free dem bots

new album from Free the Robots, "Ctrl Alt Delete" is coming.......

Free The Robots "Ctrl Alt Delete" Promo Video #1 from Alpha Pup on Vimeo.

Warp 2010: New Flying Lotus, Free Gonjasufi

2010 is shaping up to be a big year for electronic all-stars Warp. Just added to the mix is a sampler of their 2010 releases, including tracks from Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke, Bibio, and Rustie. You can grab the sampler @ independent record stores and online retailers, or stream it via their website, where you can grab a couple tracks for free, including the banger "Ancestors" from Gonjasufi.

As a side note: Flying Lotus will be touring with Thom Yorke this spring in the US, so keep an eye-out for tickets. NYC shows go on sale March 4th.

my playlist: Mike Slott

so i've had a $25 iTunes giftcard sitting in my wallet since christmas. it's one of those things you just put in and forget about, and then get a pleasant surprise when you're sorting through your receipts. needless to say I cashed it in straight away yesterday when it was found, adding some very good tunes to my library, including the new Four Tet, some FlyLo remixes, and a "micro full-length" from a newbie (at least on my radar), Mike Slott called Lucky 9Teen.

I've seen this dude's name being kicked around on blogs. He did a great remix for Flying Lotus on the L.A. EP 2x3, has done some stuff with Hudson Mohawke under the name "Heralds of Change", and has been sending out podcasts via LowEndTheory.

His sound is rooted in the ambient wonk-hop stylings of Flying Lotus and Hudson Mohawke (in fact, if you compare Lucky9Teen to Hudmo's "Butter", you can hear them using a lot of the same gear and production techniques). Lucky 9Teen, however, seems much more "together" than Hudson Mohawke's most recent release. The album flows very well start to finish, with a lot of different textures making an appearance.

I'm not exactly sure where he's from, but the pictures on his MySpace page hint at the big NYC, which gives me a mild amount of pride. He seems to be the first NYer that has made a dent on this particular scene, and raises hopes that people will start looking to our lovely city for more of this kind of music.

Wanna check it before you cop it? Say no more.......

download a podcast from Nobody & Mike Slott via lowendtheory

download Mike Slott's "Home" via universoulproductions

or check out the MySpace HERE





READY TO SHOW SOME LOVE?????

download Lucky 9Teen

on iTunes HERE

or...does anyone use eMusic?

iBaby

so i am incredibly pumped about apple's tablet, which they are suppossed to reveal in 2 days. so many possibilities, especially with music oriented apps and new ways to listen to your music. (when you've got an iPod with a 10 inch screen, accelerometers, super fast processor, and built in microphone and speakers, there's a lot to work with)

cruising around the rumor mill lead me to an article about the iPhone's super intuitive user interface and how game changing it really was. that sentiment is proved by this video where a 1 year old boy navigates through his parents iPhone with ease. Can you imagine a Toddler starting up Windows Vista. hehe that would be entertaining. enjoy...

glasslands: one down, one to go

oh man last saturday was a night. a niiiiiiiiiight! me and my dudes, aka fatty acid, played alongside TOKiMONSTA, BREAK SCIENCE, and KNXWLEDGE (tunes on the right) @ the glasslands in brooklyn. and although the sound system was ghetto, and the quarters were tight, the vibe was amongst the best i've experienced in a long time.

TOKiMONSTA sound was so intense. Like all the glasses shattered every time a kick drum hit. so good to see a female making a name for herself in the scene. (i can only really think of one other that's doin it, out of like 1,000) BREAK SCIENCE brought the ILL dubstep and KNXWLEDGE slayed with his lo-fi illadelph beats. we got some video and a lot of audio from the show, and i'll be throwing that up here as soon as i can.


