Hey folks, I thought I would end the year a little differently and end it with a “playlist” for the year. I went all dorky and divided it up by month, talking a little bit about why I picked that track. It’s been one hell of a year. Hopefully you get that from my selection. See you in the new year!
Music
Some More Creative Commons Music I Enjoy
I was wandering around Jamendo, an interesting music site where you can download free music under the creative commons license, and found this interesting band: The Wind Whistles. Their sound has got a lot of folk to it, which is what really drew me to them. If you haven’t given this band a look-see (or listen-see??) I suggest you do so immediately and enjoy! That’s all for now. I promise better, more in-depth posts soon! Also: Hilarious Henry will be returning from a very lengthy hiatus soon. Over the holiday break I’m going to be drawing up strips and building a buffer. So keep an eye out.
[audio:GoldFever.mp3]A Test For My New Plugin
I was looking for a good audio player plugin for awhile and stumbled across “Audio Player” from 1 Pixel Out. So far, I like it. My only complaint is that it only plays mp3s, but since most of my music is mp3s anyway, it’s a rather small complaint. Enjoy this track from Brad Sucks.
[audio:MakingMeNervous.mp3]Jonathan is a VJ, Part 3
I figured I would usher in the extremely frigid month of December with a new Jonathan is a VJ post for you all. Since it’s so cold, I figured I’d post some light and bubbly stuff for you to enjoy and warm up to. As always, I’ve picked these videos from MTV Music, a site which you should sign up for and check out. It’s not without it’s faults, but that’s a different blog post for another blog.
So without further ado, let’s get this show on the road! I came across this first band through a friend and haven’t stopped listening since. I really dig their music and I think you will too.
Jonathan is a VJ, Part 2
Here we are again, folks. It’s time for another edition of “Jonathan is a VJ.” This time around, I’m thinking that I’ll take you on a journey of old school MTV / VH1 delights, stuff that I watched over and over again as a kid. Without further delay, let’s get started with probably the first music video I ever watched. Incidentally, it’s the first music video I watched on MTV’s New Site.
Jonathan is a VJ, Part 1
With the new MTV music video site just recently launched, I thought I would start a small little series on my blog where I pick five music videos I have saved in my favorites and embed them here for you to enjoy. If you want, you can friend me on the new site and keep up to date with what music videos I’m favoriting. The list right now is mostly small, but I’ll be adding more as I find them. Anyway, onto the music fest!
An Old Video, But Good One
Found this older video by perusing a family member’s blog archives. Every time I’ve come across TED I’ve always been engaged on so many levels. Seriously. Good stuff. I agree with a lot of what Sir Ken Robinson says here. Our education needs to be rethought. Funny that I’m thinking about this more now that my education is winding down.
If We Could Still Have A Song
Had the chance awhile back to see The New Pornographers live at The Hideout here in Chicago. They played a lot off of their new(ish) album Challengers, including this gem that I hadn’t given much of a chance. Listening to their performance live was nothing short of spectacular, and the circumstances around hearing that changed the way I looked at the album completely. Anyway, check it out.
(NOTE: If it doesn’t play. Hit the play / pause a couple of times)
Muxtape, Blip, and Indie Digital Sales
Was just thinking a bit about the whole RIAA intervention on the Muxtape site and got rather irritated. Maybe I’m just naive to how things in the world really work, but what harm was the site actually causing? They had “Buy MP3” links under every track and you were limited to 12 tracks in a mix. And it’s not like you could get full ablums of any worth from the site unless you had a lot of time on your hands. I just don’t see what the problem was, or actually is for that matter.
Now Blip.FM has taken over as the place to make mixes and share music with your online peers. Will this site shut down too when the RIAA finishes with Muxtape? As Amberella mentioned, may as well “Blip it while it’s hot!” I wonder though, how long this will last before a better solution is needed. I know I’ve begun to get tired of finding new places to force my music selection on the world. Just something to think about, anyway. What do you guys think?
Also, ARS Technica has an interesting article on indie bands and digital music distribution. If the RIAA needs to worry about anything at this stage in the game, it’s losing their artists to the internet and digital sales, which is a lot more viable. Why go through a major label when you can just become your own and post your stuff online?
