Music

General / Music / Society — Comments Off on Tell me when to go
12
Oct 07

Tell me when to go

Human beings are amazing creatures. How do I know this? Hours and hours spent glued to YouTube. Seriously.

The more I browse YouTube, the more I marvel at the creativity of my fellow humans. On YouTube you get to see the people who would never waste their time doing something as boring and egotistical (Not that there is no narcissism on YouTube. Au contraire.) as blogging. Thanks to YouTube they don’t have to tell you anything. They just show you.

Here are a few choice cuts I have come across:

Music / Software / Internet — 1 Comment
25
Aug 07

Wake up like Bill Murray

groundhogday.jpgThe Blackberry makes a pretty good alarm clock. It has a weekend off setting, so you can leave the alarm set all the time. And, it’s portable and battery-powered so you can hide it on a shelf or behind something, so you have to get up and turn it off. It also makes an awesome travel alarm. Just stretch out, set the alarm and you’re good to go. Another good feature is the ability to set the alarm to play any sound file based on how you like to wake up. The other day I had the idea to create a ringtone from Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” to use as my alarm sound a la Phil Connors in the Harold Ramis classic, Groundhog Day. In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray is jaded weatherman, Phil Connors. Trapped in time, he wakes each morning to a clock radio playing “I Got You Babe” to relive the same day over and over.

When every day can feel like a repeat of the day before, it makes the perfect song to wake up to. Download it to your Blackberry or cellphone.

Music — Comments Off on Weird moment of iPod synchronicity
16
Mar 06

Weird moment of iPod synchronicity

This is strange. Like a thousand chimpanzees DJ’ing. I have exactly 5,115 mp3’s on my iPod. I was just sitting here at work listening to it shuffle through stuff. That should be random, right? Anyway, “Me, Myself, and I” by De La Soul came on, THEN when that was over it was immediately followed by “Freak” by George Clinton. Think about that for a minute. The De La Soul track samples heavily from “Freak”. What are the odds that the next track in a random playlist would be the sample source of the previous song? My mind is blown.

According to AskMe, the odds are 1 in 26 million or so for this particular scenario.

Music — 1 Comment
08
Mar 06

Golden Age Music

The 1960’s was a golden age for popular music. It was a time where diverse musical influences bubbled out of the larger culture and melted together, especially black and white music. I don’t think you can say the same about any time since then. Today, due to cultural fragmentation music exists in isolated ghettos. With the exception of one-off experiments by the likes of Jay Z and Linkin Park or anomalies like Eminem, it’s all segregated. Sure, white kids listen to rap and hip hop, but no one is really listening to and grooving on the same stuff… cross-pollinating. I was reading Wikipedia about one of my favorite singers Lou Christie (born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco) whose biggest hit is “Lightnin’ Strikes”. It went on to describe a rumored interracial relationship between him and Diana Ross while they were on tour with Dick Clark. That would never happen these days. Everyone is too busy reinforcing cultural walls and stereotypes.

Cool Tools / Music / Technology — 1 Comment
27
Apr 05

Phone droolage: 4GB Nokia N91


The zero key on my cellphone has been broken for a while, and you would be surprised at how much you need that particular number when dialing. So, I’ve been looking at phone reviews and what options I have for getting a new one. I’d like to have speakerphone and bluetooth, for example. Anyway, I heard the awesome news that Nokia is releasing an iPod-killing, mp3-playing phone as part of their new phone line-up. The Nokia N91 looks to be a winner.

Continue reading →

Music — 1 Comment
28
Feb 05

New Fiona Apple

fionaI really enjoyed this new Fiona Apple song, Extraordinary Machine, which I came across via the ever linkworthy Waxy.org. It doesn’t sound like her hit songs, Criminal, etc., but it’s great. It sounds like something from an old disney movie or something. It has a very catchy phrasing. Oh, just listen to it.

Cool Tools / Media / Music — Comments Off on Pirate Radio
12
Oct 04

Pirate Radio



Here’s a good tutorial on how to convert your iPod into a pirate radio station.

Music / Psychology / Software / Internet — Comments Off on Two cultures of Piracy
19
Jul 04

Two cultures of Piracy

Japan and America, Two “Cultures of Piracy”:

    Following the logic of the Japanese companies, Condry asks his students whether there are some forms of music they would always pay for and finds that many of them cite music which struggles to survive in the marketplace or where they have a strong identification with the artists. He suggests that like the Japanese fans, American college students are swayed by loyalty and recipricality rather than legality. The solution to the music industry crisis, he argues, is cultural not legal or economic and it involves changing the relations between music producers and consumers to emphasize shared interests rather than economic exploitation. Imagine that!
Cool Tools / Music / Software / Internet — 1 Comment
11
Jun 04

Try this MP3 to SWF (Flash) Program

Soundnails.com has this great tool for converting MP3’s to Flash files. Why is this cool? It’s cool because using Flash you can allow people to listen to music online without allowing them to download the songs and thus running afoul of copyright.

Click here to play Love T.K.O. by Teddy Pendergrass (No MP3 player necessary)

Music / Software / Internet — 2 Comments
09
Jun 04

Stylin’streamin’ sixties soul

teddypendergrass.jpg
I found a good soul radio station based in Oakland you can listen to online, KXGQ. Wow, so many good songs. It’s another “Love TKO“. They have some old-fashioned promos that are pretty bizarre “..where you won’t find 50’s doowop or 90’s rap.”