(break science going in and out of "lightworks")

so...if you missed it, well there's a chance to be redeemed. fatty acid is heading back to glasslands on february 11th, when we'll be rocking the stage with ELIJAH B TORN (8bit lucid-core glitch pop) and the improvisational electro-pop sensation HANS BLIX. we're gunna be putting together some fresh covers and maybe even add another original tune into the mix.




in other, somewhat more embarrassing, news: you can now follow us on twitter @fattyacidmusic. see you there

The Dorf Matrix: Explaining NPR's Terrible taste in Black Music

When I saw this title, I laughed at loud, remembering all the times i've heard Victor Wooten slap a cheese-filled bass line across NPR's airwaves. I must say I really like NPR and its music programming (probably because I'm a bearded, college-grad white dude, as the article references) but the article does have a good point about NPR's programming in general.

article via Slate's culture blog "browbeat" by writer Jody Rosen:

"In August, National Public Radio's flagship music program All Songs Considered published "The Best Music of 2009 (So Far)," a rundown of the top 30 songs and albums of the year-to-date as voted by the show's listeners.

The results of the survey suggest that the All Songs Considered audience has a fuzzy understanding of the word "all." "The Best Music of 2009 (So Far)" consists almost entirely of indie-rockers: acts like The Decemberists, Wilco, Grizzly Bear, Neko Case, Andrew Bird, Regina Spektor, and Animal Collective, the Brooklyn art-rock group that took the top spot in both the best songs and best albums tallies. On the Best Songs list, there are no songs that cracked the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and none by African-American performers. Two black artists, Danger Mouse and Mos Def, made the Best Albums list, at numbers 20 and 23, respectively.

None of this is a surprise, of course. NPR's audience skews white and college-educated; so does Animal Collective's fan-base. In matters of musical taste, everyone has a God-given right to provincialism and conservatism, even those NPR listeners who consider themselves cosmopolitan and liberal. The numbers, of course, tell a different story. The NPR list leans not just white, but male—dudes with beards and guitars. So far in 2009, the No. 1 song on the Billboard charts has been by a black or female artist—or by groups featuring both blacks and whites or men and women—a total of 41 out of 42 weeks. (The exception is the current No. 1 hit, "Down," a collaboration between an Anglo-Asian R & B singer, Jay Sean, and an African-American rapper, Lil Wayne.) Who are the progressives again—the public radio crowd or the Top 40 great unwashed?"

read the rest of the article HERE

iPain

It was only a matter of time before Auto-Tune made it to your iPhone. This incarnation of the software is particularly cool, with the ability to sing along side seasoned auto-tuner T-Pain, and share your robotic serenades with friends. It's yours for $2.99. Pretty good deal considering the studio version costs over three hundred bucks. Check it ....

R.I.P. Les Paul

Les passed away today.

from the New York Times...

"Les Paul, the virtuoso guitarist and inventor whose solid-body electric guitar and recording studio innovations changed the course of 20th-century popular music, died Thursday in White Plains, N.Y. . He was 94.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, the Gibson Guitar Corporation and his family announced. .

Mr. Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar alongside leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar, although there are other claimants. With his guitar and the vocals of his wife, Mary Ford, he used overdubbing, multitrack recording and new electronic effects to create a string of hits in the 1950s."

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Musicians Find Backers as Labels Wane

from The New York Times, July 21st, 2009.....

"There was a time when most aspiring musicians had the same dream: to sign a deal with a major record label.

Now, with the structure of the music business shifting radically, some industry iconoclasts are sidestepping the music giants and inventing new ways for artists to make and market their music — without ever signing a traditional recording contract.

The latest effort comes from Brian Message, manager of the alternative band Radiohead, which gave away its last album, “In Rainbows,” on the Internet. His venture, called Polyphonic, which was announced this month, will look to invest a few hundred thousand dollars in new and rising artists who are not signed to record deals and then help them create their own direct links to audiences over the Internet."

FULL STORY HERE

Warp20 New York: Battles, Prefuse73, !!!

A monstrous concert is heading to NYC.

In celebration of Warp Records 20th Birthday, the label is bringing their big guns to NYC's Terminal 5 and putting on a monster of a show.

