The Most Annoying Song Ever (No, Really!)

From Wired.com:

An online poll conducted in the ’90s set Vitaly Komar, Alex Melamid and David Soldier on a quest to create the most annoying song ever. After gathering data about people’s least favorite music and lyrical subjects, they did the unthinkable: they combined them into a single monstrosity, specifically engineered to sound unpleasant to the maximum percentage of listeners. The song is not new, but it resurfaced on Dial "M" for Musicology.

You can hear the song over on Wired or you can go over to M for Musicology to give it a listen. No doubt, it would make me give up whatever sensitive information I had, but what do YOU think about it?

The Music Industry Has Lost Its Collective Mind, Officially.

From BBC News:

A shop assistant who was told she could not sing while she stacked shelves without a performance licence has been given an apology. Sandra Burt, 56, who works at A&T Food store in Clackmannanshire, was warned she could be fined for her singing by the Performing Right Society (PRS).

However the organisation that collects royalties on behalf of the music industry has now reversed its stance. They have sent Mrs Burt a bouquet of flowers and letter of apology.

I know that this trope is overused, but I wonder what George Orwell (or Kurt Vonnegut, for that matter) would have to say about this. It's so absurd that I'm nearly - NEARLY - speechless about it. The story almost seems like something a satirist would write to make a jab at the music industry.

I would also like to take a moment to pat myself on the back. This post represents Jinx Protocol's 1000th entry. Thanks, JOAJ, for bringing that to my attention. Hooray me!

I Wanna Hld Your Handheld, Vol 1

From 8-bit Operators:

Conceived and compiled by long-time electronic artist and 8-bit composer, Jeremy Kolosine (a.k.a. Receptors), the 8-BIT OPERATORS collective features some of the top 8-bit artists from North America, South America, Asia, and Europe, a selection of the best musical innovators, and several of the inventors themselves.

Other than being somewhat strange - the vocals make me think a ghost has invaded the computer - the album is really, very cool. Even if some of the tracks aren't very good (I'm looking at you, 'Come Together'), overall Handheld is definitely more interesting than plenty of other Beatles tribute records I've listened to in the past. I'm especially digging the 8-bit versions of 'For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!' and 'Sgt. Pepper's'.

You can stream the entire album online right now, and I think - but I'm not sure - that you can download it as well. In addition, one of the contributing bands - Anamanaguchi - has an album (and a web site!), which you can stream online or purchase on iTunes. You can go to the site to pick up the album, 'Dawn Metropolis'.

It's pretty good, if you can get into 8-bit music. And I, loyal readers, most certainly can. It sounds like the soundtrack to 'Megan Man 2' mixed with 'The Killers'.

[I Wanna Hld Your Handheld, Vol. 1]

Early Elvis/Cash/Perkins/Holly Footage - Classic

Here is (as it says in the video) perhaps the earliest footage of Elvis on record. I'm not a huge fan of Elvis himself, but the time period depicted, along with the key players in it - Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Buddy Holly - really intrigues me.

iNudge - Music Anybody Can Make

I've been wasting my morning fiddling around with a site called iNudge.net, whose slogan is "Everyone Can Create Music." That certainly is true. All you have to do is click separate boxes within the grid on the screen and modify based on the way it sounds. There are several different and distinct types of instrument. It's pretty addictive, but I imagine there are some puh-retty untalented people out there trying this (finger pointed directly at self).

I don't know exactly what it is that I created - some kind of world music for a terrible video game - but I have to admit that it's hard not to get pulled into orchestrating some elaborate song mix, that, of course, subsequently turns into what you hear above. I apologize, notes. Please forgive me.

The ThinkGeek Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt

When I was a kid, one of the things I dreamed about most was having my own personal soundtrack. I know a lot of kids from the 80s thought the same thing...because we talked about it constantly. We even talked about what songs would be on there (thank God it never came true back then. There's only so many times you can hear Joe Public's "Live and Learn" before wanting to straight up end your life).

That dream came close to coming true with the advent of the CD Walkman and iPod, but it's still inorganic, because you have to wear headphones, and we know that's total garbage. Until now. ThinkGeek has made real that nerdy promise, with the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt!

The Personal Soundtrack Shirt is an amazing new wearable audio solution that features a working speaker embedded into the front of the shirt. When you push the appropriate button on the pocketable remote you get music or sound effects appropriate for any situation... everything from drum roll, to cat call whistle, to western showdown. Check out the chart below to see the extensive list of built in sounds and suggestions on using them for dramatic punctuation in your everyday life.

It comes with a staple of songs and sounds, and if you don't like those, you can upload songs to an SD Memory and plug it into the shirt. Now if they could only make my other 80s dream come true (think Weird Science). Just Kidding, LP.

The Hang Drum

I (somehow) came across this video this morning, and I decided to post it partly because it's a great performance, but also because I wanted to find out exactly what in the hell it is he's playing. Looks sort of like he's playing a miniature downed spacecraft of some sort.

Turns out it's called a Hang Drum, and the guy in the video is just really very good with it. According to the ever-venerable source Wikipedia:

A Hang (pronunciation between the vowel sounds in the word 'Hot' and 'Hungry') is a harmonically tuned steel idiophone created by PANArt in Switzerland. It uses some of the same physical principles as a steelpan but with a nitrided surface and structural change of having two clamped shells with a small opening so that the instrument is a Helmholtz Resonator.

EDIT: Based on the recommendations of a commenter, I decided to post a supplemental video showing the range of the Hang Drum. The commenter - as you can well see in the comments - stated that the Hang Drum isn't really a drum at all, but a new, hardly categorizable instrument. Enjoy. The guy's name is Matt Venuti, and he "shreds" on the Hang Drum. It's really a sight to behold.

Kind of Bloop - An 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis

If you've ever wondered what an NES game would sound like if scored by Miles Davis, well now's your chance. The result is 'Kind of Bloop', an 8-bit tribute to the jazz king's seminal album. So far, you can only preview the album over at Kind of Bloop.com, but it should be available for purchase (for a modest $5) on August 20. Count me in!

With that in mind, I just launched a project I've been dreaming about for years. The idea is Kind of Bloop, an 8-bit tribute to Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, one of my favorite albums of all-time. I've always wondered what chiptune jazz covers would sound like. What would the jazz masters sound like on a Nintendo Entertainment System? Coltrane on a C-64? Mingus on Amiga?

Source: Waxy.org
and OffWorld