Download 38 free tracks from eMusic, culled from the 2007 Independent Music Awards winners. I see Dan Bern, Garaj Mahal and a bunch of other stuff I've never heard of.
May 2007 Archives
This video rules. So does Fujiya & Miyagi.
I went out and caught a fantastic !!! (chk chk chk) show on Wednesday night at the Metro. The kind folks that do their PR hooked me up with a photo pass for the show, and upon arrival, I found that the photo pass was much more than that. It was a full VIP pass. This is the second time I've gotten one of these.
I didn't really take full advantage, as I was with friends and I was much more concerned with hanging out with them. I did get some okay photos (here's the full set on Flickr), and there's always another chance to catch these guys when they come through and play Lollapalooza here in August. Can't wait.
Adult Swim just put out a free indie compilation called, "Warm and Scratchy," featuring a pretty respectable list of artists. Anyone look for some free mp3 downloads today would be wise to start there.
Tracklisting:
01. Me-I - TV On The Radio
02. Dead Sound - The Ravenettes
03. The Equestrian - Les Savy Fav
04. Crimson Red - The Rapture
05. Justine - 120 Days
06. Canada Vs. America - Broken Social Scene
07. Color of the love You Have - SOUND Team
08. The Bunting Song (acoustic version) - The Good, The Bad and The Queen
09. Half Century - The Brother Kite
10. Silver (Original Beats) - Jesu
11. Back to Flash - Amusement Parks on Fire
12. Stay Awake - Asobi Seksu
13. Winter - Fennesz
14. Sunset Rodeo - Liars
Enjoy and be sure to thank Cartoon Network on your way out.
Marquee photos are a live music rite of passage. My trusty cameraphone strikes again.
I caught a fantastic show last night at the Chicago Theater with the Arcade Fire --night two of three for them -- and I'm now left with many, many song segments still resonating around in my brain. Lots of "woo ooohs" and "ahhh ahhhs."
This was my first time seeing the band, and I'll admit that I wasn't immediately floored as I walked away from the venue last night. It's not until this morning that I felt the impression that this band left on me. I had to wake up right away and re-hear "Haiti" ten times before I'd feel better; it was the clear stand-out moment for me last night. It haunted my brain while I slept.
And I think that's the band's real power -- insanely catchy melodies. Sure, they're fun to watch on stage when they run around and bang on stuff. Sure, their power folk-rock anthems are pretty inspiriing and uplifting (even if the new album is dark). It's the melodies that stay with you long after and they've got those hooks down.
That Regine really danced her way right into my heart...
Arcade Fire - Haiti - 2005/05/11 [YouTube]
I've been insanely obsessed with this song over the past couple weeks, so I thought I'd share it with my friends in case you missed it up on Live Music Blog.
Euphone - Nick is Ryan [mp3]
I enjoy instrumental music as much (if not more) than songs built on lyrics and instruments. In fact, I've always been driven by the instrumental hook in the song rather than the chorus lines that any lead singer would come up with. This song just nails it for me, though -- this is the kind of music that I'd want to create myself if I had the time, energy and patience. Someday.
I'm learning more and more and more and more about the world of online media, and there's some really smart people out there investing in the future of the web and how there is money to be made online. Brad Feld is one of them.
While old media continues to slow dance (think News Corp / Dow Jones and Thompson / Reuters), new media is turning into a mosh pit at an AC/DC concert. -- Brad Feld (5/18/07)
I never really would compare mergers and acquisitions to mosh pits but I guess it fits if you think about it.
I just recently published a small review and photos on the Perpetual Groove show I saw last Thursday at Martyrs, and let me tell you -- their community wasn't too happy to see that I had called their band name "stupid." I did get some people defending my position and for that I'm grateful...but I'd say I'm even more grateful that someone took the time to disagree with me. My opinion motivated someone else to express their own opinion. My job here is done.
It's always funny to me to see how people react to us "talking heads," which I wouldn't even normally categorize myself as. However, when people start actively responding to your writing and/or opinions in their own forum, I think you have officially reached a status that some would define as a thought leader, talking head, etc. etc.
At any rate, I laugh at the responses to my quick thoughts. People take it really seriously, maybe more so than I do, and they tend to take criticism of something they enjoy personally. And they think that I'm wrong for not approaching my opinions seriously enough, which I'd tend to disagree with.
It's the back and forth that you have to expect, embrace, and enjoy. That's what originally attracted me to blogging in the first place.
Wilco - What Light (live on Letterman) [YouTube]
This song is straight-up feel-good to me.
The new issue of Wired has a cover story that might make this issue worth picking up. I canceled my subscription a while ago due to the fact that I wasn't getting much out of Wired that I didn't otherwise already know. It's print -- and it's way behind the curve on where my normal media consumption is (read: online).
The cover story is titled "Get Naked and Rule the World," and it's all about how companies are learning to interact with their customers by telling the truth, revealing future plans, asking for feedback openly, etc. They're calling it radical transparency. Let's keep that lowercase for now.
Smart companies are sharing secrets with rivals, blogging about products in their pipeline, even admitting to their failures. The name of this new game is RADICAL TRANSPARENCY, and it's sweeping boardrooms across the nation.
Sharing secrets with rivals? That sure does sound sensationalized, and to prove their point, they use examples from the show, The Office? WTF.
Anyone read their copy yet?
