posted by Mike on August 25, 2008 8:22 PM in Music
Anybody who knows me can verify my unswerving dedication to a Chicago band accused most recently (on Sky Blue Sky) of making dad rock. I was a tad critical of that record last year, a release that has since grown on me quite a bit. Here's why: Wilco has always made dad rock - and they're damn good at it.
They've taken the bands our fathers grew up on and fulfilled their promise to a new and more demanding generation with the help of some technology, and just some sheer grit. I've had their earlier albums Being There and Summerteeth on a loop this past week and I just found out why. Wilco is everything I wish the Rolling Stones would've become. Crunchy guitars, swagger, and some crazy keyboard work to glue it all together.
posted by Mike on August 19, 2008 8:14 AM in Music
Since I got my iPod Touch, I've been obsessively looking for ways to utilize the small bits of WiFi bandwidth I'm able to siphon away from the great city of Seattle.
So when I can manage to pry myself away from Social Networking and Gaming, I turn to my first love: Music. There are several iPhone and iPod options available to supplement the meager music collection you are limited to hold with an 8gb to 32gb device.
The two obvious choices are Pandora and Last.fm, and both are great in their own ways.
posted by Chris on August 12, 2008 9:48 AM in Music
I sometimes marvel at the strange path that new music discovery takes me on. I was listening to a new episode of the podcast All Songs Considered this morning when they played a track by Petra Haden and Miss Murgatroid. Petra Haden is most likely best known for once being the violin player for The Decemberists, and is apparently quite prolific on her own. In addition to solo projects she also records with her family; Petra is actually one of three incredibly talented triplets. There wasn't much that was entertaining on YouTube with Petra and Miss Murgatroid and their Rasputina-esque collage of violin and accordion - but I stumbled upon this gem from the Guilt By Association album project from 2007. The compilation featured a group of artists doing their own versions of guilty pleasure pop hits, and this version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" by miss Haden was accompanied by this awesome video, submitted for a contest. Enjoy.
Jesus McGreesus. With what is quite possibly the most retarded news item of the last decade, ABC News officially declares itself to be the enemy of sanity. That's right, parents. Your kids might be listening to MP3s right now, MP3s that support the drug trade that supports terrorism!! That's right! BINAURALS!!!!1
"Or, go to YouTube. You'll see videos of teens experimenting with digital drugs. You can decide for yourself if binaural beats induce drug-like effects."
That's right, parents. Press your legislators to outlaw something that YOU CAN DECIDE FOR YOURSELF IF IT ACTUALLY WORKS. While you're at it, let's get placebos outlawed, since sugar pills are made out of sugar and might actually give you cavities.
Seriously, ABC News has really reached the bottom of the barrel with this one. Not only do Binaurals not work, but they're not even an illegal commodity. I suspect this might be an RIAA-plant article, since they haven't had a good "Illegal downloading supports Al-Quaeda" article in some time.
Seriously, d00ds. Try harder or we'll slip some Heroin Binaurals into the overhead music they play at K-Mart, just to see what happens. We can do that, you know. We are Anonymous.
posted by SecksCab on August 11, 2008 9:27 AM in Music
I am just mad about The Real Tuesday Weld. The brainchild of a Brit named Stephen Coates, aka "The Clerkenwell Kid", and the sound is a cross between The Propellerheads style of beat-booty mixing and the retro-futuristic-noir style of bands like The Decemberists, The Tiger-Lillies, Marc Almond in his campiest mood, and, yes, my hero, Vic Mizzy. In fact, they start out their album Les Aperitifs et les Digestifs with a jazzy, 1920s speakeasy version of the Addams Family theme, which segues into a melancholy torch song about a wasted life in the fast lane.
Martin Jacques, the operatic falsetto of The Tiger-Lillies, makes a guest appearance on "Someday", and it's really lovely to hear him outside of his evil clown/Edward Gorey persona.
Anyway, if you're looking for the musical equivalent of Lovecraftian steampunk, you could do worse than The Real Tuesday Weld.
posted by SecksCab on July 30, 2008 8:10 AM in Music
Not many of us here at the Weekly Geek pay attention to the Olympics... that period of time every four years where we elect a Bush or a Clinton to office. Generally, the Olympics are a tedious bore, and we look forward to getting some good reading time in while the television is inundated with boring sports that were invented to kill people thousands of years ago. The shot put and the caber toss, sports that started out as training exercises for very large and cumbersome assassins during the First Crusade, particularly bore us.
