Dark Side of the 8-bit Moon

Hit play and you should automatically cruise through all six parts of this 8-bit tribute to Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.

Noise Throng Double-Feature?

I spent the entirety of President's Day (yesterday) updating long-time (entering tenth year) pet-project Noise Throng. That's not really the point of this post, but there are new archival recordings available there for interested parties.

Today two DVDs, both ordered while psyching myself up for said updates, arrived. I just realized that they essentially define the envelop of the Noise Throng catalog - from sampling/unapologetic copyright infringement to sheer, psychedelic, endurance-test noise. I also realized they'd make a terrific double-feature: People Who Do Noise followed by Copyright Criminals. Here are their respective trailers.

People Who Do Noise


Copyright Criminals


Enjoy.

Air Releases "Viral" Single Today

Watch this, then get the new Air single "Do The Joy" for free. (Click the little speaker icon below if you want to shut off the audio from this widget.)



New Air album, Love 2, drops from Astralwerks on October 6: "A viral single 'Do The Joy' will be made available digitally on July 7th, followed by a formal single release for the summery pop anthem 'Sing Sang Sung' on August 25th."

Saturday Morning Serials - 4th of July Edition

This third edition of Saturday Morning Serials is for you, America. Watch all five selections in this YouTube playlist.

Saturday Morning Serials (Rehash)

Picking up where I barely started last November, here's a (possible) revival of Saturday Morning Serials: an assortment of the videos I tend to watch on Saturday mornings. Sipping coffee, downloading music, and catching up on links... nothing in any apparent order.


Han Solo, P.I.

The genius of Han Solo, P.I. is revealed when you watch the side-by-side comparison to the Magnum, P.I. opening titles. Brilliant. Makes me wonder what such a show would have been like to watch... perhaps a pilot episode title like "Stabbing at Leia's Party"?


Post-It Stop Motion

Office-supply art like this isn't a exactly a new idea, but you don't often see someone take it this far. Watch "Deadline".


Guy Starts Dance Party

All of the videos in this post have been circulating for a while, but none has appeared on the news like this one (though with a different soundtrack when seen on WGN). It's best with the original audio, if not for the giggles of the crowd then for the "unstoppable" nature of this clip.


30 Rock = The Muppet Show

This video clip isn't directly related to this guy's theory that 30 Rock is a rip-off of The Muppet Show, but it may be entertaining on a different level after you've read through said post. It's not a bad theory, really. Though one could argue that there are many other show-within-or-around-a-show shows out there to have influenced 30 Rock.

In B-Flat Two-Point-Oh

Check out in Bb 2.0. It's the result of a collaborative video/music (okay, multimedia) mixing project. It goes at least one step further than Kutiman's "Thru You" by putting the controls at your fingertips.

Spotted via Create Digital Music.

99 Internet Things

I have no idea who Greg Rutter is, or whether this is a definitive list, but it does appear to have a lot of the big hits on it. It IS missing Mahir Cagri's I Kiss You, which (in its original form) was a "viral" success that arguably gave the world its first Internet celebrity. Take a look and see if anything else is missing...

Greg Rutter's Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You're a Loser or Old or Something

Le Wrath di Kahn

The latest episode of Robot Chicken came up with (what IMHO is) perhaps the finest tribute to Ricardo Montalbán. It brought tears to my eyes. So brilliant.

I suspect Robot Chicken saved their best segments for this single episode (past handful of episodes have been remarkably unfunny). In addition to Le Wrath di Kahn were Clash of the Titans, Speed Racer and Wizard of Oz parodies. All worth watching.

Juno Where I Saw Cut Chemist Last Night?

For anyone who hasn't seen Juno yet, don't bother. I watched it for the first and only time last night. I'm about to show you the single most interesting frame of this otherwise obnoxiously over-written movie.

During a scene in a high school chemistry class, there's a brief view of a teacher entering the classroom. I thought I recognized him, but paused and backed up a few frames to confirm... and that's when I saw this subliminal logo placement.


That's Cut Chemist (real name Lucas MacFadden), flanked on either side by his own logo. Cute attempt at "subliminal" for an otherwise unsubtle movie. It's been brought to my attention that not even Wikipedia is hip to this logo-laden cameo - though MacFadden is credited as "Cut Chemist" in the movie credits. For those not familiar with it, here's a shot of the logo as seen on CutChemist.com:

Previously on PYLB:
Cut Chemist's 360-degree Big Break

Are You Gonna Make a Best (Albums) of 2008 List?

