June 2008
75 posts
The things I do in the name of "my career"... →
My gig highlights so far in 2008 include Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins and Björk. But this week I reviewed Irish boyband Westlife. ‘Nuff said.
Listen to this →
“Oh!” by We Have Band on Record of the Day.
RotD is often a bit rubbish, but I like this. Reminds me of Hot Chip.
Thanks for the heads-up, Mr P.
The Times: Back to the Great Depression? →
Difference is, in the Great Depression there wasn’t 24 hour TV news, websites, blogs (and yes, tumblelogs) continually asking “how much worse can it get?”.
This media echo chamber can’t help matters. And I do realise that by posting this I am, in a very small way, not helping either.
Jonathan uses the word "mental" too much to... →
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-6-29) →
Radiohead
Jens Lekman
BBC 6 Music
BBC Radio 2
Infadels
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr
The Various Kinds Of Jobs You Can Get →
(via postlinguistics)
Great comic, featuring job categories like In Flux, The Religion, and The Excuse.
Toilet water is cleaner than the ice in drinks at... →
Eurgh.
“Any idiot can face a crisis — it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out”
– Anton Chekhov (via imlendc)
TinyPaste: like TinyURL for text →
Seems like a vaguely cool idea, until you think about it for a couple of seconds and go “Really? What’s the point?”
I saw Radiohead last night. They ruled. →
Setlist was:
1. Reckoner 2. 15 Step 3. There There 4. All I Need 5. Lucky 6. Nude 7. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi 8. Myxomatosis 9. National Anthem 10. Faust Arp 11. No Surprises 12. Jigsaw Falling Into Place 13. Optimistic 14. Videotape 15. Everything In Its Right Place 16. Idioteque 17. Bodysnatchers
18. House of Cards 19. The Bends 20. Bangers and Mash 21. My Iron Lung
22. Karma Police 23. Go Slowly...
“Cult comedy The Mighty Boosh gets up to 40% of its viewing through the...”
– One of many interesting facts in a Guardian piece about some new updates to the Beeb’s on-demand TV application
Motown's "Black Forum Records" →
Interesting fact: the label had a subsidiary that between 1970-1973 released spoken word records, concentrating mainly on albums featuring progressive political and pro-civil rights speeches/poetry from people like Martin Luther King.
Didn’t know that.
My mate's thoughts over the current PRS malarkey →
Good article by Pursehouse.
There’s also an argument that the Performing Right Society should spend less time and resources chasing small businesses for unpaid licenses, and more on making sure the literally millions of pounds of unclaimed royalties every year get probably distributed to all the small, unsigned or independent artists who earn them.
Google MapMaker →
Wikipedia for maps? Anyone can edit it, but it’s restricted to only a handful of countries at the moment. Will be interesting to see how this takes off…
Google the term "search engine"
Google itself does not even appear on the first page of results. Yet old-school mid-90s search engine Alta Vista (who even knew that was still going?!) is result number 1.
Huh?
Feeder album review →
Who really needs another record from the chaps who bought us Buck Rogers? Review from my other blog, Jonathan Deamer dot com.
Something my life lacks at the moment:
Swashbuckling.
Need to correct this ASAP.
The stupidest Facebook app ever →
John McCain’s Pork Invaders: “manoeuver your Campaign Yard Sign back and forth, firing off vetoes at the flying pigs who spend taxpayers’ money and hurl heathen inverted crosses at you. Complete a level and get a fun fact about the candidate.”
Surely, lesson one for politicians in “how to not be down with the kids”.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-6-22) →
Mogwai
Captain
Primal Scream
BBC Radio 1
Cats In Paris
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr
Saturday...
…is life admin day. Rubbish.
BBC: Massachusetts "teen pregnancy pact" →
“Officials in the US state of Massachusetts are investigating how 17 teenage girls from the same school have become pregnant”. That’s 4 times the school’s normal pregnancy rate.
It’s a strange story anyway, but the fact that a representative of the school felt a need to explicitly say people shouldn’t blame movies like Juno is just bizarre…
“Short-sightedness in face of digital revolution will cost music industry”
– Brand Republic wins the “State The Bloody Obvious” Headline of The Year Award 2008.
I know it's old, but I still find this funny...
Jack: Hey, you know what sucks?
Lindsey: vacuums
Jack: Hey, you know what sucks in a metaphorical sense?
Lindsey: black holes
Jack: Hey, you know what just isn't cool?
Lindsey: lava?
Study finds people don't mind in-game adverts →
I know I make proclamations like this at least twice a day already, but in-game ads are THE FUTURE.
My recent paper on podcast business models (which I’m gonna put up online soon) took a surprising turn onto the subject of what sort of adverts people are most accepting of. And it’s all about adding value for the consumer, kids. Easier to do in a game than a “commercial...
Crepuscular →
“Of, pertaining to, or resembling twilight” - apparently one of Will Self’s favourite words.
amwelles says:
As much as I like having a larger music collection, I kind of miss the intimacy of how it used to be. I used to know every song I owned by heart.
True. I even used to be able to recite the tracklisting of most of the albums I owned, as I listened to them all so religiously. But then, I was a very nerdy kid :-)
Google to buy Digg? →
Can you say “internet monopoly”? ;-)
But at least an acquisition of Digg might mean some improvements to the site…I’ve not used it for a long time.
Google Analytics worries me...
Apparently, “sex offender” is the 3rd most common search term for this site.
Oh dear…
Sentric Music on The Guardian blog →
“Sentric helps small bands make money” - one of the companies I work with covered on the digital content blog of UK daily paper The Guardian.
A good introductory piece for those not too au fait with the music biz. Along with a lovely pic of my handsome mates Simon and Chris ;-)
Brighton Port Authority feat. David Byrne -...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-6-15) →
BBC 6 Music
The Teenagers
Santogold, Casablancas, NERD
The Virgins
Tunng
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr
3 Smart Things About Music →
(via travors)
When musicians improvise, the lateral prefrontal areas of their brains — responsible for planning and self-censorship — basically turn off.
This is also the part of the brain responsible for writers’ block. Now to learn how to turn it off…