Category: music

extending play: from lp’s to mp3′s and beyond

One of the benefits that record companies enjoyed when albums were the prevalent packaging for pop music was the upward pressure this scheme placed on song prices. In a typical pop* album, there will be a few hit songs as well as some songs that never really catch on. Yet even these less popular songs [...]

Noise as signal: overdetermined music from The Jesus & Mary Chain through My Bloody Valentine and Autechre to I Break Horses

music videos on YouTube: I Break Horses Hearts (2011) Crystal Castles Celestica (2008) The Field Sun & Ice (2006) Autechre Gantz Graf (2002) Fennesz Shisheido (2001) Kid606 Catstep (2000) Nobukazu Takemura Icefall (1999) Atari Teenage Riot Anarchy 999 (1999) Queens of the Stone Age: Regular John (1998) Oval Do While (1995) My Bloody Valentine Soon [...]

About a year of tweets, archived here for posterity.

I began this current journal, XSML, with the intent of reducing my own notes to extra small, XML-friendly updates. Increasingly, I have been drawn by the allure of the 140 character limit of Twitter. I may get a round Tuit and synchronize my use of Twitter with this blog. For now, here’s a dump of [...]

Rita Indiana name checking Minor Threat into the merengue canon.

Thanks to our friend Joni Daher I have just learned about Rita Indiana Y Los Misterios The song Esqueibol (Skateboard), is pure gold. Starting at 9m30s, Rita breaks it down: Cuando yo tenia 12 años Yo tenia un primo que se llamaba Alex El vivia en Orlando per venia todos los veranos Alex se cortaba [...]

Pop chopped and screwed.

I often wonder if a single song can inspire an entire genre. Certainly, there are combinations that are so influential they turn up again and again. Consider 10cc’s Not In Love and Hall & Oates’ Can’t Go For That, followed by The Avalanches’ Since I Left You and Boards of Canada’s Aquarius and most recently [...]

An old song of ours called “Get Out”.

This may be my favorite of our old songs – at this moment. Thank you Chris Palmatier for making the synth so Pat Benatar at the end. Chris Groves and Ana Machado on vocals. Brian Fraser sampled on drums.