Jamie Foxx sings The Brady Bunch

(from crooksandliars)

simple rules for audience participation

Since a number of you have been talking about somehow using audience participation, I think you might find this video interesting. Basically, Bobby McFerrin illustrates the power of the pentatonic scale using the audience. Its a great example of how you can generate a performance by setting up very simple rules, clearly expressing them, and then working from that.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

via createdigitalmusic

This man loves his new microKORG XL

I'm sure we've all had that warm rush as you unbox a new piece of kit, this guy revels in it and records it for all to see:

microKORG XL first impression


Very lightweight!!

And here's what he does with it:

Playtherecords is updating its website!

New design incoming, what do you think?

Hot new Playtherecords design

Diggin in the Vaults: Death Metal Bert and Ernie

.hc's post about moshing cats reminded me of this masterpiece of noise from the ptr vaults:

Death Metal Bert and Ernie

Flashmobs Gone Commercial

Just like Oprah and the Black Eyed Peas both, this "flash mob" is actually totally contrived and bought and paid for. But, putting aside this crass commercialization of what was once an organic, spontaneous culture jamming phenomenon, it is impressive that they could get than many dancers in sync.

Now how can I get that horrible Black Eyed Peas song out of my head... what is the stickiest song ever recorded... hrmmm...

Bonobo's Rock

Yesterday on Science Friday they did a segment on Primate Music. Apparently other high order primates also have the ability to pick up on complete rhythms, and even subdivide the rhythms into components (1/4 notes, triplets, etc).

Science Friday - Primate Music

There's research on whales singing and birds dancing, but what about monkeys and apes? In this segment, we'll look at the musical abilities of our fellow primates. In one study, researchers gave electronic keyboards to bonobos and asked them to play along with musicians such as Peter Gabriel and Paul McCartney. In another study, published this month in in the journal Biology Letters, researchers examined whether humans could compose music tailored to produce an emotional response in cotton-top tamarin monkeys. We'll talk about what other members of the primate kingdom can teach humans about music.

They had some pretty amusing footage of of a bonobo jamming with a human... this is just dieing for a remix.

Totally unrelated, but totally awesome:

Watch the KLF Burn a Million Quid

At the height of their career, after turning out classic tune after classic tune, like their amazing protomashup "Doctorin' the Tardis"



or "What Time is Love?"



The KLF burnined 1 million pounds in cash in their fireplace and dropped out of the music biz.



Heres a 50 minute documentary about them:

Lady Sovereign Interview

A pretty funny short little interview with Lady Sovereign:



Lets throw in another of her music vids for good measure:

Death To Autotune: Now We Can All Autotune!!!

This is one technology that does not need to be democratized:



("thanks" for the link chant4l)