Banned Music

A new site today from the people behind Grey Tuesday: BannedMusic.org.

Bannedmusic.org is a peer-to-peer collaboration that makes it impossible for the major record labels to ban or censor musical works. When record labels send legal threats to musicians, record stores, or websites, we will post the music here for download and publicize the censorship attempt. There is a clear fair use right to distribute this music, and for the public to decide whether current copyright law is serving musicians and the public, they need to be able to hear what’s being suppressed.

iTunes: “Without Words” by Hamen from the album Techno-Trax Vol. 2 (1991, 4:11).

Music and personality

Interesting article in the Seattle PI looking at how your the content and organization of your music collection can give indications of your personality type.

Groundbreaking research has found that a person’s record collection may help predict which of five personality categories he or she belongs to.

Music preference also may reveal individual traits such as political ideology, intelligence and physical attractiveness.

Similarly, how that music is organized — alphabetized on shelves, separated by genre or scattered on the floor — is a reflection of personality, another study shows.

…The studies indicate a music collection and how it’s organized may tell where an owner fits in a group of personality categories called the “Big Five”: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness.

Things like this never really seem that accurate to me…the psychoanalytical equivalent of Tarot cards, so to speak. No matter what system or tastes you have, someone is going to be able to read something into it that is going to seem right on first blush. Still, it’s interesting to ponder.

I do have to wonder what they’d think of my collection, though.

Organizationally…well, at the moment, I’m a mess. My CD collection has gone through three distinct phases over the years, and is on its way to a fourth…

Phase One: Pre-DJ years. Alphabetical on shelves by artist, with each artist’s collection (if I had more than one album) in order by release date.

Phase Two: The DJ years. Separated into two collections. Albums that I wasn’t likely to use at whatever club I was at were at home, organized as above. Albums in the “DJ set” were packed into portable cases, sorted first by genre, then alphabetically, then by release date. Initially they were packed in their jewel cases, but over the years I worked on moving them into Case Logic CD sleeves to save space and allow me to take more along at a time.

Phase Three: The current mess. There is no organization at all. When I packed everything up to move to Seattle a few years ago, I just tossed my collection into boxes and cases in whatever order I grabbed them in, the “home set” completely out of order, the “DJ set” still in their travel cases. As I’ve been importing my entire collection into my computer, I’ve just been randomly grabbing cases out of the packing boxes, ripping them into the computer, putting the CD booklet into the CD sleeve, trashing the tray liner and jewel case, and tossing the CD sleeves into a box to be sorted out later. In other words, it’s a complete mess.

Phase Four: It’ll happen eventually…. Once everything is in the ‘puter and I’ve got all the CDs moved out of their jewel cases and into CD sleeves, I’ll find a good case to store the discs themselves in, and I’ll probably go back to the alphabetical sorting scheme, without bothering to sort by genre this time. It’ll be a while before that happens, though.

And as for what the music itself might say about me…I almost shudder to think what conclusions they might draw!

Dad brought me up on a lot of old blues, rock and roll, and folk. Mom added the classical element. I sang for years with the Alaska Children’s Choir, which gave me an appreciation of vocal classical and modern music. Interest and involvement in theater (along with the choir concerts) led me to a lot of Broadway musicals (and Jesus Christ Superstar is, has been, and always will be my all-time favorite modern rock opera…though Chess [the original pre-show album, at least, as I’ve yet to see any on-stage production] frequently gives it a run for its money). A distinct lack of interest in pop music led me into the alternative/gothic/industrial genres. DJ’ing got me into a lot of electronica and dance music (and led me back into pop, though I try to be picky about what pop I like). Various friends and girlfriends let me discover that, while I still have no great appreciation for the sappy ballads, there’s a lot of really good upbeat country music out there that is quite listenable. While hip-hop and rap are hardly genres I’ve explored over the years, I have found quite a bit over the years that I do enjoy (and thanks to a roommate emptying his collection during a move, I can boast a nearly-complete Public Enemy collection). My brother has introduced me to a lot of really good jazz and bluegrass during his years playing both upright and electric bass.

