Edshugeo The GodMoor

Yeah. There's a pun that won't be used a billion times today.

Anyway, new NIN album, The Slip, being given away as mp3s, lossless and even high def wav files at 24/96 (larger files via Bittorrent).

EW quotes that
Reznor has been in a ''prolific phase and we didn't want 'business' to get in the way of getting the art in the hands of the fans.''

NIN says;
as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.

the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.

for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.

Go get it, if you haven't already...

It's also licensed under Creative Commons

Labels: Awesome, bittorrent, downloads, good deal, music, youtube and other video

The Remix:



The original (AKA Worst Rap Battle Ever):



Overdue credit where credit is due dept. - Byron Crawford

Labels: Awesome, funny-ass shit, music, youtube and other video

If you have good taste in music, set your DVRs, VCRs or whatever. If not, please disregard this message.

Source: Housequake

Addendum -
The performance, courtesy of Hulu (hat tip: Undercover BlackMan):

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., music, Prince, tv, youtube and other video

Labels: funny-ass shit, hypocrisy, music, politics, Songza

Ghosts I-IV at NIN.com

Haven't heard it yet. Just downloaded the FLAC version. I initially opted for the CD priced at ten bucks, but the deal killer was the seven dollar shipping and handling fee. I went for the five dollar download instead (which include DRM free mp3s as an option).

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers

Just Be A Woman.

Not to be confused with "Iron my shirt" or anything like that. But if you can't show your human side, you might as well be content to do your thing behind the scenes.

Kinda like Dick Cheney.

Labels: music, politics, solutions?, Songza, Truth

Labels: funny-ass shit, music, nostalgia, Songza

I like this version better than what was previously posted.

Labels: kung fu, movies, music, Songza

The theme to one of Jet Li's Huang Fei Hong movies (Once Upon A Time In China series), sung by a one time Master Huang himself ( Drunken Master movies), Jackie Chan;

Labels: Awesome, China, kung fu, movies, music, Songza

Labels: Awesome, holidays, music, Songza

Labels: death, Heroes, music

The Inevitable Rise and Libeteration Of Niggy Tardust! is the latest album from the usually excellent Saul Williams, produced by Trent Reznor. One can download it for free or pay five bucks and get a higher quality mp3s or FLAC files.

I bought it, and I like it, though not as much as Amethyst Rockstar (which I need another copy of) or even Saul Williams (the 2nd album).

I got this email the other day:

The multitrack files of the songs Break and Banged and Blown Through from
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! are now available in .wav format that allow you to create your own remixes and mashups in any multitrack audio editing program (like GarageBand, Live, Acid, CoolEdit, etc).

Here are the links:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/xo6ru8
http://www.sendspace.com/file/lmfe5v

Be sure to post links to your version on the
SaulWilliams.com message board!

…and if u haven’t already
Download The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
at SaulWilliams.com NOW!!!

Cool stuff.

Trent Reznor has made NIN tracks available for remix for a while now, though I've yet to try 'em out. Now he's released Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D a remix companion CD to Year Zero. It's in the tradition of his previous remix cds; Fixed for Broken, Further Down The Spiral for Downward, and Things Falling Apart for The Fragile. Was there one for With Teeth? Dentures? Braces?

Big difference here is this disc is better than the one it's based on, in my opinion. I wasn't feelin' Year Zero and quickly forgot it as fast as I did With Teeth which had it's moments but, bleh.

Another big difference; the combo comes with a DVD rom which includes all the tracks from Year Zero in formats that can be imported to audio editors for remixing. Awesomeness! I'll have to get that. I only have downloads right now.

I've only tried my hand at remixing with Beck's Mixed Bizness which had some Acid tracks released about 6 or 7 years ago, and more recently Prince had a handful of samples from the then not yet heard Musicology, that he invited members of his website to mess with. I'll have to look for that Musicology mix, but I do have the Beck track which I've posted at Vox and titled Heather With Leather.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, music making, remix

Prince responds in song (recorded last night) to the shitstorm he started. And what a funky ass song it is. It seems he's still being an ass in the lyrics (or so it's been interpreted), but who cares? Listen.

