Sunday, July 31, 2011

R U READY?



The enthusiasm over the last SB joint was palatable. So hold on to your horses, because here's the second release off of "The Greatest Hits of... The Scoobie Brothers".

This was the lead off single off of "IT'S THE NEW SCOOB" (also known as the MySpace Album).

Who knew that all those times you bumped this on MySpace it wasn't "R U Ready (to party)?", it was "R U Ready (for post-apocolyptic Mad Max world)"?

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Spotify



Anyone else messing with Spotify yet? I like it... it's like a huge free iTunes.

Only thing you have to do is listen to commercials (i think you can pay $4.99 a month to make that go away). In listening to "BadMotorFinger" start to end (inspired by S.O.S.'s post) there were like three or four commercials, half "editorial" commercials talking about diff features of Spotify, and half an actual song with the artist saying "Hey this is Gary Stevenson, check out my new record on Spotify!". If you mute your computer it "pauses" the commercial, so they got you there. There are banner ads promoting music you can listen to on Spotify as well. I actually like that functionality, I saw a few banners for something i was vaguely interested in... click, and you are checking out the full album for free.

If the commercials and banners were tailored to music I was interested in based on my searches or playlists, or even based on my own personal library, I wouldn't mind at all, but it sucks when my BadMotorFinger vibe is suddenly interrupted by a "Drake" song that I'm forced to listen to for 30 seconds. Assuming some if not most of you don't even know who that is, but it's worse than Ke$$$ha. Playing some totally unrelated track is not going to make me buy, or even listen to, that artist and it just fills me with rage towards Spotify.

There is a ton of music there, I'll give it like a 7 out of 10 on obsurity scale: searches for Black Dice and Lightning Bolt were fruitful, for example. A search for Emeralds had hits, but "Imaginary Softwoods" did not. Jesus LIzard and Naked Raygun came up big, but Big Black and Rapeman were absent. Kurt Vile actually had a banner and a voice over commercial thing.

I don't understand the business model... I'm sure that info is out there but frankly, I don't care. In any case, artists are getting a cut, so it is an interesting new alternative and I think that's one reason it is blowing up.

All-in-all, I give Spotify 5 stars, it's nice to have, not a life changer, although I absolutely have been using it all week at work. If they add a Pandora-like functionality so it knows what I like, even better. And I'm assuming content will just continue to grow exponentially.

Carry on.

dc

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Soundgarden@ The Forum in L.A.

They went on right at 9:00 as we walked in (missed Mars Volta) and proceeded to blow it up for 2.5 hours! I never know what to expect from bands who break up, and claim they will never reunite and play again. This show exceeded my expectations. Matt Cameron is a fine drummer. They have a ton of drum heavy songs, but I didn't appreciate it until hearing him live, and he sings backup! Cornell can still hit most if not all the high notes, which is madness. Kim Thayil played all the dropped d sludge riffs you'd ever need and blazed through all the solos in fine form. Can't say much about the bass playing, I could barely hear it on most songs. Maybe it was the acoustics, my location, or the mix. A 25 song set including encore, not too much chatter between songs,Mike Mcready played guitar on Superunknown, and a long bass/guitar feedback extravaganza to end the night. I'd really like to hear them at Nokia or some newer venue.

Anybody see this before? Internet cops are out!

I got this when I logged in to the dashboard:
We have received a DMCA complaint for your blog, What We Are Listening To.... An e-mail with the details of the complaint was sent to you on Jun 24, 2011 , and we reset the post status to "Draft"; you can edit it here. You may republish the post with the offending content and/or link(s) removed. If you believe you have the rights to post this content, you can file a counter-claim with us. For more on our DMCA policy, please click here. Thank you for your prompt attention.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Autre Ne Veut

Autre Ne Veut: S/T, Olde English Spelling Bee 2010

Yesterday I hooked up the turntable that's just been sitting here in our apartment, took the bus down to the record store, and bought the first LP I've ever walked into a store and shelled out for. This was that LP- Autre Ne Veut's debut from December of last year. It's synthesizer R&B that looks back over its shoulder at the '90s (in the British sense of '90s R&B infused dance music) whilst keeping ten fingers firmly on the control surface of a very densely layered and arranged set of wobbly electronics.




Autre Ne Veut: Body EP 2011 (yes, that's supposed to be the cover art)
This is the record that alerted me to the existence of this band in the first place. You can hear a little more Erasure in the influences on this one. The idea of typical pop song structure and forward motion seems to have found a better foothold in the guy's head by the time he started working on this record, to boot. The opening track, "Sweetheart", grabbed me right away.

Autre Ne Veut - Sweetheart by Liunatic

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

LATEST SCOOBIE BROS INFO!!!!



