31 | the sunrise project from JJ Starr on Vimeo.
Finally some time to relax again and finally a minute to surf the web. A lot of bullshit as expected, but finally I got myself a treat:
The TOM WAITS live record "Glitter & Doom is coming up and its going to be rough. The sound comes very intimate with a lot of the audience in it. It has a lotta groove and feeling in it, and always tight on the beat.
And here's the treat ANTI- promotes the release with giving away the first six tracks for free. I say: Go get 'em...
Long time no see, work got me to travel a lot. It's lots of fun, but unfortunately it keeps me from writing here.
Anyways, back again. Drums always got me hooked and the following one is another example of a great flow:
Which brings brings me right to the next one; Gil Sharone (Stolen Babies, ex- Dillinger Escape Plan) shows what it's all about: feeling and precision!
If you got more stuff like that, send it over to me, I'm always hungry for more!!!
Cheers
Presenting Jimmy Edgar and strange guy with interesting sounds. And what I wanna sy with this post is basically: GET RID OF YOUR PREJUDICES!!! I come from the hardcore scene and I still love this music, but there is so much more to discover and electronic music is just one example. Independent from scenes people tend to be narrow-minded in their lives as in their music selection. Of course you don't like every style of music which is out there. However, what is really turning me off is that people just take it as given that a certain style of music is the shit and others will never be good or cool. OPEN YOUR EYES AND GIVE IT A TRY!!!
Nuff said! Now check out Jimmy Edgar.
I found him on fixednoise.com, another interesting site to check.
Cheers
Getting back to all the fresh input the music industry receives from this "crisis". The industry gets more and more open and it all works towards creative exchange.
Here's another interesting one from this category: minimumnoise.com
It's a new platform for the exchange of music with a commercial focus. Or even better as they describe it themselves:
"Minimum Noise is a music marketplace that allows you to crowdsource music production.
By creating a project on Minimum Noise, you have access to talented producers around the world - on a budget set by you.
The process consists of three steps." ... clickediclick
From what I see and read now I'm not exactly sure whether this one is really going through the roof. Anyhow, for any musician it's definitely worth checking out to see whether this could be an option or not. For anybody else I can also recommend it, interesting projects: dark vocals needed for fast hip hop, any vocals for digi punk track and more.
Give it a try! So many innovative ideas out there that deserve to be heard!
Thanks to Reimut for this one...
I don't know why, but somehow I ignored this band for a long time. Maybe because one of their members also plays in a very famous band for kids with flat-ironed hair. I'm sorry and again I learn: NEVER JUDGE A BAND BEFORE HAVING LISTENED TO IT!!!! I'm speaking of LEATHERMOUTH who really kicked ass with their debut out on Epitaph.
Check the video for "Bodysnatcher4ever" below for a first taste. A really frightening but great work and the pictures match the tunes perfectly:
Two days ago the new Mos Def record "The Ecstatic" was released and I was quite looking forward to that for some time already. Mos Def(initely), the boogieman, always got me moving, got me thinking. "Black on both sides", "The New Danger" and the legendary "Blackstar" record/project with Talib Kweli were both lyric and music wise classic records. Kicking it, still kicking it. Then "True Magic" came out and was quite disappointing. It was somehow an obvious contractual performance to finish the contract with Geffen. Both parties didn't care to much, the record was uninspired and there was just no promotion or press work.
Now Mos is back, back on track, back with fresh inspiring tracks, back on an indie, Downtown Records! Defnitely check the Myspace for loads of infos concerning "The Ecstatic", make your own judgement and give it a try! Plus, you can get the full record for $3,99 from Myspace directly, nice move!
A first feel:
Mos Def - "Casa Bey" - The Ecstatic - 6.9.09
Some nicely arranged words and pictures:
Mos Def - Words - The Ecstatic - available 6/9/09
And the classic:
Neither I'm really into computer games nor I'm a huge Beatles fan, but this one is really beautiful, it's art.
