The Daily Swarm

ODB's Widow Files Cease-and-Desist Against Hologram Planners...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:08:16 GMT

According to HipHopDX, Jones says she was not contacted about the performance even though she is administrator of ODB’s estate and is the only person who can approve the use of the rapper’s likeness.

Read and comment. From consequenceofsound.net.

Another Review of 'Random Access Memories'...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:06:37 GMT

Grantland:

If Random Access Memories won’t be good enough to satisfy lofty expectations, is it good at all? Actually, yeah. Shit yeah. If given the choice between a theoretical LP of in-the-pocket bangers conforming to a popular view of the Daft Punk brand, or the amalgam of goofy genre exercises and world-class musicianship that was delivered instead, I’ll take the most expensive pseudo-Ween record in history any day of the week.

Read and comment. From grantland.com.

Digital Liner Notes Are Coming...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:04:17 GMT

New York Times:

For old-timers who still go to record stores, flip through bins, buy albums and dig into the liner notes, the experience of streaming songs on a service like Spotify or Rhapsody can be dismaying. Listen, say, to Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall,” and you see only a track listing and a link to a cursory biography of the King of Pop.

Read and comment. From nytimes.com.

A Short of History of Lightnin' Hopkins...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:02:29 GMT

Popmatters:

Hopkins’s rural roots exposed him to what would become his lifelong hobby—fishing: “I was born down by the river, they call it Warren’s Bottom.” “I was born on the banks of the river, that’s the reason I’m a fisherman from my heart. I was born on the banks of the river that’s true, water flowing I guess… Cuz that was on the Red River.” Unfortunately for Sam Hopkins and his family, the calming and lazy flowing river through Leon County did nothing to soothe Abe Hopkins’s wild ways. After he fathered a family, Abe Hopkins continued drinking, gambling, and shooting guns. Sometimes the elder Hopkins’s gambling winnings were paid in cotton. Another time his winnings amounted to a mule and a wagon.

Read and comment. From popmatters.com.

R.I.P. Romanthony...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:01:02 GMT

5 Magazine:

Millions know the name Romanthony because of Daft Punk, but he was really so much more.

Read and comment. From 5chicago.com.

R.I.P. Sue MacClean, Twin Cities Live Music Legend...

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:47:43 GMT

If you spent any time at concerts in Minneapolis/St. Paul then you’ve attended one of Sue’s events. Full story at the Star Tribune:

“She had a greater effect providing musical joy to the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota via her work than Dylan and Prince combined,” said veteran Minneapolis singer-songwriter Paul Metsa. “Sue was a true lifer who both lived by and conducted her business by high ethical and artistic standards and exquisite taste. Unlike most of those in positions of power in the music business, she was completely devoid of attitude and ego.”

Read and comment. From startribune.com.

Point, Counterpoint: The Smiths Were the Best, or F*ck Those Guys...

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:00:52 GMT

Telegraph:

“Every so often, when I was a schoolboy in the early and mid-Eighties and trying to wolf down a sandwich in our canteen-cum-tuck-shop, an awful sound would start emerging from the battered old speakers bolted to the wall. Instead of (say) the gutsy grind of Prince, the poignant synth pop of Soft Cell or the joyfully melodic pretentiousness of Duran Duran, a strange, gloomy, whiney wail would take over.

Read and comment. From telegraph.co.uk.

One Bar Cook's Long, Sad Road to His Symphony...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:57:52 GMT

I felt desperately trapped and unhappy, and started to drop hints to Jo. “I think I could be a great composer,” I’d say. Understandably, she thought I was deluded. I don’t blame her – I couldn’t even read music, let alone write it.

We figure that to be as good an intro as any to this sad, slightly uplifting tale of death and life and marriage and music. Full story at The Guardian.

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Kanye West Presents New Song in Typically Attractive, Insufferable Fashion...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:41:41 GMT

I know that we’re the new slaves / I see the blood on the leaves

So reads some of Kanye West’s new song, which premiered last night in the physical universe, the rapper projecting his face and lyrics in 10 different cities and 66 different walls all over the world. Let’s just get this out of the way: the projections looked pretty sweet, as far as we can tell.

Rolling Stone reports:

The video was projected at various times throughout the night on 66 buildings in cities including New York, Toronto, Chicago, London, Paris and Berlin. In West’s hometown of Chicago, it was projected on a wall of Wrigley Field; in Toronto, on the Royal Ontario Museum; and in New York, Kanye’s face appeared on the wall of a 5th Avenue Prada store, among other locations.

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn it looked like this (via Gothamist):

As The Atlantic points out, West was watching the watchers around New York:

Man, Yeezy just pulled some punk’d type shit. Watched behind us with his phone up like everyone filming then bounced quick. Keyser Soze.
— Hyphen (@DJHyphen) May 18, 2013

What a creep.

