music

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"Skullcrusher Mountain" - Sweetest Evil Genius Song Ever

Here's a little Friday silliness for you. Jonathan Coulton sings "Skullcrusher Mountain," a love song sung from the perspective of an evil genius to his muse/obsessive crush. Representative lyrics: I made this half-pony/half-monkey monster to please you But I get the feeling that you don't like it What's with all the screaming? You like monkeys, you like ponies... Maybe you don't like monsters so much. Maybe I used too many monkeys? Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift... READ ON

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Video: How Vinyl Records are Made

Remember LPs? Well, I sure do -- over the past week I've been working on digitizing some LPs that haven't been (and perhaps never will be) released on CD. Below are two videos showing how records are made -- first, the laquer Master Disc, then the vinyl copies you and I buy at the store. I believe these videos are from the Canadian documentary series How It's Made (the other items from the same episode included "bagels" and "chains") shown on the Discovery Channel in most markets. The Laquer Master... READ ON

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The Late Movies: The American Budget Shopping Network

Okay, this is just silly. I figured you might want to let off some steam before Thanksgiving. What follows are six American Budget Shopping Network clips. This "network" is basically comedian Andy Daly (best known for his part on the HBO show Eastbound and Down) trying to run a TV shopping show, and having a great time. Enjoy. Fire & Knives "We can't sell you fire, I don't know how we'd ship it! But we can sell you knives, and that's what we're doing right here!" The American Budget Network... READ ON

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Bobby McFerrin Makes a Keyboard...Out of People

On June 12, 2009, vocalist Bobby McFerrin participated in a panel discussion called "Notes & Neurons: In Search of a Common Chorus" at the World Science Festival. As part of the discussion, he performed an amazing feat -- he trained an audience, in mere seconds, to become a sort of human keyboard. In the video below, McFerrin points to the floor, sings a note, then makes the audience sing it. He steps to one side and sings the next note, and again, the audience sings it. The audience proceeds to sing... READ ON

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Inside Oliver Sacks's Brain (As He Listens to Music)

Neurologist Oliver Sacks prefers Bach to Beethoven -- I'm just the opposite. But enough about me, let's talk Sacks. Dr. Sacks volunteered to have his brain scanned while listening to each composer's music. What's interesting is that listening to Bach has a visible effect on his brain, which isn't present when listening to Beethoven -- more regions of the brain "light up" to demonstrate his engagement with the Bach. What's particularly remarkable is that even when Sacks doesn't consciously know which... READ ON

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Know Your Meme: Auto-Tune

The Know Your Meme Blog has a great introduction to the history and technology behind Auto-Tune, the audio effect first introduced in 1997 and made popular when Cher's single "Believe" made heavy use of the effect in a way that was never intended -- emphasizing the warbling of pitch correction rather than simply using it to sweeten slightly sour notes. A bit from Know Your Meme's article: With the expense of the Antares Auto-Tune plugin and the relative lack of social networking sites at the time,... READ ON

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The Late Movies: 10 Elliott Smith Songs

In honor of today's post on the Elliott Smith documentary Strange Parallel, here's a collection of Elliot Smith playing some of his best songs. Smith died on October 21, 2003, at age 34. Read more about him at Wikipedia. "Waltz #2 (XO)" A beautiful performance of one of my favorite songs. "I'm so glad that my memory's remote 'cause I'm doing just fine hour to hour, note to note here it is, the revenge to the tune you're no good you're no good, you're no good, you're no good can't you tell... READ ON

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Documentaries I Like: Strange Parallel (Elliott Smith)

I'm a little shocked that I've gone so many years being an Elliott Smith fan, and living in Portland (where it is contractually obligated that you be an Elliott Smith fan), but had never heard of Strange Parallel, a 1998 30-minute documentary on Smith. Directed by Steve Hanft as a promotional film (never released commercially), it's hard to find -- but a copy has popped up on YouTube, and it's well worth a look if you like Elliott Smith. Part documentary, part experimental weirdness (as in the sequence... READ ON

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Mind-Blowing Accordion Performance - Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" Performed Solo

This bit of musical virtuosity blew my mind, and I urge you to spend two minutes watching and listening. In the video below, 26-year-old Ukrainian Aleksandr Hrustevich plays a Bayan "Jupiter-Lux," a sort of mega-accordion with the capacity (in the right hands) to stand in for an entire orchestra (in this case, he's playing parts written for violin, string orchestra, and basso continuo). In this clip, Hrustevich is playing a portion of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" (Concerto in G Minor), I believe it's from... READ ON

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The Mathematical Pi Song

Two weeks ago I wrote about The Story of Pi, a semi-educational retro video that visually explains Pi. One commenter (lynn) pointed out a song I hadn't heard before, The Pi Song by Antoni Chan and Ken Ferrier. I present it below for your weekend edutainment. Set to the tune of the classic Don McLean song "American Pie," this is kind of a hoot. (NOTE: the video below is just the first part; for the whole thing check out this video.) Complete lyrics after the... READ ON