Asshole caught stealing bike wheels
This video is great, but not for the reason you’d think. The tape itself is from a CCTV camera showing some dirty bastard stealing the wheels from a bike but then the owner of the bike, a musician who goes by Shank Bone Mystic wrote a song about the ordeal. It’s classic YouTube and Shank Bone’s righteous anger really resonates if you’ve ever been the victim of wheel theft.
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What's your theme song?
Theme songs. Couples have them, high school sports teams have them, even (and especially) bad ’80’s sitcoms have them. Why don’t you have one? I’ve always wanted to have a song play when I enter a room but could never pick a logical choice. Should I be off-beat and soulful (Bert Jansch), casually sophisticated (Dave Brubeck) or plain James Bond sexy (Nina Simone)? The best place to look for your theme song is obviously the pop charts and what better song to choose than the number one song on the day of your birth? For me that’s the timeless classic by ’80’s super-band Wham!, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. Now that I think of it, nothing says Alex Herder like George Michael singing:
You take the grey skies out of my way
You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day
Turned a bright spark into a flame
My beats per minute never been the same
Curious about your theme song? Look it up. (Thanks Rachel)
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This Week In Ridiculous Bands - Bardcore
Not actually a consistent feature of Duenos, This Week In Ridiculous Bands chronicles some of the more absurd, yet awesome, music groups to grace this fine planet. This installment features the notable bellowing of the hardcore Shakespearean band creatively titled (surprise!) Bardcore.
Their lyrics consist of actual Shakespearean passages belted out to some of the most diametrically opposed music to what you might expect from a group singing Shakespeare. Their website also mentions the fact that they are more than willing to play at your next BDSM club gathering—but you might be able to convince them to play at your beloved English major’s graduation party as well.
Image courtesy of the amazing webcomic Married to the Sea.
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Post Pandora plays to Last.fm
Real music enthusiasts have known about Pandora for a while now and just as many have accounts on Last.fm. Why then shouldn’t you ‘get credit’ for the tracks you listen to on Pandora on your Last.fm profile?? PandoraFM seeks to do just that, combining the long-term tracking and social aspects of Last.fm with Pandora’s unique and creepily accurate music profiles. Do both!
For those of you who’ve never tried it, Pandora is a really fun way to find new music. Entering a song or artist will prompt the software (all browser-based) to recommend further tracks and gradually a whole listening profile based on literally hundreds of musical attributes that make up what developers are calling the musical genome. Last.fm was one of the first subjects covered by Duenos.net here. Also see other ways to play with your Last.fm profile with Visual Representations of Last.fm.
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Visualizations of Last.fm
A month or so ago I wrote an article about Last.fm , the self-proclaimed harbringer of the social music revolution. The site keeps track of what you listen to and then can export that data as simple XML feeds to put on your blog, or anything else. Well, two other websites, Snapp Radio and Last.tv have taken those data feeds about what you’re listening to and made something you can watch.
Snapp Radio takes whatever you are listening to at the moment and provides a slideshow. If the artist is a big one, like Sam Beam (Iron and Wine), most of the pictures are live concert shots or photos of the artist. If the band is not as big, like Billie the Vision and the Dancers then the pictures are more mood pieces, which I think are taken from Flickr!
Last TV takes a different data set, looking at your user history and it then gives you a stream of music videos. These seem to be a combination of live concert fan-videos and music videos. All the videos are YouTube quality, which isn’t all that bad considering the made-to-order custom nature of the playlist.
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Free music: Harvey Danger
It’s not often that you’ll hear me endorse straight up rock and roll. Generally I take my rock with a twist of Swedish pop, folk, or political anger but this latest album by Harvey Danger is good. Not only is Little by Little good, it’s also free. The band decided to release the album as a free torrent , direct download , and as a traditional CD . As to why a young rock group might on purpose expose themselves to the perils of pirating? Here’s their explanation .
The new album is bouncy enough to dance to but not too pop-ish, with smooth male vocals and thoughtful but still-accessible lyrics. By no means pedestrian, Little by Little is what rock has been waiting for. The sound is reminds me of Ben Folds, but without the pretension that makes him almost unlistenable. Luckily you don’t have to take my word for it, try it yourself . Let me know what you think.
