Update

Haven’t been doing a lot here lately and what I have been doing is lifting stories from other people. Give me a couple weeks to get back on track.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | British rapper Derek B dies at 44

British rapper Derek B, one of the first UK hip-hop stars to enjoy chart success and an influence on future urban artists, has died aged 44.

Derek Boland had UK top 20 hits with Good Groove and Bad Young Brother in 1988 and co-wrote the Anfield Rap for Liverpool Football Club.

His hits saw him become one of the first British hip-hop stars to appear on programmes like Top of the Pops.

“He definitely broke the door down,” London rapper Ty told BBC News.

“He was one of the first artists that I saw get to such a level through rap, and be on Top of the Pops, be on children’s programmes, be on the world stage.

“He was one of the ones to do it first, when it was thoroughly unacceptable from the mainstream perspective. At the time, he was absolutely groundbreaking. He definitely broke the door down.”

Boland suffered a heart attack, according to reports.

BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe paid tribute on Twitter, saying Boland’s 1988 debut Bullet From A Gun “was a massive album for me”, while singer Estelle described him as a “UK originator”.

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Experibass

Thanks again to my lovely bride for finding something super cool.

more about “Experibass“, posted with vodpod

Jim Carroll

Jim Carroll died this past Sept 11th. It was a shock to me and was another in the never ending stream of celebrity death. I only had a passing interest in his music and I never read Basketball Diaries, but I was lucky enough to see him do a spoken word in 1994 when I lived in San Francisco (the Tenderloin btw). He was well spoken, entertaining, and just plain awesome. What pops into my head most when i think about that night is the story about him violating a piece of veal that his family winds up having for dinner, that he performed a slowed down acoustic version of “Those are People Who Died” that went on forever, and a story about a cockroach and a paper bag.
I feel very lucky to have seen him. The world needs more Jim Carrolls. Not impressionists. You know what I mean.

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Beethoven 5th Symphony (No. 5, graphical score animation, allegro)

Check out http://www.musanim.com/index.html

They’re Talking

Put a song I’ve been working on to some video I took in England. Let me know what you think. The vocals are a total Ian Curtis rip off, but that was the idea so…

The Guild Season 3

Doing this because I can. It’s embeddable, I mean-how could I not.

more about "The Guild Season 3", posted with vodpod

Showing Off

Been having a lot of fun transferring my compositions in Noteflight to GarageBand and messing around with instrumentation and levels. The first one is a classical piece from awhile back and I’m not sure what the second one is yet.

Love And Life

Franz What?

How Guitar Strings Are Made

Mick Jones of the Clash opens library

Mick Jones has opened a “library” of Clash ephemera and is encouraging visitors to scan the stickers, fliers, and other archival material in the library and copy them to memory sticks.

The Rock n Roll Public Library is Mick Jones’s (The Clash, B.A.D, Carbon Silicon) direct artistic challenge to the likes of the corporate 02 British Music Experience. Rather than let his creative legacy atrophy Jones is transforming his own archive of nearly 10,000 artefacts into one unique “guerrilla-library.” Set under the Westway motorway in 3000 sq.ft of former office space, Jones’s five-week civic endeavour will also encourage visitors to enrol, interact with the archive-exhibition (Jones began collecting well before he formed The Clash in 1976 to eventual international success, as such it forms an invaluable guide to the influences that informed Jones as a pop-artist). Also uniquely by request users will be able to scan (courtesy Genus, U.K distributor of the Book2net Kiosk) certain objects and via memory stick carry them away. Please note visitors to the world’s first, resolutely alternative, Rock n Roll Public Library shouldn’t expect peace and quiet.

Mick Jones of the Clash opens library (Via Arbroath)

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Tags: MickJones, The Clash, B.A.D., Carbon Silicon, punk, library