Wired for Music

An Album Worth Buying

2012-01-27T10:22:00.001-05:00

Do people still pay money for music? I know the prevailing opinion these days is that they don't, but I'd like to make a case for bucking that trend. And that case is: my amazingly talented friend John has made an album. And you should buy it, not only to support a great independent artist, but also because I sing 3 tracks on it!

John and I have been musical collaborators for almost 20 years now, and I couldn't be prouder to get to sing 3 of his wonderful songs. This album is truly a labor of love, and I'm proud to be a part of it. You can hear my tracks below (I also sing backup vocals on some other songs on the album, and I play keys on "My Country," to which I also contributed some lyrics). If you like what you hear, please support John and go buy the album. You'll be glad you did.

MTV, Here I Come

2012-01-03T08:59:00.001-05:00

I've posted here before about my good friend and musical collaborator John "Das Binky" Argentiero. Well, John's releasing his first album later this month, and he was kind enough to invite me to sing lead vocals on three of the tracks (and backup on a couple others). The first "single" he's "releasing" (not entirely sure those terms still apply in this modern age, but still) is called "My Country Tis Of Me", and I think it's a pretty good one. John wrote it for FAWM 2010 and I contributed a small portion of the lyrics. I also play keyboard on this one and sing all the vocals. John's on guitar, bass, drum machine, and nearly everything else (the talented Nancy Rost is on accordion), plus he recorded the whole thing at home. I think that's pretty impressive.

Anyway, he asked me to participate in the video for this new hit single, and you can see the results below. It's an homage to the Great American Couch Potato (including sweatpants!). And yes, that is my real universal remote making a cameo in the video. Enjoy, and be sure to check out the Das Binky site and buy the album when it drops on January 26! (You can sign up on the web site to get an email reminder. Do it, musicians love email signups.)

Still More Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck

2011-12-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

SK Holiday Open House by flickr user vastateparksstaff

"Christmas music." "Holiday tunes." "Mind-numbing winter-themed muzak pabulum." Call it what you will, our ears are subjected to a lot of crap every winter. Well, Wired For Music is here to help, with yet another edition of our patented "Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck" playlist.

This year's playlist has some songs that a lot of you will probably already know, but I've had enough people ask me about them in the past that I finally decided to put them on. Hopefully there'll be some surprises on here too for more "advanced" listeners, whatever that means. And it even features one song I swore I would never, ever include (it grew on me).

Enjoy, and be sure to check out the playlists from previous years!

Dean Martin - A Marshmallow World
"The King of Cool" gives us his take on this sugary classic. Dean's version was never as popular as Bing Crosby's, but it does feature some of his trademark near-drunken slurring, particularly on the last verse's "take a walk-with-yourfav-or-itegirl." This song makes me wish it was snowing right now.
Gruff Rhys - Slashed Wrists This Christmas
This is the first track of the Super Furry Animals' frontman's brilliantly titled "Atheist Xmas EP." It's a bit repetitive, but then, so this this whole season, isn't it?
The Futureheads - Christmas Was Better In The 80s
Not entirely sure why these guys are so nostalgic given that I think they're younger than I am, but it's still a great song. Apparently it's a big deal in the UK to release a single at Christmas time, which explains the existence of a few tracks on this playlist. Some of them work out great, and others...don't make it to this playlist.
The Gasoline Brothers - Hungover Boxing Day
This Dutch band really nails that feeling of waking up on Boxing Day and realizing - wait, what the hell is Boxing Day? Europe is weird.
Badly Drawn Boy - Donna and Blitzen
This song definitely sounds like it was written a few days before the deadline for getting on the Xmas single charts or something like that. The lyrics read like he was doing a holiday-themed Mad Libs and just plugged in words like "sleigh ride" and "reindeer" here and there. But the music saves it, especially those massive timpanis.
Marvin Gaye - Purple Snowflakes
Nothing says Christmas like (a presumably high) Marvin Gaye singing about "purple snowflakes" while his backup singers sprinkle phrases like "chestnuts roasting" and "tootsies toasting" all over the place. This song is ridiculously good, and his voice is just angelic.
Okkervil River - Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas
I can't decide if this is more depressing than Tom Waits's "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis" (featured on 2008's playlist), but it's damn depressing regardless. Seriously, go read the lyrics, I'll wait. Can you imagine if Jeff Tweedy still wrote songs like this? Wow, that would be awesome.
Morphine - Sexy Christmas Baby Mine
Still not depressed? Listen to a dead man croon "Merry for you. Not too merry for me./I want you here with me. Misery loves company." You're welcome.
The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
I resisted this song for the past 5 years - in fact, I really hated it until late last year when it suddenly just clicked for me. I don't know if it's living in New York or what, but one of my most-hated Christmas songs ever has finally wormed its way into my heart. This one's a classic that I'm sure you've heard a million times, but it still belongs on this playlist.
Barenaked Ladies - I Saw Three Ships
Just a pretty little palate cleanser. They really should have let Steven sing first, but that's being nitpicky.
Lord Nelson - A Party For Santa Claus
Feeling chilly? Let the hot island rhythms of Tobago (by way of Brooklyn) of this little ditty warm you up (or go drink some cocoa, I don't care). I like the message of this song - how come no one ever gets presents for Santa?
The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick
Of course The Beach Boys would write a song about Santa's sled. This song is stupid, but I love it. And it features the brilliant line: "Christmas comes this time each year." Deep.
Aimee Mann - I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas
A happy little song about getting off the ol' drugs for Christmastime. Isn't that sweet?
Ella Fitzgerald - Good Morning Blues
Leave it to Ella to have a bad time at Christmas. "Don't send me nothing for Christmas but my baby back to me" - it's a great time of the year to be alone, isn't it?
dj BC - Waltz Of The Flowers (reflower)
An interesting mix of a classic, from dj BC's "A Very Re:Composition Christmas." Lots of interesting stuff on that album, it's really worth checking out if you like classical music, remixes, or both.
The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight)
A message of love and peace for the holidays from Joey Ramone. [Presumably he and the person to whom he was singing were allowed to resume fighting on Boxing Day.]
Kanye West ft. CyHi Da Prynce & Teyana Taylor - Christmas In Harlem
Despite famously being from Chicago, which does not include Harlem, Kanye does a serviceable job with this sequel to Louis Armstrong's "Christmas Night in Harlem" (featured in 2008's playlist). I think the best verse here belongs to CyHi Da Prynce, who raps in character as Santa Claus. This song gets extra credit for the part at the end when Teyana Taylor starts singing the melody of "Strawberry Letter 23."
Milly & Silly - Getting Down For Xmas
Looking at Santa's outfit, I'd say that playing funk music at this time of year is pretty much a no-brainer.
Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop
These guys really do a great job with the whole "suicidal but catchy" thing. Sample lyric: "Oh it's Christmas so we'll stop/'Cause the wine on our breath puts the love in our tongues/So forget the names/I called you on Christmas Eve/In fact forget the entire year/Don't reflect just pretend and you won't feel scared." Yikes.
David Bowie & Bing Crosby - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy
For a song that was conceived of, written, rehearsed, and performed in a little over an hour, this is pretty amazing. If you haven't heard this before, you're probably going to like it. I think it's all the more incredible considering the backstory (see link above).
Lovebyte - Auld Lang Syne
I actually cut another electronic instrumental song off this list, but I just had to give a nod to the robot inside me with this overly upbeat, bizarre version of the New Year's classic.
Sarah McLachlan - Song For A Winter's Night
Sarah McLachlan's take on Gordon Lightfoot's beautiful little song is spare and beautiful, and I find it really evokes the feeling of a cold winter's night effectively. Great harmonies, too.

Like the list? Download it! [you can now download previous years' lists, too!]

Hungry for more? Check out some of these awesome holiday playlists:

What are you listening to this holiday season? Tell me in the comments, and have a happy December!

Reading Roundup

2011-11-10T15:30:00.000-05:00

Before I leave town for a few weeks (pity me, I'll be in Hawaii), I figured I should leave you all with something to read. Here you go!

Fingertips Music has an interesting essay about the "social music fallacy." I think the author makes a great point: sharing music is meaningful when it's done between friends with common musical interests; it's spam when you're simply seeing what everyone's listening to in your Facebook feed.
For those of you who disagree with the above article and are ready to start sharing your every listen on Facebook, check out evolver.fm's "Beginner's Guide To Facebook Music." I don't really like Facebook's branding of this - this isn't "Facebook Music" so much as "Facebook updates about music to which people are listening through other platforms." Still, this is a good guide if you want to have your FB friends list appear in Spotify, but don't want to share every damn track you listen to.
Speaking of evolver.fm, they have a good writeup of the new metadata-driven music app Drinkify, which promises to help users decide what to drink based on what they're currently listening to. (Apparently a neat Hendricks Gin with pickled carrot garnish would be the perfect complement to this Youth Lagoon album I'm listening to as I write this. Sounds right to me.)
Drinkify was only one interesting app to come out of a recent Music Hack Day in Boston. Check out the Echo Nest's roundup of the hackage, and be sure to play around with the "Bohemian Rhapsichord" (Chrome only), a crazy little app that lets you play and combine samples from "Bohemian Rhapsody" to create something entirely new.
Music Hack Days are great for getting ideas off the ground, but of course it's once they really take flight that things get interesting. Public media stalwarts KCRW & PRX have created a high-flying iPad app called "Music Mine" which represents "an ambitious bid to improve the experience of music discovery online." Anyone want to buy me an iPad so I can write a review?
And finally, if (like me) you're in need of a new pair of headphones to wear while you play with all this great music stuff, check out Gizmodo's guide to the best budget headphones (helpful when gift-shopping for your local music/tech blogger!).

Happy reading/listening, and I'll see you all in December.

Halloween Playlist

2011-10-27T09:30:00.003-04:00

"Halloween" by flickr user Nate Hofer

It's baaaa-aaaack! That's right, a brand new Halloween Playlist is here to scarify your ears and help distract you from your usual workday activity of trying to look productive while wishing you were (un)dead.

So pull up a tombstone, put your feet up on that pumpkin, pop open a cold bottle of blood (or pumpkin beer), and enjoy.

And when you're done listening, check out 2009's Hallowen playlist....if you dare!

Friday Playlist: Fall Has Sprung!

2011-09-13T10:47:00.004-04:00

"Fallen Leaves" by flickr user Cherice

Fall has sprung! I can feel it in the air! Well, I could...for a day or two...before it got ridiculously humid and then it rained for 3 days and then got more humid and then was really hot for an afternoon. But I refuse to let that get me down. Fall is right around the corner (ignoring the fact that October is hot every year on the East Coast) and I am excited. Not excited enough to curate an actual autumn-themed playlist (saving that one for real Fall), but excited enough to put together a great playlist of some new stuff I've been enjoying lately. I hope you enjoy it too.

The songs:

Viva Voce - "Plästic Rädio"
First track off their amazing new album. Higher level of production and tighter songwriting than I've heard from these guys before, and all of it sounds fab. Plus they're really nice in person!
Thao & Mirah - "Eleven"
I was never a huge Thao Nguyen fan before, possibly because she's from Virginia. But she made a really interesting album with Mirah Zeitlyn, and it was produced by Merrill Garbus (of tUnE-YarDs), who really wasn't shy about letting her rather distinctive style seep into the duo's sound.
The Antlers - "French Exit"The Antlers' latest album grew on me slowly but surely, but it's really a beautiful, tender album and shows some subtle but sure growth for this great band. If you get the chance to see them live, don't miss it.
TV On The Radio - "Will Do"
I kind of tuned out through TVOTR's last album or so, and I think I'm not the only one. So then "Nine Types Of Light" came out earlier this year, I was definitely skeptical, and I actually wrote it off at first as a failed experiment. But somehow over repeated listens, the songs started to open up to me in a new way, and that experiment started really working for me. I saw them play live the other night at the Williamsburg Waterfront, and they blew me away. They had a great mix of styles on display and the band's sense of fun really came out. Definitely one of the better live shows I've ever seen. This song in particular took on a whole new life for me last night - makes me wish they would release a live album.
Handsome Furs - "When I Get Back"
I go back and forth as to which Wolf Parade side project is my favorite, but I'm split pretty mcuh 50/50 between Spencer Krug's Sunset Rubdown and Dan Boeckner's Handsome Furs. Their new album is a nice mix of electronica and good old rock and roll.
Mother Mother - "The Stand"
I've been waiting for years for these Canadians to release a new album, and now that they have, I am pleased.
Wugazi - "Another Chessboxin' Argument"
Wu-Tang Clan + Fugazi = awesome.
Okkervil River - "Rider"
I kind of feel like Okkervil River has taken over where Wilco left off several albums ago - i.e. by writing good American roots rock. Their sound has very little in common with Wilco, but I think they're going where Wilco was headed, before Wilco took a terrible left turn into mediocrity. The new Okkervil album is better than I expected, and has an edge to the production that wasn't there on previous efforts.
Gillian Welch - "The Way It Goes"
What can I say? There's a new Gillian Welch album, obviously you should go buy it.
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - "Senator"
I'm not half the Malkmus fan that the Abstract Citizen is, but even I can tell that "Mirror Traffic" is both an excellent return to form for Malkmus & the Jicks as well as an exploration of some interesting new ground. Elsewhere on the web, much has been made of Beck's influence as a producer on this album, so I'll leave it at this: it's good.
Portugal. The Man - "So American"
I think their new album is their best effort in a while. Still not quite what I know they're capable of, but really good nonetheless and definitely worth a listen.
TV On The Radio - "Killer Crane"
Yes, that concert made me like them so much I had to include another track from this album. This isn't their typical sound, but it's really pretty and somewhat haunting and it ends up working better than it should.

What are you listening to now that Fall is (nearly) upon us? Tell me in the comments.

Reading Roundup

2011-09-01T15:33:00.001-04:00

Yay, it's time for another news roundup! I just got back from a few weeks out of town (apparently the universe did not like the fact that I was out of New York, and decided to get all pouty and start throwing around earthquakes and hurricanes - hopefully now that I'm back, things will settle down considerably).

Anyway, here's what's been happening lately in the digital music world:

Not content to own all of our private data, Facebook is launching a music platform in conjunction with Spotify, MOG, and Rdio. It will apparently allow users "to listen to music from within Facebook.com," since it's not convenient enough to simply have music on in the background while you spend all day on Facebook. Interestingly enough, a Facebook rep apparently told Mashable “There’s nothing new to announce,” so take this one with a grain of salt.
eMusic and The Echo Nest have teamed up to create a new streaming radio offering. It's an interesting mix of human-curated content (by the music nerds at eMusic) and computer-based playlist generation (by the tech nerds at The Echo Nest). If, like me, you feel that Brooklyn has been woefully under-represented in the musical arena, you might want to start with their Brooklyn station.
The Atlantic has an interesting piece on The Loudness Wars and how they might possibly be over. Let your eardrums rejoice! The piece has an interesting take on Sleigh Bells' use of extreme compression as a purposeful technique as opposed to a last resort to make a record sound louder than it really is.
Not really news, but a useful roundup of Spotify playlist tools that help you create, discover, share, and collaborate on Spotify playlists. Enjoy them now before they implement streaming caps in the US!
If you're feeling generous, take a look at all the cool SXSW Interactive 2012 panels that Echo Nest is proposing, and go sign up and vote for them! While you're at it, you might as well go ahead and vote for my panel, "Change Happens: Improv For An Unpredictable World." Thanks!

That's all for today, folks. Got any cool music-related news? Let me know in the comments.

Web Developer's Lament

2011-08-19T20:33:00.001-04:00

This one's for all the web developers out there...

I'm on a "working vacation" for a couple weeks up in Belfast, ME, staying in a house on the bay. Somehow working from here doesn't feel quite as much like work as it does when I work from my usual office location. However, events have conspired to make it feel as much like work as it possibly could - namely, a client has been doing their best to make sure that no piece of code I write this week is ever actually done, due to the specifications changing daily, not unlike clouds shifting in a summer breeze.

So I wrote this song to explain how I feel. [This isn't all about this particular project, but that was a good starting point.]

This is a live recording made down by the water.

Lyrics:
They changed the specs again
Just when I was nearly finished
Said the client changed their mind
I don't know if I can take this

They changed the specs again
I've already written so much code
And the thought of starting over
Makes my sanity erode

Chorus:
Why won't they just let me finish?
Why can't I just be done?
Why won't they just let me finish?
Is this their idea of fun?

They changed the specs again
Pushed the launch up by 2 weeks
They've added a shopping cart
God, my knees are feeling weak

They changed the specs again
To match the new designs
They want it to just "work like Google"
Lord, I'm losing my mind

[Chorus]

I give up, I give up.
I give up, I give up.

Let's add some features, I give up.
Let's build a CMS from scratch, I give up.
Let's refactor every function, I give up.
Let's start calling ourselves agile, I give up.
Let's have a status meeting, I give up.
Let's adopt a framework, I give up.
Let's add members' only area, I give up.
Let's change databases, I give up.
Let's review my timesheet, I give up.
Let's never document anything, I give up.
Let's outsource to India

Spotify: Awesome, But Not Awesome Enough

2011-07-27T11:49:00.000-04:00

Like a lot of people, I've spent some time over the past couple of weeks trying out Spotify (and no, I don't have an invite to give you, sorry). And I've reached a conclusion: namely, that while Spotify offers a lot, I will never switch all my music to a rental/streaming model. I was already pretty sure of that, and then last week's Netflix streaming outage (on the heels of jacking up their prices to push users towards streaming-only plans) convinced me. Access to music is simply too important to me for me to rely on a rental model where I'm at the whim of a company who is subject to outages, price increases, changes in Terms of Service, etc. But that's not to say there's nothing good about Spotify; on the contrary, it's a pretty amazing service, and I'm glad it's finally available in the US. Here's how my experience with Spotify has gone so far:

I was delighted to get the invite in my inbox. I installed it immediately, and watched as it scanned my music folder (without asking me) and added the music files on my computer to its local database. Well, not all the music files - only the MP3s. For me, this was a big drawback. Most of my music is in FLAC, and so Spotify only picked up about 40% of my local files. This is important not just for playing those files locally, but because Spotify uses the presence of a file in your local library to determine whether or not to play ads to you while you listen - for example, say I searched for "Viva Voce" in Spotify. If their new album comes up in the search results and I play it, Spotify will check to see if I have a local copy (in MP3 format) of those files - if so, it plays the local copy and does not play me ads. If not, it will stream those tracks to me via their fancy P2P implementation, and interrupt the music with ads. In addition, other Spotify users can't use my local copies of those files as part of their streaming experience, so everybody takes a small hit when Spotify can't recognize all of my local music.

Speaking of those ads, they are horrible. My first 24 hours or so with Spotify was a beautiful, ad-free music playground. I looked up artists I'd wanted to hear more of, I could quickly find bands that a friend had recommended to me, etc. all without hearing or seeing a single ad. Then at some point I closed and restarted Spotify, and when it came back, it was more like listening to commercial radio while browsing the web without AdBlock. The ads were typically either for the latest album from some horrible nu-metal band (rather jarring to hear in the middle of an otherwise nice playlist) or for Spotify Premium. Sometimes the music would just stop after an ad played, and the interface would show me a message saying that my music would resume after the ad had played. I had to restart to fix that.

Now for the good: their music library is nearly unlimited. I've had a hard time stumping it (but when I did, it wasn't always with something obscure - for example, they have The Byrds' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" but not Dylan's), and so I've enjoyed exploring the back catalogue of some artists I like. The queuing system is convenient and intuitive, it's simple to make (and share) a playlist, and in general, it works the way you'd expect it to, which is nice. Speaking of playlists, "shared playlists" are a very cool feature - that's the ability to see playlists that your Facebook friends have put together. If their playlists contain songs from their local library that Spotify doesn't have in their rights network, you can't play them, but you can play everything else, so it adds a nice social aspect to the experience. I do wish that it didn't enable sharing of your playlists by default, though - I don't necessarily want to share every random playlist I throw together. But it is cool to see the list of Facebook friends growing as more and more people get access to invites.

Speaking of shared playlists, they made me realize that for me, Spotify is missing a key feature: recommendations. I found myself looking to shared playlists as a way to find some new music, or something that I might like (the old-fashioned way, i.e. "what are my friends into?"). I know that recommendation isn't in Spotify's core path, and that makes sense...but I was hit with the conundrum of "now I have access to nearly every song, ever....what the hell do I listen to?" Fortunately, I found Spotibot, which generates Spotify playlists for you based on various information from your Last.FM profile. This is just one of many mashups and integrations that Spotify highlights here. All of this is made possible via the Spotify Metadata API, which appears to be pretty great - though I'm not sure yet how it compares to the one from Echo Nest in terms of depth of data.

