Tag: music

  • Phoenix – 1901 – A Take Away Show

    [vimeo http://vimeo.com/7942520 w=640&h=355]
    Video by La Blogotheque. Be sure to check out the rest of their take away show series, including Fleet Foxes and Sigur Ros.

  • Nothing Digital About This Video

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dciESSrWyKE]
    Beastie Boys: Shadrach (1989). Still wondering how long it took to hand paint all these frames. The Wikipedia entry is mute on the subject and searching hasn’t yielded anything useful.

  • ListenDetroit.fm is Live and Kicking

    ListenDetroit.fm
    Noël sure is one creative kid. Check out his “Without Music We Are Nothing” post where he speaks of his latest music-oriented projects.

    Currently listening to “Carl Craig – Live @ XM (Club TV) 11/23/09” via iTunes subscription.

    Next up: I think he should hit the iconic Record Time to get them to move to WordPress. 😉

  • SXSW 2008, [DRM-]Free Music and BitTorrent

    From “SXSW 2008 on BitTorrent: 3.5 GB of Free Music“:

    The South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival is one of the biggest and most popular in the United States. For the fourth year in a row, SXSW has released a DRM-less collection of songs that – thanks to Greg Hewgill – can now be downloaded for free via BitTorrent.

    A little consolation for not being able to attend this year. 🙂

  • Radiohead: In Rainbows

    Well, I’m sick as h*ll today, but one thing that brought a ray of sunshine to my day is Radiohead‘s latest album: In Rainbows.

    The album is revolutionary because of its distribution method, if nothing else. Radiohead decided to bypass all the middle-men and release it on their own. For an added twist, buyers of the download-only version are prompted to name their own price!

    I went with the principle that I’d give the same amount I’m charged on the iTunes Music Store, knowing that my money is actually going straight to the source.

    Haven’t formed an elaborate opinion on the album yet, not being all there (nasty cold…), but so far, I definitely like it.

  • CBC New Media sites upgrade and consolidation

    I just noticed that CBC Radio 3 has finally upgraded three massive sites for which I designed the backend software seven years ago, while living in Vancouver.

    Mind you, they did also run the innovative Zed site in the meantime, but the latter has now passed on after four TV seasons. On the other hand, 120seconds.com, newmusiccanada.com and justconcerts.com have all been consolidated as sections of their main site.

    My team and I built all the software used to run and manage the three sister sites, while the interface design was handled by a stream of super creative artists. Features included audio streaming, Flash-based UI (120seconds) and components, admin tools up the wazoo (for admins, DJs, artists, etc) and quite a bit more.

    I think six years worth of use isn’t a bad ROI. If nothing else, I can’t be blamed for not designing and writing long lasting software. And it did score them a Webby nomination (though heavy.com wan this one).

  • Explicitivitytyty

    Something rather peculiar puzzled me today… I went on to purchase the latest Nine Inch Nails album, eager for a fresh batch of their trademark sound. If you haven’t heard about Year Zero yet, they had a killer marketing campaign associated with it that anyone interested in the viral trend should check out.

    When the download was complete, I promptly went the the Recently Added smart playlist in iTunes, and there were the two last album I purchased from the iTMS: Year Zero, by NiN and The Best Damn Thing, by Avril Lavigne. Before you scold me for the latter, I bought it last month on my wife and kids’ request… Everybody should know the artwork is all I wanted. 😉

    What I found peculiar about this view was the rating on the tunes. Every single Avril Lavigne track was labeled as explicit, while none of the NiN ones were flanked by the telling red icon.

    Had I purchased the radio-edit version?!? Argh… But no. After listening to the whole album, it just does not contain anything deemed offensive by the music rating authorities.

    Really, what has the world come to when the music marketed to my kids gets such a rating and an album many puritan bodies would surely like rated 18+ is squeaky clean?!?

    Personally, I think it’s a giant yet brilliantly subtle [explicit] to the rating bodies. Kudos Trent and co. You did it again.