Stevie Wonder, Superstition
Stevie Wonder performs Superstition on Sesame Street in 1972. (via sfj, who says “If I ever saw a band this good on stage, I would eat several hats and wire money to twelve senators.”)
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Unreleased 1972 Rolling Stones movie on YouTube
In 1972, Robert Frank followed The Rolling Stones on their tour of North America and made a film called Cocksucker Blues. The title referenced a song written by the band as a fuck-you to their outgoing record label. The film was never released but bootleg copies exist…and a copy has inevitably found it’s way onto YouTube in nine parts (93 minutes total).
Part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, and part nine.
The quality is not very good but for hardcore Stones and music fans, it’s probably worth a look if you haven’t seen it. NSFW.
Radio program on The Ring Cycle
Speaking of leitmotifs, it’s a primary topic of conversation in this wonderful WNYC radio program about Richard Wagner’s quartet of operas, The Ring Cycle.
It might seem hyperbole to claim, as many Wagnerites do, that The Ring Cycle is “The Greatest Work of Art Ever.” But the grandeur and power of this monumental work have permeated our culture from Star Wars to Bugs Bunny to J.R.R. Tolkien.
And Led Zeppelin! The program is hosted by Radio Lab’s Jad Abumrad. (thx, billy & laura)
Muxtape and the RIAA
Muxtape finally runs afoul of the RIAA.
Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA.
Update: On their blog, Muxtape emphasizes that the outage is temporary:
No artists or labels have complained. The site is not closed indefinitely. Stay tuned.
Michael Phelps’ iPod
Before each race during the Olympics, Michael Phelps is seen sporting those ubiquitous white iPod earbuds. But what’s he listening to? A lot of rap and hip hop.
Masturbation songs
The top nine songs about masturbation. Includes the obvious I Touch Myself by The Divinyls and some less-obvious songs. (via buzzfeed)
Delia Derbyshire’s electronica
Working in the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop, Delia Derbyshire recorded the Doctor Who theme song in 1963 but also came up with a piece of electronica in the late 60s that sounds like it was recorded in the mid-90s.
Ms Derbyshire was well-known for favouring the use of a green metal lampshade as a musical instrument and said she took some of her inspiration from the sound of air raid sirens, which she heard growing up in Coventry in the Second World War.
(via overstated)
Update: Derbyshire arranged and recorded the Doctor Who theme song but didn’t write it. Ron Grainer did. (thx, kevin & pete)
Radiohead and Google, together at last
Radiohead + Google + data visualization + lasers = I am contractually obligated to post this. Google has the backstory and some code for Radiohead’s new music video, which was “filmed” using lasers instead of cameras. (via jimray)
World’s first album cover
The world’s first album cover was designed by Alex Steinweiss for Columbia Records in 1938. Before that, records were sold in generic sleeves. (via quipsologies)
Internet’s impact on media
One of my friends proposed a theory I find compelling: Our cultural consumption exists on a spectrum from “individual” to “collective”. Technology has shifted the balance for both books and music. Digital distrbitution and the iPod have made music consumption much more individualistic, while the internet and global branding have made book consumption increasingly collective.
(via short schrift)
Remixed album covers
CandyKaraoke, a bunch of album covers reimagined by Irish artists. (via ffffound)
Middle Ages survival song
A singer/songwriter named Hillel took the survival tips for the Middle Ages threads from Marginal Revolution & kottke.org and made them into a song called 1000 A.D. Deliciously nerdy.
I did my best to capture as many of the best comments as possible but 3:26 isn’t a huge canvas. I’m particularly sad that I never figured out a way to mention how bad the people must have smelled, or my plan to get rich selling soap.
Amazon MP3 preorders
Idea for Amazon regarding their MP3 store: allow people to pre-order MP3s and when they’re available for download, send out an email to that effect. For instance, the new Sigur Ros album is out on June 24. A page for the MP3 album exists but it’s difficult to find and while you can preview tracks, you can’t pre-order the album.
Sasha Frere-Jones on Auto-Tune
Sasha Frere-Jones on Auto-Tune, the studio gizmo responsible for the cool/cheesy voice effects in Cher’s Believe and, more recently, most of T-Pain’s work.
T-Pain, who is currently working on his third album, “Thr33 Ringz,” spoke to me on the phone from his studio in Miami. He first heard the Auto-Tune effect on a song by Jennifer Lopez — he doesn’t remember which one — and borrowed it for a mixtape appearance in 2003. He says it’s no trade secret that he uses Auto-Tune with the retune speed set to zero, and likes to recall a time he spent selling fish out of a truck with his father in Tallahassee: “My dad said, ‘They can know what you’re using, but they’ll never know how to use it. They can see that we’re using salt and pepper.’”
Frere-Jones demonstrates how Auto-Tune works in a short audio segment. Anil Dash wrote about Auto-Tune in the context of Snoop Dogg’s recent Sensual Seduction video. A free Auto-Tune clone called GSnap is available for free.
I uploaded a few of Auto-Tune’s greatest hits to my Muxtape: have a listen.
Radiohead’s Nude played by old computer hardware
An inventive cover version of Radiohead’s Nude played by the following instruments: Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer, Epson dot matrix printer, HP Scanjet scanner, and an array of hard drives. Skip ahead to 1:08 if you can’t wait through the opening. This isn’t the correct technological time period to be steampunk. Bitpunk anyone? (via waxy)
Radiohead on iTunes
After months/years of the band putting the kibosh on it, Radiohead albums are finally available through iTunes. (The albums have been available at Amazon’s MP3 store for months.)