Still, the minds behind Gorillaz (Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn), that wonderfully artificial band, has given us something, well, truly special. Their first video not starring themselves, basically just an advert for BBC Sport's coverage of the dismal boredom that is the Olympics. They have given us a brief, one minute run down of the ancient Chinese text, A Journey to the West, also known as MONKEY QUEST, also known as Dragon Ball Z.
Enjoy, and know that this is all the pleasure you'll get for the next month.
After years of strong production from funky, white-boy word twister Beck, The Information given to us in 2006 felt like maybe he was losing a bit of steam. An effort pushed along at times by Nigel Godrich's production, it was lacking in that constant rhythmic propulsion usually found in Beck's work.
And now, for the second release in a row, Modern Guilt feels more like a vehicle for its producer, Danger Mouse, than it does for Mr. Hansen.
Guided By Voices was a band surrounded by some nontarnishable legend of repute. No matter how many times I heard the name, even along side bands I admired, I ignored them. The years passed, and now they're gone, and I'm just getting into them.
Known for their insanely rigorous live act, Guided By Voices had a swagger that was unnatural for the Indie bands of the time. The studio albums in the latter part of their career were more or less attempted documentations of the group's live sound - their second to last record, Earthquake Glue, being no exception.
Lead-off track "My Kind of Soldier" shows clips of the band playing with their famed drunken front man Robert Pollard serving as curator to both the crunching guitars of his cohorts and the story of "Beatle Bob." All the while, Pollard's melodies are as effortless as the wind that will carry his music on to generations of listeners to come.
Bitmaster hyper-god Tettix (formerly Cicada, AKA Judson Cowan) is currently rockin' my iPhone, it's the perfect music for sitting on the bus and staring out into space. You may be familiar with this chiptune artist already, as his track "Earth's Assault on the Central AI" is currently being used as the Weekly Geek Theme song. I've found in my nerdy search of nostalgic beats that the quality of chiptune artists varies as much as the quality of old school NES games, they are all fun in their own right, but only a few are true classics. Tettix has skills. Mad skills.
He's even created tracks for Nike, Diesel and Cartoon Network. But with his albums Technology Crisis I and II he has painted a landscape for a non-existent game from the 80's. His albums take on their own narrative depending on your interpretation, much like an artist like Sigur Ros, Mogwai or Explosions in the Sky. He perfectly encapsulates what made NES music classic: catchy melodies, cohesive flow and a striking sense of mood. The best part? He has offered all his tracks online, gratis. There's even a sweet album of Metroid covers.
I'd love to commission him to do a real theme song some day. And hey! Check this out, he's also a great graphic designer. High fives all around.
I've been beaten to the punch on this by just about every music enthusiast with a blog, but I won't let that stop me.
Girl Talk, stage name for master mash bandit Gregg Gillis, just released Feed the Animals (some of which was featured in the last podcast) online. Plainly stated, it's art by juxtaposition. Effortlessly he blends samples from a 3+ decade, genre-hopping selection. With little to no reverence, but with an uncanny rhythmic intuition, artists like Busta Rhymes & The Police merge with dramatically awesome results.
This video delves into Gillis' creative process (however glancingly), and shows him butchering Elvis Costello to bits and using him as a small tile in a larger mosaic.
The most telling quote Gillis makes is the last; perhaps letting on that mashing isn't as simple as this short YouTube clip makes it seem: "If you spend a few hours or years doing that you can kinda go places with it."
I found out about Art of Noise today, just moments ago. After watching this video, they remind me of a cross between The Knife and Justice. It's hard to believe that this song was originally released in 1987. When I realized Trevor Horn was involved, my disbelief was suspended somewhat, but I'm still inclined to agree with my friend John, who introduced me to the song, that they were creating music way ahead of their time. As for the video, I have no clue as to why they are hacking at a grand piano with chainsaws, electric sanders, and what appears to be a lamp stand, among other things, but it seems to go with the song somehow. Perhaps the piano was too grand to exist?
I remember hearing My Brightest Diamond for the first time. My collection isn't exactly chock full of bands that I've discovered live. So it was remarkable that she, as an opening act for Sufjan Stevens, was able to capture my attention so immediately.
Let's settle one thing: Shara Worden is probably the most captivating live performer on the indie rock circuit - spellbinding voice, flowing sets with well-chosen cover songs - she's incredible.
Naturally, the studio tends to kill the focus and (more surprisingly) the dynamic of her songs, but the freshness of her debut Bring Me the Workhorse was able to overcome that dampening.
Now, on her second studio attempt, it's becoming painfully clear that she's at home on the road. And more frighteningly, her creativity is starting to suffer as a result.
Age hasn't often been an obstacle for burgeoning music acts, but artists in their late 20s to early 30s tend to make their most fully-fleshed, fully-mature creations. But 21 year-old Robin Pecknold has the perfectly weathered voice of someone double his years, and the honed story-telling capacities of somebody triple his years. Combine those rare talents with Pecknold's youthful vigor and it makes for some magical moments.
Another in a long line of fantastic Sub Pop releases, Fleet Foxes, the band's first full-length, builds and expands on the promise of their first two rousing EPs - including the overwhelmingly great Sun Giant EP.
You may not believe it, and when I heard it I scarcely believed it myself, but there's more to being a geek than just video games. What! Crazy! I know! The thirst for new stimulation isn't limited to just the digital realm of "veedoo games"! Music is what we crave, and the newest Weekly Geek Music Podcast is just the thing to satiate even the most ravenous of melody fiends. Mike and Chris present to you their top albums for this period in the space-time continuum, with artists like Portishead, Wolf Parade, Death Cab For Cutie and Nine Inch Nails. Perhaps, in listening, you will discover your new favorite band. These things are known to happen.
Full set list and links to purchase tracks after the jump.
Wolf Parade's debut LP, Apologies to the Queen Mary, from a few years ago was a raw, unhinged explosion of guitars and keyboards - a work that evoked post-punk anger as much as it did peppy bounce. As genius a first album as it was, with Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner's trade-off songwriting, the group was slightly overshadowed by the barrage of good music being exported from Canada at the time - Arcade Fire, The New Pornographers, and the like.
After successful side project excursions for both Krug (Sunset Rubdown) and Boeckner (Handsome Furs), the duo reunites with a renewed formidableness. At Mount Zoomer is refreshingly different. They've kept the angularity and intensity, but Wolf Parade adds a welcome dose of subtlety and complexity in this succinct 9-song set.
You know those booths at comic book or anime conventions selling game soundtracks? Yeah, those are usually dirty pirated bootleg knockoffs. Same goes with soundtracks you buy on eBay or from *most* websites. Square Enix bootlegs are notorious, considering they have such a vast library of hard to find soundtracks. The official SE store has a sale going on right now, so you have absolutely no excuse not to purchase the official Chrono Trigger Soundtrack for $16.99. Also on sale are soundtracks for Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, X, XI and The World Ends With You. Sweet!
Some music we associate with a certain nostalgic era in our lives, and for the longest time, I thought The Get Up Kids would fall in that category for me. Most music I reminisce about blankly after 5 years is unceremoniously banished from my music collection never to be seen again. But On A Wire, the 2002 record from the aforementioned post-punk group has endured quiet nicely.
"Overdue" with its sincerity and mellow, bittersweet chorus harmonies opens the album with a certain gravity that's hard to deny a place in your heart. Along with the odd video that accompanies it, The Get Up Kids have ridden the angry wave of my fickle memories and come out on the other side almost better than they looked going in.
Listening now, I believe James Mercer must've heard this record quite a few times while writing the calmer cuts on The Shins' albums - even if he'll never admit it to anyone.
posted by Chris on April 21, 2008 1:59 PM in Music
Being into indie rock is dangerous territory. You're often called elitist even though everyone knows you just have better taste than everyone else. I read Pitchfork often, and while I don't always (or usually at all) agree with their album reviews, I decided to give Vampire Weekend a chance. Pitchfork has been nutso about this band, who fuse indie rock sensabilities with an African influence. It's almost classic high life music and instantly addictive. I've had this song stuck in my head all day and put "who gives a fuck about an Oxford Comma" as my IM status message.
