2008/10/14

A new mix inspired by dad music.

You know the type of compilations that are advertised on tv around father's day!

MixwitMixwit make a mixtapeMixwit mixtapes

2008/10/13

Da doo ron ron with guest DJ Edwyn Collins

The DJ’s went from one female lead vocal belter to the next keeping the pace and enthusiasm of the crowd on the boil at all times. The dance floor was peppered with girls dressed up the way I imagine their mums would have done, with beehive hairstyles, authentic retro dresses and clutch handbags. Even their dance moves looked like they had been lifted from a Beatles movie.

Forget present day imitations, this night will open your eyes and ears to vintage classics that you’ll find yourself humming for days. An nice added touch was the free CD for the first 50 people and some cute pin badges in several different designs.

Komedia, 11 October

2008/10/08

Skateboarding dog!

Think I have seen this dog on a video before, but I guess he is getting better at it!

2008/10/07

Bravefont, coming soon to a screen near you...

Extensis are releasing their new font manager with this slighlty absurd hollywood movie trailor parody. If you like fonts, watch it here.

2008/10/01

Souvenir snaps with a difference

A new book by photographer Michael hughes. Clever stuff with a hint of Martin Parr influence i think
Click here to see his flickr account

2008/09/29

Nintendo choir a cappella



Probably late on this, there are tons of nintendo youtubes, but this one made me chuckle.
Also check out the marching band one


and

Super Mario Bros Theme Song Played with RC Car and Bottles


and
beatboxing flute super mario brothers theme

2008/09/28

The Mystery Jets play a silent disco set with headphones!


Yes, that's right a live set beamed straight to the crowd via headphones. It's an odd experience. I've heard about the Silent Disco before, which gives you the a choice of a couple of DJ's, but this was just one band.
A free drink from the vodka brand sponsoring the night help get the crowd in the mood, and the novelty of chunky headphones creates a bit of a buzz. Barely a few notes in to the first song and I'm fiddling with the volume trying to eek out more volume and bass with no success. Others in the crowd heckle for the headphones to be turned up during a quiet bit. The strangest thing was taking them off to listen to the crowd sing the songs word for word, completely a cappella, even the drums were electric. When the band paused to share their bemusement of the set up with the crowd, the drummer tapped out an improv techno/gabba beat.
The band sounded tight and looked like they enjoyed it for the novelty value as did the mainly student crowd. I felt like I had seen the Mystery Jets, but not really live. Don't get me wrong it was fun, but not the full experience.

itunes and podcast, a match made in hell!

I am sold on podcasts, they are a good source of music, news, videos... really anything. So much to choose from too. Itunes is still unrivalled when it comes to music management, but maybe not podcasts. At one time itunes was ok, it could handle my demands for podcast feeds, but now I have gathered a whole heap of subscriptions and notably more videos like Diggnation. This means larger and more downloads via itunes, which is annoying if the spinning beachball of death hangs about while what you really opened itunes for was to play some music! This is all the more painfull if, like me, you store you library on your external hard drive linked in on a wireless network... in one word: BUFFERING!

So I have tried a few things like, mypodder, which was rubbish (just seems to freeze every time) It sounded good, with it's promise to work on anything, even a usb stick, and download straight to your mp3 player. This means storing the software on you ipod or whatever and running it from. Not sure what i did wrong but it never did that for me. It did work from my laptop hard drive though. The User interface was dodgy, not easy to understand.

I tried Juice, this was quite good. Looks like an old itunes, only thing was it stores the files with odd numberwang prefixes.


The winner for me I think was Pod Nova. You can search, subscribe and dowload feeds. Install the desktop client and it asks for your login details, syncs with your selections online and downloads them. It looks neat and uses a browser access you account offline.

A good companion for this is floola which allows you to load the files on to your mp3 without itunes. Added bonus to this software: It allows video uploads, obviously a must for video podcasts. Only thing is you might have to make playlists for the stuff you want to load first in tunes.

Put the kettle on!



A short film about our very British obsession with tea!

2008/09/25

Cannabis can cure cancer?!

But this guy does'nt have the conspiracy theorist ponytail!

Conspiracy of Science - Earth is in fact growing



Quite amazing... makes you think

New mixtape, great site!


