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Remember Kevin Cogill? He’s the Guns N’ Roses fan that leaked Chinese Democracy songs early and now is paying big time for it. His favorite band hates him and to top it all off he’s facing five years jail time just for promoting Guns N’ Roses’ latest album.

Now Kevin has agreed to a plea bargain in the case and last month, his charge dropped from a felony to a misdemeanor. Right now, he’s only looking at a year jail time, but it’s all going to come down to the judge’s decision. If that judge isn’t Axl Rose, Kevin is in the clear. Otherwise, be prepared to hear some real lousy singing from both ends of the courtroom.

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Originally people thought that the Beatles would make an appearance in the latest Rock Band game. It turns out that MTV Networks announced a deal with the Beatles’ record label, Apple Corps, to create a Beatles-branded music video game. The same developers behind Rock Band will be making the game, apart from its already successful Rock Band franchise.

“The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music. I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out,” Sir Paul McCartney said.

I’m thinking something like Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, except without the suck. It’s even been approved by Yoko Ono Lennon, herself. So, you know it’s going to be good.
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Tonight, MySpace kicked off its new commercial free music service which doesn’t include any of that bullshit DRM business.  Using its ever popular Flash player, users can purchase songs or add them to a playlist. It’s now possible to create a streaming playlist of as many as 100 songs each that can be shared and ranked.  MySpace music will also offer on-demand, ad-subsidized playback of full tracks in addition to allowing users to purchase unprotected MP3s of songs through Amazon.

Could MySpace music be another competitor for iTunes? It’s certainly looking that way. Just wait until Facebook joins with iTunes commercially. The “Great Social Networking” war is upon us.

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That’s right, you read correctly: Activision is considering a subscription service to deliver monthly releases of fresh songs for Guitar Hero players.

Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith explained:

Looking even further out, we’re exploring new models, like an annual pass subscription where players can subscribe and get a certain number of songs downloadable each month.

As of now, no specific details regarding the subscription information or potential tracks for download has been released. However, Activision is sure that this subscription service will be successful because there is no better time to milk the franchise while it’s still fresh in everyones brains. All Guitar Hero fans want is more songs and nothing more.

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Music can be really costly these days, especially if you’re the one guy caught leaking the Guns N’ Roses album on to the net.  Even music stores mark up prices on both uses and new CDs at an outrageous rate. It almost seems like everyone is out to get anyone who loves listening to music.

Well, Amazon wants you to know that it’s not out to get you with overpriced music from classic artists.  I mean afterall, you’ve probably heard most of the songs on a CD you’re willing to buy, anyway. Amazon wants to hook up all those in the KISS Army by letting the Greatest Kiss album go for just $1.99. That’s like 12 cents a song! This album has all the hits, too! Deuce, Strutter, Detroit Rock City and more! It seems like all it’s really missing is Love Gun. This deal will be going on the whole weekend through Monday. If you’re a KISS fan that doesn’t already have this album, don’t miss out.

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If you’re a fan of Guns N’ Roses, it’s more likely than not that if you aren’t the guy signing Axl Rose’s non-existent checks then they hate you. They all hate you. Yes, even Slash hates you. Remember that blogger who leaked their latest suckfest, Chinese Democracy? That was an honest mistake any fan could have made. Well, now he faces a long term of jail time for simply being a fan and helping to promote Guns N’ Roses.

They sure needed it according to Eric Garland of BigChampagne, a company that tracks file sharing activity. Garland brings to light the fact that no file sharing of Chinese Democracy ever took place until Kevin Cogill leaked it and then got arrested. Since his arrest, Chinese Democracy has become the whore of torrent downloading.  The question on my mind is why is the FBI wasting time with this and what does the band think of Kevin? Scratch that, no one really cares what Guns N’ Roses thinks.

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Chinese Democracy is the Duke Nukem Forever of the music industry. It’s been over 10 years in the making and everyone has lost interest since seeing Axl Rose’s last performance. Then, Los Angeles based blogger Kevin Cogill leaks nine songs from the album which eventually leads his site to crash from high traffic shortly thereafter. No one is sure how he obtained access to the songs but the “band” was pissed and demanded the songs be taken down.

But, the damage had already been done. Users who obtained the tracks had made them available on file-sharing sites. Guns N’ Roses: owned.

Earlier this week Cogill posted a plea for legal help on his blog, writing that, “more and more each day, it looks like I may be indicted.”

Cogill was released after signing a $10,000 signature bond and is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on September 17. Things are not looking good for Kevin as he faces a judicial system of a Chinese Democracy. And here I sat thinking this album would never see the light of day.

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Japanese mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo is experimenting with this mind boggling approach to mobile device control that’s sure to give anyone an eye headache worse than TV coming through your glasses. How does it work? Firstly, no hands are needed. Simply move your eyes up or down to raise volume, accordingly. To skip a track, look right twice. Currently, they only have this technology controlling a mobile music player by sensing the electric fields eyes make when they move. In the future, who knows what this form of control could be used for?

Listening to the latest and greatest Josh Groban hits? Turn that shit up. All it takes is looking up. Say there is a bird flying overhead and you just so happened to be listening to the loudest death metal, ever. You look up, the volume raises and you’re officially halfway to becoming Helen Keller. You’ll then be forced to listen to tunes with the Shake-Up headphones, which is more buzzing and vibrating than any Justice song you’ve ever heard.

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Radio stinks. It’s boring and pretentious and they never play enough 1970s progressive rock bands. In a desperate attempt to get more listeners in on radio, Coby Electronics’ HD Radio launched with promises of higher audio quality for no additional fee.

The two new HD Radio receivers in town include the portable HDR-700 Radio System and the HDR-650 (pictured above) Component HD Radio Receiver. The latter is intended to be integrated into already existing household component systems. So if you don’t have one, you’re up shits creek without a paddle. The HDR-700 is priced at $149, leaving the lower-end HDR 650 at a price tag of $99. With no subscription fees, could this be a reason to give up your satellite radio subscription? Probably not and y’know why? Not enough NPR.

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Forget about all of this Guitar Hero mess. What about a little fun for us real guitarists? iGTR from Wave connects your mp3 player to your guitar so you can jam out to your favorite tunes on your iPod (or a Zune, if you’re a dirty commie).

iGTR also packs in 9 guitar effects, including wah, tremolo and phaser effects for an authentic sounding jam session. iGTR even lets you slow down your tunes to practice your favorite guitar solo in super slow-motion. This is for the REAL guitar heroes. Get yours for $100 and don’t forget the 3 AAA batteries. – Andrew Dobrow

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