Monthly Archives: July 2011

OneSheet – Build A Rich Profile Page For Your Band

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Name: OneSheet
URL: http://www.onesheet.com

With MySpace sinking into the sunset of its existence after having been sold for a pittance of its former value, the game of thrones for its successor has started in the strongest possible way. The first player to have made a move is this new startup, which is the brainchild of Brenden Mulligan (founder of ArtistData, a very well-respected syndication tool for musicians to post information online). OneSheet is its name, and we can define it as a centralizer of any band’s activity on the Internet.

People who use the service log in with their Facebook accounts, and then they can have their data exported from musician-specific sites such as ReverbNation and Bandcamp, as well as from sites such as YouTube, Posterous and Tumblr. All the data featured there will be aggregated together, and displayed in a profile page whose layout bands can actually determine themselves. Continue reading →

Evidence Of A Facebook Music App Surfaces

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Facebook Music Is Becoming More And More Of A Tangible Reality

We will have to wait until August for Facebook to announce what its much-speculated music service is going to be all about. Yet, a coder who was trying to get Facebook’s new Skype-powered chat to work found something quite interesting on the program that must be installed to activate such a service.

This person (whose named is Jeff Rose) has discovered that the installer supports not one but two applications. One is related to the video chat client itself, and it is called “Peep”. The other, now, is called “Vibes”. And it is blatantly obvious “Vibes” is connected with a music service. The code in question makes it clear its users will be given the chance to download music found online. Just take a look at it:

if (paramString.equals(“com.facebook.peep”))
return this.window.getMember(“VideoChatPlugin”);
if (paramString.equals(“com.facebook.vibes”)) {
return this.window.getMember(“MusicDownloadDialog”);}

The next F8 Conference will be held on August. The exact date is yet to be announced, but we know for sure it is revolving around music. The exact nature of Facebook’s music service and a deal with Spotify are the hottest items on the agenda.

A New Video By Casablancas: “Please Don’t Be Like Me”

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The Current Line-up Of Casablancas

A new video from these great indie folks that make up Casablancas has just become available. The song is named “Please Don’t Be Like Me”. The first thing I thought when I watched the clip was of Donovan playing his very own equivalent to The Smiths’ “This Charming Man”. I could visualize such a thing frame by frame, in full Technicolor. All in the eye of my mind.

Yes, I know.

I should have directed “Pineapple Express” myself. Hollywood, so much to answer for…

Casablancas – Please don’t be like me from indiefolks on Vimeo.

Cool song, “Please Don’t Be Like Me”. A very playful melody, meretricious camera angles, wailing sirens in the background, terrific hairdos. Is there anything else you need? Sign on the dotted line now.

I wrote about Casablancas recently, in one of the zaniest posts MusicKO has ever known. And by all reckonings, that’s saying a lot. Catch up with the original review here. Don’t forget your parachute with the flag of the Rebel Alliance.

Free Uruguayan Music For Download: ELSANTOREMEDIO’s debut album

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Uruguayan Reggae Band ELSANTOREMEDIO Playing Live.

Uruguayan reggae band ELSANTOREMEDIO has recently released its eponymous debut album, and it stands as the perfect soundtrack for listening to while walking down electric avenue. And then taking things higher, of course.

Originally formed in 2006, ELSANTOREMEDIO cites Black Uhuru, Peter Tosh, Jacob Miller, Max Romeo, Bob Marley, Aswad and Sly & Robbie as key references.

The band itself brings together two different generations of musicians, as about half of its members come from ‘80s band “Tablas de la Ley” (one of the earliest exponents of Uruguayan reggae), with the remaining members being from a younger generation of performers.

Current members of ELSANTOREMEDIO are Alejandro Lerman (keyboards), Javier Díaz (drums), Dario Silva (bass), JuanPe Lago (guitar), Tuco Lena (guitar), Nicolás Davis (guitar), Pato Chiva (percussion) and Bruno Terra (vocals). Special guests include Sol Bauzá on backing vocals and Oscar Pereira (who has also produced the record) on brass.

You can get the full album (11 tracks) at no cost here. And this is their MySpace profile.

