that I wrote this review.

If I Had Eyes are a bunch of fire-breathing, math-textbook-eating demons. And can I just say that I love the opening of this song? And they have a sick drummer. Ok, 'nuff raving.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=805137213&n=2

!!!THANK YOU ROB!!!

FOR BUYING ME AN UPGRADED FLICKR ACCOUNT!

You are a peach.

If you like my photos, you should thank Rob too. You're seeing them because of him.

New Tracks on Local Commotion Radio!

Get over to the Local Commotion MySpace and do your homework!

Local/National Mashup

You may have noticed that I've been writing more and more about national releases on here lately. Why call a spade a spade? I love talking and writing about music -- local AND national. While the focus here will stay on CT music, I've decided to loosen up and let more national stuff in as well. Hey, national trends directly influence our local scene -- why not?

The Team is Back in Play

Queercore fans, rejoice -- our leaders, Team Dresch, have reunited and are touring intermittently. They just finished a brief stint in Washington and NYC, but be on the lookout for more dates in the future.

What the fuck is queercore, you ask?

Well, my fellow fans of punk and hardcore: if you've never heard of Team Dresch, you're not just missing out on one of the first bands to herald the mid-90's hardcore/punk blend that Propagandhi and Glassjaw would go on to popularize. You're also missing out on the band that single-handedly made "queercore" a national underground movement. While Bikini Kill spearheaded the riot grrrl movement (and have no doubt that the two movements had MUCHO in common), Team Dresch was opening doors for queer kids who wanted to rock all across the nation.

These dykes make Pansy Division look like the shit band they really are.

OMGZWTFBBQ????!!!11 BUSH DID SOMETHING GOOD?!

This just in from The Advocate's copy editor extraordinaire, Traci Neal:

On May 17, 2006, President Bush signed into law the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 ...

... Another group of taxpayers that will benefit from the Act are certain musically inclined individuals. Beginning in 2006, the Act provides that the sale of musical compositions or copyrights in musical works created by the taxpayer’s personal efforts is treated as the sale of a capital asset. This means gain from the sale will be subject to the more favorable capital gains tax rate (15 percent maximum) instead of ordinary income tax rates (35 percent maximum).

Great news!

On a separate but related note, I would STRONGLY RECOMMEND to all my friends who are local, professional musicians that you consider using an accountant to help with taxes. There are deductions specifically for performing artists that you can take advantage of; you may even be able to deduct mileage and band-related expenses. Independent accountants around these parts usually charge around $75-$100 to prepare your tax returns (as opposed to the conglommo-H and R Block fuckers, who cost more), but it may save you far more than that in the long run. Drop me a line if you want to talk more about it; I've had a great experience with my accountant and I'm never filling out those damn forms again.

New Smashing Pumpkins On The Way?

I'm back from the convention, and more deranged than ever!

Peep: http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/

New SP, huh? I have mixed feelings; Billy is clearly flailing about without other musicians to indulge his increasingly shitty compositions. First Zwan nosedived -- to be honest, I never even understood what people liked about them -- and then didn't he release some atrocious solo album? And meanwhile Jimmy Chamberlin, all cleaned up and totally high on life, released this AMAZING solo jazz-rock album just filled with crackling, explosive drumming. And James went on to work with A Perfect Circle, which somehow seems so appropriate for him (I would still love to see more of his dark side). And D'arcy was supposed to be just chilling on her farm with her weirdo P-USA husband. So when I hear they're together again after the hot-and-cold crapshoot that was Machina (and the wonderfully rebellious but low-quality Machina II) I get scared: namely because their old material has such intense personal relevance to me, and every crappy song they write since then is just, like, a puppykick.

But you know what? I like the nervous tension of not knowing what's going to happen. It's one of my favorite feelings, whether I get it from flirting, watching movies, or following bands.

Undead Review: Annie

I'm gonna be away for a much-needed break this weekend (yes, this music reviewer is secretly an anime nerd). Which means that instead of the usual live reviews, on the 31st you can look forward to a CD review column including new releases by Deb Hornblow, End-Time Illusion, Omega Vague, and others. In the meantime, here's my last living-dead CD review (i.e. one that fell on the cutting room floor somewhere along the way!). Hope you enjoy it -- have a good weekend.

---

Annie
Anniemal
Big Beat/Atlantic, 2005
http://www.anniemusic.co.uk/

What, Lassie? Pop’s been kidnapped?

Let’s be straightforward: Annie’s not going to save it, but she occasionally succeeds at transforming it into something enjoyable once again. Her debut, Anniemal, makes blissfully few concessions to the media, and the hype surrounding her release is largely grassroots. For starters, unlike Kylie (to whose voice Annie’s bears more than a passing resemblance), Annie puts on no airs about being one of the “beautiful people.” There’s no glitz or self-absorption; her persona on Anniemal seems the type you could meet in a bar or a class. And while her lyrics are hardly deep, they’re not vacuous, either. They actually tell stories rather than seduce that same old faceless, hypersexualized “you.” Like The Cardigans and Vanessa Carlton, there’s some substance mixed in with all the sweet.

Song-wise, Anniemal is hit-and-miss. The single “My Heartbeat” is catchy, understated retro, and “No Easy Love” rides an infectious bumpty-bump groove. Then again, “Come Together” takes seven minutes to go all of nowhere, and if the premise of a pop song called “Chewing Gum” doesn’t piss you off right from the title, the chew-boys-up-and-spit-‘em-out lyrics will. Please, ignore the reviewers who would make such songs into witty feminist reversals of male sexual privilege. They’re not. Anniemal is not dissertation material. Unlike M.I.A., whose (more danceable) 2005 release Arular also snuck its way into the hipster cachet, Annie is expressly apolitical. She wants to party, have sex, and sell records, and these themes carry the album.