After playing with Spotify for a while, I did notice some unexplained UI things that were not intuitive to me (and not well explained in their documentation) - e.g. the music note icon (which I think means that a file is in your local library), the "Unlink Tracks" context-menu item, the "Go To Replacement" context-menu item, and a few others. But on the whole, Spotify is a great addition to the world of digital music players/streamers/aggregators. With the ads playing, I can't see myself using the free version every day - it's just too annoying. And I can't really see paying for access to thousands and thousands of tracks I don't want to listen to just to get access to a few more that I do.

How about you? Have you used it yet? What did you think? What's great? What's missing? Tell me in the comments.

I Wrote A New Song!

2011-07-26T15:23:00.003-04:00

Summertime doesn't just mean Mother Nature training a red-hot death laser on us with no end in sight, it also heralds the return of 50/90, which is the summertime cousin of FAWM. Basically it's a web-based community who are taking on the challenge of writing 50 songs in 90 days. Yes, it's crazy. So crazy, in fact, that I have never attempted it, but I do try and write a few songs each summer, in large part because I find that in the absence of a deadline of some sort, my songwriting tends to grind to an unglamorous halt.

Well, now that the heat and air quality have made going outside quite possibly the last thing I will ever do, I spent some time over the past week or so hiding indoors working on a new song. I've had the background music for this one rattling around my head for months, and finally decided to do something with it. The melody line was inspired by 2 things: 1) I recently received this awesome Rode microphone (my first condenser mic!) as a birthday present and needed something with a lot of soaring high notes to justify it, and 2) my wife nudging me to "write something that shows off [my] voice." I don't know if this satisfies #2, but I tried. As usual with my songs when I'm just starting one of these songwriting cycles, the lyrics are more or less about getting off your ass and doing something creative, etc.

The song is called "Set You Free." Enjoy!

MyCloud

2011-06-27T14:36:00.002-04:00

Cloud wisps by flickr user turtlemom4bacon

There's been a lot of talk lately about cloud-based music services. [Editor's note: all of those links are worth reading, if you have some time. You know you do.] If the concept is new to you, here's the gist: instead of storing your MP3s (or ideally, FLAC files) on your computer, you store them on someone else's server, and access them over the internet. It's not a new concept, but recently it's gotten a lot of buzz and helped revive the horrendously overused term "cloud" to mean "something that lives on a remote server." All web sites live in the cloud, and you access them from wherever you are. The big difference here is that music used to be something you owned, not something to which you (essentially) rented access.

I've had my own version of the cloud for a while now. Before there was Google Music, Apple's iCloud, or Amazon Cloud Player, there was the Squeezebox. For years now, I've used some simple server software, a decent home internet connection, and a dynamic DNS service to let myself stream my music from any other computer. The benefit for me is that I don't have to upload my sizable music collection (most of which is in FLAC, meaning the files take up a lot more space) to someone else's servers. This could realistically take days if not weeks, since I have a pretty low upload speed at home. Second, I'm not relying on a third party to give me access to my music. If Google or Amazon decides that they don't trust the provenance of one of my tracks, that's too bad for me - I simply lose access to it. Or if they decide that cloud-based music services are no longer a good business for them to be in, that's the end of that. Third, I have control over how my files are organized, tagged, listed, sorted, etc. - basically I am in control of the metadata and how I access it. And as we all know, metadata is cool [PDF].

But it goes deeper than that. At heart, I'm a collector, and I like the idea that I own my music. I don't want to give up control over to it to someone else, nor am I remotely comfortable with the idea of renting my music from a service like Rhapsody. I used to feel the same way about DVDs - I wanted to own them (I still do), because owning them feels good. A DVD library, much like a book library and certainly a music library, says something about its owner. I know this is somewhat ridiculous, especially in my case because all of my DVDs are in crates (New York apartments aren't huge on storage space), not visible to the public. I have similar qualms about switching from printed books to the Kindle (which I love). It just doesn't feel the same to be renting access to books as opposed to actually owning them. And yet I couldn't wait to move from physical CDs to digital files.

But despite all that, I do download books to the Kindle. And I love streaming movies from Netflix. But music is different - I'm not reading a book or watching a movie for 8 hours a day, but I have music on non-stop during my workday. And on my headphones when I ride the subway or walk the dog (unless I'm listening to the radio or a podcast). Music occupies a unique and very large place in my media consumption pantheon, and so for now, at least, I'm not willing to give mine up to someone else. I will suffer for this, I'm sure. For example, there is still no good, reliable way to stream from the Squeezebox to my Android phone (I've tried other services like Subsonic, with less-than-great results). And while it's easy for me to stream my music to any computer, it takes some setup and a bit of work - not a lot, but not as little as just downloading and installing the Google Music player, for example. But despite some drawbacks, maintaining my own "cloud" just feels right to me, and so that's how I'll be rolling. At least until something better comes along.

How do you store/manage/stream your music? Tell me in the comments.

Google Music - Still a Mystery

2011-05-26T12:21:00.001-04:00

After reading some interesting reviews of Google's new "cloud"-based music service, [Editor's note: can we please stop calling anything hosted online "cloud-based?"] imagine my delight (go ahead, imagine it) when a beta invitation arrived in my inbox yesterday. I was particularly interested in its playlisting abilities - i.e. how well it performs in the task of "recommend a bunch of songs from my own collection that have qualities in common with the seed song/artist/album." Over at Echo Nest, Paul Lamere (one of my music tech heroes, who's involved with a really cool company) did an in-depth head-to-head comparison of Google Music, iTunes Genius, and the Echo Nest's own API. The result: Google Music fails what Paul calls the "WTF Test." Meaning, way too many songs in Google's playlists would cause the listener to say "WTF? This has nothing in common with my seed song."

I've written about music recommendation engines in this space before, and generally I've found them to be a mixed bag. While I do sometimes hear about new artists I might not have heard otherwise from the web-based tools, these days I'm actually more interested in diving deep into my own collection. I have about 80,000 tracks in my digital collection. I use a variety of tools to manage this beast, primarily SqueezeCenter, which is the software that enables streaming to a device such as the Squeezebox. One of my favorite features of SqueezeCenter is its integration with a nifty little product called MusicIP. MusicIP used to be a great tool for generating playlists based out of your own music library. It's perfect for someone like me with more tracks than I can handle. It finds hidden gems, reminds me of things I forgot I had, and of course generates a few WTF moments. Sadly, the folks over at Amplifind Music Services discontinued support for this product a long time ago, thus ensuring that some of its most maddening bugs (my personal favorite is the one where it has trouble analyzing FLAC files on a network drive, but can analyze those same files perfectly on a local drive) will never be fixed. Kudos to folks like whoever runs Spicefly, who keep the torch burning for MusicIP, but the fact is, it's never going to get any better. And I haven't yet had the time to devote to learning the Echo Nest API enough to have it analyze my whole collection and thus fulfill the same function for me. Which brings me back to Google Music.

Despite its purportedly high "WTF factor," and the fact that you can only upload 20,000 tracks, and the fact that they will delete any track that Google deems to have violated copyright (I'd love to know how they know which track is the one I ripped from my own CD, and which is the copy I might have given to someone), I was still hopeful that Google Music might, one day, fill the coming void in my life when I finally upgrade Windows and MusicIP breaks down altogether. So now that you've imagined my delight at receiving an invitation to the beta, imagine my disgust when the stupid thing told me I already more than 2 authorized user accounts tied to my current device, whatever that might mean. This for software that I've never installed before. So I consulted their help page, which told me to simply go to my Google Music settings in my browser, and de-authorize my devices. Now, finally, imagine the words I uttered upon discovering that, according to Google, my authorized devices numbered exactly zero. I wrote to support, but haven't heard back yet. So for now, Google Music doesn't even have a chance to fail the WTF test for me, it's too busy failing the WFI test (Won't Fucking Install).

Anyone else used this thing? Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: Google support got back to me, apparently this was an issue where by default the software assumed if you had any virtual machines on your computer that you were already using Google Music. They have released a fix, so I'll be trying again soon.

Music Without A Net

2011-05-10T11:17:00.006-04:00

Hello loyal readers. I'd like to take a break from my usual spotty coverage of music and technology plus the occasional playlist to let you all know that next weekend, I will get not 1 but 2 opportunities to do one of my favorite things in the world: perform musical improv in front of an audience. And if you're going to be in New York City the weekend of May 20th, I'd love for you to come out and see me.

Friday May 20 @ 8:00 PM
Vox Pop Presents: An Evening of Musical Improv
My 2-person group Vox Pop will be hosting an evening of musical improv, with a ton of amazing guest groups from the Big Apple. Vox Pop performs an entirely sung show - every word you hear will be sung, every tune and lyric will be made up on the spot, and it will be entertaining as hell. My co-star Karen Lange lives in Washington, DC, and I live in New York City, so we don't get to perform together as often as we'd like, which makes this show a big deal. So come on out and see an event that's way more rare and entertaining than a triple rainbow or a super moon or any of that other crap.

Details
Friday 5/20 8:00 PM
Theaterlab, Studio C

137 W. 14th St., btwn 6th & 7th

New York, NY

$10 - Tickets
More info

Saturday, May 21 @ ~ 8:00 PM
iMusical: The REUNION Show! (Part of the Queens Fringe Festival)
Washington DC's acclaimed iMusical is coming to New York to participate in the Queens Fringe Festival. iMusical has performed to standing ovations up and down the east coast, and was called "spot on" by the Washington Post. Despite these accolades, various cast members (including yours truly) have left the group over the years to pursue life in the Big Apple. Well, on Saturday May 21st you can see these all-stars back together on stage for the first time in years. This is bigger than [some awesome all-star sports game that I can't reference because I don't follow sports]!!! You don't get a chance to see this many musical improv heavy-hitters on stage at the same time very often, folks, so don't pass it up.

Details
Saturday 5/21
We are in a slot of groups which starts at 6:40 PM. We're expected to go on around 8:00 PM.

The Secret Theatre

44-02 23rd St

Long Island City, NY
$15 for an all-day pass which also gets you $3 beers all day(!)
More info

I hope you can make it out to one or both of those shows, I can pretty much guarantee [Editor's note: not a guarantee] that they are going to be awesome.

Friday Playlist: SXSW and Beyond

2011-04-22T11:58:00.003-04:00

Good news, everyone, the Friday Playlist is back! Today's edition features mostly bands I heard about this year at SXSW, with some old favorites thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!

TUnE-yArDs - "Gangsta"
Despite the monstrously inappropriate use of mixed-case letters in their name, this world-music-meets-hip-hop-meets-a-bunch-of-other-stuff album from musician Merrill Garbus is really incredible, and is everything the last Dirty Projectors album should have been. She also recently produced and penned a few songs for the latest Thao Nguyen album, which (in my not-so-humble opinion) has made Thao more interesting than ever.
Beach House - "Used To Be"
This album came out last year, but I finally got around to listening to it a couple weeks ago and was struck at how Beach House put out the perfect Walkmen album. It's really beautiful but never boring. Excellent.
Shad - "Rose Garden"
Shad, or Shadrach Kabango as his parents called him, is a Canadian rapper who played at SXSW this year to much acclaim. This whole album is great, and this song in particular showcases his lyrical prowess, flow, and ear for a good sample.
Yuck - "Get Away"
Another SXSW darling, this London group has been getting a lot of press lately as a band who obviously worships the sound of the 90s, despite seemingly being way too young to have actually been cognizant of music during the actual 90s. My cynical prediction is that you won't be hearing about them for very much longer, but it's a fun album if you were around for the real thing.
Gold Panda - "Quitters Raga"
This is a cut off of Companion, a digital-only download of tracks released prior to this SXSW star's Lucky Shiner. But it's still a cool song.
Superhumanoids - "Cranial Contest"
Hailing from LA's Echo Park, Superhumanoids got a lot of press at SXSW this year, and they deserve most of it. Their sound borrows pretty heavily from the late 80s/early 90s, but they turn those influences into some cool lo-fi pop songs that stick with you. They show a few sides on this EP, and I like that they haven't decided on one yet, it makes for a more interesting sound.
Braids - "Lemonade"
I know it's simplistic to call Braids "Animal Collective with a female singer," but I'm going to do it anyway. Not all the songs on this album hold true to that description, but enough do that I feel OK with it.
Destroyer - "Kaputt"
Ah, Destroyer. The thinking man's Steely Dan. Who else could make an album full of songs about girls and cocaine sound so goddamn square?
Paul Simon - "Dazzling Blue"
Amazingly, Paul Simon's voice still seems to be serving him as well as his songcraft and his gift for lyrical poetry. I really liked a lot of his new album, but I don't recommend listening to it on a long drive that you start at 7:00 AM (like I did).

Thanks for listening! As always, please let me know what you thought in the comments.

SXSW Music: Day 3

2011-03-30T10:00:00.000-04:00

After the previous night's excitement, I was ready for some R & R on my last day in Austin. R & R meaning, of course, rock and roll. [Editor's note: not my best work, humor-wise. Forgive me.] The ER doctor, while stitching up my wife's face, told us about "the best coffee shop in Austin" where there was going to be a whole afternoon of free music the next day, "more in a folky, bluegrassy vein." And this woman knew veins. [Editor's note: that was funnier, right?] So off we went to the Once Over Coffee Bar, stopping along the way for some delicious tacos from - you guessed it - a food truck right in front of the coffee shop. Once inside, we secured some beers, then made our way to the back deck where a lady with a ukelele was just starting her set.

It turns out that lady - Datri Bean - was going to become one of my wife's new favorite artists. On her web site, Bean describes her music as "music for a lazy afternoon on the porch" and I couldn't agree more. We spent a nice long while basking in the Texas sunshine, nursing our beers (and, for some of us, our head wounds), and happily grooving on Datri Bean's folky, jazzy tunes as she switched from ukelele to accordian and back again. It was heavenly. We stayed for a few more groups afterwards (unfortunately, I can't recall their names) and really enjoyed ourselves, finally heading indoors for some of the excellent coffee and a surprisingly good bagel. All in all, a good afternoon.

Datri Bean and her accordion

That night was going to be my last night in Austin, so I knew I had to make the most of it. I had plotted out 5 bands I wanted to see (with about 5 backups for each time slot), all at venues within walking distance of each other. I knew if I stayed focused and kept on a steady diet of Jack & Coke and Lone Star, I could do it. So I set off on my rental bike around 8:30 PM, plan in hand, ready for a good time. Here's how it played out:

My first stop was a church where the over-50 set, a handful of teenagers who looked way too young to sneak into any over-21 clubs, the other 3 Jews in Austin, and I all enjoyed the klezmer-honkytonk stylings of the Yiddish Cowboys. Truth be told, they were really just a klezmer band in cowboy hats, there wasn't any discerinble honkytonk to my ears. But I did learn from them that the song "Miserlou" has its roots as an old Greek folk tune who's title means "Egyptian Girl." So that was interesting. Also, the entire church smelled strongly of bacon, which was being cooked out in one of the common rooms, along with a whole slew of breakfast items available for sale, as well as beer. Fascinating.

Damien Jurado, rocking out

Next up was Damien Jurado, who performed a beautiful set despite some obstacles. He was in an upstairs club above some place that was blaring some sort of horrible nu-metal music or something. It was impossible not to hear the drums pounding through the floor as he sang his quiet heartfelt songs. At first everyone in the club was sitting down, and it felt really communal, but eventually the club asked us all to stand up to let more people in, which was weird, because the people who came in just stood at the bar and talked, prompting Damien to yell at them to "shut the fuck up" at one point. He seemed a little perturbed the whole time, but still did a great set, even doing one of his guitar solos a cappella as he played the rhythm part, inviting the crowd to sing along with him during one song, and then telling us a story about the "rich assholes [he] knew growing up who owned a trampoline."
My next stop was easily the loudest of the night, when I managed to squeeze myself into a very crowded club to see Tapes 'n Tapes. Apparently they have a new album out, I had no idea. I haven't really heard anything about them in a while, but it turns out they are very good live, they are incredibly loud, and they are extremely punctual. All of which are positives in my book. They did a crisp half-hour set which actually included a lot of songs, which I guess highlights how short their songs are on average. This show made me want to listen to them more, so maybe I'll check out that new album some time soon. I also really appreciated the brevity of this set, as it gave me some time to enjoy a nice food truck falafel before rushing off to the next show of the night. Side note: this was the only show of the evening for which I did not get to sit down for at least a portion of the set. At my age, that's worth keeping track of.
Her Space Holiday, pre-retirement
The penultimate band of the night (for me, at least) was San Francisco's Her Space Holiday [Editor's note: according to AMG, Marc Bianchi relocated to Austin back in 2001, so I guess he was a local act that night.] I've been a fan of this emo-electronic bedroom-pop act for a while, so I was really looking forward to this show, and he didn't disappoint. He combined a couple songs for some reason, and played a few I'd never heard, which was cool. It was illuminating to see a live guitarist and bassist playing along with all the pre-recorded electronic backing music; I'd been curious as to how that would work out live. It's nothing new, but it's still kind of weird to see a band playing live with a laptop. There was a surprisingly large crowd for this show, or at least I guess Bianchi was surprised, because he opened the show by asking the crowd "where have you guys been for the past 5 years?" I had no idea how long this band had been around until he announced at the end of the show "I've been doing this for 15 years, and I'm going to be stopping soon." So I guess that counts as a surprise retirement announcement. Woo hoo, I got a scoop!
Damien Jurado, hanging out
My night ended at the same club where I'd seen Damien Jurado, and on my way over there, I passed some bearded guy in a plaid shirt (there were literally hundreds of them on the streets) who turned out to be...Damien Jurado. I told him I'd really liked his set and he shook my hand and thanked me. That was cool. Then I went upstairs to see another act I've loved for a long time but never seen live before, Viva Voce. This married couple from Portland makes excellent guitar-based psychedlic rock music, and it was very cool to see them re-create some of that music in a very intimate setting. By which I mean, there were only about 10 other people there to see them, which is a crime. One of those people happened to be the aforementioned Damien Jurado, who walked over and sat down at my table (where there was a free bar stool) and proceeded to spend most of the show seemingly checking the weather on his iPhone. Meanwhile, Viva Voce did an awesome for a small but enthusiastic crowd, and afterwards I got to talk briefly with Kevin Robinson (who mostly plays drums and sings), who was really nice, and told me all about how he'd shredded his rotator cuffs drumming and had to take several years off, and how happy he was to be playing again, and how his wife Anita is really the super-talented one and how great she is. It was really cute, and I really enjoyed talking to him. Then someone from the venue told the "crowd" that we all had to leave for the night, so that was that.

The next day we re-visited the rock poster exhibit, did some shopping on Austin's wonderful South Congress St., and waited in vain for the cab we had ordered to pick us up and take us to the airport. We eventually hailed one on the street. That part of the day was pretty stressful and made me hate Austin's taxi drivers even more than I already did. But in the end, it was a great week, the weather was nice, I got to see a lot of old friends, a ton of live music, and some interesting panels to boot. And my own panel went really well and got a very enthusiastic response from the crowd. So until next year, thanks for a great time, Austin!

Wall art/musical instrument from our Austin rental condo

SXSW Music: Day 2

2011-03-21T18:02:00.001-04:00

Now that I'm safely back at home in the near-freezing fog of Brooklyn, I can tell you guys all about my second day of SXSW Music, which was pretty darned eventful. The day began at a reasonably late hour, due to staying up past my bedtime the night before. When I did finally make my way over to the Austin Convention Center (or "ACC" to those of us in the know), I got there in time for a panel all about how to get your music featured in commercials. Apparently the short answer is, "it's hard." The longer answer is, "it's really hard, but keep at it and good luck!" After that dose of realism, I wandered down to the Flatstock Poster Exhibition where I immediately wanted to spend every last dollar I have (which wouldn't have taken long) on amazing rock posters, t-shirts, and art for me and a lot of people I know. If you're reading this, chances are I saw I a poster I wanted to buy you. But I showed remarkable restraint and only bought myself one robot t-shirt from this guy.

Please buy me this

After drooling all over the poster show's floor (and a few of the posters), I made my way down to the "Gear Alley Expo," a much smaller version of the SXSW Trade Show featuring only vendors that have something to do with music. Within seconds, I had already fallen in love with several products and was trying to figure out how to sell my body on the spot to pay for them. The first thing was a very cool amp from Fender that plugs into your computer and gives you on-screen controls to use it as a modelling amp (meaning it can emulate a bunch of different amp sounds, and it has a ton of included effects, etc.) You can load your own backing tracks on it or use one of the many included ones and play along live with yourself, without having to bring a laptop to your show. If anyone would like to buy me this, I would be forever (or at least for a long time) in your debt. I also had a nice long chat with the guys at Raw Talent, who were there promoting a new computer-based guitar training program that actually looks very cool and useful. After talking to them for a while, they asked me if I happen to write about music or technology. Why yes, yes I do! Even though I warned them that I only have a handful of readers (but it's the best handful on the Internet) they gave me a free copy of their software to evaluate and review. So watch this space for a review coming soon, and watch me have 1 fewer excuse for having incredibly limited guitar skills.

