Waiting in Transit…

I’ve always seen Punk as a philosophy rather than a once off bunch of noisy kids with spiked hair and bad attitudes. It was about standing up to the establishment, breaking the rules, going against the norm.  They are the ultimate modern form of talking straight back with their own interpretation of how to talk back in the first place.  Hence, the below video, is a bit misplaced with comparing punk rock only to social media… it’s bigger than that.  The philosophy, I believe, transcends all media because it addresses the underlying intentions behind WHY we communicate.

So if you question the norms, don’t agree with them and voice your opinions with any media whatsoever… you are a PUNK.  Word… Enjoy the video :)

Technorati Tags: Punk, Punk Rock, Music, Philosophy, Social Media

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Music, Philosophy, Punk, Punk Rock, Social Media

Eclectic Method – The Tarantino Mixtape from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

This is the Best Damn Thing I’ve seen all Year. Wow. Bloody Hell, that was a trip.

Technorati Tags: Tarantino, Mixtape, Music, Movie, Eclectic Method

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Cool, movies, Music

Life in Marvelous Times: An ill track I came across features Mos righteously spittin “Whatever you ride, whatever your lane, this thing called life its a beautiful thing. We are alive in Amazing times.” The Brooklyn Mc’s next record will be The Ecstatic with production and features from Madlib, Oh No, Chad Hugo, Slick Rick, Kanye West, Mr. Porter and the late great J.Dilla ( R.I.P). Due out in February of 2009.

East of LA

I’m excited about this… the track is Awesome! Lyrics to move your soul and the beat to make your body bounce… Heavily :)

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Music

As Taboos Ease, Saudi Girl Group Dares to Rock – NY Times
Taboo breaking takes a new form in Saudi Arabia, something that should be expected in all repressive societies. Human creativity can never be stifled.

The have the lyrics of their first song, “Pinocchio” on their Facebook page and you can hear it on their MySpace Page.  Read below for the story behind their creation. Awesome.

In a country where women are not allowed to drive and rarely appear in public without their faces covered, the band is very different. The prospect of female rockers clutching guitars and belting out angry lyrics about a failed relationship — the theme of “Pinocchio” — would once have been unimaginable here.
…
“The upcoming generation is different from the one before,” said Dina, the Accolade’s 21-year-old guitarist and founder. “Everything is changing. Maybe in 10 years it’s going to be O.K. to have a band with live performances.”

Dina said she first dreamed of starting a band three years ago. In September, she and her sister Dareen, 19, who plays bass, teamed up with Lamia and Amjad, the keyboardist.

They were already iconoclasts: Dina and Dareen wear their hair teased into thick manes and have pierced eyebrows. During an interview at a Starbucks here, they wore black abayas — the flowing gown that is standard attire for women — but the gowns were open, showing their jeans and T-shirts, and their hair and faces were uncovered. Women are more apt to go uncovered in Jidda than in most other parts of the country, though it is still uncommon.

“People always stare at us,” Dareen said, giggling. She and her sister are also avid ice skaters, another unusual habit in Saudi Arabia’s desert.

The band gets together to practice every weekend at the sisters’ house, where their younger brother sometimes fills in on drums. In early November, Dina, who studies art at King Abdulaziz University, began writing a song based on one of her favorite paintings, “The Accolade,” by the English pre-Raphaelite painter Edmund Blair Leighton. The painting depicts a long-haired noblewoman knighting a young warrior with a sword.

“I liked the painting because it shows a woman who is satisfied with a man,” Dina said.
…..
Dina held out her cellphone to show a video of the band practicing at home. It looked like a garage-band jam session anywhere in the world, with the sisters hunching over their instruments, their brother blasting away at the drums and Lamia clutching a microphone.

“We’re looking for a drummer,” Lamia said. “Five guys have offered, but we really want the band to be all female.”

The Accolade Facebook Page
The Accolade MySpace page

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Censorship, Cool, Culture, Music

The whole Independent vs. Commercial culture in music is nothing new. It’s been going on for decades. That’s why the same people that listened to Bob Dylan would listen to Immortal Technique, The Roots, Mos Def, Pink Floyd. Truth generally doesn’t command a large audience and that is essentially what the independent artists sell, except a few who are just wannabe commercial sell-outs.

