Making of Band Aid

Just a little late for Xmas, but still cool to watch:



[Production Advice]

Daft Punk samples

Some of these are spot on, and some of them... er... well, listen for yourself. Nice attempt at least.

Worst audio trends of the decade

5 Worst Audio Trends of the Noughties [MixBlog]

Featuring this gem: Auto-Tune Abuse in Pop Music

Wait... Disintegration is 20?

Pretty heavy write-up on the 20th anniversary of the Cure's best album (and one of my all-time favourites), Disintegration.

[Waveformless]

Merry Xmas y'all

RATM for Xmas

On the BBC:

High school students make lip dub

Set to Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams Come True. Lots of fun:

New NIN videos

ninofficial @ YouTube

Season's Greetings from Can

Free holiday music from the German rock pioneers, Can.

Anatomy of a sound collage

A sample breakdown of The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up":



[wire to the ear]

Some crazy avant garde stuff

This is actually really cool:



[Everyday Listening]

Worst songs of the decade

Perfect. A great article, sufficiently cynical as well.

Gibberish rock song written by Italian composer to sound like English

[boing boing]

Another song I should have been paying attention to this year

Washed Out - "Feel It All Around"

Bowie's reply to his first U.S. fan

Very cool link over at Waveformless

On repeat

This one's heavy... Richard Swift with Lady Luck:



Found this one on Pop Matters' Top Singles of the Year. Not sure if I dig the video though... Kind of a new twist on Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love. Killer song though. I love when the bass comes back in at 3:33.

Some of my friends have a new band

Check out Azores on Myspace if you like Weezer and lo-fi indie pop.

That time of year again

The AV Club's always awesome and hilarious round up of band names from the past year...

No more Flight of the Conchords TV show

Probably a good idea... quit while they're way, way, way ahead.

Your new favourite song

Check it out... Phoenix with "1901"



Mmmmm.... power pop.

Way back Play back

This song just popped up on shuffle in iTunes. This song takes me right back to grade 9. It's Sister Hazel with All For You. I remember listening to this one on the old Mix 99.9. Yes I will admit to listening to that station at that time.

iTunes top stuff of the year

iTunes has put up their year end list. Worth checking out, there might be some stuff you missed. As I did. Off to Hype Machine!

Xmas music season is well underway...

Here's a gem from Michael McDonald's great Xmas album, In the Spirit. The album is worth checking out even if you're a non-ironic fan of his.

Free stuff

Music from Carl Sagan's Ghost

I just saw this post on Synthopia... just downloading the music now, but with an artist name like that, who could go wrong?

More Pfork love

Check out the readers poll here. It's really quick. And fun. Enjoy.

Rave: New Flight of the Conchords album

It has all the chords printed in the lyric book... I've never seen that before! Very cool! Definitely worth a pickup if you're a fan of the band... Also the album cover art parodies Seals & Crofts. Can't beat it.

Pfork's Worst Album covers of the year

Worth a read!

K'Naan song chosen as official 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem

K'naan's song 'Wavin' Flag' has been named as the official anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

[NME]

Bob Moog Explains How To Pronounce “Moog”

There, that should settle it... I think.

[Synthopia]

This could be album of the year

So good. "Summertime Clothes" by Animal Collective.

Weird Al on NPR

http://bit.ly/8VU9IQ
From Twitter

Also... Follow me on Twitter... Why not?

More music in trailers

Yes, that's OK Go with "Here It Goes Again" in the Old Dogs trailer. It's the one saving grace in a trailer for a movie that looks like it'll be pretty awful.

Whoa

Cringe inducing video of Britney Spears performing... this is her "actual voice". You shouldn't believe that these pop stars can sing at the level that they do whilst running around the stage like chickens with their heads cut off, but come on...

More symphony of science

In what appears to be a continuing series...

Beatles 3000

Clever stuff!

Only in America...

Depeche Mode's Martin Gore subpoenaed in World of Warcraft lawsuit [The Guardian]

In one of this year's loonier lawsuits, Depeche Mode's Martin Gore has been subpoenaed by an American videogamer and asked to testify on the subject of "alienation".

Oh dear.

Basement music podcast #5 is live!

Over at the Basement Music blog...

Tell your friends!

Muppets do Bohemian Rhapsody

Nice! Animal still rules.

Alma Mater Rocks

Third Floor, First Rate [Torontoist]

Here's an article about the awesome goings-on at my old school in my old department with brand new technology. I could say "man, I wish they had that stuff when I was there", but the people graduating before me probably would say the same thing about the gear that I had access to... so that's a losing game. I'll just be proud that the new batch of students are doing something so wickedly cool. And maybe I'll just stand here and be jealous of that SSL board they get to use.

