Author Archives: Emilio Pérez Miguel

PlaylistHQ – Create Playlists For Upcoming Concerts

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Name: PlaylistHQ
URL: http://www.playlisthq.com

PlaylistHQ is a simple but slick web tool that lets you create playlists for any concert that’s coming up soon, and that you plan to attend. You can create them, and then you can have them shared with all the music nuts that you’ve befriended on Facebook. What better way to convince them that missing any upcoming concert would be a mistake they’ll live to regret forever and ever? What better way to ensure you won’t have to attend a concert on your own, and be unable to go to the bathroom because someone will take your place?

PlaylistHQ uses the Spotify API to get all its data, and once they’ve been created playlists can be searched both by location and by Songkick username.

When having concerts displayed by location, the site lets you view a calendar with all the concerts that will be held right where you live. Or where you would love to live. If you have got an incurable fixation with London, you can see all the shows to be played there as the month runs its course. And then go cry in the corner for having been born on the bayou.

If there’s something to be said about the site, is that it’s decidedly minimalist.
But not that such a thing is a bad thing, of course. Just look at Andy Summers. See how far he got? The guy’s the embodiment of success! Revered by guitarist young and old! A paragon of musical expressivity! (Checks the “Synchronicity” album)... shit, he was the one who wrote and sang “Mother”. Dammit. Next time, I’ll be more careful with the examples I choose…

Beady Eye In Uruguay

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As you know, the one band that made me become interested in music was Oasis. So, when I learned that Beady Eye (Liam Gallagher’s new outfit) was to headline the first day of the festival “Primavera 0” I didn’t have to think it long before buying the best ticket I could.

The way things turned out, I managed to make it to the very first row. Words fail me to describe how I felt when I saw Liam take the stage.

Beady Eye Rocking The First Night Of The "Primavera 0" Festival

Just imagine what it’s like to stand this proximate to one of the most emblematic members of the band responsible of making a music lover out of you.

Liam Gallagher Playing Uruguay For The First Time

And I must also praise the opening act, Astroboy. That’s a band I really disliked back in the day, and I actively criticized it. Yet, time has let me see their transcendence within the Uruguayan scene. Their music sounded nothing short of celebratory that night. They played with real precision and determination, with an honesty and integrity that could prove the biggest nay-sayer wrong.

Astroboy

And you know what? Next Tuesday, the headliner is no-one else but Sonic Youth. They’re not a band that I’m crazy about, but the chance to catch up with such a legendary performer is not to be missed. Even if the show is only half as exciting as this one, it’ll be worth every cent.

Month In Review – October 2011

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October’s highlights included the release of Pablo Farago’s “Mantras” (a compilation of some of his finest work, as recorded over the past ten years), a post on electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram, and an article about the day Manhattan thought Radiohead would play a free concert. If anything, that post is worth a good look because it showcases how quickly a mere rumor can spread online nowadays, until everybody is repeating something that is plain wrong as if it were the gospel truth.

And as far as websites for music lovers were concerned, the startups I reviewed on October included ListnPlay, LyricStatus and MyDjSpace. And the one iPad app that I got to feature was WildChords, a game from these great folks at Ovelin that lets you learn to play the guitar. And by “great folks”, I mean it – just look at the interview they gave me! Thanks, guys!

And fans of Joy Division should check what happens when our favorite Mancunians meet some playmobil…

On November, I’m certain to review Vincent Vega’s self-debut album. I know them personally, I’ve been to a good couple of their shows, and I’ve pogoed with delirious abandon right at the front, along with the horde of misfits that follows them through light and shade.

Well, not really. They are an acoustic duo, and their live shows could perfectly be the recipient of a Nobel peace prize.

Vincent Vega

But I’ve been there, and I’ve greatly enjoyed their music throughout. I’ll be delighted to feature them on MusicKO this month. Check the blog later next week to read about them!

