Web Guitar Wizard Revealed at Last

Web Guitar Wizard Revealed at Last – New York Times
One of the most popular hits on this blog , since it was posted on Jan. 18th, has been this guitar video. Now the NY Times reveals “Who is this guy?” Turns out we had posted the original version, which later popularized with a version by a guy that called himself funtwo, who had added a drum track.

Eight months ago a mysterious image showed up on YouTube, the video-sharing site that now shows more than 100 million videos a day. A sinewy figure in a swimming-pool-blue T-shirt, his eyes obscured by a beige baseball cap, was playing electric guitar. Sun poured through the window behind him; he played in a yellow haze. The video was called simply “guitar.” A black-and-white title card gave the performer’s name as funtwo.
The piece that funtwo played with mounting dexterity was an exceedingly difficult rock arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon, the composition from the turn of the 18th century known for its solemn chord progressions and its overexposure at weddings. But this arrangement, attributed on another title card to JerryC, was anything but plodding: it required high-level mastery of a singularly demanding maneuver called sweep-picking. (Click on the pictures to see each video).

Stingy Stones avoid tax on £240m fortune

Stingy Stones avoid tax on £240m fortune | the Daily Mail
The Rolling Stones have paid just 1.6 per cent tax on their earnings of £242million over the past 20 years, it has emerged.

Documents published in Holland show that Sir Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards used offshore trusts and companies to ensure tax breaks.

Of the fortune they have accumulated since 1986 for royalties, they have paid just £3.9 million in taxes.

Watts is said to be worth £ 80million, and as main songwriters, Richards is worth £185million while Sir Mick’s fortune is as much as £205million. Continue reading “Stingy Stones avoid tax on £240m fortune”

Rorschach test-inspired Music Video

‘boards – Screening Room
A clever Rorschach test-inspired music video for Gnarls Barkley.(Thanks to Randy)

This song was featured on this blog back in April because the oddly named hip-hop duo Gnarls Barkley made history in the U.K. with the song “Crazy,” which debuted at No. 1 despite being available only as a digital download. It was the first time a song had reached the top spot without being available on CD, tape or record. A live version, in Star Wars costumes, was featured during the 2006 MTV music awards.

Pitchfork Feature: 100 Awesome Music Videos

Pitchfork Feature: 100 Awesome Music Videos
sharing 100 of our favorite music videos; simply, dozens of clips that, for various reasons (because they’re so good, because they’re so bad, because they feature the Jacksons imagining themselves as gigantic golden gods sprinkling gold dust on humanity) and stick to clips roughly from the MTV era.

Russian Download Site Is Popular and Possibly Illegal

Russian Download Site Is Popular and Possibly Illegal – New York Times
So great is the official level of concern about AllofMP3 that American trade negotiators darkly warned that the Web site could jeopardize Russia's long-sought entry into the World Trade Organization.

Operating through what music industry lobbyists say is a loophole in Russia's copyright law, AllofMP3 offers a vast catalogue of music that includes artists who have not permitted their work to be sold online — like the Beatles and Metallica.

Sold by the megabyte instead of by the song, an album of 10 songs or so on AllofMP3 can cost the equivalent of less than $1, compared with 99 cents per song on iTunes. And unlike iTunes and other commercial services, songs purchased with AllofMP3's downloading software have no restrictions on copying.

Pandora’s Box finds Music Gems for your Own Tastes

Column by PC Magazine: Out of Pandora's Box
Pandora is an online music service that lets you build your own stations based on similarities among songs and artists. You start with the name of a song or a favorite artist, and it streams music by that artist and others that are similar. It determines similarities by consulting the Music Genome Project, a database that contains hundreds of descriptors or "genes" that make up a song—melody, harmony, rhythm, kind of accompaniment, lyrics, subject matter, modality, and more, instead of the vast imprecision of genre.

Pandora's descriptions come from a team of 35 analysts, who have listened to and analyzed all the 400,000 or so songs that so far are in the Music Genome database. Prospective analysts take a test to get the job, and only 20 percent pass. They then receive rigorous training, and their analysis is continually monitored and cross-checked by other analysts.

Creat your own Radio Station at Pandora 

Won’t Get Judged Again

Petetownshend.com – Pete's Diary – 27 May 2006
Won't Get Fooled Again has been listed in the UK Independent Newspaper as the number one song with – as I understand it – the political message most often misunderstood – in this case the message is said to be 'conservative', a word that may mean different things in the UK and USA.

Of course the song has no party-allied political message at all. It is not precisely a song that decries revolution – it suggests that we will indeed fight in the streets – but that revolution, like all action can have results we cannot predict. Don't expect to see what you expect to see. Expect nothing and you might gain everything.

The song was meant to let politicians and revolutionaries alike know that what lay in the centre of my life was not for sale, and could not be co-opted into any obvious cause.

Ukelele Gently Weeps

Dave Kalish sends this along with this Google Video link of the George Harrison classic by JAKE SHIMABUKURO.

SAW THIS GUY LAST WEEK IN NAWLINS. HE WAS ABSOLUTELY MIND BLOWING. THIS ONLY JUST SCRATCHES THE SURFACE OF HIS TALENT, AND HE WAS SO EXCITED TO BE PLAYING FOR US THAT HE WAS JUMPING UP AND DOWN AND SCREAMING