Keeping the geek spirit of the latest post, here’s another nerd themed entry, that will get me some low quality hits for using dirty words and references to naked people. How’s that for a post about a nerd ?
Ok, it’s not actually a nerd, but rather N.E.R.D. (standing for No One Ever Really Dies), headed by the small genius Pharrell Williams. He and his team release this June the 10th their new album “Seeing Sounds“, on what promises to be a summer hit. Have yourself some voyeuristic sexy footage for the advance track Everyone Nose … All The Girls Standing In Line For The Bathroom:
So, anyway, they’ve put up the really lascivious promo site Everyone Nose. Lots of booze, hot women and the advance track playing on the background .
On a great partnership with a blog, they plugged in Last Night’s Party and rolled their own party gallery. Or so they thought, since with great fame comes great responsability and (probably) people asked to remove their pictures (altough i still managed to see quite a few).
Time for a music post, right before a weekend break.
The Belgian electronic duo David and Stephen Dewaele, aka magnificent Soulwax, premiered their documentary “Part of the Weekend Never Dies” at the Royal Festival Hall yesterday.
They filmed 120 shows with footage of 2manydj’s, Tiga, Justice, So-Me, Peaches, Kitsuné, Klaxons and tons of other artists. Check the trailers
For long have i’ve been a regular reader of Pitchfork, along with last.fm, Hype machine,MetaCritic and ubber-cool Stereogum, that nurtured my musical tastes, while bypassing traditional music media moguls like MTV or NME.
Even in Portugal i’m a regular at remixtures, Palco Principal or Bodyspace, great web projects that help me keep up to date with Portugal’s music scene.
Pitchfork and other web based projects are taking a real dent in TV music channels, with loyal fans and delivering breaking news. Pitchfork has even achieved a successful spin-off, with their Chicago Pitchfork Music Festival.
Take for instance Stereogum, who has just released a tribute disk to download, honoring Post, the 10 year old record by Bjork, something possible thanks to the loyalty of both fans and artists to the music weblog. Not to mention other major online players like MySpace, that has just closed the circle with a deal to sell DRM-free music, further establishing the site as a social music destiny.
A website that gets a band like Radiohead to premiere their video service, premieres exclusive demo tracks or shapes an album’s success with their review is surely a menace to MTV or VH1, companies that are increasingly more distant from music fans with their programming choices influenced by major record labels, and miss the huge long tail of music that MySpace, Pitchfork and thousands of music blogs have now filled.
Or quoting The Buggles:
In my mind and in my car, we can’t rewind we’ve gone too far.
Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour is sponsoring Burima, a micro-credit program with finantial support from Benetton, which also developed the website AfricaWorks, at their Fabrica studio.
In the words of Staci Smith who sent the project to my friend and art director Andre:
Late in 2007, Benetton began documenting the progress of the loan recipients through the images of photographer James Mollison. Mollisons photos spotlight a diverse group of entrepreneurs including a fisherman, a decorator, a musician, a farmer, and a boxer. In keeping with Benettons commitment to social advocacy, the images are featured on billboards and print ads in the companys new Africa Works global communications campaign. Benettons hope is that these everyday people will become tangible symbols of an Africa that uses the dignity of work to fight poverty and take back responsibility for creating its own future
A simple, zoomable navigation, trying to have a real impact on African’s looking for a way to change their lives for the better. The event launched worldwide last February 13th, with a performance by Youssou n’Dour of the song Birima (campaign video clip below).
Birima is also the name of the portal (http://www.birima.org/) where you can find more about the micro-credit program.
Check the video for a ball launching, internet connected, melody maker, robotic composer, operated by you and three robots.
Doesn’t it reminds you of Bjork?
The musical installation is on display at New York, but if you want to experience more musical wackiness, then head to the website sponsored by Absolute, with one big question in mind: “In a absolut world, would machines be creative?”
Besides Absolut Quartet, you can also interact with Absolut Choir, where 22 choir members react to the words you type, with your “joint performance” submitted by email. The installation is on display at Stockholm.
DNTEL, Marié Digby, Swizz, The Blakes and The Raveonettes inspired other like minded directors to create 5 music videos, with color as the main concept. The result is a website with a solid work on the sharing features, linking to goodies such as interviews, making-off and FREE MP3s.
So, for my portuguese friends that were tonight at The Raveonettes concert, here’s the sound of black and white:
There’s no typo in the post title, rest assured. If you come here often you should probably know who does this king of anagrams and subliminal stuff. Of course it’s my favorite band, Arcade Fire.
After their previous site BonlineB, the Montreal band scores again, using the web platform in novel ways to promote their work, at rorrimkcalb.com
This time, for their single “Black mirror” (now you get the title?), we can toggle six different audio tracks while a fascinating video plays. For me, it was a bit strange to listen Win doing a solo track.
I’ve just twittered this one a few minutes ago, but it started to grow on me to deserve a full post.
With music being listened on MP3 portable devices and computers, much of the branding and packaging is lost. The chances to studios and artists to have a conversation with consumers are shifting from physical to digital (except for hard-core vinyl junkies). So what’s an artist to do?
Well, Mr extraordinary Lupe Fiasco did a “Cool” thing on his new album, using the last few seconds of “Fighters” to announce his blog at http://lupethefiasco.blogspot.com/. A excellent way to extend the album experience and stick a URL into a fan’s mind. As long it’s done with a selected track – preferably at the end -and not as a merchandising gimmick, people will notice.
For me, this was a first. Do you know of more artists promoting their URLs in innovative ways?
(That is, besides the Nine Inch Nails ARG campaign).
Get used to it, as each year i will bother you with my ultra-subjective selection of favorite albums. Or maybe it’s just me giving away ideas for Christmas.
The list goes without comments, but feel free to completely disagree. I can handle your arbitrary music taste.
One last note for Portuguese band The Soaked Lamb and their first album “Homemade Blues”, where co-worker Vasco plays keyboards. It’s a great album, and if you don’t believe me listen them at myspace or have a look at their delicious website.
Of Montreal – 