Labels: bullshit, civil rights, downloads, music, Prince

Got this email, today. Tried to include the graphics, but it wasn't happening.

This morning I woke up invigorated and charged with the sort of energy that
might only come to someone waking up in a city surrounded by fire. I felt
alive and every instrument ever whistled by the wind surged symphonically
through me. I knew that today, whether by nature or by will, I would be
forced to reckon with what water could not quench. The fire that burns in
me is labeled poetry and music. Men in uniform have tried to put it out.
But every now and then, I blaze through hearts at nature's whim...

how clouds of ash
so easily shade
gray clouds of doubt

I've decided to put my record out.

In hopes of quenching fires:


THE INEVITABLE RISE AND LIBERATION OF NIGGYTARDUST!

http://www.niggytardust.com

Written and Performed by Saul Williams
Produced by Trent Reznor
Mixed by Alan Moulder

Exciting stuff!

Not because it's another "donationware" release on the heals of Radiohead's In
Rainbows, but because it's a new album by Saul Williams! Produced by Trent Reznor! Available not only as MP3s, but also in FLAC!

FLAC and higher encoded MP3s are for paying customers ($5.00 - perfect price for an album download), lower encoded MP3s for those who want the album for free.

I paid the five bucks. Getting the FLAC files. Supposed to be available on November 1st.

I wasn't crazy about the title before I realized it was Saul Williams, and probably
about hip hop and culture. Can't wait for this. Go sign up for it...

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, music business, online retailers

http://www.3121.com/jam/

Niiiiice! I like it much better than the version on 3121 (the album).

Tip o' de hat to Housequake, as usual. I'd not know if not for them.

Labels: music, Prince

Pretty much what I've been doing for a while. This is like my theme song. Comes from a relatively recent album by Sparks, called Hello Young Lovers, which is badass in a Bohemian Rhapsody meets Meatloaf, though not really kinda way. I thought those guys were just a new wave group from the eighties, but there's way more to them than that. I vaguely recall an old Saturday Night Live appearance, where I thought the keyboardist was named Roland because of the prominent logo on the instrument. I also recall they had the movie rights to Mai, The Psychic Girl, and they were gonna make it a musical directed by Tsui Hark. The idea frightened me at the time, but now I wish it got made. Wonder if they went ahead and wrote any songs for it.

I'm still digging Bad Brains' Build A Nation. I used to like the idea of Bad Brains more than I did their records. Now they've made a album worthy of a Punk/Reggae band, though now it's more heavy rock, than punk, in my opinion.

Video Games.

Played through Me And My Katamari on the PSP. The controls are painful compared to We Love Katamari on the PS2, but I love the 8 bit version you get at the end. Sorry if that's a spoiler. Also love the theme, Katamari on the Funk. I doubt I'll get the 360 version (Beautiful Katamari) unless it's cheap and I have nothing better to do, which, I guess, is inevitable. Starting Killzone Liberation on the PSP. Demo was cool so I picked this up a week or two ago (I know it's been out for a while).

Still have to finish We Love Katamari on the PS2. I want to be done with all my games on the PS2 and then say goodbye to them. There's a bunch. I'm bad at finishing games, but lately I'm a bit more into it. Having the XBox 360, it would be easy to move on, but I can't. I won't. Grand Theft Auto 3 was a birthday present dammit! So was Dynasty Warriors 2, I think. And I just bought two or three PS2 games like 6 or 7 weeks ago (Shadow Of The Collossus, Socom II - Socom was used - 5 bucks, and one other?) in addition to a few other decent titles just sitting around like War Of The Monsters. So I will finish them and maybe pass them on to friends.

Finished BioShock and Halo 3 on the XBox 360. Bioshock is the better of the two games, though I've yet to try out the online multiplayer function of XBox Live. I actually let my free one month gold membership lapse without trying it out. Wanted to be a better player first. I can barely shoot straight even at this point, but I'm gonna join up next week or so.

