pasted from the CNN website in the article in reference to the settlement of the courtcase involving Nirvana and Courtney Love:

" The recording industry is the only California-based industry allowed to hold workers to a contract with one company longer than seven years. Music executives maintain they must hold their successful acts to long-term recording contracts to help cover losses from their majority of acts that fail. "

i have a better idea for making money. why don't they sign something besides shit nobody wants to listen to?

But at least BECK has a new album out, and it doesn't suck!

> But at least BECK has a new album out, and it doesn't suck!
Beck? Hmm, for me he is too derivative, where is his own face? It's all derivative, again IMHO...

BTW, Oaf and Suzanne, do you know anything about Steve Earle?
Steve Earle new album called "Jerusalem"... with song called "John Walker blues"... Hmmm... Is it political? He was number 11 at Encinitas Lou's popularity poll... He was a country star, then lived at skid row at LA, then come back... (I read it somewhere) Is he worth buying...? I had a buddy who was raving how good Steve Earle (country & rock oddball) is... Is he or you have no f***ing idea?

I'm surprised to see someone here mention SE, as he is one of my top 5 or so favorite artists. As far as whether you would like him or not, I dunno, he's country but not really Garth and reba territory. I most often see him compared to Springsteen, which I suppose is apt. Earle got popular around the time the new country came out (Rosanne cash, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam, Randy Travis, etc which didn't last long after the emergence of Garth Brooks, and so now you have the crap commerical country) and hit rather big with a song called 'Copperhead Road' (which is quite frankly about a vietnam vet who returns home and decides to grow illegal drugs). Once he got popular, and every time his record company tried to market him, he'd do something completely different (i.e. market him as a rock artist, and then do a country album, and vice versa). Not to mention he was a heroin addict (and married 7 times) and had all the problems caused by that. The John Walker thing is the latest controversy.

Any of his post-detox albums are worth getting- "El Corazon" "transcendental Blues" " I Feel Alright", and his album guests range from gospel band Fairfield 4, to bluegrass king Del McCoury to Emmylou Harris to indie-rawkers The Supersuckers. Needless to say, I like him alot. I don't like much country (i listen to mostly Brit-and-Indie pop actually)but I do like some of the older country (Johnny Cash, Hank Sr, etc) I'm sure there's somewhere you can download SE and if you like a song or two, you should go ahead and get some albums. Very good lyricist.