Today's Cool News

More Songs About Building and Food

The Talking Heads once put out a great album with that name "More Songs about Buildings and Food."  Now it appears the top head is taking the theme a step further by turning a building into a musical instrument.

From the AP:

Ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne plans to
turn a landmark building in Manhattan into a giant musical
instrument.

State officials say Byrne will create a temporary installation
in the Great Hall of the Battery Maritime Building, which is next
to the Whitehall Ferry Terminal.

The "Playing the Building" installation will include devices
attached to ceiling beams, plumbing, electrical conduits and other
parts of the structure. Sound will be produced through vibration,
making the building function as an instrument.

The installation and a new waiting room for ferry passengers are
set to open in late May.

Feel Free to Borrow from Charlie

You may think of Charlie Manson as an icon of the 60's but America's favorite mass murder conspirator (he didn't kill anyone himself) is living firmly in the modern world of copyright law.

It seems Charlie is putting out another album of desultory music from his studio/cell in Corcoran.  But unlike his previous work, Chuck wants you to share in his creativity... because he's releasing the album under a creative commons license.

From Limewire:

CC is a special license that allows anyone to download, share and mix other people's music as long as they give proper credit. Recently, Nine Inch Nails released their album under a Creative Commons license, and it has been a great success!

Good old Charles Manson of the Tate and LaBianca murders has done the same thing.  His recent album, "One Mind" is licensed in a way that allows anyone to share it with others, remix it and use it for non-commercial uses.

So feel free to mix and slash for Charlie...

Win $10,000 in Free Gear from Gibson! Believe That?

I've said before in this space that I love having a hobby that exposes me to the music business, but I would never want to have to actually depend on the people you encounter there to make a living.

Here's a case in point.  A hip hop musician with the unlikely (for a musician, it seems to me) name of Tonedeff flew to Chicago on his own dime to compete in the 2006 Lolapalooza Last Band Standing contest where he won.

Note the prize package:

Last Band Standing - Prizes
* A spot on the lineup: an opening slot on a feature stage.
* Artist passes for the entire weekend with access to catering, the artist lounge, and everywhere else bands get to go!
* Rooms for the weekend at the House of Blues Hotel.
* Festival tickets for your friends to see you play.
* $10,000 worth of equipment from our friends at Gibson. (yes, believe it!)
* An interview and in-store performance at Virgin Megastore.
* Band promotion on the homepage of Lollapalooza.com and partner websites.
* Plus countless other Lolla goodies and schwag.

Maybe you don't believe it.  You won't believe Tonedeff's story of long (year and a half now) negotiations by e-mail with a Gibson rep named Don Pitts.

Why didn’t I receive anything? I guess you’d have to ask Don Pitts, Entertainment Liason for GIBSON Guitars. He’s the guy who apparently deals with artist sponsorships and the like. He was the man in charge of this particular situation and who, in my opinion, handled it in an unorganized and sloppy manner.

I would leave phone messages, emails, etc that would take weeks for him to respond to. Finally, I land him on the phone and tells me that he’s ‘inexperienced with how these types of contests run’, and he’s ‘not sure how to go about this’. This conversation would set the tone for the entire ordeal.

But then he starts making statements that bug me. He tells me, “I mean, this is kind of weird, because you know, you DON’T play the guitar or drums.” This definitely rubbed me the wrong way, because I already felt as though he was being unnecessarily difficult to contact and somewhat curt on the phone. So, from that statement, I guess I could gather, that there are some reservations on the Gibson side as to whether they need to accommodate ‘a rapper’ with their gear.

Whatever man, I just wanted what I won fair and square.

A year and a half later, Tonedeff's feelings haven't changed.

It’s been a few months since I even bothered to contact anyone. The last few times I contacted the Lollapalooza folks, they always seem surprised that I hadn’t received anything yet. I’ve realized that it’s basically useless to complain to them anymore, because it’s clear that they’re still dealing with Don Pitts. I’ve even tried calling him myself and no one answers. (Surprise!).

As of right now, I want the entire WORLD to know how horribly this entire situation was handled by Don Pitts @ Gibson. And after all my troubles dealing with his lack of direction and continual roadblocks, I don’t think it would be out of line to ask for $10k in compensation from Gibson. Think about it – I won $10k worth of gear fair and square, but since they refused to give it to me, shouldn’t I be entitled to the same value in cash? ESPECIALLY after the treatment I’ve gotten from their rep?