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Three Chicago House-Music Legends Chop It Up, On and Off The Decks...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:22:19 GMT

Just look at the first 'question.’ Read the full interview at Time Out New York (instead of Time Out Chicago for some reason):

Time Out New York: Having all three of you on the phone at once makes me feel like I’m at a veteran-Chicago-DJ convention.

Derrick Carter: It’s amazing that you were able to get us all at the same time.

Time Out New York: Yes, I feel like that’s accomplishment in itself, and that we could call it quits right now.

Derrick Carter: Okay—peace out!

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Need an Intro to Giorgio Moroder's Work? Here's As Good a Place As Any...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:17:09 GMT

Dazed has put together an excellent mix of the man’s work.

To celebrate our Daft Punk vs Giorgio Moroder cover feature, we asked Another Music head honcho Wriggly Scott to dig deep into the crates for a career spanning overview of the Italo rhythm master’s discography and some of the classic tracks that sampled him. Covering his Scarface gangsta rap credentials and Teutonic electronic experiments to the Donna Summer pop smashes that inspired two certain robots, this hour long mix will take you deep into the mind of a Moog loving musical visionary. Mr Moroder, the dancefloor is yours…

He’s the old guy on that new record everyone hates?

And makes fast cars (kinda).

The V16T is illegal to drive or to even own in the United States because it does not meet emissions and safety standards. One was seized by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement on December 7, 2009.[1]

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Groupon's CEO Is Releasing an Album of Business Guru Music for the Youngs...

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:06:04 GMT

We’re still not sure if he’s joking. Wall Street Journal:

I managed over 12,000 people at Groupon, most under the age of 25. One thing that surprised me was that many would arrive at orientation with minimal understanding of basic business wisdom. “Haven’t you read any business books? Good to Great? Winning? The One Minute Manager?” I’d ask. “Business books? Not really our thing,” was the typical response. I came to realize that there was a real need to present business wisdom in a format that is more accessible to the younger generation.

It was with this in mind that I spent a week in LA earlier this month recording Hardly Workin’, a seven song album of motivational business music targeted at people newly entering the workforce. These songs will help young people understand some of the ideas that I’ve found to be a key part of becoming a productive and effective employee. I’m really happy with the results and look forward to sharing them as soon as I figure out how to load music onto iTunes, hopefully in the next few weeks.

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Long Read: The (Amazingly Done) Story of NY House...

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:27:44 GMT

The excellent Michaelangelo Matos, writing for the seemingly inescapable Red Bull Music Academy:

The Aztec Lounge, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was a punk and goth club in the mid-’80s – not the first place you’d look for the future of dance music. So imagine Bruce Tantum’s surprise when he found it there. Tantum, now clubs editor for Time Out New York, was at the Aztec when the DJ dropped a strange, arresting 12-inch from Chicago which was obviously created on cheap electronic equipment by amateurs. “It was weird shit – real primitive, raw stuff,” says Tantum, who asked the DJ, “What is this disco-from-outer-space shit?”

Read and comment. From redbullmusicacademy.com.

Watch: On the Ground for Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories' Launch Party in Wee Wa, Australia...

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:00:59 GMT

Pitchfork:

Although Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo don’t seem to have been there in person, that certainly didn’t deter revellers. The town itself only has a population of about 2,000, but 4,000 tickets were sold for the event, reports Gigwise.

Read and comment. From pitchfork.com.

We Don't Know What TPP Is, But It Sounds Scary...

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:25:04 GMT

The Daily Dot:

The TPP is likely to export some of the worst features of U.S. copyright law to Pacific Rim countries: a broad ban on breaking digital locks on devices and creative works (even for legal purposes), a minimum copyright term of the lifetime of the creator plus seventy years (the current international norm is the lifetime plus fifty years), privatization of enforcement for copyright infringement, ruinous statutory damages with no proof of actual harm, and government seizures of computers and equipment involved in alleged infringement. Moreover, the TPP is worse than U.S. copyright rules: it does not export the many balances and exceptions that favor the public interest and act as safety valves in limiting rightsholders’ protection. Adding insult to injury, the TPP’s temporary copies provision will likely create chilling effects on how people and companies behave online and their basic ability to use and create on the Web.

Read and comment. From dailydot.com.

The Red Bull Music Academy Looks Insanely Swank on the Inside...

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:19:14 GMT

PSFK:

As reported in Arch Daily, the facilities include performance spaces, private workshops, production, broadcasting, recording studios, rehearsal rooms, the RBMA radio station and 8 collaborative music studio pods which also have large floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto the workspace. The areas vary in size in order to accommodate different types of collaboration. Wide open areas were created for the benefit of performances and other large gatherings, while smaller rooms and studios allow for a more intimate exchange of ideas.

