SO I thought it would be nice to add a Debussy station to my Pandora account. After typing “D-E-B”, it helpfully listed artists that begin with those letters, the top two being Claude Debussy and DeBarge. Thinking that we might be on to something here, I created Deb Radio, featuring both the iconic impressionist and the 80’s lite R&B mainstay.
To help you visualize the likely overlap between fans of these two artists, I offer the following Venn diagram:
Log in to Pandora and you can access the station here. Enjoy!
Who doesn’t like Failblog? On my recent trip to London, I excitedly stumbled upon my very first Failblog-worthy situation.
Instead of displaying video ads, the monitors on the escalator coming up from this tube station were displaying the Windows shutdown screen, sideways. You can’t make it out on this photo, but just below the Windows logo it says “It is now safe to turn off your computer”.
I completely agree! MusFormation has a great interview with the amazing Jack Conte. In addition to being fantastic, his work really demonstrates some of the critical changes in the way people are creating and enjoying music. Dig.
-I’ve capped the videos at 20, as every new video slowed the site down a little bit. 20 seems to be a good balance between giving you, the user, lots of choices, but not slowing your, the user’s, computer down too much. And I think I already fried this guy’s Macbook.
From the article about the recording of the new Spinal Tap record in the June ‘09 Mix Magazine-
Q: How do you get those superhuman vocals?
CJ Vanston: Well, I insist on cutting them live, all three guys in the room, no tricks. Then we comp them, tune them, compress them, fix the timing issues, use special de-essers that take the natural harshness out of their voices, fly all the choruses and re-cut whatever isn’t working. All in all, we try and keep it natural and live.
Q: Don’t you think a FAQ is kind of a dated way to present information?
A: Yes.
Q: Like, the internet circa 1998.
A: I tried to think of something else.
Q: [In a high, taunting voice] Look at meee! I have a FAQ! I’m so cool! Maybe in a few years I’ll get a Myspace page!
A: …
Q: What about doing an informational video?
A. I’m not really a “tell it to the webcam” kinda guy. And my appearance frightens small children.
Q: You look fine.
A: Thanks.
Q: An informational video would fit in nicely with the paradigm of inbflat.net.
A: Good point. But I prefer the written word. If it was good enough for Shakespeare…
Q: Did you just compare yourself to Shakespeare?
A: No, no, I mean…
Q: You totally did! I just heard you!
A: But…
Q: And with the exception of the sonnets, Shakespeare’s medium was the theatre! The written word was just a means to document his work. It’s not proper to say that Shakespeare’s medium was the written word, any more than it’s proper to say that Mozart’s medium was notes written on paper.
A: Okay, okay, fine.
Q: Kutiman did an informational video.
A: You know, most of these aren’t even questions, much less questions asked with any degree of frequency. You’re really thumbing your nose at the conventions of the format.
Q: You’re the one all hung up on the FAQ thing. I wanted to do an informational video.
A: ”Informational video”! You’re saying that like it’s a “thing”, like everyone knows what that is. What does that even mean, “Informational video”?
Q: NOW look who’s thumbing their nose at the conventions of the format! YOU just asked MEa question!
A: I did?
Q: That’s two!
A: Me?
Q: Three.
A: A question?
Q: …
A: Just getting you back. Look, enough thumbing of noses at conventions of formats. Let’s do this. Are you ready?
Q: I was ready from the beginning.
A: Not true. You’ve been really difficult, even from the first “question”.
Q: I’m sorry.
A: Actually, I haven’t been very gracious either.
Q: Look at us, a couple of bums.
A: Yeah…
Q: What’re you doing after the FAQ?
A: I was gonna get one of those Vietnamese sandwiches from that new place on 12th Street.
Q: Those things are too spicy for me. I’d rather go to that fancy ramen place in the East Village.
-The site for In Bb 2.0 is now up at inbflat.net, with new performances from Jim Rotondi, Jack Bashkow, Mike from Oh Fortuna and a spoken word video from The Spin Project. I hope to add more videos as they come in.
-Not a big fan of country and its related genres, though I can do Bob Wills, RC’s Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, and anything Alan Lomax recorded. But I’m loving Bearfoot, which I learned about from The Late Greats, where you can listen to a few tracks. Great vocals, and that minor 4 chord towards the end of Oh My Love makes my knees go all wobbly.
-I love dessert like cats love roombas, and I’m completely addicted to the apple cranberry squares available on Wednesdays at the Union Square Greenmarket, from the vendor by the 16th Street subway entrance. Do try, if you’re in the area.
-Do you know about Mocky? I first heard his work on this track, which I find strangely compelling. His song Fighting Away The Tears, is one of my favorite tunes of the last few years. He always seems to sneak a jazz influence into his tracks, which makes me happy. I see he has a new album, looking forward to hearing it.
