The second interesting thing about this article on the web is the SEO and page title tuning which the NYT has used for this piece. The article is called “The Year When Rock Just Spun Its Wheels” and it lists a bunch of groups who have, in Caramanica’s opinion, failed to set the US mainstream rock scene alight with their new albums, performances or even their entire careers to date.

But if you look at the page title (the bit at the very top of your browser window, above the address bar) it reads Rock in 2011 – Hot Chelle Rae, Foster the People, Chevelle. That’s the phrase which will appear when I paste in the address below this post. It’s also the page title which Google and other web services will use to help understand what the article is about. But is that actually what the piece is about? Sure, the article mentions those bands, but actually the newspaper headline writer had it correct, the article is about the year when rock spun its wheels.

I assume that NYT is hoping that by changing the title of the page away from the title of the article, fans of those bands who are looking for information about them will come to this page. That’s a mis-calculation which should backfire. For instance, I should imagine that a Foster the People fan would be annoyed with this:

… Foster the People, whose album, “Torches” (StarTime/Columbia), was one of the most lauded rock albums of the year by an emerging band, even though it did little to add to the soul-infused lite-rock of the 1980s.

Or how about this gem:

Nickelback on “Here And Now” (Roadrunner), Chevelle on “Hats Off to the Bull” (Epic), Disturbed on the B-sides collection “The Lost Children” (Reprise) — all released big albums this year that work the post-grunge rock spectrum, to varying degrees of success but with equal amounts of innovation, which is to say little. The burly guitars are the same, as are the melancholy choruses, the assertive but not affirming drumming and the sense that this has all been done before, and better (in some cases by Nickelback itself, several years ago).

I cannot imagine that there are too many Chevelle fans wandering around the web hoping to encounter stuff like that.

Choosing the title of a web page carefully is important. But it should be done to best indicate what the article is about, not to drive traffic in a misleading way. This is an interesting article about how mainstream US rock stood still this year, why not tell us, and the search engines, that.

Rock in 2011 – Hot Chelle Rae, Foster the People, Chevelle – NYTimes.com.

* I’ve inserted “US” into my description of the article’s subject. It’s a way to clarify that he is definitely not writing about any place else.

“Well loved albums > Well thumbed tomes”.
A fun and fascinating set on Flickr. Famous records imagined as book covers by a pretty good graphic designer. Apparently, they will soon be available as a set of postcards.

The Record Books – a set on Flickr.

Conductor: www.mta.me from Alexander Chen on Vimeo.

Impossibly cool! NYC Subway trains API describes art on screen and has a fun musical surprise too. Speeds up over time and is different each time you launch. Run it in multiple tabs for even more fun. Requires scripting, flash, HTML 5 and sound.

MTA.ME.

We don’t know anything about Perpetual Kid and this amazing skin appears to be out of stock at the moment, but we are sooo tempted…

PerpetualKid.com: DJ TURNTABLE LAPTOP SKIN – TURNTABLE INSPIRED LAPTOP SKIN.

It features all the Pitchfork album reviews of 2010 arranged according to rating and it pops up images and links. I’m sure my statistician sister can tell you what the technical term is for this sort of presentation of data. I think it is “cool”.

Note that if you want to get a 10 at P4K it helps to be a millionaire or a deluxe reissue

Of all the unlikely places to hear “deadly drops”, I think that bastion of middle class  bourgeoisie, the NPR website, is the most unlikely.

Still, credit where credit is due, this short list is killer: The 5 Deadliest Drops Of 2010 : NPR

Dunno if it got on the actual radio network tho… (bonus points for the inclusion of one of this PoOPsters’ favourites of the year)

Death Comes for your Vinyl

Company presses your ashes into vinyl when you die.

Wired tells us music lovers can now be immortalised when they die by having their ashes baked into vinyl records to leave behind for loved ones. No mention of the sound quality, we suspect that the records sound a bit like early 80s Jamaican pressings…

Ninja Tune, the label founded by Coldcut, is turning 20 years old. The Ninja Tune XX boxset is a beast.   You’ve got wo days left to pre-order it at $130.00

Hit the link for the truly frightening details (6 CDs, 6 7″s, stickers, hardback, etc. etc.) and here’s the remarkable track lineup:

Tracklists: * = New + Exclusive

CD1

* Two Fingers ‘Fools’ *
* Roots Manuva ‘It’s On’ *
* Toddla T ‘Want U Now’ (feat. Ms Dynamite) *
* Dorian Concept ‘Her Tears Taste Like Pears’ *
* Zomby ‘The Forest’ *
* Offshore ‘Jen At The Station’ *
* Emika ‘Double Edge’
* DELS ‘Eating Clouds’ *
* Big Dada Sound ‘Signs’ *
* Eric B & Rakim ‘Paid In Full’ (Switch meets Coldcut Remix) *
* Andreya Triana ‘Lost Where I Belong’ (Flying Lotus Remix)
* The Bug ‘Catch A Fire’ *
* Eskmo ‘Cloudlight’ *
* Daedelus ‘LA Nocturn’

