I haven’t really been listening to Tracy Chapman for the past several years, but I just found something that will make me stay a while and enjoy the music.
Her website design is brilliant: You can select colors from a rainbow palette and color in the letters, trees, grass, houses, clouds, and even the birds as they fly by! All while listening to “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” and other tunes.
Best idea ever. Not only does it give fans a reason to stay and interact with the website; it shows off some gay pride too.
Interesting stuff today over at the Pretty Much Amazing! blog. I’m not ready to say that any of this is “pretty much amazing,” but did think it was worth pointing out:
You can download “Golden Age,” a preview track from TV On the Radio’s Dear Science, which comes out on September 23. It took me a few listens to get to this point, but I do like it!
Check out a Vampire Weekend cover of “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac. (You probably won’t particularly enjoy it unless you’re already a Vampire Weekend fan.)
I’m not as crazy about this band, but there’s one song from Bloc Party’s new album too.
I was reading the latest issue of GOOD Magazine, and came across the story of Kim Roberts, a resident of New Orleans’s Ninth Ward who lived through Hurricane Katrina. She had happened to buy an old video camera off the street one week before the hurricane hit; so she recorded her experiences surviving the storm. Now, her footage is going to be part of a documentary called Trouble the Water, which opens next week in New York and L.A.
Before Katrina, Kim was an aspiring rap artist. Since, she has started her own record company called Born Hustler Records and put out an album under the name Black Kold Madina. Her music (and her developing rap career) are also included in the documentary. Click here to check out Born Hustler Records and Black Kold Madina.
As the anniversary of Katrina is coming up, I’ll be sure to post more soon about some of the musical linkages.
Invincible – Shapeshifters- Invincible is a female MC from the Detroit area. “Sledgehammer!” and “Deuce / Ypsi” are my favorite songs so far.
K’naan – The Dusty Foot Philosopher – K’naan is like a more folksy, rootsy Eminem from Somalia. So far I like “Smile,” “Soobax,” and “What’s Hardcore?”
M.I.A. – Arular and Kala – I just haven’t been able to get enough of M.I.A. in the past several months. I have several favorite songs, but I’ll mention “Galang,” “Fire, Fire,” “Bird Flu,” and “Amazon.”
The August 2008 edition of Spin has a long interview with Q-Tip (formerly of A Tribe Called Quest). On page 90, he comments on the internet age and how it has affected music consumption:
…everyone becomes a critic. You see something at the bottom of everything that says, “What’s your comment?” And everyone has to offer their opinion and comment. Then there is internal warfare between the commentators with their comments. Rollins69 said something about the new Lil Wayne song and who did the beat. Then SarahWoo58 will be like, “No, he didn’t do the beat, this guy did the beat.” To me, that drains the art. All of a sudden, the imagination just passes. Whereas predating the Internet and predating videos, you had an active imagination. You would hear sounds and then get mental pictures of what these sounds felt like to you. It engaged you and made you more invested in it. It made you want to get tickets to the show, buy the album, put the poster on the wall. Now it’s sensory overload.
I agree that videos and extra information are not necessary to enjoy music. In fact, I usually don’t know much about the artists that I listen to; I often don’t even know what they look like.
But I do still think that the internet has done wonders for both artists and listeners in terms of accessibility and democratization.
