Music

Anything music.

There are 322 posts filed in Music (this is page 8 of 33).

The First Amendment is not just for artists

So this young NPR intern named Emily White wrote a breathtakingly clueless defense of her choice to steal music rather than to pay for it, her ridiculous argument boiling down to it being more “convenient” to steal than to purchase. She apparently doesn’t see how her actions hurt the very artists she claims to admire.

Over at the Trichordist blog, musician David Lowery wrote a rebuttal to White. Lowery is the force behind the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. I’m a big fan. I own a number of Cracker CDs and even got Lowery’s autograph after Cracker swung by Raleigh for a show a few years ago. Some of my money wound up in Lowery’s pocket and I’m happy with that. He earned it.
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World music

AfroCubism


I kicked myself when I found out the world music supergroup AfroCubism played at the North Carolina Museum of Art on Sunday and we missed it. I’ve been on a world music kick for a few years now and it doesn’t get much better now than AfroCubism.

In surfing the art museum’s concert page, I noticed it was sponsored by a group called Friends of World Music. I’d never heard of this group but was delighted to learn it is a Raleigh-based non-profit that works to bring live world music to the Triangle. I’ve often mused that my “second career” would be being a world music promoter and Friends of World Music seemed like a serendipitous find.

On a whim I called the number listed, began leaving a rambling message on their machine, and soon the longtime executive director, Jessie Cannon, picked up and spoke to me. It turns out I may be just the person the group is looking for, she said, telling me the group used to put on more shows in prior years but haven’t been able to keep up that pace in recent years. Jessie and I are meeting for lunch on Friday to discuss the possibilities.

Kelly tells me I need another project like a hole in the head and she’s got a point. I see this one as a long-term thing that I’m happy to be patient about and grow at my own pace.

Again, I’m open to the possibilities. We’ll see where it leads.

Neuse Radio now on the air!

Neuse Radio


It’s been about a year since I began learning how to use the open-source Rivendell radio automation software. I’ve been fiddling around with my online radio station, perfecting it as best I can. Today I decided to see what would go into actually opening it up to real listeners, which of course means paying royalties for each song played.

That’s where the LoudCity service comes in. You select the level of listeners you expect, provide it your admin password to your icecast server, and boom – you’re broadcasting online! LoudCity pays the royalties and keeps me legal.

I only meant to prep my broadcast tonight but instead I wound up kicking off LoudCity’s free 7-day trial. Rather than let my free trial period vanish without being used, I decided to go ahead and open things up.

You can tune into Neuse Radio by clicking on the image above or via this link: NeuseRadio.Com. I’ll get around to putting an actual webpage up soon as well as adding Raleigh-specific content to the audio. In the meantime, I welcome any comments or feedback anyone might have. Thanks for listening!

Bill Graham Presents

Bill Graham. (Photo by Mark Sarfati)

I just read the autobiography Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out and I have to say that Graham led one spectacular life. I was interested in learning about how concert promotion is done, but Graham’s life went far beyond that.

Graham was a Holocaust survivor who was spirited out of Germany to France and then to America. Graham spent time as a youth in an upstate New York orphanage, where he became dejected after repeatedly being passed over for adoption. Some say that drove his need to feel loved, which he worked to do every day of his life. He always gave the extra effort, which made the musicians he worked with very happy but often annoyed the musicians’ managers, who paid for Graham’s largesse.

Graham had an extraordinarily keen business sense, which showed itself early in his life. When he signed up for Army duty in the Korean war, he put this ability to use by selling food from his troop transport ship’s galley to other hungry soldiers. He also ran gambling on the ship. Any time he saw a need, he was angling for a way to fill it and make a profit.
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Statement from Adam Yauch’s publicist

Here’s this morning’s statement from Adam Yauch’s publicist, Nasty Little Man PR.

It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam “MCA” Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer. He was 47 years old.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Yauch taught himself to play bass in high school, forming a band for his 17th birthday party that would later become known the world over as Beastie Boys.
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Festival au Desert

If the ancient Mali city of Tumbuktu wasn’t already remote and exotic enough, now it’s in the hands of Tuareg rebels after a coup took place in Mali March 21st.

For over a decade, Mali has been the home of an annual African music concert known as Festival in the Desert. I’ve long wanted to travel to this concert and see the Sahara Desert and the city of Timbuktu but the security situation in the country brings this into question.

It’s not that I was ready to jet off to West Africa any time soon but I still hope one day to ride a camel to hear some of the most beautiful music on earth.

Introducing Little Raleigh Radio

Little Raleigh Radio


One of the initiatives that’s been taking up my Copious Free Time is helping start a low-power FM community radio station in Raleigh. A few months ago, a friend mentioned the Little Raleigh Radio (LRR) project and I became determined to help this project succeed.

I’ve been following low-power FM (LPFM) for quite some time so when I learned that the FCC’s window for granting new licenses may be opening again, I felt I had to help.
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