Explone shared a gig with Megasapien last night at Chop Suey here in Seattle. Their cinematic post-rock sound was a great match with our -- uhm, cinematic post rock sound!
Their drummer Burke plays like a wild beast. I was totally blown away. In fact, if I wasn't already playing with Explone, I'd be stalking Megasapien for a job.
Posted September 1, 2011
My secret shame: I don't really like most earnest-guy singer-songwriter types.
I know, right?
That said, I cannot. Stop. Listening. To this album:
Have a great weekend.
Posted August 26, 2011
It's dull.
Seriously, even MySpace is more fun than Google+.
Posted August 25, 2011
A bit of silliness during Kin to Stars rehearsin':
Posted August 24, 2011
I'm in the process of getting rid of all the the Flash from my website. It's not that I hate Flash, but I think it's time that indie musicians got serious about the mobile web, and Flash -- well, Flash ain't a part of it. I want people to be able to sample music from any device at any time, and you should too.
In the realm of tablet computers, Apple's iPad dominates. There's an estimated 29 million iPads out there and not a single one of them supports Flash. On Android-based devices, Flash may or may not be pre-installed. (Whether or not your Flash widgets are even usable on a tiny phone screen is another matter.)
On iPhones, no Flash. Consider that iPhone users are also likely to be iTunes users. While the majority of my digital sales tend to be streams these days, iTunes still leads the pack in digital downloads. I'm not gonna stand in the way.
Here's what I'm doing to dump Flash, in case you want to give it a try:
There are two options I've used:
SoundManager 2. This is a JavaScript library that serves up streaming audio based on your visitors' browser capabilities. It has an HTML5 audio option, which works well for iPhone, iPads and Safari browsers that don't have Flash installed. I used SM2 extensively when redesigning my music page. There are some easily-modified widgets available at the SM2 site, if you're not into developing your own.
Bandcamp. I could write a whole separate post about how I've fallen for Bandcamp's awesome features, but for now, just know that their embeddable players are wicked cool. They're simple, they're legible, they're not co-branded to death, and they work where Flash doesn't.
Another option is to just link directly to your music in iTunes. This won't work for Android phones, but at least iPhone users will be able to sample your music via the iTunes Store app. If anyone knows how to do something similar for Android (perhaps linking to an app?) I'd love to know about it.
If your website contains embedded YouTube videos, swap them out using YouTube's newer embed code. The new code detects the browser capabilities and tries to serve up a compatible video format, including HTML5 video where supported. In most mobile devices, YouTube will hand off control to the phone or tablet's native video player, which is a lot better than the play-in-place experience you get with desktop browsers.
Note that this doesn't work with every video format you might have uploaded in the past. Check out YouTube's HTML5 support docs here.
I've also noticed that Vimeo embedded video widgets seem to work well on iOS devices, but I haven't used them myself.
If your site is one of those all-Flash monstrosities, a lot of mobile users probably hate you. Hire a web designer that knows how to design for both mobile and the desktop. Personally, I love just about everything posted at mediaqueri.es.
Anyway, I hope that helps someone. Look for that red audio player up in the top-right corner of my website to be replaced Real Soon Now.
Posted August 23, 2011
Someone at the MedMutual building in downtown Cleveland (I used to live there until 2000) has a great top-down view of the set where Joss Whedon's The Avengers movie is being filmed. They're posting videos of the action they can see from their windows. It's almost like watching an overhead-view video game like Gauntlet, except with superheroes and real actors.
Here's Thor smashing a car with his hammer:
Thor and Captain America fight some bad guys in the street:
Captain America get launched out a window:
There are a few more at YouTube.
Posted August 22, 2011
Springsteen and Others Soon Eligible to Recover Song Rights - NYTimes.com. The major labels stand to lose a massive income stream as heritage artists like Springsteen start reclaiming the rights to their back catalogs.
How the Legal Fight Over 'Y.M.C.A.' Could Change the Music Industry (Analysis) - Hollywood Reporter. Related article about the same issue at the previous link.
Aside: I was feeling nostalgic last week and looked up "One Thing Leads To Another" by the Fixx on Spotify. The top result was actually a "re-recorded/remastered" version, not the original radio version. But it wasn't a cover -- it was a re-recording done by the Fixx. As it turns out, some artists re-record their songs to claim master rights that are typically held by the labels.
This was further confirmed later that same week, when a friend who works in music licensing tweeted that she had once taken a call from Jani Lane, who was hoping to convince her client to use his re-recorded version of a Warrant song instead of the label's original version (and earn a bit of money that he probably wasn't going to get from the label).
Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop - YouTube The history of the "Amen Break," which you have definitely heard.
First Listen: 'Muppets: The Green Album' : NPR. Muppet Show tunes performed by Weezer, The Fray, My Morning Jacket and others.
Posted August 19, 2011
I'm gonna be playing bass in a wedding band in a few months. Here's what I've learned about wedding bands: the idea sounds super lame until you're two minutes into a song like "Footloose" and then everything gets SUPER AWESOME FUNTIME and you admit you were wrong and everyone who told you it was gonna be lame was also wrong wrong wrong.
Have you every really listened to "Footloose?"
(Watch this video at YouTube.)
I had to search a long time* before I found out who played bass on this track: the formidable jazz guy Nathan East, who apparently played on nearly every 80s pop soundtrack you can think of.
Listen to the way the bass goes totally bananas in the choruses. It's just a I-IV progression, but East is playing non-stop. And fast. There also sounds like there's an octave pedal thrown in the mix, tracking along with the bass at a higher octave. I thought at first this was an electric guitar doubling the bass line, but it's almost too perfectly in time. If it is a guitar, my hat's off to whoever played it.
Now that I've been playing bass for a few years, songs that I thought were familiar are suddenly super-interesting, mostly because I'm hearing different things now. With pop hits like "Footloose" you tend to focus on the melody and the beat, never really noticing the backline of ace session guys playing like beasts.
This is but one of about fifteen songs I have to learn. Yeeeeesh.
Update: I replaced the video above with one that's less awful.
Posted August 18, 2011
The Kirby Krackle videos seem to be coming thick and fast like a swarm of bespectacled nerd locusts. Here's the animated debut of "Nerd Money" by illustrator/animator Betsy Lee.
A cartoon video that features Joss Whedon, Derpy Hooves, a TARDIS and a Weighted Companion Cube cannot lose. I repeat: CANNOT LOSE.
(Watch this video at YouTube.)
Posted August 17, 2011
This past spring we planted a bunch of flowering vines on our back deck, mostly to hide our neighbor's unsightly backyard junkpiles from view. This blue morning glory took its sweet old time getting to the flowering stage -- I was pretty sure it was a lost cause when it failed to thrive in its container for the first half of the summer. But about a week ago it finally got down to business, and wow it didn't disappoint.
That'll do, vine.
By the way, the cover art for Kin to Stars "Hello Ohio" is also a phonecam photo from my back deck, featuring a purple clematis that just up and died for no good reason a few weeks ago:
Posted August 16, 2011