Music

‘American Idol’ reject William Hung is now on iTunes

Now all they need is William Shatner’s version of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”

I just discovered The String Cheese Incident in iTunes Music Store and bought a few of their songs.

BoingBoing pal (and former guestblogger) Todd Lappin points us to yet another food fight between copyright and Remix Culture.

DJ Danger Mouse remixed Jay-Z’s “Black Album” with the Beatles “White Album” to create… The “Grey Album,” of course.

The New Yorker had a little Talk of the Town piece on this, Apparently, Jay-Z created a vocals-only version of his album *explicitly* so DJs could remix it. And many have. This week, the Beatles issued a cease and desist to stop the Grey Album… which of course makes the Grey Album even more desirable as a collector’s item, so now the whole album is available for download.

Download it here.

I’m listening to it now & I like it. I don’t care much for rap music, but I usually enjoy remixes like this one and the Punjabi MC remix of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”.

Phish.com has the rundown on the results of Dave Matthews and Trey Anastasio’s recent trip to Senegal. They toured Dakar, performed with Orchestra Baobab, performed on Goree Island, and went to a Baaba Maal concert. The whole affair was recorded for posterity by VH1, and will comprise an episode of “(Inside) Out” in mid-March. Thanks to Jim Anderson for the news. [nancies.org]

This must have been AWESOME!

World Music Central: Under the banner “We Refuse to be Enemies,” several hundred Jews, Arabs, and
community members gathered on a rainy, snowy evening in December to eat, talk,
sing, and dance together. Sponsored by the Eugene Middle East Peace Group, the
event featured several speakers representing the Jewish and Muslim faiths. The
evening fell mid-way between Channukah and Eid el-Fitr, the Jewish and Muslim
holy days, respectively (Eid el-Fitr is the last night of Ramadan).

Music was provided by the Eugene Peace Choir and by
Americanistan, a band which plays
music inspired by cultures of the Middle East. MCs Jonathan Seidel and Maha
Hamide worked with the band to create two new peace songs in three
languages–English, Hebrew, and Arabic–which were sung by the entire gathering.
Israeli dances and Arabic debke (folk dance) to the music of Americanistan
completed the evening’s entertainment.

World Music Central:

Q. What is the difference between a pizza and a Jazz musician?

A. A pizza can feed a family of four!

What is it about Jazz that makes a Jazz musician stick to a form of music that A&R managers have scientifically and suspiciously proven to be a musician’s surest route to death by starvation?

One good reason would be the fact that Jazz allows me to be myself as opposed to Pop that wants me to be Madonna. I would rather be me than strut onstage wearing conical jocks. I remember a male indipop album released by some genius A&R manager, titled ‘mai bhi Madonna’ (I’m Madonna too). Jazz as you will see, and if you’ve heard about ‘mai bhi Madonna’, helps me retain my individuality and what’s left of my sanity in this big mad world of music marketing.

I got my file upload/download module working, so I just opened ShareYourMusic.com.

Dave Matthews Band has formed an agreement with Nugs.net, the company that operates the Live Phish Downloads service, New York Times reports. The band has not yet decided if they will sell the music in a format unencumbered by copy protection, as Phish does, or use some sort of DRM. In addition, Nugs.net has struck a deal with Musictoday, a merchandising company spun by Dave Matthews Band management in the late 90s, to provide similar services to over 250 bands that are clients of Musictoday. Vague word of this plan first came out in November, but no new information had come out until now. [nancies.org]

I hope all of their music comes to iTunes Music Store.

This looks very cool. Too bad it runs Windows. It would be a lot cheaper to just use a PowerBook G4 with a decent MIDI keyboard. [via Slashdot]