The Music Is Better Than It Sounds

Obi Wan A Tokey

2007-06-06T20:32:00.000+01:00

And other puffing Star Wars characters...

Local concert listing for Amsterdam

2007-05-23T16:06:00.000+01:00

For whenever you're in the Amsterdam area and want to have a quick overview of who's playing where and when: check MyGigs.org. (This is shameless self promotion by the way, since I'm running the listing. :)

John Cleese R.I.P.

2007-04-14T23:59:00.000+01:00

It seems that the sad day can't be trusted to anyone else.

Cleese reads his own eulogy.

The source code of songs

2007-04-01T18:30:00.000+01:00

In April 2005, Nine Inch Nail’s single The Hand That Feeds saw it’s online release, soon followed by Only. Not as an mp3 or wmv file, but as a multi-track file for Garageband, Apple’s music creation tool. (Simply put, when you record a song, usually all instruments and vocals are recorded separately on a track of their own. Then when you’re working on the final song, it’s very easy to add and remove tracks, put effects on them, and mix them together into your final composition.)

Having enjoyed an amazing gig by Nine Inch Nails the other week here in Amsterdam, I was happy to read they (‘he’ might be more appropriate, since all-round musical talent Trent Reznor seems to be the only consistent member of the band) released the multi-track version of their new single Survivalism as well, and not only that:

“No strings attached. (…) You now have the ability to completely reconstruct/deconstruct Survivalism any way you choose. We will soon present details on where you can upload your own mixes so get to work and have fun with this! (We plan to release every track on the album this way over the next few months…)”
Nine Inch Nails playing Paradiso, Amsterdam (21-03-2007)
Photo shot and kindly provided by furbyx4.
Every track on the album. To my knowledge – and do correct me if I’m wrong – NIN now is the first band to release a complete and brand new album for free on the internet, as ‘source code’ if you like. If you consider a normal album as a proprietary release, with all the usual restrictions applicable to it, then this is probably as close to open source music as we’ll get for a long time.
I’m very curious to see where this is going. I’d love to see fans from all over the world collaborating into creating their own, pan-ultimate version of the NIN album instead of competing with each other to make the best remix. Maybe somebody will create a Wiki- or CVS-like tool to collaborate into creating, rearranging and recomposing music together? (At a recent Think ‘n’ Stink, we already got a taste of tools that enabled DJ’s on different locations (continents even) to play music together. From there on, it doesn’t seem like such a big step, really.) Will there ever be a new official NIN album after this, or is Trent Reznor just going to release ‘code snippets’ and let the fans create the next record the way they see fit? <blah>Are we entering the age of Music 2.0?</blah>
On the other hand, collaboration on the scale described above might very well be the ultimate recipe for middle-of-the-road material, a.k.a. crap. It usually takes just a single or a few geniuses to come up with really groundbreaking material.
Either way, releasing an entire album as multi-track files is in my opinion a geeky but cool gift to your fans. Let’s hope NIN set a trend with this!
(Originally posted on the Media Catalyst blog.)

Tears Of A Tadpole

2007-04-01T15:12:00.000+01:00

It's not easy being green....

Nuts About The Girl

2007-02-10T12:18:00.000+00:00

I'll admit that I wasn't convinced after the first listen but this album just gets stronger and stronger each time round and has become a firm favourite; What's The Time Mr Wolf? the debut album by Noisettes.

Led by the quite frantic, Shingai Shoniwa, the Noisettes are from London and just rock. She is a very strong female lead with a fantastically diverse voice which she manages to top off by being quite a mean bassist too.

They've toured with Muse and Bloc Party but are still doing little gigs on their own too; this May they're playing at Kings College in London - tickets are available for the silly price of £9

I've not been able to find a full official video - at least not one that doesn't have a massive sync problem and is actually the full song so satisfy yourself with the live track below instead.

Not Talking Heads

2007-02-04T23:08:00.000+00:00

Adam Buxton, one half of the legendary Adam & Joe who so loving put together Toy Trainspotting is being mischevious; possibly due to the boredness of sitting at home watching television all day when you're a self employed comedian, artist and/or student.....

New Year New Start

2007-01-27T20:29:00.000+00:00

It's been painfully long, we all have our excuses I am sure and none of us want to hear them - let's just on with it again and see where we get to......

I'm motivated back to the blog for the reason it was started in the first place which the resurgence of some good music; maybe this is a seasonal thing much like my commitment to TMIBTIS.........

Also, I've heard hints of good things from some of you and decided they were too good not to share further afield.

You'll recall from right about this time last year that we liked !!! and LCD Soundsystem so appropriately a year later we come full circle with a new album from both - Myth Takes and Sound of Silver meaning it's been a busy time for Tyler Pope who is apparently in both groups. LCD are touring this March and the rumour is that they're being supported by Frinzhorn who ever the bloody hell they are; any enlightening of their work would be appreciated.....

!!! are also touring, check here for their dates.

Both are great albums (if not even possibly better than their previous outings in the case of !!!) and that's gotta be something to be grateful for.

So what else is there? New albums by Kasabian, Bloc Party, Air (featuring Jarvis Cocker), Jarvis Cocker, various Thom Yorke related ramblings and little oddities like Gruff Rhys Jones of The Super Furry Animals solo release, Candylion. The last is a wee gem and you should check it out if you can - it's by no means perfect, but the meaningful bits are perfection; a couple of tunes are in Welsh wot with him being a sheep shagger. His voice, it must be said, is quite dreamy; the Welsh tilt being more elegant here than anything I remember from SFA. Enjoy the title track below.

