Feb 17
NYC Music, subway Comments Off
The other night I was in the 2nd Ave subway station and a busker was playing the saxophone. It’s a total New York cliche – the echo eventually drowned out by the roar of a train – but it still sounds great. Here’s a snippet:
Oct 31
NYC drum and bass, ltj bukem, mc conrad, Music Comments Off
Last night Rich and I went to see LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad at Club Love. It’s one of my favourite places to see a dj in NYC – a bit dive-y, great sound system and a totally unpretentious crowd:
The other great thing about Love is there light show. They’ve got human-powered lasers: a woman literally fires a laser through a set of prisms to create the visual effect she wants. Definitely a job that I never would have guessed existed:
Here are a couple more snaps:
Jun 05
Random, Travel Books, Music Comments Off
I just finished reading The Tawqacores (taqwa = piety) by Michael Muhammed Knight. The book is referred to The Catcher in the Rye for muslims. It was fascinating to read an ex-Catholic Muslim convert try and lay out his view of what Islam could be and use punk as a metaphor to do so. (The book is only 256 pages so rather than my discussing it further, just go read a copy)
The book is also notable for it’s extensive name-checking of punk bands with a little bit of hip-hop and ska/reggae thrown in. Here, thanks to my Kindle (which makes this sort of note-taking trivial), is a list of all the mentioned songs. Feel free to use it as a way to determine if it’s worth reading:
Agnostic Front – Skate Rock
Billy Bragg – California Stars
Billy Bragg – Joe DiMaggio’s Done it Again
Blanks 77 – I Wanna be a Punk
Crass – Fuck All Government
Dead Kennedys – Kill the Poor
Descendents – Suburban Home
Dropkick Murphys – Boys on the Docks
Duane Peters and the Hunns – Blood on the Sun
Feederz – Jesus Entering from the Rear
GBH – Sick Boy
Germs – Fuck You
Iggy Pop and the Stooges – I Wanna by Your Dog
Jim Carroll Band – People Who Died
Minor Threat – Salad Days
Minor Threat – Out of Step
Propagandhi – Fuck Religion
Ramones – Rock and Roll High School
Rancid – The War’s End
Roger Miter and the Disasters – New York Belongs to Me
Rolling Scabs - We’re the Scabs
Sex Pistols – Who Killed Bambi
Sham 69 – Hey Little Rich Boy
Sid Vicious – My Way
Specials – Rudy Ska
Swingin’ Utters – Next in Line
The Slits – I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Transplants – California Babylon
U.S. Bombs – Ballad of Sid
UK Subs – I Live in a Car
Uncool – Finale
Weasel – Anthem for a New Tomorrow
Youth of Today – Disengage
Brand Nubian – Allah U Akbar
Method Man – PLO Style
Desmond Dekker – It’s a Shame
Prince Buster – Judge Dread
Jun 02
I couldn’t help but notice two very different sides of the music industry this weekend. One side is run by sclerotic corporations who are completely removed from the realities of their business. Their latest move, according to the New York Times: petitioning governments to increase the license fees paid by bars/restaurants/night clubs to play music on their premises. Apparently Australia is at the forefront of pliant governments and the music industry is hoping to export this globally.
These are massive, monolithic corporations in their final death throes. Failing at being able to create either great music or an innovative way to deliver it to their consumers, they’re basically using the courts to try and maintain cash flow.
The opposite side of this was on display this weekend at the Brooklyn’s Yard. Mr Scruff was dj-ing there as part of their Sunday Best program. $10 cover, a couple of hundred people, sunshine, beer, tacos – and an incredibly accessible musician. Here’s a shot of Mr Scruff spinning – how many dj’s let you actually stand behind them and watch them work?
Plus, every attendee got a download code for a one hour mix of the show:
It’s stunning to think of the contrasts here: a musician offering you a memento of the great time you had at his show (and consequently getting free press like this blog entry) vs. a company essentially suing to try and get more cash. Old music companies RIP.
May 20
Uncategorized discovery, iphone, itunes, Music, recommendations Comments Off
Over the past few months, I’ve been trying a little experiment and it’s worked quite well. In my own truly nerdy way, I’ve been ranking almost every some I listen to on my iPhone/iPod and listening to each song until the very end.
Why? Well, now I’ve got a list of my favourite, most listened-to songs. This gives me the ability to do a couple of cool things:
1) I’ve set up my iPhone so that it only contains the most recent 150 songs I’ve bought plus any song that is at least four stars. Now, when I’m on the go, I only listen to new and/or good music
2) I also use Apple’s Genius feature a lot on my iPhone. It’s fascinating to see what pops up as a recommendation. Some of my songs consistently cluster together whereas others bridge distinct genres. It’s almost become a game to figure out which songs can create the best playlists.
This experience is totally different from using Genius on my laptop. I have 10x more music on my laptop, so the Genius playlists are much more homogenous; it’s only on my iPhone where I see a bit of serendipity.
3) I’ve also created a playlist of songs that are rated at least four stars but haven’t been listened to for 90 days. It’s like coming home to an old friend (just kidding)
4) I’ve another playlist of songs sorted by play count. It’s a quick and dirty way to guarantee that I can find a song that I know I’ll like
There is one downfall to this experiment: if a tune doesn’t get four stars quickly, it is doomed to be unlistened forever. Assuming my tastes don’t shift (an unlikely assumption) this should be fine, but I’d like to think I can re-discover my older music or allow albums to grow on me over time.
I’ll have to set up the next experiment to work on that…
Oct 08
NYC beck, concert, Music Comments Off
Wen and I just got back from watching Beck at the United Palace Theater (a unique venue if ever there was one). I hadn’t seen him for over ten years [insert cheesy quote about how we've both aged, but the music hasn't] and the sound’s a bit different now. A lot more rocking (my ears will be ringing for a few days) and a bit less hip-hop.
He still has the ability to surprise. Halfway through the show the whole band ditched their instruments and beatboxed a few songs on stage. After that it was some folk and a bit of country. Other than that, it was pretty rocking with a lot of rock-ey remixes of the popular faves.
Here’s a photo for those of you who won’t be making it:
Sep 23
I love bands who dance to their own music. It’s as if they wrote their own songs as nobody else could create anything they could listen to. Over the years I’ve found that these bands tend to put on the best shows.
And so it was last night at Webster Hall where Cut Copy tore the place apart (on a Monday night!). The overwhelming feeling was that they loved their own music – but not in a narcissistic way. Rather, it was as though the band had a goal to make people dance and their music just happens to be the best way yet they’ve found to get a thousand people to dance together.
It was a great show. Here’s a photo:
Sep 02
Random Music, Visualization Comments Off
No, this post is not going to have anything to do with girls. Rather, it’s about Gregg Gillis a.k.a. Girl Talk. His latest album, Feed The Animals, is a sampling assault. Each song jumps from sample to sample at an amazingly frantic rate; it’s been on my iPod for weeks now and I can’t get enough. It’s music for people with ADD (if you like it, I recommend Arthur King‘s Pop Sh!t).
The challenge with his music – and any sample-based music in general – is trying to explain it to anyone who’s never heard anything like it. Fortunately, the good folks at Wired magazine are up for the challenge. Check out this visualization of one of his tracks; you can find it in the latest issue (16.09):
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