Indie mainstay Apples In Stereo have been putting out records for many years, and front man Robert Schneider has always been a sucker for cool or interesting things related to making music. Well his latest realization comes in the form of a mind-controlled synthesizer that he somehow stumbled upon.

A bit of background first from Schneider off Elephant 6’s Town Hall forum: “As some of you may know, I was working on putting together a mind-controlled Moog synthesizer, allowing you to play the synth with your thoughts, but was having trouble perfecting it. It turns out my Moog MG-1 synth (the first instrument I ever owned, incidentally) has a slider that shorts out, and that was causing me mysterious problems. Anyway, I got the thing working yesterday and have been playing around with it a little.

“It is an easy modification to make, to the Mattel Mind Flex game, to connect it to the control voltage (CV) input on an analog synthesizer (the CV is labeled “pitch” on my MG-1). I will post instructions soon, so that others can play their analog synths with their thoughts as well– an interesting and satisfying feeling, even though it is challenging to control.”

Sounds amazing, but does it work? Yes, but it’s very hard to control, much like a Theremin is super sensitive. Check out the footage:

Also keep an eye on http://www.e6townhall.com for instructions on how to make it yourself.

Mind controlled instruments could take music to possibilities we’ve never even imagined. What other instruments would be amazing to play with your mind?

Earlier this week, Radiohead dropped another surprise on us in the form of a full length, free, downloadable concert from 2009’s show in Prague. The gig was at Prauge’s Výstaviště Holešovice Exhibition Hall on August 23, and around 50 fans had banded together to shoot the show on flip phones. The footage was later edited together to make a film called Live In Praha. The band, according to the Live at Praha website, sent their own audio masters from the show to the group to place it with the video track.

After taking a look at some of the footage, the audio sounds great, and the video surprisingly looks amazing. You can download the whole set of 25 songs in a range of formats, including for mobile phones.

Here’s a trailer for the video:

Download the video here.

Or buy song here.

The setlist of the evening:
15 Step
There There
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
All I Need
Lucky
Nude
Morning Bell
2+2=5
A Wolf At The Door
Videotape
(Nice Dream)
The Gloaming
Reckoner
Exit Music (For A Film)
Bangers + Mash
Bodysnatchers
Idioteque
Encore:
Pyramid Song
These Are My Twisted Words
Airbag
The National Anthem
How To Disappear Completely
Encore 2:
The Bends
Everything In Its Right Place

Recommended Listening:

• Enigmatic: The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead
• Strung Out on Kid A: The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead
• Strung Out on OK Computer: The String Tribute To Radiohead
• Vitamin String Quartet performs Radiohead’s In Rainbows

Curmudgeon music site Pitchfork Media has posted a Top 50 list of the Best Music Videos of the 1990’s. Scrolling through the lot of these videos is definitely a stroll through memory lane for me. I remember many hours staying up late to try and catch a video just to hear the song itself, as I had no money to actually buy records then. Of course the Internet basically changed all that, making the music now the secondhand result of a music video.

What’s the point of a music video now anyways really? No one’s really making money off of it, except perhaps the production team, and it seems to be purely a marketing strategy now. While the 1990’s made the music video more of an art form, the 00’s has stripped down the art and made it more about the shock value. Of course, rap videos still are primarily cash, money, hos.

Anyways, take a look through this insane list, and bring back the good times that the 90’s sort of fooled everyone into thinking they were having, back when our president could play a mean sax.

Check out the list here.

Self-prescribed genius Kanye West has announced that his record label G.O.O.D. music will be releasing a song a week, each Friday, for the rest of the year. At this point there’s 17 Fridays left in the year, so one would expect the same number of songs. Two songs have already been released, Beyonce featuring “See Me Now” and a remix of “Power” by John Mayer.

Kanye’s reasoning in this release project is that (what else?) the game is changing. The artist wrote on his Twitter, “We look at the game completely different now. It’s about the fans. No more holding back.”

The songs to be released are expected to be a mix of collaborations, covers, and remixes, with the occasional new track thrown in. One such remix expected is a previously confirmed track of pre-teen heartthrob Justin Bieber’s track “Runaway Love.”

Keep an eye on Kanye’s twitter each week for more songs.

Here are the first two songs in streaming form:

• See Me Now feat. Beyonce
• Power Remix feat. Jay Z

Recommended Listening:

• The String Quartet Tribute to Kanye West

Always the innovator, Bob Dylan has decided to sell tickets for one of his upcoming West Coast shows in a slightly different way than most ticket sellers nowadays. The tickets for the August 25th show at Warfield will be sold on the day of for cash only, in order to do away with surcharges and credit card fees. Attendees won’t be allowed to line up until noon, the doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the show goes on 8 p.m., at which time every one with a ticket must enter.

Many artists have tried similar tactics in order to discourage scalpers, however this method seems pretty straightforward. The only issues, as many online have noted, is the security requirements will be heavy, as one commenter on the Consequence of Sound notes, “A couple of thousand people, each holding $60 cash in one of the worst areas of San Francisco seems like it could be a bad idea. Hopefully they’ll have a ton of security out there.”

While this method may seem pretty standard to the older generation (remember this was how tickets used to be sold pre-internet), the younger crowds may be a bit annoyed, especially if they’re employed. I’ve seen Thom Yorke’s offshoot band, Atoms For Peace, do a similar tactic at their NYC shows at Roseland Ballroom. The result was a lot of unhappy people standing in line in the rain all day to not get in, but that’s the way things used to be. Either way, I’m sure a lot of artists and promoters will be keeping an eye on how this tactic works this week for future endeavors.

