Thursday, November 29, 2007

SHHH! Everybody! Blender is saying something.

I am pretty sure that Blender is a magazine. I mean, I am sure, now, but I think that it was a print mag a while ago that rests firmly now in interwebs obscurity. Anyway, I just saw a top 100 indie-rock album of all time list, which they compiled. While such a scatter-shot is bound to hit some great albums, I left the whole thing wondering mostly what their criteria for "indie-rock" were.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

New Snoop Video - Sensual Seduction



Consider your life up until this point as completely unfulfilled.

Christmas Season Begins

By way of Ethman comes this little gem which should help you get into the holiday spirit:

Ludacris - Ludacrismas

"Ho ho ho" indeed.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Excellent Crotchety Old Man Article

David Brooks writes about the fragmentation of a shared musical experience in America. His point is illustrated by the following thought experiment: What would happen if The Rolling Stones started making music today? Is there any realistic chance that they'd be so broadly accepted?
I tend to agree with him, but I ask for your thoughts (or in Hemanzero's case, accusations of bourgeois lamentation for an idealized past).

Monday, November 19, 2007

DMX vs Ghostbusters

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Rap Collab


This is some fucking nerdy shit. Wait, did I say nerdy? I mean awesome!

This research student used OHHLA.com to search by artist and collaboration. He then mapped who did guest shots on each others albums. I'm not sure what you do with this info, maybe some sort of Kevin Bacon type of thing but it's still pretty cool.

Turns out what we always suspected: Snoop is friends with lots of people.

(on another note, when did Ma$e become a "top 50 rapper")

Rap Collaborations [via]

Thursday, November 15, 2007

End of year lists

As the year slowly grinds to a close, I am interested to see the various lists (and make our own) compiled w/r/t the year's goings on. I just stumbled upon this 50 top album list from Stylus, but any others that you guys find would be fun fun fun.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Justice minus the DANCEing (belated post)



I intended to post something to this tune a long time ago, but I was pretty busy lawyering the shit out of some people. I, along with several of you, saw Justice perform several weeks ago at Terminal 5 in New York. I love Justice. The album, the DANCE video, the French-house-techno thing. Love it. I think that the venue is solid too. Huge open space, three floors with bars. It has a good club feel with the vaulted loftiness of a proper auditorium. The show, however, while fun, was highly imperfect, and I think that for the forthcoming reasons, this was the necessary outcome.

In Terminal 5 that night, there were thousands of people packed in, all facing the direction of the stage. While the lights were well done (see photo for the general layout of the stage), there was no room to dance, and it was very clear that the "band" was simply playing the majority of their album by pushing button, perhaps with minimal beat matching and certainly with the occasional roof-raising gesture to the crowd. I enjoyed the songs, but by the halfway point I was pretty bored and antsy. The crowd called for an encore (by singing "We Are Your Friends" chorus en masse, which was awesome), but the guys just appeared on the second story balcony and waved. I am sure that they didn't do an encore because they didn't pre-program an encore into their button pushing. My point here is that the two members of Justice, as electronic music producers, have no business giving a concert in the same manner as a live group that does anything live on-stage. This music would be best enjoyed in a proper club-type atmosphere, with the focus on dancing and community, rather than pretending that anything is actually being re-created on stage that the crowd must intently watch. So, I guess I am asking, is the problem here isolated to this concert? Isn't this a problem that the industry, while marketing electronic music side-by-side with "live" music (rightfully), cannot allow for any variety in the method or mode of concert presentation? Is this a stupid question?

Mark Ronson w/ Lily Allen - Oh My God

Remake of the Kaiser Chiefs song from his album Versions. I like the song more than the video, but it is watchable.

Monday, November 12, 2007

What makes a He Man?


----------------No.



----------------Yes.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Rap Charts



I found* this awesome collections of the world quantified and categorized a la rap.

*stole from Greg

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Radiohead Experiment = Not a Total Failure

see the stats

The average downloader from their website paid $2.26. But consider that the real average may be lower (because of all the people who just copied it from friends) or, eventually, higher (because some people will buy it in the store when it is released in 2008).

Detachment Kit - Heavenly Escort

now here's a good song

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Muscles

About 35 seconds into Track 2 on Guns Babes Lemonade, this album was assured a place on my Top 5 list for 2007. I'm only on Track 3 now, and there's a real possibility it will creep higher.
This is what music listens to when it needs a boost.

Talib Kweli Video - Everything Man



The track is really nice (not a great single though). Just thought I'd share it.

Random Podcast

Some San Francisco DJ named White Mike has a semi-regular podcast which is really nice. I strongly recommend, it's really nice.

White Mike - White Listed Podcast
Download Episode #4

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

New Bangers and Cash Video

I hate Bangers and Cash. I'm only passing this on because it's easily the most offensive thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

If you like Bangers and Cash feel free to shoot yourself in the head after you finish watching sports and beating off to Maxim magazine.

Bangers and Cash - I Want Some Pussy (P.S. Not at all safe for work)

Monday, November 5, 2007

NPR Music

If you haven't been paying attention to the music offerings of NPR recently, consider this your wake up call. They just launched NPR Music which is officially my new favorite place to linger. They've got live streams, live concerts, videos, downloads, interviews and more.

On a side note, I got into a big argument with my father this weekend over whether or not the ubiquity of music has hurt the idea of "music" in our culture. His feeling was that with the over saturation of music that people get tired and that's the reason why people aren't buying music. My argument was that music is finally coming back around to live music (especially since it's the last viable business model for musicians). I think this site argues his point while proving mine.

NPR Music Beta

Friday, November 2, 2007

I hope you don't have epilepsy


There are about 100 cameras filming throughout the venue. Then someone edited the footage together. It's like Bentham's Panopticon in reverse, all in the service of rockin.