Find You Some Vinyl – A Search Engine For Nothing But LPs

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Find You Some Vinyl
URL: http://www.findyousomevinyl.com

Find You Some Vinyl is a young search engine that lets people find LPs both old and new by simply furnishing the name of the band and/or artist they are after. The site premiered at the last Music Hack Day in New York City, and it has merited mostly positive reviews if only because there’s nothing else like it around.

Granted, a site like Amazon has a large collection of vinyl on offer. Yet, the creator of this site is trying to bring together the results from smaller retailers such as Insound, Interpunk and Boomkat. That is not saying Find You Some Vinyl ignores Amazon – it doesn’t, it is one of the services that are crawled. It’s just that the emphasis here is on letting people look beyond that, and end up finding these truly rare records that (for the most part) are only found in the possession of reclusive collectors, hid in a chest with three big padlocks and a good couple of booby traps around. Continue reading →

Free Uruguayan Music For Download: “Amigos Imaginarios” By Picnic

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

"Amigos Imaginarios" By Picnic

Picnic is a Uruguayan punk band whose debut EP has just become available for download. It is named “Amigos Imaginarios”, it has four punchy cuts (mainly dealing with vices, personality and emotions too torrid to mention) and you can get it for free here.

It also has a cover that would make Frank Zappa, The Mothers of Invention and the whole cast from “200 Motels” proud. I have discovered that if you stare at it for a couple of minutes and then look at the wall, you’re seeing a hybrid of Guernica, the movie poster for “The Lovely Bones” and the face of Doc Brown. Well, I did at least. I suppose that’s what happens when you have been fixedly watching nothing but Placebo videos the whole week.

Boy, “The Bitter End” is badass. And what about “This Picture”? Atomic. If Picnic ever shoots one like these, then I’m creating a category on the blog solely for them.

Picnic Playing Live. Left To Right: Mato, So and Germán.

Anyway, “Amigos Imaginarios” is a greatly-enjoyable EP. Sassy references to The Ramones abound, with songs like “Él Es Punk” [He Is A Punk] paying a direct homage to compositions such as “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker” and “Judy Is A Punk”. The ensemble playing is good, and the way the voice of singer Sofía is juxtaposed with that of her cohorts (guitarist Mato and drummer Germán) is really ear-catching (specially on the title track). Continue reading →

The Guinness World Record For The Largest Guitar Lesson Ever Is Set

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

A new Guinness world record has been set by Grammy-winning guitarist Steve Vai and Berkleemusic (the online division of the Berklee College of Music), namely the record for the most massive online guitar lesson ever.

This live lesson took place at the beginning of March, and it was broadcast from Livestream Studios in New York City. On the whole, 7000 people attended (with 4455 alone tuning in during the first 15 minutes).

Just as importantly, Berkleemusic donated $7,000 (a dollar for every attendee) to the Steve Vai Online Scholarship Fund at Berkleemusic.

This is the video for the record-setting lesson.

The First Music Video Shot With An iPad 2

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

The First Music Video Shot With An iPad Has Arrived: "Need" By Eddy.

Whenever Apple issues a new device (any new device) content creators rush to be the first to come up with a video within their relevant fields. And the iPad 2 was never going to remain aloof to that.

The first news broadcast on an iPad 2, for example, was carried out by Fox 4 in South Texas. It broadcasted a whole segment from one such tablet as part of its St. Patrick’s Day coverage

And now, the first music video shot using an iPad 2 is here. The song “Need” by Eddy was the first video of such nature to hit the Web. The video was shot by Remedy Films, and you can find it embedded below. It was created with Eddy holding one iPad, and several other tablets mounted on rigs.

What do you think? If all music videos were shot on iPads 2 from now on, would it make a difference to you in terms of quality and/or involvement?

Unlimited Downloads For iTunes Music Purchases

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Ask any user of iTunes what he would change about the service, and his response will most likely focus on one thing: the inability to download music that he has purchased to more than one device.

And if he gets angry as he points that out, he is entitled to feel like that. The way everything stands right now, a person who has an iPhone, an iPad and an iPod is not allowed to download music that he has purchased to more than one of these devices.

Apple is well aware of that, and has begun negotiating a deal that (if successful) will enable users to have their music on all their devices. The key here would be either letting users stream their audio (a la Pandora or Grooveshark), or letting people download songs that they have purchased once unlimitedly. Continue reading →

Rebbeca Black Is Covered By… Bob Dylan?!

