Where did the news go?

It’s a Ghost Town Over Here!

No we haven’t stopped posting great music news, we’ve MOVED!

Please visit the new & improved, dedicated HearingTest domain!

http://www.MusicNewsCulture.com

See you over there!

Moving Pains

Thank you for being flexible while we move to the new site.  It’s a difficult thing for me, because I love this site so much, and in many ways this site is better than the new site right now.  But that will change very soon.  The new site has so much potential and opportunities that I can never realize with this site.  Just the fact that I cannot embed most java script like videos from anywhere other than youtube or google can seriously hinder a music journalist.  So, I know this is a pain in the arse, to come here looking for something only to have to click one more time to get the story on the new site, but it will be best in the long run.

Thank you so much for your readership!  Please make the move with us to the new site!

Pretty soon we will have more authors on board, which will bring you more content and variety.  Not to mention cool new features and such!

Don’t forget to change your bookmarks and feeds, the new address is:

http://www.musicnewsculture.com

Have a fabulous week!

~Molli Fire~

HearingTest Has Its Own Home Now!

Hello lovely readers!! I have finally returned from my travels, and I have been working so very diligently on the new HearingTest website so that it would be perfect and ready to launch this week. Well, despite shunning the outside world and working on it all weekend, it is not yet perfect, but it is ready to launch. I must admit, I am launching it a bit earlier than I had intended, but I can’t help it. It is SO much easier and more fun to use than this one. Sad but true. I adore wordpress, and if I had used any other blog platform to start this blog, I probably would not have kept it up this long, nor seen a strong future in it. But this blog has truly inspired me, and so I am moving to it to its own domain, and I am bringing the wordpress software with me! I hope you like the new site. It needs work, maybe even a lot of it, so I will be tweaking all kind of things in the next 2 weeks until it is just right. Soon it will be just like this one, with more features to play with. I apologize to everyone who has to switch to the new feed – that is the one real drag about moving. The new address will require new bookmarks and new feeds, so please change the ones that you use. I will continue to add the teaser posts here, until everyone has had a chance to find the new place. I will also be mentioning the new place in every post until I feel that everyone has seen the news. So, sorry about the redundancy.
Get the Early Bird’s view of the new site:
http://www.musicnewsculture.com

Just don’t forget that it’s in Beta mode for the next 2 weeks! And please let me know if you encounter any problems. Thank Jah I am doing this now, while HearingTest is just a baby! I can’t imagine what a pain in the arse this would be if I had a super well-established blog…

Thank you so much for reading HearingTest! Please keep reading on the new site! It will only get better and better!
Much respect,
~Molli Fire~

Stop The Impending Silence Of Net Radio!

This message is so important that I have decided to repost it with some extra information. SaveNetRadio.org has declared a Day of Silence for internet radio broadcast on Tuesday June 26th. The stations that participate will give listeners only a taste of what it will be like after July 15th if the increased royalty rate is upheld. Stations that go silent will likely include Pandora, Live 365, Yahoo LAUNCHcast, and MTV Online, and NPR member stations. These stations, plus others like AccuRadio, Radioio, Digitally Imported, Rhapsody and many more would be seriously impacted by retroactive royalty increases equal to 50-300% of the station’s current revenue income. In Rhapsody, Pandora and Live365’s cases, the increase would also penalize their multiple channels platform, causing rate increases equal to more than 1000% of their current revenue. 1000%! According to the RAIN (Radio And Internet Newsletter):

Webcasters will be alerting their listeners that “silence” is what Internet radio may sound like on or shortly after July 15th, the day on which 17 months’ worth of retroactive royalty increase payments are due to the SoundExchange collection organization under the terms of a recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision.

Read more about the situation on the RAIN website and check out SaveNetRadio.org for more options of what you – the listener, the musician, the dj, the webcaster – can do to help.

LINKS To Contact Your Congress

US Senators Home Page
Write Your Representatives Page

 

 

DO ANYTHING THAT IS WITHIN YOUR POWER TO SAVE NET RADIO!!

