Category: Music

Powerfox & Ponymane Beatles Mashup

This has been a stressful week for a variety of reasons. Thankfully, it’s Friday! Let’s try to kick off the weekend with shiny happy feelings. You know what always makes me happy? Listening to Powerfox & Ponymane! Watch and listen to these lovely ladies mash up a pair of songs by The Beatles. Hopefully it puts a smile on your face. Happy Friday!

Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake: History of Rap

I just spent an hour watching “The History of Rap” clips from Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. I love it when Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake team up. “The Barry Gibb Talk Show” is one of my favorite SNL sketches of all time. When these guys get together, they produce a lovely combination of music and comedy. Besides, it’s just cool hearing medleys that include music from some of the best hip-hop artists from the last few decades…and also Vanilla Ice. Also, I love watching Questlove play drums; in my head I imagine that Dr. Cornel West is the drummer for The Roots.

Anyway, enjoy these two clips and let me know what you think (please!).

Goldenvoice Announces SS Coachella Cruise

Goldenvoice is taking the Coachella music festival from the desert to the ocean on the SS Coachella. Hitting the Bahamas on December 16-19 and Jamaica from December 19-23, the seafaring version of Coachella features Pulp, Girl Talk, Hot Chip, Yeasayer, and more. In addition to catching music, attendees will be able to enjoy high-end restaurants, shopping, gambling, yoga, a luxury spa, and more. Tickets for the SS Coachella go on sale this Saturday.

I love that Goldenvoice is thinking outside the box with the SS Coachella. That said, it’s very strange. When I think of Coachella, I think of thousands of dirty kids enjoying music in a crap desert in California. I’m fairly certain that a luxury cruise will not have the same spirit.

Of course, I could be wrong. What do you think? Will this ocean-bound venture be as successful as its desert counterpart? Are any of you interested in setting sail on the SS Coachella?

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Today’s Poll: The Incredible Hulk vs. Taxi

It’s time for a sad poll! Today it’s a battle of morose television theme songs. In the red corner is “The Lonely Man” from The Incredible Hulk. Most episodes of the show ended with David “Bruce” Banner walking off into the sunset to this sad song. In the blue corner is “Angela” from Taxi. This star-studded sitcom opened and closed with this excellent song by Bob James. It has a special place in my heart because it made one of college roommates sad (hi Steve!). As a prank, I would blast the song, take off, and leave Steve with his sorrows.

Kindly give both tracks a listen, vote in the poll below, and explain your choice in the comments section!

[poll id=”156″]

Coffee Talk #495: Your Favorite Streaming Audio Service

Streaming audio is more popular than ever. Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody, and Pandora are just some of the popular services you can use. Today I’d like to learn about your favorite Internet audio services and why you use them. Are you stuck on Pandora out of habit? Did seeing your Facebook friends use Spotify or Rdio…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Verve’s Kenya Gaku Peaberry, Roger Federer’s awesome Wimbledon victory, or stalking Katie Holmes, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Streaming audio is more popular than ever. Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody, and Pandora are just some of the popular services you can use. Today I’d like to learn about your favorite Internet audio services and why you use them. Are you stuck on Pandora out of habit? Did seeing your Facebook friends use Spotify or Rdio influence you at all? Perhaps Dr. Dre (gangsta) threatened you into using MOG. Or do you not care about streaming audio at all?

As for me, I was a Pandora user back in the day and played around with Spotify a bit in 2011. While the social aspects of streaming music are cool, I haven’t found a service that I really like (yet). For the most part, I buy music from Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play. I like having the file on my physical devices and being able to stream it through Amazon Cloud Player or Google Music.

From what I understand, artists get more money from file purchases than stream listens (though I also understand it’s a small amount of money vs. a tiny amount of money). As a former (crappy) musician and something of an artist (verbal entertainers are artisans, right?), I feel better about more of my money going to the talent.

Having said all that, I’m willing to give any Internet radio service a go. That’s where you and your thoughtful recommendations come in! What’s your favorite streaming audio service and why?

Lugubrious Loop 2012 (Since Mixtapes Are Dead)

Digital media is awesome and super-convenient. The only thing I miss about analog music is making mixtapes. I’ve (pathetically) made countless mixtapes for girls and (pathetically) made dozens more to fuel my morose moods in high school/college. My friend Gordon and I were recently talking about the modern equivalent of mixtapes. Lugubrious loop totally works for me! Here are the three songs that have been looping in my head for the last several days.

WGWG5: Phillip Phillips Wins American Idol

Despite thousands (millions?) of Filipinos faking their IP addresses and using VoIP solutions to vote for Jessica Sanchez, Phillip Phillips won the 11th American Idol. P-Squared’s victory continues the streak of AI winners that can be described as white guys with guitars (WGWG). Teenagers and housewives love WGWGs, so I wasn’t surprised that Phillips became the fifth WGWG to win. What did surprise (and delight) me was that #WGWG5 was a trending topic on Twitter last night. That was awesome.

Congrats to WGWG5 Phillip Phillips!