By now you’ve probably heard that Apple made a big fucking deal over their “unveiling” of an authorized Beatles catalog available as digital downloads.
I try not to fawn in obsessively creepy ways when he attends a pho dinner, but I think the Washington Post’sFaster Forward columnist Rob Pegoraro is an excellent tech journalist. His post about this topic was especially good:
The benefit concert for Dear New Orleans Monday night at the Black Cat was fantastically fun.
New Orleans legends Bonerama played house band and they’ve posted a summary of the night on their blog. Joining them onstage: Jean Cook (Beauty Pill), Jenny Toomey (Tsunami) Tim Quirk (Too Much Joy/Wonderlick), Alex Maiolo, Mike Mills (REM), Damian Kulash (OK Go), Rebecca Gates (Spinanes), Erin McKeown, Hank Shocklee (Bomb Squad/Public Enemy), Timothy Bracy, Jonny 5 (Flowbots), and Jill Sobule.
The background noise makes it a little bit of a labor of love to listen to, but this short interview with the always-groovy Tim Quirk explains how this show came about. (If you give it a view & just embrace the background noise, you’ll experience what it was like to be in my head when I woke up the morning after the show).
Air Traffic Control has been co-hosting artist activism retreats in New Orleans for the last four years. To mark the 5 year anniversary of the storm and floods we thought it appropriate to produce a benefit album. We started by asking the 60 alumni artists who participated in the retreats if they’d be interested in donating a track for a benefit album – we had no idea over half of them would send us music.
We are grateful they did.
Some of the songs that appear on this album are specifically about the city, or the disaster. Others pay a more oblique tribute, and still others are songs that the artist played at the concert we close each retreat with.
Dear New Orleans is a letter of gratitude and promise to the city and her people — to never forget what happened and to continue to rebuild.
Proceeds from the sale of this album will be granted to New Orleans based nonprofits working to support and sustain the region’s unique musical and cultural traditions, and to protect and restore vital environmental and community resources for future generations, such as:
Come on, get your music & tech policy fix where all the cool kids hang out! The event starts Sunday (the 3rd) and runs through Tuesday (the 5th) – check the website for programming details and panelist bios.
The show is at the Black Cat and tickets (regular and VIP packages) are still available. Check out this partial line-up:
Bonerama with
Damian Kulash of OK Go
Jenny Toomey and Franklin Bruno
Hank Shocklee (of The Bomb Squad, Public Enemy)
Jonny 5 of Flobots
Wonderlick (and half of Too Much Joy!)
Rebecca Gates
Crossover Clarinetist Mariam Adam
plus special guests!
And, of course, I’ll be there (in the audience). How can you possibly resist?
Still need a push? Don’t know who Bonerama are? Here’s video I found (on their website) of them covering “War Pigs” last year in San Francisco.
I tried harder to find video of them covering “When the Levee Breaks” on youtube because that’s more appropriate but all the videos I found sucked so you get this instead. (I did find video from last year’s FMC rockshow but the quality was not so high – a hazzard of recording trombones with a portable cam and then compounding the loss of low-frequency content by playing it back on computer speaker. You can watch it anyway if you want).
I bet you could see them cover it live if you bought a ticket and showed up at the Black Cat Monday night.
In honor of the series finale of Lost tonight, here’s a brief video of composer Michael Giacchino:
Via Sam Machkovech for The Atlantic, “Music of ‘Lost’: Where Have All the Pop Songs Gone?” There’s a brief piece by Alex Ross, “The Spooky Fill,” in the May 17th issue of the New Yorker.