In other words, with the single exception of “smooth jazz” (which — sorry Tim ;) — I cannot listen to without gritting my teeth and wanting to do disturbingly violent things to the people who inflict such an empty, pointless, music-less pablum upon my ears…it really is the only genre I’ve found that I absolutely cannot stand), there’s probably not a single genre that isn’t represented by at least a few albums in my collection.

There’s more than one reason I named this site Eclecticism, after all.

(via Your Local Goddess)

iTunes: “I, Zombie (Europe in the Raw)” by White Zombie from the album Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds (1996, 3:57).

Tori Amos: Tales of a Librarian

Tori Amos has a new “greatest hits” collection available at the iTunes Music Store called ‘A Tori Amos Collection — Tales of a Librarian‘. Normally, this wouldn’t be terribly interesting to me, as I already have a very large Tori collection, and therefore wouldn’t have much need for a compilation album. However, this one caught my eye for two reasons.

Firstly, there are two exclusive tracks included only if you purchase the full album through the iTMS: Putting the Damage On (Reconditioned) and Pretty Good Year (Live from Sound Check). Secondly, all of the songs have been ‘reworked’ or ‘reconditioned’, which made me curious.

So far, I’m fairly impressed with what I’ve heard. None of the new versions are entirely new — in fact, on some of them, the changes are so subtle as to be almost unnoticeable, and I was initially starting to wonder if they had simply used ‘reworked’ rather than ‘remastered’ as a term and had just re-issued the original tracks. However, there are some definite changes to the tracks, usually in the form of a few extra instruments here and there, an extra vocal track or harmony line…slight edits and additions that flesh out the tracks a bit more.

One noticeable exception to the rule is the ‘reworked’ version of Professional Widow, which actually appears to be an edit of Armand van Helden’s dance remix of the track!

Overall, it’s not a must-buy for most people, but for a collector or for someone (like me) who gets a kick out of listening to a track’s production, trying to identify how it was all assembled, the collection is definitely worth the download.

iTunes: “Professional Widow (Reworked)” by Amos, Tori from the album A Tori Amos Collection – Tales of a Librarian (2003, 3:47).

Siouxsie in Seattle!

Siouxsie‘s coming to Seattle — with the Creatures and the Banshees!

Coming to a US City near you in May & June, and you’re all invited..

We’re presenting these shows as “an evening with Siouxsie” as they’ll be neither solely Creatures nor Banshees but an all encompassing two hour show which will comprise classics & rarities picked from the whole of the Siouxsie & the Banshees & the Creatures catalogues.

We’re also thrilled to announce that ex-Kodo drummer Leonard Eto will be joining us as our special guest for the debut performance of songs from Hái!

The venues are mostly of an intimate size, (more sensorial), there’ll be no support so get there early as this will be one of those rare chances to see & hear la Sioux – up close!

see you soon,
xxBudgiexx

AN EVENING WITH….SIOUXSIE
2004 U.S. TOUR DATES

Wed 19 May, Seattle, WA – The Showbox
Tel: 206-628-0221 or 800-325-SEAT ticketswest.com
Tix. \$27.50 Adv. \$30.00 DOS Doors: 8:00PM OnStage: 9:30PM (21+)

I so need to get off work early that day…

(via Sirriamnis)

iTunes: “Mars (The Bringer of Techno)” by Technoclassix from the album Technoclassix Vol. 1 (1993, 5:20).

Coolio ‘Smokin’ Stix’ (DJ Wüdi Remix)

So, aside from a little silly noodling around a couple weeks ago, I hadn’t really done much with GarageBand since I picked it up. Since I don’t have a keyboard to use with it, I’m somewhat limited by not being able to use anything but the included loops. However, it occurred to me on the way home from work the other night that that should be more than enough to let me play around with remixing already existing work…

…and for some reason, Coolio’s “Smokin’ Stix” caught my ear as a likely candidate. While the subject matter isn’t really up my alley (dipping cigarettes in embalming fluid and smoking them to get high), the beats and rhythms are fun, and I thought I might be able to make something work with that as a base.

