Da daa, the promised audio special finally makes it and this will be the first of these posted directly to the blog as well. https://thatchspace.com/wordpress/
So before we begin, go get your walkman headphones and jam them in your computer. So let’s turn it up to ELEVEN and get started.
Lets begin with something nice and gentle.
Ibiblio.org http://www.ibiblio.org/ is one of my favourite resources. I probably am in the site at least half a dozen times a week, mainly for it’s Linux Archive but also for music.
So let’s start with Roger McGuinn’s contribution. Roger Mcguinn (Byrds/Dylan/Rock Bottom Remainders) noticed that a whole bunch of folk songs were vanishing from peoples repertories and decide to record a song a month and stick it up on the web http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp/ just to make sure that they don’t get lost.
There’s Radio ibilio and then there’s music database http://www.ibiblio.org/collection/collection.php?second=48 there’s links to World Music Central and Etree’s bt site (Live recordings of act’s as diverse as the indigo girls to Phish to Medeski Martin and Woods all packed up in torrents) and my personal favourite Archive.org http://www.archive.org/audio/ I found a live version of Billy Bragg and Natalie Merchant doing “Way Over Yonder”.
Absolutely brilliant (both the website AND the Guthrie song) and nearly all of it released under Creative Commons license.
OK time for something silly Spatzal! (The Gods will get me for this) Two girls, one guy and a transvestite make up Molvania?s most successful pop music act, the award-winning Spatzal!, who made it to fifth place in the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest with their catchy dance tune ?Vlarsh ei Czolom? (?Your Boogy I am Shaking?). Sadly?, the group split up in 2001 but such was their influence that there are numerous Spatzal! tribute bands still touring the Baltic region. You aren’t going to believe this http://www.jetlagtravel.com/molvania/antipope_large.html
Industrial Strength Robots turntabling, check out the movies. http://www.robotlab.de/juke/images1_engl.htm
Less than Industrial strength Automata. http://www.audiocubes.com/information/LittleJammerPercussionist.wmv If you want to buy one here is the info. http://www.audiocubes.com/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=1&keywords=jammer
Kalimbas are a usually handmade folk instrument from Africa, they are also known as thumb piano. They are usually crafted from a cigar box, some wire and tines made from metal and they sound wonderful (well I think so). So, we all know that some people cant just leave well enough alone and here is the proof, the SOLID BODY ELECTRIC KALIMBA, plug one of these in to a Marshall and krank it up. (Yes I want one and yes you can put one on the “thatch” Xmas shopping list) http://www.ekalimba.com/
Database of strange noises.I debated over whether or not to bung this one in and of course good taste lost. http://www.keyssynthsandsamplers.com/weird/
DRM and Music: EFF: The Customer Is Always Wrong: A User’s Guide to DRM in Online Music
Many digital music services employ digital rights management (DRM) ? also known as “copy protection” ? that prevents you from doing things like using the portable player of your choice or creating remixes. Forget about breaking the DRM to make traditional uses like CD burning and so forth. Breaking the DRM or distributing the tools to break DRM may expose you to liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) even if you’re not making any illegal uses. http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/guide/ and http://www.downhillbattle.org/
Canada. Piracy is up because sales are down. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=947&Itemid=89&nsub=
Mperia. This is an awesome essay… sorry folks this is quiet and important. http://www.mperia.com/news.php?id=28
and Lawrence Lessig… download his book and read it. http://www.free-culture.cc/
and last “How Much do you make with a recording contract? http://www.music-law.com/contractbasics.html or another view at http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
OK I get off the soap box here and we get back to making noise.
Now for some music Blogs.
Music for Robots (not the ones featured above) http://www.music.for-robots.com/ A lot of stuff featured here – everything from electronic music to folk.
Soul Sides http://www.soul-sides.com/ Soul and Hip Hop aren’t really my favourite music genres but the link to the Joe Bataan material was great. Subway Joe found it’s way onto the walkman.
Said the Gramophone http://saidthegramophone.com/ Written by a trio of guys, One in Edinburgh, One in Toronto and one in Montreal (it sounds like the beginning of a joke. There were three guys…) They cover a lot of ground and I like about half of what I hear. I found a band called the diskettes on this site, (and the answer is “because I can” for all you people who are going to ask why.)
There are a few self recorded gigs that result in some bumpy sounding MP3’s, but I really really like that feel. Some of the links work some don’t but unlike going to a pub your hair doesn’t smell off cigarette smoke for days.
Tiny RSS is a simple HTML file that you open in IE on Windows. Voila! A little RSS reader in Internet Explorer. What’s amazing about Tiny RSS is that there it goes, doing it’s little thing, without a single change to the registry or complicated install. Was that so hard? It’s a long way of from great, but a neat little trick nonetheless and you can start subscribing to some of the blogs regularly. http://www.codeproject.com/jscript/TinyRSS.asp There are hundreds of music blogs out there.
This is a music store http://www.othermusic.com/ scroll down and check out Orange Juice. Another of the legendary ’80’s Scots bands. Big Country, Texas, Runrig (please wont some one tour these guys and if you want to know why http://www.runrig.co.uk/c_downloads.htm and check out some of their sample MP3’s and just fall in love and go and buy the CD’s and maybe they will tour… sigh) and Franz Ferdinand (oooh that’s gonna get me in trouble) who aren’t an 80’s band but are Scots.
On the subject of 80’s bands Gang of Four have reformed and are back with a vengeance, this music played by people who hit things, no plastic boxes that need programming here Check out the guitar in “To Hell with Poverty”. http://www.gangoffour.us/ and click on music (Flash Needed as well as lots and lots of volume)
Now lets move onto Wired magazine. Just read it, this article.I couldn’t believe it. and I cant wait to try it… hmm custom housing for laptop and guitar or a guitar with a laptop built in or a {insert pondering noises here. diumdumdedum}. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.09/fablab.html
For the Musos with Computers out there only: Propellerheads have announced the opening of the Rebirth Museum, dedicated to their 1997 two-303s-and-an-808-and-later-a-909 software, which includes free downloads of everything. http://www.rebirthmuseum.com/
And also in the same esoteric theme, the Beastie Boys have made available a bunch of samples for downloading. http://www.beastieboys.com/remixers.php
Head banging takes on a whole new twist. A video camera a line 6 effects unit and shaking your head plays the wah and nodding changes the patch. Check out the videos. http://web.media.mit.edu/~dmerrill/mas963/
And for all you Pastafarians out there here is the Flying Spaghetti Monster Game in case you didn’t stumble on it last week. Why is it here? Check out the soundtrack. http://www.venganza.org/games/index_large.htm
Free Audio Books. OK you aren’t going to get Harry Potter or the Da Vinci code and most of them sound like they are being read by Steven Hawking but you can get Jack London or Conan Doyle. Project Gutenberg makes audio eBooks available for some of the same great literature available in plain text. http://www.gutenberg.org/audio/ {MP3 format}
Well that’s about all for now I promise I will never do anything this self-indulgent again, until next time.
thanks for the link, you know you could buy one for only $100