Weird video - Wale

So according to this Wired interview there's this rapper named Wale who thinks he's gonna be the next big thing - he's making an album with Pharrell, Just Blaze, and DJ Premier, executive produced by Amy Winehouse's producer. He's also been making a mixtape for free download called The Mixtape About Nothing -- inspired by Seinfeld. Apparently inspired by the dialog and characters in the show. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a guest. He also says he owns 325 pairs of shoes, mostly "Jordan 3s, all three colors. Jordan 4s, Jordan 5s and Jordan 11s." And he thinks he's friends with Lindsay Lohan. So this guy's pretty detestable, right? Or at least trying a little too hard? But then here's a video he made - him rapping over Justice's 2007 hit D.A.N.C.E. It's a really weird video.



First, there's good things here - the moving through legs opening reminiscent of this classic vid. There's a Star Wars reference and a Seinfeld reference, and a fucking Harold and the Purple Crayon reference. The effects are generally cool but really strange, like having a some kid jump over a 1 foot tall Wale on a skateboard. Also, some of the lyrics are so nonsensical they're funny, and he makes fun of rappers at the end.

There's a lot of bad things - mostly, the song sucks. His voice is way louder than the rest of the music, which gets painful when he tries to sing along to the Justice song. And he doesn't use the good parts of the Justice song, only the backing beat during one section and one of the bridges. Again, the lyrics are pretty nonsensical (it may help to listen to the uncensored version). So pretty underwhelming as a rapper.

I really do like this genre of video, though, where it's just a guy standing in front of a green screen and they don't try to put him somewhere boring, they put him inside a constantly changing cheesy computer paradise. Another one like this was the Get Silly video, and of course the Fat Boys made an early prototype.

From the Wikipedia page on Mozilla Foundation:

The foundation has an ongoing deal with Google to make Google search the default in the Firefox browser search bar and hence send it search referrals; a Firefox themed Google search site has also been made the default home page of Firefox. A footnote in Mozilla's 2006 financial report states "Mozilla has a contract with a search engine provider for royalties. The contract originally expired in November 2006 but was renewed for two years and expires in November 2008. Approximately 85% of Mozilla’s revenue for 2006 was derived from this contract."; this equates to approximately US$56.8 million.

What!!! No way!
That means Google is basically keeping Mozilla afloat. WHY? Is Google going to buy Mozilla?

Very startling fact. This paired with Google's latest scandals, of censorship in China, makes me wonder whether I should trust Mozilla has good intentions.

La totalité des PLUG-ins

I found the coolest website today. It is a page for VST plug-ins for Cubase written in French in 1999. I am so glad websites like this exist.

In other news, I am working on a lot of music. If all goes according to plan, I should have several tracks ready for release. This will mark the first time since 2005 I've released more than a few songs at a time. Sweet.

SUPERGUN THIEVES?

Sorry about that real teaser of a post from Saturday. I shouldn't do that. I really do have a poll I want your opinions on, valuable readers. I'd like this to be a collaborative blog between you (readers) and I (genius). So I will be asking for your input soon. As soon as I think about it a little more and write up a post.

So I found this band today called Santa Dads who sound very mysteriously like our house band Supergun. They're a two man band who play the uke and harmonize what seems to be almost entirely improvised songs. JUST LIKE SUPERGUN. The only difference is that their songs are based upon a little bit more abstract themes, like whether one can hang one's leg up in here. The other difference is that they beatbox (a little weakly). The only other difference is that they have a MySpace page that got 37 plays today (as of this writing; of course, now that I've blogged them, the Nedry Effect will wildly inflate their numbers into the thousands).

Well, I like them okay. Pretty good ideas. They can't write a hit single to save their lives though. Unlike Supergun. Gott damn unnnhgnghh.

The beginning of a new era

As I type, I have just finished my last homework assignment for college about 30 minutes ago. Motherfuckin' yes!
So, I anticipate having a little bit more time these days to do some reporting for you, dear reader. And I want you to be a little more involved in it.
More details as they come. I will update again later tonight with a new interactive feature for you!

High-res YouTube

Now, YouTube has been doing little tweaking stuff for a long time. But there's a little secret you can use to watch any video (as far as I can tell) in higher resolution with stereo sound, simply by editing the URL. It's that easy. I found this tip here.

All you have to do is add the string "&fmt=18" to the URL of the YouTube video you're watching. And the site above provided what he calls a bookmarklet that automatically adds that string to your URL, so you can click it when you're on the page and it does it. Drag this bookmarklet - YouTube WOWzers - to your bookmark bar and you're set! Apparently you can also change your YouTube user settings to make it automatically play at the highest quality, too.

Automatic Mario

Found via Gameboy Genius, there's apparently a genre of video called Automatic Mario where Mario is thrust through incredibly complex custom Super Mario World levels. This 11-minute epic shows Mario playing along with an 11 minute video game remix song. It is really quite amazing. And for those of us familiar with John Lithgow's Manatee PSA, there is a special treat at the very very end.


Automatic Mario - Kumikyoku "Nico Nico Douga" from Doctor Zhao on Vimeo.

