Music

Symphony in Eight Bits

A funny video is making the rounds of a school choir performing Nintendo themes: This next song needs a little bit of introduction. Keeping with the experimental nature of Redefined we decided that we would now do what some might consider an art piece. It's a little older than some of the music we've already sung today, and it's all original work from Japan. So I hope that you can all listen with open minds, and if you'll give me one second I need to boot it up. The choir does a really nice ... (read more)

2005/05/03

All-Podcast, All-the-Time Radio

A San Francisco radio station is going to start airing nothing but user-submitted podcasts beginning on May 16. The station, which calls itself KYOU Open Source Radio, will broadcast on 1550-AM/San Francisco and the Internet. Submitted podcasts must be 60 megabytes or less in size and can be in any format. The categories on the submission form demonstrate how strange this is likely to be -- traditional fare like news, sports and politics is mixed with over-the-road trucking, sex and wiffleball. ... (read more)

2005/04/28

Charlie White's Evil Puppet

The music video for Interpol's "Evil" features a troubled puppet with just enough realistic human features -- eyes, teeth, hair, and furrowed brow -- to scare the bejeezus out of people. Fans have taken to calling him Norman. "Evil" is the first video by Charlie White, an artist who builds photorealistic images that combine real people, digital effects, and disturbing puppets. I bought Interpol's CD Antics this week, and it all sounds like "Evil" -- a bunch of lush, gloomy songs that remind me ... (read more)

2005/03/12

Joe Daugherty waxes poetic about the Pocket Disc, a 4-inch vinyl record format that didn't catch on in the '60s. Their slogan: "Carry them in your pocket -- they won't scratch." ... (read more)

2004/12/14

God Bless Ronan Tynan

The only thing I miss about the Yankees' absence from the playoffs is the performance of "God Bless America" by Ronan Tynan. Having him perform so often and so well at Yankee Stadium reminds me of the Philadelphia Flyers bringing out Kate Smith to sing it as a good-luck charm. The U.S. could significantly reduce noise pollution by making "God Bless America" the national anthem. I endure 500 excruciating renditions of the "Star-Spangled Banner" a year on streaming baseball games. Only in the ... (read more)

2004/10/25

Audioscrobbler: New Music Recommendation Engine

Audioscrobbler is a new Web service that recommends music based on what you're listening to with WinAMP or XMMS. Song information is submitted via HTTP GET/POST requests, so it ought to be easy to extend the service to support other players. While I'm writing a book, I'll be feeding Audioscrobbler a lot of one-step-removed elevator music. It'll be interesting to see what the service recommends, since most of the 600 listeners appear to be considerably less mellow. Via Boing Boing. ... (read more)

2003/02/11