Indablog

Hurry Now, Only 9 Days Left!

Indaba Music — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

The Darla Farmer re-mix contest is winding down and you've only got 9 more days to enter the contest, remix the tracks and submit your entries. The prize is pretty sweet, too...

After the Indaba community nominates the top three finalists for each
song, Darla Farmer and the guys from Paper Garden Records will choose
two remixes to appear on their upcoming album! The winning artists will
receive royalties from all album sales. Additionally, the winner will
receive a free copy of the album as well as two tickets to an upcoming
Darla Farmer concert.

Royalties, baby! That's free money forever! So quit twiddling your thumbs and get remixing. best of all, you have two tracks to choose from: "History " and "Tommy Bones. "

Guest Spot: Joe S.

Indaba Music — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

From Joe S.'s Blog

Morphing: Godley and Creme and Beyond

There were many musical firsts in the 80's that seem to revolve around friends of producer Trevor Horn (who shows on the last "cry" in the video). Whether it is Yes and the
Art of Noise with the use of sampling, or being the first video on MTV,
Trevor and his friends were innovators. In this post we have his
friends Godley and Creme (of 10cc) and their video "Cry". It was the
first to explore morphing as a visual effect.

Being talented and successful songwriters Godley and Creme were also
responsible for producing some of the 80's best music videos, including
The Police's "Every Breath You Take", "Wrapped Around Your Finger",
"Synchronicity II", Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", Duran
Duran's "Girls On Film" and "A View to a Kill", and George Harrison's
"When We Was Fab".

Their experiment in morphing inspired and culminated in Micheal Jackson's masterful "Black and White" . I'd love to have it in the set but the Jackson Mafia has disallowed
embedding on all of the video sites. I think Michael takes morphing
waaaay too personally anyway.

The Monday (Tuesday) Showdown

Indaba Music — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Due to some technical issues I couldn't get you guys your daily dose of argument on Monday, but have no fear, I'm bringing it to you now. Last week we examined two TV show theme songs - Full House and Family matters - in an effort to determine which was better. This week we're going to try the same thing, only let's make it a little more childish, shall we? As a kid there were two cartoons that really stuck out as taking the same plot, the same kind of characters and the same sense of humor but situating them in opposite time periods. I speak of course about The Flintstones and The Jetsons. Both are iconic, both are widely loved, but one has to have a better theme song. Watch both and weigh in in the comments.

Never Gonna KISS You Up

Indaba Music — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

I was fooled by this for a second. Whoever made this fake-cover video did a pretty great job. Enjoy.

Hey Hey, YouTube, You Owe Me Some Money

Indaba Music — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

Punk(ish) singer Avril Lavigne is about to get a whole bunch richer. The Canadian pop-rocker has wracked about $2 million in YouTube revenue from plays on her videos. Her video for "Girlfriend" currently holds the number 2 spot on YouTube's most viewed list with a staggering 92,585,577 views. That's almost 1/3 of the US population (although I get a sense that many a 14 year-old boy may have watched more than once). Either way, according to PaidContent.org , this entitles Lavigne to around $2 million in shared revenue.

Avril Lavigne is set to score a big pay day thanks to YouTube revenue.
Her Nettwerk Management CEO Terry McBride told MusicTank’s Face To Face With The Millennials in London today: ”There’s about a $2 million cheque waiting for her for all her YouTube plays .” The YouTube video for Lavigne’s Girlfriend track is nearing a mammoth million views after a coordinated fan campaign . Next up, Nettwerk is targeting the Far-East: “We will start a Mandarin website (for Lavigne) with Mandarin ads and we will make a ****load of money , because 40 percent of her intellectual property value comes from Asia.”

Course language aside, it sounds like McBride certainly knows the online distribution game. Or maybe it's just that people enjoy watching music videos. A quick glimpse at YouTube's most viewed listing shows a majority of the clips on there are music videos . It's nice to know that YouTube, briefly thought to be a revenue drain for musicians, is now showing itself capable of generating significant cash flow. When God shuts one window (CDs) He open another (The Internet).

And now, for old time's sake, here is the video that made a rich girl even richer.

Guest Spot: Joe S.

Indaba Music — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

From Joe S.'s Blog

Singing Stars

You've heard of seeing stars right? Well I was seeing them sing this
morning. This video set is about a group of actors who are also known
for their ventures into music. Here is Zooey Deschanel (from Elf. The New Guy
etc. with She and Him), joining the ranks of Jack Black (with tenatious d), the Hasselhoff,
and, of course, Shatner.

Enjoy!

Adam Nussbaum Gets Props

Indaba Music — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

Indaban and noted jazz drummer, Adam Nussbaum , scored a nice review in JazzTimes Magazine for Standards by the Nuttree Quartet (Nussbaum's group). Let's give it a read, shall we?

Standards are the lingua franca of jazz, a shared lexicon that puts
musicians—and their audiences—on common ground. But they also present a
challenge that, while frequently attempted, is not always met: how to
place a unique stamp on a tune everybody knows without sacrificing its
beauty or timelessness. Standards thus represent a chance to bring
craftsmanship to the foreground or, in the best cases, to break through
the rigid boundaries of expectation and display true artistry.

The all-star Nuttree Quartet rises to the occasion admirably, warping
Tin Pan Alley and modern jazz classics with casual ease, balancing
winking subversion with heartfelt affection for the material. Drummer
Adam Nussbaum assembled the group and provides its spark,
enthusiastically tossing rhythms about and giving every number a joyous
propulsion. Jerry Bergonzi displays introspective tension and bluesy
release on tenor sax, while guitarist John Abercrombie adds a laid-back
but elusive, free-floating quality that creates a kind of levitation.
The wild card here is Gary Versace, who keeps things off balance with
Hammond B3 organ lines that are playful, ominous and offbeat.

Taken together, the results surprise and delight. Duke Ellington’s
gospel-based “Come Sunday” becomes a gentle road song, Wayne Shorter’s
“Footprints” a snazzy romp. “All or Nothing at All” picks up a
detached, almost steely mien, while a brilliantly moving “Naima” evokes
autumn breezes rustling through fallen leaves. It’s a fine ride that
encourages repeated listening.