What exactly is a commercial sell-out? Pandering to the masses need to instantly gratify all of their natural urges with reckless abandon… Sex, Drugs, Money and a general culture and mind-set of Celebrity-worship and getting-it-at-all-costs or get-rich-or-die-trying (sound familiar?). The independents, even though some may have record deals, they are not as wide-spread as others for one simple reason… they sell something not so popular, the Truth.

: Pink Floyd, Immortal Technique, Mos Def, The Roots, Independent, Commercial

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Music, Opinion

Check out the first-ever music video to debut courtesy of Google and also the first to be shot without cameras. Only lasers and scanners were used in the production and, which is why Thom Yorke looks kind of like a sonogram.

So… “interact” with the video on Google. There’s also a making-of video that talks about Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR, the technology used to capture all the imagery in 3D.

The video is directed by James Frost of Zoo Films.
Link
: Radiohead, House of Cards, Music Video, No cameras, Google

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Cool, Google, Internet, Music, technology, Web 2.0

Bands and Artists are falling over each other to get their work showcased on the video games such as “Guitar Hero” and the new MTV game “Rock Band”. This is obviously making the game-makes themselves rockstars in a way due to their demand. The work of these bands either get put into the newest releases of thegames or into special downloadable packs. Aerosmith has just launched their own version of the popular game last week… “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith”.

This new interest shows that even the rock gods of Aerosmith are keen on getting into the video-game crowd. This is not just about interest and “what’s cool”, it’s all about the money as shown by the Ad Age article…

”… Aerosmith sold 2,041 digital copies of its 1974 song “Same Old Song and Dance” — which was on the then-new “Guitar Hero III” game. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was a one week total — the last week of the year (which included Christmas) — and more interestingly was a 446% increase over sales the week before, according to SoundScan data provided by Activision.

They were far from alone. Alice Cooper’s 1972 track “School’s Out” sold more than 12,000 copies for an increase of 453%. Kiss’ “Rock and Roll All Nite” from 1975 sold more than 18,500 copies for a 485% increase. Newer music did just as well, such as Senses Fail’s “Can’t Be Saved,” released in 2006, which sold 8,600 tracks, jumping 386%. Sales of all but one of the 63 songs on “Guitar Hero III” jumped by more than 100% that week, with the bulk in the 200-300% range.

While a connection between the increase in digital sales at sites like iTunes and Napster and “Guitar Hero III” isn’t definitive, the evidence strongly suggests that the game played a role in the huge increase in single sales. “

This shows that the music video game category and its creators have hit a very sensitive touch point in the intersection between video-games and music. This new area gets people interacting with the music of bands on a whole new level, and hence the increased sales.

This is a very interesting marketing case study when it comes to marketing music in our New Media world.
: Marketing, Music, Video Games, Aerosmith, Guitar Hero, Rock Band

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Marketing, Music, Video Games

Immortal Technique just released his new album and it’s available for Pre-order from CDUniverse.com.

This CD’s was supposed to have been released like in June 2007 under the title “The Middle Passage” I guess he title has since changed. I’ve been waiting for this one for ages, Immortal techniques lyrics are the most hard-core I’ve ever heard and he does it with passion and style. Definitely a wake up call to the blinged-out , instant self-gratification generation which commercial hip-hop culture has spawned. This is REAL Hip-Hop.

He has since also released 3 mp3’s to give you a taste.. and here they are…
1) “The 3rd World”
2) “The Payback”
3) “Reverse Pimpology”

Enjoy!
: Immortal Technique, 3rd World, New Album, The Middle Passage, MP3

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Activism, Music

What a Brilliant idea… the unsigned UK Band, The Get Out Clause, wanted to make a music video but couldn’t afford the high cost of all the camera crew and equipment. So they spotted suitable sights all over Britain which were covered by the surveillance cameras – Britain has about 13 million of these cameras so suitable locations for the band were not hard to come by.

They set up their sound equipment and began to play at the different locations… then they wrote to all the security companies asking them to hand over the video footage under the Freedom of Information Act! Brilliant!

Source: The Telegraph

Technorati Tags: The Get Out Clause, Cool, Music, Britain, Surveillance, Camera’s , CCTV, Music Video

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Cool, Creative, Music

How cool is this? This is called Bento Art in Japan where the lunch can be made to resemble art of all forms, these are album covers (Duh!). I would have loved to have my lunch looking like this when I was back in school. But, then again, what is the lunch made of?

Technorati Tags: Japanese, Art, Food, Lunch, Albums

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Art, Food, Japanese, Music