Monthly Archives: June 2010

Tony Bouchereau (The Tony-B Machine) – Interview (Part 1)

Posted on by

Today’s interviewee is Tony Bouchereau, creator of the Tony-B Machine (reviewed last week on MusicKO). You can learn how this novel tool for the interactive creation of music came to be and what has been its reception below. And after that, please read the bit named “Music & You” to learn more about Tony and the bands he is involved with.

Anthony "Tony-b" Bouchereau

Anthony "Tony-b" Bouchereau

Full Name: Anthony “Tony-b” Bouchereau
Age: 29
Startup: The Tony-b Machine
Position: Founder

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

My first idea was to make a kind of interactive song where the listener can choose which drum part or which bass part he wants to hear next.
Progressively, I saw that it could be fun to interact with each part of the drums (kick, hi-hat, snare) and to play chords or notes.
I tried to develop the funny side of the application by adding some special “combos” and hidden sounds.

What was the original launch date?

The Tony-b Machine is online since the beginning of 2007 (Version 2).

What has been the response so far?

The beginning was quite calm and after a few months, there have been a few articles in some magazines.
The number of visitors became important at the end of 2007. Since then, the site welcomes more than 1000 visitors every day.
There is a small community of regular visitors who follows the evolution of the site assiduously. Continue reading →

Shaved Bieber – Obliterating Justin Bieber From The Internet

Posted on by

I went to the cinema the other day with Luis, one of my best friends. We both were ‘80s kids and (like most boys back then) we were bitten by the martial arts craze that hit like a cyclone on the strength of movies like “The Karate Kid”.

Thus, we went to see the remake not because we thought it would be any good but (much like the new A-Team movie) we were curious about how an icon of our generation would be presented to kids today.

Leaving aside that the movie was an obvious vehicle for Will Smith to promote his son Jaden, and that Jackie Chan did very little fighting (not to mention that the movie should have been called “The Kung Fu Kid”), we were surprised at how entertaining it was. What the heck, children and their parents were clapping and hollering all through the tournament at the end.

So, the movie went more smoothly than we expected. Except for something.

Justin Bieber. He had a song in.

And it was a duet. With Jaden Smith. Continue reading →

The World Cup In Music Videos (Part 1)

Posted on by

Soccer mania is sweeping the world, and today my country (Uruguay) managed to beat the team playing host (that’s South Africa, in case soccer is not your thing) 3 – 0. Time for a quick musical revision of the event so far.

First of all, this is the Black Eyed Peas performing at the opening of the tournament.

Shakira and Juanes did also perform that night, and they were very well-received too.

A Fellow Playing His Vuvuzela? Good Fun. 80,000 Fellows Playing Their Vuvuzelas? The Cue For The Four Horsemen To Come Charging.

A Fellow Playing His Vuvuzela? Good Fun. 80,000 Fellows Playing Their Vuvuzelas? The Cue For The Four Horsemen To Come Charging.

Moving on, this is the “Vuvuzela Sucks Song”. A must-see for people who ardently believe the charming African instrument is robbing the game of its essential atmosphere. And I guess fans of Star Wars will also grow to love it.

Finally (and in case you haven’t seen it yet)  this is the official video for the World Cup anthem by K’naan.

It’s quite good, but it doesn’t hold a candle to this one. Ah, the early ’90s…

Which one do you prefer? Leave a comment below!

MTV Is Searching For Its Official Twitter DJ

Posted on by

Do you remember MTV’s “Wanna Be A VJ” show? If you do, then I am sure you will find the latest tournament hosted by the network interesting. It revolves around the search of a DJ for its Twitter stream. This is going to be called as a TJ (“Twitter Jockey”) and 20 candidates are going to vie for the coveted prize.

The competition is obviously going to take place online, and the big finale will take the shape of a live show to be broadcast on August 8. The audience will pick the winner right there and then.

The TJ will then be online at all times, although he won’t have the same degree of exposition that VJs used to have. At any rate, the TJ will attend events and even receive a six-figure salary. Not bad for coming up with 140-word updates, wouldn’t you say?

Tony-b.org – For The DJ In Everybody

Posted on by

Tonyb

Name: Tony-b Machine
URL: http://www.tony-b.org

Every rock & roller has got a bit of a shady past that hangs like a sword of Damocles over his head. I am no exception. Before listening to The Who, before listening to Oasis, before listening to The Sex Pistols… can you ever dare to guess which artist I intently listened to?

DJ Bobo.

