Up the Beach

Last night for about the 7th time I bought 'Nothing's Shocking'. Thanks to cassettes left on dashboards, klepto roommates, and various ex-girlfriends I have purchased this album across several years and formats. Now the album exists as .AAC files and DRM code on my hard drive, and we'll see if this time around it's permanent, or if I need to purchase the music again a few years from now in yet another format.

I wish I could have written a check to Perry Farrell and cut out the middleman. It's not like I don't appreciate it. His trickster/shaman rock odyssey kept music alive in the years before Nirvana. I have some great stories from that era not suitable for the general public.

If I had received the songs by file sharing I might have been subject to a new law about to be signed by the president - and pushed by the record industry and their willing accomplices in Congress - which could have me put in jail for up to three years. Nothing's shocking.