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Archive for September, 2011

Björk’s eighth solo full-length album Biophilia hit the Internet Thursday, almost three weeks before its official U.S. release date. Every album leaks before before they’re released (except Watch the Throne). But the Biophilia leak is exceptional, because despite the full album (or a version of it) being out there for free, what’s out there isn’t even the half of it.

Biophilia is a multi-media project that will be accompanied by three years’ worth of multi-week residencies in various cities. More excitingly, it’s also accompanied by an iPad app that gives you extras for each song: games, essays, lyrics, an animated map of the sound elements that scrolls as the song plays, etc. Scott Snibbe, who developed the Biophilia apps told the the Guardian: “Björk’s put herself way at the forefront here by saying, ‘We’ll release this album and these apps at the same time and they’re all part of the same story.’ The app is an expression of the music, the story and the idea.”

If you’ve played around with the four apps that are out now, you can see just how important they are to this project, which, in varying degrees of abstraction, attempts to bridge biology and musicality in word and sound. They breathe life into a series of veins that Björk has arranged sonically. And it’s a good thing, because listening to veins can be a drag. Musically, from a pop fanatic’s perspective, Biophilia is Björk’s least rewarding full-length by far — it’s at least as difficult as her all-vocal album, Medúlla, but without the charming melodies that often played like roller coaster tracks — dynamic and thrilling, but engineered with a logical precision. To the virgin ear, much of Biophilia doesn’t make much sense. Björk conjures odd time signatures that sometimes expire with their verses. There’s a groggy melodicism too: it frequently sounds like Björk just rolled out of bed, sang whatever, and went with that. And what’s more infuriating/intimidating is that whatever melody Björk uses will probably have little to do with the melody before.

Björk is still a visionary, and so because this is not a pop record (to the extent that it makes 2007′s Volta sound like bubblegum) we can assume that Björk did not want it to be a pop record. But she’s no slouch, and the apps thus far make up for the lack of hooks. In fact, they are the hooks — the tangible entries into the abstract. Bonding with “Crystalline” by turning your iPad through a series of virtual tunnels in a deceptively simplistic crystal-building game, or just watching the parts of “Moon” slip in and slide via a scrolling animation make these songs relatable in a way that even the poppiest of pop rarely is. (I’ll give her “Virus,” though, which compares new love to a virus invading and destroying a cell — that one’s gorgeous with or without the app that asks you to fight a virus attack. If you win, the song ends. That’s no reward.) Maybe the apps merely make up for lazy songwriting, but again, there’s no lack of inspiration here. Biophilia is an immersive experience that demands you get your entire body wet.

So the leaked version of Biophilia is like a folder of verses without their choruses. She has constructed these songs to exist over multiple dimensions. It’s a shame that the parts of this album that have leaked could repel people from the full experience, should they be turned off by the surface intangibility. That would be a case of technology trumping technology. See, apps don’t leak before their release date with nearly as much frequency as music, and so it would seem on paper (or on iPad screen) that Biophilia was unleakable. In a way it was … until the sonic leak, exposing people to its most difficult facet. That a leak could change as many minds out of Biophilia‘s favor as the apps could change mind in its favor show just what a special case this is. This leak is part of its story, part of what makes it fascinating.

Complicating matters is the fact that the leak is a misrepresentation of Björk’s finished product. Last week she announced that she was pushing back the album to retool it, and swapping out a studio recording for a live version recorded earlier this year. Who knows what Björk’s revision means for the album — perhaps she’s fine-tuning Biophilia to be more digestible in its sonic form. We’ll see in the coming weeks, and then we’ll literally see when the apps all come out. We still have so much to look forward to with Biophilia. How many leaked albums can you say that about?

Rich Juzwiak is a writer and video editor whose work has appeared in the Village Voice, Jezebel, and on This American Life. He runs the pop culture blog fourfour.

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The Bad News Bears [VHS]

This likable 1976 comedy gently skewers the whole post- Rocky mania for movies about losers who find their mettle or salvation or purpose in life in competitive sport. Walter Matthau stars as a drunk who becomes manager of a pathetic little-league baseball team. When he brings in a talented girl pitcher (Tatum O’Neal), the crew have an actual chance at winning some games and maybe a championship. But director Michael Ritchie (Downhill Racer) undercuts the romance of it all with the team’s foul-

Rating: (out of reviews)

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With this summer’s U.S. launch of Spotify and the overnight popularity of Turntable.fm, the social music industry has been buzzing as of late, and Facebook is about to jump into the fray. But the truth is Mark Zuckerberg has been trying to make Facebook a musically minded network for years. Between launching artist pages to compete with MySpace and attempting to negotiate deals with digital retailers, the rumor mill surrounding Facebook Music has been churning steady since 2007. Now that we finally have a solid sense of how Facebook Music is going to look, feel and function, Hive charts Facebook’s play in the social music scene. Lets get this (social network) party started.

