music « ‘Cross The Breeze

Fabulous!

4 12 2008

Sometimes there are these websites/services that you stumble upon after following a link in search, twitter, … and for which you wonder how it is possible you hadn’t heard of it before? Recognize that situation? Well Fabchannel.com is such a website – I only heard about it for the first time this week.

This time it was a tweet from someone (can’t find it anymore) that notified me about a LIVE concert of dEUS (in Paradisio, Amsterdam) that caught my eye. And what can I say, I pretty much liked everything about that site. I liked how it had a nice countdown clock to the concert (custom for your time zone), I liked the live stream itself which was pretty good, I like the search functionality, the ability to watch older concerts and especially how you navigate through the tracks, the speed in which it gets connected to the streams, … fabulous! Seriously, how did I not notice this before?

Currently watching/listening to an old Zita Swoon concert, with Bettie Serveert and some Frank Black as well (for the Pixies stuff really).

Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: bettieserveert, concert, deus, fabchannel, frankblack, live, paradisio, zitaswoon
Categories : inspiration, internet, media, music, technology, video

Seasick Steve!

28 11 2008

Last night I saw Seasick Steve on television and I have been listening to his music ever since :) Not only is that the kind of music I really like, the guy is as authentic as they come, seriously. And I’m sure that it’s partially because of his great music, but also because of that authenticity that he’s going to become even bigger than he already is right now (yes it’s the first time I hear from him, but that hasn’t been the same for everybody).

Check out this clip below from his appearance at Jools Holland more than a year ago and then this little documentary (part 1/ part 2) to see what I’m talking about. Enjoy Steve with the Three String Trance Wonder and the Mississippi Drum Machine:

First thing I’m doing this weekend is buying his stuff, all of it! Authentic stuff, I tell ya.

Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: authenticity, joolsholland, mdm, seasicksteve
Categories : bringtheloveback, music

Zune 3.0

18 09 2008

Ever since I started using the 30G first generation Zune (yes that brown one) I’ve become quite fond of both the device and the software. And now you’ll probably say ‘sure, you work for Microsoft so that explains…’ etc. but I actually bought an iPod first (yes I already worked here). I’ve never been much of a fan of the navigation on the device, let alone of iTunes. Huge catalogue and all but I just don’t like it.

Yesterday the Zune team released the 3rd generation of the Zune and I updated both my 1ste generation 30G Zune as well as the 2nd edition 8G Zune, which is the one I use most. And I got to say, seriously. I think the Zune software is worth installing even if you don’t have a Zune. The visualization is very nice, and especially (which is new in this release) how you can go into the MixView which shows similar artists (similar music or influenced by, …) and other Zune users that listened to this music. A nice mixture between recommendations from the music engine underneath as well as the social… hence the ‘Welcome to the social’ slogan for the Zune. Here’s what Wired had to say about MixView’s recommendation engine:

“Microsoft showed us a sneak preview of the Zune 3.0 software it plans to release on Sept. 16 with the latest generation of Zune devices, and what we saw made iTunes’ simple Genius feature look like a blast from digital music’s past. While iTunes serves up a text list of recommended songs within your library and from the iTunes store, adding to the more basic recommendations its MiniStore feature used to make, Zune reinvented the recommendation concept by collapsing artists, albums and fans into the same recommendation engine, more accurately mirroring the way people think about music.”

There’s just one thing missing though and that is access to the Zune Marketplace. Since I live in Europe the only way for me to benefit from the all-you-can-eat monthly charge of $14.99 is to get a US credit card unfortunately. The new MixView makes me want that even more, since you obviously want to buy the music you’re discovering right away. So bring the Zune to Europe guys!

Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: genius, itunes, mixview, mp3, release, social, sofware, update, wired, zune
Categories : consumer, design, electronics, gadgets, microsoft, movies, music, news, social media, software, technology

The Kaiser Mix

9 09 2008

I recently got into Blip.fm quite a bit, it’s an interesting way to get some good music while at work for instance. My buddy Marcus got into it even a lot more and he’s now setting something up to take this Twitter for music just a bit further.

On October 9th he’s going to be live blipping from a bar in Munich. This means The Kaiser and the people he follows will be mixing it up that night in Munich and for all people (like me) that can’t be there that night, we can follow it live on Blip.fm (of course) but also on a live stream that is set up for this. Check it all out here – bring it on Kaiser!

