Idolator

The forthcoming album by former next-blog-things Beirut, The Flying Cub Cup, leaked at the end of last month, weeks ahead of its October release date. The sorta-culprit? Music writer Erik Davis, who sold his watermarked copy of the CD to his local record shop; whoever bought the promo copy apparently decided to share his pre-release bounty with his friends and fellow OiNK dwellers. Davis felt pretty bad about the whole debacle—especially since his name's been sorta-sullied among the publicisterati as a result of all this—but his blog entry on the subject also gets into the idea of the watermarked release, and how said watermarking results in a curious spectre being hung over the already-beleaguered-enough profession of music writing: More »

If you were at the UK's V Festival over the weekend, you can smile, or at least grimace: You were on a candid camera attached to a remote-controlled spy drone that was used by local police to "keep tabs on people thought to be acting suspiciously in car parks and to gather intelligence on individuals in the crowd." So you're famous! Sort of. Hope you didn't get caught taking a surreptitious whiz behind a Ferrari: More »