Death to the pig: OiNK.cd is no more.

And so the first dawn fades on an OiNK-less day. Chances are you're already privy and in full mourning, but here's the news for those of you who couldn't care less: Early yesterday morning, British police raided the home of a Middlesbrough man, lugged his computer equipment away in plastic bags, and threw him in the pokey. Why? The 24-year-old IT worker, known at this point only as "Alan" (not me, I promise), was the administrator of OiNK.cd (previously OiNK.me.uk), a private bittorrent tracker site notorious for supplying quality-controlled leaks and pre-release albums to pirates lucky enough to hold memberships. Boasting 180,000 members and about a bajillion music and software torrents, OiNK was considered by most to be the ultimate invite-only torrent community. Practically anything--even some pretty obscure stuff--could be found and had within a matter of minutes (or, you know, so we hear). But like the days of Napster, you figured it was only a matter of time...

Following a two-year investigation by Interpol (not that Interpol), IFPI and BPI put the smackdown on the site in a hot minute, and those logging on yesterday hoping to find--oh, who knows, I'm just guessing here--the newest uploads or the top ten most transferred torrents in the last 24 hours were greeted instead with an ominous 90s-looking splash page reading, "This site has been closed as a result of a criminal investigation by IFPI, BPI, Cleveland Police and the Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch Police (FIOD ECD) into suspected illegal music distribution. A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site's users." That's right--Dutch police. The site's servers, located in Amsterdam, were also confiscated. Meanwhile, in other parts of England and the Netherlands, the unwashed music-deprived masses murder each other and construct pipe bombs in red district flats.

In the hours following the raids, critical backlash and memorial sites cropped up on the Internet. Then there's the collective click of long-forgotten Soulseek and Limewire connections being fired up again. "Alan" has since been released from custody. By the way, that "criminal investigation" into the "identities and activities" of OiNK's users? Don't even trip. Word is, OiNK's user database was encrypted and equipped with a "self-destruct" type of mechanism. In completely unrelated news, stay tuned to Mas Sexi for more tunes. And in the spirit of that, please accept the following song. It's a good one.

MP3: Elvin Bishop - "Fooled Around and Fell in Love"

Copycat Sunday #1: Britney Spears

Say what you will about Britney Spears, but it's impossible to deny the space she occupies in popular culture. Whether it's a voyeuristic disgust of her downward spiral or a genuine veneration of the python-wielding diva of yore, there's an undeniable magnetism there that propelled her from teen-pop stardom to intergalactic phenomenon practically overnight.

MP3: Britney Spears - "I'm a Slave 4 U"

I don't know about you, but that night six years ago when she performed "I'm a Slave 4 U" on Letterman? Granted, it wasn't so much the performance as the relatively minimal sound that surprised me, but it was different enough to be interesting and, frankly, I dug it. The Neptunes were at the height of their production game and, in terms of mega-pop, it was as cool as anything they'd ever done. Something about the song, though, seemed oddly familiar. I didn't catch it right away--chances are most people still haven't and probably won't--and while modern pop isn't exactly known for its musical and thematic originality, the samples on which "Slave" are based are as surprising as the sultry persona assumed by Britney at the time.

MP3: Matmos - "Lipostudio...And So On"

In March of 2001, seven months before the release of "Slave" as a single, San Francisco-based electronic duo Matmos released their fourth LP, an experimental concept album titled A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure. Created around the recorded and manipulated sounds of plastic surgery and medical procedures, the album is, despite its gimmicks, pretty great stuff. It's at times even beautiful and, given the subject matter, surprisingly approachable (provided you don't think too hard about the way it was made). "Lipostudio...And So On," for all its groovy slurps and organic squelches, is practically pop already. With a little beat adjustment and some heavy editing from Pharrell and company, the dizzying track becomes a suitably pornographic backdrop for Britney's breathy advances.


But the idea of sweaty bodies writing together to the sounds of body fat and other fluids being sucked through tubes? It's not all that sexy. That's likely why Britney's camp acknowledged a more obvious sample of Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl" on "Slave," but "Lipostudio" has always been Pharrell's greasy little secret. Little did everyone know that, eventually (sooner rather than later), the idea of Britney Spears being associated with a liposuction tube wouldn't seem all that unattractive after all.

Pinback - "From Nothing to Nowhere"

MP3: Pinback - "From Nothing to Nowhere"

It's a great way to start off the album, I'll give them that. Pinback's latest may not quite be their White Album, but lead-off single "From Nothing to Nowhere" is a lot better than the video might suggest.

The rest of Autumn of the Seraphs is just as classy and pretty as everything else they've ever done, but no one's socks are gonna be knocked off or anything. Know what? That's totally OK.