- Tricia Romano from New York's weekly Village Voice newspaper goes ballistic in her latest article on NYC nightlife: "Note to cops, politicians, and everyone else who hates nightlife and thinks they're doing us a favor: You're fired. I don't need a babysitter. None of us do. I am tired of this War on Fun, this puritanical prohibition running rampant against New York nightlife."

- Resident Advisor checks in with M_nus's Heartthrob to talk disco moves and the inspiration behind his 2006 summer hit ‘Baby Kate'.

- The Boston Herald takes a look at Nick Warren's latest Global Underground 030 Paris compilation. "Dance-music compilations have become a bit obvious. The next purchase won't do anything much differently than the last one you bought," said Warren.

- Do you want to DJ but you still don't have enough money to buy some much-needed equipment? Wanna beg? Check this out.

In an incident reminiscent of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast of 1938, the city of Boston yesterday shut down bridges and a section of the Charles River in a panicked reaction to some "suspicious packages" with "a very sinister appearance," which were actually illuminated promotional devices for the adult swim cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force (see left.)

The luminous boxes featured the image of Ignignokt the Mooninite, a recurring character on the show, who with his partner Err, assault the Aqua Teens with frequent bird flipping, verbal burns, tire fires and other obnoxious, provocative antics.  The Mooninites look like pixelated rejects from an old Atari game and bear no resemblance whatsoever to Osama Bin Laden, Muqtada al-Sadr, or any other persons known for anti-American activities.

Turner Broadcasting Co., which owns the Cartoon Network and adult swim, issued a contrite statement for the ad campaign (which is also now displaying at the adult swim homepage), withdrawing the ads from a dozen or so other major American cities (including NYC), where they had been on display for nearly 10 days.

This whole story strikes me as so absurd that I can hardly type, my hands are shaking so with sheer incredulity.  Why were no other cities sent into terrorist-attack panic mode by these innocuous and even kind of swell-looking ads?  Can we safely assume that Boston has the fewest adult swim viewers per capita?  Can we also assume they have the most high-strung residents and/or law enforcement team in the nation?

Good to know our system works, as a freelance video artist allegedly responsible for placing the ads in Boston has already been arrested and charged.  Here's hoping the 27-year-old white male with dreadlocks (who probably thought he had a pretty cool job) will be made less of an example of than John Walker Lindh.  Better luck next time, Aqua Teens, Boston ain't laughin' and Turner Broadcasting is wicked sorry.  Perhaps the dudes from Metalocalypse would have been less threatening to ol' Beantown.

For more nasty, anti-American rhetoric, see this Mooninite Random Quote Generator.

MP3:
William Hudson III - Sermon, Part 2 (4:40)

I chose this one strictly because it's a 12 year old boy preaching......ON RECORD.  In a testimonial by Paul Serrano (President of P.S. Records...who released this album in 1987), Paul compares William Hudson III to artists such as Paul Robeson, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Mahalia Jackson and Michael Jackson. Side A consists of some of William's sermons (part 2 of which is included here), and Side B consists of 4 songs William has performed, showing off his amazing 12 year old voice.  Something about this record is strangely inspiring to me.

- Contributed by: The Bomarr Monk

Image: Front Cover

Media: 12" LP
Album: Introducing William Hudson III
Label: P.S. Records
Date: 1987

My God … it’s full of keys!

While the black-and-white piano-style keyboard layout remains the standard, designers still look for ways of reinventing pitch in music controllers. Sometimes the aim is to make it easier to play harmonies (top) … and sometimes it’s 211 keys-per-octave microtonal mayhem.

First, at NAMM we see C-Thru Music’s new AXIS, the “world’s first harmonic table MIDI keyboard.” Despite outward appearances, all these extra keys are designed to make it easier to play. By placing thirds and fifths as a adjacent to one another, you don’t have to reach to find chords — you can mash your fingers together and still hit a perfect minor thirteenth chord. (That’s one Giant Step for ‘Trane, one tiny finger squash for you.) According to its creators, “even DJ’s can use it.” You be the judge.

