Music

« Older Entries | Newer Entries »

Neuroscience Audiomedical’s Antiviral Marketing

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 8, 2010 by admin in Music

Monday, March 8th, 2010

The latest video by the band Neuroscience Audiomedical is awesome. Problem is, they’re not a band.

If you were paying attention last fall, you might have caught a glimpse of the Neuroscience Audiomedical clip on the left. If you haven’t seen it, give it a look; it’s fun, and perhaps even a little disturbing. The only thing that disturbs me about it though, is that in spite of being a product-weary anti-consumer, I’m somehow disappointed that it’s NOT pitching a product at me. It has all the elements of a viral campaign or an Internet-Meme-to-be, but somehow is neither. It sort of points at the electronica DJ collective called Scratch Perverts, but none of their sites reference the clip, so you’re just left kind of thinking “Wow, that’s really neat, but WHY?” Well, keep wondering, ’cause I didn’t find much in the way of an answer myself. If you liked the video though, you’ll be pleased to know that Neuroscience Audiomedical has also done a live performance (also below). Or so say they say. It appears they used the same projection technology that was utilized for the Gorillaz and Madonna appearance at the Grammy Awards. The holographic projection method is a product called Musion Eyeliner, which allows 3-dimensional, moving, life-size holograms to appear within a live stage setting using Peppers Ghost techniques. Pretty cool. I just wish I knew what I was virally promoting here. More vids below. Read the rest of this entry »

Did EMI Say OK And Give OK Go A Pass On This Too Shall Pass?

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 3, 2010 by admin in Music

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

The band OK Go complained about their label blocking the band’s videos on YouTube recently, and now their latest release – This Too Shall Pass – is shareable. But none of the others are. A victory over the label? Or a Rube Goldbergian marketing scheme?

Were the band Ok Go’s recent complaints about EMI’s YouTube sharing policies just part of a sneaky, low-key marketing campaign? Who cares. The band’s new brilliantly Rube Goldbergian video below is way too much fun to quibble about it. More thoughts after the clip.

While taking a look at the RIAA’s peculiar paranoia about Canadian pirates recently, we mentioned how Damian Kulash Jr. of the band OK Go had expressed his frustration about not being able to embed his own band’s YouTube videos because of EMI’s “Embedding disabled by request” deal in a NYT editorial. He sounded like a real rebel, sharing the straight dope about how stupid his own label was being about video sharing as promotion. Well, OK Go’s latest video, This Too Shall Pass is featured above, and is suspiciously embeddable. But none of Read the rest of this entry »

Devo Incorporated Marketing Gives Me Satisfaction

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on February 25, 2010 by admin in Music

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Why I think watching middle-aged men from Ohio dance around in space suits is the next logical step in Devolution.


Take Devo Inc.’s Color Study

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Devo. I was in the early stages of my black-clad nihilistic teen years, when no-one had started calling me or my friends “punk” yet. It was on Saturday Night Live of all places, and there is a very strong probability – given my age and the fact that it was late on a Saturday – that there was at least one drug influencing my perception. I remember thinking it was too bad they were so theatrically dorky, because I liked the way they had re-worked what I thought of as dinosaur rock at the time, i.e.: Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. I wish now I’d given them a better listen back then; my friends and I always kind of thought of them as “that nerdy Ohio New Wave band”, and “New Wave” was kind of anathema to whatever it was we thought we were doing. With hindsight, not only did they record a few of my favorite songs from the era (Satisfaction, Girl U Want, and Workin’ In The Coal Mine) but I really admire what they were trying to do with their ironic anti-corporate marketing message. I say ironic, when I should say meta-ironic, because their schtick – much like Ali G or Die Antwoord – makes it really hard to tell where the parody begins and ends. And they’re at it again; while I love the parodic nature of their Color Test marketing campaign and the fact that they released the first single Fresh for free (you missed it, it was only free for 24 hours), the fact that they’re signed to Warner and played the Olympics pretty much guarantees that the fan videos below will be pulled in no time by WMG. No matter. I’ll still get a weird satisfaction from watching the aging clever guys from Ohio dance around in weird suits. It’s the next natural step in their Devolution. Read the rest of this entry »

So It’s Canadian Pirates vs. The RIAA, eh?

[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 20, 2010 by admin in Music

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Not content with suing dead people, old ladies who don’t own computers, and their own artists and distibution channels, the record industry is going after those archvillains of the arctic, CANADA.

In their never-ending quest for most absurd litigation to make its way into the apparently oblivious judicial system, the record industry is stepping it up a notch. No, it wasn’t enough to steal from their own artists and corrupt the legal system, or to sue a single woman for $80,000 per allegedly pirated song (oh wait, it got reduced to a mere $2,250!), or sue dead people, people who don’t even own computers, and the entire radio industry. No, now they’re taking on the country that – as we all know – is home to the most ruthless criminal networks of the Americas. You know, Canada. Who knew that aside from being a country full of pretty nice people whose greatest crime may be occasionaly finishing sentences with “eh?”, Canada is also a hotbed of profit-robbing music piracy? As far as I knew, the only threat that Canada had brought to the established music industry recently was a really awesome indy scene, but the RIAA sees things a little differently. Fortunately, this may be one of the last times that you’ll have to endure wingnuts like me ranting about this; dinosaur labels like EMI are soon likely to be laying about in massive heaps gasping for their last breaths like their metaphoric counterparts at the end of the Jurassic period, as they continue to blame their $2.7 billion losses on piracy rather than their failure to adapt to competition. I tend to get a little over-the-top when I discuss this topic; for a much more sane overview from an artist’s point of view, check out this New York Times piece by Damian Kulash Jr. of the band OK Go, in which he calmly describes how EMI’s disabling of the “embed” feature on YouTube has probably lost them exponentially more than what they made by “protecting” their property.

As If The People Of Haiti Didn’t Have Enough Problems

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on February 14, 2010 by admin in Music

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Now there’s a remake of We Are The World.

As if the original didn’t cause enough pain and suffering in the world, they’ve done it again, only this time with HD video and extra autotune. Especially autotune. I mean LOTS of autotune. It’s like a SONG MADE OF AUTOTUNE. More thoughts below the video.

We will remove this video if enough people donate to our “We
Will Remove This Video If You Donate To Us Instead Fund”

Call me cynical, but I had doubts about the real benefits of the original “We Are The World” recording, beyond making a bunch of mainstream artists and their fans feel good about themselves. In spite of assurances that all the artists and production people worked 100% for free, there’s little transparency in terms of what happened with the actual revenue from unit sales. If you review the Read the rest of this entry »

« Older Entries | Newer Entries »