Music lovers in China have been banned from accessing and using Apple’s iTunes store because 46 Olympic athletes downloaded a Tibet protest album. The government is said to be behind the blocking of the site. Athletes from Beijing, North America and Europe used iTunes to download “Songs For Tibet” which was offered for free from the United States-based International Campaign for Tibet.

The album was produced by a band, The Art of Peace Foundation, and is about the rights of Tibetans. Artists on the album include Sting, Moby, Damien Rice plus others. It launched a few days before the opening ceremonies.

China is known for blocking “politically sensitive content” and Apple won’t explain but did acknowledge the block. Plenty of Chinese are offended by the album and are planning protests. What else could they possibly ban next?

The wait is over, the highly anticipated Avalon from Circa Survive vocalist Anthony Green is available today. The disk sports a whopping 20 tracks, although over half are demos, re-recordings and remixes from past work. Check out the press release…

Anthony Greens new album “Avalon” is now available everywhere. Avalon can now be purchased at Itunes, Target, Hot Topic, Best Buy, the Photo Finish Records webstore and plenty of great indie retailers. Along with the 13 newly recorded unreleased tracks, Avalon also includes 4 tracks from the High & Driving EP, 5 unreleased demos/remixes and 2 bonus videos. Check out the complete tracklist below…

AVALON CD

She Loves Me So

Dear Child (I’ve Been Trying To Reach You)

Drugdealer

Stonehearted Man

Babygirl

Miracle Sun

Califone

Springtime out the van window

Slowing Down (Long Time Coming)

The First Day of Work at The Microscope Store

Devils Song (This Feels Like a Nightmare)

High & Driving EP

Babygirl

The First Day of Work at The Microscope Store

The Fisherman Will Be Bewildered

Plays Ugly for Daddy

Demos

She Loves Me So

Stonehearted Man

Slowing Down

Devils Song

Dear Child (I’ve Been Dying To Reach You) (good old war version)

Bonus enhanced video content
Making of the Video - 3 minute long behind the scenes look at making Dear Child
Avalon - Making of the Album - 10 minute long documentary

I’m pretty bummed that the ‘Making of the Album’ is only 10 minutes long, but everything else seems really cool.

I haven’t actually played a show with Anthony Green…yet.

Photo Finish recording artist Anthony Green has announced details of his upcoming debut album, “AVALON.” The critically acclaimed collection – which features the first single/video, “Dear Child (I’ve Been Dying To Reach You)” – arrives in stores and at all digital retailers on August 5th.
Best known as the lead singer for the Philadelphia-based progressive punk act Circa Survive, Green recorded “AVALON” last March during an eight-day period in the sleepy beach town of Avalon, New Jersey. With songs penned over the past decade, the album spans Green’s adolescence and adulthood and shows him at both his most visceral and vulnerable. From the lush, Cure-inspired pop of “Babygirl” to the electronically driven ballad “Springtime Out The Van Window,” the inventive arrangements, lyrical directness, and distinctive vocal stylings represent the first true glimpse into the inner workings of the gifted Green’s psyche. “AVALON” is currently available for pre-order via iTunes at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPreorder?id=284222845&s=143441.
“Dear Child (I’ve Been Dying To Reach You)” is currently streaming on Green’s MySpace page, located at www.myspace.com/anthonygreen. On Tuesday, July 29th, the track’s companion video will have its world television premiere on FUSE’s Steven’s Untitled Rock Show before officially entering the network’s rotation. In addition, Green will herald the release of “AVALON” with an interview and live performance on NBC’s 10! Show in Philadelphia on Tuesday, August 5th (check local listings).
Green will introduce his new songs to fans nationwide on a major headlining tour, slated to kick off on August 6th at Philadelphia’s Starlight Ballroom (see attached itinerary). The six-week trek is Green’s only planned tour in support of the album and offers a rare chance to see and hear the songs performed live. What’s more, he has slated a pair of intimate, in-store appearances for the week leading up to the album’s release: August 3rd at Boston’s Newbury Comics; and August 4th at Looney Tunes in West Babylon, New York.
In other news, Green will grace the cover of Alternative Press (hitting newsstands August 4). “AVALON” is the lead review in the current issue of the magazine, where it received a four-out-of-five starred rave.
For further news and information, please visit www.myspace.com/anthonygreen and www.photofinishrecords.com.