Disclaimer: The original recording of Coolio’s “Smokin’ Stix” is ©1994 Tommy Boy Music, published by Tommy Boy Music/Boo Daddy Publishing/All Nations Publishing (ASCAP)/Frankly Music (BMI); was written by A. Ivey, T. Conway, and A. Feldman; and contains samples from “You Want It You Got It” performed by B.T. Express, courtesy of Roadshow Music Corp. I am not charging for or attempting to make money off of this remix. Please don’t sue me. :)

So, for the past couple days, I’ve been fiddling around with GarageBand and Amadeus II, first using Amadeus II to snip the song into lots of little pieces and attempting to isolate the vocals from the background music (which was only partially successful), then re-assembling everything in GarageBand with my own choices of drum beats, instruments, and electronic bleeps and bloops.

And now, finally, it’s finished (or at least, “finished enough” — I could probably keep tweaking it nearly indefinitely).

Download it here: Coolio’s “Smokin’ Stix” (DJ Wüdi Remix) (4:03, 4.6Mb, 160kbps MP3).

I don’t think it’s perfect, but I don’t think it’s too terribly bad for a first project, either. Hopefully some of you get a kick out of it too — but feel free to let me know what you think, good or bad!

Grey Tuesday followup

Downhill Battle has posted a followup to yesterday’s ‘Grey Tuesday’ event:

GREY TUESDAY EXCEEDED everyone’s expectations. When we put the word out about this protest, we had no idea how many sites would join in (over 400 did). When EMI’s lawyers sent threatening letters on Monday afternoon to people who were planning to host the album, we had no idea how many would risk getting sued to make this important political stand (over 170 did). We didn’t know we’d get messages of solidarity from prominent political and intellectual forces like the EFF and Lawrence Lessig, but we did (and thanks). All of us who took part in this protest have done a lot to spur a rethinking of copyright law in terms of what’s good for musicians and what’s good for our music culture. And we’ve made it more apparent than ever how the major record labels have twisted the original purpose of copyright law (“to promote the progress of science and the useful arts”) in order to suppress music that doesn’t flow from their system.

They have links at the bottom of their post to some of the stories about Grey Tuesday that showed up in the media, including one fron the New York Times.

iTunes: “Electricity” by Apoptygma Berzerk (5:08).

Grey Tuesday

It’s Grey Tuesday

It’s time for music fans to stand up and demand change from the music industry’s copyright cartel.

Tuesday, February 24 will be a day of coordinated civil disobedience: websites will post Danger Mouse’s Grey Album on their site for 24 hours in protest of EMI’s attempts to censor this work.

DJ Danger Mouse created a remix of Jay-Z’s the Black Album and the Beatles White Album, and called it the Grey Album. Jay-Z’s record label, Roc-A-Fella, released an a capella version of his Black Album specifically to encourage remixes like this one. But despite praise from music fans and major media outlets like Rolling Stone (“an ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time”) and the Boston Globe (which called it the “most creatively captivating” album of the year), EMI has sent cease and desist letters demanding that stores destroy their copies of the album and websites remove them from their site. EMI claims copyright control of the Beatles 1968 White Album.

Danger Mouse’s album is one of the most “respectful” and undeniably positive examples of sampling; it honors both the Beatles and Jay-Z. Yet the lawyers and bureaucrats at EMI have shown zero flexibility and not a glimmer of interest in the artistic significance of this work. And without a clearly defined right to sample (e.g. compulsory licensing), the five major record labels will continue to use copyright in a reactionary and narrowly self-interested manner that limits and erodes creativity. Their actions are also self-defeating: good new music is being created that people want to buy, but the major labels are so obsessed with hoarding their copyrights that they are literally turning customers away.

This first-of-its-kind protest signals a refusal to let major label lawyers control what musicians can create and what the public can hear. The Grey Album is only one of the thousands of legitimate and valuable efforts that have been stifled by the record industry– not to mention the ones that were never even attempted because of the current legal climate. We cannot allow these corporations to continue censoring art; we need common-sense reforms to copyright law that can make sampling legal and practical for artists.

The Grey Tuesday protest is being organized by Downhill Battle, a music activism project that has no affiliation with Danger Mouse.