C-Thru Music AXIS (thanks, Carl, Keith, and others!)

Of course, if you’re trying to terrify friends with wild looking keyboards, the C-Thru has nothing on the H-Pi instruments. 12 keys per octave? Try 211 keys per octave, 1,688 keys. The Tonal Plexus, after eight months in development, will ship in June 2007, starting at US$1292.

I could try to explain this, but it’s better to watch the videos. And if you ever fantasized about playing a Lego base plate, your time is now.

What’s interesting here is that, unlike continuously-pitched controllers like the Theremin or Continuum fingerboard, it’s possible to find exact instruments. And somewhere along the line, all diatonic scales — plus whole mess of other tunings — manage to fit in the space of a single octave.

Of course, I don’t imagine myself learning 211 notes to the octave (even if I’ve taught some keyboard skills classes where it seems like that’s what the students were playing). Fortunately, H-Pi has a lot of useful goodies for tuning nuts, including notation software and MIDI gadgets.

Most promising is The Tuning Box (TBX-1), which costs just US$350 and can retune any MIDI controller on-the-fly to any custom tuning. At that price, it might appeal to anyone interested in exploring tunings easily.

Thanks to Aaron Andrew Hunt for sharing his beautifully unusual work.

H-Pi Instruments

Not new, but the Continuum Fingerboard as I said goes the opposite direction — continuous expression, rather than a bunch of buttons/keys. See it in action in a recent GearWire video from NAMM:
The Haken Audio Continuum Fingerboard Video- WNAMM ‘07 [GearWire]

alternative controllers, controllers, hardware, keyboards, microtonal, MIDI, NAMM, oddities

AudioEase previewed a new utility at NAMM that integrates with your Mac to provide ever-present sound file previewing, editing, and sample utilities. (Thanks to our readers who picked up on this in Barry Wood’s NAMM Oddities.)

Soundabout has a lot of tricks up its sleeve:

1. It provides waveform previewing, auditioning, and selection tools.
2. It integrates with Finder, so it’s always available when you navigate sound files.


3. It integrates with iTunes.


4. It drags. It drops.
5. It edits, slices, and dices.


6. It automatically converts files to MP3 for email.
7. It integrates with Pro Tools, automatically aligning to the cursor.

It’s unclear whether the integration will extend to other apps, as well; at this point all we know is what you can see in the video. We’ll keep an eye on this one; will be great to see this idea develop into a finished product.

Of course, there’s already another Mac-only utility that does all of this and a lot more: Iced Audio’s excellent AudioFinder. The difference is that AudioFinder does a lot more, but within a window, rather than integrating as Soundabout does in the Finder. Certainly, Soundabout’s purpose seems to be lightweight, always-on access, whereas AudioFinder is the heavy hitter — your pocket Leatherman and your Dremel tool, in other words. (For instance, AudioFinder has lop BPM detection, a BPM tap pad, a reference tone generator, a delay calculator, Audio Unit effects features, etc. But it doesn’t pop up in the Finder.)

It’s not hard to imagine sample addicts using both — AudioFinder now, and Soundabout when it comes out. We’ll be waiting.

Soundabout Video Preview

Iced Audio AudioFinder

audio, Mac, NAMM, previews, samples, Sampling, utilities

Related:effects free Plugins vocoderIf you are a Mac OS X user and need a free Universal Binary vocoder, VoCodex is your solution. This AU vocoder has good control over its output and will do a great job turning your voice into a robot Click here to visit the VoCodex home [...]

Screencap of WABC-TV's site courtesy of Stay Free.

Favorite lines I've heard all week: "I have a big box full of Bollywood soundtracks on LP". That means a new all classic Bollywood music blog! Instead of having to listen to another compilation without any information, here we get the full length soundtrack albums, details on the films, links to YouTube videos, cover scans, and MP3s galore. I'd tell you which ones to download, but I just went and grabbed them all. When it comes to the Bollywood, I have greed issues.

