More bad news for the record industry as many more big names in music are following Radiohead’s lead of offering their albums for free or for a ‘pay what you want’ fee, bypassing record industry price and market manipulation. Bravo! Hot on the heels of Radiohead’s success, Nine Inch Nails announced that they are now free agents after 18 years of being under record label contracts. NiN’s frontman has informed their fans to expect some big announcements soon. Now comes word that Oasis, Jamiroquai and The Charlatans are following Radiohead’s lead in similar ways. The Charlatans are currently planning on offering their album for free via the XM satellite service in a way to boost marketing for their live tours, which their manager is stating will help them to increase capacity and revenue from their live performances.

An excellent article from The Times Online documenting the decline of the industry due to music fan’s perceptions towards recorded music as a commodity. Take that fatcat record execs! No new cars for your kid’s 16th birthday this year!

The truth now is that a rudimentary cotton garment with a band logo stamped across it that has probably been manufactured for pennies in a Third World sweatshop costs about twice as much as an album recorded in a state-of-the-art western studio. And even at that price, recorded music isn’t selling.

A bit disappointing however that the article didn’t touch more on the success of many independent labels. Many larger indies have experienced massive surges in profits and growth, thanks to the marketing playing field being leveled across the industry. Small bands and labels can now expose their music to thousands of new listeners through MySpace, Last.fm and the sorts, leading to potentially larger live show attendance and more sales of released material, which is usually available at a lower price point compared to many majors and is more beneficial for the artists, who see more of those profits in the end.

A beautiful collection of archived photos from the Los Angeles Herald Express, dating from 1936 until 1961, giving us a striking look into local crime, scandal and even dog adoption ads. Ah, the good old days, when even tabloids had style. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library, who are archiving some of the most amazing photos I’ve seen and presenting them online.

Photos to the left, Mrs. Nancy Keith (top), holding photos of her missing children in 1948 and Mrs. Lola Titus (bottom) being dragged into court kicking and screaming to hear herself judged legally insane after she was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for shooting nightclub operator Mark Hansen in 1948. She was committed to an insane asylum as punishment for her crimes.

Many of the hundreds of photos are NSFW, as some document some pretty gruesome crime scenes. Office workers consider yourself warned!

David Lynch directs more commercials, this time for Gucci’s fragrance, Gucci by Gucci. Featuring models Raquel Zimmerman, Natasha Poly and Freja Beha Erichsen, soundtrack backed by Blondie, naturally. Commercial shorts are quite suiting for Mr. Lynch, who seems to thrive with the large budgets and trying to plugin a feature-length story with his trademark style into every one he’s done.

The only drive-in cinema in Manhattan is open seven-days a week, twice a night. It’s also built into a small storefront, with seating for only six people in a restored 1965 Ford Falcon convertible, surrounded by a full-concession stand, starry-night murals and potted oak trees.

The theater is starting with films from the 1960s and progressing chronologically each night. Tickets run you $75 and the drive-in is only open for a limited time (some say 1 month, some say for the next 3 months), so, book your tickets now.

So here we go! After a few weeks of relaxing, we’re back and leaner than ever. We’ve shifted focus somewhat and decided we’re going to focus on what we do best. Post tons of interesting (and some not so) links from around the internet. Who needs more editorial blah blah-ing? Not us! So welcome to the new BoN, we’re spooling up for many new posts, so, start following us via RSS or Twitter and keep up to date on all the weird shit we get sent throughout the day.

Wow. What appears to be an old retailer-channel promo video for the MS-DOS 5.0 upgrade has slipped onto YouTube and if I weren’t writing for this blog, I’d be speechless. In between uncomfortable half-laughs, the true brain-washing started to take hold as I found myself tapping my toes while lines like “everybody DOS now” and “MS-DOS 5 upgrade, take the image further, it’s like selling fries with every burger” flashed across my screen. Yes, must upgrade. Must….upgrade. GIMME 5!

Had a rough Summer day at the dog park with your little four-legged friend? You know you can’t let your pal nibble on your ice cream or yogurt, that’s not so healthy now is it? Thankfully, some dog lovers in the US have come up with a brilliant solution. Ladies and gentlemen, organic yogurt cups, for dogs. Brilliant. Really. yöghund-brand yogurt (for dogs) are completely organic, healthy, and packaged in nifty little cups, for your dog to lick up, then easily discard (in the nearest trash or recycling bin of course). Ingredients are low-fat milk, organic bananas, organic peanut butter and spring water, so you know your dogs will love it, what dog doesn’t love licking on a little peanut butter?

Read more: Yöghund

A lovely slideshow of the space shuttle Discovery being prepped for staging and liftoff.

I remember as a kid always having a pencil box full of different wooden writing devices of all shapes, colors and lead types. The colors, the shapes, the smell of hacking away pieces of my pencils in an electric sharpening device (also known as a pencil sharpener), collecting pencils was always a great memory for me. Then those fancy-schmancy mechanical pencils came onto the scene, with their thin lead, fancy plastic cases, clicky buttons, it was a travesty. Now, thanks to a dedicated artist and collector, I can relive the pencils of my school years, with the Brand Name Pencil collection. Featuring photos documenting over 130 different models of pencils from years ago, the archive documents the massive range of pencil brands once produced around the world, showing the good old days of skill and craftsmanship you just can’t get at Wal-Mart.

See more: Brand Name Pencils