Music Archive

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Bono Talks About And Sings Along To Unreleased U2 Song

Well it’s holiday shopping season again and you know what that means. Bands/record labels re-releasing old albums with a smidgen of new content in an attempt to get people to re-buy their favorite albums. I had thought U2 to be above this sort of thing but apparently they’re not. In fact they’re taking it one step further and going CAPCOM on us by re-releasing The Joshua Tree in a 2 CD deluxe edition and also a 2 CD/1 DVD box set Limited Edition Super Deluxe.

Fortunately, this re-release seems to have some substance as it contains 14 unreleased songs from The Joshua Tree recording sessions. The Limited Edition Super Deluxe will also have a DVD of a 1987 gig the band did at the Hippodrome de Vincennes in Paris. Since I’m a sucker for high quality video of live U2 performances, I plunked down my $47.99 to pre-order the Limited Edition Super Deluxe. I can’t help but feel shitty for doing so though.

The video above is Bono explaining and singing along to one of the unreleased tracks, Wave of Sorrow. I’m not terribly impressed by the song, but then again, it’s pretty hard to get a good impression from an embedded video of Bono singing along with a tape in the background.

Waves of Sorrow [u2.com]

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Radiohead Cover The Smiths, Joy Division, Bjork, Also Engage In Hilarity


Yesterday evening, Radiohead turned on the webcams for a sexy striptease show another one of their zany webcasts. Every few years or so, the band fills the interweb tubes with silly skits, band member DJ’ing, and live performances.

Performance highlights included covers of The Smiths – Headmaster Ritual (which is the embedded video above), Bjork – Unravel, and Joy Division/New Order – Ceremony. The band also played a few songs of their own, including a couple from their new album In Rainbows. By far the most memorable skit for me was the edit of the ending of the movie Se7en. Morgan Freeman opens the box at the end of the movie to find… a Thom Yorke head singing 15 Step! wat.

Pearly * from the Mortigi Tempo boards has up an excellent compilation of highlights from the broadcast with downloadable mp3s and videos to boot!

Download and watch the highlights [Mortigi Tempo]

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Kid Rock Calls Bob Lefsetz Out

I’ve been an avid subscriber to the Lefsetz Letter for a couple of years now. At first I was surprised and impressed by the insight Bob showed in his hourly/daily/weekly rants about the shortcomings of the music industry. As time went on, though, it quickly became apparent that the dude just regurgitates the same things over and over again with RANDOMLY capitalized words. One can only read about Bob’s emo ski trips so many times before wanting to take a toaster into the bathtub.

However, I keep myself on the mailing list, simply for the entertainment value when Bob makes an over the top sexual connotation or when celebrities write in. I just received this lovely letter from Kid Rock to Bob:

Im sure its difficult to sit on the bench while us folks play in the big game. Your a failed musician with a big mouth.

You try to make a name for yourself with half ass opinions based on everyone who is actually trying to do something in music. Yet you do NOTHING but talk. See you on the streets you punk ass mother fucker!!!

Kid Rock

I, for one, would love to see Kid Rock duke it out with Bob. Unless Bob has been taking secret Karate lessons over at the Cobra Kai Dojo, his only shot would be to challenge Mr. Rock to a grammar-off. Sadly, I haven’t really been keeping up with how the kids score those these days. Are more points deducted for random capitalization of WORDS or for improper use of contractions and verb tense?

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When Nerds and Gangsta Rap Collide

ice cube graph

Taking a page (card) out of indexed, some brilliant mathematician has made a number of LOLtastic graphs based on hip-hop song lyrics. Who knew using Microsoft Office could be so fun?

(Warning: intelligence and rough knowledge of rap lyrics required for the LOL’s)

See the funny here [ gRAPhs]

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New Saul Williams Album Unlocked And Available For Download

niggy tardust

Hot on the heels of the recent “pay what you want” Radiohead album release, Saul Williams’ new album, Niggy Tardust, is unlocked and ready to be consumed by the masses. The slam poet cum hip-hop artist’s album distribution method is very similar to that of In Rainbows in that listeners can choose to either pay or not pay for the digital download. However, unlike the Radiohead release, listeners have only one price they can pay for the album ($5) AND they have a choice in which file format they receive their music in.

According to the order page at niggytardust.com:

If you choose to pay for the record, your download will be available in the following formats:

  • 192Kbps MP3
  • 320Kbps MP3
  • FLAC lossless audio

If you choose not to pay for the record, you will receive it in 192Kbps MP3 format.

All versions include a PDF with artwork and lyrics

Those of you who read my earlier rant on digital music can infer that I’m very excited by the options offered by Mr. Williams and his producer, Trent Reznor. One of the biggest problems I had with the Radiohead release was that there was no way for me to obtain any sort of high quality version of the album without paying the $80USD or so for the physical product. Kudos to Saul and Trent for offering the right file formats (and encoded with LAME too!) to people who want them. Bonus points for including artwork and lyrics. This is the product digital music retailers should have been selling from the get-go.

As for the music itself, well, my slow-ass internet connection is still downloading the .zip file now so I can’t provide any initial impressions yet. BUT, I hear there’s a pretty awesome cover of U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday which has my panties wet with excitement.

Download the album [Niggytardust.com]

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Cutting OiNK Out Of Your Diet

no piggy

Normally, eating less bacon leads to a healthier life. In the wake of the OiNK music torrent sharing site shutdown last week, though, less piggy in your system turns out to not be so good for you.

Much has been debated and written about the topic already. If you haven’t read Demonbaby’s excellent rant yet, I HIGHLY recommend you do so. It’s a bit long, but articulates the significance and background of OiNK very well. Many of my sentiments are echoed within that post.

Since I used to work for a legal music download service, I feel compelled to throw my two cents in on the topic of digital music distribution.

One of the biggest reasons why legitimate digital music services are not offering great solutions for music fans is that the people selling the music simply do not get it. There is a disconnect between everyone involved. The record labels don’t understand why offering a DRM-infused song file is anathema to what the customer wants. The digital retailers don’t understand what the consumer wants exactly. They proclaim to want DRM-less files because that means their potential market is bigger. Then they can sell their wares to people with iPods, Zunes, Walkmans, or any music player. What they don’t understand is that a 128kbps AAC or WMA file is nowhere near “CD quality”. They assume that since the average person can’t tell the difference between bitrates, there’s no point in wasting bandwidth and storage space for higher quality song files.

Which is simply insulting.
Read the rest of this entry »

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U2 Plan To Build Tallest Building In Dublin

U2 have proposed renovations of the Clarence Hotel in Dublin costing £100 million. The new hotel, constructed on land the band bought in 1992, would become the tallest building in Dublin. However, part of the plan calls for the demolition of several heritage buildings under the city’s protection. Ironically, it seems as if the band wants to retain its legacy while shattering others’.

I’ll admit that U2 is my favorite band, but lately it has been living up to its increasing reputation as an egoistic entity. Something about bands putting their name on lavishly expensive luxury skyscraper hotels rubs me the wrong way. It seems as if the band is trying everything it can to not make music.

Do us a favor, guys, and stop embarrassing yourselves. Although if the last album was any indication, maybe they should start taking some real estate courses.

Read More [skynews]

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