kicked out the house

soundcloud micropayments

2012-01-23T06:20:00.000-08:00

Dear soundcloud: You guys should implement some form of opt-in micropayment system. Let me load up my account with a few $ every month and every time I listen to most of a track - pay the artist for me.

You should have baseline $0.10 per play and then let the user decide a multiplier (.5, 2, 3, or etc) if he or she wishes.

old school

2012-01-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

On the Old School continuum, how many remember when music didn't have so much bass.

Seriously, remember when they turned up the 808s in hip hop? Before that there was always a nice, full mix, but that's not what I'm talking about. Even in Dub where the bass line was prominent, it wasn't loud. Things change.
I blame the consumer electronics industry for producing cheap, electrically efficient speakers that sound relatively good. That was pretty much unheard of in the 80s and earlier.

Nebraska Deep

2012-01-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

Silly mistake. I was excited for the Nebraska album on Rush Hour from back in the summer, especially based on loving the satellite variations EP from RH's '09 rerelease. I tried listening to album several time and gave up on it. Not wise. The first few tracks aren't to my liking and never got past that. For some reason I gave the rest of the album an honest listen this weekend and BAM. That's where the good stuff was.

what's it called

2012-01-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

Back and forth.

OK I'm trying to organize my music files. I don't get it. Something happened in 2011 where I'm unable to catalog my music via the old means. Bibio would have just gone under IDM in the old days but now it feels disingenuous. I can't stand most of the labels the press uses and I think I'd best be served by

1. House and Techno

2. 2005+ not rock

3. Rock, indie, pop (not that I'd buy any of this)

Like I might have mentioned on my other blog, my mind says, if it's not 4/4 dance music, and it's electronic veering toward the melodic or abstract, with a pretty strong emphasis on rhythm or texture, it's IDM. But I'm stuck thinking that the IDM scene was smaller and had very few connections to the roots of today's bass *cringe* & dubstep. Plus I'd be anachronistic to call it IDM. Thus I can't use that term.

so I'm stuck. and I gotta say, I used to really enjoy categorizing and cataloging my music.

back to blogger from tumblr

2010-11-23T07:58:00.000-08:00

I go back and forth. I like the clean designs afforded by tumblr, but the fact that you are required to have a tumblr account to comment really annoys me. Further, while tumblr seems more oriented toward multimedia postings, I've always preferred to communicate with text. Thus I think I'm coming back here, to blogger, for more music ramblings.

You can catch up on a half dozen posts on tumblr by clicking here.

Afterschool project

2010-06-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

My scope's sync is flakey, but I manage.

missing the maxx

2009-09-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

I went back and listened to Maxx Axe by Roger Troutman from my Locked in the Vinyl Cellar comp, and really wished I got into it earlier. You can listen to it here.

Two things catch my ear- 1) it has that great p-funk structure (what? did they say mothership?) where the band starts out with a complex verse/chorus arrangment and then completely devolves into a massive head noddin' jam session on the same progression + overindulgant synthy noodling. 2) Again, the last 3/4s of the track sounds like a Leroy Burgess track, musically.

big band

2009-08-28T05:48:00.001-07:00

This has definitely been a good summer for music. I wasn't so sure in june, but the end of July and August - heck yeah.

I'm loving all this chicago styled jack/swing stuff. Seems that the lastest bunch of producers have a grasp on artful sampling and impecable rhythm.

So to catch up, here's a mix I'm loving. Wattie Green's sparce production catalog contains only winners - and he's definitely thrown down a hot mix. Enjoy:

Wattie Green - Fall 2009 Mix by djwattiegreen

the family jewels

2009-06-25T05:26:00.001-07:00

So I have a handful of ltd edition colored vinyl records I want to sell because i don't really listen to them and I could use the money. But it's a really hard choice to sell b/c they're so sought after and rare I feel like it's selling a work of art in their singularity (well 100-ularity).

One of the things holding me back is considering that I could pass them on to my sons. Certainly they may not even care, but the idea of giving them something with a lot of intrinsic value means something.

argh

more bounce

2009-04-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Check out Osborne's new Hovercrafting EP on spectrial. It's the real deal.