Please spread the word, copy and save this image and use it on your own blog. Tell all your friends. Write to the US Congress using the links above. If you can think of other ways to get involved, please share them in the comments here…

 

This report has been submitted to DIGG and Reddit. Please add your support to either.

 

REDDIT THIS!

 

 

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: music, news, internet, radio, webcasting, webcasters, industry, CRB, royalty, Day Of Silence, culture, activism, DIY

Will Internet Radio Be Silenced For 1 Day Or Forever?

SaveNetRadio.org has declared a Day of Silence for internet radio broadcast on Tuesday June 26th. The stations that participate will give listeners only a taste of what it will be like after July 15th if the increased royalty rate is upheld. Stations that go silent will likely include Pandora, Live 365, Yahoo LAUNCHcast, and MTV Online, and NPR member stations. These stations, plus others like AccuRadio, Radioio, Digitally Imported, Rhapsody and many more would be seriously impacted by retroactive royalty increases equal to 50-300% of the station’s current revenue income. In Rhapsody, Pandora and Live365’s cases, the increase would also penalize their multiple channels platform, causing rate increases equal to more than 1000% of their current revenue. 1000%! According to the RAIN (Radio And Internet Newsletter):

Webcasters will be alerting their listeners that “silence” is what Internet radio may sound like on or shortly after July 15th, the day on which 17 months’ worth of retroactive royalty increase payments are due to the SoundExchange collection organization under the terms of a recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision.

Read more about the situation on the RAIN website and check out SaveNetRadio.org for more options of what you – the listener, the musician, the dj, the webcaster – can do to help.

Look at the left sidebar here at HearingTest for 2 links for contacting your Senators and Representatives in Congress. The lins are under the title act!

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: music, news, internet, radio, webcasting, webcasters, industry, CRB, royalty, Day Of Silence, culture, activism, DIY

Why Is Jr. Reid Hot Right Now?

Is it the fire and brimstone? Is it the burning chalwa? I need to listen to more of this mixtape to find out! I heard about this over at DJ/Rupture‘s site – mudd up! Jr. Reid has dropped a mixtape titled Why I’m Hot, a collaboration with DJ Power. Rupture gives it a great review and reports that the title is not pure empty boasting, and indeed, Mr. One Blood is HOT on this album. I need to hear the rest of it to find out why… You can download it from iChoons, listen to 2 songs on mudd up! or purchase it from various places.

Go directly to mudd up! for more. Thanks for the free listen Rupture!

 

 

 

 

 

---

Tags: reggae, Jr Reid, mixtape, mp3, dancehall, music, news

Leyode Finds Fascinating Tininess With Electronic Music

Twas the middle of May when I reported that Leyode would be coming out with a new album on Prefuse 73’s label Eastern Developments. Today I have much more information about the release, Fascinating Tininess, which came out last week.

Tracklist for Fascinating Tininess:

01. Intro
02. Sophie

03. Irene
04. Isabelle

05. Clementine
06. Dominique
07. Hassami with Savath y Savalas
08. Soft or Gentle?
09. Elizabeth Chateau
10 Eilene (Leb-Laze Bonus Beats)

Music For Robots has a great review of the album.
Eastern Developments
Fascinating Tininess on Amazon

Previously On HT

Leyode ft. Savath y Savalas On New Album

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: Leyode, music, news, review, electronica

REWIND #2 – Reporting Music Revolutions

This week was only 7 days long, yet I have 11 excellent posts to rewind today! It’s been a great week for music news! Before I get right down to the nitty gritty, I want to throw out a juicy tidbit of info that I have been mulling over. For awhile now, I have been wanting to move this site to its own domain. It needs to happen at some point, and I want to do it before this site builds up too far. The only huge difference you will notice by coming to this site, is that the posts on the front page will be teasers. You know, the kind that cut off after a paragraph and you have to click the “Read More” to see the entire post. Well, clicking that read more will take you to the full post on the new site. All other buttons on this site will remain active, with internal links pointing to the new site. The biggest difference for RSS subscribers will be that you might need to subscribe to a new feed so that you can continue to get the full posts in your email or feed reader. I will post an announcement when the feed changes.