Radical transparency as a concept is not for the faint of heart. Most professionals get out of business school with the phrase "competitive advantage" ingrained in their psyche. When a company is successful, you don't share why you're successful for fear that a copycat will come right along and dilute your power, right? Not on the web.
On the web, given that publishing is so simple and it's so easy to be transparent, radical transparency has been used as a competitive advantage for many companies for some time now. It's something that the folks at FeedBurner subscribe to and it's something that I've learned from working there -- customers react extremely positive to a honest, open, and humane approach to their concerns. And that's just support. It extends so much further past that, including but not limited to: blogs, forums, LinkedIn profiles, etc.
One thing I'll mention briefly is -- it's impossible to be 100% transparent. It's the appearance of being radically transparent that turns on the good PR, not actually giving away everything. There are still things that need to stay in-house. It's a new definition of competitive advantage, slightly modified if at all. Some info should be given away for free to entice already-interested parties to have an interest to learn more.
Happy Mother's Day, Mom!
I got this fantastic cellphone photo at the Perpetual Groove show on Thursday night.
What phone produces such high quality photos, you ask? It's my Sony Ericcson W810i. It has a 2.0 megapixel camera with flash that clearly blows away most every other cell phone photo I've ever seen. Well, except for the people that have this phone also.
Seriously, though -- this thing continues to amaze me. There's a deal on Amazon.com right now you get the phone and a $99 refund all by switching to Cingular on a new service plan. There's no cost for the phone and you can use the hundred bucks towards the service plan. No brainer (if you're in the market).
Photo © rachelleb
Rachelle put up a fantastic set of photos from my old neighborhood stomping grounds: Roscoe Village. I forgot how much neon the neighborhood has, all playing very nicely into the kitsch factor in full force on Roscoe Street between Damen and Western. There's even a restaurant devoted to kitsch.
It was a nice neighborhood to live in for two years. We ended up moving slightly north, still close enough to walk to the restaurants even though we're now longer considered part of that neighborhood. Now, we're in North Center.
Roscoe Village Neon [Flickr]
Huge news in the tech/web world today -- Microsoft is apparently in talks (or soon will be) to acquire Yahoo. The NY Post ran with the exclusive this morning and it's been wildly reported by every other blogger in the world, now including yours truly.
A spokeswoman for Yahoo! declined comment. Microsoft declined comment.
Of course they did. Image © TechCrunch.
Image © Dashes
I'm just now catching up to the latest and greatest laugh-out-loud fest on the internet these days: Lolcats. A bunch of us from the office chatted about this yesterday, for one after I spotted that Twitter is using these little inside jokes as their error/maintenance messages. Anil Dash has a great writeup on the subject (with follow-ups included in subsequent posts).
In a nutshell, all the term "lolcat" means is, "photos of cats with humorous captions." There are rules that follow such captions, such as front, grammar, syntax, and even variation rules. Wikipedia page to explain the subject, check. Threadless t-shirts sure to follow, check.
Why is this so funny all of a sudden? I honestly have no clue but I imagine it's partially related to the Boing Boing link to an original cache of "cat macros." I only spent about a half hour last night flipping through the "lolcats" tag on Flickr and laughing hysterically. This one, easily one of the favorites, went on to inspire this blog dedicated to the subject. Oh my, we internet nerds really do have a good time, don't we?
The Raconteurs - Level [YouTube]
I watched the TiVo'd re-run of The Raconteurs on Austin City Limits last night and I got chills on about five separate occasions. Just now, almost a year after Lollapalooza 2006, I'm really starting to wonder if watching My Morning Jacket instead of The Raconteurs was a good idea.
Following up the 2007 SXSW Interactive Conference, I wrote a small post/gripe on the fact that the wireless internet access provided for free at the convention center was mostly unusable. My words at the time:
To me, this is just ridiculously unacceptable and I don't believe that there should be any technological limitation to this. They know the number of attendees. They know how much hardware and bandwidth they need, don't they? Correct me if I'm wrong, because I'd really love to know.
It was a tease for me; I probably would have rather had no signal at all so as to not get my hopes up. Apparently, though -- I needed to be corrected on my "technological limitation" point. The organizers at SXSW recently published a response to the most common concerns and comments from the conference and the WiFi connection was the first topic on the list...
“The WiFi in the convention center was nearly unusable, I would love to see that work better in the future.”
We would also love to see the wireless work better in the future. The system at the Austin Convention Center was significantly upgraded between 2006 and 2007. Yet, these upgrades still did not match the increase in attendance. While we are working on new solutions for the 2008 event, registrants should understand what the experts are telling us — that the volume of WiFi demands at SXSW Interactive stretches the limit of what can currently be supported by any wireless system anywhere. (via SXSW Baby!)
I'm still not buying it.
2007 SXSW Interactive Feedback: You Talk, We Listen [SXSW Community Blog]
I'm on Twitter now. Just like everyone else.
For those not in the know, Twitter has been gaining popularity with the blogger communities for it's easy, simplistic interface, purpose, design, portability, connectivity, etc. Simply put -- it's lightweight blogging designed to travel nicely to your friends, be it on their cellphone, their IM account, or their personal Twitter page. Check it out, and make sure you make me your friend or you'll never know where I'm at or what I'm up to.
Is this what "being social" is in today's web world? If so, I'm not sure I'm fully on board.