Clearly, they have no intention on doing that either. Which is why everyone’s still in the dark about it. Maybe they thought I’d just “go away”. WRONG. It shouldn’t matter if I rap, played a spoon or did acapella like Bobby McFerrin – They OWE me, PERIOD. I hope the everyone reads this and sees how they tried to weasel their way out of this, and how they tried to play me cause I’m a Hip Hop artist.

So to be fair here, we don't know Gibson's side of the story.  I've emailed a request for comment to both Mr. Pitt's e-mail address and an address listed on a Gibson press contact list. I'll let you Google those addresses yourself.   I'll also let you know what, if anything I hear back.

If this thing catches on, it sure seems like it would be worth it to Gibson to make this right just to eliminate the bad publicity.  Read the comments both here and here to see how the story is already starting to agitate the customer base.

Sweet Child of Mine - Sitar Style

I was never a big Guns and Poseurs fan... but this is a lot of fun... a promo for a new Indian MTV clone:

From Sepia Mutiny:

Part of the reason why this video— which is actually a wonderful commercial for Indian MTV-rival Channel V— jolted me like a quadruple-shot-latte was because none of the things I associate with Sweet Child o’ Mine are brown. High school, my friends from it, the TG parties I grimly attended with all my pledge sisters at UC Hippie…not brown. This video? Brown, and fabulously so.

This song has serious staying power. It went from being my bete noire twenty years ago to what I was giddily shouting the lyrics to a few months ago, at the National Geographic Halloween party. Upon observing how unanimously thrilled everyone aged 21-61 was the second those unmistakable, evocative first notes blared, I think I drunkenly decided that SCoM would be on my wedding reception play list, should I ever resolve my fear of adulthood and move beyond the existential crisis of “nomenclature for feminists”, i.e. “Do I take his name?”.

So without further Achoo... er I mean Ado...

Taking Tiger Parliament (by Strategy)

I've always been passionate about Brian Eno even though I can't stand the client that made him rich, U2.

Now Eno appears ready to apply his Oblique Strategies to politics.

From the Guardian:

Nick Clegg today marked his new leadership of the Liberal Democrat party by enlisting Brian Eno as an adviser on youth issues and to help him fix Britain's "broken politics".
Clegg announced the celebrity appointment less than a day after being anointed as the party's third leader in under two years.

The Lib Dem leader is still putting the final touches to his shadow cabinet, which is expected to be unveiled tomorrow.

The decision to court Eno, a record producer and university lecturer better known for his time as a member of the 70s band Roxy Music, is part of his mission to engage people "beyond Westminster" in politics.

Eno told the BBC Radio 4 World at One programme his work as a record producer meant he had credibility with young people.
Commenting on his decision to join the Lib Dem ranks, he said: "They have shown themselves to be an independent-minded party.

"I think they are the real opposition. I think they are the only opposition we have. The Lib Dems are the effective opposition and I hope that, the election after next, they will be the opposition and maybe the one after that they will be the government.

Eno joined the newly elected Lib Dem leader at a South London sixth form college earlier today, where Clegg used an address to students at Bacon's College, in Rotherhithe, to accuse the Tories and Labour of vilifying young people.

Rare Archival Footage Discovered: The Velvet Underground on the Lawrence Welk Show

Lou Reed once famously said the reason the Velvet Underground struggled in the early days of hippies and flower power that "we were the anti-pollen."

While I thought I had heard just about all of the Velvets performances either on live release or bootlegs, I somehow missed this gem... The VU played "Sister Ray" on the Lawrence Welk Show.

I found this gem through a great site called MuViBee for searching for music videos that allows you to index and put together playlists of famous and obscure music videos.  Play with it and waste some time this holiday week.

Don't Eat Your Vegetables, Play Them

Not only am I going to miss the Acrassicauda show in Istanbul this week, but I will also be absent without leaves for the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra's triumphal stalk into Yorkshire.

