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WRONG NOTES: a blog of ear reverence

Wrong Notes collects posts on music, art, culture and fun stuff. Also included: news about the Ear Reverends.

Can’t get no satisfaction

by jay · 2008 10 29 12 04 ·

This could apply to so many things (like, say, getting the update to this site finished "soon").

But, in this case, I thought I'd try out the new MTV Music site—and so I refer instead to Devo's version of the Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction," and the classic video thereof, include herein.

Actually, I was thinking that people addicted to news and commentary about the upcoming US election are going to need a new drug after next Tuesday, and access to 20,000+ MTV music videos might offer an alternative fix for a while. But, then again, watch the video below—you know what I mean?

Beautiful Great Egret photos

by jay · 2008 10 24 23 34 ·

I am surprised more people aren't sharing links to these incredible fine art photos of Great Egrets.

Photographer Terry Turrentine takes stunning photos of Great Egrets in the wild. They're quite amazing photos: the birds themselves are interesting to look at, but the photos also capture their setting in a way that's almost hard to imagine—it's almost so non-human that you can't imagine a photographer being present.

The tonality of Terry's photos and prints—the technical quality, is also notably excellent. (I am fortunate to have one of her prints, and I can attest to their technical artistry.)

Terry also has a surprising artist bio—one involving a long history with firearms. I don't want to give away the story, but it's worth reading.

(Disclosure: I got to know Terry's work via my day job, where we designed and built her Great Egret website.)

The Simpsons as radio show

by jay · 2008 10 23 18 17 ·

If only copyright laws weren't so draconian, I'd make and release some cut-ups purely out of audio from The Simpsons.

So, I pointed the music player at Songs in the Key of Springfield and let it play through while working on some stuff. If you've seen all the shows a couple times, at this point, I think there's no better way to enjoy them then as radio shows. Since sitting around listening to new radio sitcoms is a lost art, maybe a revival could be had via now-classic TV shows re-imagined as radio.

With The Simpsons audio-only, you get witty dialog, funny vocal characterizations, clever songs, interesting arrangements, goofy sound effects and, most importantly, your imagination open to all kinds of entertainment beyond the TV show visuals. The CDs, like Songs in the Key of Springfield are a great way to get into this. But, if you already have The Simpsons on DVD, you could put a disc on, turn-up the volume, and walk away until the TV screen is out of view.

But, maybe some of the creators of The Simpsons will someday create an all-Simpsons-all-the-time radio station—e.g., on satellite radio. Or, even a weekly radio show made purely of audio from The Simpsons, which could be great—it'd be like a funny version of A Prairie Home Companion.

Also notable: Alf Clausen, makes really great music on The Simpsons. I mean, Canyonero!:

Can you name the car with a four-wheel drive
Smells like a steak and seats thirty-five?
Canyonero!
Canyonero!

Shaky Hands

by jay · 2008 10 17 19 34 ·

I've been getting into this band, from Portland, the Shaky Hands.

They're actually playing tonight in Seattle, at the Tractor Tavern. Although I really wanted to go see them, and they haven't actually played yet (I am guessing they're going on around 10:30 or 11p), based on the reading on my MellowMeter (currently pronounced mel-low-OM-eat-a-a-a-a-r), looks like I am going to miss the show.

But, if you are in the area (or, when they're playing in your town), definitely go and check them out—and let me know what you hear.

As consolation, I found a cool video of one of their songs, "We Are Young":

Steal this

by jay · 2008 10 13 16 10 ·

I've been meaning to start an ongoing series / dialog here about why the Ear Reverends' music isn't for sale in the iTunes music store.

I've intentionally not released tracks via the iTunes music store (iTMS) because I feel they would offer inferior versions compared with what I can offer here. (Note: you can, of course, still play Ear Reverends music in iTunes and on your iPod—you just can't purchase the tracks from the "iTunes Store.")

But this post was prompted by today's xkcd comic, Steal This Comic, which is about DRM, aka, so-called "Digital Rights Management." xkcd really says it all about why DRM is so bad that one is better off even getting music via questionable sources than buying tracks with DRM:

Steal This Comic

So, with iTMS, one aspect of the inferiority of the tracks available there is DRM. One can buy DRM-free tracks on the iTMS, but I don't believe it's possible for me to ensure that all of the Ear Reverends tracks sold are DRM-free. And, in principle, I do want to ensure that all Ear Reverends' tracks are DRM-free, so that they remain totally playable / sharable over time.

Of course, I am curious if anyone really does want to buy Ear Reverends tracks via the iTMS—I am aware how important a store iTMS is for music sales. But, ongoing, I am continuing to look for ways to promote the Ear Reverends and sell tracks independent of the iTMS.

(Note that tracks will be for sale, here, soon on the Ear Reverends site!)

Animatronic sausages in New York City

by jay · 2008 10 09 17 42 ·

I couldn't help but post about the new Banksy pet store in the West Village.

I was supposed to be in NYC next week, but my trip got canceled—I'll have to put this in the "art shows that I missed" category.

I like Banksy's art. Banksy is known as a prankster artist / street artist / graffiti artist. And, his new "show" is essentially a pet store called The Village Pet Store And Charcoal Grill.

It's really a pet store. But, the pets are . . .

OK, probably best to just go to the site and see the videos. Here's one type of pet—Sausages:

Also, the Wooster Collective shot a video of the store:

The video is just one part of the Wooster Collective's review, which is altogether worth a read, and includes good photos.

I love Love, Love Story documentary

by jay · 2008 10 08 18 38 ·

Forever Changes by Love is one of my favorite albums—one of the essential "L.A." albums. Now there's a documentary about Love.

Love Story is "a feature length documentary recounting the story of the quintessential L.A. band Love and their singer Arthur Lee." Definitely sounds like a must-see for me. (Found via BoingBoing).

There is hardly any 60s-70s film footage of Love in concert, but a few things have surfaced on YouTube:

Love performing Burt Bacharach's "My Little Red Book" on American Bandstand:

A rough film of Love jamming at the Filmore in 1970:

Most of the Love videos on YouTube are just album tracks that someone combined with some photos, like these:

"Andmoreagain":

"Alone Again Or":

nearby posts:

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. . . the new music player is very coming soon and such . . .