NIN In studio

Cool performance of a classic track off Pretty Hate Machine, which turns 20 this year. This version appeared on 'Still'.

Awesome song

Too bad Mr. Hayes' latter day antics might make people forget what an awesome singer he was. This is from Hot Buttered Soul, one of the best R&B albums ever. He's not lip syncing either. I'm glad the author of the video post put the 'MMmmm's in the lyrics. I might have missed it otherwise.

Music & Torture

Nation's Music Snobs Protest Predictable Use Of Metallica, Pantera To Torture Prisoners [The Onion]

...and in seriousness, check out this thread.

Rock & Oil

Graph compares rock music quality with US oil production 1949-2007 [boing boing]

Yes!

Michael Jackson’s ‘Captain EO’ Will Return to Disneyland

Bert and Ernie play the drums

No, it's not a mashup....

Weird Al helps explain Auto-tune

Awesome and informative:



Found at Musformation

Vocal cults

Pedro has a great post about the Dirty Projectors over at the Basement Arts Music blog.

Check out the video link... those vocals are real, not sampled. It definitely gives me a greater appreciation of the group.

Download the podcast while you're there, produced by yours truly.

Thursday Happy

I've posted this one before, but here it is again:

Awesome!

Sagan-mania continues!

A Glorious Dawn coming to vinyl!

Exclamation point!

Wikiaudio

Found this one while looking up Pro Tools commands today. It could be interesting, but there's not enough info up yet to make it a truly valuable resource. Great idea though, I hope it works out.

WikiAudio

More stuff from a while ago

Here's an interview with the National Parcs I did for VoicePrint last year.

They're swell guys, and have very unique, fresh sound as well. Check them out. Careful, Radio 3 starts playing right away when you open the browser.

Some questions regarding Google Music

Google Music and the New Payola – Some things never change.

That article is in response to the recent Google Music announcement...

Cool: Imogen Heap home studio

In pictures: Imogen Heap's amazing home studio [Music Radar]

Hallowe'en message from Christopher Walken

Moon landing: Still very real

New Apollo 17 Landing Photo Clearly Shows Lander, Flag [Gizmodo]

Good timing for that article, as last night I watched the documentary 'For All Mankind', a film about the Apollo program with footage from all six lunar missions, stitched together to make one story. It's that footage, plus interviews with the astronauts, no narrator. Absolutely breathtaking. A must watch.

Oh, and did I mention Brian Eno did the soundtrack? That's also a must-listen, especially the piece "Always Returning", which is used to great effect in the film.

Here it is on YouTube:

Weird Al: Still Funny. And weird.

Yankovic still 'Weird' after all these years [CNN]
Thanks to my Dad for the link.

Note to the CNN lady: A two-disc compilation is not a 'box set'. I love Al's comment on Coolio too... "...back when this was news." Nice.

Ghost stories with Ghostface

[Daily Swarm]

Also check out Mr. Starks' new album, Ghostdini, it's pretty awesome.

Kid as Jareth

[Ectoplasmatosis]

A couple cool links

Algorithm Judges Musical Hit Potential [Discovery]

The golden age of infinite music [BBC News]

Google continues its world takeover

My dad sends me this link: Google opens OneBox music service [BBC News]

The best business model for bands?

It's the 1000 true fans approach.

Of course, there's the counter argument, against the very same thing.

---

A very interesting idea. Gone are the days of major label supremacy, where bands like Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails develop cult followings through the very same mainstream channels that they try so hard to swim against. I doubt we'll see many artists able to create these types of massive fan bases again.

Case in point: The seemingly perpetual re-selling of Michael Jackson material.

Basement music podcast #4 is live!

Hallowe'en/devil-themed podcast is up from Basement Arts. Produced by yours truly.

It's a pretty good show with some interesting commentary. This one's also the longest yet, lots of threads and interesting insights on rock music and its devlish dance with the occult.

Top 100 DJs in the world

Daft Punk seems mighty low, but then again, I'm not that deep into DJ culture so I will leave the evaluating to the good folks at DJ magazine. I don't recognize about 85% of the list.

Pulp Fiction audio mashup

Cool:

World's Largest Pedalboard

Pretty awesome... but how will it function?

[Musformation]
Poke around the site when you visit, lots of cool stuff there.

More songs in trailers

According to the Google analytics, my most popular post continues to be the one where I mentioned the name of the song in the latest Terminator movie.

In an effort to pander to the almighty Google, I'm going to try more of posts like that.

So, just to let you know, the Gentlemen Broncos trailer features Zager and Evans' "In the Year 2525", and the Shout Out Louds' "The Comeback".

