August 27, 2008

karion:

Unrelated - did you know, on US network television, there is a talent show hosted by Jerry Springer and judged by David Hasselhoff? Neither did I.

A hometown friend of mine came in second on that show last year (to a ventriloquist, of all things; however, it was for the best, as he avoided being locked into a contract with AGT and a Vegas gig that wouldn’t have been the best fit for his style); it made Cas an “overnight sensation” after a decade of working hard for his music career. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, really. And he actually does have talent! (link to Cas Haley’s official site)

August 25, 2008

Curtis Mayfield performing “Kung Fu” from 1974.

The whole album is good. That whole music blog is good. It’s allll good. Happy Monday.

August 22, 2008
What Britney Spears Really Sounds Like On Stage

suitep:

I have no idea why this shocked me so much.

It sorta reminds me of the infamous Linda McCartney board tape.

For an elaborate stage show like Britney and etc, where the singer is running around huffing and puffing and frolicking and stuff for most of the performance, a great deal of the vocals are of the canned variety, since nobody cares anymore (that poor Milli Vanilli guy gave his life in vain, alas). The rest is heavily processed through on-the-fly correction softwares like Autotune or Melodyne.

Surprisingly though, even the “good” singers don’t always come off too well when their live vocals are isolated this way. I’ve heard plenty of instances where a vocal performance I had originally found to be very powerful sounded much different when separated from the other parts of the whole. (Not to the extent of this Britney video, though)

August 20, 2008
8tracks
It’s almost, but not quite, entirely like Muxtape.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
There was talk of Andy Williams elsewhere recently, which reminded me of this bootleg remix of “Can’t Get Used To Losing You” by Ricky B.
August 7, 2008
suitep: Bubbles cleans up nice. One thing about The Wire is that I’m now incapable of seeing the actors as anything other than their characters from the show. I know it’s unfair (I remember an interview with Alan Hale Jr. talking about how he couldn’t get acting work because all the casting people grew up watching him on Gilligan’s Island and only associated him with that character, so they’d say things like “Sorry Skipper, we just don’t have anything for you right now”) but it is entertaining. It’s like everything they do in shows from now on is part of their pre- or post-Wire story. Some movie on cable the other day featured both Kima and Bubbles. They were at an outdoor upscale party type thing…oh they must be working some sort of undercover deal! Bubs should be putting a hat on somebody any minute now…hey wait, I didn’t know they had palm trees in Baltimore…etc. Or who can forget that fateful day when the crazy Terminator robots showed up on the corners and Bubs was pressed into service as a resistance fighter, leaving his shopping cart behind in order to take up arms alongside Sarah Connor? Also: Prez works for Diddy now, so they can just call off that reality show or whatever.

suitep:

Bubbles cleans up nice.

One thing about The Wire is that I’m now incapable of seeing the actors as anything other than their characters from the show. I know it’s unfair (I remember an interview with Alan Hale Jr. talking about how he couldn’t get acting work because all the casting people grew up watching him on Gilligan’s Island and only associated him with that character, so they’d say things like “Sorry Skipper, we just don’t have anything for you right now”) but it is entertaining. It’s like everything they do in shows from now on is part of their pre- or post-Wire story.

Some movie on cable the other day featured both Kima and Bubbles. They were at an outdoor upscale party type thing…oh they must be working some sort of undercover deal! Bubs should be putting a hat on somebody any minute now…hey wait, I didn’t know they had palm trees in Baltimore…etc.

Or who can forget that fateful day when the crazy Terminator robots showed up on the corners and Bubs was pressed into service as a resistance fighter, leaving his shopping cart behind in order to take up arms alongside Sarah Connor?

Also: Prez works for Diddy now, so they can just call off that reality show or whatever.

on the "outing" of Burial

Martyn sums it all up nicely, with relevant links included.

Burial’s name had actually been revealed before, but since it’s also the name of a UK funeral director, it was believed to be a joke. Turns out it’s the other way around, and his music nickname is itself a play on the name similarities.

In between this and the Banksy thing, we don’t appear to be in an era that’s particularly accepting of mystery. I guess at least now people know he’s a “real” person rather than the alterego pseudonym of some other famous producer, as often rumored.

“Music tells you much more about the person than any amount of pictures could ever do.”

June 30, 2008
Doctor J Presents: Mighty Dub Power

Now at Mixeeba, a dubby summery mix for y’all (256kbps, 45 mins)!

Slow and Deadly - Fragile
Polizia Dreadlock - Tryptomatik
Youth of Today - Horace Andy (Suspect rmx)
Soundguy Target/2 n a Q - Rusko
Spiff - Sub lo Matic
Walk Rastafari Way - DJ Cosmos
What We Need - Dub Sync & Zion Train
Strawberry - GW Knight
Ghost Town - Rossi B & Luca
Ghost Train - Two Oh One
Under the Dancing Feet - Clouds feat. Tiiu
Free di Herds - Don Goliath
Kromestar Alton Ellis - Rude Boy Luisao
Ing - Mungos Hi Fi (Pon Chalice rmx)
King Tubby Tribute - Cautone
Hail the King - Stivs & Ed Cox

hope ya dig!

June 27, 2008
Mixeeba
Have you seen this? It’s like Muxtape for DJ mixes. I thought I’d share here since it’s in that whole Muxtape/Tumblr starked-out Web 2.5 huge-nonthreatening-fonts sort of motif. Anyway, it’s still in beta but looks really promising. I’ll put something new up there when I can.
May 29, 2008
David Elsewhere has a new commercial. It’s pretty awesome.
May 15, 2008

RIP John Rutsey

He was Rush’s original drummer.

(Am I moving my Death Notices over here now? I dunno, starting with this one.)

April 20, 2008

talix18:

karion:

Upstairs at Eric’s has to be one of the best albums of the 80s. I just love her voice.

joelaz:

Yaz - Only You

I heard this song earlier today and instantly time traveled back 20 years or so. Good times. I’ll admit that a) I still love this song, b) I played the synthesizer in the 80’s, and c) I rocked a similar haircut and Miami Vice jacket as the keyboardist back in the day.

Love. her. Took Alf on vinyl out of the library and taped it a million years ago - still have the cassette. Most of her catalogue is on my Amazon wishlist, just in case you were looking for the perfect “get well” gift…*bats eyes*

Also to note, they are reuniting and touring and releasing a box set, after many years of estrangement.

April 14, 2008
200 Drum Machines

200 drum machines, woo!

That’s what it says, although admittedly I did not count them. Whatever the hard numbers, there are plenty of sounds in here ready to plug into the sequencing program of your choice. Some obscure boxen are represented, along with famous ones like the Roland series (808 and 909 and etc) and other fun 80s ones like Simmons pads and the big rockin’ LinnDrums used by Def Leppard and many others. A nice collection!

April 6, 2008

What happens when you combine the Paul McCartney divorce saga with one of the hottest tracks in the UK right now (Wiley’s “Wearing My Rolex”)? Mostly hilarity, as it turns out.

Eventually I promise I’ll get around to posting something besides videos, but hey c’mon: that shit is funny. 

April 4, 2008
it’s pikachu!