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A tragic end to 2009

Wendy Cooper — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:18:32 +0000

It was a shock to discover that Rowland S. Howard died today. This is the man who shook the world with the song Shivers and it is what echoed in my head when I read about his lost battle with liver cancer at aged 50. It will be a sad end for the year, particularly hash for the local Melbourne music scene to loose such an inspiring talent. May Melbourne cried at the top of its lungs in his rememberance that “sends a permanent shivers down my spine”.

Source: Herald Sun

Nick Cave & Rowland S. Howard by Bleddyn Butcher

Yo La Breakout

Wendy Cooper — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:43:17 +0000

I lost an hour of my life because of this!

The oldest musical instrument found

Wendy Cooper — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:21:43 +0000

The sound of the oldest musical instrument resembles greatly of a pan flute. It is a flute indeed, made out of bone, dated back 35,000 years ago during the colonising of Europe. Three of these artefacts were unearthed in the Hohle Fels cavern, south-west of Germany.

This discovery have proven that:

Music could have contributed
to the maintenance of larger
social networks, and thereby perhaps have helped facilitate
the demographic and territorial expansion of modern humans relative to a culturally more conservative and demographically more isolated Neanderthal populations…

Source: BBC News

The monolith and the minotaur

Wendy Cooper — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:51:54 +0000

As time passes and careers fade into history, musos will capitalise by having a reunion tour and/or release a definitive collection to commemorate their glory years. My dear and ol’ time favourite The Pixies have hopped onto that bandwagon to collect their retirement fund again in releasing an undeniably in your face box set titled Minotaur. The limited edition contains a monolithic two feet tall hard cover that is reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001 and it’s designed by A+R; curated by Vaughan Oliver; shot by Simon Larbalestier. Needless to say that no-one else can ever take on this task but the original team of Oliver and Larbalestier. A+R is a justifiable choice especially with their recent folio of NIN’s Ghosts, Beck’s The Information and Sigur Rós’ In A Frozen Sea. To bow at this feat is to willingly forgo your wallet and drown in the pool of commercialism with your feet in the air and head on the ground. Then again, who wouldn’t try this trick when put into their shoes.

Déjà vu

Wendy Cooper — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:17:43 +0000

Sometime words cannot describe the experience, so you just have to listen—Let the percussion and the organ/synth speak.

Yo La Tengo – Autumn Sweater

Low – Breaker

This video is still close to my heart. It poetically captures the greedy in American politics during the Bush era.

And today is Tetris’ 25th anniversary! Three cheers for Tetris and how you’ve saved my life during those experiences of bad inflight entertainment.

SXSW 2010: 12–21 March

Wendy Cooper — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:59:46 +0000

Today I’m excited about SXSW 2010. Largely it is to do with the simple fact that I have remembered this annual event and have marked it in my diary to prevent missing it for the gazillion time. Hooray!

SXSWeek 2010 12–21 March
Interactive 12–16 March
Film 12–20 March
Music 17–21 March

Trigger of things past

Wendy Cooper — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:35:49 +0000

The new Merce Cunningham production commenced about the time I left New York. It received a below average review from the New York Times. This trip is constantly circulating in my head, like an airplane trying to land in foggy weather and the beat that my heart skipped was left behind. This video is an excerpt of Split Side featuring original music by Radiohead and Sigur Rós.

Russia’s free-for-all

Wendy Cooper — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:12:28 +0000

An infamous Russian MP3 site selling music for pennies claims that its revenue is given back to the artists. With the European Union and the U.S. government on its back, it’s a simply matter of leg pulling. Though, it has been more a year ago, I still see the site accumulating its collection and at the top in Google ratings. What’s more, there is not just one as most news comply, they are growing in numbers.

With tecnology we found reason

Wendy Cooper — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:45:54 +0000

Auto-Tune is a multi-platform plug-in that corrects intonation problems in vocals or solo instruments, in real time, without distortion or artifacts… Over a typical pitch correction range, it is simply not possible to tell that a sound has been processed, except that it is perfectly in tune.

Antares has recently announced their new version of Auto-Tune 4. I personally like my music raw and real, with the art from the heart not from technical perfection of turned knobs. It is clear that with technology, we discovered ease but I don’t think it is the necessary means. Do we need more homogeneous music and why are they on the top of the charts? It’s a scary reflection of our society.

Album cover galore

Wendy Cooper — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 13:32:06 +0000

Time for a break, time for something totally mindless.