“The SXSW® Music and Media Conference showcases hundreds of musical acts from around the globe on over eighty stages in downtown Austin. By day, conference registrants do business in the SXSW® Trade Show in the Austin Convention Center and partake of a full agenda of informative, provocative panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers of international stature.”

Source 1: http://www.sxsw.com/music
Source 2: http://sites.google.com/site/sxswtorrent/2010

It’s finally here.

Filmed in Sacramento, Portland, and Victoria by the Nine Inch Nails team, edited and produced by their fans, The Gift is a stunning work in 1080p High Definition video with 5.1 Surround Sound, multi-language subtitles, and artistically-driven ethics.”

You’re reading it right: the final production is ready to be downloaded. I am downloading it right now.

It’s a complete Nine Inch Nails live concert in full-hd. Free for all / Not for sale. Get it while it’s hot!

Source: http://thisoneisonus.org

Great pop music with a touch of rock. Powerful and fast. One of my favourites in the album is “My Delirium” – a song that has a subtle feeling of the Cardigans song “My Favourite Game”.

Ladyhawke writes in her blog about it:

“I wrote the song a year and a half ago after days of no sleep due to terrible jetlag. I felt like I was going out of my mind. I was missing my friends and family back home, and I was basically living to hear my phone ring in hope that it would be one of them calling. So my delirium came out of me thinking I was going crazy from lack of sleep!

I always knew this song had the potential for a really imaginative video, considering the general theme of the song is me going crazy. So when I read the treatment sent in by the Frater guys, a duo of London based directors who specialise inanimation, I knew it was the one!”

Source: http://www.ladyhawkemusic.com/

Imogen Heap - Ellipse

Great thing is that it’s available right now. And it’s available in two flavours. You can have the single-cd version which holds all the great songs. And you can have the deluxe version which holds all great songs + the instrumental version of each song.

Great stuff! It seems I have to catch up some great tunes from this artist in the near future!

UPDATE: Before you need to buy that album, just listen to it first:

Brave young Manda has moved out to once again fill our music players with great songs.

Source 1: http://www.planetmanda.com/

For example Jason and his management encourage bootleg recordings by even offering several spots near the mixing desk. Yes you’re reading it right: You can go to his concert and record it! You can even download several concerts in excellent quality (flac’n'stuff) on archive.org. How cool is this!

I just have to go to a record shop and buy something made by this guy!

By the way: his current album isn’t bad at all… it’s great!

Source 1: http://www.archive.org/details/JasonMraz
Source 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Mraz

Tears for Fears,

Everybody wants to rule the world

“A mashup, bootleg or blend (also mash up and mash-up) is a song or composition created by blending two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another.

In full swing at the end of the 20th century, mashups have been described positively as “ultimate post-modern pop song[s]” or “‘culture jamming in its purest form’” They have also been described negatively as “the logical extension of the sampling fever of the ’80s taken to its dumbest extreme”. Due to the questionable legal status of mash ups and little chance of profits “there’s a real punk rock attitude attached to the movement”.” (Source)

Oh… by the way: This is not the first time I am writing about Mash-Ups… be sure to have a look here and here.

Source 1: http://www.mashup-charts.com/
Source 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_%28music%29

Source: http://lrlrl.coldplay.com/leftright.html

I just found a great new album (well it’s 2008…but…). Just in time for the upcoming summer. Thanks very much for that great music.

Oh – it’s free – if YOU want it – just click the link and download it – it’s great, have I mentioned that?

Source: http://www.sean-fournier.com/ohmy/

There’s a Mash-Up Party each month in Berlin presented by DJ Morgoth. Obviously a Mash-Up is a song made out of more than one other song. The Artist blends them together to create a unique new one normally sounding great

Here is the current schedule of these parties:

If you cannot attend you’re not lost: You can download all the samplers and tracks at the mashup-your-bootz blog.

It’s just great music – thanks to the artists!

Source 1: http://myspace.com/djmorgoth
Source 2: http://www.mashupyourbootz.com/
Source 3: http://mashupyourbootz.blogspot.com/
Source 4: best of bootie article on schrankmonster

I thought about things like: Would I need my whole library or would it suffice to have 8/16/32 GB of it? Do I want to have additional applications or just a music player?