Read it in context

Congrats, Adam! It's certainly well-deserved. And hey, if any of you other Indabans feel like sharing your good reviews (or your bad ones) please send them over to me at Streeter@IndabaMusic.com .

Feist Hits Rock Bottom

Indaba Music — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

"Ugh, can you believe how dumb the new version of this song is?"

- The World's Stupidest Person

The Mariah Remix Contest Is Live!

Indaba Music — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:05:00 -0500

It's a great day to be an Indaban. Why? Because you now have a chance to A) collaborate on a Mariah Carey track, B) win $5,000 if your mix is the best and C) have Mariah Carey know who you are! That's right, guys and gals, Island/Def Jam Records has posted the individual tracks from Mariah's new single, "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" and we want you to take a crack at remixing them the best you can. You'll have from today until August 28th to complete your remix, at which point voting will commence and continue until September 12th. After that, the top 10 finalists from the voting period will be judged by an all-star panel consisting of Mark Sudack (co-executive producer of E=MC2), Kerri Mason (Dance Columnist, Billboard), and our very own Mantis Evar (who needs no introduction).

The grand prize package will include $5,000 cash, the winning remix posted on Mariah's official website, www.MariahCarey.com , her record label’s website, www.IslandRecords.com , and MySpace page, www.MySpace.com/MariahCarey , and the winning remixer featured as Mariah's 'Top Friend' on MySpace for one month. The second prize winner will receive an MBox 2 Protools LE recording system, courtesy of the contest sponsor Sweetwater . All ten finalists will win a signed copy of E=MC².

I don't need to tell you this is a great opportunity to not only get your name out there, but to work with a tune (that is quickly climbing the charts) by the best selling female artist of all-time.. So stop reading and start remixing! Head on over to IndabaMusic.com/MariahRemix and get to work. Good luck!

Oh, and if you want to share any of that 5 grand, I'm totally down...

The Monday Showdown

Indaba Music — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Welcome back to another week, Indabans. It was a lovely weekend here in New York and I hope you had a nice one wherever it is that you are. But enough with the pleasantries, let's get down to business. Now, last week the topic was boring but precise musicians vs crazy yet inaccurate musicians and you guys didn't seem to like that one. So this week we're going to change it up and argue about something that has been at the root of so many debates I think I've lost track. Which theme song was better: Full House or Family Matters. Yes, they were written by the same guy - a fella named Jesse Frederick, who also composed the Step By Step and Perfect Strangers theme songs - but one has to be better than the other. Give them each a listen and let fly in the comments.

Why I Love Weezer

Indaba Music — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:06:00 -0500

Aside from their extensive collection of fantastic songs, they just seem like cool guys. Need proof? How about this: Weezer cover's Radiohead's "Creep" with a ton - a ton - of amateur musicians. How cool is that, indeed. (Watch out for one f-bomb in there)

This reminds me of another one of my favorite videos. It's fake-band Spinal Tap playing "Big Bottom" live at Live Earth with every bass player from the festival.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Money Means Nothing

Indaba Music — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

was walking around the other day just reflecting on my younger years when it struck me how silly and bloated the music video industry was when I was coming of age. I hit my prime teen years around 1998, right when the boy band movement was beginning to grip the nation. I remember new videos from Backstreet Boys and N'Sync being like big movie premieres, with everyone talking about how awesome they were the next day at school. I always thought they were kind of cheesy and now, with my hindsight at full 20/20 I can see that the inkling of cheese I felt as a teenager was well informed. I won't pontificate on why they were so bad; I'll just show you an example of one and then show you an example of a modern video that hit with equal impact. The differences should be clear enough.

Here is Backstreet Boy's "Larger Than Life," which most people considered a masterpeice when it came out. (click through to watch)

And here is Feist's "1 2 3 4," which I consider to be the best video of last year.

Guest Spot: Matt Siegel

Indaba Music — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

From Matt Siegel's Blog

Plants Can Make Music Too

Yes, yes they can. This story (via Create Digital Music) chronicles an amazing sound installation in Scotland that automatically
produces music in response to changing environmental factors associated
with plant life in a greenhouse.

A composition for plants, yangqin, bamboo robot and robotic
chimes, Three Pieces is designed as a collaboration between robots,
traditional instruments, and living things, housed in Victorian Palm
House of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. A traditional Chinese
dulcimer is played by a robot with many bamboo fingers while the
surrounding foliage hides an ensemble of robotic chimes. Despite being
separate individuals, the robots communicate and perform together. The
robot performers are conducted by all the living things in the Palm
House. The moisture content of the soil changes slowly as the plants
absorb water, while on a much faster timescale, the temperature changes
in the building as animals, including humans, move about. The
installation detects this living presence in the Palm House and the
music changes accordingly. The robots react to humans, but their mood
alters with the plants.

The robots and plants are taking over. Maybe they're mad that we've
been killing all of them for so long (the plants, not the robots).

THREE PIECES sound installation from Ziggy Campbell on Vimeo.

Jack White Hearts Detroit

Indaba Music — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Many great musicians pen love poems to the cities that birthed their talents and i appears Jack White, of the White Stripes, is no different. TheDailySwarm got their hands on a poem penned by the singer and devoted to the Motor City. It's called 'Courageous Dream's Concern.'

‘Courageous Dream’s Concern,’ by Jack White

I have driven slow,
three miles an hour or so,
through Highland Park, Heidelberg, and the
Cass Corridor.
I’ve hopped on the Michigan,
and transferred to the Woodward,
and heard the good word blaring from an
a.m. radio.
I love the worn-through tracks of trolley
trains breaking through their
concrete vaults,
As I ride the Fort Street or the Baker,
just making my way home.

I sneak through an iron gate, and fish
rock bass out of the strait,
watching the mail boat with
its tugboat gait,
hauling words I’ll never know.
The water letter carrier,
bringing prose to lonely sailors,
treading the big lakes with their trailers,
floats in blue green chopping waters,
above long-lost sunken failures,
awaiting exhumation iron whalers,
holding gold we’ll never know.

More at TheDailySwarm

Guest Spot: Joe S.