I also play various demos, or Burnout Revenge if I want a quick gaming session. I just bought The Orange Box, primarily for Portal, but it includes Half Life 2 and Team Fortress. Looks like fun. Haven't opened it yet.

Movies.

Transformers was fun, but got annoying during the second hour (I think) with the comedy bit with them searching for glasses while the robots try to hide from the parents and the big bad government goons showing up. Turned into E.T. for a little bit. I was never a fan of the cartoon, though the animated Transformers: The Movie was pretty decent.

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang was awesome, though. Picked it up at the supermarket a while back for six or seven bucks and finally checked it out. Funny as a muh-fug. Really looking forward to Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.

Also went to see Jodie Foster's Death Wish movie, The Brave One. I liked it. Not great, but good enough. Really looking forward to seeing Terrence Howard in some kinda armor in Iron Man or maybe it's sequel.

TV?

Finished Heavenly Sword, Dragon Sabre (2003), which finishes up the Condor Heroes Trilogy, though it's not really a sequel, in my opinion. In the order I watched them, this followed the 1983 version of Legend Of The Condor Heroes and the 2006 Return Of The Condor Heroes (simply called Condor Hero in the U.S. release).

After the 2007 Legend Of is released with subtitles (fansubs perhaps), I may revisit the trilogy, following with the anime version titled Legend Of but which is actually Return Of (I have some but not all of this series) and then cap it off with the 1986 New Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre. I also have a few volumes of the comic book adaptations of Louis Cha's novels. Legendary Couple by Tony Wong is based upon Return, and Heaven Sword Dragon Sabre was adapted by Ma Wing Shing. Both were published in English by Comics One, which went out of business before completing either story.

I've got Heroes stockpiled on my cable DVR, but haven't watched any of this season, yet. I will soon.

Audio Books.

eMusic has a audio books subscription service separate from their music downloading site. I joined, but will probably cancel after my second month. Listened to After Dark by Haruki Murakami and started A Briefer History Of Time by Stephen Hawkins. The first was a novel and was a breeze to get through, despite some audio glitches here and there. The second, not so much. Though meant to be lighter reading (listening) than Brief History, it requires a bit more of my attention than I can give it during a morning commute, or while shopping. I have to take a different approach, and will, later.

My previous experience with audio books was limited to Al Franken's Lies and The Lying Liars That Tell Them. A great audio book, but I didn't hold it up as an example of the medium, because it's a collection of funny stories delivered by a comedian who knows well how to perform his work. I've been told that normally, one should avoid audio books read by the authors themselves. Consider Al Franken an exception to this rule.

Comics.

Blood Sword back issues and the new re-translated, digitally enhanced volumes (Chinese Hero - Tales Of The Blood Sword). I'll talk about those another time, but I'll say the new volumes are great, mostly.

My creative endeavors?

All I do now is dick around, but when I get back to recording, I'll use the Vox page to blog about it rather than only using it for audio links and writing a separate blog.

Labels: comics, dorama, DVD, kung fu, movies, music, music video, PSP, tv, video games, wu-xia, XBox 360, youtube

Found via AfroNerd.

Labels: music, music business, society, youtube

A video, that is. Up for 21 days at his website, 3121.com. Joy In Repetition , AnotherLover, and Peach.

Discussed at Housequake.

Labels: music, music video, Prince

Yes. A new album from Bad Brains, and it's magnificent. Listen to some tracks at their MySpace and then get the record from eMusic, iTunes or wherever you get your shit from.

Also listening to music from the Katamari games, two albums worth. My favorite is Katamari On The Swing, only because the opening theme to Me And My Katamari (Katamari On The Funk?), which I'm currently playing on my PSP isn't on here.

Labels: good deal, music, PSP, video games

Cross posted from my own PsychoVoyager Journal...

There are plenty of songs from the past couple of years waiting on the back burner to be completed. However, I realized I haven't written any new tunes this year. I just sorta finished Ménage à Trois with robots, so I figured on getting something new in between that whatever I'll spend the next month or two polishing up.

