I like this idea. Ten hand-picked MP3s for £1, with new sets available monthly. Licensed by MCPS-PRS so the bands get paid but DRM free so the listeners aren’t getting a crap deal instead. Partnered with Scotland’s free arts paper The Skinny and currently featuring a set of tunes picked by Optimo so it’s checking all the local hipster buttons too. Swishy iTunes style website. AND they have a track by diskant faves Findo Gask.

It seems so rare these days to see a good idea in the music business that isn’t ripping people off or making a quick buck or getting sued by the RIAA. I wish them the best of luck.

www.tentracks.co.uk

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4[/youtube]

I can’t imagine the work that went into this, first animation to make me slack-jawed since Princess Mononoke. I have an idea that it’s already been ripped off for a car advert but that’s hardly their fault.

Made in Argentina by some people / thing called BluBlu.

You Tube Gold, having something of a nostalgia-trip today but how cracking are some of these tunes?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9of3sefxY4[/youtube]

SCARCE – ALL SIDEWAYS

Love this song. The guitar is so bendy. I think I saw Scarce once but unfortunately my brain is shot through like Swiss Cheese and I can’t decide if I dreamt it or not. Phil Welding swears he saw Page & Plant play the Ballroom in Nottingham and there is NO WAY that happened. Mind you, I only know I saw the Jesus Lizard because I can pick me out in the footage from TV show The Beat.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnQ0mUoyKCg[/youtube]

SENSELESS THINGS – HOLD IT DOWN (Live)

If these guys had done less speed and cider and slowed it down they’d have sounded like Neil Young. Of course that means I wouldn’t have dug them in 1993.  More from The Word in a moment…

Continue reading »

Apparently a Dundee-based music magazine is getting ~£230,000 public funds to fund its digital expansion.

the company also produces most of its journalism in London, in words of O’Rourke, carrying out “the nuts and bolts” work on the magazine and the website in Dundee.

It is an approach that has brought them wide plaudits, winning several industry awards and an exclusive interview with Paul McCartney on the release of his new album last year.

I’ve never seen a copy. Is it any good? (I mean by the standards of magazines that value exclusive Paul McCartney interviews in the 21st century….) Suppose its cool that there’s work there for typesetters, etc (though there seems to be a shortage of proofreaders if that Sunday Herald extract is typical) but what does this mean, “massive digital expansion of his brand”.

Yeah, I’ve seen a music website too. I could name a couple of people who’ll do you one for less than half a million and all.

Someone is missing the point, probably it’s me…

Haven’t bothered visiting the Onion for quite a while, it seemed that either the written content was getting formulaic or I couldn’t find the lulz because of the redesign.

However, I’m liking their video podcasts. From the 2 I’ve seen, they’re doing for US cable news what the Day Today did to News at Ten. This one (Beijing Olympics: Trap?) is like a 3 minute primer on Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent.

In other news: beat rising prices by holding a barbecue at your house. Result: fridge full of food.

Sarky IT news site the Register has an interesting article about Last.fm and independent labels. Apparently the site (now owned by the massive CBS) that used to be cuddly little Audioscrobbler isn’t passing much of anything on to the artists whose music it streams, despite shouting about how cool it is.

Just 10% of advertising revenue goes into the musicians’ pot, not any of the subscription revenue. Maybe it’s that I’m running AdBlock but I don’t remember seeing any adverts on last.fm.

The article continues an amusing analogy between “web2.0” sites and sharecropping, where lots of people do work on a small scale while one big site (i.e. landlord) creams off the revenue. It’s all about the Benjamins, no matter how many beanbags you have in your office…

Datassette.net / Daytrotter / Burning World
I haven’t been buying many records lately, due to extreme skintitude, but I am discovering the joys of free music on the internets.  I don’t go in for gratuitous piracy of full albums by bands who genuinely need the cash, but there are loads of sites from which to download single-track samples of new records, live bootlegs, or music by unsigned or just plain prolific artists who don’t mind giving it away from free.  Some of my favourites:  Datassette.net – Lovely glitchy 8-bit electronica and ingeniously evil mash-ups. Daytrotter – John Peel reincarnated as an American website.  Loads of exclusive sessions to sook down to your hard-drive. Burning World – Awesome MP3 blog.   Individual tunes plus occasional radio sessions from way back when. But visiting any of those, Firefox users shoud install DownThemAll, an exceptionally useful extension that allows you to automatically download all files of a certain type from a given page.  Ideal for grabbing a big handful of MP3s in one go.