So just be watching for the switch! And with that out of the way, on to this week’s REWIND! Just remember, this is by no means all the posts for the week. This is merely a roundup of some of the better stories that deserve to be highlighted. The biggest news stories of the week often do not get mentioned here. To see the rest of this week’s news, simply head to the home page and work your way backwards through time. Either way you choose your adventure, HAVE FUN!

My absolute favorite post of the entire week is about the Young@Heart Chorus:

Rockin On Heaven’s Door

These senior citizens are not just sitting around waiting for senility. They are actively embracing it with Rock N Roll attitude! If you look at nothing else this week, definitely watch the video on that post….

Righteous Hip Hop From Rawkus Records

This post brings us all the way back to the beginning of the week, but I wanted to feature it right away. Mr. J Medeiros has taken a detour from his work with The Procussions and has completed a solo album, Of Gods And Girls. It’s not due out until July 16th, but I will be interviewing Mr. Medeiros on Tuesday. I would be happy to include any thoughtful questions from you, so use the comments box under that post if you have any. Read that post, then ask questions, see? This is your big chance! I will post the interview results on Wednesday or Thursday.

Replicating Bjork

Bjork is a universe unto herself. I imagine her as having her own language and her own technology that she runs on faerie magic. I have thought of her making faeries dance on electronic circuits and the result of their dance steps is what we call Bjork music. Well, an article written by her tech director of 10 years, Alan Pollard, completely dispels this notion. She uses all the same fancy hardware and software that other majors in the music industry use and it’s his job to fit it all onto her laptop for tours. If you like to read about that kind of thing, click over to this post for a great profile on the backend of Bjork’s mischief. Also in this post is a link to Dummy mag which is a brilliant color glossy magazine that you read online. It has a mess of great artists featured, and one of them is Bjork looking especially impish, and well, 5 years old. Check it out if you like all things Bjork.

Manic M.I.A.

M.I.A. is still an epileptic’s worse nightmare. She launched an updated website design that probably physically hurt the person who made it, yet has valuable information contained within. Maybe just wear your stunner shades to view it. The big M.I.A. news this week is her new “Boyz” video complete with its own behind the scenes footage. Jump into this post to watch the videos. In the Bjork post ^^ it’s announced that M.I.A. will open 2 Bjork concerts- the ones in Nimes France.

Rockin Fratellis Retain Self-Respect

The Fratellis turned down Golden Balls Beckham in a bold move to retain their self-respect. The result won them the respect and adoration of many newly-impressed fans… Fratellis 1 Beckham 0

Beastie Boys Returning To Root Down

The punk/jazz thing was a return their roots, so this is back to the b-boy thing. Either way, the Beastie Boys have announced a hip hop revival and a small US tour. The rest of the summer will see the trio switching between drums and drummachines. Maybe it’s a midlife crisis thing. US tour dates behind the jump.

Rockin Robot Flick

Speaking of coming to the US, Daft Punk‘s android movie, Electroma, will finally be screened in N. America. Unfortunately, not many places will host the rare, short film. LA and Miami are the only US stops. Miami? Jump in to see more info plus a teaser video.

Reduce Reuse Recycle and ROCK!

I’m actually just jumping all over the past with this REWIND, in no particular order. Here is some particularly great news for NYC: Brooklyn Vegan has teamed up with Solar 1 to create this year’s Citysol event! July12-15th, you can learn how to be more green, qualify for free beer, rock out to wicked bands like Les Savy Fav, and check out super cool art installations. Jump to this post for more info on this excellent event that is entirely solar and biodiesel powered. A big thank you to Brooklyn Vegan for participating!

Restriction Free Music!

EMI is still turning the music industry and RIAA upside down with its DRM-free catalog. In addition to the Apple iChoons store and Amazon’s upcoming music venture, EMI have now added their restriction-free digital downloads to PassAlong which also oversees online stores such as fyi. The best part is that PassAlong will carry 320kbps mp3s which is a higher bit-rate encoding, which means a higher quality download, and better product.

