NotesProlific novelist Kevin J. Anderson has made no secret of his love for prog rock ā and now he's taking his prog-rock fixation to the next level. He announced on his Facebook page that he's writing the novel version of Rush's new album, Clockwork Angels.
Writes Anderson:
After dropping hints for a while, finally the big announcement, a new project unlike any other I've ever done...and something that I consider very cool.
Most of you are aware of my long-standing friendship with Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist from the legendary rock band Rush, as well as how much Rush has influenced my work. My first novel Resurrection, Inc. was closely inspired by the Rush album Grace Under Pressure, and I can point to dozens of other novels and stories that bear a clear Rush influence.
For more than twenty years, Neil and I have wanted to collaborate on something MAJOR, a way we could tie together our imaginations, and at last that's happening.
I'm writing the novelization of Rush's forthcoming album Clockwork Angels, their first new CD in five years. Imagine if someone had written the novel of The Wall, Tommy, or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band when those classic albums were released. For Rush fans, CLOCKWORK ANGELS is that project.
I worked together with Neil to flesh out the epic story told over the course of the music, as well as the artist Hugh Syme whose paintings fill the CD booklet. In a young man's quest to follow his dreams, he is caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos. He travels across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy, with lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnivals, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life. To whet your appetite, Rush released the first two tracks, Caravan and BU2B - listen to those songs to get an idea of the story's beginning.
I'm writing the chapters now, incorporating the lyrics into the narrative, and having a fantastic time. More details to come, but for now-to quote a line from Caravan: "I can't stop thinking big."
[via Vintage Vinyl News]
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NotesHowever, there are still some of you out there that havenāt heard all of the tracks from previous years. So letās rectify that. Below, youāll find all of our exclusive VENTURE BROS. holiday tunes, leading up to the big debut of this yearās insta-classic.FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes Turns out that our headlining DJ last night, Alan Braxe, has a bladder control problem. That's the generous explanation for why he decided, in the middle of his DJ set, to turn around and piss on our back-wall curtain instead of using the restroom which is twenty feet away. FeedUnfurl
NotesWith the Roots' new album undun due out next week, we spoke with ?uestlove on Tuesday about the Bachmann incident, which understandably had him a bit shook and scared for his job. But, as he told us with a laugh, one of his good friends and famed collaborators was actually hoping he'd get suspended: D'Angelo.FeedUnfurl
NotesAussie indie pop group Hey Geronimo were interested in promoting their latest single, "Why Don't We Do Something?," so they made this terrifying montage of iOS games acted out in real life, you see. We're not exactly sure how this happened, but we can't say we're sorry it did. FeedUnfurl
NotesEarly last month, I traveled from my Denver home to Rhode Island to meet Brandon Winrich, a music composition major at the University of Rhode Island. It was the conclusion of a remarkable artistic journey for him, and was a life-changing day for me ā a day three years in the making.FeedUnfurl
NotesNo, this isn't a recycled news item from the 1980s -- it's 2011, and MJ Mahon and 8 Bit Weapon have just announced the release of the Apple II DMS Drummer, a wavetable-based drum sequencer for Apple II-era machines. The monophonic synth reproduces eight drum sounds like bass, snare, rim shot, hand clap, tom, hat open, hat closed and "lazer," along with a sequencer that lets you plug in up to 16 drum patterns across 256 slots. Seems like just the thing for chiptune composers hankering for a way to make authentic eight-bit drum tracks using vintage Apple hardware. System requirements call for an Apple IIe, IIc, IIc+ or IIgs with 80-column capability and a 5.25-inch floppy drive -- you know, pretty modern stuff. A limited demo version is available, but if that doesn't satisfy, you can either buy it on a floppy for $14.95 or download a .dsk disk image for $9.95. Oh, and neither require a time-traveling DeLorean to go back to 1985.FeedUnfurl
NotesPerhaps some time after your Thanksgiving dinner, possibly in a stuporous, tryptophan-induced state, you turned on your television to see a glistening, eyebrowless humanoid engaging in acts for your ostensible entertainment. And while you may have concluded this was all a dream or a hallucination, let us assure you that āA Very Gaga Thanksgivingā was an actual holiday special that featured the pop star Lady Gaga and was indeed broadcast on the ABC network.EmbedUnfurl
NotesNPD Group and NARM (the Music Business Association) recently conducted a study, which concluded that streaming music is damaging to record sales. That information has now caused distributor STHoldings to withdraw all of its music content ā that's over 200 labels' worth ā from Spotify, Simfy, Rdio, and Napster. STHoldings reported that only four of its labels said they wanted to continue streaming their content. It's a case of confirming exactly what some publishers want to hear: cheaper, user-friendly streaming services might be encroaching on the cushy sales models of years past. The reaction is reminiscent of the industry's bitterly reluctant adoption of the mp3 format in the heyday of CD supremacy, and we all know how that turned out. FeedUnfurl
NotesAfter her unintentionally horrible music video for "Friday" gripped the nation, Rebecca Black attempted to go legit with "This Is My Moment." Now we have "Person of Interest," Black's inane new teen pop pseudo-love anthem, which is set in an arcade and features the line, "Can't deny you're implicated in a mayhem in my mind." Pure poetry!
