Book (Title) of the Year

The dudes behind the net's hebreonostalgia-cum-vinyl records board Reboot Stereophonic are releasing "And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl" (nominee for best book title for obvious reasons, and maybe even best book subtitle). The book hits stores next Tuesday, but you can view the accompanying blog now.

New Yorkers trying to save historic Tin Pan Alley

A group of New Yorkers is fighting to save Tin Pan Alley, the half-dozen row houses where iconic American songs were born.

The four-story, 19th-century buildings on Manhattan's West 28th Street were home to publishers of some of the catchiest American tunes and lyrics — from "God Bless America" and "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" to "Give My Regards to Broadway."

The music of Irving Berlin, Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, George M. Cohan and other greats was born on Tin Pan Alley.

Oh joy!

Remember when MTV used to play music videos? Apparently, so do they. And they're cataloguing them at http://www.mtvmusic.com/ with plenty of
Classics:

Talking Heads |MTV Music

Peter Gabriel |MTV Music

Digital Underground |MTV Music

and some I never even knew vids existed for:

Queen |MTV Music

The Grateful Dead |MTV Music

Notorious M.O.V.

I can't say I've been following news of the film's production, which probably explains why I'm so impressed by the look and sound of clips from "Notorious," releasing in January. Props alone are due merely for the dead ringer producers found to portray Mr. Wallace. (Trailer #2 is available on Apple Trailers.)

Vote for Cool Typefaces and Tri-Chromatic Graphics

Gender-ambiguous MC Yogi gives us this mellow cut - too idealist, perhaps - but certainly well done.

Christmas on Mars

Everyone's phavorite phreaks have done it again! The Flaming Lips homage to Ed Wood, Adam Jones and who knows who else, hits theaters near you soon!

Literally 80's, Take Two

Further to last Wednesday's post, Daveyboy links us to another literal-lyric 80's hit. If this becomes the next lame YouTube trend, I will sigh and groan... as I post every single one here on ETB.

Fun fact: Songs from the Big Chair was the very first record I ever owned... and tried scratchin!

Cash does King

JFonz linked us to this rare clip of Johnny Cash rocking his best Elvis impersonation. And I thought they were chums.

Take On Me, Literally

the A-Ha vid gets the literal lyrics treatment. awesome.

Barack-a-Rock!

Join Andrew Bird, Fiery Furnaces, Les Savy Fav and many more for this debate-watching-slash-comedy-and-music-enjoying fest in W'burg. $40 gets you in, and all proceeds go to fighting the good fight.

The Brand that Won't Die

I swear, Napster is like that bald dude from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome - no matter how many times it gets run over by a post-apocalyptic wartruck, it keeps coming back to life.

Best Buy has decided to gobble up online music venture (and, in many ways, arch-enemy) Napster Inc., paying about double today's market value for the company. Best Buy already offers a digital music program in conjunction with RealNetworks' Rhapsody service. It's unclear whether much of Napster's technology will survive the merger: Best Buy will likely try to port the 700,000 Napster customers over to the Rhapsody service, and send the brand to the scrap heap.

FYI, RATM at the DNC

Zack and Co. rocked a Denver show on Tuesday and led a march for Iraq Veterans Against the War to the Pepsi Center and the DNC.

McCain loves the Gasolina

I'm bugging. If this is not some type of publicity stunt, I just don't know what's what. Yesterday, Reggaeton star Daddy Yankee publicly endorsed John McCain, and then proceeded to grope a line of 13-year olds on national television.

The Feeding Frenzy Continues

And down goes Muxtape, the latest target of the RIAA's sweeping crackdowns on internet radio "piracy."

"More Bass"

Legendary record producer and Rock n Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jerry Wexler died this past Friday, after decades of working a muse with a who's who of R&B, soul and rock acts. NYTimes has a great write-up of his life and career and Rolingstone.com posted 20 essential recordings of Wexler's here.