Now It’s Time For Napster To Get Its Own Movie: “The Social Music Network”

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At Long Last, Napster Is Getting Its Own Movie

“The Social Network” was one of the greatest surprises of 2010, what with the movie being nominated for 8 Academy Awards (of which it won 3, including one for Best Original Score). So, it comes as no surprise that filmmakers are looking for other sites that would make for great movies.

And one of the few websites that can lend itself to a movie rivaling “The Social Network” in dramatic content is Napster. Created by 18-year-old college student Shawn Fanning in 1999, Napster was the most disruptive music service of its age. It marked the birth of peer-to-peer sharing, no less.

The service was forced to close down in 2001, following a string of virulent lawsuits. And although Napster remained around as a 100% legal music service and it changed owners several times, its 15 minutes were basically over.

But it’s a story well-worth sharing. And it will be told in documentary form soon. The as-yet unnamed project is going to be directed by Alex Winter (Bill from the “Bill and Ted” films), and this is a story he’s been wanting to tell for a long time – he once signed a deal with MTV films to create a scripted version of the story in 2002. But that came to nothing. Continue reading →

LyricStatus – Get Lyrics On Facebook Right

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Name: LyricStatus
URL: http://www.lyricstatus.com

A person who has never posted a song lyric to Facebook to convey the way he’s feeling is like a kid who has never watched “The Lion King”. That doesn’t happen, not even in another universe. Songs lyrics are tailor made for something like Facebook, a site that redefines how one presents himself to the world. The mere fact of interacting on a social network means that one’s exposing a lot about himself, so that anything that can sort of depersonalize the experience without sacrificing expressivity is just perfect. And song lyrics fall squarely in that category. Song lyrics can be used to tell someone he/she makes you feel special in front of the whole world without having to address him/her directly. They can be used to wind somebody up. And they also come in handy when you simply want to slag others off.

And in all cases, there’s nothing more embarrassing than getting the lyrics you’re quoting wrong. When you post lyrics on Facebook, the last thing you want is people commenting that you got them all mixed up. You want them to think about what they might mean to you and other, not to pick on words that you might have got wrong. That throws everything out of the window, as discussions will revolve around these words you messed up, and not what you actually meant to convey when posting them.

Such a thing is certainly frustrating, but (thankfully) you can prevent that from happening by using a site like this one. LyricStatus is a search engine for lyrics. This site lets you find lyrics both by artist and by song, and the idea is that once you’ve found what you are looking for you can have it posted to Facebook straightaway. Continue reading →

Christoph Thür (Ovelin) – Interview (Part 2)

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The second part of the interview I conducted with Christoph Thür from Ovelin, the creators of the super-cool WildChords for iPad. You can read the first part of this interview here. And this is my review of WildChords. Enjoy, and share!

 

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

I always loved those evenings at the scout summer camp where we were singing next to  the fire. I think the first album I bought with my own money was Keep the Faith from Bon Jovi. Continue reading →

Christoph Thür (Ovelin) – Interview (Part 1)

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Full Name: Christoph Thür
Company: Ovelin
Position: CEO

Last week I told you about WildChords, a cool iPad app created by Ovelin that lets you learn to play the guitar without you even noticing – it all becomes a game. Now I want to introduce you to Ovelin’s CEO, Christoph Thür. He was kind enough to answer my questions, and with WildChords’ release date set for October 2011 this interview’s all you need before heading to the App Store and downloading your own copy.

 

PART I

THE APP

Tell us a little about your app. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

WildChords is a guitar learning app that motivates people to practice on their real guitars. Its played with an acoustic (or electric guitar), and currently on an iPad (other platforms to follow). The cool thing about it is that you don’t need any special equipment to play, and you also no previous guitar knowledge is required. Turn it on, grab your guitar, and the game will get you playing in no time. We concentrate much of our energy on the motivational aspects of the game: give rewards, make it easy to use and turn it into a casual game (play a quick session in the add- breaks, rather than reserve an hour for practice). Both co-founders (Mikko and me) were guitar dropouts. Not because we did not know what to do, not because we did not have time to practice (who has time for anything anyway), but because we lacked the motivation to go through those early exercises. We figured that if we find a way to motivate ourselves to practice, it might work for others too.