Always looking for new toys to play with, outta nowhere came ChordStudio.com, now known as JamStudio.com (both URLs work, currently).

A boon to songwriters, musicians, or those of us who pretend to be, this web interface allows you to not only arrange chord progression with a click o' the mouse, but also the musical arrangement as well. Nice sounding samples of drums, bass, guitars, pianos, etc.

Creating songs this way, offers one a way to think outside the instrument and maybe write songs that might not normally result from noodling on the guitar or keyboard. Of course, if you were really good, you'd think outside the box with or without your main instrument. I'm not, so here I am.

I threw some random chords together on the 3rd and 4th of this month, till I got a couple of sequences with melodic potential. Then I started to build on the first one, which I decided was a verse. A chorus and intro was eventually added and I started on lyrics, which I worked on little by little from the 11th to today.

There might be a wee bit of a WTF factor to them, which I'm not gonna get into, except to say there is some element of truth to the words and just leave it at that.

After nearly finishing the lyrics, I then constructed a bridge section, which will probably host a guitar solo or some kind of instrumental break. Too lazy to write more words.

The two big limits with JamStudio are the inability (so far) to record vocals (don't know if that can be done with something like this) and the inability to record your song to mp3 or other audio format. The latter would sorta take care of the former as one could then overly vocals over the mp3 in another program (not the optimal way to record a song, but fine for a demo). Otherwise the share song feature is almost redundant as you're just sharing a chord progression arranged into a verse-chorus sequence, and not really an actual song (words and music).

Otherwise, the website as it is will keep me somewhat honest as a musician, as I'm forced to actually play and record the music to complete a demo. Still, if I could do it all here, and then put it on the shelf til I was ready to record proper, that would be an extra two flavors of awesome.

My JamStudio song can be heard here (and then make your own) until I get around to recording it.
And the lyrics below (I don't think anybody's gonna be able to sing along, just yet)...

Burning Kiss (c) 2007 George-Williams Isaacs

The secret evil
beneath the surface-volitile
but all the while-I stay
politecuzIcouldneverhurtyouorburnyouyoumeanthewholeworldtomebutIstillwantto
because it feels so good
this is where I've stood-the line
between
two worlds
of pain and pleasure
I need you to release the pressure


There is no hate there is no anger
in my burning kiss
I lust to taste your fear
of my burning kiss

Submission
to the power
while my aura
overwhelms-I sense
thetensionincreasingthestrikesneverceasingeuphoriareachingnewheightsneverdreamedof
No safe words spoken yet
smell the latex and the sweat
Awake
the dragon
from hell up to heaven
all our sins are now forgiven


There is no hate there is no anger
in my burning kiss
I lust to taste your fear
of my burning kiss

Thanks to Create Digital Music for highlighting this app.

Labels: fun, good deal, lyrics, music, music making, my music, PsychoVoyager, web apps

Thanks Valdermar and Housequake

Labels: covers, Heroes, music, music video, youtube

"Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left. This is how I roll with control - NES."

Hip Hop centered around Anime and video games? Why not, I guess. An article on Garage Spin pointed me to this cat named Maja (pronounced may-juh) who spins rhymes about that stuff. I've avoided listening to so-called "nerd-core" hip hop. Something about that whole scene rubs me the wrong way, and I'm not sure why, but I figured I'd check out his Transformer video on YouTube.

Hmm. Nicely done. Next was a performance of ANIME (アニメ見る時) in English and Japanese. Holy shit! Listen to this guy...



Next up, I listened to one or two tracks on his New School Hip Hop MySpace page and I was sold. First I checked to see if he was on eMusic. He wasn't, so I went ahead and ordered the CD. That was Thursday night, probably after 12. I got it on Saturday after paying for the cheapest shipping available. It was a shock to get it that quick, but then I realized it shipped from Brooklyn. Cool. The shipping, the NY sales tax and $3.00 handling fee brought the disc up to about $15.00, a little more than I would normally pay for a CD, on the rare occasion I buy them.

I've listened to it a coupl'a times now and I'm mightily impressed. Not that I listen to that much hip hop anymore, but it's nice to see somebody do something fresh with the genre every now and then.

