Have a listen to Pete Green's lovely, melancholy Christmas song, "Everything's Dead Pretty When It Snows." You can download the mp3 from his website.
No snow here in New Town. The temperature is in the 50s by mid-day. I'm not feeling much of the holiday cheer this year. Christmas never lives up to the hype, and I cannot stand the commercial hijacking of our sentimental longing for togetherness and family. Store decorations appeared before Thanksgiving this year. Ugh.
I know, I know. Poor me. "I'm only happy when it rains." Et cetera, et cetera.
Instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, though, I'm going to make Dr. B's gingerbread cookies today. I'll also wrap some presents. Pix to come later.
First of all, you simply must get the downTHEMall plugin for Firefox, which allows you to grab all the files of a particular kind on a webpage with one click. This allows you to go to a page like this one and easily open your ears to a wide range of new music that your local radio station is probably too busy playing the latest from Nickelback to notice.
Be on the lookout for the forthcoming album from Drag City recording artist and Chicago-based blogger Edith Frost, who has some free music available to give you an idea of her sound. Good stuff. This recent blog entry about touring with Calexico and Iron and Wine is an example of why Frost is one of my favorite bloggers. Frost's music is available at the iTunes music store.
Icelandic elfin musicians Sigur Rós will be touring the U.S. in 2006. You can find tour details (and buy tix) online. Free music and videos can be downloaded from their website. I'll be seeing them on February 22 in St. Louis, a five-hour drive from KC, it's true, but I dug my last music trip to STL, so...
Andy Baio's blog turned me on to Feist, a musician formerly with Broken Social Scene. The video for the song "One Evening," which you can download free from Baio's site, is awesome. It has a kind of clumsy sincerity to it that is just charming. Last night I went out and bought a physical copy of her CD Let It Die, which is also available in the more ethereal iTunes music store (hint hint).
Wilco has a new live album coming out, and you can listen to four songs online. Unlike a lot performers, they really do change things up live, rather than simply recreate the studio versions of songs. Well, it's not like they completely rearrange songs, but there are places where surprising differences are noticeable. Guitarist Nels Cline's filigreed guitar work on the live version of "Company in My Back" is one example. In this interview, Cline discusses the circumstances of joining the band after a decades-long career as a respected, if somewhat obscure, musician. This Rolling Stone profile of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy covers a lot of ground, including Tweedy's battles with anxiety and migraines.
Son Volt's new album, Okemah and the Melody of Riot, has been widely reviewed, but I'll just link to what reviewers in The Washington Post and The New York Times have to say. Don't just take the critics' word, though. You can download a two-hour (!) live show at Washington D.C.'s 9:30 Club from NPR's All Songs Considered website and judge for yourself.
Wired reports that veteran rap group Public Enemy, whose current release is New Whirl Order have embraced the opportunities made available by the tools and habits of the digital age. The PE site links to Remix Universe, " a remix and production site for producers, beatmakers, artists, vocalists, and songwriters." Now that sounds interesting.
Lately I'm fascinated with mashups, where a DJ takes two or more popular songs and remixes them together to make something entirely new. Some are stupid, some are obvious, but some are jawdroppingly amazing. In the latter category I would put DJ Crook Air's combination of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" and TLC's "Unpretty." (I bought both sings from iTunes to atone for getting the free mashup). (It appears the Crook Air's website is down.) DJ Dangermouse's Grey Album is perhaps the most famous. One place to start with mashups is The Weekly Mashup Podcast, and you might also check out the Mashmix download page. Although they're not DJ's, Beatallica's twisted combination of the Beatles and Metallica is clearly in the same spirit as the mashup.
And finally, although this is not music news, I'm very much looking forward to brilliantly profane comedian Sarah Silverman's forthcoming movie, Jesus is Magic. The official movie site has a postage-stamp sized trailer, but you can watch a larger one here. Read an interview with Silverman at Slate and a profile in the New Yorker.
The Beastie Boys have a cappella tracks for download so that you can create your own remixes.
Here's my version of "Triple Trouble," which I've renamed "Zombie Trouble" (mp3, 3.3M). All the music loops are courtesy of Garageband.
(See also dj BC's The Beastles for an example of someone who really knows what he's doing.)
The White House Proclamation can be read here.
Prayer: "The Lord's Prayer," read by William S. Burroughs with aural accompaniment by Sonic Youth (from Dead City Radio).