Of course everyone IMs me all like "I actually like serial commas". It's a good thing I have such great music taste so I can enlighten you guys. *sticks nose up and swishes ascot authoritatively*
We've been speculating for a while about when the first full albums will be released for Rock Band, sources said Nirvana Nevermind and The Who's Who's Next were slated to be the first (to much excitement!), but today it was announced that full albums are coming April 22nd, with Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance, followed in May by The Cars (that's just what I needed!) and in June by The Pixies' Dolittle.
While I am incredibly excited to be able to play these albums, I'm saddened that we are apparently only getting one per month. In addition, I'd like to see a better way to make a playlist in the game proper, such as being able to select an album and play it all the way through without shupp shupp shupp-ing through the entire giant playlist every time we want to rock out to Judas Priest.
Probably the most depressing break-up in the 90s occurred when Portishead fell off the face of the earth. In their prime they were robbed from us. Beth Gibbons went off to work in the garden, Geoff Barrow reallocated his production talents, and Adrian Utley wept softly into his beer in the dark corner of a pub.
Then, as if a divine musical presence summoned them from their inactive decade, they return to us with Third. Lazily named, but meticulously scripted, this album is the materialization of thousands of hushed rumors spread since Gibbons appeared to sing "Wandering Star" with her band mates at a small club in Bristol back in February 2007.
They didn't have anything to prove, but Portishead delivers a bone-chilling paramount to their existing catalog.
posted by Chris on April 2, 2008 11:23 AM in Music
It took me a while to actually get into Of Montreal, despite music editor Mike's drooling obsession over Kevin Barnes. I had listened to Hissing Fauna... a couple times and just wasn't convinced of their brilliance. It took a certain mood and about the 10th listen to really dig the groove, and now here I am a staunch Of Montreal fan. This video for Gromlandic Edit features art drawn by Kevin's brother David, proving crazy brilliance runs in the family.
Björk has been in my music library since Post. Here was a woman who literally did her own thing. When trying to label my MP3s, I always have a hard time putting her into a specific genre. Is she electronic? Is she Icelandic pop? I ended up just filing her under "Björk".
While I wasn't too impressed with 2007's Volta, here is one of the tracks that stood out to me. Lucky for us it also comes with an incredible video.
I showed this video to Jinny earlier who responded "I wonder if she's lonely."
posted by Chris on March 24, 2008 1:53 PM in Music
This weekend Sexcab came by to play some board games. As these board game sessions go, not only do I subject my guests to poorly mixed drinks and slightly manhandled snacks, I force them to listen to my music. Luckily The Flaming Lips came on to which Sexcab remarked "I love robot music from the future." Then I kicked his ass thoroughly at Carcassonné. Enjoy this epic theme which accompanied said ass-kicking.
posted by Chris on March 19, 2008 5:39 PM in Music
Oh how I have waited for this day. Ten years since the last Portishead album. Ten years we have had to wait to hear anything from the brilliant trio that is Beth Gibbons, Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow. Ten freakin' years. I'd like to say that you will have to wait till April to hear their newest album, Third, but you know what? Fuck it. It's out right now on the internets and I urge you to find it. Third is epic life-changing music filled with sounds that literally I have never heard before. Listen to the first single off the album, Machine Gun, and enjoy being filled with the beauty that is Portishead once again. The beats sound like two robots fighting, and watching the loops being drummed live is remarkable. Delicious.
Every now and again a band comes along that feels like the first summer wind after a long winter - you know, the kind that gives you the warm fuzzy feeling inside. Bands that can easily give you the goosebumps whether you want them to or not. Fleet Foxes definitely fall under that category.
A call back to the pastoral pop of Brian Wilson and Simon & Garfunkel, while in keeping with contemporaries like Midlake and Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes have an amazingly timeless sound and the tools to deliver it flawlessly. Their harmonies are the obvious draw, and after watching several live videos where boisterous club crowds are silenced in awe of their talents, I have to believe these guys will be sticking around for quite a while in independent music circles.
Who is Asthmatic Kitty, you ask? You mean, besides the home of Sufjan Stevens? Well it's also a music label that has seemed to collectively obsess over Audiosurf. Audiosurf is of course the Steam-based PC music mashup that all the kids are raving about these days. Pitchfork is reporting that Sufjan along with a bunch of other artists that you have never heard of (but should listen to!), has released this free album to the world wide internets.
