internet cool?!

I Love this radical move: Radiohead’s new single “Nude” can be remixed in GarageBand. (Full disclosure: I still haven’t bought the album.) I know…I know.

The separate sections (bass, voice, guitar, strings/fx and drums) are available for purchase iTunes in the same way that you purchase any other song.

Remix galore.

Finished tracks can then be uploaded to the Radiohead site where Radiohead faithful can vote for their favs.

Lather, rise, repeat. Cool!

I couldn’t be more of a High Fidelity-esque music geek. I love to make top-five lists and my music library seems more like a generational patchwork quilt than 31 year old’s typical music collection. Music surrounds my life..from friends bands to going to shows to playing guitar hero. It fits my moods, it makes my moods and in many ways defines the emo dork I am. I mean, who among us hasn’t turned to music when we’ve felt sad(or happy), or wished that Bruce Springsteen or Thom Yorke would talk to us directly like they speak to us through their music?

Growing up with music in my life was a huge deal for me and the mix-tape (and most recently “play-lists” always captured all of that and more. Recently I discovered Muxtape. I love anything that’s dead simple and useful. And you can’t get anymore simple than Muxtape. The online service does one thing — let you create and share mixtape-like MP3 playlists with friends. The signup is quick and the value is deep. Music geeks like me should definitely give it a spin.

One of my favorite actors is John Cusack. He sums Mix-tapes up wonderfully for me.

“To me, making a tape is like writing a letter. There’s a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with “Got to Get You Off My Mind,” but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you’ve got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can’t have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can’t have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you’ve done the whole thing in pairs and…oh, there are loads of rules.”

Mix-taping is an evolved form of messenging. So. What are your mix-tapes? Do you have rules? Does any of this make sense? Go whip something up at Muxtape. My username is Meat99. Rok.

Well, the TV Networks, Entertainment networks, Cable Networks and Silly, closed-minded online networks agree. It’s happening. All around you.

Kick Ass.Viacom is STARTING to catch on to Rich Thinking. They’re going open.  They’re engaging their audiences like active participants instead boobing us like mindless sheep.  They’re giving us what we’ve been waiting for. Viacom and SouthParkStudios delivered on the promise they gave last year, and gave us all South Park episodes ever created for free. You can find them all at Southparkstudios.com.

Finally, the day has come…sorta.  :)

You can’t embed the entire episodes (only the 3000 available clips), but it’s a step in the right direction. 

This article talks about the video-game-as-forum-for-debut as though it is the only new move/trend in music. Funny, it seems to me this phenomenon is almost mainstream at this point. Music today has boundaries that stretch far beyond what gets on the radio or in the music store (wherever that is). We all know this. Or do we?

If you want really obscure stuff, it’s out there but you’ll probably have to look further than even video games. If you prefer ambient/electronic music with few or no words, a lot of artists have cropped up in this genre thanks to the bit-torrents, filepilez and gnutellas of the world. Electronic music took advantage of (arguably created!) this distribution mechanism as the genre’s relatively niche´ sound has proven to be difficult to effectively promote outside of its small fan base.

Just because things like iTunes exist, doesn’t mean you’re still getting access to obscure, different or incredibly “indie” music. Like anything else, for the real gems, you’ve gotta dig deeper.

If you’re up for some digging, here’s some I’ve discovered and liked: Mylo, Kavinsky, Digitalism, 65daysofstatic, Four Tet, Explosions in the Sky, Boards of Canada, oh and how could I forget: Aphex Twin.

who’s in?

For a second I thought the post was about “Rock Band Experts starting Real Band.” I wonder why hasn’t this happened yet! LOL. Seriously, anyone want to be in my band?