Headlining the date is the post-rock/big beat/face-melters "Battles". Embarrassingly, I've only been hip to these guys for the past couple months, but it's a live show that I've been salivating over since I heard the song B+T off of the "EP B/C EP" Record.

Supporting the main act is the avant-garde beat juggler Prefuse 73, !!!, and Pivot, along with Warp DJs filling in the gaps between sets.

There will also be a screening of some Warp Films, including some of the label's legendary music videos from the past 20 years.

Tickets go ON SALE TODAY, so don't miss out!

More info @ the Terminal 5 website

click on the bands to sample tracks:
Battles
Prefuse73
!!!
Pivot

The Deli Sells Out

If you're a New Yorker who likes indie music, chances are you've heard of the Deli Magazine, an online and hardcopy publication that discusses independent local music. The Deli is one of those blogs that aims to set trends, discover new talent, and remain free from the commercial and played-out strategies of the "mainstream music industry". For a second there, I thought it was just that. It's something of a Brooklyn Vegan or Stereogum, always looking to write about that group that no one has ever heard of.

The site constantly had reviews of new bands from all genres, and it was usually pretty good. I had noticed that just about all of the reviews were really positive, but I figured it was because they didn't care to write about stuff that didn't interest them. I was so wrong.

Then, to my horror, I got this message in my inbox.

" Subject: "NYC bands, affordble Deli rates!"

Message: "The Deli has some super discounted rates just for you for our Summer Issue, out in early July.

Here are some plans including both print and web starting at $99.

OPTION #1, $595
- Full page color ad in the mag
- 1 month ad on the website (in The Deli's Shortcut Blogads space) 30k impressions guaranteed
- banner ad in 2 weekly email newsletters (out to about 5k subscribers)
- complementary blog entry about one of the band's shows" "

Notice the tagline, "complementary blog entry"...

So essentially, for a little bit of cash, the Deli writers will show up to one of your shows and post a review. Doesn't this seem a little off? How are you going to write an unbiased review when the band is paying you to do so? If The Deli really claims to be a source for honest independent music, how can they expect their readers to respect their opinion after learning this?

It would be like President Obama paying a reporter to attend a speech of his and write a review. Even if the writer did claim to be objective, would anyone believe him? No, and they shouldn't.

So now when I read the Deli, how do I figure out who paid to be written about, and who was actually worthy of a glowing review? Answer: I can't.

If I want to know what a band thinks about themselves, I'll go to their myspace. And if I want to know what a real journalist thinks about them, I won't go to The Deli.

read more bullshit @ www.thedelimagazine.com

Warp Records celebrates 20 years

This year, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Warp Records, in my opinion the greatest and most influential record label today. They broke artists like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Autechre, Boards of Canada, and Battles. In celebration of 20 years, Warp has put together a special box set.

This thing is quite a collection. New Music, Old Music, remixes, Vinyl; it's got everything! For the somewhat reasonable price of 150 bones, here's what you can expect:

Warp20 (1989-2009) The Complete Catalogue: 192 page book
10” square, 192 page full-colour, perfect-bound book. The complete-ist’s dream – a catalogue of artwork of every Warp release from its inception in 1989 to August 2009. Includes artwork from over 400 sleeves including work by the Designers Republic, Julian House, Build, Universal Everything and Kim Hiorthøy amongst others. Foreword by Warp co-founder Steve Beckett. Black un-coated board cover with debossed and foiled typography.

Warp20 (Chosen): Double CD album
The definitive best of Warp on 2 x CDs. Ten songs chosen by you (Warp20.net), ten songs chosen by Warp co-founder Steve Beckett. Packaged in deluxe case-bound 10” folder, exclusive to this box set. Your personal messages and memories from Warp20.net featured on pullout poster.

Warp20 (Recreated): Double CD album
2 x CDs featuring twenty brand new cover versions of Warp songs by Warp artists past and present; including tracks by Autechre, Harmonic 313, Jamie Lidell, Plaid, Clark, Maximo Park, Leila, Seefeel, Luke Vibert and more… Packaged in deluxe case-bound 10” folder exclusive to this box set.

