OLD NEWS

04/04/98

04/01/98

03/11/98

  • MPman...is it worth it? That seems to be the big question floating aroung the MP3 community. I suppose I should put my two cents in on this issue. Personally, I don't think MPman is worth the $150.00 to $200.00 that's being asked for it, but that is of course, just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions, they're like assholes...everyones got one :-) Let's look at this MPman... you pay say $150.00 for a unit with 16 megs of storage (Flash RAM) and can store, say, 4 songs on it. 4 songs! That's not very much at all. For $150.00 I can go out and buy about 10 CDs and get 150 songs. Now the idea of selling a unit with an integrated ZIP disk drive or a PCMCIA hard drive card really caught my attention. Personally, I like the ZIP disk idea, but, there is one downfall...power! No way a ZIP drive is gonna run on 2 little AA batteries. IOMEGA would have to redesign their zip drive someway or another, and I doubt they'd be willing to go through all that hassle for a unit that will more than likely be playing illegal music :-) Now the PCMCIA hard drive card idea is a really good one. And it's looking better and better with the prices of PCMCIA card hard drives steadily dropping. Think about it, a unit the size of a walkman able to hold 1.6 gigs of music (about 400 songs). Sounds nice doesn't it :-) Anyhow, all in all, the MPman is a great idea, but as with most new products, there's loads of room for improvment.
  • Fortunecity has been being a bitch all day. That's the reason that my page was completely blank for a good part of the day. And it doesn't help that as I type this the damn dorm network is down. Oh well, anyhow, I came across another server, I think it's called crosswinds. It offers unlimited space, but is slower than molasses. I'm considering moving into there and maybe hosting a few MP3s, not too sure though.
  • Forbes Magazine will be conducting an interview with Dimension Music. Spyed just recieved the questions yesterday, and apparently, there's quite a few. I'll keep you posted about this so you people will know when the interview is posted on Dimension Music. It's sure to be a good interview.
  • Legal MP3s are finally here! That's right...popular songs...totally legal! They're hosted on a server in Holland, and they're totally legal! You gotta check this site out. This is a major breakthrough in the world of MP3s. The site is entirely in German I think, but the song titles aren't. The site is here. This is not any of that bullshit "These songs are legal cause they're not on my server", this site is for real. Go there now, before the law changes over in Holland, which may be soon.
  • I'm working on a button for people to use to link to me. It'll probably come out pretty nasty since it's my first attempt at making an animated GIF. Hopefully, it'll be done by the end of the week. I have to make about 80 images before I can actually animate the button. Even though they're simple images, there's 80! Heh, I'll post an unamimated preview of the button below, your honest opinions would be appreciated :-)

  • There will be no updates at all to this page from March 13th through 22nd. I'm going home for spring break. I could update from home, but, ummmm...I won't be home, I hear the cries of the beach saying "Come to me O.J., come drown yourself in the beautiful beach that is South Padre!!" So of course, I can't ignore the calls of the beach, especially during spring break! I'd like to say I'm sorry in advance for not updating that week.