I'll be absorbing this record for a little while. So far my favorite is UUDDLRL, though I'm much less a gaming fiend than I am an Anime one (and not as much as I used to be).

Maja's MySpace has 4 songs not on New School Hip Hop.

The Transformer Bundle is a free download including the complete version of Transformer (the track on the CD is acappella) and Here I come, which is different from the outro remix.

More Maja videos can be found here.

Labels: Anime, downloads, good deal, japanese, music, music video, video games, youtube

Yikes! Got a heads up from the Undercover Black Man that the recording in question is Albert Brooks, not Nick Nolte, and as a result not quite as funny. A link to an interview with Mr. Brooks is posted in the comments section. Cue my own Krusty groan. My apologies to all, especially to Mr. Nolte and his family.

Back in the early nineties, James Brooks shot a musical called I'll Do Anything. The cast, which included Nick Nolte and Tracey Ullman sang and danced to songs mostly written by Prince. Test audiences weren't crazy about the result, and the movie was re-edited into a dramedy. I saw it on cable years ago and didn't think it was that bad of a movie, but I always wanted to see the original version out of curiosity. As a Prince fan, I'd be compelled to purchase a special edition DVD with the musical on it, if it were ever made available.

A non-Prince tune stayed in the film and the lyrics to Don't Talk To Strangers was used as dialog (or was it the other way around?).
A number of the songs appeared on the bootleg Platinum, and then (3 songs) on The Vault: Old Friends For Sale (officially released and excellent). Don't Talk to Strangers was covered by Chaka Khan on Come To My House. The Prince version of that song and I'll Do Anything hasn't been released officially, I think.

Recently, 30 Years Of Unreleased Funk Vol. 3 appeared on usenet. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet (and may be missing a track or two), but I jumped right to the I'll Do Anything tracks, particularly the one's with Nick Nolte. Man, it would be tough to try and sell this soundtrack. He even does a Krusty The Clown like groan somewhere in there. Using the mug shot pic above will probably seem like a cheap shot till you hear this tune... (took that down out of fairness)

I'll Do Anything - Nick Nolte Albert Brooks

I'll Do Anything - Prince Demo

I'll Do Anything - Prince from Platinum

The above are megaupload links. I don't know how long they'll last...

Labels: downloads, funny-ass shit, movies, music, oops, Prince

For the most part, I still listen to albums (set compilations of music sequenced by the artist, traditionally sold on a vinyl or plastic disc), when listening to music on my PSP. Often times, say when doing my food shopping, laundry, or just when I feel like it, I prefer not to make any set choices and listen to random songs from my music collection.

Unlike the higher end iPods, which have hard drives as large as 30-60 Gigs (more?), PSPs are limited to external memory via Memory Stick Duos. I think the largest capacity released thus far is the 8 gig. I have a 1 GB, 2 GB, and a 4. This limits what I can keep on my PSP at any given moment. This is especially true since other data is stored on the memory stick. Game saves, game demos, ISOs (games), emulators & ROMs, photos and of course videos (usually two or more 45 minute Wu-Xia TV episodes*).
I normally have space left over for anywhere between 2-6 albums worth of music.

The PSP has a shuffle feature that randomizes whats on the mem stick, but only within each folder (each folder normally representing an album or otherwise group of songs). That's pretty useless. In other words, the PSP will shuffle tracks from Cntrl-Alt-Delete-U (The Paper Chase), move on to EP C (Battles) to do the same, and then Planet Earth (Prince). When not listening to albums as originally sequenced (or newly sequenced by myself or others), I'd prefer to shuffle tracks from all folders on my player.

When PSP Shuffle came around (or when I finally found out about it), it was great. It scanned all the music on my PC, and whenever I wanted to fill up my memory stick with random music, it did it's thing, and I was good to go. I disabled the photo and video feature. Throwing random photos from my PC onto the PSP wasn't a good idea (for a couple of reasons). The only video that can play on the portable is video specifically encoded for use on it or similar devices. Still, I mostly watch serialized material, that works best in chronological order. Sometimes I encode YouTube videos to show friends at work, and those are chosen specifically.