I wasn't going to either.

But after a few recent feeble answers to that question like, "No, but if I did I'd put [Artist/Album] on there...", I ended up with a list anyway. Maybe it's my Most Referred releases, Most Shared, or simply Most Memorable of 2008. Perhaps it's Anything, Off The Top Of My Head, Released In 2008 That Had A (Somewhat) Formative Effect On Me. In no particular order. Enjoy.


Portishead - Third
While I would have bought it anyway out of long-time fandom, I really this one. I also like that they successfully tried to shake their trip-hop fan base loose by going prog. [link]


Ladytron - Velocifero
I was never all the way into Ladytron until this album. Now I am. Big sound, catchy tunes, tight production and, as Maria says, "they always have the best hair." [link]


The Duke Spirit - Neptune
This band's singer turned up on the last UNKLE album, and this album had the same producer (Chris Goss). But it's probably her voice that quickly made this standard listening around our house. [link]


Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
There's an overabundance of chimey indie rock laced with whispery vocals, but this was one of those albums that changed the trajectory of my listening habits for weeks, if not months. [link]


School Of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
Turns out the tune on Prefuse 73's last album is also on this, and it is but one of many intricately woven tunes here. Maybe you should just give them a listen. [link] [bonus]


Christian Prommer's Drumlesson - Drum Lesson Vol 1
One of the Truby Trio busts out on his own with one of the most creative albums of the year. Check out what this guy did to Kraftwerk and Daft Punk songs. Amazing. [link]


Double Dee & Steinski - Who Owns Culture? (Live)
The founding fathers of mash-ups, bastard pop, blends (whatever you call them), Steinski and Double Dee open for DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist's The Hard Sell (made even better by the Ben Stokes visuals). [link]


Instigator - Reduced Materials
Full disclosure: shameless self-promotion. However, strictly speaking, this is the music I listened to most in 2008. It's my final release as "Instigator", much as this is my final post of 2008. Cheers! [link]

Flight Of The Conchords, Season 2

The first episode of the second season of Flight Of The Conchords is online, exclusively at funnyordie.com. Get some:

Season 2 Online Premiere - Flight of the Conchords (US Only)

The Farewell Instigator EP

Finally. My farewell release as Instigator: Reduced Materials.

This EP is FREE. (Heh,"reduced", get it?) Please make a donation to show your support. Or not. Hear more layers with repeated listening. Or not. Here's the official blurb, from the official page:

Instigator - Reduced Materials EP
2008, PYLBUG / Noise Throng [Chicago, IL]

Selections from Instigator's 2002 debut, Used Materials, are revisited on the fifth anniversary of the album's digital release in 2003. Careful reductions in program length unearth and enhance the song structures, and a strategic price reduction (it's FREE) make Reduced Materials the perfect companion to Used Materials, as well as a fitting farewell to the Instigator moniker. Tracklist:

01 Reforestation (Berry Jungle)
02 Recognition (Depress And Enter)
03 Requisition (High-Style Takeover)
04 Reevaluation (Hydrocodonarcotica)
05 Reinfestation (Miracle Earworm)
06 Recollection (Okanna Borra)
07 Resignation (Panhandler)
08 Reiteration (Poh Sukumer Vidro)
09 Remodellacion (Puerto Reconditioned)

Download Full EP [.zip]
Only available online: Reduced Materials EP (High-Quality 320 kbps MP3s plus album art in a .zip archive).

Make A Donation
This EP is free, and donation is recommended as the best way to show your support. If you like it, pay a little something for it; 100% of your support goes directly to the artist. It doesn't get much easier than this convenient PayPal button:

Second Coming of The Jesus Lizard

This is the kind of news you want to get on your birthday. The Jesus Lizard are reuniting in 2009, and I think "a 'final appearance' in Chicago next November" sounds like an excellent 35th birthday present. Just saying.

Saturday Morning Serials

Welcome to the first installment of Saturday Morning Serials: the irregular and unrelated links I save up during the week to inspect and digest over Saturday morning coffee. A fist-full of quick hits. Or maybe just a pair for now:

Defensor Mundi


AKA Robert Burdon's Voltron. The choice of music could have gone in an entirely different direction, but I like how serene this is. Makes me imagine the feel of an exotic Voltron rug under my feet. In my living room. Watching cartoons.


