Apple’s GarageBand is a powerful tool for recording MIDI and audio and arranging loops. It can be puzzling to songwriters, though, because it doesn’t really understand chord changes. Sure, you can transpose MIDI loops or (more problematically) audio, but that process is a bit clunky and rarely sounds right. Many beginner-level GarageBand songs (especially by students) simply stay in one big, long I chord for an entire piece, which, by astounding coincidence, is what I sound like playing guitar. (Come on, I went to the trouble of getting my fingers on these frets — now you want me to move them? Where’s a piano? I’m through.)

Enter ChordStudio, an entirely Web-based tool that takes the opposite approach. Running entirely in a browser, the free Web app presents a blank score and lets you construct song structures with chords. Behind the scenes, 30,000 loops seamlessly render those chords into something that actually sounds like music. You can control the mix with common instruments, including electric guitars, bass, drums, piano, and electric piano.

The results are very simple, but I can see them being very useful. Aside from making it fun for a beginner with limited computer and/or music skills to put together basic song structures, it’s not hard to imagine someone using this as a quickie web tool on the road to get an idea down. It’s no GarageBand killer, of course — it’s just a simple Web interface — but if you like the loops, you can purchase them as a US$99 DVD and use them with GarageBand or your favorite looping app of choice.

ChordStudio.com

Web applications are unlikely ever to replace dedicated, standalone music and audio applications, because these applications by definition require an intimate relationship with your computer’s hardware. But that doesn’t mean the Web won’t be a place for some simple, useful ideas to complement standalone apps. Previously:

Tune Your Guitar Via the Web, with Free Tuner and Instructions

chords, composing, free, guitars, Loops, online, software, songwriting, soundware, Web

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For field recording, sampling, recording practices and performances, video production, and a lot of other purposes, just about everyone wants an ideal digital mobile recorder. If you haven’t been following comments, we’ve had an extended discussion by readers on the Zoom H4 mobile recorder, its upcoming smaller sibling the H2, and competitive devices like Edirol’s R09.

Now, the excellent new blog bleeps has had some hands-on time with the H4 in movie production:
10 reasons a Zoom H4 is handy on a movie set!

Interestingly, the main issue other readers have had with the H4 — difficulty accessing mic level controls — wasn’t really a problem in this application. The basic internal stereo mics did just fine for stereo imaging. And there’s no shortage of uses:

• Recording primary on-location sound in stereo (even with the built-in mics, though the H4 also has XLRs)
• On-the-fly foley / sound effects
• Ambient audio, room tone, etc.
• On-location audio playback
• Lots of storage for interviews, extra tracks
• It’s not a camera.

(...)
Read the rest of Zoom H4 Mobile Recording: Useful for Movie Production? (181 words)

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When you move to certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn and your last name is "Berg," a trigger sets a ball bearing down its track, which bumps into a lever that engages a pulley, sending an egg careening towards a pot of boiling water, and all of a sudden you discover that someone has taken the liberty of adding you to certain mailing lists. Postal profiling?

Of course, I enjoyed receiving Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz' annual Happy Passover letter, (and waving it victoriously in front of my roommate at the time, who has a less fortunate, non-Berg surname, and was thus excluded from this illustrious mailing list). On other occasions, I would receive long diatribes in Hebrew or Yiddish (neither of which I understand), some featuring curious photos of old Hasidic men casting ballots into a black box. However, one of my unsolicited junkmail pamphlets surpassed all others in terms of intrigue:

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Without the language skills required, what the hell was I to make of this nefarious piece of junkmail other than "Chinese Baby Auction"? This not-for-profit group is clearly proud of auctioning off 334 babies, building families one soul at a time with your help. Incredible! I wanted so badly to believe even half of the tale this pamphlet appeared to relay that I put off showing it to WFMU's resident translator and superstar of JM in the AM, Nachum, for fear of inevitable disappointment. The true story behind this junkmail is far too terrible and pedestrian to discuss here.

What's the best piece of junkmail you ever received?

30th July 2007: Angry Red Planet has updated Temper to v0.9.13. Changes: Added new Tempo Tap FX for recording the tempo. Flip tool is now live after mouse up. Updated Quantize tool to be live during mouse move an...

30th July 2007: KlangLabs has updated OverDubber to v1.74. Changes: Added hints on all buttons.

74min chill-out mix, music from artists like Planet Funk, Zero 7, Boards of Canada, Slowhill, Ulrich Schnauss, Banco De Gaia, Dousk, Groove Armada... - Source Site:http://orion.reaktio.net

Follow Dana Brown, renowned big-game hunter, in his hunt of the great man-eating tiger of Western Nepal. Awaiting the tiger's approach while patiently sitting in a tree, Dana waxes poetic into a cheap microphone in a strange stunted and blustery meter about the beauty and horrors of the jungle as birds chatter and wail in the background.