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

It Was Only To Be Expected - Rebecca Black Has Begun Getting Covers Of Their Own. But The Actual Quality Of These Covers Has Surprised Everybody.

It Was Only To Be Expected - Rebecca Black Has Begun Getting Covers Of Her Own.

No, not really. What has just happened is that her recent viral hit (“Friday”) has started being parodied/covered by the dozen. And one of these comes from nobody else but a Bob Dylan impersonator that has really been doing his homework.

Here you have the clip. And you can also watch two more remarkable versions below: one that is banjo-driven, and another which has been embedded into the timeless (no pun intended) Groundhog Day .

Bob Dylan

Banjo Version

Groundhog Day

Is Rebecca Black The New Justin Bieber?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Singer/songwriter Rebecca Black Has Got A Lot Of Attention Recently, But The Adoration Is Clearly Being Ironic.

Rebecca Black is a singer/songwriter that has become publicly-known after her song “Friday” was derisorily mentioned by comedian Michael J. Nelson on a tweet. Nelson remarked that the clip Rebecca shot for “Friday” answered the question of “What’s the worst video ever made?” more or less uniformly.

Interest on her picked up from there. Rebecca got a mention on the Comedy Central series Tosh.0, and she has been a trending topic on Twitter for the last couple of days.

Her song “Friday” has been written off time and again, but some were also quick to point that even though the song is a million miles away from being a masterpiece, it has a certain catchiness that hints at (some) potential.

I guess it’s all going to be a matter of which career moves Rebecca makes now, while all eyes are on her…

Who Were The Hardest-working Musicians Of 2010?

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Ever wondered which bands performed the most gigs and traveled the furthest in 2010? Well, this infograph is going to enlighten you. It was assembled by concert information service SongKick, and it is obviously topped by a young, energetic performing unit (Mayday Parade). Household names such as Lady Gaga also occupy an all-too-obvious position.

But there is also a pleasant surprise in the shape or Willie Nelson, who played 161 shows last year. The man is pushing 78. On the road again? Indeed, my friends…

hardest working bands

Historias De Invierno (Laura Chinelli) – Uruguayan Independent Artist

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

The basic band who recorded “Historias De Invierno” is Laura singing and playing guitar and keyboards, Fran playing bass, drums and sequencers, Nicolás Demczylo handling additional guitars and sequencers, and Álvaro Barneche on cello. Laura wrote all the songs.

“Historias De Invierno” is Laura Chinelli's debut album. The band that recorded it included Fran Nasser, Nicolás Demczylo and Álvaro Barneche.

Is there life before love? Is there a time that exists outside of the prolongation of single moments that come to define us sentimentally? Or must we all live slave to that prolongation of moments, as if caught in an emotional ebb and flow which means all that happens will be validated by what had once come to be, ever and ever again?

Laura Chinelli’s debut album is nestled between all these questions, in a point where eyes are wide open, but often can only stare straight into that night which is not darkness but the blinding light of conscience. The majority of the songs on the album (which has been suitably named “Historias De Invierno” [Winter Tales]) have the singer retracing her steps through bridges that are not even there any longer, or burning with the kind of aching fire that is forever starting and stopping.

Laura Chinelli

In more places than one, “Historias De Invierno” feels like a musical variation on Villiers de L’Isle-Adams’ “Axel” – a story where the memory of love can modify all the present layers of perception. On songs like “Si Me Pierdo” [If I Get Lost], characters can’t see each other any longer. But their reflections still live in their eyes, and will keep on being there in spite of that blinding light which tries to overcome their staying force.

Other songs such as “Debajo De La Lluvia” [In The Rain] are more direct and rueful, very similar in tone and message to the defeatism of a song like Richard Thompson’s “She Sang Angels To Rest”. Compare Laura’s “puedo no volver a ser, puedo no ver, puedo no creer” [I might never be again, never see, never believe] and “Y si hoy soy lo que soy, y si no tengo a donde ir, y si hoy pierdo la razón” [And what if today I’m what I’m not, what if I have nowhere to go, what if I lose my mind] to Richard’s “how do you fall when you have already fell for the best”.

Yet, there are also moments of sentimental victory. The deepest comes as the album is ending with the song “Llévame“ [Carry Me]:

Llévame en tu mente
Búscame en los paisajes que te gustan
Búscame entre la gente
Búscame también en la oscuridad

[Carry me in your mind
Look for me in that scenery you love
Look for me in the crowd
And also, look for me in the darkness] Continue reading →

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