LYRICSnMUSIC – Lyrics, Band Bios, Tour Dates & Everything Else In Between

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Name: LYRICSnMUSIC
URL: http://www.lyricsnmusic.com

The first thing people do when wanting to learn more about any band that’s been brought into their attention is heading straight to Wikipedia to see what can be learned about that artist there. Either that, or they are on their way to YouTube to catch the band in sonic flight. And looking up some lyrics is the next link in the chain, specially if English’s not their first language.

By all reckonings, that’s an almighty amount of toing and froing. It would be great if there were a way to get all that info at once, wouldn’t it? And it would be even better if The Who finally decided to tour South America.

Well, as far as the Shepherd Bush’s contingent coming all the way to this balmy region of the world is concerned I’ve almost lost all hope by now. And I don’t love them any less for that, nor do I listen to their music any less enthusiastically. But I refuse to believe nobody has ever come with a site to let you search the whole Internet in an organic way when looking for music-related information. Somebody must have done something about it. And I’ve scoured the whole digital universe looking for an answer. And hey, look what I’ve found.

LYRICSnMUSIC is a search aggregator that collects together results for sites like YouTube, Wikipedia and the best of the many lyrics repositories that are currently available online. All these are accessible using a tabbed interface that makes for a really cool user experience. You input your query, pick the suitable tab and Bob’s your uncle. Continue reading →

Anton Naumovets (PitchImprover.com) – Interview (Part 2)

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This is the second and final part of the conversation I had with Anton Naumovets from PitchImprover.com. You can read how it all started here.

 

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

 

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

My parents made me study piano when I was a kid. I hated it and was very happy when I played the dreaded Fur Elise at the final exam at the school and didn’t need to touch the instrument no more. The piano was sold and my anger began to cease, eventually transforming into interest.

Don’t remember what was the first album, probably something by Egor Letov (Russian punk).

Are you in a band yourself, or have you been in a band in the past? Is there a file on YouTube or elsewhere we could watch?

I was in a band, it is on myspace, but I’d rather do without the links here. If you hear me singing, there is no chance that you will want to learn anything related to pitch from my site!

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

I am playing and listening to a lot of sax lately. It started from hearing these guys: http://doklive.com/live, and I still like them a lot. Among the giants, Coltrane and Yusef Lateef are my favourites.

Apart from that, of the contemporaries, for example I enjoy the music by White Lies. Continue reading →

Anton Naumovets (PitchImprover.com) – Interview (Part 1)

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Anton Naumovets from PitchImprover.com (recently reviewed on MusicKO) had the time and the patience to answer all the questions a little voice whispered in my ear the moment he agreed to do an interview here on the blog. Thanks a lot, Anton!

Below you will find the first part of his interview, with the second part (“Music & You”) being located right here.

 

Full Name: Anton Naumovets
Age: 26
Website: PitchImprover.com
Position: Everything

 

PART I

THE WEBSITE

 

Tell us a little about your website. How was it conceived? Was it inspired by anything in particular that happened to you?

As you might expect, I was in need of ear training myself. Looking at the existing solutions, they often overwhelmed me with customization options from the very beginning, or I didn’t like the sounds of the instruments, or both. And I decided to create my own.

What unique features has it got? What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions? Will you add more instruments?

The unique features are the lack of complex choices, and the instruments that sound more or less naturally.

As far as I understand it, there are two processes important for a musician who improvises or plays by ear that go hand in hand. One is ear training, the other is forming musical vocabulary of melodic phrases and harmonic movements, developing musical language. I’d like to create tools that would help you with both at once, that is the big goal.

On a smaller scale, I am now working on porting the existing exercises to Android and iPhone. That, and fixing some faults and adding some polish to the site of course.

For the instruments, I’d rather improve the sound of the existing ones (strings and woodwinds especially) than add new ones. Continue reading →

“Decidir” By Andrea Deleón Santos (Video)

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Andrea Deleón Santos

A new Uruguayan pop artist, Andrea Deleón Santos issued “Bruja” [Witch] at the tail end of 2010. “Decidir” [Decide] was chosen as the first single from the album.

The song stands as a very lilting ballad, with a clean cut arrangement that gives Andrea’s voice a great chance to shine. The song is also well-devised in structural terms, and although personally I don’t like the middle eight that much the whole composition holds together undeniably well.

I hope to review “Bruja” sometime soon. Meanwhile, enjoy the official video for “Decidir” below. (Lyrics in Spanish and in English attached at the end of the post).

 

Continue reading →