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PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2012 January 18, 2013

Ken Beck Poop ’12

BeCk PoOp 2012   Buy New or Used via Amazon Tame Impala – Lonerism [Modular] I get a contact high virtually everytime I put this on. Hoping that Todd Rundgren will produce their next record. Then again TI’s Kevin Parker and mixer Fridmann did a great job, so why fix what ain’t broke?   Buy New or Used via Amazon Spiritualized – Sweet Heart, Sweet Light [Fat Possum] Pierce returns with what I felt was his most inspired recording since 2001 Let It Come Down. Heartbreakingly gorgeous symphonies mixed with driving psych rock. My spirits are high.   Buy New or Used via…

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PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2012 January 17, 2013

Tim Broun Poop ’12

21 for 12   Buy New or Used via Amazon 1. Dr John – Locked Down   Buy New or Used via Amazon 2. Rolling Stones – Charlie Is My Darling (DVD)   Buy New or Used via Amazon 3. The Hives – Lex Hives   Buy New or Used via Amazon 4. Bill Fay – Life Is People   Buy New or Used via Amazon 5. Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas   Buy New or Used via Amazon 6. Lee Fields – Faithful Man   Buy New or Used via Amazon 7. Dexys – One Day I’m Going To Soar   Buy via Amazon 9. Searching For…

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Music Industry, Music Technology, Radio January 4, 2013

‘Boil the Frog’ – From Kraftwerk to Professor Longhair in 14 steps (via Sha Na Na)

Here’s another fun way to waste time on the web. Choose two artists and Boil the Frog will link them for you. The coder’s blog post tells you how it works. Reading that post explains how it took 14 steps from both Kraftwerk to Professor Longhair AND Roska to Professor Longhair. Each reload gave a slightly different path, mostly using different songs from the same artists. Asking to go from one long tail artist to another quite different long tail artist yields a larger number of steps. Not surprisingly, it took me 23 steps to get from Disclosure to Iris…

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remixes October 12, 2012

Two versions of a house classic, separated by 21 years. Frankie Knuckles “re-directs” “Whistle Song”

Frankie Knuckles’ “Whistle Song” came out in 1991. It was one of the favourites on my radio show “Forward In All Directions” for years and years. He’s just released a new “R-Directed” version of it. FACT posted it on Soundcloud and Pete Tong spoke with Frankie and played the track on his BBC Radio One show today. The new version still has the flute-like lead line and the whistle. The bassline is basically unchanged, but he’s pushed the beat further forward and has made it skip more. The track is still deep and if it were released as new today…

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Critics, Music Industry August 28, 2012

Beyond lies the wub: a history of dubstep

Here’s an *excellent* primer on the history of Dubstep from Joseph Lately over at The Verge. The story touches on all the key points (Croydon, pirates, MAH, cheap software) and includes interviews with British and American producers and thinkers. There is a Soundcloud mix of some of the big songs (and some non-obvious) so you can listen along. Highly recommended reading and likely to become a touchstone in journalism about dubstep. Beyond lies the wub: a history of dubstep | The Verge. PS. The Verge is known as a gadget/consumer electronics site, but this shows that they were not kidding…

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Music Industry, video July 23, 2012

King Britt Talks Vinyl With Dust & Grooves

King Britt Talks Vinyl With Dust & Grooves on Vimeo Elion from Dust and Grooves interviews King Britt. Have a look at the video and consider contributing to the Kickstarter campaign for the Dust and Grooves project “A Photography Book About Vinyl Collectors”. Britt also tells his version of “the great vinyl massacre of ’87” – his involves a video arcade.

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Uncategorized June 29, 2012

The Internet could not care less about your mediocre band

Dave Allen (Gang of Four) wades in to the Emily White / Dave Lowery fracas with a considered piece defending White. The question of Free Culture’s approach to the current (and past) music industry is yielding some of the most interesting discussions and thinking about the venn diagram of internet, culture and law. The Internet could not care less about your mediocre band. (Dave Allen, North)

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Music Technology June 27, 2012

Is this the very first DJ system?

In 1903 French engineer Leon Gaumont was granted patents for loudspeaker systems to go with his sound on disc talking films, which used one of Berliner’s Gramophones. In 1910 Gaumont demonstrated his Chronophone system, which synchronised sound and film, at the Gaumont Palace in Paris. The compressed-air amplifier, whiuch he called the Eglephone, was just a part of the whole system. The volume was enough for an audience of 4000. Initially the longest moving picture that could be made with synchronised sound was only 200ft, due to the limited playing time of the Gramophone record. (Projection was at 16 frames…

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Music Technology June 25, 2012

The Great MP3 Bitrate Experiment

PoOPlist readers may or may not agree with Merlin Mann’s hatred of the mere existence of CDs, but even if you buy physical artifacts carrying your music, you probably also rip them into a more portable and virtual realm. So, how best to do it. The Great MP3 Bitrate Experiment. (Coding Horror) I use LAME 320 VBR for mp3 and then if I really really like the disc I’ll put it into FLAC.