Still some clever punning from The Times Online:

They said that live music couldn't be beet. They were wrong. In a real turnip for the books, a group have come along who play quavers on cucumbers and minims on marrows. In times2 today, the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra explain how to coax music from vegetables rather than conventional instruments. With squeaks on leeks and percussion on pumpkins (although mushrooms are disappointing; so often flat), they cover a range of genres from classical to dance music. Will the people of Huddersfield, to whom the orchestra will play next week, listen to some opera? The famed Porcini Hand is Frozen from La Bohème always goes down well, as do other classical pieces: Bach's Pear on a G String or Gershwin's popular Rhapsody in Greens.

And here's a sample from YouTofu:

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Refugees to "Iraq n Roll" in Instanbul

On the same day as Military.com reports "Turkish Invasion of Iraq 'Less Likely'", I come across the story of a different kind of Iraqi invasion of Turkey.

From The Turkish Daily News:

The story of Iraqi heavy metal music band Acrassicauda is an adventure of war, death threats and survival. Five youngsters, inspired by famous western metal bands, formed the band in Baghdad in 2001. Even though they are famous in Iraq they could only give live performances there six times due to security reasons. They have since taken the stage in Syria and Jordan.

  They will perform in Istanbul for the first time tomorrow in one of Istanbul's well-known rock bars, Kemancı. Faisal, who plays rhythm guitar, said they are thrilled about performing in Istanbul. The concert is more like a solidarity movement organized to support Acrassicauda. When the war in Iraq started in 2003, the band's singer Waleed fled the country. In 2005, the rest of the band's members Firas, Tony, Marwan and Faisal escaped to Syria through Jordan because they were faced with death threats. Their music studio was bombed and the only way to survive was to flee their homeland.

So the profile song on their MySpace page didn't do a lot for me, check out this very evocative guitar solo on this video:

Also check out this very nice NPR piece on Acrassicauda.

Digital Music: Begging Forgiveness

Back in those halcyon days before Lars Ulrich became the Spokesmodel for Corporate Greed, I really believed Napster offered the opportunity to blow up the label system which has always been bad for artists and create a new model in which artists would get paid while encouraging the largest number possible to be exposed to their work.

Now, nearly a decade later, people trying to innovate in the music space are still encountering the arrogance and stubbornness of the labels.

From Rags Gupta writing in GigaOm:

Despite all of the issues plaguing the music industry these days, there is plenty of innovation in digital music to be found from a range of startups out there. Many of these startups require content from the labels, yet choose to plow ahead with their product marketing without getting licenses. This irks the labels, of course, but it’s of their own doing — it is generally much easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

(snip)

The founder of one innovative service (with good traction) whom I recently spoke to said his backers encouraged him to follow the ‘beg forgiveness’ route rather than negotiate directly with the labels. On the other hand, I know of another startup that has tried to negotiate direct deals with the labels over the past couple of years, holding up its full launch in the process. Traction for them? Not so much.

(snip)

It’s understandable that the labels want to capture more of the value that they feel their content creates. But in order to do so, they’ll need to not only increase the cost of begging forgiveness, but make it quicker and cheaper for sites to license their content.

I love having a hobby that lets me be around the music business, but I don't think I would ever want to have to depend on that group of general slimeballs for my paycheck on a regular basis.

Mandatory Civics

You may have heard the two great fears many Americans have about the two extremes of U.S. Politics.... The Republicans want to impose Big Brother while the Democrats want to turn the government into Big Mother.

I'm not sure what I think about the growing effort from the left to force me to be a good citizen.  Sure, I have to pay my taxes and stop at the red light.  I have no problem with that.  But should I be required to be a responsible actor in our civic drama?

Hillary wants to force me to buy health insurance.  Now Kinky wants to force me to vote:

From Texas Monthly:

Mandatory voting. This sounds bad, but it really isn’t. Australia’s been doing it with great success for some time now. It works like this: Every citizen is required to show up at the polls and have his or her name checked off; if you don’t show up, you’re fined something nominal, like twenty bucks. In Australia, the turnout is often as high as 95 percent, and political corruption is much less of an issue than it is here. If we had mandatory voting in Texas, I’d be in the Governor’s Mansion right now with my five dogs, the Friedmans, and we’d all be smoking Cuban cigars around the poker table.