03/10/98

  • Well, well, what do you know, its me, the Frawg has returned! Heh, I know I haven't updated this page in 4 days. I also realize that I don't update this page nearly as much as I should, but what can I say, college is a bitch (you college students will know what I'm talking about) :-) Well, the whole Fortunecity ordeal has been fixed. They say the "bug" in the voting code has been fixed. Well, I don't think any "bug" was fixed. The way I see it, Fortunecity fixed the polls only because they saw the uproar from MP3 users in the discussion board. In my opinion, if people wouldn't have responded to the "rigging" of the polls the way they did, nothing would have been fixed. I know, I know, I'm complaining, but for good reason :-) All is well in Fortunecity now, and I, along with many others are happy :-)
  • Well, time to hop up on my soapbox again :-) Do you know what's fucking LAME AS HELL!? Well, I'll tell you. I've come across many people, mostly in IRC that come on and say something like "New MP3 site up at http://shit.com!! Over 5,000 verifiedl links!! So naturally, out of pure curiosity, I visit the site. And what do I see? I see that some lame son of a whore thought, "Hey, I'll use MP3 Wolf to search for MP3s, let it search for a few hours, get the results, rename the HTML results file to index.html and call it my "MP3 Page." Well you know what folks? That sucks like nothing else. If some lame jackass isn't willing to take time to write his or her own HTML, then he or she has no business putting up a webpage at all. Using the MP3 Wolf results page is the equivalent of stealing someone elses code. If anyone who does this reads this I just have to say, learn the language, don't be a lamer, and put a little time into your webpage. Ok, that's that. :-)
  • On March 8th, X-Codec was released. What's that you ask? It's a new MP3 encoder, built from the ground up with an all new encoding engine. This new encoder is brand new, and is therefore not as advanced, nor does it offer as many features, as other encoders. It can only encode using three bitrates, 112, 128 and 256 Kb/s. It doesn't support encoding MP1 or MP2 files either, and lacks a progress indicator as well. This encoding engine is not quite as fast as the Xing encoder engine, but is faster than the Fraunhofer encoder. Another perk of X-Codec is the fact that it comes with a small, simply player :-) which is nice :-) And of course, the best perk is the fact that it's totally and completely free for all!
  • Sonique's release has been delayed once more. The new release date is slated for late March. Keep your fingers crossed this time, and hope it gets released soon, cause it's gonna kick ass.
  • News on Winamp 1.80. It's release is slated for sometime late in March. No big changes, aside from one. All these Winamp MODs have inspired the author to include an option to change the "skin" of Winamp 1.80. Rather than having to download entire new versions of Winamp to see these MODs, you will be able to do an "on the fly" appearance change of Winamp. The "skins" of only the best MODs out there will be included, as well as a few others.

03/03/98

  • I downloaded ReNovatoryesterday, the program used to edit Winamp. It kicks ass, if you want Winamp or any of your other programs to have more of a "personal" look to them, get this program. It's simple to use, and very effective.
  • My congratulations go out to MP3.com. They were ranked as the second most popular music site on the web, behind Sony. They beat out such sites as MTV.com and Columbia House.
  • More news about MP3.com. They've just released their first compilation CD. The CD contains over 150 MP3 songs. All the songs are legal of course, and for the most part, include independent, unsigned bands. Here's the best part, it's only 20 dollars US and 24 dollars International. You can't beat 150 songs for 20 bucks. Click here to order this great CD.
  • I thought Public Enemy was long gone, but I now find out I was wrong. The group will be releasing it's first album in three years on April 28th. The album, appropriately entitled "Resurrection," will serve as the soundtrack for the upcoming Spike Lee movie "He Got Game" starring Denzel Washington and Milla Jovovich.
  • U2 saves the day!! The city of Auckland, New Zealand has been without power since February 20th, but thanks to U2, that changed. While the band was in Sydneym, Australia they loaned their cargo plane to the 1 million citizens of Auckland. The plane was able to fly generators into New Zealand giving power to the powerless citizens. Good job Bono :-)
  • You go Madonna!! With this whole shit ass Clinton-Lewinsky thing going on, we get the opinion of a superstar. Madonna's opinion on this whole presidential scandal ishere. Personally, I agree with the woman. Leave Clinton alone!!! Let the poor guy do his job!!!
  • More on Madonna. The superstar mother wants to have another child! Despite my original thoughts, she's turned out to be a pretty decent mother. To quote her, "I would love to have a brother or sister for Lola...I don't know when, but it'll happen."
  • No more news...friggin Rocktropolis is down. More updates later if things go back up.

