My quest for Let’s get lost - Chet Baker by Bruce Weber • 14 Jul 2009
Let’s Get Lost (1988) is a American documentary film about the turbulent life and career of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker written and directed by Bruce Weber.
Favourite podcasts: Basic Soul Radio Show • 28 Apr 2008
I subscribe to less and less podcasts (not enough time to listen), but there is one I always install on every newly installed iTunes. It’s called the Basic Soul Radio Show, it’s presented by Simon Harrison. Every week Simon selects two hours of old and new funk, soul and electronic music, which makes for a 200MB MP3 every time (upgrade that hard disk!). I have discovered lots of little pearls thanks to it. Some examples from the top of my head:
id3.exe – ideal tool for tagging and renaming MP3 files • 29 Aug 2007
I want to mention a little tool that helped me out twice in the last week, and that I find very little info about online. It’s a Windows command-line MP3 file tagger and renamer called id3.exe. Since I forgot where I downloaded it from and Google doesn’t give me a clue either: here’s where you can download id3.exe.
Arno on the Francofolies • 24 Jul 2007
Arno and his deep-philosophical reflections on life, music and being paid.
(Interview on RTBF about the Francofolies festival)
Prefab Sprout: Steve McQueen Legacy edition • 10 May 2007
This week in my newspaper: there’s a re-issue of the fabulous “Steve McQueen” album (1985) by Prefab Sprout. Prefab Sprout is: songwriter Paddy McAloon on vocals, guitars, keyboards, Martin McAloon on bass, Wendy Smith on backing vocals, guitars, Neil Conti on drums. It was one of the first vinyl records I ever bought and certainly one of the best. The quality of the album might have something to do with the producer: Thomas Dolby.
Mark King plays a mean bass • 02 Dec 2006
OK, this post will give away my age: I went to a Level 42 concert. For those of you born after 1980: Level 42 was quite popular between ‘81 and ‘88. They make music that can be described as funky pop. Their lead singer, Mark King, is also a bass guitar pop-n-slap virtuoso. Up til that moment, bass acrobatics could mostly be found in jazz circles: Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke and (more recently) Victor Wooten. Mark King not only took the technique to a mainstream audience, the guy actually sang while doing amazing stuff on the bass.
Moldover: Live mashup DJ • 07 Sep 2006
I wrote a post last year “REQ: Live mashup performance tool” on how much fun it would be to be able to do live mashups: mix basslines, drums, guiter riffs and vocals from different songs in real-time. I just found out via beatmixed that there is a New-York DJ that has figured out the nuts and bolts: Toto a.k.a. Moldover.
Owner of the “Amen Break” • 28 Jun 2006
I (used to) have a blog called Sample Spotters that talks about whose songs have been sampled by whom. With the help of sites like the-breaks.com and datraxer.com, I make a list of an artist’s songs and where they were used: e.g. Roy Ayers, Patrice Rushen or Labi Siffre. I also did it the other way round once (what songs were sampled BY George Michael), and for some pivotal songs, I dedicated a whole blog post to just 1 song: Funky Drummer and the “Amen Break”.
Play us a slow song • 03 May 2006
I remember when I started DJ’ing and going to parties (that would be the previous century, yes) that we used to have this whole ‘slow-dancing’ routine. Every couple of hours the DJ would play ‘La Bamba‘, sweaty teenagers would check each other out for a quick dance and a stolen kiss (on the cheek), and then there would be 3 to 5 ballads, or ‘slows’. Fifteen minutes of one boy slow-dancing with one girl. For those of you who have never done that: with the right kind of partner it is awesome.
Click to hear the MP3 (playlist) • 27 Apr 2006
More than a year ago, I wrote an piece on Playing mp3 with an embedded Flash player. Things change quickly in this area, so it’s time for an update.
Pleasure from da bass – memorable bass lines • 19 Apr 2006
Went to a DJ-set (Peaches @ Mirano/Dirty Dancing) yesterday and was not too impressed with the DJ skills of Peaches. Yes, she knew what kind of hard pumping electro the audience wanted to hear, but she couldn’t beatmix if her life depended on it. Lady Jane who played before her, now that’s a real DJ, and a cool chick too (as Ine and D&tC would probably agree).
1969 was an inspiring year • 16 Mar 2006
Russell Lichter writes the Monthly Mix Challenge blog: interesting monthly lists of songs on particular themes: e.g. titles with the word ‘hate’ in them or female drummers (that I mentioned earlier).
Lalalover: troubles and fights • 28 Feb 2006
It’s been a while since I was really pleasantly surprised by a new Belgian group (Moiano comes to mind) but it just happened again. I was humming along to the little pearl “Troubles and Fights” by Lalalover – “Wow, who’s that?” – and then I find out it’s a Belgian group started by Tom Kestens – former multi-instrumentalist with das pop.
Magnus: Jumpneedle drummers • 07 Jan 2006
I was checking out the Deus website to see if their new video for the Pocket Revolution album was already online (a friend of mine, Sachli, is playing in it with four other cute girls).
There was a link to another Tom Barman project, Magnus, and I remembered being an ‘extra’ in one of the music videos Tom directed for “Jumpneedle”. The official Magnus site only has a 1-minute excerpt, but I did find a full version on anti.com. So where am I?
Google introduces music search • 15 Dec 2005
When a user enters a music-related search in Google search box, the resulting search returns information about the artist, a few albums and a picture, when available, above the standard search results.
via money.cnn.com
Guitar fretboard generator: name that fret • 03 Aug 2005
Just added a new on-line tool to the FORRET TOOLS collection:
the guitar fretboard generator, that allows one to quickly see which frets on which strings are which notes. I needed it because I started playing my 5-string bass again and I get all stressed out when someone asks me to quickly play that G# on the 4th string (6th fret, actually).