Wait a Minute has that Roger Troutman love going on... mmmm

But can I ask, why on the Ghostly store is the digital download $7, and pay $1 more and get the vinyl?

choice

2009-04-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

Finally got my hands on the Kenny Dope and X-press 2 Azuli Choice mixes. So far thanks Kenny dope for...

Rainbow Brown - Till You Surrender

a few friday hauls

2009-04-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

a little bit of this and a little bit of that, probably nothing over 130 bpm-

Dawn Tallman - Who Can I Run to (Bam's Viscious dub): Link to non-dub.
Good Guy Mikesh & Filburt - Someone Told me: permanent vacation strikes again.
Lisa Shaw - Like I Want to - Salted. Off the new Free LP.
Alexander East - Tears. Guess he's republishing it on his label. Originally appeared on Grand Prix.
Tim Richards - Life Goes On - Pick n Roll EP
D-reflection - Till The Dawn (MagBeat Remix)
Cleon - Jaylis and Family - Jaylis and Family EP. Like I posted earlier-the soundtrack to me and posse walking down the street.
Dan and Phil - Brighter (Ian Pooley rmx)

$tinkworx - Coelacanth: as seen in basic math post :)
Lovebirds - Louder! - Louder EP, Gentle - Gentle EP. Post-smooth-boogie-instrumentals.
Eddy meets Yannah - Solid Ground (Crazy P remix): this is the point where I realize and totally acknowledge that I like ballaeric house/techno. OK fine. THERE I SAID IT. I'm going to the beach now to cry as I watch the sun rise.
Lazy Sun - AN2: another great track on the great Theomatic records.

Kubato - I like what you say - Prague Nights EP
Bryan Jones & Aaron Perez - Hidden Camera - Hidden Agenda EP
Jazzy Eyewear - We Gotta Bounce (Pete Moss rmx)
Ross Couch - Coast to Coast (Fabien Kamb rmx)
Pezzner - Valdemossa: new one on Freerange, this track is pretty hot with a big synthy-horn hit sample. Freerange always puts out tracks that all the layers of sound fit perfectly.
Nonfiction - P Power: some nice new jack style noodlyness
Nebraska - Fluorescent Door - Satellite Variations EP: PHEW - this is the track that Theo Parrish could make if cheered up and walked outside in the sunlight. GO AHEAD THEO, IT'S OK TO BE HAPPY
Jangatha - United Lines: like james brown on jack powder.

changing times

2009-04-24T09:50:00.001-07:00

I think it's pretty cool that on wefollow.com there are approximately 4x as may #dj as their are #guitar.

when it rains it pours

2009-04-24T06:55:00.001-07:00

Is this just me: between August and February my various online wishlists grew by no more than a half a dozen tracks/EPs. But between February and now I've added more than 2 dozen items to the queue.

Platypus Interview

2009-04-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

Love the Way You Funk is an absolutely infectious song. Here's a brand new interview with Platypus!! *clicky*

billy's protege

2009-04-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

Finally...

I believe that an album in compressed file format should cost about 5 dollars. If record labels price their music at that level, then I'm not going to second guess buying something I like.

So enter today's release of the Silversun Pickups' Swoon. Lala's got it for $4 for 256kbps mp3s. That is the right price. I'm not sure if it's going to be their permanent price, or maybe it's an early-adopter / buzz creator discount, but it was a good thing to do.

basic math

2009-04-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

Because of the mind blowing $tinkworx track in this mix, I was forced (FORCED) to get a juno.co.uk account to buy the track. I could just as easily have purchased the track from Beatport, and kept the money in the US, but for some reason I don't like Beatport. I resent the fact that their website is in Flash. Totally irrational, I know.

Anyway, juno.co.uk is pretty cool: there's no minimum order, they have 90 second samples, and their 320 kbps mp3s aren't priced too much higher than 192. Their wishlist feature is not as intuitive as I'd like, but that's excusible. Best of all:

From amount $7.00 USD
To amount £4.57 GBP
Exchange rate: 1 USD = 0.652857 GBP

WOW.

my album

2009-03-25T05:12:00.000-07:00

Thnx to chaircrusher. and now my album:

come to they senses

2009-03-23T08:10:00.000-07:00

Large portion of soundhack / soundstream / errorsmith catalog on Beatport.