Remembrance: "Opening," composed by Phillip Glass, conducted by Michael Riesman (from the soundtrack to Mishima).
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
Last Thursday, Apple unveiled the iPod Nano, an amazingly small, all-flash-memory music player in models with 2- and 4-gigabytes of storage. I still love my iPod Mini--which has a metal casing, unlike the new plastic Nano that I would likely sit on and break five minutes after buying--but I have to admit this thing is pretty dang cool.
One significant development to come from this will, I think, be cheaper flash memory since Apple, now the world's largest consumer of the stuff according to Steve Jobs, is pushing factories to figure out how to produce it cheaply and in mass quantities. And cheaper flash memory will mean that we see more and more storage capabilities in everyday devices like cell phones. With storage that small, and that light, the future of personal computing devices can take some interesting directions. I think, as I've written before, that the restriction on size reduction will continue to be what people currently require for input and output: a decent-sized keyboard and a decent-sized screen. But it looks like storage (and processors) will continue to get smaller, lighter, cheaper, and more energy efficient.
(There's a new iTunes phone, but that seems much less exciting.)
More iPod links:
Boing Boing draws our attention to a remix of "Gold Digger," Kanye West's latest single. The remix samples West's outburst last week and changes the song's lyrics into a protest against George Bush.
Also do not miss this mashup of Kanye West and the Beach Boys.
What the heck. Here's TV on the Radio's "Dry Drunk Emperor," too. (Via Badda Blog)
Bonus Links:
technorati tags: hurricane katrina, katrina, kanyewest, kanye, mp3, mashup, bush, georgewbush,
The original was by Manchester, England band Joy Division.
Here's a Tuvan throatsinger punk band cover version (via).
Here's a reggae cover version. (Via)
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
And this is nicely done, too.
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
A variety of things to keep you occupied this morning:
Remember when I made this? Yesterday I opened my email account to find this bit of fan mail:
I listen to this bit of music you made at least once a week, and I enjoy it every time. Could you please make more like it? And if you're willing to indulge me, I'd love to know something, anything about what it's "about," if anything, or what inspired it.
Paul Ingraham
My Rolling Stone cover is surely right around the corner.
Hundreds from Amazon. Legal. DRM-free.
I saw a great local band on Friday night: Ad Astra Per Aspera.
Check out...
Listen to Bi-pedal, Ungrateful, Empty & Awake the Sun Sets on the Chalk Pyrmanids (mp3 hosted on Lawrence.com, 14MB)
"Ooh, Las Vegas" (MP3, 6.3MB), by the Cowboy Junkies, from Return of the Grievous Angel: Tribute to Gram Parsons.
(Guess what I'm doing this week.)
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
"A Minor Place" (MP3, 4.3 MB), by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (aka Will Oldham).
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
You know that song "Bring the Noise," by Public Enemy and Anthrax? This (MP3, 3MB) is not that song. (From this album.)
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
This is how cool our neighborhood Thai restaurant is: Last week, they were playing the Feelies, and I said, "Hey, is this the Feelies?", and the waitress said, "Why, yes it is," and I said, "Can I borrow the CD when it's done playing? I own this on vinyl, but I don't have a record player," and the waitress said, "Sure," and so I stuck the CD into my laptop and ripped it into iTunes, and then a little while later I burned a copy of the Arcade Fire's CD Funeral and gave it to the waitress, and she immediately stuck it into the restaurant's stereo, and we listed to it while eating tempurah vegetables and pad thai and drinking whiskey. That's how cool they are.
I believe that you'll know within the first 15 seconds of the following track if you love this band or not.
"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" (MP3, 5.7MB)
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
I've been blogging for two years now. What's a blog for? Why, "It's Only Life" (mp3, 3.6MB, from the Feelies' 1988 album Only Life).
I went to SCSECS 2005 this past weekend at St. Simon's Island, off the coast of Georgia. A paper was presented, beaches were walked, an ocean was waded into, and a good time was had by all.
Still mulling over all the big changes on the horizon of my life.
What does it mean?
What can you do about it?
What can you say?
You don't even know about it.
It's only life.
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
"16 Days" (mp3), from Whiskeytown's 1997 album Stranger's Almanac.
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
Inspired by JdoubleP's example, I thought I'd put a little more prose into these music-sharing entries.
I really missed the boat with the Clash. I had a chance to go see them live in the early 1980s, and I declined. All I had ever heard from them were the handful of tracks that made it to the radio, and those didn't really appeal to me. Years later, however, London Calling would be playing over and over as we edited the college newspaper all night on deadline. I could listen to that album forever.