Retired? Not yet!

Wiley is having quite a retirement party, and there is no sign of it slowing down any time soon. His send-off album is out now, and I bet it’s already had some subwoofers working overtime! He has a new video out now for the song “Mistakes” and is having a record release party in London this week. So, I have 2 links instead of one for this last installment:
Grime and Dubstep Parties – which includes some Mary Anne Hobbs curated events, Skream, Vex’d, Ben Sharpa & Konfab, and many more. Plus, the Wiley retirement party I mean record release party with JME, Boy Better Know types rollin deep.
“Mistakes” video – the latest off of Playtime Is Over.

 

 

A’ight, that’s all folks. Jump in and have fun. Fresh news comin atchya tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

This week’s news is brought to you by the letter R

 

 

 

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: music, news, Wiley, Beastie Boys, MIA, Bjork, Citysol, hiphop, rock, pop, Electroma, Daft Punk, DRM, EMI

Rock N Roll Til The Day I Die

Young@Heart rocks! I saw this article on yahoo news and I thought it was going to be some kind of “senior citizens find reason to live through rock n roll” but I was quite wrong! It turns out that the 23 elders that comprise the Young@Heart Chorus are putting an all new edge on some of rock’s biggest hits.

Elaine Fligman of the Young@Heart Chorus giving it her all:

The morbid messages in some of rock’s great anthems takes on a serious tone when sung by those toe-ing the line between here and the afterlife, while teen-age dimentia becomes hilarious when belted out by the well-senile. Take for example –

“My future is static / It’s already had it.” — Steve Martin, 79, singing Sonic Youth‘s “Schizophrenia.”

Or contemplating life and death with the Clash‘s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” I had never heard of them before today, but apparently they are international stars and tour around the world. They have even performed for the king and queen of Norway!

Under the direction of wheelchair-bound Fred Knittle, the Young@Heart Chorus is trying to record a full length album of such covers, tentatively to be titled Rockin’ At Heaven’s Door. HAha! I LOVE it! These seniors rule, and if you aren’t convinced, then I am just doing a poor job representin. Check out the full story on yahoo news.

Y@H with “I Want To Be Sedated” by the Ramones:

 

 

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: rock, music, news, elderly, senior citizens, punk, Ramones

Patti Smith Tours US With Twelve

In the midst of her European tour, Patti Smith has added US dates in support of her recent release of Twelve. It kicks off in the states on July 31 in Philly. You can listen to “Gimme Shelter” on her mice bass page. Twelve features 12 covers of classics and hits, all done by Patti Smith. For more info about the album and Smith’s band, including special guests like Italian cellist Giovanni Sollima, and RHCP’s Flea, read the full report on liveDaily.

Patti Smith Live in London May 17th 2007:

Patti Smith Tour

July 2007
31 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero

August 2007
2 – Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theater
4 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza
6 – Minneapolis, MN – State Theatre
8 – Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater
12 – Portland, OR – Bite of Oregon
16 – Santa Monica, CA – Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance Series

LINKS

Patti Smith official website
Patti Smith mice bass
Patti Smith’s Twelve on Amazon.com – $14.99

---

Technorati Tags: Patti Smith, music, news, tour, shows

Have A Blast At The Glast!

Glastonbury music festival descends upon the English countryside on Friday June 27th. The full lineup is absolutely insane, I can see how this is the biggest rock festival in the UK. Over 200 bands fill the lineup, and a press release states that over 177,000 people are expected to attend! Since I can’t possibly fit the full lineup here, I’ll give you one serious tease instead. In addition to the many stages already announced, I just discovered today that BBC Radio 1 has added their own stage to the festival. The additional lineup includes Tigerstyle, JME, and Ben Sharpa.

