Already promised to be opened half a year ago in May, Laibach’s WTC shop has finally hit the internet. Amazingly, even here Laibach manage to top themselves: it’s Laibach to the max, with photoshopped images of figures like Vladimir Putin and Nicolas Sarkozy seen wearing the T-shirt designs, and fantastic slogans such as “WE WANT YOU TO BE OUR CUSTOMER!” or “LOVE CAN BUY OUR MONEY” adorning the bottom of the site. Just poke around the site, I actually bursted out laughing at one point to the sheer silliness of the things you can find there.

Anyways, the shop’s catalogue of Laibach’s DVDs and CDs is pretty comprehensive although it does miss the very earliest releases. Albums are priced at a default 18 € and singles at 7 €, which is a tad high, but at least you can be pretty sure they have what you’re trying to order. Also, in addition to a good selection of t-shirts for both guys and gals, they have a lot of accessories like badges and belts. Oh, and goddamn bibs. And Laibach condoms. And NSK passports. So yeah.

As often is the case with Laibach, it’s provocative, hilarious, bordering on tasteless and also pure awesome… All that, and it’s just a friggin’ shop. Really, how the hell do they do it?

The UK-based online music shop MusicNonStop.co.uk suddenly shut down its business back in March and left many musicians and labels in debt from unpaid merchandise. The company also left countless customers in the dark with unfilled orders in the last few days of their operation, causing many of them to lose money as well. It was sad to see a once-great site like MusicNonStop go down, but what they did to the musicians and their customers was even worse.

Now, despite all of this, Side-Line reports that MusicNonStop is planning to relaunch their webshop on August 26th under the new ownership of Grufti Limited. While this new ownership means that all the previous debts are the responsibility of the original owners, Music Non Stop Limited, there is still a lot of debate about the use of the MusicNonStop name, the close relationship between the old and new owners, and how the old stock of CDs and merchandise was transferred from Music Non Stop Limited to Grufti Limited. On one side of the debate, there is the new owner who wants to keep an institution of the industrial and gothic music scenes alive and well, but on the other side, there are lots of musicians, labels, and customers who are owed lots of money that may never be paid back. There are still plenty of unanswered questions and angry people.

That leaves us with what is perhaps the most important question about MusicNonStop’s relaunch: Should you buy your music there and give them business? With everything that has happened, I would not recommend it. But even if you ignore all of this, ordering anything from the UK for delivery anywhere else in the world is prohibitively expensive due to the poor Dollar (or Euro) to Pound exchange rate. And if you do live in the UK, I would recommend using Resurrection Music from now on. They have pretty much everything that MusicNonStop ever had, and they are significantly cheaper.

You will have no problems finding great music without MusicNonStop. I’m sure you got along just fine during their 5 month absence.

Yes, it’s true. The amazing record label Dancing Ferret will be closing down this November, along with its sub-label Noir Records. Patrick, the label’s creator, wrote a long letter on Dancing Ferret’s Live Journal page last night with the news. He is just overwhelmed with all the work he has been doing in recent years as the company has grown so quickly.

Dancing Ferret originally started out promoting concerts and other events for the gothic and industrial scene in Philadelphia, and only expanded into a record label years later as an afterthought. Now, Patrick feels it is best to focus on the concerts and events again and do them well, instead of juggling a record label on the side and spreading his attention too thin. So, despite the sad news that Dancing Ferret Records is closing down, we can still be happy that everything else in Dancing Ferret’s little music empire will continue on into the future. Nocturne and Dracula’s Ball will continue to be held regularly. The Digital Ferret record store will remain open. Their online music retail site Isotank.com will remain open.

You can read Patrick’s complete message after the jump.
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As many of you know, I am the webmaster of the official Stahlhammer website and I also operate their online store. I’m very glad to be helping them out as much as I can (plus, having my name printed in CD booklets is pretty cool too!). But the band has been quiet lately, so I’ve decided to liven things up a bit with a special CD sale. Of course, this also coincides nicely with the 6th anniversary of when the Stahlhammer website was first created on April 30, 2002.

There are currently just 2 Stahlhammer albums in stock, but they have both been greatly reduced in price and I have plenty of each. Gary’s solo album is also still available, though in a limited supply.

Feind Hört Mit is now just $7.50
Listen to MP3 samples here - Buy it here
Considered by many to be Stahlhammer’s best and most famous album, this essential Neue Deutsche Härte style longplayer was originally released on Nuclear Blast in 1999. It also has covers of Falco’s classics “Mutter, Der Mann Mit Dem Koks Ist Da” and “Jeanny”. Feind Hört Mit is one of the reasons I got into German music so much and it still remains one of my top 5 albums of all time.

Opera Noir has been reduced to $10
Listen to MP3 samples here - Buy it here
This is Stahlhammer’s current album and offers 13 songs of their latest blend of metal, industrial, and other more unconventional influences. Among the tracklist is a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes/Helden” and “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins.

Gary’s solo album Trivial Slushy Vintage is $10 also
Gary Wheeler was the original voice of Stahlhammer for their debut album Killer Instinkt. After his departure and eventual return, he now leads the band once again. This is his first solo album under his own name and presents a very different style than Stahlhammer, it’s much more mellow. I just have a few copies of this album left.

Be sure to download the samples and give them a listen. If you like Stahlhammer’s music, be sure to buy an album or two. We greatly appreciate your support, thanks!

Lots of you have contacted me asking where to find certain CDs. Others have asked why Germaniac doesn’t have a shop to go along with the blog. So far, I have simply been helping those of you find whatever it is you’re looking for because a shop hasn’t really been a top priority, but the emails just keep coming. Now I’m beginning to wonder just how big the demand for an exclusively German music shop based in North America really is, and I’m asking you for the answer.