Flickr
Still love Flickr. They added video which means I got to learn to use Movie Maker and make short films about winning at badminton. Here’s a visual tour diary from March 2008 too. I also discovered the joy of FAIL blog – so simple, so effective at raising a laugh from me. Yes, I’m about 5 years late. Story of my life…

JMusic Ignited
I don’t think I would ever have known that bands called Bathtub Shitter and Ogre You Asshole existed were it not for the JMUSIC IGNITED website. And now I’m pissing my money away on JPop CDs on Ebay as a result. [JGram]

Homestarrunner
I honestly don’t know. But this has reminded me that I haven’t checked out Homestarrunner in years – I’m off to look at that right now. [Simon Minter]

Shopify/Etsy/Twitter
I spend far too much time on Etsy, selling, buying and reading stuff in the forums. The place for handmade stuff, you can buy literally anything on Etsy, from original paintings, zines and handprinted tshirts to cookie dough soap, Super Mario coasters and knitted Yoda earmuffs. I only dabble in Etsy though, saving most of my online shopping love for Shopify, an online shop service so good and run by such awesome people that I made them a cake. Also, no day is complete without documenting every random thought I have via my Twitter. What are YOU doing? [Marceline Smith]

Nothing
The internet’s so old hat now – hadn’t you heard? [Dave Stockwell]

Amazing!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160246683389&fromMakeTrack=true

Plus, strange nudity trend:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/risque/kettle.asp

Some emails of possible interest

* The legendary Creation compilation Doing It For The Kids has inspired a new 3CD charity compilation which features such Creation luminaries ex-Jasmine Minks members, Ed Ball, and um, one of Hurricane #1. There are also tracks by the likes of Ballboy, Popup, de Rosa and The Orchids. There are only 266 actual copies available, which will be individually auctioned for Yorkhill Children’s Hospital in Glasgow. You can also download the whole thing here for just £6.49 with all proceeds going to charity. Find out more at www.myspace.com/yorkhillproject

* Roger from the on-hiatus Dawn Of The Replicants has set up “a shabby DIY label type of a thing” called Shark Batter with his brother and are releasing a bunch of new things soon including his new band TheStarkPalace, The Stone Ghost Collective and Vacuum Spasm Babies. Have a listen and find out more at www.myspace.com/sharkbatterrecords

* Beginning your email, “Dear Fierce Terrifying Force” is one way to get my attention. Tom Braham is from Southampton and does aa “free weekly show of nit-wit fun and the best bands live in session” by podcast Not sure about “best” but they are certainly big-ish names like I Am Kloot and Six Nation State. Have a listen here.

* It seems to be down just now but hopefully that’s just a blip. wikimobileactunsigned.com is a wiki “for local band scenes across the UK to create and maintain a local directory of useful stuff in their area. Everything from record labels, studios, local papers and radio, gig venues, cd duplication places, t-shirt printing places, etc etc.”  Good idea if people find some time to help out.

That’s all for now.

http://sumlin.muxtape.com/

There you go, couldn’t rename the tracks as it keeps telling me there’s an error so here’s the tracklisting:

• Neil Young – Cinnamon Girl
• Jimi Hendrix Experience – Killing Floor (live)
• The Sonics – Have Love, Will Travel
• Oneida – Doin Business In Japan
• MC5 – Looking At You
• Ike & Tina Turner – Untitled
• Yardbirds – Stroll On
• Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Diddy wah diddy
• Sebadoh – Flame
• The Elastik Band – Spazz
• The Buffalo Springfield – Mr. Soul
• Howlin’ Wolf – Wang Dang Doodle