On January 13 and 14, 1972,
Aretha Franklin sang during services at the Reverend James Cleveland's New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The audio recordings released as
Amazing Grace remain the largest-selling gospel album in history. However, of the 20 hours of 16mm film footage by Sydney Pollack - intended as a concert movie for tandem release -
only a few snippets have ever been seen.
(previously: 1, 2)
posted by Trurl
on Apr 22, 2012 -
8 comments
A decade after the death of renowned folklorist Alan Lomax, his vision of a "global jukebox" is being realized: his vast archive — some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts, much of it tucked away in forgotten or inaccessible corners — is being digitized so that the collection can be accessed online. About 17,000 music tracks will be available for free streaming by the end of February. NYT article
here.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jan 30, 2012 -
39 comments
78 78s - In Search Of Lost Time - is a streaming mix of beautiful 78s from around the world, collected and curated by Ian Nagoski. "I started sifting through boxes of junky old 78s that no one else wanted about 15 years ago, and almost right away, I made a rule: Anything that wasn't in English, buy it."
[more inside]
posted by carter
on Jan 29, 2012 -
15 comments
What then happens is an unbelievable series of Kafkaesque email threads, out-of-office messages, invented holidays, bizarre threats, secret handshakes. If you’re lucky, and very very persistent, you might end up with a CD of it, along with a note saying that “this never happened” and “don’t tell anybody you have this.” Nico Muhly on the difficulty of
listening to one's own work.
posted by villanelles at dawn
on Sep 10, 2011 -
11 comments
People, Let Me Get This Off My Chest is a 65 minute compilation of stage banter by Paul Stanley of KISS.
Paul repeatedly reminds the Army that they’re getting their money’s worth... , that the next tune is the first time they’ve played it on tour, that he was talking backstage to someone... about what kind of alcohol that people in the area like to drink, that they’re just getting started, and that he’s got an “uzi of ooze” in his pants.
posted by Trurl
on Jun 4, 2011 -
69 comments
1. Create a record label named "Unknown."
2. Form a band named "Various Artists."
3. (step 3 not required)
4. PROFIT!
No, really: Please take your royalty check
Royalties are piling up from digital music streams, and a nonprofit has to track down artists who don't know. Then it has to convince them it's not a scam.
posted by planetkyoto
on Mar 12, 2010 -
20 comments
40 years ago today, The Rolling Stones played two concerts at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. In the darkness of the audience was a man known to history only as
"Dub"...
[audio auto-plays] [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese
on Nov 9, 2009 -
13 comments
Last year we discussed a recently discovered 10-second audio recording from 1860 that was thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice, a girl or woman singing the 18th century French folk song
“Au Clair de la Lune”. Turns out, it was being played too fast - slow it down and it's the voice of the inventor himself. As well, a number of other recordings have been found, pushing back the oldest recording to 1857.
Hear it all on NPR (5-min).
[more inside]
posted by stbalbach
on Jun 1, 2009 -
24 comments
Andy Partridge (ex-
XTC frontman) and producer
John Leckie (Stone Roses/Radiohead) discuss the making of The Dukes of the Stratosphear 25 o'clock EP, getting sacked by Mary Margaret O'Hara, Roy Harper kissing a sheep and recording Syd Barrett in Abbey Road in 1975 (parts
I and
II).
[more inside]
posted by johnny novak
on Apr 24, 2009 -
24 comments
Tourists black out reflective retinas in snapshots before printing them, and millions of people refer to strangers they’ve never spoken to as friends, because they’ve connected through a social-networking platform. [...] It should come as no surprise, then, that singers sometimes choose to correct recorded flaws in pitch with modern software, like Antares’s Auto-Tune.Sasha Frere-Jones on auto-tuning, in The New Yorker.
[more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Jun 10, 2008 -
98 comments
The
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was comprised of four session musicians operating out of the tiny northern Alabama town of town
Muscle Shoals.
Just four unassuming crackers who happened to have provided the funky underpinning for a
huge number of hit songs by, among others,
Aretha Franklin,
Wilson Pickett,
Paul Simon,
Joe Cocker,
The Staple Singers ,
Jimmy Cliff and
many, many others. Hey, they were the
house band to the greats. Big respect to the men from
3614 Jackson Highway!
[note: see hoverovers for link descriptions] [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Feb 24, 2008 -
27 comments
The Indie Band Survival Guide: A fantastic, free, 101 pages collection of useful information for musicians - covers topics such as recording, copyright, major label contracts, commercial radio, promoting your music, band websites, distribution, filesharing and live shows.
posted by Ira.metafilter
on Feb 25, 2007 -
9 comments
When I was a kid, my dad, who grew up in London, during the Blitz, used to play this old record: a song called "The Laughing Policeman." It always put a smile on my face. According to
Wikipedia, it was written in 1922 by Charles Jolly, who wrote "numerous other laughing songs (The Laughing Major, Curate, Steeplechaser, Typist, Lover, etc)." If you want to hear the happiest policeman ever,
here's the mp3. The song has inspired
cartoonists,
mystery novelists (great series, by the way!),
filmmakers, a
more-recent recording (
mp3), and, inevitably, some
scary people on youtube. Speaking of youtube,
this is how I remember the song.
posted by grumblebee
on Feb 11, 2007 -
41 comments
"In the monitor booth the sound technician listens to the rehearsal through a loudspeaker, and in cooperation with maestro Ellington, brings the music to its highest sound perfection before transmitting it through the electrical circuits to the recording machine!"
Record Making With Duke Ellington (1937).
[YouTube]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Nov 27, 2006 -
11 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
Head Back to Mono in 32k at the
rineke.net records archive, where a rather consistent curator has digitized a goody chunk of his record collection. It's posted in more-or-less every iteration imaginable. Observe the
linked scans (1 mb page, careful!) of the covers (also in multiple resolutions up to full-size). Note the
records themselves, in sleeve or
out, depending. Most especially, savor the clean, low-res mono mp3s that
cry out to be played through the dashboard speakers of a 1967 Dodge Dart.
Bonus Big Beat Bonanza: The site's author is also behind the
similarly detailed archive of shows by ex-WFMU dj
The Hound, from 1987 through 1995, heavy on the
rare regional sides beloved of certain of my pals down New Orleans way.
Last, but not least, rineke.net hosts the adventures of
a platoon of Tux clones, sealing my geek admiration for the overseer of the site. There's
more, of course. My propeller beanie's off to you, sir, and long may you wave, or particle, as is your choice and preference.
(Permission was sought and granted to post this, as I feard for the site's bandwidth. Have at it, Mefites!
posted by mwhybark
on Aug 12, 2004 -
7 comments
Hello, MUDDA. "The relationship of artist to the business has most often been one of contract and servitude. We believe the way forward must be a partnership in which the artist can take a much bigger role in how their creations are sold, but also have the chance to stand at the front of the queue when payments are made instead of the traditional position of being paid long after everyone else." -
Peter Gabriel
posted by eustacescrubb
on Aug 11, 2004 -
8 comments
Warren Zevon, one of the best damned songwriters I've ever heard, patron saint of
many famous curmudgeons, and a real cool SOB in his own right, turns 56 today.
Last September, he was told he had inoperable lung cancer, and so he's living out his remaining years in the studio, recording as much as he can. I for one am glad he's got at least one more album in him. Is there a moral to this tale?
Enjoy every sandwich.
posted by chicobangs
on Jan 24, 2003 -
16 comments