Indaba Music — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

From Joe S.'s Blog

The Producers: Axwell

I'm a little late on my happy Monday post. The 4th of July weekend
got me a tad behind all the way around. I had carnivals, fireworks, and
a live jam in the garden.

This video set is a group of songs tweaked by producer Axwell.
Axwell (born Axel Hedfors) is a DJ, remixer, record producer and record
label owner from Stockholm, Sweden.

Although his years behind the decks began in the late 1990s at many
gay clubs, his profile got larger when he teamed up with Robbie Rivera
and vocalist Suzan Brittan to record "Burning." The collaboration went
to number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 2004.

In late 2004 Axwell released another global hit, "Feel The Vibe",
which was re-released under Ministry of Sound in 2005 with added vocals
from Tara McDonald as "Feel The Vibe ('Til The Morning Comes).

Axwell has been producing remixes for other artists - recent mixes
have included Usher's "Burn" (BMG), Room 5's "Make Luv" (Positiva),
Clipse & Faith Evans "Ma, I Don’t Love Her" (RCA), Stonebridge's
"Put 'Em High" (Hed Kandi), N*E*R*D's single "Maybe" (Virgin), and more
recently Hard-Fi's "Hard To Beat", Deep Dish's "Dreams", Pharrell
Williams' "Angel", Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" and Madonna's "Jump".

This set includes Axwell's "I Found You", "Feel The Vibe" and his remix of Sunfreakz "Counting Down The Days".

So now that it's Monday evening and we're all limbered up, maybe we can keep up with Axwell's dancers. Uh right....

Happy day.

REMINDER: Remix Contest Still Accepting Submissons

Indaba Music — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Hey Indabans. Just a quick reminder to enter our latest remix contest by July 14th at 11:59 PM. This time a real prize is on the line - the chance to create the theme music for our podcast. We've - well, Josh and Dan - have been working hard to line-up quality guests and we need some kicking theme music to along with the show. You're remixing samples from one of our favorite bands, Jukebox the Ghost, who were cool enough to let us use their tracks free of charge.

Now there are already a bunch of great submissions but I know you've got a burning desire to try your hand at it as well. So, stop messing around and start messing around with these tracks. Who knows, you just make have your name on the theme music for the most popular podcast in IndabaMusic history! (you also get an iPod shuffle)

SHOES!

Indaba Music — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

You guys know I like funny videos, right? Well, this is one of my favorites. It's a character named Kelly, played by LA actor/comedian, Liam Sullivan. Enjoy the weirdness, along with the other 18 million people who have watched it. (Click through to watch, strong language)

VICTORY!

Indaba Music — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Have you ever heard a song on TV or in a movie and thought, "Hmmm, I'd sure like to buy that." I do all the time, only the majority of the time I can't find the name of the tune or even an artist. I rely on hastily thrown together and rarely updates fan sites for such things and, usually, they're missing some sort of crucial bit of information which prevents me from finding the song. Except today, that is.

I first heard this song in an episode of The OC. I checked every fansite I could find and, even though most of them were great, none seemed to be able to name this song. It also wasn't on any of the OC Mixes the show would put out every season. I was heartbroken. The tune was haunting; a mix of folky guitar with melodc, layered vocals. I had to have it.

Flash forward two years to this morning. I was laying in bed, idly enjoying some Friday Night Lights I had downloaded a few weeks ago. BAM, the songs pops up again. This time the fansites were more generous and identified the song as "Eyes" by Rouge Wave (it's great, by the way. You should all listen to it).

Anyway, this is a rather long way of suggesting that IMDB or some similar site cataloging movies and TV add a song section to clear up this problem for me and anyone else who likes music. The soundtracks for these shows are planned out long in advance and there's no reason they couldn't have accurate, up-to-date info. So, come on, IMDB, help me out?

Guest Spot: Kevin Sweeney

Indaba Music — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

From Kevin Sweeney's Blog

Status Report: It's been six months now since I got my little friend, the Boss 600 digital recorder. During those six months I've invented FlyinAmbeR and written and recorded a 10 song album. (Wistful thinking bit: what might have been if I'd had this little gizmo years ago.....?)

The songs, I think, are good...a couple very good; the recording and mixing is improving but still rough around the edges. The voice, having been ruined by smoking and years of singing in smoky dives, is probably not strong enough for gigging but can still do the business in short bursts.

Highlight so far - featured artist on XFM Scotland with "Simply To See" being played on Martin Bate's show back in May.

Where to now? Dunno. Be nice if some young band picked up on the songs and covered them.

By the way, I'd like to encourage all of you guys to blog about what kind of equipment you're using. There's no better way to hear about new gear or new programs than by word of mouth or, in this case, word of blog.

The Monday Showdown

Indaba Music — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Welcome back, Indabans. I hope you all had a lovely 4th of July. I myself threw a big BBQ at my apartment and only finished cleaning it up late Sunday evening. God bless our gluttonous land. Any who, let's get back to the matter at hand: arguing about music. Now, last week we talked about busy drummers and busy bassists. I myself tend to find a busy bassist more grating, but a strong case can be made for drummers who don't know when to play a solid beat. And that's what we're going to argue about this week. So, I want to know, when you see a band, which do you prefer: a group that plays pitch perfect, precision renditions of their songs or a band that gets a little crazy on stage at the cost of quality. I've seen both variations - bands that perform perfect yet slightly-mundane live shows and bands that go, forgive the language, balls to the wall, yet might miss a chord change or two. So, what do you prefer: boring precision or crazy inaccuracy? Let em rip in the comments.

Happy 4th of July

Indaba Music — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

For any American Indabans on the site, happy Independence Day! For those of you who don't know, on July 4th, 1776, the US declared independence from Great Britain and we've been flying solo ever since (very solo lately, sadly). So, enjoy the long weekend and enjoy this Randy Newman song written during the Cold War (although it's just as applicable today). We may not be having the best time in this country right now, but we can at least have a sense of humor about it, right? A sense of humor is important, surely, but what's more important is that a few hundred years ago a lot of brave men fought so that we could stop spelling it 'humour.'

Lost Beatles Interview Discovered

Indaba Music — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Great news for my mom and anyone else who grew up loving The Beatles, a lost interview has been discovered in a garage. From the BBC...