A couple of days ago the new game The Beatles Rockband was presented at the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) Media & Business Summit. At the press conference the intro was shown and illustrates the career of the band in beautiful cartoon pictures. Visually delicious...
Btw, McCartney and Starr also mentioned there, that they're planning to record an album with BOB DYLAN. Should get interesting... ClickClickSee
Source: Caleb Coppock
The coolest thing: sit at home and just draw a record. Wtf? Yepp, draw it, put it on and listen to the strange sounds you just drew. Too strange? Just put it on your wall, looks really cool. The thing is called GRAPHITE SEQUENCER exists for some time already. Definitely visit the homepage to understand how it works and see the video, a must!!!
Getting back to the blogs, I found a nice documentary describing in an intersting and scientific way how music works. I think it's hard and not exactly necessary to describe something that emotional in rational and scientific terms. However, the product is really cool and definitely worth being seen and checked out.
"This is the ultimate series for anyone with even a passing interest in music. Prepare to have your mind blown as the structures underlying the creation and experience of music are laid bare.
“Why do some rhythms get our toes tapping, while others make us feel mellow? How does a love song bring tears to our eyes? What links African drumming to J S Bach?
In this new four-part series composer Howard Goodall strips music down to its essential parts to find out how music works."
is what the original producer Channel 4 has to say about it.
So how does the music work now? Have a look:
You just do not need TV!!! That's for a fact. It's a lazy sunday afternoon and I am looking for some nice entertainment. Fortnunately I don't have a TV and so I directly go to the internet. The good stuff is just a few clicks away, so many artists, so much art and so many people finding and sharing it. I rcently found a lot of great things on several very good blogs. It requires some literacy of German though. However, almost every article is worth to be checked out, go by the pictures, that should work.
So definitely check out NERDCORE and KRAFTFUTTERMISCHWERK , read, see, enjoy, get inspired and get lost. And btw, also check sound.art.idea every now and then, get some input, give feedback and let me know about all the interesting music, blogs or whatever you're in touch with!
Cheers
In addition to Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, other artists appearing on Dark Night of the Soul include James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils.Danger Mouse’s new project Dark Night Of The Soul consists of an album length piece of music by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and a host of guest vocalists, along with a collection of original David Lynch photography inspired by and based on the music.
The photographs, which provide a visual narrative for the music, are compiled in a limited edition, hand numbered 100+ page book which will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.’
Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music for Dark Night Of The Soul without fear of being sued by EMI.
Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night Of The Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.
Soon the documentary "EDGE -perspectives on a drug free culture" will be released. Having grown up with Hardcore and Punk music I have also been in contact with the Straight Edge scene. It describes an approach to life without any drugs, alcohol, cigarettes or promiscuity. The scene received it's name from the song "Straight Edge" by the band Minor Threat released 28 years ago. Their singer Ian MacKaye is also featured in the movie opens some interesting perspectives on the issue.I always had a lot of respect for this scene, even it wasn't my way. Still I always distinguished in between those who do it just for themselves and maybe tell about it and those who perceive themselves on a mission and believe that they have to convince the whole world. I perceive it as a personal decision and this is what it should stay in my opinion.
However, I defintely recommend to give this flick a try. I am sure it will provide some interesting perspectives and insights into an alternative approach to life which has definitely something to offer. Plus, a differentiated view on life and things is a MUST!!!!
Check the trailer for a first taste:
And definitely visit the hp for more interesting background information:
http://www.theedgeprojectmovie.com/
Regarding the last post also another neat application must be mentioned: TWT.FM !
twt.fm was used in Jimmy Eat World's tour promotion via twitter. It allows users to share music via twitter. I love to share music (not p2p, but promoting great music I find to others) and thus, this got me hooked immediately.
Twt.fm was created by Lee Martin of Silva Artist Management.
How you do it? Ridiculously easy. Just go to twt.fm . There you just type in the artist name and the name of your track of choice. twt.fm then crawls all possible providers of music streams and then generates a track page for you to use you twitter page design. Off you go! In case you twt.fm can not find your track you can also directly provide a link.
