Naz wrote a review of rdio so I wouldn’t have to. I agree with almost every single word (and I’m also pretty much a virgin to music streaming services). Visit site »
Nothing like a good music theory blog post to get me going. Visit site »
Discovered these guy today. Too awesome. Visit site »
Gavin asked me to participate, and I was happy to do so. I’ve never heard any other web designer (besides myself) say they don’t listen to music while working, and I’ve certainly never heard anyone else cite their musical background as a reason why they’re unable to listen passively, but that’s exactly what Zeldman said. Interesting that he and I share an answer here, when I think our personalities are drastically different (that’s not an insult at all — I love the guy, we’re just very different, is all!). Visit site »
A write up of what I heard was a great talk about music recommendation engines at SXSW. Recommendation engines and collaborative filtering is of great interest to me, lately, since I’m working with it on 97 Bottles. In fact, I’ll be giving a talk on the topic at Webvsions in May. Visit site »
February 20th, 2009, 9 PM
RIP Freddie Hubbard. Absolutely in my top three or four favorite jazz trumpeters ever, Freddie was the guy who taught me the meaning of the word “out.” I’m sitting here, in the Indianapolis airport — his hometown — as I read this sad news. Fitting. Visit site »
Oh man, this book by Stephen Davis sounds great. WANT. I’ve said for years that GNR is maybe my favorite rock band ever (this, coming from someone who’s not really much into rock). Check out this bit from the intro:
An old man limped over to them. He gave them the once-over, seeming to linger over Bill’s cowboy boots. Bill was becoming uneasy now, his friend noticed, which was never a good thing, because, when agitated or upset, Bill’s behavior could get a little out there. Finally, the old man spoke, or rather squawked, in a high-pitched shriek: “DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?” The boys, taken aback, just looked at him. “I SAID, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?” Bill Bailey said, “Uh, we’re just trying to get to…” “YOU’RE IN THE JUNGLE, BABY!”
Bill Bailey, of course, is W. Axl Rose’s childhood name (but interestingly, not his given name). Sounds awesome. Visit site »
Don’t miss Rob’s story and video of his amazing performance at the 2008 Air Guitar National Championships, in which he finished seventh overall. Rob is truly amazing on so many levels. I already loved this guy, but this just makes him that much cooler. Visit site »
So basically, Ice T said Soulja Boy sucks, and Soulja Boy came back with a long-winded video that basically called Ice T out of touch with the modern game. But more importantly, Soulja Boy noted that the last time he saw Ice T, he was acting in an episode of Law and Order. Soujla Boys said, “How you gonna make a song called ‘Fuck Tha Police,’ and then 20 years later, you’re playing the police on TV?”
Which sounded like a really good point, until about 10 seconds later, when I remembered that Ice T didn’t make a song called “Fuck Tha Police” — Ice Cube did (with NWA, of course).
I guess they’re both out of touch with the other’s generation. Via Rex. Visit site »
In the past four days, I’ve watched two and a half seasons of Weeds, and I’m really enjoying the show. In particular, I love the theme song (Malvina Reynold’s “Little Boxes“) which, in seasons two and three, is performed by a different artist for each episode. But here, Romany Malco (who plays Conrad on the show) drops his own entertaining version. Thanks to Bret, who pointed me to this on a comment on this site. Visit site »
Sasha Frere-Jones has a great little article in The New Yorker about Auto Tune, the effect so commonly heard in today’s pop, R&B, and hip-hop (it’s the effect T-Pain owes his entire career to). I’ve been a fan of this sound for at least 15 years or so — but when I discovered it (back in the days of Livin’ On A Prayer and California Love), it was generated by a instruments, like a vocoder or talkbox (see Peter Frampton, Roger Troutman, or Stevie Wonder). Today, a strikingly-similar effect is created in post-production using Auto Tune.
I personally have no real objection to the use of Auto Tune, and there are times I quite like it. However, I do see one glaring problem for artists like T-Pain that use it so extensively: you can’t perform live. Since Auto-Tune is a post-production effect and not something that can be done in real time (as can reverb, distortion, phasing, wah-wah, and many other effects we’re familiar with), there’s really no way to incorporate it into a live show. I once saw T-Pain sing “Buy You a Drank” on a TV talk show and it was laughable. It just sounded so wrong (and it wasn’t helped by the fact that T-Pain isn’t actually much of a singer). Visit site »