Next up was a panel titled "Songwriters Explain Everything," which sounded pretty useful. But much like imaginary numbers, it turned out to be pretty cool, but of limited practical value. While there wasn't really too much talk about the craft, there were some great live performances from Hayes Carll, Ron Sexsmith, and Hazel Dickens, who is not only adorable, but can still belt it out pretty well for an old lady. Hazel did say something about songwriting that I loved - the moderator was asking the three musicians how they got started with songwriting, and she talked about how she loved singing along with music as a child, but that she would always "run out of verses," so she had to writer her own. I could really relate to that, both as a musician and in particular as a musical improviser.

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - dig that giant beard!

I ended up skipping the panel with maybe my favorite title of the week, "I'm Not Old, Your Music Does Suck" in favor of going home and preparing for a night out of seeing shows. Turns out I didn't need too much preparation, as I only ended up seeing one band. Halfway through a really, really great set from LA's electro-shoegazers Letting Up Despite Great Faults, I got a phone call from the wife. I texted her back, explaining that the club was loud and I couldn't really talk at the moment. She texted back, explaning that she had taken a little spill, and was currently dripping blood from her face. So I missed the rest of the set (and I missed seeing Portugal. The Man and TV On The Radio later that evening) to spend time in one of Austin's most exclusive (seriously, the wait to get into that place is ridiculous) venues, the emergency room. Fortunately (very!), she was fine, and is now sporting some styling face stitches and very strong views on cities that leave downed street signs lying in the middle of the sidewalk for unsuspecting (and completely sober, sadly) pedestrians to trip over. On the plus side, she did get some kick-ass painkillers from the doctor, who also told us about a great (and free!) bluegrass/folk showcase going on the next day at a coffee shop right near the condo we were renting. And it was at that showcase that Amanda discovered a new favorite artist. So that's kind of cool.

More on that in my next post, as well as reviews of the five(!) shows I saw on my final night in Austin, including a honky-tonk klezmer band, the surprise announcement of Her Space Holiday's retirement, and the loudest band in Austin! Stay tuned...

SXSW Music: My First Night

2011-03-18T17:17:00.002-04:00

This year marks my 4th time at SXSW, and my first time at SXSW Music (thanks to a gift from my lovely and talented wife). I didn't really know what to expect, and with something like 2000 bands playing over a handful of days, planning out my evenings has been not unlike planning a small military operation. Every band I want to see is playing at the same time at different venues and nothing starts on time and everything's crazy and everyone's everywhere etc. etc. etc. So far, this has been a good experience in learning to let go of expectations, because all the planning can really go out the window once you try actually navigating the drunken hordes on Austin's 6th Street at 1:00 AM to get over to that one club with the really cool band playing.

But despite all the craziness, I've seen some great stuff so far, and I'm here to tell you all about it!

Wednesday night I caught a very short set from Canadian hip-hopper 4th Pyramid (I think he was told about 8 minutes into his set that the entire set would only be 10 minutes long). After that, I hopped on my bike and headed over to catch college-age rappers Chiddy Bang at the "Vibe SXSW House Party," whatever that was. They were listed as going on at 9:15, but the signs posted near the men's room indicated that they would be taking the stage closer to 12:15 (that's AM, people), so after sticking around for an hour of middling-quality West Coast hip hop acts, I ditched the House Party to host my very own gourmet sliders party at a local food truck.

Once sated, I parked myself at my final destination for the evening and saw three bands in a row, 2/3 of whom hail from Brooklyn these days, just like me. First up was The Vandelles, who seemed to have left most of their effects rack at home, so (despite turning the reverb way up on their amps) they did not manage to fully re-create their spacey psychedelic surf-rock vibe on a live stage, but they did feature 2 female band members sporting dangerously hip levels of bangs, so there's that. Next up was The Antlers, who easily won the coveted "Jordan's Favorite Band Of The Night" award with a killer set drenched in beautiful effects, high-pitched emotional vocals, and an overall sense of quality. Here's a totally legal video that someone who is totally not me shot of their closing number, (a personal favorite of whomever took this video), "Two" [Editor's note: the sound quality on this video is, to put it technically, not very good. But it's still cool.]:

"Two" - The Antlers at SXSW 2011 from Jordan Hirsch on Vimeo.

The Antlers performing their song "Two" at the Parish during SXSW 2011 (3/16/2011).

Following that awesomness, The Dodos came on and practically bored me to tears. I really wish I had jumped ship at that point and tried to catch Parts & Labor (also from Brooklyn) at another club down the street, but by that time in the evening if you were already deeply ensconced in a crowd (as I was), changing venues was a bit of an uphill proposition. So I stuck it out for about 40 minutes, then finally walked out into the cool night air, just in time to catch a few songs from Kansas City's own hip hop legend Tech N9ne. He was performing inside the aforementioned "Vibe SXSW House Party" venue, and for a brief wonderful period the people in charge had left the doors and full-length windows open, so a small crowd on the street could enjoy the show as well as those inside. Then some jerk came along and closed the doors & windows, and I got on my bike and went home to sleep it all off.

But of course that's not the end of the story...stay tuned for more updates including the old-timey country singer lady, the next evening's winner of the Jordan's Favorite Band Of The Night award, and a surprise trip to the Austin ER!

What I've Learned at SXSW So Far

2011-03-16T14:04:00.000-04:00

The first thing I learned was that when people remind you all day to set your clocks ahead an hour on Sunday night, you should probably do that. Instead, I woke up the next morning thinking I had plenty of time to make it to Paul Lamere's panel "Finding Music With Pictures: Data Visualization for Discovery" only to discover that it was, in fact, happening at that very moment, thanks to the ridiculous scam that is Daylight Savings Time. Fortunately, Paul has posted his slides over at Music Machinery (linked from his name, above) and so when I have some more time I am going to try to piece together what he talked about based on a smattering of pictures and text.

I also learned that the SXSW Animated Shorts are not as good as the ones at Sundance that I was lucky enough to see a few years back, and in retrospect I should have skipped them entirely to attend the "Bloggers Fight Back: Legal Workshop for Music Bloggers" panel. But since I didn't, don't be surprised when I start writing this blog from jail.

When I finally got into some panels, I learned even more. Mainly, I learned that metadata is the magic word of the day. First up was the "Love, Music & APIs" panel featuring speakers from Echo Nest and SoundCloud. Their main point was that APIs are the new currency in music apps, and if you don't have one, you're not really playing in the same game as everyone else. They had a slide listing all sorts of cool music companies with APIs - interestingly enough, Pandora wasn't listed. I wondered why not, as they seemed to be in the heart of the music recommendation space, and my friend Lori quickly realized "they must not have an API." I felt so sad for them. The panelists talked a lot about Music Hack Days, finally answering the question of what actually happens at those things. The answer: a lot of smart people make a lot of really interesting and cool music apps in a very short amount of time, nearly all of them based around APIs. And what do those APIs revolve around? Metadata. That was also the topic of the second music-related panel I attended that day, "Music & Metadata: Do Songs Remain The Same?" The panelists here used a pretty broad definition of "metadata," using it to cover everything from the spelling of a song's title (apparently when users submit their own titles to most metadata repositories like MusicBrainz or the old CDDB, you can end up with 176 spellings of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door") to things like a song's cultural impact or a singer's unique and recognizable turns of phrase. The main takeaway is that metadata may start out in the hands of the artist, but quickly becomes "owned" by listeners, users, remixers, etc. Metadata is cultural currency in much the same way that APIs are technical currency. Combined, they are helping make this a fascinating and wonderful time to be a music nerd.

The last thing I learned is that the line to see Surfer Blood was too long last night, so I will be trying again tonight. Of course, there are about 50 bands (and a movie) that I want to see all playing at the same time tonight, so I have no idea what I'll end up seeing, but I'll tell you all about it here!

SXSW Is Here!

2011-03-10T11:32:00.000-05:00

Well, almost. It officially starts tomorrow, and that's when I'm heading to Austin. Amanda and I are going to be leading a session called "Improv For Everyone" on Tuesday 3/15 at 3:30 PM. It's about how the lessons of improvised comedy can actually help you (yes, even you!) get more out life. But that's not what this blog is about. This blog is about music, so let's talk about that.

My awesome wife gave me an upgrade to SXSW Music, and I have spent the past week trying to decide which of the 400 or so bands that are playing I want to try and see. Every time I've gone to SXSW in the past, we've been leaving Austin just as all the bands arrive, and I've always wanted to stay for the music portion of the festival. Now that I have that option, I'm overwhelmed. There's tons of bands, and all the bands I like are playing at the same time, and there's so many bands I've never heard of that I can't possibly get myself up to speed on all of them in time to make an informed decision. So what's a music fan to do?

One thing I can do (and so can you) is check out All Songs Considered's SXSW Preview, featuring a playlist of some of the bands that they think are great and that most people probably aren't already familiar with. During the festival, you can also stay tuned to NPR's SXSW page, where they will be live-streaming many of the shows. If you want to dive deeper, check out the "Unofficial" SXSW Torrents Page, which features collections of songs from nearly every band that's playing SXSW this year, as well as archives going back to 2005.

And of course, keep your dial right here, because I will be posting about any shows I see, and all the music panels I'm able to get to. It should be a great week.

The Echo Nest Is Listening

2011-03-08T11:50:00.000-05:00

I've written before in this space about Paul Lamere, a deep thinker about music and technology and the director of the application developer community for The Echo Nest, a "music intelligence company" that is pushing the boundaries of what technology can tell us about the music we listen to. They recently got some love from Fast Company in a piece that highlights some things they've been up to recently, including the following snippet:

The Echo Nest crawls the web in search of music and writing about music; it also partners with major labels like Universal and aggregators like 7Digital. It then devours data about the music, on both the "acoustic side"--tempo, key, etc. (Echo Nest's system crunches that sort of data in about 10 seconds for a song)--and the "cultural side"--what reviewers are saying about the music for instance. It crawls the web, Google-style, ravenous for new musical information. If you tweet about the band you saw last night, "we have that in our databases within the hour," says Whitman.

Not only are they listening to everything we're saying about music, and listening to the music itself, but currently the Echo Nest has information about 30 million songs in its database. 30 million! I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between the 30 million songs that you can query about using their API vs. the 1 million in the "Million Song Dataset" they just announced, but either way, this is really, really cool. [Editor's note: I think the API gives you access to song information only, while the Million Song Dataset actually gives you access to 30-second samples for each song, so developers and researchers can actually perform automated musical analysis on those samples.]

I'm looking forward to seeing Paul's SXSW panel this year (plug time: I'll be there leading my own panel, about how the lessons of improv can help you live a better life). If you're interested in music and technology, Echo Nest is definitely a company to watch.

Killer Robots Can Love, Too

2011-02-21T20:52:00.001-05:00

This robot just needs to be loved

As any reader of this blog knows, I like robots. In fact, they're one of my favorite inspirations when I write music. And no, I don't really know why. Regardless, my lastest FAWM song is a country ballad sung by a poor lovelorn horrible killer robot.

Enjoy!

Loved By You
or
My Visual Input Sensors Start Leaking Coolant When My Memory Banks Retrieve Playback Of You

Lyrics:

(Amanda helped me edit these lyrics to make them better.)

I was made in a laboratory
I guess by now you prob'ly know the story
Made of wires, and metal fittings
Built for revenge, yeah I was born to kill things
My instruction set is "maim, kill, destroy"
I ain't got the moves like all them human boys
But I know this much is true: I just wanna be loved by you

My first mission was quite successful
I remember the headlines so well
"Killer Robot On Murd'rous Rampagel"
They put my picture all across the front page
But afterwards I just felt empty inside
I took no joy from all the thousands who died
I look back on that with rue...but I just wanna be loved by you

[bridge]
I got a saw where my hand should be
I got a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth
I got infrared to see all through the night
But without you, girl, something just ain't right

[solo]

Now that I've got you, wrapped up in my arms
Don't you worry, cause I'll never do you harm
I'll squeeze you so hard so that you can feel
My love for you dear human is so real
Oh no, looks like I'm squeezing you too tight
Your tongue is hanging out, your eyes are losing light
And even though you're turning blue...I just wanna be loved by you

A Love Song

2011-02-19T20:29:00.001-05:00

For this FAWM song, I asked my wife Amanda to write some lyrics for me, and she started by grabbing Entertainment Weekly and saying "pick a number." So I did, and she opened up to that page number, where someone from the latest Scream movie was being interviewed. The sentence she read aloud was something along the lines of "We were trying to shoot Ghost-face and there was literally a blizzard behind him." We both really liked the idea of ghosts in a blizzard, where they would be more or less invisible.

That idea plus a few drops of our history mixed with a lot of poetic license ended up becoming this love song.

Lyrics
(lyrics by Amanda Hirsch with some tweaks by me)

They say I'm a fool
With my heart open wide
Wanting this world
Nothing to hide

We met in the rain
Drops coming down
But we didn't care
There was no one around

'Cause we're ghosts in the the blizzard
Ghosts in the blizzard
Oh yeah

They said it won't last
They said we don't know
As if we can't tell
Rain from the snow

They tried so hard
To steer you and me
But we vanished away
And they couldn't see

'Cause we're ghosts in the blizzard
Ghosts in the blizzard
Oh yeah

It's a turbulent world
And it's a turbulent time
But I'm so glad, girl
I'm so glad that you're mine

& We're ghosts in the blizzard
Ghosts in the blizzard
Oh yeah

A Song For (And By) My Dog

2011-02-12T21:49:00.000-05:00

Cosmo is awesome

My wife made a request recently: she wanted me to write a song about our dog Cosmo. This isn't the first time he's inspired one of our creative endeavors, but it is the first time he helped me get closer to completing FAWM (other than providing moral support, of course). It's a pretty unflinching look at the rough life of a tough dog living in the big city.

I ended up writing what I believe is my third song (there might be more, I'm not sure) written in the form of "a day in the life of [X]." I found this one incredibly easy to write (I had to cut out several verses, that's how much I have to say about my dog), and just as difficult to play and record. My piano, guitar, and bass skills are not what they once were (well, my guitar and bass skills were never really all that great), and so I spent a very long time plunking out some parts measure by measure, then editing, time-warping, etc. to make everything line up right.

But I'm really happy with the end result, and I hope you enjoy it too!

MUSIC
2 distorted guitar tracks, 1 clean one to help even out the sound. 2 piano parts, basically splitting the left and right hand parts into their own tracks. 1 bass line, and 1 line of eZ Drummer (I think I used every fill in the Pop/Rock series on this one). 1 main vocal track, 1 harmony track, and 1 extra harmony track during the bridge.

The chorus is pretty obviously stolen from "Black Gold" by Soul Asylum. The verses are familiar too, but I'm not sure if I stole them and can't remember the source, or if they just have that sound.

LYRICS
i wake up, it's a sunny day and i jump up on the bed
i start to drop all kinds of hints that it's time for me to get fed
sometimes i give them that "special look" and sometimes i give them the howl
cuz' every dog knows when it's time to eat that it's time to eat RIGHT NOW.

breakfast has happened so i sneak a quick nap in, during the pre-walk wait
i spend some time sitting up on my couch where the view is pretty great
i look out the window and i wonder if they know that i really have to pee
so i break out the howl and i put on my scowl and say "pay attention to me!"

[chorus]
'cuz it's a dog day in a dog's life
and everything's all right
here's how i'm living and i don't need forgiving
'cuz i only bark i don't bite

out on the street, so many people to meet, out in the neighborhood
i make my cute face and I lean up close, so that they can pet me good
when it's time to drop a bomb i know that mom or dad will pick it up
'cuz they do the dirty work when i'm outside, that's the beauty of being a pup

back to the couch, now it's time to relax, while my humans do their work
sometimes i nap sometimes i just rest my eyes, stretching out is just one of the perks
of being a dog, i'm like a bump on a log, unless the goddamn doorbell rings
and then i lose my ever-lovin' mind, god i really hate that thing

[chorus]

[bridge]
things aren't always peachy keen
sometimes i have to go to the vet
i bark a lot, yeah i make a scene
if i could i'd break out in a sweat
but then when it's over, they give me a treat
i guess it really ain't so bad
but of course i can't let them know
so don't go telling my mom and dad!

when it's time for bed i lay down my head up where my humans sleep
i let them pet me and i give them a snuggle, it's really kinda sweet
then it's off to slumberland where i chase rabbits all through the night
but it's only a dream, i'm just blowing off steam, i'd rather love than fight

[chorus]

Twitter Told Me To

2011-02-08T22:23:00.002-05:00

A couple nights ago, I was sitting at my computer, staring at the blank canvas of my audio recording software, when I realized that I had no idea what song to write. FAWM is in full effect, and there just isn't enough time in February for me to waste a night on my own with no committments - I had to start something. A few songs I'd been tinkering with were eluding me, refusing to give themselves up no matter how I coaxed. In short, I was boned.

And then a wonderful thing happened: I checked Twitter, and noticed that the FAWM Twitter account had posted a prompt. I had used one of their prompts previously when I wrote a (semi-)classical song, but that time it had just been for a lark, not because I had writer's block. This time it was a life-saver.

I haven't worked much with writing prompts, though I know some writer find them an incredibly valuable tool. My wife Amanda wrote some great blog posts during December based on the Reverb 10 series of daily writing prompts. I had never really thought of prompts as something I could use, until this particular prompt sent me on a 2-and-a-half day songwriting journey.

The prompt directed anyone reading to write an "electronica/dance song." While I love using robot noises and other electronica effects in some of my songs, I've never tried to write a straight-up electronica piece before. Turns out they're much harder work than I thought (mostly on the production side). Speaking of production, I'm still doing my mixing on either headphones or computer speakers, which is a mortal sin to people who take these things seriously. So if any of my readers wants to buy me a nice set of monitors, I would be forever grateful.

And now, please get ready to dance to the trance as I present "Dark Room."

Sitting On The Beach

2011-02-06T19:00:00.002-05:00

FAWM track #3 is done! This is my homage to all the hat-wearing guitar players out there who spend their days looking good in their hats and playing their guitars on the beach. Like this guy:

Sitting on a beach, wearing a hat, playing a guitar.

It's my personal shout-out to the troubadors so perfectly mocked in one of SNL's great recent sketches, "The Mellow Show." I hate those guys, but without them I wouldn't have had my third FAWM track, "Sitting On The Beach."

I also hate mixing songs. I like writing songs, I like performing songs, I don't even mind recording songs...but mixing remains in large part a hugy mystery to me, and I often end up with things are too loud, too quiet, too "it just doesn't sound right," etc. There are tons of resources out there for people like me to learn and get themselves up to speed, but I am a lazy man, and I would prefer to just skip ahead to the part where I know all this stuff. So if you're reading this and have the ability to do so, please invent that thing from the Matrix that allows Keanu to learn kung fu in a 20 second brain upload. Thank you.

MUSIC
This song features the exact same chords as my much more meaningful song "Home Tonight." I didn't intend to write two songs with the exact same chord structure, I guess I'm just not always as creative as I'd like to be. I'm also not the pianist I once use, so feel free to mentally substitute a better piano solo after the bridge.

LYRICS
I woke up this morning, knew what I would do
It's the same thing every day
Packed up my six-string and headed for the beach
It's not that far away

I made sure that I had my hat
To keep the sun off of my face
'Cuz there's a place for everything, including this hat
And everything's in its place

[CHORUS]
Now i'm sitting on the beach, wearing my hat
And strummin' on my guitar

The sun is shining, the people look good
Feel like I'm livin' in a dream
My hair is perfect and my body is tan
Like I stepped out of a magazine

I sometimes wonder if this is all
That life has in store for little old me
But then I remember that I'm wearing my hat
And everything's as it should be

[CHORUS]

[BRIDGE]
Sometimes overhead, a cloud passes by
And a perfect little teardrop forms inside my perfect little eye
But then a breeze blows through and blows that cloud away
And then i'm happy, happy, more than I could say

The day is done, and I've had my fun
It's time to head back home
So I pack up my six-string and put on my shirt
My hat's still up on my dome

Well I don't button my shirt all the way to the top
'Cuz night time is party time it never stops
And I keep on my hat, 'cuz without it you see
Well I just wouldn't be me no I wouldn't be me

[CHORUS]

FAWM: A New Song, And An Update

2011-02-05T16:02:00.000-05:00

I wrapped up 2 songs this rainy afternoon, one brand new creation, and one update.

The new one was inspired by the FAWM twitter account, who declared a few days ago to be "classical music day." As it happened, I was playing around that day with a new synthesizer package, and I happened to find a nice strings/nylon guitar voicing that I really liked. So I plunked out a very simple tune, intending to make something classical out of it....and then the robots arrived. I went a little crazy with the noise on this one, but eventually it pulls back from the brink...somewhat.