PSP Shuffle cleared out the contents of the mem stick before filling it with music. Even though I set it to only import music, it would erase all videos and photos as well as music (after giving a warning). This wasn't a big deal to me. I would use a mem stick that didn't have any current videos on it and game data was untouched.

At some point (I don't recall when), PSP Shuffle stopped working. I attributed it to a problem with my PC. Something I installed or un-installed. Who knows? The program acted like it was working, only much faster than usual. It would erase the mem stick, but not fill it with music. I tried uninstalling and re-installing, adjusting what little settings there were and then just gave up on it. I figured that maybe a firmware update might've had something to do with it.

When hooked up via USB, it used to be that music was found in "drive letter"/PSP/MUSIC, but fairly recently (don't remember when) the music folder was placed on the root of the PSP (as was VIDEO), so it would be found on "drive letter"/MUSIC. The old music folder is still there and still works (still needed for 48 Hour Pong), so I don't know if one thing has anything to do with the other.

A few attempts were made using Google to solve this problem with no success until a couple of days ago when I came across a guide to using a program called Media Monkey with the PSP. Media Monkey is primarily a music organizing tool that looks like it's inspired by iTunes. I've used iTunes to convert CDs to MP3s and M4As, but not much else, since I don't have an iPod. The free version of Media Monkey does everything I need it for, but I'm tempted to pay for a license, because it's so good at it. For one thing, it's not as CPU hungry as PSP Shuffle was. For another, it doesn't automatically erase the memory stick, of other music, video, etc. All the other stuff it may or may not do (I'll find out later) is gravy.

On the guide, where it addresses synchronization options, Kingbee116 suggests synchronizing tracks to \PSP\MUSIC\"artist"\"title".mp3. He correctly points out that once in MUSIC, you can only go one folder deep. I would normally put the music in \MUSIC\"album"\"title".mp3, preferring to name the folder after the album title rather than artist name, which can usually be seen on screen. Also using the root MUSIC folder as allowed by recent firmwares (official and custom).

Since the main purpose of this program (for me) is to randomize tracks, I avoid sub-folders altogether. I set it to \MUSIC\"title".mp3 so that the MUSIC folder is not filled with other folders with music in them, but with tracks from all over my computer. And rather than play these tracks in alphabetical and numerical order, I then use the PSP's shuffle feature, and everything is as it should be.

I still have to edit my music library inside of Media Monkey, as I have samples, program sounds, podcasts, DAW tracks, unrecognized (on the PSP) formats and other audio I consider undesirable for this particular task.

*At the moment, I'm watching Jubei-Chan, soon to be followed by Jubei-Chan 2. These are Anime, not Wu-Xia. Soon as I'm done with those, I'll finish watching Return Of The Condor Heroes (2006), which is Wu-Xia.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, PSP, solutions?

Planet Earth - The title track is epic, breathtaking and, for the first few times I heard it, a little exhausting. The rest of the album is almost unnecessary. Prince could do a whole show on this one song and just about get away with it. Just about. Luckily, most of the tracks that follow are strong enough to avoid the type of disappointment that could result from trailing behind a show-stopper like this. Do I know what it's about? No, but who cares? Don't pollute. Do unto others, blah, blah. It's fucking epic, and thats all that matters.

Guitar - I dug this version when it emerged about a month and a half ago. The song keeps the momentum Planet Earth built up, by continuing the six stringed assault on our senses. I'm almost embarrassed I wrote that. I'm just trying to say it rocks, man. That's all. And it does.

Somewhere Here On Earth - 2nd favorite track here, though this is the better song. Slightly reminiscent of Heatwave's Always And Forever and old school slow jams in general ("No, my brotha. You got to buy your own.") This song's a thing of beauty, though not as good as Adore. Then again, what is? If Prince does a video for this, he needs to sport an Afro-Sheen wig. Don't let him too close to the fireplace, though.

