Oh man, are you ready for the NIN tour that’s about to happen this summer? Do you want a sneak peak of all the audio awesomeness that is about to dropped on our eager ears? Yeah? Of course you do! Check out these exclusive NIN rehearsal videos from Pitchfork TV, where we see Trent and company performing three tracks from The Slip, “Echoplex” (sweet), “Letting You” (totally sweet) and “1,000,000″ (supersweet).
In “Echoplex,” we get to see drummer Josh Freese using the JazzMutant Lemur, which is totally badass.
I’m not going to lie. I have an addiction to Coke (the drink). It takes every fiber of my being not to drink it for breakfast. It makes me understand cigarette addiction a little bit more. (I know, soft drinks are not nearly as addictive, but still….)
Once in a while, Remix gets cool swag. Most recently, I was excited about the eight aluminum coke bottles designed by eight Chinese artists in honor of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Each bottle design, which portrays a different positive message, coincides with a song by an electronic DJ/artist. For example, “Global Harmony” was designed by artist Xiao Xue and is tied to Tiësto’s track, “Global Harmony.” Xue’s design includes whales flying with propellers attached to their backs while deer graze on speakers. At least that’s my interpretation.
On the “Peace on Earth” bottle by art trio Joyn Viscom (featuring music by Sege Devant), children sit in flowers, one making a paper plane that evolves into a white dove. Meanwhile, Xin Jing and Kaskade’s collaboration for “Healthy World” (the song is called “Beautiful World”) gets the prize for the most ironic. High-fructose corn syrup and a bunch of chemicals don’t particularly say “health.”
Fortunately, all of the bottles come sans Coca-Cola in them. Otherwise, I would have had eight Cokes that day.
Better, faster, stronger for sure. The iPhone update that the rest us have been waiting for is set to drop in the US and in many other countries July 11. It will go live in 70 countries by the end of the year.
Besides having 3G networking, which Apple claims is twice as fast as the original iPhone and lets you use the phone worldwide easier, the new iPhones will have built-in GPS and will tax you one bill less: they’ll go for $199 for the 8 GB model and $299 for the 16 GB. Woot! In the US, the iPhone 3G will still only officially support the AT&T carrier, unless you unlock it at your own risk.
But what’s also exciting for musicians is that the iPhone 3G will rock the iPhone 2.0 software, which will be able to run applications created on the iPhone Software Development Kit that has already been downloaded 250,000+ times since its release in March. There’s not much hard data yet on what sort of music applications will be coming for iPhone 3G, but at Apple’s WWDC this week, there was a quick demo of an app called Band:
While Band is squarely aimed at casual or non-musicians, it nonetheless looks fun and hints at the kind of potential the iPhone 3G has for hosting drum machines, simple synths, sequencing, effects and other utilitarian music programs. Once the iPhone 3G launches, you’ll be able to scour Apple’s iPhone AppStore, which will also be accessible from the phone itself, for all the latest goodies.
Everyone knows that Wu-Tang Clan producer/MC RZA is smart. He’s a studio wizard, an entrepreneur, a vegetarian, deep thinker…and, apparently, a Hip-Hop Chess Federation champion. According to a recent article on RZA in The New York Times, he’s been playing chess since he was 11 years old.
Just before taking off for his first live band tour (with backing band Stone Mecca) to promote his Bobby Digital album, Digi Snacks, he launched WuChess.com. Combining his love for chess and hip-hop, WuChess is a community where chess players can play live against other players and in tournaments for prizes. You’ll even get a guided tour from Rakaa from Dilated Peoples when you go to the site. There’s a $48 fee for a yearly membership, but he will allegedly be giving out free memberships to children (through certain organizations), and as much as 20 percent of WuChess’ revenue will go to scholarships awarded by the Hip-Hop Chess Federation. RZA’s a giver, man.
Go show some support on his Bobby Digital tour, which starts tomorrow in Houston.