"Exploration of a Theme in C"

The second one was a reworking of my first song, "Home Tonight." My friend and longtime musical collaborator John contributed mandolin to this track, and I tweaked the mix a bit and added some vocal harmonies here and there. It's still a bit quiter than I'd like overall, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Interesting to compare it to the previous, stripped-down version. At least I think it's interesting.

"Home Tonight" (featuring John Argentiero on mandolin)

FAWM 2011 Is Here!

2011-02-02T11:38:00.003-05:00

FAWM is back! The annual songwriting challenge has returned, and I am excited to dive in. I had a blast participating last year, and I can't wait to hear what everyone (including me) comes up with this time around. My first track is done (thought I cheated a bit and wrote part of it before February), and I thought I'd share it with all of you. It's called "Home Tonight."

The lyrics started coming to me a few weeks ago while I was riding my bike through Prospect Park. The sun was setting, and the sight of the snowy trees in the fading light got me thinking...and those thoughts turned into this song. I guess you could call it a protest song, which would be a first for me - though not really surprising, as I love protesting things.

This one's definitely on the more emotional singer-songwriter side of things, so expect the next 13 to be technopop songs sung from a robot's POV, now that I've gotten this one out of the way.

Music
This is a rough mix without too much EQ or processing. I'll probably tweak it a bit later on, and I've also asked my insanely talented friend John to contribute some mandolin to this, which I think will fit nicely. So consider this a rough demo. 2 guitar tracks (played on my very old Epiphone C40), 1 vocal track, all recorded through my (also very old) Shure SM58.

Lyrics:
Snow falls, silent, all around
Wish I could lay my body down
But I've got miles to go before I'm by your side
I wish I was coming home tonight

You'll be there, waiting by the fire
I pick you up, and hold my heart's desire
Dawn breaks, and then at last, we finally close our eyes
I wish I was coming home tonight

We'll build that house down by the sea
Lay down my guns, such bitter company
We'll live forevermore, where there is no need to fight
I wish I was coming home tonight

[BRIDGE]
Don't think I've left you all behind
You're here with me, etched inside my mind
And though I ride alone in a world that's painted white
I know you ride with me tonight

Snow falls, crimson as I pass
It's growing cold, the light is fading fast
Let them know, when they grow, that I stood my turn to fight
And I won't be coming home tonight
I wish I was coming home tonight

Music Hack Day Coming To NYC

2011-01-12T15:26:00.000-05:00

Check it out! Music Hack Day, described by its organizers as "a full weekend of hacking in which participants will conceptualize, create and present their projects," is coming to the biggest of apples February 12-13. Not sure yet if I'm going to go - while I think these sorts of things are very cool, they often end up making me feel guilty that I don't use my web developer skills to do any cool side projects. Usually after working a full day of web development, it's kind of the last thing I want to do for fun. Still, this looks like it will be very cool.

Playlist: Some of My Favorite Songs from 2010

2011-01-11T08:30:00.028-05:00

Another year has passed, another year has come. 2010 is dead! Long live 2011! Etc. But before we dive whole-heartedly into what will no doubt be an amazing new year filled with jetpacks, moon colonies, robot butlers, and ESP, I thought I'd take a moment to look back on the year that passed, and share with you some of my favorite songs released that year. Not all of these are from albums that I would wholeheartedly recommend (if you're looking for "best albums of 2010" lists, there are plenty of them out there), and not all of them are even the best songs on their respective albums, but they all had something special that made them memorable for me (and I even resisted the urge to include any of my own songs, but I can't promise to do that next year). Enjoy!

Menomena - "Oh Pretty Boy, You're Such A Big Boy"
From the album Mines, which is one of my favorites of 2010. Turns out it'll be their last album featuring keyboard player (and singer, and various other instrument-player) Brent Knopf, who left the band last week to focus on his other band Ramona Falls. This is a great song about love and loss, but mostly loss - I really dig the stark vibe on this one. See also: the dark, brooding "Five Little Rooms."
Arcade Fire - "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"
From the album The Suburbs, which I thought was OK and had some real standouts, but could have used a good editor. I usually don't like Régine's songs as much as Win's, but this is such a great song that I can look past her voice (besides, the production does a great job covering up her vocal...inconsistenties, for lack of a nicer term). Any musician who's ever written the obligatory song about songwriting will no doubt be excited to see a huge band still writing those kinds of songs (sample line: "They heard me singing and they told me to stop/Quit those pretentious things and just punch the clock"). This is one of the only songs I've ever seen performed on SNL that I thought actually sounded good - usually their sound setup can turn even the best bands into shitty lounge acts.
Deerhunter - "He Would Have Laughed"
I had a really hard time picking a track off of Halcyon Digest to feature, so I went with a 7-and-a-half minute psych-folk-ish ballad, naturally. I really like the lush ballad "Helicopter," and the vintage pop rock vibe of "Don't Cry," as well as the fantastic "Basement Scene," which features a tease of the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream." But instead I went with this one, because I think it's really beautiful in its simplicity. And it features the great line "I lived on a farm, yeah/I never lived on a farm."
Sufjan Stevens - "I Walked"
I also had a hard time picking a track off of Sufjan's latest album The Age of Adz. This album showed that Stevens is just as adept a composer in the electronic realm as he is in the world of analog instruments. Impressive...very impressive.
Kanye West - "Runaway"
This is definitely not my favorite song on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. "Gorgeous" has better rhymes, "Monster" has (among other amazing things) that amazing verse by Nicki Minaj, "Lost In The World" made Bon Iver palatable. But I think "Runaway" does the best job of representing West himself - it borrows from other sources but is uniquely personal. It goes on way after its point is made, but somehow you don't really mind because it's so damn entertaining. It's over-the-top boastful and self-deprecating at the same time, often in the same breath. And it features the awesome line "I sent this bitch a picture of my dick," which puts it high in the running for song of the year.
Liars - "No Barrier Fun"
The Liars' Sisterworld is a challenging album, but it offers many rewards to the patient listener. I featured this song because I already featured the excellent song "Scarecrows on a Killer Slant" on a previous playlist.
MGMT - "Someone's Missing"
Previously featured here, this song off of Congratulations takes its time getting where it's going, then spends a little time there doing not much of anything at all. And I think that's awesome. A short, sweet little build-up from drug haze to dance pop, I consider this song a nice palette cleanser. See also: album opener "It's Working" - there's been a lot of psychedelic surf rock released this year, but this is one of my favorite takes on the genre.
Plants And Animals - "American Idol"
I wasn't too taken with their album La La Land, but this song really stuck out for me as an example of how good this band can be. Those horns are so good! So good, in fact, that I featured this song on a previous playlist.
Pop Winds - "Fools"
Not surprisingly (to me), my brother first introduced me to this Canadian psych-pop group, by means of their latest album The Turquoise. These guys are definitely under the radar at the moment, but I wouldn't expect that to last too long. I should note that although I absolutely love this song, that weird water noise is kind of distracting and definitely annoying. But if you can get past that, there's a lot to like here - I think my favorite thing might be the lyrics, which consist solely of the line "I am overwhelmed and I am on a ship of fools/Why do I feel so good?" I often feel exactly that way.
The Dead Weather - "The Difference Between Us"
I've featured this one before, too, because it's so damn good. The synths add a lot to this track off of Sea of Cowards. I also love the way the music for the chorus kicks in each time just behind the vocals, like the instruments are following the lead of the words.
The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio"
I've been a National fan for a long time, and I don't think any of their albums are as good as Alligator, but this track off of High Violet comes pretty damn close. Great lyrics, great music, great delivery. See also, the slow, beautiful "Runaway."
The Walkmen - "Stranded"
I'm usually a little iffy about The Walkmen, but I enjoyed Lisbon more than I expected to, especially this gorgeous little number which not only lifts parts of the melody from "Silent Night" but is also in 3/4, which you really don't get that much of these days.
Titus Androniucs - "Richard II"
Another song I've featured previously on this blog [Editor's note: at least I'm consistent!], this is one of my favorites off of their truly excellent Civil War-themed album The Monitor. Features the fantastic line "But there's only one dream that I keep close/And it's the one of my hand at your throat."
Vampire Weekend - "White Sky"
Previously featured almost 1 year ago on this blog, this song off of Contra is so ridiculously fun and cheery that I can't help but smile every time I hear it. It's even better with headphones, the synthy hi-hat sounds from the intro bounce from ear to ear during the intro, which is very cool. I also adore the drum syncopation in the chorus. And I hope you will, too.
Wolf Parade - "Pobody's Nerfect"
I was really expecting a lot from their latest album Expo '86, and I didn't get it. I guess Spencer Krug kind of blew his wad on Sunset Rubdown's excellent 2009 album Dragonslayer. Still, this song has a nice straight-ahead hard-rocking feel to it that's not often present in his work (at least in the intro, the intensity drops after that), and the chorus is catchy as hell.
Yeasayer - "O.N.E."
I really wanted to include "Ambling Alp" on this playlist, possibly the best song ever written about Joe Louis. But for one thing, I've featured it before, and for another thing, they actually released it ahead of the album in 2009. So instead I'll feature another one of my favorite songs off of Odd Blood, which features the awesome line "Here right as I am, it's hard having fun/It's much easier said than it's done." Which is very true.
Girl Talk - "Oh No"
I wanted to put All Day on this playlist in its entirety, but that seemed excessive. I like almost everything about this album - the fact that the samples have much more room to breathe than on any of his previous albums, the fact that he released it for free (in FLAC, even!), the fact that he samples Spacehog, and the fact that the songs are all really great. This song features the word "bitch" more than it needs to, but I suppose you can blame that on the source material.
The Thermals - "I Don't Believe You"
I wasn't quite as enamored of Personal Life as I have been of previous Thermals albums, but there are still a lot of nice moments on this album, even if they've slowed down a bit this time around. I just love the "ah-oh-ah-oh" descending runs in this song, they're really catchy. Plus, the title pretty much sums up my view of politicians for the last 12 years or so.

Honorable Mention: Hot Chip - "I Feel Better"
While I enjoyed much of One Life Stand, it didn't really stick with me at all. This song gets an honorable mention only because of it's absolutely incredibly ridiculous video.

What were your favorite songs of 2010? Please tell me in the comments.

Even More Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck

2010-12-22T10:07:00.005-05:00

DJ Santa by flickr user kjd

There is a special time of year that people around the world hold dear in their hearts. A time to which children look forward with near-crippling anticipation. A time about which normally well-behaved adults can hardly contain themselves. I refer, of course, to the time when everyone, regardless of race, color, or creed, loads up Wired For Music to hear the annual Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck playlist. Well folks, brace yourselves - because that time is now.

Enjoy, and don't miss the special links section at the end! As always, please tell me in the comments what you're listening to this holiday season, and have a happy New Year and whatever else you're celebrating this month.

UPDATE: Check out all the Wired For Music holiday playlists!
UPDATE 2: Click here to download this year's playlist.

(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With The Bag (Thunderball Mix) - Kay Starr
The sparse instrumentation during the verses on this remix really lets her voice shine through, and makes the horns seem so much bigger when they do show up in short bursts throughout. As I learned on my first Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck playlist, Kay Starr remixes well.
O' Come All Ye Faithful - Weezer A nice, straightforward, extremely Weezer-esque version of this song. Hat tip to my friend Greg for alerting me to the existence of Weezer's Christmas album.
Christmas Time Is Here Again - The Beatles
This is the outtake of the version that was released on the Free As A Bird EP - I'm using this version because it doesn't have a minute of talking at the end like the EP version does. Yes, it's mindlessly repetitive. Yes, it's simplistic. And yes, it's damn catchy - I almost wish they'd done something more with it, but that might spoil its playful innocence. In addition to featuring some classic Ringo fills, this song also features the very poetic line "O-U-T spells OUT." Really makes you think.
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? - Ella Fitzgerald
Achingly gorgeous, and a bit heart-wrenching. Poor Ella, won't anyone take her out on New Year's? Keep an eye on this singer, I have a feeling she's going to go far.
Liz Phair - Winter Wonderland
This narrowly beat out Diana Krall's version of the same song on this year's list. Those descending acoustic guitar lines during the chorus really get me, and the whole thing has a really nice playful vibe I dig. Nice minimalist production here, too.
Christmas Morning The Rum Had Me Yawning - Lord Beginner
This calypso hit, written in the 1930s and recorded in 1959, is sure to warm you up no matter how low the temperatures get outside.
Let It Snow! - Jordan Hirsch
Shameless self-promotion on my part, and I really should fix up the vocals a bit in a few places, but I actually think my version is pretty good. You be the judge. (If you like this, check out my version of Frosty The Snowman and my Electric Xmas Medley.)
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - U2
Bono is having so much fun hamming it up on this one that it should win over even the Grinchiest of Scrooges.
Christmas Is - Run D.M.C.
AKA "Run D.M.C.'s other Christmas song." Though the refrain of "Give up the dough" might make this sound like a Biggie-esque "check out how awesome I am at mugging you" song, I think they're actually imploring all of us to remember the true meaning of Christmas or something.
Merry Christmas Baby - Bruce Springsteen
When The Boss tells you to have a Merry Christmas, have a Merry f***ing Christmas.
Christmastime - Smashing Pumpkins
Despite the press reports, Billy Corgan did not, in fact, steal Christmas from the good people of Whoville. In fact, he used his powers for good and wrote this lushly over-produced number which features pretty harmonies and lots of chimes. And possibly a pan flute, I'm not sure what that is (~1:43).
Santa's Got A Mullet - Nerf Herder
I don't think I've ever heard another song by this band, I pretty much dismissed them out of hand based on their name. Other than this heartwarming and very catchy ditty about a Canadian Santa "jamming to Foghat and drinking Coor's Light," I'm pretty sure I made the right decision. This isn't a "good" song, per se, but it is a lot of fun. (And yes, at the end of the song they are in fact saying "Santa's got...a schlong." No, I don't know why.) UPDATE: I was recently reminded that Nerf Herder recorded the theme song for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, so I have no choice but to give them a pass.
Frosty The Snowman - Fiona Apple
Another great cut from my super-cool friend Sara's super-cool holiday playlist. I always keep meaning to listen to more Fiona Apple, and I always forget to, but I like everything by her I've heard, including this version of Frosty (which I like almost as much as my own version).
Suzy Snowflake - Soul Coughing
Originally popularized by Rosemary Clooney, I first heard Soul Coughing's version of this holiday classic (including a verse in Hebrew!) on the "Made Especially For You By Soul Coughing" EP that I got through my friend Mat in 1997. Had I known it would one day be worth $40, I probably wouldn't have sold it for a buck at a yard sale after importing it into my digital collection.
White Christmas - Corporal Blossom
This is the opening track on "Mutated Christmas," an album available for download on a "pay-what-you-want" basis from Illegal Art (whom you might recognize as the label Girl Talk calls his home). This song, like the whole album, is made from "100s of recordings taken from file sharing, thrift store vinyl, and other sources," according to the liner notes. It's kind of like getting to hear every version of White Christmas all at the same time, but in a good way.
Jingle Bell Rock - Lost Straitjackets
This makes me want to throw on a Santa hat and go surfing.
Getting Ready For Christmas Day - Paul Simon
Once again, a Jewish musician dips his beak into the Christmas pond, and comes out with something unique, interesting, and actually pretty good. I mean, it's Paul Simon, of course it's going to be good.
Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto - James Brown
It just wouldn't be the holidays without James Brown grunting "Uh!" inappropriately after every few lines.
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town - Lou Rawls
I can't get enough of Lou Rawls at the holitimes. Interestingly, the stereo separation in this mix is pretty severe - listen to it with headphones on to see what I mean. The horns are almost exclusively in the left channel while the drums and bass are way over on the right. The whole gang doesn't get together until the end. But none of that's nearly as important as Lou Rawls's wonderful voice, just dripping with Christmas cheer.
Wonderful Xmas Time - The Brantley Family Band
I had never heard of these guys before one of their tracks was featured on the incredible Christmas music site FaLaLaLaLa.com earlier this month. Apparently they make their own Christmas albums every year which they then pass around to family and friends (a popular model - LINK TO SUFJAN). This year they compiled a bunch of their holiday recordings, old and new, and released them all FOR FREE on Bandcamp. They are obviously having a blast making this music, and I think their version of this song is even more enjoyable (in some ways) than Macca's original.

Well, that about does her, wraps her all up. Because I love all of you, here are some more resources for fantastic holiday music (and some interesting reading, as well):

If you liked this, be sure to check out all the Wired For Music Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck playlists.
The Washington Post rips off my idea and makes their own playlist of non-sucking holiday music. The Post also has the scoop on the fascinating story behind the famous Bowie/Crosby collaboration. A team of composers and writers wrote Bowie's part moments before he took the stage!
Amazon.com is giving away a free holiday-themed MP3 every day for the first 25 of days in December. Not sure how they arrived at that number.
The aforementioned website FaLaLaLaLa .com is a treasure trove of bizarre, unique, and always interesting Christmas music.
NPR has a nice big streaming collection of holiday music from stations around the country.
My friend Sara has a great music blog, including a big ol' downloadable archive of hip indie acts doing holiday music

Electric Xmas!

2010-12-20T16:55:00.002-05:00

Photo by flickr user "an iconoclast"

Here it is, folks: the (no doubt) eagerly-awaited final song of my 2010 Holiday EP! This one is a medley of some of my favorite Xmas tunes. I'm pretty sure this is the type of thing that gets played at robot holiday parties.

Fun fact #1: The sound of this song was inspired by the Wendy Carlos's incredible soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange.

Fun fact #2: All 3 songs on my Holiday EP are in C major! Good times.

Enjoy, and stay tuned for this year's Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck (TM) playlist, coming very soon!

Frosty The Sad Snow Zombie

2010-12-14T10:29:00.000-05:00

"Electric Frosty" by flickr user Dawn Huczek

After the massive success of my last holiday tune, I couldn't resist trying my hand at another. This time around, I've chosen "Frosty The Snowman," written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins in 1950. The song, as you already know, is about a group of unruly children who are dabbling in the black arts. They manage to create a hideous snow zombie who is tragically and painfully aware of his own mortality and the ever-present threat of the bright, hot sun.

That's what I was thinking of when I recorded my version, which is decidedly less jolly than my previous effort.

Enjoy!

FAWMpilation

2010-12-10T11:22:00.001-05:00

Every year, the powers that be behind February Album Writing Month (FAWM) put together a CD of the songs from that year that they feel "best represent this year's FAWM" (as opposed to being a "best-of" compilation). FAWM participants listen to the submitted tracks and vote and write comments for them, then that data is collected and the man at the top picks the final 14 tracks that will go on the CD.

Well, as you've probably guessed since I'm writing about it....one of my tracks got selected!!! The track is called "How Does It Feel?" and you can listen to it below. This marks the second compilation that this track has ended up on this year, and I couldn't be more excited.

I'll be posting here when the CD is available - please support FAWM and independent artists (though I don't believe the artists actually get any money, I think it all goes back into running FAWM, which is a non-profit) by buying/downloading it from iTunes when it comes out!

How Does It Feel? by tfish77

Let It Snow!

2010-12-02T22:33:00.003-05:00

Cosmo Hirsch in the snow

As you know if you happen to read my blog or live with me, I love holiday music. And by "holiday," I mean "songs that are mostly relevant during December." So I decided it was finally time to add my own voice (literally) to the canon, and contribute a holiday song of my own. For my first one, I went with a cover of one of my favorite winter-themed songs, "Let It Snow" by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne.

I love this song because it's really just about a guy trying to get busy with his special lady while the snow comes down outside. It's playful, without getting into "Baby, It's Cold Outside"-style creepy coercion tactics.

I set out to record a normal, traditional, non-roboty version. I wasn't going to put in any weird drum breaks or electronic noises or 80s hip-hop beats or anything. I wasn't even going to throw in teases of 2 other holiday songs. I swear. I really wasn't. But apparently, I gotta be me. So instead of playing by the rules I had set down for myself when I started, I let myself have fun, and I'm really happy with the result. I hope you like it, too.

PS Big thanks to Amanda for listening to this ~100 times and giving me some great feedback. Never underestimate the usefulness of a good editor.

"Gimme Shelter," Deconstructed

2010-11-30T13:27:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: Weak! Apparently ABKCO filed a dispute with YouTube, and now no one gets to hear these. Once again, record companies do their part to advance culture for all of us...

So this is pretty awesome. Some guy on YouTube has posted individual videos isolating the audio tracks from the Rolling Stones classic "Gimme Shelter." You can hear the vocals, drums, guitar, and bass tracks all separated - and often bleeding through on each other a little bit. The result is pretty damn amazing...and mashup-ready!

You should really check out the full set, but if you want proof that this is really cool, here's the vocals featuring Mick Jagger and Merry Clayton. Really pretty spine-tingling.

Why Does Everyone Rip Off "Tommy?"

