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Muted Tones is cool in concept and in execution (at least based on the first song I’ve heard so far):

Seven curators, seven months, seventy minutes of music. Each month is assigned to a curator, whose job it is to fill ten minutes with the sounds of their choosing. They are invited to keep a log of their work, as they create it. Each month, their ten minute piece of music is made available for streaming or download.

Via

You know, This Video (Quicktime 9 MB) of the Peanuts Gang lip synching the Outcast song “Hey Yeah” is the best thing that has happened to me in the entire month of January.

Whether that says more about the video or this crappy month is left as an exercise for the reader.

Now that is truly disturbing. (Quicktime - Herve Villechaize singing “Why Do People Fight”)

The food network has a new show called Dweezil and Lisa. Dweezil Zappa and Lisa Loeb are married or dating or something like that, and I guess they’re trying to cash in on the whole celebrity relationship reality TV craze by doing a show where they cook and go to restaurants.

As you might expect, it’s a very forced premise for a show. Still, Zappa always seemed like a cool enough guy, and I’ve always been a fan of Loeb’s music. The first show has her performing in Atlanta, and it looks like such a fun show, I hit the internet to see when she might be coming through LA.

How said am I then to find that there are no scheduled shows. Ah well, maybe I can remember to keep checking back.

I seem to be running out of morning. Staying up super late will do that to you I suppose. Anyway, I don’t have time to listen to these Dakota Smith MP3s right now. Maybe later. via

I want to like Radiohead. I really do. I want to like them in much the same way I want to NOT like Avril Lavigne. Most of the time, objectively, I can even manage it (or manage to NOT do it as the case may be). It isn’t all that hard really. It’s just that sometimes at a visceral level, I suspect that maybe the emperor has no clothes (or is dressed in a ravishingly lovely pseudo-gown as the case may be). This Review pretty much nails it on the head for me.

I shouldn’t enjoy these songs as much as I do.

I’m not generally one to rail against musicians selling out to advertisers. I have to say though, there is just something so wrong about hearing a Cure song in a TV ad. I’m not even an exceptionally huge cure fan. It took “Friday I’m in Love” to even be able to develop an appreciation for Robert Smith’s vocals. Still, it just seems wrong.

Magnatune: Open, unencumbered MP3s let you try before you buy. Buy and you get the MP3 and a high quality wav file. Even better, buy and 50 percent goes straight to the artist.

I hope you’re paying attention RIAA member labels because these guys will get my money while you guys won’t. I just wish Magnatune had a better roster of artists. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.

To The United States Congress:

We are the customers and former customers of the member labels of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). We love music and will gladly pay a fair price for it, but we are outraged by the RIAA’s tactics in suing ordinary Americans for filesharing.

We condemn the RIAA’s choice to force the family of a 12 year-old girl to forfeit $2,000 - money that could have gone to feed, clothe and educate this honor student. We stand with the retirees, parents, children and others who have been caught in the RIAA’s line of fire.

We oppose the recording industry’s decision to attack the public, bankrupt its customers and offer false amnesty to those who would impugn themselves. We call instead for a real amnesty: the development of a legal alternative that preserves file-sharing technology while ensuring that artists are fairly compensated.

I know, on-line petitions don’t do jack all, but I signed it. You should sign it too. Or at least take a look at what the music industry is doing, and get angry about it. Stop buying their music. Make them pay for their arrogance, bullying and disdain for the consumers who’ve made them wealthy.