Here’s the not-horrible music video for Midlake’s song Roscoe, perhaps one of the most catchy tunes I’ve heard in a couple years.
Category: audio
Kottke points to the audio and video for a talk that Chris Ware recently gave at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
BackpackingLight has a podcast with Scott Williamson, who was the first hiker to yo-yo the Pacific Crest Trail. A PCT yo-yo entails walking from the Mexico-California border northward to the Washington-Canada border, and back south to Mexico again, 2650 miles each way. He was also the first to yo-yo the PCT a second time—that one only took 191 days. Last fall I linked to an interesting, melodramatic essay on his several unsuccessful attempts before completing his first yo-yo. He has now hiked the PCT 9 times. I wish the words “truly inspirational” didn’t sound so clich?©, because those are the best ones I can think of right now. Amazing.
The latest album from Feist is due out on May 1—which is far too long to wait. In the meanwhile, the album cover is absolutely incredible, and a single has surfaced: “My Moon, My Man”. Go look for it on the Hype Machine.
Here’s a cool animated interpretation of John Coltrane’s tune, Giant Steps. “The musical theme defines a space and the musical improvisation is like someone drifting in that imaginary space.” Pretty darn cool. I wish there were a full length version—where’s the piano solo?
I wish I knew about the Hype Machine 10 years ago. Not that I care about hot new music that much, but it’s made it much easier to stumble across some old and rare recordings.
Pretty cool to see that Lasse Gjertsen was featured in the Wall Street Journal back in December for his music videos on YouTube, Amateur and the earlier Hyperactive.
“I confess I’ve been increasingly dissatisifed with the direction of modern pop, which has more and more privileged screechy and/or whiny vocalists who are utterly unable to play any instrument themselves, and thus, usually, unable to actually write music or songs themselves.” Over at Collision Detection, Clive Thompson points to a recent article by Chuck Klosterman about how YouTube is reviving musical virtuosity. Klosterman:
One of those depressing paradoxes about rock ‘n’ roll: Very often, profoundly exceptional guitar playing is boring to listen to… It’s difficult for nonmusicians to appreciate world-class guitar playing through solely sonic means, mostly because a) the difference between great guitar playing and serviceable guitar playing is often subtle, and b) every modern listener assumes production tricks can manufacture greatness. (As a result, radio audiences are automatically skeptical of what they hear.) Guitar brilliance usually comes across as ponderous. But that changes dramatically when one adds the element of video; somehow, watching changes the experience of hearing. There are certain things that sound good only when (and if) you can see them. And YouTube lets you see them.
Two comments on the side:
One, for great example of YouTube sanctifying musical skill, check out the video of Stanley Jordan playing “Autumn Leaves” that I linked to earlier. Seeing is believing there.
And two, I’m really curious why Esquire didn’t put the links directly in the body of Klosterman’s essay–we’re talking about the internet, here. Is there a reason to list a plain-text web address buried in a footnote?
Sally Shapiro Makes Me Want to Dance
I just discovered the music of Sally Shapiro. Go go go and listen to I’ll Be by Your Side (mp3) as soon as you can. I love the blend of ’70s disco and spacy ’80s synthesizers… read more about italo disco.
Andrew at Songs to Wear Pants to writes songs according to your instructions. I like the hip-hop remix on the Tetris theme.
The Saints Row videogame for Xbox 360 has some pretty severe bugs. Cabel Sasser filmed some of the more egregious ones… and set them to an original musical score. Absolutely incredible! I really hope he does more of these. [via daring fireball]
“In these songs, bricks, squares, pies, stones, and yams are coke, and the cooking, mixing, and weighing required to prepare the drug for clients becomes the inspiration for often inscrutable wordplay.” New Yorker on cocaine and rap. (so… why is this cool?)
Comics legend Stan Lee talks with NPR about superheroes.
If I got a superpower, I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I gotta get a costume and put on a mask.’ I would say, ‘Hey, I can do something better than other people. How can I turn it into a buck?’
The creator of Marvel Comics mainstays like Spiderman, the Hulk, and the Fantastic Four celebrated his 84th birthday yesterday.
I just learned about Open Culture yesterday. Their mission, as they describe it:
To explore the best of contemporary intellectual life.
To connect users with free, high-quality online media — podcasts, videos, online courses, etc. — that makes learning dynamic, convenient and fun.
To keep users apprised of new cultural developments and resources worth their limited time.
Looks like a lot of good brainy media there.
And then there’s this guy, who chose his Top 2006 Songs from 2006. I don’t know how you could maintain any kind of accurate order with that kind of group, but I suppose it’s the gestalt of the whole thing that really matters.
A collection of 191 versions of the Wham! holiday tune, Last Christmas. This is truly a triumph of international pop culture.
If you like jazz standards and finger-tapping, here’s a video of Stanley Jordan playing “Autumn Leaves” on 2 guitars at the same time, soloing while ‘comping himself.
Mark Larson 
