UK Musician George Barnett Says He Understands if You need to Pirate his New Album

Before yesterday I had never even heard of a George Barnett. In fact, the first time he came to my attention was when I saw him staring at me from on the landing page of The Pirate Bay.

After finally managing to rend my soul away from his penetrating gaze and his mussy, mop top hair style I began to absorb what he was actually saying.

Oftentimes when new albums come out and you’re not familiar with the artist it can seem daunting to drop $10 or $11 bucks on an album you may not even like. This is definitely a good way to check out, drive it around the block and kick the tires.

However, we as consumers, need to keep one thing in mind. Don’t be a dick. If someone is thoughtful enough to give you the green light to download their music for free, understanding hardships and all, we need to be vigilant about not becoming a ravenous group of users that constantly take and never contribute anything.

As more artists like Radiohead, Louis C.K. and Trent Reznor, to name a few take control of their own product, cut out the middleman and bring us awesome entertainment for a fraction of the price because everyone penny of it is going back to the artist and the people involved in making the happen.

Radiohead Releases First Video from ‘King of Limbs’ on YouTube, Album Available for Download Today

Earlier this week Radiohead made a surprise announcement that, not only did they have a new album out, but it was available for pre-order and could be downloaded on Saturday. Well the digital only version of the album is already available for download and can be purchased at the album’s website KingofLimbs.com.

They’ve also released a video on YouTube of what apparently is the first single off the album called ‘Lotus Flower’. Check it out above and let me know what you think in the comments.

Radiohead’s New Album ‘The King of Limbs’ Available for Download This Saturday

Out of nowhere Radiohead announced that it has a new album and, once again, you can download it online through the official album website The King of Limbs. You can order the Newspaper Album or just digital.

Newspaper Album – PRESALE

Radiohead’s new record, The King Of Limbs, is presented here as the world’s first* Newspaper Album, comprising:

  • Two clear 10″ vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve.
  • A compact disc.
  • Many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradeable plastic to hold it all together.
  • The Newspaper Album comes with a digital download that is compatible with all good digital media players.
  • The Newspaper Album will be shipped on Monday 9th May 2011 you can, however, enjoy the download on Saturday 19th February 2011.
  • Shipping is included in the prices shown.
  • One lucky owner of the digital version of The King Of Limbs, purchased from this website, will receive a signed 2 track 12″ vinyl.

*perhaps

Or you can get digital only.

Digital only – PRESALE

Radiohead’s new record, The King Of Limbs, is presented here with a choice of two digital formats:

  • MP3 version is a 320K constant bit rate file.
  • WAV version is a full CD quality uncompressed digital audio file.
  • One lucky owner of the digital version of The King Of Limbs, purchased from this website, will receive a signed 2 track 12″ vinyl.

The King of Limbs can be pre-ordered now and downloaded on Saturday 19th February 2011.

You can pre-order both now on The King of Limbs website.

Conductor: Turns the NYC Subway System Into a Melodic Stringed Instrument

Conductor turns the New York subway system into an interactive string instrument. Using the MTA’s actual subway schedule, the piece begins in realtime by spawning trains which departed in the last minute, then continues accelerating through a 24 hour loop. The visuals are based on Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 diagram.

This is beyond cool and oddly captivating. It’s easy to find yourself reluctant to stop watching just so you don’t miss what’s coming up next.

The site, which is located at mta.me, was created by Alexander Chen. On his blog he explains more about of the inspiration and technical aspects of the piece, like the fact that it’s written in HTML5 and Javascript, which means you can even watch it on your iPhone. Take that Flash.

According to Chen, “The piece follows some rules. Every minute, it checks for new trains launched from their end stations. The train then moves towards the end of the line, with its speed set by the schedule’s estimated trip duration. Some decisions were made for musical, aesthetic, and technical reasons, such as fading out routes over time, the gradual time acceleration, and limiting the number of concurrent trains. Also, I used the weekday schedule. Some of these limitations result in subtle variations, as different trains are chosen during each 24-hour loop.”

The mta.me site is also interactive, you can pull and pluck and strum the strings yourself to add your own musical flair to the orchestra.

Note: While I was able to load and view the mta.me page on my iPhone I wasn’t able to hear any sounds. There was a message at the bottom of the page that said “Loading sound (0%)” so I’m not sure if that’s a permanent or temporary issue.