And on that note…

Update:

Much as I’d like to continue this, I just joined the many people who have been sent “Cease and Desist” letters. I debated leaving the links up, but should the lawyers decide to follow through, there’s no way I’d be able to put up a fight (not that I’d have any money to give them anyway, but it’d be more hassle than I want to deal with). I’m sure that many other sites will continue to offer the Grey Album over the course of the day, and possibly beyond, and I wish them the best of luck.

This time, though, I’d rather record that I made my statement of support and participated until receiving the Cease and Desist — at which time, for my own protection and peace of mind, I did just that.

The letter I received follows (though it’s the same letter that other sites were getting yesterday)…

From: JCJ\@cll.com
Subject: The Grey Album and Misappropriation of Capital Records, Inc.’s Sound Recordings
Date: February 24, 2004 9:50:43 PST
To: djwudi\@myrealbox.com

Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, P.C.
LAW OFFICES
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036-6799
Telephone (212) 790-9200
Web www.cll.com
Fax (212) 575-0671

Re: The Grey Album and Misappropriation of Capitol Records, Inc.’s Sound Recordings

To Whom It May Concern:

We are counsel to Capitol Records, Inc. (“Capitol”), the exclusive U.S. licensee and/or owner and distributor of musical sound recordings featuring performances by The Beatles. We write concerning your announced intention of distributing an unlawful and unauthorized sound recording known as The Grey Album on February 24, 2004. This infringing album contains extensive samples from recorded performances by the Beatles, including “Long, Long, Long,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Glass Onion,” “Savoy Truffle,” “Mother Nature’s Son,” “Helter Skelter,” “Julia,” “Happiness is Warm Gun,” “Piggies,” “Dear Prudence,” “Rocky Raccoon,” “Revolution 1,” “Revolution 9,” “I’m So Tired,” and “Cry Baby Cry” (the “Capitol Recordings”). Distribution of The Grey Album constitutes a serious violation of Capitol’s rights in the Capitol Recordings as well as the valuable intellectual property rights of other artists, music publishers, and/or record companies and will subject you to serious legal remedies for willful violation of the laws. We accordingly demand that you cease any plans or efforts to distribute or publicly perform this unlawful recording.

As you are no doubt aware, The Grey Album is an amalgamation created by an individual named Brian Burton (a/k/a Danger Mouse) of Jay-Z’s The Black Album and the Beatles’ self-titled 1968 album commonly known as The White Album. There is no dispute that The Grey Album incorporates Capitol Recordings, as Mr. Burton acknowledges on his website (http://www.djdangermouse.com) that “every kick, snare, and chord is taken from the Beatles White Album and is in their original recording somwhere [sic].” There is also no dispute that Mr. Burton never requested permission from any of the rights-holders to create The Grey Album.

Capitol has demanded that Mr. Burton cease distribution of The Grey Album, and Mr. Burton has indicated publicly that he intends to comply with Capitol’s demands. As reported by Reuters on February 17, 2004:

Danger Mouse said he created the record strictly as a limited-edition promotional item, with only a few thousand copies pressed . . . .

The artist, whose real name is Brian Burton, has agreed to comply with the order and will no longer distribute copies. “He just wanted people to hear the record,” says a spokesman in the U.K.

Reuters has also quoted Mr. Burton as saying, “[t]his wasn’t supposed to happen . . . . I just sent out a few tracks (and) now online stores are selling it and people are downloading it all over the place.” By further distributing The Grey Album, you will not only be violating the rights of those who own the recordings and compositions at issue. You will also be interfering with the intention of the very artist whose rights you purport to vindicate.

We are aware of the so-called “Grey Tuesday” event, sponsored by http://www.downhillbattle.org and described on the http://www.greytuesday.org website as a “day of coordinated civil disobedience” in which participating sites will make the unlawful Grey Album available for downloading, distribution, and file-sharing in order to force “reforms to copyright law that can make sampling legal.” Your site is listed among those that will engage in this openly unlawful conduct. Any unauthorized distribution, reproduction, public performance, and/or other exploitation of The Grey Album will constitute, among other things, common law copyright infringement/misappropriation, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment rendering you and anyone engaged with you in such acts liable for all of the remedies provided by relevant laws. These remedies include but are not limited to preliminary and permanent injunctive relief as well as monetary and punitive damages necessary to remedy your openly willful violation of Capitol’s rights.

