Mighty Good Road

New gif! I thought this boring old photo could be improved with...

Tue, 22 May 2012 02:21:55 -0700

New gif! I thought this boring old photo could be improved with some REAL CULTURE!

Leadbelly Doesn't Care

Wed, 16 May 2012 01:42:00 -0700

After overdosing on lulinternet.com, I had to do an animated gif tonight. And I found a picture of Leadbelly that spoke to me.

Someone needs to pair this with a chiptune...

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:19:25 -0700

Someone needs to pair this with a chiptune arrangement.

lulinternet:

rainbowconnection.gif

YouTube | Buy for 69¢ | Download free if you share this!

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:35:00 -0700

YouTube | Buy for 69¢ | Download free if you share this!

Ah, gangster rap. There was a time when you comprised my whole...

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:19:00 -0700

Ah, gangster rap. There was a time when you comprised my whole nascent CD collection. Whatever my older brother bought from Columbia House, I would dutifully buy three months later for myself. And it was all rap. Some of it was pop, like Nice&Smooth, some of it was socially consicous, like Public Enemy, and lots of it was gangster rap. Like NWA and Cypress Hill.

But it wasn’t until college that I discovered that the real hardcore gangster stuff was folk music. Murder, intrigue, passions, bloodlust. Heroes and villains. Lovers and haters. Sex and drugs. And folk artists played the dozens, did front-porch bragadoccios AND had banjos and harmonicas. And it was socially conscious too. So I can’t tell if I’m saying that folk music is actually rap music, or that rap music is just a kind of folk music.

It doesn’t matter, really. Because songs like Cypress Hill’s “Pigs” can sound like an old sea chantey, or a talking blues, or a social protest song. I’ve tried “Pigs” as all those kinds of songs, but the recording you can download today is a lullaby. Since the lyrics (“This pig harassed the whole neighborhood…”) are actually a play off an old English nursery rhyme, I’m just putting Cypress Hill’s gangster rap back into it’s original folk context. And I hope it’s no less terrifying and haunting than all folk music.

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Inspired by the Almanac Singers’ recording of Blow The Man...

Thu, 10 May 2012 23:55:00 -0700

Inspired by the Almanac Singers’ recording of Blow The Man Down, Monday’s new single has a recorder on it. It’s not as manly as this one, which a lady named Dee appears to be pwning. But it’s not as petite as Chuck McCarthy’s rad ocarina, which we wanted to use but was in the wrong key. In fact, we had to throw down about 15 bucks for a new recorder at McCabe’s. Fate may just prove it to be the best 15 bucks ever spent. Anywhere. (By anyone.)

Want to read more than you ever wanted to read about recorders? Knock yourself out!

Coming next week. Anyone want to guess what song it is?

Mon, 07 May 2012 21:18:58 -0700

Coming next week. Anyone want to guess what song it is?

Have you heard of Squarepusher? He’s an electronic music...

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:44:00 -0800

Have you heard of Squarepusher? He’s an electronic music savant who performs with a bass guitar and a laptop, so mostly only undernourished drum-and-bass types have heard of him. If Starship’s “We Built This City” is on your iPod, you probably haven’t heard of Squarepusher.

But we thought Squarepusher’s frenetic instrumental Exciton should be unplugged and performed with washboards, spoons, kazoos and stuff. Why? Well, because. You might have to listen a few times to get the why, but just because. Download it any of these ways here and enjoy:

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And you know what? Since the electronic crowd is so remix-y, we thought some people might like to download the stems and go to town. Like, physically go to town and do the ol’ remixing thing. So we’ve thrown in each instrument on separate WAV files to download and even the artwork, if you want to remix that too. Download a big package of that here.

We’ve always heard “We Built This City” as...

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:07:00 -0700

We’ve always heard “We Built This City” as more of a union hymn, and less of a corporate rock anthem. So here’s our first single, friends. It’s an alt-folk cover. You can download it these different ways:

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