23 July 2010
[music] Go Look: Photograph of Rick Astley and Morrissey … ‘Taken Backstage at Top Of The Pops in London, February 1989’ [via Boundr]
26 June 2010
[music] Go listen to The Beach Boys: A capella (just the vocals of various tracks) and recordings from a rehersal session in 1967.
12 April 2010
[space] Voyager 1 & 2’s Infinite Playlist … ‘These songs were etched into a 12-inch, gold plated copper record that was placed aboard the two spaceships in 1977.’ [via Kottke]
18 January 2010
[books] James Ellroy On Desert Island Discs … (available on BBC iPlayer for the next seven days).
14 December 2009
[music] Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” compressed over and over as an MP3 666 times… If you listen to this you will bleed goats blood out of your ears – FACT … ‘and if u r wondering, YES it does lose quality each time it is compressed.’ [via Kottke]
6 November 2009
[music] The Music Of Grant Morrison: Torturted Soul / October … Grant Morrison on vocals with The Fauves … ‘There was talk of some sort of CD of GM related stuff being collected a few years back but I don’t think anything ever came of it. A pity. Anyway, I have no record sleeve scan, so here’s a picture of singer and cat. Meow.’
23 October 2009
[music] The £10,000 playlist … Phil Gyford on iTunes Vs. Spotify… ‘…what I like about my music library is that it’s small. Relatively. I know my way around it. I feel daunted by having to choose between six million tracks on Spotify. Where to start? Option paralysis. My music library is a reflection of me, a reflection of my life since I bought my first CD. As I’ve grown up, the city has also grown, from hamlet to metropolis. It will keep growing, but it still carries my history within.’
27 July 2009
[music] How it feels to be sued for $4.5m by the RIAA … ‘I came home from work to find a stack of papers, maybe 50 pages thick, sitting at the door to my apartment. That’s when I found out what it was like to have possibly the most talented copyright lawyers in the business, bankrolled by multibillion-dollar corporations, throwing everything they had at someone who wanted to share Come As You Are with other Nirvana fans.’
29 June 2009
[pop] Jonathan King remembers the late Michael Jackson … [thanks Phil]
I shall always cherish his first words to me 35 years ago – “Jonathan King – I’ve always wanted to meet you”.
21 May 2009
[music] Andrew Orlowski on Spotify: ‘The more Spotify grows, increasing its music catalogue as it goes along, the fewer recordings you have to buy. The music you want to hear and the playlists are “in the cloud”, for free. If you could be assured the free lemonade would never stop, you may as well get rid of the CDs you already have now, and will never have to be pay for a sound recording again. The rival lemonade stands don’t have to pay for the music they offer, while Spotify does. So keeping the Spotify tap turned on costs the music business an enormous amount of money. Last week, at the Great Escape music event in Brighton, we learned that Spotify has very little realistic prospect of making any money either.’
13 May 2009
[music] Bb 2.0 – a collaborative music/spoken word project — go look and listen – an amazing musical collaboration using YouTube. [via Metafilter]
18 September 2008
[mp3] Get Better Genius Recommendations in iTunes … ‘Don’t customize genres. You may think Aphex Twin’s Come to Daddy belongs in a genre like “Avant Garde” or “Techno,” but the iTunes Store database (which Genius queries) insists it’s “Dance/Electronica.” Change your genres to conflict with iTunes and your recommendations will suffer.’
5 September 2008
[comics] Don’t Watch That, Watch This … great Metafilter post covering the pop/ska band Madness and linking to loads of videos on YouTube … ‘I’ve always said that if you don’t find yourself helplessly tapping your toes during “Embarrassment,” then you are either a member of the Klan or clinically dead.’ (more…)
14 April 2008
[gm] The Fauves: Tortured Soul … long clip of the Grant Morrison on lead vocals with his band the Fauves back in 1988 … (more…)
5 February 2008
[comics] A Wonderful Alan Moore Song — from MJ Hibbett who also did another favourite of mine Hey Hey 16K … ‘Well the entire shop went silent as everybody realised… a generations hero had caught us all buying shite.’ [via Blah Blah Flowers]
12 November 2007
[music] The Hidden Message in Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust — a demonstration that you can hear “It’s fun to smoke Marijuana” if you play Queen’s song Another One Bites the Dust backwards. [via linkbunnies.org]
25 June 2007
[music] ‘Oh good, it’s raining again’ — Charlie Brooker does Glastonbury … ‘Once you’re in, the sheer scale of it is initially overwhelming. Imagine forcing the cast of Emmerdale to hurriedly construct Las Vegas at gunpoint in the rain. Then do it again. And once more for luck. That’s Glastonbury: a cross between a medieval refugee camp and a recently detonated circus. Roads of sloppy mud and drunken civilians shivering in tents; this is what London would look like if I’d been in charge for 100 years. Not because I’m some kind of laid-back dreamer, but because I couldn’t organise a piss-up in a pissery. It’d take me six decades to assemble the most rudimentary infrastructure. There’d be no museums in my London. Maybe a bin or two, at a push.’