Stevie Nicks Dancing Alone On Beach Under Full Moon

[The Onion]

A most unwelcome return

Run for the hills, Creed is back. And with a song pompously titled 'Overcome', no less. Here's a sample of their lyrical gems:

Don’t cry victim to me
everything we are and used to be
is buried and gone

How can that be, when they sound exactly the fucking same as before? I think Scott Stapp is taking the Jesus-resurrection thing a bit too far.

Check out the video that looks like it was shot for the money they stole from their church collection plate:



And the 'Tube commenters couldn't be any dumber.
jstryker77 writes:

All I can say is...HOLY CRAP!
I am completely blown away by the new album.
I was excited when I heard about the reunion but I wasn't expecting this great of an album...sorry I underestimated you guys!
Creed was probably the first band that I listened to religiously...and even though my taste in rock music has completely changed, Creed will always be a major inspiration and influence in my life and music.
God bless you dudes!
FREAKIN AWESOME!

The apocalypse is upon us, the end is nigh.

===


In the words of David Cross, "I'd rather hear the death rattle of my only child than have to listen to that fucking shit." True say, David. True say.

Google and I

I have some Google search competition with another Matt Speirs from Brampton, a hockey player. Although at this point I'm still the top result, my doppelganger has more hits in general, and I'm not talking the hockey kind!

At least I've got the domain mattspeirs.com, this should be a bit of motivation to finally get that damn site going.

We've finally reached the end of the universe

Air Guitar Hero:

Kind of a dumb idea

Not sure why anyone who actually cares about sound would ever be interested in such a thing, but here's a table with speakers built in.

It reminds me of a George Carlin joke, something about "If you nail two things together that have never been nailed together before... some shmuck will buy it from you."

U2 on YouTube

Happening now, if you're into that sort of thing...

20 worst bands of the 2000s

Very tough to argue with most of these:
The 20 Worst Bands of the 2000s

I can't say I've ever heard of the Pigeon Detectives, but I'll bet they're as bad as their name suggests. Most of the bands/groups are from the UK, but it's still fun to read about horrible bands.

Copyright Cuckoos

Access Copyright tells Canadian gov't: no home TV recording, no ripping music, no moving old ebooks to new readers [boingboing]

Happy belated Canada Day!

Here's my Stompin' Tom interview from July 1 this year. Forgot to post it, for obvious reasons.

Carl Sagan auto-tune pt 2!

Not as good as the first video, but still fun.

From Gizmodo

Music headlines

If you're a fan of music, I suggest you include The Daily Swarm as part of your daily surfing ritual. Kind of like Huffington Post for music headlines... without the annoying pundits.

Bert and Ernie Ante Up

Mashup from this tune:



Thanks to whoever posted the above video with *all* the necessary lyrics...

Single of the year?

Maybe...



From the Blueprint 3... unfairly tarnished by Pfork, loved and adored by the Dean himself. The album is at least worth a listen.

Interesting NIN article

The Myth and the Machine at PopMatters

Johnny Cash schills for Canada Trust

From blogto

Scare your friends:

Don't say I didn't warn you...



Just in time for Hallowe'en!

Rock docs

Trailer for a pretty wicked looking doc about the Muslim punk genre, 'Taqwacore'. The film premieres this weekend!



The director is the brother of one of the guys on the music podcast I've been working on.

Matt produces podcast

Here's the new blog for a podcast I'm pushing the buttons for. Fun!

Still in the early/rough stages of the blog, but we're three shows deep now with the fourth one coming in the next couple weeks. The idea is to do a show a month, though it's been every other month up until this point. Check it out, let me know what you think!

LL Cool J used to be cool

I swear!







He was pretty bad ass at one point... then came the acting career.

Japanese 8-bit Michael Jackson tribute

[Synthopia]

More cool links

Musformation is a great site that has a lot of helpful music links. Check out this link roundup.

A glorious dawn

The response has been overwhelming!

Everyone I talk to about the recent Carl Sagan auto-tune video loves it. Myself, I've gone to YouTube and watched the entire 'Cosmos' series... I vaguely remember watching the show in public school. It's amazing to think of how much scientific discovery has occurred since the show first aired in 1980: the discovery of microbes on Mars, the news last week that there is another, infrared ring around Saturn, and so on. Even still, the series is both awe-inspiring and humbling, and I am instilled with a profound sense of wonder.

Plus, according to Wikipedia, Vangelis did the score for the show! That's the guy that did Chariots of Fire, among other terrific musc!

The great thing about the song and video is the way it touches on the key points of Mr. Sagan's work while updating it for the contemporary pop medium with healthy doses of technology, irony and humour. I've had the damned catchy tune in my head for a couple weeks now.

My dad sends me this cool link, featuring lyrics and commentary for the video/song. Check it out... although I think some of the commenters are a little confused as to what "auto-tune" and "irony" actually are.

