Stylus Magazine is closing!

Just a quick note that my favourite music review website, Stylus Magazine, is ceasing publishing from today (31st October 2007).

This is a very sad day for me. I am an avid reader of online music publications, and Stylus Magazine has always stood out from the crowd. Their website had a real sense of community about it, with the comments section (for each article) allowing everyone to have their say. While this was sometimes to the detriment of the site when some flame wars were flared up (sometimes amusingly), it always separated them from their peers like Pitchfork Media.

But it was probably their features sections which made them my website of choice. Staff Top Ten, Playing God, On First Listen, On Second Thought...these sections were Stylus inventions and they always made fascinating reads. Stylus Magazine has been one of the major reasons why I have such a passion for music, and was also probably the biggest influence on this blog (which I'll admit has been kind've quiet lately).

I'll miss you guys! I'm looking forward to a great spinoff website from some of your very talented writers (my favourite being the fascinating Nick Southall, but I'm also a fan of Ian Mathers' work). I'm hoping all of the great Stylus articles are archived somewhere for prosperity, but we can always resort to the Internet Archive I guess.

And just to show that I'm not just jumping on the Stylus Magazine bandwagon now that they are closing down, here's a blog post from over 3 years ago where I named them as one of my favourite music websites.

Alex Chilton is found

Yes, he has been found alive and well. Here's an article about it.

This is really good news.

Alex Chilton is lost

The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans is truly tragic.

Today, I was very saddened to hear that a few musicians are lost, including R&B legend Fats Domino and Big Star leader Alex Chilton.

Here's an article about it.

Being a Big Star fan, this is very sad news. My thoughts are with his family and friends. Let's hope that he shows up soon.

Radiohead's Future With EMI Uncertain

See an article about it here:

You Ain't No Picasso: Radiohead's Label Future Unsure, Back in Studio

If this is true, it is fantastic news. No more hunting around to find a non copy-controlled version of Radiohead's next album.
Now why can't all good bands that are on EMI do this?

Do They Know It's Hallowe'en

This song gave me a laugh this morning.

It's like an indie version of We are the world :-)

You Ain't No Picasso: Download "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en"

Lazer Beam Clip

You can see the video clip to Super Furry Animals' new single Lazer Beam here.

You need RealPlayer to watch it.

I haven't watched it yet, but I've heard it's very strange.

Sampling History

Whew, it's been awhile since the last post (whatcha doin' Jiggy? Anyone'd think you'd been outta the country or somfink). So I thought a gentle introduction was appropriate...I know you're going to love checking out the History of Sampling.

It's a great visualization of how artists have been sampling albums in recent years. By clicking on the 'dots' you can see how albums and songs interrelate.

I don't think it's quite complete yet since there's no way The Avalanches have only sampled twelve songs!!! (Click the fourth-last blip in 2000)

And it's interesting that it seems to show that the practice of sampling is slowing down. Does this mean that we're on the cusp of a revolution of new music?

BTW, you'll need Java installed.

A great article on John Lennon

Even if you aren't a fan of John Lennon (or the Beatles), you should still be able to appreciate this brilliant article on him. I think it really summarises everything that is wrong with popular music today. And by this, I mean the crap which generally dominates the album charts.

Give it a read and let me know what you think.

JJJ now has a podcast

Podcasting. Probably the next big thing. [1]

Triple JJJ, one of the few Melbourne radio stations worth listening to [2], has begun experimenting with this newish technology. Beat that drum, love ya work JJJ.

Incidently, we should all get on Jiggy's back about recording a podcast. With his music knowledge he's made for the format!



[1] What the hell is it? I started explaining but someone else has done so with more clarity than I could muster.

[2] Not that I have time to listen to radio these days - I'm too busy listening to podcasts!

Audioscrobbler

Coolest new musical chunk o' software - Audioscrobbler!

So I bet you're asking "OK Matt, so what the hell is it?" Glad you asked! It's a system that monitors all the songs that you listen to.

[Then they send that list to the RIAA and perform a check to ensure that you've bought the music you're listening to. Yeah, that last sentence was baloney - but I hope it sent shivers up your spine because one day it'll happen...]

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so it monitors the songs that you listen to and can recommend other songs that you may like based on what other people, who've listened to songs like yours, have listened to. It's like one big music-fan group hug.

Plugins are available for a whole swagger of applications (Winamp, WMP, iTunes, foobar2000 etc).

On top of recommending songs it displays the most popular artists (currently Radiohead - oh yeah! Masses with music taste!) and songs (U2's newie, Vertigo) and many other "charts" polled from what the entire community is listening to. Speaking of community, there's a number of features that allow you to mark users as friends, publish a list of recommendations, join a group of users and a whole swagger of other features designed to make you feel part of the Audioscrobbler movement.

Anyways, check it out it looks pretty cool.

Music Is Not a Loaf of Bread

Wired interviewed Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame about how the Internet is changing music distribution. Finally, a refreshingly intelligent opinion - from an actual artist - about how musicians and labels must figure out new ways to harness technology, rather than trying to dictate how music is to be distributed.

So take note big nasty music mega-corporations, the Internet is not evil and, if you were to embrace technologies like peer-to-peer file sharing, you might be surprised at the results...

Now, I think I might go listen to my (legally purchased) copy of A Ghost is Born on my iPod. (Though I will skip the over-indulgent extended guitar solos!)

Brett McBean's website

Since my good mate Brett decided to reply to one of my posts on here (being the first contributor to this blog besides yours truly), I thought I'd put in a plug for his website:

http://www.brettmcbean.com

Brett's an aspiring young horror writer who has already has an excellent novel published - "The Last Motel". Check out his website for more details.

Some great music websites

I'm a bit of a music geek.

I've spent more money in CDs in the last year than I have on petrol for my car.

Here's a few cool music websites.

Stylus Magazine has some great lists and reviews, with content changing daily.

Pitchfork Media is a pretty popular website with some great content, even if I don't agree with a lot of their reviews.

And who can forget the All Music Guide? Granted, it hasn't been as good since they prettied it up and updated it (it may look nicer but they have definitely sacrified usability). But in terms of a musical reference site, nothing beats it for the breadth of information.