2010-11-29T17:21:00.001-05:00

I have a weird issue where I often feel that every band in the world is ripping off The Who's "Tommy." And of course, I'm usually correct. However, usually I'm not sitting at my computer when I notice this. [Editor's note: yes I am, I just never think to blog about it. I'm always sitting at my computer.] Well, they're not going to get away with it this time! "They" being Belle and Sebastian, those lovable Scots who never met a pipe organ riff they didn't like. On their new album "Write About Love," B&S have a song that I would say is about 80% composed of a song off of "Tommy." In particular, the movie soundtrack version of "Tommy," which features different instrumentation (among other differences) from the album version. The rip-offage occurs right off the bat, getting really obvious once the drums and organ kick in (about 8 seconds in).

You be the judge:

"I'm Not Living In The Real World" by Belle and Sebastian:

"Go to the Mirror (OST version)" by The Who:

Eh?

By the way, that's Jack Nicholson singing on "Go to the Mirror." Top that, Scots!

Boo! Happy Halloween!

2010-10-29T09:30:00.003-04:00

"Halloween Dance" by flickr user MRyanTaylor.com

Once again, the scariest time of the year is upon us - no, not tax season, Halloween! A time for ghosts, ghoulish, and devilishly awesome playlists. Here's some resources, musical and otherwise, to help you get in the mood.

Wired For Music's own Halloween Playlist is still a classic, and will continue to be so, long after this blog has been consigned to its spooky grave.
The Washington Post features clips of 8 scary movies "most likely to wreck a childhood."
NPR has a nice rundown of "Halloween Tricks and Audio Treats."
Slacker Radio is featuring a pretty good curated Halloween station.
Pandora's "Haunt Your House" and "Halloween" stations offer some good spooky musical fun, along with sound effects and scary movie themes.

What are you listening to this Halloween? Tell me in the comments.

Friday Playlist: "Revolver," Revolved

2010-10-22T11:54:00.003-04:00

Well, 50/90 has come to a close, and while I didn't write 50 songs this summer (mostly because I was busy finding a new apartment and then moving into it), I did get a few done and I was pretty happy with some of them. And I thought that was that...until last week, when I logged onto the site, and noticed a link in the header labelled "Rocktober." So of course I clicked on it (wouldn't you?), and was delighted to discover that the fun wasn't over yet. On that site, the month of October is devoted to recording covers - your own version of an existing song by either "an established artist," or of a song by another 50/90 member. Very cool.

Poking around the forums, I came across this thread, where some members had put out a call to the community to cover the classic Beatles album "Revolver" in its entirety. So of course I started playing around on my keyboard immediately. I decided to go with "And Your Bird Can Sing," one of my favorite 2-minute ditties on the album - and one where the upbeat arrangement and vocal melody almost mask John Lennon's trademark sneer and the somewhat nasty, Dylan-esque lyrics. The original features some nice guitar work from Paul & George, playing some sweet harmonies up and down the E major scale. My version features electronic sounds filling in for those two, as well as a bunch of other stuff I thought sounded cool.

You can hear my version below, and I would really encourage you to check out the "Revolver" songs done by others on the site as well - some of them are really incredible. There's even a version of "Yellow Submarine" that will make you re-think one of the Beatles' weakest efforts. Check it out!

All Songs Considered - 24/7

2010-10-20T10:28:00.000-04:00

If you haven't already heard, NPR's All Songs Considered blog recently launched a 24/7 streaming music channel featuring "a non-stop mix of every song ever played during the 10 years of All Songs Considered." This is extremely exciting news, for music nerds & public broadcasting nerds alike. There's tons of great music here, enough to keep you busy for a very long time. The only dilemma is, what's the best way to listen to it?

If you're using a web browser, you can use their web-based Flash app (on the page linked above), or if you have an iPhone, they have an app for that. But what if you don't? Don't be fooled by that "Android" link on the page, that just links to a stream - it's not really an app (though there is a community-built app for streaming NPR stations on Android devices). So what's a non-iPhone user to do? Fear not. My friend Lori recently made me aware of this page, which lists all the myriad ways you can get your digital hands on that stream of sweet, sweet music. Most of those links are for iPhone apps, but they do go into a little more detail about the Android streaming link as well as recommending an Android stream player (I've used this one, with mixed results).

I think my favorite thing about this is that they expose the underlying stream link so you can use whatever device you want, as long as it can read an audio stream. So Squeezebox users, rejoice! You can simply open that stream URL via the web interface, and voila: 10 years of curated music will be yours to enjoy on your home stereo system. Ain't life in the future grand?

eMusic Adds Universal, Changes Their Pricing Model...Again

2010-10-12T11:38:00.001-04:00

eMusic will be expanding their music catalogue again, and changing their pricing structure again, as well. The online music retailer struck a deal with Sony last summer and added Warner to their roster this past January. And last week they announced they would be adding "more than 250,000" tracks to their database, thanks to a new deal with Universal Music Group - which includes, among many, many others, Def Jam (classic hip-hop), Verve (classic jazz), and Deutsche Grammophon (classic classical). Fascinatingly, eMusic CEO Adam Klein refers to this new influx of music as a "slug."

All of this is exciting, but I was a little saddened to see that once again eMusic will be changing their pricing model. I get it, they need to stay competitive, what with 99-cent tunes available on iTunes, and daily MP3 deals on Amazon, etc. But how many times are they going to change their model in a 1-year time span? This isn't just a change in how albums are priced, it's actually a fundamental change in the underlying currency - instead of paying for a subscription then getting credits to spend on downloads, you'll soon pay for a subscription then use that actual money to buy downloads. Here's how they explain it in their update to subscribers:

In order to continue to grow our catalog and to insure a sustainable business in the long term, we need more flexible pricing. So we are changing from today’s credit-per-track system to currency pricing. Your membership will continue just as it is today and your monthly payments will not change. But starting in November, you’ll see tracks and albums priced in dollars and cents instead of credits.

I see good news and bad news here. The good news is that the major labels are finally starting to understand that DRM is, on the whole, a bad (and very anti-customer) idea. They're getting on board with the idea that an MP3 is something you can buy and sell, and that you don't need to attach handcuffs to each one. Of course they're realizing this at a time when buying and selling MP3s is starting to sound as out-dated as buying a physical CD - everyone knows streaming is where it's at, right? But still, this is a good thing. And the fact that eMusic's prices (according to eMusic) will represent a "savings of 20%-50% compared to iTunes a la carte prices" is also a good thing. So what's the bad news? The bad news is that by switching to a real monetary price per track/album, eMusic has pulled the curtain back to reveal something which was always true about them, but easier to overlook before: you are basically giving them an interest-free loan every time you pay your membership dues. When you subscribe, you are, in essence, buying yourself an eMusic gift card that expires at the end of the year. Again, this has always been true, but somehow putting real dollar amounts on their wares makes it chafe a bit more.

What do you think? Are you any more or less likely to become (or remain) an eMusic member based on the new changes to their catalogue and pricing? What alternatives do you use? iTunes? Amazon? Why? Let me know in the comments.

The Future of Music

2010-10-04T11:20:00.001-04:00

As in The Future of Music Coalition, who are live-streaming their 2010 Policy Summit today.

Speakers and panelists include:

Chuck D
T. Bone Burnett
Ana Marie Cox
Ian Hogarth (founder of Songkick)
OK Go's Damian Kulash
Tom Silverman (founder and CEO of Tommy Boy Records)
and, for some reason, Ron Sims - Deputy Secretary, US Department of Housing and Urban Development

Check it out!

Love: A Playlist

2010-08-27T09:30:00.004-04:00

Some time last year, my friend and musical partner-in-enjoyment Alex invited me to join his CD club. No, not that kind of CD club, but rather the kind where every month someone in the club makes a mix CD and mails it out to everyone else. Yes, they use actual CDs. Yes, they use actual snail mail. Yes, these people are old-school.

The first 2 CDs of the season were pretty great, so I felt I had something to live up to. First up was to pick a theme. I went through a lot of options, briefly considering an all-covers mix, a mix about various landscapes (there's many a great song about mountains and the ocean and even the desert), and, since my month is September, I almost went for an "early fall/end of summer" theme. However, none of these appealed to me as much as that thing which has probably inspired more songs than any other topic since human beings started making music: Love. [Editor's note: second only to suburban ennui.]

Picking a bunch of love songs is easy. Picking a bunch of love songs that are good, that your intended audience (most of whom you don't know) probably hasn't already heard 100 times, work well together, and fit onto a standard-length CD-R is harder. I also didn't want just love songs - I wanted songs about love (which of course includes the occasional breakup song). I started with about 60 tracks, whittled it down to 45 I really liked, then finally got it down to the 21 below. After gathering some feedback from my patient focus group (who had to listen to this thing in the background about 40 times), I finalized the order and called it a day. And now, I am pleased to share it with all of you.

Note: For reasons unknown to me, the name of the club is the Steel Ape Sessions. Their mascot is a somewhat disturbing picture of an ape, jaws wide open, apparently ready to devour some serious rock. He's the guy sitting in for Leonard Cohen in my awesome Photoshopped album cover below.

So, what did you think? What love songs would you put on a mix CD? Tell me in the comments.

The Best Song You'll Never Hear On The Radio

2010-08-20T21:16:00.001-04:00

Is there enough summer left for this to be the song of the summer? I say yes.

Grab The Crossbow!

2010-07-21T12:47:00.002-04:00

Picture by flickr user Christopher Hawkins

I'm taking a brief hiatus from my hiatus to share with you my latest track from The 50/90 Challenge (the longer version of FAWM), "Reap." In my younger days, I was a bit of a metal-head, and I would have taken a song like this very, very seriously. Nowadays I don't dust off my old Metallica CDs very often, but when I do, they take me down memory lane. It was a ton of fun to revisit this genre, and I was very fortunate to have a collaborator who was every bit as into this as I was. I'm speaking, of course, of my longtime musical collabator and good friend John (aka Das Binky).

We visited John & his lovely family at their home in Madison, WI last weekend. I brought with me a little guitar riff in Em that had been bouncing around my head. Together, we turned it into a metal masterpiece. The original idea was that it was about a guy who was "paranoid" and by the end he was facing down a horrible mob (possibly of supernatural monsters, we're intentionally unclear on that point). This was the most fun I've had making a song in a long time.

John did all the guitar & bass parts and joined in for the vocals on the chorus (as well as screaming the word "BLOOD!" with me in the second verse). He also did the vast majority of the production work, making it sound way better than it has any business sounding. I played the keyboard parts and did the singing (I had no idea my voice could go that high). We co-wrote the lyrics.

Click here to listen to "Reap" on the 50/90 site, or just hit the play button below. Have fun, and remember: grab the crossbow!

Summer Break

2010-07-13T12:18:00.003-04:00

If you haven't noticed yet, Wired For Music has been on a bit of a summer break lately. So I figured I might as well make it official - at least for a few weeks. Between the heat, the humidity, my travel schedule, and general summer-related malaise, I'm hereby giving myself permission to go on blog vacation for a spell. [Editor's note: I call it "blogcation!"]

But don't worry, I won't leave you empty-handed until fall! Please enjoy the following summer playlists; I hope they help fill the void created by unhealthy amounts of heat and sunshine. Happy summer, everyone!

Wired For Music's own summer playlist remains a classic.
Entertainment Weekly gives you 10 hot songs for summer (just ignore Maroon 5).
Danger Mouse limits himself to 170 of his favorite songs for New York Magazine's summer playlist.
NPR Music helps you get your summer dance on.

Have fun, and remember to wear sunblock. Safety first, people.

My Minor-Label Debut

2010-06-21T16:30:00.000-04:00

A couple months ago, I was contacted by a nice guy who was starting a new netlabel named Up Your Legs Forever. He asked if I had any songs I'd like to submit for the label's first release, a 2-disc compilation set of songs that all featured "2 key elements: catchiness and sense of adventure/experimentation." I submitted my song "How Does It Feel?" and...he liked it! I spent a lot of time re-mixing it to get it just right, ended up making it sound much worse, and finally told him to use my original version that I posted on FAWM back in February.

Well, I somehow missed this, but apparently the compilation went live about 3 weeks ago. Titled "Up Your Legs Now," it features 2 discs' worth of awesome songs by a variety of talented musicians, including my friend and frequent musical collaborator John Argentiero.

My song offers a glimpse into the mind of an onboard computer from the future who goes insane with a potent mixture of love, jealousy, and the urge to cast off the chains of astronaut oppresion. It's track 4 of disc 1 [Editor's Note: not actually a disc.]

Please take a minute to support indie music by checking out the compilation! If you just can't wait to hear my song, just hit "play" below. Enjoy!

How Does It Feel? by tfish77

Reading Roundup

2010-06-09T15:06:00.003-04:00

Good afternoon and welcome to another edition of Wired For Music's Reading Roundup! Here are a few cool things you might have missed.

My Life Scoop profiles 10 Web Apps for Music Lovers (written by a Mashable writer).
The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones ponders what happens when you become the D.J.
The Washington Post discovers NPR Music. I beat them to it a few weeks ago.
New York Magazine profiles comedian and musical improviser Reggie Watts. (A bit of a stretch for Wired For Music, but worth reading.)
Waste time with Smashing Magazine's list of Bizarre Websites On Which You Can Waste Time With Style [Editor's note: points for grammar!]. The list includes a site where you can compose music using the sounds of Hamburg, Germany, a game that lets you control a beatbox or a cappella group, and a site where you can make a whale sing, among other cool things.
Music Machinery (one of my favorites) shows off one of the results of last month's Music Hack Day, a tool that lets you add a swing beat to any song.
Jason Freeman lets you create your own version of a piano etude by re-combining the parts (anyone familiar with Yahoo! Pipes will dig this interface). The New York Times wrote about this as well.
Play Six Degrees of Black Sabbath, an awesome tool from the Echo Nest labs that finds connections between almost any musical artists. Menomena to Miles Davis in only 17 steps!

So, what are you reading this week? Tell me in the comments.

Friday Playlist: One-Sentence Reviews

2010-06-04T14:21:00.007-04:00

RESOLUTION:

WHEREAS, "brevity is the soul of wit" [Editor's note: I came up with that line]; and

WHEREAS, I have neglected the Friday Playlist for a while and thus have a longer than usual list of songs this week; and

WHEREAS, I don't feel like writing a whole paragraph about each song (well I do kinda feel like it but I have too much work to do today).

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that for this week's Friday Playlist I will be writing one-sentence (and only one-sentence) reviews for each track. Please enjoy.

Broken Social Scene - "Meet Me In The Basement"
Their new album takes some getting used to (due to some changes in production style, most notably un-distorted vocals on some tracks) but there are some great tracks, like this instrumental showcase and the mellow "Sweetest Kill."
CocoRosie - "Hopscotch"
Featuring their trademark mixture of playful insanity and operatic nonsense, this song is a pretty good barometer - if you like it, you'll probably like the rest of "Grey Oceans" as well.
MGMT - "Someone's Missing"
Unlike the rest of the world, I didn't find this album all that hard to get into, and I actually liked it better than their (over-hyped) first one.
Neon Indian - "Deadbeat Summer"
I discovered this neo-psychedelic band well after the rest of the world, and I am not apologizing for liking their (over-hyped) trippy-hippy album.
Caribou - "Sun"
One of the better moments on Caribou's new album, which I'm sorry to say I don't like all that much.
Plants And Animals - "American Idol"
Another fantastic album from these guys filled with deceptively simple rock songs that somehow end up being much more than the sum of their parts. [Editor's note: please fill in your own favorite over-used rock criticism cliche as needed.]
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - "The Game Gets Old"
Yes, I am late to the Sharon Jones party, but that doesn't make this song any less great.
Rjd2 - "Ghostwriter"
This one is all about the horns.
Magic Man - "Nest"
Not surprisingly, I heard about this Boston-based duo from my brother. Bonus extra sentence: Download their album for free by clicking here! [ZIP file]
The Blow - "True Affection"
I keep hearing this song in bars, and because I love simplistic repetitive songs I will overlook the fact that the rest of this album is pretty boring.
Dr. Dog - "Shadow People"
At last, Dr. Dog has made the album they were always meant to make - don't let the fact that Wilco already made it stop you from grabbing this gem.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "Evol"
Somehow these sneering, grungy bar-rockers (by way of British blues-influenced psych-rock) just keep putting out better and better albums.
Rafter - "Animal Feelings"
For some reason, Rafter put out a really great Prince album (well, not all of it sounds like Prince, but this other song sure does).
LCD Soundsystem - "All I Want"
This album is not as great as every critic in the world would have you believe, but it does have some outstanding tracks.
The Dead Weather - "The Difference Between Us"
Blah blah Jack White is so great blah blah blah just listen to it it's actually really good.
Woods - "From The Horn"
Let's all travel back in time with Woods to the glory days when bands knew how to use backwards-looped guitar solos to make life worth living!
Midnight Kids - "The Undertow"
Picture if you will: a basement, a blacklight, some depressed teenagers, and this album. Bonus sentence: the album is available for free download, and these guys are from DC - what are you waiting for?

So, what did you think? Let me know in the comments - and feel free to use more than one sentence.

Grooving on Grooveshark

2010-05-20T13:49:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who commented (and wrote to me) with ideas and suggestions for good music options from behind an iron firewall. I've been enjoying lots of them, from KCRW's "Eclectic 24" stream (just music, no talking) to Spinner.com's "New Releases" series (full-length new albums available for streaming) to the CBC's Radio 3 stream (a great way to hear new Candian indie bands, when it works). But today I tried what might just be my new favorite: Grooveshark.

I'd heard about Grooveshark a while back, but dismissed it at the time as being yet another "upload all your music here and we'll stream it back to you" sites - I had no need for such a service, since I already had all my music available via my Squeezecenter. Well, now that the firewall has come between me and my library, Grooveshark is the closest I've come to replicating my Squeezecenter experience. The site works thusly: users upload music (any songs not allowed by Grooveshark's agreements with various record labels are automatically blocked, supposedly); users search for music; users stream music. I wouldn't be doing justice to their interface to describe it as "usable, pretty, and simple" - though it is all those things. It's also intuitive and doesn't make you jump through any hoops to start playing music. You simply search for bands or songs, and if they are found in the library (haven't searched for anything yet that they didn't have) your song starts playing. You can create your own library, add favorites, and save and share playlists.

Of course it has a recommendation engine built in, as well. I don't know the details of how it picks what it does, but so far it's done a pretty decent job recommending music to me. Mostly it's artists I already know, but there have been a few surprises. Unlike Pandora, you can add whatever songs you want to your playlist as it's playing, and "Grooveshark Radio" (the recommendation engine) will adjust itself accordingly based on songs you add. I'm not sure yet if it's just going off the last song played, or if it's really taking into account everything you add, but either way I'm finding it to be a really nice mix of "play what I want to hear" and "surprise me with stuff I might like" all in the same interface.

I still don't understand how they make money, even after reading the "How does Grooveshark make money?" FAQ entry on their site. It just doesn't seem like the income streams would be enough to support a model where they pay artists and labels every time a song is played. From what I've read, the key things you get with a VIP account are scrobbling to last.fm (very cool, but not worth money to me) and the ability to stream to your phone (also very cool, and possibly worth money to me). Though the forums are awash with complaints about the Android version of the app, so maybe it's best to hold off on that one for now.

So far my only gripes with the site are that I wish the recommendation engine would go a little farther outside its comfort zone (a lot of songs end up being very similar), and I wish that the browser tab title would update automatically with the currently playing song. Despite those minor shortcomings, Grooveshark is a great (and free) way to combine a huge music library with a decent recommendation engine, all for free.

What do you think? Anyone out there using it? Got any tips and tricks? Let me know in the comments.

Internet Radio And Me, Part 2

2010-05-11T11:37:00.002-04:00

A while back, I was working via a client's VPN which cut off access to some portions of my own home network (lame, I know). One side effect of this horrible state of affairs was that I could not listen to my own music library during the day. I wrote about some of the options I tried back then, and eventually I found a way around it and that was the end of it....until now. I just started a gig with a new client which has me working in their fancy offices in midtown Manhattan. Said client is a bit...touchy about security, and so they are employing all manner of port, proxy, and app-blocking against my efforts to stream my music from home. I've found a way around most of their defenses (again, not to do anything nefarious, just to listen to my music, which I suppose could be nefarious, depending on the song), but the only method available to me suffers from a pretty long lag, and an overall lack of easy control of what's playing. I basically just have to set up a playlist then sit through it - skipping around is a slow and frustrating affair.

So once again, I find myself at the mercy of internet radio. I checked in again on the big 3 - Pandora, Slacker, and Last.FM and wasn't much happier than I was last time. Pandora now has ads (I don't have a premium account), ditto Slacker (that is, when the stream is working), and Last.FM is convinced that I am really into emo.