16 April 2007
[music] Coming soon: the Ian Curtis happy meal? … ‘Sportswear company New Balance has commissioned two pairs of trainers inspired by [Joy Division]. One features the cover artwork and the catalogue number of their 1979 debut album Unknown Pleasures, while another displays the Factory records logo and the cryptic slogan One of One Made in Macclesfield. They are the work of Dylan Adair, perhaps the only man in history to listen to Joy Division and think of sports-casual footwear…’
25 March 2007
[music] Elton John @ 60 — Diamond Geezer visits Elton John’s childhood home … ‘See how the current owners hide their car beneath an all-enveloping tarpaulin, in much the same way that middle-aged Elton used to cover himself with a series of unconvincing wigs. The local council, in their infinite wisdom, appear to have marked this most auspicious musical heritage site not with a blue plaque but with a bright green litter bin. And there’s also a bus stop immediately outside the front door…’
3 March 2007
[comics] This Vicious Cabaret — Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s This Vicious Cabaret set to David J’s music … ‘They say that there’s a broken light for every heart on Broadway. They say that life’s a game, then they take the board away. They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story.Then leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret…’
12 July 2006
[music] Javis Cocker’s MySpace … ‘Welcome friends, to my humble little corner of the Internet. As you can see from the photo over there I have been computing to my heart’s content for some time & now I want to share the experience with you.’
22 April 2006
[comics] This Vicious Cabaret — an MP3 of David J. performing a song taken from Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. (from Hidden City)
27 February 2006
[music] MC Hammer Blog — and it looks authentic! … ‘My professional Hip Hop journey began in 1986….’ [thanks Greg]
19 February 2006
[music] Snapshot: Grace Jones — a look at how the image on the cover to Grace Jones’ Island Life was put together … ‘Goude’s photographs were to launch Jones as an icon. Then he let his imagination run free, creating images of her with an imaginary male twin and multiplying her into an army of clones. “Initially, she was flattered by all of my attention,” says Goude on his former muse and lover. “And she’s no dope – Grace is an opportunist and she knew my vision was good for her career. Initially, she let herself be taken over, but then she suspected that I had only fallen in love with her image.” Was that true? “Of course it was!” ‘
20 November 2005
[music] 99 Luftballons, Side by Side Comparison — a comparison of the German and English Translations of Nena’s 99 Red Balloons … ‘If you have some time for me… Then I’ll sing a song for you… ‘ vs. ‘You and I in a little toy shop… buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got…’
17 October 2005
[music] I’m A Genius, Too! The Murry Wilson Tapes — listen to the jealous, drunken father of three of the Beach Boys wreck a recording session from 1965 … ‘Brian, I’m a Genius, Too.’ [via Waxy’s Links]
7 September 2005
[music] A Lost Pop Symphony — long overview of the history of Brian Wilson’s Smile Album … ‘A contract signed with Warner Brothers in 1970 following the group’s departure from Capitol even included a clause that promised a finished Smile by 1973. When it failed to appear, the group was fined $50,000. Wilson had by then renounced the work as “inappropriate music” and derailed any attempt to revive it.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
11 July 2005
[moore] Old Gangsters Never Die — another song from Alan Moore produced around the same time as the The March of the Sinister Ducks.
4 July 2005
[live8] The Music’s Over, the Message Lingers On — nice summary of the Live 8 concert in London … ‘At midday the approach to the park was a familiar pre-rock concert landscape of men weeing under trees, jocular police and a revivalist with a megaphone: “I used to be a sinner like you, now I’m a winner.”‘
24 June 2005
[music] When Noel Gallagher met David Walliams … On Liam and Peter Kay: ‘Liam hasn’t got a sense of humour, fucking full stop. Like with Peter Kay. If you’re a northern guy about our age, all the reference points are spot on – you can’t not like him. We were on the tour bus one night and somebody put a Peter Kay DVD on and I thought: “This is going to be a fucking disaster.” There’s a few Mancs in our crew and everyone was laughing their heads off. And Liam’s just sat there going: “He’s a fucking fat cunt, fucking shit, fucking fat idiot.” So he gets up to go to the bog and someone goes: “Why doesn’t he like Peter Kay?” Because he’d been to the NME Awards when Liam won a trophy for being hero of the year – and Liam wouldn’t go up and fucking collect it. He had on this big white fur coat. So Peter Kay brought his trophy over to him and went “Ere you are lad”. And as he walks off, he goes: “Me mam’s been looking for that coat.” Fucking uproar! I was laughing like fuck.’
