Class Actress
Rising Brooklyn musician Elizabeth Harper impresses with her synth-creaking new single Weekend. Perfect for the days ahead.
AWOLNATION
A California surfer turned electro-musician Awolnation’s song Sail has been slowly burning up on the blogosphere this year.
Watch the video on Youtube (non-embeddable)
Villagers
An animated short film accompanies the free download of Cecilia and Her Selfhood, a live favourite finally recorded and offered as a parting gift from the band until the next record.
Tenaka
A coterie of Irish talent including Sacred Animals, Sleep Thieves, Holy Roman Army and Daithí appear on the latest EP from Dublin-based electronic producer Tenaka.
For musicians, travelling from festival to festival every summer is really not as exciting as it sounds. There are hours of waiting around, hours spent waiting to soundcheck, hanging backstage and a constant feeling of displacement. Sure, it’s not the worst job in the world by far but the organisers of French festival Les Nuits Secretes certainly knew how to take advantage of this ennui with their Forest Sessions series (bit.ly/forestsessions).
While the festival was taking place, the organisers offered bands a full two hours of studio time in a purpose-built recording studio on-site which was equipped with lots of recording gear, a mixing desk and engineers. 16 bands took up the offer and recorded new songs in the two-hour time limit. So we have Villagers performing a song about driving with Conor O’Brien on backing vocals and drums for a change. French electronic producer Mondkopf (normally a solo effort) is joined by a selection of musicians and a singer for unusually rocking workout. Best of all, is notorious Super Furry Animals joker Gruff Rhys and a coterie of singers performing a cheeky ode to that peculiar powdered dessert, Angel Delight. All 16 performances were also captured on video and uploaded to Youtube at bit.ly/forestsessionvids.
Tech nerds are another subset of people have conjured up new technologically-enhanced ways of alleviating boredom under a strict time limit. In the case of TechCrunch’s Disrupt Hackathon in San Francisco last week, developers were given 24 hours to come up with a some interesting applications.
Diskly adds a social crowdsourcing aspect to the live music experience. “People like going clubbing, and after they’ve had a couple of drinks in them, they think they’re the world’s foremost music critic”, explain Diskly’s Derek Morris and Matt Gilk. So the pair built an app that allows people to give direct feedback to the DJ. Diskly identifies the song currently playing in the room using audio fingerprinting technology. The audience member can then vote a song up or down along with other users and request songs directly based on what the DJ has already played. It’s unlikely to take off in reality of course but it adds potential to the live music experience.
Other notable music solutions from the Hackathon include Club Report, an app which allows you to eavesdrop in on the music a club is playing right now before you leave home, the awkwardly-monikered Hey I’m which acts as the real-life counterpart to Turntable.FM by letting groups DJ for each other and a Google Chrome extension called simplyMusic, which scans photos in a webpage for recognisable musicians and then sends you info about them.
Or how about some new ways to play instruments? Air Beats, an augmented reality app which uses the iPad 2′s front facing camera and motion sensing software to create a virtual drum kit. Air Guitar Whack A Mole uses a custom-built guitar pick (with an in-built accelerometer) to offer a game which uses guitar strums to make a rock’n’ roll version of Whack A Mole.
You can watch all of the hack demonstrations at ustream.tv/techcrunch/videos. You can see the six winning teams’ ideas at bit.ly/hackwinners.
A new generation of Irish film-makers are proving that there is an audience beyond late-night television music programming. In the last month alone the internet tubes have enabled some first-class music video and live performance work to be showcased from this country’s finest and most creative film-makers.
Anyone who has been paying attention to blogs and music sites over the past year or so will be familiar with Myles O’Reilly’s work. Predominantly shot in black and white, his videos capture the soul and ambiance of live performances from mostly experimental and alternative acts to whom the word ‘artist’ also signifies the deep creativity of their music.
O’Reilly’s site Arbutus Yarns is the repository of all his work to date featuring performances from James Vincent McMorrow, Janelle Monae, Julie Feeney, Amiina, Jennifer Evans, Tegan And Sara amongst many others. O’Reilly has also been shooting the recording diaries of Lisa Hannigan in the studio in Wales as she records her second solo album.
His latest work, no-doubt inspired by a live video he shot for State.ie (declaration of interest – I’m an editor of the site) of Villagers is his first proper music video for Domino Records and Villagers for the band’s latest single The Pact (I’ll Be Your Fever) (see below) Continue Reading..»
Bruce Lee’s screen test
Watch Lee’s fascinating audition for The Green Hornet where he demonstrates his kung fu moves way back circa 1965.
RTE’s Enda Kenny mixup
Someone in the art department confused Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny with.. Canadian actor Victor Garber?!?!
Villagers – Ship of Promises
Conor O’ Brien’s second music video from Becoming A Jackal is heavy with quasi new age symbolism but the song shines through completely.
Rusko – Hold On
UK dubstep producer has been spreading his sound with credits on M.I.A’s newest album and soon, Britney Spears’ forthcoming seventh release. For Hold On, he ropes in Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman for a dubby dance track with a video shot on tour in the UK.
Animation Backgrounds
Showcasing the richly-detailed backdrops from animated films, the site will give you a new appreciation for background artists and the work they contribute to a scene.
http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com
Traces of the Real
Irish photographer Hugh McCabe takes long exposures of gigs from the balcony in an attempt to answer the question – is it possible to photograph of song?
http://tracesofthereal.com
Arbutus Yarns
Myles O’ Reilly takes stunning and engaging live videos of bands and they all end up here. Watch videos from the likes of Lisa Hannigan, James Yorkston, Patrick Kelleher, Villagers, Lisa O’ Neill and more.
http://www.arbutusyarns.com
A girlfriend scorned
Brad’s ex-girlfriend really didn’t like the fact that he was into video games more than her and proceeds to shred a “beta key” to Starcraft 2 which, naturally enough was recorded for Youtube.
Continue Reading..»
