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Band of Blogs: Snoop Dogg feat. Gorillaz, Eddie Vedder’s ukelele album, The Weeknd & James McMorrow covers Willow Smith?

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Snoop Dogg feat. Gorillaz

After Snoop made an appearance on Gorillaz’s recent album Plastic Beach, Albarn and co. have returned the favour for Snoop’s upcoming album Doggumentary on a laid back tune called Sumthin Like This Night.

bit.ly/snoopillaz

Eddie Vedder on ukelele?

After Amanda Palmer’s EP from last year, It seems the ukelele is back in fashion. Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder has got in on the act by announcing the release of the imaginatively titled Ukulele Songs. The album will feature appearances from Cat Power and Glen Hansard.
bit.ly/ukevedder

James Vincent McMorrow covers Will Smith

James McMorrow is obviously a fan of Jimmy Fallon’s Neil Young style cover of Whip My Hair, as he delivers a similar version for Ray D’Arcy’s Today FM radio show.

bit.ly/jameswillow

The Weeknd

Little is known about the Canadian act that uses R&B vocals and Siouxsie And The Banshees samples as a jumping off point for their warped electronic pop stylings. Download the free mixtape.

the-weeknd.com

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Tron Lewbowski

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Face it. You watched Jeff Bridges’ hokey spiritual performance in Tron:Legacy and wished he would go the whole hog and embrace his inner Dude. Now, you don’t have to imagine it.

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SXSW Interactive: Music Hack Day

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Anyone looking for signs of life in the music industry concerning technology and innovation should take a look into Music Hack Day. Since July 2009, in various cities around the world including London, Berlin, Boston and San Francisco, the 24-hour coding marathon serves as a experimental lab for new digital music applications and technology.

Initially organised by David Haynes of music listening platform Soundcloud and developer James Darling, the event brings together web developers and hackers who have a passion for music and building software. The term “hacker” implies a illegal operative who sits in a basement and breaks into computer systems. For the purposes of this event, it’s more a case of a collaborative community using open source software to make cool new apps with the help of APIs (application programming interfaces) from companies like Last.FM, Soundcloud, Songkick and more.

Haynes along with The Echo Nest’s Matthew Ogle gave a talk at South By Southwest where they discussed how “developers are crucial to the future of music”. They then demoed some of the fascinating applications that have come out of the 12 Music Hack Days so far which confirms just how vital developers are to music, whether for future applications or just for kicks:

Invisible Instruments

Proving that technology can replace physical instruments, this hack used a Nintendo Wii controller and an iPhone to accurately recreate violin, guitar, piano and more using hand gestures and air-guitar moves.

Bragging Rights

Settles the argument once and for all between mates about who heard your favourite band first. This hack takes Last.FM user data, your chosen artist and spits out a winner.

Six Degrees

Like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon find the links between any two artists.

Earth Destroyers

Find out how earth-friendly your favourite band’s touring schedule is.
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