After the last update several things came together to a conclusion:

• There’s not a 160 GB iPod anymore. Since my library is almost that I wouldn’t be able to put my library on a 120 GB classic.
• The touch is cheaper now
• mostly I am listening to podcasts, which I do need to by in sync all the time, that means: remaining playtime sync and syncing without manual work

Since my wife doesn’t like the look of the new nano we decided to get the 16 GB Touch.

It was delivered today and I am hugely impressed with it so far. It’s what I wanted and the way I wanted it. The feature of having my podcasts and audiobooks start/stop positions synced is just fantastic (listening to the first 20 minutes on the go and the rest at home is now possible because the position where I stopped listening on the iPod is synced to the iTunes).

Did I mention that we took the engraving option?

Yo Ho!

“A mashup or bootleg^[1] is a song or composition created from the combination of the music from one song with the a cappella from another (also mash up and mash-up). These songs may be considered part of the European bastard pop musical genre. “A mash-up is a song created out of pieces of two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another… Mash-ups are incredible fun and a fascinating way to reexperience some of your favorite tunes.”"

And there is this website – offering over 200 tracks and extras around the mashup theme – even best-of-samplers are available:

Source 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(music)
Source 2: http://www.bootieusa.com/

“Following on from her critically acclaimed sets ‘Love In The Time Of Science’ and her first for Rough Trade ‘Fisherman’s Woman’, the forthcoming ‘Me And Armini’ (released 8th September) sees her working once again with her long time producer/collaborator Dan Carey resulting in what we feel is destined to be one of the albums of 2008.

‘Me And Armini’ is a hugely ambitious and aspirational pop record with Emiliana’s soaring voice centre stage, bolstered by a rich gamut of musical styles. From the summery skank of the title track to the surging, breathless, first single ‘Jungle Drum’ (released 29th September) and yearning, spine-tingling ‘Big Jumps’ and much more in between ‘Me And Armini’ is a truly fantastic album.

‘Me And Armini’ will be released as a digital single in the US exclusively via iTunes on 19th August, with the album of the same name to follow on 9th September. “

Download the song “Me and Armini” here.

Source 1: http://www.arjanwrites.com/arjanwrites/2008/07/free-download-e.html
Source 2: http://www.myspace.com/emilianatorrini

They even started to make a whole show centered around the current mixed tape.

Get it now!

Source: http://www.mercedes-benz.tv/mixedtape

It’s called “Dive Deep” and is the first album presenting different vocal artists each song. I am missing Skye Edwards voice but with all the variation on this album it’s back to the roots as if Skye was there.

Source: http://www.morcheeba.net

If you cannot drop by you also can tune into the live stream the FeM Streaming Team is going to send out over the intertubes. Yes that’s right: the complete concert is available through a live stream.

Tune into the live stream around 2200 CEST and watch a great concert…

Until that go to their mySpace site and listen to some songs…

Source 1: http://www.lascif-corpse.de/
Source 2: http://bi-club.de/
Source 3: http://www.myspace.com/lascifcorpse
Source 4: mms://streaming-internet.fem.tu-ilmenau.de/bi-club

I am in the middle of a jolly exiting jazz-swing-neo-whatever phase when it comes to the music I am listening these days. There’s “Big Bad Voodoo Daddy” – a band which I will talk more about in the next days and there’s one (for me) very very new

“Silje Nergaard (born June 19, 1966 in Steinkjer, Norway), is a very successful Norwegian pop and jazz musician. While some very old titles of her (e. g. Si det, si det from 1985) rather have a distinct pop feel, she has now almost completely given up making pop music, which is the reason why virtually the entirety of her later releases consists of jazzy tunes.”

Want to get an impression of one of my favourite songs of her (it’s “You Send Me Flowers”) ? Go ahead:

(thanks to last.fm)

Source: http://www.siljenergaard.com/

“Last.fm is a service that records what you listen to, and then presents you with an array of interesting things based upon your tastes — artists you might like, users with similar taste, personalised radio streams, charts, and much more.”

Since last.fm is monitoring what music I am listening to it can also be used to create some kind of “personal chart list” which you can put on your website… it may look like this:

(this actually is a realtime chart of my account)

In the meantime I was redirected to another quite similar service called “Pandora”. You also get a free high-quality radio from them. But Pandora is working very differently in the inside. Instead of taking the social approach like last.fm, Pandora wants to investigate the “genome of music”:

“Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song – everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It’s not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records – it’s about what each individual song sounds like.”

