Tag Archive for creative-commons at Candied Pop

Tag Archive for 'creative-commons'

A Halloween 2006 DIY Almost Free MP3 Mix

Published by David October 30th, 2006 in Free Tracks, Singles and Album. 1 Comment

Calling All Fiends album cover So your trying to make a Halloween mix for this weekend’s bash, or you went to one this weekend and the music bombed (I mean how many times can possibly listen to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”) and you have it in you to fix that for next year. So let’s fill that puppy or should I say three-headed dog with some strange, unique music your friends never heard that you can seize for free or very cheap.

The creators of Oddio Overplay an eclectic database of DIY, free, legal and obscure sounds, have put together a collection of “frightening, damaging and disturbing music” they call Calling All Fiends, that will help intensify that perfect Halloween mix. The on-line collection is divided up into three beastly sections. The first sixteen songs are Cinematic and Soundscapes based and some would be perfect to play as hair-raising background music for a Haunted House. The second and third groups are Rock and Dance and Fiendish Songs. I suggest throwing the following spine-chilling cuts from the series. A frantic robotic-like techno track by Click Click Click (not to be confused with Chk Chk Chk) entitled “Romance Keys”. The DVDs lead by 6 year old David G, dispense the scary tale of the “Big Orange Monster”, think They Might Be Giants but lead by a kid. A northerner’s tale of “Southern Gothic” is sung/spoken by Bureaucratica, AKA Matt Love of multiple DIY bands. Sink your fangs into horrifying hypnotic mixes of synthesized sounds such as “Trickertreat” by Lenkei a graphic designer based out of of New York City and “the Pit” by The Threshold People. Also check out Martinibomb and the Coconut Monkeyrocket’s monstrous remix of the Munsters Theme they call “Munster Beat”, it will entice you to get your ghoulish groove on, so I suggest putting this on right up front.

You have to pay for this next one, but if you do it through eMusic it will be well worth it, at least for one play each year during Halloween season. The North American Halloween Prevention Initiative released “Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en?”, a novelty parody of “Do They Know it’s Christmas” last year as a charity-benefit song where all proceeds go to UNICEF. The NAHPI consists of Arcade Fire, Beck, Buck 65, David Cross, Devendra Banhart, Elvira, Peaches, Postal Service, Redd Kross, Rilo Kiley, Roky Erickson, Sonic Youth, Sparks, Wolf Parade among others.

YANP posted a cover version of Ministry’s “Every Day is Halloween” by the MiamI based band The Postmarks which will work up next with Steve Wynn’s live solo version of Dream Syndicate’s Halloween recorded last year on the 30th in Germany. I found a bunch that are just on MySpace, so the bit-rate is pretty poor but if that doesn’t bother you check out the Oklahoma based band Evangelicals who just put a new song, appropriately titled “The Halloween Song”. It has the aura of a Bright Eyes song with light strange eerie noises with vocals applied in a jauntily fashion. Also check out this one by Calabrese it’s rockin’ tune that will add some fright to the night if yu can figure out how to download it.

DC mash-up artist SOLCOFN (AKA Phil) has put together Son of Monster Mash Up a collection of devilishly delicious mashes done by DJs including my fav mash up artist DJBC. Barrage your victims with Cheekyboy’s “Halloween with Morrissey”, Mr Fab and His Bag O’ Heads’ “Skeleton Crew on the Graveyard Shift” and “Haunted House of Mash ups” by DJBC. So that should help you get started composing a Ghastly G(h)oulash of Halloween treats for the ears.

CC Hits, New Music by Folksonomy

Published by James June 2nd, 2006 in Review. 2 Comments

Here at Candied Pop finding new music is a ceaseless quest and both Scott and I toil with every Web 2.0 (and some 1.8) apps that come our way looking for something that is fresh or at the very least approximates something slightly invigorating. For the most part it is hit or miss with the misses centering on the relative lack of music available on some of these services as well as some atrocious search and navigation found at some sites (yes, I’m talking to you music.download.com). Anyway, every once in a while an artist we haven’t heard is uncovered and we rejoice making all of it worthwhile.

So you might be asking, “Cut with the self-gratifying pontificating, WTF is folksonomy and how is that related to your listening habits?” Well, I’m a fan of the sort of instant gratification that plays well with a short attention span and sites like Digg and Reddit feed into that very nicely but do little to satisfy the music monkey perched on my shoulder nattering into my ear. Anyway, folksonomy is essentially a system that lets users tag content on the Internet using a common and flexible vocabulary thus allowing other users to connect the dots between disparate pieces of information. CC Hits is a Digg-like site that allows users to post links to tracks and tag those links so that users can relate and discover new music.

How’s the experience? So far I’m finding it addictive. Links do not come in as fast and furious as Digg or Reddit but the auto-generated playlist and integrated player more than make up for it by keeping a steady stream of new music pumping out of my speakers. Tracks that you like can be modded up and those with the most number of thumbs up will float to the top and become hits. There are RSS feeds as well that you can grab and drop into a reader to peruse the content at your leisure.
The catch, and selling point, of CC Hits is that all music submitted to the site must be covered under the Creative Commons licensing system so, no, you will not find the latest Madonna or Fall Out Boy. Here’s what they say about the service:

CC Hits is the new website to find and share music content under Creative Commons licenses.

CC Hits is a collaborative podcast where users contribute links to music tracks.

CC Hits lets users tell the world what will be the next hits by approving the most promising entries.

CC Hits is a social music blog built on top of open projects and a source of shareable music.

CC Hits is all about people, music, fun and freedom.

Even in its early stages CC Hits is plenty of fun and offers a great opportunity to unearth some new independent artists so it gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from me. Go check it out.