GB - TheMichigan Daily - Weeken ,etc. Magazine- Thursday,September 14, 2000 --- -
FACE TO FACE WITH FACE TO FACE
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* * _ &he MichiganDaily- W end, etc. Maga
etc. Site of the Week
Hang up on high phone bills with new Int
By Gabe Fajuri
Dauly Arts Editor
Punk rock on the Internet? What a
concept. Sid and Nancy would be pissed.
But not Trever Keith. The lead singer
and guitar player for Face to Face, a
SoCal punk rock band ( from Victorville,
Calif. to be exact) has welcomed online
music and file sharing with open power
chords.
The group's latest release,
"Reactionary" (Vagrant/Ladv Luck),
which hit record shop shelves this past
June, was recorded by the band in three
weeks. The music sounds punk rock
enough. And what's more, the tracks that
made 't to the record were selected by
fans.
Sixteen tracks, recorded by the band
last January, were posted on MP3.com
for six weeks. During that time, fans had
a chance to vote on which 12 cuts would
eventually appear on Face to Face's new
record.
Nearly two million votes later, the
people had spoken.
The record is a punk rock opus, akin
to the group's most popular telease,
1995's "Big Choice."
Keith, who founded the band in 1991,
came up with the idea of putting the new
music online for fans to hear.
"We care about what our fans think,"
Keith said in a recent interview with The
Michigan Daily. Fans'opinions were the
reason behind putting the contents of
"Reactionary" to a vote. "We've been
building a fan base for the last nine
years." Keith said.
And he couldn't be happier with the
results.
"Being able to (to it on the internet
was awesome," Keith said.
Staying closely attuned to fans' \N ish-
es, on the band's seven week, cross-
country tour, not much new material will
he heard. "We're only playing five or six
new songs," Keith said.
For the most part, the band will be
drawing from its nine year repertoire,
including "Disconnected," a song so
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popular with fans that it appeared on
four separate Face to Face releases.
"Yeah, we're still playing that one,
Keith chuckled.
Keith has found that while fans seem
interested in new music, as evidenced by
their votes on the contents of
"Reactionary," "it takes them a while to
get used to it." That's why the band will
be reaching as far back as its first full
length release, "Don't Turn Away" to
create its set list for tonight's appearance
in Detroit at St. Andrew's Hall.
In addition to its association with
MP3.com, the band's record label,
Vagrant Records, has teamed up with the
now infamous Napster to promote Face
to Face's tour.
Keith, a Napster user himself, says that
while he doesn't see the file sharing com-
munity as a sale booster for the records
he releases, it certainly makes the band
more visible to the general public.
"I doubt they're (Napster) increasing
record sales," he said. "But they're
spreading word about the band. And
that's the whole point"
"If we thought Napster was hurting
our record sales we wouldn't be support-
ing it, he added. It's "a promotional
tool." he said. So does Keith think
Napster and its spin-offs are really "punk
rock'?"
- "Absolutely. Punk rock to the nth
degree because it's grass roots. It's
(Napster) a whole community that
can help to bolster punk rock. You can
discover it on your own and that's
what the whole DIY punk rock thing
is all about."
Food for Thought
Who was most Patriotic?
The myth is that WWI vets
lined up to volunteer for duty,
while those who served in
Vietnam were primarily draft-
ees serving against their will.
Department of Defense data
shows that 69% of those who
served in Vietnam were volun-
teers, while only 26% of those
in WWII volunteered.
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By Kiran Divvela
Daily Arts Writet
Now that everyone is getting settled
into their new abodes, it's time to hook
up the phone and voicemail services.
Consequently, bills are going to settle
into our new places, too. Think you
can't do anything about it? Wrong. A
few Websites may change the way (and
the price at which) you communicate.
Dialpad.com, the leading force in this
category, lets you call anyone in the
country for free. All you need is a
microphone, a pair of speakers and an
Internet connection to get in touch with
anyone. Also, Dialpad's phonebook fea-
ture allows you to dial anyone's number
instantly. Unfortunately, it's only avail-
able for PCs with Windows 95/98/NT,
(sorry. Mac users).
Dialpad.com has partnered with
another company called eVoice.com to
offer free voicemail to its users. eVoice
boasts that it lets you check your mes-
sages from anywhere - email, the web
and even your phone. The only glitch
wasn't eVoice's fault; apparently
Ameritech charges a "forwarding fee"
of Sl .20-SI.50 per month. But if you're
paying for voice mail right now, you'll
know this is a bargain.
In direct competition with Dialpad is
i-link.com. Their product, Talkfree,
allows you to talk through your phone
instead of your computer's microphone.
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All you do to obtain this free service is
provide your phone number and the
phone number of the person you want
to call. The service then calls you and
connects you to the other party. The ini-
tial three-minute call limit is somewhat
annoying. In order to get another
minute, you have to click a button on
their site.
Another Website, uReach.com, con-
nects everything. Voicemail, email,
phone calls and faxes are all connected.
Calls go to any phone you prefer -
home, work or cell -- while email,
voicemail and faxes are all sent to a per-
sonal "uReach" inbox. All of this free ...
that is until the 30 free minutes are
used. Then it costs 7.9-9.9 cents a
minute. The fax, email and voicemail
are still free, though, call forwa
the only expense.
PhoneFree.com offers simi
tures except they're banking on
that people are willing to talk ex
ly through their computer. The t
quite good but the program
while to set up. Software nee
downloaded, then configured, a
vey must be filled out before
begin to talk to others. More
some is the necessity for the o
son to have the same softwar
than this, the assortment of se
top notch.
Visitalk.com has undertaken
ent approach to online commu
free personal video conferen
addition to free PC to PC voic(
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