New Sigur Ros
New Sigur Rós album out on June 24.
the album title is translated into english as “with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly” with the english spelling of the icelandic album title being “med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust”
Like the Rolling Stones
Fantastic collection of photos by James Mollison of music fans who tend to dress like their idols. A book featuring the photos is due out in October.
Over a three-year period, James Mollison attended pop concerts across Europe and the United States with a mobile photography studio, inviting fans of each music star or band to pose for a portrait on their way into the concert. The result is The Disciples, an original and highly entertaining series of fifty-seven panoramic images, each featuring eight to ten music fans mimicking the manners and dress of their particular heroes. Featuring fans of Dolly Parton, Iggy Pop, Madonna, Marilyn Manson, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Snoop Dogg, and Motorhead, among many others, The Disciples is a surprising, sharp, and hilarious take on popular culture.
(via waxy)
Outside the album cover
The b3ta folk explore what happens just outside the border of some well-known album covers. The Simon and Garfunkel and Pink Floyd/Kool-Aid ones are pretty good.
Lost in a taxi
A short list of items lost in taxi cabs and how they were returned.
Thierry Belisha and Haimy Mann, jewelers from Montreal, left a suitcase full of diamonds and other gems in the back of a cab they took to La Guardia Airport after a show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Mr. Belisha, an Orthodox Jew, called several rabbi friends in Israel and asked them to pray for him, prayers that were answered when Hossam Abdalla, a Muslim cabdriver, found Mr. Belisha’s business card in the trunk and returned the suitcase (with all the gems).
The list is a sidebar to the story about a cabbie’s return of a $4 million Stradivarius to its owner and subsequent concert performed in the Newark airport taxi holding area, a delightful piece of reporting.
But despite the setting — or maybe because of it — Mr. Quint’s audience seemed particularly moved by his gesture. “I like that he came here,” Ebenezer Sarpeh, 46, said, in the accent of his native Ghana. “And, yeah, the music, I like it.” It was Mr. Sarpeh who burst into spontaneous applause on several occasions and started yelling “magic fingers” during one particularly deft moment. Later, he took a turn in front of the stage and his fellow cabdrivers laughed and cheered while he shimmied and moonwalked, the Newark Taxi Cab Association’s answer to Justin Timberlake.
100 essential jazz albums
David Remnick lists the top 100 essential jazz albums. Caveat:
I thought it might be useful to compile a list of a hundred essential jazz albums, more as a guide for the uninitiated than as a source of quarrelling for the collector.
The list is a companion piece to Remnick’s article on jazz DJ Phil Schapp.
Sad Kermit
A sad Kermit the Frog sings Elliot Smith’s Needle in the Hay (complete with The Royal Tenenbaums parody), NIN’s Hurt, and Radiohead’s Creep (in which Kermit says “fucking”). (via buzzfeed)
How to synchronize five metronomes
How to synchronize 5 metronomes. If you only watch one metronome video in your life, make it this one.
Mister Disc is a portable record player,
Mister Disc is a portable record player, like a Walkman or iPod for phonographs. There’s only 12 easy steps to listening to your favorite LPs on the go.
Careful reading the instructions will assure you of many hours of enjoyment from your new Mister Disc.
Whoever greenlit this thing must have been high at the time. (via episode #59 of Starcade)
A suggestion from the inbox: watch the
A suggestion from the inbox: watch the fascinatingly disturbing eagle vs. goats video with a soundtrack of Juan Diego Flórez’s encore-inducing tenor solo. Two great links that taste great together. (thx, andrew & rueben)
Update: The mash-up is now on YouTube…no separate soundtrack needed. (thx, james)
Did you know that there was a
Did you know that there was a ban on solo encores at the Metropolitan Opera? Not anymore. After Juan Diego Flórez busted out nine flawless high Cs in a tenor solo, the reaction from the audience compelled the singer into the first solo encore at the Met since 1994.
Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said on Tuesday that he had asked Mr. Flórez weeks ago whether he would be prepared to repeat the aria, if the audience demanded. Mr. Fl’orez had already done so at other houses, including the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where last year he became the first to violate an encore ban since 1933.
Mr. Flórez agreed to Mr. Gelb’s request, and the orchestra and chorus were warned. A system was established. Mr. Gelb kept an open line on the phone in his box to the stage manager. After the explosive reaction he gave the stage manager the go-ahead. The manager activated a podium light for the conductor, Marco Armiliato. Mr. Armiliato held out a questioning two fingers to Mr. Flórez. “He just smiled, and that means ‘Yes,’ ” the conductor said.
Flórez nailed all nine Cs in the encore too. The mp3 of the performance is a thrilling listen.
I’m really enjoying M83’s new album,
I’m really enjoying M83’s new album, Saturdays = Youth; it’s somehow both 80s retro and not. The AV Club gave the album an A and Metacritic gives it a rating of 69.
Two unrelated things:
- amazon.com/mp3 is a quick way to get to the Amazon MP3 store.
- The vast majority of the recent album releases rated by Metacritic are in the “generally favorable reviews” category. A few are rated “universal acclaim” or “mixed or average reviews” and only one is “generally negative”. Compare that to the ratings for recently released movies, which are much lower on average. Do people demand higher quality from their music than movies? Or is so much music produced (compared to movies) that the only albums worth compiling reviews for are the good ones?
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