Hi - Joyeux Noel et Merry (belated) Chirstmas to all. Aussi, bonne anné (spelling.....) all the best to everyone in 2009! Love the discs! Great group. Thanks, Rosalie

Sean Moved In September

Just a brief update in case everyone didn't get my address change:

Sean Moore
174 Powell Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 2A3

phone 613-232-9889

Look forward to the new stuff....I did make a kickin new CD for another ring if anyone wants a Sideburn.

sean

Disc to arrive shortly

Cindy and I have finally mailed out our October CD "Wiling Away October". Mostly of mix of newer stuff we have been listening to. Once again this compilation is adult friendly. If your children can talk, listen to the disc alone before exposing them to it or they may start using some new words! The final song on the disc is great for calming infants in the car but don't play it for them after 9 months of age.

La playlist de Pat & Mel

Hey guys, I just had to post here to let you all know that France and I received an advanced copy of Pat and Mel's December disc, entitled, '8 auteurs, compositeurs, interpretes'. They will be sending it or have sent it out to all of you as well. Bottom line is that it is EXCELLENT....great francophone folk, rock, experimental, hip-hop, etc all put together in a cool, gradual and progressive order. The artwork takes it to a totally new professional level and the hand painted disc labeling is minimalist cool.

Enjoy.

Kent

Just wanted you all to know that we are loving the cds.  We are late getting ours out and we intend to do so this week. We've been discussing the music that we want on the compilation all summer/fall - so we are excited to get this one together. It's just committing the time. Thanks for the great tunes!  Cindy and Peter

Got those July 2007 discs out finally. I hope everyone enjoys angst-ridden German industrial metal. Just don't play it in the presence of your children as it will probably scar them for life. One problem though. I got Brian's copy back marked "return to sender". I guess the Burgundy Drive one in Oakville isn't the right address. Is the Eastcourt Rd one correct? Brian, if you're out there, let me know.
Henry

Back to School Reviews:

Check comments....

Nov. cds

Heh - I got the Nov cds out last week, so they should all be arriving soon. Please let me know if there are any missing packages or cds with booboos.... did my best. We did the full album thing again, hope you dig it and hope we did not double on anyones' collections. Looking forward to hearing the new cds that just arrived here. And loved the Cure from the last one - what a great way to intro the kids back to the 80s. Anyone heard about Honeymoon Suite's latest release? Seriously..... Rosalie

Sasquatch 2008 Review

I had ample time to listen to Laurie and Guys's double CD driving to and from Pittsburgh last week, and I loved the collection.  I have discovered several artists that I am eager to check out.  Standouts on these discs for me include Fleet Foxes "White Winter Hymnal", The National's "Fake Empire" and "Secret Meeting", Tegan and Sara's "You wouldn't like me", America's "Yell Fire", and M.I.A.'s "Bird Flu".  The two tracks that are wearing out my car stereo are Beirut's "A Sunday Smile" and Blue Scholars "No rest for the weary" (the keyboard hook in this track is particularly addictive).  

I'd love to get another collection like this in 2009.

Mike

Omg! What happened to August and September? I need another summer NOW!

Thanks for the 3 disks Laurie and Guy...very generous of you guys. Sasquatch not only sounds good but the water and hills/mountains on the cover art make the whole scene look divine.

Will keep my eye on the mailbox for those other disks especially now that they are so hyped up.

Hi again everyone. I downloaded Brians's disc last night ( I never got the hard copy...did anyone?) but the files are in a format I'm not familiar with . Can they be burned to disc and played on a CD player as is or do they need to be converted? If anyone knows, let me know.
Thanks

Henry

July 2007 disc

Hello everybody in the musical brain. This message is actually destined to all the "An idea I've had for awhile" people. That disc I was supposed to send out in July last year, but never did? Well it's finally ready. I gave Sohrab and Marc P.'s copies to Sohrab in person. Laurie, Manoj and Nick, I mailed your copies while in NYC at the end of August, so you should have received your discs already. If you didn't, blame the US Postal Service. As for the rest of you, I've almost finished burning the discs and printing the labels, and should have them in the mail very soon.

