Recent Posts

A guide to Foursquare

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Foursquare is the latest location-based social network buzzing internationally. Already a big thing in the U.S., it’s gaining users here too. As evidenced by the counter-attack launch of Facebook Places last week, it’s clearly establishing itself.

The idea is simple. Using your smartphone, you check-in to places in your city, alerting your friends on Foursquare to where you are. Every time you check in to a venue, bar, shop or cafe etc you receive points making Foursquare a real-time location-based game amongst your friends. If you visit a place regularly, you can become the mayor of that establishment, as well as the opportunity to unlock badges and, if the business avails of special offers, you can get discounts and half-price deals.

The key to getting the best of out Foursquare is to avoid most of the usual activity of social networks. Here’s Digital’s simple guide: (more…)

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Band of Blogs: Genre alert: Witch House & more

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New genre alert – Witch House

“Witch House” or “drag” is certainly a genre borne of the web with a Last.FM group dedicated to it, blogs covering it and online magazine profiling it. Bands under the umbrella have a penchant for non-alphabetic characters, slow drones, ghostly tones, electro and most probably, experimental drugs. Bands include Salem, oOoOO, White Ring and eh, ///▲▲▲\\\. Try Googling that.

Read the Pitchfork article on Witch House

Chilly Gonzales – I Am Europe
“I’m socialist lingerie, I’m diplomatic techno, I’m gay pastry and racist cappuccino. I am Europe!” That’s a sample of lyrics from Gonzales’ superb new single and forthcoming album Ivory Tower which should see the Canadian gain a wealth of new fans. The album will be accompanied by a film release – “an existentialist sports comedy about chess and success”. Last year in Paris, Gonzales set the world record for longest solo performance clocking in at 27 hours, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.
http://chillygonzales.com

Stream Jape’s discography online
Listen to all three of Jape’s albums: Ritual, The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me and 2003′s Cosmosphere (also downloadable) on Richie Egan’s new band website. You can also listen to three albums from his other band, The Redneck Manifesto at Bandcamp.
http://theredneckmanifesto.bandcamp.com
http://www.japemusic.com

New Friendly Fires track
For their upcoming Bugged Out! Mix compilation, Friendly Fires hooked up with Canadian band Azari & III for a dance-heavy new collaboration called Stay Here.
Listen at Thorns & Arrows

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Videos of The Week: A night out at Space54, Fanmade Radiohead DVD, Arcade Fire interactive video

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A night out at Space54
Music documentarian Myles O’ Reilly has superbly captured a night out at the now-closed Space54 in Smithfield, Dublin. The ten minute video covers a Donal Dineen-curated gig featuring performances from Lisa O’ Neill, Hulk, Adrian Crowley and and Niwel Tsumbu.

Arcade Fire – We Used To Wait
Arcade Fire commissioned Chris Milk to make an interactive video which takes in your childhood address and feeds it into Google Maps and Street View to give every viewer a personalised experience.
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com

Fan-made Radiohead live concert
Shot at a gig in Prague, this band-supported live concert film features 50 cameras shot from the crowd and hi-fidelity audio provided by the band. It can be downloaded in AVI, MOV and MP4 via Bittorrent.
http://radiohead-prague.nataly.fr/

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Irish artists turn to crowdfunding

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As wallets tighten and money is less available to artists for creative projects, Irish musicians and filmmakers are turning to online funding as a way of creating the capital required to make their art.

Sites like Sellaband, Kickstarter, Slicethepie and Pledgemusic have given people in the arts a new way of appealing to fans directly. Each crowdfunding project has different incentives depending on your level of investment: from receiving a production credit to a pre-release download to private concerts to revenue shares – if you’re a fan and you have spare cash, chances are there is something you can get out of it beyond satisfaction.

Since crowdfunding began, it has seen a fair mix of success and failure. Public Enemy were forced to concede that their original $250,000 asking price was too high. Now, nearly 11 months later, the band have raised 80% of their re-adjusted $75,000 price. Duke Special’s Pledge Music finance-raising efforts for three new albums earlier this year received 129% of its asking more modest total.
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Sites of the Week: The Rap Map, The Ugly Dance & 1,001 Rules For My Unborn Son

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The Rap Map
The Rap Map is a Google Maps mashup showing key places in hip-hop’s North American past, from lyrical references to streets to clubs to the motel that Virginia Beach rappers Clipse used to sell drugs from.
http://map.rapgenius.com

The Ugly Dance
Send your friend a customised interactive dance card now. They’ll appreciate it.
http://theuglydance.com

1,001 Rules For My Unborn Son
Boys need rules. Walker Lamond imparts his worldly knowledge down to his son via the medium of a blog. Now a book.
http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com

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