The Beatles Finally Get Their Big Break on iTunes, Sell 450,000 Albums in First Week

After decades of wallowing in near obscurity the Beatles were thrust into the spotlight last week when their entire catalogue went on sale in the iTunes Store.

More than 450,000 albums were sold along with over 2 million individual songs, in just one week. “Abbey Road” and “Here Comes the Sun”, respectively, were the two big winners.

Legal wrangling between the Beatles’ Apple Corp. and Apple ended in 2007, it took three more years for Apple to launch the Beatles in iTunes.

Your kids’ iPods are now officially cooler than yours.

Jay-Z: ‘The Hits Collection Vol. 1′ Website Brushes Dirt Off Its Shoulder and Launches in Dramatic Fashion

For anyone that knows me it’s probably not a secret that I’m a huge Jay-Z fan (Brooklyn!), that and the fact that my all blue Yankee hat is my graduation cap. That’s my disclaimer that this review may be a little biased since I have literally every single Jay-Z album on my iPhone for my anytime Hova fix.

Well the man has released Vol. 1 of his ultimate hits collection and launched a website to promote it that will literally blow your ass away. I’m normally not a fan of all flash based sites, but this one is so smooth and so fast that it still manages to have a great user experience.

You can buy the Deluxe CD, which includes a “Deluxe Linen Covered Case with Debossed JAY-Z “DIAMOND” LOGO containing a Double CD with Rarities and 32 Pages of Rare Photos” for $17.99 or you can go big and get some other great stuff like some autographed, limited edition Skullcandy + Rocnation Aviator Headphones that will put you back $149.99.

Then, there’s the the Ultimate collection which includes:

  • JAY–Z’s AUTOGRAPH Laser–Etched on Endcaps with Platinum Sound 40mm Audio Driver and Inline Mic for Use with Mobile Phone
  • Crafted from Stainless Steel, Aluminum, and comes with Poly Carbonate and Protective Carrying Case
  • 100 Page Bound Photo Book with Rare JAY-Z Photos and Numbered Linen Covered Box with Debossed JAY-Z “DIAMOND” LOGO
  • Deluxe Linen Covered Case with Debossed JAY-Z “HANDS” LOGO containing a Double CD with Rarities and 32 Pages of Rare Photos

For $199.99, that’s not a bad deal at all. In fact if someone at Roc-a-Fella or Island DefJam wants to send me that collection I’ll do a video unboxing of it and review it relentlessly.

The site covers his entire career and breaks it down into four different sections. Each section has sub-sections of videos, photos, discography and milestones covering each era. Whether or not your a Jay-Z fan you can’t help but be drawn in by his story and how well he’s able to play it out in this one website.

I was going to take some more screencaps of the site but there’s no way they would do it justice, just go there and see it for yourself, it does play a medley of the songs on the album so make sure your speakers are down if you’re checking it out at work. OK, enough, go check it for yourself.

Atomic Tom: The Coolest Thing You’ll See Involving iPhones, Hipsters and the Subway All Day

Legend has it that the NYC band Atomic Tom had their band equipment stolen by some asshole. They must be pacifists because instead finding the thieves and beating them to a pulp they took to the subway and made a totally fucking awesome music video using nothing but iPhones.

I’d never heard of these guys before but this song kicks much ass and the way they manage to use their iPhones kicks even more ass. I’ll shut up now, just watch.

Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake and The Roots perform a history of hip-hop

This is freaking sweet.

Cee-Lo’s “F**K YOU.”

I’ve been working on a project for the past few days but keep seeing this mentioned. Just watched it and now I know why. And if you don’t know who Cee-Lo is you may know him from Gnarls Barkley, or if you’re really old school and you like hip-hop he’s from the Goodie Mob.

The Roots on Yo Gabba Gabba

I can’t get this song out of my head, it’s so damn catchy. Children’s shows weren’t this cool when I was a kid. My daughter is 10 months old and actually starts dancing when this song comes on. It’s pretty amazing.

It may be a kids show but it has some major appeal. Apparently Jack Black’s wife actually wrote into the show begging them to let him make an appearance, which he eventually did.

The YO GABBA GABBA! album was ranked by the Los Angeles Examiner as one of the top 10 albums of the year, among albums from artists including GNR, The Roots, RTX, J.D. Souther, The Clash, Marah, The Knux, Q-Tip and My Morning Jacket.

