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Danger Mouse – Dark Night Of The Sales

[ Comments Off ]Posted on May 17, 2009 by admin in Music

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

The new Danger Mouse release Dark Night Of The Soul is being blocked by EMI, so he’s cleverly releasing the package with a blank CD-R inside so you can burn it yourself.

In the record industry’s bizarre ongoing pursuit of its own demise, the release of Dark Night Of The Soul (the new Danger Mouse collaboration with Sparklehorse) has been blocked by EMI. Not to worry though; for the time being NPR is streaming the whole thing, and it’s also pretty easy to find as a bittorrent. The release was originally to include photography by David Lynch, so Danger Mouse is cleverly selling the package as designed, except with a blank CD-R, and the notice “For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will“. The obvious implication being that you can download the music for free, buy the retail package, and burn it yourself. We’ll leave that up to you; the book and poster version with blank CD costs fifty bucks and they’re already taking orders prior to the May 29 release date. We’ve only given this a quick first spin, but it sounds promising. No standout singles or dance tracks; instead some well-crafted moodiness, with appearances by an eclectic variety of vocal talent including Suzanne Vega, Iggy Pop, Frank Black, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, and others. See the full track list below. Read the rest of this entry »

I Need Some Nice Shorts

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on May 10, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

My ongoing search for quality short film and music videos is sated briefly by some Rob Dougan.

I remember clearly when MTV was new. I was in a trendy band comprised of artists who dabbled in visual art, fashion and film, and we were incredibly excited about the possibilities. We of course were quickly disappointed as the medium turned into an endless string of “hair bands with hot chick videos”. To me, the marriage of music and moving images still remains a vastly under-explored territory; although there are many full length films brilliantly married to their music (Betty Blue and Paris, Texas remain a couple of faves), I’ve always been more intrigued with the idea of a shorter format (I’ve mentioned shorts before) that might allow a more abstract exploration of the possibilities. The other day a friend turned me on to the video at left, which is by Rob Dougan. It’s a stunning short film set to his theme Clubbed To Death, which will be familiar to many from the soundtrack of The Matrix. If you like it, check out the full CD, Furious Angels. It’s a great CD, but his Tom Waits-like vocal stylings seem to divide opinions. My friends who like Waits found it off-putting, and my friends who don’t like Waits enjoyed it. Go figure. In any case, I wish this were a more clearly defined medium; although there are collections like Pitchfork Media’s 100 Awesome Music Videos, it’s hard to find work like this in one place, and even that collection focuses on the standard pop song promotion format. I’d also be happy if the medium were more popular because I personally have a huge backlog of ambient and instrumental material I would love to market myself! I love this Sick of Dance Music interview with Dougan in The Guardian; it sums up a lot of how I feel about my own work. Especially the “dance music that you could never dance to” reference. I also identify with his indifference to his creation; although my music’s been used in a lot of commercial/industrial video and licensed for one film, I sometimes actually forget it exists (just check the last log in on that ambient link if you think I’m kidding). If you know of any nice clips like the one featured here, please share!

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Playing for Change – Peace Through Music

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on April 29, 2009 by admin in Music

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Peace and Understanding, Brought To You By Their Friends – Music & The Internet

Throughout history, one form of communication has had the power to cross all cultural barriers to aid in peace and understanding: music. In modern life, one other form of communication comes close: the Internet. The video clip at left uses both to convey a global message of peace and unity, and if it doesn’t evoke a little something in you – a smile or a bittersweetness, see a heart specialist. You might not have one. The video is part of a multimedia project called Playing for Change, conceived, in their words, “to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music”. The song in the video is Stand By Me, but played in a way you’ve never heard it before: by artists from Santa Monica, to New Orleans, to South Africa, brought together in a “virtual studio” that allowed them to play their parts live in their native setting. You can buy a collection of songs produced by Playing for Change on CD and DVD, and they also have a non-profit foundation at PlayingForChange.org. Is there anything cooler than peace, inspiration, and understanding on a global scale?

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Brazilian Girls & David Byrne – I’m Losing Myself

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on March 24, 2009 by admin in Music

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Or are they losing some listeners?

While I’m enthused about the new single by David Byrne and Brazilian Girls that’s being released exclusively on iTunes today, I’m a little bit frustrated by it’s exclusivity (more on that in a minute). I’ve been a fan of Brazilian Girls since their first release in 2005; their unique amalgam of Latin dance music, hip club stylings, and jazz influences is irresistible, and singer Sabina Sciubba’s poly-lingual antics keep the tunes interesting on repeated listening. It was always a joy at parties when people failed to realize they were headnod-dancing to a tune in which the refrain was “Pussy Pussy Pussy Marijuana”. And David Byrne? Well, as the main mastermind and vocalist of Talking Heads and occasional collaborator with Brian Eno, like him or not, he holds a pretty unique place in contemporary pop. The new tune is pretty fun, it’s an English-language remix of Brazilian Girls’ 2008 tune Losing Myself that’s been David Byrne-ified so it sounds a little like Talking Heads’ old classic “Life During Wartime”. So here’s my frustration: The new single is being released exclusively on iTunes. I am not (and may never be) an iTunes user, thanks to their shoddy history of DRM issues and insistence that you install a 70MB piece of software before they “allow” you to give them money for the music they’re selling. On top of that, the exclusive preview being offered was via the once-hip (but now a little self-indulgent and steampunk-prone) BoingBoing.net, which linked to a file that was in .wax format. It might as well be in .WTF format, as far as most people are concerned; the linked file might play in Windows Media Player , but most people have told me they couldn’t get it to play at all. I personally found a workaround using the Firefox plugin “FlashGot”. But enough bellyaching, check out the tune, if you can, and here’s the label’s press release. By the way: if you like David Byrne, you might also want to check out the tune Money from the recent release by N.A.S.A.

Kutiman Remixes YouTube

[ 6 Comments ]Posted on March 13, 2009 by admin in Music

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Israeli remix artist Kutiman takes worst of YouTube and creates the best of mashups

I secretly hold dear a belief that there’s an incredible harmony at the core of the chaos that is contemporary user-generated media. Well, an Israeli artist named Kutiman proves it with his project ThruYOU. You know all those misanthropic, socially awkward musician types you might find playing music in videos on YouTube, as if they were stars in some imaginary band? Well, even they didn’t realize it, but they WERE. Kutiman did something absolutely INCREDIBLE – and I can only imagine to be mind-numbingly tedious – by sorting through an amazingly diverse collection of YouTube tutorial and demo clips, and then assembling them into mashups and grooves that are in my opinion imminently listenable. I hope this guy gets some kind of distribution deal or financial reward for this stuff. One of my faves, I M New, is featured here. The easiest way to watch them in order is at ThruYOU, but he also of course has a YouTube page. He seems like a very cool and mellow guy; just check out his version of an “about” page. He also apparently does original work; see his MySpace page. Kind of cool dubby jazzy funky grooves, but I personally think his gift is with the mashup. Read the rest of this entry »

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