03/02/98

  • GUI's GUI's GUI's!! If you have no idea what I'm talking about click here. In short, Winamp GUI's are simply copies of Winamp who's interface have been changed. It started off as just a small fad, but this "small fad" has grown exponentially in the last couple of weeks. Everyone and their mother seems to be making one (me included) :-) Now don't think that these are Winamp "hacks" cause they're everything but that. With the right software, a 6 year old can make one. To repeat...these ARE NOT hacks.
  • Why all the GUI's floating around? I imagine that the upcoming release of Winamp 2.0 has everyone a little excited. There's actually some pretty decent designs out there, but of course, there's some pretty shitty designs as well.
  • Legal MP3's? The hell you say! Well...I just visited Dimension Music and found a link to a site with legal MP3s. What do I mean by legal...the site is permitted by the dutch royalties association. I'm not too sure who they are, but they're obviously important. (Those of you who live in England probably know who I'm talking about).
  • All you members of the MP3 community have got to read this article. It's entitled Why the Music Industry Is To Blame For MP3** Piracy. It really is a must read for all MP3 users, traders, etc.
  • I'm sorry it's been a while since I last updated, school's been pretty tough lately.
  • Korn...television stars...hrm...kinda scary :-) Well, not true television stars, their new show will be broadcast on their website. Called "Korn TV" the show will give users a look into Korn's studios. The first episode in the series will be entitled "Korn's After-School Special" will air this coming thursday. It can be seen at http://www.korntv.com.
  • More on Korn. Does anyone happen to know where the name "Korn" came from? Well, I do, and I'm not gonna tell that story on here, cause it's disgusting. Use your imagination.
  • Puff Daddy may soon be showcasing his acting talents. Click here to see a QuickTime video of Puffy talking more about this. He's speaking about being offered a small part in the upcoming movie, "Lethal Weapon 4."
  • Well, Tommy Lee is out of jail. He got out on reduced bond. Hrm...I wonder if he'll beat the hell outta Pam again :-) heh, just joking :-)
  • Van Halen's new single "Without You" made music history yesterday when it made its single debut at #1 on the singles chart. No other song prior to this had accomplished this. In case you don't know, Van Halen has hired a new singer. Who you ask...Gary Cherone, former lead singer for Extreme. Don't expect to buy this new single in record stores, the song will only be played on the radio. Van Halen 3 will be released world-wide on March 17th.

2/28/98

  • This page is getting old, and I've been trying to think of stuff to add. In the near future, I'm going to add a web board for visitors to post questions, requests, complaints, etc. Look for this within 2 or 3 weeks.
  • Dimension Music now has a mirror site. Apparently, WAY too much data was being transferred from DM. Spyed at DM is encouraging everyone to visit dm.mircx.com rather than the normal link. If data transfer occurs like it has been at DM, the site may be in some serious trouble, so please visit the mirror.
  • Well, here it is...a price on the new portable MP3 player. Which one! heh...yeah, I know there's lots of folks that SAY they're gonna make one, but only one that I know of is actually being made. Orders are being taken for the MPman as I type this. The price: $150.26 for the unit with a 16 MB flash card and about $205.84 for the unit with a 32 MB flash card. (Prices are not for sure, they were taken from Dimension Music.) Visit MPman for latest prices.
  • Yet another MP3 encoder. rJPa MPx Encoder has arrived, and the makers claim it's the fastest MP3 encoder around. Well, the claim's are correct. I tried it and encoded a 4.5 minute song in a little over 3 minutes. One catch though, the quality was horrible. At least I thought it was. I'll stick with the MPlifier, even though it's quality isn't too good, it's better than that of rJPa MPx Encoder. I DO NOT recommend this encoder.
  • Sorry I didn't update yesterday...had a long day.
  • Hrm...Pamela Lee to divorce Tommy. I wonder if she's serious this time.
  • Janet Jackson's upcoming tour is more than likely gonna be killer. Superstars Usher and Missy Elliot may be touring alongside Jackson. As of now, it's still up in the air, but keep your fingers crossed and hope that this trio does tour together.
  • A tour featuring Iron Maiden is in the works. No tour dates are set, but the tour will happen. W.A.S.P., Dio, UFO and Yngwie Malmsteen will also be participating in this anticipated tour.
  • Another heavy metal tour featuring Deep Purple, Dream Theater and another band not yet chosen will begin in the near future as well.
  • You want a good laugh? Check out ODB live at the Grammy's with his little unexpected "performance." Click here to view the amusing clip. Gosh this guys dumb...click here for more ODB. Wait! There's more! Click here or here for more :-)