The One U Wanna See - I don't dislike this Shania Twain sound-alike as much as I did initially, but I still don't really like it at all. Country fans like their performers to be a bit more fan-friendly, so I'm not sure where he's going with this. He's covered Shania once with You're Still The One. If I remember correctly, only a snippet of that song was released. He must be a huge fan, though.

Future Baby Mama - Another nice, groovy slow jam. More contemporary in feel than "Somewhere".

Mr. Goodnight - Prince in Playa mode. Fun. I thought it was corny at first, but it grew on me big time. Video with he and Morris Day competing for a woman's affections? Would be cool. Maybe Kat Williams if Morris don't wanna do it. Do they still make music videos?

All The Midnights In The World - The return of whimsical Prince. A Wendy & Lisa contribution? I don't have the CD, yet, so I dunno. I like this.

Chelsea Rodgers - A nice, funky, and energetic groove. Disco influenced, but not disco. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Lot of speculation about who she is. Real or fiction? New protege, or long hidden love child? ChelseaRodgers.com shows a model showing off his new perfume. Just to be irresponsible, I'll suggest that "Might as well dance" isn't just a throwaway line, and points to this girl (whatever her real name is) as last year's Lolita from 3121. All that's beside the point, of course. The only thing that matters is that this is yet another great song. Go on Chelsea.

Lion Of Judah - Ugh! What the fuck is this? This isn't good enough to be filler on a stellar album like this. Not diggin' it. Not diggin' it at all.

Resolution - Another track that sounds like it's got Wendy & Lisa's influence on it and makes me appreciate at least some of what their fans have been saying for years. A great track to end the record on. Start with a torrential rainstorm, end with sunshine and a rainbow.

Overall, Planet Earth, despite two bad songs out of ten, has turned out to be my favorite Prince Album in the last few years. If I delete One U Wanna See and Lion Of Judah (and I will), it might even be better than The Rainbow Children, but it's too early to tell.

The CD hits U.S. stores on Tuesday. I'll get it Wednesday or Thursday.

Labels: music, Prince

Albums

A Weekend In The City - Bloc Party
Didn't care much for this when I first heard it, but I've since warmed to it. What did I mean by "mellow"?

Eat Me Drink Me - Marilyn Manson
Nothing he's done has been as good as Mechanical Animals (my favorite MM cd), but since then, Manson has rocked with a consistency not unlike ACDC back in the day. Something's different about this one. A lot more guitar solos. What else? Jury's still out.

Grinderman - Grinderman
I know almost nothing about Nick Cave, save an appearance in Wings Of Desire (watched the DVD a few months ago). Time to find out more, maybe.

Still Stuck In Your Throat - Fishbone
They're back! And they actually sound like Fishbone. Good Fishbone. Oh, shit!

Supreme Clientele - Ghostface Killah
Just starting to get into this one. If nothing else, it's good to have the theme from the Iron Man cartoon. I'm forcing myself to not listen to Fishscale for a little while.

Songs

Too Sexy - Sheila E
Instrumental b-side. I wonder who plays guitar on this.

Still A Thrill - Jody Watley
Funkiest guitar ever? Almost.

Myung Theme and Voices by Yoko Kanno
From the Macross Plus soundtrack. Beautiful.

Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing To Fuck With - Wu-Tang Clan with Rage Against The Machine
'Nuff said!

ルパン三世 '80 [Sunaga T Experience 9849 Mix]
The Lupin III theme played in a similar fashion (if not a variation of) the jazzy theme from the car chase in Cagliostro's Castle. From the 30th anniversary remix album, Punch The Monkey.

Catch My Disease - Ben Lee

Guitar (2nd version) - Prince

The Imperial March - John Williams
Before I realized that James Earl Jones was providing his voice, I figured the reason Darth Vader walked like a Black man was the kick ass pimpin' theme he was given in The Empire Strikes Back.

New Toy - Lene Lovich

Pleasures (Old Denim Mix) - Pushim
Japanese reggae. This song triggered all sorts of emotional chemical reactions the first few hundred times I listened to it. That was before I even realized she was singing in English. Powerful stuff.