Albums in paperback

Awesome gallery of a few albums rendered as classic Penguin paperbacks. These are really well done, the covers look worn out and well read, lots of character.



Flickr set

Kraftwerk audio doc

Alex Kapranos narrates this documentary about synthesizer pioneers Kraftwerk, featuring a bunch of interviews. Cool stuff.

Harper rocks out

Classic, if only to hear Harper say "I get high with a little help from my friends"... not a bad voice actually. The whole thing is kinda surreal though. Check it out...

Not even close to being sick of MJ

My friend Matt got me a copy of "In the Studio With Michael Jackson" by Jackson's engineer/producer Bruce Swedien. Awesome book, some great stories about the studio as well as MJ's approach to music.

Check out this track by track breakdown for a taste of what the book is like.

Tips for finding music on the web

The website Mashable does a great job at covering social networking. Check out their article on finding the name of that song on the web.

Their recent Musicians on Twitter article increased the size of my 'following' list on twitter. Um, yeah... twitter. Ever heard of it? Kind of a big deal these days, or something.

Auto-tune: Alive and well in the Cosmos

This one's been posted a couple times already, but it's too good not to pass on once more... Carl Sagan remixed with auto-tune. Well worth it. Mp3 available too.



A Glorious Dawn [Audio Cookbook]

A favourite blog of mine

Check out Synthopia, which delivers so much awesome stuff I could just link to everything they post. Makes a great addition to your RSS reader.

If you're a fan of synthesizers and music tech, you will definitely dig it.

Rob Cavallo interview

Interview: Rob Cavallo, music producer for a bunch of bands you might have heard of...


From MusFormation, a very cool site for musicians.

Birth of a Neumann

Here's a cool video from How It's Made of a Neumann U87 microphone, a very high end piece of gear.



---

From Wire to the Ear, a great blog about pro audio.
The birth of a Neumann [wire to the ear]

Please standby

Haven't had much time to update lately, as some shit has been going down.

Needless to say I'm gonna get back in the habit once Mr. iMac is up and running again.

My goal for this year is still to beat last year's post total. Last year was 198, and it sure would be nice to break 200 this year. With something like 100+ days left this year, it's totally a reasonable goal, with my count at 96 including this post. By averaging one post a day, I can do it.

So stay tuned, and keep scouring the web for those sweet sweet tunes. More to come.

Kill me now

It's not just Guitar Hero, it's Guitar Hero with a fucking Kurt Cobain avatar.



Grohl, Novoselic "dismayed" by Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5

Music links

Listen: ODB covering Sussudio and other weird cover songs


US Senate hears royalty debate pitting Big Content vs Big Radio

"Under the current setup, commercial radio stations don't actually pay the performers anything for the use of their songs. Radio stations pay only songwriters for the music they play, while recording artists get nothing (except publicity). When music is delivered via webcasting, cable networks, and satellite radio, however, station owners need to pay both songwriters and recording artists. If this seems inconsistent to you, that's because it is."

Watch: Henry Rollins On Jungle Trance Hip Hop Fuckin’ Shit Music. Remixed. [Hilarious!!]

Something else cool that I forgot to post earlier

Music is wired into our DNA

A couple of pretty neat items relating to the legendary band known as Joy Division

Famous Joy Division LP Cover Visualized (with audio)

Prepare to be tripped out.


===

And from the comments section of the same link, here's a righteous redo of "Transmission". By a steel drum band, and it's awesome!




It's actually a decent sounding YouTube video, they must have taken a board feed.

Why it must be more fun on the west coast

More new Weird Al!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

White Stripes parody. I had to Wiki CNR though...

Now it makes sense. Kind of a Chuck Norris hyperbole thing here.

New Weird Al video

No embedding. Bah!

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Skipper Dan

RIAA = still jerks

And the witch hunts continue... here's a couple articles my Dad sent me this weekend. He and I are both big music fans and are somewhat alarmed with these absolutely insane trials that are going on.

Student ordered to pay $675,000 US in downloading case

RIAA Seeks Up to $150,000 a Song in File Sharing Trial

===

From the Canadian side, the government has opened a consultation website for the forthcoming re-writing of the copyright laws. Let's get a few letters in there and make sure this doesn't become the Canadian DMCA.

Other required reading: Michael Geist

Thriller demos!

Just downloading these now, haven't even listened to them. The Billie Jean demo was on a recent reissue. These should be very interesting!

Thriller/Starlight demos

Very brief album review

New Dan Deacon: Mostly irritating.

His Wikipedia page has got it mostly right: "Dan Deacon... is an American electronic "musician" and hipster who originates from Babylon, New York and Baltimore, Maryland."

Gold.

History of house music doc

The History Of House Music, pt 1

Matt @ twitter

http://twitter.com/phatmat

On Michael Jackson

I just finished reading a very interesting book by Margo Jefferson called "On Michael Jackson".