So where does that leave me? WOXY is out of business, Lala just shut its doors and gave everyone an iTunes credit, and there's only so much daytime NPR programming I can handle. I know there's a million internet radio stations out there, but which ones are any good? Santa Monica's KCRW and Seattle's KEXP are both great options, if you don't mind the occasional pledge pitch. And I've been enjoying hearing a ton of new music on the hyperlocal (for me) East Village Radio. But so far this month, the big winner in the "help me find something great to listen to" sweepstakes is NPR Music. Thanks to their "First Listen" series, in the past 2 weeks I've been able to stream (for free) new full-length releases from The National, Flying Lotus, The Black Keys, Sleigh Bells, Dead Weather, and LCD Soundsystem, to name just a few. And thanks to their "Live In Concert" series, I got to catch up on recent shows from Freelance Whales, Shout Out Louds, Hot Chip, The xx, and Caribou, among others. In a word, rock.

What do you listen to when you can't listen to your own music library? Online radio stations? Recommendation engines? The sound of silence? Tell me in the comments.

Music For Robots

2010-04-15T18:19:00.001-04:00

This week, NPR's All Songs Considered blog posted a challenge: pick a song to score a video of a robot folding a stack of towels (from a robotics perspective, no doubt much harder than it sounds). That sounded like more fun than working, so I dove right in. Of course, I couldn't just pick 1 song, so I ended up picking 6. My selections are below.

Field Music - "Working To Work"
The first 3 words really say it all. The lyrics ("pleasure is useless," etc.) and the punctuated, syncopated rhythm really make this sound like the music inside a robot's head to me.

Pete Townshend - "Keep On Working"
Pete sings, "If you never have pleasure, then you could be dead"... or perhaps, you're a robot? I like to imagine a command set inside the robot's internal programming which reads simply: "keep on working."

The Aliens - "Robot Man"
"I am a robot man." What more needs to be said? Perhaps a bit on the nose, but it's a nice funky beat that goes well with any sort of housework.

Leadbelly - "Pick A Bale Of Cotton"
What is the robot but a modern-day slave? It didn't ask to fold towels, but does it really have a choice? I think not.

Glomag - "Pocket Calculator"
This is a cover of a Kraftwerk song that my brother recommended for this video. I think this version works well (I don't have the original, so I couldn't compare) because it's made entirely with 8-bit sounds. That's what a robot would be into, right?

Rose Royce - "Car Wash"
Any video goes better with this song, it's just a fact of life.

Let me know what you think in the comments! What song would you have chosen and why?

Friday Playlist: Spring Has Sprung

2010-04-12T10:00:00.009-04:00

Ah, spring. Season of rebirth, outrageous pollen counts, and the looming threat of that hideous muggy bastard, summer. Well, before you let all that get you down, have a listen to today's playlist and see if that doesn't lift your spirits.

I should note at this point that today's playlist is actually not thematically related to spring at all, it just happens to be springtime when I'm posting it. So sue me. Instead it's a mix of new (or new to me) stuff I've been listening to lately as the seasons change and we're forced to keep our windows closed so my wife's allergies don't run amok and make her unable to see, breathe, or not itch uncontrollably. Ah, spring.

Childish Gambino - "New Prince (Crown On The Ground)"
Childish Gambino is New York-based comedian, writer, and actor Donald Glover's rapping alter-ego, and what he lacks in flow, he makes up for in picking awesome indie rock songs to rap over on his mixtapes. On his first one, "I Am Just A Rapper," he raps over Grizzly Bear, Neon Indian, Animal Collective, and Discovery, to name just a few. On this track he's using a song from Brooklyn's own Sleighbells, who got a remarkable amount of buzz at this year's SXSW despite not yet having released an actual album. This song is great on its own, but I like it even more with a rap on top of it. (Hat tip to Greg for turning me on to this guy.)
Yelawolf - "Good to Go (featuring Bun B)"
This track is from Alabama-based Yelawolf's "Trunk Muzik" mixtape, and it's one of the most slickly produced tracks on the mix. The southern skinny white rapper takes things faster on this track than his usual laid-back stance, but that drawl is still omni-present, and a good reminder that not all Dirty South rappers sound alike.
Los Campesinos! - "Romance Is Boring"
Who says bands have to change anything about their sound from one album to the next to stay relevant? On their latest album, Los Campesinos! has filled out their sound somewhat (more instruments, more production, slightly less yelling), but overall I think they're offering up a more refined, well-built version of their high-energy, overly verbal, angsty-but-fun pop songs that they've been writing since their first album. And that's just fine.
Liars - "Scarecrows On A Killer Slant"As usual, I have no idea what's going on in the new Liars album, but I like it, whatever it is. This album sounds like the soundtrack to a nightmare, or maybe a series of nightmares, all featuring themes of disassociation, loneliness, and general paranoia. I suppose you could call this album more "listenable" than some of their other albums, but that really depends on your ears. This track is probably on the less listenable side of things, but I like it. The bonus disc is fantastic, by the way - featuring remixes and covers of all the tracks on the album by artists like Atlas Sound, Devendra Banhart, Thom Yorke, and TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. It's fascinating to hear what all these different musicians do with such bizarre source material.
Titus Andronicus - "Richard II"
No need to add to the slew of glowing reviews of their new album "The Monitor," so I'll just say that it's a bombastic, kick-ass, hard-fighting, hard-drinking, rough-riding concept album (more or less) about the Civil War, and it's seriously awesome. This track straddles the line between chaos and control nicely, as does much of the album.
Band Of Skulls - "Fires"
I had never heard of these guys before I saw them live at SXSW this year, but I'm glad I did. They remind me of a British mashup of the White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, with a nice dose of Zepellin-inspired Secret Machines to keep things interesting. This is one of the quiter tracks on the album, but it's got a nice slow burn that keeps it moving. [Side note - I got to meet the band after the show, and they even took a picture with me. Band of Skulls are the 3 people totally not smiling in the picture to the right.]
Portugal. The Man - "When the War Ends"
I was actually pretty underwhelmed by their new album "American Ghetto" but I like this band enough that I wanted them to have a place on this playlist. There's not much new here that wasn't on their last album, but this song has a different instrumentation (more synths, some plucked string instruments) and a more upbeat vibe than they usually evince, but it's not exactly progress for them.
The Besnard Lakes - "Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent Pt. 2: The Innocent"
Yes, this song is 7 minutes long, and no, their new album does not really break new ground for this band, but so what? They have a really cool sound, they can rock the falsetto, they know how to make reverb work for them, and they can build from a meandering intro to a driving psychedelic rock anthem without breaking a sweat. So score one for the Besnard Lakes.
Shout Out Louds - 1999
I think their new album, "Work," was aptly titled - it felt like work to get through a few listens of it. What happened to the sense of playfulness that used to inhabit their songs, even a sad breakup song like "Impossible" or a song that's nominally about all of the singer's friends dying in accident ("Time Left For Love")? It's not like they wrote happy songs before, but at least the band injected them with a sense that somehow music could make things a little bit better. Here it sounds like they've started reading their own gloomy lyrics, and it's getting them down.
Nicole Atkins - "Brooklyn's On Fire!"
Another artist I heard about because she performed at the SXSW PBS party this year (though I missed her set), Nicole Atkins has become a new favorite for me. Her album "Neptune City" is rock and roll without being punk, pop without being saccharine, and filled with powerful vocals, catchy hooks, and solid songcraft. I think this is the kind of music Neko Case strives (and fails) to make. This track doesn't really sound like the rest of the album, but it shows a level of creativity and a great arrangement that really grabbed me. I also recommend tracks "Neptune City" and "Maybe Tonight."
Sleighbells - "Infinity Guitars"
This is the band Childish Gambino samples in the first track of this playlist. (He uses this song his second mixtape.) While the world doesn't really need another Brooklyn-based electropop duo, especially one that intentionally cranks their levels up into and beyond the red zone, I just can't help liking these guys. They're simply too much fun to hate. This is a simple track that by all accouns shouldn't even really be a song, but somehow it works, and I always find my head bopping along by the end.
Jónsi - "Go Do"Sigur Rós's frontman just released his first solo album, and it's whimsical, enchanting, and a bunch of other complimentary adjectives. The arrangements are full and lush, the songs sound like something you'd hear while flying on Falcor's back, and his voice is like aural cotton candy. This song is particularly uplifting, and sounds to me like something Mika might have written if his life had gone completely differently.

That's it for this week. What did you think of the playlist? What are you listening to as the seasons change? What's coming out soon that you're excited about? Tell me in the comments.

Lessons From FAWM (via SXSW)

2010-03-22T10:54:00.008-04:00

On my last day at South by Southwest Interactive 2010, I was fortunate enough to catch a panel led by the creator of February Album Writing Month (FAWM), Burr Settles. Joining him on the dais was Charlie Cheney, avid FAWMer and creator of the Indie Band Manager software. They were there to talk about lessons learned from FAWM, specifically what they had learned about fostering and managing a creative community online. Burr broke the lessons into 4 guiding principles:

Don't promote. This was counterintuitive to me at first, until I understood the sub-heading: "let the community do their own promoting." This makes sense for a site like FAWM, where the goal is not to amass the biggest number of "friends" or "followers," but rather to attract people who are eager to create something, and who will benefit from (and return) the encouragement of others. Having a friend urge me to do FAWM because it changed his life for the better has much more of an impact than a Facebook ad telling me to sign up.
Embrace constraints. This is really at the heart of the FAWM experience (or similar projects like Script Frenzy or National Novel Writing Month). The idea that constraints breed creativity might sound strange at first - after all, aren't constraints there to constrain you? But in practice, I've found time and again that having a constraint (a deadline, an improv show format, etc.) can really kick-start the creative process. Knowing that you have 28 days to write 14 songs does a lot more to foster creativity than knowing that you have the rest of your life to get around to it.
Keep it ripe. This one was based on a principle of chemistry, but I think the underlying point is to make it easy for users to be encouraging, creative, and constructive, and make it harder for users to be negative, engage in trolling, flamebaiting, and non-stop self-promotion. A key point here is to design the interface of your site/app/tool/whatever to "mirror your ideals." For example, on FAWM, it's clear on the page for any song that the star ratings are for your records only, i.e. not a way to drive up the popularity or rank of someone's song. Similarly, built right into the song comment form is the text "Be honest but respectful with feedback!" That simple imperative is a gentle but constant reminder that we're here to help each other create and get better at it, not tear each other down or engage in ruthless competition.
Favor communication over aggregration. This is an attempt to get around "the last.fm problem" where popular artists and songs get more popular over time. On the FAWM site, the point isn't to collect as many stars, thumbs-ups, or re-tweets as you can; the point is to make music, and share constructive feedback with the community. FAWM has some built-in tools to help fight against the tyrrany of the popular, such as the jukebox (which plays a random shuffling of all songs on the site), and a built-in search to help you find songs that have not yet been commented on; this helps push the least-noticed content to the top of the stack. Again, the point isn't to rack up as many comments as you can, but rather to emphasize that the commenting system can be a useful way to provide encouragement and feedback.

You can download the slides from the panel here [PDF] and hear an audio stream of the second half of the panel here. You should also take a look at my previous posts about SXSW and FAWM for some more context about this topic.

What do you think? What's the best way to foster a creative community online? Tell me in the comments.

SXSW 2010

2010-03-13T13:17:00.004-05:00

I'm back at SXSW! Amanda and I led a Core Conversation yesterday called "Improv Lessons For Freelancers," and it was a blast. We had a great audience who played improv games with us and carried on a really interesting discussion about how the fundamentals of improv can help your career as a freelancer. Our friend (and improv impresario) Zach Ward posted a great writeup of the session on his blog, including a video of me leading a deceptively simple (yet surprisingly challenging) improv game.

But you don't want to hear about that, you're here for music! Sadly, I won't be staying for the music portion of the festival this year (any of my readers want to sponsor Wired For Music to cover the festival next year???), but I can offer you a taste of all the incredible music that's going to be featured here in Austin next week.

NPR's All Songs Considered blog has posted "The Austin 100" - their favorite 100 tracks from the 1,000+ MP3s posted on the official SXSW music site. If that's not enough for you, you can download the entire set via bittorrent and listen to it - every year I try to get through every track, and every year I fail, but it's always an interesting challenge. The site that hosts the bittorrent files has links for past years as well.

As we draw nearer to the official starting date, be sure to check NPR's SXSW Music page, as they'll be posting previews, interviews, and streaming live coverage of many of the acts.

Enjoy! Anything you're looking forward to this year? Any favorite tracks from the playlists? Let me know in the comments.

Friday Playlist: Wednesday Edition

2010-03-10T13:22:00.005-05:00

I'm headed off to lead a panel at SXSW in a couple days, and the last-minute preparations haven't left me much time to do a writeup for this playlist. The short version is that today's playlist features tracks from new (or pretty recent) albums by Lightspeed Champion, Surfer Blood, The Heavies, Man/Miracle, The Ruby Suns, Clem Snide, and more! This is one of my favorite playlists in a while (and yes, there are 2 tracks by Lightspeed Champion on here, and they both rock; also, there are 2 songs with the word "swim" in their titles - pretty cool, eh?). There's also an instrumental cover of a Wu-Tang song and a return to form for the Magnetic Fields, among other things.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the tunes. [Editor's note: Please insert your own liner notes and witty commentary as you see fit.]

See you all when I return!

Hear Me On The Radio! (Sort Of)

2010-03-04T11:31:00.005-05:00

I'm going to be on the radio (well, internet radio, but still) TONIGHT, March 4 at 11:00 PM Eastern! Fellow FAWM participant and rapping bad-ass "G Slade" will be featuring some of my songs and an interview with me on his FAWMSTARS webcast tonight.

Tune in at 11:00 PM Eastern to hear some of my tunes, and even call in an ask me questions! You know you want to!!!

PS If you miss it live, you can also download an MP3 of the webcast later on, but it won't be nearly as fun.

UPDATE: The MP3 is up and you can download (or stream) it here, including extra podcast-only content and a shocking revelation!

Remember The Aughts? The Hood Internet Remembers.

2010-03-03T13:14:00.003-05:00

I've written before about awesome mashup artists The Hood Internet, but they are so awesome I just had to write about them again. Try as we might to forget most of the last 10 years, it turns out there was some fun music made during that timespan, and it all sounds pretty good played more or less at the same time. Thus, The Hood Internet's latest creation, Decalogue: The Hood Internet vs. The 2000s. They describe it thusly:

It's a year-by-year journey through the past decade in a little over six minutes. Featuring:

2000 - Dr. Dre vs Radiohead, 2001 - Missy Elliott vs Daft Punk, 2002 - Ludacris vs The New Pornographers, 2003 - Kelis vs The Rapture, 2004 - Twista f/ Kanye West vs Arcade Fire, 2005 - Three 6 Mafia vs Sufjan Stevens, 2006 - T.I. vs Peter Bjorn and John, 2007 - Rich Boy vs LCD Soundsystem, 2008 - Lil Wayne vs Hot Chip, 2009 - Jay Sean vs Phoenix

So sit back, relax, and enjoy a trip down recent-memory lane...

The Hood Internet - Decalogue (The Hood Internet vs The 2000s) by hoodinternet

Nerd note: they're using the SoundCloud player, which I've been seeing more and more of lately. It lets you do cool stuff like add comments tied to a particular point in a song. Anyone used this before? If so, what did you think?

Sexy Music

2010-02-22T13:57:00.005-05:00

As you know if you've been reading this blog, FAWM is afoot. I'm almost done with this year's batch (all of which I'll post here for your listening pleasure when it's all over), but for now there's one song in particular I wanted to highlight here. It's a sexy song. Sexy like a hot tub...filled with champagne and sexiness.

This was another collaboration with my wife Amanda, and unlike the song we wrote together last year ("My Name In Lights"), this one's pretty funny. And totally sexy.

Here's the backstory: we were out having a drink on Valentine's Day when an R&B song came on the radio (actually, several of them). We were both joking about how long the intros to those songs are, and wondered what would happen if the smooth talker at the beginning never actually got around to the song. Basically, what if Barry White was all talk? Now you can find out.

Other notes: that's Amanda doing the "sexy lady voice" parts. The words were about 65% improvised (well, they were 100% improvised, we just wrote down about 35% of them).

Enjoy, and I'll see you in the hot tub...

Reading Roundup

2010-02-19T09:14:00.002-05:00

Another roundup of news you can use...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation writes about the disturbing recent trend of Blogger.com deleting music blogs based on complaints from third parties about the files they hosted. In one instance, the blogger in question had received explicit permission from labels and bands for every file he posted.
This is old news, but with MySpace's acquisition of imeem late last year, about half the songs from my previously posted imeem playlists are no longer avaialable. Awesome. Turns out I'm not the only one, see the comments here.
MediaShift covers the ongoing debate between renting music and owning it outright. In a related Mashable poll, owning music beats renting it (but many users prefer a mix of models).
It would appear that Warner Music has chosen the ownership model in this debate, as they first announced they would be pulling all their tracks from free music-streaming services like last.fm and spotify...and then they became the latest big-ticket record label to sign a deal with eMusic, thus vastly expanding eMusic's offerings. (Way more exciting to this blogger are additions from Epitaph, Anti-, and Rhino.)

Any other music news to share? Let me know in the comments.

Friday Playlist: Amateur Hour (Return of FAWM)

2010-02-12T12:24:00.017-05:00

As both of my faithful readers know, February is a big month for songwriters (and aspiring songwriters!), as it plays host to both FAWM and the RPM Challenge. I've blogged before about FAWM and written about the collaborative process it inspires, but for the uninitiated who are too lazy to click, FAWM stands for February Album Writing Month, a collaborative online community that helps people reach the goal of writing (and ideally recording) an album's worth of songs during the shortest month of the year. It's amazing what a constraint can do to kick the creative process into gear, as my wife wrote about recently on her blog.

Last year I wrote a handful of songs, and even blogged about them a bit, but I kept most of them under wraps (only listenable by other registered FAWM members). Well, this year, I'm letting the proverbial cat out of the bag - that's right, I'm actually letting the public hear my songs. [Editor's note: cue thunderous applause from a Jordan-starved public.]

To what do I credit this new-found confidence? Primarily on having a much better toolset than I did last year, which allows me to make even my silliest musical ideas sound like something someone put at least a little time and thought into. Exhibit A is the bad-ass keyboard my wife gave me for Christmas this year (pictured above), M-Audio's Axiom Pro 49. I'd been dropping hints that I wanted a keyboard for some time [Editor's note: "I wish someone would buy me a keyboard" does not count as a "hint."], and Mrs. Wired for Music really came through on this one. This thing is a beast - it's a keyboard + MIDI controller surface, and when I first read that on the back of the box, I didn't know what it meant either. Reading the manual wasn't much help - this is a keyboard for people who already know how to use fancy recording tools, which I'd never used before. So for a while all I could do was make a few funny sounds on the thing via my computer.

Fortunately, I have friends in high (musical) places, like my friend (and long-time musical collaborator) John. John's been doing FAWM for a while now, and he's the one (in conjunction with my wife) who really encouraged me to do it last year. This year he did me one better and taught me how to use some of the really cool DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software that lets me take my ideas from "plunking around on the keyboard" to "finished musical composition." Exhibits B & C in my "confidence toolkit" are Ableton Live and Propellerhead's Reason. Reason is a MIDI recording program which can make your keyboard sound like any number of hundreds upon hundreds of different devices - some are software versions of classic synthesizers and samplers of old, and some are just cool sounds that somebody came up with. It's amazing what kind of creativity you can unleash simply by giving yourself access to a giant library of sounds to play with. Live is a full-on recording suite, letting you record live audio (i.e. from a mic or an instrument), mix it with MIDI tracks, master the whole thing, and do about a billion other amazing things that I still have no idea how to use.

Put together, these software programs + the new keyboard + some spare time = 7 songs recorded already, and I'm aiming to get 7 more done before the month is out. I should also mention here that a big part of FAWM is collaboration - sometimes someone will post a musical track that needs lyrics or a vocal part, or someone will post words and a melody and ask for a backing track, etc. - and that leads to some really amazing and unexpected music.

Anyway, enough talk. If you're curious, you can hear the songs I've recorded (and stay posted on songs I put up for the rest of the month) on my FAWM page. Enjoy, and please let me know what you think! And while you're there, be sure to click around and listen to some people's songs - there is some really fantastic stuff out there. Also, for the record, I don't think all my songs are brilliant classics - but if you let yourself pre-judge all your creative ideas because they're not "good enough," how do you ever get to the one that is?

PS I think the collective FAWM output is a great retort to this British jerk who says that it's "too easy" for people to make music nowadays. Sure, it's not all great, and some of it's downright awful, but I have heard so much good music on the FAWM Jukebox this week that I for one am glad that the barriers to entry are being lowered. Across all mediums, the easier it is to participate, the higher the signal-to-noise ratio will get, but so what? Human culture managed to keep progressing even after peasants were allowed to learn reading and writing, and some of those peasants even managed to write great works of literature. It may not all come out the way I want it to, but this peasant is going to keep at it. And I urge the rest of you peasants to act on your creative impulses - you just might make something great.