BBC Radio Stage Added To Glastonbury:

Friday 22 June

3:00 Jag (BBC Asian Network)
4:00 Tigerstyle (BBC Asian Network)
5:00 Riff Raff (BBC Radio 1)
6:05 Broke’N’£nglish (BBC 1Xtra)
7:10 Riz MC (BBC Asian Network)
8:15 JME (BBC 1Xtra)
9:20 Breaking The Illusion (BBC Radio Humberside)
10:25 Tor (BBC 1Xtra)

Saturday 23 June

3:00 Ben Sharpa (BBC Radio 1)
4:00 How’s My Pop (BBC Radio Lancashire)
5:00 New Cassettes (BBC Radio Northampton)
6:05 OK Tokyo (BBC Radio Berkshire)
7:10 The Ting Tings (BBC Radio Manchester)
8:15 Headliners (BBC Radio Sheffield)
9:20 The Neon Plastix (BBC Radio Sheffield)
10:25 The Ripps (BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire)

Sunday 24 June

3:00 Cate Le Bon (BBC Radio Wales)
4:00 Sam Isaac (BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester)
5:00 Eugene McGuinness (BBC Radio 1)
6:05 Rose Kemp (BBC Radio Bristol)
7:10 A Silent Film (BBC Radio Oxford)
8:15 Doll & the Kicks (BBC Southern Counties Radio)
9:20 Pint Shot Riot (BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire)
10:25 Radio Luxembourg (BBC Radio Cymru Wales)

More info on the BBC Radio Introducing Stage.

Glastonbury Partial Lineup:

Friday 22nd June 2007

Bjork
Arctic Monkeys
Spiritualized – Acoustic Mainline
Aliens
M.I.A.
Kasabian
The Fratellis
Bloc Party
Amy Winehouse
Gogol Bordello
Arcade Fire
Squarepusher
Rufus Wainwright
Super Furry Animals
Bright Eyes
Modest Mouse
Hot Chip
Maccabees
Mum Ra
Hold Steady
The New Pornographers
Tokyo Police Club
Neds Atomic Dustbin
Tarantism

Saturday 23rd June

Steven Marley with guest Damian Marley
Iration Steppas
Fat Freddy’s Drop
Daddy G
Mad Professor
Vexd
Scotch Egg Band (Drumize)
Shitmatt
Bong Ra
The Killers
The Kooks
Ganga Giri
Paul Weller
Paolo Nutini
Lily Allen
Dirty Pretty Things
The Pipettes
Iggy And The Stooges
Editors
Maximo Park
Gruff Rhys
Babyshambles
Klaxons
CSS
The Long Blondes
The Twang
Get Cape Wearcape Fly
Patrick Wolf
You Say Party We Say Die
Holy Fuck
Four Tet with Eat Your Own Ears DJs
!!!
Ozric Tentacles
Bonde Do Role

Sunday 24th June

The Who
Kaiser Chiefs
Coldcut
Manic Street Preachers
James Morrison
Marley Brothers Present The 30th Anniversary Of Exodus
The Chemical Brothers
Vitalic
Carl Cox
Pendulum Live
The View
The Go! Team
Pete Doherty
Mika
The Rakes
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly
Coldwar Kids
Mark Ronson
The Horrors
Noisettes
Aqualung
Eatstatic
Dub Pistols

For the entire lineup go to the Glastonbury site.
BBC also has a feature-packed page to keep you fully informed right up to the day of the fest itself.
Here is another article that discusses the details necessary to pull off an event of this size, like the £1mil “super fence” built last year to keep out fans who didn’t have tickets. Previous fences were not capable of keeping out thousands of fans who jumped in…

LINKS

JME on mice bass
Ben Sharpa on mice bass
BBC Radio Glastonbury page
Glastonbury Festival website

Related Music News On HearingTest

Tigerstyle
Sharpa, JME, live shows, grime and left field events
M.I.A. Opening For Bjork In France

 

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: Glastonbury, music, festival, UK, JME, BBC, Ben Sharpa, MIA, Bjork, news, shows, Squarepusher, breakcore, 8 bit

Wishing For A White Stripes Webcast? Bonnaroo?

