New De La Soul track:
Big Mouf (free mp3 download)
Official vid for Major Lazer “Hold The Line”
spot the Black flag samples. Diplo and Switch go downyard and make a yardie tape for the new era. Feat. Santogold among others. Previews at rcrdlbl.com and full drops on or about June 12. You thought the air-raid siren was done? Think again.
Tune of the Summer: Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden – Bonkers
I simply cannot stop playing it. It’s the nastiest bass noise for a long time and it’s just hit #1 in the UK. Awesome!
TuneCore, Amazon Set to Unveil On-Demand CD Sales
They’ve been doing burned CDRs in the classical realm for a while. Now the virtual and “real” mucic scenes are merging. Good. The more options they give folks, the more likely that overall music sales benefit. TuneCore, Amazon Set to Unveil On-Demand CD Sales | Wired.com.
Must read: “What your favorite Dead song says about you”
What your favorite Dead song says about you (Slate Magazine) Hilarious, and too close to the mark for some (including a whole bunch of my contemporaries at “a small liberal arts college in upstate NY”). I’ll admit that I never “got” the Dead. And possibly never got over having to explain that a radio show called “Dead at the Controls” would not contain any Dead…
Gig of the year?? – Kode 9, Flying Lotus, Zomby & Martyn
Possibly the gig of the year: New York Voice Choices – Brainfeeder NYC Presents Kode 9, Flying Lotus, Zomby & Martyn If you are going, please make sure to tell us about it…
Christgau – Poptastic Bye-Bye – ARTicles
Christgau on his recent peregrinations. Including Voice, stone, Blender and more. Really, theses days, who would want to be a writer? Poptastic Bye-Bye – ARTicles. (NAJP.org)
NotAtSXSW | Staying home? Share your experience
A site collating all tweets with the hashtag #notatsxsw (awwwww, don’t you feel sorry for them…) NotAtSXSW | Staying home? Share your experience.
1000 songs everyone must hear
Including sections on “Love”, “Heartbreak” and “People and Places”. If you have Javascripting on you can check off the ones you like and then generate html to insert into your own blog etc… 1000 songs everyone must hear | Music | guardian.co.uk .
Beyond Gossip, Good and Evil
Jay Smooth over at Ill-Doctrine gives space to Elizabeth Mendez Berry to expand on the remarks she made when he interviewed her about the Rhianna / Chris Brown idiocy. The video interview from several weeks back is worth a look, but the new piece she just wrote is even better. Nuanced, clear, well researched and reported, and some truly horrifying stats about intimate partner violence in the US…. Beyond Gossip, Good and Evil and Illdoc at SXSW.
Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a National Security Secret
SO, get ready to have you ISP monitor your traffic on behalf of the RIAA and to have your iPod checked at the border… (Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a National Security Secret | Threat Level from Wired.com.) Perhaps we should start a service where people can upload pictures of their record collections so that you could show the border guard a picture of some collection and say “See, I really do own all of the items on my mp3 player.”
The Hardcore Continuum
It’s that man Reynolds again. This time with an eloquent and informative breeze through his approach to the last 20 years of UK ‘ardcore. Remarkably readable and fascinating. Energy Flash – The Hardcore Continuum Theory and Its Discontents The text of a talk by Simon Reynolds delivered at FACT, Liverpool, Wednesday 11th February 2009. PLUS notes for points to be brought up during the dialogue segment with Mark Fisher but weren’t owing to time running out PLUS afterthoughts on the past, present and future of the hardcore continuum
What is your sampling epiphany?
An unofficial compilation of tracks sampled by Massive Attack showcases the group’s aesthetic through the songs that informed it – and provides fans with the thrill of discovering the originals. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/feb/26/sampling-epiphany-massive-attack (Simon Reynolds at The Guardian, UK)
The Damnwells Let ‘Er Rip
The Damnwells, possibly the hardest-working band you’ve never heard of, have decided to give it all away, here. They play Live at The Mercury Lounge, April 4th.
SoundExchange, broadcasters reach royalty pact for streams
SoundExchange, broadcasters reach royalty pact for streams This one covers regular broadcast stations and their streams. they are still working on the agreements for the “internet only” streamers. But this might show the way. (Ars Technica)
Lady Sovereign – So Human
With a good (but obvious) Cure sample. I’ll bet the full CD is heavier. Guaranteed.
Nightmare or Dream? Heaven or Hell?
Only you can decide…
Why no Grammy commentary?
One word: Coldplay. After that it really does not matter. But, at least there was this:
Bruce’s Not So Great As They Say New Disc
Bruce Springsteen – Working On A Dream From Springsteen we’ve come to expect, if not outright demand, the rich, multi-hued detail of every moment, making ‘Working On A Dream’s weird one: It sounds real good but what does it mean? Springsteen has always taken his heralded influences and made them work for him but here he works for them and, opposite his granite rep, doesn’t always get the job done. If these dark ages really were the old radio glory days his writing harkens back to, “My Lucky Day” and the CCR-ish title track would deservedly be blasting from every…
The Deceptive Perfection of Auto-Tune
Unusually cogent discussion of AutoTune on Slashdot. Including notions of “authenticity” in music. Slashdot | The Deceptive Perfection of Auto-Tune Can we at least agree that too much use of *any* musical “trick” can become annoying?