When Joe Strummer died in late 2003, I decided I should go out and buy a copy of one of his recent albums: Global a Go-Go, which he recorded with a new band called The Mescaleros. My favorite track has to be the one I include below because it's a celebration of the multicultural carnival one finds in more and more of the world.
Spoken: So anyway, I told him I was in a band. He said, "Oh yeah, oh yeah - what's your music like?" I said, "It's um, um, well, it's kinda like...You know, it's got a bit of, um, you know."
Sung:Ragga, Bhangra, two-step Tanga
Mini-cab radio, music on the go
Surfbeat, backbeat, frontbeat, backseat
There's a bunch of players and they're really letting go
We got, Brit pop, hip hop, rockabilly, Lindy hop
Gaelic heavy metal fans fighting in the road
Sunday boozers for chewing gum users
They got a crazy D.J. and she's really letting go
For your temporary listening pleasure: Bhindi Bhagee (mp3, 6.8M)
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
Neko Case, "I Wish I Was the Moon Tonight" (mp3, 4M) from Blacklisted
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.
Let's see if this tradition lasts: each Monday morning I'll post an mp3 or I'll post a link to an mp3 out there on the web. The stuff that I probably shouldn't be posting will be removed after 24 hours. I'll focus on independent music, stuff you're less likely to hear through the mainstream media. This morning there's a bumper crop.
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know. Availability is limited.
The sublime "Candles and Miracles" (mp3, 5M), performed by Hetch Hetchy. I don't know much about the band, other than the fact that members included Lynda Stipe (Michael's sister), who had been in an earlier group named Oh Ok. See also this entry on Oh Ok, which has a bit more detail about Hetch Hetchy.
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know. Availability is limited.
"White Christmas" (mp3, 4.8M), by Vic Chesnutt.
If you like this track and want to hear more by the same artist, look for these albums, and consider buying them from Athens, GA music store Wuxtry Records:
You could also download mp3s from the relevant section of the official website. Read more about him here.
(And no, he doesn't always sing in a fake Cajun accent.)
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know. Availability is limited.
This track is James Brown's "Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto" (mp3, 3.9M) by Seersucker, taken from the same CD as the previous track.
I'm afraid I don't remember much about Seersucker, but they were a continuation of Dirt.
MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know. Availability is limited.
"On Christmas Day" (mp3, 5M), by the Opal Foxx Quartet.
If you like this and want to hear more, check out their 1992 CD entitled The Love That Won't Shut Up, or get something by Smoke, the band formed after OFQ broke up. See, for example, Another Reason To Fast or Heaven On A Popsicle Stick.
You might also seek out the 2002 documentary Benjamin Smoke.
The above mp3 comes from a Christmas CD, put out in the mid-'90s by the Athens 'zine Flagpole, featuring indie Georgia musicians.
To crib from Bob Mould's site: MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know. Availability is limited.
The Wired CD: "Rip, mix, burn. Swap till you drop. The music cops can't do a thing - it's 100 percent legal, licensed by the bands." Brought to you by Wired magazine, Creative Commons, and several forward-thinking musicians. After November 9, you can download the tracks from the CC website. Until then, use the links below:
Yes, the election is tomorrow. Go download some free and legal music from Protest-Records. I recommend these tracks, in particular:
20041008c.mp3 (3M)
Here's a mellow track (mp3, 3.7M) to help get you through your Friday morning.
Collaboration with Weez. Game on, indeed. Wanna play?
I got home from school, spent an hour with the Telecaster and the Powerbook, and came up with this: 20040929.mp3 (mp3, 2.6M). The GarageBand files are stuffed at this location (3.4M).
"He was angrier than a Georgia chicken in a bread pan without any dough!"
I was inspired by Michael Berube. This is my GarageBand masterpiece (mp3, 3.8M). It's composed entirely of loops provided by the software and stitched together by me. Oh, and there are some sampled vocals by... well, you'll figure it out.
I hereby release this mp3 into the wild with a Creative Commons license. Dump it into your favorite P2P music swapping service. Put it on your mp3 device. Burn it to CD. Tell your friends. Do what you like. If you have GarageBand, too, and you'd like to remix it, send me a self-addressed, stamped CD mailer with a blank CD-R and I'll mail you the files (which are something like 40M, and right now I don't have that kind of server space).
