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London and NYC Club and Concert Listings Download This! (December 2004) Writer: John Kelly If rumours are anything to go by it won't be long before the major record labels embrace the 'evils of filesharing'. After all the lawsuits and the dire warnings about the 'end of the music industry', it would be an astonishing volte-face, but this is about something more important than pride - this is about money. It only takes a little imagination and the very things that have the music industry running scared could become their most powerful weapon; a huge decentralised network of music lovers. The term 'digital revolution' has been banded around for ages for sites like iTunes but it's really a misnomer. When the revolution does come it won't look like a record shop it will look something like weedshare.com. If you can get past the crap name, the rubbish graphics and the fact that, as yet, the biggest band to use the technology are dire eighties soft-rock band Heart, there is a glimpse of how the music industry could work in the future. What makes 'Weed' so special is that it works exactly like traditional peer-to-peer except with has one incredible twist. You can share your Weed files with the world, swapping and recommending tunes to your friends, but after three listens you either have to pay for it or discard it. If you buy it the track your payment gets distributed to the artist. Also as an added bonus, if you send the track to a friend you get a cut of the payment if they choose to buy. Genius!! If Sony or some major player could take the concept and package it right, it would be a firestorm and the artists and the industry as a whole would finally be able to reap the rewards of the connected digital world we find ourselves in. Viva revolution - it's almost enough to forgive them for reviving the career of Heart. Almost. For this months downloads we have a couple of Download This! exclusives and a couple of great freebies. First up is a band called Revolution Void who describe their music as 'electronic breakbeat jazz'. Its basically a mixture of downtempo and midtempo breaks with modern jazz improvisation by Seamus Blake, Matthew Garrison (bassist for Herbie Hancock), Lucas Pickford and others. This track is a little taster and it's called Accelerated Lifestyle and it's wicked. (There's more at www.revolutionvoid.com). Download Hailing from London's coolest borough, SE1, the mighty Finito come correct with a heavyweight live percussive flavour. This track from their new album Piecemaking has a Fila Brasilia meets Sergio Leone vibe and is one of three you can check on their website loosecannon.co.uk. The band, who recently featured on Radio One's One World show, are also playing a number of live gigs over the next few weeks - check the website for more details. Download Brand Nubian (you gotta respect 'em) are one of my favourite 'Golden Age' hip hop groups.The combination of Grand Puba, Sadat X and Lord Jamar is far greater than the sum of it's parts (as their respective solo work has illustrated). This track, Young Son, taken from their comeback album Fire In The Hole doesn't quite have the beats to be a classic - but the flow is a timely reminder of hip hop's glory days. Download Despite being seen as a bit of a novelty act whilst on Mo' Wax, I've always had a soft spot for Money Mark. Yeah it's retro, yeah it's a bit chessy and yeah if he was writing these tunes from a bedsit in Bristol I wouldn't be at all interested. But he's not, he's the Beastie Boy's ex-keyboard repairman and he's cool enough to get away with calling himself 'Money'.This is called "3'o'clock" from his new album Demo or Demolition. Download Enjoy. PUBLISHED: Friday 5 November RELATED LINKS: Weedshare.com Download This! November 2004 Download This! October 2004 More Features EMAIL UPDATES! Do you want to receive Know The Ledge update emails? Click here to sign up!	::: RELATED LINKS More Features