Should Germaniac.com open an online shop? If so, what should we have? Would you buy from us? And perhaps more importantly, what features would make you more likely to buy from us than from some other site?

The whole reason for this last question is because it’s very difficult and expensive to import loads of CDs from Europe and then try to offer all kinds of benefits like the lowest price in the world plus free shipping and other features like that. I would love to do all of that for you, but honestly I’m not made of gold so it’s just not possible with anything that has to be imported. Anyone who has bought music from overseas knows that it’s not exactly cheap. I want to help you get the music you want to hear and own, but I don’t want to go bankrupt doing it either. So…

What’s the best way to make this work? Do you have any ideas? Please share your opinions and answers to the questions in a comment. By doing so, you will help us create the best possible shop for everyone. Thanks!

The UK’s best industrial and electronic online store was MusicNonStop.co.uk which has been operating for 9 years now. Unfortunately, they have announced on their site today that the website is now closed permanently. There isn’t even any kind of going out of business sale, and all outstanding orders have been cancelled. This means that if you have placed an order from Music Non Stop and it has not been shipped yet, you will probably be getting a refund and no CDs from them. The site’s official statement also says that PayPal customers should seek refunds via PayPal.

MNS says there are several reasons for the decision to close down, including a lack of good releases in these genres, increased operational costs, and a very bad exchange rate between the Euro and Dollar compared to the Pound. You can read the complete statement on Music Non Stop’s website.

I’m sorry to see MNS go, but I can fully sympathize with them. As an American, it would cost me twice as much to buy a CD from their shop due to the exchange rate. Buying from mainland Europe wouldn’t have been quite as bad, but still not favorable. I don’t know how British companies that rely on sales outside the country can survive in this kind of economic environment. Clearly, some can’t.

Digital Ferret is the physical record store operated by Dancing Ferret Records in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They announced plans to move the store nearly a year ago, but they just now finally made the journey a few blocks over to their new location. Today was their first day open for business there.

If you live in the Philly area or ever plan to visit, head on over to 732 S. 4th Street and check out the new store. They are open from 12 noon until 10 PM everyday, except Sundays when they are open from noon until 7 PM. If you want, give them a call at 215-925-9259.

Slime was one of the most popular German punk bands right from their start in 1979. For 15 years, they sang out in protest against just about anything they found a problem with, producing 6 studio albums and a pair of live CDs. They became icons of punk in Germany and remain legendary even to this day, over a decade after they broke up in 1994. Unfortunately, the band experienced a struggle over the rights to their music when their old label was bought by Sanctuary (which was more recently bought by Universal), cutting off the supply of newly printed CDs to the younger fans who were now growing up enough to appreciate Slime’s music. After several years, Slime emerged from the fight victorious. Finally, their old music could reach fresh ears. Alle Gegen Alle, Schweineherbst, Slime I, Viva La Muerte, and Yankees Raus have all been remastered and re-released last month, along with their first live album, appropriately called Live. In true punk style, Slime opposed the big corporation and stuck with an indie label for these releases.

Where to buy the albums for a decent price
Mikki is a huge Slime fan so I have been talking with her a lot about where someone should buy the new re-releases, probably more than I think about most albums. It turns out that Amazon.de, which everyone usually thinks of as one of the cheapest places to find music online, is actually the most expensive place I have seen, charging between 14.45 and 16.99 Euros for each of these albums. EMP.de is actually the cheapest at 12.99 Euros per CD which is great if you’re in Europe, but unfortunately they don’t ship to the USA anymore after a number of shipping disasters. If you are looking to buy any of Slime’s re-released albums at a reasonable price, I would recommend Abella.de which is charging 13.49 Euros or AlphaMusic.de which charges 13.99 Euros per CD. I have had good service from both of those retailers in the past.

Do you like this bit of advice about pricing and where the best place to find music is? Leave a comment and let me know.

Remember when I told you the Digital Ferret music store in Philadelphia was moving in August? Probably not, considering it was only my third post ever, but that’s OK. Well, the store and headquarters of Dancing Ferret Records are still there in the same old building. Their moving date has been pushed back to March of 2008. If you’re in the area, make a trip into Philly and visit them. They’re open from noon until 10 PM every day (except Sundays, open until 7 PM).

Digital Ferret CDs
526 S 5th St
Philadelphia, PA
215-925-9259

I also read that a really big music fan just recently sold their 900+ CD collection to Digital Ferret, including some extremely rare and hard to find items. This is the perfect time to go raid their used section.

An article in The New York Post tells us about a new digital music service that Amazon.com has been developing that may threaten iTunes, the currently undisputed leader in digital music downloading. Amazon’s new service, which is supposed to be launched sometime in the middle of the month, is supposed to have over 1 million songs for download from a large swath of indie labels, as well as two of the four majors. The biggest advantage to their service, for both labels and fans, is that the prices for songs are expected to be cheaper. While iTunes currently only has 2 flat rates for songs (99 cents for protect files and $1.29 for DRM-free songs), Amazon’s new system will allow labels to set their own prices which will vary depending on the song’s popularity. Full albums from Amazon are expected to be somewhere between $8 and $10.

This is great news for fans. While you may love iTunes, new competition usually means better prices and service for customers. And if Amazon knows what it’s doing, their files will be playable on your iPod. Amazon.com already offers some of the lowest prices for books and CDs, so it will certainly be interesting to see how well they do coming into the music downloading world.

News via Coolfer.