From ELVIS PRESLEY on SUN RECORDS to N.W.A on RUTHLESS RECORDS to CHANCE THE RAPPER on nothing at all, there has always been room in the music business for indie artists to bum rush the proverbial show. All it takes is a lot of talent, a lot of savvy and a bottomless well of ambition. Which are pretty much the same tools it takes to make it even if you have the full weight of the music-biz machine behind you. You just have to be a little better at all of them and a little more persistent, because the walls are that much higher to climb when you're starting from the outside. For musicians, or any kind of creatives, the continuing promise of the internet is a chance to start from the inside. Want to upload 50 tracks to SOUNDCLOUD? No one can stop you. What to put 20 videos on YOUTUBE? Go ahead. SPOTIFY? APPLE MUSIC? No barriers. Want to start a blog to write about this stuff? Just start it. Want to get a message, or a beat, to your favorite producer or rapper? You can do it in less time than it took me to type this sentence. He might even reply. There are entire genres that owe their existence to a free and open internet. Communication. Distribution. Access. #NetNeutrality. The FCC votes Thursday. JOHN OLIVER's classic summation. Petitions from musicians and labels. Opposing voices. All worth reading, absorbing and appreciating how much creative lives and livelihood could be affected... With their dark, melodic, minor-key, throwback pop songs and bright, punchy sheen of modern-rock guitars, the SMITHEREENS cut a figure unlike almost any other band on the radio in the mid-'80s. Power-pop with actual power. They were MEET THE BEATLES reincarnated before NIRVANA re-reincarnated the same album a couple years later; KURT COBAIN was, not coincidentally, a fan. Frontman PAT DINIZIO wrote and sang songs like "BEHIND A WALL OF SLEEP" and "BLOOD AND ROSES" in a perpetually-on-the-verge-of-rejection baritone which seemed, for a couple short years, like it might just rule the radio forever. In a parallel universe, I believe it did. RIP... Thread: BAMA rap... Happy HAIMukkah... This seems like way too much work, especially for a criminal. Also, somebody please compile a greatest-hits playlist of this music... MELISSA ETHERIDGE has decided to stay and fight... "BILLY STAR" is a 22-minute short film by BROCKHAMPTON.