fanboygeeks

Crazy Theremin jamming

I fell for the Theremin when I watched "The Day the Earth Stood Still" as a young child on Saturday morning television.  Bernard Herrmann lifts an already perfect film into the stratosphere with his seminal score.  Of course, I had no idea what produced the wonderfully eerie sound until Blue Peter's 1982 feature on Musaire and his Theremin.

The wonderful Ether and AEther Experiment recently jammed their own version of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy which I simply had to share with the FanboyGeek audience.

Kudos, though has got to go to Gattobus who has turned his Wiimote into a controller for his Moog synthesizer to sound like a Theremin to perform a very appropriate theme tune...

Stu ;-)

ps  For additional Theramin fun, check out Jon Bernhart (The Lothars) version of Video Killed the Radio star here.

Elvis appears on "American Idol"

Celine Dion perfomed a duet with Elvis Presley on Fox's American Idol charity special "Idol Gives Back" on Wednesday evening.  Obvious criticism of Celine Dion aside, watch this video of the duo singing "If I can Dream" and tell me - how did they do that?  All of the news media are saying it's a hologram, and I know for a FACT that it's not (being married to a holographer and all), but whatever technology they used it was a bit clever...

Stu ;-)

UPDATE I've figured it our now after several viewings.  Very clever. Wish they'd got someone good to perform it with Elvis, though.

Deep Space NIN

Great animation by Daniel Maas produced for the Jet Propulsion Labs at the Californian Institute of Technology. Made utterly compelling by the use of Sunspots by NIN.

And just in case you need persuading of the versatility of Trent Reznor’s output this will haunt your mind.

Kraftwerk - on 8-bit kit

Here's a double blast-from-the-past that ticks two boxes for me.  The music of Kraftwerk, performed on 8-bit video game systems.

Courtesy of the 8-Bit Operators.

Stu ;-)

 

 
8-Bit Operators | 8-Bit Operators Myspace
Astralwerks Records | Buy At Amazon.com

Steve Jobs calls for an end to DRM

Yesterday on Apple's web site, CEO Steve Jobs publicly called for "the big four" music companies; Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI, who control the distribution of 70% of the world's music, to end DRM on downloaded music.

Jobs pointed out that when Apple started iTunes in 2001, a reluctant music industry only licenced music to Apple on the condition that it was DRM locked.

However, Jobs claims that DRM has failed and is unworkable.  On the average iPod, only 3% of music on it was bought from the iTunes Music Store, thus 97% is free of DRM (presumably ripped from the users CD collection).

Says Jobs, "In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free. So, if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system?"

Finally, Jobs passes the gauntlet to the music industry, and the consumer, "Convincing (the music industry) to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace.  Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."

There's been talk over the last few months about the industry accepting the end of DRM, as it's made no dent on piracy at all.  Methinks that Steve Jobs is using his company's might to accellerate the industry u-turn and be seen as leading the pack.

DRM-free music downloads will lead to a huge increase in companies offering the service - and Apple have market share to protect...

Stu

Corporate Rock

A video of a Bank of America employee earnestly singing his own version of "One" is one of this week's biggest viral videos.  In a scene that wouldn't be amiss in The Office, Ethan Chandler, Manhattan Banking Centre Manager's very own David Brent sings his own heartfelt lyrics to the U2 classic at a conference, celebrating a corporate merger:

"It is even better, Now that we’re the same, Two great companies come together, Now, MBNA is B of A."

Remember, this is a song about a man with Aids making a plea to his father.  I'm sure Bono was thrilled at it being used by a bank to gloat about a corporate take-over.

Well, on Tuesday, a lawyer for the Universal Music Publishing Group, posted the text of a cease-and-desist letter in the comments section of Stereogum.com, a Web site carrying the video. It contended that Bank of America had violated Universal’s copyright of the U2 song.  Being a parody, and probably falling under Fair Use, I can't see this being copyright violation - however much I'd like to see the perpetrators punished!

Justice was served this weekend, though, when Smiths legend (and current Modest Mouse guitarist) Johnny Marr and comedian David Cross performed a cover of the song at a gig on Saturday night at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan. Note the immediate audience recognition.

Stu ;-)

MSN Music Shuts down - and screws their own customers

MSN Music is shutting down.  Go to their site and you'll be redirecting to either the Zune Marketplace Web site or to RealNetworks' Rhapsody site.

Any MSN Music files you bought won't play on the new Zune or Rhapsody, because of the old MSN proprietary codec, and there's no upgrade path.

What, surely they'll offer to give you different version, a programme to transcode them or even a money off voucher?  No - Microsoft say on their Web site that users will "still be able to use their songs, transfer them to compatible music players and burn them to CD."

And therein lies the problem with DRM.

What a great way to build up a user-base for your new product, which by the way isn't likely to hit Britain until 2008...

My sides are just splitting.  I believe it's called schadenfreude...

Stu ;-)

Why Iggy Pop is not a TV producer

Sure Ig, nice one (backs away slowly). Endure the madness here. Actually it's brilliant stuff, very funny guy. Channel 4 are probably on the phone now. Okay, okay, I realise it is actually written by a roadie (apparently called Jos Grain, somebody needs to give this guy a career in stand-up or something). Make sure you read the whole doc, the TV idea is just an addendum to the Stooges rider. I think this is clearly the best set of rock rider requests ever.

Someone get Iggy to run for President. Just an idea.

Incidentally, at a 70s Hollywood party Iggy Pop met Brian Wilson. After talking the the former Beach boy for twenty odd minutes the Ig whispered to a friend "get me away from this guy, he's fucking crazy".

StuB

The Hoff knows the score

You want someone whose really on the ball? Look no further than the Hoff...

"How do you feel about music downloading," I ask, genuinely. "Stuff downloading. I mean, a lot of your peers totally hate on it."

"I think it's a great promotional tool," asserts Hoff, brightly... "I used the internet," he thunders, happily. "Right now, I'm redoing my entire website. I got DHTV, I got a private room, like a paying room. Like if you go in that room you'll be able to see old concerts, old footage, anything that I've done, anything like, maybe, live online chats, any kind of, ur..."

He considers, seemingly deciding on the spot..

"And I'm gonna have the Hoff shop, and I'm gonna be selling a lot of clothing... I'm gonna have my own station called Burn Lounge... You can have your own music store and then you could farm it out to all your fans, so I could go to all my fans around the world and have my own, like MacDonalds franchise of David Hasseloff stores!"

Hoff smiles, triumphantly, conspiratorially, and demonically.

"Downloading? I think its great."

From the best interview I've read today, Akira the Don meets the Hoffmeister. The full thing is up at Akira the Don's site http://www.akirathedon.com/

Stu B

"Weird" Al Yankovic Returns

Remember "Eat It" & "Smells Like Nirvana"?

Well, America's favourite comic song writer "Weird" Al Yancovic is back, and his latest song "I'm just White and Nerdy" is a classic.

See if you can watch it without thinking to yourself at the end, "oh no, I'M white and nerdy"!

It's full of references that will make you cringe, but extra credit for anyone who knows what video Al is buying near the end.  Joe Pavlo not only got it instantly, he OWNS his own copy (as do I now).

Stu ;-)