Hit the jump below to hear some great songs... fantastic site, really looks good, oh how I miss the days of cassettes... sort of!
http://www.mixwit.com/roburdick/eraseandsync

2008/08/28

Thanks, Google. I think I'll take up gardening (pic)

The new "suggest" feature on Google.com provides some interesting tips for wannabe gardeners.

read more | digg story

2008/07/30

2008/06/23

Toots and the Maytals

A reggae legend was in town, an unmissable gig for any roots era fan. Toots have been going since the 6o's pioneering reggae as we know it, harmonising a blend of ska, gospel, soul and rock. With a record 31 chart topping hits in Jamaica, they were at one time overshadowing Bob Marley and his Wailers.

The expectant crowd were kept waiting whilst being teased with classic tunes. Toots came on wearing a rhinestone waistcoat, he still has bags of energy and that distinctive voice is as powerful as ever. The band rattled through hit after hit finishing most tunes with a burst of high energy ska. 'Monkey man', 'Bam Bam', 'Reggae got Soul', and 'Funky Kingston' all the hits were played

The sound was a bit iffy to say the least, with feedback from the mic being the most notable problem. And one point Toots threw his mic on the ground with frustration. An acoustic guitar caused more feedback mayhem, apart from that, it was spot on.



Concorde 2, 19 June
****


2008/06/19

Roots rockers soundsystem

Germany has a healthy reggae scene! It's hard to imagine, but german language reggae does kinda work. Well to be honest, I think i prefer the mashups and bootlegs these guys do.


Download - Roots Rockers - Dogs Bollocks 03/31 - CLICK HERE

Dave Gorman America Unchained book reading.

Basically Dave Gorman's attempt to travel across the united States without visiting any big corporate chains, even for fuel, which proved to be his biggest challenge of the trip. Dave set out to explain to the sold out audience how the book is not a written carbon copy of the documentary. He was talked into filming the road trip by his manager. After setting the scene, he read an extract that was not featured on T.V. It was witty, well written and definitely convinced me that it would be worth reading.

It seemed fitting that this event was held and an independent venue promoted by a non-chain 'mom and pop' book shop, echoing many of the things Dave G set out to highlight and document before they disappear only to be replaced by cloned high streets.

2008/06/15

Natty

It's quite rare to get some decent home-grown reggae these days. Sure Drum and Bass, Grime, Ragga, Dub step and other reggae offspring is represented, but Natty delivers a Reggae soul sound reminiscent of Jamaica’s early years. It’s not ground breaking stuff, but it’s good old fashioned reggae, with lyrics that apply to our place and times, like “Come on and give a hoodie a hug... don’ be shy ... they don’t bite”.

‘Cold Town’ and other tracks I had heard from his Myspace were especially well received, other ones felt a little bit like fillers. Fans of Finley Quaye or LSK should check him out. Having caught him play the great escape, I felt the urge to catch him again this time, a breath of fresh roots!

Komedia, 10 June
****

2008/05/19

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down

It was a Balmy Saturday night, drinkers spilled out onto the pavements outside pubs, which might explain the less than busy Barfly. Thao is a natural front woman, with lashes of charm and heaps of talent, every word was sung with gusto, while kicking her legs to the beat in her super-cool cowgirl boots. The band was tight and made sounding great look easy!

A shame for the band that so few punters turned up, but it did make me feel smug and privileged to have been there. Part of me hopes this great little band remains a well kept secret, but they deserve to do well.

Barfly, Brighton, Saturday May 10
*****

2008/04/24

Ben Esser

An original sounding lo-fi sound by a you singer from London. Expect to hear this quite a bit over the summer!

2008/03/31

Foals, Concorde 2, 16 March

As always at the start of a new year, music pundits start speculating on which bands will be making it big. Foals have been well hyped up, and on paper they seem to have the credentials: tighter than comfortable trousers gelled over fringes and a quirky name. Their sound is 'mathrock' apparently, which i don't claim to understand, but they don't seem to play real chords, opting for plucking guitar strings on the high notes, but still rocking out!

They kicked off with 'French Open' and the crowd were bouncing to every beat. The set rolled on singer Yannis yelping out lyrics over abrasive plucking and drumming. During one song a circle of space appeared in the crowd and we had mosh pit, which led crowd surfing! This Oxford five piece are better live than on record, which is rare to my mind. Believe the hype, see them live, it's worth it.