VARIOUS ARTISTS
Rock the Net: Musicians for Network Neutrality
(Thirsty Ear)
By Ian Ferguson
Although Al Gore considered naming the Internet “Magic,” and it seems that way to some (black magic for John McCain), an actual energy- and bandwidth-consuming infrastructure supports our browsing habits. Once the Net broadened beyond ARPA, private companies (namely service providers like AT&T and Comcast) assumed control of its traffic lights. Service providers are huge corporations: profit machines compelled to consider little else. These companies want to charge content providers (Web sites ranging from Google to your favorite blog) a fee for more bandwith: more bandwith means the Net works faster for a given site.
The FCC hasn’t yet stepped in to regulate the practice, but is currently evaluating the available options. In a show of support for net neutrality - the principle that demands service providers keep the Net free and open and by extension an indie band’s site as fast as any multiplatinum act’s - a coalition of musicians and labels have united to make an album intent on persuading Congress and the FCC to come around to their point of view. After all, as labels suffer, the Net offers itself as an inevitable platform for whatever distribution model to come - take OK Go’s YouTube music video-fueled fame, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s blog-buzzed status, or Radiohead's acclaimed In Rainbows digital release.
Though none of these bands appear as part of the collective of musicians supporting network neutrality on Rock the Net, the album more than makes up for their absence. Everyone knows that one of the most promising potentials the Internet offers audiophiles is ease of discovery. No longer must one buy countless so-so albums to find one gem: simply peruse Imeem, Muxtape, or MySpace for revelations. This disc provides a microcosm of that in tangible form: 15 artists - some familiar, some not so well-known - present tracks as varied as infinite cyberspace.
Connor Oberst of Saddle Creek Records and Bright Eyes opens the album with the slow, simple, steady “I Won’t Ever Be Happy Again” - his voice pent-up, angry through reserved. “I won’t ever be lonely again,” he sings over the wail of a country slide guitar. His fame lends some luster to the more obscure musicians on the album - the Classic Brown, B.C. Camplight, David Miller, and Free Form Funky Freqs - although rock, electronica, and jazz followers will look to tracks by Wilco, Aimee Mann, DJ Spooky featuring Saba Saba, Palomar, Guster, They Might Be Giants, Portastatic, and Matthew Shipp Trio. Indie rockers will gravitate, for instance, to David Bazan, whose clear falsetto that lifts a drum-grounded track into a starry, electro-synth stratosphere.
The Wrens, billed by Allmusic as one of the best bands with the worst luck, garnered critical acclaim for their proto-indie rock songwriting in the early '90s, but then foundered on the shoals of anonymity due to label problems that prevented them releasing another album for seven years - who better to champion a campaign for net neutrality than a group whose livelihood suffered under the yoke of the industry’s distribution model. Simple downbeat piano blockchords measure the metered lament of a heartbroken voice on the band’s "Sleep," another track by another act that was once easily erased from industry rosters, now reborn online.
The CD's playlist progresses with little linearity - there's continuity and dynamics, sure, arranged as any compelling album would, but there's also a reach and variety uncommon in a compilation. The recording advances much as one might stumble through hyperlinks, indie-emo segues into DJ Spooky’s fusion of African rhythm and voice with hip-hop glitch beats (“Uganda”).
As of July 27, 2008, 929 bands and 184 labels have pledged their support for the campaign. Rock the Net’s sales will benefit the Future of Music Coalition’s campaign for net neutrality - it’s an excellent way to contribute to a worthy cause, considering that the album’s worth the price regardless.
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