24 May 2005
[comics] Jamie Hewlett’s Common People Comic — Pulp’s song converted into a comic … ‘I think all pop hits should have comic adaptations; in an ideal world I would have a copy of Rob Liefeld’s Shake Ya Tailfeather: The Graphic Novel in a frame on my wall.’
19 May 2005
[directions] The Way To Amarillo … ‘Catch flight from London Heathrow to Dallas Fort Worth Airport. Hire car at Dallas Fort Worth Airport.’
24 April 2005
[advert] Singing in the Rain Remix — MP3 remix using the music from the VW advert.
24 March 2005
[funny] Cillit Bang Remix … ‘Limescale. Rust. Ground-in Dirt.’ [Related: Another Remix]
6 February 2005
[comics] The Sinister Ducks — a flash animation of the song by Alan Moore … ‘What are they doing at night in the park? Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack! Think of them waddling about in the dark. Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack! Sneering and whispering and stealing your cars, Reading pornography, smoking cigars. Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack!’ [Previously: March of the Sinister Ducks – MP3 Download]
1 February 2005
[advert] Blingin’ in the Rain — the Guardian covers Volkswagen’s remix of Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain … ‘The 60-second advert was filmed on the same set at Shepperton Studios where the 60s musical Oliver was filmed and recreates the early part of the sequence showing Kelly singing and dancing in the rain but then breaks into the 21st century with a club mix of the song. The dancers wore prosthetic face masks and wigs and were filmed many times to replicate as closely as possible the moves that Kelly made and his face has been digitally added to the film.’ [Previously: Singing in the Rain – the Original Updated]
17 December 2004
[xmas] The Beatles Christmas Records — MP3’s of recordings the Beatles made for their official fan-club between 1963 and 1969. From a description of the 1969 recording: ‘Yoko makes an appearance as John’s interviewer, and the two sing a duet reminiscent of the “All in the Family” theme before finally predicting the 70s will be “peaceful,” and full of people “flying around.” McCartney sings a pleasant ditty.’
24 September 2004
[music] Review of Smile — Brian Wilson’s long-lost Beach Boys Album finally released … ‘The news that Wilson and his backing band (based around American 1960s revivalists the Wondermints) were going to completely re-record and release Smile, after touring a completed version of it, was enough to cause an outbreak of mild hysteria. One Sunday supplement urgently sought the government’s opinion. Even they may have been surprised to get an answer not from the arts minister, but from defence secretary Geoff Hoon. Luckily, the past 18 months have been exceptionally quiet for the British armed forces, giving Hoon plenty of time to ponder the influence of the Beach Boys’ mid-1960s work on current alt-rock. He certainly seems well informed – “It’s such a good time for its re-release,” he told the Observer; “the indie bands my son listens to are building on Wilson’s ideas” – which will doubtless come as some comfort to the 8,900 British troops stationed in Iraq.’
20 July 2004
[comics] The Fink Brothers – Mutants in Mega City One — a MP3 curiosity from the 80’s – Suggs and Carl from Madness perform a song about Judge Dredd and Mega City One as “The Fink Brothers”. Probably of interest to aging fans of 2000AD only … ‘From Justice Hall to Zappa Block, We patrol the streets around the clock! Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge Dredd! My God, my brain’s exploding!’
12 June 2004
[mp3] We’re Stuck with MP3 — why the standard music compression format isn’t going to be replaced anytime soon… ‘The newer audio formats, including Ogg Vorbis, seem to have at least two things going for them compared with MP3: smaller files and less expense. But because any change would require conversion of billions of files – a royal pain in the butt – it just won’t happen.’ [via 2lmc]
13 March 2004
[music] They Shoot, He Scores — great interview with film composer Ennio Morricone. On Creativity: ‘I simply want to carry on expressing my ideas. Other people see the moment of creativity as magical, but it is not. That’s just a romantic notion. For me, it’s simply, “I have to get from A to B. How am I going to achieve this?” You have to be like the painter who knows his brush strokes. In the end it comes down to technique and experience. Sometimes a small idea will come without warning, but after that, I insist once more upon craft. If you know how to do your job, you will get a result. It’s very simple.’