People Get Ready - Jeff Beck And Rod Stewart
As great as Curtis Mayfield is, I still prefer this version (which was the first I heard). Love Beck's playing on this.

Scandalous: The Passion and The Rapture - Prince
From a CD single. The original version is from the Batman soundtrack. I normally just listen to The Rapture, which is mostly an awesome guitar solo. The Passion appears to be a mash-up of Scandalous and some other unknown Prince song. Possible, but I'm guessing it's just a really interesting embellishment that almost sounds like an altogether new song. Also love how the two pieces (Passion & Rapture) flow together as one.

沧海一声笑
This song can be heard in the movie Swordsman, sung (lip-sync'd) onscreen by Wu Ma and Lam Ching Ying (if I remember correctly) aboard a boat. Always loved this song. Listen to it on this page. Swordsman was based (loosely) on Louis Cha's Smiling Proud Wanderer.

All on my PSP, of course.

Labels: music, Prince, wu-xia

From Hometracked.com;

"Linkin Park’s singles often inspire the question “haven’t they already written this song?” An mp3 that does the rounds from time to time mixes Numb (on the left) and Pushing Me Away (on the right) to illustrate this with almost comical effect: All Linken Park Songs Sound Exactly The Same."

Read the rest over there...

While I understand that clichés are to be avoided, I can't help but wanna try one out when I come across something (I think) I haven't tried before. Call it a songwriting experiment. My next song will probably be one o' these soft-LOUD-soft-LOUD things.

I wonder if there are similarities in my own music that I'm not aware of? There probably isn't much of a (or any) variety in my song structures (verse, chorus, etc.), but still... I think the recordings are fairly different from each other.

I hope...

Labels: downloads, funny-ass shit, music, music making

Now this is much more like it. Guitar is the first single from Prince's new album Planet Earth, coming out in about a month or so. This song was first released a little while ago on Prince's website, 3121.com for 2 bucks. This tune, available through Verizon if you have one of their phones, is a different, much better, much live-r version. The video above ain't too bad either.

I'm getting my hopes up that Planet Earth won't be the disappointment that 3121 was.

I don't have a Verizon phone, so I found the song through "alternative" means.

Labels: downloads, music, music video, Prince, youtube

Good news for sure. DRM is a major hurdle preventing me from buying music downloads from anywhere but eMusic (there are other DRM free sites I've yet to look into). The other is price. There seems to be no announcement on price yet, but I suspect they'll continue the 99 cent standard set by iTunes. Especially since the low price of eMusic downloads (approx. 30 cents a song as of this writing) seems to be chasing some record labels away. If Amazon were to bring the price down to about 50-75 cents a track, I'd be willing to buy some tracks from them and still stay with eMusic. I don't see this as likely right now.

Labels: downloads, music, music business, online retailers

My 2001 LP, Just For Me is now available at Napster and Rhapsody, if you happen to use those services.

These in addition to being found on eMusic, and the Snocap Psychovoyager store on top of this page. Also there's Lulu.com where the album can be purchased as a collection of lossless flac files, or bought individually as mp3s (almost forgot - lower bitrate mp3s can be downloaded there for free). I'll make an announcement here when it appears on iTunes (which could take a little while).

Aside from Snocap and Lulu, my music appears at the above retailers through Tunecore.com.

On some stores, all of the songs on the album are labeled explicit for lyrical content, though only one song, Let You Down, contains any profanity (a single use of the term fuckin' as an adjective). It's Tunecore's rule, so I abided by it.

More music to come as I polish up songs from the last couple of years and maybe even write and produce new ones. April Fool's Day, found above on the Psychovoyager music store, is kinda seasonal and was completed only recently, so it hasn't been submitted at this point. I would prefer to submit compilations (albums) rather than singles at this time as it seems more cost effective. Therefore new completed songs will debut on my MySpace page and the PsychoVoyager music store embedded on it as well as here and on my PsychoVoyager.com blog (the home page is in need of maintenance).

Labels: downloads, music, music business, my music, online retailers, PsychoVoyager