Head over to Wired and you’ll find a “How-To Wiki” that lists web sites where you can stream or download music online for free. As you’ll see, Wired is not shy about admitting what it’s trying to accomplish here. The wiki page is called “Cheat the Music Industry: Never Pay for Music.”
To access more online music, visit Lifehacker’s guide to finding free music on the web, and peruse our collection of free music podcasts.
If you’re looking to build your jazz collection, this site offers some sound guidance. It features 100 top jazz CDs. Although inherently subjective, the list includes many indisputable classics that belong in any respectable jazz collection. (Note: if you click on the link for each album, you’ll find some background information that’s often worth reading.)
For more jazz, check out our collection of Music Podcasts which includes a decent selection of, yes, jazz podcasts.
In case you missed it, Radiohead released today its new album In Rainbows. What makes the album remarkable, in part, is how it’s being distributed. Buyers can go straight to the Radiohead web site (it’s not available on iTunes) and download the album as DRM-free MP3s. And, what is more, they can decide for themselves how much they’re willing to pay for the album. You can pay as much or as little as you want. That makes the new album pretty much qualify as a piece of “open culture.” (If you get it, please let us know in the comments how much you paid out. We’d be curious to know.)
Next up, REM. They’re releasing a live album next week (22 tracks recorded in album), but you can stream the whole album for free on Rhapsody right now, and the quality is nice and high. Source: Rolling Stone.
For more mp3s see our collection of MP3 Music Blogs.
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog has no shortage of good mp3s for music fans. This one is a little different: Here, in a clip called Run For Your Life, all of The Beatles’ UK albums are compressed at 800% into a one-hour MP3. It’s rather unlistenable, but nonetheless conceptually interesting. As for speed summaries, the one I like most is the video called The Seven Minute Sopranos. It gives you the first six seasons of the HBO series in seven snappy minutes. Watch below.
In 2004, Danger Mouse released The Grey Album which layered the rapper Jay-Z’s The Black Album on top of The Beatles’ White Album. Black and white makes grey.
Now, on YouTube, you can find The Grey Video, which experimentally brings Danger Mouse’s concept to video. The video, created by two Swiss directors, meshes clips from The Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night with footage of Jay‑Z performing. Watch it below, and get more info on The Grey Album here. Also check our collection of MP3 Music Blogs.
Martin Scorsese is on a rock ‘n roll tear.
In 2006, he released No Direction Home, an acclaimed documentary on Bob Dylan (long after he filmed his first rockumentary, The Last Waltz in 1978). Next April, he’s set to release another documentary on The Rolling Stones, tentatively called Shine a Light. (Watch the already released trailer below.) And now he has just agreed to direct a film about George Harrison. The movie, being made with the support of Harrison’s family, will cover his time with the Beatles, his music and film career thereafter, and Harrison’s spiritual engagement with Eastern religion. Reportedly, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr may also contribute to the making of the film. It won’t be out for a few good years. In the meantime, check out our recent piece, The Beatles: Podcasts from Yesterday.
Mark October 1 on your calendar. That’s when Bob Dylan will release a new box set of his “greatest songs.” Now, cut over to the website designed to market the album, and you’ll find a couple notable pieces of video. First up, you can watch the video that accompanies Mark Ronson’s remixing of “Most Likely You Will Go Your Way (& I’ll Go Mine).” (Watch it on the website here or on YouTube here.) It’s apparently the first time Dylan has allowed a remix of any of his songs, and the song has been getting some airplay this week.
And then there is this video concept. Back in 1967, D. A. Pennebaker released Don’t Look Back, a well-known documentary that covered Dylan’s first tour of England in 1965. The opening segment of the film has Dylan standing in an alley, flipping through cards inscribed with lyrics from Subterranean Homesick Blues. (Also the beat poet Allen Ginsberg looms in the background. We’ve included the original video below.) Now, I’m mentioning this because the aforementioned website lets you re-work this video segment. Click here and you can re-write the cards that Dylan flips through, and then watch your edited version. It’s another form of re-mixing, I guess.
Lastly, I want to direct your attention to the trove of videos that Google put together back when Google Video was a real living, breathing thing. Created to coincide with the release of Dylan’s last studio album, Modern Times (2006), this collection lets you watch 11 videos in total, ranging from unreleased footage from D. A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back, to Dylan’s appearance on The Johnny Cash Show, to his performance of “Dignity” on MTV’s Unplugged. Good stuff, to be sure.
at least according to Rolling Stone. (Get the list here). Yes, these lists are always highly subjective. But if I were the arbiter of musical taste, I’d pick many of the same, so here it is.
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