We accordingly demand you:

  1. cease and desist from the actual or intended distribution, reproduction, public performance or other exploitation of The Grey Album and any other unauthorized uses of the Capitol Recordings or any other sound recordings owned and/or controlled by Capitol;
  2. identify the names and addresses of any third parties who have supplied you with physical or digital copies of The Grey Album or who are otherwise involved in The Grey Album‘s unauthorized distribution, reproduction, public performance, or other exploitation;
  3. provide Capitol with an accounting of all units of The Grey Album that have been distributed via your website, either physically or digitally, and of all instances of public performance of The Grey Album rendered via your website; and
  4. preserve any and all documents and records relating to this matter, including but not limited to electronic data and other information which may be relevant/discoverable in the event of litigation.

In addition, to the extent that you have already commenced distribution of The Grey Album, you must make payment to Capitol in an amount to be discussed. We demand that you contact us immediately.

Unless we receive full and immediate compliance with these demands, Capitol will be forced to consider pursuing any and all available remedies at law and in equity.

Nothing herein shall be deemed an admission or waiver of any rights or remedies of Capitol and/or its affiliates, all of which are hereby expressly reserved.

Sincerely,

/s/ J. Christopher Jensen

J. Christopher Jensen
Telephone (direct dial): (212) 790-9204
Email: JCJ\@cll.com

Note that this is a boilerplate letter that has been sent out to many (if not all) sites participating in Grey Tuesday (to the point that to post it here, I had to edit out glitches that had popped up during many forwards and re-sends that the legal counsel had not bothered to clean out of the text of the e-mail).

Item one of the demands has been complied with.

Items two through four I have no intention of complying with, and according to Downhill Battle’s lawyers can be ignored.

Lawyers have advised us that we can ignore your demands number 2, 3, and 4 that are listed at the bottom of your letter. EMI has no legal right to make these demands and we will not comply with them.

Good luck to all the other participants.

And lastly, with thanks to adam b. and The Beatles:

have you seen the little piggies
crawling in the dirt?
and for all the little piggies
life is getting worse
always having dirt
to play around in

have you seen the bigger piggies
in their starched white shirts?
you will find the bigger piggies
stirring up the dirt
they always have clean shirts
to play around in

in their sties with all their backing
they don’t care what goes on around

in their eyes, there’s something lacking
what they need’s a damn good whacking

— The Beatles, “Piggies”, from The White Album

iTunes: “Hass” by Das Ich from the album Relikt (Disc 1) (2003, 7:09).

10 Random Songs

From D: Put your .mp3 collection on random, list the first 10 songs it plays. No editing allowed (though I don’t mind editorializing, myself).

Mousse T: Horny (Clean Version) from DJ Mix 2000 (1998, 3:54): One of the side effects of DJing for years was picking up a lot of CDs that I otherwise wouldn’t have — this was one of them. Actually, this track is one of the more listenable tracks from the album (which really isn’t saying much), and I can at least listen all the way through (if I’m distracted) without jumping for the “skip forward” button.

The Vienna Boys’ Choir: Heiligste Nacht from Christmas in Vienna (1991, 4:26): I actually got to meet (and sing with, if I remember correctly) one incarnation of the VBC many years ago, when they came through Anchorage and I was still a member of the Anchorage Childrens’ Choir. This is an album that normally only gets played around Christmastime, as I’m no big fan of Christmas music, especially off-season.

The Sisters of Mercy: Torch from Floodland (1987, 3:51): I couldn’t listen to SoM for the longest time, after they got heavily overplayed at Sharkey’s, one of the earliest alternative clubs in Anchorage. Lots of SoM every weekend drove me away from them after a while. A few years later, I finally got back into them, and now there’s not much SoM that I don’t enjoy.

Queen: Don’t Try Suicide from The Game (1980, 3:52): While I’m a long-time fan of Queen, this has to be one of their worst songs ever. Why is it that Grand Master Flash has been the only artist ever to come up with an anti-(bad thing of choice) song that was actually good (in this case, his anti-cocaine jam “White Lines (Don’t Do It)”)?

