« May 2005 | Main | July 2005 »
June 30, 2005
bob dylan CD available exclusively through starbucks *gag*
It's been a while since I crawled up on to the old high horse. And god know's there's shitloads of other awful stuff going on in the world.
But is anyone else more than a little digusted with this? Bob Dylan and his record label have a deal going on with Starbucks, they get an exclusive right to sell a live recording through their chain, bolstering sales of their repugnant tar and also adding a dollar or two to their bottom line. Nice.
That disenfranchised customer is very much a part of the Starbucks customer base," Ken Lombard, president of the chain's entertainment division, said in an interview."
Not even a touch of irony here? My brain is a about to explode.
And as a momentary before the jump diversion - Minor Threat vs. Nike
To paraphrase Bill Hicks - "By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. No, this is not a joke: kill yourself . . . I know what the marketing people are thinking now too: 'Oh. He's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market.' Oh man, I am not doing that, you fucking evil scumbags."
I cannot countenance what part of Dylan's original reportoire or meaning Starbucks think they can graft onto their goliath franchise corporation, apart from the message "the times, they are changing" I vomit on on the whole thing. It's not the first time Bob has shilled, but at least you could sort of understand maybe, just maybe last time. At least if you phrase it in the terms that Dylan is a very ugly man.
Like everything else, it seems the symbols of the baby boomer's revolution are up for sale, and the older folks get the more likely they are to stab you in the heart with a giant fucking pitchfork and say with a great big grin on their face - it's going to be good for the economy or business or whatever. Some people stop fighting for their dreams, stop trying to achieve anything with their lives and in the ultimate evil, then drag other people down with their greed and lack of spirit. This shit just stinks.
Once again Bill says it best...
"You know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar, that's a big dollar, a lot of people are feeling that indignation, we've done research, huge market. He's doing a good thing." Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scumbags, quit putting a godamn dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet."
Love,
Funnel.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
need help with a film clip? (melbourne)
A good mate of mine is on the hunt for musicians who might be interested in collaborating. He's a interactive motion designer dude who is an all around good bloke.
If you have a song or just the desire to work with a professional on a creative project together - and I stress the words creative... If you've aready got your clip sussed then maybe someone else is the person for you. That said, it's an outstanding opportunity to hook up and do something really cool.
Preferably you'll be located in Melbourne and easy going, because life's just easier that way! :P At any rate, drop me a line on info at ausmusician dot com if you want to get involved!
Posted by funnelbc at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)
sonia midi control interface
Another day, another control interface. Reflex Audio makers of products such as the entirely awesome and still not quite on the market - HardSID Quattro PCI synthcard... (its a clone commmodore 64 synth engine) hotness.
New from them and working as basic midi controller is the Sonia. Features 12 knobs, with 22 user memories for $109USD or $129 for 44 memories. I like the look of it, it doesn't look cheap and nasty and thats a big bonus considering its gotta sit along side the nice gear and not make my knitted speaker cosies look unfashionable...
Just kidding. How could anything make speaker cosies look unfashionable?
Sonia from Reflex Audio Via the mighty CDM Related: B-Control Interface from Behringer.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2005
b-control nano control surface
Behringer have announced a few new things, of particular note is their B-Control Nano midi controller. It's packing 4 knobs, 4 programmable buttons, and patch change buttons to give you 99 presets for the aforementioned knobs & buttons. Simple, and rather understated classy industrial design make this a very attractive package for $99AUD. Pretty damn good I think for the money. I'd be interested to see if you could gang 3 of them up to make rack width!
Also coming from Uli B's mad phat electronics crew, is the Tweakalizer DFX69. Which to be frank, is a counterpoint to the b-control nano's understated looks. Personally, I think it looks tacky as. Basically a digital scratch surface - should work pretty well with Traktor, but geeze, it does look pretty shoddy, even if it is a grat product.
Our friends over at Create Digital Music brought us this news of new hotness. Behringer's page for the B-Control 44
Posted by funnelbc at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2005
new iriver gear
New iRiver gear. Interesting looking products at the end of the rainbow link. Mystic River Via Gizmodo
Posted by funnelbc at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)
cassettes are in their sunset years
Probably qualifies as "bloody obvious" but the beeb have a bit of a piece on how Casette Tapes are on the way out. I know, earth shattering news.
