Guest blogger Scott writes: In an earlier post about Kickstarter, I gave the example of how the producers of a documentary about The Kinks were funding its editing through small donations. That movie, Do It Again, premiered in March at the Cleveland International Film Festival to positive reviews, and will be showing in Somerville at […]
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Coverage: Amanda Palmer, “Billie Jean”
July 6, 2009Guest blogger Scott writes: It’s always a little weird when famous people die. The level of emotional outpouring from people who have attached a piece of themselves to this person they’ve never met is somewhat foreign to me. But it’s different when I can see the specific ways in which someone benefited from the celebrity’s […]
Small-scale tiered pricing models
May 20, 2009Guest blogger Scott writes: As technology has enabled increased efforts by musicians to sort customers by willingness to pay, it’s no surprise that people would be developing Web sites to bring those tools to smaller-scale creative projects. Kickstarter came to my attention when my friend Eric started a non-music-related project there, but musical projects are well-represented, unsurprisingly: […]
Coverage: Commissions at Cover Me
March 23, 2009Guest blogger Scott writes: Cover Me, a cover song blog, has begun commissioning covers from independent artists. In blogger Ray’s words: Here’s the gist. Every month we will present to you an artist, one who’s probably showed up on the blog before, one whom I feel has a lot to offer cover-wise. Said artist has […]
Early warning: z=z happy hour!
March 16, 2009Put it on your calendars, everyone – the first official zed equals zee Happy Hour has a date! Join myself, guest blogger Scott, and intrepid correspondent Tim Smith at the Miracle of Science on Monday, March 30th, from 6 to 8 pm. I’ve talked to the bar about taking over their stereo for a playlist […]
The return of Muxtape
February 19, 2009Guest blogger Scott writes: On Monday, the NYT Freakonomics blog reported on the return of mix tape site Muxtape. While the blog entry has pictures and content links that give a sense of where Muxtape is going, there’s very little at the website itself right now, although the story of what Muxtape was, and how […]
Coverage: Nightmare Revisited
February 6, 2009[extended trailer for Coraline on YouTube; if you can’t watch it, click here] Guest blogger Scott writes: Coraline opens today and, while debcha might be most excited about the production of a favored author’s work, I have multiple reasons to be excited. I like gothic spooky, but can’t stomach horror (at least until a Hollywood […]
Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime
December 25, 2008[Image credit : Len from the Jawbone Radio Show] As you may have gathered from an earlier post, I’m not so much about holiday music (hey, it’s a secular democracy, deal with it). So it’s perhaps unsurprising that “Chiron Beta Prime” by Jonathan Coulton is one of the very few Christmas songs that I like. […]
Threesome: alternative holiday songs
December 24, 2008In response to my ‘Christmas songs for non-Christmas people,’ guest blogger Scott offered up three finds. The first is “Father Christmas,” by the Kinks, which I immediately recognized as a staple of my local alt-rock station. It’s a heartwarming holiday song about getting a job as a department store Santa Claus and being mugged by […]
Coverage: “Hallelujah” on the UK charts
December 22, 2008Last week guest blogger Scott posted about the Jeff Buckley cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” describing it as ‘insipid’ compared to the original. Well, as he pointed out, apparently all of the UK is conspiring against him. This week, the number one song on the British charts is a cover of “Hallelujah” by Alexandra Burke, […]
Poor concert etiquette, illustrated
July 9, 2008Guest blogger Scott, who’s familiar with my preferences regarding singing at concerts, says: This isn’t necessarily a great cover, but it’s one of the best illustrations imaginable (short of a performer actually stopping and berating someone, which would be awesome) of why you don’t sing from the audience. Everyone is basically behaving themselves, except for […]
Coverage: The Dresden Dolls, “Pretty in Pink”
June 17, 2008Guest blogger Scott says: This comes from a CD of 80s movie theme covers by various artists. Some of the other tracks are nice, but this is the only one that I really feel sounds like the artist tried to make it their own. And I had seriously never listened to the words of the […]
Coverage: Emm Gryner, “For What Reason”
May 22, 2008Guest blogger Scott says: I’d call Emm Gryner the Canadian Tori Amos, except that Amos’s covers almost universally terrify me. Sure, it’s nice to have her there so you can actually understand the lyrics to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for a change, but her affectless approach to Eminem’s “’97 Bonnie and Clyde” or The Boomtown […]
Coverage: Vampire Weekend, “Exit Music (for a Film)”
May 8, 2008Guest blogger Scott says: Yet another example of “literate, geeky bands with overeducated lead singers.” Vampire Weekend isn’t the sort of sound I normally like, but any band that writes a song that starts off “Who gives a fuck about the Oxford comma?” is okay in my book. I have an idea for a project […]
Coverage: I Hate Kate, “Major Tom”
May 1, 2008Guest blogger Scott says: There are so many things that ought to be wrong with this song. Peter Schilling wrote a conspicuously 80s new wave song that wasn’t so much a cover as an, I don’t know, elaborate retelling of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. In the U.S., at least, he was a one-hit wonder with […]
Coverage: Self, “Ana Ng”
April 22, 2008Guest blogger Scott says: I have it on good authority from my other purveyor of indie rock opinions that Self is “made of industrial-grade awesome”. This being their only song I’ve heard, I can’t really offer insight into that conclusion, except to say that, were that so, you’d think I’d have an easier time finding […]
Archive of Crocodile live sets
September 21, 2009Jim Anderson, the sound engineer at Seattle’s legendary (and recently re-opened) live music venue The Crocodile, has donated five years worth of live show recordings (2002-2007) to the University of Washington’s Ethnomusicology Archives – nearly 3000 hours of music. Artists include z=z faves the Dresden Dolls, the Mountain Goats, the National, and oodles more – […]
Coverage: Buffetlibre’s Rewinded and Rewind2
January 12, 2009Guest blogger Scott writes: Buffetlibre has just released the second half of their epic compilation of new artists (many of whom I’ve never heard of) covering 70s, 80s, and 90s (but mostly 80s) songs. I had a few tracks from the first half, but hadn’t sat down and dug through it carefully. This release gave […]
Apple is removing DRM from iTunes
January 6, 2009It’s official – Apple announced today that it will no longer use digital rights management on songs from iTunes, taking effect before the end of the quarter. This goes hand-in-hand with a change in the pricing structure, with song prices ranging from 69 cents to $1.29. In case you’ve ever wondered why z=z only linked […]
Coverage: The danger of lists
December 15, 2008Guest blogger Scott writes: As the end of the year approaches, music blogs everywhere will be producing lists; best of ’08, most anticipated of ’09, biggest letdowns of ’08. And for every list, there is someone like me who has nothing better to do than to poke holes in it. I was recently directed to […]
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