October 2007: Facebook Guns for MySpace Monopoly on Music

In the mid-aughts, MySpace band pages were ubiquitous for pop sensations and garage bands alike. However, Facebook looked to capitalize on the last glimmer of hope MySpace ever had (besides Justin Timberlake) and launched its artist pages platform, a one-stop shop to preview tracks, check tour calendars and engage in other relevant multimedia. The move seems obvious now, as Facebook “fan” pages are a staple of any brands social media efforts today, musician or otherwise. [Paidcontent]

December 2008: Facebook Kills Project Playlist App

After receiving a cease-and-desist letter from music labels and the RIAA, Facebook disables a popular playlist widget powered by the startup Project Playlist. [CNET]

October 2009: Facebook Explores Partnerships with LaLa and Others

Wary of the intense scrutiny of the music industry and the painstaking process it takes to strike licensing deals, especially after the Project Playlist debacle, Facebook tries to avoid those headaches by partnering with an already established player in the digital-music space. A music gifting service, where you give songs in the same vein as other digital gifts, was in the works and (rumored to be) powered by LaLa, Last.fm or iMeem.  [Inside Facebook]

April 2010: Coachella Live Webcast on Facebook

For those of us too lazy, broke or comfortable in our own beds, Coachella 2010 (with headliners Jay-Z, Muse and Gorillaz) was streamed live on Facebook for all users to enjoy. [Facebook]

July 2010: Kanye West Visits Facebook HQ

If your looking to start a viral marketing campaign, why not play nice with the people running the show? In July 2010, Kanye West paid a surprise visit to Facebook headquarters, where he subsequently jumped on a table and performed several freestyles, one of which would be the a capella to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy anthem “Lost in the World.” [YouTube]

January-February 2011: The Social Network Wins Golden Globe/Oscar for “Best Original Score”

Although never given Mark Zuckerberg’s official blessing, the fictionalized rendition of the founding of Facebook cleaned up at the Golden Globes and Oscars. Most out of any nominee, David Fincher’s film won four awards, including one shiny statue for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ eerie original score. While this wasn’t a Facebook driven motive, it still reminded everyone that music and the world’s most popular social networking platform do go hand in hand.

July 2011: Facebook Vibes a Mystery, Potential Hint at Music Service

Software developer Jeff Rose accidentally found a string of mysterious code while downloading a necessary file for a new Facebook video chat function, pointing to a page called “MusicDownloadDialog.” The Internet wonders aloud if a branded Facebook music product is already in the pipeline. [Huffington Post]

July 2011: Facebook Releases Musician’s Playbook

Despite the internet’s great equalizing power, not everybody has the marketing budget and or know-how to run a successful Facebook campaign. Addressing the needs of independent musicians, FB launched the Musician’s Playbook, a self-help social media marketing guide to help drive traffic and engagement to often lonely fan pages. [Scribd]

August 21, 2011: Spotify Said to Be Linked to Facebook

After a successful U.S. launch, music streaming service Spotify was rumored to have marketing plans that utilized Facebook heavily and that an announcement at the September Facebook presentation (“F8″) would link the two. [Billboard]

September 18th, 2011: Rumors of Facebook Partnerships Across All Major Music Streaming Brands

While many thought there might have been an exclusive partnership between Facebook and Spotify once the music streaming service arrived in the U.S., it now seems the major players in internet radio have an almost cartel-like cooperation when it comes to partnering with Facebook. Through audio bridging technology, it seems possible for two friends to have a social music experience, even if one is on Spotify and the other Rdio, ultimately making Facebook the means of communication between these varied services. [PC World]

September 22 2011: FB Launches Real-Time Music Discovery

At the f8 conference today, Mark Zuckerberg finally unveiled how Facebook will facilitate the sharing and discovery of music. In line with a complete overhaul of the site, users will be able to see whatever songs their friends are listening to in real-time within the ticker feed that now appears on your homepage. Although you will be able to see top songs and albums across different streaming music providers, “click-n-play” functionality will only exist between users who use the same product. In other words, if one friend is using Spotify and the other isn’t, you’re not able to “listen in.” Because of this paradigm, Facebook Music will not be the glue among streaming services we hoped for, but make the competition all the more heated. [Gizmodo]

MTV Hive

For great guitar lessons visit : bit.ly “Joe Satriani’s tips to become a better player.”
Video Rating: 4 / 5

While attending New York City’s Bard College, Penguin Prison‘s Chris Glover started a winkingly wry conceptual “boy band” called The Smartest People at Bard that gained a following around campus, as well as an admirer in A Tribe Called Quest‘s Q-Tip. When that fanfare died down, he decided to figure out how to make a go of becoming a pop star on whatever scale would have him. In this First Take, Hive’s video series dedicated to emerging artists, Glover shows off a sound intriguingly difficult to pin down, inspired in part by the cool style of dance-rock acts like LCD Soundsystem but also liable to spin off into playful taunts like “Don’t Fuck With My Money,” an infectious single that tips Glover’s stated adoration for the likes of Michael Jackson and Prince.

Penguin Prison’s self-titled debut album arrives October 18 on Downtown Records For more of Penguin Prison’s First Take shoot, check out the photo gallery below.

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3 in 1 Sports Arcade

With so many play options, kids will have hours and hours of sports fun! This colorful arcade lets kids shoot basketballs, practice pitching skills and roll for hundreds of points! Lightweight and portable for easy play anywhere. Patented Twist ‘N Fold technology for instant set-up and easy storage. The automatic return ramp ensures that there’s no interruption in the excitement. Includes magic balls and carrying case. Size: 30″L x 42″W x 41″H. Ages 3+.

Rating: (out of reviews)

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