Thursday, July 2, 2009

Hype Machine: Vice Squad


Interesting developments from the team at Hype Machine. Apparently, a number of shitty sounding bands have had their friends, people at small labels, or their girlfriends try to manipulate the Hype Machine set up, to increase their popularity. This site owes the majority of it's readership to Hype Machine and Elbows. These forums have been a great avenue to connect bloggers, listeners, music lovers of all parts of the world, to what is relevant in music these days. I think it stands as a testament, that what they have accomplished, frustrates and baffles the shit out of large record companies, and the old way of operating the record industry. I applaud the calling out of disingenuous efforts by these artists, or anyone connected to them, by the Hype Machine. A few of the artists try to explain how the appearance of fraudulent accounts, used to rev up their votes and good standing on the Hype Machine, are a simply explained misunderstanding. Read more about it at The Hype Machine blog HERE. Also check out a track for the long weekend below. After that, a list of all artists accused...who, at the very least, are guilty of some terrible choices for band names.

"Love Will Tear Us Apart (7" Version)" by Joy Division
Download via YSI or zShare

Joy Division music available on iTunes.


And now, a list of the aforementioned artists:
607
Alexander Technique / Princess Superstar
Audiofun
Big Dope P
Burns
Caroline Reese
Death to the Throne
Decimals
Destructo
Disco Ruido
Emil & Friends
Flapsandwich
fragglerock
Foulhouse
Gareth Pearson
Girl Problems
Hot Knives
John Roman
Kid Legit
Kids at the Bar
La Zebra
Master Shortie
Meech
Messkid
Mustard Pimp
Religion
Richie Jamz
Sikki Kidz
Sonic Truth
Star Guitar
Streetlab
Super Milkmen
The Constellations
The Grenade
The Knocks
The Muscle Club
The Pragmatic
The Vanish
Three Fingers
VIKING
Weekend Warriors


CLICK HERE for front page and full list of track postings.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fascinating topic. Hadn't heard about this. Thanks for the warning and the vigilance.

Anonymous said...

My friend told me about this. It's ridiculous to 'out' the bands when its very possible that they had nothing to do with the extra voting. I know one of the bands and they weren't even aware. They asked around and it turned out some over zealous 15 year old fan had set up about 30 fake accounts thinking they were helping, without the band knowing....yet the band are now tarnished as cheats. That's not really fair is it?

'Guilty until proven innocent'

Acting with 'integrity', hypem should have approached the bands by email and warned them and at least not jumped to any conclusions. It's completely unfair to 'out' them and darken their names when a lot could be completely innocent. It reeks of self importance and arrogance to jump the gun so unfairly.

IanFromMinorThreat said...

Someone tarnished Mustard Pimp's image?! Fuck.

Anonymous said...

Fuck U! Ear, Eye Nose Candy..... thats why Hype Machine had no proof & had to take all the names off!!
U should do your homework instead of pointing fingers with no proof,,,,,

eareyenosecandy said...

Fantastic! Fuck you too, 'Anonymous'. What it really comes down to it, is we don't really give a shit if the genius behind Mustard Pimp has so much time on their hands, they can manipulate something like this. What really irks us, is that Mustard Pimp even exists. We'll even show you an old post that talks about how much disdain we have for mediocre bands, with even worse names: http://eareyenosecandy.blogspot.com/2009/01/your-band-name-sucks.html. PS, grow some balls and put a name and link, "Anonymous".