Category: music

music

One Woman Bands Repeating Loop Style

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I love one man bands – especially this one guy in the subway that somehow plays 8 instruments at once (he is around Grand Central a lot) – but had no clue that one of the catchier songs I’ve heard in the past year or so – KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” – was made by taping and playing back self made repeating sound loops while singing and performing over them.
My buddy Chris posted an entry about how Imogen Heep makes music this way and on that post, someone left a comment saying that KT did that repeating loop thing too but that Imogen’s song is better.
I think both are really, really cool and impressive. I love the idea and execution. This is the digital era’s version of the one man band, something much easier to pull it off in a studio than live. For instance, Trent Reznor is Nine Inch Nails until he tours. It is then that his group of 1 must become a group of many but these women pull off this live loop-style solo without a hitch. I won’t judge one versus the other because they are different types of sounds/songs. Why don’t you be the judge?
KT Tunstall performing her song “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” live:

Imogen Heap’s performing her song “Just For Now” live:

Pretty cool, huh?
Via Chris

music

"I Love You More Than…"

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Sarah Silverman is one of the hottest comics around right now. Some people love her. Some hate her. I’m on the fence – sometimes I think she’s great and other times I think she is just being offensive for no reason (which I know is part of her charm and her style of humor – I just don’t love it). The video for her song “I Love You More Than…” below though is decently funny, but its there is one part I just love because I feel the same way: “Jewish people driving German cars. Jewish people driving German cars. Jewy people buying German cars. What the cock is that shit?”
Check it out:

Via Chris

music

Dumb Lyrics, Catchy Tunes

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Everyone has a pop song they love even though they hate it. I have two in my life right now and have decided to share my pain if you will because maybe these songs are inflicting you with delight and grief as well.
First off, I recently was in Reykjavik and heard for the first time Fergie’s “Glamorous” as I had a drink or two before departing into the night air. I then proceeded to hear it over and over again through my stay there. Now, over two weeks later I still can’t get that song out of my head. Yes, I’ve bought it from iTunes. In case you don’t know, Iceland is ridiculously expensive so the song’s chorus of “if you ain’t got no money take yo broke ass home!” is especially apt for a trip theme song. Just like how Ithaca is gorges or gorgeous to some (depending on your preferred spelling), Iceland is glamorous to me. Someone please make it stop – I hear Fergie in my head now at weird moments…
Second, I do not listen to the radio unless I’m driving – which only happens maybe one out of every two weekends these days – yet I’ve noticed that “This Is Why I’m Hot” by Mims seems to be on every channel seemingly all the time. Overall, I think the song is just plain awesome. For someone with a creative writing degree, who loves language, who loves semantics and the nuances of vocabulary, this song’s brazen straight ahead take on life is awesome in its ferocity. For instance, “I’m hot ’cause I’m fly/You ain’t ’cause you not.” is flat out brilliant. The nature in which this powerful message is compacted is akin to Einsteins E = M * C squared equation. Thankfully for me, the Village Voice has a great analysis of all the reasons why Mims is hot. I’ve read it and find much credence in its findings. Read for yourself and enjoy – it’s pretty damn funny – and yes, I bought that single as well from iTunes.

music

Sad Kermit

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To start off, ever since video sites started to provide embed code that makes it super easy for someone to add video to their site, I have been adding video left and right to my site. I hope it has improved things at WGTCTIP2 – I think it has…
In keeping with my trend of adding video, the little video of Kermit singing “Hurt” by NIN (one of my favorite NIN songs) below is pretty damn funny. It’s not “ha ha” funny but if Johnny Cash can sing it (he did so on his ‘American IV’ album) why not Kermit? Unlike J-Cash, he curses! Johnny changed “crown of shit” to “crown of thorns” but Kermie had no problem dropping the S bomb which makes the entire video worth viewing. The person who does Kermie’s voice is okay – not great – but good enough.
Enjoy!