Got an advance copy of Sohrab and Deanna's disc. I don't want to spoil the surprise but let's just say that they've raised the bar on production values, and you will never look at your kids' toys the same way again.

Laurie and Guy, Sean, and Len, got all your discs and all were awesome.

Hope to be more active on the blog in the coming months. Till then let me know if any of you didn't get your discs.

I have not forgotten that I still owe everyone a disc for June 2008. This one should be ready for Christmas 2012

Henry

Back To School '08

Well, my disc is done...I just haven't got it burned and sent out....Deanna and Sohrab got an early issue this past weekend. I will work on getting it out as soon as possible. It is a strange concept disc which I'm not sure makes any sense at all...there is very little new music on the disc...made up of mostly classic pop gems, old faves of mine and a few other toss ins fitting loosely into the theme of the month. Enjoy it for what it is or toss it........

Hope you enjoy Back To School '08

My Son's First Rock Concert

Well, France and I took Tristan to see Simple Plan last night at the Bell Center. Great show to experience with him and he had a great time. I couldn't help but look around and see all the other parents around our age there with their kids, being the cool parents they (we) are, going to rock concerts with their kids. All the dads had their cool, try to-be-hip t-shirts and jeans while the mom's all looked great as well. So the thing is, while all the parents were different, they all had one thing in common...we all just look tired...very, very tired....cool, maybe...hip, possibly....but still, very, very tired....

That is what we are......tired.....

Hhhhmmm


Kento

New Theme for Hockey Night in Canada

My wife's cousin, Bo Fewer, submitted an entry for the new theme for Hockey Night in Canada.

Listen to it here.

We're still here

Guy and I have been missing but we are back and I hope you like what we have for y'all...

The disc we were supposed to send out last October was made by Guy (on time, actually, it has taken me a bit of time to get it burned...) and it's a super-fun New Orleans mix.

There are 2 discs for July and they are all the bands we saw at Sasquatch this year, the festival was AWESOME and you should check it out at http://sasquatchfestival.com/2008/ and maybe we can get some of you out here to go next year. Screw Coachella!

Love Laurie

Addendum - discs went out last week, hope you like them!

High Life

Hi Y'all,
Did anyone get this CD? Did anyone not get it? Did anyone listen to it? Did anyone like it? Where's the love, people?
L

Forgot to add ....NEAT!!! cover art and I liked the cover by the Gourds way more than the original Snoopi version.

Sonya

Disc from DJ General Delivery

THANKS for the great disk! (I originally thought it was a late May disk...) It's a big hit with the whole family. My daughter insisted we bring the "music that came in the mail" on our road trip to the country last week.

Especially like the Michael Franti, Gourds, Martin Sexton and Brett Dennon (what a unique voice...) tunes. Hope the neighbours like it too because am sure it will be drifting out of our back yard this summer. ..

rue fendall

Forgot - that one was Peter and Cindy's. Rosalie

new cd and old ones sent out...

With you Kent! Love the new cd, although, alas, my son Jonah (2 1/2 yrs.) digs marry me so sometimes I don't get much past that one (have repeated it numerousnumerousnumerousnumerous times.....), although when he is in a bad mood we skip that one pretty fast and get to the rest. Great summer feel.

As per Mantras for Madmen and Salmonella Dub - those were Cherrie and mine. Global Underground was probably ours too (Danny Tenaglia??) Will do better to mark our cds in Nov..

Has anyone got the playlist for the cd that ???? forgot his name... guy from Ottawa who dropped out? .... he made - called mostly new mostly canadian... am catching up on the old ones that I did not spend alot of time listening to and the kids and I dig a couple of tunes on that but donm't know the artists as we have misplaced the cover. Misplaced is a good word for lost, but it might show up. Anyway, if anyone could post that I would really appreciate it.