But still, it's nice to know that the format will at least hold a little nostalgia for fans of dead formats. It's interesting because i'm pretty sure formats like 3 1/4" floppies won't be missed, but 5 1/2" floppies probably will. Perhaps its because the design cues that these kinds of media take are much more appealing to the content generators and merchants of cool.
There's also been a few cassette tape style mp3 players surface that do nice things with the cassette retro styling. Or perhaps you want to hook up your Ipod Shuffle to a Cassette player on the cheap?
Regardless, I still have a couple of much loved tapes on my car for when the radio goes on the blink & or I feel the need for my Jimi or Beatles mix tapes. Nostalgia 2005 style - BBC News: Not long left for cassette tapes
Posted by funnelbc at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
new johnson all tube amp
Johnson makers of some rather fabulous modelling amps have just released their first all tube amp. I had a tinker with one of thier amps ages ago, and they were in there before modelling amps went crazy.
The Loredo is the name of the name amp and it comes equipped with a 10" Alphatone driver with 25 watts RMS. It's got a pair of 12AX7 in the pre section and two EL84's in the power amp section. Pretty standard stuff. Wonder what brand tubes they'll be using.
Looks like it's also packing digital reverb, 3-band EQ and an additional XLR output to hook straight into your mixer.
This looks like it might be a very nice option for a studio / small performance space from what I can gather, these slightly smaller amps don't have to be up quite so loud to get the amazing overdriven sound happening.
Johnson's Page for the amp Via Harmony Central
Posted by funnelbc at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
australian musicians get infront
Another website that I've been quite into for a long time now, is Australian INfront. They provide an online resource for designers, artists and has a focus on the community and promoting Australian design both here and overseas.
At the moment they've put a call out to aussie musicians who want to get involved with a project. Should you happen to want to get involved with an excellent online project with some of the finest australian designers that are about drop Jon a line on jon [[at]] australianinfront.com.au to register your interest.
Alternatively, drop on over to Australian INfront to see the site and some of the work already done for visual responses.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
pretend paper launch party
Kindred spirits of the onetonnemusic massive, are the good folks of pretend paper as mentioned earlier on. They've got a massive launch party lined up for Saturay the 2nd of July. They've got all sorts of goodness lined up, including local art, open mic, drawing wall, and performances by The Ribbon Device, Children Collide, Young Professionals, Casionova, The Bedroom Philosopher & DJs. Huzzah!
The details & all sorts of fun can be had from pretend paper.com or after the jump. I'll be there, and looking hip, so make sure you come along too should you be located in Melbourne town!
Posted by funnelbc at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2005
brutal - gaslight music needs help
It looks like Melbourne music institution Gaslight music are in financial trouble. They've apparently hired insolvency PPB Chartered Accountants, and they're looking for someone to come in and save the business.
They're currently owned by the chaosmusic.com crowd, but it appears that if they don't get an injection of cash or sell Gaslight, the doors will close. From what I've just read it sounds like Chaos used Gaslight to ad an element of legitimacy to it's business during the dotcom days, but now Gaslight is struggling it doesn't sound like they're willing to invest back into the store. Love to hear some more info or insights on this if you have any further information drop me a line on info@ausmusician dot com
It's a pretty sad scene if you go into Gaslight these days - the last few times I've been in there, it certainly doesnt have the feel and energy other independent record shops like missing link for example - has in bags. Regardless it would be a very sad thing to see it go.
Source: The Mercury Via themusic.com.au
Posted by funnelbc at 03:13 PM | Comments (0)
version 5 reaktor available
Native Instruments' Reaktor 5 has now shipped, so you should be seeing copies in music shops shortly. Theres a lot of good looking gear in the new version, as I wrote earlier. Nice.
NI's Reaktor 5 web page Via Harmony Central
Posted by funnelbc at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2005
russian diy cassette dj setup
DJ Aptem has just become the weeny envy of many music nerds with his very fine homemade DJ Cassette Decks. He's deconstructed 2 variable speed decks, and fitted them into a mdf mixer type situation with a jog wheel, EQ and mixer. Very nice retro funk appeal going on here. I think the folks who still make cassette tapes should sit up and take notice, maybe try and start a vinyl style revival. Return of the dead formats!