Read and comment. From psfk.com.

Alt-J Utilize New Technology Meant to Stop Fans from Filming, But It Won't Work...

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:13:39 GMT

We doubt this will stop people from recording shitty videos of the shows they attend — when you see a group of professional photographers elbowing each other near the front of the stage, did everyone put their smartphones away? Yeah, that’s what we thought. Full story at The Guardian:

Following their album award win at the Ivor Novellos on Thursday, the band became the first act to utilise the Soundhalo video app at their Brixton Academy show, allowing fans to download tracks to their smartphones immediately after they were performed. It’s hoped the new app will deter audiences from holding their phones in the air to record tracks at gigs – a practise Yeah Yeah Yeahs recently banned.

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Behind the Scene That Inspired Paisley Park...

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:08:45 GMT

Guardian:

When Steve Wynn moved back to Los Angeles in 1980 after finishing college, he looked at the music being made in his home city and realised he was out of step. “The idea that you’d make music with long, unscripted and unstructured jams. The idea that you were into 60s garage bands. The idea that you’d play one chord until your arm fell off. All the things that we thought were exciting and cool couldn’t have been less fashionable.”

The curious thing is that what Wynn wanted to do with his band the Dream Syndicate turned out to be, albeit briefly, intensely fashionable. Fashionable enough that Prince named his Paisley Park song and label and studio after the psychedelic LA band scene that was known as the “Paisley Underground”, and for it to be a big influence on his album Around the World In a Day.

Read and comment. From guardian.co.uk.

Watch and Listen: Queens of the Stone Age Release Another New One, 'If I Had a Tail'...

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:02:35 GMT

There aren’t a lot of “rock dudes” to outright respect these days — so many seem nervous of their posture or twee in their headbang or electronic in their riffage — but king Queen Josh Homme is one that deserves a nod of your head when you cross paths on the sidewalk. Queens of the Stone Age’s new song “If I Had a Tail” (off the forthcoming ... Like Clockwork) is just tailgate enough, just doom enough, just danceable enough for everyone to hush up and rock out.

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Electric Daisy Carnivale: Doing the Over-the-Top Bash in Moneyed Style...

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:55:18 GMT

Our thinking on that headline was that the extra “e” at the end of “Carnival” makes it a rich person’s word. Prove us wrong. Full story at SPIN:

A gilded age requires platinum perks. And as the superrich plan to get their rave on this weekend, they may be asking themselves, WWGD (What Would Gatsby Do)?

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Watch: A Concise Visual History of the Beastie Boys...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:49:21 GMT

Juxtapoz, whose new isssue is dedicated to MCA, put this pretty little history together. Don’t miss out on the rest of their amazing Beasties coverage.

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

We Don't See How That's a Punishment: Spanish Musician Loses Bet, Gets Hasselhoff on His Ass...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:42:49 GMT

We’re wondering why this took so long to finish… nine hours?! Full story at the New York Daily News:

Juan Carlos Gonzalez, 29, from Barcelona, spent nine hours having the Baywatch and Knight Rider star’s image permanently inked on his right buttock.

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Blue Balloons, Four-Thousand-Dollar Flexi Discs and the Value of Dopamine...

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:42:11 GMT

Ryan Bradley:

A flexi disk is a thin slip of vinyl. It’s a record so light that if you grab it by one end and shake, or if a breeze catches it, it wobbles. Some of the first flexis came from old X-rays. They were cheap, easy to produce, and given away as magazine inserts, shoved in the pages like samples of perfume. In 1964, The Beatles sent flexi presses of Christmas songs to their fan clubs. One of these can sell for more than $200 today.

Read and comment. From .

Meet the Post-Punk and New Wave Super Friends...

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:09:05 GMT

Artist Billy Butcher has made an incredible little collection of comic book-themed art prints featuring everyone’s favorite post-punk and/or new wave singers, including Ian Curtis, Morrissey, Robert Smith, John Lydon, Siouxsie, Mark Mothersbaugh and (maybe less awesomely) Billy Idol. You can take a look at all of them right here, and buy his swag right here.

Our two favorites:

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Pitchfork's Advertising Strategy? Stop Chasing Pageviews...

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:46:53 GMT

Digiday:

“We don’t feel pressure to monetize every single piece of content we produce. That type of piece brings people to the site, gets noticed and keeps people coming back time and time again,” [Pitchfork’s VP of sales, Matt] Frampton said. “It helps us attract the type of audience we’re looking for, so even if it’s not monetized directly, it will be elsewhere.”

Read and comment. From digiday.com.