May 21, 2010
I sent out this information in an email, but I don't have everyone's email address. Aethermix 2010 is back on, after a 4 year hiatus. If you want some of this, clicky for more info. [more inside]
July 22, 2009
March 21, 2009
the question is "what is a mahna-mahna." The question is..."who cares!"
March 05, 2009
Speaking of Aethermucks I had the joy of watching this the other night on American Idol. If Flip were ever held as a POW nothing would make him give in faster than his captors playing this for him on an infinite loop. I have classified this link as "music"but I doubt it deserves it.
March 03, 2009
Nabin goes country - Nathan Rabin, in my estimation best among the the Onion AV Club's many estimable writers, is going country. For a year, the ex-Hip Hop reviewer will be easing in from the shallow end (Johnny Cash's American Records) to eventually wind up in the dark water that is Big and Rich, Shania Tawin, and Beckto.
This is reminiscent a bit of Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson, one of the best books I read last year. Wilson attempts to understand why hugely popular artists -- your Celine Dions, Bonnie Raitts, basically every undeserving Grammy winner -- raise such vituperative disdain from music devotees (and so most professional critics).
Highly recommended, though I'm not backing down from any of my AEthermuck inclusions.
February 20, 2009
In this day and age of declining record sales and illegal downloads, how can a musician add value to get the consumer's attention (and dollars)? Some artists offer tiers starting from just digital downloads to more expensive and lavish box sets full of interesting tchotchkies. Others keep going up the ladder to things like A day of mini-golf with Maynard James Keenan (Tool), Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), and the artist followed by them dumping you off by the side of the freeway.
January 11, 2009
Did you know the Star Wars Theme had lyrics? That's because you don't live in Japan. Sure, sure, Nick Winters cobbled something together for his lounge act... but it doesn't bring the majesty to life like this does.
Japan's American pop culture is like the DVD version with all the deleted scenes left in. Some of them were left out for a reason. Some are just the result of a wacky day on set. But some of them are PURE AWESOME. [via my monkey]
January 08, 2009
"I Will Forever Remain Faithful" - how the best rapper alive since the best rapper retired helped David Ramsey survive his first teaching year.
"In my first few weeks teaching in New Orleans’ Recovery School District, these were the questions I heard the most from my students:
1) “I gotta use it.” (This one might sound like a statement, but it’s a request—May I use the bathroom?)
2) “You got an ol’ lady?” (the penultimate vowel stretched, lasciviously, as far as it’ll go).
3) “Where you from?”
4) “You listen to that Weezy?”... The answer was, sometimes, yes, I did listen to Lil Wayne. Despite his ubiquitous success, my students were shocked. “Do you have the mix tapes?” asked Michael, a sixteen-year-old ninth grader. “It’s all about the mix tapes.” The following day, he had a stack of CDs for me. Version this, volume that, or no label at all. And that’s just about all I listened to for the rest of the year."
December 04, 2008
If you are sick of hearing the same Christmas songs every year starting after Halloween, you might be interested in these 10 really geeky Christmas songs. [more inside]
November 18, 2008
TinySong is a service like your TinyURL/Is.Gd/whatever but gives you an easy to send link to a specific song. Interesting enough in a Pandora/last.fm kind of way but I wondered exactly how legal the whole thing was when I looked up some songs and got back things like live bootlegs and near-misspellings of artist names. I wondered, "Could they just be getting the music from bittorrent?" mrflip found out that the music is "uploaded by users" so the answer is almost certainly yes. However, the artists do apparently get a cut in there somehow.
October 28, 2008
In case you miss the videos they used to show on MTV2. I know, I know, they posted this on lifehacker, but did lifehacker give you the url for the library of pop up videos? Or what I think is the coolest song/video pairing you will not stumble upon by yourself?
October 16, 2008
Music Videos with Literal Lyrics - I don't know why this is funny. But it is: Take On Me - Head Over Heels.
September 25, 2008
Pop Will Eat Itself Listening to the CSS song "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above", I decided it would be fun to enumerate a playlist of «songs that mention other contemporary musicians or songs by name».
My own reflection yielded a tantalizing few... and then I put the challenge before the formidable pop compendia that are @natedogg, @nanocindy, @habcous and the Strangers. I've placed our enjoyably eclectic playlist below the fold -- rack your brain and tack a few on. [more inside]
September 24, 2008
Suzanne Vega's rambling blues about remix, inspiration, and being the mother of the MP3.
September 10, 2008
The whole "More Cowbell" thing happened. We have to have face that it occurred, enjoy the laughs we had, and move on. I was all set until Morecowbell.dj happened. Add a cowbell track and Walken quotes to your song of choice and host it Muxtape-style (Amazon's S3, for those in the know). For at least the next 10 minutes or so, I am loving the awesome chorus ending call-Bessie-to-feed cowbell ring in 50 Cent's In Da Club.
August 31, 2008
What Does Marcellus Wallace Look Like? and I've Been to a Marvelous Party, two brilliant combinations of typography and music. [more inside]
The Big Steal, a 1988 article by John Leland & Steinski about Lenny Roberts and other 'Record Boy's. Lenny Roberts, one of the original crate-diggers, found and resold the raw materials that powered hits by KRS-One, Afrika Bambaataa, Eric B & Rakim, Jazzy Jay and others. Together with Stanley Platzer, Lenny created the Octopus (aka "Ultimate Breaks & Beats") comps, a collection of premium breaks that ran to 25 volumes. According to KRS-One, "I'd say just about 100 percent of all rap music uses some kind of idea or something from those break records". [more inside]
August 30, 2008
One chick. One cello. and a computer in real time. Link is to an interesting radiolab episode about Zoe Keating, a cellist who records and loops her cello as she plays live. The cumulative effect is more like an orchestra than a single player. You'll be surprised by the soundscapes she can create.
August 22, 2008
What do we sing about when we sing about the body? - a buttload of data. Oh, hip hop, this is why we love you. [via waxy]
[more inside]
August 11, 2008
He was a complicated man, and no one understood him but his woman. I'm just talking about Isaac Hayes, who passed away last night. RIP beloved Chef: you are now a Soul Man, a Shaft of light. St Peter is even now hearing "Hold On, I'm Comin'". You always Did Your Thing, and we'll miss you. [more inside]
July 01, 2008
What if you surveyed people about aspects of music that they might like or dislike? What if you explicitly wrote a song to embody as many of those qualities as you could? You'd get The Most Wanted and Most Unwanted Songs ever written. The Most Unwanted Song contains themes of cowboys, holidays, and advertising. The singers are opera sopranos (rapping! no less) and kids and the instruments are heavily focused on bagpipe and accordion. There are constant tonal and tempo changes and it is way too long. In other words, Mike Patton could have written it and it sounds like something that zieglerfe would listen to on purpose. Listen to the songs on this edition of Crap From the Past (most wanted ends segment 'b' and most unwanted is most of segment 'c').
[more inside]
May 20, 2008
Klosterman has a neat article about how and why certain musicians have such fanatical fanbases with particular attention to the subset that dress to look similar to or just like their idols. Accompanying is this completely sweet quiz which asks you to identify the artist the fans are going to see.
May 18, 2008
The iPhone now has a (hacked) P2P file sharing application. The end of the world is nigh.