Third Generation Elliott


Daughter of Chris Elliott / grand-daughter of Bob Elliott, Abbey Elliott is one of two new SNL cast members. Which makes me think... with all the 1990's pop-cultural "redux" on television, this could be the perfect time for a Get A Life redux. (Not You've Reached The Elliotts) Here's a sample of the show (which was sampled by Handsome Boy Modeling School) for the unfamiliar among you.

Hip-hop is dead. So is god.

We have these seniors to blame for it:


[Thanks (I think) to Ken Schafer for the link.]

Unnecessary Typos

I thought I had a new favorite site: Unnecessary Knowledge.

But it can't be my favorite; way too many typos. Of the first six facts I viewed, three of them contained typos. I was going to say this was still good, nerdy fun -- but it's really not that nerdy with so much bad grammar.

If anyone from Unnecessary Knowledge is reading this, please, hire a proofreader. Your site went from charming to pissing me off inside of five minutes.

It Takes A Nation Of Monkeys...

Last night, Analog Monkey Video tipped me off to some freshly released work of theirs. Particularly this three-part piece (1, 2, 3) on Public Enemy while in town for an appearance at the Chicago Cultural Center and another at Pitchfork Music Festival last month. E and I took photos of the Cultural Center event, but I haven't posted pics yet. Mine don't compete with the videos, frankly. Seeing PE talk about how they made their music -- music I have listened to regularly since it first came out -- was inspiring. After E shared with me his extra ticket to the group's performance at Pitchfork Fest, I went home and stayed up for hours tweaking my own music, inspired to see "live" the music that taught me about sampling some twenty years ago.

And cheers for Analog Monkey Video. They've been at this a while and it looks like it's starting to pay off. As E points out, you can spot the crew in the mirror in the third installment of the also-recently-released Daytripping with Brandon Cox series (also on P4K.tv).

[I like Pitchfork so much better when they're not over-writing music reviews.]

Cut Chemist's 360-degree Big Break

Okay, this might be a more entertaining way to ease your mind into a ten-dimensional weekend, if such a thing is possible. I am honestly not sure how I missed this when it was first released, considering I've seen Cut Chemist perform multiple times since then. But we can all watch it (in HD here) now, it all its 360-degree glory.

Reminds me of this video for Meat Beat Manifesto's "Spinning Round Dub", but with a much better execution of a 360-degree view formatted to a single, flat screen.

Borgnine Has The Tip

Can anyone among you argue that Ernest Borgnine is not a bad-ass?

No. You can't.
Click play to see how this 91-year-old stays young. Then wash your hands.

"Fascinating."

When I was earning my journalism degree, CBS was considered the grandparents' network. Well into my professional career, CBS was still seen as struggling to shake off that reputation... their first sign of success was a little reality show called Survivor. Eight years later, CBS may be poised to become more relevant, to more people, than its Viacom sister network MTV.

This post started as a video I wanted to share (below), a video attributed to CBS. Apparently there's a division of CBS called EyeLab. The group's purpose is nebulous, according to their "about" blurb. In fact, there's nothing about what I'm about to share with you here, though there has been a smattering of press coverage for the past year or so. Regardless of the vague self-description, a few of their promotional videos are becoming successful in the much coveted "viral" way.

It all started with this drawn-out "supercut" of Caruso's cornball one-liners that open every episode of CSI Miami. It wasn't created by CBS, but it wasn't removed for copyright infringement, either. In fact, the creator is cited by CBS as the inspiration for EyeLab.

Fast-forward about a year and there's this one, an "official" EyeLab production, which promotes the DVD set of the remastered original Star Trek television series: DJ Spock. That's because CBS Home Entertainment is using its big sister television network to help move more units. We have CBS Digital to thank for the enhanced digital effects in the remastered series, too.

It'll be interesting to see if a group within a big conglomerate like CBS will be able to sustain the scrappy and nimble approach of folks like stewmurray47. I doubt stewmurray47 had a bottom line to worry about, committees to deal with, advertisers to keep happy, or investors and stockholders to appease. That said, it's kinda cool that CBS started a division that gets to jam the company culture... but I'm sure the fun little videos are just a small part of their job.

It'll also be interesting to see if this mash-up approach to promotion carries into CBS's forthcoming record label, which we should hear from early next year.