Something we’re listening to…

The off-center, eco-conscious rock band, Cake, is recording their 6th album totally on renewable solar energy.

The band worked with Borrego Solar to erect a sparkling new solar array atop their recording studio.  The band also supports such non-rocker behavior as car-pooling, sweatshop-free t-shirts, voting and using re-usable shopping bags, which they sell for 5 bucks on their website. The album will drop in summer 2009.

Beginning this Friday, Jersey City’s Liberty State Park will be the harbor-side setting for a 3-day bacchanal of live music, green fans and environmental awareness.  Rain or Shine.  Each day, tickets go on sale at 11a and gates open at 12noon. Kids 5 and under, free. With 5 separate staging areas, there’s a lot to catch…and it’s all @ apwfestival.com.

Big Stage Acts include

Radiohead – Fri & Sat  8:30p
Underworld – Fri 6:30p
Kings of Leon – Sat 6:30p
Jack Johnson – Sun  8:30p
Ben Harper – Sun  6:30p
Rodrigo y Gabriela – Sun  3:30p

(more…)

Whether you’re a music loving geezer with a stash of vinyl gold like myself, or an upstart DJ with a taste for the past, you may need to get your retro-tunes from vinyl to digital.  This portable turntable from Ion will get your old Buzzcocks, James White and the Blacks, and Squeeze discs out of the closet, onto your laptop – or pumping through your stereo at your next geezer-fest. A USB cable and easy-to-use software can get the music to your desktop whilst the built-in speaker can have you listening to your audio heirlooms in a low-fi jiffy.   Plays 33, 45 and 78 rpm records, runs off either batteries or AC and has line level and headphone outputs.  Software included.

$129.99 @ ion-audio.com

Finnish guitar maker, Flaxwood, manufactures guitars using an innovative new tone material that is created by breaking the grain structure of natural wood and combining it with acoustically sensitive binding agent. The new material is then injection-molded into shape.

Fine guitars are traditionally made of rare woods, harvested from the Amazon and other dwindling forests, many of which are often facing extinction. Flaxwood’s process can utilize sustainably harvested wood and help protect endangered species while creating guitar bodies that have an acoustic consistency and uniformly flawless quality. The manufacturing process rids the material of irregularities in composition such as the grain and knots found in traditional tonewoods, the acoustic response of Flaxwood is such that it resonates with equal force in all directions, and gives an even dynamic response through a guitar’s entire range. Flaxwood is also completely unaffected by changes in humidity, making it a more reliable tone material in changing conditions. (more) (more…)

We’re going to the cooler side of the universe today, relax, mellow
out and go all fuzzy.

• ‘livin’ the truth’ – guy monk (the jazz influence) Kick-back to some contemporary jazziness. Not your daddy’s Dave Brubeck but some vibey new-jazz for mowing that mental lawn…
• ‘jazzhole’ – free the robots – (free the robots ep) Jazz filtered through the mind of a funky machine…
• ‘drums and bugaloo’ – mo’ horizons – (get your stereo deluxed) A latin vibe with some added scratching, a touch of horns and a sexy vocal to start that salsa engine…
• ‘hold your secrets to your heart’ – miracle fortress (five roses) A little rockier but sweetly so – envision a more firmly structured Cocteau Twins…
• ‘caravan girl’ – goldfrapp (seventh tree) Fresh, bright stuff from a known quantity…
• ‘weird fishes/arpeggi’ – radiohead (in rainbows)

It has been raining alot…Nice Weather for Ducks

Is that the wafting, pungent aroma of bear?

Dreamy animation propels this melancholy take on lost love…