2/24/98

  • You ever been to a friends place and just hated the idea that he or she insists on listening to MP3's using some shit player like WinPlay? Well, now that problem can be corrected with a new Winamp plugin. The plugin allows users to control their copy of Winamp remotely. Currently, the plugin supports only TCP/IP connections, but will support more in the future. To get this plugin, click here.
  • For all you Mac users out there, a new version of MacAmp has been released (bout damn time). Only minor improvements though, so don't expect a monumental change.
  • A page with more than 2 sentences on MPEG4...the hell you say! I finally came across an MPEG4 page that actually has worthwhile info. Click here to visit Stevo's MP3's.
  • The protection of digitally distributed music is heightening. For more on this visit MP3.com.
  • To read an interesting article about online distribution of music that appeared in Business Week click here. This is a must read for all you serious MP3ers out there.
  • Grammy's, Grammy's, Grammy's!! The Grammy awards were held yesterday, so, all my news will be Grammy related today :-)
  • Gosh, Wu-Tang Clan's Old Dirty Bastard is everywhere! First, he's releasing a solo album, then comes his own clothing line, then he saves some kids life and now this. First off, let me provide you with a little background on the guy. In short, he's a dolt. He's a hell of a rapper, but hes one of the most un-intelligent people I've seen. For you folks who saw the Grammy's last night, you can skip to the next news item. But for those of you who missed it, ODB, out of nowhere, appeared at the podium just as Shawn Colvin was to recieve her Grammy for song of the year. He then launched into a brief statement telling everyone that Wu-Tang is number 1 (I think he was just a bit jealous of Puffy winning). When ODB was asked if he felt that the Grammy stage was the appropriate place for his little "announcement" he just said "yes." ODB did apologize for his actions once the Grammy's were over, but still, people should think before they act.
  • Puff Daddy, Babyface and Paula Cole, 22 nominations, and lots of Grammy's right! Nope, not this year. The three artists who were expected to sweep the Grammy's ended up winning only 4 awards between them. The big winners were Bob Dylan and R. Kelly. With three awards a piece, they turned out to be the nights top winners. The prestiged award of record of the year went to Shawn Colvin's "Sunny Came Home," while song of the year went to the song "Sunny Came Home." I don't know bout you, but I'm just glad Hanson didn't win best new artist, cause they are, after all, talentless, homosexual little girls :-)
  • Wanna know who chooses Grammy winners? Click here to find out the inside scoop on just who chooses the winners of these prestigious awards.
  • Smashing Pumpkins fans will have something new and different to look forward to in May when the Pumpkins release their next album in May. In the words of Corgan, "The people that say it's a pumpkins record will be wrong. I will try to make something that is undescribable." Should be something to look forward to.
  • This is totally random and not related to music, but interesting none the less. Tommy Lee, husband of Pamela Lee Anderson is in the slammer. Pam is accusing Tommy of assaulting her (Hmmm...I wonder if it's some kinky kinda "break me outta jail" sexual role playing thing). I knew he'd beat her, you can see it in his eyes.
  • You want a list of some of the winners...I got it. Here it is:
    • Record Of The Year - "Sunny Came Home," Shawn Colvin
    • Best Pop Album - "Hourglass," James Taylor
    • Best New Artist - Paula Cole
    • Album Of The Year - "Time Out Mind," Bob Dylan
    • Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals - "Don't Look Back," John Lee Hooker With Van Morrison
    • Best Male R&B Vocal Performance - "I Believe I Can Fly," R. Kelly
    • Song Of The Year - "Sunny Came Home," Shawn Colvin
    • Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals - "Virtual Insanity," Jamiroquai
    • Best R&B Album - "Baduizm," Erykah Badu
    • Best Solo Rap Performance - "Men In Black," Will Smith
    • Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group - "I'll Be Missing You," Puff Daddy & Faith Evans Featuring 112
    • Best Rap Album - "No Way Out," Puff Daddy & The Family
    • Remixer Of The Year - Frankie Knuckles
    • Best Short Form Music Video - "Got 'Till It's Gone," Janet Jackson
    • Best Long Form Music Video - "Jagged Little Pill, Live," Alanis Morissette
    • Best Female R&B Vocal Performance - "On & On," Erykah Badu
    • Best Dance Recording - Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder
    • Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal - "No Diggity," Blackstreet
    • Best R&B Song - R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly," R. Kelly, songwriter
    • Best Female Pop Vocal Performance - "Building A Mystery," Sarah McLachlan
    • Best Pop Instrumental Performance - "Last Dance," Sarah McLachlan
    • Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical - Babyface
    • Best Spoken Comedy Album - "Roll With The New," Chris Rock
    • Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion Picture Or Television - R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly," R. Kelly, songwriter
    • Best Pop/Rock Contemporary Gospel Album - "Much Afraid," Jars Of Clay
    • Best Gospel Album by a Chior or Chorus - "God's Property From Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation," God's Property
    • Best Male Pop Vocal Performance - Elton John, "Candle in the Wind"
    • Best Contemporary Folk Album - "Time Out Of Mind," Bob Dylan
    • Best Female Rock Vocal Performance - "Criminal," Fiona Apple
    • Best Male Rock Vocal Performance - "Cold Irons Bound," Bob Dylan
    • Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal - "One Headlight," The Wallflowers
    • Best Hard Rock Performance - "The End Is The Beginning Is The End," The Smashing Pumpkins
    • Best Metal Performance - "Aenema," Tool
    • Best Rock Instrumental Performance - "Block Rockin' Beats," The Chemical Brothers
    • Best Rock Song - "One Headlight," The Wallflowers
    • Best Rock Album - "Blue Moon Swamp," John Fogerty
    • Best Alternative Music Performance - "OK Computer," Radiohead