Dance music is working its way back into the subcultures that expelled it as corporate tripe. Hey, if you’re too skinny to mosh, and too uncomfortable standing with your arms crossed for twenty-minute Explosions in the Sky songs, you gotta move to something, right? And between 2005’s surge in dance-punk and the cash cow known as The Postal Service, radical, indie-minded people are finally starting to feel less guilty about shaking their brilliant asses. Annie won’t herd pop skeptics off to the dance floor—but she might just inspire them to sing her songs into a broomhandle while sweeping. And that’s a step toward getting those “guilty pleasure” types to believe that there’s good pop out there—which there is, in spite of mass media messages to the contrary.

Undead Review: The Deadly

The Deadly
The Wolves Are Here Again
Pluto Records, 2005
http://www.plutorecords.com/

There’s enough bad metalcore these days to send the staunchest scene stalwart screaming towards Emoville. And with labels flourishing from the influx of “new jack” capital, it seems like new, hot bands are coming out every week. How’s a hardcore kid supposed to stay on top?

Maybe, to some extent, we’re not. The over-saturation of heavy music right now might not be a bad thing—because as much as it reeks of being the new fad, it also places that much more responsibility on the bands to turn listeners’ heads.

The Deadly turned my head. There’s an instant similarity to the Blood Brothers: both bands place screamy vocals and plucky bass riffs in the forefront of their sound. But where the latter are raucous and spastic to a degree that alienates most listeners who, uh, don’t have rabies, The Deadly have enough heft and chunk to their riffs for the sane to glom onto. What’s more, they’re fucking catchy. Right from the opening riff of the CD, it’s clear that bouncy, catchy rhythms á la Coheed and Cambria dominate The Wolves Are Here Again.

The lyrics may be a bit hashed-over by this point. I mean, is the sexual sarcasm of “Make Me Rich”—“so you want to make out again well we’re stealing every heart we can”—really going to send any ex-lovers to the emergency room? But then, who really listens to hardcore for the lyrics anyway? The nitpicky downsides are a disappointing read-along and a lyric booklet full of typos; but these are balanced out by the unconventional, beautifully executed design work. Every hardcore band, including your mom’s, seems to have a logo with blood drips and splatter marks. The Deadly opt for disturbingly clean design, and photographs of high-rises and chandeliers that reek of too much order. Sometimes spitting in the face of the trend can be good for one’s dignity.

Diamondback Featured on I-84 West's Electronic Billboard

Driving from Hartford back to the Local Commotion Compound, ducking through lanes of rush hour traffic, I look up and who do I see on the big billboard (near Hartford Elf Storage) than cover band extraordinaire Diamondback.

Come to Hartford. It's fun, I swear!

UJIMA, Cipher's Online Community

hey y'all,

some of you may remember me mentioning a band called Cipher a while back. I did an interview with them in Clamor Magazine -- you can peep it in my previous Local Commotion posts.

Anyway, Cipher has created an online community and message board called Ujima. Anyone with an interest in activism, progressive politics, building communities, or finding common ground between various socio-political movements will want to get on board. I just signed up and it looks excellent. I would assume that as Ujima grows and matures, the bulk of its members will be hardcore and punk kids who dig Cipher's music -- but whether you're into hip hop, jazz, or hardcore, you'll be able to appreciate the vibe and the momentum that's already under way there.

Come talk to us!

http://www.cipheronline.com/ujima/community/index.php

May & June Music at Chiane's

May 19 The Sawtelles
May 26 Carrie Reeves (Phenomal Strong Vocals) Really Powerful

June 2 Anne Ganem
June 9 Carrie Johnson
June 16 Space People (Young kids, good and funny)
June 23 Jesse Meade
June 30 Jerrod Cattey (Young, Jazz Trio)

Get there around 7 or 8. BYOB!

Undead Review: Żegota

Żegota
Sinnerman/The Anarchist Cheerleader Song 7”
Crimethinc, Inc., 2005
http://www.crimethinc.com/

Doesn’t good album packaging just turn you on? I mean, let’s be real: it’s like opening a sexy letter from someone who handmade an envelope just for you. The textures and images in Żegota’s latest 7” will remind you that music isn’t just about hearing; it’s about touch, it’s about work, it’s about physical sensation and spectacle as well. Sinnerman’s lyrics are printed on beautiful ridged brown paper; the vinyl itself finds a home in a photo of mannequin-like figures spreading their arms and taking flight. One can’t help but think of the hands that packaged these records; indeed, the back of the record sleeve meticulously describes and thanks the people involved in the countless phases of assembly.

Such gorgeous packaging makes me wish from the bottom of my heart that the songs lived up to their sensuous introduction. Sadly, they were an anticlimax. “Sinnerman,” the traditional that comes down via Nina Simone, doesn’t translate well into hardcore punk. Well, let’s be honest: it doesn’t translate well into rock. The problem is less Żegota’s execution and more their idealistic notion that a gospelly spiritual could be rocked with panache. The song describes a sinner frantically seeking refuge on the day of judgment, not realizing it’s too late to repent. The levity of the lyrics seem betrayed by the standard bass-drums-guitars rock setup; whereas a jazz band or choir could really scare the shit out of you with this material, Żegota merely scaremongers.

Of course, a title like “The Anarchist Cheerleader Song” makes one hope for rousing choruses, circle pit brotherhood, and pithy, street-punk chants. Nope. Not to be found. Żegota’s idea of a fists-in-the-air lyric? “A, give me an A.” What a bummer! The endeavor may have been punk in attitude and communal in execution, but even the revolution’s most strident cheerleaders will have a tough time adding these tunes to their songbook.