What do you think? Should artists sell tickets this way to discourage scalpers and lower surcharges? Or should they continue to do it online so everyone can have a chance to get a ticket?

More Bob Dylan Tour dates are below, I’ll be at the Seattle show if you want to hang:
08/21 – Monterey, CA @ Monterey Fairgrounds
08/22 – Lake Tahoe, NV @ Harveys Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena
08/24 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
08/25 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
08/27 – Bend, OR @ Les Schwab Amphitheater
08/28 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield
08/29 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield
08/31 – Missoula, MT @ Orgen Park @ Allegiance Field
09/01 – Post Falls, ID @ Greyhound Park
09/03 – Yakima, WA @ Yakima County Stadium
09/04 – Seattle, WA @ Memorial Stadium (Bumbershoot)

Recommended Listening:

• String Quartet Tribute to Bob Dylan

While he prefers to sit in the back quietly during performances with Radiohead, Phil Selway will have to step into the spotlight a bit with his upcoming solo album. Trading a guitar for his drum sticks, Selway is releasing “Familial” on August 30th on Bella Union’s label. This album feature Selway primarily on guitar and vocals, with Wilco’s Glenn Kotche handling the drums. Also joining Selway are Wilco’s Pat Sansone, singer-songwriter Lisa Germano, and former Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg.

Since announcing the album, Selway has released four separate songs off the album for fans to preview, which is somewhat unheard of.

Tracklisting:
‘By Some Miracle’
‘Beyond Reason’
‘A Simple Life’
‘All Eyes On You’
‘The Ties That Bind Us’
‘Patron Saint’
‘Falling’
‘Broken Promises’
‘Don’t Look Down’
‘The Witching Hour’

Check out the four tracks here.

Here’s a video of him with Germano playing a track off the album:

And if you happen to be in the UK anytime in the next month, watch him open for Wilco on these September Tour Dates:

9/4 – Electric Picnic Festival
9/11 – Isle of Wight, Bestival
9/12 – End Of The Road Festival
9/13 – London, Bush Hall
9/14 – London, Royal Festival Hall w/ Wilco
9/15 – Newcastle, Academy w/ Wilco
9/16 – Glasgow, Barrowlands w/ Wilco

Recommended Listening:

• Enigmatic: The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead
• Strung Out on Kid A: The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead
• Strung Out on OK Computer: The String Tribute To Radiohead
• Vitamin String Quartet performs Radiohead’s In Rainbows

Last month I wrote about a charity gig in the UK that David Gilmour and Roger Waters reunited at, playing a short, 28-minute set, that included hits like “Comfortably Numb”, “Wish You Were Here”, and more.

The Hoping Foundation, the charity that the guys were playing for, has now released a video of the full set. Again, only 200 attendees were at this gig, and it features the guys doing a cover of a Phil Spector song, “To Know Him Is To Love Him.” While the video itself isn’t exactly HD quality, it is the first time they’ve shared the stage in over five years, since the now-classic Live 8 performance where all the members played together, and were still alive.

Also, remember that Gilmour will be showing up at one of Waters’ upcoming gigs on his The Wall tour, so did you get your tickets yet?

Enjoy!

Hoping Foundation benefit performance from Hoping Foundation on Vimeo.

Weezer recently announced yet another album, entitled Hurley after revealing its album cover, which depicts the actor who played Hurley on Lost. While some older fans may not be jumping to pre-order this album yet (did you hear the single? My God…), they may be interested to hear that the band may be trekking out later this year to pay its respects to what some consider the last great Weezer album.

The 1996 cult classic Pinkerton was an album that many hold near and dear to their hearts. It will be given the reissue treatment on October 5th, and a recent interview with guitarist Brian Bell leads one to believe their may be a tour dedicated to this momentous event.

At last week’s Mile High Festival, Bell told an interviewer that the reissue will include new packaging and possibly a tour. “(It will include) I’m praying — a Pinkerton tour, where we’ll play all the songs off Pinkerton, soon.”

The possibility of that seems crazy to most fans, like me, as it’s well-known that lead man Rivers Cuomo is not a fan of breaking out tunes from that album live very often. While “Tired of Sex” and sometimes “El Scorcho” or the other single “The Good Life” are sometimes played, most of the albums’ gems are left to collect dust. This of is supposedly based on how Cuomo took the critics tearing apart the album and a number of issues that I’m sure we’ll never really get the whole story on, but was enough to put the band on hiatus until 2001’s Green Album.

The thought of Weezer actually doing a tour based on playing the album from front to back would definitely push some older fans into buying tickets. What do you think? Would you go to the show if Pinkerton was going to be played, or are you just tired of the whole Weezer story at this point?

The whole interview below:

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Over the past year or so, Beck has be gathering friends in an LA studio to record covers of famous, and at times infamous, albums from random musicians and releasing them free to the masses. The videos of the performances are located at http://www.beck.com/recordclub and serves as a home page to the project.

Dubbed Beck’s Record Club, the group features a revolving cast of people, including St. Vincent’s Annie Clark, Wilco members Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche, Jeff Tweedy’s son Spencer, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, and many more.

A good explanation of the project is on the site:

Record Club is an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day. The album chosen to be reinterpreted is used as a framework. Nothing is rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. A track is put up here once a week. The songs are rough renditions, often first takes that document what happened over the course of a day as opposed to a polished rendering. There is no intention to ‘add to’ the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens.

It’s definitely a fun project, the most recent covered album was a Yanni record. Yes, seriously. They’ve also done Skip Spence, Leonard Cohen, INXS, and more. For a full list of the videos, check out Beck’s Vimeo page.

Recommended Listening:
Vitamin String Quartet: Alternative Hits of the 80’s & 90’s, Vol. 1