Since last.fm has a really nice tool for my mac and is working really well for my music taste I am going to stick with it… for everyone else: go and try both.

Source 1: http://www.last.fm/
Source 2: http://www.pandora.com/

“Ben Westbeech, Briony, Cris Tanzi, Divas Harmony feat. Kayla & Trip, Golden Era of Sound feat. Dionne Charles, Granufunk & Sonny Plankton, Kristin Hild, Lady Destiny, Layonne & Krako, My Toys Like Me, Reebosound, S. Maily, Stee Downes, Super Star Planet, Switch”… oh wait… GRANUFUNK?

Source: More

Apparently the Gears of War Soundtrack by Megadeth is downloadable for free. Get the song and the lyrics here.

Source: http://www.megadeth.com/

As always: great music, free download.

Source: http://www.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape

Source: http://www.ccc-r.de/boycott/#Music

Source: http://www.mixed-tape.com/

Last year I told you about Bobby Baby – a girl from sweden which makes great music since she is 12. Known since 2005 as Bobby Baby (before: Ella Glockenspiel) she is going to be in germany for some gigs next month:

Watch her current video:

Source 1: http://www.bobbybaby.net
Source 2: http://www.antistar.de

Source: http://vowe.net/archives/007362.html

“The buzz on Adrienne Pierce continues to build. The Vancouver born singer/songwriter taps into a singular source to create music that has universal appeal. Her independently-produced debut, “Small Fires,” is a pop gem full of sublime songcraft and intense performances.” - John Goodman, North Shore News

Visit her website, and buy her music!

Source: http://www.adriennepierce.com/

Pictures made by der Andi.

Source: streaming.fem.tu-ilmenau.de

Today it’s once again time for the Ilmenau Newcomer Festival “Vorsicht Band! 2006″. And this time again there’s FeM involved. But first the facts:

16 Newcomer bands from all across germany are going to perform in the next two days. Since the 16 where chosen from 272 you can bet that there’s only the best the newcomer scene has to offer these days.

And now to the juicy facts from FeM: You can watch the whole Newcomer Festival “Vorsicht Band! 2006″ over the internet for free. Just connect to one of the following Windows Media livestreams:

Broadband Internet (1 Mbit and above): mms://streaming.fem.tu-ilmenau.de/vorsichtband2006
Narrowband Internet (below DSL): mms://streaming.fem.tu-ilmenau.de/vorsichtband2006_modem

To be precise:

And some facts for the nerds: 3 stages, 9 cameras, 30 people, 10.000m cableing,…

Source 1: http://streaming.fem.tu-ilmenau.de

Source 2: http://www.ilmenau-festival.de

Source: http://www.mixed-tape.com/

If you don’t know what Hexic HD is all about…take a look:

Source: http://web.mac.com/kingsalmonella/iWeb/Site/Jerry%20Schroeder.html

Source: http://www.pressplayontape.com/?pid=cannonfodder

And once again for the 11th time Mercedes Benz brings us the mixed tape: A music compiliation available for free download.

Source: Mercedes Benz Mixed Tape 11

There are a some songs downloadable on their site and you can listen to more of their songs on the Podsafe Music Network – but you definitely want to buy their CDs and support them directly.

Source 1: http://www.amplifico.net
Source 2: Amplifico on the PMN

Once again granufunk did it: With his permission we are very proud to present you all of his XMAS ’05 tunes via the Radio Muckefuck podcast which you can find here.

“its xmas `05 an i have some tunes for you again!

hope you like it!

fans and groupies get in touch here:
www.myspace.com/granufunk

more info here:
www.granufunk.net

www.surfacepressurerecords.co.uk

check also granu on the new “cookie and brownie EP” on astrolab recordings sometimes in `06

www.astro-lab-recordings.com

bye, granu”

Source: granufunk

For the tenth time in a row Mercedes Benz offers you many great tracks for free download.

One thing that Mercedes obviously got notice from is the podcast movement. So you can download the official Mercedes-Benz Podcast via the iTunes Music Store.

and even more news: the first text tracks release is there.

Source 1: mixed tape
Source 2: text tracks 01

There’s another big news about Mercedes’ engagement for free content. There’s something called “text tracks” in the pipeline: A regular feature for audio books and spoken content…great!

Source: Mercedes Benz mixed tape

A sound you should not miss. It’s different and beautifully slow….