Further, twt.fm is now connected to SoundCloud. This is a great opportunity for upcoming bands, as you can just upload your track to SoundCloud in perfect quality and then promote and tweet to all you followers. You just need the link to you public SoundCloud track. The coolest thing to me is definitely that within your tweet you have the SoundCloud widget with the nice layout and all information and sharing options.
Go for it!
To me Twitter has always been some sort of a tricky issue. As in lots of blogs the amount of irrelevant information blasted out into the world has always turned me off completely. The world suffers from constant information overflow anyways, why this then? However, in terms of marketing I always evaluated as a useful tool. It's up to every users decisions to which twitter account he subcribes. Further, it has always been in the nature of most the popular music fans trying to get as much information on the artist and current developments, relevant or irrelevant.
Supply and demand, give 'em what they want. Hence, and as direct artist-to-fan channels become more and more important, also tools like twitter are quiet viable means to connect and communicate with fans.
I found a nice and impressive example for this development, posted by Topspin's Ian Rogers. By integrating Twitter as direct marketing tool Jimmy Eat World managed to gather by now almost 450k followers in support of their latest tour and live record. Read the whole thing with many useful and interesting links and background info here! Very impressive, highly recommended!
Turn your eyes to the right ->->->->->->->->right->->->->->->->->right->->->->->->->->
Yeah, I added another small feature to this blog: my little sound.art.idea_rAdiO. It's comprised of tracks I came across lately, many of them also featured in the blog, and all time favs of mine. Lean back and enjoy the tunes, while you sneak around or read articles on this blog.
Any tracks you love and I might love, let me know, give me input, the player needs to be fed! Cheers!
So here's another first class collabo. When Nine Inch Nails performed at this year's Soundwave Festival they were joined by Ben and Greg from the Dillinger Escape Plan for the song "Wish", great stuff, enjoy!
NIN: Wish live with Ben & Greg from The Dillinger Escape Plan - Adelaide, 2.28.09 [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.
The industry is at the verge and in between models, that's common sense by now and accepted even by the most stubborn record labels (hopefully!). However, still it's an crucial aspect whether the industry focuses on the fact that it's a crisis and a way out MUST be found or simply be grateful for the change, the manifold new ideas and the exciting times after all. I prefer the ladder one.
That being said, I enjoy all the input and great ideas and approaches I find everyday on the web, of people willing to change something and having mostly one thing in mind: the artist and how he can make his cut in these times, when you basically can not rely on record companies and classic models anymore.
But regarding this, one question burns ;-) Can I actually read loud thoughts? Yes, I can! Am I going off topic? No, I don't.
MUSIC THINK TANK ("where the music industry thinks out loud" get it?) is actually one of those platforms where lots of smart music professionals and music lovers meet to present, exchange and discuss ideas on the future of the music industry. Discussions offer relevant topics such as instructions how to build with simple and free tools a much stronger web presence than myspace could ever offer and other marketing related issues. It's definitely highly recommended to subscribe to their blog and get stuffed with intellectual input.
Further you can get acqainted to laods of interesting means and tools and how to make use of them, e.g. Mailchimp, Reverbnation or compete.com just to name a few. And the best thing, almost all of these ideas are out there, shared, open for discussion and free and not super secret in some major label office.
Moreover, it's a perfect place to connect to other likeminded creative people and check their individual output.
See for example the works of Chris Purifoy or Andrew Dubber, its really interesting material and, fuck, it's pretty amazing what you can make of a simple blog. I gotta go a long way with this one!
So this is a lot of input for now I guess. Even with these posts and issues I might be a little behind the dvelopments on the market, but still I hope I can provide some interesting insights for the readers of this blog. Plus, this one is mainly for me to give some some space to all the interesting things I come across. However, I always appeal, drop me even more feedback, with stuff to do better and new sounds, art and ideas you find interesting and I should hear. Connect, connect!