Farewell to the King (of Free Net Radio)

Buckling under the weight of the Internet radio royalty hike that SoundExchange pushed through last July, Pandora may pull its own plug soon. Despite being one of the most popular Internet radio services, the company still isn't making money, and its founder, Tim Westergren, says it can't last beyond its first payment of the higher royalties. Via Ars Technica.

Break out the pocket protectors

Math-rockers Battles are free-showing it at Summerstage this Saturday. Joined by more art-rock/fart-rock/smart-rock bands Black Dice and Gang Gang Dance.

Get to Half Steppin'

Living rap legend Big Daddy Kane - hopefully not yet relying on one - drops some old playa knowledge (for FREE) tonight at Marcus Garvey Park. Hmm... Marcus Garvey Park - now would that be located down by Wall Street? Maybe Chelsea.

Here's to Hoping the Rain Holds Off

Tomorrow night, dreamo-rockers Blonde Redhead play a FREE outdoor gig at Hudson River Park (Pier 54), backed up by the Liberty Helicopter orchestral whirling dervishes!

Barack Rocks

MySpace.com - Shush (Debut EP out Monday 5th May!) - London, UK - Rock / Pop - www.myspace.com/shushsound

MySpace.com - Shush (Debut EP out Monday 5th May!) - London, UK - Rock / Pop - www.myspace.com/shushsound

Another Weekend, Another Pool Party

JellyNYC keeps churning out great free shows at McCarren Pool. This Sunday, catch country-blues by way of Brooklyn with Langhorne Slim (headliners are Americana rockers Felice Brothers).

Labia Aquilus Solutum!

For those of us who can't afford tix to the sure-to-be-most-freshest Rock the Bells this weekend, Black Lips are performing a free gig at McCarren Pool in W'Burg on Sunday (with ambient rock lovelies Deerhunter and others).

Reggin, please!

One of my favorite rappers, Nas, appeared on the Colbert Report last week to discuss the new album and his ongoing feud with Papa Bear himself. Is there anyone Colbert cannot hang with? So cool, man...

Twones

Twones is a music service and a new way to store, organize, find & share music played all over the web (i.e. YouTube, Myspace, Last.fm, Hypemachine, Muxtape and many more) or on your computer (i.e. iTunes) to one single point of access. Twones ties all music together and let's you share your taste with others in its most direct way. (Via)

Rush's star power?

Missed them on the Colbert Report last week, but here's a clip of the band playing their own "Tom Sawyer" on Rock Band... and failing!

eMusic Diggs Deeper

from Ars Technica: eMusic has introduced new social features to its DRM-free, subscription-based music store that leverage media and artist information from user-driven communities like YouTube, Flickr, and Wikipedia. It's the first of many new features arriving in the next few months that are designed to position the company as a social hub for discovering new music.

Naughty by the River

Has it really been 15 years since "Hip Hop Hooray"? Man, forget how old you are and head down to Queensbridge Park tonight for a free riverside gig by the OPP boys.

Sweet Siren's Call

Ah, the smell of Coney Island whitefish. The sweat of 8,000 dirty hipsters. The lack of adequate Port-O-Pottyage. What better way to spend a Saturday than enjoying these fine attributes of the annual (free) Village Voice Siren music fest? This year features Broken Social Scene, Times New Viking, and Syracuse upstarts Ra Ra Riot.

Pure Jeanius

Will's homegirl Jean Grae (w/ 9th Wonder) is releasing a new album with 4 different very familiar album covers. And 2dopeboyz is right on with "if you can’t name where each cover is derived from, go play in traffic please."

House of Cards

Radiohead (who play 2 nights of the All Points West fest in Aug) release their impressive vid for "House of Cards," employing data visualization technology.

Watch it here.

Watch how it was made here.

The Rivers Deliver

Ahh, summer's in full swing and that means great free music shows all over the city, including the always surprising River to River Festival. I already missed Sonic Youth's 7/4 gig. Tonight it's No Age, along with Brooklyn locals Telepathe at the South St Seaport.