Offmessage

Someone just put the soundtrack to Stop Making Sense on the stereo in the office. God I love that movie.  I guess I watched it at just the right time – it must have been one of Channel 4′s late night showings when I was 14 or 15.  Perfect viewing for a small town kid in awe of the power of rock and roll for whom the only live gig available was the annual Spinners Christmas Special.

Psycho Killer, the opening track.

10 artists who hate their most famous songs.  All great artists (at least the 9 I know) and all the songs do indeed suck. I have an ongoing vendetta against Stairway to Heaven.

The record industry may well be dead (or so they say), but there are some fine ideas being tested out at the moment…

Mos Def is selling t-shirts that come with download codes for his latest album, while The Flaming Lips are selling gig tickets that come with a download code for a ‘bootleg’ taken from the mixing desk on the night you went (quoted from their latest mailer):

the bundle will come with a ticket to see the band live along with an exclusive online digital EP that will contain 3 songs from the upcoming record – “Convinced of The Hex,” “The Impulse,” and “Silver Trembling Hands” plus three additional rare b-side tracks that we’ve selected. In addition to the ep, the bundle includes a digital download bootleg of the same show that you attend, which will be available after the show.

I have to say the Lips idea is awesome – I’m always on the look out for bootlegs, and to get one from the night I was there? well…

http://blip.fm/offmessage – oh look, it’s another web property for me to exist at and update.  That said, it’s pretty compelling.  So compelling, in fact, that I’ve had to try and ignore it.  I’ve often twittered about the music I’m listening to; blip.fm is just that service.

Damn.

Isaac Hayes has died.  It’s easy to remember him for South Park and the Scientology spat that followed, but his work as a session musician and writer for Stax and his own, darker sound made him one of the cornerstones of seventies soul. Here is Walk On By, the opener from his breakthrough album, Hot Buttered Soul. Get the whole album – four 10 minute workouts of dark, brooding, groove driven soul that hasn’t been bettered. This video doesn’t do it justice, but it will give you a taste.

Just seen the title track of the new Primal Scream album on The Culture Show.  Spent the first half wondering why I thought I’d heard it before and the second half marveling that the Quark, Strangeness and Charm-era Hawkwind sound is getting another outing.

Seriously, get yourself a listen to QS&C and you’ll see what I mean. Bobby Gillespie even manages to get that weird Dave Brock falsetto down pat.  Very odd indeed.

Feist’s 1-2-3-4 gets a tremendous amount of play in our office – not the original (used in the iPod ad), but the rather ludicrous Van She Tech Remix featured on the Kitsune Boombox compilation. This version‘s the best yet though

Mashable does some more crude maths on the music industry’s whining and comes to a similar conclusion to me…

The industry is doing fine; they’re whining because they’re greedy

Joe Cocker, at Woodstock, closed captioned for the clear-headed.

Girl Talk’s latest album Feed The Animals is awesome.  It’s also made up entirely of samples (list of some of which can be found at wikipedia). It’s not going to be available for long is my bet, so download it while you can.

It’s on a “pay as much as you want” basis, but $5 gets you FLACs.

As a piece of music it’s fantastic; as an exercise in sampling it’s technically faultless; and it’s a trainspotter’s paradise. Get it while you can.