Jungle Nights & Man-Eaters with Dana Brown Side One (mp3)
Jungle Nights & Man-Eaters with Dana Brown Side Two (mp3)

I have extracted some choice bits from the record...starting with an example of Dana's blubbering verbose observations of hunting in the jungle.
Dana Brown - Jungle Poetry (mp3)

Dana lets his listeners hear a bit of violent tiger mating.
Dana Brown - Authentic Sounds Of Tigers Mating! (mp3)

Towards the end of the record, Dana starts to adopt an almost b-movie horror movie affectation.
Dana Brown - Stalking Creeping Terror (mp3)

Eventually Dana gets down out of tree to take part in the "weird music of Western Nepal" during the eight-day holiday named "Holi" when all marriage ties are dissolved! Dana gets lost in reverie as he lusts after the girls of Western Nepal..."one of the prettiest women of the world."
Dana Brown - Eight Days of Holi (mp3)

front cover - back cover - Dana Brown autograph

Special thanks to Matt Marsden for lending me this gem that I have been pestering him about for a couple years now. Also- for a very similar stunted and blustery oratory style, check out Unkie Dunkie, the worst comedian of New Jersey.

MP3:
1. Helen Wheels (McCartney) (3:36)
2. Girl From The Isle of Wight (Humber) - (one of their own songs) (3:51)
3. Hide Away Girl (P. Sanders) - (another one) (4:01)
4. Flyin' High (D.Chandler) -  (the drummer wrote this - the Derek Smalls of the band it seems ;-) NEVER let the drummer write songs!) (6:17)
5. Hey Tonight (Foggerty) (3:48)

I dunno what it was about the Seventies. maybe it was to do with being there as an awkward teenager, but it does seem to have been the decade when Average Geezerdom was monumentally unappealing. But I had lank hair, a greatcoat and The Yes Album back then so shouldn't talk.

This lot, were the summer season band at Pontins in Camber Sands in the early seventies apparently. This is a self produced effort, presumably to sell at gigs etc.

It turned up in a Streatham charity shop in the eighties and of course I had to buy it. Not to play you understand; though they are a perfectly competent covers band of their time, but for the brilliant cover.

For me the cover image has a horrible fascination. It's unashamedly what it is, a bunch of average geezers seemingly picked at random from some pub or other in some suburb or other plonked next to a canal, in freshly laundered trousers...

So why does that provoke even the smallest degree of fascination? I think it's the otherness of it. On one level it's perfect for who they are and what they are doing, I mean, you gotta say it's unpretentious, and you know pretty much what you are getting, but on another level it's just so BAAAAD! And not in the Isaac Hayes sense. The question "What is it that we are trying to convey in this picture?" doesn't seem to have been asked. Not that that in itself is particularly surprising, it's just that it's the kind of thing that has anyone of a Graphic Design persuasion banging their heads on the table...

I bet they never thought, when they were having the photo taken, that in fifteen years time, a bunch of stoned art students would spend significant amounts of time sniggering at their trousers...

The back cover has a profile of each of them and a list of their likes and dislikes. . great stuff. I'd give a lot for photo of "Deaf Cuckoo"...

The music is, to me at least, better than the cover might suggest, in that they are obviously a very pro covers band who feel quite able to mess with the arrangements of the songs they cover and who evidently know what they are doing. That doesn't mean that you will wanna listen to the album particularly, but I feel I should give them their due.

The A side is all covers, the B side has three originals, one a ploddy blues workout, one a Chuck Berry/Quo type thing and one that can be loosely described as a kind of prog psyche fest complete with phased drum solo... Hey, you could sample that!

I ripped side 2 for your listening pleasure. Enjoy, and If you're out there guys, the very best to all of you, and I bet you had some great laughs down in Camber Sands. Forgive me a smile or two at your expense ;-)

- Contributed by: Jon Allen

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover 1, Back Cover 2

Media: LP
Album: Maxwell Plumm - We Can Work It Out

The monsoon's coming. Be prepared for some groundbreaking music, be prepared for z tropical storm. - Source Site:http://agentorange.foundationkl.org/Tropical%20Storm_2007-01-01_15h00m45.mp3

[ This post contains 26 MP3s for the kids after the jump. ]

You know a compilation of children's songs has to be good if it features Foetus and Tiny Tim. And honestly, the compilation "Goobers - A Collection of Kid's Songs", released in 1993 on T.E.C. Tones (who were somehow associated with the Residents' Ralph Records label, as I understand it), is damn near perfect. But what the heck is a "goober"? Urban Dictionary offers several different definitions, among them "chocolate-covered dick" and "a crazy cool person whos funny as hell and rocks any shindig like no other; a totally cool person bascially (thats a little insane)". Now that leaves me with the questions what "whos", "rocks any shindig" and "bascially" mean. But I am just a stupid foreigner, so what do I know? Anyway, the album is long out of print and needs to be heard, so get ready for the music in MP3 form after the jump. Enjoy!