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NotesForget your Google Musics and Spotifys -- J Mascis, indie rock's favorite guitar-shredding gray haired curmudgeon and the rest of Dinosaur Jr. are stepping into the format time machine to reissue their first three LPs on cassette. Yep, Dinosaur, You're Living All Over Me and Bug will once again be heard the way they were meant to be: on the terrible, tiny speakers of your dusty old RadioShack tape deck. The three tapes are being sold as the Cassette Trilogy, a $39 screen-printed box set, limited to 500 copies -- one for every working tape player in America. The box set follows the cassette release of 1988's Bug this summer. You can pick the box up online now, for the rock and roll luddite on your holiday shopping list. FeedUnfurl
NotesAs previously reported, UKās Q Magazine has assembled a massive U2 tribute album to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the bandās landmark album Achtung Baby. The compilation, titled AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered, features covers of Achtung Baby tracks by a number of music heavyweights, including Jack White, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, The Killers, and more.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesāI just kind of found my own way, and my own feel, my own way of playing,ā Shields said of his ax modulations in Mike McGonigalās book-length analysis of Loveless from 2007. āI found that if there was only one guitar track whilst the vocals were going, split between different amps and mics, the sound was bigger, especially when you use open strings and tunings and the tremolo arm. I didnāt have to consciously think about it; I was able to express this constant feeling of expression. Itās hard to explain the sound of the guitar bending. What you hear is what it is between the sound.āUnfurl
NotesThere are more than a few reasons digital rights management (DRM) has been largely unsuccessful. But the easiest way to explain to a consumer why DRM doesn't work is to put it in terms he understands: "What happens to the music you paid for if that company changes its mind?" It was one thing when it was a theoretical question. Now it's a historical one. Rhapsody just had the next in a line of DRM music services to go--this week the company told its users than anyone with RAX files has unil November 7 to back them up in another format or lose them the next time they upgrade their systems.Unfurl
NotesThe process which began early last year with the recording and release of Caravan and BU2B is finally starting to come to a close. According to recent interviews by both Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels studio album is nearing completion. Geddy was interviewed by Rolli...Unfurl
NotesIf you enjoy being on the cutting edge of "what's next," Modern Music w/ Jon Moshier is your place for discovering the sounds of new and emerging independent artists. From rock to electronic, with touchstones to classic underground, it's all about the music. You now have two opportunities to hear Modern Music; Fridays from 9-11pm and Sundays from 2-4pm. FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes"The Blaster Beam is a concept electronic musical instrument consisting of a 12 to 18-foot (5.5 m) long metal beam strung with numerous tensed wires under which are mounted electric guitar pickups which can be moved to alter the sound produced. The instrument is played by striking or plucking the strings with fingers, sticks, pipes or even large objects such as artillery shell casings. The instrument produces a very distinctive bass tone, the sound of which is often described as 'dark' or 'sinister'."FeedUnfurl
Notes"The Echo Nest is a music intelligence company founded by Tristan Jehan and Brian Whitman, who met at the MIT Media Lab while they were both getting their PhDs in music understanding and synthesis research. The company has since grown to a small but insane team of developers, designers, musicians and business people all housed in a cozy office in Davis Square, Somerville, MA, USA. We grow an intelligence platform that automatically reads about and listens to the entire world of music for developers to build search, personalization and interactive music applications. "Unfurl
Notes"The defining element is LOW COMPUTATIONAL COMPLEXITY, as expressed in all aspects of the audiovisual system: the complexity of the platform (i.e. the number of transistors or logic gates in the hardware), the complexity of the software (i.e. the length in bits of the program code and static data), as well as the time complexity (i.e. how many state changes the computational tasks require). A more theoretical approach would eliminate the differentiation of software and hardware and talk about description/program length, memory complexity and time complexity."Unfurl
Notes"The MSSIAH is a MIDI cartridge for the Commodore 64.<br />