13 February 2004
[music] One Hundred Albums You Should Remove from Your Collection Immediately … ‘The Police – Synchronicity — That this album is considered a classic is quite a feat for a collection of songs that Keith Richards deemed suitable for a dentist’s waiting room. Certainly, no album dealing with topics such as stalking, psychological abuse, betrayal and silent desperation has ever sounded so homogenized or made less thought-provoking pronouncements. To enjoy Synchronicity is to consider one’s self to be socially enlightened without having to dredge up any real empathy.’
21 January 2004
[comics] Sinister Ducks – March of the Sinister Ducks (MP3 File Download) — a song by Alan Moore and his band The Sinister Ducks from 1983 … ‘What are they doing at night in the park? Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack! Think of them waddling about in the dark. Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack! Sneering and whispering and stealing your cars, Reading pornography, smoking cigars. Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack!’ [via Scaryduck and Neil Gaiman]
18 January 2004
[mp3] UK song-swappers ‘could be sued’ … ‘Speaking at a London conference about music and technology, Mr Yeates said any legal crackdown would be “proportional”. Talks were taking place with internet service providers across Europe to streamline a process for identifying those who distribute the most songs, he said. The move comes despite healthy album sales for the UK industry. Album sales in the UK rose by 7.6% in 2003 to a record high, fuelled by falling CD prices.’
28 May 2003
[gm] Grant Morrison wonders if Justin Timberlake is a Mutant: ‘Definitely a pure mutation – and he’s trying to push his powers in a more evil direction. I think they inject all of those Disney kids, like Britney, with something when they’re young. One minute, they’re singing about mice, and the next, they’re riding motorcycles and fisting each other.’
10 February 2003
[music] Bjork Video Gallery — all of Bjork’s videos in Quicktime … [via Metafilter]
‘I don’t know my future after this weekend and I don’t want to.’
‘I don’t know my future after this weekend and I don’t want to.’
28 January 2003
[mp3] Hating Hilary — profile of Hilary Rosen the frontwoman for the RIAA …
‘Commercially speaking, it’s hard to argue that peer-to-peer music-sharing doesn’t have the same effect as walking out of Virgin Megastore with the latest Coldplay CD under your jacket. But by moralizing the issue – here and in a series of ads featuring artists like Stevie Wonder and Britney Spears – Rosen and her colleagues have failed to grasp the fact that they’ve already lost. File-sharing has become part of pop culture; witness the Intel ad that shows a scruffy guy happily burning tunes onto a CD-R. To some extent, at least, the record companies have themselves to blame. Whereas blank CDs sell for pennies at the nearest CVS, the price of new releases continues to creep up in most stores, to the point where movies can be cheaper to own. Rosen, 44, seems to have planted herself squarely in the path of inevitable technological change.’
7 December 2002
[music] Drunken, disorderly and now a Toothless Rock Star — profile of Liam Gallagher … ‘Since the group’s first public manoeuvres in 1993, Liam has made a habit of suddenly bailing out of his band’s commitments, picking sufficiently serious fights with his elder brother to threaten their always-rickety alliance, and managing to offend even the most untouchable invitees at awards ceremonies and fashion shows. Liam is, let us not forget, the man who marked Oasis’s 1996 receipt of Q magazine’s “Best Act In The World Today” trophy by threatening to smash up a Park Lane ballroom and flicking his cigarette ash on Mick Jagger’s head.’
26 November 2002
[distraction] Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire in Flash … [Related: The History Behind Billy Joel’s Song]
‘Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe, Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom, Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye, Eisenhower, Vaccine, England’s got a new queen, Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye, Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev, Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc, Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron, Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock, Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team, Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland, Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev, Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez, Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac, Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai, Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball, Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide, Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia, Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go, U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy, Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo, Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion, Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania, Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson, Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex, J.F.K. blown away, Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again, Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock, Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline, Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan, Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide, Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz, Hypodermics on the shores, China’s under martial law, Rock and Roller cola wars…’
[music] ‘We’ve had it large’ — New Order discuss their career and the new box-set they are bringing out for Christmas … ‘Sumner’s eyes light up. “What do you collect?” “Cars,” says Hooky. “Model cars.” Sumner arches an eyebrow. “Oh.” “Well, I like collecting,” continues Hooky, furiously scratching his stubble. “I collect everything.” “Then we’re different,” notes Sumner. “I like to get a skip and throw everything away. A clean slate, that’s what I like.” In the future, when looking to remake The Last of the Summer Wine, the BBC should consider New Order as ripping new cast members.’