=

Small portion of my savings gone.

The wrong question

2009-03-12T04:40:00.000-07:00

Last night I was lying in bed trying to help send my son off to sleep, so I had a few moments of quiet and dark time for my mind to wonder. Yesterday's big local news was about U2 giving a 3-4 song show at a "small" 1000 person theater in town. I quickly jumped to the scenario - if I bumped into Bono what would I say to him. Embarrassingly, the first thing I thought was to ask him what's it like to work with Brian Eno.

in the club

2009-03-06T05:40:00.000-08:00

Tip to my brother for this link to Baltimore Club pioneer Scottie B.

Ok, let me get this out. As someone from Baltimore, and someone with pretty strong opinions about music this and that, I think that Baltimore Club is a joke. Maybe because I've always been drawn to some sort of virtuosity in production or composition, but to my ears it always seemed that B'more club shows about the least amount of craftsmanship of dance tracks.

Maybe if it came out at the time of Dance Mania tracks (which I generally don't like but can understand their position in the evolution of dance music) or maybe if I didn't hear baltimore club on the radio in HS as the pop music, compared to the rarer european/NYC/chi club tracks I could only buy at the record store I'd have a more positive opinion about this style.

yay

2009-03-03T07:09:00.001-08:00

mmm... new lowfish album.

Frozen & Broken - Lowfish

those french

2009-02-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

DJ Cleon who? I don't know, but file this first track under my sound.

10 musical things about me

2009-02-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

(I thought I'd post a spin on the other meme going around...)

1. What was the first record/CD/tape you bought?
I can't remember exactly,, but I can narrow it down to 2 45 singles:
a. John Cougar Mellencamp's Rain on the Scarecrow. If it's not obvious, this song cemented my love of jangly guitar pop music written in a minor key.

b. Mike + The Mechanics' Silent Running. Two points about this this. The enigmatic video was completely memorable to me at 12 years old. But musically it's so electronic, especially compared to other rock of the time. Those really mild analog pads and bells appear in almost all of the music I've been listening to since.

2. What was the first concert / show you attended?
Besides one or two local bands at all-ages-nights at the end of high school, the first real concert I ever saw was the Depeche Mode / Nitzer Ebb tour, in spring 1990.

3. What was the last performance you attended?
By and large I've stopped going out due to parental responsibilities and lack of interest. But the last show was Dabrye in 2005 I think.

4. Have you been in a band?
Nope, but I've DJ'd quite a bit. Produced/created a small handful of songs too.

5. Name 5 of your desert island songs.
These are predictable, but who cares:

Autechre - Garbage EP, the whole record.
Speedy J - Symmetry
Golden Girls - Kinetic
Aztec Mystic, The - Knights Of The Jaguar EP - Jaguar
Derrick May - Strings of Life

6. What's your favorite, musical guilty pleasure.
LOL, I don't care: I love me some Diva House if it's a good song.
Anyway, I've given up on any kind of musical guilt.

7. What rare or hard to find record / CD / other piece of media would you love to own, but don't?
Squarepusher - Feed Me Weird Things LP
Global Communication - The Way / The Deep EP
Fennesz - Endless Summer LP

(There's a massive amount of disco/boogie I'd like on vinyl, but I just can't go down that path)

8. Name a song that you intensely dislike.
That song, All I wanna do is have some fun, by Sheryl Crow makes me want to self-lobotomize. The song sucks and she as proxy for the (capital I) Industry suck.

9. Have you ever met a famous musician?
Plenty of "famous" DJs & producers b/c they make themselves so accessible.
I did see Harry Belafonte and Biz Markie on two separate occasions at the big music store in DC.

10. Last song you listened to (check you're itunes or whatnot).
The Mole - Alice, You Need Him.

a little winter cheer

2008-12-05T05:52:00.000-08:00

jazzanova - let me show ya feat. paul randolph Henrik Schwarz Remix

Man o man do I like this track. Henrik Schwarz is really hit or miss for me, but this is a serious hit. Love how that sustained bassline hits and anchors the track.