Tapes 'N Tapes at the Fillmore in San Francisco on Saturday.

The recent release of Tapes 'N Tapes' second full-length album, Walk if Off, met with lukewarm reviews from critics but their fans don't seem to have gotten the memo. The band continues to build a name for itself with solid, kinetic performances as they finish up their U.S. tour and prepare for Europe.

"Music is so subjective," says singer and guitar player Josh Grier, "everybody hears it differently. If I took everything that was ever written or said about us to heart and was like, 'Oh they're right, we just can't do it right,' I'd go crazy and it wouldn't be any fun for me anymore."

Based in Minnesota, Tapes was a classic example of what has become a common story: After a few key blogs started hyping the band's first independently-produced album, their careers were put into hyperdrive almost overnight. They now seem to be weathering a bit of a critical backlash on top of the standard stigma of the sophmore album slump. In their galvanizing live shows, however, Tapes prove that the accusations of clumsy rip-offs and thin song-writing are based more on misguided expectations rather than the band's music.

Continue reading "Tapes 'N Tapes Have a Mind for Math and a Focus on Fun" »

As an architect of the legendary Talking Heads, David Byrne once offered up an album called More Songs About Buildings and Food. These days, he's tripping into architecture and turning a building into food for the ears. I think I just stopped making sense.

Let's start over. Starting May 31, visitors to New York's Battery Maritime Building will be able to take part in Byrne's interactive music installation called simply "Playing the Building." Like its self-explanatory title implies, the Battery will be fitted with devices that will allow visitors to make music off of the piping, pillars and more. It's an interesting way to view the structures we take for granted in everyday life. According to Byrne, it could be the future of music itself.

Continue reading "David Byrne Converts Building Into Giant Instrument" »

From Buffalo Springfield to CSNY to a storied solo career, Neil Young has more than made his name in the rock game. Now, thanks to East Carolina University biologist Jason Bond, he's also making a name for himself in science.

Literally.

Bond discovered a new species of trapdoor spider last year in Alabama and set about publishing a paper about it with Norman I. Platnick, curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. When it came time to name his discovery, Bond reached not into the annals of science but  those of music, dubbing it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi (teach your children how to pronounce that). While it was Young's diverse sonic offerings that initially attracted Bond to the idea, it was the Canadian legend's track record on sociopolitics that clinched the deal.

"I really enjoy his music," Bond explained in a press release, "and have had a great appreciation of him as an activist for peace and justice."

In honor of Bond's discovery, take a listen to Young's epic tale of colonization "Cortez the Killer" below. I would have posted his more topically polemical tune "Let's Impeach the President," but I just like my job too much.

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Photo: Wikipedia

In a piece called "Hip-hop is no longer cooler than me," Salon's Paul Kix argues that the once-forward-thinking genre has lost its way in a maze of dance steps and oversimplified production:

We are witnessing nothing less than the Macarena-zation of a genre. Because of Soulja Boy's success, industry execs now demand that new artists have dances at the ready to accompany their albums. The dances help drive up sales, that fast-disappearing commodity. And so the airwaves and Interwebs are still filthy with song-and-dance numbers, like Pop It Off Boyz' "Crank Dat Batman" and last year's "Chicken Noodle Soup" song, which accomplishes the impossible by being dumber than it sounds but remains great fun for 50-year-olds in middle management
...

Look, I'm not confused or annoyed by hip-hop, like older rock fans are by, say, Fall Out Boy. More than anything I'm embarrassed. Since when did young black men, heretofore the arbiters of pop culture, become so lame? And since when did the citizens of that culture not know the difference?

A friend of mine who has been the editor of at least one major music magazine once told me hip-hop was the only form of music he still cared about, because nothing else was making any kind of significant forward progress. However, he agreed with Kix that it's running out of steam.

Continue reading "Is Hip-Hop Over?" »

In a bid to remain relevant as radio migrates to the internet, Clear Channel had struck a deal with Pandora to stream its interactive music stations across all of its websites, according to a Billboard article posted earlier today.

