Tag Archives: music

The incredible Audiotool

I came across the audiotool web site serendipitously today. I’m delighted I did, for it’s an incredible web site. What Audiotool does is allow you to virtually play with a number of classic electronic devices like 909s and 303s from to make your own electronic music, well, like this: August 27 by blm849 – Audiotool. In a very short time, I learned how to wire up the configuration below to make this piece of music. It looks complicated, but it was actually pretty simple. And alot of fun. With practice and inspiration, I think anyone could make some really interesting music with this site. What’s even better, the music can be downloaded by anyone as an MP3 file, so you can take it and play it on your favourite portable music device.

Once you would have had to make a big investment in equipment to do this. Now you just need a browser. Incredible.

Late Night / Early Morning Music: Björk – Big Time Sensuality

Equally good as the last music of the night or the first music of the day….

YouTube – Björk – Big Time Sensuality

Great new music on BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge

If you like great new music, go to YouTube and search for “BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge” and you will get everything from the Arctic Monkeys to the Jonas Brothers and everything in between. It’s rough, it’s eclectic, and it’s great. There’s too much to cover in one blog post, but here’s a sample: the superb Noisettes covering The Killers “When We Were Young”.

YouTube – bbc radio 1 live lounge

Why do I think Wynton Marsalis is great?

Because as well as he can play The Very Thought of You or September Song, he can also play Handle and Bach like this.

However my day is, if I listen to this, my day is better.

The Very Thought of You from Standard Time, Vol.3: The Resolution Of Romance — Wynton Marsalis

One of my all time favourite albums is this:  Standard Time, Vol.3: The Resolution Of Romance by Wynton Marsalis.

One of my favourite songs from this album is this:

Sublime.

Late night music with the Plain White T’s – Hey There Delilah

I like how the director of this video uses split screen really effectively to make what could be something very static — an acoustic guitar player — something very dynamic. It also gives it a nice 1960s vibe, though it feels new. I wonder if the musician likes Paul Simon? Anyway I like this song, and I really like this video.

YouTube – Plain White T’s – Hey There Delilah

The great Roger Ridley, Playing for Change

Roger Ridley, a great performer, performs Bring It On Home, a great song,  as well as anyone. Take a listen….

There are many mediocre performers in the world who get far too much attention. And there are great performers like Roger Ridley, performers who, when you hear them, you think: man, more people ought to hear this person! That’s what I thought when I heard him. I hope you feel the same way.

Thanks to Playing for Change for bringing Roger to our attention. You should check them out, too.

Good weekend morning music: Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

I like this song: it’s a good song to slowly wake up to on a lazy weekend morning. As for the video, it is another stop motion animated short feature. It’s worth a look as well as a listen:

YouTube – Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

The Cure unplugged

There are a bunch of excellent black and white videos on YouTube of the Cure performing acoustic version of their great work, including this:

If you like this, go to YouTube and look for “The Cure Acoustic”. You’re in for a treat.

Superb guitar work on Born Under Punches Live with Talking Heads and Adrien Belew

I’ve always loved this song, but I hadn’t seen ths live version before. It has superb guitar playing from many of the players on stage, but Adrien Belew (from King Crimson) does some amazing things with feedback at the beginning. Well worth a look and a listen.

YouTube – Talking Heads – Live in Rome 1980 – 10 Born Under Punches

Night Passage Music from the School of Seven Bells – “Half Asleep”

Ethereal.

YouTube – School of Seven Bells – “Half Asleep”

Jay-Z. Brooklyn (Go Hard)….

…is brilliant. Brilliant song. Brilliant video. And it supports (RED)WIRE. What is smarter than this, indeed. Watch this.

Levi Stubbs and the Four Tops

Sadly, the great Levi Stubbs past away today. Stubbs was the lead singer of the Four Tops, who were known for such classics as “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” and “Baby I Need Your Loving,”.

Here they in 1965 performing “Baby…”


The Globe and Mail has a good review of his career here

The Metropolitan Opera innovates again


It is ironic that an opera house seems more innovative than many in the pop recording industry: “then” is more advanced than “now”. The latest thing they are going to do is Offer Performances on the Web. According to the NYTimes.com:

‘In the Metropolitan Opera’s relentless quest to exploit all media, the company next Wednesday will start making many video and audio broadcasts available for Internet streaming on demand.

Met Player, as the service is called, will be available through the Met’s Web site, metopera.org. At its inauguration, on the 125th anniversary of the Met’s first show, users will be able to choose from 13 high-definition video performances, 37 standard video recordings and 120 audio broadcasts dating to 1937. The company said it planned to add performances regularly, drawing on its vast historical archives and its continuing high-definition broadcasts.’

The player looks good, but the proof will be in the sound. The Met has a sterling reputation; I am optimistic it will be good.

From the ridiculous to the sublime, musically, and places in between

Checking out music on the Transbuddha web site the other night, I came across this!

Yes, not only is Jesus your friend, apparently he is also a Mountie. Okie-dokie, then. That’s the ridiculous. (And likely a comedy sketch, but still….)

As I was listening to it, I thought, hmmm…that sounds like Ranking Full Stop from the English Beat. Of course it’s also on YouTube.

While there are some differences, it is very similar! So, first song, very bad. But it got me listening to something better. And checking out that, I started thinking of their good cover of the classic Smokey Robinson and the Miracles song, Tears of a Clown. So I looked it up, and I came across this:

So, from the ridiculous to the sublime in a few minutes.

As a aside, I thought: man, the Miracles were a pretty subdued group of dancers. I did a check on the Pips, the Temptations and even the Jackson 5, and while all those groups were looser than Smokey’s backups, they were still more focused on singing and not so much on (lipsynching and) dancing.

I also think Justin Timberlake stole this look for his “Lovestoned/I think she knows” video. You can see it here: