Geek Chic

Submitted for your approval: yet another rockin’ Brooklyn band: Dirty Projectors.

I first learned about these guys (or this guy, I guess — it’s primarily the brainchild of musician Dave Longstreth) when they performed one of the most kick-ass Bjork covers on Stereogum’s ‘Enjoyed‘ (which you should definitely download now! if you haven’t already — they cover Hyperballad)

Their new single ‘Stillness is the Move‘ which they played at SXSW (to deafening applause, apparently) is really, really good.  If it’s any indication of how their upcoming release, Bitte Orca (5/5), is going to sound I think we’re in for some good stuff.

Download your own copy of Stillness is the Move from Stereogom
Read about Dirty Projectors on NPR
Stream Dirty Projectors’ full SXSW concert from NPR
Buy a ticket to their concert/collaboration with Bjork to benefit Housing Works
Read Stereogum’s rave review of Bitte Orca

and thanks Stereogum for the low down, and for tons of free tunes

Just saw this on Vulture — It’s pretty lo-fi and he basically looks like a kid in his parents’ basement.

But here he covers Pearl Jam’s ‘Why Go,’  and he’s pretty damn good:

Because it’s awesome!!!

I’ve gotta admit — I’m such a sucker for things like this.  I just came across 24 Unforgettable Advertisements yesterday and loved it (well… not so much the PETA one — keep scrolling down to Woodland Shoes and the McDonalds bus stop).  I really love it when people take familiar objects and make you look at them in a totally different way — even if it’s for the sake of an advertisement.

Thanks again, FFFFound.

I just came across a couple of pages for The Arcade Fire that really impressed me.  Both are music videos (Black Mirror and Neon Bible from their Neon Bible album), but are completely interactive. And pretty amazing.

For Black Mirror, you can turn on and off the various song tracks as the music is playing, so you can hear what the song sounds like with, say, just piano and vocals.  I’ve seen stuff like this before, but the implementation is really good.

The second one is what blew me away, especially having been coding in Flash a lot more lately.  For Neon Bible, you get to control the lead singer’s various movements as he sings the song.  Granted it’s a limited set of movements, but I played through it twice and found a completely different set of actions from one time to the next.  So for those of us who really like easter eggs, this site can keep you entertained for a good amount of time.

What’s great about both is that they are on a timeline.  You have certain windows of opportunity to do something, and once they pass you’ve missed them.  So it becomes like a game (unlike most easter-eggy experiences, where the environment is static and you have all the time you want to click away).  A really great idea.

Remix Black Mirror

Play with the Neon Bible

Thanks VSL

I just got the first two volumes of The Best of Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour in the mail (I’d completely forgotten I’d ordered it) and it’s AMAZING!  You need it.  You might not have known it before you started reading this, but you really need it.

The whole thing is like a cross section of fringe 20th century music.  Blues, Jazz, Folk, early Rock & Roll, Bluegrass… it gives you the feeling that you’re listening to the music that’s always been rolling through Dylan’s subconscious.  And in the 4 discs that came with the set, I think I’d only heard about 3 of the songs before.  It’s truly a great collection.

Not convinced?  Read more:

– Very Short List first talked about Bob Dylan’s XM Radio show in 2006, including details on how you can tune in on AOL Radio.

– You too can get your own copy, bu as VSL explains, you have to order it from someplace outside the US — the powers that be didn’t want to deal with our annoying copyright laws.

Thanks VSL!

I’m waiting for the Regina Spektor concert to start. I’m sitting in McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn and I swear it has never looked more like the sky could open up at any second.

Rain or shine baby. Rain or shine.

PS – there’s not anything particularly geeky about this post except the fact that I wrote this post from WordPress’ iPhone app. Including the pic. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

… Meanwhile the opening act (some wanker from The Strokes) == tres boring.

And now … It’s raining. Maybe if it keeps up we’ll be able to swim in the pool!

Amazing. Jacob Seidelin took the data from the Radiohead House of Cards video (made using lasers and data points rather than filmed) and made a JavaScript based visualizer using the Canvas object.

Even if what I just said was all Greek to you (I barely understand it myself), you’ll have fun playing with the visualizer.  Check it out:

couresy of Jacob Seidelin via http://www.nihilogic.dk/labs/radiohead-meets-javascript/

Thanks to Ajaxian for the link