Category: Music

This literally made me laugh out loud. The juxtaposition of Jump’s partying tone, with Imagine’s seriousness makes for a chuckle-worthy mashup.

Old Enough

I really dig this. Click the link.

[ Sales of vinyl albums have been climbing steadily for several years, tromping on the notion that the rebound was just a fad. Through late November, more than 2.1 million vinyl records had been sold in 2009, an increase of more than 35 percent in a year, according to Nielsen Soundscan. That total, though it represents less than 1 percent of all album sales, including CDs and digital downloads, is the highest for vinyl records in any year since Nielsen began tracking them in 1991.

Sales of CDs, meanwhile, have been falling fast, displaced by the downloading of digital files of songs from services like iTunes. Sales of albums on CD, which generally cost half as much as their vinyl counterparts, have dropped almost 20 percent this year, according to Nielsen. ]

Full article HERE.

Comprising drummer Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Nirvana, Queens Of The Stone Age, vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, and bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Them Crooked Vultures’ album gets released next week, but they have already posted the album on YouTube.

I’m a little late in posting this, but I wanted to just the same.

On August 13, 2009 Les Paul died of complications from pneumonia at the age of 94.

Les Paul was was instrumental (no pun intended) in the development of the modern solid body guitar, inventing overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects, and multitrack recording.

He was also a great guitar player, and a dedicated one at that. In 1948 he was in a terrible car accident that shattered his right elbow. The doctors told him that the elbow would never regain any free range of motion, so Les told them to set the arm in an “L” shape so that he could still play guitar.

More info about Les HERE.

Thanks for all you did for modern music Les. You’ll be remembered.

All Songs Considered ponders this question in their current Podcast.

My answer to the question currently is ‘yes.’ Record labels are still entrenched in the music industry and for your album to get any wide distribution you’re going to need a record label and all the resources that it provides. In the near future however, the role of the record label will shrink and shrink since the distribution of music is becoming easier and easier thanks to the internet. If you can generate enough internet buzz, your album can be successful.

People use Radiohead as an example of not needing a record label, but Radiohead already has a huge following, thanks in part to a record label or labels when they were breaking onto the music scene. They don’t have a label now, but they used to, when it mattered most.

For now record labels are still necessary, but their end IS near.