To begin with, Tom Waits is one of my favorite artists for a long time. He never chumed up with anybody, staying true to his hoarse and sonorous voice but still managing to write and perform beautiful and fragile songs such as "Downtown Train", "Jersey Girl" or "Ol'55". For an interesting and well written watch here.
However, I was pretty surprised when I heard that the actress Scarlett Johansson did record an album with cover versions of Tom Waits songs. I straight got the record and listened to it first time at night when I was going home from a show by car. It is definitely a record for the night, that's for a fact. It took me some time to get used to her voice (as you'll here below). She is not going to high neither is it to melodic. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be a good Tom Waits cover when it's perfectly sung and she's interpreting it in a great manner.
Produced by multi-instrumentalist David Sitek and with a band composed of Yeah Yeah Yeah's Nick Zinner and members from TV on the Radio, Tall Firs and Celebration the album was recorded in just a couple of weeks and you can really feel the session character. Another interesting feature is the one of David Bowie on two of the songs ("Fallin' Down" and "Fannin Street"), but listen yourself.
You can also find a very well written and extensive review at: Pitchfork.com.
The videos from the AOL sessions below should give you a good first impression (but still this is nothing compared to the record enjoyed at night):
Another Waits classic:
Aaaaand last, but not least, the great scene from Jim Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes" with Iggy Pop, enjoy:
CURSIVE are back and still it's a new discovery for me. This brings me back to the great thing about friends and music, the input never stops. I could stop listening to any new releases today and just check out older music and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get finished in this life; lovely! Keep me stuffed with tunes and inspiration!
I'm wandering from the subject again, I always wander from the subject, enough. Cursive back on stage , please. The album is great, dark and light, singing and screaming, country and rockin', nihilistic and full of hope, good for rain and sun.
The friend I got the tip from also wrote a nice review on 'Mama, I'm swollen' and you'll find it here
But the video for the first single "From the hips" is right below:
and it goes on and on with the music, never stops. So the horns in that song remind me of the artist displayed in the next blog ;-) and I'll put her record on right now!
As I wrote about Julian Lage I also checked the website of the Berklee College of Music. Founded in 1945 as Schillinger House of Music the school was renamed in 1973, when it was officially accredited, after the son of the found Lee Berk in Berklee College of Music. An interesting fact is also that the college has of all US American colleges the highest ratio of international students. 26% of the students come from 70 deifferent countries.
Whatever, beside various courses for all different instruments in composition, performance, production or education you can also study music management at Berklee. Additionally to the courses, anybody, student or not can download various PDFs on music industry basics and current issues in publishing, marketing or management. To everyone who's kinda into the whole business it is more or less common sense and pretty much just scratching the surface. However, I found it nice to reflect on certain issues and getting some new insights.
And anyways providing education and information for free is always a nice move (considering tuition fees of about 20 k per year ;-))
Check their page : www.berklee.edu or go directly to
Cheers
Music is entertainment, at least that's what you see on TV. But music has a lot more to offer than nice sounds, a good time and distraction from your everyday business. It has an tremendous power to change and influence life as a whole. It's the soundtrack to lifestyles and attitudes. It can lift you up from the ground and make you invincible. You know the hardcore band H2O? Listen to their latest record "Nothing to Prove" where it says: "No matter how bumped out you are in life, music pulls you right back up and keeps you positive".
But I wanna tell of a movie, a documentary with this spirit: "El Sistema". About 30 years ago , musician, composer and politician José Antonio Abreu established a network of youth orchestras in Venezuela. The movie tells the story of music can help to forget or put aside the circumstances you're in. The network offers children classical music education from childhood on. Furthermore it is free of charge for families who just couldn't bear the cost. It's truly inspiring to see children and teenagers of all ages to tell what the music and their instrument means to them and how eager they're about their lessons. At the peak of the network stands the Simon Bolivar youth orchestra with its conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the highest goal of the ambitious students. Besides the interviews with students and teachers and insight views to the schools and the life of the children, it's the concerts of the orchestra which got me constant goosebumps from their drive and their fun playing music together.
