Another interesting video tonight...


This one of course is from my favorite band, Barenaked Ladies. It's from a new CD called Snacktime just released by the band. However, as you might be able to tell from the song, this CD is intended for a slightly unique audience...

"Our collective kids now outnumber the band more than 2 to 1," explains vocalist/guitarist Ed Robertson. "We set out to make a record that would be entertaining for them…not strictly a children's record, but a record that children would really enjoy. Our kids are in to all kinds of music. They love the They Might Be Giants kids records, but they also love The Beatles, Fountains of Wayne, Randy Newman, Black Eyed Peas and Green Day. Making the focus about what our kids like was a truly liberating process and fun for the whole band."

I believe it when he says it was fun for the whole band. I've played the whole disc (24 songs!!) twice now, and I've had a ball listening to the lyrics and picking out all of the musical styles that are there to find. There's one song called "Eraser" that starts with Ska, has a brief flirtation with Pink Floyd and then Queen, and ends up back with Ska again. Where else can you find that kind of variety?

Highly recommended for children of all ages.

Very cool video, produced entirely on an Apple Mac...


The catchy though repetitive song is "Again & Again" by The Bird & the Bee.

I'm having an 80s flashback! (No, it's not drug related. )

I've been watching MTV circa 1983 (in stereo!) for most of the night. Someone posted three hours worth of MTV on Google Video from the time when they used to actually play music videos and stuff...

• MTV 1983 - Part 1 (1:25)
• MTV 1983 - Part 2 (1:39)

The videos are pretty cool: Night Ranger, Huey Lewis, Prince, The Police, Quiet Riot, etc. (And a really strange Tubes video called "Monkey Time".)

But it's actually the commercials that are the most interesting slice of 80s life. When's the last time you saw a commercial for an Atari 2600?

If you remember the 80s fondly, check these video clips out. They're gnarly! (That's a good thing. )

(via Boing Boing)

I've noticed a striking brunette in a number of different commercials lately, but didn't actually make the connection until tonight that they were all the same brunette...

Her name is Penelope Fortier and in just about each new commercial I've seen her in, I've thought that she reminds me a little bit of Kate Beckinsale (although not so much in this photo).

She has recently appeared in commercials for Radio Shack, Verizon, and in Mastercard's "My Favorite Things" spot.

However, in addition to her acting/commercial appearances, Penelope is also a talented singer. Check out her MySpace page to hear a selection of her tunes or watch her music video.

Or you could clicky-click the 'Continue Reading' link to see these videos here and now.

I love the internet! It took me about 15 seconds to fulfill my curiosity regarding the video featured in the new iPod Nano commercial. The artist is a Canadian singer-songwriter named Leslie Feist, popularly known simply as Feist. The song is called "1 2 3 4"...


Very cool! I wonder how many takes were required to get that right?

While I didn't learn the answer to that question, I did find an interesting "Making Of..." clip that shows the filming of the video.

I think this is the start of big things from Feist.

Canon Rock is a rock arrangement of Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D major by the Taiwanese musician and composer Jerry Chang (JerryC). The song became popular on the internet after a video of JerryC's playing the song was posted online...


The rendition has since been featured on newspapers, magazines, and television shows.

Awesome!

Too funny! A band named No More Kings managed to gather some, uh, special guests for their new video, called "Sweep The Leg" (hint, hint)...

Pandora is a very interesting service... It is an online music site that asks about your favorite artists and dynamically constructs a custom radio station just for you. In addition to songs from the artists you selected, the site will analyze your choices and deliver tunes from different artists that (hopefully) also fit your taste. You can further guide the playlist by clicking thumbs up or thumbs down for songs you feel strongly about. If you're an impulse shopper, links are available to iTunes and Amazon to buy the current song or album then and there. Nice.

Unfortunately, Pandora and other online radio stations like it might not be available for our listening (and shopping) pleasure very much longer. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has recently released a revised fee schedule for internet radio. For most Webcasters, this new royalty rate represents more than 100% of their total revenues. Left unchanged, these rates will force most independent internet radio sites to shut down. The RIAA has effectively convinced this federal committee to establish rates that make online radio a non-viable business.

A site called SaveTheStreams.org has been created to provide information on this issue and what we might be able to do to reverse this decision. An online petition is available, as well as links to snail and e-mail addresses for your local representatives in Congress.

Maybe together we can prevent big business from limiting our soundscape.

The new Barenaked Ladies video is out for the song "Sound of Your Voice"...



An entertaining video, but I already have so much BNL material in this blog, why include this also, you may ask?

The schtick of the video is that all of those people became "famous" as a result of videos published on YouTube. I consider myself to be a serious Internet geek, and I have to admit that I only recognized about half of the YouTubers featured in this video. So, I thought I might do a little research (i.e. a bunch of YouTube searches) and present for your browsing convenience the comprehensive list of the videos that made these people the pop culture icons that they've become. Enjoy!

• 'man vs. magnet' - Matt Smithson
  
• 'Brookers' - Brooke Brodack
  
• 'Barats and Bereta' - Luke Barats and Joe Bereta
  
• 'Geriatric1927' - Peter Oakley
  
• 'Eepybird' - Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz
  
• 'Boh3m3' - Ben Going
  
• 'Thewinekone' - Tony Huynh
  
• Winston Spear
  
• 'Numa Numa' - Gary Brolsma
  
• 'Evolution of Dance' - Judson Laipply
  
• 'Where the Hell is Matt?' - Matt Harding
  

What do the Pussycat Dolls and the Barenaked Ladies have in common? (Aside from being almost completely repetitive.) According to the BNL blog, turns out that the PCD's appeared as the dancers in BNL's "One Week" video...


Who would'a thunk it?