Spudtater's Journal

According to my desk calendar, audio recording is 150 years old today.

The oldest known audio recording was made not by Thomas Edison (as was once thought), but by one Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, using his phonoautograph.

Unfortunately there wasn't any way to play back the audio, which was a bit of a shortcoming. But thanks to physicists at Berkeley in 2008, we can now listen to what he recorded. Awesome.

Edit: alternative link

I have nothing against the X-Factor — it's easily-watchable, throwaway reality television that can prove an amusing distraction for a while. However, I also believe that it has very little to do with real music, and dislike the hijacking of the Christmas number 1 spot by said TV show.

A lot of people feel likewise. They've set up a Facebook group to promote the idea of Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the Name' being number 1 at Christmas. Links to download the track are given on that page.

It's a bit of a silly protest, but I find it amusing, and will do my bit to help it along.
It seems to be doing quite well so far

A less silly aspect of the movement is the collection for Shelter that downloaders are urged to donate to. It's an appropriate charity for the Christmas season, and I'd urge a donation whether or not you're also downloading the Rage Against the Machine track. So far, they've raised £37,648 — nice work!

Edit: Thanks to bracknellexile for this: X-Factor – Killing in the Name Of (YouTube)

Edit 2: Tom Morello (of RATM) is donating his profits from the song to a charity that supports young musicians

Due to the radio at work deciding that it wanted to play ABBA at me, I have finally signed up to last.fm. It's pretty neat, although how it operates from a legal standpoint still confuses me. I think I need somebody to explain it to me. With diagrams.

Also, I am slightly worried by its choice of songs. On Friday, the day when the Jaycee Lee Dugard story made worldwide headlines, it decided to play Solitary Confinement by The Members, followed by Dirt Room by Blue October.

So I decided to cancel random play and just listen to some Franz Ferdinand. I was listening to This Fire, when the fire alarm went off.

Odd.

This is No Good. I cannot program to Dream Theater. The screen is moving up and down and up and down and up and down. And there is hair in the way.

b3ta.com are doing a "What if band names were taken literally" challenge. (Warning: crude humor, slightly nsfw, etc.)

( Six of the best... )

spudtater presents: Scenes From The Future™

Today: Amy Winehouse reaches middle age.

"They tried to make me switch to decaff, I said no, no, no..."

Those adverts on TV for Newton Faulkner's Hand Built by Robots (excellent name for an album, by the way) have prompted me to download some Massive Attack.

Which reminds me of how amazingly freaky this music video is. (For Teardrop).

galaxy_girl00's mate's brother's in a band. It's called Toyshelf, and it hails from that famous wellspring of rock 'n roll, North Yorkshire. I've just been listening to a couple of their mp3s, which they're very kindly offering over teh intarweb:

http://www.garageband.com/artist/toyshelf/songs
http://www.myspace.com/toyshelf

I like.

( Also... )