thebox

Something New

This mix is in loving memory of my brother, Sam.

Something New Ce Jeu St Andrew Remix Yelle; Fuck the Google Beaufort; I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me Annie; Stay Night And Day Rocca; Science of the Dark Fraser Quartz; The Lake Zeigeist; Fit Right In Debbie Harry; Rhythm Is Gonna Get You Gloria Estefan; Something New (Galactic Version) The Black Ghosts; Disorientation Supplemental Facts; Chime Orbital

(If you're not seeing the mp3 widget, try my garageband page)

Capturing MySpace MP3s

I find it a more than a little annoying that I cannot save MP3s being streamed to my computer through MySpace. They are after all, files on my computer. And if I don't plan to make any profit on someone else's intellectual property, then there should be no issue. I've tried out MP3Gopher, but that got canned before it could be useful to me. So I played around with several packet capture tools. Leave it to the Open Source community to have the best one on the market, "Wireshark". Here's how you do it.

1. Start a packet capture session.
2. Load song via http. This works for sites like hype machine as well as MySpace. All the service needs to do is stream audio over http (or any other protocol that wireshark recognises - a lot) and you're fine.
3. There will be a bunch of stream continuations, but at the end of the download, there will be a packet that marks the stream as an "mpeg/audio". This is the last packet
4. Now you select that packet and click "Analyse > Follow TCP Stream".
5. Save the entire conversation somewhere on your machine as "SongName.mp3".
6. Find a text editor that doesn't do weird encode/decode a file's bytes on read/write (I use vim) and open that file. Delete the HTTP request / response crap at the top of the file and save it.
7. You now have your mp3. Try it out in your audio player.

Kraftwerk Musicprogramme

Kraftwerk was a huge influence in dance and electronic music. Because they're still big name, I think most people forget that they were doing shows all the way back in 1970 & 71 (in Germany). Their big impact came in 1975, when they toured the US. Check out this backgrounder on these trailblazers who influenced Africa Bambataa among many others (parts one & two).

And as a bonus, I've been hiding an old Ralf & Florian (the original members) song, "Tazmusic". You judge if it's stood the test of time since 1973.

London Drum & Bass

I remember when a lot of house and techno were kicking up dust in Detroit and Chicago. And then I heard some sounds from London and the UK and they were just as devastating. I was in grade school and high school and I didn't really have an appreciation for how special those days were. This is footage of some of the early days of the jungle scene in London (see parts one, two, three).

Calvin Harris Performs Acceptable In The 80s

Sometimes I just get in music and video mode and wish I could do more music and youtube mashups than I do (sniff sniff). This is one of those "I really wish I were there" vids. Although I did catch amazing Yelle and "The Presets" shows in Montreal. Hang on. Another mix is coming soon :) And I'm gettin' Ziggy wid it!!

My Favorite Things

These are some of my favourite things. This would usually only go into my Youtube favourites. But Coltrane deserves a special mention as one of the 8 wonders of the world. He's in the zone here, playing "My Favorite Things" with his quartet.

New York States Of Mind

This is hustler talk; street science that I'll never know anything about. And yet Hip Hop and New York states of mind influence global pop culture like no other place or art form can. Check out some sick flows from the city that never sleeps and Hip Hop at large.

New York States Of Mind SONGS

What Hip Hop Is Immortal Technique; New York Shit Prodigy; Shadows of Tomorrow Madvillain; Mass Appeal Gang Starr; Dolla Bill RedCafe; Format AZ; Firin' Squad Unsigned Podcast #04 Faith SFX; Classic Kanye West ft. Rakim, Nas, KRS One; Clientele Kid (Remix) Raekwon; The Militia (Remix) Featuring Big Shug & Freddie Foxx Gang Starr; Breakfast At Denny's Buckshot LeFonque feat Dj Premier; I Gotch Open Black Moon; Beauty In Distortion J*Davey; Larks Tongue In Aspic, Part One King Crimson; Indigo Saul Williams; Hood Crazy DJ Premier; What It Be Like RedCafe

Free At Last, Free At Last

More freedom for artists. Yessss, I love it!!! Everyone knows that at the beginning of Oactober, Radiohead released their album independently of a major label and that now they have amazing sales numbers to go with it. It seems more and more artists are now going the independent route, collecting their own props and paper. I love seeing freedom happen and I'm so glad Radio head are doing well.

Well now the Trent Reznor produced Saul Williams album will also be released independently, along with Prince and Madonna and and and. Lovely advice Dick Dale!!

Through The Haze

OK, I've been starving for some more music. I was going to call this mix "Purple Haze" - hazy, a bit blurry, and some of that old soul that I could feel back with Hendrix. Then I thought how much I wanted to feel each track for it was and I thought truthfulness best described my mood. I was kind of going for electro purity. I love the individual tracks and how they come together (and yes, I'm working on my mixing skills). As always, this is stuff that I like to dance to and gets me pumped. Hope you like it too. Enjoy.

Truthfulness SONGS

I Feel Fine The Twelves; A Cause De Garcons (Obsession Remix by Nixon Pelletier) Yelle; Merrymaking At My Place (Ozio Remix) Calvin Harris; Low Happening(Presets Remix) Howling Bells; Take It Like A Man (Kelly Sellout Remix) Dragonette; I Want Your Soul Armand Van Helden; Turn The Music Up (Roughmix) Math Head X Passions; Smile And Receive (edit) Swayzak; Flashing Lights (Junior Sanchez strobelight honey mix) Kanye West; True Story Old Gold; Challenger Deep Zombi

DJ Spooky: How a Tiny Caribbean Island Birthed the Mashup

The past is the future. Everyone borrows from everyone else in the digital age - especially pertaining to digital music. DJ Spooky describes how Jamaican and Caribbean culture was one of the originators of mashpup culture. Very interesting.

See also "Upgrading Jamaica's Cultural Shareware: Trojan Records at 40".