Via Phyll

music

Keeping Track of Your Bands Is Tough To Do

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Or at least it used to be. That problem will hopefully be a relic of the past now that there is Tour Filter.
I for one am one of those people who gets tunnel vision from time to time and with all of my various responsibilities (job, school, etc) tunes out a lot of the outside world. This results im me sometimes only finding out last minute (sacrilege!) that my favorite band is either in town or even worse just played somewhere really cool and I missed it. I’ve felt like a complete schmuck; one example is when I learned that learned Robert Plant played Irving Plaza the previous week, that he was playing the Beacon the following night with tickets obviously soldout (how did this happen?!?) which left me scrounging around craigslist last minute and lamenting the lost chance to see him at Irving. While I got tickets to the Beacon show, it was stressful and annoying – two words I never want to associate with Mr. Robert Plant.
Well, hopefully this problem will not happen anymore. While I’ve signed up for Ticketweb and Ticketmaster’s alert lists, they send me bands I don’t care about. I want to track my bands or bands that others think I would like because I like band X. That is Tour Filter’s promise. I’ll give it a few months and see how it goes…
Via Wired Mag

music

Why did Prince cover Foo?

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I like many people was pretty surprised when Prince covered the Foo Fighters song “Best of You” during the Super Bowl half time show. The Foo Fighters were just as suprised as you and me because Prince wasn’t happy a few years back when the Foos covered his song Darling Nikki on an Australian release. He even said to Entertainment Weekly that he didn’t appreciate the Foos (or anyone else) covering his work, and that Grohl and company should “write [their] own tunes.”
So, was Prince covering the Foos because he’s a fan or because he wanted to flip them the bird? Regardless of why Prince did it, it was awesome.
Via Jessie

music

"Shoes"

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After being fearful about America’s future in space, I thought “why not relax and watch a funny movie?” My sister crashed in my apartment the other night and brought knowledge of a great video with her. It’s pretty dumb and funny, sort of like a cross between Right Said Fred and RuPaul.
Enjoy!

Via Amy

music

Long Tail Music

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I love the long tail and how nothing is every truly gone with the advent of the Internet. In case you didn’t know, N.E.R.D. stands for “no one ever really dies” and the ‘Net makes it so. Here is one application:
Online music fans have downloaded more than 250,000 tracks of previously out-of-print recordings by European artists since the launch of Universal Music’s pioneering digital catalogue reissue programme earlier this year. It was launched as the first step in a multi-year drive to reinstate more than 100,000 European deleted recordings. The initial offering comprised more than 3,000 out-of-print tracks from the company’s vaults in the U.K., France and Germany. They were made available through online music services in 20 countries, mostly in Europe.
Below are listed the top artists, albums and tracks. I didn’t know most of these names and am still finding out info and/or listening to all of them. Cool to say the least, check it out:
MOST POPULAR ARTISTS BY TRACK
1. Noir Desir
2. Chris de Burgh
3. Gun
4. Eddie & the Hot Rods
5. Del Amitri
MOST POPULAR TRACKS
1. Gun, Word Up
2. Eddie & the Hot Rods, Do Anything You Wanna Do
3. Brigitte Bardot, Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus
4. Freak Power, Turn On Tune In Cop Out
5. Cast, Guiding Star
MOST POPULAR ALBUMS
1. Big Country, Steeltown
2. Fairport Convention, Meet On The Ledge
3. Jacques Brel, Ballades et Mots D’Amour
4. Freak Power, Drive-Thru Booty
5. Nana Mouskouri, Les Plus Beaux Noels du Monde
Weird! Lots of new music to listen to now…

music

"OK Go" Have Fun This Weekend

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Enough doom and gloom for the week. I have been meaning to post this awesome clip of the group OK Go performing its song “Here It Goes Again” using synchronized treadmills. They did it in one take and its ridiculous – I especially like when they “swim” or “skate” from the back to the front – plus its a jazzy song too. Happy Friday!

Via Chris

music

Modern Dylan

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“Modern Times,” the first studio album by Bob Dylan in 5 years, is being streamed this week by AOL Music so feel free to “try before you buy.” Thus far, I’ve listened to the first 3 tracks. He sounds, for want of a better term, strong. The first track is robustly bluesy, not stripped down like his Grammy winning “Time Out of Mind” album. The second track sounds like it could have been played at the “Enchantment Under The Sea” dance. The third track is bit bluesy and a bit rockabilly. Enjoy!