I’m sorry but this is just mind-blowing.

(via Centripital Notion’s Final Fantasy - Owen Pallett)

A VideoSong is a new Medium with two rules:

1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).

Here are two from Pomplamoose, a musical collaboration between Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. I love them.

I had a friend tell me once that recording in the studio changes the way you listen to music. It’s true, witnessing the layers interweave gives listening a new shade. You begin to notice things in music you never would have before.

This kind of talent and creativity wakes me up.

(Big dap to Paul McEnany for pointing this out.)

Tomorrow is America’s birthday, and America wants you to celebrate hard. But tomorrow is also Independent’s Day, a worldwide event to raise money for the indie music community and associated charities:

Starting in New Zealand and ending in the US, activities include the largest ever auction of independent music memorabilia (via eBay) and limited edition albums featuring the cream of independent talent from all over the globe, all supported by a comprehensive retail campaign and a series of one-off music shows and retrospectives across TV and radio.

The U.S. album includes music from Ani DiFranco, Devandra Banhart, Dave Barnes, & Tokyo Police Club, among others.

Also good news on the indie music front - Dallas Does Indie’s Jasien Swords has launched an indie HD radio station, The Indie-Verse, with CBS Radio:

The station can be heard right now by anyone with an HD Radio on 105.3 HD - 2, not to be confused with LIVE 105.3 which is still remaining an FM Station. The hope is that at some point in the near future you will be able to hear the station in FM, but just like most things worth waiting for, the process will be slow and calculated.

…In the next few weeks, we will be launching a website where anyone, anywhere, can stream the station 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

If you don’t already subscribe to the Dallas Does Indie podcast, you’d be wise to do it now.

I didn’t even know there was a such a thing as HD radio. But this was a good way to find out.

Happy July 4th, everyone.

I don’t know whether it’s my love for the Old 97s, hand-made toys, music, sappy stuff, or all of the above - but this spot for Fuse made me happy:

(via Ad Age’s Creativity Weekly)

The music from this new VW spot, by DDB London, is a made from a compilation of sounds recorded in and around the Golf and was composed and produced by Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll.

When I saw this, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Lasse “Crazy Eyes” Gjertsen’s “Hyperactive…”

…and Wieden + Kennedy London’s ‘06 Civic Choir:

Dear Europe: Why do you get all the special hotness?

(via Fresh Creation)

The new album by Icelandic band Sigur Rós, “Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust,” which means “With a buzz in our ears we play endlessly,” is available for listening on Last.fm. This gives you a two-week head start to collect scene points before the album’s release on June 23rd.

(via Dailyswarm)

I just signed up for an account with the new (new to me….recently relaunched) music database Soundflavor. This site not only lets you search for specific songs or artists using genre, lyrics, subject, mood, decade, artist, or album (good for finding out who the hell sings that song you’ve had in your head since last Thursday…but don’t have enough to go on to Google), it also makes new music recommendations based on the songs or artists you find (like a more search-oriented Last.fm).

Each artist page brings together videos, streamable songs, recent news, and similar artists collected from across the web. Disappointingly, I don’t think it includes discographies.

If you’re into sharing music, or being a good friend, you can build your own playlists or auto-generate recommended playlists to share (or post to your blog…except for Wordpress…lame). Here’s a link to my Elliott Smith One-Click playlist (includes music from The Weakerthans, TMBG, and Damien Jurado).

Unlike Last.fm’s “similar artist radio,” which plays a song once before it disappears into oblivion, the savable playlists of recommended music allow you to catalog and revisit new artists worth digging into.

The next time I need to settle a bet over a song or whip up a genre-driven mixtape, I’m heading to Soundflavor.

(via TechCrunch)

…it’s completely in reverse.

The duo has released their new album, “The Odd Couple,” as one long, very backward but very free MP3. If you’re up for the reverse listen (according to Gorilla vs. Bear, “it’s actually kind of cool,”) or flipping it yourself, download it here.

Although some people seem to hate this idea, as a marketing tactic I don’t mind it. Because:

1) It does kind of sound cool backwards, not that I’d jam this all the time, but it does. And

2) We live in an age of mashups, where people are not afraid to grab media and mess with it. I’m positive many folks will slap this into some editing tool (Audacity is a good free one) and flip it around. One of those people will be me. And even beyond that, I hope the reversed sounds give way to some inspired consumer-generated remixes. All of this shifts their product from a knick-knack to a sandbox.

Like Radiohead’s recent remix campaign, Gnarles Barkley is encouraging you to take their work and play around.

(via the fine folks at Gorilla vs. Bear)

Last week, social music network Last.fm said that since allowing free streaming of full-length tracks and albums through their site, just two months ago, they’ve seen a 119% increase music sales through Amazon.

Users can stream music and buy through Amazon in two ways:

1) Through their audio player (downloadable software):

2) Through their site:

Here’s a right-on-the-money reaction from ars technica:

If music sales as a result of streaming offerings show growth over a longer period of time (say, a year), then other services may also begin to push for full-track previews in hopes of increasing sales. Imagine if Amazon MP3 or iTunes allowed full previews on their respective services before buying—digital music could take off even faster than it already has. It shows how the very ideas that the music industry resisted for years have the potential to pay off financially.

Chris Anderson is saying “told you so” right now.

A lot has happened over the past week, and as a result I have a backlog of stuff I’d like to talk about here. But in the meantime, here’s this:

I have been listening non-stop to the live recording of M Ward and Jim James (from My Morning Jacket) performing at South by Southwest 08. They played a cooperative set - each taking turns playing their own songs and backing the other.

The music was beautiful, the lyrics almost tangible (Jim James’ in particular), and from what I’ve heard, the venue - St. David’s Church - created an intimacy that “basically mandated silence from the audience” (said livemusicblog.com). Wish I could have been there.

For your vicarious-living pleasure (and mine too) here’s a video of some samples from their show. Enjoy.

(video via livemusicblog.com)