Welcome back to the Disposable Underground newsletter, a companion to the blog of the same name. Below find music news, tributes, and what’s new at the blog.
Music News
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has been sued by comedian and author Sarah Silverman and other plaintiffs in U.S. court, alleging copyright infringement as the AI is trained on their works without their permission. She and two best-selling authors have also sued Meta. (George R.R. Martin, John Grisham, and others have also joined a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI.) Daniel Tencer dives into the story at Music Business Worldwide. I previously linked to a story about AI-generated music in an earlier D.U. newsletter.
Brexit continues to suck for musicians. A new UK Music survey shows that people are still feeling adverse effects on their musical income post-Brexit. Notable in the findings is that a large chunk of British respondents said that touring in the E.U. no longer makes sense financially and because of the difficulty of getting visas and permits. VIP-Booking has the story.
We Are Rewind is a portable, Walkman-like cassette player with a rechargeable battery, a Bluetooth connection, and a way (the website doesn’t say how) to create mixtapes.
Rest In Peace
Bennett Stacks, the original drummer of Scream, passed away in September, the band announced on Facebook. After his time with that classic DC hardcore band, Stacks moved on to other bands and genres, the announcement read.
Roger Whittaker died in September at the age of 87. A popular folk singer and noted whistler, Whittaker started recording in the ‘60s and sold millions of albums. Adam Sweeting has the story at The Guardian.
Bernie Marsden died in August, as posted on his Twitter account. Marsden was the original Whitesnake guitarist and co-wrote some of the band’s biggest hits. He later worked with other bands and released solo records. Rania Aniftos has the story at Billboard.
Sakevi Yokoyama, the vocalist of the classic hardcore band G.I.S.M., passed away in August. The band released its first album in the 1980s and was widely influential. Andrew Sacher has the story at BrooklynVegan.
Steve Roden, the multidisciplinary artist who worked in sound art and explored the intersection of art and science (among work and projects in many other fields), died in California at the age of 59. His roots went back to punk rock in the 1980s. Christopher Knight has a remembrance at The Los Angeles Times.
New at the Blog
Voivod has re-recorded classic tracks for Morgöth Tales
Book roundup for Spring and Summer 2023 [and it works for Fall too]
Rotten Sound brings the Apocalypse with new album
Ivan Julian wants you to Swing Your Lanterns
Geld is gonna let you have it with Currency//Castration
Transgressor is back from Beyond Oblivion
Cinema Cinema brings the hammer down with Mjölnir
The (drum) arsenal of Megadeth: an interview with Dirk Verbeuren
Get bummed out and love it with the new Great Falls album
Fabio Frizzi is back with another soundtrack in Zombie: Composer’s Cut
What’s GUJI 咕叽, you ask?
Brexit image: TheDigitalArtist / Pixabay
There’s plenty more music writing at the Disposable Underground blog.
Thanks!
October 1, 2023 newsletter