In honor of the "Darkside (of the Scoob) EP" basically being done, we are putting out videos for a new LP collecting our favorite tracks from the past ten years (!) of releases entitled "Greatest Hits Of.... The Scoobie Brothers."

First up, who can forget this #1 banger off of the "NEW SCOOB EP"? Ladies and gentlemen, please check out, "Elextrotrazz Scoob".

Sincerely,

D-Sizzle

Pearl Jam: Self Pollution Radio


In honor of my nostaglia trip to see a reformed Soundgarden on Friday night I am posting this. If you are jonesing for some mid 90's grunge check this out. Recorded live in Seattle 1995 this was a 4 hour radio broadcast with live tracks from Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mad Season, The Fastbacks, Mudhoney, Krist from Nirvana w/ Pearl Jam. Lots of phone calls, chatter and they play tracks from Descendents,Hovercraft and a whole lotta other stuff. The have a section where dudes are playing their mix tapes!
http://www.searchingforchetbaker.com/2009/12/pearl-jam-self-pollution-rare-4-hour.html


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Help Me Build My Summer Playlist

Okay, crowd participation here . . . I want a nice playlist for the rest of the summer, so everybody pitch in with their favorite summer songs.  I would prefer new material, but toss in some old stuff too if you're feelin' it.

Post as many times as you wish.

Here's my first summer hit:



and just for grins:

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

!!!

Holy shit! Led Zeppelin II!!!

Thurston Moore




I know this is going to piss some people off but I decided that I think Thurston Moore is really over-rated. I think dude's really more of a scenester than a brilliant artist. I like Sonic Youth as much as the next guy, they've never been my favorite band but I've had moments where I've loved their records, what they were all about, etc. And I guess that's the thing, half of it with Sonic Youth is what they're all about, not necessarily the music, which is actually pretty awful at least a quarter of the time. Sonic Youth embodies a NY downtown vibe and they still rule the scene, now in a kind of older-brother/punk sister kind of way. I got all excited about Thurston Moore's new solo record "Demolished Thoughts", produced by Beck, it was being compared to Beck's "Sea Change", which was a big album for me. Meh, it's okay, maybe a little better than his other solo album, "Trees Outside the Academy", but it's really nothing special and dude benefits so much from Beck turning the dials and all sorts of cool instrumentation. He's not that great a songwriter, guitarist, singer or lyricist. If I want to hear the kind of raw, hushed vocals, folk-punk thing I'll go back to early Elliott Smith, and if I want to remember some girl fucking up my heart (boohooo) I'll check out "Sea Change". I don't hate though, I'd probably be all gay and spastic if I met TM and tell him I have a Sonic Youth song as my ringtone, but I'm just saying, dude ain't all that.




Oh, if ya'll are bored at work or whatever spend time on this blog, DC got me hip to it and it's cracking me up. To keep it relevant on the music tip here's a link to dude ranting about internet rap.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

ambient, scores, & doors

i give to you my friends a nice mellow playlist for a hot summer day:

*Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who can See but Cannot Feel
*Peter Gabriel - Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ
*Thomas Newman - American Beauty (score)
*The Doors - An American Prayer
*Vangelis - Blade Runner (score)
*Panda Bear - Person Pitch

....insert into music player, and press "random"

Saturday, July 2, 2011

July 4th Super Post

What's happening, broheims. Happy 4th of July. Here are a few random things that have been on my mind:



This is my all time #1 summer time jam. Ras Michael and Sons of Negus "Rastafari Dub". This CD has been in my car for a few years, and once it gets played it doesn't leave the stereo for 9 or 10 listens. I actually bought this on iTunes originally, but I found it on MediaFire. Top shelf.



Here's another reason I love collecting records. I have like three full shelves of random bullshit, like stuff i drag out and sell for $1.00 a record when i have a Garage Sale (which i probably bought for $1.00 at a Garage Sale). There is some good stuff in there, i guess, but lots and lots of trash. Anyway, i was going through it looking for samples and came up on this Milton Nascimiento record. The cover is gayer than chopped salad, but then i threw it on the turntable, and it's actually really, really good! Just slipped through the net somehow. The record was recorded in 1973, but cover is from 1988. Looks can be deceiving, grasshopper. Below is a stand out cut that i really dig for some reason... the YouTube clip has some crazy video footage I'll use for a Scoobie Brothers video:



I guess i said Super Post but I mainly just wanted to comment on those 2 things. Trouble Books & Mark McGuire is a super duper album, should be able to find it on the internet. The new Beastie Boys is actually getting a fair amount of play on my commute and what not. I listened to that Dirty Beaches record a few times this week, its good.

All right, have a great holiday my friends.



dc