When is WildChords going to be released?

The plan is to launch the first version in October 2011.

What has been the response so far?

The response has been overwhelming. Users (kids and adults alike) love the game, they get hooked immediately, and make real progress. More importantly they really enjoy playing the guitar, which makes it that much easier to pick up the guitar every day for a few minutes. We also worked with different guitar teachers who love the idea even more. Finally their students practice at home and come to classes proud to show what they have achieved the past week, and motivated to learn more. One teacher tested WildChords with two of his least motivated students and said that they have practiced more at home in this one month using WildChords, than in the whole previous year. WildChords records the time you play, and another teacher reported that his student had used it on average of 2.5h per day! However, we are still learning so many things from our users that we are excited about gameplay modes, advanced features, and tons of new levels.
As a nice bonus, we won the Best European Learning Game 2011 competition with WildChords.

What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions?

I don’t want to say too much about upcoming things yet, but we are working hard to make the game even richer, with new guitar techniques, and also more interactive features. We are also talking to different musicians and bands to help us create more songs for the game. And of course we will include some famous songs to the game too. Continue reading →

Pablo Faragó Releases “Mantras”, His First Album

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(Hagan click aquí para leer esta nota en español)

"Mantras" By Pablo Faragó

“Mantras” is the first album released by Pablo Faragó. It brings together some of the best compositions created by the celebrated former guitarist for Niquel during the last ten years. During that time, Pablo embarked on a solo career characterized by electric guitar improvisations with the use of loop samplers.

As Pablo himself explains in the liner notes that come with the CD, “these compositions are name “mantras” because of their cyclic and meditative nature”.

Pablo Faragó

On the album, Pablo is joined by percussionist Fernando “Cacho” Rodríguez in the two cuts that run the longest. The album is made up of 12 selections, and it certainly succeeds in taking the listener through very different sound landscapes.

I invite you to read the interview I conducted with Pablo just last year, and to visit his MySpace profile. You will find lots of pieces representative of this original project right there.

Pablo Faragó Publica “Mantras”, Su Primer CD

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(Click here to read this post in English)

"Mantras" de Pablo Faragó

De inminente aparición en el mercado, “Mantras” de Pablo Faragó recoge algunas de las mejores composiciones creadas por el célebre ex-guitarrista de Níquel en los últimos diez años. En este tiempo, Pablo se ha embarcado en un proyecto solista caracterizado por la improvisación con guitarra eléctrica a través de generadores de ciclos de sonido (“loop samplers”).

Como explica Pablo en las notas que acompañan al disco, “estas composiciones reciben el nombre de “mantras” por su característica cíclica y meditativa”.

En el disco es asimismo acompañado por el percusionista Fernando “Cacho” Rodríguez en dos de las composiciones de mayor extensión.

Pablo Faragó

“Mantras” de Pablo Faragó será comercializado en todos los locales de Palacio De La Música. El disco cuenta con 12 temas, donde se generan paisajes sonoros realmente diversos.

Los invito a leer la entrevista efectuada en este mismo blog a Pablo hace algunos meses, y a visitar su perfil de MySpace. Allí encontrarán muchas piezas representativas de este original proyecto.

Pablo Faragó puede ser contactado en la siguiente dirección: pablo.farago@gmail.com.

WildChords, An iPad Game That Lets You Become A Guitar Player

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Learn To Play The Guitar With WildChords

The hardest bit when trying to learn an instrument is finding the time to practice. You show someone who hasn’t picked a guitar in his life how to play an E chord and he will get it. And he will retain it, even if he’s got a memory like a sieve. No doubt about it. But being able to concatenate different chords together harmoniously is something which only comes with practice, and the kind of perseverance that lies beyond most people’s grasp. Progress is always slow at first, and while few do a Pete Townshend and put their feet through their instruments most call it a day before too long.

Well, that’s what this emerging company is trying to remedy. Ovelin is a Finnish startup that is about to release an iPad app that turns practicing the guitar into nothing short of a game. Continue reading →