PS: Just don’t let Marcus touch any of them drinks, that looks like a really bad idea.

PS 2: Blip.fm – are you listening? Maybe a good idea to show up, and blip some buzz around.

Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: blip, dj, fun, mix, munich, music, thekaiser
Categories : beta, blogging, media, music

Performance

16 12 2007

Once a year I need to talk about the song that made me choose the title for this blog, I just have to :) I think there are 2 types of music listeners out there. Those people for whom the lyrics make or brake the song and those like myself for whom it’s just how the song makes you feel. I hardly ever know what the song is about, even the ones I love… it’s always what feeling I get from listening to them.

‘Cross The Breeze from Sonic Youth (Daydream Nation) is one of these pure rock songs that I like and that unfortunately not that many people know… and heck, because they don’t like it probably. No worries, the next posts will be again about advertising, marketing and the lot but I had to share this one with you. My yearly Sonic Youth post ;) Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: sonic youth, daydream nation, cross the breeze, crossthebreeze, music, blog

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Categories : blogging, music

Most watched

11 07 2007

I just read the press release of MSN around the streaming of the Live Earth concerts across the globe. These concerts are the most watched entertainment event in online history with more than 8 million people that watched part of the live coverage that was exclusive on MSN. This resulted in more than 15 million streams during the event and with the on demand that you can still watch we’re now already at more than 30 million streams. The event streaming peaked with 237.000 people watching simultaneously at a certain time with is a new record. Now I believe that’s pretty impressive, here’s the full press release… and here’s the link if you want to watch part of the concerts again.

Technorati Tags: liveearth, msn, streaming, entertainment, online, concert, globe, exclusive

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Categories : internet, msn, music, news, pr

We’re gonna miss you

14 05 2007

I could have known something bad was coming when Tim Westergren – Founder of Pandora – sent out an email to all Pandora users asking to ‘help save Pandora & internet radio’. It took only 2-3 more weeks before it was finished indeed, well at least for all of us not living in the US. If I try to visit Pandora now, this is what I get:

“Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We believe that you are in Belgium (your IP address appears to be xx.xxx.xxx.xx). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com“

That is really some bad news as I enjoyed Pandora very much. I actually met Tom Conrad – CTO of Pandora – very briefly in Vegas at MIX07 and I told him how many people enjoyed Pandora in Europe. That was 2 days before they shut it down so I feel like he should have told me about it then already.

Time to pick up on Last.fm again I guess, I tried to rememeber my account yesterday without much luck so I think I’ll have to set up a new one :( Good news is that Last.fm has just launched video as well, so it’s a good time to look into the service again anyway. For a moment I thought I would try Sonific.com as well since there’s a widget of Sonific for WordPress.com but it couldn’t find any of the first 3 artists I entered so I already gave up on that.

Yeah… I’m gonna miss Pandora.

Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : community, internet, mix07, music, signup

Funky story

12 04 2007

… or should I say sonic. Pieter just told me on IM this funky little experience he had:

As he was reading on this blog (thanks Pieter) he saw the post about ‘Daydream Nation’ that made him visit Pietel’s post on this. Surfing around there, he notices this post about a house for sale in Antwerp. Looks interesting but pricey, still Pieter decides to visit the house the same day. Looking around in the house, he notices the music albums and what do you know… ‘Daydream Nation’ is on top of the pile.

I love stories like this.

Technorati tags: funky, sonic youth, daydream nation, antwerp, for sale, pietel, stories

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : community, music

Made to Stick

30 03 2007

First things first, this really is a great book. I’m not done with it yet, so my review will be for sometime soon. This is more about a curiosity, as the book reminded me of a classic Stones album.

Was it the ’stickiness factor’ of both products? Well, it wasn’t actually. ‘Made to Stick’ reminded me of ‘Sticky Fingers’ because of the 3D effect on both. You probably have to be thirtysomething (or older) to know this so as a reminder for the others, the ‘Sticky Fingers’ vinyl album actually had a real zipper on the front (designed by Warhol). The duct tape on ‘Made to Stick’ is not real (nor is the cover designed by Warhol) but the effect is definitely there.

It’s just a curiosity as I told before, most important, both the album & the book are rocking! Seems like Boing Boing likes the cover of the book as well by the way.

Technorati tags: sticky fingers, stickiness, made to stick, curiosity, warhol