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More good music: Macadamia
Reminiscent of the Postal Service but more experimental, Macadamia is two British guys from England who ‘get together to make experimental music.’ They’ve released two albums so far and both are available for free download at their website.
For more great free music, see my previous post. And about the site I found both bands, Last.fm
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I still don't get records
Is it the indie/retro cred that makes owning LPs so cool? Because I don’‘t get it. For years I’‘ve been baffled at how otherwise-normal people can go ga-ga for old records. I’‘ve literally been in the presence of someone telling a story of how her grandfather had just died and in the telling, happened to mention that he had left a crate of old records. After the story ended another acquaintance of mine actually asked what the woman’‘s family was planning to do with the records. That’‘s how much people seem to care, and what’‘s the reason? I understand that a freshly-pressed LP would in theory have better audio quality than a CD or mp3, but for how long can that last? Surely not more than 5 diamond-needle dragging plays.
I’‘d forgotten how much I really didn’‘t understand the trend of records until I saw this post on Wired.com about a $500 record cleaner sold by VPI Industries . Is that really the price of indie cred AND good music?’, ‘
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Billie the Vision and the Dancers
It’‘s time to talk about my new favorite band, Billie the Vision and the Dancers. I discovered them while cruising around Last.fm and I couldn’‘t be happier. They have jumped to the top of every chart in my mind and I couldn’‘t possibly be happier. Combining the sounds of English indie-pop, American folk rock, and a bit of the catchiness of European dance music, this Swedish group is truly amazing.
According to the band’‘s Last.fm profile page, "Billie is not a person per se, but rather represents the inherent quality the band wants to encourage their listeners to find within themselves. Billie is about not being afraid of being naive, pretentious or corny, to be proud of what you are."
If you’‘re like me and afraid to lay out cash for a new album that may really suck then you’‘ll love the best part about Billie and the Dancers, they’‘re free. Their record company, Love Will Pay the Bills, offers both of their albums for direct download through Last.fm or at their website. There really is no excuse not to try them out, and when you do I can guarantee you’‘ll like it.
See my previous post about Last.fm: Melodic match-making on Last.fm
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Billie the Vision and the Dancers
It’‘s time to talk about my new favorite band, Billie the Vision and the Dancers. I discovered them while cruising around Last.fm. Since then they have jumped to the top of every chart in my mind and I couldn’‘t possibly be happier. Combining the sounds of English indie-pop, American folk rock, and a bit of the catchiness of European dance music, this Swedish group is truly amazing.
According to the band’‘s Last.fm profile page, "Billie is not a person per se, but rather represents the inherent quality the band wants to encourage their listeners to find within themselves. Billie is about not being afraid of being naive, pretentious or corny, to be proud of what you are."
If you’‘re like me and afraid to lay out cash for a new album that may really suck then you’‘ll love the best part about Billie and the Dancers, they’‘re free. Their record company, Love Will Pay the Bills, offers both of their albums for direct download through Last.fm or at their website. There really is no excuse not to try them out, and when you do I can guarantee you’‘ll like it.
See my previous post about Last.fm: Melodic match-making on Last.fm
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Melodic match making on Last.fm
I love the internet and if you’re reading this blog, you probably do too. My most recent web-obsession is music site Last.fm. Self-described as the herald of the social music revolution, the site brings purpose to the social networking phenomenon.
Simply download the AudioScrobbler and play your music as you normally would. If you’re using any of the mainstream mp3 players, AudioScrobbler will upload your listening history and as your profile gets more filled out, Last.fm will start making recommendations based on your own music profile. Not only that, but since it is a music-centered social networking site, there are thousands of people who can help you discover new music that is right up your alley.
I have always secretly envied all those people in the dorm during college who knew absolutely everything about the latest indie bands or underground music trends. It seemed like they got all their knowledge just by virtue of wearing thrift store t-shirts and women’s cut corduroys, but now I am just as knowledgeable. As I listen to my favorite bands (at the moment it’‘s Billie the Vision and the Dancers) I can just click on their name in the AudioScrobbler and it takes me to their artist profile page on Last.fm where I can talk about the band and find more artists like them.
Check out Last.fm and join the revolution.
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