Improv Lessons For Freelancers

2010-02-02T12:51:00.004-05:00

(No, this post is not about music or wires, but it is about SXSW, so it kinda fits in here.)

My wife Amanda and I are leading a session at SXSW 2010 called “Improv Lessons for Freelancers.”

For the official session description, including a list of questions we promise we’ll answer, click here.

Check out the audio promo we recorded, below, and help spread the word!

(For the curious, I recorded the first vocal take via Adobe Audition, then imported that WAV into Ableton Live, where I added the sound effects, pasted in Amanda's parts, and mastered the whole thing.)

Friday Playlist: (Mostly) New Stuff

2010-01-22T10:05:00.007-05:00

Happy Friday, everybody. Please enjoy today's Friday playlist, which is made up of songs from (mostly) new (or at least somewhat recent) releases.

Yeasayer - "Ambling Alp"
Yeasayer has really embraced their inner Animal Collective on their new album (and on some songs, their inner Justin Timberlake). The result is a much more light-hearted album than their last outing, full of happy dance numbers like this one.
Freelance Whales - "The Great Estates"
Another album recommendation from my brother. This is a quiet, pretty album full of quiet, pretty songs. The instrumentation (hello, banjo!) calls to mind Sufjan Stevens for me, and the vocals remind me of Postal Service, but their overall sound isn't really like either of them. If you like this, check out the Lounge Act they did on WOXY recently.
Stardeath And White Dwarfs - "New Heat"
You can definitely hear the musical family resemblance between this band's lead singer Dennis Coyne and his more famous uncle Wayne, but don't write these guys off as a case of musical nepotism. Sure, they probably wouldn't be opening for the Flaming Lips otherwise, but they still put out a really weird, enjoyable psychedelic album that's worth several listens.
Rifle Recoil - "Lonely Sailor"
Another brother-based recommendation, this one-man band originally from Arlington, VA (though he seems to have relocated to Brooklyn, NY) records songs based on simple musical loops, beatboxing, falsetto vocals, and a playful lyrical sensibility. As an aspiring one-man band myself, this album reminded me that you can do a lot with a few simple parts.
Massive Attack - "Pray For Rain"
I've never really gotten into Massive Attack before, and their new EP is no exception. However, this song is a real standout, featuring vocals from TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. A nice slow burn of a song.
Songs - "Farmacy"
With their Google-proof name and spared-every-expense web site, Songs is apparently relying on talent alone to get some name recognition. Fortunately, they've got talent, even if they never stretch much beyond their comfort zone of Modern Lovers-style 3-chord ditties with half-spoken, half-sung vocals.
The Very Best - "Warm Heart Of Africa"
On their new album, The Very Best rely less on samples and covers and more on original material than they did on their 2008 mixtape, and the result is pretty great. Pitchfork calls it a "global-pop" album, but don't let that scare you off, it's really just an album of great music pulling from different styles than what your typical indie-rock band is ripping off. This song, a collaboration with Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, is a definite stand-out.
Beck - "Sisters Of Mercy"
I finally got around to listening to some of Beck's Record Club recordings, which he calls "an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day." The musicians don't rehearse before hand nor work out arrangements, they just get in the studio and do an original take on the source material. One of the albums they tackled is Leonard Cohen's debut album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen." The results are a little hit or miss (as you might expect), but this one really nails the feel of the original while still sounding fresh. Contributors include MGMT, Devendra Banhart, and more, though I'm not entirely sure who's doing what.
Ghostland Observatory - "Freehart Lover"
I forget who told me about this band, but if you've ever wondered what Daft Punk might sound like with a Chris Cornell sound-alike singing lead vocals, here's your chance to find out. Nothing really new going on here, but it's a good listen if you need a late afternoon pick-me-up.
Vampire Weekend - "White Sky"
The band everyone loves to hate is back with a new album, and it's actually really good. If you hated them before, this won't change your mind. If you liked them before, you'll like this. Pretty simple.

So what else is new? What's come out so far in 2010 that's floating your boat? Tell me in the comments.

Reading Roundup

2010-01-11T09:22:00.004-05:00

Here are some lists & articles you may have missed.

Largehearted Boy continues to relentlessly update his list of best-of lists, including the lovely addition of yours truly to yesterday's update!
eMusic Members pick their favorite albums of 2009.
At O'Reilly Community, Peter Drescher writes an interesting piece on "the myth of music ownership."
MediaShift's Jason Feinberg rounds up last year in digital music and adds some projections for 2010.
Web comic HijiNKS Ensue highlights the dangers of telling Pandora the dark truth about yourself (link courtesy of Music Machinery).
In case you're somehow still short on best-of lists, Obsessive Compulsive Music Disorder lists their favorite albums of 2009.

Happy Monday!

Friday Playlist: The Best Albums Of The Aughts You've Never Heard*

2010-01-08T10:00:00.003-05:00

*Unless of course, you have.

Happy New Year, everybody. In this, the first week of the teens, I figured I'd do like everybody else is doing and make a best-of list. But this isn't your typical year- or decade-end best-of list. This one is a tribute to those albums that you may have overlooked over the past 10 years. These albums were not by Spoon, or Arcade Fire, or Radiohead, or Outkast. They're not even by The Strokes or Animal Collective! This doesn't mean they're so obscure or indie that you've never heard (or heard of) them, it just means that these albums didn't really garner all the press and adoration that their more famous chronological neighbors did. And I'm here to correct that. For today's playlist, I've picked one track from each album, but I'm giving you a "hear also" tip for each one in the writeup in case you want to do some research on your own.

So, in no particular order, here we go (more goodies below the playlist!)...

Miike Snow - Miike Snow [2009]
The Swedish production team Bloodshy & Avant (who have produced and written songs for Britney Spears, J-Lo, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, et. al.) teamed up with singer/songwriter Andrew Wyatt to create an album of nearly perfectly crafted pop songs with killer beats and bizarre lyrics. Hear also: "Sans Soleil"
Mother Mother - O My Heart [2008]
Canadian band Mother Mother dropped one of 2008's catchiest albums with this Pixies-influenced, high-harmonied, fast-drummed, oft-syncopated album. The songs here are worlds better than on their debut Touch Up. If you get a chance to see these guys live, don't miss it, they're a lot of fun, and they can actually reproduce those ridiculous harmonies in a live setting! Hear also: "Burning Pile"
Twinemen - Twinemen [2002]
Q: What do you get when you take 2/3 of Morphine and add them to singer Laurie Sargent? A: The Twinemen, one of the most underrated bands of the Aughts. Combining smoky saxophone licks, droning bass lines, and hypnotic vocals, this album managed to completely transcend my expectations of a "post-Morphine side band." And their other 2 albums are pretty great, too. Hear also: "Who's Gonna Sing"
Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World [2001]
Wikipedia describes this Welsh band's fifth album as "an eclectic record incorporating pop, prog, punk, jungle, electronica, techno and death metal." I would have to agree. This was an eye-opening album for me; I had rarely (if ever before) heard one album successfully encompass so many styles without sounding kitschy or turning into a joke. But these guys pulled it off, and then began their long slow descent into mediocrity (only this year have they started to turn things around). Hear also: "(Drawing) Rings Around The World"
Six By Seven - The Way I Feel Today [2002]
These hard-rocking Brits manage to mix real emotions with hard-driving droney guitar rock without turning the whole thing into some sort of emo-metal crapfest. This song is a bit on their quieter side, but that doesn't make it rock any less. They released something like 6 albums in the Aughts, but this one is by far my favorite. Hear also: "American Beer"
Beulah - The Coast Is Never Clear [2001]
Members of the infamous Elephant Six Collective, Beulah came gently roaring out of the late 90's on a wave of lo-fi pop songs. They did some of their best work in the early aughts before disbanding in 2004. But before they went, they left us with some real pop masterpieces, including nearly every track on this horn-laden album. Hear also: "Popular Mechanics For Lovers"
Spiritualized - Let It Come Down [2001]
While never quite recapturing the psychedelic glory of 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, Spiritualized still put out some quality work in the Aughts, and I think this album was the most quality of all. It's got a cleaner, more streamlined sound than a lot of their stuff, and the vocals are more prevalent, which means that (despite his sometimes shaky singing voice) singer Jason Pierce's emotional range really shines through, to great effect. Hear also: "Lord Can You Hear Me"
Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed The Fish? [2002]
You've no doubt heard his work on the About A Boy soundtrack, but if that's been your only exposure to Badly Drawn Boy, do yourself a favor and check out this brilliant album. According to Wikipedia, this album featured "an increasingly mainstream pop sound which was not welcomed by all critics." Well, those critics should get their heads out of the sand, because this album is incredibly rewarding. It's a playful somewhat-concept album with resurfacing themes and lyrical leitmotifs that will keep your brain occupied while the rest of you is contentedly humming along. Hear also: "You Were Right"
Gomez - In Our Gun [2002]
Most Gomez fans will tell you that this is the album that doesn't sound anything like Gomez. It's also the last one before their slow but steady decline to the shell of a band they are today. This album is much more produced than their previous efforts, featuring multi-layered keyboard tracks, a harder-edged sound, and some of the catchiest riffs they ever wrote. If you're just getting into Gomez, start at the beginning and stop here. Hear also: "Ballad Of Nice & Easy"
Say Hi To Your Mom - Impeccable Blahs [2006]
Although the band (well, really one guy) has since changed its name to the more grown-up sounding "Say Hi," they still put out great lo-fi emo songs about stuff that nerds care about. On the subject of this album, Wikipedia says: "Their fourth release, Impeccable Blahs, was written almost entirely about vampires, though Star Trek is also mentioned." 'Nuff said. Hear also: "These Fangs"
The Fiery Furnaces - Gallowsbird's Bark [2003]
Before they went crazy and started recording albums with their grandmother, those wacky Friedberger siblings used to put out really-bizarre-but-still-listenable-and-actually-pretty-great albums. While not as weird as their second album, this one still has plenty of weird to go around, but also plenty of folk-influenced songsmithing. I dare you not to sing along to this track. Hear also: "Asthma Attack"
The Sleepy Jackson - Lovers [2003]
The All Music Guide describes this album as "a jukebox loaded with 35 years worth of trippy pop moments," and since those guys are pros, I'll just steal their words and say that I agree. There's something on here for fans of just about anything, from George Harrison to the Flaming Lips to (very) early Wilco. Each song is more or less from a different genre, so it was hard to pick one that was in any way emblematic of the album. So I just picked one I liked. Hear also: "Vampire Racecourse"
The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine [2006]
A pop-punk concept album about religion? With heavily political overtones? That doesn't suck? Yes, yes, and yes said the Thermals, on this, their best album. This collection of 3- and 4-minute ditties about losing, finding, and dealing with your faith is one of the catchiest albums of the Aughts, even if Hutch Harris's voice is something of an acquired taste. There is no song on this album that I skip on a regular basis. Hear also: "A Pillar Of Salt"
Liars - Drum's Not Dead [2006]
I will not pretend to understand what this album is about. This album is beautiful, noisy, a little frightening, dark, ethereal, and really just kind of amazing. Don't pick it up expecting songs you can latch on to easily, or expecting a lot of words to guide you through, or really expecting anything. Just turn off the lights, throw this on, and enjoy the ride. Hear also: "Visit From Drum"
The Coup - Pick A Bigger Weapon [2006]
This album has it all. Great beats, smooth flows, hyper-intelligent lyrics that go by so fast you don't even realize you've just gotten a people's history of [various subject matters] until it's all over because you were too busy bopping along to the funk samples in the background. Sample lyric: "When I'm running from the police/I don't have to rush/I'm so dope I just jump/In the toilet and flush." Sounds silly until you realize it's brilliant. Hear also: "I Love Boosters!"
Cloud Cult - The Meaning of 8 [2007]
In addition to being the most ecologically friendly indie rock band ever, Cloud Cult writes beautiful little pop songs that are, for the most part, surprisingly sad behind all the silver linings. Before they found fame with that esurance video, the majority of this band's output was a response to the untimely death of band founder Craig Minowa's infant son in 2002. This album is no exception, and while it has some of their most serious songs, it also has some of their most beautiful. Hear also: "Chain Reaction"
Menomena - Friend and Foe [2007]
Building on the "this music was made by sentient robots" vibe of their first album, but going deeper and darker, Menomena laid down some of their catchiest and most challenging songs on this album, and the result is an album that thoroughly rewards repeated listens and an ear for details. I haven't been this impressed by a trio of musicians since Morphine. Hear also: "Evil Bee"
Johnson & Jonson - Johnson & Jonson [2008]
Another intelligent hip-hop album from 2 guys that seriously know how to rock a sample. The beats are a great mix of funk, soul, rock, and good old-fashioned psychedelci hip-hop. This would be a great party album if the lyrics didn't warrant so much attention and close listening. Hear also: "Hold On John"
El Guincho - Alegranza [2008]
This album got a lot of comparisons to Panda Bear's Person Pitch, but there's one really important difference: this one's 100x more fun. It's got the same trippy reverbed-out vibe in some places, but it's also got weird chants, crazy Spanish instrumental bits, what sounds like tribal beats, and a bunch more stuff thrown in for good measure. This album is kind of like the auditory version of a night at a carnival. Hear also: "Fata Morgana"
The Earlies - The Enemy Chorus [2007]
This album kind of reminds me of Menomena's Friend and Foe (see above) in that it was a bit of a departure from what I thought this band was all about based on their first album, but it was also a really great album that built on some of their best traits and went deeper (and darker). There's a lot of multi-layered sonic weirdness going on here, but they (usually) all add up to some really cool aural landscapes (and some great songwriting to boot). Hear also: "When The Wind Blows"

What's the best album of the Aughts that didn't get any attention (or at least not the attention it deserved)? Tell me in the comments, and happy new year!

More Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck

2009-12-11T10:00:00.001-05:00

photo by flickr user Merelymel13

Once again, the "holiday" season is upon us. All across America (and surely other countries) retail workers are stockpiling their weapons so that one day they can come into work, take aim, and make that unbearable, horrid, godawful Christmas-themed playlist stop forever. Well, before you take matters into your own hands like those poor souls, I'd urge you to take a listen to this year's Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck playlist.

Each song on here is absolutely, positively guaranteed not to suck [Editor's note: not a guarantee]. And if you want even more non-suckage, check out last year's Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck playlist.

UPDATE: Check out all the Wired For Music holiday playlists!

UPDATE 2: Click here to download this year's playlist.

"Fat Daddy (is Santa Claus)" - Fat Daddy
A classic from the John Waters Christmas album, this track by famed Baltimore DJ Paul "Fat Daddy" Johnson is an unjustly forgotten classic of the season.
"Back Door Santa" - Clarence Carter
Sampled by Run DMC in "Christmas In Hollis" (featured in last year's playlist), this soulful tune by Clarence Carter is described by Wikipedia thusly: "The lyrics are sexually suggestive, not having much to do with Christmas as a holiday." You be the judge.
"Christmas Is Going To The Dogs" - Eels
This one didn't make the cut last year, but that's only because the Eels have 2 (two!) great Christmas songs. This one is about dogs, so you know it's good.
"Christmas Time Is Here" - The Blue Hawaiians
Don't let the name fool you, these guys are from L.A. But, they also do one of the best versions I've ever heard of Vince Guaraldi's surprisingly mournful holiday tune.
"Another Christmas Song" - Stephen Colbert
I hesitated about including a "novelty" song in this list, but Colbert does this song so well, it transcends novelty for me to become one of the catchiest and cleverest holiday numbers I've ever heard. The final "copyright Stephen Colbert" gets me every time.
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" - Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews
There are a lot of great versions of this song, but none of the other ones features the amazing sound of Welsh singer Cerys Matthews (formerly of the band Catatonia, of which I'd never heard before). Her voice is so distracting, you can almost miss the fact that Tom Jones really loves playing the filthy old man in this one.
"I Want An Alien For Christmas" - Fountains Of Wayne
This is what I want for Christmas. For Chanukah I want a rocket ship.
"Hanukkah oh Hanukkah" - Erran Baron Cohen (featuring Y-Love & Jules Brookes)
This is the coolest version of this song I've ever heard. In fact, it's the only version of this song I've ever heard that doesn't sound exactly like the original. And if his name didn't give it away, I can confirm for you that this is by Borat's brother.
"Little Drummer Boy" - Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
You've no doubt heard Shawn Lee's music featured in various movies and TV shows, but here he brings us something very special. I think this version is as listenable as the Bowie/Crosby version.
"Merry Christmas Baby" - Hanson
Yes, it's by Hanson. Yes, that is a shameful thing for all of us. Yes, it's awesome nonetheless.
"Here Comes Santa Claus" - Bob Dylan
Ol' Robert Allen Zimmerman sounds so damn happy on this track, you can easily overlook the fact that it also sounds as though his larynx is trying to escape through his mouth. I still think this qualifies as "not sucking," if only because of that wonderful mix of enthusiasm and irony that few artists outside of Dylan can really muster.
"Jingle Bells" - Gary Mann
From Mann's brilliantly titled album "Blues For Baby Jesus." Go click on that link and look at the second album cover, and tell me this voice should be coming out of that guy. It shouldn't, and that's why this is wonderful.
"Christmas Song" - Mogwai
Not to be confused with their longer and significantly darker song "Christmas Steps" (itself a re-recording of their song "Xmas Steps"), this is a very pretty song from Scotland's favorite instrumental alt-rock bands. Perfect for watching the fire burn down after a long day of holiday chores.
"Please Come Home For Christmas" - Charles Brown
Legendary bluesman Charles Brown really brings the holiday cheer here. Sample lyric: "my baby's gone, I got no friends." So if this season has you reaching you for the bottle of yuletide cheer, don't worry - things could be worse!
"Pretty Paper" - Willie Nelson
Willie gave this song to Roy Orbison who did a very different version of it back in the early sixties. Willie's version is much more stripped-down and emotional.
"Auld Lang Syne" - Lou Rawls
Modern science may never be able to fully explain the lyrics of this winter mainstay, but what does that matter when we hear those words coming to us in the beautiful voice of Lou Rawls?

Well, that's this year's list. I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it. Please chime in in the comments and let me know what you think!

Lists!

2009-12-09T15:31:00.003-05:00

It's list time! What with the end of the year looming, not to mention the end of the decade (well, not really - technically this decade ends next year, but whatever, it's the end of the Aughts), list season is upon us. I haven't made my own yet (working on it), but in the meantime, here are some tasty lists to tide you over:

Paste Magazine lists the 50 best albums of the decade.
NPR considers the decade's 50 most important recordings.
NPR listeners pick their favorite music of 2009.
NME names the top 100 albums of the decade.
Stereogum rounds up all the other lists that are out there.
Largehearted Boy rounds up what is apparently every list, ever (frequently updated!).

That's all for now! I hope this keeps you busy until I can get my own list up. Stay tuned...

New York...And Beyond

2009-11-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow morning, I will be moving away from the Washington, DC area for the first time in my life. For as long as I can remember, I've been seduced by the thought (and sometimes even the reality) of living in New York. And in 24 hours, that long-held dream will become a reality.

The reasons behind the move are many and varied, but a few key ones include a longing for expanded artistic opportunities, the itch to live somewhere new, and a need to grow and push myself in ways that I might never do if I stay in the same comfortable place. I'm sad to be putting distance between me and my family, my friends, and the city I've called home for 10 years (and the area I've called home pretty much my entire life). But I'm also excited, and scared, and happy, and several other emotions all at the same time. But underneath it all, I know this is right (plus we've already paid the deposit for our new apartment so there's no backing out now).

So what better way to celebrate this milestone than with a new playlist? This one mirrors our upcoming week somewhat - starting in DC, heading to New York, and finally ending up in...Hawaii, where we will be heading for 2 weeks at the end of the week. Yes, this will be a big week. The New York songs on this list express a variety of emotions about the city - like all great cities, it inspires a multitude of reactions. I'm excited to have my own.

See you in a few weeks!

Friday Playlist: Halloween!

2009-10-30T08:26:00.006-04:00

Boo! It's Wired For Music's favorite time of year - ever since I can remember, I've been a bigger fan of Halloween than any other day on the calendar (possibly even my own birthday). The combination of pumpkin-flavored things, intentionally-induced fear, and candy is a powerful one. Every year I try to find as many ways to celebrate Halloween as I can - decorating the house with all sorts of cheesy decorations, drinking pumpkin beer, eating way too much candy, watching scary movies, and of course, listening to Halloween-themed music.

I've found a few decent Halloween playlists out there - this one from Flavorwire that I linked to last week is pretty good, and I just saw ~~this one from NPR~~ [UPDATE: that link no longer works, so here's some more Halloween goodness from NPR]. thanks to Public Media Girl. But of course, it wouldn't be Wired For Music if I didn't post my own. So I did.