For 44 years a canister of film had been stored in a damp garage in South London; unopened, unloved and almost thrown away. But, finally, somebody took a look inside - and realised they had unearthed a piece of pop history. This is the story of a lost Beatles interview - which is to be
broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday for the first time since it was
originally recorded.

The nine-minute interview took place in the studios of Scottish Television on Thursday, 30 April, 1964. It was thought to have been recorded on a tele-cine machine in
London, and stored in a can, now rusted with the passing of decades. Which makes it all the more remarkable that the fragile film has survived at all.

Click To Listen

Guest Spot: Joe S.

Indaba Music — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

From Joe S.'s Blog

There is a meme called RickRoll going around the video posting sites
which is about posting video with people lip synching to Rick Astley
songs. A meme (pronounced /miːm/) consists of any unit of cultural
information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally
or by repeated action from one mind to another. A recent on called
"2 Girls, 1 Cup" highlights the depths which people will stoop to
have their 15 minutes of noteriety. I wouldn't suggest looking
for it because the premise is just gross.

Some believe the Rick Astley one was inspired by this episode from
The Family Guy where Brian "performs" his magic on "Never Gonna Give
You Up".

Enjoy!

BitTorent Seeders Beware

Indaba Music — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

BitTorrent, the service that allows you to illegally download, well, anything could get a young man in quite a heap of trouble. From an article on ArsTechnica...

The MPAA has won a jury conviction for criminal copyright infringement,
opening the doors to many more cases like it in the future. A federal
jury convicted 26-year-old Daniel Dove for both felony copyright
infringement as well as conspiracy, the US Department of Justice
announced on Friday. Dove, the last remaining administrator of
EliteTorrents.com who did not plead guilty, now faces up to 10 years in
prison.

The case goes all the way back to 2005, when investigators raided
EliteTorrents and shut the site down with the help of the MPAA. At the
time, EliteTorrents was one of the most popular Bit Torrent trackers
around and had gained notoriety for making available prerelease movies
like Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Search warrants were served on 10 people in the US and the site admins immediately faced criminal charges.

FULL ARTICLE

I post this here not to debate the merits of jailing someone for leaking copyrighted material, but to warn anyone out there - and, let's face it, there are a lot - to be careful what uploads you make available through services like BitTorrent. Good thing Indaba is 100% legal!

What Do jay-Z and a Drunk Me Have in Common?

Indaba Music — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:00:00 -0500

Here is Jay-Z starting his set at Glastonbury over the weekend with, of all songs, "Wonderwall" by Oasis. The rap great sort-of sings along to the actual track and seems to have a good time in the process. It's refreshing to know that no matter how talented Jay-Z may be as a rapper, businessman and entrepreneur, he and a drunk-me sing this song essentially the same way.

Is The Live Album Dead?

Indaba Music — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500

A journalist at The Independent has declared the live album dead! Say it aint so!

Well, apparently it is. It's no secret that the live album as an art form is not what it used to be. As the author notes, back in the day a live album could send a relatively unknown musician into the stratosphere of stardom (See: Peter Frampton). These days though, we rarely see a live album that isn't accompanied by a live DVD. And, as the author also notes, these live DVDs rarely have the magic of a show when you take the images away. Thank God for the Internet!

It is time to say farewell to some of the greatest albums ever made, albums
that made careers, defined genres, and celebrated the raw power of music.
Because the live album, once a rite of passage for every act of substance,
is dead.

Yes, some bands may still make live albums: Muse, in particular, have released
three live sets in a career of just four studio albums, but they are the
exception. And just as there is no such thing as radio with pictures – it
becomes television – then the live DVD is different from the live album. The
visuals overwhelm the music, the spectacle takes over, and the sound loses
its primacy.

Read the Full Article

NYC Punk

Indaba Music — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

New York Magazine - not to be confused with the more literary New Yorker magazine - has a great article on the remnants of the punk scene on New York's St. Marks Place (a street in the East Village area of New York City, for you out-of-towners). The article follows a few punk kids around for a few days and offers a fascinating look at a culture that had already died and has only been resurrected by those searching for the dead one.

We're first taught about the various kinds of punks you'll find hanging out on St. Marks at any point during the summer: gutter punks, MySpace punks, hippy punks, etc. All are essentially homeless (well, all the real ones, anyway), spending their nights squatting and their days drinking and doing drugs. At one point in the story, one punk is arrested for smoking weed and the big concern among his friends after he's hauled away to jail is the fact that he was the only one who knew where the punk show was that night. As the article points out, all these wayward kids descend on St. Marks looking for the famous filth and squalor that made the street famous among punks in the 80's. Of course, now there's a Chipotle on St. Marks and that scene is as dead as Sid and Nancy. However, the sheer number of punks coming to the street looking for that scene have created it all over again.

Of course, underneath the clothes, tats and binging, is the music. The punks interviewed in the article all claim a love of the music, but it seems secondary to their enjoyment of drugs and alcohol. Perhaps the author of the article chose not to focus on the music or perhaps it isn't really that important to them, and the idea of the scene is a larger concern. Who knows? Then again, punk was never really about the music. Sid Vicious couldn't even play bass, after all.

Anyway, go read about one of the strangest scenes in the country: Punks Like Them.

The Monday Showdown

Indaba Music — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Happy Monday, everyone. It's a fresh week and we're ready to argue. Last week we talked about bands either rushing a release to satisfy fans and bands holding music for years, endlessly tinkering and tweaking, before releasing an album. This week, let's continue to talk about bands, but this time the less famous kind. For many years, playing in and seeing various amateur bands, I observed two awful kinds of bandmates: busy drummers and busy bass players. A lot of drummers and bassists in amateur band forget that their charge is to enhance the music being played, not to play over the rest of the band. Busy drummers provide endless fills while barely creating a beat for the rest of the band to follow along with. Busy bass players inject what should be simple, solid bass lines with slap accents or runs up and down the fret board. I imagine that every busy drummer thinks he's Keith Moon and every busy bass player thinks he's Flea. Of course, Moon and Flea played in bands where their wild style enhanced the songs; no these kids. So, which is worse: a drummer who doesn't know when to just play a simple beat or a bass player who can't control his desire to be the lead guitarist? Leave you answer in the comments...