Warp20 (Unheard): Triple 10” Vinyl
Secret treasures newly rediscovered from the Warp vaults. Unheard and rare tracks by Boards of Canada, Autechre, Broadcast, Elecktroids and others cut to 3 x 10” vinyl. Housed in uncoated card sleeves with debossed typography. Vinyl exclusive to Warp20 (Box Set).

Warp20 (Elemental): CD album
Specially-commissioned hour long piece by re-edit master Osymyso, made from sections, samples, and fragments of Warp music from the last 20 years. Exclusive to Warp20 (Box Set) and packaged in deluxe case bound 10” folder.

Warp20 (Infinite): Double 10” Vinyl
2 x 10” vinyl cuts of hand-picked locked-groove loops from Warp tracks. Four sides of loops for mixing fun. Exclusive to Warp20 (Box Set) and housed in uncoated card sleeves with debossed covers.

I know i'm ordering one. You can too, by clicking HERE.

Video Game Music: Amon Tobin and Infamous

A very interesting and inspiring video detailing the creation of the music for the new PS3 game "Infamous".

The game company enlisted Amon Tobin, among other composers and sound designers, to write the score for the immersive shoot-em-up. The recording techniques are quite reminiscent of Tobin's album "Foley Room", where the break-beat producer took foleyed real world sounds and built musical songs around them.

I can't claim to be all that much of a video game buff, but I would consider playing this thing just for the soundtrack. Judging by the sounds they explore in the video, it's going to Dee Oh Pee Eeee.

For more about Amon Tobin's "Foley Room", there's a two part mini-doc about how he went about making it.

Part One
Part Two

Guitar Affair: The NetFlix of Gitbox Rental

Ever wanted to rock out on a Custom Re-Issue Les Paul on your vacation in Cali, but don't feel like lugging your sweet gear around the airport?

How about trying out a Vintage Strat in the comfort of your own home, without the drowning tones of Guitar Center clouding your discerning ears?

Enter, Guitar Affair. This new instrument rental service offers high-end guitar rentals, delivered to your door, hotel room, or vacation spot anywhere in the world. You can choose from a huge variety of seriously sweet axes. Guitars also ship to you with headphone amps, cables, and even instructional videos if you like. When you're done ripping the jams, just toss (not literally) it back into the case it came in, put the prepaid mailing sticker on, and you're good to go.

If you end up growing attached to the instrument you're auditioning, you can eventually purchase it from Guitar Affair. (although seeing some of the price tags may make you think twice)

Browse the catalog HERE

Learn more about how it works HERE

www.GuitarAffair.com

CDs on their way back?

from wired.com

"TuneCore is poised to partner with Amazon’s on-demand CD-printing-and-distribution service, Wired.com has learned. It’s a deal that could put powerful new physical publishing options in the hands of musicians, even as the world goes increasingly digital.

The service is expected to be announced Thursday, linking Amazon with TuneCore, a novel digital distribution startup that’s made waves signing the likes of Trent Reznor, Keith Richards and other stars seeking a way out of the label system, as well as slews of garage bands and hopefuls on their way up."

full story HERE

Jacko Plans to Return Beatles Catalog to Sir Paul

from The Mirror, UK

Jackson, 50, who according to some reports is convinced he is dying and has been using a wheelchair, has drawn up a new will where Sir Paul, 66, will inherit control of his share of the Beatles songbook if the troubled star dies before him.

Sources close to Jacko say he has always regretted falling out with Macca. One insider said: “Michael is worried about his health so decided it was time to look at his finances.

“Most of his estate has been divided up between his three children. But Michael told his lawyers he was sad he no longer talks to Sir Paul and said he wanted to make things right.”

full article here

The Metropolitan Opera: Lepage & Förterer bring new Advances in Performance Technology

So for those of you who know me, you know I had a brief stint in the opera world. I studied classical voice for 10 years, thus I've been fully exposed to the world of opera. During my second year of college, I decided to give up classical singing and traditional music and instead begin studying music technology. One of my reasons for diverging from that career path was my feelings about the genre and its future.