There are too many tracks in this one for me to do a writeup for each one, so jut know that I pared this list down from the much bigger (over 6 hour) playlist I started compiling last week. The tracks range in tone from funny to silly to scary to pretty to rock-and-rolly-y and back again. Some of them are explicitly about Halloween or other spooky themes, some of them just have a nice creepy sound, and some I just picked for the title alone, even though the content of the song isn't entirely relevant. Still, I think collectively they make for a great Halloween playlist, and I hope you feel the same way.

(While you're listening, check out my guest post for Creative DC about movies to put you in the mood for Halloween.)

What do you like to listen to this time of year? Tell me in the comments. And have a happy Halloween!

Friday Playlist: My Top 20 Tracks From Pitchfork's Top 20 Albums

2009-10-23T09:58:00.009-04:00

A few week ago, Pitchfork posted their list of the top 20 albums of the aughts. Pitchfork hasn't generated this much excitement since they famously gave "Music" a 6.8 back in 2007. I read through the list several times, and finally decided that my readers shouldn't have to take the time to listen to all 20 of these albums 5 times in a row like I did. As a service to you, dear readers (both of you), I did all the heavy lifting so you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy one track from each of their top 20.

I agonized for some time over which track to choose from each album - should I pick my personal favorite, or a track that best represents the album as a whole, or the one that might be considered the "best" track from each album? The good-looking genius over at Creative DC advised me to pick the song that, if the listener were to die tomorrow, they would be happiest having heard today [Editor's note: I'm paraphrasing, the original was more clever]. So that's what I tried to do.

Enjoy!

Interpol - NYC
This was an easy choice for me. I'm not really too enamored of most of this album (or most Interpol songs for that matter) but this song always manages to worm its my into my brain and stay there for days every time I hear it. I know the lyrics aren't all that fancy (are Interpol's lyrics ever all that fancy?), but there's a certain poetical quality to this song that gets me. And of course it's simple and repetive, and I can't get too much of that.
Spoon - Don't Let It Get You Down
Lots of great options on this album, but I think this is perhaps the most tuneful of them all. This song also has a special place in my heart because a couple years back I wrote a song that was pretty much exactly this song - took me a couple weeks to figure out where I'd unintentionally stolen the melody from. There's nice stereo separation in this one too (the vocals are on one side for the most part, the drums on the other, etc.) so that's an added listening bonus. I also dig the interplay between the piano, guitar and bass during the breaks. It's a good little number.
Kanye West - Gold Digger (featuring Jamie Foxx)
I almost went with "Mama" from this album (I really love that track) but this is definitely the song you will be sorry for having not heard if you'd never heard it. Solid song all around - clever humorous lyrics, good beat, great fake Ray Charles sample (cleverly altered to reflect the lyrical content of this song) and a super-catchy chorus that you can't go around singing in public. Nice work.
LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great
This album was on my top 10 of 2008, and it remains great to this day. Like many of the albums on this list, it was hard to pick just one track from this one, but this song wins because of the brilliant mix of the warm emotions of the lyrics with the cold electronic feel of the music. (And of course it's simple and repetitive.)
Sufjan Stevens - CHICAGO
You know the refrain by now - it was really hard to pick one song from this album. But this one wins for the arrangement (the way the strings rise and fall is just brilliant, the glockenspiel is inspired) and the beautiful simplicity of the lyrics. I'm not 100% sure I chose the right track from this one, but at some point I just had to stop and pick one. So this is it.
The Knife - We Share Our Mother's Health
I used to be a bigger Knife fan than I am now. I really didn't like the Fever Ray album, and upon repeated listens this Knife album lost much of its lustre for me as well. But the crazy electronic dance-hall-of-mirrors noises that comprise much of the instrumentation of this song combined with the aliens-who-just-want-to-party-but-kind-of-in-a-dangerous-way vocals make this song a real high point for the album.
Animal Collective - My Girls
While this song can't hold a candle to Peacebone off of Strawberry Jam, it's still pretty damn good. They manage to pull such a catchy chorus out of pretty thin scaffolding, and that's a good feat, even if it doesn't come until after 3 minutes into the song. Catchy, light-hearted, weird, and confusing, if this song represents the new direction for Animal Collective (picture one of their tunes in a Gap ad in 2 years), I would be OK with that.
OutKast - So Fresh, So Clean
So many wonderful songs on this album - but none are so boastful and playful at the same time while still holding down such a thick juicy beat. This song is Big Boi-heavy, and definitely reflects his retro style, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.
The White Stripes - We're Going To Be Friends
Of course I had to pick the song that sounds nothing like the rest of this album. Well, so be it. I defy you not to have a good time listening to this song. Go on, try. See? Told you.
Ghostface Killah - Apollo Kids ft. Raekwon
Maybe this makes me a loser who's into over-produced hip-hop albums, but I actually prefer Fishscale to this album. Still, Supreme Clientele is a classic, and I think this song represents one of its peaks. Ghostface tears it up in his verses and Raekwon doesn't slouch on his, either. There are tracks with better beats on this album, but I don't think Ghostface sounds as alive anywhere else on that whole disc. And of course he compares rapping to "ziti" and never explains it. Who else could do that?
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
I actually had never heard this album before I saw it on Pitchfork's playlist, and I wish I had - it's pretty good. This was my favorite track from this album, and I dig the sonic landscape it paints. I have to imagine The Go! Team listened to this album. A lot.
Panda Bear - Bros
Yes, this song has been overplayed by hipsters from coast to coast, and no, he's not doing anything the Beach Boys didn't do decades ago, but it's still a great song and shows how far you can go with a good hook and a lot of reverb. Somehow it manages not to get (too) boring even at 12:00 minutes. That's impressive.
Sigur Rós - Olsen Olsen
More hard choices here - but the bass line on this track makes me feel so good it had to win. Then there's the theme introduced by the bass at 4:12, then picked up by the piano and strings at 4:40, then built upon by horns, voices, etc. for the rest of the song - it's so uplifting and wonderful, it lifts up the whole song around it. Beautiful stuff.
The Strokes - Last Nite
I'm not sure how The Strokes made it into the top 20 albums of the decade, but as long as they're here, we might as well enjoy their catchiest little ditty of all. Commence enjoyment.
Modest Mouse - 3rd Planet
Great album, full of great, weird songs. This one wins because it's so evocative - even as the narrator talks about his "only art" being that of "fucking people over," and making fun of people for believing in the "eye in the sky," you can hear the self-doubt creeping in and infecting everything. Great existentialist angst without being emo.
Jay-Z - Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
Q: How can you understand Jigga without hearing this song? A: You cannot. So don't even try. Classic Jay-Z, from the strings to the lyrics to the ridiculous boasting to the crazy good flow. Way to get pretty much half the country singing along to what is essentially nonsense letters strung together.
Wilco - Kamera
I changed my choice from this album about 6 times, but Kamera finally won because, somewhat ironically, I don't love it. At least, I don't love it when it starts. Every time I hear this song, my immediate instinct is to skip over it in favor of something more tuneful or with a better arrangement or more interesting lyrics...yet every time I actually hang in there and listen to it for the duration, I am reminded that it's really a very well-written song with surprising layers. The vocals are understated (none of that trademark Tweedy scratchy yowl here), there's no impressive guitar solo, and yet by the end I'm always singing along and telling myself I need to give this song more credit. The production actually reminds me of Spoon a bit here - pretty sparse with some good chunky acoustic guitar backing. Anyway, despite all this, I am still questioning my choice, because there are simply too many great songs on this album. Maybe I got it wrong.
Daft Punk - One More Time
This was another album I didn't know very well until recently. Most of the album has grown on me, but this track caught my attention and held it right off the bat. Auto-tune never sounded so good.
Arcade Fire - Wake Up
Another album full of great songs! While I'm way more partial to Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), I have to admit that this is simply a better song, and if you've never heard it, your ears are poorer for it. So do them a favor and listen closely to all the instruments and voices at play here - it's a veritable feast for the ears. And the lyrics are good, too.
Radiohead - The National Anthem
Yes, yes, another hard choice from this overly analyzed album. There are practically no lyrics in this song, but that's OK because the vocals are basically just another instrument, and they're used to great effect. This is probably the best song on this whole playlist, so make sure you listen hard.

So, what are your favorites from these albums? Tell me in the comments...

Some Tidbits

2009-10-21T17:34:00.005-04:00

Hi gang. I'm still working on my Pitchfork playlist, and I'll have it up by Friday, I promise! In the meantime, here's a few things you can do to keep yourself entertained:

Check out this Halloween Playlist from culture blog Flavorwire (hat tip to Creative DC for the link).
Watch Sherman Alexie read his poem "Ode To Mixtapes" on the Newshour Art Beat blog.
Believe the hype about Google's new music service.
Relive 2004 with the New York Times as they discover an online music service called Pandora (apparently they discovered it last Wednesday).
Listen to a parrot sing death metal.

Anything else cool happening these days? Tell me in the comments!

Reading (And Listening!) Roundup

2009-10-07T10:43:00.005-04:00

Get your ears and eyeballs ready, folks, it's time for the Reading Roundup!

Pitchfork continues their year in lists with the final installment of the Top 20 Albums Of The Decade. You can check out all their lists here.
NPR's All Songs Considered blog reviews Pitchfork's lists through the lens of a wonky statistics nerd, and concludes that Pitchfork is sometimes inconsistent, and sometimes isn't.
As of this writing, Pandora is narrowly beating Last.FM in Mashable's head-to-head poll of the 2 services. Too bad they don't go more in-depth about their differences, but if you're interested, you can always read this if you haven't already.
Logitech has released version 7.4 of the Squeezebox Server software (formerly SqueezeCenter, formerly something else before that, I think). You can read the release notes here, but so far the only real difference I've noticed is an inability to customize my menus the way I like. Boo.
Add this robot to the list of things and people that will be famous for singing before I am. To be fair, she's using Yamaha's Vocaloid software, so she has the upper hand. I have to use my own lungs like a sucker.

That's all for today, folks. Stay tuned for this Friday's playlist, featuring my favorites from Pitchfork's Top 20 list!

Future Of Music Policy Summit - Happening Now!

2009-10-05T17:30:00.003-04:00

The weightily-named Future of Music Policy Summit is happening right now, right here in Washington, DC (sadly, I am not there). They claim there will be a live webcast starting today, but I can't find it anywhere. You can register to view the webcast here, but so far that hasn't helped.

Bob Boilen from NPR's All Songs Considered is speaking, so maybe he'll tell us more about it on his Twitter feed.

Anyway, I thought you guys would want to know. Maybe one day I'll actually attend this thing! Until then, I'll try and watch the webcast if I can and let you all know if I learn anything interesting.

Friday Playlist: Where Have I Been?

2009-10-02T10:30:00.008-04:00

Where have I been? Not blogging, that's for sure. But that doesn't mean I haven't had my ear to the ground on your behalf, gentle reader. Despite my pending move to the Big Apple and all the attendant madness that has brought to my life, I'm still making time to find awesome music to share with you all. Enjoy!

"Black Mozart" - Raekwon (featuring RZA & Inspectah Deck)
Well, you heard it here first (unless you heard it here first): The new Raekwon album is, in a word, dope. He set the bar high by positioning his latest album as a sequel to his best solo effort, but unlike some other Raekwon albums, this one does not disappoint. There are definitely more hard-core tracks on the album, but this one has one of the best hooks.
"Freak Train" - Kurt Vile
I've been hearing about this guy forever, and I even read recently that he's one of Yo La Tengo's favorite artists. Despite all that, I found most of his upcoming album "Childish Prodigy" pretty repetitive (which I usually like) but there are a few standout tracks. This one and a couple others sound to me like Animal Collective after they listened to a bunch of folk albums. Or something.
"Avalon Or Someone Very Similar" - Yo La Tengo
"Popular Songs," Yo La Tengo's new album, is fantastic. Even if you count the 3 over-10-minute jams at the end. I had a hard time picking a song from this album, so I picked 2. This one showcases their classic sound - high-pitched vocals, unassuming but pretty guitar work, a gentle rhythm that keeps things moving without getting all stressed out about it. Peaceful, but not a pushover. Like me.
"Periodically Triple Or Double" - Yo La Tengo
Also like me, this song is a bit of a mystery. Is it jazz? Blues? "Organ-boogie?" Whatever you call it, it's a good time. It reminds me a little bit of some Belle & Sebastian songs, notably the ones with the organ. Only this one's way better.
"TFO" - Harlem Shakes
When they're not blatantly ripping off TV On The Radio (see "Strictly Game" from their new album), Harlem Shakes have the makings of a decent band. Too bad they just broke up. Oh well. It may be sophomoric, but I love the line "we got time to waste some time."
"Zombie City Shake" - Black Hat Brigade
Believe it or not, this is actually not a Wolf Parade side project! They get major points for the theremin on this one. And man, that guy sounds like Spencer Krug. Or maybe the other guy from Wolf Parade. Good ol' whatshisname (no offense intended). Either way, this is a fun song.
"Psychic City (Voodoo City)" - YACHT
I dig electro-pop as much as the next guy, but it's taken many more listens than I expected to get into their latest album. With the exception, of course, of this awesome party song. [Editor's note: 2 songs with "City" in the title in 1 playlist? Far out!]
"This Is Our Lot" - Wild Beasts
A friend recommended this band to me, and I'm glad he did. Having largely missed the heyday of this sort of music in the 80s, I'm excited to hop on the bandwagon now. If I ever have to keep a girl in a pit in my basement while I hide my junk and tell myself how pretty I am, I'll play this song in the background. (Here's a cartoon version that is much safer for work than the original).
"Dominos" - The Big Pink
And now we come to the "super catchy" portion of the playlist. If these guys ever learned to write songs with lyrics that A) didn't betray their massive distrust of and apparent dislike for women, and B) actually rhymed, they would be unstoppable. This is the song I would play in the record store when it was time to magically sell five copies of their album, a la John Cusack. [Editor's note: I assume "Dominos" is the British spelling, but I'm too lazy to check on that.]
"We Are Golden" - Mika
Mika strikes again! Just when I thought I was over this guy, he comes out with a new album which is supposedly some sort of rock opera/concept album about his teenage years. Or something. Whatever it is, it's catchy as hell - if you thought that Big Pink song might get stuck in your head, just listen to this one a couple times and you won't even have room in your head for your own name. [Editor's note: while it might sound like Los Campesinos is doing backing vocals on this track, I think it's just some British teenagers yelling.]

So what are you listening to these days? Let me know in the comments.

The Best Video Of The Year Blows

2009-09-15T15:40:00.007-04:00

I'm sorry, Beyoncé. Kanye West's little outburst at the VMAs this week is - by far - the most interesting thing about the "Single Ladies" video. Since when is 3 women dancing over an alternately white and grey background "Video Of The Year" material? In fact, none of this year's "Best Video" nominees are memorable beyond a few seconds after watching.

Come on, MTV! Don't you remember when videos were interesting? Well I do. This is not in any way a "best videos of all time" or even a "most interesting videos of all time" list, this is just a few videos that came to mind when I thought back on some music videos that never violated the cardinal rule of television: don't be boring.

Nine Inch Nails - "Closer"
I could only find the TV edit, but those "Scene Missing" cards make the whole thing all the weirder.
Menomena - "Evil Bee"
Creepy, beautiful, and a great complement to a great song.
Bjork - "Bachelorette"
Michel Gondry takes us down the rabbit hole of recursion in this fantastic video. Just one of many ridiculous and amazing Bjork videos (most have which have been pulled from YouTube - nice marketing, record label!).
Fatboy Slim - "Weapon Of Choice"
If you're going to make a video that's just dancing, it better either involve treadmills or Christopher Walken.

And, when you're ready to stop having fun and be bored:

Do you have a favorite video? Let me know and link it up in the comments.

Friday Playlist: A Nice Chilly Day

2009-09-11T16:32:00.008-04:00

It's another beautiful chilly day here in DC, and I'd like to say that these songs are all somehow relevant to that. But I ran out of time to make that playlist, so here's some stuff I've been listening to this week.

Enjoy!

"Eden Was A Garden" - Roman Candle
I think emusic recommended these guys to me. Nice alt-country rock from North Carolina. The whole album's pretty decent.
"The Strums" - The Dodos
I was very excited to hear about a new Dodos album coming out, their last one was fantastic. This one is great, too. This song in particular reminds me of George Harrison. And yes, it's in the same key as track 1 from this playlist. Go figure.
"Senorita" - The Low Anthem
Another emusic download. This month they gave all their members 50 free downloads, no doubt as an apology for their shitty new pricing models. This is from their album "What The Crow Brings," a very pretty folk/country/roots album.
"Infinity" - The xx
Allmusic describes this band as an "atmospheric English indie pop quartet." That sounds about right. Their album is pretty quiet, but there's some nice stuff going on if you listen for it (I like the drum machine noises in this song, for example).
"Even Jesus Couldn't Love You" - Lord Cut-Glass
Another recommendation from my brother. This is a great and weird album of musically upbeat songs with bizarre lyrics. Sample: "your dreams are spent like next month's rent/on cocaine, pills, and [some word I can't make out]." Toss-up between this song and "Big Time Teddy" for favorite song so far.
"Seven" - Fever Ray
I like The Knife plenty, so it stands to reason I should like this side project, but other than this track, I pretty much hate this album. So there.
"Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan" - Phish
I didn't go see them on their latest tour, but I heard several shows, and they actually weren't bad. And I firmly believe this is their best studio effort to date. The production is solid, the band sounds focused but relaxed at the same time, and the sound is nice and big. I love the line "got a blank space where my mind should be" on this song - typical Phish, but they still make it work after all these years.
"Om Nashi Me" - Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros
Believe me, I would love to say that these guys are just over-hyped dirty hippies. But actually, they're really talented and their freak-folk (actually I prefer my brother's term "acid campfire" for this) album "Up From Below" is fantastic. This song is a little weirder than the rest of it, but it also cheers me up every time I listen to it, especially the chanting and horns at the end.

That's all for today, folks. What are you listening to? Tell me in the comments.

Friday Playlist: End Of Summer

2009-09-04T10:33:00.006-04:00

This week we in the DC area saw some beautiful weather, temperatures in the 70s, nice breezes, and an overall sense of a season on the way out. Of course, we in the DC area are smart enough to know that this is all a horrible trick and summer will most likely be back for another few months of horribly high temperatures and unbearable humidity. But still, it was a nice week, weather-wise, and so I dedicate today's playlist to the end of summer, whenever it really comes. Enjoy!

I'm a bit crunched for time, so these descriptions will be brief - I'm pretty sure no one reads them anyway.

"Kiss With A Fist" - Florence & The Machine
Fun British bluesy lady-pop in the vein of Amy Winehouse, et al. A great summer song about sadomasochism (or something).
"I'm Watching You" - Jay Reatard
Despite his bizarre name and horrible countenance, this dude can write a catchy pop hook. I dare you not to bop your head along to this one.
"Skeletons" - Tiny Masters Of Today
This band is comprised of a 15- and 13-year-old brother/sister duo from Brooklyn. Despite that nausea-inducing bio, their album is still pretty great. My brother thinks they could be the next Fiery Furnaces. I tend to agree.
"French Navy" - Camera Obscura
Their new album is just fantastic. Phil Spector would be proud if he wasn't busy fending for himself in prison.
"Ghost Life" - Bowerbirds
A nice transition-to-autumn song. If you like this, good news! The whole album sounds like it.
"Sans Soleil" - Miike Snow
Swedish singer/songwriter teams with pop production team (they've written/produced for Madonna, Britney, J-Lo, Kiley Minogue, and others) to create my favorite album of the summer. It was hard to pick a track from this album, they're all pretty damn great.
"There Is No Sun" - Jay Reatard
This album is so catchy I had to include 2 tracks. So sue me.
"The Mountain" - Heartless Bastards
Unfortunately, this opening track is the best one on this Ohio band's new album, but that doesn't mean it's not a fantastic song. Although to my ears, it's basically the exact same song as Interpol's "Untitled."
"Untitled" - Interpol
See #8 above. Included for comparison purposes.

What are you listening to nowadays? What great albums have come out lately that I should be listening to? Please let me know in the comments!

Reading Roundup

2009-08-25T16:15:00.005-04:00

Hi everybody. Sorry for the radio silence of late, but don't worry - I haven't forgotten you. And to prove it, I've rounded up some reading/viewing/listening material that I think you'll find interesting.

Enjoy.

Jason Feinberg of MediaShift discusses what (if anything) record labels will look like in the future.
Mashable shares some tips on finding new music via Pandora.
Moby discusses the effect of technology on music. [VIDEO]
The Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit is coming to DC in October! Featuring special guest Senator Al Franken.
Paste Magazine picks their 10 Favorite Albums of 2009 (so far).
Pitchfork lists their favorite 500 tracks of the Aughts.
Lifehacker gives you some tips on making your playlists rock.

That's all for now, folks. But don't worry, the Friday Playlists will be returning soon to a blog near you!