I love it when you can get glimpses into creative inspiration like this. It seems like games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Audiosurf are hearkening a new awakening in artistic expression. People are sharing their successes on YouTube, creating hacked versions for Commodore 64, integrating the peripherals into actual music-making instruments, adapting the peripherals to better resemble playing an actual instrument, and now artists are contributing massively in droves to this new way to experience music. It's exciting times for gamers and music lovers.
posted by Mike on March 17, 2008 11:05 AM in Music
You could say that for half this decade Trent Reznor has been lost. After writing probably the most fitting funeral piece for the dying 90s - The Fragile - he has struggled to stay relevant. The music of the young century has caught up with and surpassed the industrial sounds he popularized in the late 80s. Perhaps more unnerving for Nine Inch Nails fans, Reznor's lyrics have hardly grown past the angst-ridden, teen-aimed themes he preferred when he was younger.
But something strange happened with Year Zero last April. Almost as if he was taking the title literally, the album signaled a personal and musical revolution for Reznor. Nothing was particularly innovative about the record's content, but the way it was marketed and distributed gave Nine Inch Nails fans a reason to clamor. Now, less than a year later, Ghosts purposely rids the lengthy pre-production that plagued his early releases. And more significantly, the lyrics that shackled his past work to an immature audience have vanished too.
posted by Mike on March 11, 2008 10:05 AM in Music
I'll admit: I was a late-comer to The National's acclaimed 2007 record Boxer. When I did discover it, I was almost instantly enamored. There's a depth to their calm, collected charisma that doesn't let you glean enough from the first listen - and that's a good thing. It forces you to try again harder to get their message fully.
"Fake Empire", Boxer's opening track, is a great example of said depth. There's a lot of urgency in rock music these days and not a lot of mystery, and The National are nothing if not mysterious. This live version on Letterman gives a great glimpse into the shadowy glow of this band. Anybody who gives it time will see why they're one of my current favorites.
posted by Qais on February 20, 2008 3:29 PM in Games, Music
By now you've probably seen the Gears of War 2 ad in its original format and yes, it's amazing and features the best possible use of the chainsaw bayonet. But couldn't it be better somehow? Isn't there a way it could somehow take on a depth not often found in a silhouetted animation of one man sawing another in half from the testes up? Mightn't there have been an idea immediately discarded by the Gears 2 marketing team upon conception because of how cliché it's become?
There sure is; and where Microsoft would've been hilariously foolhardy in adding Gary Jules' Mad World as the soundtrack to the Gears 2 trailer, when two gamers add an emotional and touching song to a violent and bloody game trailer it's funny. Not only is it amusing, but the song fits perfectly, and thanks to the fine folks at 2PStart, where once was a really exciting trailer for a game is now a really exciting trailer for a game with an awesome soundtrack.
posted by Chris on February 15, 2008 8:36 AM in Music
Ben Folds is one of those artists that when I hear his songs come on my iPod in the car, I can't help but sing along. I listened to his stuff heavily in high school and continued after he shed the "five" moniker, and this song called Not The Same is probably my favorite. I love his little stories, especially this one about a guy who climbed a tree at a party and came down a born-again Christian. I've never seen him live, though I know people who have. They always say it was the most fun they've ever had at a concert, and I believe them. You'll get a chance to experience the awesomeness of Ben Folds this year as he is touring universities around the US, including a stop at my alma mater. Check out tour dates at BenFolds.com.
posted by Mike on February 12, 2008 12:32 PM in Music
Presently riding a wave of alt-rock radio stardom for their single "Time to Pretend", Brooklyn's MGMT have suckered large audiences deep into the rest of their wonderfully complicated full-length Oracular Spectacular. "Electric Feel", which I can only imagine is slated to be their second radio single (if record executives have any clue what they're doing still), is a fluid tribute to Barry Gibb's effeminate disco-sensuality. A cut this good definitely has me banging my head into a wall for missing the most amazing double bill to grace Seattle last year when MGMT opened for Of Montreal's 2007 tour.
