The Kleptones, my favorite mashup artists, have released a new 2-disc album: 24 Hours.
The torrents didn’t work for me listed on their webpage, but I used the Down Them All extension for Firefox and snapped up the MP3’s and burned ’em to CD (don’t forget to burn without pauses between tracks!)
Enjoy!
Check out The Onion’s AV Club new feature: Random Rules.
Take an entertainment person, have them hit shuffle on their iPod, and see what the first five songs that come up are, with comments from the owner.
Definitely some interesting music choices there.
Go here and download the Best of Bootie 2005, a collection of mash-ups featuring the favorite mashups of 2005 bootiesf.com.
They picked some good ones – I really dig the album. But then again, I dig mashups. What’s a mashup? Think remix, especially when you combine one artists vocals with a completely different artists music. Look at the track listing on the link above – the last song on the album is actually really good, which is NWA vocal’s laid over Nirvana’s Smells like Teen Spirit.
Give it a try – you won’t believe until you listen.
ESPN has had a banner running for the last few weeks promoting the halftime shows of the BCS College Bowls for their musical acts. One of them has been Queen + Paul Rodgers.
I am huge Queen fan, and really got into them again in 90/91 when they were re-releasing their albums on CD. I had almost completed my collection when Freddie Mercury died in 1991. I’ve had mixed feelings on this whole tour with Paul Rodgers not understanding why Queen would be touring again without their frontman, the legendary Freddie Mercury.
Who was this Paul Rodgers guy? Why was he touring with Queen, and why would Brian May and Co. resurrect Queen with a new lead singer?
Well, it turns out Paul Rodgers was the founder and lead singer for Free, Bad Company, and the Firm. He has an impressive resume. Now knowing his background, I can respect Queen’s decision to tour with him.
Browsing around Queen’s website, I came across their store where they offer their Official Bootlegs. While the collection is still growing, the price is amazing for what you get. For about $9 after translating the currency, you can buy live bootleg albums with up to 30 songs. Encoded in 192k WMA (192k = good, WMA = bad), the price is phenomenal for what you get. I’ll definitely be picking up a few of those in the days to come.
The mashup artists, known collectively as Dean Gray, posted a mashup of Green Day’s American Idiot album in late November.
Within 10 days, Green Day’s label, Warner Music, sent Dean Gray a takedown notice. Today, Tues. Dec. 13th, is American Edit day, when websites all over the globe host the MP3’s for download. Not for commercial gain, but to share and enjoy Green Day’s music, dubbed with other music, to promote Green Day.
Hit the link above to grab a download link, or surf on over to my other website where I’ve posted the files individually and as one archive (in tar.gz format).
If you’re into other mashups, Lock3down has American Edit for download, as well as some other interesting mashups.
One of my World of Warcraft guildmates posted an interesting link on our forums today.
Virgin appears to be launching their music service, Virgin Digital with a little contest.
Find the 74 bands in this picture.
It’s an interesting mental exercise. You can follow our progress in the original forum thread.
Michael Robertson has done it again. Mr. Robertson founded MP3.com in the mid-90’s before selling it, and went on to found Linspire (I’ll give him credit for owning a Linux distribution, especially one built off Debian, but still…) as well as a VoIP company, and now he’s back in the music business with MP3tunes.com. He was in the news a few weeks ago for hiring DVD Jon, aka Jon Lech Johansen, who cracked the DVD encryption a few years back, as well as iTunes DRM.
What is MP3tunes.com? From their FAQ:
Q: What is the MP3tunes Locker?
A: The MP3tunes Locker gives you unlimited online storage to back-up your entire personal music collection, including your playlists. You can sync your music collection in your MP3tunes Locker with your computers, portable players and devices. You’re able to webload free tracks you find on the Internet directly into your MP3tunes Locker or sideload with one of our partners. You can play your music collection and playlists in iTunes and anywhere you have an Internet connection. The MP3tunes Oboe Software Suite is free and includes Oboe Sync, Oboe for iTunes and Oboe for Firefox.
The Basic MP3tunes Locker includes webloading, sideloading, MP3tunes Oboe Software Suite, and streaming inside iTunes on the Internet at a medium quality bit-rate (56k).
The Premium MP3tunes Locker is $39.95 per year and includes back-up with unlimited storage, syncing, webloading, sideloading, MP3tunes Oboe Software Suite, and streaming inside iTunes on the Internet at a high quality bit-rate (128k).
Do you remember when MP3.com got hosed by the RIAA? Basically, they had an idea that you inserted a music CD in to your PC. Their website said, hey look – you own that CD, thanks for verifying it. Now we’ll stream it to you wherever you are! Well, the RIAA went through the roof, and they took that feature out.
It looks like Mr. Robertson has brought that idea back, but in a much, much bigger way. This time you’re the one uploading your music – and while it may take forever to upload a large collection, you’ve proven that you’ve sent over your files. And now, you can “sideload” – buy music from another provider and have it synced.
Check the site out, and read the FAQ. While some of it will require using their syncing software to get the heavy lifting done, I do give MP3tunes.com credit for having Windows, Mac and Linux clients, multiple music format support, such as MP3, OGG and WMA, as well as a plugin for iTunes and Firefox ready to go at launch.
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this.
Thanks to gout to FreeCulture.org’s RIAA-free CDs Holiday Gift Guide. FreeCulture.Org has put together a list of bands whose labels are not members of the RIAA. (You know – the group that sues 13 year old kids for things they didn’t do, and when they can’t pay up, blackmails them).
Suprisingly, there’s some really good bands on the lists. A few notable selections:
And plenty more I didn’t name. And check out their blog post making and submitting your own RIAA-free CD Holiday Gift Guide.
So if you’re in the mood for some new music this year, check out one of the above artists – they get that it’s about the music, and the artists – not one of the Big 4 labels and supporting big media’s pockets.
MP3Nova.org has the recap (and the torrent!) of a Radiohead Mash-up and Remix album.
Panzah Zandahz has released “Me & This Army”, the follow-up to “Breaks & Beats 12″”.
If you’re a Radiohead fan, check “Me & This Army” out – remixes and covers by folks like De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, and others, it looks like a must for any Radiohead fan. The torrent downloaded in just minutes for me, so head over to MP3Nova.org and check it out.
The long-promised XM channels have finally shown up on DirecTV. Over 50 different channels covering all types of music. (How many does XM offer on their paid subscription? – Ok, I checked, over 150).
Stations include the Squizz, Fred & Ethel, so I’m definitely set. Then you have your standards, like 80’s, pop, rock, a few R&B stations.
What’s nice, is similar to DirecTV’s last music service, Music Choice, is each song pops up with some text on the TV screen showing you artist, song, album, year, etc.
With no extra cost to me as a DirecTV subscriber, I can’t complain, and I’ll use ’em from time to time.