01 D. Matinal Chan - Hallelu Hallelu (MP3) - A kid singing in Portuguese (I think)

02 The Stinky Puffs - Monsters (MP3) - The Stinky Puffs were fronted by Simon Fair Timony, the stepson of Jad Fair, and featured his mother Sheenah Fair, Jad Fair, Don Fleming, and Lee Ranaldo's son Cody Linn Ranaldo. Later they collaborated with guys of Yo La Tengo and Nirvana. AMG describes them as "rock's most charismatic prepubescent perfomers". They disbanded about 10 years ago, but you can still check out their website.

03 Daniel Johnston - Pinny Pinny (MP3) - A song by David Fair about a couple with a dog, performed by the one and only Daniel Johnston.

04 Fiction Friends - Jump Jump (MP3) - This is a one-off by Brian Poole, better known as Renaldo of legendary band Renaldo and the Loaf. Here he is joined by Kwesi Marles.

05 Penn Jillette - Great Green Gobs (MP3) - An all-time favorite at dinner parties, performed by magician, skeptic, and record producer Penn Jillette, the talking half of Penn & Teller.

06 Space Negros - Vigor The Ice Man (MP3) - This is one of the scary and twisted songs on this compilation, reminiscent of the Residents. The guy behind the Space Negros was Erik Lindgren, who is still an active composer and musician, most notably in Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. He also runs the fantastic Arf! Arf! Records label.

07 Half Japanese - Inky and Winky (MP3) - A very short catchy pop tune featuring a skunk stealing a Twinkie. Written and performed by The Band That Would Be King.

08 Eric Feldman - Worms (MP3) - Another song to sing during meals, about eating worms. I suspect that this is Eric Drew Feldman who used to be in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band and Pere Ubu.

09 The Tinklers - Mom Kooks Inside (MP3) - A kooky song from the golden days of Shimmy Disc records. The Tinklers have a website and supposedly still exist.

10 Foetus Inc - See Dick Run (MP3) - James Thirlwell represented by this rather innocuous version of the ever-changing Foetus band name. Hey, why not Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel? I am sure the kids would love it. However, with lyrics such as "See Jane's brain splattered on the kitchen wall" and "Dick put Jane in a trash compactor" this is sure to be fun for the whole family!

11 Tiny Tim - The Chicken Dance (MP3) - Words can't quite describe this, you gotta hear it yourself, right now! And God bless Tiny Tim!

12 Hank von Schpa - Mama Do (MP3) - Bizarre, retarded, fascinating. I have no info at all about the mysterious "Hank von Schpa".

13 Foo Foo Heads - Just Be You (MP3) - Kids doing old-school rap. Apparently the Foo Foo Heads were somehow connected to Penn Jillette, but I can't tell you much more about them.

14 Panther Burns - Auto Sapien (MP3) - Tav Falco and his band lay down some great dirty and raw Memphis Rock'n'Roll.

15 Genuine Diamelles - Underdog (MP3) - Described as "San Francisco's psychedelic glee club of the 90s", the Genuine Diamelles do a great (but too short) a cappella version of the theme song for Underdog.

16 Peter Stampfel - Werewolf (MP3) - Peter Stampfel was one half of the legendary Holy Modal Rounders, and here he covers Michael Hurley's thoroughly disturbing song "Werewolf". Scary outsider folk at its very best. (The genre also known as "Children's Bedtime Music".)

17 The Pastels - Speeding Motorcycle (MP3) - One of Daniel Johnson's best and most popular songs, and I have to admit that this version kind of sucks. At least when you compare it to the original, to Yo La Tengo's cover on their album Fakebook, and especially to the version Daniel Johnston (over the phone) and Yo La Tengo did together live on WFMU.

18 Buzzard Bait - Horsey Horsey (MP3) - Buzzard Bait were Tumbleweed, Old Tin Ear, and Weepin' Dick Dobbs. The song is damn great. And that is all I know about them.

19 Naofumi Ishimaru - Ku Kai Mani (MP3) - This is the guy behind Yximalloo, the Japanese Half Japanese since 1973.

20 Anonymous - Animal Party (MP3) - Kids love singing about animal parties.

21 Big Butter - People, Animals and Plants (MP3) - A truly bizarre story. Check out the unofficial website with a little more info on this project of brothers Tim and Mike Biskup.

22 Artists Unknown - 3-6-9 (MP3) - This is really The Clapping Song, originally recorded by Shirley Ellis, done a cappella by kids with sounds of trains running by.

23 Only A Mother - Lullaby (MP3) - Beautiful song by Michigan weirdos Only A Mother. Frank Pahl, the main creative force behind this band, has also released several solo albums and nowadays leads the Scavenger Quartet. He also has a radio show on WCBN in Ann Arbor, currently every Sunday 6-9am Eastern.

24 Raymond Scott - Beautiful Little Butterfly (MP3) - Raymond Scott's last known composition, created on MIDI in 1986.

25 Joshua Brody - A Medley (MP3) - Joshua Raoul Brody, composer for film and theater, comedian, and so much more, likes old people, but doesn't like bullies.

26 Three Kids - Goobers (MP3) - These three kids are singing about eating goober peas, which seems to have been really popular back in the days of the American Civil War.

So goober peas are peanuts? What does this have to do with rocking shindigs? I am mystified.