Who is Arcade Fire?
Arcade Fire won album of the year for The Suburbs at the Grammys last night and a lot of people don’t even know what an Arcade Fire is. Including Rosie O’Donnell.
(via @waferbaby)
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. 💞
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Beloved by 86.47% of the web.
kottke.org posts about music
Out of nowhere, a new Radiohead album!!
At least out of nowhere for me…I had no idea this album was coming. Anyway, it’s called The King of Limbs and the digital copy is out on Feb 19th. Huzzah!
Don’t miss new music releases
Nomis is an iOS app that looks at the artists in your iPhone or iPod’s music library and shows you their latest and upcoming releases. Showed me a couple things I was unaware of: the new Cut Copy and an Underworld album from September that I’d missed. The only bummer is that it’s kind of absurdly slow in looking through your library. (thx, brandon)
Playmobil Joy Division
A nearly shot-for-shot version of Joy Division performing Transmission live in 1979…with Playmobil characters.
Original version is here. (via hello typepad)
Did Usher rip off Homer Simpson?
Usher’s OMG sounds suspiciously close to a Christmas carol that Homer wrote in an episode of The Simpsons. Take a listen:
The Hood Internet Mixtape Volume Five
Yes. Yes! YES! It’s MIXMAS! The Hood Internet has released their fifth mixtape. Download commencing now.
Clapping music
Angie Dickinson and Lee Marvin “perform” Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. This is mesmerizing.
(via @sippey)
Musical subway map
Alexander Chen made a version of the NYC subway map that plays music as the trains intersect routes.
At www.mta.me, Conductor turns the New York subway system into an interactive string instrument. Using the MTA’s actual subway schedule, the piece begins in realtime by spawning trains which departed in the last minute, then continues accelerating through a 24 hour loop. The visuals are based on Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 diagram.
Check out the full version; there are more details here. See also Isle of Tune. (via about 20 people on Twitter just now)
Rock stars and their parents
From Life magazine circa 1971, a selection of photos of rock stars (Jackson 5, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Grace Slick) with their parents taken in their parents’ homes. Here’s Eric Clapton with his grandmother.
That same series also contains the great photo of The Jackson 5 astride their scooters. (via andrea inspired)
Fun music video
Reminds me of Gondry’s Star Guitar video with a bit of MC Escher mixed in.
(viva la sandwich)
The Muppets sing Kanye West’s Monster
This is surprisingly well done.
Continuing with the unexpected Kanye groove on kottke.org this morning.
99 Christmas songs for $1.99
Just in time for that family Christmas party: 99 Christmas songs for $1.99 at Amazon’s MP3 store.
Isle of Tune
Isle of Tune is a musical sequencer with a twist…you build little roads with houses, trees, streetlights, etc. that cars can then drive past, making music as they go. This is currently the top-rated island:
And here’s Michael Jackson’s Beat It. Neat! (via prosthetic knowledge)
The lost Radiohead album
It’s called 01 and 10…ok, it’s not really a lost album. But apparently if you take the first five songs from OK Computer (from 1997) and the first five songs from In Rainbows (from 2007) and alternate them, the songs fit together musically and lyrically to form a coherent album.
Consider that In Rainbows was meant to complement OK Computer, musically, lyrically, and in structure. We found that the two albums can be knit together beautifully. By combining the tracks to form one playlist, 01 and 10, we have a remarkable listening experience. The transitions between the songs are astounding, and it appears that this was done purposefully.
The lyrics also seem to complement each other. There appears to be a concept flowing through the 01 and 10 playlist. Ideas in one song is picked up by the next, such as “Pull me out of the aircrash,” and “When I’m at the pearly gates, this will be my videotape.”
(via prosthetic knowledge)
Songs of the years playlist
Patrick Filler took Ben Greenman’s New Yorker holiday party playlist (one song for each year from 1925 to 2010) and made a Rdio playlist out of it so that you can listen to the whole shebang online.
Songs of the years
For the New Yorker holiday party, Ben Greenman whipped up a music playlist containing one hit song from each year of the New Yorker’s history, from 1925 to 2010.
At the party, the mix worked like a charm. Jazz and blues greeted the early arrivals, and as the party picked up, the mood became romantic (thanks to the big-band and vocal recordings of the late thirties and forties), energetic (thanks to early rock and roll like Fats Domino and Jackie Brenston in the early fifties), funky (James Brown in 1973, Stevie Wonder in 1974), and kitschy (the eighties), after which it erupted into a bright riot of contemporary pop and hip-hop (Rihanna! Kanye! M.I.A.! Lil Jon!). It was rumored, though never proven, that party guests were leaving right around the songs that marked their birth years.
Where the hell is Hey Ya!? Oh, right. Crazy in Love.
Inception iPhone app
The Inception iPhone app takes the music from the movie and remixes it with the sounds around you (office chatter, street noise, etc.).
Inception The App transports Inception The Movie straight into your life. New dreams can be unlocked in many ways, for example by walking, being in a quiet room, while traveling or when the sun shines. You will get realtime musical experiences, featuring new and exclusive music from the Inception soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer.
Bad: I can hear the people in the office talking, which is the precise thing I’m attempting to prevent by wearing headphones.