Last words belong to the initiator, Josè Antonio Abreu: "In Venezuela the group of people benefiting from our work extends to some 250,000 young people and children. But that's just the beginning".
Go to selected cinemas, where they show that movie or download it from the internet, but watch it and feel that spirit!
Teasing you:
Before I forget. A little older but still relevant and transporting the spirit is "Rhythm is it!" A documentary about and orchestra and dance project in Berlin. The project brought together children and teenages from all social classes and was headed and conducted by world famous conductor Sir Simon Rattle and choreographer Royston Maldoom performing Stravinsky's "Sacre du Printemps". An inspiring must-see! I'm surely a horrible dancer, but still "You can change your life in a dance class!"
Referring to Trent Reznor's talk to digg.com, he also mentioned Topspin Media, surely one of THE cutting-edge music and media companies these days and in future.
“…These guys helped us out with our digital delivery for a while and are in my opinion the best option out there for artists to deliver their goods to their audience on their own terms. Keep an eye on them - they are leagues ahead of everyone else in terms of infrastructure and philosophy.” Trent Reznor – Nine Inch Nails
Topspin Media is a media technology company focused on musicians to build their business directly with the end consumers, the fans. "The recently upgraded Topspin software offers artists and managers more options to improve and optimize workflow around marketing, manage content, and distribute effectively in a seamlessly integrated platform."(Business Week)
However, this might sound kinda vague. This is due to the fact that the company is just little by little releasing details on their actual products. What's certain is that the company plans and tests a customer relationship management sofware for musicians. This involves "a back-end technology and e-commerce service that allows artists to sell music and merchandise directly to fans via subscription services, digital downloads of albums and individual songs, and other bundled plans." (TheDeal.com). So at the moment they are working just with a handful of selected artists and managements in some sort of a test drive, but they're planning and developing a self-service platform for artists to be released later this year.
CEO and former Yahoo! Inc. music chief Ian Rogers on their long-term goal and mission:
"Our main thesis is that by turning the music world from low margin to high margin from a musician's perspective, a middle class of artists can make a living,"
Noble and aspiring, but at the same time pretty realistic. So much happening right know in this business and I'm excited as hell. Moreover, it's an interesting issue to also keep in mind that music industry is pretty much the first to deal with such a severe crisis. Other media industries as movies, games or print media are to follow and it will be a crazy trip how the whole media industry will continue to drastically change in the upcoming years. The internet is completely democratized. So will the media industries? Mind game, mind war, mind fuck!
Geeting back to Topspin Media. Check also their website: www.topspinmedia.com .
Besides interesting information on the company and their founders, there's also a very interesting blog and in the "for artists" section you'll find many useful links to other visionary music sites and publications. A must, check out!
I found this platform quite a while ago, I used it heavily e.g. at work as my personal radio. Thousands of albums available, you could create your own playlists, available everywhere, where could access the internet. Somehow over time les and less tracks were available which was the result of the old issue concerning licenses for online streaming of music.
However, I was looking for music of the incredible jazz guitarist Julian Lage. A Berklee graduate who recently released his debut "Sounding Point", which is highly recommended! I'm sitting here, it's a grey sunday, perfect for a smooth jazz record, soundtrack of the day, get cheered up!
So what's the punchline? You can check out his album and many more on deezer.com
Find me there under 'defining chaos', check albums and tracks I like and show what you're into!
Recently a friend told me about a new platform for music exchange. This sitution has two interesting aspects in it. Firstly, new ideas are always exciting to me and its thrilling in how many and which directions the music industry is developing. Secondly, I again became aware of the incredible value of the exchange of information and news in between friends. Where would I be, what would I know without my friends around me. It's such an enriching neverending process of giving and taking. Be grateful, take part, share! Thanks for this one, man!