Great summer to all! Starting tomorrow! Rosalie

June Disc from Sean

Dude,

I wasn't so sure when I read the track list of your disc....I was thinking that it was some kind of, oh, I don't know.....

Well, tonight I listened to the disc a few times while sitting on the back patio on a beautiful, warm Montreal night, during a glass or two of red wine with France; and, man, this is a great disc!!!! The songs are soooo good and go together in some wierd way that makes total sense.

Sublime.........


Kento

Who made these disks?

I am trying to organize my itunes, and I would like to know who in the groupt authored the following disks:

2931 Rue Fendall, 5 Auteurs, Global Underground, Mantras for Madmen, and Salmonella Dub.

Sometimes the names don't appear on the disks, and other times I've just lost the cover.

Thanks

Mike

Just Finished

After several different mixes of songs, including my favorite beats, an all jazz, a vocal mix, an early ethiopian try, I have settled on something completely different. Fishing and lazing about has started up in Kenora, so I've made a mix of mellow fishin, kicking back, and funky tunes to while away the hours.

I'm burning and printing this afternoon before my next night shift.

Sean

The Foals

Went to see this British group last week. Great deal at a small venue...and really enjoyed them! Not quite sure where they fit...punk, very danceable, math rock?? They play with super short guitar straps and they reminded me of Bloc Party a bit. I think they only have one album out and they really are foals (the drummer looked to be about twelve).

Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris

The album "All The Roadrunning" came out in 2006, but I just had this song autofill on my ipod shuffle last week and loved it immediately.

You can download the song and live ipod video here:

Coheed & Cambria

Check this out...my kid's covering drums for "Welcome Home" (from Coheed and Cambria:  "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol 1).

Good album by the way.

Raconteurs

I am enjoying some of the tracks on the new CD . Any other Jack White fans out there? I also have to say I regret not catching the White Stripes in Mtl last year (especially since it looks like they won't be doing the live thing anymore).

Welcome to Brian's Brain

Brian's latest disk is "Have a Nice Trip". He's still planning to send out hard copies, but while we are waiting, you can download the songs right now:

My favorites tracks include: Too Stoned (Gas Giant),Willie Nelson (Clutch), Stoned and Drunk (Black Label Society), Gilligan's Island (NOFX), and Kiss Me I'm Shitfaced (Dropkick Murphy's).

The Offspring

The Offspring have a new album coming out in June.

The Hype Machine

I put this in the comments after another post, but check this out The Hype Machine.  It's a great site that follows music blog discussions.  Lots of downloadable music.  Shit loads.

Go to http://hypem.com/  or click the link above.

Where are all the people?

Alright, alright....it's not just about the music....it's about whatever.........Is There Anybody Out There!!!!!!!


Kento

Update for Musical Brain

OK guys, by now those of you have visited a few times will be able to see how this thing works functionally. Newest posts are on top and the older ones are pushed down the page. A total of 7 posts are on the page at any one time, after which they are archived for all to see...these are accessible from one of the sidebars to the right of the page. At the bottom of the page I have included the schedule list for the discs to make it public and easily visible at all times. It's not the best list but since I don't know how to write in html code its the best I can do for the moment. If anyone can tell me how I can embed a text table or other file in a Blog then I will do that. You will see from the list that Andrew is no longer on the list....he has bowed out and thus should be removed from your address lists as per his request. If other people do the same as time goes on I will update and inform you accordingly. Bye for now. And remember, its not about the Blog, its about the music, the music, the music, the music......

Kent

House Music History Lesson: Part II

Rather than creating endless narrative on the history of this genre, I think it might be better to direct you to those that have done much better than I could ever do, and to use this space to actually provide some actual music samples.

Here's an article taken from DJ Magazine that will give anyone interested more detail than you could ever want.