Tue-Jun 10, 08 - Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
Wed-Jun 11, 08 - Austin, TX @ Emos
Thu-Jun 12, 08 - Dallas, TX @ Palladium
Sat-Jun 14, 08 - Denver, CO @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
Sun-Jun 15, 08 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Tue-Jun 17, 08 - Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theater
Wed-Jun 18, 08 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Brickhouse Theater
Fri-Jun 20, 08 - Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theater
Sat-Jun 21, 08 - San Francisco, CA @ 1015
Mon-Jun 23, 08 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
Tue-Jun 24, 08 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
Wed-Jun 25, 08 - Vancouver, BC @ Richards On Richards
Fri-Jun 27, 08 - Calgary, AB @ Sled Island Music Festival
Mon-Jun 30, 08 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
Tue-Jul 1, 08 - Chicago, IL @ House Of Blues
Wed-Jul 2, 08 - Pontiac, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom
Thu-Jul 3, 08 - Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
Fri-Jul 4, 08 - Ottawa, ON @ New Capital Music Hall
Show me a person who disrespects Moog synthesizers, and I’ll show you a schmuck. But when the company announced the new Moog Guitar, I was a bit like, “Wh-whaaaa?”
Moog long ago entrenched itself in the hearts of creative guitarists with it’s stellar MoogerFooger series of stompbox-like effect processors. And at first glance, it looks as if the Moog Guitar is a regular guitar with some MoogerFooger synthisis and/or effects processing built in. But after watching Moog’s video on its homepage, and with the company’s insistance that this is not a MIDI guitar, not a guitar synthesizer and not an effects processor, I’m not exactly sure what the Moog Guitar is. It’s clear that you can control the sustian and muting of the strings like on no other guitar, but not being guitarist, the true implications of that may be lost on me.
Moog will be publicly debuting the Moog Guitar at this year’s Summer NAMM in Nashville June 20-22, so we should have more answers after that.
Invented and produced DIY-style using recycled materials in a garage in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Garrahand electro-acoustic hand/mallet percussion instrument stood out from my normal daily plague of useless emails today.
The Garrahand is meant to give you metallic percussion sound of the UFO-shaped Hang Drum, but in a smaller size that’s easier to re-tune. It uses a built-in, internal microphone, and the new Standard 2 model has an audio output with level knob, so it’s ready for use onstage or in the studio. The new model also has improved tuning, so you can tune it to any number of 6-note scales or get a pair to tune to a full 12-note chromatic scale. Prices range from $300US for the original model ($500 for two) or $400 for the Standard 2 ($700 for two). Check out their Website for audio and video clips.
Holy shit! My fantasy concert is finally coming true. Does It Offend You, Yeah? plans on sharing some tour dates with Nine Inch Nails. The only way this could get any better is if LCD Soundsystem joined the bill, with Flight of the Conchords opening the show. Man, I’m not even sure I could handle the sheer awesomeness of a show like that. Wait, yes I can.
So the DIOY, Y & NIN bill is happening only in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but hey, I can always use a good reason to go visit my friends back east.
Here are the tour dates for Does It Offend You, Yeah? with Bloc Party:
7/28 Pomona, CA @ The Glass House w/Bloc Party
7/29 Los Angeles, CA @ Mayan Theatre w/Bloc Party
7/30 San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore w/Bloc Party
8/01-03 Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza
8/04 Toronto, ONT @ Drakes
8/05 Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts w/Bloc Party
FiXT Music, Celldweller’s label, is at it again with another freshly launched remix contest. This time you have a chance to remix “Erasus” by Subkulture for the chance to win a stash of prizes that has yet to be announced.
To enter, go to the new FiXT Remix site, where you can download the audio files. You must then upload your finish remix to the site, where the user community will vote on the finalists. The deadline has not been announced, but you should have until the end of summer ‘08.
Also available at the main FiXTonline.com site is a new compilation of Celldweller tracks and remixes available free of charge. The free music comes from an ad-supported widget powered by True Anthem that lets artists generate some cash flow without charging the downloader. The free music comes with ads, in this case for the new video game Haze. You must also register with the FiXT community before downloading the tunes.
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