She compares Jackson to PT Barnum, suggesting that the King of Pop knew that he was turning himself into a spectacle that you can't take your eyes off of, much like Barnum's freak show, and greatest show on earth. She also talks about how race and sexual politics inform a great deal of Jackson's stage persona.

It's a pretty interesting read, more of an essay than a book. Available at the Toronto Public Library.

Morning music links

RIAA Spokesman Says DRM Is Dead


Up To 10% of CD-Rs Fail Within a Few Years


Podfather: Apple iPods Sending Death Threats for Mafia, Lawsuit Claims

40th anniversary of the moon landing today

Original version of Bowie's "Space Oddity"



...and Buzz Aldrin punching out a lunatic for suggesting man didn't land on the moon:


Link:
Buzz Aldrin: Engineer, Rapper, Heart-Breaking Realist

A very good question

An Open Letter To Canada's Music Industry and Grant System: Why Does Metric, MSTRKRFT and 'Well-Funded Mediocrity' Get All The Support?...

Morning music links

Feedback (LOL)


Setlist.fm: A Great Site for Live Gig Whores


Report: UK file sharing drops, even among teens


DIY Laser Guitar Synth

New: Hype Machine Twitter chart

Twitter chart

Pretty cool!

Is it just me,

or does the demon from Michael Jackson's "Ghosts" kinda look like his dad??



That's about the best screen shot I can find for Ghosts, I'm sure there's one out there that's better.

Electro-mac

Really digging this track, "Goth Star", by Pictureplane. Featuring a Fleetwood Mac sample!

Black Eyed Peas: Rip off artists

UPDATE: Did Black Eyed Peas Steal Freeland's 'Mancry'?

Polaris Prize short list!

My friend Adam tipped me off about the 2009 Polaris Prize Short list. Junior Boys, Wolf Parade, and Japandroids have clearly been robbed, while the mediocre Metric gets a nod. I guess corporate sponsors have their way!

My vote from the bunch goes to Joel, by far, so far. Most of the discs are available at the Toronto Public Library, except for Elliot Brood. Blast.

Again with the MJ

Daily Swarm has become the Jackson Swarm. Tonnes of good stuff there.

More from the Jackson file

Watch the moves, unbelievable. Great horn break too. The female object of desire is the ostensible "Dancing Machine", but the song may as well be referring to Michael.

Win!

The End of Fail

from this article:

How the Web Survived Michael Jackson’s Death

Too soon?

Neverland Ranch Investigators Discover Corpse Of Real Michael Jackson

Surely, by now you've heard? The King is dead.

Sad, yes, but the guy was a ghost for the past 15 years anyway. This quote from George Carlin (also RIP) pretty much sums the legal side of Jackson:

Song of the year?

World's oldest instrument

35,000-year-old Flute Is First Instrument Ever [Gizmodo]

Funniest video ever?

"The Making of Buzz Aldrin's Rocket Experience", I think this picture says it all:

Making of Buzz Aldrin's Rocket Experience w/ Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli from Buzz Aldrin

Some classic house

Loving this one lately:

Making Twitter useful

Top music Twitterererers:

http://wefollow.com/twitter/music

Oh, and there's me:

http://twitter.com/phatmat

Pictures of people with no life whatsoever, apparently

Why In Hell Are People Camping Out For the iPhone 3GS?

RIAA = jerks

My dad sent me these couple of articles about the another ruling against Jammie Thomas:

Jury rules against Minn. woman in download case

Analysis: $1.92M fine in music piracy case could hurt RIAA

Just goes to show that these evil fucks are willing run their entire business model into the ground, and take innocent people with them...

Mention of a book that Bjork describes as "Incredibly Nourishing"

I'm reading "The Rest Is Noise", a history of 20th century classical music by Alex Ross. Amazing book, I thought about going paperback on this one but I just had to go for the hardcover. Not great for travel or subway, but this isn't that type of book. This is a book you enjoy in an armchair with a large cup of tea and an excellent stereo system.

Let's just say that a clear line is being drawn from early avant garde through Steve Reich and on to Timbaland. That, basically, is what makes this book awesome.

The audio guide on the website is also awesome. Some of the compositions are mind blowing.

Always time for ragtime!

Classic 80’s Hits Done As Ragtime Piano

Pirates = Purchasers

BitTorrent users spend money, too

" * They buy 34% more movie tickets, purchase 34% more DVDs and rent 24% more movies than the average Internet user.
* They tend to have more and better equipment for consuming media, including home theaters and expensive computers with large screens.
* They spend less time watching TV, more online, and far more watching downloaded or streaming video.
* They're not only early adopters, they're more likely to share their opinions online, and with more people."

