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Business Time
[audio:http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/files/flight_of_the_conchords_business_time.mp3]
Flight Of The Conchords – Business Time. Thanks to Fred.
Pete Miser
My new favorite album is Camouflage Is Relative by Pete Miser.
His sound is hip-hop, rap with some electronica, and is a great DJ/mixer. His new sound reminds me of Gorillaz, while is earlier stuff reminds me to Tribe Called Quest and even some old school Fresh Prince. Pete is a great guy also, I actually worked with him at Iguana Studios, right before he left for his Dido tour.
Pete Miser dot com
Pete’s Myspace
Pete’s Facebook Group
Here Comes Another Bubble – The Richter Scales »« First Snow
Big Head Todd and the Monsters Free Album
Seems like more music artists are getting to understand that money is not made with the CD but in touring. So BHTM is going to send out their next CD free if you signup online. This is a bit different than Radiohead that let you pay what you wanted to for the digital download. I like the digital download better but would not turn down an album from my all time favorite band.
NIN and the Record Industry
Yet another big music act drop kicks the big labels and goes direct to the fans, gotta love the interwebs.
From the NIN blog:
08 October 2007: Big News
Hello everyone. I’ve waited a LONG time to be able to make the
following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have
been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the
business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very
different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a
direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.
Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
Exciting times, indeed.posted by Trent Reznor at 10:45 AM
More from Gizmode on Nine Inch Nails Dumps Record Labels, Going Direct to Fans.
If two of the biggest acts in the industry can see the digital writing on the wall and totally embrace it—that the old way of doing business is broken—why can’t the labels? What Radiohead and NIN are showing is that the business model “of the future” feared by entrenched interests isn’t arriving some time in the horizon. It’s touching down now.
Thanks to TechCrunch.
Big Head Todd and the Monsters Free Album »« Blade Runner: Final Cut & Ridley Scott
The Sketches
Went to see The Sketches last night at Arlene’s Grocery, which made me realize how much I miss going to see bands in small venues. Manny, Charles (brothers), Greg and David put on a good show and I like their sound.
So half of the entertainment value came from the follow-on act, The Cringe. Their claim to fame seems to be solely that the lead singer is married to Rachel Ray. The music was fairly unoriginal but it was the scene that I got a kick out of. All sorts of Ray followers filling the place, with Rachel dancing away right next to me. The ‘highlight’ of the evening was when Ray’s husband smashed his guitar… a completely odd and waste of a good instrument. Rachel’s groupies were attractive though, and the quote by a friend sums it up: “More plastic in them than an ATM”… science at it finest.
Guitar Hero
So this weekend while enjoying the splendor that is Connecticut, I finally got a chance to play Guitar Hero II on PS2. It’s been ages since I played anything on a console, but GH was a blast. There were all sorts of new as well as good players to show us all the ropes. So after getting kicked out of the first song I tried, we all decided training for me was actually a good thing. In general, I was hitting 75-85% accuracy in the easy level, not bad for a slacker that has never done a thing with a musical instrument, not that GH is anything like a real Guitar. The wireless guitar controller is the way to go also. But I still think I will end up getting a Wii, with Xbox360 as my second choice.
And you know you have a pro in the room when they starting playing the Trogdor song from Strong Bad. And in case you don’t know this little bit of net pop culture, enjoy:
Musicovery
Another Stumble find, this one for a very nifty flash radio / music player from Musicovery in the UK. You can find music you like by picking Mood’s between Calm & Energetic and Dark & Positive you want to listen to, or you can pick by Tempo and Dance scales. Overall a very interesting way to find new music in a visually cleaver way.
SNL
Saw my first live tapping of Saturday Night Live last night, and it was a great show to see. It was hosted by Alec Baldwin with musically guest Christina Aguilera. There were tons of walk-ons, including Steve Martin, Martin Short, Paul McCartney and Tony Bennett. Video of the skit.
There is some good irony also, since the first and only other SNL I have seen was a rehearsal last season, in which Steve Martin hosting his 14th show, and Alec Baldwin doing a walk-on to threaten a tie of Steve’s hosting record.
Overall it was a great show and Aguilera has an amazing voice but really seemed to have an attitude and had little affection with Bennett, even after a duet. Alec did a great job, especially playing Tony Bennett interviewing Anthony Bennetto (the real Tony Bennett).
Another bonus was a backstage tour by cameraman and friend Phil. Excellent special treatment and an opportunity to see some of the other stages at NBC. Now I just need to get to Letterman and the Daily Show.
Live Music Social Search
Fred Wilson on his A VC blog introduced me to Tourb.us. The site is all about making it easy to find live shows, and it does a good job from what I have seen. It linked directly to my Last.fm account and pulled all my bands I listen to… quick and easy. I also added a band manually with ease and made some edits to band info already on the site. You can create feeds based on searches, bands, location, etc., and get updates via email or SMS. Bands can also ‘claim’ themselves via email. It has some great potential and it will be interesting to see if it picks up critical mass.
Looks like the revenue model will be related to ticket sales, but nothing as of yet.
La La – CDs for $1
Just read about a very interesting (and legal) CD exchange community, la la. So I decided to sign up and add a few CDs to my Want List. In less than 5 minutes I was told the CD was on its way. I now get to enjoy some Green Day. Since all of my CDs are burned onto my computer and iPod, its time to explore some new legal music.
La la is a peer-to-peer used CD store on the net that launched Thursday. You trade CDs with other users, not unlike the DVD-trading site Peerflix.
For $1.49 a pop, my influx of music now approaches what it was in high school and college, when used records were still cheap enough to indulge experimentation. Before la la was born, I had never been able to afford a let’s-try-it-and-see approach with CDs.