“5. Yo Gabba Gabba – Soundtrack – They say it’s for kids, but this is a show that aging punks, soon to be hockey Moms and Little Mr. and Ms all love in equal measure. How good? So good. It’s not a question of how much fun this Nick Jr. release is, it is really a question of how much fun you can take.”

Make Free iPhone Ringtones from Your MP3s in 5 Easy Steps

iPhone Custom RingtonesOK, so I guess the term “easy” is relative.  But I’m going to layout how I did it and hopefully it will help some people who’ve been wanting to create their own ringtones and not have to basically buy the song twice from iTunes.  It’s really ridiculous that there is no free, easy way to make ringtones for your iPhone.  Not to mention I was getting pretty sick of hearing Marimba constantly.

In order to do this you’re going to need Audacity, a free audio editor, if you don’t have it you should go download it.  The second thing you’ll need is a DRM free mp3, which means you cannot use any song you bought from iTunes (although iTunes is starting to sell DRM free songs).  Basically any song you backed up from a CD or you can also go to Amazon to buy your mp3s, they are all DRM free.  And the Amazon download tool will put your songs right into iTunes with no extra work for you.

So, once you have Audacity, or some other audio editing software of your choice, and a DRM free mp3, you’re ready to go.

Check out the step by step instructions after the jump.

[Read more...]

The Wall Street Journal made me seem like an Apple fanboy

After writing the Obama/Zune article last night I guess I didn’t realize how much the issue would linger.  I was attempting to crack wise about it and make the point about who gives a crap what Obama listens to his music on while he exercises, but taken out of context it made me seem like I was a Mac fan boy.  

The Apple crowd isn’t as psyched. “You can’t run an election claiming you own an iPod and garnering people’s votes then after you win suddenly start toting around a Zune. That’s just not cool,” writes James Poling.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen.  According to the Wall Street journal, a respected and well established news outlet, I am “the Apple crowd”.  That has to count for something right?  Can’t someone at Apple hook me up with a free Macbook Pro to blog on or something?

P.S. I do have an email into the Obama camp to hopefully settle this once and for all.  I’m sure it’s right on the top of their to-do list.

I refuse to believe President-elect Obama uses a Zune

Even though Obama specifically says in his June 25, 2008 interview in Rolling Stone that he owns an iPod, some Philadelphia blogger with a plunger on his face claims to have seen Obama working out with a Zune.  Yes, I know this is the dumbest fucking story of the century and I apologize in advance, but I’d just like to point out that Neal Santos may secretly own stock in Microsoft’s Zune project and may be trying to give it a bump.

Rolling Stone:

Obama waxed rhapsodic about his favorite artists, many of whom — Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jay-Z — have shown him love with endorsements.

“If I had one musical hero, it would have to be Stevie Wonder,” says Obama, who grew up on Seventies R&B and rock staples including Earth, Wind and Fire, Elton John and the Rolling Stones. “When I was at that point where you start getting involved in music, Stevie had that run with Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Innervisions, and then Songs in the Key of Life. Those are as brilliant a set of five albums as we’ve ever seen.”

Wonder shares room on Obama’s iPod with “everything from Howlin’ Wolf to Yo-Yo Ma to Sheryl Crow,” he says. “And I have probably 30 Dylan songs on my iPod.” Though he’s partial to 1975’s Blood on the Tracks, “Maggie’s Farm” is “one of my favorites during the political season,” says Obama. “It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric.”

This may actually be up there with the “boxers or briefs” question Clinton was asked on MTV during his campaign. 

But seriously though, you can’t run an election claiming you own an iPod and garnering people’s votes then after you win suddenly start toting around a Zune.  That’s just not cool. It’s likely to give the impression that politicians aren’t trustworthy or something.

Vatican forgives John Lennon for Jesus remark

I’m sure the guy who wrote about a world without religion, will finally be able to rest easy now that the Vatican has forgiven him.

“The remark by John Lennon, which triggered deep indignation mainly in the United States, after many years sounds only like a ‘boast’ by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success, after growing up in the legend of Elvis and rock and roll,” Vatican daily Osservatore Romano said.

Guess they finally decided it pales in comparison to that whole pesky inquisition thing.

Bike Hero

I have no idea how long this could have possibly taken or how much time these kids have on their hands, but I have to admit that this is pretty fucking cool.  Watch all the way to the end, it’s worth it.