I Love New York

2006-09-17T16:45:00.000+01:00

APOLOGIES FOR THE LACK OF PLEASING VISUAL MEDIA ON THIS POST - BLOGGER'S HAVING NONE OF IT AT THE MOMENT.

It's more than just their shared hometown in common between Scissor Sisters and The Rapture; sometimes they're not just refrential to their musical heroes, they positively rip them off - but because they both do a good job they're worth a listen.

It's the dreaded second album for the Scissor Sisters and although things have changed they have also remained paradoxily the same, it's all quite good stuff - with the odd turkey chucked in for good luck. Bee Gees, Elton John (circa 1972), David Bowie, Queen and more are all very lovingly recreated with varying degrees of success (and is it that really a sample of the theme tune to Men Behaving Badly that I can hear on track 2?).

Despite dropping their production team of the DFA, and now under the watchful eye of Danger Mouse among others, The Rapture pull off a couple of tunes which would not be out of place on an LCD Soundsystem or even an Audio Bullys album. Not only that but the The Cure influences so obvious from their first album remain (or the Robert Smith impersonations at least....) and you still half expect Luke Jenner to break into 'Boys Don't Cry' on more than one occasion. It's still a good album, the influences are all quite solid after all but there's a struggle going on here to find their own sound.

I'm contemplating putting together compilations that source the reference for the tracks on these two albums..... let me know if you have any thoughts yourself.

The Idiot's Guide to Dance Music

2006-08-31T10:11:00.000+01:00

Some clever sod has come up with this piece of website wisdom.

I've only had a cursory glance but it's crammed full of samples; select from a number of tunes per Genre or sub-category.

There's also a link to their streaming radio for each category, so you can listen in to your favourite music by Genre.

The home page has a nifty little tutorial on the history of Electronic music with sample sounds from the Theremin, Hammond B-3 and a couple of others.

Now all I need is for some cleverer sod to come up with a Rock version...

Goodie Bag

2006-08-06T18:31:00.000+01:00

At the risk of becoming ubiquitous Cee-Lo keeps spreading his not insubstantial talent.

Tiny Whities!

2006-08-06T17:04:00.000+01:00

So shoot me, it's the summer and I'm in holiday mode.........

Hey Hey It's The Monkeys

2006-08-06T16:45:00.000+01:00

It's not that we've previously ignored them - let's face it it was very difficult to do at one stage with the Interwebs being awash with Arctic Monkey fever - but what more could we possibly have added to the hyperbole?

They're good. In fact they're very good - there, we've said it now. And to prove the point they've got a new tune which, whilst samey, is very good too.

The official video on Youtube has the embed feature disabled at the request of their record company - the one above is copy that may be taken down - if so, go here

Python But Not As We Know It

2006-07-30T16:43:00.000+01:00

An amusing mash-up of Monthy Python and Star Trek.

French Tossers

2006-07-29T20:34:00.000+01:00

Stylish, funny, and little bit funky - camera trickery or not, this is quite cool.

And very Gallic.

Babelfish anyone?

2006-07-22T09:07:00.000+01:00

A clip from an old UK sketch show including the much loved Simon Pegg before the days of Spaced.

Together with Nick Frost and some of the other Shaun of The Dead crew we can expect a new film with Peggy called Hot Fuzz. Adam Buxton appears to be adding to the madness so it's got good breeding if nothing else.

This is one of their video blogs from the set - the rest can be found here.

Not For Polite Society

2006-07-22T09:01:00.000+01:00

Amazingly there does appear to be a film where fuck is used more often than in Scarface. The Coen Bros classic, The Big Lebowski.

NSFW!

Naruto [sasuke], evanescence-lies

2006-07-16T23:43:00.000+01:00


if you're a fan of naruto, you'll like this

Hoff Alert

2006-07-15T14:42:00.000+01:00

Sweet jesus christ all mighty.....

Call On Me (a parody)

2006-07-14T18:12:00.000+01:00


Not quite as sexy as the original, but you get the general idea

A Wonderful Life

2006-07-08T09:21:00.000+01:00

Eddie Murphy interviews for a Stevie Wonder impersonator with little success;

And this little gem of Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street using a vocoder - very cool.

And finally, Stevie meets Stevie and a few other guests to throw down (yes cause it's that's funky) a fabulous version of "Superstition".

Our Robot Masters

2006-07-06T19:58:00.000+01:00

Kraftwerk are just 4 stoney faced men standing around playing keyboards and electric drums, but don't they do it well?

On this occasion it's live - kinda.

Lobster Love

2006-07-03T23:57:00.000+01:00

It's been a while but this is the reason; it's summer!

Aping Apple

2006-06-03T10:33:00.000+01:00

I always smile when someone puts the boot into Apple and this is no exception; the Da Vinci Code of mp3 players gets a little doing over in this parody of an old advert of theirs.

If you need reminding of the original advert you'll find it here.

Depending on where you live you may have noticed the images below appearing stuck up around the place. Click thru for their website; it's taking the Apple hating a little far but amusing nonetheless.

The Shape of Songs to Come

2006-05-29T23:27:00.000+01:00

According to turbulence.org, this is what Rage Against the Machine's Bomb Track looks like.

My kind of eye-candy...

Some clever sods have come up with the visualisation of music.
If you want to understand the mechanics, look here.

A quick browse around the will reveal images from Classical to Rock, Aphex Twin to Reznor and even better, if you can be arsed that is, you can add any web-based MIDI files to the "repertoire".

The one thing it does lack is the "player", I'd personally prefer to see the images being built while listening to the tracks.