If the song wasn't enough, this video also contains gameplay footage from an odd interactive music video they had on their website a while back. Enjoy:
There are few things better in life than a really good 8-bit musician. Catch yourself in the right mood, with a good set of headphones handy, and walking around with some 8-bit in your ears turns the world into a video game, a really fun one, and you're winning. The frenetic pacing of Sabrepulse is what really seals the deal for me, any music that can make me feel separate from my surroundings as I zip past my fellow man in a blur of beats and tuned in head-bobbing automatically gets the Weekly Geek seal of approval.
posted by Chris on February 1, 2008 10:41 AM in Music
A band called The Builders and the Butchers opened for The Decemberists last night at The Moore Theater in Seattle, WA. I've been to many Decemberists shows and as a rule their opening bands are impressive and complimentary to Colin & crew's unique sound. I really enjoyed the folksy sort of Led Zeppelin thing this band does. They have a gimmick but they wear it well, passing out makeshift instruments to the crowd to join in their impressive two person percussion section. I was entranced by them, they were like some crazy two-headed ogre beating war drums. This song, Bringin' Home The Rain, was one of the highlights of the short set.
Keeping in line with the Weekly Geek tradition of reporting on everything Bowie, here is a fun mashup of the various political candidates and Bowie's "Changes".
posted by Mike on January 23, 2008 10:35 AM in Music
In what may be the greatest idea ever, Nigel Godrich - famed producer of Radiohead, Beck, and Paul McCartney - is bringing his totally eargasmic show to select TV networks in the states. Starting February 22nd, you'll be able to catch live in-studio candids from the likes of The Shins, PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, and Thom Yorke.
The show, titled From the Basement, is really a more relaxed version of Jools Holland's variety music stanzas. Other artists featured on the show are Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp fame), The White Stripes, and Damien Rice.
At times, I've been critical of his production value, but Godrich has some key ins with a choice group of musicians and compiling them all in this bullshit-free platform is really what music television has needed for a long, long time. So if you're one of the five lucky bastards who gets the Rave HD channel, tune in to this show if you have any sense whatsoever.
posted by Mike on January 16, 2008 8:44 AM in Music
After obsessing over acts like Justice and Hot Chip recently, I decided to go straight to the source of the fountain from which this current wellspring of new electronica groups flow: The almighty, Daft Punk.
Coming straight from their mythically surreal pyramid fortress, we have their most notable hit "One More Time" and it's easy to see why (long after they started in the 90s) they're still infectious in all the ways a gimmicky dance duo should be.
posted by Chris on January 15, 2008 1:32 PM in Music
The Books is my coding music. The kind of music that just puts me in the mode to roll up my sleeves and dive headfirst into work. The Books are just two guys, one with a guitar and another with an electric cello. Mike and I saw them perform this song - Smells like Content - live last year, and the syncopated text playing behind the performers was mesmerizing. What is funny about The Books is that they use a massive amount of audio samples from what sounds like movies from the 1960s or 70s. As I listened to their albums over the years I had a distinct image in my mind of what these people from the sound clips looked like. Then, when I finally saw them perform live, they played the video from the sound clips, and for the most part they matched up. Very strange.
posted by Chris on January 11, 2008 12:45 PM in Music
Rumors of an April release for their first new studio album in almost 10 years have rekindled my deep love for Portishead. I just hope their new album feels as classic and timeless as their old stuff. Here is one of my favorite songs performed live, Wandering Star.
posted by Mike on January 10, 2008 12:32 PM in Music
Thumping like something off a Fatboy Slim record, but with the feeling of Junior Boys, Hot Chip are masters at crafting aurally pleasing, never overbearing electronica. “I Was A Boy From School” has a standard groove to it, yet as it progresses, small xylophones and tingling dulcimers come out of the woodwork. It’s perfect for trudging along in a grayed-over day.
On last night's podcast we spoke briefly about the advantages of digital distribution over physical media and the changes that are likely to occur in this direction eventually. One of those changes is the removal of DRM, and it appears that Sony has stepped up to the plate.
