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kottke.org posts about Music

The scoring of movies and the -atsi

The scoring of movies and the -atsi movies scored by Philip Glass.


Stats on the BBC’s Beethoven downloads

Stats on the BBC’s Beethoven downloads. “Live performances of Beethoven’s first five symphonies, broadcast as part of The Beethoven Experience on BBC Radio 3, have amassed an incredible 657,399 download requests during a week long trial.”


A man’s letter to the music industry

A man’s letter to the music industry detailing what he’s stolen from them and why. “I refuse to pay you to play these pointless games with arbitrary dates and obsolete borders.”


Drawing Restraint 9 is the first collaboration by

Drawing Restraint 9 is the first collaboration by super-couple Matthew Barney and Bjork.


A visual history of sampling; who’s been

A visual history of sampling; who’s been sampled and who’s doing the sampling.


The first five mp3s of Beethoven’s

The first five mp3s of Beethoven’s symphonies are available for download on the BBC site. The site is really slow though…does anyone have a mirror or a BitTorrent available?


BBC Radio will be offering mp3s

BBC Radio will be offering mp3s of all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies. “All the symphonies are performed by BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.”


“The problem with mash-ups is that once

“The problem with mash-ups is that once you get past both ‘oh, that’s unexpected’ and ‘that must have been difficult’, what you’re left with is a dj with really fucking terrible taste in music”. IMO, few mash-ups have gone beyond the novelty stage.


Sasha Frere-Jones, the pop critic for the

Sasha Frere-Jones, the pop critic for the New Yorker, will not review any music “unless I have unlimited access to a portable version of it, renderered in either the CD, MP3 or vinyl format”.


Improv Everywhere played a fake U2 concert

Improv Everywhere played a fake U2 concert near Madison Square Garden last week. The Edge was played by an Asian guy and the “band” got arrested during their final song.


One of the songs on Sleater-Kinney’s new

One of the songs on Sleater-Kinney’s new album was inspired by a New Yorker article about Golden Gate Bridge suicides.


Someone made an unsolicited mix tape for

Someone made an unsolicited mix tape for me: “Songs to Hyperlink To: Kottke Mix #1”.


50 Things to Do with Your iPod

50 Things to Do with Your iPod. Besides listen to music with those white earbuds.


Whatever happened to that baby from the

Whatever happened to that baby from the cover of Nivana’s Nevermind?.


Video for a kids version of Since U Been Gone

Video for a kids version of Since U Been Gone. There’s nothing awesomer than this. The slow-mo crowd reaction shots, a tiger doing a David Lee Roth jump split, kids shouting during the chorus….are you kidding me? None more awesome!


Look, nobody cares that you’re a DJ

Look, nobody cares that you’re a DJ.


iTunes 4.8 does video

iTunes 4.8 does video. An interesting development. Why is video in iTunes and not iPhoto? (Update: iPhoto 5 does video. Hard to breathe with my head in the sand here…)


Yuri Lane demonstrates his beatbox harmonica technique

Yuri Lane demonstrates his beatbox harmonica technique. Saw this guy today at GEL…fricking great.


Video of New Order performing Love Will

Video of New Order performing Love Will Tear Us Apart on Jimmy Kimmel’s show.


Nine Inch Nails is offering a GarageBand

Nine Inch Nails is offering a GarageBand file with the complete mix of a forthcoming song. Can’t use the remixes commerically, but still pretty cool.


Explicit Content Only, NWA’s Straight Outta Compton

Explicit Content Only, NWA’s Straight Outta Compton edited to contain only the swear words. The full version makes it seem like my laptop has Tourette’s and the edited version is pretty funny.


Is some of the music on Bush’s iPod stolen?

Is some of the music on Bush’s iPod stolen?. This is “exactly the kind of behavior the music industry characterizes as theft”.


The Since U Been Gone-nomenon reaches Howard Stern

The Since U Been Gone-nomenon reaches Howard Stern. Stern: Ted Leo “sounds like Tiny Tim.”


The Binary Bonsai Approach to Copyright

The Binary Bonsai Approach to Copyright. Right on, brother. Preach it.


Quite enjoying Fischerspooner’s new album, Odyssey; reminds

Quite enjoying Fischerspooner’s new album, Odyssey; reminds me of Postal Service in parts.


Partying like it’s 1999

At 4 minutes ‘til midnight, they started playing Prince’s 1999, just like I had predicted. And I didn’t mind….even though I thought I would have. The dance floor was packed and everyone was jumping and swaying and screaming the words to the song.

“Gonna party like it’s 1999!”

Actually, it was probably the most fitting venue for the song, the very same First Avenue nightclub where Purple Rain was filmed and where Prince himself used to play.

I did a small piece for {fray}: my resolution for 1999.