Siairway To Heaven? Was not disappointed.
Jimmy Kimmel Visits Sesame Street To Introduce A New Letter
‘Sesame Street’ is now in it’s 47th Season. Jimmy grew up with Sesame Street, it’s how he learned to eat cookies. So he decided to invite himself to visit and while he was there he did a little bit of educating too.
Audio From Donald Trump ABC Interview Is Replaced With Spinal Tap ‘Eleven’ Scene
BuzzFeed editor Jesse McLaren created a parody that replaced the audio about Donald Trump’s Inauguration crowd size during the tour segment of the David Muir-POTUS interview with the dialogue from the famous “Eleven” scene from the brilliant 1984 rock movie This Is Spinal Tap.
Spinal Tap audio under Trump is ??? pic.twitter.com/zXgKNMxWbd
— Jesse McLaren (@McJesse) January 26, 2017
Nigel: This is the top to, uh, you know, what we use on stage, but it’s very, very special because, if you can see, the numbers all go to eleven. Look… (pointing at the amp dials), right across the board. Eleven, eleven, eleven and then…
Marty: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten.
Nigel: Exactly.
Marty: Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten – you’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up – you’re on ten on your guitar, where can you go from there? Where?
Marty: I don’t know.
Nigel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel: (pause) These go to eleven.
The Coen Brothers Return to the Super Bowl With This Mercedes Ad Featuring Peter Fonda
Riding on the open road with Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” playing in your head. How do you make this experience any better? Hint: The legendary Peter Fonda might have an idea. Watch Peter Fonda come back for one more epic ride – this time with The Coen Brothers.
https://youtu.be/BvHFM8c7cPM
Neil Young: “CSNY Has Every Chance Of Getting Together”
Neil Young insists in the latest issue of MOJO magazine that the door is not shut on a possible revival of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – or at least, not as far as he’s concerned. “I think CSNY has every chance of getting together again,” he tells MOJO’s David Fricke. “I’m not against it.” In addition to his conciliatory words regarding his latterly-estranged bandmates, Young talked MOJO through his latest album, Peace Trail, and shared his feelings about the current political situation. While underlining his commitment to causes that place him in apparent opposition to the new regime in the White House, Young is also surprisingly phlegmatic about President Trump, whom he describes as “water on the garden of activism”. Young’s latest thoughts on protest music, including a reflection on his groundbreaking 1969 song Ohio, his current philosophy of music making, and news of Pono – Young’s bespoke high-end digital music technology – round out a fascinating interview. Read more about Neil Young here.
Bandcamp Saw Sales Go Up In 2016 (Even For CDs)
And now some genuinely great news in the music industry: every aspect of Bandcamp’s business was up in 2016. Digital album sales grew 20%, tracks 23%, and merch 34%. Growth in physical sales was led by vinyl, which was up 48%, and further boosted by CDs (up 14%) and cassettes (up 58%). Every single one of these numbers represents an acceleration over last year’s growth. Hundreds of thousands of artists joined Bandcamp in 2016, more than 2,000 independent labels came on board (like Dischord, Merge, and Dualtone), and the rate of fan signups tripled. Fans have now paid artists nearly $200 million using Bandcamp, and they buy a record every three seconds, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The record business overall did not fare as well. According to Nielsen, it grew 3% in the U.S. in 2016, while sales of digital albums fell 20%, tracks were down 25%, and physical albums dropped 14%. These declines are not at all surprising given the industry-wide push toward subscription music rental offerings, and indeed as the year came to a close, those services reached a combined 100 million paying subscribers.
Frank Ocean and the concept of musical identity
Kaptain Kristian’s video essays are always informative, and here’s a look at Frank Ocean’s method of lyrical storytelling.
A World Map In Song
An imaginary world map where the continents, countries, cities, oceans, rivers and landmarks are made up from the titles of over 1,000 songs. From the obvious classics such as Born in the U.S.A. (Bruce Springsteen), Back in the U.S.S.R. (The Beatles), Anarchy in the U.K. (Sex Pistols), China Girl (David Bowie), New York, New York (Frank Sinatra), Radio Ethiopia (Patti Smith) and Radio Free Europe (R.E.M); to cult classics and some of our own personal favourites such as Trans Europe Express (Kraftwerk), No Sleep till Brooklyn (Beastie Boys), London Calling (The Clash), Town Called Malice (The Jam), Hong Kong Garden (Siouxsie and the Banshees), Fake Tales of San Francisco (Arctic Monkeys), Hit the North (The Fall) and Afrika Shox (Leftfield). Zoom in and see more of their World Song Map here.
John Wick channels Michael Jackson and takes out masked goons, all with a pep in his step
John Wick doesn’t look so scary now, does he?
Here’s What The World’s Oldest Piano Sounds Like
Dongsok Shin performs the Giga of Sonata number 6 in B flat major by Lodovico Giustini (1685-1743) on the earliest known surviving piano, made by the instrument’s inventor, Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731), in Florence, 1720. This sonata is from the 12 Sonate da cimbalo di piano e forte detto volgarmente di martelletti, Op. 1, written in 1732. These are the first known pieces to have been composed specifically for the piano.