(TOUR ITINERARY ATTACHED)

ANTHONY GREEN
ON TOUR 2008

AUGUST
6 Philadelphia, PA Starlight Ballroom
7 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
8 Detroit, MI The Shelter
9 Chicago, IL Reggie’s Rock Club
10 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock
11 Omaha, NE The Waiting Room
13 Denver, CO Marquis Theatre
14 Salt Lake City, UT Avalon
16 Seattle WA El Corazon (Matinee)
17 Portland, OR Hawthorne Theatre
18 Sacramento, CA Boardwalk
19 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
20 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour
22 Anaheim, CA Chain Reaction
23 Anaheim, CA Chain Reaction
24 San Diego, CA Soma Side
26 Phoenix, AZ Modified
27 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad
28 San Antonio, TX Rock Bottom
29 Austin, TX Stubbs Jr
30 Dallas, TX House of Blues Cambridge Room (Matinee)
31 Houston, TX Warehouse

SEPTEMBER
2 Tampa, FL Orpheum
3 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
4 Orlando, FL The Social
5 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade
7 Baltimore, MD Ottobar
9 New York, NY Highline Ballroom
10 S. Hackensack, NJ School of Rock
11 Boston, MA Harpers Ferry
13 New Haven, CT Toads Place
14 Farmingdale, NY Crazy Donkey

So being that I actually have a life, not to mention a job, I was unable to camp out overnight outside of the local AT&T store to get a newly released 3G iPhone today. But maybe that’s a good thing, after all, the new software Apple lauched for all iPhone to coincide with the new release, doesn’t work:

NEW YORK (AP) - The launch of Apple Inc.’s much-anticipated new iPhone turned into an information-technology meltdown on Friday, as customers were unable to get their phones working.

“It’s such grief and aggravation,” said Frederick Smalls, an insurance broker in Whitman, Mass., after spending two hours on the phone with Apple and AT&T Inc., trying to get his new iPhone to work.

In stores, people waited at counters to get the phones activated, as lines built behind them. Many of the customers had already camped out for several hours in line to become among the first with the new phone, which updates the one launched a year ago by speeding up Internet access and adding a navigation chip.

A spokesman for AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., said there was a global problem with Apple’s iTunes servers that prevented the phones from being fully activated in-store, as had been planned.

Instead, employees are telling buyers to go home and perform the last step by connecting their phones to their own computers, spokesman Michael Coe said.

However, the iTunes servers were equally hard to reach from home, leaving the phones unusable except for emergency calls.

The problem extended to owners of the previous iPhone model. A software update released for that phone on Friday morning required the phone to be reactivated through iTunes.

“It’s a mess,” said freelance photographer Giovanni Cipriano, who updated his first-generation iPhone only to find it unusable.

As far as I’m concerned, if you’re camping outside a store overnight to buy a fucking PHONE, you kind of deserve something like this. I mean, fuck, maybe I’ll just wait another year until they’re like $99.

The second iTunes festival will take place in London this July. Some confirmed headliners include James Blunt, N.E.R.D., Death Cab For Cutie, Pendulum, Feeder, Chaka Khan and The Zutons. More big name artists to be announced soon!

The festival had great success last year and will take place at Camden’s Koko this summer - which can hold 1,000 fans. The concert will be recorded to be sold on all iTunes stores worldwide. Free tickets will be available to contest winners and competitions will be held by London Media Partners.

From Wired.com:

By 2012, digital music is projected to account for 40 percent of music sold, according to InStat. If Apple holds onto its current market share, it will account for more than one-quarter of all music sales by its ninth birthday. Not bad for freeware.

“I’m very skeptical about whether iTunes can be unseated, because there’s not a lot of consumer pain there,” said Paul Resnikoff, editor of Digital Music News.

Digital Music News recently found that iTunes is installed on nearly 30 percent of all computers worldwide, making it the most widely installed music store application in the world.

When Apple snapped up a little music program called SoundJam MP back in 2000, no one predicted that the iTunes application it became would lead to a complete restructuring of the music industry.