Mix(tape) It Up

Indaba Music — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

Though I write for them occasionally, Metro - the free daily newspaper distributed on the New York Subway - isn't really a great paper for music news. However, today they ran a nice article taking a look at the various mixtape-influenced sites on the Internet. They discussed three sites in particular - seeqpod, muxtape and fuzz - giving each a short description and highlighting their various pros and cons. Now, I'm friends with Muxtape creator, Justin Oullette, so, naturally, I tend to think his is the best out there, but Metro does present some downsides to the super-simple design and functionality. It is difficult to find specific songs since the site is so personalized and it can be tough to gauge what tunes might be on a given muxtape thanks to fanciful names.

Seeqpod, on the other hand, is all about searching. It hunts the Internet for the songs you tell it to find. I think perhaps the author of this article has a rather loose definition of "mixtape" though, since seeqpod is more of a music search engine along the lines of G2P or TheHypeMachine. Fuzz is somewhere between the two. I'm sure, too, that they left many sites off the list, a testament to how fun the idea of online mixtapes are.

Anyway, go give the article a read if this at all interests you and play with each site to find the one - or none - best suited to your needs. By the way, you can catch my Muxtape at Streeter.Muxtape.com. Have a great weekend, everyone and, no matter how you do it, listen to more music.

Guest Spot: Joe S.

Indaba Music — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

From Joe S.'s blog (second great post this week, Joe!)

Sexy Subtlety

Call me old fashioned (or just dull) but is anyone else tired of the lack of subtlety in today's popular music?

I spend a lot of time with my teens. I'm pretty open about their
tastes and interests. A recent road trip gave opportunity to listen to
and talk about music. Due to the overwhelming popularity of Lil'
Wayne's song Lollipop we listened to it regularly about once every 40
minutes.

The radio plays the clean version yet anyone with even a limited
imagination can figure out what this song is about. I began thinking of
what was sexy and interesting about music as I was growing up. My mind
immediately went to Marvin Gaye. Admittedly I'm a fan, but in this
context his "subtlety" amazes me. Now back then it was anything but
subtle but it was classy. Well, you've got real class and then you've
got Lil' Wayne.

So what am I trying to say here...well to be blunt, most rap and hip
hop (which used to be culturally relevant) are mostly now only fluff
and braggadocio over killer beats. It's feels cheap and egocentric
exactly like sex without the foreplay.

Where Marvin Gaye is candles, wine and a hottub... Lollipop is four minutes of strip, rip and that's it!

In the immortal words of David Bowie - "Wam bamb thank you mame".

This video set is a comparison of Sexual Healing and the uncensored
version of Lollipop. And just to recover I've added a live performances
of Let's Get It On and I Want You.

Enjoy!

Not Perfect? Don't Worry About It.

Indaba Music — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

Anyone who has laid down a track at some point in their life knows how frustrating recording can be. Any little imperfection is cause for doing the whole track over again. I remember being in a studio and having to record a drum track over and over again because at some point in the song my stick would hit one of the rims. It's worse for guitar players, who hace six strings of tiny mistakes to make. Well, not anymore.

Matt pointed me to a New York Times article about a new kind of computer software that will take the work out of sounding pitch perfect.

MUSICIANS who want to create note-perfect digital recordings of their performances may soon have a powerful tool to help them: a computer program designed to correct mistakes in their piano riffs or guitar accompaniments as easily as software now fixes the red eyes in digital photographs.

The new software is precise enough, for instance, to reach into an audio file and change any one of the six notes in a guitar chord without changing the sound of the other notes, said Peter Neubäcker, inventor of the program and founder of Celemony Software, the Munich company that will sell it.

The software, called Direct Note Access, will be released in the fall and cost $399.

Part of me hates this program for taking yet another step in the 'you don't need to be good to sound good' direction, but then I remember all that time in the recording studio and I feel better about it. What do you guys think?

Chinese Democracy

Indaba Music — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Ask any Guns n' Roses fans what they've been waiting well over a decade for and they'll let you know it's not a reunion tour, it's an album. Namely, "Chinese Democracy," the oft-mentioned, never completed album Axl Rose has been working on for, oh, about 13 years. One fan finally had enough of waiting and somehow snagged 9 tracks from the album and posted them on a rock site Antiquiet.com.

I always said that the more that Axl and Geffen jerked around trying to
figure out how to release this finally finished album that we’ve all
been waiting over 13 years for, the greater the chances would be that
it would slip out of a pressing plant or office somewhere and wind up
in the hands of some ***hole with a blog. So… Hey, I told you so.

There you have it. Said blogger has released the tracks into the ether and their only an illegal download away. I personally haven't downloaded or listened to them but I'd be surprised if they weren't amazing. It's easy now to think of Axl Rose as an arrogant ass - and, to a degree, he is - but one quick trip through any of G n' R's albums ("The Spaghetti Incident," notwithstanding) will be a quick remind of just how good that band was. Whether you choose to steal it or wait for its release, it will be interesting to see what 13 years of work can do to an album.

Contest Alert!

Indaba Music — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Hey Indaba! We have a new contest up and running on the site and we want you to be a part of it (obviously). Anyway, we're starting to do a weekly podcast about music, the music industry and whatever else we think you guys might want to hear about (and, please, give us suggestions). However, as any good radio producer knows, a show is only as good as its theme song. Feel like taking a crack at making that theme song? If so, head over to the contest page and see what you can do with Jukebox the Ghost's song "Good Day." The song by itself is killer so we're all waiting to see what you guys can do with it. From the contest page...

We've provided some tracks to get you started (thanks to our good
friends Jukebox the Ghost). Your challenge is to create the most
interesting opening and closing music possible. Given the nature of our
podcast, we're looking for something simple and low-key.

With all the interesting people we've met through Indaba (record
label folk, producers, musicians, engineers, music tech companies,
etc.), we've had some intense discussions. We'd love to share them with
you, so we're inviting all our friends and neighbors to join us for a
weekly podcast discussion of all things music.