Bye, bye, media

Theme Music for the Death of the Media

Pretty funny, epic parody set to the tune of Don McLean's "American Pie".

*tear

TV on the Radio tomorrow night

No NIN finale tour for me, out with the old in with the new, I say. Besides, I heard NIN is opening for Jane's Addiction. I'm all for supporting your influences, like Reznor did with Bowie back in the 90s, but this is a little ridiculous.

---

Here's TV on the Radio's "Dear Science,", which I think will go down as one of the great albums of this decade.

I wonder what the rest of the title could be. The album could easily be titled "Dear Science, I love you, but you're bringing me down". A positive work overall, really putting together everything they've been refining over the past couple albums.


Dear Science

Love in this Pizza Club

This video never fails to crack me up, especially when the parrot takes the Young Jeezy verse!

Free Girl Talk Live

http://www.freeculturemusic.com/

Always a good time for a Depeche Mode cover

My friend Matt helped produce this band's big debut LP. Winhara, originally from Bracebridge and now residing in the Big Smoke, play solid indie rock, kinda sounding like The National/U2/Coldplay. They're also the nicest guys you could ever meet.

This track is one of their live staples.

More from the Onion

Radiohead Denies Influencing Local Band

Shoegaze heaven

A bunch of essential shoegaze albums in mp3 form @ 320 kbps.

More from the pop file

Somehow I doubt the 'beauty' of a woman who's "showin' thugs love" in the club, but hey, it's got a catchy beat:

The case for Autotune

Pitch Perfect

Auto-Tune is a contemporary strategy for intimacy with the digital. As such, it becomes quite humanizing. Auto-Tune operates as a duet between the electronics and the personal. A reconciliation with technology.

---


Hilarious video here:



---


Antares Audio Technology - makers of the infamous tool

Stompin' Tom!

I'm interviewing legendary Canadian icon Stompin' Tom on Wednesday for VoicePrint, just working on some questions now... any suggestions for questions?

8-bit Nails

My friend Sylvia sent me this one, from Trent Reznor's twitter page

Morning music links

Mac USB Audio: M-Audio Says Avoid the Left-hand USB Port on MacBook Pro, All Ports Not Equal

Best Buy May Start Selling Vinyl Records

9 Flavors Of "Popcorn", The Synthpop Classic

Afternoon music links!

VIDEO: Kings Of Leon's guitar rigs revealed

Throbbing Gristle Soundcheck Jam

Patrick Stewart finally jumps the shark and becomes Shatner?

Allmusic thinks not... five stars?!

Patrick Stewart does Richard Strauss Melodrama

His subtle and nuanced telling is far more effective than an overtly impassioned one would have been, and the naturalness of his reading is hugely compelling and moving.

He had me at 'melodrama'.

Sigh.

This blog: popular with the Google

A previous post has spiked the number of hits to my blog, bringing me well into double digits per day territory. Thanks all you random surfers, you're making the world a better place.

Note to self: Write more posts about how great songs are used to disappointing effect in film trailers.

The Day The World Went Away - Nine Inch Nails

Viral check-up

In case you missed it, here's your feel-good clip of the year:

Susan Boyle sings "I Dreamed a Dream"

Recession blues

Simply Red - Money's Too Tight to Mention [1985]

10 of the Geekiest Music Videos of All Time

@ Gizmodo

I especially enjoy the Pharcyde video.

A note on Twittering

I still don't really 'get' Twitter... maybe I'm just old school. But one thing is for certain: Trent Reznor sure is fun as hell to follow. Especially if you bleed NIN black like I do. He's got a sense of humour too.

Performance Rights Bill explained

Here's an interesting article about a piece of artist rights legislation being considered by the U.S.

Inside the Performance Rights Act, And Deciding Who Gets Paid on the Radio

"The Performance Rights Act is a bill before the US Congress that would require terrestrial radio stations to pay royalties to the performer of a track... Aside from the issue of “fairness,” the United States is one of the few countries that does not require payment to the performing artist when her track is played on the radio."

Morning music links

Stevie Wonder’s "Superstition" clavinet part dissected

"An engineer has acquired the master recordings and has dissected
Stevie Wonder’s multitrack masters of the song. Through the use of
Protools, he was able to isolate all the tracks to get a listen to the
infamous Clavinet parts. Ready for this? … In reality, it’s actually
8 Clavinet parts!"

New lossless mp3HD format trades convenience for file size

EMI's catalog comes to Project Playlist

Songwriters Bid To Legalize File Sharing Gets a Rewrite

Morning music links

Supergroup overkill?: Chickenfoot stream two songs on website, MySpace
"Chickenfoot - the much-talked-about band featuring Joe Satriani,
Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith - are streaming two songs
from their upcoming debut album."