Kinda cool DIY effort too - wonder if it was out of necessity or just because he could. Regardless, it's a a damn fine effort, looks rather nice and modular too.
You can see his flikr photoset here - also a nice chap seems to have mirrored some of his mix sets - which you can get to from the comments on the flikr photoset. Also check his website which is probably copping a mega hammering right now here
Via Engadget
Posted by funnelbc at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2005
ipod man visits apple store
So clever. Guy dresses up like one of the black and white figures from the ipod ads. Enters store and starts dancing to Jet - Are You Gunna Be My Girl. Excellent. There's some truly fantastic bad-dancing to be seen here. 20mb quicktime file, so if you're on dialup be prepared for a wait.
I like the idea, and I love these stupid clips where people do just plain crazy stuff, and people dont react.
Anyhoo Something Awful - Ipod man visits an Apple store
Posted by funnelbc at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2005
at-at boombox
So awesome I want to to cry - you gotta see the rest of the pics
AT-AT Boombox... Via screenhead
Posted by funnelbc at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2005
el tasting music table
Michihito Mizutani, has invented/conceptulized a table that if you bring the cd near the table top, it shows the tracklist - and then if that wasn't good enough, you can then play the songs using a custom cursor device.
Which is kinda of cool, but CDs are rapidly becoming a bit of a waste of space - don't get me wrong, I like them like I love my somewhat redundant dead-tree based publications, but if you removed the automatic CD scanning from the equation and you pretty much get a media PC. Still, i do dig on the idea.
Tasting Music Via Gizmodo
Posted by funnelbc at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
the beeb continues to rock it
The BBC has been on a bit of a modernizing spree, and has said that they intend to release as much of their back catalogue online to the masses. For nothing. Excellent.
Right now, they've got a bit a release schedule happening for Beethoven. You can download all nine of his Symphonies the day after they broadcast. So far the first 5 are up for grabs. You gotta understand where we've come from to understand where we're going, and super respect for the BBC for all of their efforts to contribute to culture & commit to getting content out there in a meaningful way.
Download Beethoven's Symphonies via the fabbo Boing Boing
Posted by funnelbc at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2005
macworld fluff review of reason 3
Just a quick one, there's a Macworld fluff piece on Reason 3. Of particular note is that they list support of only mainstream newer hardware with zero configuration as a minus. It'd be sure nice if every piece of software was configured for every possible control surface, but my experience with Reason has been that even if the control surface doesnt have presets that come with it, programming reason is surely one of the easiest programs that you can use for getting that MIDI control data happening. (just don't boot up reason without your MIDI device plugged in - it'll loose your settings - have they fixed that in 3?)
Anyhoo. Macworld reviews Reason 3
Posted by funnelbc at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
pretend paper = not pretendy at all
Pretendpaper is a site that an internet acquantaince of mine and some of his mates are putting together. It's designed as a promotional tool for creative people. There's some nice reviews and info on upcoming shows and all sorts of handy stuff.
At the moment all the content is put together by the team who created the site, but after the site is properly launched people will be able to log in and write bits and pieces themselves. If you wanna upload music, art whatever...
Of particular interest to you dear reader, is that there's also a mp3 player for unsigned artists can submit songs to. Very slick.
There's going to be a launch party on the 2nd of July with bands, dj's, comic acts, and an art exhibition later on. In melbourne town. As the date gets closer I'll post up the details as they come to hand.
Visit Pretendpaper and tell em funnel sent ya! That way Aaron might buy me a Shandy when we next catch up! Huzzah!
Posted by funnelbc at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2005
mescalito recording grant
Mescalito Records are offering up $10,000 worth of recording time as the "Mescalito Recording Grant". You need not to have recieved a grant before, you have not to have a distribution deal, or record label interest.
At any rate, they're looking for deserving folks from any music genre, any age, race religion whatever. Sounds pretty excellent. This is round 1 and there will be another round opening soon. This round closes on the 6th of July. So get crackin quick smart kids!
Mescalito Records for the details!
Posted by funnelbc at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)