CD2

* Roots Manuva ‘Dub Styles’ (Micachu Remix) *
* Diplo ‘Summer’s Gonna Hurt You’ (Diplo 2010 Remix) *
* The Heavy ‘How You Like Me Now?’ (Joker Remix)
* Stateless ‘Ariel’ (Rustie Remix) *
* Diplo ‘Newsflash’ (Metronomy Remix) *
* PRDCTV ‘Metropolis’ (Dan Le Sac Remix) *
* Dark sky ‘Leave’ *
* The Long Lost ‘Woebegone’ (Flying Lotus’ Like Woe Remix)
* Spank Rock ‘Tell It What It Look Like’ (Todd Edwards Remix) *
* Shuttle ‘Lion’ *
* Poirier ‘Get Crazy’ (Mark Pritchard Remix) *
* Jammer ‘One Over Me’ *
* Fink ‘This Is The Thing’ (EL-B Remix) *
* Amon Tobin ‘Lost & Found’ *

CD3

* Lou Rhodes & The Cinematic Orchestra ‘One Good Thing’ (Version) *
* Bonobo & Speech Debelle ‘Sun Will Rise’ *
* Grasscut ‘Blink In The Night’ *
* Bonobo & Andreya Triana ‘Wonder When’
* Quincy & Xen Cuts Allstars ‘I Hear The Drummer’ (Tunng Edit) *
* Yppah ‘Never Mess With Sunday’ *
* DJ Food (Title TBC) *
* Jaga Jazzist ‘Endless Galaxy’ *
* Cougar ‘$64k Rainbow’ *
* Amon Tobin ‘Eight Sum’ *
* DJ Vadim ‘Terrorist’ (Gaslamp Computer Killer Remix) *
* Roots Manuva ‘Witness’ (Slugabed Remix) *
* Andreya Triana ‘A Town Called Obsolete’ (Mala Remix) *
* Coldcut ‘Man In A Garage’ (King Jammy Dub) *
* Jono McCleery ‘Tomorrow’ (Edit)
* Floating Points Ensemble ‘Post Suite’ *

CD4

* Eskamon ‘Fine Objects’
* The Bug ‘Skeng’ (Autechre Remix) *
* King Cannibal ‘The Grind & Crawl’ *
* Emika ‘Drop The Other’ (Daedelus Remix) *
* Amon Tobin ‘Foley Versions’ (Kronos Quartet Interpretation) *
* Antipop Consortium ‘Volcano’ (Four Tet Remix)
* Mr Scruff ‘Pickled Spider’
* Jaga Jazzist ‘Toccata’ (Grasscut Remix) *
* The Death Set ‘Impossible’ (Shuttle Remix)
* Daedelus ‘Trouble With A Capital D’ *
* Roots Manuva ‘Let The Spirit’ (Hot Chip Remix)
* Mr Scruff ‘Believe’ *
* Bonobo ‘Eyesdown’ feat. Andreya Triana (Floating Points Remix)
* Shuttle ‘Tunnel’

The following material will only be available (in any format) in the the box set, except where indicated:

CD5

* The Cinematic Orchestra (Title TBC) *
* Coldcut ‘Autumn Leaves’ (2010 Budapest Mix) *
* Floating Points Ensemble (No.2 title TBC) (to be released on 12″ single also) *
* Jaga Jazzist ‘Synchronise Your Watches’ *
* Coldcut ‘True Skool’ (Zomby Remix) *
* Bonobo ‘Eyesdown’ (feat. DELS) *
* Clifford Gilberto ‘Deliver The Weird’ (Dorian Concept Remix) *
* The Bug ‘Poison Dart’ (Prefuse 73 Broke Moog Version) *
* Fink ‘See It All’ (Scuba Remix) *
* Roots Manuva ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ *
* cLOUDEAD vs Fat Possum (Title TBC) *
* The Heavy (Title TBC) *
* Blockhead ‘Ugly Brown’ *

CD6

* Roots Manuva ‘Witness’ (Modeselektor Remix) *
* Toddla T ‘Sky Surfing’ (Benga Remix) (to be released on 12″ single also) *
* Roots Manuva ‘Join The Dots’ (Cut Chemist Remix) *
* Kid Koala ’3 Bit Blues’ *
* Pop Levi ‘Blue Honey’ (Amorphous Androgenous Remix Edit) *
* Blockhead ‘The Music Scene’ (EL-P Remix) *
* Coldcut & Hexstatic ‘Timber’ (The Orb Remix) *
* DJ Kentaro ‘Paid In Full’ *
* Coldcut ‘This Island Earth’ (Joe Goddard Remix) *
* Qemists ‘Don’t Lose It’ *
* DJ Food ‘African Rhythms’ (Tom Middleton Remix) *
* DJ Food ‘Dark Lady’ (808 State Remix) *
* Herbaliser ‘Something Wicked’ (Roots Manuva Dub) *

6 x 7″ single:

1. Bogus Order ‘Chillin With My Zen’
Bogus Order ‘Zen Bones’
2. Mr Scruff ‘Wriggle’ *
Coldcut ‘Boogieman’ (King Jammy Dub) *
3. King Geedorah ‘Snakecharmer’ (feat. Kurious as Biolante) *
Daedelus ‘Impending Doom’ (Rustie Remix) *
4. Two Fingers ‘Bad Girl’ (The Bug Dub) *
Spank Rock ‘Sweet Talk’ (Matthew Herbert Remix) *
5. DJ Vadim ‘Bang it Out’ *
Toddla T ‘Pum Pum’ *
6. Wagon Christ ‘Sloth Gets Paid’ *
Shuttle ‘Rotten Guts’ (Gold Panda Remix) *

OOOFF!

From WFMU DJ Frank O’s recent trip to Ghana

http://www.subpop.com/cybersex