Daniel is an artist who has always intrigued me, ever since his infamous shot to fame when Kurt Cobain wore a t-shirt featuring a picture of Johnston’s “Hi, How Are You?” album. For those who aren’t aware of Daniel’s background, I’ll let the below trailer for “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” speak for itself…

It’s not easy to always watch Daniel Johnston. Throughout his live performances, it was always clear that there were demons with which he was struggling to deal. Diagnosed as bipolar, Daniel’s mind always appeared to be one step away from breaking completely. So when news of “The Angel and Daniel Johnston” DVD reached my ears, I was quick to start looking into it.

The below video is one of the trailers for the DVD. It features Daniel Johnston singing one of my favourite songs of his, “Grievances”. It’s clear that Daniel still struggles, and it breaks me every time I watch the man… but the key thing is… Daniel’s still here. Despite all else, the dude abides. And that’s f*cking awesome.

Head over to my music blog to read the entire review, with videos of the performance: Bon Iver, live at the Tivoli in Brisbane.

Anyway. I’m busy reacquainting myself with them, and you should too. And “Naked and Stoned” seems as good a place as any to do it. In fact… it’s damn near perfection.

Listen: Speechwriters LLC – Naked and Stoned

Well I have been searching for something in the mouths of strangers
I have been looking for love in dark, unholy places
Under covers there is rarely more than senseless entertainment anyway

And we have all left things behind us that we surely didn’t mean to
I have been trying my best to piece my way back home to you
Well I know the love between us is not as desperate as it always seems to be
- Speechwriters LLC, “Naked & Stoned”

1. Label rep contacts me about awesome new covers.
2. I write to label rep thanking her and asking for permission to share those covers.
3. Label rep excitedly grants permission to share those covers in a particular way.
4. I post those covers in exactly the way specified by the label rep.
5. In the same post, I include two other covers which are all over the blogs, and available for FREE on the MySpace page of the artist, who owns her OWN label.
6. The label rep writes to thank me for the nice review.
7. Blogger takes down the post.

This isn’t the first time Blogger has done this to Boy, and it’s clearly starting to take its toll in his willingness to continue blogging.
Let me make this clear… if the Cover Lay Down blog was to cease posting, that would be a sad day for the music blogosphere. It’s one of the most entertaining blogs out there, full of original thoughts in an all too often “rinse and repeat” music blog world.

However, as much as I respect Boy and the Cover Lay Down blog, the issue is far bigger than simply his case. Blogger simply taking down music posts without consulting anyone seems to be a case of far too many itchy trigger fingers, and there seems to be no avenue for the affected bloggers to offer recourse.
(Also, for more on this, please see my past post “The DMCA, and other random tidbits“)

It’s an issue that, as music bloggers, we need to pay attention to, lest we wake up one morning and find it the 300lb gorilla in the corner.

Anyway… if you can help in any way, then please visit the Cover Lay Down blog to offer your support. Boy, if you read this, I’m in the midst of moving my WordPress blog from one host to the other, so I might be able to offer some guidance in the future based on how this move goes. Of course, if you don’t see Burgo’s Blog as live again in a few days, then you might want to ignore that offer for help

Seriously. You will NOT regret it.

And, just because I can, I’m reposting this vid from Howie Day’s “Madrigals” EP. One more time… I’m excited.

Trailer embedded below.

One Track Mind from Woodshed Films on Vimeo.

Seriously, these guys rock.

So… Watch this!