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Live Shows June 18, 2012

Top Ten Awkward Electric Daisy Carnival Dance Move GIFs

The proverb may say “Dance like nobody’s watching…” but I’m sorry to say that we all take that advice too seriously at times. And some of these folks just don’t care. Bless their hearts. See a bunch more delights at Top Ten Awkward Electric Daisy Carnival Dance Move GIFs – Village Voice – Sound of the City.

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Music Industry, Music Technology June 1, 2012

If I see one more story about how cool vinyl LP records are, I’m going to scream

Of course, I might be a little bit jaded. Thanks to all who came to the Huge! Insane! Memorial Day Weekend Music Yardsale, it was much appreciated. I sold 3 turntables and might have sold many more had I had more available. Stories like this help, of course, but calling things cool seems to imply that they were once uncool. The Secrets of a High-Quality Vinyl Record – NYTimes.com. (possibly paywalled)

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Uncategorized May 1, 2012

John Peel’s Record Collection, the first 100 records are up

Yup, It’s pretty damn cool. There’s the great man’s home studio! You can click on various items to find various resources. But the thing most of us will go for first is the record box. When you click the record box you are taken to his record collection. From the blog about the site: After some deliberation we decided that the best way to start the process was to release the details of the first 100 albums, listed alphabetically, from each letter of the alphabet each week. So on 1st May we will release the first 100 A’s, on 8th…

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Live Shows, video April 16, 2012

Now *this* is a guitar wankfest I can get behind

Ben Lapps was in his mid-teens when this was made. There’s a few things I really like about it. The first is the way he hears the request, pauses, thinks about it, looks down at the guitar and kid of shrugs his shoulders and begins. The second is the fun he’s having, most guitar wankers are so serious and look as if they are passing gas or something worse. The third delight is the apparent obliviousness of the roadies setting up the equipment behind him. Ben Lapps playing Going to California via YouTube Most music fans are sensible enough to…

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Music Industry, Releases April 9, 2012

Is Jack White mad, clever, or just trying to fuck with record collector scum worldwide?

From the YouTube page: Three weeks before his “Blunderbuss” album hits the streets, Third Man Records decided to make the Jack White album track “Freedom at 21” premier exclusively via flexi-disc records attached to helium balloons launched from the label headquarters in Nashville on April 1st, 2012. Envisioned as an experiment exploring non-traditional forms of record distribution and a way to get records in the hands of people who don’t visit record shops, the label was sure to use biodegradable latex balloons and all-natural twine in the process. Accompanying the balloons were custom post cards with instructions for the finders…

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Music Industry, Music Technology April 8, 2012

Who Cares When Your Record Was Digitally Remastered?

Excellent screed/rant by Dave Mandl over on Rumpus.net. Neatly explains the sore point of incorrect dating on music streaming and download sites. Who Cares When Your Record Was Digitally Remastered? – The Rumpus.net. Interestingly, one of the commenters says that the reason why the labels feed this incorrect information to the streaming databases is so that they get the (tiny) payment registered to the more recent release. Presumably this make accounting easier for the labels. From a cursory look around a few other services, it appears that those using the All Music API do get the dates correct.

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Music Industry, Music Technology March 16, 2012

Dynamic Range Day: Inside the Loudness War

It seems that today is “Dynamic Range Day”. I think that perhaps the effort needs a better publicist or marketer, I went to Hallmark to look for a “Happy Dynamic Range Day” card and the lady gave me very odd look. No matter, it’s an interesting and necessary effort. The Dynamic Range Day site has a number of useful and informative resources. And if you’re that way inclined, you can win a whole bunch of cool gear. Dynamic Range Day: Inside the Loudness War – CE Pro Article from CE Pro.

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IP, Music Industry March 9, 2012

Long Reads: The Global Songwriter Shell Game: Why The Major Music Companies Are Getting Your Royalties

Major music labels tell us that it is bad that people “steal content”, so they’ve come up with another revenue stream, accepting royalty payments which thay are not due, from people who are not authorised to collect them and then not giving it to the people for whom it was collected…. The Global Songwriter Shell Game: Why The Major Music Companies Are Getting Your Royalties | TuneCorner Music Blog.