2/21/98

  • MPEG Layer 4 is currently under development and is definitely something to look forward to. For more info on this new technology click here.
  • Handheld MP3 player for sale? Apparently so. It's small, it weighs only 65 grams, but, on the down side...only 16 megs of memory, which equates to 3 or 4 songs. For more on this visit mpman.
  • Wanna have some sort of insight on how Winamp 2.0 is gonna look? Visit Layer 3's Winamp Mangled page. It has many hacked versions of Winamp. The chances of Winamp 2.0 looking anything like these is slim, but still, there's some pretty kick ass interfaces, you should check it out.
  • For all you anti - porn users out there, join PureMP3 by clicking on the preceeding link.
  • Ex Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain would have been 31 years old yesterday. Nirvana revolutionized music as we know it today. They set the stage for many of the alternative styles of music around. Cobain's death was a tragic and not only brought an end to Nirvana, but brought an end to an era. For an excellent article, click here.
  • Erik Schrody, more well known as Everlast of the group House of Pain is in an intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in L.A. He suffered a massive heart attack Wednesday. Immediately after the incident, he was rushed to the hospital and spent 5 hours undergoing bypass surgery.
  • Sample, sample, sample!! Who am I speaking of you ask? Why Puff Daddy of course. The "King of Sampling" as I call him, will be doing a remix of the Led Zeppelin classic "Kashmir." The song will debut on the soundtrack of the new "Godzilla" movie due out Memorial Day.
  • Eric Clapton will be releasing a new CD entitled "Pilgrim" on March 10th. Along with that album will come a tour beginning on March 30th. The dates are as follows:
    • 3/30 - St. Paul, MN @ Saint Paul Civic Ctr.
    • 4/2 - Kansas City, MO @ Kemper Arena
    • 4/3 - St. Louis, MO @ Kiel Center
    • 4/5 - Moline, IL @ Mark Of The Quad Cities
    • 4/6 - Milwaukee, WI @ Bradley Center
    • 4/8 - Auburn Hills, MI @ Palace Of Auburn Hills
    • 4/9 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
    • 4/10 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
    • 4/12 - Cleveland, OH @ Gund Arena
  • 4/14 - Boston, MA @ FleetCenter
  • 4/15 - Philadelphia, PA @ CoreStates Center
  • 4/16 - Washington, DC @ MCI Center
  • 4/18 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
  • 4/19 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
  • 4/22 - Charlotte, NC @ Charlotte Coliseum
  • 4/23 - Knoxville, TN @ Thompson-Boling Arena
  • 4/25 - Tampa, FL @ Ice Palace
  • 4/26 - Miami, FL @ Miami Arena
  • Former member of the Presidents of the U.S.A. Chris Ballew, will be releasing a solo album entitled "13 Other Dimensions" on March 17th. Ummmm...and that's all about that :-)
  • Michael Jackson doing the Bartman? The suggestive song "Do The Bartman" on the Simpson's family album in 1991 was apparently written by Michael Jackson himself. Personally, I didn't think it was him. The superstar singer is getting closer to signing a deal for a $500 million entertainment park in Warsaw, Poland. Jackson hopes to have the park up and running by June 1, 1999.
  • Former superstar M.C. Hammer, after dwindling his millions away, has found God. In the words of the Hammer himself ""Evangelizing is a very important part of what I do and what my life is about." He is scheduled to speak Friday and Saturday at the National Winter Revival at Victory Temple Holiness Church and Outreach Ministry in Amory, Mississippi.