Check out our introductory podcast, an informal discussion with Indaba co-founders Mantis Evar, Matt Siegel, and Dan Zaccagnino. If you want more and you're an iTunes user, subscribe here. For all other readers, subscribe here.

So, what are you waiting for? Get remixing! Submissions end July 14th.

Guest Spot: Joe S.

Indaba Music — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

From Joe S.'s blog

Sonny J: Can't Stop Moving

This is a just plain groovy tune with a cool message.

Sonny J is the artist name of Sonnington James III, originally from
Liverpool and now living in Whitstable. His debut single, "Can't Stop
Moving" was brought out by Stateside Records in 2007. His second
single, was "Enfant Terrible" and third, "Handsfree (If You Hold My
Hand)", a cover of the 1972 Donna Hightower song, released on June 9,
2008. His debut album Disastro was released June 16.
Sonny J was discovered when an early demo version of "Can't Stop
Moving" was played on BBC Radio 1 and signed to EMI, who own the
Stateside record label.

I know...It's monday. But just think of the possibilities!

Illegal Endorsment

Indaba Music — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

In what is sure to be old news to any hip music consumer, Girl Talk - the handle of DJ Gregg Gillis - has released his latest mash-up masterpiece. Some fans are calling it a quick fix to appease his growing and rabid fanbase, but from a pure listening standpoint, this is one solid record. Listening to the record in order is like taking an 80-minute musical journey through all the songs you forgot you liked. It's far beyond your average mashup, in that each song sampled seems to be better than the original track and in that each layer adds something new to the mix. As with all great albums, you feel as though you're being told a story. What that story is, I haven't the faintest, but the album moves up and down in intensity, creating a feeling of forward movement and no, I'm not stoned right now. Questionable as it may be - Gillis doesn't pay licensing fees for his samples - it's worth a listen if just to see what one creative musical mind can do with other people's songs.

Download "Feed the Animals" by Girl Talk

Guitar Hero Instruments Released

Indaba Music — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero. Haven't we heard enough about this? NOPE! The franchise is taking a big swing at rival Rock Band by releasing their own "full band" version of the game: Guitar Hero World Tour. Formerly, Guitar Hero was just about rocking an axe, but then Rock Band came along with their fancy microphone and drum kit, offering a game more geared towards groups of people and parties. The big story - besides that fact that the Guitar Hero drumset has cymbals - is the instruments (the guitar specifically). Fans of the game await the release of instrument designs like nerds await the new version of Firefox. Here is a non-exclusive look at the new set of instruments that will be hitting living rooms shortly. From the IGN review of the game:

It's not just about playing classic songs either. World Tour lets you
become the rock star in every way possible -- from playing the tunes to
making the music itself. I got my first look at the next game in the
hit franchise and there's no doubt about it: I'm impressed. Neversoft
and Activision didn't sit on their laurels and pump out a cash-in
sequel. There's so much new here that it's tough to decide where to
begin.

The Monday Showdown

Indaba Music — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Good Monday, everyone! It's the start of the week and you know what that means...argument. We've been on a negativity kick lately and I have no intention of slowing that down. Last week we talked about too loud vs. too quiet at a concert. This week let's argue about two bad situations for a music consumer. When it comes to bands, they either seem to do one of two awful things when releasing records: taking too long or rushing one out. So, I want to know, which is worse from your point of view: a band spending years mastering and re-recording an album (a la "Chinese Democracy") or a band rushing a new album out to capitalize on the success of their former album (a la almost every album Britney Spears released). Let em rip in the comments...

Meet Bo Burnham, The Funniest 17 Year-Old in the World

Indaba Music — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

I'm sorry to post another video from my day job but this kid is amazing. He's a 17 year-old kid from Massachusetts named Bo Burnham who has crafted some of the freshest, funniest, most offensive and original songs I've heard in a long time. He's got an EP available on iTunes but he's cool enough to give most of his stuff away for free, via Internet videos. His wordplay and innate sense of rhythm are up there with some of the best MCs out there and when you throw in a cutting, witty sense of humor you've got an unbeatable formula. In short, I'm a huge fan of this kid and I think we'll be seeing a lot more of him. Most of his videos are a little too racy to post here (for strong language, not nudity) but I'll show you one of his lesser works. It's called "New Math" and I'm just a little too stupid to get all the jokes. Depending on how good you did in math you'll either find this hysterical or confounding.

If you want to experience Bo at his filthiest and funniest, swing over to CollegeHumor and watch "Bo Fo Sho" or "I'm Bo Yo." And hey, while we're talking academic rapping, enjoy another one of my favorite videos in that genre. It comes from a comedy duo called Barats & Bereta and has one of the best music jokes I've ever heard in song form (hint: it involves a coda).

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Face of Guitar Hero

Indaba Music — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Guitar Hero, the most popular music videogame of all time, didn't just happen. A talented team of designers, musicians and hyper-geeks had to construct the game from scratch at some point. But when it came time to do some upgrades one feature they decided to add was realistic faces on the games singing characters. And the best way to replicate human facial movements is to digitally map a real human face while he sings. It's called motion capture - or mo-cap - and the man behind the faces of Guitar Hero is a 24 year-old guy named Adam Jennings. SFGate tracked him down and gives us a rare look into the strange world of one of the most "seen" faces in the world.

About once a week, actor Adam Jennings drives a few miles down
the San Fernando Valley from his apartment to a converted warehouse in
nearby Woodland Hills. He lies on a couch for the better part of an
hour while technicians attach about 70 little spherical sensors to his
face with adhesive.

When they are done, Jennings sits on a stool in a large, dark room
for eight-hour sessions and lip-syncs rock songs while his face is
filmed by as many as a dozen motion-capture cameras, collecting data
that will be turned into computer-generated graphics for video games.

Adam Jennings is the face of the wildly popular Guitar Hero.

Full Article

Guest Spot: Joe S.

Indaba Music — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

From Joe S.'s Blog

This is a rather long
blog post for me, but I thought this would be of interest. I was
listening to Peter Frampton this weekend, a father's day gift CD, and
was thinking about the dynamics and expressiveness of the music,
something that is fading in both modern songwriting and music
production.

