So, you always wanted to be a musician, but your pops wouldn't send you to music school? And you can't afford a decent instrument? Aw, quit yer whining and go get a
garden hose.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jul 30, 2010 -
25 comments
Electric Junkyard Gamelan is the brainchild of bandleader and composer
Terry Dame, and fuses Dame's passions of composing, inventing and building. Originally inspired by traditional
Gamelan music from Bali, the group recycles and repurposes
everyday objects into musical instruments. While some of their songs do indeed resemble the hypnotic percussive melodies of a Balinese/Javanese gamelan orchestra (
The Nutbutter Challenge), other tunes strike out into new, distinctly urban American directions (
Ode to Fred Beans). Following the band's motto, "
Reuse, Recycle and ROCK," instruments are fashioned from coat hangers and rubber bands, bed frames, old farm equipment, turntable platters, clay pots, saw blades and truck springs. The "
Big Barp" rubber-band harp makes a particularly unusual sound.
[more inside]
posted by ocherdraco
on Oct 12, 2009 -
5 comments
The Futility of Flogging Music "I was pondering the other day whether I actually have a field of expertise. I thought for ages, and couldn't come up with anything, and then in a blinding flash I realised, with a slight sense of despondency, what it might be: being in bands that people have never heard of." Actually you may have heard of
Rhodri Marsden if you're caught the current Scritti Politti line-up in action, if you've ever followed the broadcasts of the late DJ John Peel, or if you've read Rhodri's technology column in UK newspaper the Independent. This week, in a speech to the
Oxford Geek Night, Marsden shared his caustic yet heartfelt observations on DIY music from the early 90s through to the digital age, sighing "I can think of nothing more soul destroying" than social networking and quoting post-punk icon of Pere Ubu as saying musicians should "screw the audience".
posted by skylar
on Aug 29, 2008 -
43 comments
What's
Folk-Punk? Although celtic-punk groups like the Pogues, Flogging Molly, and the Dropkick Murphys may have been the first bands to combine punk rock with folk music, other groups have been crossing over folk music and punk rock for some time now.
[more inside]
posted by dunkadunc
on Jul 29, 2008 -
55 comments
Surely this must be a double, right? I mean, you've got this great and strange program, Addi's Inflatable Minute, and this incredibly strange but somewhat haunting instrument and its all in
one You Tube Link? People don't actually make this sort of content in real life, do they?
posted by Ogre Lawless
on Jan 11, 2008 -
30 comments
John "Paia" Simonton died late last week. His company,
PAiA is one of the grandfathers of the DIY synth scene. I have
one of his modular synths half-constructed in my garage. He helped create an American buzz for electronic music and DIY music gear in the 70s, and was highly influential till his passing away.
posted by blackvectrex
on Nov 29, 2005 -
10 comments
How To Be A Jug or String Band MVP - starting with guitar: It's all in
tablature, by the way, something easy enough to understand. Three finger fingerpicking guitar is easy to learn--start with
Mississippi John Hurt:
Payday was the first song I ever learned. Of course, it's a cinch, being in Open D--but
open tunings are a cinch, too. With open tunings, how about learning some
slide guitar? Beyond John Hurt, slide or not, open or standard, , there are the ever expanding
Fahey Tablatures at John Fahey.com, where Melissa keeps the flame burning ever brightly.
There's Much More Within...
posted by y2karl
on Sep 5, 2003 -
17 comments
Lost or broken CD case? Ripped a disc and now it's just floating around on your desk? Freewheeling
College students to the
rescue! You give 'em the lowdown and you get a formatted paper CD case as a .pdf file. Input your own song titles or run an
album search through their DB. They even
archive mixes for you to share with others.
posted by donkeysuck
on May 11, 2001 -
4 comments