...and if you want even more, here's an article from Wikipedia (which actually has a very good summary).

Check out these classic and influential house music tracks from the Chicago scene in the early to mid-1980's (while I was in university in Chicago, I had the opportunity to see some of these guys...never realized the eventual influence they'd have).

Notice that there's still quite a bit of disco influence in the early years of house, it's not until the early 1980's that the first affordable drum machines were available.  Mixers and drum machines were used to give an edge.

The following are examples of the sorts of tracks that were early influences for Chicago DJ's and were classics in the early Chicago scene:

The Italo Disco track "Dirty Talk":

Kraftwerk was another major influence.  Here's Kraftwerk's "Tour de France":

Afrika Bambaatta and the Soul Sonic Force--"Looking for the Perfect Beat":

And Man Parrish's "Hip Hop Be Bop":

Here are some clips of original house creations by old school Chicago house DJ's:

Frankie Knuckles' (original DJ at The Warehouse) "Your Love":

Steve "Silk" Hurley's "Jack Your Body":

Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's "Love Can't Turn Around":

Finally, Jesse Saunders' trance-like "On and on"...some say this was the first true house single ever released:

Stay tuned for the next evolutions:  deep house and acid house....

Tip for VIrgins to the Blogosphere--Set Up an RSS Feed

If you don't want to keep checking this blog regularly for new posts, and would rather have new stuff "fed" to you automatically when the blog changes, I strongly recommend using RSS.

RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") works via either a reader or via email.  

I read a lot of blogs, and personally don't like to clutter my email with the feeds.  Instead, I use Google Reader (actually, I have a iGoogle homepage that has tabs to organize the RSS feeds from blogs of interest).  There are many others, though, if you don't like Google.

Bottom line:  I don't have to check for new stuff...the system automatically sends it to me.

John Frusciante

Known primarily for his work as guitarist for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, John Frusciante has released a total of 14 solo albums, his most popular of which is 2004's "Shadows Collide With People". I included the track "Regret" on my September disk, and three more tracks ("Omission", "Time Goes Back", and "The Slaughter") can be previewed here:


Much of his solo material is initially written on an acoustic or unamplified electric guitar. He prefers to record his albums on analog tapes (and other relatively primitive equipment) due to his belief that this can actually serve to speed up the recording process. He feels that modern computerized recording technology gives only an illusion of efficiency, and that "music comes alive when [you] are creating it fast". He enjoys the challenge of having to record something in very few takes, and believes that when musicians are unable to handle the pressure of having to record something quickly, they often get frustrated, or bogged down by perfectionism. 1.

Karkwa's New Release

I recently fell in love with Karkwa, who just released their third album «Le volume du vent» last week.
It’s first single, «Échapper au sort» tells the story of a young man living on the streets, a short narrative of a body reclaimed by an icy winter.
The album is great and you will find a mix of many influences in their type of music such as RadioHead, Pink Floyd and ColdPlay. Let me switch in french to describe a little bit more the style of my new «coup-de-coeur».

La formation rock-alternative Karkwa fait un grand bruit sur la scene musicale quebecoise en ce moment.
Ils ont adroitement su creer un reseau complexe de sonorites. Cette environnement sonore est tout a fait enveloppant.

La poesie sombre de leur textes francophones est litteralement «planante» et les paroles sont tres riches malgres leur simplicite. Les melodies sont accrochantes et nombreuses a s'entermeler dans chacunes des pièces. Le beat est present tout au long de l'album et se multipie meme dans une seule et meme chanson. On passe d'un univers doux a tres intense en quelques secondes. Les sonorités world, le jazz et le rock s'entremêlent et c'est un pur plaisir auditif.