BREAKING FUCKING NEWS!!!! [Updated]

CRYSTAL CASTLES PLAGIARIZE CHIPTUNE ARTIST!!!!!!!!!!!!
DEVELOPING....

UPDATE 2:01AM
VIDEO HERE


HERE IS THE CRYSTAL CASTLES SONG IN QUESTION, "INSECTICON"
Crystal Castles - Insecticon

AND THE CLAIMED ORIGINAL SONG, BY AN ARTIST NAMED lo-bat WITH THE SONG "MY LITTLE DROID NEEDS A HAND"
WHICH CAN BE FOUND ON HIS WEBSITE, ON THE RIGHT
http://www.lo-bat.be/

AND HERE IS THE SOURCE I HAVE: A SOMETHINGAWFUL FORUM POST THAT LINKS TO THE 8BITCOLLECTIVE FORUMS, WHERE THIS RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED.

According to the SomethingAwful post, several of the other songs also contain "sampled" material from chip artists.

AND they steal artwork, too.

This post by the same guy has a better summary than the SomethingAwful post.
And he gives a quote from an interview with them in Vice magazine, where they act like total pricks:

vice: You are tired and I don’t want to bother you anymore, but what about this bullshit on the internet between you and this guy pretending that you “stole his art” to do t shirts with Madonna’s fucked up face?

alice: This is really starting to bust our balls. The story is that this guy is not the real author of this illustration. We found this Madonna drawing on an old flyer for a punk gig. The artist re-drew it for us back when we were just a little band, and now that we have some sort of fame, he writes everywhere that we stole it. To tell the truth we always wanted to pay him but he is acting like he doesn’t know, because of all the noise around this story which brings him more publicity. So we had some arguments and we banned him from our myspace page.

ethan: Moreover, we are not rancorous and if this asshole reads your mag, tell him his cheque awaits him.

vice: Message sent…

More specific info on other songs/parts of songs Crystal Castles have sampled or stolen:


Another good post, with more information on similar (even worse) cases.



More to come....

Update: 2:24AM
One of the funniest things about this are replies on SomethingAwful from people getting their first listen to chiptunes and "8-bit" music and they say things like this:

I'm just shocked that anyone has ever listened to an 8-bit song for more than 30 seconds. Seriously 8-bit is just above the demo music that comes installed on your Casio keyboard. Can it get any dinkier?

...people like who listen to Tool or something.

-

Anyway. What do I think of all this? It's a shame. Just shows you the people who get famous doing this stuff are better at being marketers than being creative, so they resort to ripping shit off because they aren't actually better at the MUSIC. Just like Timbaland.

That's not to say these guys aren't good. The fact that they ARE good is why this sucks so much. Just like Timbaland. I didn't WANT to dislike Timbaland, because he's so good, but I had to sort of "boycott" him to punish him for what was obviously wrong. Maybe the worst part is I never gave his two big albums that summer, Justin Timberlake's and Nelly Furtado's, much of a shot. NOT!

So now here we have Crystal Castles, a band that is actually good, doing stuff that hasn't been widely heard beyond the thriving video game music scene, and we find out that they aren't really as creative as we thought. And that they are in fact dishonest, and willing to play dirty.

Now, my understanding of the band is that they are kind of a one man band, the guy, whoever he is, and the girl just sings sometimes. That was my impression. So it's most likely this guy doing this. And they're stealing artwork, too, from other pixel artists. It seems as though this guy loves this stuff, and trowls these sites because it's so good. But they're desperate for fame, or just ambitious, and he steals this shit that is so good he knows he can't make it better, and uses it. The artwork article also talks about how their record label re-released their debut album with the "BANNED COVER!" edition with the stolen artwork, AGAIN, after it had been requested to be taken down. And this Last Gang Records is apparently secretly funded by Canadian music moguls. So this Crystal Castles guy is smart enough to know where to look and make a buck off of what's gonna be cool when he shows it to the world.

So here we are faced with a choice: do we look the other way, and enjoy their music? Or do we boycott?

The worst part is that a boycott will not do any good. We have to at least spread the word, like we had to with Timbaland. But the also ambitious and power-hungry Ableton DJ-blogger boys of the world will just laugh it off because a lot of what's going on in that scene is ripping people off too. Loose morals, the whole lot of them.

Spread the word.

PS: Does this mean it's wrong for me to play trackers like Jeroen Tel, who specifically stipulate not to broadcast their work, on the radio or at DJ events?

Update: 3:20AM
Well, I'm going to bed soon, but for now, here's a list of some of the artists affected, both for them to get their recognition, and so I can check them out later.

lo-bat
trevor brown
Covox
Crazy Q
Ikuma
YM Rockerz, a net chiptune label Crazy Q is on.

One of the only good things about this is that these artists get a little recognition.

Just some good stuff

Gettin' silly

So here's actually a good video, very reminiscent in some ways of one of the best from the 80s.
My favorite part about the song is those orchestra hits. Real fuckin' sharp. These guys know what's good.

Holy Shit

Why did I not hear about this?