Song.ly Lets You Share Music Via Twitter
"Song.ly...takes the URL of an MP3, shortens it for Twitter so that a
user can tweet the url of the song, and then puts it into a compact
Flash player for listening."

Behind the scenes: In studio with Depeche Mode


Facebook for studios
"Gearjunkies Userstudios is a site where computer musicians can create
a virtual representation of their home studio by piecing it together
from lists of available kit."

What's the big deal about Twitter anyway?

Chris Cornell-Trent Reznor Twitter war, round 2

My $0.02: Anything that connects Timbaland to Rage Against the Machine in one degree is bad.

Scream is my early choice for next year's Grammy for Best Comedy Album. Only the funniest of people could come up with the wacky, extra-dimensional idea of getting Justin Fucking Timberlake to pitch in on a song for the former Soundgarden frontman. This Allmusic review of the album just about sums it up, though I think it's a bit generous.

Howto: Build a studio in an apartment

How to Build a Music Studio in an Apartment

Afternoon music links

Do 320kbps mp3 files really sound better? Take the test!

Now You Can Play Like Daft Punk...With iDaft!

Devo Back With A New Album - Flower Pot Hat Sales Expected To Soar

Who's Scalping Those Concert Tickets? Artists And Agents, Frequently

The 17 most outrageous drum kits on the internet

Took the plunge

Twitter - phatmat

One 't'...

Morning music links

Earbuds Go Facial
"Utilizing infrared sensors to measure contortions in your ear canals,
the 'Ear Switch' earbuds can guess at your facial expressions, letting
you control your gadgets—iPods, cellphones, whatever—with what pretty
much amount to feigned seizures."

The Evolution of Payola: Jango Brings Pay-For-Play to the Web

A ringtone that can give women bigger breasts?
"Hideto Tomabechi... has embedded a sound in a ringtone that fools
your mind into interpreting it as a crying baby. The hypothesis is
that if women’s minds and bodies respond to the ringtone in the same
way that they would respond to a real crying baby, then they will
experience the same physiological effects as if they heard the real
thing . If it’s heard often enough, over time their breasts will
grow."

Sound in the Watchmen movie

Morning music links

The Sizzling Sound of Music

Software reveals drummers who used click tracks

Aux Classic 2.1 Speaker System

Terminator trailer features NIN song

Terminator Salvation trailer

I have to admit I'm a little disappointed here... Nine Inch Nails' "The Day the World Went Away" featured in this Terminator trailer, not to mention a bit of a remix too. A couple pounding drums added to the end fading into the well known Terminator theme.

This reminds me of the time "Just Like You Imagined" was used in the trailer for 300.
So I guess overall it's nice to see The Fragile *sort of* get the acknowledgment it deserves as a truly cinematic album.

Morning music links

Music industry: licensing is a problem, but how to fix it?

RIAA, Stop Suing Tech Investors!

Pirate Bay Witness’ Wife Overwhelmed With Flowers

mSpot launches browser-based ringtone creator

More weird album covers - hilarious & disturbing

The 20 Weirdest Album Covers: A Definitive List

Morning music links

The Annoying Sound Stores Use To Drive Youngins Away

The 14 most outrageous guitars on the internet

Colleges ready to try blanket music licenses from Choruss

Songsmith Rewrites the Classics

Ticketmaster CEO Amenable to Sale of TicketsNow

Morning music links

Michael Jackson’s arcade games to be auctioned off on April 24th

Inside the Isle of Man's £1/month unlimited music plan

Recording Engineer James Lock, 1939-2009 [former Chief Engineer at Decca in UK]

Music Labels Reach A New Low, Sue Developer For Using Seeqpod API

Yet another Watchmen related blogosphere post

Watchmen composer says he's no "comic geek"

Morning music links

Page, Barenaked Ladies part ways

TicketMaster and Live Nation Face the Music in Congress

Depeche Mode first band to offer new "iTunes Pass" promo

Morning music links

Ticketmaster Agrees To Stop Linking To TicketsNow

Apogee Dumps Windows, Tells Users Macs are Better

Roland V Piano: UK Premiere

Unreleased Beatles Revolution 1 surfaces online

More bands flocking to App Store: Pussycat Dolls, Soulja Boy

Imeem Lets You Sync Your Music Library With Your Android Mobile

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Music linked to teen sex habits

iPod Safety: Preventing Hearing Loss in Teens

Monday cheer

A bunch of Charlie Chaplins dancing to "Whipped Cream". Can't go wrong.