After talking with voice teachers, attending lectures, and seeing concerts I came to the conclusion that classical music is, in essence, a dead art-form. That is not to say that it cannot be appreciated, rather it means the creative juices that institute innovation and advancement have either run dry or have been scared off by the classical music community. This statement is obviously up for debate, and is not a scientific statement in the slightest. My opinion is rather a reaction to a traditional classical music education. Everyone is always looking to the past instead of the future. Singers want to sound like the Divas and Divos of yesterday. New styles of singing are considered "butchering" the music, and risks are seen as something to be avoided rather than embraced.

That being said, the production aspect of Opera is entering a new age. If anyone was lucky enough to catch the Met's last production of "The Magic Flute", you know what I'm talking about.

This year at the Met, director Robert Lepage is taking stage production to the next level. His goal is to incorporate visual elements that react directly to the music as it is being performed. Projectors will display images and visual textures whose parameters are controlled by the volume, inflection, and rhythm of the singers. Because the visuals will directly reflect the sounds of that actual moment, no two productions will look exactly alike. The new technology was unveiled in the production of Berlioz's "Faust" which opened this past Friday.

So you may ask, what the heck is this stuff going to look like? Let's take the opening aria for instance. As Faust sings his opening song, birds are projected in the background. As the singer increases in volume, the birds fly faster. As he changes pitch, the birds change direction. Other optical illusions include false grass that moves as Actors feet drag across it and digital reflections of real objects on stage that change dynamically with the music. The picture at the top of the post exemplifies this "digital reflection" technology. As you can see, it looks as if there is water below the boat that mirrors the image above it. This watery reflection is nothing more than a projection.


Although Lepage is the director who pushed the idea to the Met, the actual technician behind the visuals is the German-born Holger Förterer; a self-proclaimed software artist. Förterer hand wrote the software that interprets the aural and visual inputs from the stage and translates them into data the projectors can display. After a quick glance at his website, the guy seems to be doing some really interesting and innovative stuff in other artistic realms outside of opera. Apart from video installations, he also does digital photograph manipulation and some sound design as well. (Click here to check out his website)

Up next on the production duo's to-do list is Wagner's "Ring", which will also be hosted at the Met later in the year. Faust will provide a test-run for the new technology, as Lepage sees it entering the production of "The Ring" in a big way. The Ring will no doubt provide a lot of room for exploration. Not only is the music very visual, but the scenes themselves exist in a mythical world that will lend itself well to the new technology. When Wagner's Ring Cycle premiered in 1869, it was the largest, most elaborate staged production the world had ever seen. Wagner's financial backers were even forced to build a new theater to house the show. Hopefully we can expect something of this magnitude when the new tech-savvy production is unveiled later this year.

I am almost as excited by the forthcoming reaction to the production. There will no doubt be those purists who see the new production techniques as blasphemy. I can hear the complaints already. "Lepage defecates on a work of art!" or "The end of opera as we know it!" (I don't think that second one would be such a bad thing!) These people equate things like this to drawing over the smile of the Mona Lisa. I would argue that nothing could be further from the truth. My hope is that Lepage will manage to drown out the dying breed of Opera traditionalists with packed houses and a stunning new look for the finest opera stage in the world. Opera Traditionalists and Modernists can agree on one thing, something drastic needs to be done if this art form wants to survive.

My suggestions? Stop dressing up to see a show, don't be afraid to applaud if you feel so inclined, and never, under any circumstance, shy away from taking a risk. After all, if we did that, we would have no Marriage of Figaro, no Fidelio, and no Ring Cycle.

Knitting Factory leaves the island: Buys tight-fitting jeans and moves to BillyBurg

(picture: me the last time i played the Old Office at The Knitting Factory Leonard St. location with GhostMeat! Halloween 06)

So the Knitting factory is officially closing up shop on all 3 of its Manhattan stages this January.

