Category: Music

One last thing for today. Sorry that it’s a bit of sad news…

LONDON (AFP) — Depeche Mode frontman David Gahan has had a malignant tumour removed from his bladder, the British band said Thursday, announcing plans to resume a European tour interrupted by the health scare.

One of Britain’s most successful and longest-lived bands, Depeche Mode cancelled a string of concerts this month after Gahan was rushed to hospital on May 12, shortly before going on stage in Greece.

The problem was announced as a severe bout of gastroenteritis at the time, but Thursday’s statement revealed the more serious condition discovered after tests.

Get well soon, David!

via AFP: Depeche Mode singer has tumour removed.

Michael Stipe was freakin’ royalty in the Atlanta music scene.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really get in to R.E.M. until just before Lifes Rich Pageant came out, so I don’t have any of those cool “I saw R.E.M. at a Buford Highway dive bar for $2” stories like some folks I know. Also, I was 12 when Murmur came out, so a tad too young to be hitting dive bars.

I did, however, have several close calls with Stipe. I drove by a record store in Athens one day as he was walking out. I was 30 feet away from him at a Pylon show. I once showed up at R. Thomas, an Atlanta diner, just a few minutes after he’d left and the waitstaff were still all aflutter. I was always so close to meeting the guy, but could never seem to close the deal.

I heard that Dramarama was coming to town in September 1990. My then-girlfriend and a close friend went with me to the show, which was at the Cotton Club in Midtown.

The club was laid out like this: there was the main door. You entered and took an immediate right down a long, narrow hallway. At the end of the hall was the cashier’s desk\bouncer station. Once your cover was paid and your ID checked, you took a left and walked into the actual club, which, from your perspective, looked something like an uppercase “L”. To your right, there was a bar that nearly ran the length of, and was parallel to, the “base” of the L. The bar was in the middle of this section, not against the wall. In front of you were the “sides” of the L. The stage ran along the length of the “inside” side of the L. There was a large space for standing, and several booths lined the “outside” side of the L.

Continue reading “My Stipe Story”

Back in the late 90s, finding music online was easy – you just fired up Napster and downloaded away. Unfortunately, Napster was powered by a centralized server, which made it super-easy for the Music Police to shut it down. Since then, several alternatives have popped up, like Bittorrent and the Gnutella network (which powers several different programs, like BearShare, FrostWire, iMesh and LimeWire).

While all these technologies are great for finding specific songs or albums, they all kind of suck when it comes to simply browsing for new music. But fear not: one of the greatest resources for free music lies just under your nose: mp3 blogs.

(Author’s note: most Internet sites call blogs that offer links to free music “music blogs”. I tend to call them “mp3 blogs” to differentiate them from legitimate sites that discuss music. However, for the rest of this article, I’ll call them “music blogs” to stay in line with the rest of the Internet.)

Before we begin, let me first dispel you of the notion that these “music blogs” only offer a track or two from some indie band you’ve never heard of. While those types of blogs certainly exist, the blogs I’m talking about offer full albums from artists you’ve absolutely heard of.

So – how do these blogs work? Well, most of them are hosted on free blogging sites, like blogspot.com or wordpress.com. Some music blogs simply have lists of albums along with links to download the music from file-sharing sites like RapidShare, zSHARE, Megaupload, etc. Other blogs might include professional reviews of the album(s), along with a link to the band’s MySpace page. Still other blogs might focus on one artist at a time, giving a long history of the band in addition to numerous links to the band’s albums and singles. Some blogs focus on a particular type of music (“Jim’s Disco Blog”, “Jim’s New Wave Blog”), while others have a much more general approach (“Jim’s ‘Whatever’s In The Top 40’ Blog”). Some blogs appear to be written by people that are only interested in sticking it to The Man, while others (like a blog that deals only with the B-sides to 80s singles!) seem to be written by true fans that delight in bringing little-known music to fans all around the world. In short, there are literally thousands of music blogs out there, appealing to almost every taste under the sun.

Continue reading “Finding Free Music Online”

Most of my friends (especially Scott) know that I will sometimes find a new song that I like and listen to it over and over and over and over again.

The latest tune in my “endless loop” is Swedish pop star Lykke Li’s 2008 song “Little Bit” – specifically, a remix of the song by LA wondertwins The Villans. I discovered the remix last week, and have listened to it at least 100 times so far.

A popular indie music site described Lykke Li’s music as “a mix of soul, electro and powdered-sugar pop”. The original version is pretty good, but this remix is absolutely infectious!

Have a listen:

[audio:little_bit.mp3]

Here’s the playlist I put together for my birthday party, in case anyone wanted to take a gander:

1. The Puppini Sisters – Walk Like An Egyptian (2:44)
2. Pet Shop Boys – Love Etc. (3:32)
3. Saint Etienne – Method Of Modern Love (4:23)
4. Saint Etienne – Everything I Touch Turns to Gold (3:30)
5. Lady Gaga – Just Dance (4:03)
6. Bloc Party – Signs (4:39)
7. Mates of State – Now (2:39)
8. The Fratellis – Flathead (3:17)
9. The Clash – Janie Jones (2:06)
10. The Pixies – Gigantic (single version) (3:13)

Continue reading “My Birthday Playlist”

My string of hearing great new songs on TV shows continues!

At the end of this past Monday’s episode of Chuck, Sarah and Chuck have a long conversation about their relationship. This awesome song played softly in the background. It had some dreamy synths and a glockenspiel in the background, and it sounded really cool.

I found out that the song was called “Signs” and it’s by Bloc Party from their 2008 album Intimacy. I must admit, however, that I was completely gobsmacked when I looked up the lyrics for the tune. When I saw it on Chuck, it just sounded like any other sweet song about a relationship. When you read the lyrics, you just might agree that it’s one of the saddest songs ever written. But, in my mind, that only makes the song more beautiful.

Have a listen, and be sure to check out the lyrics after the jump:

[audio:signs.mp3]

Continue reading “The Saddest Song Ever Written”

Saint Etienne’s new single is out… and it’s awesome!

In fact, I daresay that it’s the best thing they’ve put out in years! Produced by the always-reliable Richard X, this is one of the best dance-pop songs I’ve heard in a looonnnngg time.

Just one listen is all it’ll take – and it’ll be in your head for hours. As the lyrics say “One touch is not enough\When you start, you can’t stop\That’s the method of modern love”

Go ahead, have a listen… you know you want to!

[audio:saintetienne.mp3]

The BBC makes up a list of around 130 up and coming British bands every year. Through website polls and other means, they eventually whittle the list down to a dozen or so bands. These bands make up the Beeb’s official “Sound of [insert year here]” list. Here’s this year’s list.

One of the bands making the cut this year is London-based synth-pop act La Roux. I first heard them via the BBC list, then scrambled to find some more tracks from them. They have an awesome 80s pop sound, yet fully updated for 2009.

As I always do with songs I like, I found a version of the song in question (in this instance, the “AutoKratz Drags to Riches mix” of “Quicksand”) and listened to it over and over again. The remix is addictive… once it’s in your head, you won’t be able to get it out!

Check it out here:

[audio:quicksand.mp3]