Sony has announced their new DRM free download service which they (presumably) hope will allow them to relax Apple's stranglehold on digital distribution of media. Debuting in the U.S. and Canada on June 15th, Sony's digital distribution service, called MusicPass, will act much like a gift card system. Essentially, customers will purchase an album card (for $12.99) from a physical store, and then use the card to download their music. Once the full roll out has been completed cards will be available in Best Buy, Target, Fred's, Coconuts, FYE, Wherehouse, Spec's, and Winn-Dixie.
Granted this isn't the best way to accomplish digital distribution, however, Sony is the last major music distributor to effect a DRM free digital distribution service. As such, the inception of this service marks a momentous occasion, that now a majority of music distributors at least have a DRM free digital distribution system in place.
It may be a while before a majority of users adopt a digital distribution system as their main source of music acquisition but it's important to keep in mind that changes in policy (staunch policy at that) by large corporations are often a reflection of market desire. The wave was started long ago, but we're finally starting to see the crest; are you ready to give up your hard copy? I know I am.
posted by Mike on January 7, 2008 2:12 PM in Music
It’s an odd formula, but somehow it works. Three talented musicians meet each other at the Rhode Island School of Design and they decide to recruit the weirdest looking, craziest guy, who would become one of the most famed singers in Indie Rock. Tim Harrington, whose stage antics have become a thing of legend, is taking up the post as the Iggy Pop of our generation.
Here, on “The Sweat Descends” he’s almost the Buddha of post-punk angst. The crowd just eats up his crazy vocal delivery and ridiculous appearance. Though, his banter after the song displays the greatest characteristic of Harrington’s act – he has an abundant sense of humor and an unpretentiousness that’s refreshing in a genre that normally takes itself way too seriously.
posted by Mike on January 7, 2008 9:33 AM in Music
2007 was a crazy-hectic year for music releases in particular. Couple that with the ridiculous game schedule and the landscape of the entertainment industry was pretty treacherous for the consumer who just wanted to weed through the mess and find a couple of cool things to buy. In an attempt to try and wrangle this issue, we're bringing you a new feature at the beginning of every month. A condensed look at Independent and Pop releases, the In Music vidcast will concisely rundown the highlight records of January.
For those who will cry foul, I will say that I wanted to cover Mars Volta's upcoming release The Bedlam in Goliath, but I didn't have the patience to solve the flash puzzle to unlock their new single. Definitely check that out too though. And please feel free to post any other important releases that I missed in the comments!
posted by Mike on January 4, 2008 2:36 PM in Music
Historically, I’ve always been more of a Beatles guy than a Stones guy. That said, ever since appreciating “Gimmie Shelter” through Rock Band, I’ve been delving into (and enjoying) the Rolling Stones’ catalog during the 60s – you know, before Keith Richards became an animated corpse, before Charlie Watts needed to be propped up on the stage Weekend at Bernie’s style, and before Mick Jagger’s bluesy howl became an indeterminable bark.
Here’s a video of the ass-whooping “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, coming out of a decade when people were generally too lost in their psychedelic drug trips to flat-out rock.
posted by Chris on January 3, 2008 10:07 PM in Music
Certain songs appear in different places in life. As I've wandered on this completely odd journey, I have found that I identify moments by what I was listening to at the time. One of these songs is Heartbeats by The Knife. The first memory is tied to my importing it into E4 and playing time unlimited mode for two and a half hours. It was pretty amazing. The second time was tied to a Yelp Elite party my girlfriend and I attended, where the DJ seemed like he had spun all his tracks straight off my iPod. The third was the other day, hanging out with Qais at his apartment while it rained horribly outside. I look forward to other places in my life I may travel, where The Knife again magically becomes my soundtrack.
posted by Chris on December 28, 2007 10:18 AM in Music
Nothing makes me happy like Sigur Ros. It's my ultimate personal soundtrack. When I'm feeling low, or just want to chill out with a cup of hot tea on a cold, dreary, rainy morning, I put on Sigur Ros and everything just feels a little bit brighter. I recently picked up their DVD, Heima, and I heartily recommend it. The sparse imagery of Iceland mixed with the absolutely transcendent music of Sigur Ros is an incredibly moving experience. Their music videos are just a small sample of how amazing this band is, and this video for Vaka is one of my favorites.
Since I got my iPod Touch, I've been obsessively looking for ways to utilize the small bits of WiFi bandwidth I'm able to siphon away from the great city of Seattle.
