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Nas Is Like

Friday, August 20, 2010

If I had to pick a single track to explain to an alien or time traveler what hip-hop is and why it’s so awesome, I think I’d pick “Nas Is Like.” Nas has a great flow full of powerful imagery, but what makes this track for me is DJ Premier’s production. It’s a complex web [...]

Filed in music | Also tagged advertising, biz markie, dj premier, eurythmics, hip-hop, kool & the gang, memes, nas, nineties, recursion, roxanne shante, sample maps, sampling, steve miller, turntablism | Comments (0)

Doctorin’ The Top Forty

Saturday, August 14, 2010

In 1988, a pair of British acid house DJs named Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, variously known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), The Timelords and The KLF, had an improbable number one hit with “Doctorin’ The Tardis.” The track isn’t so much a song as it is an early mashup. Aside [...]

Filed in music, tv | Also tagged book, dance, doctor who, eighties, looping, mashups, memes, pop, production, recording, rick astley, songwriting, uk, whitney houston | Comments (2)

INXS needs you tonight

Sunday, July 11, 2010

I’m pretty sure that “Need You Tonight” by INXS was the last song I fell in love with through commercial radio. I would never have admitted it, and I couldn’t have articulated why, but oh yes, in middle school this track hit me exactly where I lived. It still sounds as fresh today as it [...]

Filed in music | Also tagged drum machines, eighties, electronica, hip-hop, inxs, mashups, mtv, neneh cherry, pop, sampling | Comments (6)

Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

This song represents a lot of firsts for Michael Jackson. It was the first single from Off The Wall, and the first recording MJ made that he had complete creative control over. Many of his hits were written by Quincy Jones or Rod Temperton or the guys from Toto, but Michael wrote this one himself. [...]

Filed in music | Also tagged beyonce, dance, disco, drumming, harmony, hip-hop, jay-z, mase, math, mixolydian, music theory, pop, public enemy, sampling, seventies, slick rick, tritones | Comments (3)

Michael Jackson, one year later

Friday, June 25, 2010

MJ’s death still makes me sad. It was so untimely, and so preventable, and it seems like he might have been on the cusp of a genuine creative reawakening. The life leading up to the end is as sad a story as I can think of. And the music keeps sounding better and better with [...]

Filed in music | Also tagged | Comments (0)

Janelle Monáe and Randall Thompson

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

All the musicians I trust for recommendations in real life and on the web agree: the hottest artist in the universe right now is Janelle Monáe.

Filed in autobio, music | Also tagged autobio, emotion, family, janelle monae, memory, randall thompson, sampling | Comments (1)

What does live music mean in the laptop era?

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

This weekend my electronica band Revival Revival is doing some shows for the first time in many months. We’ll be doing a lot of what my non-electronic-musician friends consider to be cheating. The lead vocals and guitar will be live, as will some of the synths. Everything else will be canned, recordings played back from [...]

Filed in autobio, hardware, music, software | Also tagged authenticity, electronica, guitar, improvisation, lionel richie, midi, miles davis, pop, pro tools, reason, remixes, revival revival, songwriting | Comments (0)

Authenticity

Thursday, February 11, 2010

When I was younger I was obsessed with authenticity in music. I wouldn’t even play electric guitar because it felt too easy, like cheating somehow. I expended a lot of energy and attention trying to figure out what is and isn’t authentic. Now, at the age of 34, I’ve officially given up. I doubt there’s [...]

Filed in autobio, music | Also tagged acoustic, alicia keys, authenticity, autotune, bebop, big chill, bill monroe, bluegrass, blues, book, coltrane, electronica, emotion, harmonica, herbie hancock, howlin wolf, jay-z, jazz, judaica, klezmer, led zeppelin, lipsynching, motown, nyc, purists, rnb, sampling, soul, synths, thelonious monk | Comments (7)

The case for sampling, and copyleft generally

Monday, February 8, 2010

My friend Adam, a non-musician but devoted music fan, asked me why sampling is good. He’s used to hearing me defend it from the idea that it’s bad, but he’d never heard a positive argument for it. In case you’ve ever asked the same question, here’s my answer.

Filed in computers, music | Also tagged beyonce, book, brian eno, chi-lites, copyright, disney, evolution, fan art, fans, funky drummer, grateful dead, intellectual property, janet jackson, joni mitchell, kickstarter, lil wayne, manu dibango, memes, midi, monkeysphere, music, public domain, remixes, sampling, songwriting, swv | Comments (2)

Copyright Criminals

Monday, January 25, 2010

This PBS Independent Lens documentary on sampling culture is a good one, and you can watch the whole thing on Youtube. Their resources and links page includes my Biz Markie blog post. Thanks Beautiful Decay for posting the videos. Part one:

Filed in movies, music, software, tv | Also tagged a tribe called quest, audio editing, beastie boys, biz markie, book, clyde stubblefield, computers, copyright, dance, dj, eighties, george clinton, hip-hop, improvisation, james brown, jeff chang, looping, mashups, memes, music, pro tools, public enemy, recording, remixes, rock, sampling | Comments (1)

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