2/19/98 - 2/20/98

  • As you may have noticed, I now have a new MP3 of the Week section above. Starting next week, I will provide MP3's from ONLY bands that permit their distribution (ie. Pearl Jam). The song will be changing every Sunday night, so check back on a weekly basis for a new song.
  • More news on the hand-held MP3 player I reported on yesterday. The Korean company that has developed it has set an initial price of about $300 for a unit with 16 megs of storage (Does the word rip-off come to mind...for God's sake, thats 3 or 4 songs). Additional memory can be bought, for a hefty price of course...approximately $6.50 per meg ($650 for 100 megs!). To combat these extraordinary prices, someone else is developing a portable MP3 player that stores songs on a hard drive (PCMCIA). Click here for more about this.
  • Van Halen's first video "Without You" was just shot. The video is the first featuring Van Halen's third lead singer...Gary Cherone, former lead singer of Extreme. The video is rumored to have lots of special effects and will be out in a couple of weeks.
  • KRS-one will be releasing a new album titled "Maximum Strength" sometime in the future. Hip-hop superstar Puff Daddy will apparently be assisting KRS-one with this new album. Two tracks on the album will be performed by Puffy while one more will be sung by Wyclef Jean. The album should be something to look forward to.
  • Beginning in May, singer Beck and his late grandfather, Al Hansen, will be having their artwork displayed at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in Santa Monica, CA (Beck, an artist, who'd have thought!). The exhibit will be called "Beck and Al Hansen Playing with Matches" and will include Beck's drawings, collages, photographs, as well as audio segments, and his grandfather's art and sculptures.
  • More Beck news...A company called RTMARK has released an album called "Deconstructing Beck," featuring "resamplings of Beck" produced by Illegal Arts WITHOUT Becks permission. The CD will cost only 5 dollars and is available on Illegal Arts webpage (Gimmie a fucking break! If you're gonna pirate music, at least be discrete about it!).
  • A Doors tribute album? Blasphemy I say!! If you ask me, the Doors are definitely deserving of a tribute of some type, but no one should EVER remake their music! The album is scheduled to be released later this year and will feature artists such as Smash Mouth. The living 3 members of the Doors will perform for the album as well. (In that case, its ok) :-)
  • Remember Rodney King? That fellow who got the shit beat out of him for no apparent reason? Well guess what, the guy has started up his own record label! The label is called Straight Alta-Pazz Records. "Do It How U Wanna," by the group Stranded is scheduled to hit the airwaves next Tuesday. It will be the first single to be released by Straight Alta-Pazz Records. Hmmmm...I wonder where Rodney got the cash to start up a record company...oh yeah! The LAPD gave it to him! heh :-)
  • News on the Spice Girls...Yeah yeah, I know, I'm 100% anti-spice, but read on, this is good news :-) They're scheduled to perform in Khajuraho, India, but a classical dancer is requesting that the Indian gov't not let them play at a site adorned with erotic sculptures. The dancer, Geeta Chandran, argues that the site and the sculptures are part of Indian spirituality and that the Spice Girls simply don't "fit" into the picture of Indian spirituality. (I don't think that the "fit" anywhere, but that's just my opinion.) "The profile of the Spice Girls does not match that of the temples. ...Eroticism sans spirituality will be reduced to pornography," said the dancer. My thanks go out to India for realizing that the Spice Girls are talentless idiots.
  • A three CD boxed set of rare and previously unreleased Bob Marley material will be released next month. The set is derived from the more than 200 songs that Bob Marley and the Wailers recorded with JAD Records before signing with Island Records in 1972.

