I’ve been slacking with this here blog lately.. but with good reason. And those reasons are about to increase so I wouldn’t expect a plethora of posts anytime soon.

Primarily, this time of year at work is technically known as a nightmare. With just over two weeks to go ’til the BA Interactive Media Production 3rd year major hand-in, students are understandably getting a bit twitchy.. I’m not sure that now is a good time to mention that at this point before my own major hand-in, I’d finished my project but I’ll do it anyway. Blah. I’m sure they’ll pull it out of the bag.. have a look at pixelpier to see the showcase details and come along.. it’ll be fun.

I’ve also been spending a little bit of time trying to redesign this site ready for the May 1st Reboot but now there’s only 3 days left, it’s not looking like I’ll manage it this year. Alas. It’ll be a June reboot instead. More on that as and when.

Finally, as of tonight, GTA IV will own my life. Sad, but true. It’s pretty much the only reason I wanted a 360 and I’ve been waiting for it for soooo long now. There’s been plenty said about it at loads of other places so I wont dwell.. besides, must dash and pop a cap in some online asses.. ooohhh yeah!

Shortly, the new Atmosphere album “When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold” will be out (April 22nd to be specific) and personally, I can’t wait. The couple of tracks that I’ve heard off of it have upheld my expectations and I’m sure the album wont disappoint (more on this next week. probably). The reason for this post however is to celebrate the way that Rhymesayers (or indeed, Slug and Ant) are promoting the album because it’s a definite change from the standard stickers/posters/myspace bulletins approach (although it includes those things as well).

Firstly there was the announcement..

..that in order to curb illegal downloading, they would not ship promo copies of the new Atmosphere disc. Instead, the label planned listening sessions in New York and Los Angeles. Either music reviewers made the trip, or they waited for the album to hit stores like everyone else.

- see here

It’s a bold move and until this morning, one that proved effective (the album leaked today.. only 6 days before the release.. not bad at all really). The rest of that article talks in more detail about the approach and puts it in context of the whole music industry / download ‘market’ thing. Go read it. It’s good.

There’s also been the recent talk of ‘Atmosphere Karaoke’ where the group are going to host a sing-a-long of their songs before each of the US tour dates. If they do this in Bristol this summer, I’ll be all over it. My Slug impression is fiyah!

What else(?) Oh yeah, the ‘moldy lemon in an envelope‘ thing which is quite funny as long as you weren’t the poor sap who ended up with rank lemon all over your hands.

And the free download on Christmas Day of ‘Strictly Leakage‘ was inspired. It’s still available if you missed it.

But the main thing I wanted to highlight is the ‘Paint It Gold‘ series that they’ve been putting out on Youtube. For the last couple of months leading up to the release date, Slug & Ant have been filming these 10 minute clips in their basement, answering questions emailed in, talking about random shit, and promoting the shit out of the album at any available opportunity. It’s entertaining. And genius. The episodes are getting better each time which makes the forthcoming release (and presumably, forthcoming end of the Youtube things) a bit upsetting. But fuck it, at least the album will be out .

So yeah. I did have a summary in mind for this, talking about how it’s a clever ploy in today’s society which is so indifferent to modern advertising techniques. How utilising Youtube in (what I think is) a novel way is a great use of the service. That managing to fend off ‘leakage’ til so close the album release date is nothing short of a miracle these days. etc etc etc blah blah blah. But this’ll do. for now

BUY THE ALBUM!!

So, I spent most of Monday night hitting redial in the phone and refresh on 3 different computers trying to get tickets for this years Reading Festival and after many many hours (and a stack of money going from the account), I can now say I’ll be there on the Friday and Saturday this August. And I can’t wait.

Regular readers will be aware that I’m not really fussed about the type of bands that would generally play at a festival like this (though I did have fun a couple of years ago at Reading), however this year is clearly different. Rage Against The Machine with their only appearance in the country this year (possibly ever again??). Can I get a ‘fuck yeah!’?! Awesome. There’s actually also a few other names I’m quite up for seeing but really, let’s be honest, who’s going to be watching Babyshambles with RATM on the main stage? (Who would watch Babyshambles at ANY point come to think of it..)

Should be amazing. Can’t wait! Yay! etc.. Been waiting for this for years and although I’d rather’ve seen them at Rock The Bells last year with Wu-Tang, I’m sure this’ll do

Wow. Just wow. Evolution has taken a mighty step forward.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/epeng001.shtml?src=ip_potpw