In an article called "The Death Of High Fidelity", Rolling
Stone magazine writer Robert Levine reports on the industry fight over
(or against) dynamic range:

Over the past decade and a half, a revolution in recording
technology has changed the way albums are produced, mixed and mastered
— almost always for the worse. "They make it loud to get [listeners']
attention," producer David Bendeth (Hawthorne Heights
and Paramore) says. Engineers do that by applying dynamic range
compression, which reduces the difference between the loudest and
softest sounds in a song. Like many of his peers, Bendeth believes that
relying too much on this effect can obscure sonic detail, rob music of
its emotional power and leave listeners with what engineers call ear
fatigue. "I think most everything is mastered a little too loud,"
Bendeth says. "The industry decided that it's a volume contest."
Producers
and engineers call this "the loudness war," and it has changed the way
almost every new pop and rock album sounds. But volume isn't the only
issue. Computer programs like Pro Tools, which let audio engineers
manipulate sound the way a word processor edits text, make musicians
sound unnaturally perfect. And today's listeners consume an increasing
amount of music on MP3, which eliminates much of the data from the
original CD file and can leave music sounding tinny or hollow. "With
all the technical innovation, music sounds worse," says Steely Dan's Donald Fagen,
who has made what are considered some of the best-sounding records of
all time. "God is in the details. But there are no details anymore."

Is it really that important? Bob Dylan thinks so...

The idea that engineers make albums louder might seem strange: Isn't
volume controlled by that knob on the stereo? Yes, but every setting on
that dial delivers a range of loudness, from a hushed vocal to a kick
drum — and pushing sounds toward the top of that range makes music seem
louder. It's the same technique used to make television commercials
stand out from shows. And it does grab listeners' attention — but at a
price. Last year, Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone that modern albums "have
sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no
nothing, just like — static."

Static... Ok I personally think technology has been good for music
but I also agree with the articles premise. To much compression kills
dynamic range which is one of the hallmarks of the classic rock LP's of
the vinyl years.

Too much compression can be heard as musical clutter; on the Arctic
Monkeys' debut, the band never seems to pause to catch its breath. By
maintaining constant intensity, the album flattens out the emotional
peaks that usually stand out in a song. "You lose the power of the
chorus, because it's not louder than the verses," Bendeth says. "You
lose emotion."

A visual example:

Since the mid-1990s, engineers have used dynamic compression to
make CDs louder and louder. These waveforms show how loud
contemporary recordings have become:

Nirvana
"Smells Like Teen
Spirit"
Back in 1991, even the loudest rock wasn't always loud: "Smells
Like Teen Spirit" has plenty of fluctuations in its volume —
so when Kurt Cobain screams, you feel it.

Arctic Monkeys
"I Bet You Look Good on the
Dancefloor"
This 2006 track is a prime offender: The sound wave is cranked to
the limit, and it stays there for nearly every second of the song.
Have a headache yet?

U2
"With or Without You"
(Original)

U2
"With or Without You"
(Remastered)

Many of us didn't even notice the change in the music. The casual
listener may not know or care because the brain is constantly
compensating for the sounds it perceives ( or doesn't perceive in this
case), and it is probably making you believe you actually enjoy what
you hear!

Test it for yourself:

Here are three recent albums noted for their depth and dynamic
range — and three that are way too loud

GOOD
Modern Times, Bob Dylan [Listen]
Not Too Late, Norah Jones [Listen]
Raising Sand, Robert Plant/Alison Krauss [Listen]

On these albums, the music breathes: Check out the true-to-life
sound of Dylan's "Thunder on the Mountain."

BAD
Alright, Still, Lily Allen [Listen]
Californication, Red Hot Chili Peppers [Listen]
Infinity on High, Fall Out Boy [Listen]

These are so unrelentingly loud that the sound is nearly distorted.
The choruses on the Peppers' "Scar Tissue" are no louder than the
verses.

In the digital age, where everything is tweaked to perfection,
everything about music is changing...except perhaps dynamic quality,
which to me makes music, like Peter Frampton, "come alive".

Better Than Your Graduation Speech

Indaba Music — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

I came across a great music video at my day job over at CollegeHumor and I couldn't help but share it with all of you Indabans. Once you figure out what he's doing it really becomes a genius little bit of musical theater. Enjoy and, to any graduating seniors, good luck! Too bad you didn't have this kid as your graduaton speaker.

When Rock Stars Attack!

Indaba Music — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

We all know that some musicians have a bit of a temper. Well, maybe a bit more than a bit. In fact, going to see certain bands can be like putting your life in some crazy singer's hands. Limewire Music Blog has collected some of the best rock star onstage fights, outbursts and all around bad behavior and organized it into a nice little list for you.

Here is one, hit This Link for the rest.

Axl Rose - Guns n' Roses

Musical Minds

Indaba Music — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

What's inside your head? Well, a brain for one. And, as it turns out, your brain may be different than a non-musical mind. Oliver Sacks, an all-around academic, has a book on how music affects the human mind called "Musicophilia." Most surprisingly, he found that musicians' brains are different to the point of being able to identify one just from looking at it. Wired, along with just about every other publication, wrote the book up.

According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, author of Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain,
musicians' brains differ from those of the general population in a
number of ways, including having a stronger connection between the left
and right sides of the brain (from an NPR interview):

"Gottfried Schlaug
- up at Harvard... used brain imagery to measure the sizes of
different parts of the brain. He found first, for example, that the
corpus callosum - the big band which unites the two hemispheres of the
brain - tends to be larger in musicians. And then he found enlargements
of the cortex, the grey matter, in the auditory parts of the brain, and
in motor parts of the brain to a degree which may be almost visible to
the naked eye. So that, say, if one looks at pictures of brains, you
might not be able to say this man is a genius or this man is a fool, or
this man is a visual artist, but you could probably say that man is a
musician."

I like the idea that my brain is different - dare I say better - than the average brain thanks to years of playing and listening to music. Of course, I did go through a headbanging stage which probably ruined any chance I had at really standing out.

Musicophilia on Amazon

Guest Spot:

Indaba Music — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

From Indaba Intern Alexandra Stewart's Blog

Hello Indaba,

As
one of the new interns here I thought I should start off the summer
with a couple of blogs featuring some of the up and coming artists I
know and think that you should too. With that said, ladies &
gentlemen, meet Ian Axel.