Those of you who are still reading (and who haven’t wiped MusicKO from their bookmarks after such debilitating news) would be less shocked when you learn I was that keen on DJ Bobo only because my older brother (always a role model to me) was a rabid fan of electronic music. And you will feel relieved when I tell you that I never, ever lay a hand on his Ace Of Base and 2 Unlimited CDs.

[My brother from behind my back:] Hey, have you seen my copy of “The Sign”? Wait, here it is, what was it doing in your backpack??

Shit, man!! Keep quiet for a second, will you?!

Ahem.

Before it gets any worse I am telling you about this new app.

Named the Tony-b Machine, it will let you create your very own piece of electronic music. And the way you can get around doing that is dead clever (and entertaining, too). You simply pick the relevant effects (”Kick”, “Snare”, “Hi Hat” and “Cymbal”) and push the pertinent keys as you go along.

Tonyb Console

The results are actually very impressive, and one of the best bits is that you can proceed to save and upload them for everybody to listen to. Continue reading →

Caribou (Elton John) – Album Review

Posted on by
A Heavily-panned Record At Its Time, “Caribou” Now Proves To Be A True Gem Within Elton’s Catalog.

A Heavily-panned Record At Its Time, “Caribou” Now Proves To Be A True Gem Within Elton’s Catalog.

Quite probably one of Elton’s most underrated albums, “Caribou” was released in 1974, and in hindsight it is easy to understand why it collided with such a wall of negativity. The record ended up sandwiched between two magnum opuses like “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (1973) and “Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy” (1975). If you listen to it now, it dawns on you that the material was not really substandard (despite the fact that the whole album was recorded in about a week), and the hits it yielded (the irresistible, horn-augmented rocker “The Bitch Is Back” and the powerful ballad “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”) were representative of the quality of the whole disc, not songs that were labored at longer knowing they were going to be “the” singles (as would happen often during the ‘80s).

“The Bitch Is Back” (whose title was inspired by a remark made by Bernie’s wife Maxine) will always stand as one of Elton’s most driving rockers, not only on the strength of the main riff but also because of the accompaniment provided by the Tower Of Power horns, a new American association Elton had made. (“Caribou”, incidentally, was the first album he recorded in the US.) The Tower of Power horns were also going to be exemplary on “You’re So Static”, a misogynistic song about a prostitute that prefers to have her client’s watch rather than money for the rendering of her professional services. The coalition between the pounding horns and the swirling organ during the choruses make the song stand out, and the bluesy “Stinker” (although clearly not a highlight) is also enjoyable on grounds on the TOP contribution. Otherwise, “Stinker” sounds too much like a thematic retake on “Midnight Creeper”, and we already have “The Bitch Is Back” here to begin with.

The country interlude of the album comes in the shape of “Little Dixie”. The song is better than “No Shoe String On Louise” but still far from fulfilling – it would take Elton more than two decades to come up with stuff like “Birds” and “Turn The Lights Out When You Leave”. The best part of “Little Dixie” might as well be the sax solo, provided (again) by a member of TOP.

But “Caribou” saw the addition of another top-notch musician to Elton’s ranks aside from the Tower Of Power horns. I am talking about percussionist Ray Cooper, who made his debut on “Caribou”, and who was to become one of the most-revered bit-players associated with Elton outside of those who made up the “classic” band. Some ‘80s and early ‘90s tours comprised only Elton and Ray – that was the case of Elton’s Russian tour (he was the first rock and roll performer to play there), and also of Elton’s first visits to South America. His first show here in Uruguay had people shouting for Cooper over Elton, much to Elton’s amusement – they played the Estadio Charrúa and people stood up cheering “¡Pelado! ¡Pelado! ¡Pelado!” [¡Baldy! ¡Baldy! ¡Baldy!]. Continue reading →

Laiojan Sebastian (Uruguayan Independent Artist)

Posted on by
Laiojan Sebastian Were Andrés Pardo Di Nardo, Alejandro Reyes, Andrés Puppo & Ismael Pardo Di Nardo

Laiojan Sebastian Were Andrés Pardo Di Nardo, Alejandro Reyes, Andrés Puppo & Ismael Pardo Di Nardo

Laiojan Sebastian was the band that made me decide to cover Uruguayan unsigned artists on MusicKO. I learned of their existence in late 2009. I had recently became acquainted with Ismael Pardo Di Nardo, the drummer and percussionist of the band. His older brother Andrés was the lead singer and sole composer of the songs the band (a very representative exponent of River Plate rock) was to record for a self-titled debut that was sadly never to be released. I recall the impression that the CD caused on me when Ismael played the first song (“Despierta”) [Wake Up] over his speakers – it was a truly alive piece of music. It felt as if the message of the lyrics had been deprived of its mobility by the indifference that befell the whole album, but its ability to move others remained unscathed. I wouldn’t say that I become an awakened one that day. But I felt less dormant for certain.

