Wednesday, August 12, 2009
It's getting kinda sad when you become less productive when the internet goes down.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Breakfast can wait... For Families Today, Technology Is Morning’s First Priority
I know this is true in our house on most mornings. Kristen and I will often times be at the computer while eating breakfast and sometimes even before we eat.
For us it's an effort to multitask, but we get sucked in and then find our selves scrambling to get out the door. We're so wired it's a challenge to ignore the impulse to check email or status updates.
There's room for improvement and balance here. Surely.
Monday, August 10, 2009
No More Radiohead Albums? - All Songs Considered Blog : NPR
It would seem the boys from Radiohead are getting board. Board with the Long Player Format and, for the time being, are embracing the singles format. I find this quite amusing, especially since they are one of maybe 5 groups or artist that I would consider the Long Player or Album format to be appropriate for. And, when they do make an Album I make it a point to listen to, as intended, front to back, No shuffling, at least for the 1st handful of listens, and will often go back and listen to in it's entirety from time to time.
What I find even more amusing is the conversation I have with my band mates about this same topic. John is an Album guy and Danny is mostly an Album guy but because he's a DJ he's also kinda a singles guy. Me, I'm the singles guy all the way. Only recently have I ventured into actively listening to Albums again, but most don't make it past the 1st two or three listens before I start isolating the "singles" or favorites and the "best" of that record ends up in shuffleland.
Personally I would prefer to hear to new material from Radiohead more often than every two years or so. Speaking from experience, it can be exhausting making a record. Laboring over the details and making a group of songs sound whole. I've seen John, the guy in our band who handles most of that work, corner himself many times and then start to wonder "Does this even sound good anymore?" It can be brutal, especially when you're not even sure on which direction the record is taking.
It's quite rewarding to finish a song, record it, mix it and release it in a short period of time and move on to the next. We did this with a couple of songs in 2007 and it was nice to be done with them and focusing on new business.
Another great thing about singles is they can be a way of test marketing. With singles you can try out different styles that you're interested in a see what works best for you and your audience. In the Dance and Electronic world you'll see this more often. Producers will make a B-side that's totally different from their Normal or Expected Style and that B-side might take off.
Same thing goes for a one off single that doesn't fit an Album. Aphex Twin hit us with "Come To Daddy" and "Windowlicker" which were two tracks released after a long cycle of Full Length releases and they paid off. They went further outside of his expected sound and pushed things a little more. then he disappeared for a number of years, but that's a different story.
Bottom, line I prefer Singles, EP's and a constant flow of material from my favorite artists. Hopefully Radiohead can keep it up.
-Joe
Install Damn You!!!
How'd I Miss this one... New: Thom Yorke - "All For The Best"
It would appear that while I was busy prepping to get married Thom Yorke snuck out a new single for the "Ciao My Shinning Star: The Songs of Mark Mulchany" compilation. The album is a tribute to Mark Mulchany's wife and features an impressive line up indie favorites performing songs written by Mark and his band Miracle Legion.
The song "All For The Best" is a good balance of 'Eraser' influences, drum machines, darks pads, moaning, etc. with a strong percussive influence in the clacking of drum sticks and one-overhead-mic-in-the-room acoustic drums. Add a little screech of guitar distortion and you'll get the full picture. Check the Stereogum link above for more.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Most random find of the day...
While hunting for suitcases and jackets we stumbled upond this fashion Gem!
Productive Day (8/7/09) Just messing around with Posterous & m4a files.
This was recorded using Voice Memos on the iPhone 3G and was intended to go out on Friday, but since the recording is just over two minutes the file size is a bit larger than Mail on the iPhone was willing to support on a 3G network. So... it goes out today. I did another test using AudioBoo on Saturday but something was off in my settings config on AudioBoo's site so that post did not get pushed to Posterous, Twitter, FB, etc. Hopefully I'll get it all sorted out before My trip to Alaska at the end of the month which is where I'm hoping this will all come in to play to capture all of the cool stuff we're bound to see while we're there.
-Joe
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Trent Reznor on Digg Dialog
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Music you should hear: The Prodigy - Warriors Dance
The new album 'Invaders Must Die' is really good especially if you've been a fan of The Prodigy through out their career. Personally I Enjoy the ravey sounds of the group more than the "Electro Punk" sound of the last two albums, not that they didn't have gems like "Firestarter", "Breathe", "Girls" & "The Way It Is" but as a whole album I think the rave vibe works better. Bust out your Baggy Jeans, Trainers and favorite glow products! 3.5 out of 5! -Joe
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Morning Links: Get Loose, It's April Fools Day Baby!
Kasabian - Vlad the Impaler from Kasabian on Vimeo.
Get Loose Baby, It's April Fools Day!
-Joe
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Scary Pop
When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.