Source: Bobby Baby

Nice tracks, if you like german hip-hop…

Buffer Overflow – Wordflow

1. In Reimen Szenen
2. Conservation
3. Game Over (Deutschland)
4. Drama
5. Kinderwagentown
6. Game Over Sausage World Dom Remix (Vinyl Bonus)

texte: buffer overflow
musik: buffer overflow ausser game over deutschland, kinderwagentown: buffer overflow & moosgummi
zusätzliche stimmen auf in reimen szenen, conservation & kinderwagentown: milamatic
scratches auf in reimen szenen: dr. tobi ost
recorded, mixed and mastered by vladislav delay @ the white room, berlin
teilweise ein Basteln mit Moosgummi Produktion
produziert für there is no business like flow business 2004/2005

Source: http://www.buffer-overflow.info

But now go and buy this album. It’s really great – and that’s not only because it’s completely made by Musicians who are also Microsoft Employees.

“This album has been made possible by the generous donation of music from 16 artists. These 16 artists (or contributing artists) are employees of Microsoft, and will receive no compensation from the sale of this album.

In soliciting content for this compilation, there were submitted many times the number of tracks than could fit on the CD. While the artists and tracks below represent the public face of this generosity, the willingness of the music community at Microsoft to contribute was immediate and significant. Thanks go to all who submitted tracks – both those on this album, and those not.”

Source: http://www.songsforthesouth.com/

Go and give this melodic album a try.

There is a new album from Goldfrapp…I like it although some songs sound very very similar….

Source: http://www.goldfrapp.co.uk/

Some days ago on nyblog there was an article about Ella. Ella is a young swedish singer-songwriter who makes really nice calm and sensitive music with a touch of electronic

The best thing is, that her tracks are available for free download. Just go to her website and grab them. The only song I will directly link to is “Lads are Fun” which is my favourite track…this is a real catchy tune…

Source 1: http://www.bobbybaby.net/
Source 2: http://www.corpid-label.net/corpidex005-1-Bobby_Baby_-_Lads_are_fun.mp3

Misnormer calls itself “one of the UK’s biggest independent bands” and it’s possibly right. Misnormer makes definitly some of the finest tracks in their genre…

Because misnormer is an independent band they depend on the support from their fans. And that’s why you should go and support them by buying their music here.

So! Go, download, buy and spread the word!

Source 1: http://www.misnomer.co.uk/
Source 2: LiveJournal
Source 3: MySpace
Source 4: Buy their music
Source 5: Download their music

15 free MP3 tracks from Alpaca Heads, Aztec Productions, Bennson, Colonel Red, Cordclub, D’Nell, Flow, Flowarea, Jessica Johnson, Kantorka, Low Budget Soul, Luis, Nikakoi, Roy Ayers, Solar Apple and Quarktette.

Source: Mercedes Benz Mixed Tape 8

I really like that series and from time to time there’s a slow and really nice song played in the background… That song is called “Boom Boom Ba” and is what I would call a catchy tune. It’s like I know parts of the song since years. But all together its a really new song that once heard you cannot get out of your mind for days.

But beside that one song Metisse is an all-round duo with so many facettes. If you want to be surprised by great music than Metisse is definitly worth a look.

Source 1: http://www.deadlikeme.tv/index.php
Source 2: http://www.metissemusic.com/

The first one is Goldfrapp. My colleague Hilmar sent me an eMail in which he strongly recommended Goldfrapp – especially because there is a new album coming up soon.

I instantly surfed to my favourite music store and took a look onto Goldfrapps current album “Black Cherry”. And after listening to the first two tracks I bought the thing.

I am looking forward to their upcoming album, even though I don’t like the new albums title song “Ooh La La”…it’s to soft and normal, ready for airplay…well maybe someone else will like it…

My favourite tracks on “Black Cherry” are Train and Black Cherry… awesome tracks.

Source: http://www.goldfrapp.co.uk/

ask Amazon to buy it…

So last week there was the TechEd Party. And the Scissor Sisters played there…And after the show I had to get the album. And there it is. Ordered on Thursday. Arrived at Saturday….

First: For me it’s a two part album. First half of the songs are great. Fantastic melodies and arrangements… but second there are songs that, – well just do not fit into the album…

Nevertheless I strongly recommend buying this album…

P.S.: my favourite Songs of course: Laura, Comfortable Numb, Take your Mama out

P.P.S.: No I am not gay. Just loving great music.