Thursday, July 05, 2007

Dueling Banjos

One of my favorite 70s songs. 

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Linkin Park Parody

I love Linkin Park, but I have to admit, this parody is pretty on target. 

Friday, June 29, 2007

Conchords Rock

HBO’s new Series Flight of the Conchords is pretty funny. It’s sort of a modern Spinal Tap about two losers from New Zealand trying to make it as a rock group in New York. They have fantasies that become the rock videos in the episode. Here’s one from the pilot.

More videos here. Inner City Pressure is another favorite of mine. It’s a parody of the Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls”.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Why Today’s Music Sucks

Aside from the fact that so many singers today can’t sing. They are “fixed” in the studio (hence Britney Spears doesn’t sing live). Many so called bands today are just using samples and computers to repeat notes. Leaving out the organic, natural feel of real playing. But there’s more. 

This video explains how the producers today ruin the sound of music.

This article goes into more details.

I noticed that a lot of today’s music, beside being atonal junk, it has this extreme noise level becaus eso many clubs play everything at the maximum loudness. I really hate that. Every time I get invited to a party at a club, I want to leave as soon as they start playing “music.” And I’m a music lover.

Rolling Stone documents the decline of the music business. They only have themselves to blame. Downloading isn’t the problem. 

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Hero of the Day

BRITAIN’S Got Talent winner Paul Potts last night revealed how he battled poverty while working in shops and almost gave up on his dream of becoming a professional singer.

And he said, “I wasn’t truly aware of the effect my voice can have on others so the reaction has been a surprise. It’s just incredible.”

The mobile phone salesman who is set to become an opera star after winning the talent contest said that he would begin spending his £100,000 prize money on new teeth.

I’m glad he won. See the clips of him below in the post called Daaamn!

Friday, June 15, 2007

Daaamn!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Crazy

Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy played on a Theramin. I love those things. In case you don’t know what they are, they are a musical instrument played by moving your hands around a coil and an antenna, producing weird sounds. They were popular with 1950s sci-fi movie composers like Bernard Hermann. This song is well done, I must say.

If you are unfamiliar with the original tune, here is the music video.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

DRM Doom

Apple continues to be a leader in the music business by offering DRM-less songs on their new version of iTunes, out today.

Apple released iTunes 7.2 updated in the Mac OS X Software Update tonight, which offers support for “iTunes Plus”, Apple’s new DRM-free $1.29 offerings announced in April.

With iTunes 7.2, preview and purchase iTunes Plus music—new higher-quality, DRM-free music downloads from participating music labels.

Despite the software update, the Apple iTunes Store itself does not show any DRM-Free music currently available for purchase. The DRM-Free launch will likely occur later this morning (Wed, May 30th).

I predict this will be the beginning of the end for DRM, whose time has passed.

Incidentally, while I was at the iTunes store this evening I checked out the new EPs from teh American Idol finalists. I bought two Blake Lewis tracks and one from Jordin Sparks. “Wishing on a Star” is one of my favorite songs and she does it justice (though not as good as the original) but Blake really does a great job with all his tunes. I picked “You Give Love a Bad Name” for his excellent beat-boxing in it and “You Should Be Dancing” which he really rocks out.

These are not the versions from TV. They are rerecorded in the studio and they changed the arrangements somewhat. The Blake Bon Jovi cover goes from a slow tempo it it’s drum/beatbox finale. It’s pretty cool.

I commend Apple and Steve Jobs for being the first major distributor to drop DRM from their downloads. Of course, it won’t be on all the tracks right now. But give it time.

Now, if they could just get more songs.

UPDATE: iTunes now lets you update your previous tracks to DRM free versions (which are also higher quality) for a nominal fee. So I just did.

DRM free tracks (iTunes plus) are slightly more expensive, but I will support something like this because it needs to be the standard, not the exception. About 1/5 of my purchased songs were translated to the plus versions. Yay!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Mashup Dujour

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Yay, Bucky!

Last year’s Idol contestant Bucky Covington is kicking some ass. Country style.

Bucky Covington’s self-titled debut CD opens at #1 on Nielsen Soundscan’s Country Top 75 chart with 61,000 units sold. Covington’s debut CD also enters Nielsen Soundscan’s all genre top 200 chart at #4 and is the only new country act to open inside the top five this year. This puts him in good company as only two other country acts, including Tim McGraw and Martina McBride, have debuted inside the top 4 on Nielsen Soundscan’s Top 200 chart this year.

With 61,000 units sold in the first week, this gives Covington the distinction of having not only 2007’s biggest unit debut from a new country artist, but also the best first week sales and highest Top 200 debut for any new male country artist since Billy Ray Cyrus in 1992.

The strong sales debut comes as no surprise, as Covington’s record has already become not only one of the most critically acclaimed CDs to come out of the Idol franchise, but one of this year’s best-reviewed country albums. Here’s what some of the nation’s toughest critics are saying about Bucky Covington:

I like Bucky, and his CD is great. Love the Different World song. Here it is in case you didn’t hear it.

He was kind of weak on Idol but he has shown a lot of growth as an artist. Good for him. He seems like a really nice guy, too. Very level headed.