AC/DC -- New Album Online

I am an AC/DC fan and proud to be so. I have all their albums and have been eagerly awaiting the release of Black Ice. However, if I do not want to wait I can go to the pirate music site thepiratebay.org and download it. I would be joining an estimated 400,000 others who have already downloaded the album. As much as I am tempted to download the album, I am going to wait for it to be officially released and buy it.

I am not sure that the fellas are poor and need the royalties, but that is not the point. Piracy is theft, although I must confess to owning a few suspect DVDs. That said, all my music and software is legitimate.

Funnily enough, AC/DC does not allow its music to be sold through online retailers such as Apple's iTunes, but all of the band's albums can be obtained through illegal download websites. I wonder will software, film, and music piracy ever be defeated?

The reviews of Black Ice have seen it compared to Back in Black. I hope this pans out to be true as Back in Black is an awesome album.

Jimmy Barnes + Cold Chisel

One of my all time favourite Australian bands is Cold Chisel and I am glad to say that I introduced the band to a few people around the globe and continue to do so! There is nothing like singing your heart along to the sweet sounds of Khe Sanh, Cheap Wine, Forever Now, or Saturday Night after a barbecue and a few beers with friends.

I have always followed the career of Jimmy Barnes with interest and recently read something about his biography in something called the Icons of Australian Music: Jimmy Barnes! The revelations were like how the hell does one live to tell this tale?

The revelations included this pearler on the period of his life from 1998 - 2002:

"I was doing about 10 grams of cocaine a day, maybe taking six or eight ecstasy [pills] and drinking three bottles of vodka - all in a day, every day".

Barnes is now clean and sober. His marriage is supposedly stronger than ever and he is now recognized as a global UNICEF parent. By all accounts he and his wife have raised four well-adjusted kids. This is testament to the character of the individual and to his family that in spite of all these demons he has managed to do what so many struggle to do!

I would not survive a week, let alone four or five years of this kind of drug and alcohol use (or abuse)! Yet, despite this I have no less respect for the man or Cold Chisel, they remain favourites.