Plus d'information est disponible sur le groupe sur le site de «bande à part» (pour obsédés musicaux) au
http://www.bandeapart.fm/artistes_enrichies.asp?id=1080
ou sur leur site officiel:
http://www.karkwa.com/

Bonne écoute!

first time

Okay, hope this works, and yet again, thanks for all the work Kent. Cherrie and I amassing our musical choices already, but think we will continue to record whole albums. All bets off re: amsterdam after that phone chat on fri. Kent, and here I thought you might attend for an hour or two.... Rosalie

Scraping Music from Blogs

More on music via blogs...

Songbird is a cool application (beta version, so still with some bugs) that does sort of what RSS has done for blog feeds. In essence, it aggregates music files posted on blogs and brings them together in a single application. It's open-source, and is Mozilla-based (creators of Firefox and Thunderbird). Currently available for all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux).

Check it out here.

Alternatively, you could also try a product called Peel (www.getpeel.com) which also "peels" and aggregates music files from blogs. It's Mac only, though....another reason to dump your PC.

House Music History Lesson: Part I

There are still people arguing over the origins of house music. Some say it emerged around the same time both in Chicago and in NYC--although I've got a bias given my ties to Chicago, I think they're probably right.

The styles of house music that came from each city, however, were clearly different.

In Chicago, the most influential DJ's were part of a group known as "The Hot Mix 5" made famous on WBMX. Read more on their story here.

The original founding members included Kenny Jason,  Mickey Oliver, Ralphi Rosario, Scott Silz, and Farley Keith.  Other graduates of the Hot Mix 5 included Frankie Knuckles, Julian Perez, Steve Hurley, and Frankie Rodriguez.

A great site for listening to the original mixes (either live, or via broadcasts...quality definitely varies) is at DeepHousePage.Com--downloads are here.  

(Search for WBMX to get the early Hot Mix 5 music.  Search for WGCI for later works.)

Other cool sites:

Mickey Oliver's MySpace 

Ralphi Rosario's MySpace

Cool blog name (glad you didn't call it 'welcome to my musical vein'). Like the format and idea.
Agree that a CD in hand is more fun.

Mike, sorry to give yu the bad news about the Old Dublin....quite the coincidence tho.

As Kent knows I love to catch live shows so if anyone has any recommendations, would love to hear them. Highly recommend the Foo Fighters if anyone gets the chance....excellent fun! Also really good last week, were the Drive by Truckers (so was the opening act ) ....but the Montreal "Trucker" crowd (all male and no dates) scared me to death!

So

Cool idea Kent

I haven't got anything to post right now but this is definitely a good idea. Didn't we have a Yahoo group going at one point? Does anyone still use it?
Henry

On the Topic of Cool YouTube Videos

Check this out....any of your kids prepared to do this?

Other Examples of sites using hosted downloads etc.

Just a bit of food for thought for everyone, and some awesome music posts that I download from regularly.....

Here are a couple of blogs that distribute electronically, and also have great content.  Check em out.  Len turned me onto these two...

http://theessentialelements.blogspot.com/

http://partat45rpm.blogspot.com

Sean

Fuck Authority

So here's my first post on the Musical Brain.

Check this video out:

It's ok. Touch it...it won't hurt.

Welcome Everyone

I am trying to make sure that everyone who logs on can post to the site. Please try and post to this site so that I can see that I have the preferences correct.

Thanks

Kent

Getting going for 2008

This is my attempt to get with the times and create something new. A blog has been suggested previously (thanks Len) and  hope that at the very least we can communicate when we want via the Blog instead of primarily via email. Taking a cue from Len's Blog, we could elect to post the album cover and song list of the CD we will be sending out. This is totally optional depending on the motivation, time and energy of each of us.

Despite my love of receiving a CD 'in hand', it may be worth considering an entirely electronic distribution sometime in the future. This Blog does not currently support music posts, but may do so in the future. There are some online sites where we could 'store' our mixes and provide links for direct downloads. This is a potential project for the future.

For now let's give this a whirl and see what happens.

Bye for now.

kento