I have to give a little credit to my
boyfriend (who recently worked with him on his latest master piece
"Gone") for introducing me to this loveable character. We went to go
see his show last week at The Rockwood Music Hall Residency here in NYC
and I had to go back for seconds this week. I brought a few of my
girlfriends who were dying to see him after listening to his latest
recordings. Ian’s tunes have been featured on The Hills.. a guilty
pleasure for us college girls.

Ian's story is this: he started
playing piano and composing at the age of three. he started singing
at.. age 20! you'd never EVER know and I would dare to say that his
voice sounds even better live. With all that piano background you can
bet that he lays down gorgeous accompaniments. If (which I strongly
encourage!) you go see his shows at the Residency, you will be
pleasantly surprised to see Ian with a solo piano. It’s really all he
needs to effect his audiences. Strip the music down to the core, take
away the strings.. Ian’s got rhythm in a very serious way and plays
just beautifully, always incorporating his classical technique.

His
hope and optimism (which all of you will hear when you check out his
Indaba profile) must come from those he surrounds himself with. A few
friends are sometimes invited on stage during his shows and you can
tell that they all have a whole lot of love for Mr. Axel.

There's still time to catch him at the Residency! So please Indaba, go check out his profile and give Ian a warm welcome!

xo,

Alex

Pardon My French (First Lady)

Indaba Music — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

If you've ever wondered if America is a prude nation, wonder no more. Why? Ask yourself this: can you imagine Laura Bush composing a song in which she sings about having 30 lovers? Or perhaps Nancy Regan releasing a track in which she compares someone's lethal love to Afghan heroin? Of course not. But in France, well, that just happened.

First Lady and mega-babe, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is releasing an album in which she sings about love and sex, namely, the two instances mentioned above. Of course, singing about sex and drugs is nothing exceptional when it comes to pop music, but the fact that the first lady of a major nation is doing it is somewhat noteworthy. Can you even begin to fathom what would happen in this country (America, for our foreign users) if something like this were to happen. If the record even managed to get released there's probably be a Congressional hearing and establishment of a panel of moral decency.

Well, it seems that once again our Continental brothers and sisters have shown themselves to be a bit more on the liberal/forgiving/artistic side than we New Worlders. Interestingly, nobody has mentioned anything about the album being good or not. For all the hype, the disc could be full of garbage tunes, after all. And I think when you look at the track record, French pop music pales in comparison to American pop music. We may not have a singing First Lady but we do have Michael Jackson. We're Number 1ish!

And The Winner Of Video of the Year Is...

Indaba Music — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

Well, the year isn't nearly over but I'm prepared to give top honors to this collab between David Byrne and Dizzy Rascal with Fatboy Slim. It's funny, it's sexy, incredibly creative and it compliments the song very nicely. I haven't seen a video this creative since Feist's "1234", though I doubt Apple will be using this to sell iPods. Enjoy "Tie Jam."

Warning: Some language and blacked-out nudity (hint: the blacked out nudity is what makes it so good!)

THE BPA 'TOE JAM' FEAT. DAVID BYRNE & DIZZEE RASCAL

The Monday Showdown

Indaba Music — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

It's a brand new week and you know what that means...argument. Last week we talked about what's worse when you're up on stage, a quiet audience or a drunk, loud one. The decision was split, with each having their own little downfalls. This week we're going to continue in a negative vein but leave the stage. This week we're going back to the audience. So, what's worse about being a fan: When the music is too quiet or too loud? It seems like I'm phoning this one in, doesn't it? But I'm not. I've been to plenty of shows and experienced both awful scenarios. I've seen big name musicians in arenas who just didn't turn it up loud enough and I've seen bands in tiny clubs who thought they were playing in arenas. both were awful in their own special way but I can't really make up my mind. Maybe you can. So, what's worse, a band that's too quiet or a band that's too loud? Leave your answer in the comments and happy Monday.

Bonaroo Free Webcast

Indaba Music — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

Say what you will about corporate sponsors and selling out, it certainly has its perks. Bonnaroo, the big festival taking place this weekend down in Tennessee, has hooked up with AT&T who will be broadcasting some of the bigger acts on the web. Live. For free. Wired has the schedule:

Friday (1:30 to 11:00)

Drive By Truckers
Fiery Furnaces
Umphrey's McGee
Bluegrass Sessions
The Raconteurs
TBD
Les Claypool
Metallica

Saturday (1:45 to 11:30)

Two Gallants
The Wood Brothers
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
Ozomati
Gogol Bordello
Against Me!
Iron & Wine
Cat Power
Mastadon
Ben Folds

Sunday (1:00 to 11:30)

The webcast schedule for Sunday has not been posted yet, but here's my guess based on the Bonnaroo schedule:

Rogue Wave
Ladytron
Aimee Mann
Broken Social Scene
Death Cab for Cutie
Widespread Panic

So make sure you Tune In and catch some amazing music.

It Happened This Week!

Indaba Music — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0500

The week's biggest music news, as summed up by me.

For what seems like the first time in history, a major label lost a lawsuit! What?!

The R. Kelly jury is going into deliberation. Hopefully they'll think about the verdict more than Kelly thought about 'Trapped in the Closet' before recording it.

Canada just became a much nicer place to be a music fan.

Pearl Jam continue to show us why they might be the best band to be a fan of in the world.

Beck has a new album on the way and Pitchfork has a title and tracklist.

Metallica says 'our bad' after continuing to not understand the Internet.

What A Glorious Age It Is

Indaba Music — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500

Ready for this? 10 Million people have watched this video...

We live in an age when a cat idly tapping keys is more popular than most TV shows. We live in an age where we can watch someone else's cat idly tapping on keys whenever we want. We live in an when anyone with an idea, a video camera, a recording device and a modem can become hugely famous overnight. In other words, we live in an amazing age and I, for one, love it. Though it's stupid and took no talent, the video above has been watched 10 million times. Imagine what all of you - people with talent - can do. _

This moment of idealism brought to you by the good mood I'm currently in._SPLIT__