Which reminds me, I just updated my old post on Helen, the Bollywood dancing superstar. No mp3s, but I fixed all the links and added some new clips and information.

Malvina Reynolds sang about the KKK, health food, urban sprawl, and "the over aching sorrow of human existence on this planet" on her out-of print album Sings the Truth. Thanks to her song Little Boxes being used as the theme to Showtime's Weeds, this legendary grandmother of folk is back in the spotlight, so maybe we'll get some reissues soon.

A big week in general for folk and country MP3s:

• English 70s folkie Catherine Howe is reissued.
• Three words that go great together: Banjo pickin' girls.
• Tone-deaf, hillbilly, god-lovin' singer Isabel Baker's entire unbelievable album I Like God's Style.
• Folky swingin' harpsichord by The Sidewalk Swingers.
• The easy listening sounds and stepford stylings of The Doodletown Pipers.
• Nobody wants a square record...couldn't give away his square record., a little ditty to add to our list of Record Related MP3s.
• Just what you wanted from The Louvin Brothers: Tragic Songs of Life

Way more respectable than Snakes on a Plane (which I loved) is Black Snake Moan, Samuel Jackson's new film directed by Craig Brewer. Not only does it look freaking awesome, but the blues-heavy soundtrack (which you can hear in its entirety on the website), includes several tracks performed by Jackson, who plays a retired (and somewhat crazed) blues musician. 

Speaking of which, From 1968: "This is Howlin' Wolf's new album. He doesn't like it. He didn't like his electric guitar at first either."

More MP3 links after the jump.

As the radio jingle says: "Me and my RC, me and my RC. 'Cause what's good enough for other folks ain't good enough for me!"

What is the actual story of John Henry? Many different recorded versions weigh in on thier takes. Part One   |     Part Two   |    Part Three

Stephen Hawking sings! "His" version of Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick is the best, though I imagine that Monty Python's Galaxy Song makes the most sense. Or if you prefer, check out The Doctor Sings, featuring the best of all the Doctor Who's, Tom Baker. Hearing him recite I'll Be Watching You is divine.

A 30 member Swedish a capella group does Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights - complete with choreography.

Some excellent and hard to find No Wave/Underground 80s albums have resurfaced:

• The Wibbley Brothers - Go Weird
• Black Randy & the Metrosquad - Pass the Dust, I Think I'm Bowie
• Scott Wilk and the Walls - s/t
• Angst In My Pants, 1980 No Wave compilation with Mic Woods and early Missing Persons.
• Big In Japan - From Y to Z and Never Again, EP from 1978

Video time:

• Siouxsie and the Banshees live TV performance from 1979 - with Robert Smith on guitar.
• De La Soul video press kit - a nice peek at the kids just before they dropped their first album.
• Tex Harper's New Wave Country -  a German invention that involves cheesy synth, tight jeans, and, of course, poppin' and lockin'.
• You may think that Disney's High School Musical is a new trend, but no, look back to the 1978 musical Junior High School - starring a young Paula Abdul, and featuring the "Itty Bitty Titty Committee".
• Julie Driscoll meets the Monkees - from 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee

Back to the MP3s:

• 60s Polish femme pop from Katarzyna Sobczyk.
• BBC Radio documentary on John Zorn. Part One   |    Part Two
• Remember organ-master Larry? Larry Plays Again.
• Isn't it about time you got all those old Daniel Johnston cassettes on your computer? Start with Respect.
• Bulgarian Ye-Ye girl Sylvie Vartan.
• A nice loungy mix CD for you.
• An Oscar Brown Jr. classic gets turned into a soul stompin' single.
• Milli Vanilli really could sing! You want proof? You can't handle the proof! (no, seriously)
• Bonnie Prince Billy in an amazing live performance along with Scottish folk group Harem Scarem.
• 1958 rages on...and so do the Collins Kids.