It contains a suite of music applications that starts instantly as you insert the cartridge and start up the computer.<br />
With these applications you can play the C64's audio circuit (SID) via MIDI or stand-alone with the internal sequencers."Unfurl
Notes"In early June, 2006 Prophet64 made the bold move of releasing its SID music software on C64 cartridges. This completed the transition of the C64 from a computer system dependant on floppy and/or tape drives, to an independent piece of pro audio studio equipment. Could the union of Prophet64 with the C64 as a musical instrument be further improved upon? I thought so. The following pages explain what I have done."Unfurl
Notes"Schism Tracker is a free reimplementation of Impulse Tracker, a program used to create high quality music without the requirements of specialized, expensive equipment, and with a unique "finger feel" that is difficult to replicate in-part. The player is based on a highly modified version of the Modplug engine, with a number of bugfixes and changes to improve IT playback. "Unfurl
Notes"Schism Tracker is a free reimplementation of Impulse Tracker, a program used to create high quality music without the requirements of specialized, expensive equipment, and with a unique "finger feel" that is difficult to replicate in-part. The player is based on a highly modified version of the Modplug engine, with a number of bugfixes and changes to improve IT playback. "Unfurl
Notes"The Pythagorean Lambdoma Harmonic Keyboard, designed by mathemetician Barbara Hero, is an unusual MIDI controller thatās based on ancient concepts and fundamental harmonic relationships between notes.
The keyboard is based on the Lambdoma Matrix, a mathematical grid attributed to the philosopher Pythagoras. The Matrix plots whole-number ratios, with whole numbers along on side (1,2,3,4ā¦.) and their inverse fractions (1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4ā¦.) along the other."Unfurl
Notes"M3U2iTunes is a helper application which overcomes the problems iTunes has with m3u playlists. iTunes, when downloading an m3u playlist, places all songs scattered throughout the main library (rather than, say, creating a playlist and organizing the stream tracks in it). M3U2iTunes simply creates a single playlist named "M3U Internet Stream" and places all songs from the downloaded m3u playlist into the M3U Internet Stream playlist."Unfurl
Notes"The producer invited some of the mavericks of '80s electronic music, including Howard Jones, Thomas Dolby and Erasure's Vince Clarke, to give his tunes a spin of their own. Listen to their revamps below. After all of those years, these three still have a fine knack for adding an eclectic flair to contemporary pop tunes. I'm especially digging Vince Clarke's bouncy remix of "Falling Down," and I must say that Howard Jones remix of "Devastated" is very reminiscent of a Lady GaGa hit. You can tell it comes from the same production house."Unfurl
Notes"The iTunes LP experience is accomplished with HTML 4.01, CSS and JS. The interface feels very Flash-like, but there is no trace of it. The CSS animations are elaborate and smooth. ... As a music fan, and as a web developer, I couldnāt be more pleased with the new iTunes LP offering. If your audience is significantly Apple-oriented (e.g. a site about Mac rumors or a popular iPhone app) this proves that you can provide an incredible experience using only JavaScript and some proposed CSS3 properties."FeedEmbedUnfurl
Cygnus-X1.Net - A Tribute to Rush - Album: 2112
Holiday Havoc: THE VENTURE BROS. Ā» FRED Entertainment
DNA Lounge: 10-Dec-2011 (Sat) Wherein urine sounds better with you.
?uestlove Talks Michele Bachmann Fiasco, New D'Angelo Album | News | Pitchfork
iOS games get so, so real in this bizarre music video | Joystiq
Apple II drum sequencer surfaces for chiptune composers -- Engadget
10 Things That Really Happened on 'A Very Gaga Thanksgiving' - NYTimes.com/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13882804/800px-Panic_button.1419963109.jpg)
Over 200 labels abandon streaming music and their future | The Verge
Dinosaur Jr. reissuing first three albums on cassette, harnessing the latest jurassic technology -- Engadget
Coverville 815: The Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry Cover Story Ā« Coverville
Check Out: Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, The Killers cover U2 Ā« Consequence of Sound
8tracks Brings User-Created Playlists and Music Discovery to Your Android Phone
The DRM graveyard: A brief history of digital rights management in music | opensource.com
FL Studio coming to Android, Google fans can make phat beats too -- Engadget
Video of Alex Lifeson playing 2112 around the campfire
WDET Shows - Modern Music
William Shatner Recording Vocals For Cover of Iron Man
Blaster Beam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some Notes On iTunes LP Ā· Jay Robinson
