art is the new religion

Why I love Amazon mp3's Twitter account

The subject of how businesses are using Twitter in a smart way is one that's near and dear to my heart.  I can count on my fingers the number of times I've ever clicked on an online ad, yet as a consumer I'm voluntarily following a few Twitter accounts used by companies to promote their products.  Yeah, it's surprising to me too.

One of my favorites is Amazon mp3's Twitter account.  They tweet once a day in the form of a Daily Deal.  Each tweet lists an artist and album title, the regular price of that mp3 download, a one-day-only sale price, followed by the link to buy.  Genius!

Their tweets put the title of an album in front of my eyes each day (a bonus for someone who is busy but obsessed with music), then give me incentive to buy right away.  And what a tremendous promotion for the artist!  The albums are often older ones, so I'm not sure how many artists pay for this kind of promotion, or whether labels are cutting deals with Amazon to promote their artists.  Either way, it's a win-win-win: for artists & their labels, for Amazon mp3's business and for mp3 buyers.

I rarely purchase music these days - my Rhapsody subscription pretty much has me covered - but today's deal inspired me to grab Dolly Parton's Little Sparrow, a spare, bluegrass-inspired release from 2001 that features some interesting covers, including Restless Heart's "Tender Lie".

The people who are using Twitter creatively and successfully right now in these companies are true pioneers.  I can just hear their higher ups, both in corporations and even in independent businesses, questioning the benefit of using Twitter and threatening at any moment to pull the plug on their "experiment".  Right now only 5,487 people are following Amazon mp3's Twitter account, but if the plug isn't pulled, that number will only grow as more people inevitably catch on to Twitter.  I hope they don't give up, because their efforts actually are influencing my purchases.

Related reading:

• I follow Powell's Books' Twitter account (read about why I love Powell's)
• My post about Restless Heart
• My post about why I love Rhapsody
• Follow Amazon mp3 on Twitter

r&b mini mix

Lately one of the highlights of my week has been going to dance classes at Rhythm & Motion.  Dance is an amazing workout, but it's also mentally challenging in a way that's totally different from work or writing.  Picking up nuanced choreography takes a physical intelligence that I'm slowly developing over hours and hours of practice.

There are a few songs we hear a lot in one of my classes, and I was able to track two of them down to share with you.  The first two are songs we often warm up to: MC Magic's "Dancer" and Ne-Yo's "Closer". 

The third track is a bonus because I'd never hear it in dance class.  Chris Cornell, an artist I've been obsessed with since I was a teenager, is releasing a new record this fall and the single "Long Gone" is a crazy R&B-tinged departure from his normal sway from stompy rock to sappy serenades.  You can tell Timbaland produced it, which makes me love it even more.  (Disappointingly, the other single I've heard from the album, "Watch Out", is egregiously bad.)

• Listen to my r&b mini mix on Rhapsody

Watch Ne-Yo's video for "Closer":

Watch Chris Cornell perform "Long Gone" on Leno:

Welcome to Land of Talk

Congratulations to my buddies at Saddle Creek who have just signed Land of Talk.  And I should also thank them, because I've never heard the band before today and I really like them.   I can't find a great video to share with you, but this'll give you an idea of what to expect:

Here's a preview of "Some Are Lakes" off their forthcoming record:

Their new record won't come out on Saddle Creek until October, but I'm listening to their last album Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss right now on Rhapsody. Recommended if you like Metric. Seems they'd fit nicely on tour with Cursive, too.

Bet You Got It All Planned Right

Yet another perfect use for my Rhapsody subscription: listening to the remixes of Spoon's "Don't You Evah".

The tracklist:

• Don't You Evah
• All I Got Is Me
• Don't You Evah (Ted Leo's I Want It Hotter Mix)
• Don't You Evah (Diplo Mix)
• Don't You Evah (Matthew Dear Mix)
• Don't You Evah (DJ Amaze & Alan Astor Mix)
• Don't You Evah (Doc Delay Fixerupper)
• Don't You Ever (The Natural History Original Version)

The new B-side is pretty cool, but...I don't need to own six new versions of a song I already really like a lot.  Full disclosure: I don't really get the point of remixes.*  Too often they sound like someone created some beat or riff or ambient noise and then graffiti'ed them over the structural beauty of an original song.  Sometimes I can recognize parts of the song that was remixed, sometimes I can't, but rarely does the remix do anything to improve upon the original version.

