Music

Beats 1: Year 1

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Great fast edit through the first year of Beats 1. That music? It’s Charles Bradley, with Ain’t It a Sin. Love the video, love this entire album.

The mind-blowing Sensus Smart Guitar

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[VIDEO] This is some incredible technology. Just watch the video embedded in the main post. I’d love to get my mitts on one of these.

Isolated guitar from Aerosmith’s Walk This Way

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[VIDEO] Just came across this isolated Joe Perry guitar work. Hearing the guitar without all the other layered production elements was a real revelation. This is some beautifully subtle guitar work by a real master.

Tim Cook jams as Apple releases Chinese music-themed update to GarageBand

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Quoted in Apple’s press release is JJ Lin, a Singaporean singer and songwriter:

“As a musician I’m always looking for ways to take my music in new directions and GarageBand has been such a great tool for me to experiment and add new elements to my songs on-the-go,” said award-winning music artist JJ Lin. “I love how the latest update to GarageBand adds traditional Chinese instruments along with brand new loops so I can play around with mixing traditional and modern sounds to create completely new styles.”

Lin is based in Taiwan. You can see him in action, GarageBand jamming with Tim Cook in the video embedded in the main post.

The major and minor tweaks that just came to iTunes

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Kirk McElhearn, writing for Macworld:

I find the changes Apple has wrought to the interface of iTunes 12.4 to be both positive and intuitive, and I think all users will find these new ways of navigation to be more efficient, once they get used to them.

Read on for the details.

Radiohead’s moon shaped pool of up-sell money

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Radiohead is making the adjustment to a new reality. Streaming is here and the new mainstream. The up-sell to their fan base is Radiohead’s way of not just living with the “barely scraping by” that comes from their share of streaming money. Interesting read from M.G. Siegler.

Listen to the top song for every week from 1958-2016

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I’m a big fan of Polygraph’s music chart mechanism. You can pick a specific year at which to start, then start listening. As the week’s go by, you’ll hear the top song on that week’s Billboard chart. Very fun.

ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons on Prince the guitarist

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[VIDEO] In this interview, Billy talks about technique and references the video embedded in the main post. Prince was a master of technique. Take a listen. Prince is in complete control. This is not about speed, this is about breathing life into his guitar, making it an extension of his Princely self.

Springsteen’s very first radio performance

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[VIDEO] John Vettese, writing for WXPN Music Notes:

there was once a time when The Boss was just a young dude with a guitar and a dream. We hear that in this recording of his first-ever radio appearance, on WBCN in Boston on January 9, 1973. It might just be my favorite Springsteen rarity – I love how giddy and unsteady he sounds, the breezy saxophone commentary from Clarence Clemons, the way they effortlessly play off one another. Does this outdo the album version on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.? Perhaps.

A Springsteen fan? Then you’ll love this.

Whole Lotta Love and Beethoven’s Fifth

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[VIDEO] Big fan of 2 Cellos, but this might be my favorite yet. If you are new to their work, check out their take on AC/DC’s Thunderstruck. Great production values, great musicianship.

The story behind Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”

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This is an old story, but I just encountered it, found it fascinating. All guitarists (at least of my generation) learn, at some point, the chords to Smoke on the Water. It’s just one of those foundational songs.

The words tell a story, something about a flare gun, Frank Zappa, a gambling house, and a big fire. The post is an interview with the person who owned the concert hall/casino where Frank Zappa was playing when the whole disaster went down.

David Gilmour on Jimmy Kimmel performing Wish You Were Here

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[VIDEO] Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here stands as one of my all time favorite albums, and David Gilmour one of my favorite guitarists. This performance of the album’s title track, his first on live TV in ten years, does not disappoint.

Beatles producer George Martin dead at 90

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Rolling Stone:

Over the decades, many people have claimed to be the “fifth Beatle.” But the only person who can credibly hold that title was Martin. The producer not only signed the Beatles to their first record contract in 1962 but went on to work extensively with them on the vast majority of music they recorded over the next eight years, from “Love Me Do” to the majestic suite that wrapped up Abbey Road.

Connection failed

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Dave Wiskus eviscerates Apple Music Connect:

Opening up the Connect tab of iTunes makes me sad.

Apple should take a look at SoundShare.

Beatboxing with Siri

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[VIDEO] Ask Siri to “beatbox” and you’ll get one answer. But there’s a much more interesting way to get Siri to beatbox.

Logic Pro X and Adele

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Producer Greg Kurstin on working with Adele and Logic Pro, with some backstory on the creation of Hello.