Madonna: Vogue (Bette Davis Dub) from Vogue (1990, 7:28): I’ve always had a lot of respect for Madonna, and generally enjoyed the music she’s put out. No matter what you may think of her or her music, she’s managed to keep herself in the headlines and put out a lot of good, solid, pop/dance music for many years now, generally doing so entirely on her own terms, whether that meant being outrageously sexual, outrageously religious, or just outrageous. The famous Madonna/Britney kiss was one of the first big indicators I’ve seen from her that she might be slipping and getting a bit desperate for press — hopefully that was just a momentary aberration.

DJ H. Geek: I Don’t Know Who I Am… from 3 Years and Counting… (1998, 10:07): DJ Geek, aka Kory, is a friend of mine that I DJ’d with for a few years at Gig’s. He went from mixing to creating his own music, and was nice enough to occasionally toss a CD of his my way. These days, I’ll be listening to something, hear a track I don’t recognize right off, think “hey, that’s good…who is it?” and realize that it’s one of Kory’s tracks. Not bad, not bad at all.

Love and Rockets: Lift (Malibu) from Resurrection Hex (1998, 4:17): As good as it is, there’s so much more to LaR than just “So Alive“. Have any of the members of Bauhaus gone on to any projects that weren’t listenable?

Deconstruction: E-Trance from Trance Sexual (1996, 5:32): Random rather forgettable trance, really. Not bad, not great. Just there.

Die Krupps: To the Hilt from Rings of Steel (1995, 4:47): Die Krupps aren’t one of my favorite industrial bands, and many of the remixes on the Rings of Steel album are more impressive than the original versions, but they’re not bad.

White Zombie: I’m Your Boogieman from The Crow: City of Angels (1996, 4:29): Cheezy, yeah. Loud, yeah. And virtually always a lot of fun. Who needs actual substance when good samples, drums, guitar work, and a healthy dose of pure attitude will do?

Barry Manilow listens to Underworld?!?

I never would have guessed this.

I was poking around on the iTunes Music Store, and started looking at some of the Celebrity Playlists — essentially “mix tapes” (only there’s no tape involved) assembled by famous people. I saw Barry Manilow listed, and had to know.

Two tracks immediately jumped out at me — favorites of mine, and not at all what I expected to see.

First, Underworld’s “Born Slippy/NUXX“. Underworld is one of my favorite modern electronica acts, and while most people know them for “Cowgirl” off of the Hackers soundtrack, they’ve done a lot of other excellent work, including this track (also featured on the Trainspotting soundtrack). Driving rhythms, inscrutable lyrics, and lots of electronic bleeps and bloops — good stuff. ;)

Even better, though, was seeing the Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush collaboration “Don’t Give Up” off of Peter’s album ‘So‘. Where many people would rank “In Your Eyes” (also featured on the Say Anything soundtrack) as their favorite song of his, “Don’t Give Up” has always been my personal pick. Beautiful, haunting, and full of hope for the future, this song is one that often helps me get through some of the rougher times in life. It also has one of the best videos I’ve ever seen — good enough that I remember it clearly, though I only ever saw it once, in a hotel in Italy during one of my trips to Europe. Just Peter and Kate embracing each other against a sunrise, standing on a platform that revolved so that each was facing the camera as they sang their lines. Very simple, and very effective, much like the song itself.

Good to know that Barry’s got better taste in music than I’d expect.

Free music is good

One free iTMS song!

I got my first free song from the iTMS today, thanks to the current promotion with Pepsi!

I’d been keeping an eye out for eligible bottles, but today was the first day I’d actually seen them. I picked one up on the way to work, popped the cap, and won right off the bat! Not bad at all — even with one out of three bottles being a “winner,” I hadn’t expected to find a good one right away.

Figuring out what to get wasn’t terribly difficult, either. Ever since I started listening to the CD I got from Kev and Emily at their wedding, I’d been convinced that I knew the Dolly Parton song “Travelin’ Prayer”, only I remembered it being a man singing it rather than a woman. While looking up songs on the iTMS for the previous post, though, I figured it out — she’s doing a cover of Billy Joel’s song “Travelin’ Prayer” off of his Piano Man album.

I knew I’d heard that somewhere before!