2/18/98

  • Winamp 2.0 beta released!!! BULLSHIT I SAY!!! If any of you out there have heard this...ignore it!!! It's horse shit!!! I mean c'mon...if there was a release, don't ya think It would've been posted on Winamp's Page?! If the person who started this rumor reads this, I would just like to say to him...we're not as stupid as you think.
  • Remember the news I told you yesterday? About not being able to rip songs off of CD's...Well, if you're interested in learning more about this visit InterTrust. They're the folks developing this technology.
  • MP3.com will be releasing their MP3 compliation album soon. It'll have about 100 songs and a shit load of MP3 software. Orders will begin to be taken next week, and the CD will start shipping out on March 1st
  • The MPlifier...bullshit or not? To be frank, this encoder is FAST. I encoded a six minute song in just under 3 minutes. The MPlifier uses an early version of XingTech's encoding engine (hence the speed). The only con is that Xing encoding cuts off all frequencies above 16 Mhz as opposed to Fraunhofer's 20 Mhz cut off. I use it now, it works really well. I can't tell any sound difference. It's illegal, so if you want it, get it now.
  • "Hole" lead singer Courtney Love is still attempting to get Orange County, Florida to pay her 27,543 dollars in legal fees that she dished out to defend herself against battery charges filed by two fans who were struck at a 1995 Hole concert. In December, a District Court ruled that the county should cover the part of Courtney's legal fees that fall under state law, but attorney George Dorsett says that the money Love wants reimbursed is not covered by state law. All this would've never happened if only Courtney wouldn't insist on beating on her fans :-) Just kidding :-)
  • A tour labeled "The Rock Never Stops Tour" will feature Slaughter, Warrant, Quiet Riot, L.A. Guns and Firehouse will kick off on May 10th at Wings Stadium in Fresno, CA. The four groups will also be featured at the Rock the Hills festival at Lake Metigoshe, ND.
  • "Blues Traveler" singer John Popper and Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan will be featured in Gatorade's newest ad campaign. For more on this bizarre pairing click here.
  • Van Halen will present material from its new upcoming album "III" at a listening party at Hollywood's Billboard Live next month. There's a slight twist to this event though...tickets will not be sold. The only people who will be privileged enough to see this performance will be the winners of many various contests. However, Van Halen hasn't totally shafted all the non-winners...the party will be broadcast live in Real Audio on the official Van-Halen site.
  • Wyclef Jean will stage a short tour, visiting, for the most part, colleges and universities. The tour dates are as follows:
    • 2/27 - Northampton, MA @ Smith College
    • 2/28 - Towson, MD @ Towson University
    • 3/1 - Harrisburg, PA @ James Madison Univ.
    • 3/27 - Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum
    • 3/28 - Myrtle Beach, SC @
    • 4/9 - Union, NJ @ Kean College