Bonnaroo is being streamed live right now until midnight tonight! AT&T’s Blue Room has a live webcast of the whole show, all weekend long. Here’s what is still coming up-

Tonight’s Bonnaroo Schedule:

06:15 PM Gillian Welch
07:45 PM The Nightwatchman
09:00 PM Lily Allen
10:00 PM The Roots

Times are CST (GMT -6)
Now before you run over there, let me just say up front that it wanted me to click to upgrade my Windows Media Player. Next it put something in my temp file that had something to do with Windows DRM licensing. Does anybody know what this is about? I am completely not cool with anything that has DRM, so I almost didn’t report this. But I wanted to use this post as an opportunity to get feedback from you. What happens when you try to watch this? Do you know what Windows DRM is on your computer? Does anyone know how to disable it? Any info you have would be much appreciated. For those who could care less about WinDRM and want to get on with the FREE webcast, here is the lineup for the rest of the weekend:

June 16th Lineup
12:45 PM Old Crow Medicine Show
01:45 PM Spearhead
02:15 PM Regina Spektor
03:30 PM The Black Keys
04:15 PM Damien Rice
05:45 PM Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
07:45 PM The Hold Steady
08:15 PM Mago: Billy Martin & John Medeski
09:45 PM TBA
10:15 PM String Cheese Incident

June 17th Lineup
12:30 PM Robert Glasper Trio
01:00 PM John Butler Trio
02:00 PM The Flaming Lips
03:00 PM Bob Weir & Ratdog
04:30 PM Wolfmother
05:30 PM Wilco
07:15 PM The White Stripes
08:45 PM Widespread Panic

White Stripes Live Webcast

Missed Bonnaroo, don’t Live in LA or NYC, but wish you could see The White Stripes perform live? How about from Icky Thump Records on the Strip? Well, you can watch the performance as it is broadcast live from AT&T’s Blue Room. The show starts at 8pm PST on wednesday June 20th. Don’t miss Jack and Meg on stage at Bonnaroo on Sunday the 17th! (That show is also being webcast live in the Blue Room, just go to the Bonnaroo page on Sunday)

WEBCAST LINKS

The White Stripes in the Blue Room.
Bonnaroo Live Webcast
Blue Room Home – pretty cool place for live streams.

More White Stripes Reports

White Stripes news on HearingTest

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: Bonnaroo, live, webcast, music, news, Roots, Wolfmother, Wilco, White Stripes, Lily Allen, streaming, video, audio

100 Days, 100 Nights of Sharon Jones & Dap-Kings

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings have been rocking out in the Daptone studios again. With Sexy Results! 100 Days, 100 Nights is the third full album from the soulful funksters and will be available as of September 25th on Daptone records.

100 Days, 100 Nights Tracklist:

1. 100 Days, 100 Nights
2. Nobody’s Baby
3. Tell Me
4. Be Easy
5. When the Other Foot Drops, Uncle
6. Let Them Knock
7. Something’s Changed
8. Humble Me
9. Keep on Looking
10. Answer Me

Over the last few years, different members of the Dap-Kings ensemble have been adding their funk powers to other live acts on tour and in the studio, such as Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Ghostface Killah, Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, They Might Be Giants, Lily Allen, and Amy Winehouse.

The Dap-Kings are:

Binky Griptite, Guitar, Emcee
David Guy, Trumpet
Bosco “Bass” Mann, Bass, Bandleader
Neal Sugarman, Tenor Saxophone
Tommy “TNT” Brenneck, Guitar
Fernando “Bugaloo” Velez, Congas, tambourine
Homer “Funky-Foot” Steiweiss, Drums
Ian Hendrickson, Baritone and Tenor Saxophone

Special Guests:

Eric Kalb, Drums
Cochemea “Cheme” Gastelum Baritone Sax
Otis Youngblood, Baritone Saxophone
Todd Simon, Trumpet
Al Street, Guitar

Tour Dates:

6/13 New York, NY – River to River Festival (Sharon Jones with Booker T. & the MG’s)
6/14 Brooklyn, NY – Metrotech Center (Sharon Jones with Booker T. & the MG’s)
7/14 Brooklyn, NY – American Roots Festival (Kingsborough College)
7/15 Ottawa, Ontario – Ottawa Bluesfest
7/19 Calgary, Alberta – Calgary Folk Festival
7/26 New York, NY – Castle Clinton (River to River Festival)
8/2 Aspen, CO – The Belly Up
8/3 Telluride, CO – Telluride Jazz Festival
8/4 Denver, CO – The Gothic Theatre

