If you haven’t been spending any time in your local comic book store recently, you might not have heard of this series of comic books (or graphic novels, if you must), written and drawn by Bryan Lee O’Malley. They follow the adventures of twenty-something bassist Scott Pilgrim, who’s trying to figure out his life. Enter […]
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z=z at Tourfilter Night, Thurs Sept 16
September 15, 2010Cambridge! Somerville! Boston! Allston Rock City! Late notice, but I’m guest DJing at Tourfilter‘s monthly residency at River Gods, just outside Central Square, Cambridge this week: Thursday, September 16th, and the festivities start at 9 pm. Same drill as last time: my playlist is composed entirely of songs from artists with shows lined up for […]

What’s your theme song, and why?
April 23, 2010What happens when music fans go to the ballpark? Well, if you’re me, you get instantly distracted by the ‘rally songs’ that come over the PA as players run onto the field (and by how weirdly inappropriate they are) and start thinking about what your own personal theme song would be. I asked this question […]

Watch local: Do It Again
April 19, 2010Guest 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 […]

Tourfilter Night playlist (April 15)
April 16, 2010As promised, here’s a full playlist from last night’s set for Tourfilter Night at River Gods, in Cambridge, MA. Unsurprisingly, local and Canadian bands are overrepresented – I’ve flagged the local bands with a red asterisk, but you’re on your own for spotting the Canucks. Hyperlinked song titles takes you to free MP3 downloads. I […]

Here from Hypebot or Daily Swarm?
November 5, 2009Thanks for stopping by! zed equals zee is a music, culture and technology blog based out of Cambridge, MA. You might also enjoy the following posts: Streaming vs downloading: Do we really want a jukebox in the sky? Or does it make more sense to hold it in our hands? Music, webcomics, NPR and money. […]

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 – […]

Watch: Holy Fuck on City Sonic
July 17, 2009The most recent entry in the City Sonic video project feature Brian Borcherdt of Holy Fuck on Toronto, and specifically about Sneaky Dee’s, the divey Mexican restaurant and indie music venue that is probably (or about to be) most famous to non-Torontonians as the backdrop to climactic scenes in the comic book Scott Pilgrim. More […]

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 […]

Read: Fans, Friends and Followers
July 2, 2009Fans, Friends and Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age is a new e-book by Cambridge-based Scott Kirsner. He’s been writing, speaking, and connecting people involved in the uptake and spread of innovations for many years, including a column in the Boston Globe (together with its companion blog), and he […]

eMusic and Sony: a rocky start, a risky move?
June 2, 2009As you may have heard, eMusic inked a contract with Sony to make the label’s back catalog available for download (with a moving wall of two years), including albums by Bruce Springsteen, Modest Mouse and, um, Michael Jackson. I don’t have an MBA from Harvard, and I’m not a self-described ‘Internet (insert buzzword) guru’. But […]

The future is what it used to be
May 28, 2009Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Imagine Elvis never happened. Imagine Elvis Presley recording all his music for a dollar in the little booth where he cut that first 78 for his mother’s birthday. And imagine a music industry which, instead of investing in a single massive star called Elvis, distributed ten thousand […]

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: […]

Boston music bloggers (re)present!
April 19, 2009Two great shows early this week, presented by Boston music bloggers. Slightly belated notice for a night of indie electro with Count Rockula and Cassette tonight (Sunday, April 19th) at the Middlesex Lounge, presented by Enough Cowbell. It’s a benefit for Cycle Kids, and you should go. On Tuesday night (April 21st), Ryan’s Smashing Life […]

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 […]

How-to: Digital submissions to music blogs
March 19, 2009Music bloggers are in the game for love, not for money. We love listening to new music and helping out emerging musicians, and most of us welcome submissions from artists. But the whole ‘doing it for love’ thing also means we trying to listen and write about new music in the interstices of our day […]

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 […]