Speaking of the original, here's the video for "Don't You Evah" by Peter Simonite:

Back to the remixes.  Ted Leo's "I Want It Hotter Mix" made it the kind of hot that's too humid and all you want to do is lay on the couch and not move.  Diplo made some interesting sounds and then mixed in Britt's vocals like he's a noisy nextdoor neighbor echoing in like a non-sequitur.  My vision of a remix is actually re-mixing the tracks of the song, pointing out some interesting parts the listener might not have heard before -- say, drop out the bass and isolate the handclaps, maybe add in some sounds here and there.  Not create a whole new song and paste in some of the vocal track every once in awhile.  In this batch, the version that comes closest to what I envision as a remix is the one by DJ Amaze & Alan Astor.

The Natural History's original version of "Don't You Ever" is great, and an awesome addition to this release.  Apparently The Natural History recorded "Don't You Ever" in 2004 for their second full-length album People That I Meet.  The record was due to be released in 2005, but then the band split from their label and the record wasn't available to the public until they self-released it in 2007.  Spoon obviously heard the song in the meantime and covered it on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.  Spoon is one of the few bands that chooses cover songs in a way that I never would know they didn't write them. 

*I know there are really great remixes, and really talented remixers, out there.  But none of the outfits that "Don't You Evah" has tried on here are very flattering.  My advice: skip the remixes and just get the B-side and The Natural History's original. 

And if you can point me to some great remixes and talented remixers, by all means do. 

• Buy Spoon's "All I Got Is Me" mp3 and The Natural History's "Don't You Ever" mp3 from Amazon.

Don't look down, just look up

Phil Collins: Singer, songwriter, drummer, actor.

I started my day by opening up Rhapsody, searching on Phil Collins, and clicking on their "Top Tracks" for him which queued up 25 songs in my player. 

Phil Collins has sooo many great songs:  "Easy Lover", "In the Air Tonight", "One More Night", "Against All Odds" - the list goes on.  When I mentioned on Twitter that I was listening to Phil, a few of my friends piped up with love for him, so I thought I'd share with you the most Phil Collins you could possibly experience in four minutes:

Listening to "Separate Lives" from the White Knights soundtrack (mmmBaryshnikov), I realized I've never known who the female singer is in the duet.  Turns out her name is Marilyn Martin and according to Wikipedia she was involved in several cool projects in the 80's (singing & touring with Stevie Nicks!!), and though she's still singing it appears she's also a realtor now in Tennessee.  Marilyn, if you see this post, we salute you.

Phil's receding-hairline mullet in this video sure is a lot to take in.  It's bold like Dale's receding-hairline fauxhawk.

• Buy Phil Collins' Hits from Amazon.com.

Valentunes

I'm addicted to the Rhapsody service, because for $9.95 a month I have access to stream all sorts of music at any time.  Although no online catalog is perfect, theirs is pretty thorough;  8 times out of 10 they have what I'm looking for, from indie rock to rock classics and beyond. 

(Since I'm already hawking it, click here to get a free 14-day  trial of Rhapsody)

A few weeks ago I used their search function to search for tracks with a specific word in them.  From that single search was born the idea for countless themed mixes!

Here is the first of more to come:  KT's Valentunes
(I didn't have time to play with the track order, so hopefully it's alright)

1. Happy Valentine's Day - Outkast
2. Valentine - Willie Nelson
3. Blue Valentines - Tom Waits
4. Valentine's Day - Bruce Springsteen
5. Valentine - Merrick
6. Valentine - Old 97's
7. My Funny Valentine - Chet Baker
8. Valentine - Barbara Lea
9. Saint Valentine - Joe Ely
10. Two Sides/Monsieur Valentine - Spoon
11. Valentine - John Waite
12. Valentine's Day - Steve Earle
13. Valentine's Day - The Kids of Widney High
14. No Valentines - Elton John
15. Valentine Melody - Tim Buckley