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings Links

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings mice bass
Dap-Kings Artist Page on Daptone
Daptone Records

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: music, funk, soul, Sharon Jones, Dap-Kings, tour, news

Citysol – Live Music Via Solar Power, Biodiesel

Perhaps you recall, waaaaaaay back at the beginning of April, I reported that Solar One and Brooklyn Vegan had teamed up to organize an FREE weekend-long event for NYC. At the time, they were still looking for volunteers, including bands, to help out. The people of NYC responded and the result is an awareness raising, green energy, arts, and music festival that will be completely powered by solar power and bio-diesel generators! Today Brooklyn Vegan announced the lineup and other goodies one can participate in during the weekend of July13-15th. For example, you can bring your energy bill to the event and switch on the spot to a green plan with ConEdison. In return you receive credit for free beer at the concert! Or, simply bring a mug and get $1 off beer! These folks know the right language to speak when talking about improving the environment!
Here is the digs from Brooklyn Vegan:

Brooklyn Vegan & Solar One present Citysol:

A FREE SHOW on SATURDAY JULY 14 (1pm-10pm) in NYC w/
LES SAVY FAV (!!)
Land Of Talk (previously announced)
O’Death (yeah)
The Besnard Lakes (previously announced)
These Are Powers (ex-Liars)
The Budos Band (funky)
Frankpollis (starring Jackson)
plus a very special performance from OCDJ
(Dance Party until the solar goes out!)

@ Solar One at Stuyvesant Cove Park – located along the East River between 18th and 23rd Streets. Solar One sits in the north end of the park, near the 23rd Street entrance and the Gulf Gas station.

Righteous! There is so much excellent information to discover, it would be difficult to reproduce all of it here, so go over to the BV and check it out:

Brooklyn Vegan Presents Citysol 2007
The Citysol page on the Solar One website

Previous Citysol News On HearingTest:

Citysol Seeks Bands-Aid on HearingTest

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: LSF, music, news, NYC, shows, green, solar, biodiesel, alternative energy, sustainability, environment

Bjork Technology + M.I.A. To Open In France

Bjork! Bjork! Bjork! Dang nothing happened. I thought maybe I could conjure up the faerie queen. Well, she’s probably to busy right now to be conjured. She’s still touring and doing all kinds of press.

For starters, you can find a fabulous interview with Bjork in the amazing online magazine Dummy Mag. It’s a virtual magazine that you actually turn the pages of. I love these tree-free magazines! Her interview is on page 66, but you might not want to skip ahead. There are articles/interviews with Bonde do Role, Justice, Maccabees, Dizzee Rascal, Skull Disco and more with lots of big glossy looking photos. Surprisingly it loads super fast. I need to learn that trick. Must be a flash thing.

Over on the opposite side of the web (literally, from zmag.co.uk to apple.com) Alan Pollard profiled the technical arrangement of Volta for Apple Pro. Alan Pollard has an insider’s perspective as Bjork’s technical director for a full 10 years. He must be pretty good at his job. He’s in charge of the technical aspects of her music, and is especially important to her on tour. In this feature, he talks about how he packs the entire faerie kingdom into a laptop (lemme guess, a MAC laptop) and the details of how to make all her mechanization work seamlessly with her human performance. It’s a stellar read for studio and gear buffs.

M.I.A. Opens For Bjork In France

And, If you are able to catch her 2 shows in Nimes France in August, you will also get to see M.I.A. when she opens for Bjork at these 2 shows!

LINKS

Dummy Mag
Bjork Tech Profile
Bjork website
M.I.A.

All The Bjork News

Bjork news and reviews on HearingTest

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Technorati Tags: Bjork, MIA, pop, electronica, experimental, noise, shows, interview, tech, music tech, news