On the record

JIM CARROLLon music

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the best rumble in the online jungle (this week anyway).

In the red corner: Gene Simmons, the dude born Chaim Witz, member of flamboyant heritage metal band Kiss, reality-TV star and a man with a penchant for garish make-up. In the blue corner: Anonymous, a bunch of, well, anonymous internet users who’ve been carrying out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against various anti-piracy websites.

The story begins at the MIPCOM 2010 conference in Cannes, where Simmons spoke about building successful entertainment brands.

He urged businessmen to take legal action to protect their brands (“sue everybody – take their homes, their cars. Don’t let anybody cross that line”) and not to emulate the music industry, which “didn’t have the balls to sue every fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid who downloaded material”.

The Anonymous gang took umbrage at the tone of these remarks and decided to give Simmons the same treatment they’d meted out to various music industry bodies. Within 24 hours, DDoS attacks on genesimmons.com and simmonsrecords.com had shut down both sites.

Naturally, Simmons was hopping mad, and responded by threatening the culprits with legal action and the FBI.

As some technology commentators have pointed out, though, he might find this difficult to do, as it was a denial-of-service attack rather than an actual site hack.

Of course, you could argue that the remarks were simply a publicity stunt by Simmons (and yep, it’s worked), especially as his band make their cash from selling tickets not albums these days.

After all, if Simmons was so exercised about the piracy issue, he could always do a Metallica and send the legal eagles into action against his own fans who may have downloaded his music for free. Maybe that’s the next step?

New music

MONA

One for those who think Kings of Leon lost their way when they headed for the stadiums. Mona also hail from Nashville, and are making tunes that call out for the “anthemic” tag. Debut single Listen to Your Love is making a buzz. myspace.com/ monatheband

DOMINANT LEGS

Expect to hear lots and lots about San Francisco’s Ryan Williams Lynch at this week’s CMJ new music fest in New York. Beguiling, elegant, melancholic indie-pop with some dastardly hooks for fans of Girls and Arthur Russell. myspace.com/ dominantlegsmusic

CLOCK OPERA

Another hit at In the City. This London band have a strong, winning take on the indie-electronica Venn diagram. Beautiful, quirky noises and strong songs. Currently finishing off their debut album with Graeme Stewart (Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac). myspace.com/clockopera

Now playing

Various Township Funk (New State) Dashing compilation of South African house, or Kwaito, featuring deep, audacious tunes from Mogrigo, MZO Bullet and DJ Mujava.

Glasser Ring (True Panther) One of the standout acts at Manchester’s In the City festival, Glasser’s debut is chock-a-block with icy, tribal electropop gems.

Spectrals Extended Play (Moshi Moshi) Another In the City hit, we’re digging Louis Jones’s lovely, woozy doo-wop throwbacks, jangling garage sounds and old-fashioned tunes.

Dam-Funk Night Stroll (All City) Sleek, groovy cut from the boogie buccaneer on Dublin’s All City label as part of their LA Series.

Robert Wyatt/Gilad Atzmon/Ros Stephen For the Ghosts Within (Domino) Prepare to be dazzled by this lovely album of jazz standards and new tunes from the peerless Wyatt with violinist Stephen, sax player Atzmon and others.