If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.
The Knife - Silent Shout:
Scary.
-Joe
Monday, March 30, 2009
Morning Links: The Revolution will be Streamed!
img source: xkcd
Another Kicker from Bob Lefsetz:
"If you want to have a fulfilling, enriched life today you don’t start a band, you start a company! Is your desire to date Mariah Carey or have enough money to attract reasonable members of the opposite sex? Do you want to have people tell you what to do or do you want to be in charge of your own destiny? Tech is about innovation. What do they say, "Innovate or die"? Whereas in the music business it’s "I don’t hear a single."
Customer Service is the title of a recent blog entry by Bob Lefsetz, in it he once again draws parallels from the Music & Tech industries, both of which I'm interested in. I really like where Bob is going lately, Since I have my feet in both fields I can relate easily.
*****
TechCrunch: Jason Kincaid takes a First Look at Lala’s iPhone App which will Stream Your Music Library From The Cloud. This is an important step in what is to come for all media. When the dust settles the end result for most users will be on demand cloud stored media. Music, Movies & TV will not be owned by most but streamed and subscribed to on demand. The next couple years will see stepping stones towards this end, but the bottom line will be access to everything everywhere when you want it. But you're saying "Wait this is no good for me, I'm a DJ, I mix and match beats and tempos, I just got use to CD's I can't just stream files and mix them, My Laptop will crash!!!" No worries you'll still be hoarding files, all of your fans however will most likely not. Resistance is Futile.
*****
Dandy Warhols collaborate... with everybody.
Breathe Easy Trailer from World's Fair on Vimeo.
*****
SMK - 6 Swedes pick up where Kraftwerk left off.
John found this video 1st, which seems to be a really well done fan video. I of course liked the song, dug a little bit deeper and found the 10+ minute live jam version.
The group is called Slagsmålsklubben or SMK, according to their MySpace they're from Stockholm and Berlin and they have a new EP out called Sponsored by Destiny, which is also the name of the song in both the video's above.
Here another called Smedby Eyes
Rave!
-Joe
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Monday, March 09, 2009
Music you should hear: Kutiman - Thru You
So John sent me this link the other day of a guy named Kutiman who grabbed You Tube clips of people playing instruments or singing and chopped both the video and audio of these clips into new songs and video's. When john sent me the link the original site was already down. I thought nothing of it, then John sent me a new link this morning. After watching all 7 videos I'm truly inspired. It's pretty amazing that Kutiman was able to make such interesting songs out of all these random bits of music. Using You Tube as your source material is a pretty savvy move as well. I'm immediately reminded of DJ Shadow & EBN, creating music solely of samples. It's refreshing and well worth a listen or two.
Related Links:
Thru-You
Unofficial Mirror Site
Other Links of Interest:
Once Banned, Monty Python Flick Returns To Town
Friday, March 06, 2009
Music you should hear: Circle Square "Dancers"
Other Links of Interest:
Solar Socialists
Only in India although I'll bet many other places looked similar when they 1st got power.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Making Music is Good
Just finished working on one of John's songs called Almost Better. I added some atmospheric layers to it, a handful of synths and tweaked the drums a bit. Think NIN's hurt meets The Cure's Lullaby. I think it's going to turn out really nice.
This makes 9 songs so far that are arranged and nearing completion that have been started in the month of February. This RPM Challenge is turning our to be pretty cool. We're under the gun now to finish these up and get them mixed be by the 28th. The pressure is on. Woo-Hoo!
-Joe
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Morning Links: Something Is Squeezing my Skull... err Stomach
Smart Cars, Smart Grid
New Music from Morrissey, Lilly Allen and Sufjan Stevens on NPR's All songs
DVD Sales on the Slide along with everything else!
TV on the Radio remix Nat King Cole This sounds really cool actually! Nice Dark and Dubby Number!
Billboard recaps NIN & Jane's Addiction Tour and Album news
Pep Talk
New Simpsons Intro
Jason Snell does a review and video onDropbox for Mac World
Enjoy!
Joe
Friday, January 23, 2009
Listening to Today: Sleepmakeswaves
Found these guys on Phlow Magazine. Great Instrumental music, very prog rock, great players and so on. This is refreshing to me because I've been listening to so much jazz lately that Sleepmakeswaves satisfy the complexity I'm apparently in the mood for but has enough electronics and ambience to make it fresh, modern and most of all optimistic, which is something I'm also really after in music lately.
Enjoy!
Joe
Links:
http://www.sleepmakeswaves.com/
Sleepmakeswaves - OneDayYouWillTeachMeToLetGoOfMyFears.mp3
Free Postrock MP3 Download from Sleepmakeswaves on Lost Children Netlabel | Phlow-Magazine - Free MP3 Music Culture