Bentzon Brotherhood: Rapper’s New Delight • 17 Jul 2005
A couple of weeks ago, at a party in Maastricht, I heard a new version of Rapper’s Delight (Sugarhill Gang), a 15-minute funky jazz version with a kick-ass bass. I went to the DJ booth and turned my head at 45RPM so I could read the name of the artist: “Bentzon“. Back home, some elementary Googling later:
Stevie Wonder's new fuss • 17 Jun 2005
Barry (played by Jack Black): Rob, top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the ’80s and ’90s. Go. Sub-question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter-day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?
(from imdb.com)
Genesis of some famous sounds • 27 May 2005
Excellent posts in the Music Thing Blog about the way some of the famous sounds of everyday life were created:
Jobs announces Podcasts in iTunes • 23 May 2005
If this is true, it could change the landscape for podcasting significantly: Apple is jumping on the podcast wagon:
REQ: Live mashup performance tool • 09 May 2005
I have an idea for a software that I would love to use to do live mashup performances. It’s based on experiences I’ve had with different types of software and hardware tools, but none has the exact functionality I’m looking for. The inspiration I got comes from different sources:
iTunes and ID3 tags • 11 Mar 2005
I have a Sony MP-40 car radio that reads CDs with MP3 files. However, since I started using iTunes to create my MP3 CDs, I sometimes seem to lose the ID3 tags (Title/ Artist/ Album). I now know why: iTunes writes ID3v2 tags, and the Sony only handles ID3v1 (MP40 PDF).
Main differences:
MR1200 MP3 Player For DJs • 20 Jan 2005
Have you ever wondered how difficult it is to beatmix 2 records? Does one actually have to have skills to be a top-notch DJ like Roger Sanchez or Fat Boy Slim?
Just a little lovin’ early in the morning • 09 Jan 2005
I have an extensive collection DJ mixes on my hard disk, and a while ago I discovered in one of them a catchy tune. It starts as a laidback (112 BPM) love song, a crooner voice singing “Just a little lovin’, early in the morning, just a little lovin’, early in the day …“. It then turns into a groovy re-edit of the same song, with the voice nicely cut up to match the new tempo (124 BPM). There are some added vocals that are a bit silly (clearly a non-native English speaker), but the chorus is really addictive. For...
More is better: the quintuple-neck guitar • 31 Oct 2004
I remember when I saw my first double-neck guitar, I was really impressed. That seemed like a huge thing to have hanging from your neck. They became really popular in the Led Zeppelin, Yes and The Who era. The idea is to have 2 guitars handy, like a 6-string and a 12-string, or a bass and a guitar, a fretted and a fretless bass, or 2 guitars in a different tuning. But obviously it’s also one of those macho “size-matters” things. The guitarist with the double-neck here is Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin.
I remember house before it was techno • 26 Sep 2004
I remember house before it was techno
I remember house before it had an afro
I remember house before it was deep
I remember house before it was hard
I remember house when house had tempos
I remember house before mpc 60’s
I remember house before house had loops
I remember house before the whole world knew
“Do You Remember House” – Blaze
Japanese lesson in Rock ‘n Roll • 15 Sep 2004
Nothing like an enthusiastic engineer to sell a home entertainment keyboard.
A commercial for the Creative ‘Prodikeys’ product (music and ‘normal’ keyboard in one) features an archetypical Japanese sales guy teaching us how to play rock ‘n roll drums on a MIDI keyboard. This is not the best way to play drums, and he adequately proves this point.
Moiano teaches Soulschool • 11 Aug 2004
Just bought a surprisingly good debut album: “Soulschool” by Moiano. It’s a Belgian band started by Peter Lesage, who has played the keyboards for Gabriel Rios, Flip Kowlier, Krewcial. He’s now got a band of talented musicians around him.
50 coolest song parts EVER • 17 Jun 2004
You can argue about some of the entries, but 50 coolest songs parts ever is a pretty great list of songs with the little extra that has made them stick around in your mind, or makes you start headbanging every time you hear them.
Metafilter on Steve Gadd • 09 May 2004
Great post on Steve Gadd on MetaFilter. He’s one of the reasons I wanted to start drumming, after hearing him on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Concert in Central Park”. When I started browsing through the Steve Gadd Grooves and Fills, I discovered that he was also responsible for “Chuck E’s In Love” (Rickie Lee Jones) and “Stuff Like That” (Quincy Jones). Tunes that got stuck in my head. He’s probably on more of my CDs than I can imagine. Janis Ian, Michael Franks, Al Jarreau, Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, …
Moodlex & Ableton Live • 20 Apr 2004
I saw a gig some weeks ago by Moodlex: just one guy with a portable PC, mixing his music live.
It was awesome, terribly funky.
I just had to know what he was using for software, that made it so easy and intuitive to do live mixing/composing.
I think there ‘s a fair chance he was using Ableton Live.
I’ve downloaded the trial version and hope to test it out soon on my new DAW system.
Peter Forret
Let’s Get Lost (1988) is a American documentary film about the turbulent life and career of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker written and directed by Bruce Weber.
I remember when I started DJ’ing and going to parties (that would be the previous century, yes) that we used to have this whole ‘slow-dancing’ routine. Every couple of hours the DJ would play ‘La Bamba‘, sweaty teenagers would check each other out for a quick dance and a stolen kiss (on the cheek), and then there would be 3 to 5 ballads, or ‘slows’. Fifteen minutes of one boy slow-dancing with one girl. For those of you who have never done that: with the right kind of partner it is awesome.