Back to the subject. SoundCloud for the exchange of music in between musicians and other music professionals ("we move music"). This involves the receiving, sending and distributing of tracks in most of the common formats. As a user you can listen to the tracks and comment on them directly in the waveform in which the track is displayed (nice widget!). Moreover, as an active user uploading music you dispose of a variety of options and statistics to see who listened, downloaded or commented on your tracks. Maybe one of the most striking facts is that your uploads are unlimited in terms of filesize, 'nuff said!
The endeavour was founded and initiated by Alex Ljung, a sounddesigner from Stockholm, Eric Wahlforss ('Forss') from the Sonar Kollektiv, Yanneck Salvo from the Drumpoet Community and developer Sean from the U.S.
For more information and an interesting interview with the four of them check: their feature in the highly recommended DE:BUG magazine
Another interesting fact is that SoundCloud managed to raise 2,5 million Euro from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, which should definitely open new perspectives and hopefully a bright future for the platform (source: vator.tv).
If this got you interested, check them www.soundcloud.com and take the tour:
SoundCloud: The Tour from SoundCloud on Vimeo.
It's an interesting case. Can a band truly be bound to the underground, to the roots and, most importantly, keep this spirit in the sound? Seems to. The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is a band of seven brass musicians and a drummer. Moreover, seven of them are blood brothers. Originally from Chicago, IL they're now located in New York City, where they play at every single corner for the people, just them and and their instruments, no amplifiers, truly unplugged. However, they also made it to Europe playing gigs with the mighty MOS DEF and the legendary MADNESS.
They just got me hooked the first time I heard them and I can't wait to see them live. Whatever bands pretend in interviews, if you really listen you can always hear whether musicians live, breath and feel their music or not. They do...
Check out their great song "WAR":
and a nice feature by the New York Times:
Follow them on their blog: http://hypnoticbrass.blogspot.com/
Check them out and get hooked "I get the party started, you keep the party jumpin'" HBE
The new album "AVOID THE LIGHT" of post rock instrumentalists LONG DISTANCE CALLING is out now. The album was released in Germany on April 24, 09 (Rest of Europe: April 27, 09) and will be released in the U.S. on May 19, 09. It is already the band's second full-length effort after 2007' "SATELLITE BAY" . I've been lucky to have seen the band a couple of times live and do highly recommend it to everyone. Alright, check them out in this nice widget:
Go also to www.myspace.com/longdistancecalling for more information and dates!
P.S. even just the cover artwork is worth to buy the original record. Based on illustrations of my alltime fav artist Gusave Dorè (check the link and get inspired) and designed by Tim Kockentiedt it became a real precious piece of art.
This is something I found a couple of weeks ago, but still I want to have it on this blog. Trent Reznor seems to be ahead of the industry constantly. Check out this dialog with the new platform www.digg.com, where fans can post their questions for a certain interview. Moreover, fans can 'digg' a question, which means they vote for it. So the questions with the most votes / 'diggs' get posed in the interview.
Reznor talks about several approaches towards business models embracing the opportunities given by the internet. This involves variable pricing models for their music (from free download for the basic record as mp3 download to the limited autographed CD /vinyl edition for a premium price) or sophisticated interaction and communication with and in between the fans (new iPhone app).
This iPhone app 'extends Reznor's innovative run', but check it out yourself:
There is already the word on the street that the iPhone apps could become the new myspace, what do you think?
Hi there,
so this is it, my first blog, huh, excitement. whatever. It took me quite some time to finally start this. I don't like blogs of people who just don't have to say anything and I never wanted to be one of them.
However, I have so many interesting people around me, so much creatitivity, so much things which inspire me, make my day and I want to share this. So in this blog I will let you know about sounds, art and ideas that matter to me and I find relevant. May be you like it, may be you don't, READ IT OR LEAVE IT!!! Maybe you'll make new contacts with any kind of creative people, maybe the things posted here inspire you as well or maybe you just find some distraction to whatever keeps you busy at the moment.
Thanks for reading, I appreciate (also in the name of every single person who gets mentioned here, cause their art matters!)
Cheers