However, a deal has not been signed, according to a Clear Channel spokesman.

Billboard has since updated its article to say that Clear Channel is readying some sort of online streaming service, but that it is eying a link-up with Pandora, as opposed to having already signed a deal.

Pandora CEO Tim Westergren was on a plane and my Billboard contact wasn't around, so the story was difficult to confirm. However, a Clear Channel representative just told me that the that expression "'eying' is wrong," and that the company "hasn't announced a partner" for its upcoming streaming service.

Continue reading "Clear Channel Might Distribute Pandora Stations (Updated)" »

A band of pranksters called Forbidden Ensemble have released the answer to a question they themselves posed: "What happens if you put three professional musicians in a recording studio and ... have them watch porn movies?"

These talented players crafted the eleven songs that make up Porno Soundtracks Volume 1 while watching vintage '70s pornography in their studio, and the results are better than you might imagine. Forbidden Ensemble describes it as "like a combination of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof and the Emanuelle sequels of adult movies," and they're not far off. It's highly listenable stuff, evoking a tawdry mood indicative of its inspiration. But regardless of how this compilation was made, it's an entertaining listen.

Continue reading "The Sound Of Seventies Porn, Reimagined" »

Virtual instruments may be going the way of recorded music: free and online.

We've seen plenty of sites that let you make or mix music in a rudimentary way, but none that offer the deep feature set of Hobnox AudioTool. This free online electronic music studio lets you compose with two TB-303 Bass Line generators, Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines and two banks of effects pedals including three delays, crusher, detune, flanger, reverb, a parametric equalizer and a compressor. By clicking the mouse button, you can drag virtual cables between any output and any input to customize the setup.

Composing music in this way is a bit tedious, because you need to add and shape each note individually. But this is exactly how many electronic musicians work, because it allows so much control over each element of the loops and allows you to create melodies and beats without playing them.

Continue reading "Free Music Studio Means No More Excuses" »

Microsoft's Zune picked up a percentage point in the MP3 player market, bringing its share to a whopping four percent, with two million units sold (total). Microsoft has said from the start that it will stick with the Zune for as long as it takes for the player to gain traction, and it looks like that's starting to happen.

Apple's share of the MP3 player market share dropped a single point to 71 percent, according to the NPD Group's study, but its lead is still monstrous. The bigger loser between Q1 2007 and Q1 2008 was Creative, which saw its share halved to two percent.

Creative seems to be reacting by doubling down on what has always been its core business: sound cards and peripherals, rather than its MP3 players, which have traditionally featured excellent sound quality and long battery life but haven't caught on with the vast majority of users. Microsoft's abandonment of the PlaysforSure ecosystem for its Zune platform likely contributed to its fate.

SanDisk, which has the advantage of making its own flash memory, continued to leverage its strong relationship with Best Buy to increase its share to 11 percent.

Microsoft recently updated its Zune firmware with new features: television episode downloads, Zune Card milestone badges and friend syncing, a "now playing" indicator for Windows Live Messenger, drag-and-drop track renaming, genre sorting and smart on-the-fly playlist creation.

See Also:

• SanDisk Thinks MicroSD Is the New CD
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• Microsoft Zune Pays Bonus to Indie Labels

(Via Music Ally; Image from PMPToday)

Yuto Miyazawa isn't much taller than the guitars he expertly wields in this montage that shows up working his way through Ozzy Osborne's "Crazy Train," Eric Clapton's "Crossroads" and Char's "Smoky." (We hadn't heard of the last one either.)

Randi Rhoads and the other guitarists who came up with these riffs would probably be surprised to see how deftly this kid replicates their solos. Even more surprising is how many other eight-year-old guitarists are on YouTube, and how much better they are than the seven year olds. In order to cultivate the depth of experience necessary to bring the requisite soul to the instrument, seven years on this planet just doesn't cut it.

See Also:

• Guitar Hero Is a Gateway Drug
• Is Guitar Hero Changing Our Culture?
• 'Guitar Hero' For Real Guitars (Updated)
• Guitar Hero Band Releases First Full Album