Tron Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk
I have enjoyed nothing (nothing!) more over the past week or so than Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy soundtrack. Amazon’s got the mp3 album today for only $3.99.
Google Beatbox
The latest big thing from Google: beatboxing. Just go to this page on Google Translate and press “Listen”. I laughed out loud. (via prosthetic knowledge)
How Kanye makes his musical sausage
Interesting piece on how Kanye West’s latest album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, got made. Lots of good creative process bits, like this extensive quote from Kanye kollaborator Q-Tip:
“I’d never worked the way Kanye was working in Hawaii. Everybody’s opinions mattered and counted. You would walk in, and there’s Consequence and Pusha T and everybody is sitting in there and he’s playing music and everyone is weighing in. It was like music by committee. [Laughs.] It was fresh that everybody cared like that. I have my people that listen to my stuff-I think everybody does-but his thing is much more like, if the delivery guy comes in the studio and Kanye likes him and they strike up a conversation, he’ll go, ‘Check this out, tell me what you think.’ Which speaks volumes about who he is and how he sees and views people. Every person has a voice and an idea, so he’s sincerely looking to hear what you have to say-good, bad, or whatever.
“In art, whether it was Michelangelo or Rembrandt or all these dudes, they’ll sketch something, but their hands may not necessarily touch the paint. Damien Hirst may conceptualize it, but there’s a whole crew of people who are putting it together, like workers. His hand doesn’t have to touch the canvas, but his thought does. With Kanye, when he has his beats or his rhymes, he offers them to the committee and we’re all invited to dissect, strip, or add on to what he’s already started. By the end of the sessions, you see how he integrates and transforms everyone’s contributions, so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. He’s a real wizard at it. What he does is alchemy, really.”
BTW, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is still on sale at Amazon for $3.99.
Pretty Hate Machine remastered
The remastered version of NIN’s Pretty Hate Machine is out today. You can get the CD or vinyl at Amazon or mp3s at iTunes.
A full orchestra plays John Cage’s 4’33”
Here’s video of a full orchestral performance of John Cage’s famous 4’33” composition, in which none of the performers plays his or her instrument; it’s four minutes and thirty-three seconds of ambient noise.
You’re not going to think it’s worth it, but watch the whole performance. (thx, liz)
In the Nightclub by One-Half of One Dollar
A translation of 50 Cent’s hit single In Da Club into the Queen’s English.
When I arrive in my Mercedes-Benz
I find the nightclub is full of actors
Basically, a lot of different people want to have sex with me
And I mean A LOT
I fear change
Xzibit is preparing a marijuana cigarette
I am very good at interpretive dance
Gunshot injuries have had no effect on my gait
(via @dansays)
Is Courtney Love getting her life together?
On Monday night, at a screening of the movie “Due Date,” Courtney Love told a reporter from Style.com that she was trying to take better care of herself.
Or, perhaps not:
Shortly after 8 p.m., Ms. Love burst into the room with the Marchesa dress slung on one arm and the noted German Neo-Expressionist artist Anselm Kiefer on the other. She was entirely naked and leaning on Mr. Kiefer for support. She made one lap around the room, walking in front of a photographer, an assistant, a hairstylist and me. She pulled over her head a transparent lace dress that covered up nothing, and demanded my assistance — “Not you,” she said to Mr. Kiefer, who was bent over trying to help her — to stuff her feet into a pair of black Givenchy heels that were zipped up the back and tied with delicate laces in the front. Then she applied a slash of red lipstick in the vicinity of her mouth.
“I really must get out of here,” Mr. Kiefer said.
“Just a minute,” Ms. Love said, as she pushed her feet, shoes and all, through a pair of pink knickers that she said cost $4,000. She grabbed a trench coat, walked through the hotel lobby with her breasts exposed to an assortment of prominent fashion figures, including Stefano Pilati, the Yves Saint Laurent designer, and then exited the hotel.
Like Ms. Love, this profile of her is anything but boring.
Not in Love
In heavy rotation in iTunes this week: Crystal Castles’ “Not in Love” featuring vocals by Robert Smith of The Cure.
AC/DC’s Thunderstruck on the Bagpipes
The only way this could be better is with Brian Johnson’s vocals stitched in there.
Jay-Z’s empire
If this profile of Jay-Z in the WSJ is any indication, the guy doesn’t seem to have any problems anymore.
In his office, by a coffee table stacked with art books (Damien Hirst, Ed Ruscha), his Forbes magazine and a humidor, he perches on the edge of a chair with his fingers tucked into his pockets. He says he’ll always rap about variations on the same themes: drug hustling, business boasts, luxury hopscotching from Gucci to Louis Vuitton to the new Dior suit he says is a perfect fit. They’re all narrative devices:
“I’m just describing a scene, but the crux of the story is the message. Almost like a movie. Setting: South of France. This is what’s happening. This guy from out the projects who didn’t graduate from high school is now living this sort of life. And this is how he got here.”
Fallon and Timberlake give rap history lesson
This is the best thing you’ll see all day. Please just watch:
The Beastie Boys and Eminem stuff killed me. Who knew Fallon could sing? (via @hodgman)
Socials & More