Morning links

News & Headlines


RIAA denies rumors that Last.fm turned over user data

Webcasters: still (!) no deal on streaming royalties

Music-swapping Sites To Be Blocked By Irish ISPs

U2's label leaked No Line On The Horizon

Average iPhone app usage declines rapidly after first download


Cool stuff


Kyte Offers Branded iPhone Apps for Celebrities and Musicians

Wii Remote as Ableton Live MIDI controller

Self-Tuning Piano

Concert for the Deaf

AT-AT Walker Boombox

"The voice of God is now under military control"

A New Direction For Sound

Woody Norris has invented a system which provides much more control over sound waves. In fact, his speakers are so directional that you could listen to music in bed at full volume and the person beside you would not hear a thing.

18 of the Best Music Tumblelogs

18 of the Best Music Tumblelogs

I had to look this one up on Wikipedia:

"A tumblelog is a variation of a blog that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, tumblelogs are frequently used to share the author's creations, discoveries, or experiences while providing little or no commentary."

..aaaand now I know.

A note about backing things up.

Back up your files. Do it now.

I lost my iTunes library file the other day when the power went out... luckily I had recently backed it up. No music was lost but a great deal of damage was done to my play counts. Back it up!

Must listen edition

Double Night Time

Recommended by my friend Matt, this is an excellent electronica album featuring Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys. Every cut is solid, but my favs are "Most of All", and "Ruthless City". Awesome.

Also: Junior Boys in Toronto March 28-29 at the Mod Club. Get your tickets now! Can't wait for that new album.

Alan Moore knows the score

I don't why I keep going, honestly.

I fucking hate this band with a passion, and to see them covering Dylan for the Watchmen soundtrack makes me want to gouge out my eyes and shove metal spikes into my ears. Speechless otherwise, utterly speechless. This kind of bullshit is why Alan Moore's name isn't going to be anywhere near the film.

Saturday Rodeo

Caught this on MuchMoreRetro the other day, Blue Rodeo's "Trust Yourself". Apparently this person caught it there too. It's actually a decent tune, if a bit twangy. Good song for beating the Winter Blues.

This year's Junos, in a word.

Travesty:

1. a literary or artistic burlesque of a serious work or subject, characterized by grotesque or ludicrous incongruity of style, treatment, or subject matter.

Thanks to Nickelback for having another great year! Who knew??

Junos

Popular Swedish music diversions

I finally got around to listening to this one... A lot of praise has been showered on Lykke Li. I'm not really feeling it, style over substance here mostly. Usually I hear "dexterously ties together synth pop and arty excursions, all with the underpinnings of a singer-songwriter album" and I'm already dozing off.

"I'm Good I'm Gone" is a good one, though.


Youth Novels

The audio guy wins again

My friend Nicole sent me this one -- Christian Bale blows up at a Director of Photography:
http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_audio/020209_christianbale.mp3

I'm not sure whether this weakens or strengthens his case for being on my favourite actor list.

Finally did it,

Listened to Chad VanGaalen. Highly recommended. From Skelliconnection, "Flower Gardens":



This one kinda reminds me of Queens of the Stone Age, in the good indie way.

A bunch of music lists

Digital Dream Door

Huge page of music lists. They're all some guy's opinion, but it's still neat to browse.

I've been looking at the Rock Instrumentals, Top 10 Metal Songs by Artist (cool design), and Greatest Funk Songs.

Watch out for that stupid talking emoticon guy that's also at the top of mininova.

From the department of very bad ideas

So Little Wayne is putting out a rock album in April. Judging from this first listen, it should be pretty fucking terrible. There's enough awful rock music being made by so-called rock musicians, we don't need the same being made by cartoon rappers.

Speaking of terrible fucking ideas, how about Chris Cornell's forthcoming album, produced by Timbaland and featuring John Mayer, Justin Timberlake and the guy from OneRepublic? This album is going to make Audioslave look like Led Zeppelin. Which they are not.

These two albums are slated to drop within about a month of each other. Maybe the earth will be sucked into a black hole created by the Hadron Collider before that, and save us all the grief, anxiety, clogged radio waves and psychic mindshare.

Oasis: Truly aggravating

Alleged Oasis attacker faces bumped up charge

The local hero who stormed Oasis' set at last year's Virgin Festival in T.O. will now be charged with aggravated assault. No word if it was the remarkably mediocre Dig Out Your Soul was the final aggravation.

In all seriousness, the guy shouldn't get off too easy... no performer should have to fear assault from the people who've paid good money to see them. But if there was any band who deserves to be slapped around a bit for being utter assholes, it's Oasis.

I say let the two of them duke it out in the ring and put the whole thing on pay-per-view.

Big upcoming concert weekend!

Friday: Glass Candy @ the Wrongbar



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Saturday: The Animals @ Rama

Awesome Isley Brothers tune

Check this one out:

Isley Brothers - Footsteps in the Dark

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Ice Cube sampled it for "It Was a Good Day", which is also an awesome tune in its own right.