Gumby plays the synth

@ Synthtopia

Now everyone's a music nerd

I've always had pride in my ability to identify many, many popular tunes by hearing just a few seconds of a song... now the digital revolution is rendering my highly valuable skill useless... more power to the music nerds I guess!

Here's a list of a bunch of apps that are cutting in on my action.

Behind you, Mr Buble!

Michael Buble Being Stalked By A Velociraptor. There ya go. Found over at Angry Robot.

Radness

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One more from Merton

I think one more of these and Merton's got himself his 15 minutes... am I right? Eh? Haaa...



Found at Mashable

A little late to the party

Apparently music service imeem is no more... if only I'd logged in more last year. Too bad, I dug it, for what it was.

Saturday influences

This is the song that people are talking about when they say the Killers were influenced by Springsteen on Sam's Town. From the vocal to the arrangement, the signs are all there. Of course, The Killers substituted synths for horns and bells. There might be another song out there that's a better example, but this is the track that I heard today.

According to the user who uploaded this, the vocal was slightly sped up. It's pretty subtle, but it makes sense.



Speaking of the Killers, if they never come out with another decent album again, their entire career will have been worth it for this song:



One thing I won't be able to forgive them for is their awful Joy Division cover... their version of "Shadowplay" is a bit of a train wreck. Yes, I'm incredibly biased as a huge fan, but Joy Division just shouldn't be covered. Especially when it turns into a silly dance-pop romp.

Bah... I'm torn. If someone came to me and said, "Hey, can you cover a Joy Division song for an Ian Curtis biopic? It'll get you lots of airplay and there will be lots of money involved..." I would be hard pressed to say no to that, regardless of whether I think their repertoire is untouchable. I guess it comes down to this - They were the only artist chosen to provide a new version of a song for the soundtrack, so that's gotta count for something.

The question you're now asking is -- "Hey Matt, have you seen the movie?"... to which I respond... no. *Hangs head in shame*

Off to the library I go... :)

Metallica showing their age

Funny mashup video found on Reddit:



Really well done, nice job with getting that clean vocal.

Trailer for the upcoming Weird Al biopic

Man I wish this was real:

"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" from Aaron Paul

Why bother?

or... Huh?

Mary J Blige covers Zeppelin:



Well, at least Steve Vai got paid.

Yeasayer's odd new video

From their new album, Odd Blood:



The guy's voice sounds right out of an 80s soft rock track, I can't quite put my finger on it though... Kind of like this, but not quite. This is going to bug me.

Royalty or no?

In Defense Of Producer Royalties - What Steve Albini Doesn't Aknowledge

Ben Folds rocks Chatroulette

Here's a big time follow up to a hilarious meme that's been making the rounds:

Remember the time?

R.E.M. play Yonge-Dundas (not yet a square) back in 2001:



My, how things have changed...

The man behind the sounds of Mac

Jim Reekes, The Man Behind Mac Sound

Devo at the Olympics

Some intrepid spuds dutifully taped Devo's performance at the Olympics:



Head to YouTube to see more videos, with all their brand new blue hat glory. New Devo album later this year too!

Too much music?

The hell of being prolific: Are musicians making too much music? [AV Club]

Snip:

With a supportive label, a band can manage and produce itself, can enter the studio and release a finished album without anyone outside the group asking whether it’s good work. When was the last time a band at this level got sent back into the booth with orders to not come out until it has something worth releasing?

Worth a read, it raises some interesting questions. Thanks to my friend Adam for the link, this relates directly to a conversation we had recently about all the filler on recent commercial hip hop releases.

New music from friends

My friend Bandana is launching a music career!

Follow her spoils and exploits on Twitter...

And of course myspace, where the page looks pretty rad.

It's a mix of indie rock and Indian classical. Yes, it does work.

Time for a cover moratorium - "Heroes"

With Peter Gabriel releasing a covers album that features a version of Bowie's "Heroes", I'm reminded of Leonard Cohen asking for a moratorium on covers of "Hallelujah". Obviously you'll never stop people from recording your awesome songs, but this is getting ridiculous. I'm a massive Bowie fan and a pretty big Peter Gabriel fan, but I gotta tell ya, after the disappointing TV on the Radio version last year, I'm not so sure even my favourite artists can do this song justice. I think I'll leave Mr. Gabriel and his covers album alone.

And Davey, can you please ask for a moratorium on "Heroes"? Thanks.

Check out the ever growing list here. This list of course, only mentions the more notable covers... let's not get into the countless bar band versions screeched out every Thursday night.

[The Official video] (Get ready for chills)

Bah, St. Patrick's Day.

Careful, this one will get stuck in your head.

[Drunk Jays Fans]

Why the internet was made

12 Kids show-Rap song mashups



Classic.

Music of Shutter Island

Good post from Angry Robot about tunes on the Shutter Island soundtrack, which includes a pretty decent mashup, actually.

The movie is worth seeing as well, if you like Scorcese or thrillers... or both.

1, 2, 3, 4,

An excerpt from Philip Glass' minimalist opera masterpiece, Einstein on the Beach. Awesome stuff. The CD version doesn't contain the entire opera, just what could fit onto the restrictions of the format. I'd love to see this live some day. Now that the Canadian Opera Company has plans to put on Nixon in China, could Glass be next?



Read more about this kind of music at Alex Ross' site for his book The Rest is Noise. The book is a must read for all music fans, not just those looking to survey classical music.

Against music for torture

Watch this. The new Massive Attack video with Damon Albarn... and a fascinating story.



[Production-Advice]

A note on getting paaaaid

I've been mulling over the prospect of monetizing this blog.

Pros include: Money, motivation to write more.
Cons include: whoring myself out to corporate interests.

A short jaunt around blogger through that handy 'next blog' button at the top of the page reveals a string of shockingly illiterate pages, a bunch of Christian blogs, compendiums of family information that most people couldn't possibly be interested in... and very few AdSense users. Don't get me wrong, all these people are clearly passionate about whatever it is they blather on about, but not many people seem to take it that seriously.

I have some other ideas for more 'pro' blogs, maybe I should take that route and leave this one as it is... but I guess worst case scenario I could just remove the ads.

Anyway, something to think about.

Google AdSense

Galactica: Sabotage

Original:

Rock and Roll Metro Map

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Found this one on Google Reader's recommended items. Pretty cool idea if a little uneven.

Tron Legacy trailer

Here it is, the trailer for the sequel to 1982's Tron... but without the much anticipated Daft Punk music! Hopefully a new trailer will surface with the French electronic duo's take on the retro classic. The imdb listing also shows a Journey track, which despite being a horrible song, would be a nice way to tie in the retro theme.



In theatres in December!

History of the Dr Who theme music

Found at waveformless

Wednesday funny

Get ready to laugh.

Time waster... er... spender.

Music crosswords & puzzles.

Lots of fun stuff here.

Sir, your joke is ready

Juno 2010 noms out! Who the fuck is Johnny Reid?... (googles... Oh. Worst.

As usual, there are a couple cool nods within the proverbial haystack. Japandroids, K'naan, Arcade Fire... far too many nominations for artists with far too little talent. Looks like Michael Buble will be owning the podium in April.

Dispatches from Asia

My friends Laura and Ian are "finding themselves" on an Asia trip. Check out their travels at Laura's blog. They've taken some amazing pictures.