I don’t enjoy Girl Talk’s music all that much — I find it overwhelming, like watching someone flip channels on a TV. But I think he’s really important, and anyone who cares about music, technology, originality and ownership should be paying close attention. Adam Bossy raised an intriguing idea in his answer — describing an [...]
Also filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Dance, Key Musicians, Sampling
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Tagged audio editing, copyright, girl talk, hip-hop, hipster, inspiration, linkedin, mashups, memes, pop, rock, songwriting
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You don’t go to high school biology class to learn particular facts; you go to understand the general framework of evolutionary theory. Rather than contradicting any single fact, Intelligent Design undermines the entire intellectual basis of biology.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Last year, I spoke on a panel about sampling with a few academics and copyright lawyers. One of the panelists was Martin Schwimmer, a partner in a law firm practicing trademark and copyright law. A big part of his job is going after copyright infringers. Schwimmer assured the audience that no one will ever sue [...]
Also filed in Copyright and Authorship, Music Business, Race and Identity, Sampling
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Tagged copyright, fair use, girl talk, linkedin, mashups, Music Business, quora, Sampling
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Friday, September 23, 2011
Anna and I caught one of the best performances we’ve seen in years the other night by Tune-Yards. My friend Andrew, who was at the show, said this afterwards: “I can’t decide whether hearing the president say ‘This is not class warfare, it’s math’ or the fact that this band could become popular makes me [...]
Also filed in Hardware, Music, Race and Identity, Sampling
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Tagged africa, audience participation, drumming, hipsters, indie, looping, merrill garbus, race, tune-yards, ukelele
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Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Oh my, yes. From Rick Santorum’s Wikipedia entry: A controversy arose following Santorum’s statements about homosexuality in an interview with the Associated Press that was published on April 20, 2003. In response to a question about how to prevent sexual abuse of children by priests, Santorum said the priests were engaged in “a basic homosexual relationship”, [...]
Friday, September 9, 2011
If you had to name the most influential drummers in contemporary music, who would you pick? If you’re a rock fan, you might go with Ringo Starr, John Bonham, or Keith Moon. A jazz fan might talk about Max Roach, Elvin Jones or Tony Williams. You probably wouldn’t think to name Gregory Cylvester Coleman. He [...]
Also filed in Copyright and Authorship, Math, Music, Sampling
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Tagged amon tobin, aphex twin, copyright, curtis mayfield, david bowie, digging the crates, dillinja, drum n bass, drumming, eighties, electronica, futurama, golden ratio, hip-hop, jungle, looping, luke vibert, lupe fiasco, mantronix, Math, memes, nineties, nwa, powerpuff girls, recycle, reggae, rnb, salt n pepa, Sampling, snow, soul, the impressions, the winstons
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Why does folk music collector Alan Lomax have a copyright interest in “Takeover” by Jay-Z? I learned the answer from Creative License: The Law And Culture Of Digital Sampling by Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola. It’s a companion book to the invaluable documentary Copyright Criminals. The story of Jay-Z and Alan Lomax isn’t quite as [...]
Also filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Music Business, Recording, Sampling
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Tagged alan lomax, blues, chain gangs, copyright, digging the crates, folk, funk, grand funk railroad, hip-hop, jay-z, krs-one, rock, Sampling, the animals
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Back in June we went to see the incomparable Reggie Watts perform at Central Park Summerstage. I think Reggie is one of the most exciting artists of our time, but it’s difficult to verbalize exactly what he does. His performances combine improvisational music and absurdist standup comedy into a free-associative yet oddly coherent and impactful [...]
Also filed in Hardware, Improvisation, Key Musicians, Music, Race and Identity, Recording, Sampling
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Tagged comedy, hip-hop, Improvisation, jake lodwick, jazz, looping, reggie watts
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Here’s what works for me. Focus on solutions. What immediate steps can people take right now? What are bigger steps that governments and corporations need to take, and what can we do to push them in the right direction? Don’t judge. Assigning blame is gratifying but counterproductive; it heightens tensions and closes minds. Instead, take [...]
My friend and sometime musical collaborater Leo Ferguson is releasing an album of his adventurous jazz compositions and arrangements. Leo Ferguson Ensemble (2011) by Leo Ferguson As part of the album’s extended liner notes, I interviewed Leo on May 5, 2011. Here’s an edited transcript; you can also hear the audio on Leo’s site.
Also filed in Composition, Improvisation, Music, Race and Identity
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Tagged barack obama, classical, composing, jazz, john coltrane, leo ferguson, miles davis, steve reich, wayne shorter
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