Of course, that the disc hit me so hard when I first listened to it was no coincidence – not when I learned that the bass player and the lead guitarist were Andrés Puppo and Alejandro Reyes, two professional musicians that had been part of the local scene for some time now.

Another thing that caught my immediate fancy was the cover art. Andrés had designed it, and a well-known Argentinean comic artist put his thumb into motion to bring the nominal character to life. The manga influence was palpable by a mile, and the Iojan Sebastian that we can see pictured there seemed the closest to a living paradox to me, with a mien that expressed as many emotions as the ones it counter-expressed. I could imagine him saying “It is all in vain. Nothing means anything except everything. And you can get everything in life except nothing. But” – he would continue with a grin – “there is always a way to get anything.”

And if “Despierta” was a song that told of latent possibilities, the remaining songs were to deal with their realization. One of the clearest examples was to be “Jhonny Balón”, a fairy story about a child soccer prodigy that dies during a match only to resurrect and score at the last minute as his team reaches the final many years later. The song offers up a raving mixture of funky passages  with murga drumming (conveying the tragedy of the protagonist’s death) and in the last section (the match) Andrés emulates a commentator over real ambience noise. Continue reading →

One For The Road (The Kinks) – Album Review

Posted on by
“One For The Road” Was Released In 1980. It Showcased The Kinks As True Stadio Warriors.

“One For The Road” Was Released In 1980. It Depicted The Kinks As True Stadium Warriors.

To many, this live album is the one that incarnates The Kinks’ glory days during the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. It acted as a sort of story book in which the band – a true pioneer of “loud” genres such as punk and (up to a point) metal showed how they had helped define those genres, and how it was capable of blending in with current movements without really losing its touch, and without Ray Davies’ legendary eye becoming blurred at all. Thus, we have a version of “You Really Got Me” that is done in the vein of Van Halen, and a rendering of “Lola” that has a disco-inflected ending.

The contemporary album “Low Budget” is the one better-represented here. Many songs are extended both instrumentally and lyrically (the title track is one of the clearest examples, and “Wish I Could Fly Like Superman” is done as a straight up rock song – it loses the disco edge). “Pressure” is the one exception, with the song being abridged (and it was a short song to begin with). Just when you are becoming drawn to it, it finishes – but rather explosively, I must say. And “National Health” was one of the most played songs from the album here in Uruguay and in Argentina.

I don’t have to tell you that the remaining of the disc is made up of a smattering of old tunes. Hey, we are talking about Ray Davies here. He takes his nostalgia seriously. The band performs “Stop Your Sobbing”, “Where Have The Good Times Gone”, the ultra-popular “All Day And All Of The Night” and even “Till The End Of The Day”. That particular song receives a bizarre reggae treatment that is as disconcerting on subsequent listens as the first time around. And they also do “Victoria”, but the CD version is (sorrowfully) abridged.

The same happens with “Celluloid Heroes” and “Misfits”, but speaking of the latter I prefer this version to its studio counterpart – even if it misses a key section, the sound is less furnished on the whole and it truly reflects the sincerity that lies at the nucleus of the song.

I must tell you that the CD edition of the concert originally omitted one of the best tracks found on the two-LP album, “20th Century Man”. That was thankfully set to right in the Konk/Velvel reissue. Continue reading →

SeeJoeRock – A Social Networking Site For Indie Musicians

Posted on by

SeeJoeRock
Name: SeeJoeRock
URL: http://www.seejoerock.com

Forget about “America’s Got Talent”, the Internet is where the chances of being discovered lie for any young performer (Greyson Chance) or for those who did never get the exposure in their day (Steve Moore). There is something incredibly idyllic about it all- it is the knowledge that if you are good, you are making it. The Internet obliterates the loathsome meet-and-greet tradition that places all the emphasis on who you know, and not on what you can do. And new performers know it by now.

I think that is the reason why there are lots of social sites for indie musicians available. Well, this is a new one – and it is quite comprehensive if you ask me. Bands can create their own profile pages, upload their songs, stream their videos and create a calendar that highlights upcoming gigs. They interact both with fellow musicians and with members of the public while doing it all. And they also do get a chance to interact with industry professionals. That is a possibility that is not offered in that many networks for indie musicians as far as I can tell. Continue reading →