Some of my fondest concert memories are from the various stages on Leonard St. (even if the place was a bitch to get to) The Knitting Factory was a diamond in a rough of high end residential development. I remember hanging outside the club and having the neighbors screaming at all the kids below. "Keep it down!" "Get out of my neighborhood!" "Hey you Punk! Y'Know People LIVE here!" I always found those people to be such hypocrites. There they were, shouting out the window of their brand new condo, at the patrons of a club that had been there for over 10 years.

My favorite part about the venue was that I could go see my favorite artists on the Main stage one night, and then take my buddies down to the Office or Tap Bar stage and play a set or put on a whole night later that week. It gave a great community vibe to the whole place. It's something the Brooklyn spot will lack. The venue is moving from being a 3 stage, 4 bar establishment to 1 bar, 1 stage.

Even though I love the fact that Brooklyn's Music scene is growing, I am sad to see the place go. In a sense, its not even a growing music scene in Brooklyn, it just Manhattan's being transplanted. It's hard to complain though. New York artists are in a constant state of flux and homelessness. They move to neighborhoods that are cheap and spacious. They make that cheap run down neighborhood cool and trendy. (and paint cool things on public walls) Wealthier people want to be cool and trendy and build condos in run down neighborhood. (and paint over cool things on the walls)

It's kind of ironic that the space the Knitting Factory plans on vacating is the de facto Luna Lounge. (another club that closed in Manhattan and moved to Williamsburg) The Knitting Factory is going to have to offer something the Luna did not, and I don't think a sheik name will suffice. (Hipsters hate lame shit like that)

It's worth noting that literally right next to the new Knitting Factory are brand spankin' new condos on BOTH SIDES. I actually used to live 2 doors down from the space Luna Lounge was, and it's amazing how much the neighborhood has changed in just 3 years. Imagine what it will be like in another 5. Good Luck Knitting Factory!

Below are some good tunes played from the soon-to-be-condo-ized stages.

Kaki King


Click here for a video of Elliot Smith playing there in '96.

Sufjan Stevens

Phish re-unites as a wedding band!

It's been 4 years since we've seen the guys from Phish play together. After the band's 2004 Coventry Festival, trustafarians and frat boys have been forced to look elsewhere for their heady jams, until now. Who knew that the boys would go from sell-out stadium residencies to weddings!

All summer rumours have been flying around of a Phish reunion. Some even went so far as to say that they were in the studio up at Trey's Barn, recording new matertial for a Fall Tour. Whether or not the studio rumour is true, the Vermont-based quartet has been jamming out.

This past weekend the guys from Phish attended Brad Sand's wedding. (an old road manager for the band) What ensued was a inpromptu jam on Julius, Suzy Greenberg, and Down with Disease. Thank the JamBand Gods someone was there with camcorder in hand to capture the event. They got the tail-end of Julius on camera. Check it out below.

Free Radiohead

In the lite of a recent win for the RIAA in a lawsuit against a file-sharer, Radiohead has released its new album In Rainbows via digital download, free to everyone. Donations are taken upon download, all amounts are taken.

The band is now label-less, making all donations go directly to the music. Those who want a better quality version of the album will need to wait until December to get the $80 Double CD/Vinyl box set. Songs are now being distributed as MP3's with a 160kbps sample rate. (Not the greatest quality available to MP3 players).

To download the album, visit www.inrainbows.com.

This is fucking great! Radiohead is giving a big middle finger to the mainstream record industry and will probably make a killing. I've been reading a lot on the blogs about this type of marketing and it seems to be very successful. Some musicians say they make more when they distribute their album as donation only instead of charging $9.99. in their own words,

"It’s really liberating not to feel part of the record company structures. It should be an extremely positive place to be in but I think at the moment it’s like the cartoon bit when Roadrunner comes of the cliff and keeps running - then looks down."